During the Christmas season, the last batch of new Hollywood films in 1995 began to be released, and at this time in the past, because all kinds of literary films that wanted to hit the Oscars next year were released, under the manipulation of the behind-the-scenes film companies, the relevant media would always be very lively.

But this year, the media atmosphere is much colder. In the list of nominees for the 53rd Film and Television Golden Globe Awards that has been announced, "Forrest Gump" won seven important nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor in the drama category without any suspense.

In the case that "Forrest Gump" has won a series of large and small pre-awards, if it were not for the Golden Globe Film Awards being divided into two categories: drama and comedy, some films might even directly give up the public relations of the awards, even so, in order to avoid a head-to-head confrontation with "Forrest Gump" at the Golden Globe Awards, some drama films have even squeezed into the musical theater category, so it has also caused a lot of ridicule and criticism from the media.

When ordinary people enjoyed the holidays, Hollywood, after a few months of brewing, MGM began to consciously release the relevant news of "007: Casino Royale".

When they heard that Eric Williams would direct this 007 sequel himself, many people's first reaction would even be to think that others were joking, and Eric Williams even created "Jurassic Park" by himself The sequel to the series is reluctant to direct, how can it be possible to shoot the veteran agent series that has lasted for more than 30 years, after all, in the eyes of insiders, the 007 series is just a few routines over and over again, and it really can't play too many tricks, if you are purely an audience, you may be able to get some fun from the hot big scenes and the glamorous Bond girls, but if you are a director, then this job can only be described as boring.

However, the news that followed spread more and more, and it became more and more popular.

…… Eric Williams talks to 007 series producer Barbara Bullock at a party at Sharp Corner Manor.

…… The next 007 will be Ian Fleming's last film, Casino Royale, which was not brought to the screen.

…… MGM begins a secret contact with the Breaking Bads trio.

…… The eighteenth 007 will fully open the MGM Agent Cinematic Universe.

…… The three major brokerage companies began to frequently test MGM's progress on the 007 project in an attempt to gain more share of the role.

……

This series of scattered details also gradually proves that perhaps, Eric Williams is really going to direct the next 007 himself.

Immediately, the media with a keen sense of smell quickly seized on the news and began to dig deeper.

However, "007: Casino Royale" is still in the script revision stage, and after the release of some news, in order to maintain the mystery of the project and maintain enough topicality, MGM has been given a gag order from top to bottom, and began to keep silent, without any confirmation and comment on external news, and the media public relations department just very formulaically said that the project is still in the process of preparation, and everything has not yet been finalized.

Similarly, Barbara Blockley, the current helmsman of the 007 series, is a woman who does not like to appear in public, and media reporters have not heard much from her, but Barbara Brookley's brother Michael Wilson, who is also the producer of the series, is the opposite, he is a very showy guy. Soon, the powerful media reporter confirmed from Michael Wilson in London, England, that Eric Williams would indeed be the director of "007: Casino Royale".

The news exploded all at once.

Since the release of "Jurassic Park" in 1993 and created a global box office miracle of $1 billion, more than two years have passed until now.

In the past two years, LTD Group has risen rapidly with "Victoria's Secret Show of the Year", Lifetime TV has made its rise to prominence with two reality shows, the integration of MGM, Flower Pictures and DreamWorks Productions, and the continued strength of Firefly Group's film business, all of which have proved the reliability of this view in the media.

Although the general public has paid less and less attention to Eric's news, in Hollywood, and even in the emerging Internet industry, even in the unrelated clothing industry, Eric's presence is still so strong, and his influence does not even mean to stop expanding.

Take the upcoming 1995 as an example, Hollywood is still a good year, with the last two weeks of the Christmas schedule passing and Hollywood's annual box office reaching a new high, reaching $6.5 billion.

The Firefly Group only relied on the five films of "Jurassic Park 2", "Solo Day", "Toy Story 2", "Jedi Men" and "101 Dalmatians", and frantically harvested as much as $1 billion at the box office, and the Firefly Group released a total of 18 films from several major labels throughout the year, although the production began to decrease significantly compared to the previous two years, the cumulative box office of 18 films still reached 1.39 billion, and the global box office share reached $2.7 billion.

According to the forecast of statistical agencies, in 1995, the total size of the global box office market was only about 17.5 billion US dollars, so only the Firefly Group company has accounted for 15.4% of the box office share of the global film market.

And behind the scenes of all this, there is no doubt that the young man who has been miraculous since his debut is in control.

As the topic brewed, the news that Eric would personally direct "007: Casino Royale" unwittingly became a fuse, rekindling the public's interest in him, which had gradually cooled down.

The media has always been able to keep abreast of the trend, and as the topic increases, they also begin to provide more information that they are interested in reading or the audience.

Last year, Forbes magazine had already made a $46.5 billion valuation of Eric Williams' net worth, which not only made the rich behind him look up, but also made many people who saw this data feel numb, after all, ordinary people can't imagine what $46.5 billion in assets represents.

Although they don't know the huge power of huge wealth, they still have a very strong curiosity about Eric's net worth this year. As a result, the media also began to relish the inventory of the assets owned or held by Eric.

A network map of the Firefly business empire that subsequently appeared in Business Week caused countless media magazines to reprint wildly, and in the following months, it was frequently used as a topic of conversation for various types of media.

In this issue of "Business Week", the detailed information of the territory of the two major business empires under Eric's name, led by Firefly Group and Firefly Investment, is fully displayed in front of the world.

Firefly Group, needless to say, the largest media group in Hollywood, owns Disney Group, ABC Group, Firefly Film Company, Pixar Animation Company, New Line Film Company, Firefly Records, Bowei International Distribution Company, Digital Field Special Effects Company, Marvel Entertainment and a series of high-quality entertainment companies, last year, relevant institutions have made a valuation of more than $50 billion on Firefly Group, and this year, with Firefly Group's excellent revenue growth rate, according to 30% Its valuation once again broke through a new high of $65 billion, and for this alone, Eric Williams, who owns about 73% of the Firefly Group, will receive more than $47 billion in assets, which is $500 million more than his entire net worth last year.

The subsequent scale of the firefly investment company made many people jaw-dropping.

After a detailed investigation by the reporter of "Business Week", this investment company, which has been somewhat obscure since its establishment, has a high-quality company shares at this time, far more than most people imagine.

Check it out.

Yahoo Network, the first portal of the Internet industry, has been a well-deserved leader in the Internet industry in recent years, with a valuation of more than $5 billion, and Firefly Investment holds 80% of the shares.

Cisco, a large network equipment company, has a current market capitalization of $26 billion, and after nearly a year of continuous holdings, Firefly Investment holds a 26% stake.

AOL, an emerging Internet service provider, will be listed on the Nasdaq market in January next year, with a current valuation of nearly $5 billion, and Firefly Investment holds a 30% stake.

LTD Group, which owns famous domestic fashion brands such as Victoria's Secret, has risen with the annual show of Victoria's Secret for two consecutive years, with a current market value of $5.9 billion, and Firefly Investment holds 35% of the shares.

Nokia, a mobile communications equipment company headquartered in Finland, sold 7 million mobile phones in 1995, with Firefly Investment holding 51% of the shares, with an absolute controlling stake.

Sprint, a well-known telecom operator, owns a nationwide mobile operation network, and Firefly Investment holds 10% of the shares.

Qualcomm, the latest mobile communications technology company, has a large number of technology patents for third-generation digital communication technology, and is supported by mobile operators such as Sprint and Verizon, with Firefly Investment holding 40% of the shares.

……

While most traditional investors believe that investing in high-tech companies is risky, these companies generally need to invest a lot of money in R&D every year to stay ahead of the technology curve, and if they are not careful, they can be overtaken by their peers and quickly decline. But with the Nasdaq index, which is dominated by high-tech stocks, starting to rise rapidly in the last two years, and the rise of the Internet and mobile communication technology industries, few people will doubt the development prospects of these emerging industries.

As a result, the valuation or stock price of these high-tech companies held by Firefly Investment has doubled in recent years.

For example, Yahoo Network, a high-tech company with popular network products such as Yahoo Portal and Yahoo Mail, in recent years, Firefly Investment has injected a total of less than $600 million in recent years, but according to its current market valuation, Firefly Investment will definitely be able to get more than 10 times the premium income if it is willing to get rid of it.

Although the companies owned by Firefly Investment cannot compete with the huge Firefly Group, they are almost without exception the leaders in related industries, and it is conceivable that with the rapid development of the high-tech industry, in the next few years, these companies may even produce a single company with a market value that surpasses the Firefly Group.

If this prediction does happen, Eric Williams' net worth will reach even more jaw-dropping levels.

Such a business miracle happened to a young man who was not yet 30 years old, which made many people feel a strong sense of powerlessness.

In the midst of the uproar, Eric turned down a lot of media interviews and continued his life step by step.

During the Christmas schedule, MGM's "Mean Girls" and Firefly's "101 Dalmatians" were released at the same time.

Disney is a master of making family comedies, and the release of "101 Dalmatians", with its interesting plot and cute Dalmatian army, quickly conquered the Christmas audience, and received more than $50 million at the box office in two consecutive weeks.

Although the box office performance of "Mean Girls" is not as bright as "101 Dalmatians", but with the young audience market that has just been hyped up by "Scream", this school girl horse catching comedy still received $20 million at the box office in the first week, and $15.6 million again the next week, the production cost of this film is lower than that of "Scream", so just two weeks of playback has allowed MGM to recover all the cost.

While paying attention to the box office of the last two films of the New Year's schedule, Eric spent Christmas and New Year, but the first thing he did was to rush to Mexico, Rosarito, the set of "Titanic".

Although Eric doesn't like to see this as a situation, it would be a lie to say that he doesn't have a hint of vanity in his heart. However, this New Year is not just made up of good news.

At least, in the hearts of all the senior executives of the Firefly Group, the biggest bad news is undoubtedly that the "Titanic" project is out of control.

After a long period of preparation, "Titanic" began filming in July, and the original shooting plan was four months, which is probably all completed before Christmas.

However, when the end of the year came, the senior management of the Firefly production department who checked the filming progress found that "Titanic" At this time, the budget of $150 million has been spent by Cameron on $60 million, and according to the current schedule, it will take at least four months to complete the shooting, and the budget will also reach $60 million, so the remaining $30 million budget funds will not be able to meet the post-production. (To be continued.) )