From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Aggressive, not giving an inch.

The air in the entire conference room froze again. Although gazes shifted in the air, the sole focus in the space was clearly Michael Linton.

However, this was not unexpected.

Generally speaking, in top companies, there is only one CEO, because it is the helmsman's position. Common sense dictates that too many helmsmen can cause the ship to lose direction or even lead to disaster; and now Sony Columbia is facing such a situation.

Michael Linton is the troublemaker.

For the past few years, Amy Pascal has been the CEO of Sony Columbia, but as mentioned before, Sony Columbia's operating performance has been below expectations, so they had to put all their chips on "Spider-Man" as a desperate gamble—

Succeed or die.

Of course, Amy's gamble was successful, and the historic success of "Spider-Man" caused a sensation throughout Hollywood.

However, for the shareholders, this was still not enough.

The glory of a single movie is not enough to help a large company complete a transformation. "Titanic" failed to help 20th Century Fox reach the top of Hollywood, and "Spider-Man" also failed to help Sony Columbia completely get rid of the predicament of poor performance in other projects.

So, after discussion, the board of directors hired a second CEO, Michael Linton, this past March. They hoped that Michael could assist Amy and help Sony Columbia transform.

But here is a detail: who dominates between Michael and Amy? Is Michael assisting Amy, or is he preparing to squeeze Amy out?

The board of directors didn't say, the division of labor was unclear, but the internal trend of the board of directors was inclined to support Michael and get rid of Amy, after all, Amy has been in the CEO position for many years but has never been able to help the company get out of its predicament.

In other words, everything was unsaid, but now Amy is defending her job, and Michael is trying to complete his power grab.

The two are not cooperative partners who are all friendly and well.

The main decisions of "Spider-Man 2" were all led and completed by Amy before Michael's promotion.

Now that an unexpected situation has occurred, Michael will naturally not miss the opportunity. He wants to reshuffle and bring "Spider-Man 2" under his control.

But the point is that Michael's point of view is persuasive. Considering the expenses of delaying filming, the board of directors may support Michael's decision.

Now, the tricky part is here—

In the eyes of these people, is Anson really irreplaceable?

Michael Linton was still refined, like a professor, without raising his voice or flying into a rage. The entire conversation process was always unhurried, with an attitude of presenting facts and reasoning. If you were not careful, you might be led into the ditch by him. The condescending attitude in his bones was almost impossible to hide.

This time, no one responded. Michael's words were once again suspended in mid-air, slowly sinking into the quicksand of silence.

Michael didn't care, he lowered his jaw slightly, revealing a smile.

"Now it seems that I am like a villain, but let us calm down. I have no malice, I am just objectively stating the facts."

"We need to be rational, we need to be calm, and face this difficulty together."

Sam, who had been sitting next to him, looking down at the ground and silent, blurted out, "I thought it should be Anson who is facing the difficulty now."

Michael actually choked, paused slightly, "Of course, Anson has Anson's difficulties, and we also have ours. I sincerely hope that Anson's acting career goes well, but now we must consider the interests of Sony Columbia, what do you think?"

Ian looked up at Amy.

Ian stood up, opened the folder, inside was a stack of A4 paper. After a quick scan, Ian didn't say much, and distributed one to each person present.

Sam still didn't look up, didn't even glance at it.

But Amy looked at it, a breath stuck in her chest, "You have already prepared it, then what is the point of this meeting?"

This is a list of actors, with the names of Peter Parker's successors clearly written on it.

Moreover, there is more than one, there are more than twenty names before and after.

Considering the age, appearance, style, etc. of the actors, it can be seen that Michael not only made preparations, but also conducted detailed investigations.

From the beginning, Michael was not prepared to support Anson.

Amy's anger burst out, "God, Anson is still lying in the hospital bed!"

Michael, "I didn't know you were such a sentimental person, like other women. I sympathize with Anson's situation, but we still have work to do."

Michael remained unmoved.

The air was surging, and gunpowder smoke filled the air. Michael and Amy launched another confrontation.

But Sam just felt bored.

Suddenly, he felt uninterested. When Anson was struggling on the edge of pain and life and death, Sony Columbia only had interests in their eyes. They transformed people into a set of numbers, and then simply completed a number game.

However, life is not a number, things should not be like this.

Don't forget that the box office pressure of "Spider-Man" was all on Anson. As a result, the movie achieved huge success. Now, as soon as they turn around, they are considering replacing Anson, crossing the river and tearing down the bridge. This eating appearance is really too ugly.

In Sam's view, this meeting should not have happened from the beginning. They should support Anson with 100% without hesitation. This is the only option.

But the really sad thing is that Anson seemed to have seen through this point early on.

In the hospital, Anson found Sam, he was there to express his feelings, he would recover as soon as possible and return to the crew. He knew that the delay during this period might embarrass the crew, so he guaranteed that he would speed up the progress after his recovery to ensure that the movie could catch up with the schedule.

At that time, Sam also said that Anson was thinking too much, and repeatedly comforted Anson to rest well. There was no need to worry. The crew could shoot other scenes first, and then put Anson back into the work of the protagonist after his return. He believed that they could complete the shooting on time.

Until now, Sam realized why Anson talked about this in the hospital.

Obviously, Anson knew that Sony Columbia had no sympathy.

However, Sam only felt sad and heartbroken. Not only did they not give Anson support, but they also continued to prepare to give Anson a knife in the back.

Things should not be like this.