Leaving the walking dead set, Eric also stopped by the legally blonde 2 set next door.
This project started in mid-January, but since it was a sequel, there was previous filming experience.
And it wasn't a project Eric greenlit after he arrived, so he hadn't paid much attention to it; the production side had reported progress twice, but he hadn't really cared.
Today, he suddenly remembered that the female lead of this movie was Reese Witherspoon, that famous Hollywood sweetheart.
And what established her status as a sweetheart was 2001's legally blonde, which also propelled Witherspoon into the ranks of well-known movie stars.
In 1999, she even guest-starred as Rachel's sister in friends; at that time, Jennifer Aniston was America's sweetheart.
By 2001, both were sweethearts, but the disparity in their development was already evident, and this gap would widen further in the future.
Aniston was still unable to break out of the small screen, while Witherspoon had already spread her wings on the big screen.
On set, Eric shook hands with Witherspoon, who extended her hand first. It was their first meeting.
"Reese Witherspoon, just call me Reese."
The blonde beauty smiled sweetly, her small face having a mischievous baby fat.
"Eric Cooper, it's our first meeting, but I believe we'll get to know each other well in the future."
Releasing her hand, Eric asked, "Where's the director? Where did Charles Winfield go?"
The assistant director nearby quickly replied, "He went to the restroom. It seems he ate something bad last night."
"Is it serious? If he's not feeling well, he should still see a doctor. Filming isn't urgent for one day."
Eric showed appropriate concern, and with his handsome appearance, there was no hint of a capitalist's exploitative aura.
The few people around couldn't help but sigh in their hearts, what a good person! Other companies would desperately rush things, and a day's delay meant a day's money down the drain. Mr. Cooper was too benevolent.
However, those old MGM employees inwardly scoffed. They knew very well that this man had fired more than half of the executives on his first day in charge of the company.
He would rather lose money than let those people stay, showing how ruthless he was.
After a few words, Witherspoon suddenly said with some gratitude, "Eric, I've actually always wanted to thank you."
"What! Why? This should be our first meeting, right? Are we childhood sweethearts? Did I help you before?" Eric asked curiously.
Witherspoon laughed, "Of course not. I heard that when you took office, you rejected many scripts. I certainly have to thank you for keeping legally blonde."
Eric suddenly understood. Currently, Witherspoon's representative work was legally blonde, and her status wasn't yet secure.
If he had cut the sequel, she would probably cry herself to death behind the scenes. If she was unlucky and couldn't get good scripts, it might take her years to recover, or she might slowly fade into obscurity.
"Reese, you deserve this. The ones I rejected only prove they were terrible, and you are excellent. I admire you very much and am very optimistic about your future development."
Hearing this, Witherspoon's pupils visibly contracted sharply, and Eric noticed her hand suddenly tremble.
Realizing he had said the wrong thing, Eric quickly added, "Of course, I was talking about your acting."
Witherspoon gave a somewhat stiff smile. Seeing her reaction, Eric didn't want to stay any longer.
Just then, Director Charles Winfield walked out of the restroom, clutching his stomach. He was about to greet Eric when he saw Eric turn and leave, and he oddly rubbed his head.
In the car, Eric suddenly remembered the "Me Too" movement before he transmigrated, which was a storm of feminist activism.
Many Hollywood actresses used this movement to speak out about their experiences of persecution, and this movement directly and indirectly sent Harvey Weinstein to prison.
Reese Witherspoon, who had already transitioned to being a producer and boss at the time, also spoke about her unbearable past.
What happens to beautiful girls without connections who enter the entertainment industry can be seen from her experience.
At 16, Witherspoon received a call from a director and confidently went to an audition appointment, but unfortunately, she was sexually assaulted upon arrival.
When she told her agent about it, the agent was completely unconcerned, only telling her that to survive in this industry, she had to learn to accept unspoken rules.
In the following years, she didn't have any good works released. It was said to be because she didn't want to accept unspoken rules, so she couldn't get good resources.
But even so, she still suffered some sexual assaults during that time, until she starred in legally blonde and became famous.
By this point, ordinary directors and producers no longer had the ability to coerce her.
But Eric was different; his power was enough to make Witherspoon comply.
So hearing the phrase "I admire you very much" must have awakened unbearable memories deep within her.
Two days later, Frank Darabont brought the rough cut of the first episode of the walking dead to the MGM Building. Dad, who rarely had time today, also attended the internal screening.
The rough cut of the first episode was only 45 minutes long. Although the rendering of the apocalyptic atmosphere was still a bit lacking, this could be compensated for in post-production.
Moreover, this minor flaw didn't matter; the rushing zombies wouldn't give the audience time to think.
After watching, everyone applauded Darabont.
Volvo, the head of the marketing department, who had always been skeptical of this project, also expressed his praise with great excitement.
Eric gave Darabont a thumbs up: "Frank, just as I said, I have absolute faith in your abilities!"
Darabont grinned broadly: "Hahaha, this is still thanks to MGM for providing excellent scripts and financial support. A TV series with a 40 million dollar investment—I know what that represents. Many movies starring big-name celebrities don't get that kind of funding.
"And I have a premonition that the walking dead will become my most satisfying work after the shawshank redemption and The Green Mile."
Eric looked at everyone: "So, does anyone else have any opinions? You can bring them up now."
Everyone looked at each other, and no one spoke.
"Since that's the case, then contact HBO, Showtime, Starz, AMC, FX—in short, contact all cable channels."
"Complete contact within a week. With the quality of the walking dead, I don't think they're fools."
"Volvo, today is Tuesday. Before next Friday, I want to receive all cable channels' offers and proposed terms."
Volvo nodded: "No problem, I will give you the results as soon as possible."
"Oh, and don't forget to tell them that MGM intends for this show to contend for the Emmy Awards, so the broadcast time is also an important factor for us to consider."
"Understood!"
Everyone dispersed, leaving only The Coopers.
"Dad, how is the Dual Star Entertainment situation progressing?"
"It's moving forward. I've already contacted a private equity fund. They are very professional in this kind of work, and there will be results soon."
"Also, I have something to ask you, Eric. I heard from Kenny that you asked him to contact people in Silicon Valley. Do you have a plan? What do you want to do? Tech R&D?"
Even if Dad hadn't asked about this, Eric would have found time to tell him. There was nothing to hide between father and son.
"Dad, I plan to enter the internet field, but it's just a preliminary idea. I intended to report to you once it matured."
Dad frowned: "Internet! This is not a good time. The stock market crash just ended not long ago. It's like a forbidden zone, and expanding too quickly, I'm worried MGM's funds will be stretched thin."
"The company needs money in too many places. There are loans to repay, and the acquisition of Dual Star Entertainment shares. Plus, we are currently negotiating a partnership with DreamWorks."
"If you want to buy stocks, I have no objection. Microsoft, Oracle, Google—these are high-quality assets generally favored by the market. Forget about Yahoo; it's constantly having problems itself right now."
Eric shook his head slightly: "Dad, you misunderstood. I don't mean buying stocks. Of course, stocks can be bought, but that's not the main point."
"What exactly do you want to do?"
"What I'm thinking is to truly enter the internet field, build our own internet company, and develop a social network and online platform exclusively for us."
Dad hesitated for a moment, seemingly pondering his words carefully, but still looked at Eric with confusion: "I don't understand what you're saying. We also have an online platform. We have our own official website, isn't that it?"
As a middle-aged man in his fifties, or rather, someone approaching old age, Xia Li Cooper naturally had a delay in accepting new things.
This is a common human trait: living in one's own life experiences, in one's own life lessons, and from the depths of one's heart, not wanting to accept new things.
Because those new things might very well destroy their cognition, and even destroy the empires they have built.
There's a good example of this: media mogul Murdoch.
In another five or six years, the development of online media will reach a new height, while traditional print media will face the crisis of obsolescence.
But for Murdoch, who started his career with print media, abandoning the newspapers and publishing houses he was so proud of would definitely be like tearing off his own flesh, even if the profits from these industries were already very low or losing money.
But what was the result?
Murdoch was forced to concede by his son and many senior executives, who were determined to cut the print media business from the group.
In the end, even this man, who controlled the throat of public opinion and could influence presidential elections, had to compromise.
He left 2.6 billion dollars in reserve for his print media empire, hoping it could be reborn from the ashes.
As for other print media groups, they were all abandoned. The most tragic was Newsweek, which was sold for 1 dollar.
That's right, just 1 dollar, because the external debt was simply too much.
Bringing his thoughts back, to get Dad's support, the reasoning still needed to be clear. If you tell him about the development trend of the internet, he might not understand, so you have to say something more practical.
"Dad, the reason I want to enter the internet field is actually fundamentally for MGM's development."
"Especially through the production of the walking dead this time, this feeling is particularly strong. I ask you, once a TV series is produced, why can't we broadcast it ourselves? Why do we have to sell it to those TV stations?"
"Because we don't have broadcast channels. If we don't sell it to TV stations, wouldn't this investment be wasted? Everyone does it this way."
Dad answered without hesitation. For decades, this model had been fixed in his mind and felt perfectly reasonable.
But Eric, as a transmigrator, certainly found it unreasonable. He continued to press, "So why don't we establish our own channels?"
Dad laughed loudly: "Eric, that's impossible. Do you know how difficult it is to establish a TV station? Do you know how much capital reserves are needed?"
"Even if we have enough funds, you still have to communicate with various local TV stations and then build your own television network."
"After that, you'll also have to face the encirclement of existing TV stations. They won't allow a newcomer to cut into the pie. This is absolutely impossible."
"Under the pressure of these established TV stations, I'm afraid no local station will sign a contract with us."
Eric nodded: "Yes, I understand, and we both know that these TV stations are backed by major conglomerates."
"FX is backed by Fox, and Fox is backed by Murdoch, who also owns our competitor, 20th Century Fox; AMC is backed by Rainbow Media, and Rainbow Media is backed by CVC Group;"
"NBC is backed by General Electric; HBO belongs to Time Warner, and Time Warner also owns our competitor, Warner Bros. Pictures; Starz is backed by Liberty Media Group; and Showtime belongs to Viacom Group."
"In short, every TV station you can think of has a powerful capital group behind it. We can't compete, at least not at the moment."
"But I'm not reconciled. I don't want to sell the films and TV shows I've worked so hard to produce to them. That's equivalent to us making money for our competitors."
"So I want to create an online platform, more precisely, an online on-demand platform, to broadcast our works on our platform. This is my idea, and it's also based on the general trend of internet development."
"Dad, in the near future, the internet will be the only way out, and one of the few opportunities we can seize."
Looking at his excited son, Xia Li Cooper suddenly felt he didn't quite understand this child anymore. He always felt he wasn't the child he had watched for over 20 years.
It seemed that ever since that incident on the balcony, he had become a stranger, as if he had changed into a different person, a different soul.
He suddenly understood movies, and suddenly he could even direct and write scripts. Everything was very strange.
How could Xia Li Cooper not have suspected anything?
But hearing Eric call him father, that doubt was dispelled.
But at this moment, he was still shocked. Having struggled in the industry for decades, he could understand Eric's meaning, but what he hadn't expected was that his son's ambition was so great.
While he was content with making MGM better, Eric was mentally benchmarking against those truly large conglomerates.
He found this idea ridiculous and impossible to achieve.
But looking at his passionate son, he also felt that perhaps it wasn't his son who was too arrogant, but that he himself was truly old and had lost the ambition of his youth.
Finally, Xia Li Cooper sighed: "Eric, although I don't understand the internet very well, at least I know one thing: if you really want to create an online viewing platform, we will definitely face a storm of attacks."
"Because this is subverting the foundation of all current film and television companies and TV stations. You are digging at their roots!"
"Deep down, I think this is a wrong decision, and it could very well lead MGM to ruin."
"But as a father, I know I must support my son."
"So go for it. I will do my best to shield you from the storm outside, until I fall."