America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 581 Disney and Netflix
When Barbra Streisand, a legendary Hollywood woman who has achieved outstanding achievements as a singer, actress, director and producer, took the stage as presenter, everyone knew the result of the Best Director award.

It was obvious that Danny Boyle, the best director in the previous session, did not take the stage. Instead, a senior female member served as the award presenter.

Martin turned his head and looked at David Fincher, and saw a flash of unwillingness on his face.

Today's David Fincher is not yet the lazy director who has been criticized by film critics after his collaboration with Netflix. He still has an Oscar dream.

But Oscar was destined to make history tonight.

As expected, the name that came out of Barbra Streisand's mouth was Kathryn Bigelow.

"The Hurt Locker" not only won the Best Director award, but also the Best Picture award.

Summit Entertainment and film investors David Ellison and Megan Ellison became the biggest winners of the night.

In contrast, the crew of "Benjamin", which received thirteen Oscar nominations but only won two consolation awards for Best Makeup and Best Art Direction, became the biggest tragedy of the night.

It’s just a little bit away from catching up with the preferential treatment that “The Shawshank Redemption” enjoyed at the Oscars.

Martin comforted David Fincher: "Let's shoot faster this time and fight for the next one!"

David Fincher is also holding back his energy: "I want to be more efficient this time, and I'll try to release Gone Girl during the holiday season."

The fundamental purpose of Martin's words was to arouse David Fincher's competitive spirit and improve the efficiency of filming and production.

After all, this photographer has always been more casual.

After this awards ceremony, Elizabeth went straight home, while Martin had to attend the "Oscar Night" party.

After Vanity Fair insisted on hosting many parties, Oscar night has become a co-organization of the Academy and even the Oscar losers will show up at the party.

As soon as Martin entered the banquet hall, he was stopped by Taylor Swift who came to the party.

Taylor pushed him to the photo area on the side: "I have two friends who are also your fans. They have been clamoring to take a photo with you."

Martin asked curiously, "Your best friend?"

Taylor said as he walked, "Like you, my friend group member. Last time when I sang for you, didn't you give me an idea to form a celebrity friend group?"

Martin reminded: "Remember, you are the leader, and the members must also be famous and attract the attention of the entertainment media. During the window period of your works, you can play some tricks of little girls talking about the breakdown and reconciliation."

Taylor has already evolved, and has even gone a step further: "Not only have I made a plan, I'm also going to find a singer of similar status to fight with online. Is this hype method feasible?"

Martin first praised: "Taylor, you are getting more and more resourceful." Then he reminded: "Pay attention to the frequency of hype."

Taylor nodded slightly, then waved to the front: "Carly, Selena, look who's here."

Two girls, one tall and one short, came over. The former had blonde hair and long legs, and was taller than Taylor.

The latter is a Latino with natural baby fat on his round face.

Taylor introduced: "This is Karlie Kloss, this is Selena Gomez, they are both my good friends."

Then he took Martin's hand and said, "You all know my close friend, Martin."

Karlie Kloss shook hands with Martin and stood next to him first: "Take a photo for me."

Martin pointed to an official Oscar reporter and said, "Bill, come over here and help me."

Bill immediately came over with a camera and took photos of Karlie Kloss and Selena Gomez with Martin respectively, and finally took a large group photo of Martin and the other four.

After taking the photo, Martin saw Allen Horn waving at him and said to Taylor, "I have something else to do, you guys talk first."

Taylor grabbed him and asked, "Are you free tonight?"

“Not tonight,” Martin said.

Taylor said with regret: "I have to leave early tomorrow morning." She thought for a moment and said: "Next time I organize a gathering for the sisters, you can come too."

Martin nodded: "No problem."

Speaking of this, he wanted to settle accounts with Leonardo. This bastard lacks the spirit of hard work. He is a typical 11-meter runner who can run seconds and talk big. He said he would organize a big gathering of Russian and Ukrainian supermodel actresses, but there has been no news so far.

It’s a pity that Leonardo didn’t come tonight, otherwise Martin would definitely send him his blessings and wish him to be forced to get married by ten pregnant women tomorrow.

Seeing Martin walking away, Karlie Kloss nudged Taylor with her elbow and asked, "Have you tried it? How does it taste?" The first generation of post-90s in the entertainment and modeling circles have grown up. They are wilder and more unrestrained than their predecessors. Selena Gomez also asked, "Is it as good as the legend says? Is it as delicious as it tastes?"

Taylor was much more aggressive than them. He came up to the two of them and whispered, "Not only does it taste good, it can also moisturize my vocal cords and make my singing voice more beautiful. Didn't you notice? Is my singing voice better than before?"

"You!" Karlie Kloss and Selena Gomez were stunned, thinking, are these sisters joking?
Taylor blinked: "You are still young and don't understand the good of it."

Carly was dissatisfied: "We will be eighteen soon."

…………

At a table in the corner of the banquet hall, Alan Horn asked Martin: "I heard that Warner Brothers wants to acquire your studio?"

"They wanted to buy it, and I was willing to sell it, but the talks fell through," Martin said bluntly, "Warner didn't want to pay $4.5 million."

This price also surprised Alan Horn: "If it were me, I would never agree to it!"

Martin smiled and said, "This is where the disagreement lies. I think the studio's existing assets are worth at least this price, but others don't think so."

Since there was a disagreement, Alan Horn simply changed the subject: "Warner Bros. has increased its distribution commission, which is very unfair to its partners, especially actors, investors and producers like you who always have box office hits. Even if the commission is increased by one percent, it will mean a loss of millions of dollars."

Martin said: "Warner Bros.' performance has been No. 1 in Hollywood for many years, and its distribution channels are very strong."

"That represents the past, not necessarily the future," said Alan Horn. "After Kevin Tsujihara took office, he promoted a large number of Japanese and nepotism. I believe you know this. Do you think this is a normal management model for a company? Can they maintain the glory created by Warner Bros. in the past decade?"

Martin has already seen the clues from the two projects "Pharaohs and Gods" and "Green Lantern", and coupled with the holes he has dug, the future is unpredictable.

He asked directly: "Alan, from what you said, you want to bring me to Disney? I remember that you are the president of Disney Pictures, in charge of distribution, right?"

Alan Horn said: "I am also thinking about your old friend. Both Disney and Buena Vista International are strong enough hair brands. Walt Disney's offline channels are no worse than Warner. And Robert Iger. You may not be familiar with Martin, but I can assure you that he is far superior to Kevin Tsujihara in terms of leadership and personal charm."

Martin nodded: "I've heard people talk about Robert Iger. I heard that all the big investments made by Disney in recent years came from him, including the acquisition of Pixar Studios and the entire Marvel Studios..."

He paused for a moment and said, "Alan, I'm worried about meeting another Kevin Tsujihara. If you can manage the Disney distribution label, I will immediately send someone to discuss the distribution of John Wick 2 with you."

Alan Horn laughed: "Disney Pictures not only merged Hollywood Studios and Touchstone Pictures, but also merged Disney's distribution label, which will specialize in the production and distribution of live-action films in the future."

Martin said: "It seems that you have been eyeing me for a long time."

Alan Horn admitted: "I can't meet you today. I also planned to contact you before you went to shoot "Gone Girl", but unfortunately you have already signed a distribution contract with Warner Bros. for this film."

Martin picked up the wine in front of him and clinked glasses with Alan Horn: "I'll have someone talk to Disney Pictures later."

Allen Horn took a sip of his drink and said, "I'll have my deputy talk to your people."

The two finalized their intention and the interview ended.

After Martin left, he originally wanted to go home. Before leaving, Elizabeth said that she would wait for him in her dress.

This is also a very special experience.

But David Fincher stopped him and introduced the middle-aged man next to him: "This is an old friend of mine, Greg Peters, who used to be a producer and now works as a product content director at Netflix."

Greg immediately came over and shook hands with Martin. "I've been wanting to ask David to introduce me to you for a long time, but I never had the chance. Martin, it's my honor to meet you today."

Martin smiled and said, "I am very familiar with Netflix."

Greg didn't understand and looked at Martin curiously.

Martin doesn’t need to hide: “I am a shareholder of Netflix, but a small shareholder. All my shares are public shares purchased on the primary market.”

Greg asked, "Are you very optimistic about Netflix's development?"

Martin has collected a lot of information about Netflix: "You started out as a DVD rental business, and now you have developed online on-demand services, with tens of millions of paying users in North America. This may become a way for families to watch movies in the future."

David Fincher said: "I have paid attention to social networks. With the popularization of smartphones, many people are even used to watching some feature films on their phones."

Greg said: "Netflix has also seen this development trend and has been optimizing the screening data to provide users with more and better content experience."

He changed the subject and said, "What bothers Netflix the most right now is content, especially high-quality content. Hollywood is different now than before. They regard Netflix as an enemy. If we want to obtain the license for high-quality content, we need to pay a higher price. Without high-quality content, it is difficult to attract new paying users, and even old users will be lost."

Martin holds tens of millions of Netflix shares and of course wants its stock price to rise. He said, "If you have sufficient cash flow, you can hire producers and directors to shoot and produce high-quality content."

(End of this chapter)