I’m in Hollywood

Culver City, in front of a restaurant near Sony Pictures headquarters.

C+ President Richard Lovett emerges from the restaurant with Bill Michalnick.

Walking to his BMW sedan on the side of the road, Richard Lovett reached out his hand again with a look of regret and gave Bill Michanic a firm shake, as if he felt that this was not sincere enough, and hugged the other side before letting go. , said: Sorry, Bill, although Firefly's behavior is infuriating, I always have to think about my clients.

Bill Michanick nodded understandingly and said, It's okay, I hope we can cooperate in the future.

Richard Lovett affirmed: This is for sure. In fact, if this matter is resolved, you can call me at any time.

The two chatted a few more times, and Richard Lovett got into his car to say goodbye and leave.

Watching the BMW car go away and disappear into the street, Bill Michanic retracted his gaze and turned to the Sony Pictures headquarters not far away, inexplicably having an idea that this film once belonged to the 30-acre studio of Columbia Pictures. The park may be the most valuable thing under Sony Pictures at this time, apart from the film library with thousands of film and television copyrights.

Just now, because Sony Group failed to respond effectively to Firefly Group's ban order after a week, Sony Pictures and c+ had basically agreed on a film The Trap of Heaven, which was announced to fail.

Except for this new Sean Connery film, almost every film and television project under Sony Pictures is now a panic.

What made Bill Michanick feel powerless the most was that after the incident, Sony headquarters not only did not send a high-level executive who could really handle the matter to come to the United States, but instead 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, and at this time he can only try to maintain the basic operations of the company.

Standing on the street for a while, Bill Michanic was just about to slowly walk back to the company. A Chrysler just stopped by the street got off and a young man with a camera on his chest noticed the figure of Bill Michanic. The young man was stunned for a moment, then immediately raised the camera and quickly pressed the shutter here, and then quickly walked over with his companion who had just got off the car on the other side.

Mr. Michanick, we are reporters from The Hollywood Reporter, may I have a few words?

Bill Michanick raised his hand to block the camera and accelerated his steps: Sorry, if you want to interview, you can call my assistant to make an appointment.

We've made an appointment for a week in a row, Mr. Michanic, just a few simple questions, the young man grabbed the recorder from the young girl beside him and also accelerated his pace to chase beside Bill Michanic. Directly asked: Mr. Michanic, I heard that many film crews under Sony Pictures have now been paralyzed. Is this true?

Bill Michanick stepped faster and said, Sorry, no comment.

The reporter was not discouraged at all, and said, Mr. Michanic, why does Mr. Stringer fly to Japan at such a critical moment instead of coming to Los Angeles to deal with this matter?

Bill Michanick's mouth twitched,

He started to trot, and at the same time repeated mechanically: Sorry, no comment.

The reporter chased after him: Mr. Michanic, this incident was caused by the Pirates of the Caribbean script. Will Sony Pictures transfer the script to the Firefly Group to quell the incident?

Bill Michanick was tempted to say, 'Do you think it's over now that the script is out? ’ However, he is well aware that at such a sensitive time, he is better off doing nothing.

All the way into the Sony Pictures headquarters campus, looking at the reporter who was stopped by the security guard, Bill Michanick just breathed a sigh of relief, and his assistant ran over in a hurry, holding a camera in his hand. The mobile phone was handed over: Mr. Michanic, Mr. Nobuyuki Idei's phone number, you just forgot your phone in the office.

Bill Michanick 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 few simple chats, the other party hung up the phone. Bill Michanick 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, he would have submitted his resignation to Sony if he hadn't had some inhuman expectations in his heart.

In just one week, Bill Michanick found that he could do almost nothing, but he had to bear enormous pressure from all sides. Even if the film company is on the verge of bankruptcy due to the failure of the project, the feeling it brings to him is not as bad as it is now.

The assistant brought in a cup of coffee himself, looked at Bill Michanick who was paralyzed on the leather chair, hesitated, but didn't say anything in the end. Just when she wanted to exit the office quietly, Bill Michanick said, Help me find the contact number of Williams' assistant office.

After a week, Nobuyuki Idei, chairman of Sony Group, finally decided to come to the United States to deal with the dispute between Sony and Firefly.

Bill Michanick did have Katzenberg's cell phone number, but he didn't think he had the face to get Eric Williams' personal contact from Katzenberg. At this time, we can only honestly communicate indirectly through the assistant's office of the other party.

...

Although disturbed by the events of the Pirates of the Caribbean script, the filming of Gravity is still proceeding in an orderly manner. It took half an hour at noon to have a meal with Kapoor Sid to catch up with the old days, and Eric soon became involved again. to work.

When Caroline entered the studio, Eric was gathering with several of the main creators to discuss the character movement trajectory and shot scheduling plan of a shot when the heroine Ryan Stone was hit by the second satellite debris.

Jodie Foster was also in the middle of the crowd, holding the large work table tabletop with both hands, listening to Eric demonstrating his thoughts to the crowd with reference to his own shot-splitting drawings. Perhaps it was a woman's special sixth sense, and she was the first to notice Caroline walking over and looking 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 looked back without a trace, but she couldn't help but start to be absent-minded.

Thinking of how she felt when she saw Eric let this girl kiss him last week, Judy couldn't help but glanced at Eric, who was concentrating on explaining the details of the shot schedule, and felt a little inexplicable about her reaction at that time. annoyance.

This guy is a hateful playboy, why should he care about these things.

However, looking at the thick stack of hand-painted drafts of storytelling in front of Eric, Judy suddenly had the idea that it would be nice if she could take it home and collect it.

Although this guy likes to mess around, his painting skills are really good. At least, she doesn't think any of the manuscripts in the stack are better than the works of those puzzling artists. If they were all collected and bound into volumes, there would definitely be a lot of people willing to buy them after they were published.

Watching Eric carelessly add the character's movement trajectory to the draft with a pencil, Judy even had the idea of ​​grabbing the pencil from this guy's hand and throwing it away. What a good draft, what a waste of things. .

After discussing for a few more minutes, Eric said to Nickel, Robert Byron and others: Hey, this shot is roughly like this, give you twenty minutes to prepare, let's test the effect first, and Judy, hello , Judy?

Judy heard Eric suddenly calling herself, and quickly retracted her mind from the trance, and said, What's wrong?

What I just said, Eric said halfway through, reluctantly waving his hands to Nichol and the others, and said, You go to prepare first, Judy is not in a hurry, I will tell her again.

Seeing Jodie Foster's embarrassed expression, everyone spread out laughing, Eric was about to say something, noticed Caroline standing next to him, straightened up and said, Carly, what's the matter?

Caroline nodded, came over and politely said hello to Judy before saying: Eric, Mr. Bill Michanic 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 hold on for another week, Eric smiled, pondered for a moment, looked down to find a blank piece of scratch paper, quickly wrote a long list of numbers on it with a pencil, and handed it to Caroline Said: Leave this to Sony Pictures, and at the same time tell Idei Nobuyuki, if he wants to talk, let's talk.

Caroline took the manuscript paper and took a look at it, carefully put it away, said goodbye to Eric and Judy, and turned to leave the studio.

Judy was at a loss. She just stood beside her when she saw the long list of numbers on the scratch paper.

2,992,500,000.00.

Really long, 2.9925 billion, what does this mean?

Snapped!

There was a sudden snap of fingers in his ears, and when he came back to his senses again, Judy immediately gave Eric a white look.

Eric retracted his hand, looked at Judy's expression, hesitated, and asked, Well, are you feeling uncomfortable these days?

What's wrong? Judy asked subconsciously.

That's right, um, there are a few days a month when you're 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 normal.

Do you enjoy discussing this kind of issue with women?

Of course not, Eric shook his head, and then said: Forget it, I'll tell you the scene just now, don't get distracted.

Judy leaned down with Eric again, and suddenly felt that when he had a strong attitude, the guy in front of him would be very talkative, watching him pick up the pencil and add lines to the split shot, and finally couldn't help saying: Can you? Don't add stuff to these drawings?

Eric was stunned for a moment, put down the pencil in his hand and nodded: Okay, listen to you. Hey, the next set of shots, the action is 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 that this kind of, um, unreasonable feeling seemed to be not bad.

...

Tokyo, Haneda Airport.

Sony Group's private business jet is preparing for takeoff. Howard Stringer and Nobuyuki Idei are waiting in the VIP lounge of the airport with several entourages.

Howard Stringer has been disgraced a week after arriving in Japan from the United States.

After Akio Morita retired, there have been constant disputes within Sony. Not only is there a lack of coordination between various departments, but it has even developed to the extent that they are holding each other back. When such a big thing happened in the United States, Howard Stringer naturally became the target of public criticism, because he was Nobuyuki Idei's confidant. This incident also indirectly caused Nobuyuki Idei to be criticized at the board meeting. The relationship between the two sides As a result, some cracks inevitably appeared.

At this time, although the two sat opposite each other, they did not have much interest in chatting. Idei Nobuyuki held a newspaper in his hand and quietly waited 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, Nobuichi Idei, an assistant who was staying in Tokyo, rushed over in a hurry.

Mr. Idei, a fax has just been sent from Los Angeles, the assistant took out a page of fax paper from his carry-on document bag and bowed respectfully and handed it to Nobuyuki Idei, who was sitting on the sofa, and said, Micha Mr. Nick said on the phone that it was written by Eric Williams himself, and he did not agree to your request for a meeting, and the other party's original words were that the two sides can continue to negotiate if you want.

Nobuyuki Idei took the fax paper handed over by his assistant, looked at the long string of handwritten numbers, thought for a moment, frowned slightly, and silently handed it to Howard Stringer, who looked curious.

Howard Stringer took the fax paper and glanced at it.

2,992,500,000.00.

After a brief period of confusion, Howard Stringer immediately understood and could not help but blurt out: Firefly wants our film company.

2.9925 billion.

This is obviously an offer.

Moreover, it is a very targeted offer.

If you add the $7.5 million that Sony Pictures bought the script for Pirates of the Caribbean, that figure is exactly 3 billion!

Nobuyuki Idei leaned wearily on the sofa, looked at Howard Stringer, who was a little rude, and said slowly: Back then, we spent $5.5 billion to buy Columbia Pictures, of which in addition to the $1.6 billion in debt. Plus, Sony just paid $3.9 billion in cash. Now Firefly is only willing to pay $3 billion to buy the studio back, oh no, $2.9925 billion.”

Howard Stringer twitched the corner of his mouth and said, We must not sell it when we get out of the well.

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, and said, At least, we must not sell Sony Pictures at such a cheap price, we can choose other buyers.