Chapter 149: Attending the Berlin Film Festival

[Chapter 149: Attending the Berlin Film Festival]

Ever since Corleone Studios became Lion Corleone, Harvey's board position and his last bit of influence in the company were stripped away. All he was left with was a small share that only generated dividends. His relationship with Charlie had clearly become all but dead in name.

Though Harvey still had a share of The Lord of the Rings project profits, under Charlie's manipulation, the project could be recorded as losing money in the studio's books.

Both sides knew well that their brief friendly phase had fractured badly.

At the end of last year, Harvey didn't invite Charlie to the premieres of Miramax and Dimension Pictures' The English Patient and Scream, and Charlie acted as if Harvey didn't exist.

Now this guy shamelessly acted like their conflicts were non-existent, joking around and acting friendly. What was his angle?

Harvey specialized in art films -- or more precisely, in navigating awards season. He had rich experience with the European trio of festivals and American ones like Sundance and the Golden Globes, with a vast media network and connections among voters.

His implication was that he wanted to bring Charlie into the circle to teach him some tricks. His goodwill was quite big.

Nothing good comes from such earnestness without a catch!

Charlie gazed outside at the colorful street scenes, stretched out, sitting sideways in the back seat of the Grand Cherokee so he could stretch his long legs, squinting as he thought quickly for a moment. "I may not be able to attend every event, but a trip to Europe to relax sounds great."

"Then it's settled. Don't be so cautious, buddy. I'm not planning anything against you. I just want to smooth things over with the thriving CEO of Lions Corleone."

"Oh really? Ha ha ha, it's an honor, friend. I feel the same!" Charlie said with a cheerful smile and hung up, but the warm smile on his face vanished instantly.

...

Meanwhile, in the Miramax office, Harvey did the same gesture, smoking a cigar. In thick smoke, his face turned serious as he said with a hoarse voice, "Getting the rights to derivative content from this bastard won't be easy. Has Eisner said anything about the Horror Theme Park project that's currently heating up?"

Bob Weinstein shook his head, toyed with a pen. "Not from our sources. Roy's been using the Horror Theme Park to make moves inside Disney; maybe Eisner is swamped."

Bob himself wasn't certain of that.

Currently in Park City, the first phase of the Horror Theme Park plan was public, featuring a limited number of attractions: traditional elements from Wrong Turn in a haunted house, storyline-driven, and real-life escape rooms with hide-and-seek, hopscotch, and other physical and mental games.

The operators produced high-quality promotional videos, spending over ten million dollars through Disney's vast channels to broadcast in the media, achieving relatively good feedback.

But Roy's plan to overwhelm Eisner with this was far from successful.

Though, Eisner couldn't ignore it entirely.

The novel immersive escape room game, held by a major media company, had huge potential for online and offline expansion -- like a gold mine waiting to be developed. The reserves might not be massive for now.

But that was enough for Roy to use this as an excuse to maneuver. He could control key Disney theme park personnel and intervene in TV and family entertainment productions.

Top-level corporate competition involved personnel and finance battles from inside out.

Roy Disney's last name carried weight, and Eisner was originally put in place by him. Although Eisner apparently held the upper hand now, he wouldn't take Roy lightly.

For Harvey, the headache was that the copyrights for the Horror Theme Park belonged to Dimension Pictures.

Previously, to save himself and limit Charlie, Harvey had Roy seize the derivative marketing of Wrong Turn.

Under their agreement, Roy gave Harvey more autonomy in both companies and cleared some legal liabilities caused by internal conflicts.

But then Roy ended up awarding some earnings from Wrong Turn series derivatives and the Horror Park project to Charlie!

This made Harvey feel like he was pushed right into the crossfire.

Harvey had imagined Charlie as cannon fodder in the Eisner-Roy rivalry, but Roy changed his mind.

Desperate, Harvey chose to reconcile with Charlie, trying to make himself useful again.

Pulling several puffs from his cigar, Harvey asked, "Where is that call girl from Fifty Shades of Gray now?"

"You want to cause trouble for Charlie through her? That probably won't work much. I've looked into it; she disappeared right after coming back to L.A. last Christmas," Bob replied.

Harvey shook his head resignedly, "Too bad. That girl could've been useful. Has Saul responded? What about Will Smith?"

"Corleone only gets management fees for this film. The rest of the production profits belong to CAA and Saul. The distributors are Universal and Fox, so Saul doesn't plan to contact us, and same for Will," Bob answered.

"Oh, damn. That means I have no leverage over that bastard now, except for my empty executive position and the nuisance I cause at Corleone?" Harvey was displeased.

Bob said, "That's about it. If they want to play the awards season game, we could still threaten them, but Corleone isn't touching awards season for now."

Harvey shook his head helplessly, frowning in thought. He knew dealing with Charlie was risky; bribing alone wasn't reliable. Threats were better.

But Charlie had grown so fast that Harvey had no good way to threaten him now.

After a few minutes, Harvey stubbed out his cigar and said, "Forget it, let's not overthink. Get in touch with Berlin; apply for Charlie's market access pass and tell him the schedule."

...

Days later, on a sunny morning at a Pacific community villa, Charlie wore a white cotton t-shirt and white cotton-linen shorts, like a sunny young man. Sitting by the floor-to-ceiling windows at the tea table, he smiled while reading the Los Angeles Times and leisurely sipped his coffee.

Rachel, squatting on the floor, kept nagging, picking up Charlie's clothes and packing them into a suitcase. "Bring that jacket -- Berlin's much colder than L.A. And don't forget the Hermes belt I gave you for Christmas. Hey, are you even listening?"

Rachel widened her eyes, annoyed, as she grabbed the mischievous Evelyn. "Also, can you control your little cat? It keeps causing trouble. Why not bring her along? A long flight in the cargo hold will be quite an experience for her!"

*****

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