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Thinking of this, Amy couldn't help but see Janet's smiling face at noon.

It is actually very common for Hollywood studio executives to consume some company benefits while fighting.

In the late 70s, it was exposed that David Bergman, head of Columbia Pictures, embezzled $6.1 of the company's funds to reimburse personal travel expenses, which once became the biggest scandal in Hollywood that year.

The matter was hyped up by the media, and Bergman took the blame and resigned.

However, within the circle, few people criticized Bergman. Instead, they overwhelmingly condemned the person who broke the news, thinking that it was making a big deal out of a molehill, and spreading the matter to the media would even discredit Hollywood as a whole.

The final result of the incident was that David Bergman left Columbia and was still flourishing, but the whistleblower named Cliff Robertson was rejected by the entire circle, and his career was ruined.

Ron Macmillan behaves like David Bergman, and like many Hollywood studio executives.

Having been in this circle for more than two years, it is obviously impossible for Simon or Janet not to know about this.However, Simon acquiesced to Janet and kicked Ron McMillan out of the company, which was actually a knock on the mountain, warning them that these company executives should not behave like other studio executives.

Whether it is mandating that the company cooperate to avoid internal fighting, or this time to regulate the behavior of the company's executives, it is enough to show Simon's ambition to continue to grow Daenerys Entertainment.

Obviously, if you can't keep up with his ambition, you can only be out.

"Amy?"

A voice from across the desk interrupted Amy's distraction.

When she came back to her senses, Amy sorted out her thoughts and said, "Nancy, the 4.25% annual interest rate is really good, and the priority is negotiable. However, you don't know Simon very well, so he probably wouldn't agree to mortgage Daenerys A stake in entertainment. Also, 10% is way too much.”

Nancy raised her eyebrows slightly when she heard the words, and in a blink of an eye, she roughly understood what she said, "Only a little boy will stick to his toys and not allow others to touch him. He is already an adult. Besides, I just explained However, there is no risk involved in this mortgage.”

"Okay," Amy smiled, glanced at a clock on her desk, and said, "Simon should have started working in Melbourne, and I will call him tonight to discuss this matter." thing."

Nancy then glanced at the row of mini electronic clocks on Amy's desk. The three clocks showed the time in Los Angeles, New York and Melbourne respectively. She immediately made up her mind to ask her assistant to buy a few clocks and put them on her desk later. , but said: "Let me call him. And, Amy, I think you should be stronger in front of him, and don't always be so obedient."

Amy nodded, instead of arguing with Nancy about the call, she just smiled and said, "He's our boss."

Melbourne.

Today is the second day of filming for The Batman.

Movie shooting has never been considered a fun job. The hotter the super blockbuster on the screen, the more tedious and boring the shooting process is.Moreover, the mobilization of a large-scale crew and the daily expenditure of tens of millions of dollars is also a strong pressure on the main creator.

The budget of "Batman" is very loose, but Simon still needs to face various unexpected situations.

Just two days after filming started, the crew encountered a very difficult problem-the issue of leaking secrets.

After all, Disney did not forcibly push "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" to the top of the year by buying the box office, and the box office of "Rain Man" has only just started.As a result, "Pulp Fiction," which grossed $1 million last year, is still at the top of the box office in 5693.

"Run Lola Run" and "Pulp Fiction" have two consecutive films, two consecutive annual titles, even without a series of halos such as billions of dollars in wealth, Simon's new film is definitely one of the most concerned by the media.

There was very little information about "Batman" in the early stage. With the start of filming, almost all the mainstream media around the world sent reporters to Melbourne, including a large number of paparazzi and die-hard fans of "Batman" comics.

Besieged by all-pervasive paparazzi reporters, it was only the first day of shooting, and many set photos have already appeared in various gossip tabloids.

The crew is filming as usual today, but the producer, Joe Silver, is busy publishing a 'copyright statement' on major mainstream media, while enacting stricter confidentiality measures.

If it was just an ordinary set photo, it would not be a big deal if it was exposed.But when it comes to details such as the Batmobile, Batmobile, the appearance of the leading actors, and even the script of the film, once it is exposed, it will definitely have a serious impact on the movie.

Daenerys Entertainment has previously released the makeup photos of 'Batman', other 'Catwoman', 'Black Mask', 'Batmobile' and 'Bat Motorcycle' are still being kept secret, the company will follow the schedule in advance The publicity strategy will be announced in due course.

Audiences all need a sense of mystery and freshness. If relevant information is published in the newspapers in advance, the rhythm of the film's announcement will be disrupted.

Fortunately, when it comes to film props and leading actors, these are all copyrighted.

The crew solemnly issued a 'copyright statement' through the media. As long as most formal media do not want to get involved in a lawsuit, even if they get the relevant set photos, they will not rush to release them.Of course, some unscrupulous tabloids who don't care about being sued are not included.The crew can only take a two-pronged approach and take precautions through stricter confidentiality measures.

In order to get in touch with the crew, the last two weeks have mainly been filming the literary and drama parts of the film.If you don't consider the surrounding disturbances, everything is in order.

Australia does not have the strict working hours restrictions supported by the strong labor unions in the United States. However, the crew of "Batman" still has an eight-hour working system, with filming starting at [-] am and finishing at [-] pm.

Today's filming is a few scenes of the headquarters of JANUS Cosmetics Company, the family business of 'Black Mask' Roman Sionis, located in a [-]-storey building in the center of Melbourne, next to the Yarra River.

Five o'clock in the afternoon.

The day's work ended on time, and the crew and the crew called it a day. The director's assistant hired by Simon after he came to Melbourne took the initiative to send over the director's script.

Simon took the script and temporarily stopped talking with Joe Silver. While flipping through it, he asked the young man with a round face and disheveled hair beside him, "How do you feel, Peter?"

The young man's name was Peter Jackson.

That's right, it was Peter Jackson who later filmed the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Now Peter Jackson is just 28 years old. Although his face is a bit round, he is not the big fat man later.A few years ago, Peter Jackson and a group of partners had just completed his first film "The Stranger of the Universe" in their spare time, but it didn't arouse much response.

Hearing that "Batman" is about to be filmed in Melbourne, and some local filmmakers will be hired, even though he is a New Zealander, Peter Jackson is excited to come here to apply for the job.

The crew originally looked down on this young man who just filmed an unknown cult film. After Peter Jackson expressed his willingness to accept even odd jobs, he got a job as a field assistant as he wished.

When Simon arrived in Melbourne, he found Jackson by chance. After some conversation, he was promoted from the field manager to the position of his assistant director.

Although he was seven years older than the young man in front of him, Peter Jackson was still somewhat restrained when facing Simon.

If speaking of his true feelings, he felt that the Hollywood production crew was too wasteful, but the cost of these two days was enough for him to shoot a few more "Strangers of the Universe".However, of course he wouldn't tell the truth, he just said, "Very good, Simon."

Simon smiled, not paying attention to Peter Jackson's restraint and caution.

As long as I can remember, Peter Jackson has always been a very smooth person, without the sharp edges and corners of the usual Hollywood filmmakers.This is actually very understandable. It is impossible to break into Hollywood from a small New Zealand without letting go of the reserve and pride of a filmmaker.

Now that Peter Jackson has been brought to his side, Simon naturally has the intention of supporting him, but he doesn't intend to encourage it.

Opportunities will be given to the opponent, but the key still depends on Jackson's own efforts.

After chatting casually, after checking today's work records and confirming that they were correct, Simon called several film creators to his side to discuss tomorrow's work arrangements before everyone dispersed.

The crew of "Batman" stayed in a three-star hotel called Kendall in the Collingwood area in the northeast of the city.

Although Janet's father hoped that Simon could live in Johnston's manor, Simon didn't want to travel long distances every day.The hotel had already been booked, so he chose to live with the crew.

Back at the Kendall Hotel, just as Simon walked into the lobby, Jennifer walked over with Sofia Fishy, ​​followed by some other people behind the two women.

Simon and Sophia greeted each other, and after listening to the women introduce others one by one, he took the two women away temporarily.

The three of them took the elevator to Simon's suite on the sixth floor. Jennifer took the initiative to go to the bedroom to help Simon find suitable clothes. In the evening, she was going to entertain those people for dinner, so she couldn't dress too casually.

In order to prevent the incident at the Plaza Hotel from happening again, Jennifer takes care of Simon's daily necessities, food, housing and transportation, even the servants responsible for cleaning Simon's room are sent by the Johnston family.

After a busy day, Simon sat down on the sofa and leaned on the soft back with some fatigue.

Sophia took the initiative to help Simon make the coffee, brought it to the man, and then sat down on the sofa next to him, saying: "About Gucci, I think this is a good opportunity. The second generation of Gucci in 1983 After the death of head Rudolph Gucci, the Gucci family has been in a state of civil strife. In order to compete with his uncle Aldo Gucci for control of the company, Maurizio Gucci, the son of Rudolph Gucci, reported tax evasion. Aldo Gucci was sent to prison. Although he has control of the company, Maurizio has no management skills, and Gucci has gone from bad to worse. After Aldo Gucci was released from prison last year, he sued Maurizio in turn · Gucci wants to split the Gucci brand, and even asked the Italian court to freeze Maurizio's shares. Up to now, Gucci has been severely damaged, and many members of the Gucci family are interested in selling shares. We can sell now, and we can even Get an absolute controlling stake in Gucci."

Simon held the coffee and listened to the woman, and asked directly, "How much does it cost?"

"Probably, 1.35 million dollars," Sofia said, and immediately added: "Gucci has more than 100 stores in Europe and North America, and their product lines are also very complete. What's even more rare is the value of the Gucci brand itself. If it is not With the turmoil in recent years that has affected the company's operations, such a price tag is certainly not possible."

Simon looked at the woman and said, "$1.35 million, let's not talk about that for now. Sophie, you originally told me that you wanted to start with the wine business first. Now, if I take over Gucci, do you think you can take over the company?" Are you ready?"

Sophia nodded without hesitation and said, "I want to try."

"It's not something you can do with a single sentence," Simon put down his coffee cup, sat up straight and said, "$1.35 million is really nothing to me, but you have to know how many people in this world are crying It is impossible to get even one-tenth of the $1.35 million in funding.”

Chapter 229 Gucci and Latour (Revised)

"The current value of Gucci is seriously underestimated, and it is difficult to get worse. If I buy this company, even if I really can't do it well, you can replace it with someone else, and it will still be profitable," Sofia said , hesitated for a while, and said again: "If you don't want to, there is actually another plan. I will use the money you gave me to buy 10% of Gucci's shares. As long as you can support me, the Gucci family should be willing to let go Give me control and let me run it. After a few years, if Gucci’s situation improves, you can consider buying more shares.”

Simon was noncommittal, and said, "What about the wine business you originally planned?"

"The backup plan just now was originally intended to be used in the red wine business," Sophia said: "My goal is Latour, which is one of the five traditional Bordeaux chateaus, and it is the only one for sale. The other Lafite Château Mouton is in the hands of the Rothschild family, Château Haut-Brion is in the hands of the Dillon family, and Château Margaux is owned by Felix Boutin. There are two original controllers of Chateau Latour, They are Pearson Group, which holds 75% of the shares, and Harvey & Sons, which holds 25% of the shares. They are both British companies. The main business of Pearson Group is education and publishing. Harvey & Sons, which is engaged in red wine trading, is in charge. Some time ago, Harvey & Sons began to seek to sell their shares due to the company’s operating difficulties. My initial idea was to take over the 25% of the shares and the operating rights of Latour.”

Simon listened carefully, and finally understood why the woman suddenly told him that she wanted to do something last time, and offered such "attractive" conditions.

"and after?"

Sophia looked a little disappointed, and said: "I almost settled with Harvey and his sons, but another British company, the United Leon Group, suddenly stepped in and took away the business."

Simon looked at Sophia's expression and said, "You were snatched away so easily, why didn't you fight for it?"

"United Leon Group is a comprehensive wine, food and fast food company with strong strength. Moreover, United Leon's asking price is very high. They not only bought the shares of Harvey and Sons, they are also seeking to acquire Pearson It is said that the offer for 75% of the shares of the Pearson Group has reached 1 million pounds, and it may be even higher if the transaction can be made." Sophia said, and explained: "Chateau Latour is very precious, But it is not worth such a high price. In 1976, Felix Boutin bought Chateau Margaux, which is also one of the five famous chateaux, for only 1600 million US dollars. In my opinion, Chateau Latour’s current The actual price should be around US$1 million, and Harvey and his sons and I had roughly negotiated an offer of US$2500 million."

1 million pounds, according to the current exchange rate of about 1 to 1.6 between the U.S. dollar and the British pound, is 1.6 million U.S. dollars.

Sophia's ex-husband's family was a wine merchant, and Simon did not doubt the woman's judgment in this regard.

Simon was actually very interested in hearing the name of Chateau Latour just now.

Latour, a long-established French national treasure winery, even if it is not profitable to buy it, it is definitely much better than those antique calligraphy and paintings just for collection.

However, since Sophia said that Chateau Latour is not worth such a high price, Simon does not intend to grab the advantage with United Leon Company. Still have to spend wisely.

Jennifer didn't know when she was standing quietly by the bedroom door holding a few clothes.

Simon noticed the figure of the female assistant, glanced at his watch, and said, "It's almost time, we will talk with the representatives of the Gucci family after dinner."

After speaking, he stood up, took the clothes from Jennifer, and turned to the bathroom.

In order to entertain representatives of the Gucci family, an Italian restaurant near the Kendall Hotel was specially chosen for dinner.

The founder of Gucci, Guccio Gucci, has a total of three sons, and it is now the third generation, and the family is very large.

After the death of Guccio Gucci, Gucci’s shares were not managed in a unified way such as fund trusts, but were distributed equally to all family members, which resulted in infighting within the family that lasted for many years.

Up until now, most members of the Gucci family have also realized that continuing to fight will only lead to the collapse of Gucci.Therefore, when Sophia began to intervene, and the three families confirmed that Simon Westeros, the newly rising young tycoon, was standing behind the woman, they quickly reached an agreement.

In fact, Sophia's ability to persuade the three companies that were in trouble to send representatives to Melbourne to negotiate the acquisition at the same time has already made Simon look at her differently.

Otherwise, if Sophia brought it up on the phone, Simon would directly refuse.

Although Simon slammed Sophia during the private discussion, during the dinner, he began to formally discuss the specific details of the acquisition with representatives of the Gucci family.

Simon did some homework in advance, and the dinner was a joy for the host and guest.

At around ten o'clock in the evening Melbourne time, the dinner was over. Although the transaction had not been finalized yet, everyone knew that the matter was finalized after the dinner was over.

Back in the hotel suite, Sophia still looked at Simon strangely.

The woman was not surprised by Simon's homework done in advance, nor did she mind the change in Simon's attitude before and after the meal. What surprised her was Simon's fluent Italian.

The Gucci family comes from Italy, and not many people can speak English, but Sofia can use Italian proficiently. The island of Corsica where she grew up is closer to Italy than mainland France.

Originally, he wanted to help Simon translate at the dinner table, but unexpectedly found that this man was even more fluent in Italian than himself.

Moreover, this obviously gave Simon a great favor from the Gucci family at the dinner table.

Sophia knew that Simon knew French, but Italian, which was a bit beyond her expectation.Thinking about the other things shown in Simon, the woman's instinctive curiosity became stronger.

How did a 20-year-old man grow up to be so dazzling now?

Entering the room, this time he did not stay in the living room, but came to the study.

Simon signaled to Sophia, who still had a weird expression, to sit down across from the desk, and took out a folder from the filing cabinet next to her and opened it.Just as I was about to say something, the phone on the desk rang.

At this time of day, the U.S. side would have some phone calls with him to discuss company affairs.Signaling Sophia to wait a moment, Simon picked up the phone, and the first call today was from Nancy Brill.

Simon was talking to Nancy in a low voice. Jennifer brought in a pot of coffee and poured a cup for Simon and Sofia respectively. Then she didn't leave, and sat quietly on the sofa next to her to read a document.

Because she habitually wears a ponytail, the female assistant hangs her head and reveals a white and attractive neck, like a tender white water onion that pretends to not exist but is actually very eye-catching.

"Okay, Nancy, you can mortgage, but up to 5%... Don't bargain with me, Daenerys Entertainment is already underestimated at $20 billion, don't even think about me agreeing to 10%... It has nothing to do with risk, if Citi If the bank can’t accept it, forget it.”

After discussing the loan and hanging up Nancy, Amy called again and talked about firing Ron McMillan.

In all fairness, Ron McMillan's ability as a producer is very mediocre. Without the opportunities of "Run Lola Run", he could only be an independent producer on the edge of Hollywood all his life.

Originally thinking about the partnership in "Run Lola Run" he stayed in the company. Since Ron McMillan deceived himself about the casting of "Scream" last year, Simon has no longer trusted each other.

With the continuous development and growth of Daenerys Entertainment, Simon has to pay more attention to loyalty than the ability of executives. He can allow executives to disagree with him, but he will not tolerate them deliberately deceiving himself.

Coupled with Ron McMillan's private life style that can easily cause trouble for Daenerys' entertainment, taking advantage of this audit to get rid of the other party can also be regarded as an end to Simon's concern.

After hanging up the phone and noticing that Jennifer was sitting quietly in the corner, Simon just curled the corners of his mouth, looked at Sofia across the desk, and joked: "I have some doubts now, did you two French women collude to want Pit me."

According to the information I have read, Nancy Brill immigrated to the United States after college. Brill is a standard French surname.

Sofia is of course also French.

In the phone call just now, Nancy insisted that there is no risk in Simon's mortgage of Daenerys Entertainment's shares, but Simon still did not agree, what he needed was zero risk.Under Nancy's entanglement, Simon finally let go of the 5% mortgage, and Simon still felt a little bit disadvantaged.

Of course, Simon also understands that with the increase of personal debts, it is impossible for the bank to simply allow him to get funds through credit guarantees, and it is inevitable to provide mortgages.

Sophia heard Simon say this, but her expression was a little dazed, and she argued: "Boss, I didn't cheat you."

Simon smiled and explained: "The company recently joined a French female executive. I have time to introduce you. The two of you, um, are quite similar in some respects."

Sophia nodded, waiting for Simon to get to the point.

Simon stopped talking nonsense, opened the folder in his hand and said, "I recently asked someone to collect some information about LVMH. I have to say that your thinking is very correct. However, you have never managed a company , and that’s what I’m concerned about.”

Sophia looked at Simon and couldn't help retorting: "Boss, you have no experience in managing a company before, and Daenerys Entertainment is still developing very rapidly."