Eric's visit to London this time, in addition to meeting the management of Viking Records, which has just completed the acquisition, is mainly to attend the celebration party for the Spice Girls' first album "Spice".
After six months of warming up with many popular singles, the Spice Girls' first album "Spice" was released in April at the same time as the second generation of Fireflyer, and adopted the strategy of releasing physical records and digital records at the same time.
Some executives of the company were worried that the release of digital records at the same time would affect the sales of physical records, but this did not happen. Since its launch, "Spice" has swept the album sales charts in European and American countries with overwhelming momentum.
It is already the 11th week of the release of the album, however, in the ninth week of its release, the global sales of "Spice" broke through the 20 million copies that made the entire record industry pay attention.
Among them, "Spice" sold 2 million records in the UK in eight weeks, even breaking the record of the fastest sales of 2 million records in the UK created by the Beatles decades ago.
As the world's largest music market in the United States, the sales volume of "Spice" also easily exceeded 10 million, reaching 13.5 million as of last week. In other countries and regions such as France, Germany, Spain, and even RB Korea and Singapore in the Far East, even after more than two months, the sales of "Spice" are still high on their record sales charts.
As the behind-the-scenes driving force behind the creation of the Spice Girls, Eric not only produced the music video for the first single "Wannabe" for the Spice Girls, but also half of the songs in the Spice Girls' first album were provided by Eric. At this time, the Spice Girls had achieved such dazzling achievements that both the media and the executives of Firefly Records undisputedly attributed all the credit to him. The celebration banquet was originally supposed to be held last week, but it was moved to this weekend to match Eric's schedule.
Eric went to the headquarters of Viking Records in the afternoon, and met with all the management of the company under the recommendation of Simon Fuller, who had been promoted to the president of Viking Records. The group's record subsidiary does not have a CEO. Barry Weiss, as the president of Firefly Records, is in charge of all record-related businesses under Firefly, and Simon Fuller is the leader of Viking Records. The group does not intend to give up the brand of Viking Records, but plans to integrate all overseas music business resources into this company. In the future, Virgin Records will be mainly responsible for the business of Firefly Records outside of North America, including Europe, the Far East and even Latin America. The Firefly Records Headquarters will be mainly responsible for the North American market.
The summer sky in London is very long, and the evening party is determined to start at eight o'clock, and the venue is also chosen at the Albert Hotel near Kensington Garden Street. This is not to accommodate Eric, but many high-end hotels in London All concentrated around here.
Because the party started late, Eric had dinner with Simon Fuller in the evening, and then went back to the mansion on Garden Street.
It wasn't until the party was about to start that Eric took Mayer to the nearby Albert Hotel.
Simon Fuller held this party very grandly. In addition to the executives and artists of Viking Records, he also invited a large number of celebrities from all walks of life in the British entertainment industry. A red carpet was specially laid out outside the hotel. It was full of media reporters from the UK and even overseas.
A large number of stars such as the Spice Girls, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz, etc. also set off the star-studded red carpet.
Mayer in Erica's white evening dress got off the car at the end of the red carpet, and the spotlights on both sides immediately flickered crazily.
Although I had been instructed in advance, some people couldn't help asking loudly when they saw Mayer and the reporters on both sides pressed the shutter quickly.
"Mr. Williams, is this lady your new girlfriend?"
"Mr. Williams, may I introduce this lady?"
"Mr. Williams, have you seen "The Matrix 2"?"
"Mr. Williams, may I ask how Firefly intends to handle the dispute with AOL management?"
"Mr. Williams, it is said that "Bond 19" is still in the casting stage. May I ask if this film can catch up with next year's summer release?"
"..."
Eric ignored the questioning voices on both sides, just waved to the surrounding crowd with a smile on his face, and took Mayer into the hotel quickly.
Walking into the party hall with Simon Fuller, who was greeted, and seeing the party guests gathered around like iron nails attracted by a magnet, Mayer couldn't help feeling a little guilty. If she was really Eric's girlfriend, she would Well, even, even if it's just tonight.
However, she knew that she was just a decorative vase next to Eric tonight.
This fact is really frustrating, Mayer even wanted to run away, and at the same time, he couldn't help but feel a little bit of resentment towards Eric. This guy, who is so enthusiastic about other women, and even entangled with his cousin, is completely uninterested in himself, which is really annoying.
Eric had no time to pay attention to the small thoughts of the female assistant. He took the lead in hugging and congratulating the protagonists of tonight's party, the five girls from the Spice Girls Group, and then greeted other guests who came over. .
At the buffet table, Simon Fuller and Eric each took a glass of champagne and raised their glasses to Eric. Simon Fuller said: "Eric, I have carefully considered the singer you mentioned this afternoon. I think the feasibility of the show is very high. However, if it is only held in the UK, the scale is too small, why don't we directly produce it in North America?"
"I will definitely bring this reality show to North America. However, whether it is ABC's "Survivor" or Fox's "Who Will Be a Millionaire", the ratings are not bad. Some other reality shows have also been introduced, so there is no shortage of this type of shows there for the time being," Eric took a sip of champagne and said with a smile: "Besides, I don't want to give up this reality show to NBC Or CBS, so I'm going to do it here in the UK. You can also get enough time to polish the format of the show."
Simon Fuller nodded, and said again: "However, to be honest, this type of music reality show should not be able to create a singer who is too popular, because if we want to take into account the ratings, it is impossible to maintain Absolute fairness, some outstanding players are likely to be eliminated in advance, and these people have firmly established the title of 'loser', and it is not so easy to package them up."
Eric said: "If you pay more attention, you should be able to pick out a few good seedlings in the previous sessions. By the way, this time you'd better pay attention to the songwriting ability of the contestants themselves. When I was choosing the Spice Girls, I I forgot to remind you of this, they have good singing and dancing skills, but their own creative ability is not satisfactory, fortunately, they can now find enough good producers to write songs for them."
Simon Fuller nodded approvingly.
No matter in the past or in the future, all singers or groups who have gained fame in the music industry basically have good music creation ability.
However, with the decline of the entire record industry in the future, singers with outstanding creative abilities will become more and more prominent, because the decline of the industry will definitely lead to shrinking resources, and record companies will rarely organize a team to package those who only have a pair of songs. A singer with a good voice or skin but no creative ability at all.
Eric was chatting with Simon Fuller, glanced around casually, and happened to notice that Barbara Broccoli, the female producer of the 007 series not far away, was looking at him, opposite to Barbara Broccoli Standing was a tall woman in a lavender backless evening gown. Eric didn't recognize who she was, but felt that Barbara Broccoli looked at him with a hint of pleading for help, so he and Simon Fuller greeted, and Eric walked over.
Barbara Broccoli is a standard bachelor. Eric originally thought she was being entangled by Lily, but when he walked in, he realized that the woman standing opposite her was Demi Moore.
Demi Moore noticed the change in Barbara Broccoli's expression, turned around and saw Eric, with a surprise expression on her face, and stretched out her hand: "Oh, Eric, I just said that I want to talk to you You said hello, I just saw you chatting with Mr. Fuller."
Seeing Demi Moore reaching out to him, Eric had no choice but to smile and hug him, feeling that the woman's whole body was unabashedly sticking to him, and he couldn't help feeling sorry for Bruce Willis for three seconds Zhong, the poor old cloth stall has such a daughter-in-law, her hair has turned green several times, but the two of them should be playing with each other now.
"Then, Demi, why are you in London?" Although they were not familiar with each other, they had met a few times at some parties. Although Eric didn't like each other, he didn't act too unfamiliar. After letting go of each other , Eric asked politely.
"I'm shooting a movie in London, called "Notting Hill," Demi Moore pointed to Hugh Grant not far away, and continued: "The actor is Hugh, and it tells a story that happened in Notting Hill. love story."
Eric immediately remembered that Julia had given up the script because of Seagram's acquisition of Polygram and the distribution rights of "Notting Hill" belonged to Universal, but she didn't expect it to end up on Demi Moore.
""Notting Hill", I happen to know the script, it's a very good story," Eric praised politely.
With the success of "Four Weddings and a Funeral", Hugh Grant successfully became a box office star, and because of the changes in history, he successfully avoided the scandal that should have happened. Hugh Grant can be said to be very popular in recent years. Welcome British warm man.
After Julia withdrew, Polygram Pictures seemed to contact Meg Ryan, a veteran Hollywood sweetheart, but Meg Ryan took over the filming of Warner's "Electronic Love Letter". In the end, Demi Moore, who was far less popular than Julia, was chosen as the heroine, probably out of confidence in Hugh Grant's popularity.
Thinking of "Electronic Love Letter", Eric couldn't help feeling a little helpless. "Electronic Love Letter" is a product of the cooperation between Warner and AOL. Obviously, the two sides have already started to argue. Because of the disagreement with Firefly on the development route, AOL did not even mention the "Electronic Love Letter" with Firefly. This incident has also become one of the evidences of the recent media dispute over the investment between AOL and its major shareholder, Firefly.
"I didn't expect it, it was really surprising," Demi Moore was really surprised when he heard that Eric knew the script of "Notting Hill". It's just an ordinary romance movie, but she quickly thought of who she took this opportunity from, and then she was relieved, but she was a little envious of the intimate relationship between Julia Roberts and Eric, and looked at Eric There was a little more eagerness in his eyes: "Eric, can I ask you to dance?" So saying, Demi Moore smiled at Mayer who consciously put a small vase beside Eric , Said: "This lady will definitely not mind if I borrow Eric for a while, right?"
Mayer nodded politely, secretly complaining in her heart, do you mind if it is useful
Eric just smiled and refused, "Sorry, Demi, I have something to talk to Barbara about."
"Oh, it's okay, I can wait for a while." Demi Moore didn't show any disappointment, nor did she give up. She raised her hand and said, "Then let's talk first."
After Demi Moore walked away, Eric asked Barbara, "What happened just now?"
"It's nothing." Barbara Broccoli shook her head and said with a smile, "Isn't "Bond 19" casting a cast recently? She also participated."
Eric nodded, understood something roughly, and said: "Speaking of this, a reporter asked me just now. Looking at the current situation, "Bond 19" may not be able to start this year, right?"
Barbara Broccoli said with a little complaint on her face, "Yeah, you guys made the box office of the last film so high, and now you don't care about it. We are under a lot of pressure."
Eric smiled and retorted: "I didn't ignore it, I have carefully read every version of the script you handed over."
"Bond 19" was originally planned to be released in the summer next year, but after the global explosion of "Casino Royale", facing the great situation of the agent movie universe, everyone in MGM cherished and cautiously, but "Bond 19" "The script of "Bond 19" has been polished by MGM for a whole year. In addition, since the protagonists of the three major series in "Bond 19" will all gather, it took a lot of work to finalize the contracts of the relevant actors.
Judging from the current situation, the release of "Bond 19" may be postponed for a full year. However, for a blockbuster of the size of 007, the production interval has reached three years, which is not a big deal. No one will mess up the newly established reputation of the entire secret agent movie universe in order to catch up with the schedule.