Thinking of this possibility, and in connection with Paramount's precarious situation, Martin Davis could no longer suppress the anger in his heart, and slapped the dishes on the table and accused: "Eric, I wasted more than a week on Kauai, you can't just throw me such a perfunctory answer." ”

Eric was a little surprised at first, then smiled coldly and said, "Martin, are you making a mistake, I'm not your subordinate, please don't talk to me in this tone." And, from the very beginning, I didn't promise you anything. ”

"...... you" Martin Davis glared at Eric about to say something, and suddenly thought of the current situation: "Okay, Eric, what do you want?"

Eric shook his head slightly: "It's not what I want, it's what you want, Martin, you want to keep Paramount, but the current situation is that the other shareholders of Paramount want to cash out their shares because of the company's declining performance in recent years." So, to dispel those who want to sell the company, what Paramount needs most is good news that makes people feel confident about the company's future, not just a film or two collaborations. ”

"Good news?"

"Yes, for example, Firefly Pictures took a stake in Paramount," Eric said unabashedly about his destination.

This sentence silenced Martin Davis, and with Firefly's excellent performance in the movie, Martin Davis knew that this proposal would indeed be of great help to Paramount's current situation, but on the other hand, Martin Davis had a kind of vigilance that his territory was invaded by outsiders.

After thinking about it for a moment, Martin Davis said tentatively, "Eric. If Firefly and Paramount swap shares to form a cooperative alliance. I can promise you. ”

"I'm sorry. Martin, Firefly has no plans to bring in outside shareholders at the moment, I mean to buy part of Paramount by paying cash. ”

Martin Davis almost immediately wanted to shake his head, but resisted the urge and asked again: "How many shares are you going to buy?"

"Not much, 20 percent," Eric said, giving a number.

Martin Davis almost scolded. Twenty percent is not much?

"Eric, you know I can't promise you, and besides, now that you have control over Firefly Pictures, the Federal Exchange Commission won't approve it so easily if you buy another twenty percent of Paramount. ”

"Martin, why say it so absolutely, everything can be discussed. ”

Eric's tone didn't change in the slightest, but Martin Davis didn't have any idea of continuing to talk, if it was to swap shares with Firefly. Not to mention twenty percent, even a little more. Martin Davis is also happy to agree, after all, Firefly Pictures, which owns a series of high-quality assets such as Disney, Pixar, and the digital field, is an investment target that any capital force covets.

But he would not agree to the way of cash acquisition, because the sale of this stake is equivalent to handing over a large part of Paramount's power to Fireflies, and he has not got any bargaining chips to contain Fireflies. Although he is still the largest shareholder after selling 20% of Paramount's shares, the gap between his shareholding and Firefly is about the same, and Firefly may even join other shareholders to oust him at any time if he wants to.

"Eric, since you're so insincere, I don't think there's any need for us to talk any further," Martin Davis said, straightening up.

Eric also showed a look of regret: "That's just sorry, Martin, I thought this would be a chance for Paramount." ”

Martin Davis almost couldn't stand Eric's nonsense, but he only saw this as an opportunity for a firefly, and this young man did not have the childishness of a young man of his age, but like a man who had been through the world, and only wanted to rob while the fire was burning.

Seeing off Martin Davis, Eric returned to the tent, and Alan noticed the situation and followed.

"I thought you'd work with Paramount again," Alan said with a smile remembering the disappointed look on Martin Davis' face when he left.

Eric ate the lunch in front of him and said vaguely: "I want to cooperate, but unfortunately he didn't agree to the conditions I gave." ”

Alan could think that Eric must have made an unacceptable condition, and he was not too interested in it, but asked, "Eric, are there really no movie projects in Paramount that you can see?"

"There is really no one at the level of "Tornado", and as for the level of "Toy Condor", there is no need to waste time at all. ”

Allen showed a look of surprise, with the box office trend of "Tornado", the global box office of this movie is at least 600 million, Eric's requirements seem to be too high, but he also quickly realized that if it is not a film of this level, Firefly has no need to cooperate with each other at all, and then cooperate to develop a movie of the level of "Toy Condor", which will only compete with films of the same grade as Firefly.

Eric didn't care about Allen's expression, and continued: "Paramount's current situation is mainly caused by Martin Davis himself, he obviously doesn't understand movies, but he firmly controls the power of Paramount, resulting in professionals becoming puppets, and those directors or producers who have high-quality projects in their hands often hate working with this kind of layman. ”

"There aren't many bosses who are comfortable handing over power to professional managers," Alan said with a smile, looking at Eric meaningfully.

"So I still admire Murdoch for his ability to find a balance between decentralization and control, and if he had restrained Barry Diller like Martin Davis, there would be no Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Network. And when Barry Diller wanted to turn against him, Murdoch did not hesitate to part ways with him. Therefore, although the media often compares Murdoch to Lei Shidong, Murdoch's achievements are destined to surpass Lei Shidong, who is similar to Martin Davis's style," Eric said this, looked at his pensive assistant, and smiled: "Allen, you have been with me for four years, right?"

"It's only four years before I turn five months away, and that's when I was filming "Pretty Woman", I was originally your assistant director, and then Mr. Hansen said that I didn't find the right person for the time being, and I did a good job, so let me temporarily serve as your secretary assistant, and before I knew it, I was now," Allen's tone was a little embarrassed, when he applied for a job at Firefly, a company that had just emerged with "Home Alone", he was originally aiming to become a director.

"Do you want to be a department head?"

Alan remembered that Eric had been chatting with him lately about topics he wouldn't have talked about before, as well as temptations that had come out of nowhere, and finally understood Eric's intentions. Of course, Alan was very excited about Eric's proposal, and although the salary was very high with Eric, it also limited his development: "Of course I thought, Eric, do you have a suitable candidate for a secretary assistant now?"

"Not yet, but ......" Eric seemed to think of something, and laughed: "But your next one must be a woman, and she must be beautiful, temperamental, and capable." ”

"It's not easy to find," Alan laughed, and suddenly thought of a person's figure, "But there is a good current candidate." ”

"Forget it," Eric immediately understood who Alan was referring to: "Even if Liz agrees, it won't last long, her identity is there." Anyway, I won't let you go down immediately, just look for it slowly. ”

Alan nodded, and was about to leave, and asked again, "By the way, Mr. Davis is gone, do I still want to keep an eye on Paramount?"

"Of course, this is a big deal for Hollywood after all. ”

……

Martin Davis' empty-handed return did not surprise too many people, and the reason why Barry Diller did not make it to Hawaii was because he guessed this outcome, and he knew very well about Paramount's situation, knowing that Martin Davis would never be able to pay the price of Columbia, and Eric would not be so like-minded.

However, because Lei Shidong disclosed his intention to acquire Paramount, Paramount's stock price, which may be stimulated by the possibility of cooperating with Firefly, has not fallen, but has continued to rise. Although Barry Diller did not explicitly disclose his intention to acquire QVC, he made a series of moves that made it clear that he wanted to do so.

While Eric was silently following the situation in Hollywood, the filming of "Jurassic Park" was still going on in an orderly manner, and Martin Davis, who returned to Los Angeles, spoke with Eric several times on the phone, but no agreement was reached.

With the passage of July, the North American summer file has officially come to an end, and the two blockbusters of the Firefly summer file have entered the finishing stage, while Disney's side, Bowei's "Nun is Crazy" has some problems, because Eric is optimistic about this movie, Disney has increased its distribution efforts, but this movie has the same scale as "Strange Jack in Disguise", but the box office in the first week is only half of "Weird Guy in Disguise", when he learned the news, Eric himself almost thought that this movie deviated from the original track. However, in the second week, instead of falling as sharply as Firefly executives feared, the box office of "Nuns Are Crazy" rebounded due to word-of-mouth fermentation, although the magnitude was only a paltry 2%, but compared to those who were cut in half the next week, this result has made many people overjoyed. Although it is limited to the theme of black comedy, it will not perform too well overseas, but with its box office trend, it may even surpass "Strange Jack in Disguise" in North America.

So far, in just one summer file, Firefly Pictures has won 10% of the total box office in North America for the whole year, and many media have begun to predict whether Firefly will surpass Warner this year. (To be continued......)