Chapter 832

"The game of the brave is a CG special effects based visual spectacle movie. The success or failure of the project is most closely related to the story and special effects. The main creator is of course important, but it is not the decisive factor. Therefore, there is little difference between Schwarzenegger and Stallone as the protagonists. Terry, I did tend to Arnold at the beginning, but the reason is that the characters in the script fit Arnold's image. Now that the story has been revised, Stallone has become the most suitable one, and the whole project has begun to be planned around Stallone. I can't change people temporarily. "

Private beach on the west side of domay point estate.

It's July 8, Saturday.

It was evening when Simon returned to the west coast yesterday, and Terry Semel came directly to visit domay point manor at the weekend without any work plan.

The two are discussing two film projects, game of the brave and evaporation secret order.

This is just the wave caused by the box office fiasco of judge SWAT in the past box office week. Disney's huge investment of 90 million US dollars is estimated to be only about 25 million at the local box office. In addition, the box office performance of the summer season's opening film "die hard 3" is also not satisfactory, which not only makes Warner Brothers pay more attention to Stan, who has signed a contract with the hero of the game of the brave Long has doubts, but also involved in Warner's sole proprietorship of another project "evaporation order.".

Schwarzenegger's new film evaporation secret order, which was originally planned to be launched in September for next summer, will reach US $100 million after the budget statistics are released.

According to last year's "true lies" global box office results, the $100 million budget can still afford. However, the failure of two old-fashioned action movies in a row makes Hollywood begin to re-examine this kind of muscle man's personal heroism to save the world.

Warner's top management began to hope to cut down the "evaporation order" for fear of risks.

This kind of thing is very common in Hollywood.

It's just that millions of dollars have been invested in the early stage, but the film contract signed with Schwarzenegger is not so easy to cancel, because it's a common "pay or pay" of Hollywood celebrities Simply put, after the two parties sign the agreement, because the star has left the schedule to the studio, the studio must pay the full salary stipulated in the star contract no matter whether the film starts shooting or not.

The "pay or play" agreement is just to deal with the situation that film companies often cut off film projects for various reasons.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's contract payment is $15 million. Warner doesn't want the money to go away anyway, so he has a whim. He hopes Simon can make Arnold replace Stallone in "the game of the brave" according to the original plan. This will kill two birds with one stone, which will not only help Warner cut down "evaporation secret order", but also get rid of Stallone's potential box office poison .

Compared with Arnold's "pay or play" with Warner, the strong danielis won't sign such an agreement with the stars. Even if it's Stallone's long-term contract, danielis doesn't need to pay too much if she wants to go back. Of course, it's bound to lose some reputation, which is not a big deal in Hollywood.

Seeing Simon's refusal, Terry Semel didn't give up and said, "Simon, as long as you agree, all the extra expenses can be borne by Warner. I can also release the news that it is our insistence that makes you have to change your mind."

Simon still shook his head: "don't mention it any more. I can't replace Stallone temporarily. In my opinion, what you should do is to find a way to reduce the budget of evaporation secret order. "

Terry Semel said with a wry smile, "do you think I would not do that if I could?"

"In my opinion, it's very simple to change the shooting location from the United States to Australia or Canada, even Europe, so that you can get a tax refund of tens of millions of dollars in the first place. Then, you can have a good talk with Arnold. Like Sean Connery, the whole crew is waiting to start, but he runs to play golf with his friends. This kind of thing happens less, and millions can be saved. Terry, in fact, last year's "true lies" is like this. If it wasn't for Denise entertainment, the cost of this project would be over 100 million yuan. As a result, "true lies" only cost 90 million dollars

When Terry Semel heard Simon say this, he immediately thought of the future water world.

175 million dollars.

In order to accommodate Kevin Costner's request for a comfortable shooting environment, he agreed to choose Hawaii as the world's famous tourist destination.

As a result, no one expected that the tide in Hawaii would bring so much trouble. The scenes worth millions of dollars were destroyed again and again, and the shooting cycle was delayed again and again. Warner had to spend money on this project all the time. Finally, the shooting cycle of three months was delayed as long as eight months. The whole project was completed, and the budget reached an unprecedented 1.75 100 million dollars.

Now, the future water world is scheduled for July 28, far away from the blockbusters like Jurassic Park 2 in the early summer season. Warner only hopes that this project will not fail too miserably.

It is precisely because of the lessons of the future water world that Warner is like a bird in a blue moon. He can't help but struggle over the two projects. You know, the Time Warner stock price, which has been dragged down by a project of "future water world", has not been able to catch up with the overall trend of the U.S. stock market for more than half a year.The Dow Jones index, which represents the market trend of the New York Stock Exchange, rose by 26% in one year from July last year to June this year. Compared with the lowest point of last summer, Time Warner's share price rose by only 18% in one year. Under the good situation of the US stock market, the group's market value is only 18.6 billion US dollars.

Without the drag of future water world, Time Warner's market value would have easily broken the $20 billion barrier.

The locomotive effect of the film business is too obvious, "future water world" is already a basin of spilled water, warner can not afford another similar failure now.

Simon won't change his mind. Terry Semel can only follow the advice of the other party and start from the project itself.

In any case, a budget of US $100 million must not be considered. It is only when it is reduced to US $70 million that it is in line with Warner's expectations. Think about next summer, the new 007, mission impossible 2, mummy and a series of films, it seems that they are more attractive than the evaporation secret order, and it's not a project solely owned by danielis.

Danielis entertainment has prepared a lot of projects during this period, such as the evocative movie, the new universe movie, James Cameron's Titanic, Kim Carey's new movie, and Jack Cheng's rush hour from the other side of the ocean. These projects either can't catch up or are not very similar. In a word, I don't know which ones will become the main ones.

If you want to ask directly, think about it or leave it.

It's a trade secret.

After all, there is still a competitive relationship between the two enterprises.

Walking together on a private beach that still has a cool summer breeze, Terry Semel hesitates for a moment and says something else: "Simon, did you meet Jack Welch last week?"

Simon nodded and wondered, "what happened to playing golf together on Independence Day?"

Terry Semel hesitated for another moment before finally saying, "I heard that Welch invited Levin to dinner last night."

Jack Welch, Gerald Levin.

Ge, Time Warner.

Simon's heart leaped.

This big butterfly seems to have inadvertently set up another great event.

If Ge merges with Time Warner, not to mention other businesses of Ge, NBC and Time Warner will definitely be a very close alliance. If the synergy can be achieved in the future, Ge will not give up its existing industrial business, but also become one of the largest media giants in the world, even compared with Denise It's not impossible.

When the time comes, the real two will stand side by side.

If things come true, Simon will have to admire Welch's foresight and be dragged down by a future water world project. He has gradually got rid of the haze of merger a few years ago. The stock price of Time Warner is seriously undervalued. Other than that, HBO of Time Warner is now separated and Simon is willing to pay $20 billion to buy it.

What's more, the film business of Warner Bros. has been the cash cow of Time Warner in recent years because of the strong rise of DC film universe.

It's a mess.

It's a complete mess.

Realizing that Terry Semel was still waiting for his reply, Simon thought for a moment and finally said, "Terry, I don't know about this. However, from a friend's point of view, my personal suggestion is that if this is true and a result is expected, then you'd better be more active in participating, so that you can get more initiative in the future. "

As the co CEO of Time Warner Group and Robert Daley, Terry Semel is basically one person, second only to Chairman Gerald Levin. Simon had been hoping that Semel could go further and replace Levi as Time Warner's chairman one day in the future to take complete control of the company.

Plans will never keep up with changes.

If Ge launches an acquisition with Time Warner, Semel will have to go beyond the parent company GE in the future.

On the other hand, Jack Welch is a professional manager who knows how to delegate power. Otherwise, the large-scale general electric could not be in order at this stage.

Therefore, if Semel still wants to take charge of Time Warner, he must actively participate in the possible acquisition, so as to establish a good relationship with Ge in advance and gain more say in the new company in the future.

Terry Semel hesitated and told Simon about it, hoping to get some advice.

Simon's quick reaction to what he said.

If things do happen, active participation is definitely better than resolute resistance.

With the current downturn of Time Warner's stock price, it is very likely that major shareholders and the board of directors will accept the acquisition of Ge.

The two chatted for a while, seeing off Terry Semel. Simon returned to the shell villa while considering the message Semel left.

This morning, the family did not go out. The women and children were playing in the open-air swimming pool near the sea of the villa.Simon walked through the hall of the villa to the side door leading to the open-air swimming pool. Two girls in swimsuits, Zoe parks and Trish Goff, were walking together.

Janet is not indifferent to Simon's lace these days.

The response is that this weekend, Trish Goff, who happens to be doing physical training for game of the brave in Los Angeles, was called to domay point manor as a servant girl.

Simon thinks that in the future, he should recommend less books such as a dream of Red Mansions to women.

Feudal dross.

Obviously, having been well adjusted by Janet, Tess Goff doesn't have any grievances and dissatisfaction on her face. Instead, she is able to integrate into the role.

Simon admired that.

Janet can even become a servant girl from a proud lady, not to mention a beautiful vase whose rank is too low.

In fact, many of the women around Simon are in charge of the training and placement of Janet, whether it's the small vases still in the cultivation stage selected at the beginning, or several girls raised in Ukraine, or even the already huge Uyghur maid and Uyghur female guard team.

Simon's not in the mood for that.

Over the years, Janet has taken care of it, and there has never been a special situation that bothers Simon.

Zoe and qusi see Simon coming, politely say hello to the host, see Simon asked, said that the hostess suddenly want to drink coconut water, they want to prepare.

Simon walks to the pool terrace. If it's not for Melbourne and Nick, who are under the careful care of the female assistant and maid in the pool, the situation here can be said to be very beautiful. Two Jennie and a group of maid guards are wearing all kinds of swimsuits. Except for Janet's sexy bikini, even though the swimsuits of Janet and the maid guards are conservative styles similar to women's sportswear, the foundation of the ladies is too good.

How do you say that.

Beautiful women can wear HF even with a piece of broken sack.

That's true.

He came to Janet and leaned down to kiss the woman before he asked, "where's SYL?"

Janet, who was just browsing through a folder, put the information aside and said with a smile, "Issa has it in there."

My daughter is obviously not interested in learning how to swim in the sun. She doesn't ask any more questions. She and Janet are huddled in a reclining chair. She glances at the document that the woman has just read. The title is a series of abbreviations, ITER. She has read it, but she doesn't pick it up.

ITER is the international thermonuclear fusion experimental reactor.

Some of the things Simon started in Ukraine in April have been quietly moving forward.

Among them, SpaceX has been established.

Compared with the company that used to be musk, SpaceX this time will cover as many fields as Simon described with Celia and girl a in Ukraine, such as launch vehicle, space shuttle, controllable nuclear fusion, space reactor, etc.

And SpaceX is just part of Simon's plan.

The professional consulting and headhunting team of westero system is also looking for candidates all over the world. It plans to set up a series of high-end life science research laboratories based on famous universities in the United States. Its main research direction is to solve the mystery of human life.

The pursuit of immortality is too illusory.

Simon is realistic.

With his knowledge of biology, he will probably understand that if he wants to live forever, at least within a hundred years, the chance is slim.

Because from the genetic level, human beings have been equivalent to a finished product from birth.

It's like a building.

Different materials and different building structures can exist for different times. If wooden buildings can be preserved for 20 years, the life of reinforced concrete can be as long as 100 years.

The human body, a "building" that has been built and formed, has also set a life limit because of its material and structure. Even if it is carefully maintained to the greatest extent, what it can do is to extend its life as far as possible within the limit, and it is impossible to break through the established limit.

If you want to make a change, you may need to construct genes from infancy or single cell stage, which is to replace "wood material" with "steel and cement", and so on. As for the "houses" that have already been built, they can only be repaired. Perhaps at most, they can be renovated and reinforced. After all, the basic materials and structures can not be changed too much.

As for ITER, it was a piece of information sent by some people in Washington who heard the news after the establishment of SpaceX.

Basically, I hope Simon can be a big wrongdoer.

ITER is actually a global project, but the name "International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor" can probably determine the content of the project.

In order to solve the problem of energy that has hindered human development, during the meeting between Reagan, then president of the United States, and Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, in 1985, they jointly finalized an experimental plan for building a large tokamak fusion reactor to study controllable nuclear fusion. After years of planning, the construction plan was initially completed in 1990.Then, in just a few years, the world situation changed dramatically, the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Gulf War broke out, the global multi-national economy gradually fell into turbulence and depression, and the ITER plan also ran aground.

The main thing is that it costs too much.

Five billion dollars, which seems like a small amount, is actually just building an extra large Tokamak device.

The Tokamak controlled nuclear fusion scheme proposed by scientists of the former Soviet Union in the 1950s and initially confirmed under experimental conditions has been controversial in the scientific community. Many scientists believe that the Tokamak device will only be proved to be a dead end and not worth continuous investment.

Therefore, if the project is completed with a huge investment of US $5 billion, the result is likely to be just a drift.

In addition, for other reasons, the plan ran aground.

When someone found that Simon was interested in these things, they quickly sent the information to him. If westero, a super rich man, was willing to pay, all the problems would not be a problem. Five billion dollars is not a big money for Simon westero.