Hollywood New Century

Simon is indeed very rich now, and the income of oil futures is 4 billion US dollars in his hands. This year, he is just as strong as a nouveau riche.

It can be seen from the fact that, without blinking an eye, that he invested US$60 million to have a Chinese comedy star act as the director and the male lead to shoot a Sino-American co-production film.

At present, among the Chinese movie stars, except Jackie Chan, who has had a Hollywood A-level production, and Chow Yun-fat also starred in a $90 million Hollywood movie "Anna and the King", even Jet Li has never starred in more than $50 million in investment. of Hollywood movies.

Simon asked Xinghai Pictures to invest in the development of the kung fu movie "Tai Chi". Not to mention the outside media, there are many incomprehensible voices even inside the company.

However, Simon's film resume is really dazzling, and with the current financial resources of Xinghai Group, it can indeed be so willful.

Compared with the debt and cash shortages of most companies this year, upstart Simon Pike has indeed made too many people jealous.

"It's not long since I returned to Los Angeles, why do you want to go to Miami for vacation again? If you like sunny beaches, how about going to Hawaii for a few days?" Sonia Roman asked on the way to send Simon to the airport.

"Oh, it's only a few days, let's go to Hawaii during Christmas," Simon laughed while sitting in the chair in the car, flipping through the projects of the Xinghai TV department in his hand.

The investment is not large, and there are no American dramas that Simon has an impression of. It is a project that the following people have found by themselves.

American TV series, American TV series, "Gossip Girl" needless to say, "Modern Family" broadcast this year is also very popular, but the first season of "Breaking Bad" is not very popular.

"By the way, the reality show "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" is the second season this year. I heard that it is very popular and the ratings are very impressive. Is that family famous now?" Simon asked with a smile. road.

"Oh, Americans really like to watch their family's life show. They don't care about anything anyway. If there is exposure, there will be traffic, and if you have ratings, everyone is doing well anyway," Sonia Roman didn't know what happened to Simon. You will notice that weird family, but after Simon bought the New Jersey Nets, the Kardashian family paid more attention to the Nets.

"By the way, George Martin's medieval court fantasy novel "A Song of Ice and Fire", how are you talking about it?" Simon asked Sonia Roman to contact George Martin to get the TV adaptation rights last year. After all, this novel, which has already published 5 books, is still very popular, especially in some cases similar to "Lord of the Rings", many studios are interested in this series of novels.

George Martin, however, was not interested in turning his novel into a movie. There are many characters and a complicated story. He thinks that only TV series can show it.

And the scale of the novel is not small, and the general wireless public station must not be able to broadcast it, but the paid cable TV station will do.

"George Martin needs to see the producer's creative plan before he is willing to sign the contract. I have consulted with several TV producers and George Martin before, and he seems to be not satisfied," Sonia Roman said helplessly.

"This guy," Simon's mouth curled up and he smiled, "I heard that HBO is very close to him. Isn't it because HBO is well-made and dares to invest?"

"The scene of "A Song of Ice and Fire" is still very big. If you want to shoot it well, you really can't put pressure on it;"

"The $4 million to $5 million budget per episode for the first season, and I'm sure George Martin understands how high that budget is for a TV show."

After all, George Martin was not a screenwriter in Hollywood for many years, especially a TV screenwriter.

"Simon, you mean a single episode budget of four or five million dollars?" Sonia Roman was really surprised. Most American TV series currently have a single episode budget of one million yuan. The episode also had a production budget of $2 million.

"Don't worry, in short, get the TV adaptation rights of "A Song of Ice and Fire" as soon as possible. HBO has a big advantage over us. Now that George Martin is swaying, we will use capital to bind him first," Simon said. Of course, I am worried that HBO will be the first to go, after all, it is also a master who dares to spend money.

"If, after we won the TV adaptation rights, do we really want to..." Sonia Roman didn't finish speaking, but Simon knew what she was saying behind.

"After you get it, you can prepare. This kind of large-scale TV will take a long time to prepare." Simon will start with Netflix next year, and "A Song of Ice and Fire" will definitely be placed on Netflix. , to savagely harvest a large number of members,

"In short, don't worry about the TV station, you must get the TV adaptation rights of the novel before HBO."

Sonia Roman nodded. Ever since she met Simon, she found that he always looked very far, taking one step and three steps.

"Don't worry, I have this guarantee, I'm absolutely confident," Sonia Roman has decided to go to New Mexico to meet George Martin in person, and get the TV adaptation rights of the novel as soon as possible, No more wasted time.

Simon nodded, and then the car went under Simon's private jet, where Simon got off the car and got on the plane.

It takes about 5 hours to fly directly from Los Angeles to Miami, and Simon can sleep on the plane.

Still, Simon feels a little upset at the thought of television and streaming, which is still a huge TV audience in the United States.

ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX four major wireless networks plus the newly established CW TV network, plus their respective control of cable TV, satellite TV and so on.

In terms of revenue, except for the newly established CW wireless network, the other four major wireless broadcasting groups all account for a significant proportion of revenue in their respective media groups.

"The US cable operator Doncaster Group intends to acquire NBC Universal Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of General Electric!" Simon flipped to a newspaper, the headline was large, and the background was still the GE Building at No. 30 Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

Simon is holding his forehead, is Doncaster contacting GE now to buy NBC Universal? It seems that the situation of General Electric this year seems to be particularly bad. It seems that the acquisition of Universal Entertainment from Vivendi four years ago, and the merger of its own NBC wireless TV network into NBC Universal has not been able to climb out of the quagmire.

NBC Universal not only has a wireless network and a cable network for news and sports, but also the Universal Studios theme park and resort owned by Universal Studios, one of the six largest, is also coveted by Simon.

Simon's time is running out. If I remember correctly, Doncaster Group should acquire 51% of NBC Universal by the end of next year.

Time waits for no one. Doncaster Group should be able to operate cable TV well. They always want to intervene in the film industry, so they can't let it succeed like this!