In the next two days, Leeter and Kirkland followed Ovitz to visit MGM, Sony, and Warner one by one, and they were all president-level figures, but the results of the meeting were not ideal.
MGM's lack of interest in the script of The Matrix, let alone the $80 million invested in the film; Warner, on the other hand, refused to invest in the film because of anger at the "betrayal" of the Wachowski brothers.
Of the three, Sony was the only one that showed enough interest in the Matrix's filming plans, and while president Michael Layton was hard to accept the $80 million investment plan, it wasn't completely non-negotiable, but they had the added requirement that the heroine in the film be played by someone they had specified.
Because of Little's strong opposition, Ovitz ultimately did not agree to the other party's request.
As soon as he stepped out of the Sony Pictures headquarters building and got into the car, Kirkland couldn't help but question Ovitz's decision.
"We gave up on working with Sony just because of an inconsequential issue, is it really worth it?"
Little, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, glanced at Ovitz in the rearview mirror and saw that he didn't mean to speak, so he turned his head and said affirmatively: "I think it's worth it." ” Kirkland thought that Leeter was deliberately raising the bar with him, so he asked even louder, "Why?"
"Because we can't just focus on the immediate success and forget why we did it in the first place."
Little's words confused Kirkland, while Ovitz, who was sitting next to him, had a thoughtful expression.
Without anyone interrupting, Litte continued: "Judging from the situation we negotiated with Sony just now, if we accept the conditions they put forward, it is very likely that we will succeed this time, at the cost of sacrificing an insignificant heroine, but if we really do this, we can only win the present, but lose the future forever."
"Are you sure" Kirkland didn't understand much of what Littlet said, but he was sure of one thing, that is, Littlet didn't actually say it to him, but to Ovitz.
"Do you remember Mr.
Kirkland, that time you fished me out of the police station and took me to Mr.
Ovitz, when I said that I wanted to set up a brokerage company to replace CAA's position in the industry in the futureMaybe you just took this as a joke, but I mean it, everything I've done during this time, has been working towards this goal, and what you think is the least important heroine in the entire bundling strategy of the Matrix, is exactly what I think is the most important, if AG succeeds in replacing CAA in the future, It won't be because of anything else, it's just because of this. ” Leeter's words successfully stirred up Kirkland's memories, and he remembered that Littlet did say that he would defeat the CAA, but at that time Littlet focused on how to achieve this goal by discovering new talents, and the heroine he ignored seemed to be a newcomer, and Littlet even went to England himself because of her.
Obviously, Sony also sees the huge potential contained in the Matrix movie, so they will focus on the position of the heroine, because in such a unique style of film, the heroine does not even need too much acting skills to easily attract the attention of the audience, no matter who stars in this movie, it will receive great attention, and it is not difficult for newcomers to become famous in one fell swoop.
Back to the topic we just discussed, why do I work so hard to bundle the film, director, and actors together and sell them to the film company, in order to get a higher commission share, that is just one of the purposes, and more importantly, I want to make our own actors popular through such a bundle, if we give in now, this goal will be a complete failure, and in the future, AG will be a well-developed agency at best, but never think of being able to keep up with CAA" "By training new people to compete with CAA, you can make sure that this solution is really feasible, and even if it works, how long will it take to get there, twenty or thirty years."
Kirkland's question is very realistic, and now most Hollywood actors will not really enter the golden stage of their careers until they are thirty years old, and then they can continue to play the leading role in movies until they are fifty or sixty years old, because the screen is dominated by this group of "old people", so it has been difficult for newcomers to get ahead.
Counting on "metabolism" to counteract the advantages of CAA will be an extremely long process.
"In fact, it doesn't take that long, because while we are successfully launching newcomers, those actors who have already become famous will also be attracted to them, because newcomers can shine in our hands, and those actors who have become famous can of course go further in our hands, once everyone forms this impression, and even without us taking the initiative, some artists will take the initiative to come to the door, which is like a snowball, the volume growth rate is very slow at the beginning, but the faster it will be, As long as we can maintain our success, it will not be ten years before CAA is trampled under our feet."
Kirkland was speechless, so he had to look at Ovitz beside him.
Ovitz smiled helplessly at Kirkland, though it looked a little reluctant.
"You don't have to look at me, Litt is right, defeat CAA, that's what AG was founded for" Even Ovitz said this, and Kirkland naturally said no more, he was just a lawyer, and the business side of the company was not his specialty.
"So what are we going to do now, Paramount and Universal have no connection, if they don't accept our plan, do we have to go to those independent studios for help?"
Ovitz was silent, and Kirkland then looked back at Little.
Aren't you pretty good, let's say, what should we do now?
"Paramount probably can't count on it, the Titanic movie was invested by them and 20th Century Fox, James Cameron has repeatedly overspended, and they estimate that they are also having a headache now, let alone investing in a film with an uncertain future, but Universal Pictures we can try to contact it" Before Leeter could finish his sentence, Kirkland shouted "no", but did not explain why.
Leet wanted to ask again, but was stopped by Kirkland with a stern gaze.
In front of Ovitz, Universal Pictures has always been a taboo topic, but in fact, Ovitz and Universal have deep roots.
In 1988, when Japan's Sony Corporation was preparing to enter Hollywood, buying or buying a large film studio, Ovitz was invited to serve as a special consultant, because he dealt with Hollywood film and television stations every day, knew the situation of each company well, and had a very good relationship with the heads of major film companies, and he was also a rare negotiator, a super agent.
Large-scale mergers and acquisitions were the specialty of investment banks such as Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs on Wall Street, but Ovitz accepted the challenge and quickly helped Sony target CBS, and in October of the following year, Sony successfully acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment for $3.4 billion, making it the largest acquisition ever made by a Japanese company in the United States.
The merger caused a sensation throughout the United States at the time, and the media was in an uproar.
Because since the beginning of the 80s, all the major industries in the United States have been lost in the hands of Japanese companies, and the most notable point is that the Americans have driven Japanese cars, and now, the Japanese have even bought Columbia.
You know, Colombia is a symbol of American film and television culture, and even the registered trademark is the Statue of Liberty in the United States, so many Americans are worried: Do the Japanese plan to seize even American culture?
There was a widely circulated joke at the time, saying that in a school class, the teacher asked who said the aphorism, and the class was silent, and a Japanese man stood up and answered, Franklin.
After praising the Japanese students, the teacher criticized the American students for not knowing as much about their country's history as the Japanese.
At this time, an American student whispered, "Kill the Japanese," and the teacher was very angry and asked loudly, "Who said that?"
but heard all the American students reply in unison: "Truman."
This shows how unkind the Americans were to the Japanese at that time.
As the initiator of all this, Ovitz not only received a commission of $8 million from the deal, but Sony also intended to invite Ovitz to be the president of Columbia Pictures Entertainment, but Ovitz was reluctant to work hard to build the brokerage kingdom at that time, and the two sides did not negotiate in the end.
Following Sony, another Japanese company, Panasonic, is also preparing to enter Hollywood, they found Ovitz, and then Ovitz recommended to them that even Sony had not been able to win Universal, but due to the large scale of the Universal company, involving many interest groups, coupled with media attention, peer pressure, and the uneasiness of many Hollywood bigwigs such as David Geffen, and even the reverse operation, the marriage between Panasonic and Universal has almost become an impossible task.
But Ovitz did not give up, he spent nearly a year, avoiding the tracking of the media, secretly and frequently shuttling between Japan and the United States, bridging the two sides, and finally in September 1990, Panasonic announced the acquisition of Universal for $65.9 billion, from which Ovitz received $40 million in compensation, which not only made Hollywood colleagues jealous and crazy, but even Wall Street looked sideways.
The matter was not over five years later, when Panasonic found that Hollywood was not fun and was ready to withdraw, Ovitz successfully introduced Universal to Seagram, almost playing the movie giant in the palm of his hand.
Just like Ovitz helped Sony acquire Columbia, Seagram also intended to hire Ovitz as the company's president, but the difference is that Ovitz had already brought the CAA to the top of what he thought it was, and there was no challenge for him to stay at the agency, so he began to seriously consider accepting Universal's request.
But at this time, Universal made a surprising decision, they hired another founder of CAA, Ron Meyer, as the company's president, at a time when Ovitz himself was negotiating with Universal's parent company, and the press was rumoring that he would be Universal's president.
Universal's poaching Meyer, of course, is not entirely Universal's or Meyer's idea, and it also involves a complex struggle in Hollywood, but this move is undoubtedly equivalent to giving Ovitz a slap in the face in front of the entire Hollywood.
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Ovitz was furious and accepted Disney's invitation without much thought, originally planning to roll up his sleeves and take Disney and Universal to prove how stupid Universal's original decision was, but he didn't expect that he had to be "kicked out" of the company with a high compensation before he sat in the position of Disney president for a year.
If it weren't for the stimulation of Universal, Ovitz would not have gone to Disney as soon as his head was hot, and then there would be no humiliation in the future, so if he was seriously investigated, this account would have to be counted on Universal's head.
The enmity between the two sides is getting bigger and bigger.
Little's proposal to go to the world for cooperation at this time is undoubtedly a taboo for Ovitz.
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