America's Road to Wealth

Chapter 123 K Street, Washington, DC

Jessica was enjoying the food carefully prepared for her by chef Gary Danko.

another corner of San Francisco,
In the VIP box of Saison, a Michelin-starred restaurant with the same level as Gary Danko.

The return of the king was staged at CAA, and Michael Ovitz, who is now in high spirits in Hollywood, is receiving his BOSS and Anne Hathaway.

Anne Hathaway came all the way from Los Angeles.

She took an afternoon off today just to see her boyfriend.

It has been a little over half a month since Ovitz became the CEO of caa again.

During the past half month, Ovitz focused most of his energy on shrinking power and readjusting CAA's management and structure.

So busy now, it can be said to be finally free.

Just so Abel came.

Ovitz naturally rushed over immediately.

". Ovitz, you look much better now than before."

Abel smiled and teased Michael Ovitz, who was sitting across from him, "How is it? How does it feel to return the king? What does it feel like to lose and regain?"

"Hahaha~"

Ovitz smiled broadly and was clearly in a good mood.

"I have to say." Ovitz said happily: "Very good!!"

"Ha~ That's good." Abel shrugged with a smile, "I also believe that under your leadership, CAA will be able to regain its strong fighting power."

"Thank you so much for trusting me." Ovitz said softly.

Ovitz knew that without Abel's support this time.

It is absolutely impossible for me to go back to caa again.

Regardless of Abel's shares, most of them were contacted by Ovitz, and then Abel paid for it.

Ovitz knew.

These shareholders are willing to sell their shares to Abel.

But it doesn't mean that they are willing to sell the same shares to themselves.

Others don't say it.

Shareholders such as Bloomberg, David Geffen and the founder of Endeavor, the shares in their hands obviously cannot be bought by themselves.

These people are not so much selling shares for money, as they are selling a little favor to Abel.

There are also shares in other companies, even if I am willing to pay a premium to buy them.

There is also a high probability that you can't buy it.

Only Abel, because he is valued by Wall Street.

Coupled with sufficient financial resources, the premium can be much higher.

Only in this way can we buy the shares that Ovitz wants but is difficult to buy.

As a result, it eventually accounted for more than 38% of the shares in CAA, plus some shares of Ovitz, and some shares of Ovitz's original allies in the company.

In the end, a relative holding was reached, when the general meeting of shareholders was held and the board of directors was re-elected.

Successfully defeated the original management and made Abel, the largest shareholder, the chairman.

Then Ovitz, exercising the voting rights of the absent chairman, reappointed Ovitz as CEO.

Let Ovitz, in CAA, an entertainment giant with great influence in Hollywood, achieve a plot like The Return of the King.

The more Ovitz knew about Abel's strength, the more he lost his desire to overtake Abel in CAA.

Because he knows Abel's layout in Hollywood.

In addition to caa, there is also an entertainment model company that looks like an underwear brand, but is actually an innovative model.

There is also AB Smith Entertainment, which has strong capital and has been established for less than a month, but has already invested in many movies.

Elizabeth's back garden is okay, and it is still in the preparation and development stage.

Ovitz is not very important, but AB Smith Entertainment, Ovitz has to pay attention.

The company is not currently in the distribution and production business, and it focuses on direct investment in films.

Because of his strong financial resources and his decisiveness and directness, it is also very fun to give money.

At present, it has been regarded as the new big fat sheep by many Hollywood practitioners.

Everyone now wants to repeat the story of the year and let Wall Street know that Beverly Hills is not so easy to get into!

But insider Ovitz knows.

AB Smith Entertainment looks like a fool with a lot of money.

It has only been established for a short time, and it has already poured a lot of investment into many movies.

The performance of the Big Sheep is full of ten.

But what if the movies it invests in are all high-quality projects?

For some reason, Ovitz felt that way.

Even these investment projects, they don't look very good.

And if you take a step back, even if all these investments of AB Smith Entertainment are in vain.

This situation is a heavy loss to other Hollywood companies, even the Big Eight.

But Ovitz knew that this amount of money was nothing to Abel.

This made Ovitz more clear about his position.

After all, he really didn't want to be kicked out again after returning to CAA.

That would be really embarrassing, and I probably won't have the nerve to continue messing around in Hollywood in the future.

In the face of Michael Ovitz's grateful, even flattering attitude.

Abel was a little surprised. Fortunately, this attitude will allow Ovitz to better maintain his plan.

Abel also readily accepted, and he said:

"By the way, Ovitz, let me tell you something. I bought Marvel."

"Marvel?"

Ovitz thought for a while, "Is it the Marvel company that draws comics and sells toys?"

Goodness, before Spider-Man sold, before Iron Man refreshed Hollywood.

Marvel is really so inconspicuous in Hollywood.

In contrast, its several well-known IPs are more famous than the company itself.

"Yes." Abel said with a smile, "In addition, I am still negotiating with Sony and Fox to buy back the copyrights of Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four in their hands."

"Wow!"

Ovitz's eyes lit up, "Boss, what do you mean, how many movies are you going to shoot next?"

Abel nodded, not worried about leaking the secret in front of Ovitz.

"It's just that the negotiation process may not be smooth. Sony is okay. Even if Spider-Man is worth more, there is hope to buy it back."

"For the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, the probability is not high.

Fox takes it seriously, even if the first X-Men movie didn't actually make much money. "

Ovitz wondered why Spider-Man is worth more.

It stands to reason that Sony should take it more seriously.

How could it be possible to buy it back?

Will Sony be willing to sell?
Is it just throwing money at it?

Ovitz was a little puzzled, and he asked: "Compared to Fox, Sony's Spider-Man is obviously more popular. It is the only superhero that can compete with Superman and Batterman, and its popularity is even higher than that of Superman and Spiderman." Bateman is even taller. Shouldn’t Sony be willing to sell it?”

"Ha~"

Abel smiled.

"Spider-Man is more valuable and worth more money. But."

He was very meaningful and drew his voice, "But Sony is a neon company. Spider-Man is a well-known American hero. Spider-Man should be in the hands of Americans."

"Uh..." Ovitz heard the boss's explanation, some understood it, but some didn't understand it.

But seeing Abel's more confident look, he nodded.

"So. BOSS, what do you mean?" Ovitz asked softly.

"Next, AB Smith Entertainment will invest in Marvel. The focus is on Marvel movies, and Marvel movies will then shoot a series of superhero blockbusters."

"If you can get Spider-Man back from Sony. Then Marvel's first movie is Spider-Man."

"If I really can't get it back, then I will choose a few of Marvel's remaining superhero IPs to shoot movies."

"Marvel Movies is still just a grassroots company, and it has no ability to shoot and produce movies by itself."

"Michael, I need the help of Ni and caa."

Abel looked at Ovitz, "This is also my help to CAA. Because of these few movies, they will be movies with big investment. CAA and you can also benefit a lot from this."

"understood."

Michael Ovitz nodded decisively.

He knew, as Abel said.

If what Abel said is true, then it is really a help to him and caa.

Now that he has just returned to CAA, he will immediately get such a big order.

Then among caa, there will be no more doubts about his return of the king!
"I will do my best, please believe me, BOSS." Ovitz said firmly.

Faced with his performance, Abel was quite satisfied.

Abel was half joking, and said half seriously: "If you can really get back the copyright of Spider-Man. Michael, do you think it's better for Anne to play Mary Jane or Gwen?"

Sitting next to her, Anne Hathaway, who had been obediently and extremely quiet throughout the whole process, froze for a moment.

Then a happy expression appeared on her face.

That's Mary Jane and Gwen!
They are very well-known in the United States, and they can be regarded as the kind of American national girlfriends.

Everyone in the United States wants to be Spider-Man, and of course American girls also want to be Mary Jane and Gwen.

Michael Ovitz looked at the radiant Anne seriously.

"I think it's all right." Ovitz thought for a while after finishing speaking, and added:
"Maybe it's possible to just combine Gwen and Mary Jane into one, with Miss Anne playing it.

After all, this is a movie adaptation, not a purely live-action comic. "

What Ovitz added later made Alberto look at him.

Abel remembered, like in the third spider.

The heroine MJ is a combination of Mary Jane and Gwen, and doing so makes this role even more brilliant.

It's just that due to the skin color of the heroine, some people questioned MJ's performance in the movie.

But that's a problem with the actor, not the character itself.

There is no doubt that MJ, who is equivalent to the combination of Mary Jane and Gwen, is even better in terms of personality.

If you can really get back the copyright of Spider-Man, maybe you can really consider MJ's personality.

At that time, we will use MJ's wonderful character design, plus a generation of Spider Maguire's performance that fits the Spider-Man character design in the comics very well.

At the same time, in terms of CG special effects, if you add a little more money.

Maybe it's possible to shoot a better version of Spider-Man in parallel time and space.

And if Spider-Man can return, the Avengers series can be even more exciting.

It's just that there is a premise for this, that is, it is really possible to get back the Spider-Man in Sony's hands.

To achieve all of this, Abel felt that he had to look at the work of Meriot and David Jones next.

In addition, it should also be able to borrow the power of K Street.

What is K Street?
K Street is the abbreviation of a street in the DC District.

Starting from A Street near the Capitol Building in the DC District, followed by B Street, C Street...K Street.

K Street is exactly ten blocks from Capitol Hill.

This place is to an industry in America what Wall Street is to a finance capitalist.

This industry appeared very early, before Wall Street was even formed.

It has been around, it first appeared in 1808.

Abe, who had never had a chance to use K Street before, wanted to take Spider-Man back from Sony.

Besides money, the most powerful weapon you can use should be K Street.

Well, it still costs money.

I want to move the people on K Street, and I want these people to help me.

Absolutely impossible without money.

It can only be said that if you want to blame Sony, it is Sony behind the movie.

Sony happens to be the company of Neon, and Neon happens to be Wang raised by the United States.

If the copyright of Spider-Man was in the hands of other Hollywood giants, I probably wouldn't be able to use this method.

Now.
Can only blame Sony bad luck.

With that in mind, he stopped discussing the topic.

Abel and Ovitz also talked about how Marvel will cooperate with Marvel Movies and CAA.

After staying for about ten minutes, Ovitz noticed that Abel was not talking about work.

The founder of caa was very considerate immediately and asked to leave.

Abel looked at Annie's sticky eyes, even though Jessica had just squeezed a few hundred milliliters last night.

He is a little dick.

Naturally, the request for Ovitz to leave was immediately approved.

As soon as Ovitz left, Anne really became clingier.

Even though they were still in the box of the restaurant, she wished she could melt into Abel's body.

It made Abel almost not want to eat, he just wanted to eat her.

But now it is 2000, and shooting equipment such as pinhole cameras is very mature.

This kind of place is not his own territory, and it is absolutely impossible for him to do something too outrageous in this kind of place.

He, who is shaping the image of a positive super-rich man, does not want to fail halfway.

So he ate his fill immediately and left directly with Anne Hathaway.

Certainly not the Hilton.

Jessica is still there.

Although the hotel is so big, the probability of encountering it is relatively low.

But he didn't want to challenge this kind of management risk, so he took Annie to another Four Seasons Hotel.

After outputting more than 200 milliliters, Anne Hathaway fell into a deep sleep.

It was only when he was free that he went to the living room next to the bedroom and called David Mellon.

"Hi, good evening. David."

"Good evening." David Mellon said over there: "Although I don't know what else you want me to do. But just in time, I just wanted to report to you that our crude oil futures list has basically been sold went."

Abel was not surprised to hear the news.

Sell ​​the international crude oil long order in hand, this time Abel has set the requirements more than ten days ago.

"How's the profit?"

David Mellon replied:

"After deducting handling fees, commissions and spreads, the total profit is 13.45 billion US dollars!
God is above, by your side, sometimes I really think that I am playing a numbers game.

How did it become so easy to make money? ! "

Hearing David Mellon's excited voice, Abel smiled, and said calmly:
"My grandpa Alex said. With the right people, you can do anything with half the effort. It's the same with making money, David, you just have the right people."

"Okay. Although it makes me a little uncomfortable to hear you say that, because it makes me look a bit useless."

David Mellon said on the other end of the phone:

"However, our grandpa is right! Being with the right person is more important than your ability!"

"That's my grandpa!" Abel pointed out David's deliberate slip of the tongue, and he said with a smile:
"By the way, I want to ask you something. You are on K Street in DC, do you know anyone or a familiar channel?"

"K Street?"

David Mellon was startled,
"What do you want to do again?"

(End of this chapter)