Hollywood Hunter

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During this time, Simon also took time in Los Angeles to pay special attention to the release of BBK vcd and the development of China's vcd industry.

In the first quarter of 1995, with the emergence of other vcd brands other than Wanyan and the development of the piracy industry chain in the southeast coastal areas, the total vcd shipments in China reached 110,000 units. Shipment statistics appear, at this stage, this is the exclusive business of Scooby.

In the second quarter, when the news that Chen Qing's team had won the absolute controlling stake of Scooby Corporation spread at the end of April, the attention of vcd players increased significantly. Chinese manufacturers have also begun to follow up, and companies that have already launched products have stepped up their marketing efforts. As a result, China's vcd shipments quickly exceeded 200,000 units in a single season, reaching 230,000 units, an increase of more than 100%.

Now, just one month after the third quarter, vcd shipments in China have exceeded 150,000 units, and it is expected that the third quarter will at least achieve a growth rate of more than 100%.

Based on this calculation, in the whole year of 1995, the total shipment of vcd is expected to reach about 1.5 million units, and it will show an explosive exponential growth. Although the outbreak of the vcd industry is a little earlier than Simon's memory, this exponential curve is almost the same as the previous history.

As the only supplier of vcd video decoding chips at this stage, relying on the strong performance support brought by the outbreak of the Chinese market, coupled with the halo of 'Westeros concept stock' acquired by Chen Qing's team, within three months, Skober's stock price has risen by more than 400%, and its market value has broken through the $1 billion mark from about $200 million when Chen Qing's team acquired it.

The initial investment of $94 million to acquire 53% of Scooby's shares, in three months, the book profit has reached $477 million, a return rate of nearly 500%.

China side.

The backgammon team that ran away from Xiaobawang did not disappoint Simon.

Even with the abundant funds and strong technical support of the Westeros system, the first product was successfully launched to the market within three months.

The backgammon vcd released on July 15th only relied on the temporary market in Guangdong and Fujian provinces to test the water. The sales volume in the first week reached 6,000 units. It is expected that the sales volume in the first month can easily exceed 20,000 units. With the further expansion of the market, the backgammon team It is expected to achieve sales of at least 150,000 units in the second half of this year, directly occupying more than 10% of the market share of China's vcd market.

According to the price of 3999 yuan of BBK vcd, the sales volume of 150,000 units is directly equivalent to the sales of 600 million yuan.

At the beginning, Xiaobawang achieved sales of 1 billion in less than five years. Now, it only takes two years for BBK to achieve this goal. This not only proves the correctness of Simon's huge investment in recruiting the BBK team, but also shows that the vcd industry far exceeds the huge market volume of game consoles.

During the meal, Simon He and Chen Qing mainly discussed two topics.

The first is how Scooby balances the relationship between BBK, which is a direct line, and other vcd manufacturers, so as to avoid these manufacturers turning to other electronics manufacturers for fear of limited video decoder chip supply. The other is to use the influence of Scober to control the price of vcd, constantly adjust and reduce the price in order to maximize the development of the vcd market in China, and at the same time avoid the price war between different manufacturers fighting each other for market share.

Industries of interest to the Westeros system at this stage always attract a lot of attention.

After Chen Qing's team acquired Scooby in April, Simon soon heard the news that Sony, Toshiba, Samsung and other manufacturers have begun to invest in the research and development of vcd video decoding chips. Therefore, even if Skobo successfully completes the planned comprehensive technology upgrade next year, the Chinese market will inevitably usher in competition from other manufacturers of the same type of products.

With a whole generation of technology behind, even veteran giants such as Sony and Toshiba cannot compare with Skober.

However, if these backward chips use a low-price strategy to invade the Chinese market, it will still cause trouble for Scooby. The gross profit of video decoding chips is very high, which actually means huge room for price reduction.

In order to achieve the goals discussed by Simon and Chen Qing, Skober needs to find a suitable balance in pricing, which can suppress the latecomers not to share too much market share, and must ensure enough profit margins for themselves. In addition, since the initial strategy was to make quick money, Chen Qing's team must also choose the right time to sell Scooby shares to cash out.

These are very test of the personal ability of professional managers.

The lunch lasted for an hour, and they were basically discussing work. After the end, everyone walked out of the restaurant together, and Chen Qing, who was beside Simon, had a chance to talk about other things: "Boss, are you free tonight, maybe we can have dinner together? "

Chen Qing said this, and Emmanuel, who was following behind the man with girl a, quietly pricked up her ears for some reason.

Simon shook his head with a smile: "Next time."

Chen Qing didn't bother, and mentioned that she brought a lot of gifts back from her trip to China.

Everyone left the building where the restaurant was located, and realized that Simon had no intention of retaining himself, Chen Qing had to leave with Emmanuel.

Simon took Girl A back to Building 1, where his office is located. David Giller, producer of Sleeping Hollow, director Tim Burton, and screenwriter Andrew Kay

Vin Walker, actor Johnny Depp, heroine Mia Kirschner and other main creators have been waiting in a conference room next to his office.

Since the project was launched at the end of last year, the preliminary preparations for "Sleepy Hollow" have been basically completed.

It is tentatively scheduled for next summer, as a major title wholly owned by Daenerys.

The budget of the project is determined to be US$70 million, and the filming location is still the United Kingdom. The pre-set set has been completed, and it is expected to start in September.

Compared with the original version, the main change of the main creative team this time is that the producer chose David Giller, the producer of the "Alien" series who was kind to Simon, and the heroine was changed from Christina Ricci to Mia. Kirschner.

After giving Simon a lot of help during the production of "Lola Run", David Giller has always been a contract producer under Daenerys Entertainment. After the status and status were completely changed, Gilles did not live up to Simon's trust. Many projects in charge of these years have been completed very well. This time, "Sleepy Hollow" happens to be the subject that the other party is good at.

As for the heroine, compared to Christina Ricci, who was obviously in line with Tim Burton's aesthetic in the original version, Simon personally chose Mia Kirschner, who he liked more, this time.

Mia Kirschner is catching up to Winona Ryder in fame last year after earning a Best Actress Oscar nomination for "Little Women."

On July 14th, the school youth film directed by Amy Heckerling was released, and the heroine played by Mia Kirschner also successfully proved that girls have a very broad play path. The comprehensive media score of "Leadership" reached 7.9 points, and many film critics deliberately mentioned that the girl's excellent performance is very different from "Little Women".

With the support of word-of-mouth popularity, with a production cost of $12 million, "Leadership" earned $23.07 million at the box office in its first week.

Although the decline in the next week was a bit deep, reaching 43%, as of the weekend of July 30, in two and a half weeks, the cumulative box office of the film has reached 41.53 million US dollars, and the total domestic box office is expected to be about 60 million US dollars. The daily release of "Future Water World" costing $175 million is even higher.

The consecutive "Little Women" and "Leadership", even if they are not considered to exceed 100 million hits, are very successful projects relative to the cost, plus an Oscar nomination for best actress, Mia Ke Shi Na is definitely stronger than Christina Ricci to hold up the heroine of Sleeping Hollow.

Of course, there is also Simon's personal preference.

Like the original heroine Christina Ricci, that's all about Tim Burton's eccentric aesthetic.

Personal preference certainly doesn't make jokes about a blockbuster.

Simon also thinks that Mia Kirschner is more suitable for the role of Catalina in "Sleepy Hollow". Compared with Christina Ricci's eccentric elf in appearance, Mia Kirschner has a kind of spirit that comes out of her bones. Evil and gloomy, so it is more suitable to play a witch role. Once these qualities are excavated, even the hero Johnny Depp may not be able to resist.

Simon has always felt that Mia Kershina, who used to be only the second and third tier of Hollywood, was seriously underestimated, but she never got the chance to perform.

Of course, this kind of thing has been very common since the beginning of Hollywood.

What's fair.

Tim Burton was still a little dissatisfied with Simon's internal selection of the heroine. After watching Mia's audition, he immediately lost his resistance. He still felt a little bit of finding a muse. He re-discussed with the screenwriter and added some heroine's roles.

This production meeting is mainly to completely finalize all the details of "Sleepy Hollow", and to ensure that the project will be carried out in full accordance with the schedule after the official start of shooting.

Girl a sent Simon into the conference room, but she had no intention of participating. She had other work to do.

Amanda Furr, who greeted Chen Qing and the two girls in the morning, was waiting in the office area of ​​Lady A outside Simon's office with a stack of documents. When her boss entered the next conference room, Alison returned to her desk and sat down. Checking the documents Amanda handed over, he stopped the girl who was leaving: "Wait a minute."

Amanda stopped in confusion: "a, do you want coffee?"

Alison quickly marked a script document for the new season of "The Wife of New York" with a pen, shook his head and said, "No need, tell me what you talked about during the reception of Chen and Brandt in the morning?"

When Amanda saw girl a asking about this, she felt a little nervous, and suddenly remembered that Chen Qing, or the red-haired girl, may be the woman of her own boss.

My previous slack may have been a very serious mistake.

Girl a's voice was cold, she raised her head and glanced at her again, her eyes were also cold, Amanda's back was slightly cold, and she quickly cheered up, originally from Los Angeles International Airport to Malibu Studios in the morning with Chen The details and details of the exchanges between the two women are revealed.

Alison listened to Amanda's words quietly, and had already gone through the documents in front of her with two minds. She picked up the script of "The Wife of New York" and began to read it carefully, while saying to Amanda, "Okay, go back. Go to work, remember to summarize the monthly report of the game department in July and give it to me before you get off work."

Amanda nodded, but did not dare to leave, hesitated, and said, "a, if possible, perhaps, I would like to apologize to Miss Chen and Miss Brandt in person."

Lady A looked up at her, suddenly showed a smile, shook her head and said, "No, and this time you did a good job. You will do the same to those women in the future. Persevere. I can apply for a raise for you next year."

Amanda's eyes widened slightly, and then

Suddenly.

The boss in front of me is both the boss's assistant and the boss's woman.

Between women and women, of course, is tit for tat.

In this way, standing in the position of the boss, of course he is right.

However, although she also nodded her head on the surface, Amanda thought to herself that she definitely couldn't do what Girl A wanted.

I am just a little shrimp.

The big goblins fought each other, and she took part in it, and she would be trampled to death if she didn't pay attention.

Born into an ordinary middle-class family, Amanda, who graduated from Cornell University at the age of 27 this year, is considered the best among her classmates. Simon Westero's personal assistant office, she doesn't want to lose it. A good job that paid off all her college loans in one year.

After the two-hour "Sleepy Hollow" production meeting ended, I went to the Pixar office area on the second floor of the studio to discuss the soundtrack of the film for an hour with the team of the 3D version of "Beauty and the Beast", which will be released at the end of the year. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Simon returns to his own office in the borough, this time for a meeting.

Simon returned to his office, where the guests were already waiting.

This is a 40-year-old middle-aged man with square face and black hair, with fine stubble, wearing a formal dark blue suit, which obviously does not fit the burly figure and wild temperament of the other party's nearly 1.9 meters tall.

The middle-aged man named Victor Merises, 39 years old this year, is a Portuguese Angolan white.

This is the head of the coffee plantation that the Westeros family's headhunting team in Angola found for Simon. The 600 square kilometers of coffee planting area, even if Simon has other thoughts, if he can take good care of it, he will of course be more pleased with it. It is still the principle that Simon insists on a sustainable business model that can support a business for a longer time.

Therefore, for the person in charge of the plantation, Simon is also carefully selected.

After the two greeted, they came to Simon's office to sit down and waited for Lady A to deliver the coffee to leave. When Simon asked about his plans for the plantation, the first sentence Victor Mericis said did not disappoint Simon: "Mr. Westeros, I believe that the plantation is not the most important thing to you. If I can get your authorization, I can talk to Savimbi in person and continuously."

Jonas Savimbi, the leader of the Angolan rebels.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Savimbi, who was originally the spokesperson of the West in Angola, was abandoned, and its strength shrank rapidly. Although the Angolan government is still fighting a civil war, it has been compressed to less than 15% of the territory of southeastern Angola. a matter of time.

The coffee-growing area that Simon got from the Angolan government happened to be located in the border confrontation area between the Savimbi forces and the government forces in the southeast of the country.

Although he had prevented the massacre in Rwanda, at this time, from the standpoint of the Westeros system, Simon did not wish that Savimbi would be wiped out by the Angolan government forces too soon.

What did that sentence say.

Self-respect for raising pirates.

The various deals between the Westeros system and the Angolan government can only continue if the Angolan opposition persists.

To Simon's surprise, the 'farmer' he found not only discovered this keenly, but also volunteered and was willing to personally negotiate with Savimby.

You know, if there is no communication between the two sides, it is difficult to guarantee that Savimbi will not send troops to harass or even attack Simon's plantation in Angola. At that time, if he wants to get peace, Simon can only make a move, and there is no room for both sides to turn around. On the contrary, if a certain tacit understanding is formed after the quiet communication, the two sides will be at peace, and Savimbi will only go to trouble the Angolan government forces, which will be beneficial to both parties.

However, Simon did not intend to do so.

Although the details of Victor Meresis had been carefully investigated beforehand, it was only the first time they met, and there was no trust between the two sides at all. If Mericis colluded with the Angolan government, it would be self-defeating if Simon agreed to the other party's proposal. Moreover, even if he wanted to raise his own weight, Simon didn't have much thought of getting in touch with Savimbi. He wanted to see if the other party was smart enough to make certain choices on his own initiative.

This way there will be no hidden dangers. .

Facts have proved that African warlords are very smart, but if they have lost their minds because of their failures over the years, Simon doesn't mind fighting with each other's armed forces at all. Used for decoration.

Any army can only maintain its strong combat effectiveness if it regularly sees blood.

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