Over the following week, the North Arican dia couldn't stop talking about Michael Ovitz and the "infantry" incident.
Humiliated and in a complete ss, Ovitz was forced to publish an open reply quickly, firmly denying that he had ever ant to threaten Joe Eszterhas during the argunt. He declared that Eszterhas was free to leave CAA at any ti and that he would never stand in his way.
Eszterhas, however, didn't buy a word of it. In an interview with a reporter from the Los Angeles Tis, he once again accused Ovitz of verbal abuse and claid it had caused him severe psychological trauma. He said he had completely lost any sense of safety, because Ovitz had threatened to ruin his career. Eszterhas even claid he'd been forced to sell the house he'd just bought with his family, for fear sothing might happen to them.
Right after that, whether or not it was pushed by Ovitz behind the scenes, a large number of CAA clients began publicly rallying to his defense. Big nas like Sean Connery and Sydney Pollack stated they didn't believe the always-courteous, rarely-flustered Ovitz would ever say such things to Joe Eszterhas, and they hinted that Eszterhas might be exaggerating to milk sympathy.
That was certainly possible.
But Eszterhas didn't defend himself. Cleverly, he kept playing the tragedy card and implied that the big stars speaking up were Ovitz applying pressure, trying to silence him.
And the dia, never one to mind stirring the pot, happily kept fanning the flas.
In the midst of all that spectacle, on August 23, Japan's Sony Corporation abruptly cut through the noise around the "infantry" scandal by releasing an announcent: it had reached an agreent with Columbia Pictures to acquire the studio for $3.4 billion in cash, while also assuming $1.6 billion in debt.
On August 25, Columbia's board voted and approved Sony's acquisition plan.
And so, after a year-long tug-of-war, Sony formally brought one of Hollywood's seven major studios, Columbia Pictures, under its wing.
The deal, valued at a total of $5 billion, included Columbia's assets: the Columbia and TriStar labels, a massive library of more than four thousand film and television titles, the Loews theater chain with eight hundred and twenty screens, and part of the company's television holdings.
Because the Arican television sector in the late eighties still wasn't open to overseas investors, Sony also stated in its announcent that once the transaction was complete, it would divest Columbia's television assets.
And then, Monday, August 28.
Before Sony had even finalized who would run Columbia, it held the fourth press conference in recent weeks together with Daenerys Entertainnt, announcing the fourth film in the ten-picture plan: A League of Their Own.
Just like Sleeping with the Enemy, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and The Fugitive, A League of Their Own was also the work of a newcor screenwriter. Based on real events during World War II, it told the story of a washed-up baseball star who, after the n all rush off to war, tries to build a won's baseball team.
This kind of North Arican sports movie didn't carry much na recognition overseas, but in Simon's mory it was still a yearly top-ten hit that broke the hundred-million mark at the box office.
After A League of Their Own, on August 30, the fifth press conference arrived. Universal and Danerys Entertainnt jointly announced the fifth film in the ten-picture plan, adapted from Stephen King's novel Misery. Misery told the story of a crazed fan who accidentally saves the author she worships, then discovers he's killed off the character she loves and kidnaps and imprisons him, forcing him to rewrite the story.
After Stephen King beca famous, his novels were adapted constantly. Over the years, there had been at least one new King adaptation hitting the big screen almost every year. Danerys Entertainnt itself held the rights to Children of the Corn, and earlier in the year the Easter slot had seen the release of Pet Sematary, also adapted from King's novel of the sa na.
Still, aside from Pet Sematary, which earned more than $57 million after its Easter release, most other Stephen King adaptations only brought in twenty or thirty million. Producers didn't lose much, but they didn't make much either.
A novel like Misery, without any ghosts or supernatural elents, wasn't originally considered very promising. It wasn't until Simon took a liking to it that Universal, which had quietly snapped up the rights in advance, finally perked up and treated it seriously.
Five projects. Five press conferences. That was also by Simon's design. He wanted the ten-film plan to develop sothing like a "brand effect." Judging from the dia response, it was working. From casting to shooting to postproduction to release, these films wouldn't lack attention from every major platform. That alone was enough to offset several million dollars' worth of marketing.
With five projects announced, Hollywood stars grew even more restless.
Century City.
More than a week had passed, and the dia's mockery, criticism, and attacks on Michael Ovitz still hadn't slowed. At tis Ovitz even suspected soone was deliberately targeting him. But the root cause was simple: in the past, Ovitz had been too low-profile. The dia was curious about him yet knew little. The mont even a little relevant information surfaced, everyone sward in.
Because of the recent negative press, or perhaps Danerys Entertainnt's blacklist, and the fact that five films in the ten-picture plan had already been announced, CAA's client roster kept bleeding.
After Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, WMA poached Geena Davis as well, 1last year's Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner. At the sa ti, WMA also took a writer client nad Michael Crichton. Ovitz rembered this client wasn't known for any major blockbuster hits, but the dinosaur novel concept he'd discussed with him so ti ago had been fascinating.
He had no ti to care about any of that now.
If those two weren't that important, WMA reaching for Tom Hanks was sothing Ovitz found hard to stay calm about.
Hanks's Big last year not only crossed the hundred-million mark in North Arica, it even earned him a Best Actor nomination. This sumr's Turner & Hooch had also perford very well dostically. He was firmly A-list now. Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, old-guard stars already sliding downhill, jumping ship was one thing. But if a rising star like Tom Hanks left, it would be a severe blow to CAA's reputation.
With clients continuing to leave, it wasn't hard to imagine other stars forming the impression that CAA was on the decline and no longer worth staying with.
Once a domino effect started, the result would be catastrophic.
And when Columbia suddenly announced on August 31 that Geena Davis who had just jumped from CAA would be starring in A League of Their Own as part of the ten-film plan, Michael Ovitz knew he had to make a decision soon.
Friday, September 1.
A new week began, with only a low-budget B-movie thriller from New Line quietly opening an unmistakable sign that this year's sumr season had fully wrapped.
From the data currently available, the confird hundred-million-dollar hits of this sumr were Indiana Jones 3, Ghostbusters 2, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Lethal Weapon 2, The Bodyguard, and The Sixth Sense, six films in total, with Danerys Entertainnt accounting for two of them.
Considering that later in the year there would still be Batman and Hook a Danerys Entertainnt partnership with Warner Bros. as well as Universal's Back to the Future Part II, if another one or two dark horses erged, it was still very possible the total number of hundred-million-dollar films for the year would exceed ten.
Ticket prices in North Arica hadn't risen dramatically in recent years. The shift from only four or five sotis even fewer, hundred-million-dollar films per year to the ten-film level now was proof that after the stagnation of the seventies and early eighties, Hollywood's resurgence was unstoppable.
In Simon's mory, the year 1990 had been marked by a wave of blockbuster hits like Ho Alone, Pretty Woman, and Ghost, along with further expansion of the global film market, signaling Hollywood's renaissance. After that, the annual roster of hundred-million-dollar films basically filled the top ten every year.
In this tiline, when later generations charted Hollywood's trajectory, that turning point would likely be pushed up to 1988—the first ti Hollywood saw more than ten hundred-million-dollar box office hits in a single year.
Simon's butterfly effect had effectively accelerated Hollywood's recovery by two years.
Around eight o'clock that night.
At the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, a reception was underway, Sony, the newcor, entertaining Hollywood's local power brokers.
Simon, with Famke Janssen beside him, was chatting with Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. Goldblum and Davis were a couple, and both currently sat at the edge of A-list status.
Batman was close to completion. If the year-end box office t expectations, Wonder Woman would likely enter early developnt, and Simon had sped up the process of getting Famke "seen" in the right circles. The other two candidates, Helena Christensen and Erika Anderson, had already given up trying to compete with Famke, and Simon wasn't going to waste effort on a dead race.
Over the past year or so, Famke had taken a handful of tiny roles in film and TV. This ti, Simon arranged for her to take two small parts one in Robert Altman's ensemble film Short Cuts, and another in A League of Their Own, the company's co-production with Columbia.
Both films would draw more attention, and Famke Janssen's figure and looks were more than enough to make audiences notice her.
As they were talking about A League of Their Own, Michael Ovitz appeared nearby. Spotting Simon, he walked straight over.
Everyone who could attend tonight's event was well-connected and well-inford. Seeing Ovitz head toward Simon Westeros, they all turned to watch with curiosity, whispering among themselves.
Ovitz stopped in front of Simon and didn't bother to hide his purpose. He went straight to the point. "Simon, can we talk alone?"
Simon agreed readily. "Sure."
With a nod to Geena Davis and the others, Simon and Ovitz walked together to a sofa in the corner of the hall and sat down. Famke Janssen, tactful as always, didn't follow.
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