Chapter 900 We Are in Trouble
Richard Lovett is scrambling for a possible crisis of confidence in caa, just a few kilometers away, and the MGM headquarters, also located in Century City, is not at peace. burning book library
Just over an hour after the announcement that the 007 series would re-select the male lead, a group of fans gathered outside MGM headquarters, holding various signs to protest MGM's decision to remove Pierce Brosnan. Another group of reporters from major media also waited outside the gate of MGM headquarters, hoping to get more news. In order to avoid any accident, Amy Pascal had to send most of the company's security outside the building to maintain order.
MGM's stock, which had been on the rise in recent weeks on the back of the "Casino Royale" box office hit, suddenly began to fall as the news was announced. Thanks to the continuous pair of acquisitions e! The acquisition of entertainment television stations, the investment in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and the possible equity transaction with Rainbow Media in the future, MGM, whose funds are gradually tight, has launched a new round of debt financing plans. At this time, the company's stock price suddenly fell. Not good news.
The mobile phones of several MGM executives were directly bombed by calls from various parties within an hour of the announcement. A director of the company's board of directors even flew from New York to Los Angeles and requested an emergency board meeting to reopen. Discuss removing Brosnan.
MGM completed the last stock issuance, Drew's shareholding ratio has dropped to 33.5%, and ltd's shareholding has also fallen to 8.4%. The French Vivendi Group, which jointly participated in the acquisition of MGM, held 16.8% of the shares, several European film funds held 15.1%, and the remaining 26% of the shares were all tradable shares. Since they are also from Europe, Vivendi and several other film funds are naturally in a group. Although they are destined to gain control over MGM, it is impossible for MGM management to completely ignore the influence of the other party.
The director, Pierre Truk, who had come to Los Angeles from New York, was the voice of Vivendi and several film funds on the MGM board. MGM's board of directors has a total of seven members, except for four external independent directors hired in accordance with the regulations of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the other three, one is Drew, one is Amy Pascal, and the other is Pierre T. Luke, the other is the CEO of Vivendi's advertising media giant Havas Group's US branch.
At the end of a corridor at the MGM headquarters, Amy Pascal, who was standing by the window, hung up Richard Lovett's phone, with a relieved expression on his face, handed the phone to the assistant, and told her to help him answer the phone. When the call came in again, he pushed open the door of the conference room and walked in.
In the conference room, Drew, Frank Marcasso and John Carley are discussing casting plans for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with Peter Jackson.
In the past two years, Peter Jackson has only directed one low-cost thriller to train his hands, and most of his energy is still on the preparations for the "Lord of the Rings" series. Not only has he completed all the preparatory work for the film, but this year In the first half of the year, he also interned for three months in the Australian branch in the digital field, and learned in detail the production process of cg special effects. Now, the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy can be said to have been completely installed in Peter Jackson's mind. As long as the budget is officially started, he is 100% confident that Tolkien's legendary epic can be perfected. presented on the big screen.
Seeing Amy Pascal walk in, Peter Jackson couldn't help but pause, he certainly knew what happened at MGM today.
Frank Macasso and John Cali looked over at the same time. They had completed the acquisition of MGM. Considering that this old movie giant may re-emerge with the support of the Firefly Group, the two of them did not choose. Leaving the company now also proves the correctness of their original choice. It's just that today's incident is really enough to catch people off guard. They still can't believe that Eric will really decide to give up Brosnan.
Although the phone has been turned off, the two of them are still haunted by the continuous ringing of the phone.
Although Drew also looked up, there was no worried look on his face. As long as it was Eric's decision, even if MGM went bankrupt, she didn't care. However, the girl still took the initiative to ask: "Amy, who is this time?"
"Richard Lovett," Amy replied, sitting down beside the girl, and continued: "Richard hinted to me just now that this matter seems to be Brosnan's agent Rick Kirtzman's own opinion. Cha has fired Cozman. Drew, they want to talk again."
Although some rumors have also been heard, due to Richard Lovett's best efforts to cover up, no one in Hollywood knows in detail the ins and outs of Rick Kotzman's private rejection of the 007 salary contract. Drew naturally used Amy's "hint" by Richard Lovett as an excuse, which may actually be what Richard Lovett wanted to see.
However, Drew obviously didn't care about this, just said: "If they want to refuse, they will refuse, and if they want to renegotiate, they will renegotiate. Is this making fun of us?"
"Drew, I think there may be some misunderstanding in this. It stands to reason that even if Pierce does not agree with the salary offered by Eric, it is impossible to refuse so simply," Amy continued to persuade: "Also, give up Brosnan It doesn't do us any good, we are about to do debt financing soon, and Morgan Stanley has also called, and they feel that if Brosnan is replaced, it may affect the market's enthusiasm for investing in MGM bonds."
The girl blinked twice, spread her hands and said, "Otherwise, you can discuss with Eric, I'm just a puppet."
...
"There is a rumor now that Brosnan seems to be completely ignorant of the salary conditions you offered. When you had a meeting in the morning, Amy called again and said that the caa side wanted to talk again." Firefly Burbank headquarters The restaurant at , it was noon, Kelly and Eric were sitting together for lunch, and by the way, they talked about what happened this morning.
After Eric finished eating a mouthful of pasta, he looked up and said, "Do you believe that Brosnan really didn't know?"
Kelly thought for a while and said, "I think, even if it's true, caa will spread this as a fake. After all, if you hide such an important thing from customers, caa will get into big trouble. No star would want to let an agent who likes to make things happen for them. However, I don't think caa's agent would be stupid enough to hide this from Brosnan, which is a $70 million contract."
"so what?"
"So, this is probably fake news released by caa, just trying to find an excuse to salvage this matter."
Eric smiled, didn't say anything, changed the subject, and said, "So, have you picked a good candidate for my new personal assistant?"
Kelly actually wanted to ask Eric what his plans were, and seeing him change the subject, she had to say, "There is one that is very suitable, but I don't think I should send her to the bad guy like you. "
"Oh, it seems that you prefer to do this yourself." Eric teased, looking at Kelly's blushing instantly, and smiled: "You mean Caroline?"
Kelly nodded and said, "I talked to Caroline, and she was quite willing. However, Eric, Caroline is such a good girl, don't hurt her."
Eric thought for a while, and felt that he was really not sure, so he said: "Or, change someone?"
Kelly rolled her eyes at Eric, but said softly: "Eric, I can see that Caroline is looking forward to being with you. So, if you don't want to do this, talk to her in person. Let's talk, best, best to get her to change jobs, you know what I mean."
Eric hesitated and nodded solemnly: "Okay, I will take some time in the next two days."
Having said that, Eric's cell phone rang, and he said hello after connecting, and after hearing a few words from the other side, Eric said with a faint sneer, "Amy, do you think it's still ten years now? Back in the days when those agents could just break into the executive offices of film companies... well, if they're really sincere, don't think about splitting the contract, it's still the four-film contract yesterday, $60 million, and it's signed tomorrow morning , I don't care if Pierce really didn't know, even if it was, it was his own mistake, this is the last chance... Pierre Truk? I don't know this person, and I'm not interested, whatever you want Just send him away, I'm going to San Francisco this afternoon, that's all, nothing else, don't call me again."
Kelly watched Eric hang up the phone and casually left the phone aside, and couldn't help reminding: "Eric, Pierre Truk is the spokesperson for MGM's European shareholders."
"I know."
Kelly was stunned for a moment and said, "Then you still..."
"People who don't care, just pretend they don't know," Eric shrugged, looked at Kelly's stunned expression, and sighed infrequently, "Perhaps, everyone now thinks that I'm doing my best. Is it right?"
Kelly noticed the faint loneliness in Eric's expression, and subconsciously shook her head, but then nodded slightly.
Eric just shook his head again and said, "Judging from everything that happened today, you, Amy, and many, many people around you, even the media, are already firmly stuck in Hollywood's existing The rules are shackled. Everyone seems to think that the box office of "Casino Royale" is so good. As the male protagonist, even if Brosnan gets a salary of 100 million US dollars, it seems that he should be paid, but I never think so, and I don't even think so. I think Brosnan is worth the price. The most important thing in Hollywood is actors. Even if I offer a fixed weekly salary in the big studio era to recruit 007, people who want to get this job can go all the way from Malibu to Burbank. So, starting from today, no, it should be from yesterday, I will slowly tell everyone that nothing is taken for granted. If you want to take it for granted, then go back to the big studio era, when everyone They also feel that it is natural for actors to receive a fixed weekly salary.”
Kelly quietly looked at Eric, whose tone was getting firmer and firmer, gradually understood something, and said softly, "But, it's difficult."
"Look," Eric put down the cutlery, and swiped his palm in the air, saying, "Now I have half of Hollywood, and I will definitely own the whole of Hollywood in the future. If that's the case, then there's nothing difficult. ."
...
"Fake, Fake, Fake!" At the caa headquarters, Richard Lovett almost jumped and scolded several times in a row, smashing the mobile phone in his hand on the floor, and the shattered parts splashed everywhere. Taking a deep breath, he roared again, "Peter, get me a new phone."
An assistant nervously pushed open the door and handed over a new mobile phone.
Richard Lovett took the phone, pressed the button a few times, slammed it on the ground again, and yelled at the door: "Peter, you can get out of here, Eric, oh, no, I've been for the rest of my life. I don't want to hear this name again, whoever, you can get out too, is there still a living person, get me a mobile phone with an address book."
After dozens of seconds, just when Richard Lovett couldn't help kicking the office door, the door finally opened again, and a terrified girl pushed open the door, holding a mobile phone in her hand: "Mr. Lovett, here, here."
Richard Lovett grabbed the phone, opened the address book, quickly found a string of numbers, dialed it, his tone dropped a few degrees, and he said with great enthusiasm: "Hey, Terry, it's me... Haha, today I did encounter some troubles, this time is urgent, you must help me, I remember you know Pierre Truk, the director of MGM... Of course, about Pierce's contract with MGM... I know this was decided by Williams himself, but I have to give it a try. I heard that Pierre has come to LA. Can you help me? I want to see each other once he gets off the plane... ...thank you so much, oh, Lina wants to go to the opening party of the Titanic exhibit, no problem, absolutely no problem, I'll have someone send a few tickets to your house this afternoon, that's it. Of course, I still owe you a favor, and I will never forget it in the next life, okay, okay, I will definitely pay it back in this life, haha."
He laughed heartily and hung up the phone. Richard Lovett called David O'Connor, the company's partner, and said in a low voice, "Man, we're in trouble, we don't have time to explain that much now, you What we have to do is to arrange people to contact the various newspapers immediately. In today's evening paper, there must be articles in which Brosnan deliberately claimed to have no knowledge of MGM's remuneration conditions in order to save the contract. The more the better, understand...then That's it, I have to rush to the airport now, and also, guard him, serve him, coax him, and drag the time as long as possible." (To be continued.)