What is the capital of Australia?

Probably 80 percent of the people's first reaction was Sydney.

The simpler the question, the easier it is to get it wrong.

As a result, 10% of the remaining people will hesitate a little and think of another city in Australia, Melbourne.

However, both answers are wrong, and Australia's capital is Canberra, a city that doesn't have a strong presence in most people's minds.

After returning from Mexico, Eric stayed in Los Angeles for a week before departing again for Australia in the southern hemisphere.

"Titanic" is absent from the summer schedule can no longer be changed, the remaining two films "The Matrix" and "Death Island" are absolutely not to be missed, "Death Island" is directed by John Wu, and the filming location is also not far from Los Angeles San Francisco, the company is very convenient to follow up this film, and there is no big problem.

However, "The Matrix" is different, although I believe in the abilities of the Wachowski brothers, but the two are still rookie directors after all. What's more, the film was shot entirely in Sydney, with the digital Australian branch in charge of post-production special effects, and the entire production process of the film was far from Los Angeles, so Eric decided to make a trip to check the progress of the film.

Compared with the excitement of the trip to Mexico, Eric's trip to Sydney was much easier.

In addition to "The Matrix", Eric has some other things to deal with, maybe he will have to stay in Australia for a week or two, Kelly, as a single mother, is not suitable for the company, so Eric transferred two assistants from the assistant's office, plus four bodyguards, and a group of seven people flew to Australia.

Filming for "The Matrix" was completed at the end of last year, with the Wachowski brothers already producing a three-and-a-half-hour rough cut, and major post-production special effects work has already begun.

Headquartered in Campperdown, in the heart of Sydney, near the University of Sydney, the Australian branch has grown rapidly with more than 200 employees and is currently responsible for the post-production effects of The Matrix.

Eric lives in a hotel near the University of Sydney, less than a kilometre away from the Digital Domain, making it easy to work nearby.

Although it was a private trip entirely for work reasons, Eric had just stepped off the plane when he was greeted by a councillor from the City of Sydney, who invited him to a charity reception the following night. Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of Murdoch, who was in charge of some of News Corp.'s newspaper publishing operations in Australia at this time, also called Eric shortly after he got off the plane and invited him to a private party.

Because of the need for jet lag, and in addition to continuous socializing, Eric failed to get into work for the next three days.

Early in the morning of the fourth day, with a slight hangover and dizziness, there was a knock on the door of Eric's hotel.

Opening the door, Robert Cotter, the producer of "The Matrix", stood outside the door, because he couldn't poach Joe Sylvo to Firefly to be in charge of the "Matrix" project, the company finally selected Robert Coat, a middle-aged man in his forties, who was originally a producer in the former Disney system, and has been working as a producer since the mid-eighties, and can be regarded as experienced.

Looking at Eric, whose hair was messy and tired, Robert Cotter looked a little surprised and hesitated, "I'm sorry, Eric, I didn't know you were still resting." ”

Eric was only wearing a pair of trousers at this time, shirtless, and his image was even a little sloppy, and when he heard this, he subconsciously raised his empty wrist, but found that there was no trace of the watch on his wrist, and he didn't know where he lost it last night, so he had to ask Robert Cotter: "What time is it?"

"Half past nine," replied Robert Cotter, "you said you'd be going to the special effects company at nine o'clock today, and I'll come over after that time." ”

"Oh, I'm sorry," Eric said, shaking his head again, "I was drunk last night, so you should go over there first, I, well, it's half past ten." ”

"Okay," Robert Cother nodded, and added, "Eric, do you need me to call room service for you?"

Eric refused, "No, I'll just take a shower and have some breakfast." ”

Robert Cotter hummed, said no more, and left.

Eric closed the door, took off his clothes, and went into Yufu, put in the hot water, soaked himself in the bathtub, stretched out comfortably, and remembered something from last night.

Last night he was invited to Lachlan Murdoch's party at the Murdoch family's estate on the outskirts of Sydney.

Eric and Murdoch's two sons Lachlan and James have several faces, perhaps Murdoch is too busy with work and neglects to discipline, these two can be said to be standard gentlemen, last year Lachlan Murdoch was placed by the elder Murdoch to the Australian base camp to take charge of News Corp.'s publishing business, but at the press conference where he first appeared, Lachlan Murdoch was speechless and incapable of coping with a few words asked by reporters. This is Australia, where more than 70% of the media channels are controlled by News Corp., and no matter how tricky the reporter is, it is impossible not to give face to the prince of News Corp., which shows how bad Lachlan Murdoch's performance is, and this incident also disappointed the elder Murdoch.

In addition, Eric can clearly feel that these two guys don't like him. Because the two of them are almost the same age as themselves, and the old Murdoch still has great expectations for his two sons, it is conceivable that a father who wants his son Jackie Chan will definitely use his peers to motivate his two lazy children, Eric is undoubtedly the best target of flaunting, and often hear their own old man chattering, their resentment towards Eric, someone else's child, can be imagined.

It was evident that the reception party was held at the behest of the elder Murdoch, but last night Lachlan Murdoch invited a large group of his peers, at least on the surface, to show great enthusiasm, and both men and women took turns to toast Eric as if they had been specially instructed to do so.

In the end, Eric only remembers that he was helped into the car by the bodyguards.

Recalling the situation last night, Eric smiled and shook his head, but he was not too angry, after all, the less successful Murdoch's two sons were, the greater Elizabeth's chance of inheriting the entire News Corp. in the future, and Eric wished they were more nonsense.

After taking a shower, Eric got dressed and went downstairs to the dining room, where Peter Rich, one of the two assistants he had brought with him, was already waiting.

Eric ordered breakfast, and when the waiter left, Peter Rich came over and reported on his work for the past two days, saying, "Mr. Williams, I have contacted Cate Blanchett's agent, but I have not met her in person, and her agent said that Miss Blanchett is filming a TV series in Brisbane. ”

Eric interrupted his assistant, puzzled, "Brisbane?"

Peter Ritchie explained: "Brisbane is the capital of Queensland in northern Australia, the third largest city in Australia after Sydney and Melbourne, about 700 kilometers from Sydney. ”

Eric nodded, motioning for Peter Ritchie to continue.

Peter Ritchie said: "Miss Blanchett's agent was very enthusiastic about our invitation, and he said that he would bring Miss Blanchett back as soon as possible to meet you in person. ”

Eric asked, "Did you give them those pages of script?"

"It's been handed over to Miss Blanchett's agent. ”

Eric nodded and said, "You keep in touch with them, I don't have much time, if I don't see anyone in a week, forget it." ”

Peter Ritchie said, "I see, Mr. Williams, is there anything else?"

"No, well, what's going on with Sean?" Eric asked again, Sean was the name of the other assistant he had brought.

Peter Ritchie said: "He has already contacted the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, but we have just found out that the WIFI technology developed by CSIRO has not been patented in North America, and we may not need to buy it from them." ”

Eric came to Australia, in addition to the film affairs, there is another important thing, is to buy the patent rights of the WIFI technology that has just appeared at this time, which is held by a long-term Australian technology research organization.

In the original time and space, the Australian government was able to earn nearly $1 billion a year just by charging patent licensing fees to billions of electronic devices around the world that use WIFI technology. However, at this time, the Internet is just emerging, and not too many people will realize the true value of WIFI technology, which just gives Eric the opportunity to 'pick up leaks'.

As long as he can get the WIFI technology patent, in addition to the huge patent licensing fees that can be foreseen in the future, more importantly, it can also give his hands Cisco, Yahoo, AOL and other companies the initiative and priority in wireless network technology.

Eric also understands what Peter Ritchie just said, WIFI technology has not been patented in North America, Firefly can not spend a penny, as long as you get the relevant technical information, you can apply for a patent in North America in advance, and take the technology as your own. This kind of method of preempting other people's technological achievements is not uncommon in all walks of life.

However, Eric shook his head without hesitation, not because of a sense of moral justice or anything like that, but because the future application of WIFI technology must be worldwide. Now, even if the patent rights are seized in advance in North America, there will definitely be a court tie with the CSIRO, let alone overseas.

"If there is no such need, it will not cost much to buy the patent rights of WIFI. ”

It will take at least a decade for WIFI technology to become popular, and it is impossible for anyone to see the broad prospects of this technology except Eric, and now it is impossible to buy out this patented technology completely for $10 million.

The waiter soon served Eric's breakfast, and Eric sent Peter Richie away, ate breakfast, and left the hotel to drive to the headquarters of the Australian branch of the digital domain.

From the beginning of the filming of "The Matrix", Eric has been closely following the filming progress of the Wachowski brothers by email and other means, because with the assistance of Robert Cotter, an experienced producer, the two brothers did not encounter much trouble during the whole filming process.

Over the next few days, Eric spent the next few days discussing the film's post-production and further editing with the creators of The Matrix.

Despite Eric's remote control and Robert Cotter's close supervision, the Wachowski brothers were very clever in adding a lot of personal will to the film.

The reason why the film in the original time and space was so successful was that in addition to the bold and novel ideas of reality and fantasy, the deep philosophical thinking of the Wachowski brothers through the film also played a finishing role, so Eric did not completely eliminate the 'private goods' that the Wachowski brothers added to the film, but only appropriately deleted them according to the version in memory, finding a proper balance between the commercial elements and philosophical thinking of the film.

The original version of "The Matrix", after the first part was amazing, and the subsequent two parts were all due to Time Warner's excessive decentralization, so that the Wachowski brothers were completely indulged in their own foggy shooting concepts, and even made the movie very obscure, which caused the reputation of the movie to be inferior to the other, and the box office also failed in the most important finale after the second part rose sharply.

When Eric was busy in Sydney with the late stages of "The Matrix", in Brisbane, hundreds of kilometers north of the Australian mainland, Cate Blanchett had just finished a day's work and walked out of the set when her agent Ron Rather drove up to her and motioned for her to get in.

Cate Blanchett pinched the Kun bag in her hand, subconsciously looked around, and even got into the car with a little guilt.

Neither of them spoke immediately, driving all the way to two blocks away, stopping outside a café, getting out of the car, walking into the café, until they ordered two cups of coffee and sat down in the window seat, Cate Blanchett suddenly couldn't help laughing: "Ron, how do I feel like we're planning to do something bad?"

Ron Rather couldn't help laughing, he still felt a little unreal, three days ago, a young man who claimed to be Eric Williams' assistant suddenly approached him, saying that Eric Williams was interested in inviting Kate to play the role of 007 Bond Girl, Ron Lather's first reaction was that the other party was a liar.

After all, although he is well aware that the actress under his name has very good acting skills, in any case, it is impossible to connect her with Eric Williams' new film.

"I think it's incredible right now, but it's definitely a great opportunity that everyone dreams of, isn't it, by the way, Kate, you didn't tell anyone about it, did you?"

Cate Blanchett shook her head and smiled, "Of course not, I don't want to be mistaken for a daydreamer." (To be continued.) )