The entrance of a restaurant near Sony Pictures headquarters in Culver City.
CAA President Richard Lovett emerges from the restaurant with Bill Michanik.
Walking to his BMW car on the side of the road, Richard Lovett reached out his hand and shook hands with Bill Michanik again with regret on his face. He seemed to feel that this was not sincere enough, so he took advantage of the situation and hugged him before letting go , said: "I'm sorry, Bill, although Firefly's behavior makes people angry, but I always have to think about my customers."
Bill Michanik nodded understandingly, and said, "It's okay, I hope we can cooperate in the future."
Richard Lovett expressed affirmation: "This is for sure. In fact, if this matter is resolved, you can call me at any time."
The two chatted a few more words, and Richard Lovett got into his car to bid farewell and leave.
Watching the BMW sedan go away and disappear into the street, Bill Michanik looked back and turned to the Sony Pictures headquarters not far away, inexplicably came up with an idea that this 30-acre studio that once belonged to Columbia Pictures The park may be the most valuable thing under Sony Pictures at this time, except for the film library with thousands of film and television copyrights.
Just now, because Sony Group failed to respond effectively to Firefly Group's banning order after a week, the film "The Trap of Stealing the Sky" that Sony Pictures and CAA had basically agreed to fell through.
Except for this Sean Connery's new film, almost all the film and television projects under Sony Pictures are now in a state of panic.
What made Bill Michanik feel powerless the most was that after the incident broke out, instead of sending high-level executives who could really handle the incident to the United States, Sony headquarters called Howard Stringer to Japan to report the situation. However, he, the vice chairman of Sony Pictures and the CEO of Columbia Pictures, has not been given much real power. At this time, he can only try his best to maintain the basic operations of the company.
Standing on the side of the street for a while, Bill Michanik was just about to slowly walk back to the company. A young man with a camera hanging on his chest got off a Chrysler that had just stopped on the street. He noticed Bill Michanik, The young man was stunned for a moment, then immediately raised the camera and quickly pressed the shutter in this direction, and then walked over quickly with his companion who had just got off the car on the other side.
"Mr. Michanik, we are reporters from The Hollywood Reporter, may I have a chat?"
Bill Michanik raised his hand to block the camera, and quickened his pace: "Sorry, if you want to interview, you can call my assistant to make an appointment."
"We have made an appointment for a week in a row, Mr. Michanik, just a few simple questions," the young man snatched the recording pen from the young girl next to him and quickly followed Bill Michanik, He asked directly: "Mr. Michanik, I heard that many film crews under Sony Pictures are now paralyzed. Is this true?"
Bill Michanik stepped faster and said, "Sorry, no comment."
The reporter was not discouraged at all, and said, "Mr. Michanik, why did Mr. Stringer fly to Japan at such a critical moment instead of rushing to Los Angeles to deal with this matter?"
The corner of Bill Michanik's mouth twitched, and he began to trot, while repeating mechanically: "Sorry, no comment."
The reporter chased after him: "Mr. Michanik, this incident was caused by the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean". May I ask if Sony Pictures will transfer the script to Firefly Group to calm the incident?"
Bill Michanik was tempted to say, 'Do you think it's okay to let the script out now? 'However, he knew very well that in such a sensitive moment, he had better do nothing.
All the way into the Sony Pictures headquarters park in a bit of embarrassment, looking at the reporters who were stopped by the security guards, Bill Michanik had just breathed a sigh of relief when his assistant hurried over, holding a The mobile phone was handed over: "Mr. Michanik, Mr. Idei Nobuyuki's phone number, you just forgot your phone in the office."
Bill Michanik took the phone and said as he walked towards the office building: "Mr. Idei, hello... The situation here is a bit bad, but I will try my best to deal with it... Well, I will do it now, then, goodbye. "
After a brief chat, the other party hung up the phone, and Bill Michanik walked all the way into his office with the phone in his hand, sat down on the leather chair, and relaxed a little.
In all fairness, if it weren't for some inhumane expectations in his heart, he would have submitted his resignation to Sony by now.
In just one week, Bill Michanik found that he could hardly do anything, but he had to bear tremendous pressure from all sides. Even if the film company was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the failure of the project, he didn't feel as bad as he did now.
The assistant personally brought in a cup of coffee, looked at Bill Michanik who was slumped on the leather chair, hesitated to speak, but finally said nothing. Just when she was about to leave the office quietly, Bill Michanik said, "Help me find the contact number of Assistant Williams' office."
After a week, Nobuyuki Idei, chairman of the Sony Group, finally decided to come to the United States to deal with the dispute between Sony and Firefly. The call just now was to ask Michanik to make an appointment for him to meet with Eric Williams.
Bill Michanik did have Katzenberg's cell phone number, but he didn't think he had the face to ask Katzenberg for Eric Williams' personal contact information. At this time, the only way to be honest is to contact indirectly through the other party's assistant office.
…
Although disturbed by the "Pirates of the Caribbean" script incident, the filming of "Gravity" is still going on in an orderly manner. It took half an hour at noon to have dinner with Kapoor Sheed, and Eric soon invested in it again. to work.
When Caroline entered the studio, Eric was gathering with several main creators to discuss the character movement trajectory and lens scheduling plan of a shot when the heroine Ryan Stone was hit by the second satellite debris.
Jodie Foster also leaned in among the crowd, holding the large workbench with both hands, listening to Eric demonstrate his thoughts to the crowd with reference to the storyboard sketches drawn by himself. Perhaps it was a woman's special sixth sense, she was the first to notice Caroline approaching, and looked up at the girl.
Caroline smiled politely at Judy, held a folder in front of her and stood quietly beside her, not intending to disturb Eric's discussion with everyone.
Judy also nodded to Caroline, and then looked back indistinctly, but couldn't help but began to be a little absent-minded.
Thinking of how she felt when she saw Eric let the girl kiss him last week, Judy couldn't help but cast a sideways glance at Eric, who was concentrating on explaining the details of camera scheduling, feeling a little inexplicable about her reaction at that time annoyed.
This guy is a hateful playboy, why should he care about these things.
However, looking at the thick stack of hand-painted shot drafts in front of Eric, Judy suddenly had an idea that it would be great if he could take it home and collect it.
Although this guy likes to mess around, his painting skills are really good. At least, she thinks that none of the manuscripts in that pile of manuscripts are better than the works of those confusing artists. If they are all collected and bound into a volume, there will definitely be many people willing to buy them after they are published.
Watching Eric take a pencil to add the character's movement trajectory lines on the draft of the shot, Judy even had the idea of grabbing the pencil from this guy's hand and throwing it away. What a good drawing, what a waste of things .
After discussing for a few more minutes, Eric said to Nicole, Robert Byron and others: "Hey, this shot is roughly like this, I will give you 20 minutes to prepare, let's test the effect first, and Judy, hello , Judy?"
When Judy heard Eric calling herself suddenly, she quickly withdrew from her trance and said, "What's wrong?"
"What I just said," Eric said halfway, waved helplessly at Nicole and the others, and said, "Go and prepare first. Judy is not in a hurry. I'll tell her again."
Seeing Jodie Foster's embarrassing expression, everyone dispersed happily. Eric was about to say something when he noticed Caroline standing beside him, straightened up and said, "Carly, what's the matter? "
Caroline nodded, walked over and said hello to Judy politely, and then said: "Eric, Mr. Bill Michanik from Sony Pictures just called. Mr. Nobuyuki Idei will come to Los Angeles tomorrow. He I want to make an appointment with you to talk."
"I thought Sony could last another week," Eric smiled, pondered for a moment, then lowered his head to find a piece of blank scratch paper, quickly wrote a long string of numbers on it with a pencil, and handed it to Caroline Said: "Give this to Sony Pictures, and tell Nobuyuki Idei at the same time, if he is willing to talk, then we can talk."
Caroline took a look at the manuscript paper and carefully put it away, said goodbye to Eric and Judy, turned and left the studio.
Judy was at a loss. She had just stood by the side when she saw the long string of numbers on the draft paper.
2,992,500,000.00.
It's really long, 2.9925 billion, what does this mean
Snapped!
Suddenly there was a snap of fingers, and Judy came back to her senses again, and immediately gave Eric a white look.
Eric withdrew his hand, looked at Judy's expression, hesitated for a while, and asked, "Well, are you feeling unwell these days?"
"What's wrong?" Judy asked subconsciously.
"That's right, um, there are a few days in every month, it seems that you are always absent-minded?"
Judy understood, and glared at Eric: "Of course not."
"Okay, but why are you so excited, you are a woman, this kind of thing is actually quite normal."
"Do you enjoy discussing such matters with women?"
"Of course not," Eric shook his head, and then said, "Forget it, let me tell you about the scene just now, don't get distracted."
Judy bent down with Eric again, and suddenly felt that when he had a strong attitude, the guy in front of him would be very talkative. Seeing him pick up the pencil and add lines to the sketch of the shot, he finally couldn't help but said: "Can you Don't add anything to these sketches?"
Eric froze for a moment, put down the pencil in his hand and nodded: "Okay, listen to you. Now, the next set of shots, the movements are not difficult, but I need you to pay attention to your emotional expression..."
Judy listened carefully, the corners of her mouth were slightly raised, the corners of her eyes were curved, and she suddenly felt in her heart that this kind of, um, unreasonable feeling seemed to be pretty good.
…
Tokyo, Haneda Airport.
The Sony Group's private business jet was preparing for takeoff. Howard Stringer, Nobuyuki Idei and several entourages were waiting in the VIP lounge of the airport.
Coming to Japan from the United States for a week, Howard Stringer can be described as disheartened.
After Akio Morita retired, there were constant disputes within Sony. Not only was there a lack of coordination among various departments, but it had even developed to the point where they held each other back. Howard Stringer naturally became the target of public criticism because of such a big incident in the United States, because he is a confidant of Nobuyuki Idei. This incident also indirectly caused Nobuyuki Idei to be criticized at the board meeting. As a result, some cracks inevitably appeared.
At this time, although the two were sitting opposite each other, they were not interested in chatting much. Nobuyuki Idei held a newspaper in his hand and waited quietly for the plane to take off.
Just when Howard Stringer wanted to ask the entourage again how long it would take for the private jet to be ready, an assistant of Nobuichi Idei who stayed in Tokyo hurried over.
"Mr. Idei, a fax has just been sent from Los Angeles." The assistant took out a page of fax paper from his carry-on bag, bent down respectfully and handed it to Nobuyuki Idei who was sitting on the sofa, and said, "Micha Mr. Nick said on the phone that this was written by Eric Williams himself, and that he himself did not agree to your request for a meeting, and the original words of the other party were that the two sides can continue to discuss if you are willing."
Nobuyuki Idei took the fax paper handed over by his assistant, looked at the long string of handwritten numbers on it, thought for a moment, frowned slightly, and silently handed it to Howard Stringer who was opposite him with a curious expression.
Howard Stringer took the fax paper and glanced at it.
2,992,500,000.00.
After a short period of confusion, Howard Stringer immediately understood, and blurted out: "Firefly wants our film company."
2.9925 billion.
This is clearly an offer.
Moreover, it is still a well-targeted offer.
If you add the $7.5 million that Sony Pictures bought the script of "Pirates of the Caribbean", this number is exactly 3 billion!
Nobuyuki Idei leaned on the sofa with a tired expression, looked at Howard Stringer who was a little lost, and said slowly: "Back then, we spent 5.5 billion US dollars to buy Columbia Pictures, of which, in addition to the 1.6 billion US dollars in debt In addition, Sony only paid $3.9 billion in cash. Now, Firefly is only willing to pay $3 billion and wants to buy the film company back, oh no, it’s $2.9925 billion.”
Howard Stringer twitched the corner of his mouth and said, "Idei, we absolutely cannot sell it."
Nobuyuki Idei's expression was also a little sad, and he said, "Howard, do you think we still have a choice now?"
"At least," Howard Stringer hesitated, "at least, we can't sell Sony Pictures at such a cheap price, we can choose other buyers."