hunt hollywood

Steve Ross knew what Simon was asking, saying, "Paramount's attempt to prove that Time Inc. changed its bid for Warner Bros. to counteract their bid was also rejected by the judge unless they could come up with new evidence. Otherwise, the case will be closed at the end of the month."

Paramount Communications, Time Inc. and Warner Bros.'s lawsuits. Paramount's initial reason was to protect the interests of shareholders, and provided some documents to prove that Time Inc. was the acquirer in the merger between Time and Warner. Once the accusation With the backing of a Delaware court, Paramount would be able to bid for Time Inc.

Unfortunately, the accusation was dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

Recently, Paramount has presented new evidence that Time Inc. and Warner Bros. adjusted the acquisition plan to resist Paramount's offer.

This is actually a fact that anyone with a discerning eye can see, but in court, Paramount is doomed to have a hard time proving this.After all, it is impossible for Time Inc. and Warner Bros. executives to admit that the change in acquisition strategy was to resist Paramount's offer anyway.

The parties do not admit it, and it is impossible for substantive documents to point to this point. As long as Time Company and Warner Bros. come up with some high-sounding excuses to refute it, Paramount is doomed to fail.

The two came to the parking lot and rushed to a restaurant near Warner Studios for lunch together.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, after lunch, Simon and Steve Ross had just walked out of the restaurant when a flashing light not far away was turned on.

These days, the media are talking about Simon becoming the richest man in the Federation, and there is also such a ridiculous thing as the "psychic study class" scam. Although Simon's life rhythm is step-by-step, there are many paparazzi around him. Follow up the daily life of the new richest man in the Federation.

"Simon, think about it seriously, as long as it is a field where Warner is involved, we all have the possibility of cooperation."

"I will, Steve."

The two said goodbye, and after Simon got into the car, he couldn't help thinking about Steve Ross's invitation for more in-depth cooperation at lunch.

Speaking of it, not only DC, but also many assets in Warner's hands that make Simon very interested, such as Warner's cable TV operation system, and HBO, which is still in the hands of Time Inc.

The future of Hollywood is dominated by comprehensive media groups. If Daenerys Entertainment does not have its own TV network, it will be difficult to gain a foothold in the media field in the future. Therefore, Simon has been considering getting involved in the TV field during this time.

However, Warner is not the best partner for the time being.

In the afternoon, there was going to be an audition for the male lead in "Sleeping with the Enemy". Simon drove to Fox Studios in Century City, Beverly Hills, when his mobile phone rang.

Jennifer called from Santa Monica, saying that Christopher Scars, chairman of the Australian Qintex Group, contacted here and hoped to invite Simon to dinner.

Simon has also heard about this Australian company that is trying to acquire MGM these days, but he doesn’t have much relevant information in his memory. He mentioned it when talking to Janet, and the woman told him to ignore it the next day. Also sent some information over.

Qintex Group is a comprehensive equity investment company headquartered in Brisbane, Australia. It is somewhat similar to Westeros, with businesses in media, hotels, retail, tourism, etc. involved.

However, the information sent by Janet shows that Qintex Group has expanded too rapidly in recent years, and its debt ratio has reached a very dangerous level. It may go bankrupt if it encounters a little situation, and it will not be able to spend 10 billion US dollars at all. to acquire MGM Resorts.

Christopher Skas, the chairman of Qintex, has nothing more than to pull some unknown capital to form a partnership, and wants to be empty-handed.Janet also conveyed her father's evaluation of Christopher Scars on the phone. This person is likely to go to prison in the next few years because he can't repay the loan and use too many illegal methods.

Instructing Jennifer to reject the other party's invitation on the phone, Simon got off at the Fox Studios parking lot and was about to rush to the administration building when a female voice came from behind: "Simon."

Turning his head to look, the first thing that caught Simon's attention was the four long legs stretched in white jeans, which could be called crazy.

These are two women, one is Jerry Hall who greeted Simon at the Columbia Pictures party last time, and the other Simon also knows, named Ella McPherson, the most famous superstar in North America in recent years One of the supermodels, also has a nickname of 'The Body', which shows the devil figure of this woman.

The two women quickly came forward, probably noticing Simon's gaze just now, with smiles on their faces.

Simon didn't hide it, and stretched out his hand to Jerry Hall, saying, "You two should stop running around. If you walk on the street like this, many people will definitely bump into lampposts."

"You're so domineering, Simon, you won't let us go out on the street if you're worried about bumping into a pillar," Jerry Hall smiled and shook hands with Simon, and said again: "This is Ella McPherson."

"Hello, Miss MacPherson."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Westeros, nice to meet you."

Ella McPherson responded somewhat restrainedly, looking at the man in front of her curiously.

Simon and Ella McPherson shook hands, turned to Jerry Hall and said, "Why are you here?"

Jerry Hall said: "I came to audition for a small role, and it happened that Ella also auditioned."

"ended?"

"Yeah, I'm planning to go shopping together to see if any man bumps into a pillar."

"Maybe even women can."

"Hehe," Jerry Hall smiled and asked, "What about you, Simon?"

"Same, audition."

"Then you must be auditioning someone else."

"You are already so beautiful and so smart, so I won't praise you any more."

"I really don't want it anymore. If I get praised by Westeros again, I will probably faint."

After joking around, Simon raised his wrist and looked at his watch, and said, "Then, let's talk when we have time."

Jerry Hall hesitated, and said, "Simon, when will you finish your work?"

"There are too many things to do, and I probably can't finish it without sleep."

"In this case, why don't you sneak in and drink coffee together later?"

"I'm afraid it won't work. There are too many paparazzi around me recently, so it's not good to be photographed."

"It's just for coffee, not a date."

"It's a pity that paparazzi don't think so."

Jerry Hall didn't bother too much, and just nodded regretfully upon hearing the words.

Simon was about to leave, but Ella McPherson, who hadn't spoken just now, suddenly said, "Mr. Westeros, can we go over and see how you auditioned?"

Simon paused, looked at Ella McPherson, and said: "Otherwise, there will be a party at Coldwater Canyon on Saturday night, hosted by WMA President Jonathan Friedman, you can come over. By the way, Have you signed an actor contract?"

"Recently signed, just happens to be at the WMA."

Simon guessed that Jonathan should be imitating ICM's strategy of expanding business into the fashion industry, nodded and said: "This is just right, if you are free, I will call Jonathan to prepare two invitation letters for you."

"Then it's settled," Ella Macpherson agreed, and quickly took out a business card from her satchel and handed it over, saying, "Mr. Westeros, this is my contact information."

Simon took the business card handed over by the woman and put it away. Finally, he nodded goodbye to the two women and walked towards the administration building.

The four major fashion weeks in autumn have already started. This year’s Milan Fashion Week will open on September 9. Gucci’s 22 Spring/Summer fashion show will be on September 1990. Simon and Janet will probably go to Europe on September 9. , while starting Simon's leave.

Today is still September 9th, Wednesday, and there is still a week before departure.

It was originally planned to start resting after the completion of "Batman", but the reality was very difficult.

"Pretty Woman" has been completed and is entering the later stage. Both Ghost and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were in the middle of intense filming, and it was impossible for Simon to completely ignore them.Gaomen Films' key project "Intersection of Life" next year also needs Simon's distraction.

In addition, it is confirmed in the 10 film plan that the four films "Sleeping with the Enemy", "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle", "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" and "The League of Pinks" that will be released next year will all require Simon to be at the helm. The North American bond market was operating in October, and Simon's so-called 'holiday' was hardly worthy of the name.

Moreover, this is on the basis of Simon completely letting go of Daenerys' entertainment TV business.

Entering September, four blockbuster reality shows, "Who Will Be a Millionaire", "Survivor", "Big Brother" and "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" produced by Daenerys Television, will be released one after another, and there will be another six TV projects, all these jobs fell on Robert Iger.

Fortunately, all four reality shows have laid a good foundation in the last year, and Robert Iger can't screw up as long as he doesn't mess up.

Simon is still very relieved of Robert Iger.

As for the TV drama business, Simon can't spare any energy to take care of it for the time being. Although he expects Robert Iger to bring him some surprises, he doesn't have too much expectation.

Simon Floating continues to be busy amidst the ripples of public opinion about becoming the richest man in the Federation, and is looking forward to his trip to Europe in late September.However, the new week has just begun, and the dispute between Daenerys Entertainment and Whitney Houston's record company Alista Records has once again become the focus of media attention.

Chapter 291 Have nothing to worry about? (build)

Santa Monica Airport.

The time is September 9th, Monday afternoon.

Nancy Brill stood by the airport runway with two other bodyguards who drove up to pick her up.

The Gulfstream IV landed and stopped, and the cabin door opened, and Nancy saw Simon and two other beautiful women who were too tall for her to get off the plane talking and laughing, one of them was wearing a cropped T-shirt and denim hot pants Holding Simon's arm firmly, the two long legs exposed outside dazzled people.

When the three approached, Simon was a little surprised by Nancy's appearance, so he still smiled and introduced the woman beside him, "Nancy, this is Ella, and this is Jerry."

Ella McPherson was a little curious about the still petite woman who was standing on the sky, and didn't know who Nancy was. She let go of Simon's arm and shook hands with her politely. Jerry Hall also came forward to greet her. .After the three girls chatted for a while, Simon said to Ella McPherson and Jerry Hall: "I still have a job, how about having someone send you back first?"

"Okay," Ella McPherson replied with a smile, then leaned over and kissed Simon, and said, "It's a very pleasant weekend, Simon, I hope there will be another chance next time."

"Definitely."

Simon patted the woman's adorable slender waist, hugged Jerry Hall again, and ordered Neil Bennett to drive the two women away.

After seeing off the two women, Simon and Nancy got into another car.

The black limousine drove out of the airport, and Simon asked Nancy, who was still looking at him with weird eyes, "So eager to get me back, what's going on with Alistar Records?"

Nancy didn't answer in a hurry, but instead asked, "You, with those two women?"

Simon smiled and raised his hand to stroke Nancy's head to his chest, and said with a smile, "Are you envious?"

Seeing that Simon was joking about her height, Nancy was obviously changing the subject, and criticized unceremoniously: "A man with a heart."

As he spoke, he gave the man a threatening look.

Simon immediately 'defeated', lowered his voice and said: "Help me keep it secret, and I will give you a raise."

Nancy said disdainfully: "This is your private matter, I won't gossip. Well, but Ella McPherson is fine, that, that Jerry Hall, it seems... who is it? "

Simon interrupted Nancy's thinking, smiled and increased the chips: "Add twice the salary."

Nancy rolled her eyes and stopped worrying about this matter, but she did not forget to add another sentence: "Absurd man."

Simon put away his expression and said, "Okay, let's get down to business, I originally planned to come back tomorrow morning."

He attended a party at Jonathan's house the night before, and Simon left with two women afterwards.

As a human being in two lives, Simon never intended to treat himself badly in this kind of thing, and he didn't care what others thought.As long as there is a chance to eat the woman you like, you will not miss it.

The paparazzi around me have been chasing too closely recently, and I didn't want to be bothered by any messy things, so I borrowed a holiday villa with a private beach on Lanai, Hawaii from Steve Ross after some inquiries, and then took two A woman flew over and played happily all day and all night.

I have to say that the entanglement of the four long legs is really memorable.

Ben wanted to come back tomorrow with some reluctance, but he had to return early due to several consecutive phone calls from Los Angeles.

Simon felt that if it was just a matter of the company, no matter how urgent it was, it would not be so urgent.

There is likely to be a 'behind the scenes' behind the matter.

Ok.

For example, a female assistant who likes to be jealous.

Of course, Simon would not tell Jennifer about this, but women probably have instincts on such things.

Nancy ignored Simon's personal affairs, and took out a stack of documents from her satchel and handed them over, saying: "According to the contract we signed with Alista Records, the income from the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" will be settled every three months. It was released on June 6th, and the first income settlement should be due on September 5rd, which is Sunday, and the album has been sold for exactly 9 weeks, and it has not yet been released overseas, and the domestic sales totaled 3 million copies.”

Simon flipped through the information Nancy handed over and asked, "And then?"

"When the person in charge on our side asked for a settlement, Clive Davis, the president of Alista Records, kept refusing, and also hoped to change the terms of the contract to be settled by each quarter of the natural year, saying that it would be convenient for Alista. The record is undergoing a financial audit. Although it is all three months, it is obvious that Alistar Records is only delaying the payment. I communicated with Clive Davis in person and tossed for two weeks until the end of get off work last Friday. Alista Records just sent over the calculated account distribution statement, saying that the funds will have to wait another week before they can be transferred.”

As Nancy said, she reached out and flipped through the documents in front of Simon a few times, and said, "That's it. 1216 million records were sold. According to the original agreement, we expected the share to be more than 3000 million US dollars. Alista The record only gave us $2319 million. It’s just too much, Clive Davis probably counted all the expenses of their company in the past few months into the cost of the "Bodyguard" soundtrack."

Simon learned something about the recording industry early on.

For those singers who want to make their debut, the cost of producing and distributing records is indeed a huge expense, and some unknown singers will do almost anything to get record companies to release their albums.

However, once the album is a hit, the profits can be huge.

For hot-selling records, the gross profit that the record company can get from each record will not be less than 50% of the selling price. For phenomenal hit albums like the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard", the cost is diluted due to the huge sales volume. Profit margins are higher.

The original contract between Daenerys Entertainment and Alista Records was that each party would get 50% of the gross profit of the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard". After the payment, the two parties will share the remaining pre-tax profit [-]-[-].

Just three months after it was put on the shelves, the local sales of the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" reached 1216 million copies, with sales exceeding 1.2 million US dollars.According to industry practice, Daenerys Entertainment's expected share revenue should not be less than 3000 million US dollars.

Simon wasn't surprised at all that Arista Records did this.

A low-budget film in Hollywood with a production budget of 500 million sold 3 million worldwide, but it was still regarded as a loss by the film company. There are many things that refuse to pay the main creative share. Alistar Records included a large number of other expenses in the report. The way of diluting profits is completely left over from Hollywood.

After only turning a few pages, Simon closed the report and asked Nancy, "Have you talked to Clive Davis?"

"I went to Burbank this morning and Clive Davis insisted there was nothing wrong with the statement. I asked for a financial audit and he said that if we had to do it, it might affect the follow-up to the Bodyguard soundtrack. Issue. Simon, he's threatening us."

The expected global sales of the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" are between 4000 million and 5000 million copies. According to the current sales data, there is still a sales potential of at least 1000 million copies in North America alone. In order to cooperate with the release of the "Bodyguard" movie overseas, basically None are available yet.

The success of the "Bodyguard" movie was largely spurred by the success of the soundtrack, and that's clear to all.When Clive Davis said these words, it was indeed an obvious threat.Daenerys Entertainment doesn't yet have the ability to release a hit record on its own, let alone worldwide.In contrast, Alistar Records is backed by the German Bertelsmann Music Group and has a complete global distribution network.

If the two parties get into a stalemate, as long as Alistar Records "passively slows down" the follow-up release of this album, not only the sales of the album, but also the overseas box office of the movie "Bodyguard" will also be severely impacted.

Clive Davis dared to blatantly engulf Daenerys Entertainment's due share, because the release of the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" must rely on the global distribution channels of Alista Records and the entire Bertelsmann Music Group.

However, Clive Davis may think that Daenerys Entertainment can only swallow this dumb loss in order to ensure the overseas distribution of the "Bodyguard" movie and the follow-up sales of the film's soundtrack, but he overlooked one thing, Daenerys Silk Entertainment is indeed very optimistic about the benefits of "Bodyguard", however, for Alistar Records, this soundtrack album is also very important.

After all, Whitney Houston is the only singer under Alista Records that is currently available. Although the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" is a phenomenal best-selling album, Alista Records only accounts for half of the revenue, but it is enough. Support most of the record company's performance in the next year or two.

For Daenerys Entertainment, however, a slew of other blockbusters would still be lucrative for the company, even without The Bodyguard.

The most important thing is that Daenerys Entertainment now has a lot of projects in cooperation with other Hollywood studios. If Simon chooses to back down on this matter, other studios will only follow suit in the future.