Chapter 884

That was not all that happened in September. There were many other things to talk about. For example, Adriaan had his ninth daughter, and it was likely to become his eleventh in a few months' time. If this news were to get out, it would definitely make a lot of people laugh their heads off. The famous playboy who was successful with women had impregnated nine different women, but all of them were daughters. God must be very displeased with him.

Fortunately, the people who knew the details were those around him. Most people in the circle only knew that he had a few daughters, but they did not know the specific number. Of course, Lily, Deva, and Juliet were all his children. This was something that many people knew.

In any case, the chubby full-term Carice made Adriaan very happy. The birth of every child made him very happy. Oh, right, the newborn should be called Carice Zeta Kewell. Zeta Jones' proposal was unanimously agreed upon by the women, so the names of the daughters were changed one after another, adding their mother's surname or first name before the surname Kewell.

The little ones had no objections, including the slightly older Deva and Juliet. They had just celebrated their sixth birthday, but Lily was different.

"Why add Mother's surname before the surname? What's the point? If this is a sign that Daddy loves Mommy, does that mean that he didn't love Mommy before? If this is a sign that Daddy loves me, does that mean that he didn't love me before? " Lily, who had also just celebrated her tenth birthday, blinked her eyes. She rested her little face on her hands and smiled, as if she had no intention of questioning at all.

Well, the clever little one could always find topics to make her father depressed. Especially in the past few months, the infighting between her mother and sister Emma, who she could not understand, made her very unhappy. Naturally, she could only vent her anger on her father. Although Kate and Emma had been very careful, there would always be clues when they crossed swords. Moreover, Lily was unusually smart and precocious. If not for her young age, she might have already guessed what had happened.

Even so, it was still very dangerous. At only ten years old, Lily was already very clear about the relationship between her father and so many aunties. She was also very clear about how her sisters came to be, so now she focused all her anger on her father. Some things were better to be revealed later — even if it was ten minutes later.

So, Adriaan pinched his daughter's little nose and gave a tough but ambiguous answer. "Because I want to!"

Lily was naturally not satisfied with this answer, so she started to threaten her father. Only when Adrian threatened that if she wanted to use the kitchen to make biscuits for the Boy Scouts again, he would have to charge her for the use of the biscuits. Only then did he manage to appease her temporarily.

Although under normal circumstances, eleven was the official age to join the Scout Troop, in reality, there were Scout Troop members below the age of ten. Of course, such Scout Troop members would not participate in outdoor activities. More often than not, they would help out in the community, do some voluntary labor, or sell their cookies for charity activities and the like.

Lily was very happy that she could do something that was recognized by more people. So, from time to time, she would soak in the kitchen and make cookies for fun. She had a lot of fun doing it, and often came up with strange or unpalatable creations. If Adriaan did not know his daughter well enough, he might have thought that she wanted to be a chef in the future.

So using this to threaten her was very effective. In the end, the little one could only grimace unhappily. "Daddy is a bad guy!"

She had said this countless times, and had practically taught it to all her sisters. Now, it seemed that she would still say it countless times in the future, and teach it to even more sisters.

Well, this was a family matter. Other than that, in September, the IT industry had two pieces of news that were worth speculating about. First, YouTube, which originally belonged to VI Network Group, was acquired by Google. Then, Yahoo and eBay formed a strategic alliance, and there were rumors that the two websites might merge.

The second piece of news did not attract much attention. After the dotcom bubble burst, this kind of merger news was not much less than bankruptcy news. Even if Yahoo and eBay were to merge, it would at most attract the attention of the big bosses in the IT industry, and then hand it over to the departments under them to analyze. What really caught their attention was the first piece of news.

YouTube was a subsidiary of VI Network Group, and was also the first large-scale video-sharing website that allowed users to upload freely. Although it was said that the profits were not optimistic, and was only able to break even, it was precisely because of this that the website quickly occupied the market, and had a good reputation among the netizens.

For a website like this, and it was said that the founder was one of the major shareholders of VI Network Group, as well as the chairman of the board of directors of AC Media, and the miracle director of Hollywood, Adrian Kewell, why would he sell it to Google?

One had to know that YouTube and AC Media were quite complementary, and they had cooperated with many traditional media outlets, indirectly building a relationship between them and AC Media. At the same time, it also gathered a group of high-quality video producers, and some people made a lot of money from it. For example, Katy Perry, who released her new album in early September, was discovered from YouTube.

Industry insiders knew very well what a video-sharing website like this, which rarely had high traffic after the dotcom bubble burst, represented. Therefore, even though YouTube had always been a subsidiary of VI Network Group, Yahoo and Google continued to lobby for it, hoping to get a piece of it. Although VI Network had negotiated with them before, they did not make a clear statement. Why did they suddenly sell it to Google at this time?

Not only did industry insiders have questions, but Claude and Viktor also talked to Adriaan about this several times. Yes, these were all done under his insistence, whether it was selling YouTube to Google, or pushing for the merger of Yahoo and eBay.

This was not done on a whim by Adriaan. It was based on long-term considerations, as Google's rise was unstoppable. After the dotcom bubble burst, the IT market was basically regulated, and then there was a series of reasons such as 911 and the war on terror. The government had to monitor the internet, and they needed to find a partner.

Yahoo was established earlier, and it suffered a lot during the dotcom bubble. Coupled with the founder's identity and technical problems, Google was a better partner to work with. With the government's support and its own strength, it was no wonder that it became a giant. Therefore, Adriaan wanted a piece of the pie.

AC Media, Adriaan, and Claude all held shares in Google. Although they had different degrees of shares over the years, if they wanted to, they still had a say in the board of directors, and YouTube would be a good bargaining chip to increase this right. Furthermore, as the most popular video-sharing website, with Google's full support, it would undoubtedly grow faster. After a few rounds of negotiations, this deal was made.

Of course, Adriaan did not completely give up the control of YouTube, so Google did not fully acquire it. This was not what Larry Page and Sergey Brin wanted, but Adriaan had enough bargaining chips to trade.

As for the cooperation and merger between Yahoo and eBay, it was to limit Google's growth. An overly large Google that occupied almost the entire online advertising market and was involved in all types of services was obviously not in AC Media's interest. If Yahoo and eBay merged, at least they would be ahead of Google in e-commerce.

However, it was uncertain what would happen in the future. Whether Yahoo and eBay could merge was also unknown. After all, Adriaan owned their shares, but he could not make decisions for them. But it didn't matter. As long as he did what he should and could do, it would be fine. It was impossible for him to do everything.

It was no wonder that Adriaan put in so much effort in this area. This was AC Media's biggest advantage, and it was also their foundation. The top media groups all had their own foundations. For example, Disneyland's theme park, animation, and family-type programs. Although AC Media currently relied on Pixar, Blue Sky, and DreamWorks Animation to control the animation market, Disneyland was not completely useless. It was also trying to catch up. Last year, "Raymond's Adventures" had a good box office. They indeed had a foundation in this area.

Other than that, Viacom controlled many cinema chains. Although Lei Shidong sold all of his cinema chain shares when he acquired Paramount, one only needed to look at the name of the person in charge of the largest cinema chain in the United States to know. As for Time Warner, it had print media, cable, and broadband operations. News Corporation and Sony had the backing of the European and Japanese markets respectively.

In these areas, AC Media was involved. It had three of the best animation studios, had cable network operations, and could barely share cinema chains with Viacom in Canada. It also had a part in the European and Japanese markets. Although these had generated quite a lot of profits, if they were to compete individually, they still could not compare to these established media groups. Therefore, the internet was the foundation of AC Media.

With a presence like Adriaan, AC Media went further than other media companies on the Internet. If it was before 2000, other media companies might have a chance to catch up. Now, it was basically unshakable.

That was why even though Claude and Victor had doubts about the sale of YouTube, they were still convinced in the end. Adrian's foresight in this aspect had been proven to be correct. And even if it was not in this area, he had a lot of surprises. The most recent was ESPN's expansion in Europe.

Remember Adriaan's promise to Claude? When Chelsea shocked everyone one day, ESPN was bound to completely open up the situation. It only took less than two years for that to happen. After Mourinho took over Chelsea, it took only one season to send the team to the Premier League title. Although the process was thrilling, the Portuguese's wild words became a reality, making it difficult for the media to face them directly.

Similarly, the opposition within the Chelsea Football Club basically disappeared. Adriaan fully supported Mourinho and completely delegated power to become a rare foresight. Abramovich, who bought Tottenham Hotspur, was extremely jealous. Although Tottenham Hotspur achieved a rare third-place result in the Premier League under his heavy investment, there was still a world of difference compared to Chelsea's title. He also wanted to sign the Portuguese at first.

ESPN, which fully supported Chelsea, naturally became famous. The situation in Europe was indeed gradually opening up. After Adriaan accompanied, or escorted, little Emma back to England, specially accepted an interview with Melissa, and conducted another "interview" in the box at Stanford Bridge, the beautiful sports hostess immediately became more and more famous, and unexpectedly made ESPN's situation in France better.

Therefore, in this case, it could be imagined how popular "One Goal to Become Famous" would be, how many Chelsea fans would be attracted, and how many people would become Chelsea fans. Therefore, it was originally scheduled to be released in the United States in early October, but because of this momentum, it was moved to late September, about the same time as "Lucky Number Slevin."

Going back to the film, I forgot to mention that there were some works that needed to be mentioned in September, not like "One Goal to Become Famous," which was released in advance, but to participate in the film, the Toronto Film Festival.

The Toronto Film Festival was founded in the 1970s. It started in mid-September and ended at the end of the month. Unlike other film festivals, the Toronto Film Festival did not have any awards. It was a platform to provide exchanges and transactions. No matter what film it was, it could be shown there, as long as the application was approved. This gave a lot of independent films that had a certain style but missed out on the Sundance Film Festival a chance. If they could be seen by a film distributor at the Toronto Film Festival, then it was possible to be released and win attention.

But it was also because of this that the Toronto Film Festival was not in the A category of film festivals. It should be known that the Montreal Film Festival, which was founded a year later in Canada, was also in this category. But the Toronto Film Festival did not need this. It should be known that many of the works shown at this film festival, about 300 of which had been on the Oscar nomination list and award stage. The most recent example was Paul Haggis's "Crash."

Therefore, the Toronto Film Festival was very lively every year. Even if they could not contact a film distributor for a while, at least they could make some name for themselves. But there were already distribution channels, and they were purely there to expand their popularity, such as the few films that Adriaan was concerned about.

First was Keira Knightley's film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, "Pride and Prejudice." Then there was Kate Beckinsale's female lead, which was adapted from a real case and had prompted the United States to legislate sexual harassment. There was also "Life with a Glass", in which Chiling Lin had a significant supporting role. It was about wine and failure in California. Then there was Cayden Cross and Scarlett Johansson's first full-length film, "Death Girl", directed by Sophie.

"Pride and Prejudice" had been adapted countless times, and would continue to be adapted in the future. It was a tool to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. Adriaan was very clear about Keira's experience, so he used his connections in the British film industry to buy the adaptation rights early on. He then found a young man, Joe White, and asked him to direct it.

Only young people would make some bold changes and use some imaginative shooting techniques, which was also what many people appreciated. Moreover, the Film Academy had been working hard to promote the younger generation of students. Although this was Joe's first full-length film, he could do well in Adriaan's memory, so there was no reason for him to do badly now.

"The North" was also specially arranged by Adriaan for Kate. Originally, he wanted to use another film, a political drama. But after thinking about it carefully, he realized that it was not a good opportunity. Anyway, these were all paving the way for Kate. He had already chosen the film that would reach the top, so it was not fixed which film would come first.

After so many years of training, Kate's acting skills had improved a lot. At least in Adriaan's opinion, she did a good job. Her hidden strength was very good. His opinion might not be completely accurate, and it was also because of his personal feelings, but don't forget that he had references.

"A Glass of Life" was a small accident. Every year after the Oscars, Adriaan would go through his memory to see if he had missed anything. Even though he had not found anything after so many years, he persevered and found this film. Obviously, some things had been shattered by him.

But it was just as well. Adriaan was very satisfied with Lin Zhiling's performance, so he could give her a higher reward. "A Glass of Life" happened to be an opportunity. But compared to the other films, this film had also changed the most. Other than the script, which had not changed much under Adriaan's request, the actors and the director were basically brand new.

This was very rare. Before this, no matter what kind of film it was, he would try to arrange actors who were related to the original as much as possible, as if it would be the same as the original. This thought was a bit ridiculous. Even though he got rid of this influence, it had become a habit. Plus, there were no problems, so he was too lazy to correct it.

But this version of "A Glass of Life" was not the same as the one in Adriaan's memory … Well, that was not accurate. To be exact, the story was the same, but the editing could not evoke Adriaan's memory. One must know that editing was very important for a film. A wonderful film could be completely incomprehensible with just a few cuts. Although he felt that it was not bad after watching the sample, and the story was not complicated, and there was no fancy filming techniques needed, it was hard to predict how the audience would react.

But still, it was okay even if it failed. It was good to try something new occasionally. There were still many opportunities.

As for "Death Girl", it was interesting. Sophie had almost completed the post-production in mid-August. Initially, she wanted to bring this film to the Venice Film Festival. No matter what, she was French, and she still wanted to be recognized by the European Film Festival. If her performance was not good, what about the director? She still had a bit of confidence in herself.

But the problem was that Adriaan had completely offended the European filmmakers at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and her close relationship with him was not a secret anymore. So, she could only change her path and participate in the Toronto Film Festival.