"To be precise, "The Brave's Game" is a visual wonder movie with CG special effects. The success or failure of the project has the greatest relationship with the story and special effects. The main creator is of course important, but it is not a decisive factor. Therefore, there is little difference between Schwarzenegger and Stallone as the protagonist. Terry, I did tend to be Arnold at the beginning, but the reason is just because the script role fits Arnold's image. Now that the story has been revised, Stallone has become the most suitable one. The entire project has also begun to be prepared around Stallone, and I cannot make temporary substitutions."

Private beach on the west side of Dumei Point Manor.

It is Saturday, July 8th.

It was already evening when Simon returned to the West Coast yesterday. There was no work plan arranged on the weekend, so Terry Semer went directly to visit Dumei Point Manor.

The two are discussing two movie projects: "The Brave's Game" and "Evaporation Secret Order".

This is the turmoil caused by the box office defeat of Stallone's "SWAT" in the past box office week. Disney's huge investment of $90 million is expected to be only about 25 million. In addition, the box office performance of "Die Hard 3" at the beginning of the summer season is also unsatisfactory. Not only did Warner Bros. have doubts about Stallone, who has signed the male lead of "The Brave Game", but it also implicated another project that Warner owned by "Evaporation Secret Order".

Schwarzenegger's new film "Evaporation Secret Order", which was originally planned to start filming in September and scheduled for next summer, has reached 100 million US dollars after the budget statistics are released.

If we follow the global box office results of "The True Lies" last year, the $100 million budget could be afforded. However, the failure of two consecutive old-school action blockbusters has caused Hollywood to completely re-examine this kind of personal heroic film that muscle men save the world.

Because of concerns about risks, Warner executives began to hope to cut off the "Evaporation Secret Order".

This kind of thing is very common in Hollywood.

However, it would be fine if the millions of dollars invested in the early stage, but the film contract signed with Schwarzenegger is not so easy to cancel, because this is a common "pay or play" agreement for Hollywood celebrities. Simply put, after the two parties sign the agreement, because the stars have left the schedule to the studio, then, regardless of whether the movie is filmed or not, the studio must pay the full salary specified in the celebrity contract.

The ‘pay or play’ agreement is just to deal with the situation where film companies often cut off movie projects for various reasons.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's contract pay is $15 million. Warner didn't want the money to be wasted, so he suddenly had a whim, hoping that Simon could replace Stallone in "The Braves" according to the original plan. This would kill two birds with one stone, which would not only allow Warner to successfully cut "Evaporation Order" and also get rid of Stallone's potential box office poison.

Compared to Arnold and Warner's "pay or play", the strong Daenerys will not sign such an agreement with celebrities. Even if it is Stallone's long contract, if Daenerys wants to repent, he will not need to compensate too much. Of course, he will definitely lose some reputation, which is not a big deal in Hollywood.

Seeing Simon rejecting, Terry Semer did not give up and said, "Simon, as long as you agree, all the additional expenses can be borne by Warner. I can also release the news. It is our insistence that you have to change your mind."

Simon still shook his head: "Don't mention this matter anymore. I can't replace Stallone temporarily. In my opinion, what you should do here is to find a way to compress the budget of "Evaporation Secret Order".

Terry Semer smiled bitterly, "If possible, do you think I wouldn't do that?"

"It seems very simple to change the shooting location from the United States to Australia or Canada, even in Europe, so that you can get a tax refund of tens of millions of dollars. Then, you have a good talk with Arnold. Things like Sean Connery like the whole crew is waiting to start work but he goes to play golf with his friends, and it can be saved by millions. Terry, in fact, this is what happened last year's "The True Lies". If Daenerys Entertainment hadn't sent people to keep watching, the cost of this project would have exceeded 100 million. As a result, "The True Lies" only cost $90 million."

When Terry Semer heard Simon say this, he immediately thought of "The Future Water World".

$175 million.

In order to accommodate Kevin Costner's request to obtain a comfortable shooting environment, he agreed to choose the shooting location in Hawaii, a world-renowned tourist destination.

As a result, no one expected that the tides in Hawaii would cause such great trouble. The multi-million dollar set was destroyed again and again, and the shooting cycle was delayed again and again. Warner was in a difficult situation and had to spend money on this project. In the end, the three-month shooting cycle was delayed for eight months. The entire project was completed and the budget reached an unprecedented $175 million.

Now, "Future Water World" is scheduled to be released on July 28, avoiding bombs such as "Jurassic Park 2" in the early stages of the summer season. Warner only hopes that this project will not fail too badly.

It is precisely because of the predecessors of "Future Water World" that Warner is now like a frightened bird and can't help but repeatedly confuse with the two current projects. You should know that the stock price of Time Warner, which has been dragged down by a project in "Future Water World", has not been able to catch up with the overall trend of the US stock market for more than half a year.

The Dow Jones Index, which represents the trend of the New York Stock Exchange, rose by 26% in one year from July last year to June this year. Time Warner's stock price rose by only 18% in one year compared with the lowest point in last year's summer. With the situation of the US stock market, the group's market value is only US$18.6 billion.

Without the drag of "Future Water World", Time Warner's market value should have easily broken through the $20 billion mark.

The locomotive effect of the film business is too obvious. "Future Water World" is already a pot of water splashed out, and Warner can't stand another similar failure now.

Simon refused to change his mind, and Terry Semer could only start with the "Evaporation Secret" project itself according to the other party's advice.

In any case, the budget of $100 million is definitely not to be expected. It is only in line with Warner's expectations that it will be reduced to $70 million. Think about next summer, a series of films such as the new 007, Mission Impossible 2, and "Mummy" all look more popular than "Evaporation Secret Order", and it is not even considered a sole proprietorship of Daenerys.

Daenerys Entertainment has prepared many projects during this period, including the new film of the Soul Conjuring Movie Universe, James Cameron's "Titanic", Jim Carrey's new film, and Jack Cheng's "Rush Hour" from the other side of the ocean. These are either not up to date or are not very similar, but in short, I don't know which ones will become the main feature.

If you want to ask directly, you should give up.

This is already a trade secret.

The two companies still have a competitive relationship after all.

The two walked together on the private beach where the summer was still breeze. After a moment of hesitation, Terry Semer said another thing: "Simon, did you meet Jack Welch last week?"

Simon nodded, still a little confused: "What's wrong with playing golf together on the day of the solo day?"

Terry Semer hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "I heard the news, probably, Welch invited Levin to have dinner last night."

Jack Welch, Gerald Levin.

General Electric, Time Warner.

Simon's heart was thunderous.

My big butterfly seemed to have accidentally matched up another seemingly amazing event.

If General Electric acquires Time Warner, not to mention the other businesses of GE, it is just that NBC and Time Warner are definitely a very strong alliance. If synergies can be successfully achieved in the future, GE will not give up its existing industrial business while becoming one of the largest media giants in the world. Even if it competes with Daenerys, it is not impossible.

At that time, the two real strong forces will stand together.

If things come true, Simon has to admire Welch's mature vision. He was dragged down by a "Future Water World" project. Time Warner's stock price, which has gradually escaped the shadow of merger a few years ago, was seriously underestimated. Not to mention the rest, it is just that Time Warner's HBO is now separated and asked Simon to pay $20 billion to buy it. He is willing to do so.

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

It's messy.

Totally messed up.

Realizing that Terry Semer 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 perspective, my personal advice is that if this is true and a result is expected, then you'd better be more proactive in participating so that you can get more initiative in the future."

As the co-CEO of Time Warner Group and Robert Daly, Terry Semer is now basically the only one behind Chairman Gerald Levine. Simon had always hoped that Semer could go further and replace Levi as Chairman of Time Warner one day in the future and completely control the company.

Plans can never keep up with changes.

If GE initiates an acquisition from Time Warner, the hurdle that Semer needs to overcome in the future will be more than the parent company GE.

On the other hand, Jack Welch is a professional manager who knows how to delegate power. Otherwise, the huge General Electric would not be able to be orderly under the current scale.

Therefore, if Semer still wants to take charge of Time Warner, he must actively participate in this possible acquisition in order to establish a good relationship with General Electric in advance and gain more say in the new company in the future.

Terry Semer told Simon about this after hesitation, and also hoped to get some advice.

He quickly reacted when he heard Simon say this.

If things really happen and actively participate, it will definitely be much better than resolutely resisting.

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

The two chatted for a while and saw Terry Semer away. Simon returned to Shell Villa while considering the information left by Semer.

The family didn't go out this morning, and the women and children were playing in the open-air swimming pool near the sea of ​​the villa.

Simon walked through the villa lobby and came to the side door leading to the open-air swimming pool. He happened to see two girls in swimsuits walking together, both with baby faces, one was Zoe Parks and the other was Qus Gouf.

Janet is not indifferent to the lace of Simon these days.

The reaction was to call Qusi Goff, who happened to be in physical training for "The Brave" in Los Angeles, to Dumei Kee Manor as a girl this weekend.

Simon felt that in the future, we should recommend less books such as "Dream of the Red Chamber" to women.

Feudal dregs.

Obviously, Qusi Gaofu, who had been trained by Janet, had no grievance or dissatisfaction on her face, but could fit in the role.

This also made Simon admire this.

Janet can even train a pampered and arrogant lady to be a maid, and Qu Si Gaofu's beautiful vase with a much lower rank is no problem.

In fact, many women around Simon were responsible for training and resettlement, whether it was the group of small vases selected at the time, the girls raised in Ukraine, and even the already huge Wei family maid and Wei family maid team.

Simon didn't have the heart to pay attention to these things.

Over the years, Janet has never had any special situations that make Simon upset.

When Zoe and Qusi saw Simon coming, they politely greeted the male host. When Simon asked about it, they said that the female host suddenly wanted to drink coconut juice and they were going to prepare.

After letting the two girls leave sideways, Simon walked towards the swimming pool terrace. If it weren't for the female assistant and the maid guard in the pool who were swaying with careful care of the two little guys Melbourne and Nick, the situation here could be said to be very sexy. The two Jenny and a fucking maid guard were wearing various swimsuits. Except for Janet's sexy bikini, even if Jennifer and the maid guards were all conservative styles similar to women's sportswear, the girls' foundation was really good.

How did you say that sentence?

A beautiful woman can still wear an HF look even if she makes a piece of broken sack.

This is true.

He came to Janet, leaned down and kissed the woman, and asked, "Where is Sier?"

Janet, who was just holding a folder and casually flipping through it, put the information next to him and smiled, "Isa is carrying it inside."

Thinking about her daughter, obviously not interested in learning to swim in the sun, no longer asked questions, and squeezed into a recliner with Janet, glanced at the document the woman had just looked through, and the title was a string of abbreviations, ITER, I had already seen it, but I didn't pick it up again.

ITER, the full name is "International Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor".

Some things Simon started in Ukraine in April have been quietly advancing during this period.

Among them, the ‘SpaceX’ company has been established.

Compared to the company that Musk once had, this time SpaceX will cover as wide as Simon described with Celia and A in Ukraine, launch vehicles, space shuttles, controlled nuclear fusion, space reactors, etc.

Moreover, SpaceX is only part of Simon's plan.

The professional consulting and headhunting team of Westeros system is also looking for candidates around the world, intending to establish a series of high-end life science research laboratories based on major American universities, with the main research direction being to crack the mysteries of human life.

The pursuit of immortality and other illusions.

Simon is very realistic.

With the biological knowledge he has mastered, you can probably understand that if you want to live forever, you will have a slim chance of not being able to live for at least a hundred years.

Because from the genetic perspective, humans have been equivalent to a finished product that has been established since birth.

Just like a building.
To be continued...