King of Hollywood
Chapter 406 - 128: Inventory Check

Chapter 406: Chapter 128: Inventory Check

Previously, I mentioned that because Dennis intervened at just the right moment when Winona and Depp had just started dating, he successfully snatched her away. This is why the rumors about discord, which should originally have surrounded Depp and Winona, now plagued him instead. This is quite an interesting matter, suggesting that the media and Winona aren’t entirely at odds, though there have been frequent reports of her ambiguous relationships with various people during filming. Yet, for the most part, the media has taken her side.

However, they always focus relentlessly on her, twisting any news about Winona to scandal sooner or later, a treatment neither Depp nor Dennis received. If Depp’s media dislike could be attributed to his "bad boy" image, Dennis always maintained a good image, even when his scandal with Aniston was confirmed, his public image as a good man didn’t change much. Why is this?

"Probably because of the ’Milky Scent Faction’ backlash," Adrian mused aloud while looking at the newspaper’s exaggerated coverage of the love triangle.

The term "Milky Scent Faction" was coined in the ’80s by veteran actors for rapidly famous stars like Tom Cruise, implying their discontent with how quickly these young actors became famous. Although this trend was evident, and Adrian was aware that numerous young actors would rise to fame rapidly into the 21st century—whether they could maintain it was another matter—it didn’t stop those actors from complaining. Winona’s unpopular phase was roughly during this period’s end; it was normal for her not to be favored. Yet, coincidentally, she fit the public aesthetic well and was popular, consistently maintaining the "Pure Girl" image, thus creating such contradictions.

Of course, these were Adrian’s speculations, the exact details he couldn’t be certain of since he wasn’t omniscient. Regarding the media’s behavior, he could only let it go, only moderately urging his own media outlets to be cautious, though, in reality, neither ABC nor TBS needed the reminder. Over fabricating stories would only damage their reputation. As for the acquired newspapers... better left unmentioned.

The current situation with AC Media was that TBS was performing the best, there was no need to mention CNN; Ted Turner indeed had vision and ideas. In entertainment, targeted at the youth, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was getting decent ratings among cable networks, and Sarah, the lead actress, was gradually becoming the favorite among those viewers. "Millionaire" was still popular due to proper adjustments showing no sign of fatigue, and "Sex and the City," though fluctuating, had cumulated a wealth of experience on TNT with executive backing, catching up with HBO was only a matter of time.

Then came ABC and the three main film companies, "Everybody Loves Raymond" wasn’t as explosive as "Friends" but attracted many family viewers, maintaining stable ratings always at the top tier. The revamped "Survivor" was on a rebound, gradually overcoming its initially awkward position. ABC itself had some depth, with quite a few decent TV shows and programs. Although it might not turn a profit this year, the losses were estimated to be significantly less than before.

No need to talk about the three main film companies. With Miramax and New Line sharing in the bounty, Bossworth’s position had declined a bit, and profits were somewhat reduced, but they also weren’t always in the spotlight like two years ago. Both New Line and Miramax were developing well, especially New Line; "Independence Day" was as popular as "Saving Private Ryan," and Robert Shaye strutted around evidently pleased with himself.

But he wouldn’t be so lucky next time. Although Adrian and Claude both quite admired Shaye, New Line was different from Miramax; Miramax also had independent operational rights but was a wholly-owned subsidiary of AC Media, while New Line still had some shares in Shaye’s hands. If AC Media wanted to do something to New Line, they either had to get Shaye’s approval or kick him out.

Large companies don’t appreciate such situations. Although Adrian didn’t mind, he already had a rough plan for these three movie companies in his mind. Giving Shaye some benefits was okay, but not letting him gain too much power.

"In my plan, there’s one last piece of the puzzle, and I believe we can fit it in after next year," Adrian told Claude.

"You really don’t have small ambitions, Ed." Claude said with a laugh after knowing his specific approach, "Are you sure we can really handle it?"

"There won’t be a problem, even if it doesn’t work out next year, there will still be opportunities in the following years," Adrian was unconcerned, "Of course, provided that the most important tasks this year and the next are completed smoothly."

The reason for waiting until next year to put the final piece of the puzzle in place was primarily because the opportunity to raise money was right at hand. ABC and TBS were behemoths, and as an emerging media company, it took substantial capital to take them over. Even so, acquiring ABC still required significant financing, and although Adrian could choose to continue to finance, as long as the two together retained no less than 35%, he could still keep the company firmly under control.

However, in Adrian’s view, this was somewhat risky. Even if sharing control with others was inevitable — the board had already added two more people — why not share it when it was valuable? Especially when there was a golden opportunity to raise funds right in front of him.

"They won’t last long, I offered them 500 million US Dollars," Claude reassured Adrian, "and it’ll be hard for them to refuse. I have already started arranging things on the other side to ensure there are no mistakes."

"Just 500 million US Dollars..." Adrian couldn’t help but softly express his amazement.

Of course, this referred to the acquisition of Marvel, a veteran comic company that, with its 5000 comic characters, was as renowned as DC. Describing it as being on its last legs might be an exaggeration, but it certainly was struggling. Due to poor management, they had begun to shut down some inconspicuous departments, such as film production and animation production.

But who could have imagined that just three years later, this company would miraculously be reborn? In the first decade of the 21st century, most of the comic heroes who made it to the big screen and were popular came from them. Marvel not only turned around but also achieved development not to be underestimated. Aside from Adrian, no one would have guessed Marvel would undergo such a transformation at that time.

How much did Disney pay when they acquired Marvel? Was it 50 billion or 40 billion? Adrian wondered to himself. Now, they could own it for just one-tenth of that cost — it was practically a robbery!

He initially wanted to remind Claude to secure Marvel as soon as possible, but after thinking it over, he decided against it. There had been movies that used CG before "Independence Day," like "Terminator 2" and "Jurassic Park," but nobody had thought of targeting Marvel because of it. Moreover, the CG scenes in "Independence Day" still felt somewhat unrealistic. Large-scale application of CG in movies started with "Titanic," so as long as they completed the acquisition before then, there would be no problem.

That said, apart from Adrian, basically no one else could foresee Marvel’s future.

With Marvel in its portfolio, AC Media’s publishing company could probably stay in the third tier alongside the record company. Although the record company hadn’t developed particularly well in recent years, the artists they launched were still popular. Moreover, they had just acquired Motion Records recently. If they maintained this momentum and built up enough strength, playing the two cards they held all at once would surely take them to the next level.

The same was true for the publishing company. Once the "Harry Potter" series began to pull its weight, it would inevitably bring in more profits. Adrian also remembered the names of several best-selling novels—approaching the original authors for ideas and then publishing them was entirely feasible.

As for other areas, Pixar was already funding their second and third animated films, and with all staff on board, a second success was almost certain. Blizzard and several other game studios also made a decent profit from the games they produced, and the feedback suggested they were all developing well.

On the IT side, they had circled quite a lot of money. Apart from some that needed to be kept, almost all followed the "invest—surge in online users—sell" model, operated entirely according to Adrian’s intentions. Although it was a pity, in two more years the IT industry would be even crazier, but it was still better to be content with what one had.

Perhaps the most unremarkable was the "Victoria’s Secret" sold by Claude. So far, their profitability hadn’t changed much, which was normal; "Victoria’s Secret" did have some initial discomfort at the beginning, after all, AC Media was a media company, seemingly not much related to lingerie products.

However, by now they had mostly adjusted, and anyone capable of running a company and expanding it to a certain size was no fool. The executives from Victoria’s Secret had all chosen to stay after the acquisition because they saw the advantages and prospects of AC Media and, with Adrian’s networking, were completely reassured when Cindy Crawford was invited to be the spokesperson. Although they were still ironing things out with ABC, they believed that, over time, they would not be disappointed.

In short, AC Media was just like its young and vibrant owners, also possessing significant ambitions and making strides in various domains. Yet, despite such achievements, they still had considerable ground to cover compared to the veteran media conglomerates, especially in areas like newspapers and magazines.

After all, these print media had been around for a long time and had been mostly carved up through decades of transformation. The ownership structures were also more complex compared to those of broadcasting companies, making it exceedingly difficult for new media companies to break in unless major changes occurred. Murdoch’s acquisition of The Times hadn’t been easy, and News Corporation only owned the New York Post in the U.S., predominantly relying on luck (the Wall Street Journal was acquired in 2007).

Faced with this situation, Adrian didn’t have an effective solution either. Although he believed that traditional print media would eventually vanish with time, he certainly wouldn’t see that day, so owning one or two decent newspapers or magazines would benefit the entirety of AC Media. However, Adrian was not omnipotent and there wasn’t much in this area to refer to, except knowing that Warner had contemplated selling Time, but that was a decision made much later.

"It’s okay, too extensive a development is not always good. Once it crosses the knowable limits, it might even collapse," Adrian could only comfort himself with these thoughts.

His mind was not devoid of ideas. After all, the version of him from 90 years ago had learned a thing or two in college, and the current him had amassed a wealth of information. After years of immersion, he knew quite a bit and making some decisions was still possible, but evidently there was still much to be done, so he pushed those thoughts aside.

After the premiere of "Broken Arrow," there weren’t other films that caught his attention, so he shifted his focus to the post-production of "Eyes Wide Shut." Worth mentioning is that, although "Broken Arrow" had a decent first-week box office of nearly 20 million US Dollars, it was nothing compared to "Saving Private Ryan" and "Independence Day." Harvey Weinstein was quite depressed about this while other film companies clapped their hands in celebration.

They all said in their hearts, finally endured it! Although there was a hint of self-mockery, the power of the Miracle Director was indeed evident.

The post-production of "Eyes Wide Shut" wasn’t anything special; most of the score consisted of old songs or symphonies selected earlier, and as for the initial editing, Adrian rarely shot any excess footage, so it was simply a matter of letting the editor do his job according to his instructions, except for one thing—

"Mr. Adrian, is something missing here?" asked the editor, holding a memo, after the initial editing of the opening party.

"Yes, I have some other considerations about that for the moment, you don’t need to worry about this part," Adrian said after reviewing the key points.

The editor had no doubts and left, and after Adrian stretched and yawned, he chuckled. The missing footage was exactly the scene of Cruise fantasizing about his wife’s infidelity—yes, the one where Adrian had a cameo and fought a real battle with Nicole Kidman on the set that he had immediately taken and kept. How could he possibly give it to the editor to cut?

"Of course, I shall edit it myself," Adrian said with a light laugh, still occasionally pulling it out to enjoy.

The entire filming process had almost 30 NGs, plus the final take which was turned into reality, adding up to over an hour. Nicole fully displayed her charm throughout, especially during the last take, which was as intense as any AV scene—especially afterwards, when Adrian purposely held her from behind in front of the camera to demonstrate, a sight fiery enough to make anyone’s blood race.

However, there were two regrets: because the shooting required it, the lighting was very dim, making the entire frame appear almost black and white in a gray hue. Also, the camera was fixed, at most having only a stretch adjustment, which might feel monotonous if watched for too long.

No matter, there will be better ones in the future. Adrian thought to himself, not knowing exactly what he was referring to. But now there was definitely no chance, as Nicole had not appeared on set after completing her scenes, and his relationship with Cruise was not that great; he had attended two of Cruise’s parties before "Jerry Maguire," but was never invited again.

No matter, she couldn’t escape from his grasp. Besides, he always had women around him.

"So anyway, now that I’ve finished shooting, you can finally tell me what that surprise is, right?" Liv kept pestering, having asked several times from the beginning till now.

This really surprised Adrian. He only mentioned it casually at first and never brought it up again, but she remembered it so clearly.

"How could she possibly not remember, not looking at what was done back then." Sarah, seeing his thoughts, muttered under her breath.

"What are you talking about! What do you mean!" Liv immediately pounced toward Sarah with her arms flailing, her height giving her an intimidating presence.

However, Sarah was no pushover, especially since she had practiced a lot with Love. Like most movies that kicked off the summer season, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" was released just before the official arrival of summer, which was a pretty good timing for a low-budget horror thriller.

The box office was decent, pulling in about ( ) million in revenue before going offline, roughly breaking even, and the company even held a small party, which several of the main actors attended. Love, though seemingly unchanged, would instantly go over and smile apologetically as soon as Sarah gave her a look.

She was indeed corrupted by me. Watching Sarah being chased around the car by Liv, Adrian thought to himself with a chuckle. He knew how Sarah did it, a carrot and stick approach, and using Adrian’s name to write checks without cash, a fact Sarah didn’t hide from him. Adrian never blamed her, it was fine as it allowed Sarah to practice her skills, and with him around, there was no fear of Love causing any trouble.

"Alright, ladies, I brought you here to enjoy the view," Adrian interrupted their play, then pinched Liv’s cheek, "Especially you, Liv, I brought you along for Sarah’s sake, so don’t get too cocky, alright?"

It really was interesting. After that poolside threesome, Adrian had had a few more threesomes with them, yet the relationship between Sarah and Liv was quite good, totally incomparable to that of Monica and Julia. Kate and Charlize were not even worth mentioning. If mere sympathy seemed an insufficient explanation, then what was the reason?

"As long as you answer my question, I’ll stop talking," Liv said playfully.

"Alright, alright, but I have a problem," Adrian looked at her amusedly, "There are two movies that might start shooting at the same time, but both need the same producer to oversee them. Which one should he take care of?" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation.)