"It's very interesting. Large groups such as AT-T and Exxon Mobil have more than half of the market share in their industries. They are safe and sound, but now some people want the Department of Justice to come to trouble us."
In the banquet hall on the big ship, Eric said this with a half-smile in the face of Bill Michanik's concerns about recent media comments.
"The two corporate giants AT-T and ExxonMobil are different from us," Bill Michanik said in a meaningful tone, "Eric, I think you should make some preparations in advance."
Bill Michanik didn't point out some things, but Eric understood and nodded seriously: "I understand."
Although AT-T and Exxon Mobil have more than half of the market share in their respective industries, they are both publicly held companies. Coupled with their market value of hundreds of billions of dollars, the interests of the two companies are almost equivalent to the entire For the interests of the United States, the federal elite holds the control of the two companies, and the common people share the profits created by these large groups through insurance funds and retirement funds. When everyone's interests are equal, as long as these large groups do not perform too much , Naturally, no one will jump out to make trouble.
In contrast, the firefly system is firmly in the hands of Eric himself, whether it is control or controlling rights.
Although many companies in the system are also listed companies, compared with other public-owned corporate giants in the Federation, the companies in the Firefly system appear to be too concentrated in terms of power and interests.
In this case, it is impossible to keep others from being jealous.
Except for the Hollywood media industry, most of the assets of the Firefly system are distributed in the new technology field. Since new technology companies are basically emerging industries, they will not touch too many interests of the original social classes. However, with the scale of the Firefly system As it grows larger and larger, some people will naturally feel that these industries should have a share of their own. Once more and more people have these ideas, troubles for the Firefly system will follow.
Eric has never ignored this problem, but, to be honest, he has no experience in dealing with this kind of thing, perhaps, there is no one in this world who has experience in dealing with this kind of thing, so he can only be careful Take your time.
Watching Bill Michanik walk away, Eric's recognition of him increased a bit. After all, being able to raise such sensitive concerns in front of his own face, Bill Michanik must have begun to integrate himself into the Firefly system.
Picking up the champagne in his hand and taking a sip, Eric looked around.
Since "Fast and Furious" has achieved success, the celebration banquet is naturally a must.
Just after the new year, several companies joined forces to hold this party as a big gathering of the Hollywood firefly system. The executives of Firefly, MGM, Fox, and Columbia, as well as the producers, directors, and stars who have made good friends with the four companies all gathered together.
Looking around for a week, Eric found Caroline and Mayer who were chatting softly together at the buffet table not far away, and beckoned to the two women.
Today is January 16th, Caroline returned to Los Angeles last week, and the girl's foot injury has already healed.
Noticing Eric's gesture, Caroline and Mayer came over together. The two women were holding a small plate in their hands. When they approached, Caroline asked, "Eric, what's the matter?" something?"
Eric held the wine glass in one hand and put the other in his trousers pocket. After hesitating for a moment, he shook his head, with a smile on his face, and said, "It's nothing, just remind you two not to eat too much, and be careful not to gain weight."
Gaining weight is almost the natural enemy of all girls. Caroline shrank her neck immediately, and excused herself embarrassedly: "I didn't eat a lot."
Eric raised the wine glass in his hand and said, "Hey, since this is the case, let's go play, by the way, you are not allowed to seduce boys, even talking."
Caroline naturally took this sentence as Eric's 'warning' to her alone, and glanced at Mayer beside her with a red face, and whispered: "Eric, you are really domineering .”
After saying this, the girl didn't intend to pay attention to Eric, and pulled Mayer to go elsewhere.
Although I felt that Eric was hesitant to speak just now, the boss didn't say anything, and Mayer didn't ask any more questions. He just turned his head and looked at Eric again when he was pulled away by Caroline.
After sending away the two female assistants, Eric entertained the guests who came over to say hello to him from time to time, and went all the way to the main deck of the lower deck of the big ship to find the girls and others.
The girl felt a hand around her waist, and didn't care about the other guests around her. She turned her head and kissed Eric, and asked, "Eric, what does Bill want from you?"
"Nothing," Eric shook his head, and greeted Amy Pascal, Tina Fey, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kate Hudson with a smile: "Hi, Amy, Greg Wen, Kate, oh, and Tina, long time no see."
Tina Fey raised her glass to Eric somewhat restrainedly: "Long time no see, Eric."
At the beginning, she worked as a girl's personal assistant for a while. With the integration of MGM, Tina Fey was assigned to the script editing department of MGM as the supervisor.
Thinking about it carefully, the current MGM is a bit like a gang of Hollywood girls.
Greeting around, Eric found that there was an unfamiliar face among the women. Although he thought he had seen it somewhere, he couldn't call out his name for a while.
The tall girl in a black suspender dress noticed Eric looking at her, and said hello, "Mr. Williams, hello, my name is Mira Sorvino."
"Hello," Eric just remembered, and said with a smile, "You played Woody's "Non-Powerful Aphrodisiac", right?"
In fact, the first thing Eric thought of was the film "Kiss of the Dragon" that Mira Sorvino and Jeter Lee collaborated with. It seems that the other party has also collaborated with Fa Ge, but none of these films have appeared yet.
Mira Sorvino nodded with a smile.
The girl held Eric's arm, and suddenly said with great interest: "Mila is a top student in Harvard's Department of East Asian Languages and Literature, and she can also speak Chinese."
"Really?" Eric was also a little surprised, but maybe this is one of the reasons why the other party was able to cooperate with the two Chinese superstars. With a smile on his face, Eric looked at Mira and said, "Hey, let me test you, and listen to a Chinese idiom that is more suitable for the current situation."
Mira Sorvino's eyes flashed, and suddenly there was a little cunning in her expression, and she uttered four words in correct Mandarin: "Playing the piano with a cow."
Eric didn't expect the mandarin of the other party to be so standard. He was surprised again, and then gave a thumbs up with a smile, and also said in Chinese: "Incisive."
However, after saying these two words, Eric realized that after many years, his Chinese accent had obviously become very blunt, and he couldn't help but feel a little sad.
On the opposite side, when Mira Sorvino said the idiom just now, she actually felt a little regretful in her heart.
During college, she worked as an exchange student in Beijing on the other side of the ocean for a year, so she was able to speak very standard Mandarin. It's just that the idiom "playing the piano to a cow" is definitely not a good thing to say. What Drew just meant, obviously Eric Williams should also know some Chinese. If the other party can understand the meaning of this word and think that he is laughing at him, it will be bad.
Seeing the other party's reaction, Eric Williams really understood Chinese, but she was relieved because she was not angry.
Hearing Eric praise herself in Chinese, Mira was also a little surprised. However, thinking about the other party's blunt accent, she felt that maybe Eric Williams didn't understand the meaning of the idiom she just said, but Seems to understand, but does not know how to pretend to understand.
Well, it sure is.
Thinking of this, Mira couldn't help feeling a little superior.
The two people in the conversation had different thoughts, but the others all looked curious, and the girl asked directly: "Eric, what do you mean?"
"Uh, playing the piano with a cow." Eric smiled, looking at Mira Sorvino's serious expression on the opposite side, and said, "Mira, why don't you come and explain to everyone."
Mira Sorvino didn't expect that there would be a follow-up, so she glanced around guiltily.
Play the piano to the cow.
Although she is also from the second generation of Hollywood, her family is far less prominent than that of Gwyneth Paltrow or Kate Hudson.
Among the people around, even if it was Tina Fey, she didn't dare to 'play' casually.
"This," Mira gestured unconsciously with the right hand holding the champagne. After a moment of hesitation, she said, "Playing the piano with a cow, that is, everyone stands together and chats, and they are very happy with each other, um, that's it."
The women around were all smart people. Seeing Mira stuttering, they all realized that she was talking nonsense, and looked at Eric together.
Eric ignored the eyes of several women, looked at Mira with a guilty face, changed to Chinese again, and said with a smile: "Are you cocooning yourself?"
"ah?!"
Mira's eyes widened, and the little sense of superiority she had just now had disappeared. She didn't think that since Eric could say the idiom "bound in a cocoon", he would not understand what it meant to play the piano with a cow.
After Eric finished speaking, he looked at Mira who was stunned, and took the initiative to help change the subject, saying: "Okay, don't mention this, what were you talking about just now?"
At this time, everyone obviously realized that Mira Sorvino's idiom just now was not a good word, but since Eric didn't pursue it and took the initiative to change the topic, everyone naturally wouldn't pursue it anymore.
Amy Pascal said: "It's nothing, we are discussing whether to go to New York for Fashion Week next month."
Eric immediately made a look of complete disinterest, and said, "Oh, in that case, let's change the subject."
Everyone suddenly laughed lightly.
Gwyneth said: "Eric, I heard that "Iron Man" will announce the Super Bowl trailer soon?"
Eric looked at the former 'Little Pepper' and nodded with a smile: "Yeah, remember to watch it then, maybe you will think it is good."
After everyone chatted for a while, Kenneth Horn, CEO of New Line Films, and Bill Michanik, who had just left, walked over together again.
Knowing that the two of them might have something serious to discuss with him, Eric nodded to the women, and left with them, asking at the same time, "What's the matter?"
Kenneth Horn didn't speak immediately, and the three of them went all the way to the internal restaurant on the big ship. Eric asked Amy Adams, who was on duty tonight, to bring everyone a pot of coffee. The three sat down in the quiet restaurant, and Kenneth Horn handed Eric a file bag he was carrying with him, and said, "Eric, this is Adam Sandler's new project script."
Eric took the file bag, took out the script and roughly flipped through it.
This is a script called "Dad Going Forward", which still continues Adam Sandler's personal style, but there are a few more father-son elements in the content.
At this time, Adam Sandler's "Tea Boy", which was released at the end of the year, also had a North American box office of over 100 million. Including "The Wedding Singer", which was scheduled for Easter last year, Adam Sandler already had two North American box office breaks. billion videos.
Although the overseas box office of the two films was bleak due to personal acting style and popularity restrictions from the TV industry, this did not prevent Adam Sandler from successfully becoming a top Hollywood superstar. After all, compared to an average of 20 million Dollar-in-dollar, his films have far better returns on investment than most blockbusters.
After watching for a while, Eric put down the script in his hand and asked, "So, what's the situation now?"
Kenneth Horn said: "In the second week of the release of "Tea Boy", Adam passed the script to me. However, you know, New Line only signed two film contracts with him at the beginning, "Tea Boy", With The Wedding Singer, he's already done with the contract."
Although he was still new to the film industry, Adam Sandler was already a very popular TV star, so he was only willing to sign a two-part option contract with New Line.
Eric nodded and said, "And then?"
Kenneth Horn said: "I offered him $15 million for the movie, and Adam turned it down, and he didn't contact me for weeks afterwards."
Eric thought for a while, smiled and looked at Bill Michanik who was sitting next to him, and said, "So, he found Columbia?"
Bill Michanik shook his head, nodded again, and said: "Yes and no, Adam did not contact us directly, but an independent production company called 'Sudden Entertainment', they got the license for Adam's new film Production rights, I hope Columbia can act as an agent for distribution."
Hearing Bill Michanik's words, Eric suddenly remembered many years ago, like a reincarnation.
At the beginning, after completing "Home Alone" alone, the publisher Eric found was also Columbia, and the person who made the match was Amy Pascal.
Unexpectedly, after so many years, Adam Sandler, who immediately wanted to go it alone after becoming famous, also found Columbia again.
However, the current situation is completely different from that of the past. The owner of Colombia at this time is already the young man who boldly negotiated the gambling contract with them.
However, Eric was not surprised when the other party came to Columbia.
Of the seven major Hollywood film companies, only Columbia is the weakest and has the greatest demand for high-quality projects and filmmakers. Columbia is clearly the most likely to accept their offer than any other studio.
Thinking of this in his heart, Eric said with some unclear smiles on his face, "So, what are their terms of cooperation?"