The New Year's sunlight passed through the window and fell on her broad body. Tom Hanks opened his fingers and let the light fall on his fingertips, penetrated into his skin, conveying a hint of warmth.

The sun rising in 2004 seems to bring a new feeling.

Tom Hanks sighed lightly in his heart, and in a blink of an eye he was wide and fat, and he became as greedy as an old man.

Footsteps sounded, and Steven Spielberg, wearing disc glasses, walked over with two cups of black tea, placed one of them on the coffee table in front of Tom Hanks, pulled open the soft sofa chair, and sat opposite him.

"When did you change your taste?" Spielberg asked, "Not even adding sugar in black tea?"

Tom Hanks pressed his high belly, and with his fingers as the center, the always sunken round pit suddenly appeared: "If I don't control the sugar intake, I will be so fat that I can't watch it. I will soon shoot a new movie, and I also need to control and reduce my weight. If I'm too fat, I won't look good."

Spielberg immediately remembered the news a few days ago and asked: "The Da Vinci Code, a collaboration between Preton Pictures and Relativity Entertainment?"

The press conference for such things was held. Tom Hanks did not need to deny it and said, "It's this project, and preparations will begin in the second half of the year." He pretended to be relaxed and patted his big belly: "The male protagonist I want to play is a capable character, and I must lose weight as soon as possible."

Spielberg sighed: "This is Ronan Anderson who took the initiative to find you and ask for cooperation."

Tom Hanks said simply: "I originally wanted to buy the copyright of the original movie adaptation of the movie, but I took it first. Rita happened to have a fancy to the copyright of the film "Mamma Mia" in Ronan Anderson. Preton Pictures reached a cooperation agreement with Relativity Entertainment on these two projects."

Spielberg pushed down his glasses: "The project success rate promoted by Ronan Anderson is extremely high, and it is guaranteed to cooperate with him successfully."

The two were old friends for many years, and Tom Hanks smiled honestly: "Mainly, Rita likes Mama Mia very much."

Spielberg could understand Tom Hanks' approach, and did not mean to blame his old friend. He said: "The advantage of cooperating with them is obvious. In the past two years, the Relativity Entertainment Group has developed rapidly and it will not take long to surpass DreamWorks."

Tom Hanks shook his head: "How is it possible? Steven, the scale and confidence of DreamWorks can catch up with a new company like Relativity Entertainment?"

Spielberg smiled bitterly: "Tom, DreamWorks seems to be huge in scale, but in fact..." He didn't know how to describe it, so he had to say: "That is, it seems to be large in scale."

Tom Hanks knew that DreamWorks had encountered many problems, but he couldn't ask directly, so he could only look at Spielberg.

Spielberg picked up the teacup, took a sip of the slightly bitter black tea, and said, "The main business of this part of DreamWorks under my control is live-action movies. In recent years, DreamWorks has made many successful movies, but it has always lacked an extremely important part, and shareholders are extremely dissatisfied with this."

Tom Hanks is also a veteran in the circle and immediately understands what Steven Spielberg is talking about.

Spielberg tasted black tea and continued: "Originally, after "The Da Vinci Code" entered the North American bestseller ranking in early December, I considered whether to talk to you about the cooperation of shooting, but after careful consideration, I gave up."

"Why?" asked Tom Hanks.

"Because we work together to make movies, due to the ability of DreamWorks to publish, the film still needs to find a suitable publisher." Spielberg's smile seemed to have a hint of bitterness, as if he was completely considering his old friends: "Later it was revealed that Preton Pictures was preparing to cooperate with Relativity Entertainment. I think cooperation with DreamWorks may not be convenient for relativity cooperation."

Tom Hanks could only smile and said, "Steven, there are some things that I can't decide on in Preton Pictures alone."

"Dreamworks is far inferior to Relativity Entertainment in terms of distribution," Spielberg said.

Tom Hanks was silent. Isn’t this the reason why he can reach a cooperation with Relativity Entertainment?

This is just a simple business cooperation and does not involve anything else.

Tom Hanks believes Spielberg is very aware of this.

Spielberg sighed and said, "Over the years, issuance has been the biggest obstacle to the development of DreamWorks. There are almost no overseas distribution channels. Even North America distribution channels are narrowing compared to previous years. These are all worrying me. I can't fall asleep at many nights. If DreamWorks continue, it will be very dangerous."

Tom Hanks frowned slightly: "There are problems with North American distribution channels?"

"Dreamworks is digging out the issuing staff of other companies, and other companies are also digging out the people of DreamWorks." Spielberg said simply: "I have always wanted to establish overseas distribution channels for DreamWorks. Many North American issuers sent out, and then encountered difficulties that were far beyond North America overseas. Tom, you should know how difficult it is to open up channels from scratch. Overseas is more than ten times more difficult than North America. Most of the people sent overseas to DreamWorks either change jobs or leave, or retreat in the face of difficulties. There are very few people who can stay overseas..."

There are some things that are hard to say, Paramount Pictures has been staring at DreamWorks recently.

This is something that people outside the industry may just listen to, but Tom Hanks is very clear that the actual difficulties may be far more than Spielberg said.

Is it easy to develop overseas film distribution channels so easily from scratch? In addition to the traditional six major companies, Hollywood has limited medium-sized companies such as Tingfeng Entertainment, Greymesey Pictures, Relativity Entertainment and Yijiang Pictures.

Among them, Tingfeng Entertainment and Goremessi Pictures have poor overseas distribution capabilities, which means they can be distributed in developed European countries and overseas markets such as Australia.

Like DreamWorks and the emerging Lionsgate Films have been committed to developing overseas distribution channels in recent years. The results are not without them, but there are not many overseas markets that really establish business, except for the English-speaking countries.

Spielberg's words continue: "The overseas issuance business is not smooth, which has led to the loss of large amounts of funds and issuing personnel invested by DreamWorks. This is also one of the reasons why DreamWorks is struggling. Last year, I discovered that frequent investment of personnel funds to develop overseas distribution channels has affected not only overseas business, but also dragged down DreamWorks' North American distribution business. A large number of professionals have lost, resulting in DreamWorks' North American distribution capabilities also weakening."

He sighed: "The people sent out to expand overseas are all elites in the issuance industry. After they left, they took away not only DreamWorks' hope, but also the network of connections accumulated by their years of engaging in the issuance industry."

Tom Hanks is a little sympathetic to Spielberg. Those who can be sent overseas to develop key businesses are definitely not ordinary employees.

"It's okay, Steven, everything will be fine." Tom Hanks can only say: "Any company will encounter various difficulties in its early stages of development. As long as DreamWorks survives this difficult period, it will usher in a golden age."

Spielberg forced a smile and said, "I hope so." He shook his head, "Look at me, why did you tell you these things."

Tom Hanks didn't mind at all: "Steven, I can see that you are under a lot of pressure. We have been friends for many years, so you can tell me if you have anything to do."

He was a little worried that the pressure from DreamWorks would push Spielberg, an old friend, down.

"Don't worry, I will stick with it. DreamWorks will usher in a development opportunity." Spielberg said easily: "Some time ago, someone in the company made a suggestion to completely abandon DreamWorks' increasingly difficult distribution business, not only stop opening up overseas distribution channels, but also give up the somewhat incomplete North American distribution business and focus on the production industry."

In recent times, Paramount Pictures has been aggressive and has been putting pressure on DreamWorks, wanting DreamWorks to go to Paramount's distribution channels.

This is a prelude to wanting to annex!

Several other large companies were also waiting to watch the show.

Hearing this, Tom Hanks quickly interrupted: "Steven, absolutely not. If you give up your distribution business, DreamWorks can only exist as a medium-sized production company."

No one knows better than him that his old friend's original intention was to build DreamWorks into an entertainment group that is comparable to the six major companies.

Companies that do not even have the issuance ability are equivalent to being pinched directly by others, and even the oxygen that breathes and grows must be controlled by others!

Spielberg nodded and said, "No, I will not give up the issuance business, and I will continue to explore overseas issuance channels. DreamWorks must develop..."

Tom Hanks suggested: "You can consider acquiring overseas issuance."

"It's hard. Every distribution company treats its overseas distribution business as a treasure." Spielberg shook his head: "When Polykin Group was acquired, there was an opportunity. Unfortunately, Polykin's overseas distribution business was taken over by Ronan Anderson's Relativity Entertainment, otherwise there would be the current Embassy Pictures."

Tom Hanks knew this past story, which was also one of the origins of Spielberg's prejudice against Ronan Anderson.

Spielberg picked up the black tea and took a big sip: "Thank you, Tom, I can only say these words to you."

"We are friends." Tom Hanks smiled, picked up the black tea and drank it slowly. After a while, he said, "It's a pity that I can't help."

Spielberg also laughed: "You are willing to listen to my long-windedness and relieve my stress is the best help." He changed his voice: "Sometimes, I really admire Ronan Anderson, who is more suitable to be a film company boss than me. As far as I can see, it is far more successful than me."

Tom Hanks first echoed: "From the perspective of the film company owner and producer, it is really amazing that Ronan Anderson can achieve what he is now at the age of 25 or 26." He then said: "But this man is obsessed with greed and calculating, and it is difficult to deal with."
Chapter completed!