America's Road to Wealth

Jessica enjoys the food carefully prepared for her by chef Gary Danko of the restaurant.

Another corner of San Francisco,

Saison, a Michelin-starred restaurant on the same level as Gary Danko, in its VIP box.

Michael Ovitz, who has performed a return of the king in CAA and is now very high-spirited in Hollywood, is receiving his boss and Anne Hathaway.

Anne Hathaway came all the way from Los Angeles.

Today she took an afternoon off just to see her boyfriend.

A little more than half a month has passed since Ovitz became the CEO of CAA again.

In the past half month, most of Ovitz's energy has been focused on shrinking power and re-adjusting CAA's management and structure.

After being so busy, it can be said that I finally have some free time.

Just in time Abel came.

Of course Ovitz rushed over immediately.

"Ovitz, you look in much better shape now than before."

Abel smiled and teased Michael Ovitz, who was sitting across from him, "How was it? How does it feel like the return of the king? What does it feel like to lose and regain again?"

"Hahaha~"

Ovitz smiled broadly and was clearly in a great mood.

"I have to say." Ovitz said happily: "Very good!!"

"Ha~ That's good." Abel smiled and shrugged, "I also believe that under your leadership again, caa will regain its strong combat effectiveness."

"Thank you so much for trusting me." Ovitz said softly.

Ovitz knew that without Abel's support this time.

It is absolutely impossible for me to return to CAA.

Regardless of Abel's shares, most of them were contacted by Ovitz and then Abel paid for them.

Ovitz knew.

These shareholders are willing to sell their shares to Abel.

But it doesn't mean that they are willing to sell the same shares to themselves.

Others don't say.

Shareholders such as Bloomberg, David Geffen and the founder of Endeavor obviously cannot buy the shares they hold.

Rather than selling shares for money, these people were selling a little favor to Abel.

There are also shares of other companies that I am willing to pay a premium to acquire.

There is a high probability that you can’t buy it.

Only Abel is valued by Wall Street.

Coupled with sufficient financial resources, the price can be much higher.

Only in this way can we buy the shares that Ovitz wants but is difficult to buy.

As a result, it eventually accounted for more than 38% of the shares in caa, plus some shares of Ovitz, as well as some shares of Ovitz's original allies in the company.

Finally, relative control was reached, and the shareholders' meeting was held to re-elect the board of directors.

Successfully defeated the original management and made Abel, the largest shareholder, the chairman.

Ovitz would then exercise the voting rights of the absent chairman to re-appoint Ovitz as CEO.

Let Ovitz achieve a plot like The Return of the King in CAA, a hugely influential entertainment industry giant in Hollywood.

The more Ovitz knew about Abel's strength, the more he gave up the idea of ​​​​taking advantage of Abel in CAA.

Because he knows Abel's layout in Hollywood.

In addition to caa, there is another brand that looks like an underwear brand, but is actually an entertainment model company with an innovative model.

There is also AB Smith Entertainment, which has strong capital and has been established for less than a month, but has already invested in many movies.

Elizabeth’s back garden is okay and is still in the preparation and development stage.

Ovitz doesn't take it very seriously, but Ovitz has to pay attention to AB Smith Entertainment.

This company is not currently engaged in distribution and production business. It focuses on direct investment in movies.

Because of his strong financial resources and his decisiveness and directness, it is easy to give money.

It has been regarded as the new big fat sheep by many Hollywood practitioners.

Everyone now wants to repeat the story of that year and let Wall Street know that Beverly Hills is not that easy to get into!

But Ovitz, an insider, knows.

AB Smith Entertainment looks stupid and rich.

It has only been established for a short period of time and has already invested a lot of money in many movies.

A perfect performance.

But what if the movies it invests in are all high-quality projects?

For some reason, Ovitz just felt that way.

Even these investment projects don’t look very good.

And if you take a step back and think about it, even if all these investments in AB Smith Entertainment are in vain.

This situation has caused heavy losses to other Hollywood companies, even the Big Eight.

But Ovitz knew that this amount of money was nothing to Abel.

This made Ovitz's positioning clearer and clearer.

After all, he really didn't want to be kicked out again after returning to CAA.

That would be really embarrassing, and I would probably not be embarrassed to continue working in Hollywood in the future.

A grateful, even flattering attitude toward Michael Ovitz.

Abel was a little surprised. Fortunately, this attitude would allow Ovitz to better safeguard his plan.

Abel accepted it readily and said:

"By the way, Ovitz, let me tell you something. I bought Marvel."

"Marvel?"

Ovitz thought for a while, "Is it the Marvel company that draws comics and sells toys?"

Oh my god, before Spider-Man was such a hit, before Iron Man was a breath of fresh air for Hollywood.

Marvel is really so inconspicuous in Hollywood.

In contrast, several of its famous IPs are more famous than the company itself.

"Yes." Abel said with a smile, "In addition, I am still negotiating with Sony and Fox to buy back the copyrights of Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four from them."

"Wow!"

Ovitz's eyes lit up, "BOSS, what do you mean, how many movies are you going to shoot next?"

Abel nodded, not worried about leaking the secret in front of Ovitz.

"It's just that the negotiation process may not go smoothly. Sony is fine. Even if Spider-Man is more valuable, there is hope that he can buy it back."

“If it’s the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, it’s not very likely.

Fox took it seriously, even though the first X-Men movie didn't actually make much money. "

Ovitz wondered why Spider-Man was obviously more valuable.

Logically speaking, Sony should take it more seriously.

Why is it possible to buy it back?

Will Sony be willing to sell it?

Is it just throwing money at it?

Ovitz was a little confused and asked: "Compared to Fox, Spider-Man on Sony is obviously more popular. He is the only superhero comparable to Superman and Bateman, and is even more popular than Superman and Bateman." Bateman is even higher. Sony shouldn’t be willing to sell it, right?”

"Ha~"

Abel smiled.

"Spider-Man is more valuable and worth more. But..."

He said meaningfully and in a longer voice, "But Sony is a neon company. Spider-Man is a well-known American hero. Spider-Man should be in the hands of Americans."

"Uh" Ovitz partly understood and partly didn't understand when he heard his boss's explanation.

But seeing that Abel looked more confident, he nodded.

"So, BOSS, what do you mean?" Ovitz asked softly.

"Next, AB Smith Entertainment will invest in Marvel. The focus will be on Marvel movies, which will next shoot a series of superhero blockbusters."

"If we could get Spider-Man back from Sony, then Marvel's first movie would be Spider-Man."

"If I really can't get it back, then I will select a few of Marvel's remaining superhero IPs to make movies."

"Marvel Movies is still just a grassroots company and doesn't have the ability to shoot and produce movies on its own."

"Michael, I need help from you and caa."

Abel looked at Ovitz, "This is also my help to CAA. Because these movies will be big investment movies. CAA and you can also benefit a lot from them."

"Understood."

Michael Ovitz nodded decisively.

He knew, just like Abel said.

If what Abel said is true, then it will really help him and caa.

Now that he has just returned to CAA, if he can get such a big order right away.

Then there will no longer be any doubts about his return as king among CAA!

"I will definitely do my best, please believe me, BOSS." Ovitz said firmly.

Faced with his performance, Abel was quite satisfied.

Abel said half-jokingly, half-seriously: "If we can really get the copyright of Spider-Man back. Michael, do you think it would be better for Anne to play Mary Jane or Gwen?"

Sitting next to her, Anne Hathaway, who had been well-behaved and extremely quiet throughout the whole process, was stunned.

Then a happy expression appeared on her face.

Those were Mary Jane and Gwen!

They are very well-known in the United States and can be regarded as American national girlfriends.

Everyone in America wants to be Spider-Man, and American girls certainly want to be Mary Jane and Gwen.

Michael Ovitz took a serious look at the radiant Anne.

"I think everything is fine." After Ovitz finished speaking, he thought about it and added:

“Perhaps we can just combine the roles of Gwen and Mary Jane into one, with Miss Anne playing the role.

After all, this is a movie adaptation, not a pure live-action adaptation of comics. "

What Ovitz added later made Albert take another look at him.

Abel remembers it as being in the third spider.

The heroine MJ is a combination of Mary Jane and Gwen, and doing so makes this character even more brilliant.

However, due to the skin color of the heroine, some people questioned MJ's performance in the movie.

But that's a problem with the actor, not the character itself.

There is no doubt that MJ, who is equivalent to Mary Jane and Gwen combined, is even better in terms of character design.

If we can really get back the copyright of Spider-Man, maybe we can really consider the character design of MJ.

At that time, MJ’s wonderful character will be used, coupled with Spider-Man Maguire’s performance that is very consistent with the character of Spider-Man in the comics.

At the same time, in terms of CG special effects, if you spend more money.

Maybe we can shoot a better version of Spider-Man in parallel time and space.

And if Spider-Man can return, the Avengers series can be even more exciting.

But there is a premise for this, and that is that Spider-Man can really be brought back to Sony.

To achieve all this, Abel feels that he must look at the next work of Melio and David Jones.

In addition, you should also be able to borrow the power of K Street.

What is K Street?

K Street is the abbreviation of a street in DC.

Starting from A Street near the Capitol Building in DC, followed by B Street, C Street...K Street.

K Street is exactly ten blocks from Capitol Hill.

This place is to an industry in the United States what Wall Street is to financial capitalists.

This industry emerged very early, before Wall Street even took shape.

It has been around since 1808.

Abel has never had the chance to use K Street before, and this time he wants to take back Spider-Man from Sony.

Besides money, the most powerful weapon you can use is probably K Street.

Well, actually it still costs money.

I want people on K Street to move, and I want these people to help me.

It is absolutely impossible to have no money.

All I can say is that the blame lies with Sony, which is behind the movie.

Sony happens to be Neon's company, and Neon happens to be a dog raised by the United States.

If the copyright of Spider-Man were in the hands of other Hollywood giants, I probably wouldn't be able to use this method.

Now.

I can only blame Sony for being unlucky.

With this in mind, he stopped discussing the topic.

Abel and Ovitz also talked about how Marvel will cooperate with Marvel Movies and CAA.

After staying for about ten minutes, Ovitz realized that Abel was not talking about work.

The founder of caa was very considerate and immediately asked to leave.

Abel looked at Annie's sticky eyes, even though Jessica had just squeezed hundreds of milliliters last night.

He was a little nervous.

Ovitz's request to leave was naturally approved immediately.

After Ovitz left, Annie became more clingy.

Even though she was still in the private room of the restaurant, she wished she could melt into Abel's body.

It made Abel almost not want to eat, he just wanted to eat her.

But now is the year 2000, and shooting equipment such as pinhole cameras are already very mature.

This kind of place is not his own territory. There is no way he would do anything too outrageous in this kind of place.

He is building a positive image of a super rich man, but he doesn't want to fail halfway.

So he ate immediately and left directly with Anne Hathaway.

Of course not to the Hilton Hotel.

Jessica is still here.

Although the hotel is so big, the probability of encountering it is relatively low.

But he didn't want to challenge this management risk, so he took Annie to another Four Seasons Hotel.

After more than two hundred milliliters were output, Anne Hathaway fell into a deep sleep.

Only then did he have time to go to the living room next to the bedroom and call David Mellon.

"Hi, good evening. David."

"Good evening." David Mellon said over there: "I don't know what else you want me to do. But just in time, I just wanted to report to you that our crude oil futures orders have basically been sold. went."

Abel was not surprised when he heard the news.

Sell ​​the long order of international crude oil in hand. This time Abel had set the requirements more than ten days ago.

"How's the profit going?"

David Mellon replied:

“After deducting handling fees, commissions and spreads, the total profit is US$1.345 billion!

God, stay with you. Sometimes I really think that I am playing a numbers game.

How come it has become so easy to make money? ! "

Listening to David Mellon's excited voice, Abel smiled and said smoothly:

"My grandpa Alex said it. As long as you work with the right people, you can get twice the result with half the effort. It's the same with making money. David, you just work with the right people."

"Okay. Although hearing you say that makes me a little unhappy, because it makes me look like a waste."

David Mellon said on the other end of the phone:

"However, our grandfather is right! Being with the right person is more important than your own abilities!"

"That's my grandpa!" Abel pointed out David's deliberate slip of the tongue and said with a smile:

"By the way, let me ask you something. Do you know anyone on K Street in DC, or are there any channels you are familiar with?"

"K Street?"

David Mellon was stunned.

"What else do you want to do?"