America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 538 The Opportunity Appears

Chula Vista, San Diego, California, near the Mexican border.

A commercial event in the mall had just ended. Anna Frank came out from the backstage, carrying a heavy backpack and walking out with a tired body.

When she came out, her agent was waiting for her and asked, "This kind of activity is meaningless. You are wasting your time."

Anna stopped and said, "I need money. How can I pay my car loan? How can I pay my rent? What can your agency provide me with?"

The agent said: "We pushed you into the crew of "Inglourious Basterds" and let you meet the real boss in the circle, Harvey Weinstein!"

Anna thought of the nightmare and suddenly laughed: "You asked me to discuss the script and the role, and I went. What happened? I encountered a shameful insult."

The agent was very dissatisfied with the latter statement: "I told you, this is the norm in the industry. Every female star climbed up this way. Apart from your body, do you have other assets that can impress the big guys?"

"Okay! I accept everything he did to me." Anna gnashed her teeth in hatred: "He promised me opportunities and roles, I want to ask, where are the opportunities and roles?"

The agent could only say: "Wait, wait a little longer."

"You told me that hard work would pay off and stopped me from calling the police, but what happened?" Anna sneered, "If I had waited any longer I would have gone bankrupt and sold myself out."

The agent still has to speak.

Anna said first: "If there is a job like this that can make money, please help me take it. I now understand that not everyone can dream of becoming a big star. Making money is the most important thing."

Ignoring her agent, she walked into the parking lot alone, came to the Hyundai car, and found someone waving at her from the opposite side of the car.

Anna was sure she didn't know him.

The man walked over quickly: "Hello, Miss Anna Frank." He took out a card he got from Jodi: "I'm a news reporter from TMZ."

Anna knew this website, which had been very popular in the past two years: "What do you want?"

Ivan came to San Diego the day before yesterday, but he was not in a hurry to contact Anna. His purpose was to understand her situation and make targeted plans.

He said: "I'm here to buy something. TMZ has always been generous in buying news, and it has a good reputation in the media industry and the entertainment industry."

Anna had some suspicions, was short of money, and was annoyed because she had given so much but got nothing in return. She said, "Let's talk somewhere else."

Ivan took her to the coffee shop in the mall, sat down and said directly: "We got a secret message that you were entangled with Harvey Weinstein..."

Anna asked tentatively, "How dare you attack a big boss in the industry like him?"

Ivan couldn't bring up Martin and Old Bull, so he could only pull up the banner of TMZ: "Don't we have enough bigwigs exposed by TMZ? As long as you have news, money and follow-up matters are never a problem."

Anna asked, "Really?"

Ivan asked directly: "The premise is that you have evidence such as videos, photos and recordings."

"I have." Anna gave up the idea of ​​being a star after returning from Los Angeles. She only wanted to make money: "How much money would you give me for the video of Harvey Weinstein raping me?"

Ivan said, "One hundred thousand dollars."

Anna sneered: "Too little, that's Harvey Weinstein!" She weighed it carefully: "50 US dollars, not a penny less!"

Ivan had communicated with Bruce before coming and guaranteed to get the video first. Money was not a problem.

He nodded and said, "$50 is fine, but when necessary, you need to come out and correct Harvey in person."

Anna hesitated, because the other party was a big shot that she couldn't afford to offend: "In person?"

Ivan seized her weakness and said, "Have you forgotten the victims of Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck? In addition to the $50, you can also protect your rights through legal means and demand reasonable financial compensation."

Anna has read relevant reports: "I remember that many direct victims received millions of dollars?"

Ivan said: "You have a chance only if you take action, and you have to cooperate with us."

Money has such magical power that as long as enough money is spent, the United Nations will be illegal.

How can you test someone in this way? Anna surrendered directly: "Give me a deposit of $20, and I'll give you a video first!"

Ivan took out the check, pushed it in front of Anna, and said, "No problem, I've watched the video, let's continue the transaction." Anna calculated the number on the check and quickly put it away: "Come with me."

The two men left Chula Vista and rushed to Ana's apartment in San Diego.

…………

At Los Angeles International Airport, Martin and Bruce got off the plane, pushed their luggage hurriedly towards the departure gate, and took out their cell phones and turned them on.

Thomas was waiting at the exit of the terminal. He took Martin's luggage and got into the business car together.

Martin asked directly: "I asked you to understand the progress of the "Hobbit" film project. How is it going?"

"The copyright issue is very complicated, similar to the situation before the filming of The Lord of the Rings trilogy." Thomas has learned about the status of this project in detail in the past few days: "Peter Jackson originally planned to prepare The Hobbit movie last year, but had to postpone it due to copyright issues and filmed The Lovely Bones instead."

He added: "The heroine is your student Saoirse Ronan."

Martin asked: "The copyright is not entirely in the hands of Warner?"

Thomas said: "The copyright of the entire Lord of the Rings series originally belonged to MGM, and later fell into the hands of Sony Columbia. During this period, it changed hands several times, resulting in the dispersion of many adaptation rights. The copyright of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy fell into the hands of Harvey Weinstein."

Martin nodded. He had learned something about it in the past few years. "Harvey was the first to prepare for The Lord of the Rings, but he only gave Peter Jackson one movie with a pitifully small budget. Peter Jackson brought in New Line Cinema, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., and then the trilogy came about. It was precisely because of the distribution of the profits from these three trilogies that Harvey and Warner Bros. completely fell out."

Thomas said: "The copyright situation of "The Hobbit" is also complicated. Warner and New Line believe that they have priority in adaptation, but Harvey presented a complete copyright authorization. The two sides then found Tolkien's copyright management agency, which was dealt with by Warner, saying that Harvey's authorization had expired and Warner had the adaptation rights..."

While he was drinking water, Bruce, who was driving, interrupted and said, "The interests involved in this series are too great, and no one is willing to give up."

Martin said: "The commercial influence of the Lord of the Rings series is huge. If The Hobbit also has a trilogy, the box office alone may exceed $25 billion!"

Bruce said: "This is a huge sum, it's enough to kill each other."

"Harvey and Warner have had extremely sharp conflicts over the years, and they have had more than one quarrel. The various conflicts of interest in the Lord of the Rings series have made Warner extremely annoyed with him." Thomas elaborated: "It is said that Peter Jackson has planned a new trilogy, and the profits of the trilogy are within reach. Warner can no longer cooperate with Harvey, and has joined forces with Tolkien's copyright agency to kick Harvey out."

He was sure of one thing: "Warner was ready to take legal action, and wanted to give Harvey a small amount of copyright compensation through the Tolkien Copyright Agency, and then completely take back the adaptation rights, but Harvey refused. Harvey wanted half of the profits from the adaptation of the movie!"

Martin thought for a moment and said, "I remember that among the top Hollywood commercial films, the box office revenue often only accounts for one-third of the total revenue of a film."

Thomas added: "The Lord of the Rings trilogy only made 26% of the total box office revenue."

Bruce added, "Hundreds of billions of dollars. God, with that much money, I could go to Africa and hire an army and become the head of a country."

Thomas already knew what Martin wanted to do. Now that he was tied to Martin, he was still a little worried: "Are you sure you want to do this."

"It's not that I want to do this, but I have to do it." Martin said roughly: "Harvey is a domineering person. At first, I stole Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" and we had a grudge. Not to mention so many times afterwards, this year's Cannes Film Festival is another one."

Just like Bruce said, Martin sometimes can't help but overthink after causing too much trouble: "Nolan believes that the shooting of the crew in Los Angeles is related to the kidnapping in Morocco. I think it may be related to Harvey's Foot Gang, although there is no evidence to prove that it is against me."

"I'm worried that we won't be able to get rid of him and the fire will spread to us." Thomas' concerns are not unreasonable.

Martin said: "So I have been waiting, looking for the right opportunity, and now I have found the right opportunity. Warner has a huge conflict of interest with Harvey because of The Hobbit. Harvey is holding on to the copyright, and Warner may want him to finish more than ever."

Thomas thought about it carefully: "Based on the current situation, this is indeed an opportunity. At least several billion dollars of visible benefits are expected."

Martin nodded slightly, then asked Thomas for more details and started to think about it seriously.

Bruce returned all the way to his home in Beverly Hills and just entered the villa when he received a call from Ivan. After chatting for a while, he came to find Martin.

"Ivan bought the full version of the video for $50," Bruce said simply. "He watched it roughly and found the content to be exactly what we wanted. In addition, the person involved, Anna Frank, agreed to come forward and make corrections in order to receive financial compensation."

Martin's billions of dollars were not wasted. He said, "Léa Seydoux's information is reliable." He urged, "Go meet Ivan in person and bring back a copy of the things. Ivan will proceed as planned."

Bruce picked up the car keys: "I'll be right there."

Martin thought about it on the way: "You mentioned before that a team of reporters from the News of the World has been tracking Harvey for a while. Let's check if they are still investigating. If we can get in touch with them, we can let Ivan try to contact them."

Bruce paid close attention to the three-man team at one point and said, "It won't be hard to find them."

(End of this chapter)