King of Hollywood

"What do you think he's going to do, Crowe?" Adrian asked after Turner left.

"It is more likely to agree to our conditions," Claude said after thinking about it, "Although he still has some countermeasures, they will not work for us. At best, it will cost more money and time." Ted also understands this point, and besides, it is not good for everyone, so he will most likely agree to us in the end. Of course, what you said also played a big role, and it was quite powerful and quite ...arrogant."

"Ted has been in a military academy, and he has an unyielding character in his bones. In addition, he is also full of strong contradictory enterprising spirit. Otherwise, TBS would not have developed to where it is today, so he used a strong posture to promote his own. Achievements can resonate with him more.” Adrian shrugged his shoulders, “However, in my opinion, your praise of CNN and what you revealed was when you chose TBS, which had more prospects for development, instead of losing money. It made him feel more respected and satisfied. I still remember that when we praised CNN's 24-hour non-stop news just now as a great setting, he didn't hide his pride and pride at all."

"Of course, this should be his most valuable idea," Crowder laughed, "but I insist on my opinion, after all, without any facts, a strong stance will only arouse the resentment of his kind of people Speaking of which, I have to sigh, but you have achieved this in three years... You are right, Ed, it is true that what you say will happen, it will happen, it is very amazing.”

"It's the same with you, Crowe, without you, the development of the media would not be so fast, and we will not discuss the acquisition with Ted now," Adrian raised his hands, "Stop lamenting these things, this is just Just the beginning."

After a pause, he said again: "By the way, if Ted agrees to our conditions, how do you plan to arrange him?"

"What do you think?" Claude asked after pondering for a while.

The two looked at each other and said in unison, "Vice President."

Slightly taken aback, the two laughed at the same time.

"To fully control TBS in our hands, Ted must not continue to be TBS." Claude thought so, but Adrian had other thoughts in his mind.

"He is too old," Adrian said. "Although he refuses to admit defeat and still maintains the spirit of going in, some concepts are difficult to change after a long period of accumulation, and the next few years need to be constantly refurbished. era"

Although the starting point of the two is not the same, but the purpose is the same - to facilitate the kick out of Ted Turner, if necessary. This is also normal business practice.

"Internet tide?" Claude looked at Adrian and asked.

"The tide of the Internet." Adrian nodded while sipping his coffee.

Claude didn't speak anymore. He knew that Adrian had always been full of fanatic confidence in the Internet. He not only kept in touch with Stanford, but also paid attention to several college students in mechanical and electrical engineering through Leggett. Interests—Adrian hadn't kept any of that from him.

"By the way, Crowe, I have some suggestions for you about the current prosperity of the film company," Adrian said again at this time, "although it is fine to tell Laverne, but I think you The support may play a greater role.”

Claude made a gesture of please.

"You didn't give a detailed explanation when you talked about this some time ago, but I know that even if the situation is not bad, it is not much better," Adrian said thinking, "so I have been thinking about solutions."

It really wouldn't be much better, if it wasn't for getting on Viacom's board of directors through the acquisition of Paramount, because "Schindler's List" got on the line with some Jewish bigwigs and made a few deals, plus there was father It is hard to say what situation the media will face now.

"As I said to Ted before, I don't understand some things, so I can only think from my point of view, and you have to supplement the rest." Adrian said and gestured, " We're in a situation where the momentum is too high, so just bring it down, and my idea is, release some low-budget independent films on a massive scale."

There was a pause here, and he continued after taking a sip of coffee: "You know, almost all of my first productions were small-budget independent films, so the film company has a good reputation in the independent film circle. Word of mouth, so we can use this word of mouth to release as many low-cost movies as possible. Of course, only a few of them can make money, and most of them can keep their capital. Our upward momentum, at least from the data point of view, has been curbed. As for the losses, the cost of these movies is relatively small, so as long as they can work—such as recovering the cost through video tapes—the losses will not be too big, and they are completely affordable. within the bounds of, and, you know, tax avoidance."

"And there are two advantages to doing this." Seeing what Claude wanted to say, Adrian immediately raised his hand and pressed the button in the air, "First, we can continue to maintain our dominant reputation in the independent film circle, although the large investment Big productions will be the trend, but small productions must not be left out because of this; secondly, there will be high-grossing movies among small productions. Do it."

"This is an idealized state, right?" Claude said after thinking about it.

"Of course, but you have to admit that this is indeed a feasible method." Adrian shrugged, "Don't forget..."

"Yes, I know, we have to supplement the rest." Claude looked at him angrily and funny, "You bastard"

"Then it's settled. If there's nothing else, I'll go." Adrian said and stood up.

"It's only a few minutes away, who are you going to date today?" Claude sighed.

"Kate, she doesn't seem to be in a good mood today, and I've coaxed her on the phone before." Adrian replied with a smile, "I'm considering going on a trip with her for a few days."

"You guy..." Claude shook his head as if he felt that his behavior was very bad, but Adrian immediately teased him in a lazy voice: "Don't tell me, Claude, it was completely you and that day The German models just chatted all night in the hotel, or do you want to say, you and those models are just ordinary friends?"

"That's different, I'm just playing around, and now you..." Claude made a gesture and suddenly closed his mouth. Adrian reached out and nodded half-jokingly and half-warningly, then walked out laughing .

It's still the same, nothing has changed. Claude laughed, adjusted his clothes before going out. No, something has changed, and a lot has changed. After watching Adrian's car leave outside the club, Claude got into his own car and thought so.

Recalling the situation of the past three years, even he who has always been strong-willed can't help feeling like a dream.

"I want to control Hollywood" This is what Adrian said to him at the time. At that time, he just thought it was a joke, but now, they have their own careers and have taken the most solid step towards this goal.

Claude still remembers Adrian's sneer when he asked him "whether he wants to follow his father's plan or have his own business", and pointed to the little lights outside the floor-to-ceiling glass and said "look at those people" The disdain at the time, or the high spirits when describing the prospects of the Internet.

Frankly speaking, there was a time when he was really strange to his best friend. He suddenly woke up and wanted to pull himself together. He completely understood. It's unbelievable that the guy in the world keeps making low-budget, high-grossing movies over and over again.

"I never knew that this kid would have such a talent, maybe it's really a gift from God?" Old Ron Reese once said to Claude in half surprise and half curiosity.

However, this strangeness did not last long. Although Adrian had changed a little in his speech, behavior and living habits, he was still the guy Claude was familiar with, especially when he asked why he could make a movie. He replied embarrassingly: "Because I am a genius."

If he was still at Stanford, Claude would have knocked him to the ground. Of course, it is more likely that he was knocked over. Adrian is very good at fighting.

However, the most important reason is not this. The most important reason is that this guy's sex hunting hobby has basically not changed, but he just went to England and came back with a beautiful chick.

You must know that Adrian was famous for picking up girls when he was in the college fraternity. Every fraternity party brought or took away different girls. Some rotten college life is normal, but there are still rumors that "all the slightly prettier girls at Stanford have slept with Adrian", and they are widely spread.

This is indeed a rumor. As a best friend, Claude knows his movements clearly. Although Adrian likes to pick up girls, he hasn't reached that point yet. However, there is also a basis for the rumors to spread so widely. In a certain AA league game, the University of Washington was a guest at Stanford. The two teams outside played fiercely. He and the cheerleader also fought fiercely in the locker room. The cheerleaders couldn't find the captain for a long time when they performed on stage, so one can imagine how bad the halftime performance was. Fortunately, few people knew the specific situation, and neither Adrian nor the cheerleader named Gia was punished for it.

Of course, Claude didn't think so at first, because the previous Adrian would never bring girls home, so he just thought he wanted to settle down, but this idea appeared in Adrian's mind after Monica After being sidelined and then overthrown, Claude found that his best friend had both changed and remained the same.

Adrian not only brought Kate home, but also maintained a relationship with Monica, and occasionally had a one-night stand outside-although he would not take the initiative to talk about it, but it was just Claude asking, and he would not hide it . In this case, Adrian still maintains the traits of... well... "principled bastard".

The title of "principled bastard" was not given to Adrian by Claude, but a comment from the cheerleader with beautiful blond hair and a good figure. If Adrian hadn't entrusted the student president to help with the AA league incident, Gia might not have been punished, but...

"Since this incident happened because of me, of course I have to take responsibility." At that time, Adrian was not as mature and confident as he is now, and his lazy appearance made him seem quite uninhibited. For young girls Said it was very attractive, so Gia began to undress immediately after expressing her thanks.

Interestingly, this comment was unanimously approved by girls who had a relationship with Adrian, which shows that Adrian's popularity with women is quite good.

"If they do leave, I won't stop them," he says now.

Why the hell am I recalling things like this? Claude, who was driving the car, suddenly laughed out loud. Probably because the most important acquisition case is finally about to be settled. After all, this is an essential part of their blueprint. Anyone who knows that a completely newly established media company can develop to this point within three years will consider it a miracle.

"I'm proud and proud of you, son, for both of you," the father said with seriousness.

If Adrian hadn't encouraged him to start a business together, maybe he is still working hard in his father's company now. Claude sighed in his heart. Adrian has been giving him surprises since 1990, and he also wants to know what kind of surprises will come next. Although his confidence in the Internet is not as strong as Adrian's, after receiving Adrian's support After the impact, I carefully studied it early, and I am still very optimistic about the prospects of the Internet.

"I'm waiting for the Internet tide to come, and I hope it won't disappoint people." Claude muttered, with a slight smile on his face. At this moment, he was inexplicably filled with incomparable confidence: We will continue miraculous

But in the next second, Claude, who looked at the time, turned his attention to other aspects. That German model named Heidi Klum will probably be back in New York tomorrow, and I can make an appointment today to have fun again. As Adrian's best friend, how could he not be interested in women, but he doesn't have a lot of free time like Adrian, so most of the time he just plays with models, and these women are the easiest to get started with.

Compared with Claude, although Adrian is also driving on the road of appointment, what he thinks about is the company's affairs. It took him a long time to find out the method of distributing small-budget or independent films in large quantities in his memory. Lionsgate Films relied on this method to gain a firm foothold in Hollywood and grow stronger by relying on the accumulation of B-grade movies. If Miramax hadn't already had a high reputation in the independent film circle at that time, and Weinstein's seniority in Hollywood, maybe Lionsgate could still compete with them in this regard.

Now it will be better if Bosworth uses this trick. Relying on Adrian's few low-cost independent films, Bosworth has divided Miramax's influence in the independent film circle by at least half. If Lavern operates well, it is inevitable that this influence cannot be further expanded. At the same time, it can also fill the film source library, and the loss can be minimized through the distribution of video tapes, and it can also contain its upward momentum on the surface. Why not do it with one stone?

As for the negative impact of this move, for example, although Lionsgate has occupied a position in the second-tier film companies, Keke has almost become synonymous with B-level movies, and there are hardly any particularly large productions. Don't forget what Adrian does.

"If I had thought about it earlier, the film company should have grown stronger now?" Adrian, who was thinking this way, shook his head, took out his mobile phone and dialed.

This time the negotiation is over, and an important issue has been resolved at the same time, but it will take time for the final result. As for other things, with the arrival of March, there are more and more articles about Oscar previews. Although many people are well aware that "Schindler's List" has advantages that other movies can't match, but In order to show fairness, I still wantonly analyze the pros and cons of other movies.

However, under "Schindler's List", the most likely to get the best film is "The Piano Lesson". Li sighed: When other film companies are struggling with how to get votes for their own films, Bosworth Pictures is worrying about which movie to get votes for. They were like this last year, and they are still like this this year, which is really surprising.

This has pushed Bosworth Films to a higher level invisibly, but Adrian is not worried, it has already reached this point anyway, so why hide it. Besides, the solution has been decided, but it just takes time to implement it - in this, there is no solution that can be effective immediately.

Laverne has been doing PR for Schindler's List at Adrian's beck and call, along with Tom Hanks' Best Actor award. Although Hanks has an advantage in this year's Oscars, he doesn't have an absolute advantage. Needless to say, Liam Neeson, who was nominated at the same time, is the Irishman, who is also nominated for the first time. It can basically be ignored; Anthony Hopkins has already won the best actor once, unless it has been too long or the performance is impeccable, otherwise it is difficult to win again; as for Lawrence Fishburne, Skin color has decided that it is impossible now; so the biggest opponent is Daniel? Day? Louis.

This guy has qualifications and acting skills, and "In the Name of the Father" has also received a lot of praise, which poses a considerable threat to Hanks.