"So, how are you talking?" Joseph looked at Hugo, who was walking towards him, took the phone, and then the two of them took another step towards the crew side by side.

Hugo paused, apparently still digesting the news, "Oh, Steven wants me to star in 'Saving Private Ryan'." ”

Joseph's eyes widened in surprise, "So suddenly? He didn't expect Steven to call Hugo because of this. And Joseph thinks more far-reaching, in recent times, "saving Private Ryan" can be said to occupy all the energy of the entire Endeavor elite brokerage company, since the "Los Angeles Confidential" and Warner Bros. negotiations have fallen behind, which has been further amplified, and the company can be said to be in a state of exhaustion.

The reason is very simple, with a huge crew of more than 300 actors, it is very difficult for even the three major agencies to complete the bundle.

Now that Steven has put his mind on Hugo, the subtext is obvious: there is no way to satisfy him with the cards in the hands of Endeavor Elite Brokerage at the moment. Even though Hugo was still filming "L.A. Confidential," Steven made the call.

In fact, it's far from that simple.

Endeavour Elite Brokerage accelerated the pace of expansion after the explosive reaction to "Independence Day", thanks to J. K。 Rowling's publishing, they got involved in the publishing industry; Thanks to Hugo's support for independent films, coupled with the big move of their direct rivals, United Elite Agency, they set up the independent film department; At the same time, they also ventured into the TV drama industry, signing a film starring David Chase (David). DeCesare) produced the episode "The **** Family (The. Sopranos)" and they are trying to sell the show to Fox.

It can be said that the current pace of development of Endeavor Elite Agency is accelerating, and their current number of agents has reached 70 people, and its artists have as many as hundreds of artists, including film, music, publishing, TV series, fashion and other departments, and the overall scale has exceeded that of United Elite Agency.

Therefore, the current period is a challenge, an opportunity, and a crisis for the company.

Stick to it, then Endeavor Elite Brokerage Company will go to the next level, and even have the initial qualifications to challenge the three major ones; Conversely, if it falls short, "Saving Private Ryan" is likely to need to be open to actors from other agencies, and the development plans of Rick and others will be disrupted, and in a serious case, it may also deal a heavy blow to the company's rapid upward momentum over the past three years.

High-rise buildings with unstable foundations are in danger of collapsing at any time.

Hugo had only heard of these situations, but he didn't know about them, because they weren't his specialty; But Joseph knew everything about the company, and he soon realized the huge crisis behind Steven's phone call. This is the business field, which on the surface seems to be a simple incident, but the chain reaction has the potential to create a continuous butterfly effect.

"So, what do you think of yourself?" Joseph did not tell Hugo about his worries, and even if he did, it was not now - Hugo had to devote himself to the filming of the film now, and when today's shooting was over, Joseph felt that he should have a careful talk with Hugo. Perhaps, Rick will have to come over too.

Hugo raised an eyebrow, "Accident? That was the first reaction, and he let out a long breath, "But I promised Steven that he would think about it and get back in the evening." As he spoke, Hugo returned to the crew, and Samora walked over to him, "The next scene is your rivalry with Charlize." ”

"So fast?" Hugo was stunned.

Samora shook her head, "Not at the villa, but at the police station, Ed called Lynn over to protect her, and then wanted to ask her if she had any evidence against Dudley. Now Samora has also learned to read scripts, which has helped him a lot in his work on the set.

Hugo suddenly realized what the scene was, and Samora continued, "This is the last scene in the police station." ”

Hugo nodded, and then walked quickly into the police station with Samora, preparing for the scene.

Joseph, who stayed where he was, thought about it for a moment and finally called Rick. Strictly speaking, he is Hugo's manager, and as long as Hugo's career is in full swing, there is no problem with his work, but the work of Endeavor Elite Brokerage has nothing to do with him. But Joseph also knew that Hugo was one of the shareholders of Endeavour Elite Brokerage, so the situation was more complicated.

Rick didn't wait too long, he picked up the phone, and listened to Joseph's brief account of the situation, Rick rubbed his temples, "Joe, when Steven called Hugo, he actually knew that I would definitely receive the news. If he really didn't want Hugo to tell me, he would have chosen to meet Hugo directly. ”

After a little awakening by Rick, Joseph immediately understood, "So, you mean, Steven is warning you?" ”

"I can't be sure what Steven's true intentions were, but at least there was no malice." Rick felt a little throbbing in his head, he thought about it, and still said, "Actually, Steven has already met Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, once by chance, and once by formal appointment. ”

A simple sentence is very informative. Matt and Ben are artists from an international innovation management company, and they are newcomers that Joseph has single-handedly discovered. Originally, Steven's meeting with the actors of other agencies was nothing special, but in the context of "Saving Private Ryan", and in the context of the recent development of Endeavor Elite Agency, it is not so simple.

"So, it's Marven behind the scenes?" Joseph reacted at once, and all the clues were connected. Marvin Josephson, the number one at International Innovation Management, is finally free to fix Endeavour Elite Agency. I have to say that although Marven is not a professional agent, he is indeed a good player in the shopping mall, and after quietly hibernating, he chose a wonderful time, and then suddenly made a fatal shot.

"It can't be said to be a means, it's just fair competition. However, the timing and method of competition are very ingenious. "Rick is a fact-goer, and they're inherently competitors with international innovation management companies, so whatever the means, it's expected." We've been going too well lately, we've been a bit careless, and we've been too greedy. ”

This is Rick's second exclamation since the frustration of the "L.A. Confidential" project.

Joseph couldn't help frowning, looked left and right, and then turned around and walked towards Hugo's RV, there were many people outside, and things were not easy to solve, "So, even if Hugo starred in 'Saving Private Ryan', the matter is still not over, right?" ”

Joseph's keen intuition was confirmed by Rick's confirmation, "Actually, it's a dilemma for us, but it's a win-win for them." Hugo agreed to star, they actually have nothing to lose, but the two top artists of our company are bound to one project, and it will be difficult to make a big move for at least half a year; Hugo refused to star, and we didn't have a corresponding replacement plan, so they caught up, such as Matt, such as Ben, or our other plans could not satisfy Steven, and our relationship with Steven was bound to have an impact, and more importantly, our bundle plan was not executed, and the blow was huge. ”

As you can imagine, "Saving Private Ryan" is actually just a project, not serious at all, but the subsequent domino effect caused by this project is the biggest problem.

To put it simply, Marven's move is completely an excellent move that can be attacked, retreated, and defended. However, it was only because they got carried away and were too aggressive, as Rick said, that left such a big hole.

"Also, we had problems with the TV series project, Fox and ABC didn't have any interest in the '**** family,' and NBC and CBS were still thinking about it. I'm not sure if Marven is in it, but ...... Either way, it's bad news for us. ”

In chess, you can't just look at one part, only by grasping the overall situation, can you sort out your thinking. Endeavour Elite Agency's embarrassing situation today has actually been accumulating for months, and Rick and they have been so immersed in the "Independence Day" and "Stormy" victories that they have overlooked many details. It is impossible to say at this point which details are the shadow of Marven, which are Rick's own negligence, and which are the normal reaction of the market...... But the outcome couldn't be clearer, and now Endeavor Elite Brokerage is facing an extremely difficult situation.

The stall suddenly became too big, and sticking to the past is a qualitative leap, and failing to stick to it is a failure. Just as water can carry a boat, so can it overturn a boat, so can ambition.

While Rick didn't say anything further about the company's situation, Joseph was aware of the seriousness of the problem. Behind the joy and forgetfulness, the crisis has unconsciously come to their side.

Rick and Joseph were worried, and the role offer that sounded like good news - and it was from Steven Spielberg - now had taken a prominent place in the dominoes, and no one knew what the consequences would be if the dominoes fell. However, for Hugo, he didn't think about it that much at this time, and he had to devote all his energy to filming "L.A. Confidential".

Hugo has been distracted in recent times because of the concern of writing the script, so he must concentrate while filming, otherwise the whole shooting will be a mess. Even "Saving Private Ryan" was temporarily left behind by Hugo at this time, looking intently at Charlize in front of him, preparing for the filming of the next scene.