Chapter Four Hundred and Eighty First Visit

The two women came and hurried away suddenly, and Eric, who had been squeezed for three days, even joked that he was being played with when he sent the two women away, because most of his energy was on Jurassic Park. Because of this, Eric did not notice the abnormality of Virginia and Joanna. ~ small,

On the afternoon of July 15, a helicopter landed at the airport in the north of Kauai. An old man in casual clothes refused the help of his assistant and jumped out of the helicopter skillfully.

"Danny, have you contacted the reporter?" Martin Davis asked the assistant next to him again when he saw a man in his thirties approaching not far away.

The man in a suit named Danny whispered: "It has been arranged, and the news will appear in the newspaper tomorrow."

Seeing that the man not far away had approached, Martin Davis didn't speak any more, just nodded slightly and walked forward.

"Mr. Davis, welcome to Kauai," Allen greeted him and held out his hand.

Martin Davis smiled and shook hands with the other party: "You must be Alan Feisman, I remember your voice."

Allen nodded politely: "Yes, Mr. Davis, our crew is now stationed in Lihue, but the conditions there are not as good as the resorts here, Mr. Williams asked me to book for you at the Westin Resort Hotel. room."

"No, no, I'm not here for vacation. It would be fine if I live in Lihu," Martin Davis shook his head.

Alan didn't object either and stretched out his hand: "In that case, please come with me, the car is over there."

The three walked out of the tarmac. Come to the roadside. Martin Davis motioned to get into another car with his assistant and bodyguard. He followed Alan into a black jeep.

After the car started, Martin Davis said to Allen, "Eric must be on the set, can you show me?"

"No problem, the crew is filming at a ranch not far away, not far from here," Allen agreed, exhorting the driver.

It took only a few minutes for the two vehicles to arrive outside a blocked ranch and enter the set. A man with a camera jumped out not far away, quickly pointed the lens here, and frantically pressed the shutter.

Allen, who was negotiating with the guard, noticed this detail and narrowed his eyes slightly, but he relaxed quickly.

Eric and Stan Winston are discussing the details of the next shot of the giraffe with the footage.

I saw Alan walking over with a few people.

"Martin Davis, why is he here?" Stan Winston followed Eric's gaze and asked in surprise. After working in Hollywood for so many years, Stan Winston has no doubts about the seven majors. The senior management of each family is still very clear.

"Of course it's for the movie." Eric smiled and put the pencil in his hand to his ear: "Stan. Let's say hello together?"

"No need, you go, I'll discuss the next seat with Nickel," Stan Winston said casually, not too cold to Martin Davis.

Eric nodded and walked towards Martin Davis.

When he came to Martin Davis, the other party's eyes were on the six-meter-high behemoth not far away.

"That's Giraffe, one of the main dinosaur models that Digital Domain designed for Jurassic Park, and at 20 feet tall, it's one of the biggest props in the movie," Eric walks up to Martin Davis Beside him, he explained casually that the giraffe originally planned to use production, but because of the need to shoot close-up shots, and compared with the design of Tyrannosaurus Rex, the movements of this dinosaur are not complicated, in order to be realistic For the sake of it, Eric chose the model anyway.

Martin Davis withdrew his gaze, smiled familiarly and said to Eric: "It's amazing, looking at this big guy, I suddenly thought of "Star Wars" many years ago, Eric K, I believe you will definitely create a miracle this time."

"Whether it can create a miracle or not, it is up to the audience to decide," Eric smiled, and then extended his hand to Martin Davis: "Mr. Davis, it's nice to meet you."

"Me too, Eric, just call me Martin," Martin Davis smiled amiably.

Eric nodded, but was not confused by the friendly appearance of the other party. The reason why Stan Winston was unwilling to come over to say hello just now was mainly because most people in Hollywood knew that Martin Davis was a Very harsh person. The reason why Barry Diller left Paramount at that time, apart from differences in business ideas, was largely because he couldn't stand Martin Davis' character. Barry Diller was basically in the last period of Paramount. Spent the quarrel with Martin Davis. And Michael Eisner, who also worked at Paramount, commented on Martin Davis as "how can there be such a person in the world".

"Okay, Martin," Eric looked at his watch and said, "I've prepared a dinner party tonight. There are still two and a half hours before I get off work. Maybe you can walk around here. The scenery here is still very beautiful."

Martin Davis waved his hand: "Eric, you just keep working, but I think you don't mind me staying here?"

"Of course not," Eric shook his head and smiled. At this moment, the assistant director not far away also made an O gesture to Eric at the right time.

Apologizing again, Eric asked Allen a few words and walked not far away.

...

The filming started again soon. Looking at the giraffe that seemed to come alive not far away under the manipulation of the special effects artist, Martin Davis dismissed Allen away in a few words and asked the assistant beside him in a low voice, "Danny ,what do you think?"

"It doesn't look too special, Mr. Davis," Danny Kirk said. "This should be the most common shot. I've seen the original Jurassic Park. If I were the director, I will definitely put more energy on the Tyrannosaurus Rex, that is what sells this movie, and Eric Williams will definitely not miss this."

"You are more familiar with Jerry Bruckheimer?"

"Sure, but Jerry can't tell me too much. But I know Williams values ​​Jerry. He left Paramount shortly after. Williams signed him on a long-term contract."

Martin Davis hummed and didn't say anything, but Danny Kirk was still able to realize that his boss must have some regrets about the termination of the contract with Jerry Bruckheimer, just as he regretted that Barry Diller and Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg kicked out Paramount like that. These three people are now a Universal o, a Disney o, and the last Barry Diller, who left Hollywood less than a year ago. I started thinking about buying Paramount.

Danny Kirk couldn't help but imagine that if these three people hadn't left so far, then Paramount would definitely be the hegemon of Hollywood's Big Seven, instead of falling into the current slump in performance and the wolves looking around at the internal instability. From the bottom of his heart, Danny Kirk is not optimistic about Martin Davis' trip to Hawaii. He is not even optimistic that Martin Davis can keep Paramount, but he does not dare to say these words anyway. Speaking to Martin Davis.

...

In the restaurant where the Lihuo crew was stationed in the hotel, Eric had already taken a shower and changed into a comfortable uniform. He sat opposite Martin Davis, and the waiter brought Hawaiian specialties from time to time. The two also chatted casually, and Martin Davis didn't seem to be in a hurry to express his intentions.

Of course Eric would not be in a hurry. In any case, the initiative was on his side. Before Martin Davis came, Eric had investigated Paramount's situation in detail.

Paramount's parent company was originally a Gulf Western Industrial Corporation, which started out by smelting non-ferrous metals. After the company made a fortune, its business has become very diversified. It once involved businesses such as liquid crystal, petroleum, electronics, entertainment and publishing. The famous Simmons It used to be the industry of Gulf Western Industrial Corporation, but in the past ten years, Gulf Western Industrial Corporation has been divesting its own industrial business and shifting its focus to the cultural and entertainment industry. A few years ago, Martin Davis even simply put Gulf Western The industrial company was reorganized into Paramount Communications, which included Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television, and Simon & Schuster Publishing.

Perhaps because of being forced to leave Paramount, Barry Diller has been obsessed with Paramount for so many years. After resigning from Fox, Barry Diller took over a TV sales company q jointly owned by two cable service providers, Comcast and Telematics. Communication Two cable companies of comparable size were interested in getting involved in the film industry. Barry Diller felt that the time was right, so he proposed to the two companies to jointly acquire Paramount.

At the same time, Redstone did not give up his ambition to enter Hollywood at all. After failing to compete with Disney, Redstone's Viacom Group also directly pointed the finger at Paramount.

In addition to the two pretenders on the bright side, Eric also knew that q's parent company, Telecom, seemed unwilling to share Paramount with Comcast, but had another thought of taking it alone.

Simply put, Paramount is now seen by many companies as a piece of fat that has attracted a lot of beasts.

After talking about the scenery of the Hawaiian Islands, Martin Davis finally said tentatively: "Eric, I heard that Firefly and Viacom had a lot of unhappiness when they bought Disney last year?"

Eric nodded lightly: "Yeah, but this is a very normal business competition. In the shopping mall, it is rare for everyone to get rich together, so this is nothing."

Martin Davis showed an old fox-like smile: "It's not that simple, Firefly spent at least $2 billion more in this deal."

Eric really wants to ask if you and Redstone are always good friends, is it really appropriate to sow discord like this?

"If I now sell Disney for $2 billion on top of last year's purchase price, I'm sure someone will take over," Eric said confidently: "So, Firefly has not lost money in this business, Disney is worth it. That's enough for the price."

Due to privatization, Disney has not disclosed much information, but Martin Davis does not doubt Eric's words. Although Disney's film business has not shown signs of improvement, and no amazing works have appeared, the whole However, due to the expansion of the market scale, the North American entertainment industry is constantly increasing in value.

Even if Disney's performance is stagnant, according to the current development speed, Disney can break through the market value of 10 billion US dollars in a few years, not to mention that under Eric's manipulation, it also has such benefits as Pixar animation, how can Disney be possible? Will it stop?

Seeing that Eric didn't answer his own words, Martin Davis knew that the young man opposite was also a little fox, and it was useless to say those words himself: "Eric, get straight to the point, I think you must know what I have done this time. Come here, Viacom wants to buy Paramount, but I don't want to sell it, so I think maybe we can cooperate, although Disney's acquisition did not cause you a loss, but Viacom still makes fireflies more You spent a lot of money, don't you want to pay back?"

"In the shopping mall, it's very unwise to act like a hot-headed tit-for-tat, I won't go into this muddy water for no reason," Eric shook his head and said lightly: "Besides, I don't even have the business of Firefly itself. It hasn't been sorted out, so I'm sorry Martin, I just don't have the energy to work with Paramount."

"It doesn't require you to spend too much energy," Martin Davis continued, not in a hurry: "Only if you can provide Paramount with a few more promising movie projects, and Paramount is absolutely You won't be at a disadvantage, these projects, you can personally take the lead."

Martin Davis' idea is very practical. He does not want to sell Paramount himself. However, although he is the largest shareholder of Paramount, he does not have a controlling stake. In addition, Paramount's performance is sluggish. When the opponent initiates a hostile takeover, when the price reaches a certain level, other shareholders will definitely choose to sell their shares. At this time, the only thing that can turn the situation around is to have outstanding results. As long as those shareholders can see the prospect of interest, those people will definitely not choose to sell. And working with Firefly, or in other words, working with Eric, is undoubtedly the fastest way.

"Mr. Davis, you have to know that high-quality cooperation projects are something that can be met but not sought after. Movies are like gambling, no one knows what will happen next, and no one can guarantee success 100%. Everyone was so optimistic about Spielberg's "Captain Hawk", didn't this movie fail in the end?" (To be continued..)