Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 182 Stupid teammates!

"So what's going on now? Is Columbia Pictures involved in a large-scale check counterfeiting case?" An hour later, Ethan Jones met Steven Spielberg and his two companions who had rushed over from John Bull overnight at his villa in Palo Alto.

His dusty appearance clearly demonstrated what exhaustion was, but even so, there was no trace of chaos in his bloodshot eyes. Instead, they were filled with flames of anger.

"What's going on? What else could it be? The whole project has been stopped!"

Steven Spielberg had just sat on the sofa for less than two seconds when he jumped up and paced back and forth after hearing Ethan Jones' question. "David Beigelman is simply the stupidest guy I have ever seen in my life! When I heard about his deeds in London, I was completely shocked!"

"There are 10,000 ways to be corrupt in Hollywood! And he didn't use any of them!"

"He had to choose the most difficult way to embezzle money! The easiest way to be discovered! The way that would be the most difficult to deal with once discovered! This is simply - this is simply - this is simply stupid!"

Steven Spielberg waved his right hand, his voice trembling with anger.

To be honest, when Ethan Jones saw Steven Spielberg's state, his whole head was a little confused. Now that it was his project that was stopped by Furber, he should be angry, right? Why did Steven Spielberg act like his mother had died... uh, this metaphor is a bit inappropriate, but it doesn't matter. Why did this guy act so hoarse?
Ethan Jones couldn't figure it out.

He blinked and looked at Steven Spielberg with a confused look.

"Uh, Steven, can you calm down?" He said, "I understand how you feel right now, because I'm angry too, but... can you tell me what you know? Because I think the information I have may not be comprehensive."

The tentative words made Steven Spielberg stop pacing.

"Okay, of course I can tell you..." He looked at Ethan and began to tell the story.

His words were very concise, and he explained the matter clearly in a few words. After listening to the description, Ethan Jones found that the content and general process of the incident these people learned were no different from the case files he saw that day. The cause of the whole thing was that an actor was subjected to a special investigation by the IRS.

And since the incident information they obtained roughly matches, then...

"I want to know, does this have anything to do with Universal?"

Ethan asked, "Steven, if I remember correctly, you seemed to have said in the phone call before you came here that your Global will also face an investigation by Foberle?"

"Can this check forgery case drag down the entire Hollywood?"

"MFxxk..."

“Is this David Beigelman so powerful?”

"But why haven't I heard of his name?"

What Ethan Jones said was that he had never heard of it. What he actually meant was that David Beigelman was unknown in his previous life. If this guy really came up with a check forgery case that covered Hollywood, then in his previous life, this guy would definitely be famous. He might not be a hardcore ruthless person in the Tongliao universe, but he would have no problem getting Hollywood to make a movie for him.

As for the saying that family disgrace should not be made public?
nonexistent!

Since I was cheated of money by this guy, I must earn it back from him!

Losing money is more painful than losing face.

However, as Ethan Jones asked the question, Steven Spielberg, who was originally in charge of the speech, suddenly clenched his teeth, his chest heaved, and his face looked more like pig liver.

That state was as uncomfortable as if I had eaten shit.

After seeing his friend gasping for breath, George Lucas quickly said, "Ethan, this is a long story, because before joining Columbia Pictures, David Beigelman was the vice president of Universal's parent company MCA..."

"What?" Ethan suspected he had heard it wrong.

George Lucas said seriously: "You heard it right, that was a long time ago..."

David Beigelman was born in 1921. He graduated from New York University as an adult and joined the American Music Company, or MCA, in 1950. He worked there for nearly eleven years and was eventually promoted to vice president of the company. The reason he left was that his business philosophy was not in line with the company's development.

He felt that as a music company, it should focus on the music business and make it the biggest it could be. However, other executives of MCA believed that MCA's development in the music field had reached a bottleneck and that it needed to develop new product lines, so they decided to acquire Universal Pictures.

David Beigelman didn't want to make movies, so he left MCA and started a new company, CMA, with his friend Fred Feldman, specializing in artist agency business. Since they had worked in the music field for decades and had their own resources, the company developed very quickly, and Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, Paul Newman, Woody Allen, Barbra Streisand and other superstars were all their clients.

Even David Geffen and Fox President Alan Ladd Jr. have worked for them.

Since these superstars are all dual-role artists, in addition to their music careers, they all make movies, so CMA finally opened up a film department after going around in circles, and their first client was Francis Coppola, and after that...

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg then boarded his ship.

There is no way, because Francis Coppola's personal company was established with the help of David Beigelman. When George Lucas took Steven Spielberg to Francis Coppola's studio to observe the filming of the movie up close, most of the staff on the studio were from CMA.

With this relationship, they naturally work together very happily.

more importantly……

"David Beigelman actually helped us get Star Wars."

George Lucas spread his hands and said, "After I submitted the script to Fox, Alan Ladd, the president of Fox who was in charge of the final review, approved it because of David Beigelman's face."

"After I got the funds approved by Fox, I did not shoot the movie immediately. Instead, I established Industrial Light and Magic. This was not in compliance with the contract, but Fox did not hold me accountable because President Alan Ladd Jr. acquiesced to my doing so."

"If the first cut of the film hadn't been so bad that other Fox executives couldn't stand it, Alan Ladd Jr. would still be in control."

"As for the copyright of Star Wars..."

"To be honest, if the person who signed it wasn't Alan Ladd Jr...."

"I think other studios would rather kill me than gamble with me on copyright."

George Lucas sighed and gave Ethan Jones a helpless look.

After hearing such shocking news, Ethan Jones' eyes widened!

He glanced at Steven Spielberg and Gary Kurtz, the president of his film company, with disbelief, and the two guys simply nodded in resignation.

Not only that, Steven Spielberg leaned forward, put his elbows on his legs, covered his face with his hands, and said: "It was because of him that I signed Columbia for Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

"I can get all the resources at Universal, but I didn't put "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at Universal. Because David Beigelman has helped us many times before, when Columbia Pictures needed to improve its performance, we naturally helped him..."

"It's the same with Alien now. Ethan, do you remember the day you signed the contract? David Beigelman didn't even read the script because that's how we've always done it."

"And he found CBS for you before the contract was finalized..."

"We have been working together for many years, so a verbal agreement is more effective than a signed contract..."

'…' This answer made Ethan's mouth twitch slightly.

'It turns out that the previous smooth cooperation was not something I was very popular with?'

"So the smooth sailing before was the result of the long-term tacit understanding between these guys?"

'Grass--'

"I thought I was the one who made Columbia Pictures bow down to me!"

"I feel so sad!"

In just a moment, Ethan Jones' mind instantly conjured up a 30,000-word drama.

But he soon came out of that regretful mood and asked, "So, why did he jump from CMA to Columbia Pictures? Isn't he the founder of CMA? Why not go work for the boss?"

"Well... this question is a bit awkward." Gary Kurtz, the president of Destiny Pictures and a nominal subordinate of Ethan Jones, explained after hearing this question: "Because David Beigelman found that after ten years of operation, their CMA has reached the top of the industry and there is no room for improvement. If they want to break through, they can only find other ways..."

When he first worked at American Music, David Beigelman strongly opposed other senior executives' acquisition of Universal Pictures. But after he founded his own company, he realized that after achieving perfection in one field, it is necessary to engage in mixed operations, otherwise profits will not be able to increase again.

Compared to the money he made from being an artist manager, he could make the most money by devoting himself to the actual production of music and movies. So he gave up the CMA that he had created, and at the invitation of Columbia Pictures, he became the person in charge in 1973.

His first film was Warren Beatty's Shampoo, which ranked fourth at the North American box office in 1975. His second film was Funny Lady, starring Barbra Streisand, which ranked eighth at the North American box office in 1975.

The success of two consecutive films earned him considerable reputation in the field of film production, but he was not satisfied, so he brought in Steven Spielberg to try to hit the annual box office crown.

But unfortunately...

In 1977 there was Star Wars.

But it doesn't matter, right?

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" can still make Columbia Pictures a lot of money.

In this case, no matter what kind of scandal happened to David Beigelman, Columbia Pictures would protect him, because his connections included most of Hollywood! When Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were both his good friends...

Columbia Pictures would have to be crazy to fire him!
What is embezzlement of public funds?

It's obvious that the treatment we gave was not good enough!

What is check forgery?

That's definitely all a misunderstanding!
Columbia Pictures did not want to give up on him, and Foberle and the Los Angeles police did not want to touch David Beigelman, who had already built a huge network of relationships in Hollywood and was a capitalist himself. So self-examination and self-correction became their means of turning a blind eye.

If no one reports it again, then the matter is over.

But when this matter was brought up again...

When Foberle discovered that a third person knew about this, he had no choice but to leave again.

"So...it's true that he forged the checks?" Ethan asked with a frown.

"From the current perspective...it is most likely true..." Steven Spielberg nodded.

"No... He's worth at least millions, right? Why would a man worth millions forge checks? Is he mentally ill?" Ethan was puzzled.

"He must be mentally ill." George Lucas, David Beigelman's friend, said bluntly, "Only a mentally ill person would forge checks. Besides, his net worth is more than a million. His CMA has merged with IFA and is now called ICM. Just those stocks alone can make his net worth exceed 10 million."

“…” The brainless answer made Ethan’s breath catch and his eyes went dark.

"So what should we do now? How many companies have been implicated by him? How many projects are going to be investigated because of him? When can our project start?" he asked loudly.

"Uh... I don't know yet." Gary Kurtz, president of Destiny Pictures, pursed his lips and said, "So far, in addition to Columbia Pictures, Universal, which has cooperated with him, has also become a member of the investigation list. As for other companies such as MGM, Disney, and Paramount... these companies have not directly cooperated with him in recent years. As for Warner and Fox, only their artists and executives have deep connections with David Beigelman, so only individuals are being investigated."

"Of course, if there is a problem, Foberle will definitely continue to investigate further."

"And if we can't find the problem..."

"I think these suspended projects should start working soon, after all..."

"Every day that a project is stopped is a loss for Hollywood."

"If this goes on for too long, the movie studio bosses will kill the FBI."

This answer made Ethan close his eyes.

At this moment, he really wanted to scold the three people and complain about why they didn't tell us in advance that Columbia Pictures was a huge abyss, but... after thinking about it, he gave up.

After all, no one would believe that a multi-millionaire would forge checks!

This is just like many Hollywood stars who like to steal, it's a quirk among quirks!

Since it cannot be judged by common sense, these three people are not cheating him. Moreover, when he was seeking external cooperation, his core demand was to find a media to criticize Warner. Judging from their self-disclosed close relationship now, these three guys were really helping him at that time.

"So you are also currently under investigation?"

Ethan thought for a while and opened his eyes again.

"Why else would we come back?" Steven Spielberg leaned on the sofa helplessly and said, "'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' was in his hands, 'Star Wars' was also related to him, and if you look further back, 'American Landscape' was also packaged by him..."

"We don't know when he started forging checks..."

"If this happened a long time ago, it would be much more fun..."

When Steven Spielberg, a guy with connections above him, thought that this matter was serious, the investigation into it came very quickly.

Because it was already night when they arrived, after discussing it, they decided not to rush to Los Angeles. Ethan gave them his villa to stay in, and he quickly slipped into the next house.

The next morning, Ethan got up to take care of an urgent matter, and found two police cars from Foberle parked at the door of his villa. The windows were all open, and there were three people in each car. After seeing Ethan go out to look, they nodded in a friendly manner, then pointed at his house with their thumbs up.

These gestures made Ethan understand that they were here to look for Xiao Si and Xiao Lu, so he called his room and woke up the guys who were still sleeping.

After discovering that Foberle had come to their door, the three of them washed up while calling a lawyer. Perhaps it was because they had someone behind them, but it was also possible that there was a Mahayana boss in charge in Palo Alto. While they were busy, Foberle just sat in the car waiting.

Occasionally I would leave for a while, just to go to the toilet.

Such civilized law enforcement behavior would definitely make other ethnic groups cry bitterly, but for Xiao Si and others, these guys think it is normal.

After their lawyers arrived, they came into contact with the agents of Foberle. After answering some questions carefully, the other party left with the fresh intelligence.

Since Ethan didn't lean over to listen, he didn't know what these guys talked about, but after answering the questions, the three of them got up and said goodbye, heading for Los Angeles.

Stoudemire said he had to go back to deal with the cooperation with Columbia; Luke said he had to contact Fox to see if there were any problems; and Gary Kurtz...

"Boss, I'm going back to Los Angeles to see when the Alien project can start."

"According to the previous plan, we have to confirm the director within three months, and then let Industrial Light & Magic help make the props and sets for filming, while letting the director follow the casting, so that the whole movie can enter the filming stage in the second half of this year and be released at the end of next year. But now..."

"I guess that's probably the best-case scenario."

"Moreover, after the news of the Columbia Pictures executives forging checks came out, the famous directors we had confirmed before might refuse our project contracts. We have to prepare for the worst."

"The film's release may be postponed until the year after next, which is 1980..."

The words of Gary Kurtz, president of Destiny Pictures, made Ethan Jones' heart skip a beat.

Alien might be postponed to 1980?

This is something he cannot tolerate!

The best plan is to shoot it this year and release it next year, because after a year and a half of impact, the demand for "Star Wars" in the North American market will drop to a low point. At that time, launching a science fiction movie and a supporting video game will perfectly introduce users to the console.

Pushing the film to 1980 would have been very disadvantageous to him.

Moreover, if he remembered correctly, "Star Wars 2" had actually entered the negotiation stage?

If nothing unexpected happened, Fox would have asked George Lucas to schedule Star Wars 2 until ! And then use Alien to compete with it?
That is simply courting death!
More importantly, games, which rely on content for their livelihood, can never truly monopolize the market. If other companies launch games during the release vacuum of Destiny, for example, Atari and Magnus continue to push their own home consoles to the market, then the thunderbolt he gained with Star Wars would be wasted...

Thinking of this, Ethan asked, "What are the chances of delaying it to 1980?"

"This is a worst-case scenario," Gary Kurtz said.

"When do we start work that will cause the film to be delayed until 1980?" Ethan continued to ask.

Gary Kurtz thought for a moment. "We have to start work before April 1st."

Today is March 1st, a full month that made Ethan nod slightly.

He stared at his subordinate for a while, then he made a decision and extended the index finger of his right hand.

"One week. I only give Columbia one week."

"If they can't deal with the FBI within a week, we will change our partner company."

"..." Gary Kurtz was stunned by these words and quickly said, "But boss, we have a contract with Columbia. In the face of such an unexpected event, we have to give them a certain amount of buffer time according to the contract..."

"Accident? You told me this was an accident?" Ethan looked unhappy and said, "If Columbia had dealt with David Beigelman last year, then what happened today would not have happened! Since they chose to protect David Beigelman, they must be held responsible for what happened today!"

Gary Kurtz hesitated for a moment and said, "It is true that they are covering up for us, but if we really go to court, we won't be able to use this as an excuse to tear up the contract..."

"Then let them sue!"

Before Gary Kurtz could finish, Ethan Jones raised his voice and interrupted, "Motorola didn't even sue me in California, so Columbia is nothing!"

"In a few months, it will be a year since Warner Communications and Philips filed a defamation lawsuit against Destiny, but the court has not yet held a hearing!"

"I, Ethan Jones, don't sue because I hate trouble! Not because I'm afraid of trouble!"

"You take my words to Columbia verbatim. I, Ethan Jones, will give them a week. If they can do it, they can start working. If they can't, I will sue them for compensation!"

“My company’s legal counsel has always been Stanford Law School!”

"If they want to sue me, I can bring in a bunch of people to sue them!"

Ethan Jones is pissed!
Colombia is such a bad teammate!
Being caught once for breaking the law is fine, but being caught twice?

What the hell is this crap influence?

If they could resolve these issues within a week, Ethan would be fine.

What if it can’t be solved?

Then he will find someone else to cooperate with!
He was not interested in the cases of these people! He had no intention of intervening in those old matters!
Now he just wants to make "Alien"! He doesn't want to waste time with these stupid people!

Note: ① CMA, founded by David Beigelman, was actually the first artist agency in the US entertainment industry to provide package services. CAA copied him. In his heyday, he could directly bring together the four major directors of Hollywood in the 1970s, Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas, and Scorsese. Woody Allen and others mentioned in the article, as well as Al Pacino and Peter Fonda who are not mentioned, were all his clients. Later, the founder of CAA copied his way of jumping to a film company. However, for such a person to play check forgery, it is really outrageous. ② The inside story of the copyright of "Star Wars" is the same as what is written in the article. The president of Fox who approved the "Star Wars" project was once a subordinate of David Beigelman and had already cooperated with Lucas and others before going to Fox. And he was kicked out of Fox after the incident (in 1979). ③This fraud case did happen that year, and the Wall Street Journal reported it. Finally, a book called "Indecent Exposure" was published in 1982 and is still for sale on Amazon.

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(End of this chapter)