After a brief and awkward silence, Jude realized that he had said something he shouldn't have said.

Before she could explain, Kate hurriedly hung up the phone after dropping an apology in a panic.

Hearing the busy sound on the phone, Jude could only shrug helplessly, but his mind at the moment had already flown to Toronto, but he didn't think much about Kate's reaction after hearing this.

"Oh my God, what's wrong with me?"

Kate hugged her hot cheeks and couldn't help but ask herself in the mirror.

In the past few days back in the UK, she found that Jude's shadow would appear in her mind from time to time, could she ...... Kate was a little afraid to continue thinking.

Maybe you should call him and explain it clearly!

As soon as this thought came to me, the phone rang.

"Hey, I was about to call you, ...... just now" Kate quickly picked up the microphone and said a few words before realizing that she wasn't sure if the call was from Jude.

Just as she was stunned, another man's voice rang on the other end of the phone.

"Kate, are you okay?" Mike Sheen asked, a little worried.

He and Kate had made an appointment to have dinner together, and by this time he had already driven downstairs to Kate's rented apartment.

"I'm fine, the water in the kitchen was boiling just now, and I was busy turning off the fire." Kate lied.

This time when he returned to the UK, Mike Sheen took the initiative to come to the door, not only sincerely apologized to her and asked for forgiveness, but also vowed that he would never interfere with any of her decisions in the future, and finally the two got back together.

In this case, Kate only chooses to hide part of the truth.

Over the phone, Mike Sheen didn't notice Kate's abnormality, and only said that he was waiting downstairs and asked Kate to come down as soon as possible.

"Okay."

Kate hugged the microphone and let out a long sigh of relief.

Removing her coat from the hanger, Kate took one last look at the phone in the living room before leaving the door.

He probably won't call again today, right?

After dismissing this possibility, she closed the door and left.

――

Late at night, the lights were still on in one of the offices of New Line Films.

Shay-White, who had recovered from his contemplation, picked up the coffee cup on the table and took a sip only to realize that it was already cold.

"Lisa, get me another hot cup of coffee!"

He yelled at the door, waited for a moment without responding, and suddenly realized that it was midnight and everyone else in the company had already left work, including his assistant.

In desperation, Shay had no choice but to walk out of the office with a cup and prepare his own hot coffee.

Recently, there has been rumors throughout the company that the parent company Turner Group is going to buy Time Warner, and if this is true, then the future situation of New Line is a little bad.

Being able to build a relationship with Warner, one of the eight major film companies, is something that many independent studios dream of, but it does not include the new line.

This is a headache for Shay recently, although after the new line was acquired by the TV giant Turner Group last year, Shay still holds a major stake in the new line company and enjoys the company's independent management rights, but at that time, the Turner Group did not have a mainstream film company like Warner, and all kinds of resources and channels will be inclined to the new line, and now that they have Warner, the situation is very different.

And that's not what Shay worries the most.

Although New Line and Warner belong to the same Turner Group, its film business is not related to other film companies within the group, but if the group's top management feels that it is not necessary to own two film companies at the same time, and finally forcibly merges New Line and Warner, this is not what Shay wants to see.

Starting by distributing horror films, the new line developed into a "mini-mainstream studio" in the late 80s, second only to the eight major film companies, with its own art department, and its main business includes home video products, film and television rights trading, and overseas distribution. In 1990, it became Hollywood's premier independent production company by purchasing the Hong Kong Golden Harvest film "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" from Fox, which he did not dare to distribute, and became a success.

If the company is forcibly merged with Warner, this will all be history.

Warner, on the other hand, has every reason to convince the group's top brass to support the plan to "annex" the new line company.

In the context of media globalization, Hollywood has set off a wave of mergers and acquisitions since the 90s: the merger of MGM and United American; Viacom's acquisition of Paramount; Western Gulf Oil acquires Paramount United Cinemas; Turner Group acquires Warner Bros. and merges with AOL to form Time Warner; media mogul Murdoch's News Corp. buys 20th Century Fox; Canadian liquor tycoon's acquisition of Universal; Sony acquires Colombia.

This round of cross-industry industrial restructuring and international capital restructuring not only involves mainstream Hollywood film companies, but even independent production companies are also involved.

First of all, independent films are increasingly being recognized by the market; secondly, independent films are gradually beginning to become the darlings of the Oscars, and mainstream film companies also need the affirmation of the Oscars to establish their corporate image; Finally, while mainstream production companies produce "high-concept" box office bombs, they also need to supplement the market with low- and medium-cost films, and independent production companies have naturally become the focus of these companies' "hunting".

Last year, Disney acquired Miramax, the industry's largest independent production company, and the new line was also "recruited" by the Turner Group in disguise, and Fox is also actively planning to set up an independent production company called Searchlight.

All of this gave Shea a strong sense of urgency, and if New Line could not come up with a work that proved its independent existence before Warner persuaded the group's top management to agree to the merger, the merger would become a reality.

So these days, Shay has completely confined himself to his office, watching films and reading scripts every day, hoping to find a work that will bring the new line out of its current predicament.

Standing in front of the coffee machine, Shay's mind was full of movie-related things, and his eyes inadvertently swept over the desk of his assistant Lisa, and then saw a bulging paper bag.

A line of scribbled handwriting indicates that the paper bag contains a box of videotapes, presumably just sent from the mailing department, and the director and actors are not well-known, so they were left here.

In normal times, Shay would not have paid attention to such "shoddy" films, and similar dailies would receive a lot of them every day, and they would eventually be disposed of as garbage.

But the tape caught Shay's attention because of its name.

This man is from Earth? Looks kind of interesting.

Shay weighed the paper bag in his hand, walked into the office with his coffee, and slipped the tape into the projector.