I am Hollywood

[Chapter 553: The Headache Situation]

Maybe it was because Eric had too many movies rolling around in his head, but his dreams always seemed a bit surreal. Just as he began to wake up, he found himself mixed up in Resident Evil, unsure of who he was, but aware that he was cautiously moving through a devastated hall with companions. Suddenly, a drop of warm, mysterious liquid fell on his face. He looked up just in time to see a gruesome tongue reaching for him out of the dim light, and that was enough to wake him up in a panic.

Opening his eyes, he spotted Drew grinning as she lay beside him, fully dressed and annoyingly cheerful for someone who'd gotten up earlier than him. Eric wasn't surprised; after all, he had traveled halfway around the Earth, and his biological clock was all out of whack -- he estimated it would be a while before it reset.

Remembering the unsettling dream, Eric touched his cheek and asked, "Kiddo, you didn't play any pranks on my face, did you?"

"Of course not," Drew replied with an expression that clearly said, "Do you think I'm still a little kid?" Then, she added somewhat playfully, "I just licked it a bit."

"Well, at least I'm not losing any skin," Eric thought in a moment of resignation as he reached for his watch on the table. Drew stood right in front, blocking his way, so he asked, "What time is it?"

Drew turned and pressed a button on the bedside table. The curtains around the room slid open silently, and bright sunshine flooded in, quickly brightening the spacious master bedroom. Eric squinted against the light, raising his arm, before suddenly sitting up.

They were supposed to have a Firefly Films management meeting that morning, and looking at the time, it was clear he was late.

In a hurry to get dressed, Eric asked, "Where's my mobile phone? Did anyone call?"

"Yeah, Michael called just now, asking if you're still joining the meeting today. I told him you were still adjusting to the time difference and might be late, so he said they'd move the meeting to one o'clock," Drew responded excitedly as she rummaged through the closet and pulled out a brand-new tie to personally help Eric put it on.

Eric was forced to stay in place, glancing at his watch, which read 9:40. Even if he rushed over now, the morning was already lost. "Next time something like this happens, you've got to wake me up. It's not good to make everyone wait."

Drew understood the importance of the situation. "I know, it's a special case. You just got back from Tokyo -- they'll understand."

After they went downstairs and entered the dining room for breakfast, Eric encountered the Russian twins again. They greeted him and placed breakfast and today's paper in front of him once he sat down. They were clearly well-trained.

Having already finished her breakfast, the little girl supported her chin in her hands, batting her eyelashes in a manner that suggested, "Come on, praise me a little."

Eric thanked the twins, and once they had left the dining room, he flicked a small piece of bread at Drew's forehead. "Alright, what's there to be proud of? You could've hired a hundred maids with the amount of money you spent."

Although she joked last night about being expensive, the truth was that she had spent $800,000 to buy the twins' contract from that agent named Don King. It represented a serious bargain because it happened due to a loophole in their contract, and the promises made to the sisters about their families' immigration expenses certainly couldn't be settled with $800,000.

"I could also get them to make cameos in our movies; they could be the mascots for Flower Films! That's way more attention-grabbing than your 'girl holding a doll' gimmick," Drew chimed in.

Ignoring the teasing tone, Eric queried, "You're talking about helping them immigrate; it can't be that easy for Russians to move to America these days, right? What do their parents do?"

"Their dad used to be a fairly good fight coach, but you know how it goes; Russia's so broke now that they can't even afford hotel fees when the president travels abroad. Coaches don't hold much value anymore. However, it's a different story here. Plus, there aren't many family members to manage; aside from the twins, there are just their parents and a younger brother, so it shouldn't be too hard."

Seeing that the little girl had everything under control, Eric didn't pry any further. He took a sip of his milk while flipping through the paper.

"Eric, you always read the same things. What's the point?" Drew hopped over to him, desperate to chat.

"Searching for inspiration," Eric replied vaguely, but his eyes were glued to the Los Angeles Times, where he was reading about a press conference held yesterday afternoon by MGM's CEO Frank Mancuso, announcing a partnership with Firefly Films to establish DreamWorks. It also revealed upcoming film plans for Charlie's Angels and Resident Evil, along with news that Eric was set to join the production of the latest James Bond movie.

Drew didn't mind his curt response, as she dragged a chair over to read over his shoulder. She was already aware of the Charlie's Angels project since Eric had called her about it while he was in Europe.

"Eric, the press release doesn't mention a representative from Firefly Films. This is an MGM-organized event!" Drew observed, realizing that not only was there no representation from Firefly, but Frank Mancuso seemed intent on downplaying European capital's role in the production company.

Eric thought that MGM's stock prices would likely rise soon and explained to Drew, "MGM needs some positive news desperately, so they jumped the gun with this. No big deal -- Frank Mancuso must have talked it over with Michael and the team. Firefly isn't a publicly traded company, so this information won't affect us too much."

"Oh, Eric, we won't be at a loss giving Charlie's Angels to MGM, right? That movie could resemble the style of Bond, so there's a chance for many sequels!"

"The rights are going to DreamWorks, not MGM. We own 30% of DreamWorks -- our majority stake. Plus, most shares are held by European capital. If we have a conflict with MGM, which side do you think European capital would back?"

"Of course, they'll be with us. Hey, Eric, I just thought of a great idea..."

"Hmm?"

"What if we let the Charlie's Angels series intersect with 007? Wouldn't that be a fun idea?"

"Good thought, but unless Charlie's Angels achieves similar impact and box office returns as Bond does, it's unrealistic. The Bond series has taken decades to build that kind of influence."

Drew knew that the influence of the Bond series was something that the currently unreleased Charlie's Angels could not even hope to match, so she suggested, "What if we just insert some plot easter eggs?"

"That would require the first movie to gain some significant influence first, but it isn't out of the question. Right now, the most important thing is to make the first Charlie's Angels movie a success."

While Eric didn't initially buy into Drew's breakfast brainstorm idea, he began to grow interested. Creating a crossover between Charlie's Angels and the James Bond series could be a substantial gimmick. Still, recalling the box office performance of the previous Charlie's Angels series, he knew he'd have to wait until after the new version he'd personally pushed for was released before pursuing such ideas.

...

Even though the meeting was moved to the afternoon, after breakfast, Eric rushed to the Firefly headquarters.

Firefly Films had accumulated a significant amount of documents that needed Eric's personal review. He arrived at the office by eleven o'clock and managed to read through less than a tenth of them before the afternoon meeting started, all while missing lunch. However, he had eaten a late breakfast and wasn't too hungry.

The afternoon meeting wasn't large; it was a small gathering of over a dozen executives from Firefly.

As Eric entered the conference room with Allen carrying a thick stack of documents, he saw Michael Lynn and Jeffrey Katzenberg's eyes all snap to him, and he grinned, "Long time no see! Looks like you all missed me."

Amid the light laughter, Eric seized the moment as Allen distributed the documents to chat casually with everyone. Once Allen finished handing out the papers, Eric stood up and said, "I know Firefly has a lot on its plate right now, but we're not discussing those today. Today's conversation is about Firefly Films' next stage development goals."

By this point, the executives had already opened their documents. Whether they had received any prior intel or not, they didn't seem too surprised. The content revolved around an assessment of potential acquisitions of the three major television networks.

Firefly Films had significantly surpassed the other six major Hollywood film studios and was poised to expand from a film company into a comprehensive media group.

While it would take some time before approaching the television networks for acquisition -- possibly until next year -- the preparation was better off being done sooner than later.

In North America, aside from FOX, after the mid-'80s acquisition frenzy, ABC had actually become the best-performing network, despite suffering heavy losses in prior years.

This rejuvenation began when Metromedia Communications and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway acquired ABC in 1983. The new shareholders enforced stricter financial oversight while allowing the management team enough room to explore opportunities. While ABC's profitability still wasn't particularly eye-catching, it had entered a positive development phase.

Meanwhile, NBC was still in a state of upheaval due to conflicts between management and parent company General Electric.

CBS's situation was bleak; after Lawrence Tisch gained control in the mid-'80s, he gradually sold off many of CBS's business assets, including the sale of Columbia Records to a Japanese firm, making it the world's second-largest record label. After benefiting substantially from years of financial manipulation, Tisch was now uninterested in further involvement and was looking for a buyer to take over.

Thus, CBS was also the easiest target for acquisition.

However, given Firefly Films' current capabilities, there wasn't any need to settle for less. If they were going to buy, they would certainly choose ABC first; CBS would be last on the list.

Once Eric briefly introduced his plan, Michael Lynn asked, "Eric, if we're going for ABC, we should probably let go of our FOX holdings, right?"

"I'll personally talk to Mr. Murdoch about that soon," Eric replied.

Another person asked, "What about Friends, The X-Files, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"

Friends had signed a five-season deal with FOX, and this year marked the fifth season. Also, Firefly owned all the copyrights to Friends, so Eric wouldn't be too polite about it. "Once we finish this year's contract, we definitely won't renew with FOX. As for The X-Files and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, we'll stick with the original plans."

The X-Files and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire had shared copyrights with FOX, so snagging those would be quite the task. If they attempted to take all three major FOX shows in one go, it was practically guaranteed Murdoch would turn on them.

As Eric spoke, he turned to the vice president responsible for the television division at Firefly. "Also, from this moment on, the television department can start scouting for full programs. Even if it takes one or two years for us to complete a network acquisition, this approach will help stockpile some viable projects. Get a plan together, and regularly send the project summaries my way."

Katzenberg suddenly interjected, "Eric, are you planning to take charge of the network acquisition personally?"

As soon as Katzenberg finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room became a bit awkward. Many people's eyes darted between Katzenberg and Michael Lynn.

Eric felt a headache as he glanced between Katzenberg and Lynn, seated on either side of him.

Acquiring a television network was a massive responsibility that would definitely need a senior executive of CEO rank from Firefly Films to lead and participate in the negotiations. Typically, this burden would fall on Michael Lynn. However, under the current circumstances, Eric had promised Katzenberg last year that once Michael Lynn's contract expired next year, he would appoint Katzenberg as CEO of Firefly.

Although Michael Lynn was a bit conservative and lacked Katzenberg's boldness, he had always been an exceptional manager. While Eric rarely became involved in company management, he was consistently pleased with how well Michael Lynn executed each of his requests.

Thus, even before Katzenberg spoke up, Eric had grappled with how to address Michael Lynn's future role for quite some time.

*****

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