King of Hollywood

Volume I Foundation Laying] Chapter 19 Are you interested? ——

Chapter 19 Are you interested? [M]

At the beginning of April 2000, a series of changes between the media and Sony Records baffled many financial commentators. First, Sony Records announced on Friday that it would soon become the owner of M Records, but just two days later, the media suddenly announced on Monday that Successfully acquired Universal Music at a price of 6.5 billion, and will merge with M Records to form a new Universal Music. As for Sony Records, the spokesperson only mentioned at the end that they will carry out in-depth cooperation with them. book mí group 2

What the hell, even if there was a real possibility of a big reversal, it wouldn't be so dramatic, would it? But the fact will not change with their surprise. The media regained the control of m and it became more solid. It has a cross-holding with Sony Records, but owns more shares than Sony, and also has a seat on the Sony Records board of directors. , but Sony Records can only hold shares... These were disclosed one by one with some unimportant details. The financial critics immediately changed their tone and began to praise the media's strategic deception with all their strength. Those who laughed at them before will encounter It seems that those words about the setback have never been said, and a commentator in the "Wall Street Journal" even praised Adrian and Claude as "natural partners."

Well, at least this sentence is correct. Adrian and Claude really cooperate very well. One is in charge of business negotiations and company operations, and the other is in charge of creativity and development. They support and supplement each other, and they completely play a 1+1 role.

2 role. Taking this big reversal as an example, in addition to Claude's business alliance, the various benefits that Adrian provided for doing transactions are also indispensable.

For example in

When forcing Mottola to sign the contract, he mentioned those two TV shows, "The Intern" and "The Office", which easily settled Viacom and n

c.

A large part of American TV series is about policemen, doctors and lawyers, so Adrian promised "The Intern" to c

s, as far as I can remember, the ratings of this TV series reached 10 million at least in the first two seasons—after the millennium, with the continuous development of cable TV, the ratings of wireless TV stations began to decrease, and it is already very impressive to reach 10 million Good episode.

give n

c is a little bit worse. "The Office" was originally a British drama. It was very interesting to shoot with a documentary method. The ratings in the UK were not low, but it was later released

c bought the copyright, although the ratings of the US version are not high, but the quality is still good. However, even the British version has not yet been released. If the filming techniques are used properly and can be well Americanized, the ratings will definitely go up two steps.

Of course, more importantly, Adrian made a guarantee that these will be two good TV series. To this day, is there anyone who does not believe the words of the director of Miracle?

The same is true for the arrangement for Warner and Fox and Sony-Columbia Pictures, needless to say Fox and Sony-Columbia, after nearly two months of discussions on the "X-Men" series, Adrian's proposal has both succeeded and failed . The success is because the overall story of the trilogy is much better than the original version. The author of Marvel and the screenwriter of Universal finally made the story basically self-consistent based on the outline he gave, although

There are still many ugs, but this is the problem of Marvel Comics itself.

Moreover, the reason for the paralysis of Dr. X and the relationship between Wolverine and Saber-toothed Tiger have also been newly set at Adrian's request. As long as the quality of the original version can be maintained after production, it will definitely be more popular. However, it is impossible to extend this to set the stories of other characters, because the amount of information is too large, and society is always evolving. The plot that people like today may hate tomorrow, especially in commercial movies.

"Unless we finish the script and start shooting right away, we may have to rewrite the story in a few years, and "X-Men" has too many characters, except for the main heroes, we are not sure if it will be a live-action movie. Which ones will be popular, and which ones will not be popular." Marvel and Universal gave Adrian an assessment after discussion.

What they said was indeed very reasonable, so Adrian gave up this plan. The original request was only out of the desire to make the derived series not so ugly. Even so, it is enough to attract Fox and Sony-Columbia to participate. Adrian also hinted at them. Some valuable superheroes will definitely consider selling. Needless to say, what choices they will make, who doesn’t know now Surprise is a big gold mine. e^look

All kinds of factors add up, and News Corporation is largely a bystander. Even if Sony-Columbia supports Sony Records, it is very limited, so it is naturally settled. In the end, Warner is left. They have it. It is impossible to get involved in Surprise, but the TV network is not wide, and there is no suitable program. The Amazing Race reality show got them.

In addition, Adrian also proposed to exchange support for the high-definition dvd format standard in exchange for Sony Group's support. Although it is still 2000, the standard dispute has already begun, but it is not until one or two years later. strong degree. It is also his decision to cooperate with Sony Records instead of taking this opportunity to annex it. This is certainly a good opportunity. Everything is beneficial to the media. The other side also has its own chess pieces. But the Sony Group may not give up on Sony Records, even if the benefits of the record industry are outside the first three items, then this will be a troublesome thing, and it will have an impact on subsequent plans.

So it is better to cooperate, so that it will be easier to sweep Mottola out of the mén. Of course, there are still advantages, such as they hold more shares and have a seat on the board of directors, while Sony Records can only hold share. However, Adrian did not completely let them go, even though the two parties agreed to share the market together—with the acquisition of Universal Music and the addition of M Records, the new Universal Music will be a large record company with the largest market share. It is qualified to make such a suggestion-but after the record industry began to slump across the board in the past few years, according to the agreement, Sony had to take the lead in attracting firepower, and the media just waited to pick up the fruit. This is the advantage of the prophet.

It is precisely because of the targeted arrangement given by Adrian that Claude can split them up and crack them almost perfectly. In fact, such a dual-core model with strong complementarity is pursued by many companies. The most famous example is Disney, Walt Disney and Roy Disney (not the Roy Disney of Walt's nephew) After founding the Disney Company, Walter was in charge of design and production, while his brother Roy was in charge of financial operation and management. The excellent cooperation between them made Disney animation develop rapidly.

The same was true for the golden decade from the early 1980s to the early 1994. Michael Eisner was in charge of creativity and planning, and Frank Wilson, who understood him and could tolerate his eccentric temper, was in charge of business negotiations. As a result, Disney has become a large group with tens of billions. It is a pity that Wilson died in a helicopter crash in 1994, Eisner lost a good partner, Disney's management began to become unbalanced, and internal power struggles emerged again.

There are many such examples, and Sony’s Akio Morita and Ibuka are also typical examples. They founded Sony together and developed it in full swing, but after their deaths in 1997 and 1999 respectively, Sony also began to go downhill. No matter what happens to the media in the future, as long as Adrian and Claude continue to cooperate closely, coupled with cheating devices, it will not be difficult to climb to a higher peak.

"Now I can finally breathe a sigh of relief." Claude raised his glass. As always, after completing the acquisition, he and Adrian had a drink in the office to celebrate, different But this time it was in Adrian's office.

"Really, aren't you going to start integrating our new Universal Music?" Adrian raised his glass and touched him.

"Oh, forgive me, how much energy have I spent during this time? Give me a few days to rest." Claude complained, "I'm not like you, I'm always so leisurely."

"Relax? I have two films to complete this year, as well as the later stage of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, preparations for the remaining two parts of "The Matrix", and a lot of movies and TV series to be asked." Adrian Ann smiled and spread her hands.

"But it's convenient for you to decompress, isn't it?" Claude shrugged.

"No, no, no, Crowe," Adrian said with a chuckle, "at least I won't rent some venues and let the models come over for a strip show..."

"Okay, okay, let's not talk about this topic," Claude interrupted quickly.

"Don't worry, Crowe, even if the godfather knows, he will only reprimand you. You also said that he is full of praise for our recent strategic deception." Adrian said leisurely, and then asked what he thought of: "By the way, Ayler didn't participate in your inexplicable activities."

"Of course not, everyone knows that she is your favorite, and Alexander also pays attention to these," Claude said here and sighed, "Frankly speaking, I regret it now, Ed, I should have known it earlier. I'll leave it to you. Then again, why do you always make women treat you so... And knowingly?"

"Because I know what they are thinking," Adrian laughed. "It's talent, Claude, don't be jealous of me."

"Really, Mr. Adrian, then please tell me, what was Miss Penelope Cruz thinking?" Claude immediately showed a look of interest.

Adrian didn't think it was disobedient, but just shrugged his shoulders: "What else can I do? I was dazzled by the momentary lust and lust, and intervened in things that she was unable to intervene. There are always such stupid women in the world."

Having said that, he sighed in his heart. According to Penelope's performance all the time, she should also be a smart woman who can advance and retreat. Why did she act like a different person after encountering this incident? The momentum is involved in it?

It's not that he regrets anything. After that incident, he can look at things more objectively, or he can control himself better. If you do something wrong, you have to pay the price, but in this way, your Spanish collection will inevitably be empty.

"However, you drove her back?" Claude wanted to say something, but after thinking about it, he just asked.

"Then what do you think I should do? Keep her and..." Adrian made a few gestures, and Claude laughed.

Of course, the premise of letting go of this is that Penelope is smart enough, otherwise it would be hard to say. So, when the news came from Spain that she and Almodóvar had turned their faces and announced her withdrawal from the entertainment industry, Adrian sighed again. Facts have proved that Penelope still has a brain, and she obviously understands that Adrian What she really meant when she said "don't make me see you in Hollywood again".

Even if she can pretend to be deaf and dumb, she will take on some European movies in the future, but if she can't radiate the whole world, what's the use? Do you spend your whole life making so-called art films? Moreover, Adrian will not give her a chance to pretend to be deaf and dumb, and even took her to the signing ceremony. Her words made her offend another media group, so it's better to quit cleanly.

And Penelope also played a huā trick, and used this method to show his favor. First, he participated in a small Spanish production, and then when he cooperated with Almodóvar, he made excuses and then quit. Almodovar can be regarded as the person who further discovered the charm of Penelope, and he had a falling out with him, coupled with the rumors that he came back due to the unfavorable development of Hollywood, it is logical to quit the entertainment industry, and it will not be associated with other aspects.

It's a shame, but a vacancy will be a vacancy, nothing is perfect. Adrian commented on the news like this.

He kept people staring at Penelope, and he knew very well how panicked she was, and what happened after returning to Spain like a bereaved dog. However, the whole matter was not completely over. Although she let it go because she still had some brains, she still had to charge a little interest.

For example, the crew of "Fast and Furious" who had already finished filming was asked to replace the filming crew immediately, but they did not give an explanation, allowing the outside world to guess, and then someone would collect some clues, and then make up some plots in their brains, until At that time, her reputation in the entertainment industry was completely ruined. In addition, there is an interest, but he plans to wait a few years before collecting it.

"Okay, let's talk about the business, such as personnel changes, Sony Records helped us dig out a few restless guys, we need better people to replace them." Claude changed the subject, "And Eric Ke helped us out a lot this time, and we have to show it."

"Of course, if Eric hadn't broken into the inside of Sony Records, we don't know how long we would have to deal with them." Adrian nodded, "The art director of New Universal Music must be his, He is instinctively capable and loyal to us, there is no one else who can do this job but him, and if someone at Universal Music disagrees, it doesn't matter, I have equipped Eric with the title of legendary music producer."

"So, you plan to..." Claude raised his eyebrows.

"That's right, anyway, those classic songs were all completed with Eric's help." Adrian replied with a smile.

"Okay, then, next, a

c Over there, I plan to transfer Clifton, the deputy director of the publicity department, to the music department to preside over the work, Charles, the director of the planning department, to be the secretary of the board of directors, and Kurt, the former secretary of the board of directors, to come to the head office. "Claude continued.

"It's up to you to make up your own mind, I..." Adrian suddenly paused, "Wait!"

"What's wrong?" Claude was a little surprised.

Adrian didn't answer, just frowning and thinking about something, then, there was a knock on the door, and after getting permission, Charlize walked in with the folder.

"Sorry, Ed, it's not that I want to disturb you, but this document must be signed by you and Crowe." She said so, wearing a decent OL outfit, black transparent stockings and high heels, her front and back turned up With an indescribable yòuhuò, but also an indifferent appearance, quite attractive.

"Okay, thank you." Claude took it, looked at it in detail, then signed his name, and handed it to Adrian, "Don't look at her, you can't look at her like this every day. Will you look at her like this after I leave?"

"What I think is my business." Adrian withdrew his gaze from the calm Charlize, and signed his name on the document.

"By the way, Charlie, I have a question." Adrian asked suddenly after returning the file to Charlize.

"Please tell me, but I have the right not to answer some of the overstepping questions, and reserve the right to fight back." Charlize said leisurely, and Claude burst out laughing.

Adrian shrugged disapprovingly: "Speaking of which, how long have you been my secretary assistant, Charlie?"

"Seven years and one month Zero Liz answered in one go.

"Wow," Adrian couldn't help but exclaimed, "You actually remember it so accurately?"

"I have confidence in my memory. If you give me a few minutes, I can get the number down to hours." Charlize said in a very flat tone, as if it was just a trivial matter.

"No need for this," Adrian raised his hand, and then coughed dryly, "Okay, Charlie, I want to ask, if you are interested, go to a

c Do you want to be the supervisor of the planning department? "

Charlize raised his eyebrows immediately, and Claude next to him also showed a look of surprise.

"I think you shouldn't be controlled by anyone, and I shouldn't have any auditory hallucinations, right?" After a few seconds, Charlize looked at him and let out a breath.

"Oh, of course," Adrian raised his hands and asked again, "So, are you interested in doing a

Is it the director of C's planning department, Charlie? "

After a few more minutes, Charlize gave the answer: "As you arrange."

After finishing speaking, without waiting for him to speak again, the girl turned and walked out. This time Claude didn't make a joke about it. As soon as the door closed, he hurriedly asked, "Are you serious, Ed?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" Adrian spread his hands, "Don't tell me, do you think Charlie doesn't have that ability, or did you see what she has done in the past seven years?"

"No, I'm just..." Claude gestured, "Are you sure you're willing to let her go to work."

Adrian didn't speak.

"Well," Claude sighed, "If you decide, and Charlie also decides, then I have no opinion!"

...