Chapter 791

"A few decades ago, the same thing happened. At that time, TV was replacing newspapers as the new medium. Compared to the paper media that needed to be bought on the street or delivered to your home, TV was undoubtedly much more convenient. You could just turn it on and see what you could or could not see in the newspapers, "Adriaan explained to Claude in the spacious office.

"And before TV, the newspapers had gradually adapted and adjusted themselves with the help of the radio. The development of the internet is far faster than TV, so it will have a huge impact on traditional media, right?" Claude said with a smile. "You have said this many times, Eide."

Adrian shrugged his shoulders and continued nonchalantly, "You and I both know that the advantage of the internet lies in the speed of transmission and the amount of information it can provide compared to traditional media. The participants will gradually become ordinary people, and the reaction it causes will also be greater than that of traditional media. Think about it, what if 10 years from now, mobile phones can be used to access the internet? What if mobile phones could take high-definition photos and even videos, and then upload them to specialized websites? "

"You're making predictions again?" Claude raised his eyebrows. "So you want me to acquire Macromedia and control Adobe?"

"Hmm … well …" Adriaan suddenly smiled. "Actually, I only need Macromedia. I think their Flash software is very promising, and I thought it was developed by Adobe."

"What?" Claude raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Don't worry, Adobe will also have what we need in the future," Adriaan quickly added.

"Oh, sh * t, I knew it was a mistake to completely trust you." Claude rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Hey, how can you say that, Krau. I always tell you that my opinion is not always correct. You have to judge for yourself." Adriaan immediately retorted, "You are blindly trusting me. Yes, I admit that I am wrong, but don't you need to bear part of the responsibility?"

"Are you showing off, Eide? Is that so? "Claude narrowed his eyes and crossed his hands in front of him, staring at him.

"Showing off? Me? " Adriaan laughed. "If I want to show off, I will use this. It's not about the company."

He took out his wallet and threw a credit card in front of Claude.

"This is?" Claude picked it up and looked at it. It was black and looked ordinary, but the workmanship was exquisite.

"American Express learned from Citibank and just launched the latest top credit card, the Centurion Card. It is more valuable than platinum cards and does not accept applications. Only the bank actively invites them," Adriaan explained.

"Oh? Is there a better service? "Claude asked.

"Unlimited credit, or all-around personal assistant services." Adriaan thought for a moment. "I just used it to buy a Gulfstream. It is really good. Maybe one day, I will accidentally forget something on the train, such as a car. I can also call them to inform the train station to drop it off at the next station."

The credit card he took out was naturally the legendary black card. Although he had heard all kinds of rumors about the world's top credit cards in his previous life, he only realized that it was nothing special when he got it. The so-called unlimited credit was only based on the holder's assets. If it was overdrawn, the credit card would be recalled. As for the comprehensive service, it was originally a way for the bank to attract customers. Besides, how many people were worthy of their invitation? Most of them had their own assistant team.

"Stop joking. When have you ever taken a train?" Claude said disdainfully.

That was true. Adriaan always drove or took a plane when he went out. The train in the United States was considered one of the worse modes of transportation. After all, freight was far more profitable than passenger transport, and most people preferred to travel by car.

"I am just giving you an example. If you think it is not enough, I have more here." Adriaan took out another black card and handed it to Claude. "This is from Citibank. After American Express sent their invitation, they also invited me. The competition is really fierce."

"If I also bought a Boeing 747 as my own ride, they would also invite me." Claude shrugged and handed the two black cards back to Adriaan. "Okay, let's continue our previous topic. Frankly speaking, if it were not for the decrease in liquidity due to controlling Adobe, we would not be competing so fiercely with Bertelsmann for the ownership of Random House."

"Again, Adobe may not be of much use to us now, but it will not be like this in the future." Adriaan repeated what he said before.

Fine. He was a little unreasonable. His main reason for holding Adobe was to develop Flash software. But he did not know much about Flash software. That's why he found out that Macromedia, which developed Flash software, had not been acquired by Adobe. That's why he bought Macromedia over to Adobe and brought Macromedia into his group. However, Adobe was not completely useless. Their image processing software had always been the best in the industry, and in Adriaan's plan, there were still a lot of things that needed to be done on the website.

Claude's question about Random House was the main point. As one of the top nine publishing brands in the United States, Random House's reputation was rather resounding. Although AC Media's focus was on movies, television, and the Internet, they could not completely give up on traditional print media. Especially since their publishing company had become famous because of the "Harry Potter" series, it would be unreasonable not to take this opportunity to expand.

But just last year, when AC Media was interested in Random House, Bertelsmann was also interested in them. The two sides had several confrontations over Random House. After all, Bertelsmann had more than 100 years of history. It was not as easy to deal with as Disneyland. In addition, AC Media had just acquired Macromedia and controlled Adobe. Claude had suffered a lot in their hands. If he did not find a way to turn the tables, he would have to give up Random House.

"Delay it. You know our plan. One year at most," said Adriaan. "I have already asked Uncle Leggett to start preparing."

"I really don't know where your confidence comes from. Even my father is not 100% sure." Claude sighed. "It's not easy to delay it for a year. Bertelsmann is not Disneyland."

Then, Adrian gave an unexpected answer. "If it really doesn't work, we can just give up. It's not like we can't do without Random House. Our future lies on the Internet, and the success of 'Blair the Witch' has fully demonstrated this point. In another seven or eight years, a certain topic that was reported on by CNN won't cause much of a reaction, but when it's put on the Internet, it will become a hot topic."

"Oh?" Claude raised his eyebrows. He knew that Adriaan must have more to say.

Sure enough, Adriaan smiled and changed the topic. "What do you think of Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company?"

"… I knew you would have a big appetite." Claude was stunned for a while before he laughed.

Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company was one of the four major publishers in the United States. It had more than a hundred years of history, and it was comparable to Bertelsmann. Although Random House was good, it was still nothing compared to them. To acquire such an old publishing company, it would either require a huge amount of money or a merger and acquisition. The latter was obviously not Adriaan's choice. As for the former … if the plan went well, it might really be possible.

"You're really far-sighted, Ed. Even though you're always unclear about the details, when it comes to long-term planning, you're really good at it," Claude said with a sigh.

"Don't worry, Krau. Everything is still unknown. Let's do what we have at hand first." Adriaan laughed.

"Blair the Witch" continued to gain popularity. With the support of those who had watched the movie first, the discussion on the Internet became even more heated. As a result, the number of cinemas showing the movie increased again and again, and the box office naturally followed suit. Of course, there were more and more accusations against the Maryland government every day. Fortunately, Bosworth came forward to refute the rumors.

The timing was good. The state government had not completely lost their patience. Coupled with the fact that there was a considerable amount of sponsorship — which was nothing compared to the box office — they did not take it to heart. After the whole thing was announced, although some people felt that they had been fooled, more people were surprised. With just a little hype, people believed that the whole thing was true, so more people began to go to the cinema.

Although this had something to do with the media under AC Media adding fuel to the fire, there was also the Americans themselves. As a joke went, if you want to make money from the Americans? Just try to underestimate their IQ.

In the end, "Blair the Witch" earned 270 million dollars at the box office worldwide. Bosworth's method of hype was thus recorded in the history of movies, and it became something that every movie company had to study. However, in any case, it could not compare to the movie companies under AC Media, which Adriaan repeatedly emphasized from the beginning.

Well, that was all in the future. Right now, this low-budget movie was just starting to show its power. Adriaan was in the conference room with a certain crew that was ready to start shooting.

"You may be wondering why I personally came to talk to you about such a medium-sized movie. The reason is simple. This movie is adapted from a game, and the original novel was written by me and someone else." Sitting at the head of the long table, Adriaan looked at the screenwriters, actors, and directors in front of him with a smile.

The male lead, Denis Knight, played the role of the fourth survivor, "Grim Reaper" Hank; Revan Phoenix, played the role of Leon S. Kennedy; Sarah, played the role of Claire Redfield; Lov, played the role of Jill Valentine; and Chi-ling Lin, played the role of Ada Wong. That's right, the long-awaited "Resident Evil" movie was finally going to start shooting.

Of course, other than Dennis, who was the male lead, among the other actors who played the game characters, only Lin Chi-ling's Aida Wong had more scenes. After all, from the very beginning, the movie version had already been established as a supplement and development for the game version, and it could also stand on its own. Although all the game characters had appeared, they did not have many scenes. As for what would happen in the future, it would depend on how the movie fans and game fans felt about the movie.

Because of this, Adriaan convinced Revan to play the role of Leon. In the beginning, he wanted Aniston to play the role of Jill. The stunt of a married couple was quite interesting. However, after Sarah agreed to play the role of Claire, she also recommended her "puppy" to play the role of Jill. Of course, Adriaan would not refuse, so this plan had to be put on hold. However, it was okay; there would be opportunities in the future.

"I suddenly thought of a great idea. You and your wife can act together. It will be very interesting. However, we have to wait a few years for Jenny to solidify her image as an action star in the movie. " When the newlyweds Denis and Aniston returned to Los Angeles from their honeymoon to attend the Resident Evil conference, Adriaan said this to them.

Aniston's image as a policewoman in Broken Arrow and as a female hacker in The Matrix had received a good response from the fans. Whether it was her valiant image in Broken Arrow or her sacrificing herself to protect Trinity and Neo in The Matrix, she had won the approval of the majority of the fans. Many producers had also begun to consider her action image.

However, the influence of Friends was huge, and the naive, cute, and slightly silly Rachel Green was more acceptable. Therefore, Aniston's action image was not stable yet. Although Adriaan could take out the script, it was not the best time to do so. Therefore, it was better to delay it for a while.

The atmosphere in the conference room was harmonious. It was the first time that most people had heard that Director Miracle had co-written a novel with someone else. They asked a few questions about it, and then they started chatting with each other.

"The novel was written about seven or eight years ago. At the time, many interesting ideas popped up in my head, so I often wrote down the ideas that flashed across my mind. Some ideas are very suitable for a novel, and Resident Evil was one of them. Inspired by Dawn of the Living Dead, I built a completely different framework. However, I was always busy at the time, so I could only write the outline and some parts. Therefore, I decided to co-write it … "Adriaan explained his motivation as he observed the people in the room.

Director Brook Hammer was very young, around forty years old. He had directed a few good commercial movies with medium to medium investment. Among the directors, Adriaan felt that his style was closer to the game and his own ideas, so he chose him. At the moment, he was talking with two scriptwriters. One was a contracted scriptwriter of the company, and the other was from the video game department. They were very easy to talk to, and with Adriaan mediating from time to time, the script was quite well written.

Denis and Rui Fan chatted from time to time. They had worked together on Fincher's Fight Club last year, and they had a good relationship with Adriaan, so they got along very well. However, Adriaan's attention was not on this. Fight Club would be released next month, and he wanted to know what Aniston thought about Winona playing a supporting role.

On the other side, Sarah and Lov were chatting intimately. It seemed that, like the media said, the two were very good sisters. However, Adriaan could see the reluctance in Lov's smile. Sarah had probably vented all the darkness in her heart on Lov. Even if she resented her, she did not dare to resist. Otherwise, Adriaan would not have secretly called Lov "Sarah's little dog."

Of course, this had something to do with Adriaan acting as the good guy. Final Destination starring Lov was about to be released, and her first album was selling well. The record company was now preparing a second album for her.

As for Lin Chi-ling, it was her first time attending a meeting like this, so she basically did not know anyone. However, her agent came with her today, so she was able to say a few words instead of sitting there and doing nothing. Her agent was also surnamed Lin, and she was also from Taiwan. She came to Los Angeles with her family when she was ten, and majored in economics and comparative literature at the University of California. After graduation, she looked for a job everywhere, and finally entered MCM. After two months of work, she was chosen by Adriaan and became Lin Chi-ling's agent.

Her English name was Kelly, the same name as Hu Kaili. As for her Chinese name, it was Lin Xilei.

"Okay, let's call it a day. You've all read the script. I hope I can watch an exciting movie." Seeing that it was almost time, and everyone was in a good state, Adriaan stood up and announced the end of the meeting. Of course, he had to say goodbye to everyone he was familiar with in a low voice.

"Dan, will you take Jenny to watch 'Fight Club'?" This was said to Denis. The latter rolled his eyes helplessly, and Rui Fan, who was walking in front, chuckled.

"Don't think that you can slack off just because you're a guest star." This was said to Sarah, and she made a face in return. Then, she pulled Lov and left, not giving her a chance to please Adriaan.

"Don't let me down, Ling." This was said to Lin Chi-ling in Chinese. She immediately nodded. Although they were in the conference room, her smile was still very charming.

However, to many people's surprise, Adriaan asked Lin Xilei to stay, "Wait a minute, Kelly."

This attracted a lot of attention. As Lin Chi-ling's manager, Lin Chi-ling didn't seem to have anything to do with the producer. Why did she stay? However, these people basically understood what was going on, so they didn't take it to heart. Lin Chi-ling, on the other hand, looked a little jealous.

"I heard that you didn't get along with Ling?" Adriaan asked after Lin Xilei looked a little nervous.

Although she didn't understand why he asked this question, Lin Xilei still nodded honestly. She wanted to explain, but Adriaan continued before she could, "I know it's Ling's problem, but you're not qualified to be her manager."

"I asked you to be Ling's manager."

"If there's any conflict, you can tell your boss, or even CEO Michael Ovitz. I told him to. Don't argue with your client."

"What I need is a manager who can take care of Asian actors for the company."

"I have a more important person that I want you to be in charge of if you meet my requirements."

"Don't let me down."