Chapter Seven Hundred and Sixty Seventh Trip to Australia

What is the capital of Australia?

Maybe 80% of people's first reaction is Sydney.

Simpler questions are often easier to get wrong.

As a result, ten percent of the remaining people hesitated a little, thinking of another city in Australia, Melbourne.

However, both of these answers are wrong. The capital of Australia is Canberra, a city that does not have a strong presence in most people's hearts.

After returning from Mexico, Eric stayed in Los Angeles for a week before leaving for Australia in the southern hemisphere.

The absence of "Titanic" in the summer can not be changed, and the remaining two films "The Matrix" and "Brave Island" are absolutely not to be missed. "Brave Island" is directed by John Wu. The filming location is also in San Francisco, not far from Los Angeles. It is very convenient for the company to follow up this film, and there is not much problem.

However, "The Matrix" is different. Although I believe in the ability of the Wachowski brothers, the two are still new directors after all. What's more, the whole film was shot in Sydney, and the digital domain's Australian branch was solely responsible for post-production special effects. The entire production process of the film was far from Los Angeles, so Eric decided to rush over to check the production progress of the film. .

Compared with the exciting trip to Mexico, Eric went to Sydney with a lot of ease.

In addition to "The Matrix", Eric has other things to deal with, and may have to stay in Australia for a week or two. As a single mother, Kelly is not suitable for traveling, so Eric transferred from the assistant's office. Two assistants, plus four bodyguards, flew to Australia with a group of seven.

Filming on The Matrix was completed at the end of last year, the Wachowskis have produced a three-and-a-half-hour rough cut, and the main post-production special effects work has begun.

The headquarters of the Digital Domain Australia branch is located in Camperdown, the center of Sydney, close to the University of Sydney. Because of the full technical support of the US headquarters and the cooperation of the powerful News Corporation in Australia, the Australian branch has developed very rapidly. At this time It has more than 200 employees and is currently mainly responsible for the post-production special effects of "The Matrix".

Eric stayed in a hotel near the University of Sydney, less than one kilometer away from the Digital Domain branch, which is convenient for working nearby.

Although it was a private trip entirely for work reasons, Eric had just gotten off the plane and was still greeted by a member of the Sydney City Council and invited Eric to a charity reception the next night. As the home base of News Corporation, Murdoch's eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, who was in charge of part of News Corporation's newspaper publishing business in Australia at this time, also called Eric shortly after getting off the plane and invited him to a private party.

Due to the need for jet lag and continuous entertainment, Eric was unable to work for the next three days.

Early in the morning on the fourth day, with a little hangover dizziness, there was a knock on the door of Eric's Hotel.

Opening the door, Robert Cotter, the producer of The Matrix, was standing outside the door, and because it couldn't get Joe Silver to Firefly to take charge of the Matrix project, the company finally selected Robert Cotter, a forty A middle-aged man in many years, he was originally a producer in the former Disney system. He has been a producer since the mid-1980s, and he is also very experienced.

Looking at Eric with messy hair and a tired face, Robert Kurt was a little surprised and said hesitantly: "Sorry, Eric, I didn't know you were still resting."

At this time, Eric was only wearing a pair of trousers, his upper body was naked, and his image was even a little sloppy. Hearing this, he subconsciously raised his empty wrist,

But I found that there was no trace of the watch on my wrist, and I didn't know where I left it last night, so I had to ask Robert Cotter, "What time is it?"

"Half-thirty at nine," replied Robert Cotter, "You said you would go to the special effects company at nine o'clock today. I'll come and take a look after the time."

"Oh, sorry," Eric shook his head again and said, "I was drunk last night, you go over there first, I, um, past ten thirty."

"Okay," Robert Cote nodded and said again, "Eric, do you need me to call room service for you?"

Eric refused: "No, I'll probably take a bath and have some breakfast."

Robert Cotter hummed, said no more, and left.

Eric closed the door, took off his clothes and got into the Yushi, put hot water, soaked himself in the bathtub, stretched out his body comfortably, and recalled some events from last night.

Last night he was invited to a party hosted by Lachlan Murdoch at the Murdoch family estate on the outskirts of Sydney.

Eric and Murdoch's two sons, Lachlan and James, have several relationships. Perhaps Murdoch is too busy with his work and neglects discipline. These two can be said to be standard dummies. Doc was placed by the old Murdoch to the Australian base to be responsible for the publishing business of News Corp. However, at the press conference that he first appeared in, Lachlan Murdoch was dumbfounded by a few questions from reporters and had no ability to respond. . This is Australia, where News Corporation controls more than 70% of the media channels. No matter how tricky the reporter is, it is impossible not to give face to the News Corporation prince. This shows how bad the performance of Lachlan Murdoch is. Old Murdoch was disappointed.

In addition, Eric can also clearly feel that these two guys don't like him. Because the two of them are almost the same age as him, and old Murdoch has high expectations for his two sons, it is conceivable that a father who hopes to become a dragon will definitely use his peers to motivate his two lazy ones. Children, Eric is undoubtedly the best advertised object, and I often hear their old men talk about it, and they can imagine their resentment towards Eric, a 'other's child'.

It was obviously a reception party ordered by the old Murdoch, but last night, Lachlan Murdoch invited a large group of people of his age, at least on the surface, they were very enthusiastic. Both men and women seemed to be specially instructed to take turns. Step forward to toast Eric.

In the end, Eric only remembered that he was helped into the car by the bodyguard.

Recalling what happened last night, Eric smiled and shook his head, but he was not too angry. After all, the less successful Murdoch's two sons were, the better chance Elizabeth would have to inherit the entire News Corporation in the future. They're more rambunctious.

After taking a shower, Eric got dressed and went to the restaurant downstairs, where Peter Rich, one of the two assistants he brought to Australia, was already waiting here.

Eric ordered a breakfast, and when the waiter left, Peter Rich came over and reported his work for the past two days, saying: "Mr. Williams, I have contacted Cate Blanch. Chet's agent, however, who did not meet her, said Miss Blanchett was filming a TV show in Brisbane."

Eric interrupted the assistant and asked suspiciously, "Brisbane?"

Peter Ritchie understood and explained: "Brisbane is the capital of the northern state of Queensland, Australia, and the third largest city in Australia after Sydney and Melbourne. It is about 700 kilometers away from Sydney."

Eric nodded and motioned Peter Rich to continue.

Peter Rich said: "Miss Blanchett's agent is very enthusiastic about our invitation. He said that he will let Miss Blanchett come back as soon as possible to meet you in person."

Eric asked again: "Have you handed them those pages of the script?"

"It has been handed over to Miss Blanchett's agent."

Eric nodded and said, "You continue to keep in touch with them. I don't have much time. If I don't see anyone within a week, that's fine."

Peter Ritchie said: "I see, Mr. Williams, is there anything else?"

"No, um, what happened to Sean?" Eric asked again, Sean was the name of another assistant he brought.

Peter Ritchie said: "He has contacted the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (csiro), but we have just found out that the wifi technology developed by csiro has not yet applied for a patent in North America, perhaps, we do not need to ask them Buy."

Eric came to Australia, in addition to the film affairs, there is another important thing, that is to buy the patent right of the wifi technology that just appeared at this time, this part of the patent is owned by a technology with a long name in Australia held by the research organization.

In the original time and space, the Australian government can earn nearly $1 billion a year just by charging patent licensing fees for billions of electronic devices that use wifi technology around the world. However, at this time, the Internet was just emerging, and not many people realized the true value of wifi technology, which just gave Eric the opportunity to "spot leaks".

As long as he can obtain the wifi technology patent, in addition to the foreseeable huge patent licensing fees in the future, more importantly, he can also allow Cisco, Yahoo, America Online and other companies in his hands to gain the initiative and priority in wireless network technology.

Eric also understands what Peter Ritchie just said. There is no patent application for wifi technology in North America. Firefly can completely spend no money. For own. This method of preempting the technological achievements of others is not uncommon in all walks of life.

However, Eric shook his head without hesitation, not because of a sense of moral justice, but because the future application of wifi technology must be worldwide. Now even if the patent rights are seized in advance in North America, it will definitely have a fight with csiro in court, let alone overseas.

"There is no such need, and it doesn't cost much to buy the patent rights of wifi."

It will take at least ten years for wifi technology to become popular. At present, except for Eric, it is impossible for anyone to see the broad prospects of this technology. Now, if you want to completely buy out this patented technology, even 10 million US dollars cannot be used.

The waiter quickly brought Eric's breakfast. Eric sent Peter Rich away, ate breakfast, left the hotel and drove to the headquarters of the Digital Domain Australia branch.

Since the filming stage of "The Matrix", Eric has been closely monitoring the filming progress of the Wachowski brothers through e-mail and other means, because with the assistance of Robert Cotter, an experienced producer, the entire filming process , the two brothers did not encounter much trouble.

For the next few days, Eric has been discussing post-production and further editing of the film with several of the creators of The Matrix.

Despite Eric's remote guidance and close supervision by Robert Cotter, the Wachowskis managed to add a lot of willpower to the film.

The reason why the movie in the original time and space was so successful was that in addition to the bold and novel ideas of reality and fantasy, the Wachowski brothers' profound philosophical thinking through the movie also played a finishing touch. Therefore, Eric did not. All the 'private goods' that the Wachowski brothers put into the film were removed, but they were appropriately deleted according to the version in memory, and an appropriate balance was found between the commercial elements and philosophical thinking of the film.

The original version of "The Matrix", after the stunning first film, the subsequent two films were due to Time Warner's excessive decentralization, which made the Wachowski brothers completely indulge in their own confusing shooting concept, and even changed the film. It was very obscure, which resulted in the film's reputation being inferior to the first, and the box office also suffered a failure in the most important finale after the second film's sharp rise. ℃≡miào℃≡bi℃≡Ge℃≡

While Eric was busy in the late stages of "The Matrix" in Sydney, in Brisbane, hundreds of kilometers north of mainland Australia, Cate Blanchett had just finished a day of filming and walked out of the set, her agent Ron Rather He drove the car in front of her and motioned for her to get in.

Cate Blanchett held the Kun bag in her hand, looked around subconsciously, and even got into the car with a guilty conscience.

Neither of them spoke right away, they drove two blocks away, stopped outside a café, got out of the car, walked into the café, ordered two coffees, and took a seat by the window, Kate said. Blanchett suddenly couldn't help laughing: "Ron, why do I feel like we're planning to do something bad?"

Ron Ruther couldn't help laughing. He still felt a little unreal. Three days ago, a young man who claimed to be Eric Williams' assistant suddenly found him, saying that Eric Williams Strikingly invited Kate to play the role of Bond Girl, Ron Rather's first reaction was that the other party was a liar.

After all, although he is well aware that the actress under his name has very good acting skills, in any case, it is impossible to link her to the new Eric Williams film.

"I think it's incredible now, but this is definitely a good opportunity that everyone dreams of, isn't it, by the way, Kate, you didn't tell anyone about this, did you?"

Cate Blanchett shook her head and smiled: "Of course not, I don't want to be seen as a lunatic daydreaming."