This lunch was originally for the audition of "Mission Impossible", but it ended in a stiff end. Steven did not respond to Hugo's advice, neither of them said anything more, and after a hasty lunch, the two men ended their meeting and parted ways.

Hugo sighed lightly, he was indeed a little nosy today, he crossed that bottom line, and he and Steven were not friends of the same generation after all. Steven and they established DreamWorks with the concept of "independent studio", which has made a huge contribution to Hollywood, and he hopes that DreamWorks can wake up to the importance of the distribution department at the beginning of its establishment, so as to avoid the eventual ruin.

But Hugo forgot about it, and in Steven's eyes, he was just a young man under the age of thirty, who knew nothing about running a production company. On the contrary, his own words are more like overstepping. If you think about it from another perspective, Hugo will also feel that what he just said is too self-righteous.

Hugo should understand from the Michael Jackson incident: he is not a savior, he cannot change everyone's future, in fact, even his own future is full of uncertainty, what qualifications does he have to "save" others?

Hugo patted him on the head and told himself that he still had to know his place in the future: that he became a senior partner at Endeavour Elite Agency, but that didn't mean he was already a member of the Hollywood management players. For now, he's still just a singer and actor.

The reason why Hugo mentioned MGM just now is because MGM's particularity is the closest to the future model of DreamWorks, and the dilemma that MGM is facing now is also the closest to the future situation of DreamWorks.

Needless to say, MGM has a glorious history, and this is one of the most successful studios in Hollywood film history. However, after entering the sixties, MGM has been in a downward spiral, changing hands several times between various consortia, suffering a lot, although the eighties had a brief reappearance of glory, but after all, it still could not withstand the historical trend, and finally in 2005 was acquired by Sony, completely disappeared in the long river of history, and became a subsidiary of Sony.

In the face of the strong rise of the television industry, MGM's chosen plan is not to follow the pace of the times and enter the television industry, but to put all the bets on the wide screen and large-scale production, so after the nineties, when the cable TV channel and video tape market flourished, MGM's distribution channels lacked the last profitable link, and these distribution businesses must be handed over to Warner Bros. to operate.

Real industry insiders know that compared to the box office of the movie, in fact, the video tape market, cable movie channels, movie peripherals, including the strong rise of the Internet market after the 21st century, this is the real money-making part of a movie. Because the box office of the film needs to be shared by the theater chain, the production company and the distribution company, but all these benefits are attributed to the film company in the future. To be precise, it belongs to the film distribution department.

The lack of a distribution department almost means that the majority of interests are completely abandoned.

As a result, MGM struggled to survive in the end, and even though they still released many masterpieces, they would have to enter the auction because of a "windtalker" that would lead to difficulties in cash turnover.

MGM had a distribution channel for American theaters, but it became a thing of the past due to the lack of international distribution channels and other related distribution channels. And how could DreamWorks, which has no distribution channels, create a miracle?

Although the current situation at MGM is not as bad as it has been since the 21st century, the industry has actually noticed MGM's decline, because in the 80s, MGM released many excellent films such as "West Side Story", "One Flew Over the Asylum", "The Graduate", "Rocky" and the "007" series of films, but the market share was still only a pitiful 6%, and it was even more tired after entering the 90s.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have rebooted the James Bond franchise not long ago, and they still went to great lengths to hype.

Hugo's mention of MGM is undoubtedly a wake-up call to Steven.

But Hugo forgot his senses, and he was facing Steven, not Leonardo. Hugo could only put the matter behind him and warn himself not to get carried away.

The day after Hugo and Steven met, the "Orange County Chronicle" broke the news that Hugo was about to join Steven as a producer for his next work. Since Steven has not had a new directorial plan recently, he has focused more on DreamWorks, but his name as a producer can be seen in many works, such as the TV series "ER" that started broadcasting in September last year, and "Casper", which has been scheduled to be released in May.

Therefore, the revelations of the "Orange County Chronicle" immediately attracted a lot of attention, with the personal relationship between Hugo and Steven, coupled with the excellent cooperation between the two people, people can't help but start looking forward to the new work.

But less than three days later, the local newspaper "Daily News", also from California, broke the news again that Steven met with Hugo this time, and he was a lobbyist with two works, one is the "Man in Black" of Columbia Pictures, and the other is the "Mission Impossible" of Paramount Pictures.

Hugo was not surprised by the revelations of the "Orange County Chronicle", it was the busiest time in Hollywood recently, his every move was almost under the surveillance of the paparazzi, and his meeting with Steven did not deliberately hide his whereabouts. So it's very normal to be discovered. But the revelations of the "Daily News" are a bit strange.

The content of Hugo and Steven's chat that day only mentioned "Mission Impossible" and "Men in Black" once or twice, and even if the paparazzi could buy the waiters in the restaurant to eavesdrop, it would be difficult to know about these two works. So, where is the source of the news for the "Daily News"? Why they know so clearly.

The news that followed confirmed Hugo's guess.

Immediately, "Entertainment Weekly" broke the news again, "Paramount and Columbia Pictures are actively contacting Hugo, hoping that Hugo can star in their works, "Men in Black" invested 100 million US dollars, and "Mission Impossible" is 80 million-level works, which are obviously heavyweight blockbusters, and Hugo is likely to star in the first work of his career that costs more than 60 million US dollars! At present, Hugo is thinking about which work will win in the end, which is really exciting. ”

Although "Entertainment Weekly" has factual deviations about the cost of both works, the details have gradually been revealed. What's more, their report also specifically mentions, "At present, Tom Cruise is also a candidate for these two works, and the chances of 'Men in Black' are relatively slim, and Tom is not too active, but Tom is very active in the 'Mission Impossible' project, and has discussed with screenwriters and producers many times, showing his determination to win." ”

When Tom Cruise's name appeared, the revelations went in the other direction. Without any surprise, "Entertainment Weekly" almost spent all its resources to put the two people on opposite sides.

"One is an absolute idol who swept Hollywood in the late 80s, and the other is a top actor who has risen strongly in the last three years, and the names Tom and Hugo mean the highest peak of today's Hollywood, and these two actors also have an indissoluble bond.

In the battle for 'Righteous Sea Heroes', Hugo won the first game, but the duel of 'Sugar-Coated Trap' was Tom who pulled one back. Later, "Interview with the Vampire" Tom continued his strength again, but when this work was released, it had a head-to-head confrontation with "Pulp Fiction", but it failed miserably.

There is no doubt that the two most popular actors in the film industry are now fiercely competing for the first place in Hollywood, although Hugo is carrying a historical record of five consecutive works at the box office exceeding 100 million, but Tom has also grossed more than 100 million in three consecutive works, and he will definitely not fall behind.

This time, the two top actors of today are once again competing head-on, who will have the last laugh? ”

Entertainment Weekly spent two full pages describing the showdown, and although there were not many details, it was very spot-on, almost completely depicting the current situation. In an instant, all media reporters were excited, and "Mission Impossible" suddenly became the core focus; And readers are starting to pay close attention to this competition, which has just begun.

As "Entertainment Weekly" said, Hugo and Tom are currently the most popular top superstars in Hollywood, and their every move can attract the attention of countless audiences, not to mention the duel between them, which has detonated almost all the topics of the cold winter in March, and even the upcoming Oscars at the end of the month have been left out in the cold.

This situation reminds Hugo of the hype during MGM's casting for James Bond last year, and obviously, this time it was Paramount's own internal planning, and if it weren't for Paramount revealing so many words, "Entertainment Weekly" wouldn't know so many details. This is the media hype that Paramount actively instigated for the sake of publicity.

The last time for Endeavor Elite Agency, although Hugo had no interest in James Bond, he still attended that dinner; Now it's coming again, which makes Hugo feel a little helpless, but Hugo also knows that this is Hollywood, and this kind of hype is also one of the ways that film companies, brokerage companies, actors, artists and news media use each other, in other words, this is the rule of the industry. Although Hugo disliked, even hated, he had no way to avoid it, because he was part of the circle.

But Hugo forgot one thing, that is, the media liked to make a big fuss, and he and Tom were far more topical than expected, so things quickly got out of control.