Hollywood starts with an agent

Chapter 567 Premium Route
Viacom Tower, Times Square, Manhattan.

Sumner Redstone and Herbert Allen Jr., head of Allen Investment Bank, discussed Viacom's acquisition of CBS!
Allen Investment Bank previously participated in Disney's acquisition of Metropolitan/ABC and also assisted Edgar Bronfman Jr. in acquiring MCA Universal, but the acquisition failed.
The Sun Valley Summit, initiated by Herbert Allen, the father of Herbert Allen Jr., is very famous.

Sumner Redstone's idea of ​​acquiring CBS put Herbert Allen Jr. in a difficult position. "You should know that Dawn is eyeing the CBS Group very closely," he said.

"In terms of funding and prospects, Viacom has a hard time competing with Dawn!"

Viacom previously acquired Paramount, which resulted in a large amount of debt. However, Paramount's performance in recent years has been mediocre, with no truly outstanding works being released.

Dawn is different; even after acquiring Universal, it still releases blockbuster works every year, demonstrating its strong capabilities.

Sumner Redstone shook his head. "Nothing else matters. I just want Allen Investment Bank to help me raise funds!"

Herbert Allen Jr. thought for a moment, then said neither yes nor no, "I need to go back and discuss it with the others in the company..."

Meanwhile, Stanley Kubrick, the famous American film director, screenwriter and producer, died of a heart attack.
His posthumous work, "Eyes Wide Shut," had only been edited and handed over to Warner Bros. not long ago.

Manhattan, Dawn Tower, Kate Beckinsale arrives at Aaron's office!
"The Mummy 2 is about to start filming. Is the crew all set up?"

Aaron handed the other person a glass of wine. As Universal's first monster movie, The Mummy was a huge success last year.
It grossed $1.6 million in North America and $4.2 million worldwide!
"Yes, it's finished. The main filming location is still in Morocco."

Kate Beckinsale is quite excited. "The Mummy" made her famous, and its impact was even greater than that of the "Scream" series.

To perfectly portray the sequel, director Stephen Sommers also brought back several of the main actors from the original "The Mummy," including Brendan Fraser, Kate Beckinsale, and John Hannah.

Moreover, because a new character, Scorpion King, appeared in the show, the production team specially found the mighty and tall wrestling champion Dwayne Johnson from the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) to play the role!
"By the way, Aaron, it seems Sony has approved a script called 'The Invisible Man.' Isn't that one of Universal's early works?"

Kate Beckinsale was somewhat puzzled, after all, such copyright disputes are quite complicated. For example, Sony and MGM have been fighting over the script of "Thunderball" for several years!

Aaron took a sip of his drink. "Sony's *The Invisible Man* is different from Universal's. It's based on the novel of the same name by Dan Simmons, directed by Paul Verhoeven, and is a sci-fi thriller with a budget of nearly $1 million."

"Universal's 'The Invisible Man' is an adaptation of the science fiction horror novel written by H.G. Wells in 1897 and was released in the 1930s."

These are two completely different stories. In fact, Paul Verhoeven's "The Invisible Man" only uses the title of Dan Simmons' novel of the same name, and the content is basically unrelated. The purchase of the copyright was just to obtain the right to use the name.
Aaron is somewhat puzzled that Paul Verhoeven, who previously directed Starship Troopers for Sony, is now directing The Invisible Man.

After all, Paul Verhoeven's previous films, such as "Showgirls" and "Starship Troopers," were not very successful commercially, and they had to rely on the videotape market to recoup their costs and make a profit. Moreover, the films received polarized reviews, and his works were quite explicit.

"Also, it seems New Line Cinema has started filming 'Dracula 2000,' and they originally wanted to collaborate with Universal Music."

“However, I’m not interested,” Aaron said, shaking his head as he sat on the sofa. The success of The Mummy had led many Hollywood film companies to turn their attention to monster horror films.

Universal is a veteran when it comes to monster-themed works, with a vast library of titles such as The Invisible Man, Dracula, The Mummy, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein.

Dracula's name isn't exclusively used by Universal, but since Universal did produce a Dracula film in its early days, it's understandable that New Line Cinema wanted to collaborate with Universal.

A few years ago, Sony and Dawn collaborated on "Bram Stoker's Dracula," which was also a very commercially successful work!

Kate Beckinsale smiled and sat on Aaron's lap. "I know you're giving these monster-themed projects to Twilight Studios now, unless it's a big-budget production, in which case you'll give them to Universal."

For example, the remake of "The Mummy" released last year cost $8000 million and was developed by Universal itself. The cost of "The Mummy 2" to be filmed this year is $1 million.
If it were a low-budget remake like the early ones, it would definitely have been handed over to Twilight Studios.

“Yes,” Aaron said, running his hand over Kate Beckinsale’s thigh, “my current vision for Universal is to focus on big-budget commercial films with special effects, including dramas, adventures, and science fiction.”

"Shuguang Production Studio mainly focuses on romance, comedy, or suspense."

However, they weren't clearly distinguished, since they were all released under the name of Dawn Universal. Marvel Studios, of course, mainly focuses on adaptations of Marvel Comics, and its distribution is also handled by Dawn Universal.
Only Crescent Moon Pictures and Twilight Pictures have their own independent distribution systems, targeting art films and B-movies (horror and gore) respectively!

Kate Beckinsale kissed Aaron on the cheek. "It seems like Dawn's current release volume isn't as high as the other major film studios?"

Aaron nodded. "It can't compare to Sony, Warner Bros., or Disney, but our productions have higher budgets!"

Dawn takes a boutique approach, which is why Aaron rejected many projects.

In fact, Dawn receives a considerable number of scripts every year. Not long ago, Aaron received a war script for a co-production called "U-571".
The story mainly tells the tale of how, during World War II, the Allied forces discovered that a damaged German submarine, U-571, was sending a distress signal to the German forces in the North Atlantic. The Allies then sent men to forcibly seize the code-decoding machine on U-571 and, after a desperate struggle, finally managed to send the machine back to base.

War films have always held a very low place in Aaron's mind, regardless of whether they feature cold weapons or firearms.
Because there are so few successful ones, most war films are box office flops. Perhaps he would cooperate with the Ministry of Defense to make one or two films, but under other circumstances, Aaron rarely invests!

(End of this chapter)