"Since Alien 2, James Cameron has established a partnership with Twentieth Century Fox."

In the office of Fox Building, James Murdoch, who has completely shifted his focus from London to Los Angeles, asked Tom Belk, chairman of the Pictures: "There were later collaborating on Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic, and all of them were successful."

His eyes were extremely sharp: "With such a foundation in hand, why did James Cameron switch to Relativity Entertainment in "Avatar"?"

A few drops of sweat rolled down from Tom Belk's forehead and said, "James Cameron refused to work with us again." He knew that he could not bear anything to blame, so he pushed him to others: "Five or six years ago, Ronan Anderson had contact with James Cameron and sponsored the filming of James Cameron's documentary. At that time, all Hollywood did not know the existence of "Avatar". When we got the news and contacted James Cameron, all the projects had been poached by Ronan Anderson and Relativity Entertainment."

This sentence implements a purpose throughout. It is not the film company's fault that Ronan's insidious poaching of his sinister despicable poaching.

In fact, this is not wrong, because Ronan can reach a cooperation with James Cameron and is also an important reason for his efforts to discredit Twentieth Century Fox.

Of course, the smear is a bit exaggerated, mainly to make James Cameron recall the various unhappiness that happened with the 20th Century Fox when filming "Titanic".

How could James Murdoch not understand this? He pondered for a moment and said: "What we missed is a project with a global box office of nearly $3 billion and a short-term profit of $2 billion!"

Tom Belk and Jim Prous on the other side did not respond. He could not understand James Murdoch's thoughts for a while, and was unwilling to speak casually.

But in their eyes, it is really impossible to blame Twentieth Century Fox. Film cooperation is a two-way choice. Ronan Anderson moves earlier and faster. James Cameron is willing to cooperate with Relativity Entertainment, and Twentieth Century Fox has no choice.

You can't just put the director under house arrest in a hotel like Harvey Weinstein, right?

That is the way to deal with overseas directors or producers. For example, Hollywood directors basically have unions behind them. Who dares to do this?

James Murdoch was not calculating the accounts, but said in a more emphasis: "Now we discuss "Avatar", we are not going to be responsible for anyone, but to remind you that some projects and profits, if we do our work more carefully and more proactively, we will not slip away from our hands."

"I have an unshirkable responsibility." Tom Belk was not stupid either, and immediately said: "It was because I didn't do my job well."

Jim Prouss responded: "I have a responsibility, too.

James Murdoch waved his hand and said, "You can't blame you, the director of James Cameron's level, has the initiative in cooperation." He was still a little heartbroken: "What a pity "Avatar"..."

A movie like Relativity Entertainment has a higher profit than Twentieth Century Fox’s year-on-year efforts in the film business!

It is all fake to say that you don’t envy or feel heartbroken, especially the film director is James Cameron, who has worked with Twentieth Century Fox for a long time.

Since last year, Twentieth Century Fox's film business has performed poorly, especially the first-line production projects, which have almost failed to release one.

This made James Murdoch even more regretful about missing "Avatar".

"Okay, I won't say much about "Avatar". After all, this is already a project of another company." James Murdoch is a man who does big things. He suppressed his regrets and unhappiness and turned to today's topic: "Some time ago, news was circulating that George Lucas was about to retire and sell Lucas Pictures."

Tom Belk responded: "The news of George Lucas' retirement has been clear. I personally asked Spielberg last week and got a positive answer."

James Murdoch asked: "Where is Lucasfilm?"

"It can be basically confirmed that George Lucas is going to sell Lucas Pictures." The person who responded this time was Jim Prouss, who looked a little serious: "According to the latest news, a group of Relativity Entertainment has been in secret contact with Lucas Pictures representatives for a while."

Tom Belk frowned, and he immediately vomited out something, whether it was a subconscious or intentional sentence: "Is it relativity entertainment again?"

James Murdoch was not disturbed and grasped the key to the problem: "Have they reached an agreement?"

Jim Prous replied: "George Lucas himself has a certain tendency, but Lucasfilm also has several shareholders, and they have not reached an agreement yet."

James Murdoch nodded slightly: "After all, this involves a transaction of billions of dollars. Personal relationships have a certain impact, but they are no longer the key. Lucasfilm shareholders, even George Lucas himself, must maximize their interests."

Tom Belk said: "Twentieth Century Fox has always been the publisher of the Star Wars series and has significant interests in this series. Relativity Entertainment has not had a good relationship with us. If Lucasfilm falls into the hands of Relativity Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox may add a lot of new trouble."

Jim Prous thought of the "X-Men" series and "Fantasy Four" series that were still in trouble, and said: "It's not possible, but certain."

Hearing these two people's words, James Murdoch had an idea and said: "The Star Wars series is of great value. If the Star Wars movie can be restarted..."

Tom Belk unconsciously opened his eyes: "Although George Lucas's prequel trilogy and comics in the past year have made Star Wars fans extremely dissatisfied, if a new movie is released, I think there should be a large number of viewers who will buy it. Even if the income is not as good as "The Revenge of the Sith", it will not be much lower."

Jim Prous nodded slowly: "Yes, there is a great possibility in this regard."

James Murdoch pondered for a moment and said, "Jim, you have close contact with Lucasfilm, continue to find out which Lucasfilm and Relativity Entertainment has progressed! And..."

He said slowly: "Twentieth Century Fox sent an invitation to Lucasfilm to acquire!"

"Okay!" Jim Prous responded first, and then asked: "But our resources, together with News Corp, are all placed on Time Warner."

James Murdoch shook his head: "Time Warner is about to end, and the acquisition cannot be successful."

Speaking of this, he thought of his stubborn father, and was a little depressed for a while. News Group and 20th Century Fox spent too much resources on Time Warner. Now he holds a number of shares in Time Warner, but the acquisition cannot continue. The economic crisis caused Warner's stock price to fall, and a large amount of funds from the two companies were temporarily trapped in Warner, which was simply a waste of resources.

Especially 20th Century Fox, which first transferred funds to acquire Warner stocks, then failed one after another in the big production film project, and encountered withdrawal of investment institutions and withdrawal of loans from banks. Coupled with the general environmental situation brought about by the economic crisis, the situation is really not optimistic.

Perhaps, Lucasfilm is the key to breaking the dilemma.

In mid-November, News Corporation and Twentieth Century Fox jointly convened a press conference to announce the withdrawal of the acquisition offer for Time Warner.

Rupert Murdoch then spoke to TV, claiming: "Time Warner management and its board of directors have always refused to negotiate with us to discuss our extremely compelling acquisition offer. In addition, Twentieth Century Fox's stock price has been falling since our acquisition proposal was announced, and it seems that this deal is not attractive to Twentieth Century Fox's shareholders."

This means that the expansion plan of the Murdoch family has encountered major setbacks.

The news Ronan received was more detailed. Time Warner's internal factions against the acquisition have always had an overwhelming advantage. Although News Group and Twentieth Century Fox were aggressive, launched an attack on the stock market, and invested huge sums of money to acquire shares in a group of shareholders, Time Warner would rather prepare the poison pill plan than compromise.

Another point is that the American entertainment media industry does not want News Corp and 20th Century Fox to successfully acquire Time Warner, which means the birth of a super giant. After all, the two are not simple film and television entertainment companies like Relativity Entertainment, and are also at the forefront of the industry in the media industry.

Therefore, with multiple companies quietly exerting influence and Time Warner lobbying, the Washington authorities intervened in the acquisition, including the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission expressing opposition to News Corp and Twentieth Century Fox through their respective channels.

Although in the public and media, the Washington authorities are called a group of pigs, they are not real pigs. No company can ignore political factors, otherwise there would not be so much capital and group speculation in politics.

Rupert Murdoch's attempt ended in failure, and it did not seem to have much impact on the wealthy News Corp and the 20th Century Fox.

But one aspect cannot be ignored, and the large amount of funds of the two companies cannot be withdrawn in time.

As a close follower, Ronan has been collecting relevant information from all aspects to keep abreast of the latest developments.

In addition to 20th Century Fox and News Corporation, there are also Lucas Pictures. After nearly three months of contact with Lucas Pictures, the progress was originally relatively smooth, but the disruptor appeared without surprise.
Chapter completed!