Los Angeles, Burbank, Capet Pictures.
Charles was in his office, watching Kobe attend a press conference with his wife.
"Five million dollars!" Charles curled his lips, having spent five million dollars in one go.
After more than a year of litigation, last month Kobe issued a large check of five million dollars to the waitress as compensation and publicly apologized.
The woman subsequently chose not to testify in court, ending the civil lawsuit with economic compensation, and the prosecution also dropped the criminal charges against Kobe, with both parties opting for an out-of-court settlement.
"Boss, the NBA new season is starting at the end of this month; you can go to the Staples Center to watch the games live then," Donna Williams suggested while massaging Charles's shoulders from behind him.
"Shaq isn't even here anymore, sigh!" Charles was a pseudo-fan, after all, and it seemed he hadn't watched many games of the OK duo.
Donna leaned down and chuckled into Charles's ear, "Kobe said Shaq did it too. What did Shaq do?"
"Donna, I didn't expect you to be so mischievous!" Charles stood up and turned off the TV after speaking.
This was something Kobe Bryant had privately mentioned during an interrogation last year: Shaquille O'Neal had once paid a woman over a million dollars in hush money for a similar incident. Kobe never expected such private remarks to be reported.
"By the way, did Martin Scorsese withdraw from the the departed project?" Charles inquired about official business.
Donna nodded, "Both Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have withdrawn!"
"Has the script been sent to Ridley Scott?"
"It has. Director Ridley Scott is currently doing post-production for his medieval cold weapon epic war film, kingdom of heaven, but he is indeed interested in gangster films!"
"kingdom of heaven!" Charles nodded.
The success of gladiator and the lord of the rings series brought a wave of epic war blockbusters to Hollywood.
troy, with a production cost of 175 million dollars, achieved a North American box office of 133 million dollars plus an overseas box office of 364 million dollars;
king arthur, with a production cost of 120 million dollars, only achieved 51 million dollars in North America plus an overseas box office of 143 million dollars;
Moreover, there is also Alexander the Great this year, with a production cost of 150 million dollars, scheduled for global release in December.
"Capet Pictures really shouldn't develop such large-scale war films," Charles was scared; besides Brad Pitt's troy, it seemed unlikely to break even.
Both king arthur and Alexander the Great were commercial failures, and kingdom of heaven also had a low box office.
"That's right, there aren't many successful war blockbusters; only DreamWorks' Saving Private Ryan and gladiator were huge successes! Both critical and commercial hits!"
Donna Williams also chimed in, continuing to name titles: "Black Hawk Down, pearl harbor, and Windtalkers—not one of these modern war blockbusters was a commercial success!"
"It seems there are quite a few," Charles now realized this was indeed the case; most war blockbusters, whether modern or cold weapon films, were commercial failures.
"Black Hawk Down was also directed by Ridley Scott, wasn't it? This year he's directing this medieval knight film, kingdom of heaven; he really seems to like directing war films!" Charles had now decided to absolutely avoid war-themed films in the future.
"Paramount and DreamWorks' collaboration, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, is being released this year, right?"
Donna thought for a moment and replied, "It's a global release!"
"Disney's children's fantasy blockbuster, the chronicles of narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, will also be released next year. Warner Bros.' harry potter series has made many people envious!" This was the market trend in Hollywood.
Daniel Handler's children's literary work, Lemony Snicket, was actually no less popular than J.K. Rowling's harry potter, it was just darker in style.
As for C.S. Lewis's children's fantasy novel, the chronicles of narnia, that was an even bigger production. Even J.K. Rowling's ability to write harry potter was influenced by the chronicles of narnia.
Both the chronicles of narnia and Lemony Snicket's novel film adaptation rights went through fierce bidding wars.
"Disney announced that they would adapt all seven books of the chronicles of narnia. The production cost of the first one, the chronicles of narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, reached 180 million dollars. Disney estimates the total production budget for all seven books will be at least 1.1 billion dollars!"
Listening to Donna, Charles smiled. If he remembered correctly, the chronicles of narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe did achieve explosive success, but the subsequent second film, the chronicles of narnia: prince caspian, did not perform as expected.
As a result, Disney directly sold the development rights for the third film to 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and 20th Century Fox developed the chronicles of narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was even more of a failure.
Thus, the fate of this series unfortunately ended.
"What about the two films I asked you to follow, million dollar baby and crash?" Charles asked about two Oscar for Best Picture-level films.
"million dollar baby, Warner Bros. has scheduled it for release in December. The distribution rights for crash are with Lionsgate. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last month and was released in Canada, but not in the United States, which is very strange!" Donna Williams also didn't understand.
"It's about racial discrimination. Lionsgate probably wants to use this film to make a strong push for the Oscar. This year, Lionsgate probably has some strong competitors. If it's released in the United States next year, it can compete for next year's Oscar!" Charles didn't care; he was completely exploiting the Oscar rules to make a splash.
"What about our brokeback mountain? The test screenings received many positive reviews from critics!" Donna Williams reminded him again.
"There's a chance!" Charles really didn't want to dampen her enthusiasm.
Independent film companies place too much importance on the Oscar. Look at The Big Six; the Oscar is just a promotional point for their films, and they don't spend too much effort on it.
However, this year, his own brokeback mountain is indeed scheduled for release. Can Ang Lee still win best director as he did in the parallel timeline?
As for best picture, forget it. In the parallel timeline, it couldn't beat crash, and now it certainly can't beat million dollar baby.
Besides, it's only 2004, and the conservative forces within the Oscar committee are very strong; it's impossible for them to give best picture to a gay-themed film.