Chapter 971 Have You Thought About What to Do in the Future?

The car stopped outside the Hilton Hotel, and Eric and Elizabeth quickly walked into the hotel under the escort of bodyguards and hotel security guards against the dense spotlight.

As soon as he came to the hotel lobby, Eric heard a warm greeting in his ear: "Eric, I didn't expect you to come here tonight."

Looking at the sound, it was Nicolas Cage who was talking. 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 him as Richard Parsons, one of Hollywood's rare African-American executives, who is currently vice president of Time Warner Group and CEO of Warner Bros. Productions.

Seeing the three of them walking towards this side together, Eric also brought Elizabeth to meet them and greeted them 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, and Eric asked, "So, what were you talking about just now?"

"We've only just arrived," Cage said after a pause, then smiled and didn't speak again, just glanced at Richard Parsons without a trace.

In fact, when Cage, Meg Ryan and the head of Warner Bros. got together at this time, the topic was obvious, and it must be the "City of Angels" in the Easter schedule.

Richard Parsons didn't mean to shy away at all, and smiled heartily: "We were just talking about the company's "City of Angels". Eric, it's a pity that we couldn't communicate with Firefly in terms of movie promotion. Reach a cooperation, but you also know that within Warner, I am not alone in this kind of thing."

"It doesn't matter, there will always be opportunities for cooperation in the future," Eric also showed a regretful expression and shook his head.

After a few more casual chats, Eric walked towards the elevator with Elizabeth.

Richard Parsons, who was staying in the hall on the pretext that he had something to do, took a deep look at the figures of Eric and the two leaving, and then chatted with Cage and Meg Ryan again with a genial smile.

As soon as the elevator door closed, Elizabeth said with some gossip: "Eric, do you think Terry Semel will be able to keep his position as Time Warner CEO after his contract period ends next year?"

Eric also thought about something in a trance. After listening to Elizabeth's words, he shook his head and said, "It's unlikely."

Over the years, within Time Warner, there is a series of veterans headed by Terry Semel left by Steve Ross, the founder of Time Warner Group, and Gerald Levin, the helm of the early Time Company. , Turner Broadcasting Corporation founder Ted Turner is a family, plus a series of heavyweight shareholders introduced during the group's expansion and acquisition process, the entire Time Warner can be described as a lot of hills.

As one of the designated heirs of Steve Ross, Terry Semel still went through 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 these years, and the influence of Steve Ross' legacy is getting weaker and weaker. Terry Semel wants to continue to control Time Warner after this term ends, basically unlikely.

Just after seeing Richard Parsons, Eric vaguely remembered that the name appeared very frequently in news reports during the merger of Time Warner and AOL that shocked the world in his previous life. According to Eric's knowledge of Time Warner now, Richard Parsons should be the backbone of Gerald Levin's line.

Although Eric personally talked to Steve Case several times, he never gave up his ambition to build AOL into an Internet media conglomerate, and Chris is now planning to seize control of AOL.

On the other hand, if AOL wants to acquire Time Warner, a slap will definitely not make a sound, and there must be someone inside Time Warner who will actively promote this merger.

Then, seeing Richard Parsons, combined with the information in memory, Eric can also roughly determine which side of Time Warner's internal support for the merger belongs.

Once Terry Semel steps down, Steve Rose's influence on Time Warner will be completely dissipated.

Then, the Ted Turner clan, who control Time Warner's most lucrative cable business, would be the most powerful group within Time Warner. Although Ted Turner has been in semi-retirement these years and will not personally hold a position of real power within Time Warner, he will certainly be able to support the chairman and CEO of the company if he wants to.

In comparison, the probability of Gerald Levin's family wanting to gain control of Time Warner is very low, so if they are not willing to be subordinated, 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 minority shareholders with voting rights.

Of course, Steve Keys should still be looking for merger targets in private now, and perhaps create some obstacles for him in this regard.

The sound of the elevator door opening brought Eric back to reality from his contemplation. He smiled at the girl beside him. Eric raised his arm and asked Elizabeth to 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 the Levin series within Time Warner.

After all, although it failed to cooperate with Firefly, the root cause was the result of internal struggles at Time Warner. But the hat of decision-making failure must still be placed on the person with the biggest head. Richard Parsons, as the direct person in charge of Warner Bros., is undoubtedly the best person to take the blame.

Of course, in order to achieve this goal, a very important premise is needed, that is, the box office performance of the "Easter Movie Package" of the Firefly system can significantly exceed that of Time Warner's "City of Angels".

Thinking of this, Eric couldn't help but shook his head regretfully. Although the three companies spared no effort to promote the three films, whether it was "Ace of Power 2", "Alien" or "Wedding Singer", Although Eric can't remember the box office data of the three movies, they obviously don't have the potential to be a big hit.

It seems that there is only other way to think of it.

Refused to go to the media area for photos and interviews, Eric took Elizabeth directly into the banquet hall. Eric came relatively late, so the banquet hall was already overcrowded, so there was no way to avoid an entertainment.

However, Eric and Elizabeth were not the hosts either, they just greeted a group of guests who took the initiative to come forward to meet them, and the two walked towards the Weinstein brothers who came up to meet them.

"Eric, let me introduce you to a few people," after greeting, Harvey Weinstein did not forget to touch the needle, and introduced a few people around him to Eric one by one.

Mainly the creator of the two films "The English Patient" and "Good Will Hunting", "The English Patient" director Anthony Minghella, the actor Ralph Fiennes, and the two heroines Kristin Scott. Thomas and Juliette Binoche, as well as good friends of Ma Xiaoben from "Good Will Hunting".

Eric is naturally very familiar with these people, but most of them are only meeting for the first time.

Everyone chatted for a while, and these people were sophisticated, realizing that Eric and Harvey might have something to talk about, and they all quickly dispersed.

When everyone left, Elizabeth also ran to greet a girlfriend who was present. Eric took a sip of the red wine in his hand, and did not rush to chat about ffm TV, 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 has spoken to him about Fox's strategy for Miramax's $50 million budget to develop an art film.

As a businessman in his heart, although he agrees with this idea in his heart, Harvey is still resistant to this decision. After all, Miramax's profit contribution to Fox has accounted for almost half of its film business in recent years. Naturally, there is also the idea of ​​continuing to grow Miramax.

"Robert will act as the director and the male lead, and the female lead has been decided, that is, Christine. The other roles are currently auditioning, and it is expected to start filming in May."

The male and female protagonists have not changed. Thinking of the chance encounter a few days ago, Eric smiled, but he didn't know whether his daughter's role would still be Scarlett Johansson. He didn't intend to get involved in this matter, and immediately chatted with Harvey about the next development strategy of ffm TV.

However, although Eric doesn't plan to get involved in the casting of "Horse Whisperer", he can't always stop things from coming to him.

The next afternoon, Firefly Studios.

Although filming "Iron Man", Eric has never stopped preparing for "Gravity". He and the two protagonists of "Gravity", Jodie Foster and George Clooney during this period of time There is always communication.

In the evening, we are going to attend the Oscars ceremony. It just so happens that this time, the academy asked Jodie Foster and Eric to be the best screenplay presenters. The two met in advance and came to Firefly Studios together in the afternoon. Gravity" studio discusses the details of the film's shooting.

Last year's "Batman and Robin" failed miserably at the box office. George Clooney took this opportunity to appear in "Gravity" very seriously, and he also rushed over when he heard the news.

The three of them were working on the shooting method of the opening long shot in the studio, and Eric saw Melanie come in and say that Miranda Kerr came to the studio with a friend.

Saying hello to Judy and George, Eric left the studio and looked at Miranda Kerr who rushed over and Scarlett Johansson following her, Eric stretched out his hand against the girl's little girl. With a serious expression on his body, he said, "Hey, explain to me first, what day of the week is today, don't you need to go to school?"

"Scarlett is participating in an audition for a movie today, so I will accompany her to ask for leave," Miranda said with a smile, not shy of Eric's pretending to be serious, and wrapped her arms around him. "Besides, don't think I don't know, Drew often skipped school at the beginning, and you didn't care."

Eric shook his head helplessly, he was really not a qualified 'parent', and he didn't have any deep feelings about the child's truancy.

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, talk about it first, come here at this time. What are you doing?"

Miranda Kerr glanced at Scarlett Johansson, who had a restrained expression and pretended to be a good girl, and shook her arm around Eric, saying, "Eric, that's it, can you help Scarlett and Wayne? Say hello from Mr. Stein, she'd love that character from The Horse Whisperer."

Eric frowned and looked at Scarlett Johansson, wondering who brought up this matter: "Who helped you audition and how did it work?"

"Today was an audition by Mr. Weinstein and Mr. Redford themselves, and they, um, said I did a great job."

Eric asked, "What about the others? Who else participated in the audition?"

"Also, I don't know much about others," Scarlett Johansson shook her head and said, "However, one is Kirsten Dunst, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for a 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 prefer Kirsten Dunst, who has better acting skills. In this case, the possibility of Scarlett Johansson trying 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, then leaned back on the leather chair behind the desk and watched playfully as the two girls began to start slowly under his gaze. Ridiculous girl.

Eric has always been very indulgent to the women around him, but this indulgence is definitely not without limits.

Among the women, Eric's favorite is naturally Drew. Although it sounds a bit inappropriate, 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 the Miranda in front of him is obviously not so smart yet. He can give this girl everything she wants, but that doesn't mean he will endure this girl's unrestrained demands.

If he hadn't known Scarlett Johansson before, Miranda would have brought a complete stranger to him this time. As for whether it was being used or not, Eric didn't bother to investigate, but he didn't plan to let it go. Things went on and on.

After tapping his fingers on the table a few times, Eric looked up at Miranda Kerr: "So, you probably have no 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. After listening to him ask, she glanced at Miranda beside her.

Miranda Kerr also felt the strange emotions on Eric, and this time she said very smartly: "Eric, I will do whatever you ask me to do."