Richard Lovett is preoccupied with a possible crisis of confidence in the CAA, just a few kilometers away, at MGM's headquarters, also in Century City. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Just over an hour after the announcement that the 007 series will re-select the male lead, a group of fans have already gathered outside MGM's headquarters, holding various signs to protest MGM's decision to remove Pierce Brosnan. A group of reporters from major media outlets also waited outside the MGM headquarters, hoping to get more information. In order to avoid any accidents, Amy Pascal had to send most of the company's security guards outside the building to maintain order.

MGM's stock price, which has been booming in recent weeks because of the box office success of "Casino Royale", also suddenly began to fall with the announcement. As a result of successive acquisitions of e! With the acquisition of Entertainment Television, the investment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the possible next equity deal with Rainbow Media, MGM, which is increasingly strapped for cash, has launched a new round of debt financing plan, and the sudden drop in the company's stock price at this time is definitely not good news.

Within an hour of the announcement, the phones of several MGM executives were blown up by calls from all sides, and a director of the company's board of directors had even flown from New York to Los Angeles and asked for an emergency board meeting to revisit the removal of Brosnan.

MGM completed the last share issuance, Drew's shareholding has dropped to 33.5%, and LTD's shareholding has also slipped to 8.4%. The French Vivendi Group, which was involved in the acquisition of MGM, holds 16.8% of the shares, several European film funds hold 15.1%, and the remaining 26% or so of the shares are all tradable. Since they were also from Europe, Prestige and several other film funds were naturally in a group, and although they were destined to lose control of MGM, MGM's management could not completely ignore the influence of the other party.

The director, Pierre Trucker, who had already arrived in Los Angeles from New York, was the face of Prestige and several film funds on the MGM board. MGM's board of directors consists of seven members, including four external directors hired by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), three others, one is Drew, one is Amy Pascal, and the other is Pierre Truck, the CEO of Havas Group, a major advertising and media company owned by Vivendi.

At the end of a corridor at MGM's headquarters, Amy Pascal, who was standing by the window, hung up Richard Lovett's phone, with a relieved expression, handed the phone to the assistant, told her to help her answer the call that might come in again, and pushed open the door of the conference room and walked in.

In the conference room, Drew, Frank Makazow, and John Cali are discussing casting plans for the Lord of the Rings trilogy with Peter Jackson.

In the past two years, Peter Jackson has only directed a low-budget thriller to practice, and most of his energy is still focused on the preparation of the "Lord of the Rings" series. Now, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy can be said to be completely in Peter Jackson's mind, and as soon as he gets the budget and officially starts production, he is 100% confident that he can bring this legendary epic of Tol King to the big screen.

Peter Jackson paused when he saw Amy Pascal walk in, of course he knew what had happened to MGM today.

Frank Maccasso and John Cali looked at the same thing, having completed the acquisition of MGM, and now proving that they did not choose to leave the company considering that the old movie giant may have re-emerged with the support of the Firefly Group. It's just that today's incident is really enough to catch people off guard, and they still can't believe that Eric will really decide to give up on Brosnan. Although they had turned off their phones, the two of them still had the constant ringing of the phone in their minds.

Although Drew also looked up, there was no worry on his face, as long as it was Eric's decision, even if MGM went out of business, she didn't care. However, the girl still took the initiative to ask, "Amy, who is it this time?" ”

"Richard Lovett," Amy replied, sat down next to the girl, and continued, "Just now Richard hinted to me that this matter seems to be the work of Brosnan's agent, Rick Cozeman, and that Richard has fired Cozeman. Drew, they want to talk again. ”

Although some rumors have been heard, due to Richard Lovett's best efforts to cover up, no one in Hollywood knows in detail the ins and outs of Rick Cozeman's private rejection of the 007 pay contract. Naturally, Drew took Amy's 'hint' of Richard Lovett as a pretext, and in fact, this may be what Richard Lovett wants to see.

However, Drew obviously didn't care about these either, and just said: "They refuse if they want to refuse, and they can talk again if they want to, is this teasing us?" ”

"Drew, I think there may really be some misunderstanding in this, it stands to reason that even if Pierce doesn't agree with Eric's offer, he can't refuse so simply," Amy continued to persuade: "Moreover, it doesn't do us any good to give up Brosnan, we are about to do debt financing, and Morgan Stanley has already called, and they feel that if Brosnan is replaced, it may affect the market's enthusiasm for investing in MGM bonds." ”

The girl blinked twice, spread her hands and said, "Otherwise, you can discuss it with Eric, I'm just a puppet." ”

……

"Now there's a rumor that Brosnan doesn't seem to be aware of the terms of your pay. In the morning, when you had a meeting, Amy called again and said that the CAA wanted to talk again. "In the dining room of Firefly Burbank headquarters, it was already noon, and Kelly and Eric were sitting together eating lunch, and by the way talked about what had happened this morning.

Eric finished a bite of pasta and looked up, "Do you believe that Brosnan really didn't know?" ”

Kelly thought for a moment and said, "I think even if it's true, the CAA side will spread this matter as fake." After all, the CAA will be in big trouble if it hides such an important thing from a client, and no celebrity will be willing to let an agent who likes to assert himself take care of his affairs. However, I don't think the CAA's agent would be stupid enough to hide this from Brosnan, which is a $70 million contract. ”

"So what?"

"So, it's likely that this is fake news from the CAA, just trying to find an excuse to redeem this matter."

Eric smiled, didn't say anything, changed the subject, and said, "So, my new personal assistant, have you picked a good candidate?" ”

Kelly actually wanted to ask Eric what he was planning, and when he changed the subject, she had to say, "There's one that's a good fit, but I don't think I should send her to you bad guy." ”

"Oh, it looks like you'd rather do it yourself." Eric teased, looked at Kelly's instantly turned red face, and smiled, "You mean Caroline, right?" ”

Kelly nodded and said, "I talked to Caroline, and she's quite willing. But, Eric, Caroline is such a good girl, don't hurt her. ”

Eric thought about it, and felt that he really didn't dare to guarantee it, so he said, "Or, another person?" ”

Kelly gave Eric a blank look, but said softly, "Eric, I can tell that Caroline is looking forward to being by your side." So, if you don't want to do that, talk to her personally, preferably, preferably to get her to change jobs, you know what I mean. ”

Eric hesitated, then nodded solemnly, "Okay, I'll take some time in the next two days." ”

Saying this, Eric's mobile phone rang, and after connecting it, he said hello, and after listening to a few words on the other side, Eric said with a faint sneer on the corner of his mouth: "Amy, do you think it's still ten years ago, when those agents could casually break into the office of the film company's executives...... Well, if they're really sincere, don't think about the contract, it's still yesterday's four-film contract, $60 million, sign tomorrow morning, I don't care if Pierce really doesn't know, even if it's true, it's his own mistake, this is the last chance...... Pierre Truck? I don't know this guy, and I'm not interested, just send him away, I'm going to San Francisco in the afternoon, that's all, nothing else, don't call me again. ”

Kelly watched Eric hang up the phone, casually threw the phone aside, and couldn't help but remind: "Eric, Pierre Truck is the spokesperson for MGM Europe's shareholders. ”

"I know."

Kelly was stunned for a moment and said, "Then you still ......"

"People who don't care, just pretend not to know," Eric shrugged, looked at Kelly's stunned expression, sighed rarely, and said, "Perhaps, everyone now thinks that I am a bit preoccupied in doing this, right?" ”

Kelly noticed the faint loneliness in Eric's expression, and subconsciously shook her head, but then nodded slightly.

Eric just shook his head again and said: "Judging from everything that happened today, you, Amy, and many, many people around you, and even those media, have been firmly trapped in the shackles of Hollywood's existing rules, and everyone seems to think that "Casino Royale" is so good at the box office, as the actor, even if Brosnan gets a salary of 100 million US dollars, it seems that he deserves it, but I never think so, and I don't think Brosnan is worth this price." The last thing Hollywood has to do is actors, and even if I now offer a fixed weekly salary in the big studio era to recruit 007, people who want to get this job can go from Malibu all the way to Burbank. So, starting today, no, it should be from yesterday, I'm going to take it slow to tell everyone that nothing is taken for granted. If you want to take it for granted, then go back to the era of big sets, at that time, everyone also took it for granted that actors received a fixed weekly salary. ”

Kelly quietly looked at Eric, who was becoming more and more determined, gradually understood something, and said softly, "But, it's hard. ”

"Look," Eric said, putting down the dishes and scribbling his palm in the air, "Now that I own half of Hollywood, I will definitely own all of Hollywood in the future, so it won't be difficult." ”

……

"Fak, Fack, Fack!" At the CAA headquarters, Richard Lovett almost jumped to his feet and scolded several times in a row, slamming the mobile phone in his hand on the floor, the broken parts splashed everywhere, took a deep breath, and he immediately roared again: "Peter, help me get a new phone." ”

An assistant shuddered and pushed open the door and handed over a new phone.

Richard Lovett took the phone, pressed the button a few times, slammed it on the ground again, and yelled at the door: "Peter, you can get out, Eric, oh no, I don't want to hear this name again in my life, who is that, you can also get out, is there still a living person, help me get a phone with an address book." ”

Dozens of seconds later, just as Richard Lovett couldn't help but kick the office door, the door finally opened again, and a frightened girl pushed the door open, holding a mobile phone in her hand: "Mr. Lovett, give, give it to you." ”

Richard Lovett snatched the phone, opened the address book, quickly found a string of numbers, dialed, and immediately lowered the tone a few degrees, and said extremely warmly: "Hey, Terry, it's me...... Haha, I did have some trouble today, this time it's more urgent, you must help me, I remember you know Pierre Truck, the director of MGM...... Of course, about Pierce's contract with MGM...... I know Williams decided the matter himself, but I have to give it a try, I heard that Pierre is already in Los Angeles, can you help me get in touch, I want to see him as soon as he gets off the plane...... Then thank you, oh, Lina wants to go to the opening party of the "Titanic" exhibition hall, no problem, absolutely no problem, I will have someone send a few tickets to your house this afternoon, then that's it. Of course, I still owe you a favor that I will never forget in the next life, okay okay, I will definitely pay it back in this life, haha. ”

Laughing heartily a few times, hanging up the phone, Richard Lovett dialed the mobile phone of the company's partner David O'Connor again, and said in a low voice: "Man, we are in trouble, we don't have time to explain so much now, what you have to do is to arrange for someone to contact the newspapers immediately, today's evening newspaper, there must be an article that Brosnan deliberately claimed to be ignorant of MGM's salary conditions in order to save the contract, the more the better, understand...... That's it, I'm going to rush to the airport now, and also, guard him, provide for him, coax him, and drag on as long as I can. (To be continued.) )