The car stopped outside the Hilton Hotel. Facing the intense spotlight, Eric and Elizabeth quickly walked into the hotel under the guard of bodyguards and hotel security.
As soon as he came to the hotel lobby, Eric heard a warm greeting from his ear: "Eric, I really didn't expect you to come."
According to the reputation, it was Nicolas Cage who was speaking. Cage was accompanied by Hollywood actress Meg Ryan and another tall black man. It seemed that the three of them were chatting just now.
As the black man turned around, Eric recognized that the other party was Richard Parsons, one of the few African-American executives in Hollywood, and Richard Parsons is currently the vice president of Time Warner Group. President and CEO of Warner Bros. Productions.
Seeing the three of them walking towards this side together, Eric also took Elizabeth to greet them, and said hello one by one: "Good evening, Nick, Richard, oh, and Ms. Ryan, you are so beautiful tonight."
Except for Cage, who has a good personal relationship, the other two can only be regarded as acquaintances. Elizabeth also greeted the three of them, and Eric asked, "So, what were you talking about just now?"
"We just arrived," Cage said, paused for a moment, then smiled and didn't speak again, just glanced at Richard Parsons indiscriminately.
In fact, Cage, Meg Ryan, and the head of Warner Bros. got together at this time, and the topic was obvious. It must be the "City of Angels" scheduled for Easter.
Richard Parsons didn't show any shyness at all, and said with a hearty smile: "We were just talking about the company's "City of Angels". Reach a cooperation, but you also know that within Warner, this kind of thing is not in my hands."
"It's okay, we will always have a chance to cooperate," Eric also showed a regretful expression and shook his head.
After chatting casually for a few more words, Eric led Elizabeth towards the elevator.
Richard Parsons, who made an excuse that he still had something to do, took a deep look at Eric's leaving figure, and then chatted with Cage and Meg Ryan again with a warm smile.
As soon as the elevator doors closed, Elizabeth said gossipingly, "Eric, do you think Terry Semel will be able to continue to hold the position of Time Warner CEO after his contract expires next year?"
Eric was also thinking about something in a daze. Hearing Elizabeth's words, he shook his head and said, "It's unlikely."
In recent years, within Time Warner, the veterans headed by Terry Semel left behind by the founder of Time Warner Group, Steve Ross, and Gerald Levin, the helm of the early Time Company, were the first. , Ted Turner, the founder of Turner Broadcasting Company, and a series of heavyweight shareholders introduced during the group's expansion and mergers, the entire Time Warner interior can be described as a mountain.
As one of Steve Ross' designated heirs, Terry Semel still experienced a power struggle before he got the throne of chairman and CEO of Time Warner Group. However, Time Warner's performance has been tepid in recent years, and the influence left by Steve Ross has become weaker and weaker. Terry Semel wants to continue to control Time Warner after the end of this term. unlikely.
Just seeing Richard Parsons, Eric vaguely remembered that during the time warner-AOL merger that shocked the world in his previous life, this name appeared very frequently in news reports. According to Eric's understanding of the current Time Warner, Richard Parsons is the backbone of Gerald Levine's line.
Although Eric had personally talked with Steve Case several times, he never gave up his ambition to build AOL into an Internet media group. Chris has now begun to plan to seize the initiative of AOL.
On the other hand, if America Online wants to acquire Time Warner, it will definitely not be able to slap in the face, and there must be someone inside Time Warner who will take the initiative to facilitate this merger. Then, seeing Richard Parsons and combining the information in his memory, Eric can roughly determine which side of Time Warner's internal support for this merger belongs to.
With Terry Semel stepping down, Steve Ross' influence at Time Warner will be completely dissipated.
Then, Ted Turner, who controls Time Warner's most profitable cable TV business, will become the most powerful force within Time Warner. Although Ted Turner has been in a semi-retired state these years and will not personally hold a real power position within Time Warner, as long as he wants to, he can definitely support a company chairman and CEO who is inclined to himself.
In comparison, the possibility of Gerald Levin and his family wanting to gain control of Time Warner is very low, so if they are not willing to be subordinated to others, they can only find another way. Promoting the merger of the two giants, AOL and Time Warner, will undoubtedly expand its influence within Time Warner in a short period of time, thereby gaining the support of a large number of small shareholders with voting rights.
Of course, now Steve Case should still be looking for a merger target in private, perhaps, it can create some obstacles for him in this regard.
The sound of the elevator door opening brought Eric back to reality from his contemplation, and smiled at the girl beside him. Eric raised his arm to let Elizabeth hold him, and walked towards the banquet hall.
This matter definitely needs to be considered in detail.
However, the upcoming Easter may be a good opportunity to attack Time Warner's internal Levin family.
After all, although it failed to cooperate with Firefly, the root cause was the result of Time Warner's internal struggle. But the hat of decision-making failure must still be pinned on the person with the biggest head. As the direct person in charge of Warner Bros., Richard Parsons is undoubtedly the best candidate to take the blame.
Of course, to achieve this goal, a very important prerequisite is needed, that is, the box office performance of Firefly's "Easter Movie Package" can significantly exceed that of Time Warner's "City of Angels".
Thinking of this, Eric couldn't help shaking his head regretfully. Although the three companies have spared no effort in promoting the three films, whether it is "Ace Powers 2", "Alien" or "The Wedding Singer", Although Eric doesn't remember the box office data of the three movies, they obviously don't have the potential to explode.
It seems that I can only think of other ways.
Refused to go to the media area to accept photos and interviews, Eric took Elizabeth directly into the banquet hall. The two of Eric came relatively late, so the banquet hall is already full of people, so a party is inevitable.
However, Eric and Elizabeth were not the hosts. They just greeted a group of guests who took the initiative to meet each other, and they walked towards the Weinstein brothers who came up.
"Eric, let me introduce you to a few people," said hello, and Harvey Weinstein did not forget to see the needles, and introduced several people around him to Eric one by one.
It is mainly the main creators of the two films "The English Patient" and "The Good Will Hunting", the director of "The English Patient" Anthony Minghella, the leading actor Ralph Fiennes, and the two leading actresses Kristen Scott. Thomas and Juliette Binoche, and good friend Ma Da Ben from "Good Will Hunting".
Eric is naturally very familiar with these people, but most of them are just meeting for the first time.
Everyone chatted for a while, and these people were naturally sophisticated. Realizing that Eric and Harvey might have business to discuss, they all quickly dispersed.
After everyone left, Elizabeth also ran to say hello to a girlfriend who was present. Eric took a sip of the red wine in his hand, and he was not in a hurry to chat about the FFM TV station. He asked casually: "Harvey, "The Horse Whisperer" How's the preparation going?"
Hearing Eric bring up this topic, Harvey's expression was somewhat strange.
Elizabeth had already spoken to him about Fox's policy of keeping Miramax from developing arthouse films with a $50 million budget.
As a businessman in his heart, although he also agrees with this idea in his heart, Harvey still has some resistance to this decision. After all, Miramax’s contribution to Fox’s profits in recent years has accounted for almost half of its film business. Naturally, there is also the idea of continuing to develop Miramax.
"Robert himself is the director and the lead actor. Also, the lead actress has already been decided, which is Christine just now. The other roles are currently undergoing auditions, and the filming is expected to start in May."
The male and female protagonists have not changed. Thinking of the encounter a few days ago, Eric smiled, but he didn't know if the role of his daughter would still be Scarlett Johansson. He didn't intend to get involved in this matter, and then chatted with Harvey about the next development strategy of FFM TV station.
However, although Eric didn't intend to get involved in the casting of "The Horse Whisperer", he couldn't stop things from coming to him.
In the afternoon of the second day, Firefly Studios.
Although he was filming "Iron Man", Eric has never stopped preparing for "Gravity". He and the two protagonists of "Gravity" Jodie Foster and George Clooney In fact, there has always been communication.
In the evening, we will attend the Oscar Awards Ceremony. Coincidentally, this time, the Academy asked Jodie Foster and Eric to be the award presenters for the best screenplay. Gravity" studio to discuss the shooting details of the film.
Last year's "Batman and Robin" failed badly at the box office. George Clooney attached great importance to this opportunity to participate in "Gravity" and rushed over when he heard the news.
The three of them were studying the shooting technique of the opening long shot in the studio, when Eric saw Melanie come in and say that Miranda Kerr brought a friend to Firefly Studios.
Greeted Judy and George, Eric left the studio, looked at Miranda Kerr who was rushing towards her and Scarlett Johansson who was following her, Eric reached out to touch the little girl Body, with a serious expression, said: "Hey, explain to me first, what day is today, don't you need to go to school?"
"Scarlett is auditioning for a movie today, so I'll take leave with her." Miranda was not afraid of Eric's serious expression, wrapped his arms around his arm, and said with a smile: "Also, don't think I don't know, Drew often played truant from school back then, and you didn't care about it."
Eric shook his head helplessly. He was really not a qualified 'parent', and he didn't have any deep feelings about children playing truant.
Without bringing the two girls into the "Gravity" studio, Eric pointed to the direction of the administrative district, walked towards his office in the studio, and said, "Come with me, let's talk first, come here at this time What are you doing?"
Miranda Kerr glanced at Scarlett Johansson, who was pretending to be a good girl with a restrained expression, and shook Eric's arm, saying, "Eric, it's like this, can you help Scarlett and Wayne?" Stein says hello, she'd love that part of The Horse Whisperer."
Eric frowned, and looked at Scarlett Johansson, not knowing who proposed this matter: "Who helped you audition, and how was the effect?"
"Today was the audition conducted by Mr. Weinstein and Mr. Redford, and they, um, said I did a great job."
Eric pressed, "What about the others, who else auditioned?"
"Also, I don't know much about others," Scarlett Johansson shook her head and said, "However, one is Kirsten Dunst, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Supporting Actress a few years ago. "
Eric nodded and had a general understanding of the situation.
According to Harvey's production ideas, he will obviously be more inclined to Kirsten Dunst, who has better acting skills. In this case, the possibility of Scarlett Johansson wanting to get this role is very low.
Eric didn't say anything else, he brought the two girls to his office, asked the secretary to make a few cups of coffee, and then leaned on the leather chair behind the desk, watching playfully the two girls on the opposite side gradually started Prudish girl.
Eric has always been very indulgent to the women around him, but this kind of indulgence is definitely not without a bottom line.
Among the women, Eric's favorite is naturally Drew. Although it is a bit inappropriate to say it, he basically treats this girl as a daughter. Fortunately, the girl is smart enough to know what to do and what not to do. But Miranda in front of him is obviously not so smart yet. He can give this girl everything she wants, but it doesn't mean that he will endure this girl's unrestrained wanting.
If he hadn't known Scarlett Johansson before, Miranda would have brought a complete stranger in front of him this time. As for whether he was being used, Eric didn't bother to get to the bottom of it, but he didn't intend to let these Things continued to develop.
After tapping his fingers on the table a few times, Eric looked up at Miranda Kerr: "So, you probably don't have much interest in going to school now, have you thought about what to do in the future?"
Scarlett Johansson has been paying attention to Eric's expression. Hearing his question, she secretly glanced at Miranda beside her.
Miranda Kerr also felt the strange emotions in Eric, but this time she said very smartly: "Eric, I will do whatever you ask me to do." (To be continued.)