hollywood melon man

Chapter 337 Merger and Acquisition Completed

"'The Return of the King' will not surpass 'Titanic.'" Michael Ovitz concluded confidently.

"Oh? Why is that?" asked Kazuo Kojima, a senior executive at Sony Columbia Japan.

"This is due to my keen judgment of the market." Michael Ovitz sighed and said, "You have also seen the power of Gilbert Jr. in the summer season.

Mr. Kojima, I think it is a wrong decision to release Spider-Man and Return of the King in the same schedule. We must change the schedule immediately."

The Spider-Man movie produced and distributed by Sony Columbia Pictures is scheduled to be released at the beginning of next summer, but the final chapter of the Lord of the Rings series, The Return of the King, will definitely be released during this period.

So Kazuo Kojima found Michael Ovitz, an expert in this field, and asked for his opinion.

Michael Ovitz's advice was simple: don't go head-to-head with The Return of the King. If they were released together, the best result would be that both would suffer, which would not be good for either film.

However, Kojima was a little unwilling to accept the result: "Why isn't The Return of the King afraid of us and hiding from us? Should we be afraid of him instead?"

"Because the director of 'The Return of the King' is named Gilbert Jr., Mr. Kojima, one of the best directors in Hollywood, and there are no more than five people who can compare with him." Michael Ovitz said this very seriously.

He has a love-hate relationship with Little Gilbert, and they have tried to compete with each other many times, but he has never won. But he really admires Little Gilbert, especially the Little Gilbert in the summer season.

According to the information disclosed so far, next summer there will be not only "The Return of the King", but also "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones", "Men: Black 2", "Minority Report" and other films, so the competition pressure is not small.

So Michael Ovitz suggested that Spider-Man should not only avoid The Return of the King, but also Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.

So Kazuo Kojima finally decided to put "Spider-Man" in the end of May to avoid the two super popular sequels.

This is a sign of lack of confidence. Spider-Man performed quite well in its previous life and was the first movie to gross over $100 million in North America in its first week.

However, "Return of the King" is too scary after all, and affected by the incident on September 11, "Spider-Man" deleted a lot of scenes, so it is normal to avoid it.

There was a scene in which Spider-Man was crawling on the Twin Towers, which was completely deleted.

In fact, this is exactly the effect Gilbert wanted, to announce the release date of "The Return of the King" in advance, to scare off many competitors and leave a relatively empty weekend for "The Return of the King".

If "Spider-Man" is really going to be released at the same time, both "Return of the King" and "Spider-Man" will probably suffer losses.

Gilbert Jr. even thought that if Sony Columbia Pictures refused to repent, he would instigate Marvel Comics to release an evil version of Spider-Man to discredit Spider-Man.

But doing so would not be worth the cost, so Sony Columbia Pictures fortunately did not hesitate.

As Michael Ovitz said, "Stay away from that damn summer craziness, Mr. Kojima..."

George Lucas's "Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones" is scheduled to be released on May 5, the third weekend after "The Return of the King".

Gilbert Jr. has communicated with George Lucas and will of course ensure that the two films will not conflict with each other's release dates.

Having said that, although the movie is a "Star Wars" series, to be honest, the quality of this trilogy is actually quite average. If it weren't for the "Star Wars" name, I'm afraid the result of the movie wouldn't be so good.

"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is scheduled to be released during the Thanksgiving period and will not be included in the summer season, so other films are not a concern.

It is worth mentioning that after finishing "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", Chris Columbus did not want to continue to serve as the series director.

Considering Chris Columbus's family-friendly and children-oriented shooting style, and the fact that the later part of the series is actually relatively adult, Gilbert Jr. agreed to Chris Columbus's resignation.

There are several other works, the first one is Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia" which has entered the post-production process.

Although it stars actors such as Al Pacino and Robin Williams, this suspense film is still not suitable for the summer season, so after discussing with the distribution department, Gilbert Jr. decided to put it in the spring season.

The other is the launch of "2 Fast Furious", with the original cast returning, including Vin Diesel who does not plan to act.

Vin Diesel has a bad temper. After watching the second film, he felt that his role was not as important as Paul Walker's, so he planned to quit.

But Gilbert Jr. could not agree to such a request, so he immediately asked Sheena Boone to put pressure on Vin Diesel.

No matter how bad Vin Diesel's temper is, he would not risk offending Gilbert Jr. and ruining his career in Hollywood, so he decisively agreed to continue acting.

Of course, in order to appease the actors, Gilbert Jr. still signaled to the producers of the series to increase the actors' pay.

It is an industry practice to increase the pay for sequels, so this is a natural thing to do.

Another is Gilbert's own small project "The Fault in Our Stars", a low-investment youth romance film.

To be honest, Gilbert has been starring in a series of blockbusters in recent years, giving people the impression that he only shoots blockbusters.

In fact, "Chicago" is a small production with a small investment, but the lineup of Tom Cruise and Naomi Watts looks a bit scary and has the temperament of a blockbuster.

After making too many blockbusters, it’s nice to change the taste by occasionally making a small and fresh movie.

Although it may seem a bit cheap, this is little Gilbert, and he is now entitled to be willful. As long as he doesn't go to the San Fernando Valley to film, he can shoot whatever he wants, and someone will always pay for it.

However, before he could start working on this small project, Gilbert Jr. had to complete the signing ceremony first and also go to China to participate in the actor audition.

After a long tug-of-war, Disney and Warner Bros. finally jointly completed the acquisition of Cantaloupe Studios.

The acquisition involves billions of dollars plus equity exchanges, which is quite complicated.

Gilbert Jr. was not very good at this kind of thing, but in the end, Gilbert Jr. became a shareholder of Disney and Warner Pictures and a member of the board of directors.

Disney and Warner each own 50% of Cantaloupe Studios and fully control Cantaloupe Studios.
"The latest news is that a few days ago at Disney's headquarters, director Gilbert Jr., Disney President Robert Iger, and Warner Pictures President Doug Walter signed an acquisition agreement.

The contract is about Disney and Warner Bros. acquiring Cantaloupe Film Studios, with the two giants each acquiring 50 percent of the shares of Cantaloupe Film Studios. ” - Los Angeles Times

"It is reported that after the completion of this acquisition, Director Gilbert Jr. will become the largest individual shareholder of Disney and Warner Pictures, and also a member of the board of directors of the two giant companies." - The Wall Street Journal

"I don't know what this means. It's irresponsible. Director Gilbert Jr. should belong to all of Hollywood, but I really hope that he doesn't have more choices..." - An envious and jealous film company president.

After the acquisition was completed, Gilbert Jr. was able to inquire about all the business of Disney and Warner Pictures. One of the things he did was to sign a new director's contract with Disney and Warner, in which a red clause stated that the film company could not interfere with his production of the film and his control over the crew.

If a fledgling director made this request, the film company would probably fire him.

But Gilbert Jr. is different. The reputation he has accumulated over the years has made the film companies trust him enough.

Hollywood producers do not have much power. If there is a conflict between the producer and Gilbert Jr. in Gilbert's crew, the producer will definitely be replaced.

What's more, those who can be producers of a film crew are all smart people, so how could they possibly offend little Gilbert?
This acquisition was a sensation, but the outside world’s enthusiasm was actually average. At most, it was reported by the media and discussed by netizens and then it was over.

However, the stock market was very lively. Almost in the afternoon after the signing ceremony, shares of Disney and Warner on the New York Stock Exchange began to rise.

In just one afternoon, Disney's market value increased from 440 billion US dollars to 509 billion, a surge of 69 billion US dollars, equivalent to half the worth of Gilbert.

Warner Bros. also performed well, with its market value rising to $129 billion, and its parent company Time Warner's market value also rising to $387 billion.

Given the original size of Warner Bros. Pictures, it is actually impossible to give more shares to Gilbert Jr.

So after consulting the parent company, Doug Walter exchanged part of Time Warner's shares and Warner Pictures' shares for 50% of Cantaloupe Studios' shares.

In other words, Gilbert Jr. is not only a shareholder and board member of Warner Bros., but also a shareholder of Time Warner and can join the board of directors.

However, judging from the changes in stock prices, Time Warner still feels that it has made a profit.

As long as the stock market maintains its strong performance, every time Gilbert Jr.'s film is a big hit, it will be reflected in the change in stock prices.

So this is also the reason why Wall Street tycoons have been cheated by Hollywood vampires to the point that their mothers don’t even recognize them, but they still enjoy investing in Hollywood movies.

As long as a movie becomes a big hit, all previous losses will be recovered in the stock market.

After the signing ceremony, there was a celebration party, and Gilbert Jr. attended with Cameron Diaz.

During the dinner, Cameron Diaz asked, "Honey, before your movie was split among the three of us, but now the three have become one, how do we split the revenue?"

Little Gilbert explained with a smile: "Of course it's a 50-50 split, after all, Cantaloupe Studio belongs to both companies."

"Doesn't that mean you have no income from the studio?" Cameron Diaz asked in surprise.

"Not really," Gilbert Jr. explained simply, "I am now the largest individual shareholder of both companies. When they make money, I make money. In fact, there is not much difference. I may even make more."

Previously, Cantaloupe Studio was not listed, so its value could not be reflected in the stock market.

But Disney and Time Warner are both listed companies, and the big sales of a movie can drive up the shares of the two companies. Although the stock market has ups and downs, as long as the overall trend is upward, you will always make money.

At this point, Gilbert patted Cameron Diaz's perky buttocks and said, "You haven't been attending class seriously. Do you want a layman like me to answer this kind of question?"

"Oh," Cameron Diaz said unwillingly, "I was just testing you! It seems you do understand."

"Nonsense, I'm not an idiot." Little Gilbert was speechless and rolled his eyes.

Seeing Robert Iger and Doug Walter waving in the distance, Gilbert Jr. and Cameron Diaz said, "Michelle, eat something first. I'm going to talk to Bob Doug and the others."

"Yeah!" Cameron Diaz had been eyeing those desserts for a long time. She waved her hand, took her fork and plate, and went to fight with the desserts.

Gilbert Jr. walked over to Robert Iger and Doug Walter, and the three of them went to a lounge to discuss something.

"As you expected, after the release date was announced, other films avoided us." Doug Walter looked very happy, he knew that "The Return of the King" would be another big hit next year.

Robert Iger said: "We will continue with the previous strategy and strive for Oscar nominations. In the third film, the Academy will definitely reward you, little Gilbert."

"Yes," Doug Walter agreed, "Congratulations, Gilbert, you are about to win your second Oscar for Best Director."

Although "The Return of the King" has not even been released yet, there will be no accidents. The Academy cannot ignore "The Return of the King" and must give it recognition.

With this, Gilbert Jr. has won the same number of Best Director Oscars as Spielberg.

Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese haven't even won the Best Director Oscar yet, but Gilbert Jr. is on track to win it twice.

The Oscars don't want that either. The Lord of the Rings series is a non-realistic film, which is inconsistent with the Oscars' consistent purpose.

But if the award is not given, the foundation of the Oscar system will be untenable. And the director is Gilbert Jr., so it is reasonable to give recognition.

Gilbert Jr. doesn't care about this. He said: "When the DVD is released at the end of December, I will edit a three-minute trailer and put it in the deluxe version of the DVD."

"This is good. The DVD with the trailer for The Two Towers sold quite well last time. I believe it will be the same this time."

“Even after the trilogy is finished, we can release a collector’s edition, a director’s cut and extended edition, and continue to sell them.”

The two presidents have already envisioned a bright future. Gilbert Jr. thinks that when James Cameron has mastered the 3D technology, the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy can be converted into 3D movies and make money in theaters again.

The last time he saw James Cameron was half a year ago. This technology fanatic has gone deep into the ocean many times to shoot 3D ocean documentaries.

James Cameron said he loves the sea and water, no wonder the second part of “Avatar” is called “The Way of Water”.

James Cameron also asked Gilbert Jr. to support his plan. He already had a rough outline of a 3D movie, but the investment would be very large.

Of course Gilbert Jr. would support it, and to be honest, seeing James Cameron's name, few film companies would not support it.

But how many film companies have the resources to support James Cameron? It's too expensive.

After the signing ceremony and celebration banquet, Gilbert Jr. set off for China to begin auditioning for the role in "The Adventures of Jackie Chan".

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the stars who are usually high and mighty have now fallen out with each other and are fighting each other to the point of bleeding because of a role.

(End of this chapter)