Traveling through the Tokyo bubble era

Chapter 864 Sony's New Move
If you ask Hideki Hanyu how he feels about walking the Oscars red carpet for the first time in his two lifetimes.

Hideki Hanyu immediately thought of the emoticon package of Zhou Xun in later generations.

There are so many people.JPG
The biggest difference between the Oscars red carpet and many film and television award ceremony red carpets in Japan, Europe, and even China is that there is no obvious "wave" when the stars walk the red carpet.

There was no feeling at all that the previous group of invitees came out and walked the red carpet until the next group started walking.

Perhaps because there were too many people, the order in which the guests walked onto the red carpet was very random. Those in front were still walking while those behind had already come up.

Unless it's too excessive, the organizers have no requirements for the speed of walking on the red carpet.

But the problem is that those unpopular stars will not attract attention even if they take ten steps to one meter.

Even if big-name artists make great strides, they will still be chased by audiences and media on both sides, and will inevitably have to accept live interviews.

In short, when Hideki Hanyu's car arrived at the venue of this year's Oscars and he just stepped onto the red carpet, he felt that the scene in front of him was as lively as a vegetable market.

This year's Oscars will be held at the Dorothy Chandler Hall at the Los Angeles Music Center.

This hall is the performance venue for the world-renowned Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera, which is ranked as one of the top five opera houses in America.

As for the Kodak Theater, which is well-known to everyone in later generations and is located on Hollywood Boulevard and is the permanent venue for the Academy Awards, it was not opened until 2001 and does not exist at all in this era.

Hideki Hanyu decided to walk the red carpet at the Oscars this time purely to satisfy his curiosity from his previous life, to try something new and to watch the excitement.

As for other stars who use the red carpet to gain exposure, he simply doesn't care. After all, he is not a star.

Therefore, after stepping onto the red carpet, he immediately turned into a spectator, looking left and right, as if he was strolling in an amusement park.

Hanyu Hideki was not very familiar with the stars who were walking on the red carpet with him at the time, so he had no intention of taking the initiative to say hello.

After all, he is a capital tycoon himself, and now that he has taken over MCA Universal, he is already an absolutely powerful figure at the top of the Hollywood industry chain and has every right to ignore anyone.

Of course, when someone recognized him on the red carpet, although they looked surprised, no one dared to disturb him because he had no intention of communicating.

In this way, Hideki Hanyu strolled to the end of the red carpet before being stopped by the official live broadcast staff.

"Sir, are you available for a TV interview?"

Hanyu Hideki agreed, “Of course.”

For Hideki Hanyu, who is used to big occasions, even the Oscars ceremony could not make him nervous.

The staff member then asked, "What would be a more appropriate name for us to call you?"

Hanyu Hideki thought for a moment and answered, "Seraphim."

"Okay, Mr. Seraphim."

Then, under the guidance of the staff, he came to the camera of the live interview on the red carpet, and a male host in a suit began to interview him with a microphone.

"Is this Mr. Seraphim's first time attending the Oscars?"

Hanyu Hideki replied, "Yes, this is my first time attending the Oscars ceremony."

Although the host knew the reason why Hideki Hanyu was invited, he still took the initiative to ask in order to satisfy the curiosity of the audience in front of the TV.

"Was it because of your role as producer of 'Driving Miss Daisy'?"

Hanyu Hideki replied, “Yes, after seeing this story on Broadway, I decided to buy it and adapt it into a movie.”

There are five official producers for the movie "Driving Miss Daisy" according to different divisions of labor, and Hideki Hanyu is one of them.

As for his role, it was of course just a figurehead.

Does anyone still expect Hideki Hanyu to really go to the front line to work?
"Thank you Mr. Seraphim for bringing an excellent production to Hollywood."

The host quickly offered his compliments.

In fact, the host knew very well that Hideki Hanyu's so-called identity as a producer was definitely just a figurehead who did nothing.

But the problem is that, perhaps in Hollywood, producer is an amazing identity, and the producer of an Oscar-nominated film will be the envy of everyone in Hollywood.

But for Hideki Hanyu, producer is just the least prominent of his many identities.

Even for an Oscar-winning movie like "Driving Miss Daisy", it is not an honor for Hideki Hanyu to serve as its producer, but the movie itself should feel honored that Hideki Hanyu was willing to put his name on it.

“The work itself is excellent, I just let more people see it.”

Facing the host who looked fawning, Hanyu Hideki spoke modestly in a calm tone.

The host quickly asked, "Mr. Seraphim, many North American book fans are looking forward to the film adaptation of your picture book Home Alone, and would like to know when the film will be released."

“I can’t reveal the exact date yet, but I promise that I will not let you wait until next year, when the sequel to the Home Alone picture book will also be released.”

Hideki Hanyu took advantage of the Oscars to promote "Home Alone" in advance.

“This is really exciting news, thank you very much Mr. Seraphim for the interview…”

Having said that, the red carpet interview has ended.

After leaving the camera, Hideki Hanyu did not delay on the red carpet and quickly walked into the Dorothy Chandler Hall.

In the modern multi-storey opera hall, Hideki Hanyu found his seat in the first row under the guidance of the staff.

He had not been sitting there for long when Fred Weber came up next to him.

Hanyu Hideki asked curiously, "Why didn't I see you just now?"

Fred Weber responded, “I didn’t walk the red carpet.”

"I see. Do you have a good chance tonight?"

Hideki Hanyu chatted casually with Fred Weber.

In fact, for him, as long as the movie is successful at the box office, he doesn’t care whether it can win an Oscar, even though the Oscar itself can bring a certain box office increase.

But for a film company, the Oscars are still very important. They are a symbol that indirectly proves the company's strength, so he still hopes that "Driving Miss Daisy" will be a big win like in its previous life.

After all, due to the limited strength of Yunshang Pictures, even the award-winning films before were unable to achieve much Oscar results after being intercepted by him.

This time, "Driving Miss Daisy" can be regarded as a tacit cooperation between Cloud Pictures and Sony Columbia before the relationship between them became strained.

If it was a little later, by this month, he probably wouldn't even ask, and Sony certainly wouldn't make any effort to win the award.

Before the award ceremony started, Fred Weber told Hanyu Hideki some inside information he had heard.

To sum up, the situation is very good and they will definitely not return empty-handed tonight.

However, as they were talking, Fred Weber's topic inevitably turned to his recent work. He basically complained to Hanyu Hideki about how troublesome it was to split, reorganize, and integrate MCA Universal, and how complicated and tedious the work was.

After the split, Universal Pictures is the busiest company.

Personnel changes in various departments, various projects that have been completed, are in progress, or are still in preparation, all need to be followed up and processed.

There were other complicated issues, which kept Alan Horn busy so much that he lived directly at the Universal headquarters and had not gone home to rest for two weeks.

Universal Music is still okay. If it had not continued to expand and acquired PolyGram, the scale of Universal Music would have been incomparable to that of the future.

In addition, with the acquisition of Yunshang Music, the control of the board of directors fell directly into the hands of Yunshang Music. Yunshang Music sent a large number of people to help, so Alan Horn did not need to worry about it.

Although Universal Studios is the most profitable, it has only two studios to manage so far, one is Universal Studios Los Angeles, which opened in the 1960s, and the other is Universal Studios Orlando, which just opened not long ago.

The structure is simple and management is naturally convenient, and it can be easily split up independently.

Now, it has even resumed normal work, started to connect with the Elf system, prepared to renovate and expand the Los Angeles Studios, and began planning the construction of the first Universal Studios in Asia.

As for what Alan Horn needs to worry least about, it is the relatively independent Universal Television Network before the split.

After appointing Lou Wasserman as CEO of Universal Television Network, this part was no longer under Alan Horn's management.

However, after Lou Wasserman took office, he asked the head office for funding under the pretext of updating equipment and expanding the market, which temporarily gave Alan Horn a headache.

When Hanyu Hideki heard this, he immediately felt lucky that he had found a capable professional manager like Alan Horn, otherwise he would be the one with the headache now.

Sure enough, it is comfortable to be a hands-off boss.

At this time, after talking about Universal Pictures, Fred Webber talked about some things related to Sony Columbia.

When the news of MCA Universal's acquisition came out, the relationship between Sony Columbia and Cloud Pictures reached a freezing point.

"The live-action version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles performed very well after its release. According to the original estimate of the marketing department, the North American box office should exceed $100 million.

However, Sony's non-cooperation in distribution has inevitably lowered the upper limit of the film's box office, and it is now estimated to be only 80 million US dollars."

Hanyu Hideki asked, "80 million dollars, will we lose money?"

“That’s not the case, but we won’t make much either. After all, Elf Entertainment is involved in this movie, so our share of the cost is not much.

What’s more, we have to worry about the speed of Colombia’s repayment. Delaying the profit sharing is already a foregone conclusion.”

Fred Weber's tone was somewhat helpless.

It is normal for Hollywood distributors to delay their share of profits with producers.

When the relationship was good before, Columbia's repayment speed was not fast. Now that it has confirmed that there will be no cooperation, the profit sharing will only be slower. It would not be surprising if it drags on for two or three years.

Hanyu Hideki waved his hand nonchalantly, "It doesn't matter, as long as they perform the contract normally, it's fine. If they don't perform according to the contract, you can sue them directly without hesitation."

Hideki Hanyu sees this matter further than Fred Weber.

He believed that Columbia might make things difficult for him, but would not really break off relations with Yunshang Pictures.

To be precise, Sony will not break up with the Yunshang Group and Hideki Hanyu.

However, there is no need to talk to Fred Weber about matters concerning Japan.

“Actually, I’m not too worried about Ninja Turtles. What I’m most worried about right now is actually Black Arrival which is coming out next month.

Peter Jackson's film is very creative. He allowed him to bring something new to the zombie genre and it should have done well at the box office.

But Columbia clearly doesn’t want to contribute to the distribution and is only doing the most basic work. I don’t think the performance will be very good after the release.”

When Fred Webber talked about "Black Fall" which will be released next month, his tone was full of regret and helplessness.

However, at this moment, Hanyu Hideki seemed to not care about this matter at all, because his thoughts had drifted to other places.

Fred Weber mentioned Sony several times, which reminded Hideki Hanyu of something else.

He had just returned to Los Angeles yesterday when he received a call from Eiichi Kamiya in Neon.

On the phone, Kamiya Eiichi told him that because of the secret attempt to take action against Nintendo, Kamiya Eiichi noticed something.

That is, in recent times, Sony and Nintendo have been very close, and there even seem to be some transactions taking place on the stock market.

Knowing Sony's potential in the gaming industry, Hideki Hanyu immediately became alert and called Iwata Satoru and asked him to investigate Sony's recent actions.

Then this morning, Satoru Iwata told him that Sony had established a new subsidiary last week without any external publicity.

Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Moreover, the president of the new company was none other than old acquaintance Ken Kutaragi.

Sony Interactive Entertainment, plus Ken Kutaragi, when these two names are put together, Hideki Hanyu immediately thinks of the PS console, PSP handheld, and Sony's gaming empire from another time and space.

Considering the news from Kamiho Eiichi, Hanyu Hideki immediately guessed a lot of things.

It seems that the prosperous game market has impressed Sony's top management.

Perhaps it was due to the constant suggestions of Ken Kutaragi, a senior executive who had never given up on the gaming market, that Sony finally wanted to enter the gaming market to test the waters.

At this time and space, Sony also chose Nintendo as its partner for its first attempt to enter the gaming market.

It’s just that Sony chose Nintendo in the past because Nintendo was powerful enough.

In this life, Sony chose Nintendo, probably because Nintendo was helplessly defeated by Elf Entertainment and was in urgent need of a powerful reinforcement.

As for why Sony didn’t choose Genie Entertainment to cooperate?
It's simple, because Elf Entertainment doesn't need it.

It is also because Elf Entertainment, supported by Hideki Hanyu, is too powerful.

Once Sony chooses to cooperate with Genie Entertainment, it will never be able to take the lead in the cooperation and can only be inferior to Genie Entertainment.

How could the proud Sony be willing to become a vassal?

After guessing this, Hideki Hanyu realized that Kamibo Eiichi's proposal to acquire Nintendo had already run into complications and would probably end in failure.

After all, if Sony cooperates with Nintendo, it will definitely not watch Nintendo being swallowed up by Pokemon Entertainment.

Thinking of this, Hanyu Hideki whispered to himself.

"Perhaps, there are other options..."

(End of this chapter)