America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM...

Chapter 81. I will do everything I can to shield you from the storms outside.

After leaving the set of "The Walking Dead," Eric went to the set of "Legally Blonde 2" next door.

This project started in mid-January, but since it's a sequel, there's prior filming experience.

Moreover, it wasn't decided after Eric arrived, so he hadn't paid much attention to it. The production team had reported the progress twice, but he hadn't really cared.

I suddenly remembered today that the female lead of this movie is Reese Witherspoon, the famous Hollywood sweetheart.

What cemented her status as a sweetheart was the 2001 film "Legally Blonde," which also propelled Witherspoon into the ranks of well-known movie stars.

In 1999, she also made a guest appearance on Friends as Rachel's sister. At that time, Jennifer Aniston was America's sweetheart.

By 2001, both were still considered sweethearts, but unfortunately, their careers had already shown a significant gap, and this gap was expected to widen further in the future.

Aniston remains confined to the small screen, while Witherspoon has already spread his wings on the big screen.

On set, Eric and Witherspoon shook hands; it was the latter who extended his hand first, and this was the first time the two had met.

"Reese Witherspoon, just call me Reese."

The blonde beauty smiled sweetly, her small face showing a mischievous baby fat.

"Eric Cooper, this is our first meeting, but I'm sure we'll get to know each other better."

Releasing his grip, Eric asked, "Where's the director? Where's Charles Winfield?"

The assistant director next to him hurriedly replied, "He went to the restroom; it seems he had an upset stomach last night."

"Is it serious? If it's not good, you should see a doctor. Filming can wait even a day."

Eric showed his care at the right time, and with his handsome appearance, there was no trace of the exploitative nature of a capitalist.

The people around couldn't help but sigh inwardly, "What a kind person he is! Other companies are rushing us desperately, because every day of delay is a day's money wasted. Mr. Cooper is so kind."

However, the long-time MGM employees were unconvinced. They knew all too well that this guy had fired more than half of the senior executives on his first day at the company.

They'd rather lose money than let those people go; that shows how ruthless they are.

After exchanging a few words, Witherspoon suddenly said with some gratitude, "Eric, I've actually been wanting to thank you for a long time."

"What! Why? This should be our first meeting, right? Are we childhood sweethearts? Did I help you before?" Eric asked curiously.

Witherspoon laughed and said, "Of course not. I heard that you rejected a lot of scripts when you took office. I have to thank you for keeping 'Legally Blonde'."

Eric suddenly realized that Witherspoon's current signature work is "Legally Blonde," and his position is not yet secure.

If she cancels the sequel herself, she'll probably cry her eyes out in private. If she's unlucky and doesn't get good scripts, it might take her years to recover, and she might slowly fade into obscurity.

"Reese, this is what you deserve. The fact that I rejected them only shows that they were bad, while you are excellent. I admire you and have high hopes for your future development."

Upon hearing this, Witherspoon's pupils visibly contracted sharply, and Eric noticed that her hand also suddenly trembled.

Realizing he had misspoke, Eric quickly added, "Of course, I was talking about acting."

Witherspoon gave a somewhat stiff smile, and seeing this, Eric didn't want to stay any longer.

Just then, director Charles Winfield came out of the bathroom clutching his stomach. He was about to come over and say hello when he saw Eric turn and leave. He scratched his head, looking a little puzzled.

On the bus, Eric suddenly remembered the "Me Too" movement before his time travel, a feminist movement that swept through the world.

Many Hollywood actresses used this movement to speak out about their experiences of persecution, and the movement directly or indirectly led to Harvey Weinstein's imprisonment.

Reese Witherspoon, who had by then transitioned into a producer, also spoke about her painful past.

What happens to a pretty girl without a background when she enters the entertainment industry? You can see a thing or two from her experience.

When Witherspoon was 16, he received a call from a director and went to audition full of confidence, but unfortunately he was sexually assaulted after arriving.

When she told her agent what had happened, the agent didn't take it seriously at all, and just told her that if she wanted to survive in this industry, she had to learn to accept the unspoken rules.

In the following years, she didn't have many good works, supposedly because she didn't want to accept the unspoken rules and therefore couldn't get good resources.

Even so, she still suffered some sexual assaults during that time, until she became famous after starring in "Legally Blonde".

At this point, most directors and producers no longer have the power to sexually harass her.

But Eric was different; he had enough power to make Witherspoon comply.

So hearing the phrase "I admire you" must have awakened some unpleasant memories deep within.

Two days later, Frank Darabont brought the rough cut of the first episode of "The Walking Dead" to the MGM building. My dad, who rarely has time today, also attended the internal screening.

The rough cut of the first episode is only 45 minutes long. Although the sense of apocalypse is not quite there yet, this aspect can be improved in post-production.

Moreover, this flaw is insignificant; the onrushing zombies won't give the audience any time to think.

After watching it, everyone applauded Darabont.

Volvo, the marketing director who had initially been skeptical of the project, expressed his excitement and praise.

Eric gave Darabont a thumbs-up: "Frank, just like I said, I have complete faith in your abilities!"

Darabont grinned: "Hahaha, this is all thanks to the excellent script and financial support provided by MGM. A TV series costs $4000 million. I know what that means. Many movies with big stars can't get that kind of funding."

"And I have a feeling that The Walking Dead will become my most satisfying work after The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile."

Eric looked at everyone and said, "So, does anyone have any other opinions? You can speak up now."

The people on the scene looked at each other, but no one said a word.

"In that case, contact HBO, Shoutime, Starz, AMC, FX, in short, contact all cable channels."

"They made contact within a week. Given the quality of The Walking Dead, I don't think they're fools."

"Volvo, today is Tuesday, and I need to get all the cable TV quotes and their terms by next Friday."

Volvo nodded: "No problem, I'll get back to you as soon as possible."

"Oh, and don't forget to tell them that MGM intends to use this show to compete for an Emmy Award, so the air date is also an important factor we need to consider."

"clear!"

After everyone left, only Cooper and his son remained at the scene.

"Dad, how's the Twin Star Entertainment deal going?"

"It's progressing. I've already contacted a private equity firm; they're very professional at this kind of thing, and we'll have results soon."

"I also have something to ask you, Eric. I heard from Kenny that you had him contact people in Silicon Valley. What's the plan? What are you planning to do? Technological research and development?"

Even if his father doesn't ask about it, Eric will find time to tell him; the two of them have nothing to hide.

"Dad, I'm planning to enter the internet industry, but it's just a preliminary idea yet. I plan to report back to you once it's more mature."

Dad frowned: "The internet! This is not a good time. The stock market crash just ended not long ago, it's like a forbidden zone, and it's expanding too fast. I'm worried that MGM's funds will be tight."

"The company needs money for too many things. We have loans to repay, shares in Double Star Entertainment to acquire, and we are also in talks with DreamWorks about a collaboration."

"If you want to buy stocks, I have no objection. Microsoft, Oracle, and Google are high-quality resources that are generally favored by the market. As for Yahoo, forget about it; it's facing a lot of trouble right now."

Eric shook his head slightly: "Dad, you misunderstood. I didn't mean buying stocks. Of course, you can buy stocks, but that's not the point."

"What exactly do you want?"

"What I want is to truly enter the internet field, build our own internet company, and develop a social network and network platform that belongs only to us."

The father hesitated for a moment, seemingly considering his words carefully, but still looked at Eric with confusion: "I don't understand what you're talking about. We have online platforms too, we have our own official website, isn't that it?"

As a middle-aged man in his fifties, or rather, someone who is about to enter old age, Charlie Cooper naturally has a lag in accepting new things.

This is a common human failing: living in one's own life experiences and not wanting to accept new things from the bottom of one's heart.

Because those new things are likely to destroy their understanding, and even destroy the empire they have built.

A good example of this is media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

In five or six years, the development of online media will reach a new level, while traditional print media will face the crisis of being eliminated.

But for Murdoch, who built his fortune on print media, abandoning those newspapers he was so proud of would be like cutting off his own flesh, even if those industries were already very low-profit or losing money.

But what was the result?

Murdoch is under pressure from his son and numerous executives to sever ties with the print media business from the group.

In the end, even this man who held the reins of public opinion and could influence the presidential election had to compromise.

He left $26 billion in reserve funds for his print media empire, hoping it could rise from the ashes.

Other print media groups, on the other hand, were abandoned, with Newsweek suffering the worst fate, being sold for $1.

That's right, it's $1, because there's just too much foreign debt.

Pulling my thoughts back, I realized that to get my dad's support, I needed to reason with him. If I told him about the development trend of the Internet, he might not understand, so I had to talk about something more practical.

"Dad, the real reason I want to enter the Internet field is for the development of MGM."

"This feeling is especially strong through the production of 'The Walking Dead'. I ask you, once a TV series is produced, why can't we broadcast it ourselves? Why sell it to those TV stations?"

"Because we don't have broadcasting channels, if we don't sell to TV stations, wouldn't this investment be a complete waste? Everyone does it this way."

My father answered without hesitation that this pattern had been ingrained in his mind for decades and felt perfectly reasonable.

But Eric, being a time traveler, certainly found this unreasonable, and he continued to press, "So why don't we establish our own channels?"

Dad laughed heartily: "Eric, that's impossible. Do you know how difficult it is to set up a television station? Do you know how much capital you need?"

"Even if we have enough funds, you still need to communicate with major local TV stations and then build your own TV network."

"After that, you'll have to face the encirclement and suppression from existing TV stations. They won't allow a newcomer to cut into the pie; that's absolutely impossible."

"Under the pressure from these established television stations, I'm afraid no local station will sign a contract with us."

Eric nodded: "Yes, I understand, and we all know that these TV stations are backed by major corporations."

"FX is backed by Fox, and Fox is backed by Murdoch, who also has our rival 20th Century Fox under his wing; AMC is backed by Rainbow Media, and Rainbow Media is backed by CVC Group;"

"NBC is backed by General Electric; HBO belongs to Time Warner, which also owns our competitor WarnerMedia; Starz is backed by Liberty Media; and Shoutime belongs to Viacom."

"In short, every TV station you can think of has a powerful capital group behind it. We can't compete with them, at least not at the moment."

"But I'm not willing to accept that. I don't want to sell the films and TV series that I've worked so hard to produce to them. That would be like us making money for our competitors."

"So I want to create an online platform, or more precisely, an online video-on-demand platform, to broadcast our works on our platform. This is my idea, and it is also based on the general trend of the development of the Internet."

"Dad, in the near future, the internet will be the only way out, and one of the few opportunities we can seize."

Looking at his son's excited tone, Charlie Cooper suddenly felt that he couldn't understand the child anymore, and he didn't seem like the child he had watched for more than 20 years.

It seems that he has become a stranger ever since that balcony accident, as if he has become a different person, a different soul.

Suddenly he understood movies, and suddenly he could even direct and write screenplays. It was all very strange.

How could Harry Cooper not have had doubts?

But when he heard Eric call him father, his doubts vanished.

But at this moment, he was still shocked. Having worked in the industry for decades, he could understand what Eric meant, but he never expected that his son's ambition would be so great.

While he was content with making MGM even better, Eric was actually looking up to the truly big corporations.

He thought the idea was ridiculous and impossible to achieve.

But looking at his son's enthusiasm, he felt that perhaps it wasn't that his son was too arrogant, but that he himself had really grown old and lost the ambition he had in his youth.

Finally, Charlie Cooper sighed: "Eric, although I don't know much about the internet, I know at least one thing: if you really want to create an online viewing platform, we're going to face a storm of attacks."

"Because this is disrupting the very foundation of all film and television companies and television stations; you're digging them out of their roots!"

"Deep down, I think this was a wrong decision that could very well lead MGM to its doom."

"But as a father, I know I must support my son."

"So go ahead and do it. I will do everything I can to shield you from the storms outside, until I collapse."

(End of this chapter)