An open-air restaurant halfway up Beverly Hills.

In the rising sun, two Hollywood bigwigs, Barry Dieller and Michael Eisner, sit leisurely on the terrace overlooking the whole of Los Angeles.

After ordering the meal, Michael Eisner said to Barry Diller: "You shouldn't have seen last week's box office report, right? $13.88 million, a total of 53.85 million in three weeks." Goldberg won't be so embarrassed this year. ”

Today is Friday, May 1st.

Michael Eisner did not mention the name of the movie, but Barry Diller understands that the only movie that can achieve a single-week box office of more than $10 million in the current unpopular schedule is now Fox's "Butterfly Effect".

With his focus on the Fox network, Barry Diller really didn't pay much attention to the film business, asking, "What about Lola Run?"

Michael Eisner's expression became more emotional, shook his head slightly, and said: "7.59 million US dollars, a total of 175.6 million, Orion may earn more than 80 million just from the box office." Coupled with "Field Platoon", Orion's stock price has tripled since February, and it is now worth nearly $1 billion. It is heard that both Somer Ray Shidong and John Kruger are plotting to seize control of Orion. ”

Barry Diller also felt a little incredible, remembering a certain young man who was talking about everywhere during this time, and couldn't help but say, "What a miracle little guy, maybe you should take the time to meet him." ”

Michael Eisner smiled, "If you want to see him, you can come with me to Burbank later." ”

Barry Diller gave a puzzled look.

The waiter brought the breakfast of the two at this time, the conversation paused for a moment, and when the waiter left, Michael Eisner picked up the cutlery and ate breakfast, and then said, "That little guy started a production company, have you heard?"

Barry Diller smiled and nodded, "Of course, Daenerys Pictures also poached one of our Fox VPs of production. ”

Michael Eisner smiled gloating and said, "Daenerys Pictures is looking for a distribution partnership for a film, and Disney should be one of their options." In addition, Simon Westeros also handed us an animation script and wanted to entrust Disney to produce it on his behalf. Amy Pascal and I made an appointment to talk formally today. Wait for someone to call and ask Westeros to come along. ”

Barry Diller nodded, paused, and shook his head slightly.

The two were colleagues during their time at ABC, and Michael Eisner knew Barry Diller very well. noticed his small movements, but understood that the shaking of his head behind him was actually aimed at Ronald Goldberg.

Simon Westeros has already worked with Fox Film on two films, "The Grim Reaper" may still be verified, but "The Butterfly Effect" has been very successful. In this case, Fox should have been the best partner for Daenerys Films.

Now, Ronald Goldberg has clearly passed up another chance.

Michael Eisner doesn't really think much of Ronald Goldberg in his heart. However, he also understood the deep friendship between Ronald Goldberg and Barry Diller, so he said: "Ronald is not to blame. In that movie, neither the director nor the screenwriter were Westeros himself, and the script was more anti-mainstream. Daenerys Films is not only willing to give up the film's local theatrical distribution rights, but also wants next year's Easter schedule. ”

Barry Diller listened in silence and asked, "What about your side?"

"Next Easter, we were going to re-release Bambi, and there was no pressure to release a live-action film. And, you've probably seen "Lola Run", and although there are a lot of fortuitous factors in the success of this movie, Westeros's cinematic skills are absolutely impeccable, and I plan to take the opportunity to sign him with a few films. Michael Eisner smiled and said, "So, Barry, are you going to meet that little guy?"

......

While Barry Diller and Michael Eisner were having breakfast together, Simon woke up a little earlier in his Century Tower apartment.

The location is the study.

Sighing that the life of a bachelor is really bleak, Simon packed up a pile of financial books by the sofa, got up and walked to the writing board embedded in the wall of the study.

Two rough charts of the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 in the coming months are drawn on the large clipboard, surrounded by a dense mix of Chinese, French, Spanish, Hebrew and even Hanyu Pinyin.

It's not easy to find this information from a dozen or so memories in your mind, and sometimes it's just a fleeting thought. So, Simon saved up for a week to get these.

Just in case, Simon didn't use English for annotations, and the other languages were all suggestive words that only he could understand, except for two exponential charts, which were probably unlikely to be understood even if they were discovered.

After looking at it for a while, he carefully wiped off the two trend charts that had been drawn many times and had been completely engraved in his mind, leaving only various scattered text annotations, and then Simon left the study.

In the morning, an audition for a supporting role in "Vulgar" was scheduled, and Simon received a call from Amy over breakfast, and Michael Eisner wanted him to be personally involved in today's meeting, so he had to change the schedule on an impromptu basis.

At eight o'clock, Simon met with Amy first, and then rushed to the headquarters of the Disney Company in Burbank together.

The secretary led the two to a conference room, and when Simon entered, he found that in addition to Michael Eisner, there was another middle-aged man sitting at the conference table. Moreover, he immediately recognized the identity of the other party, Barry Diller, chairman and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox.

Everyone greeted each other, Simon shook hands with Michael Eisner, reached out to Barry Diller, and smiled: "Mr. Diller, it's a pleasure to meet you, your high-concept film format has benefited all of us filmmakers a lot." ”

Barry Diller shook hands with Simon, and when he said this, he pointed to the script of "When Harry Met Sally" that he was just reading, and asked with a little scrutiny, "But, Simon, I found that several projects related to you are not high-concept movies?"

Simon noticed that Amy and Eisner were both looking at him with interest, waiting for his answer, and said with a relaxed smile: "Daenerys Pictures is just a child, and children can be more creative." When you grow up, you're definitely going to have to be decent. ”

Seeing Simon's thoughtful and unabashed ambition answer, Barry Diller couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, smiled, and said, "I'm looking forward to seeing what Daenerys Pictures will look like when they 'grow up'." ”

Saying this, everyone sat down at the conference table together, Simon saw that Michael Eisner did not mean to talk about business immediately, and understood that the two bigwigs specially called him here today, just to see him.

In this case, Simon did not let go of the opportunity in front of him, and continued to say to Barry Diller: "Mr. Diller, I heard that you are helping Mr. Murdoch improve the Fox TV network, perhaps, we can work together next year." ”

Barry Diller looked at the young man sitting across from him and asked, "Why not this year?" Simon, this month is the pitch season, and if you have a good idea, you can go to New York in the near future." ”

North American television networks determine the new year's television programs in May. So, every year this month, programmers from North America and around the world gather in New York to pitch their TV shows to networks through a variety of pitches.

Simon shook his head and said, "Daenerys Films definitely has no chance this year, our strength is still too weak." But not necessarily next year. ”

Barry Diller said, "Simon, you mean that Daenerys Films only needs a year to grow up?"

"Of course not," Simon shook his head and said, "I mean, next year the GA may have a strike." When the time comes, Daenerys Films may be able to get some opportunities. ”

If Daenerys Films wants to work with a television network, even if it has a good idea, the best outcome is to be bought into the idea, and then the network will commission Daenerys Pictures to produce it. The copyright must be owned by the TV network.

Simon is looking forward to being like Warner, Universal and other powerful program producers, only to sell the first round of broadcast rights to TV networks, and other channels of distribution are still in his hands. Only in this way can Daenerys Films get the most bang for its buck.

However, in order to achieve this goal in the short term, Daenerys Films can only seize the opportunity of major TV networks to be affected by the writers' strike next year and unable to produce enough TV shows.

Barry Diller heard the explanation of the young man in front of him, but said, "Simon, you should also be a member of the Writers Guild, right? If the GA declares a strike next year, aren't you going to participate?"

Simon shook his head and said, "Barry, I'm not a member of GA, and I have no plans to join GA. ”

When Barry Diller heard this, he couldn't help but look at Simon again for a moment, then smiled, took out a business card from his suit pocket and handed it over, saying, "It's really nice to meet you, Simon." If there is anything, you can call me. ”

"Of course. ”

Simon agreed, took Barry Diller's business card, and handed it over as well.

Barry Diller put Simon's business card away and got up to say goodbye to everyone.

Seeing off Barry Diller, the three of them returned to the conference room and sat down.

Michael Eisner opened the memo in front of him, almost subconsciously did not pay attention to Amy Pascal, who had negotiated with him several times, and said directly to Simon: "Regarding the cooperation of "When Harry Meets Sally", Simon, Disney can give you an Easter schedule with a minimum of 1,000 screens. However, our requirement is that you need to sign two directorial contracts with Disney, and the script can be written by you or provided by Disney, and the salary depends on the specific situation when the project is determined. As for "The Lion King", Disney's animation department will not OEM projects for others. So, we're hoping to buy this script, $300,000, what do you think?"

Before this meeting, Michael Eisner had planned to bite the above conditions.

However, with the conversation between Simon and Barry Diller lingering in his mind, Michael Eisner almost instinctively felt that Disney should talk about this cooperation, so he had a final negotiable conclusion.