The Reaction of the Rest of Hollywood, as we spend shitloads of money.
Universal: The Emperor
(Sid POV)
You were basking in the sunlight as you read some of the reports from Stanley, and were really happy about that. He had decided to do a few things that would make it far more action-packed, and maybe you would get an extra film out of it. The simple fact that he managed to get the Royal Navy on Board to film Trafalgar is something that you honestly didn't expect to hear from, especially since there was a real danger of damaging the ship. You just needed to Hype up the film as the greatest film of all time, and then it would be great.
The knock on the door was not something that you expected. "Better be important-" You started before you saw the exasperated face of a young assistant of one of the operations people. And as you studied his face, he looked close to pass out. "What happened?"
He handed over a piece of paper, before collapsing on the chair. Sweaty, tired, out of breath… completely unafraid to speak yet not speaking anyway.
Oh, it couldn't be.
You looked at the paper which only had one word that really mattered on it. A single word that would send everyone in the company into a panic.
"Lucasfilms bought something. Emergency Meeting, now!"
Usually, you were the one calling the emergency meetings. But you would accept this because, at this point, the greatest threat to Universal was making moves.
Moves that you haad to be sure were absolutely correct.
-------------------------------------------------------
The massive list on the reports were more than enough to warrant this meeting. The county had allowed them to develop a film lot without you knowing. What the hell was all that money supporting the commissioner's campaign even worth when he didn't do his damn job and give you a heads-up on what's going on!
And THX… A sound something? What the hell was that?
You see new companies springing up under the Lucasfilms banner every day, new sound stages being built, and ILM was now open for business for anyone who could pay…and people were lining up for their services like it was the new Mecca of Movies.
And then there was the piece de resistance. The thing that drove you mad.
It was spent with almost all profits from Star Wars. The Greatest movie of all time… so they kept saying.
And it boiled your blood in a way that was almost impossible to feel. "Gentlemen. The meeting has been called for a very simple reason." You started. "How the fuck are we going to match Lucasfilms?"
LMAO, I love how our mere existence has added years of stress to every Universal employee to the point that us buying something is enough to call an Among Us style Emergency meeting and meanwhile in the halls of Lucasflims it's just chill vibes and fun times. I guess one way to handwave the Commissioner sliding this through is that CARE gained us some major allies within the LA and state Democratic Party and the Commissioner can't fuck us over without getting fucked in return by their superiors who just so happen to be Star Wars fans.
I gotta say I love the contrast between Universal and Lucasfilms' philosophies. Universal is quantity over quality with them spending their cash on the biggest pool of A-listers in acting and directing, buy up all the franchise rights as possible, and pump out as many movies. They are the most profitable and most famous but they never innovate. Lucasfilms on the other hand is quality over quantity, always striving to get new talent and work with the best of the best because of skill over fame, concentrating their production into a handful of masterpieces, and spending all of their profits on making the best films possible and making new technology to do so. Really nice polar opposites, love the Cold War we have with them.
Meanwhile, With Colombia: The Gambler
(Alan POV)
"There is a truly dangerous opportunity that has now been presented to us by our enemy's reckless financial spending. They need to make money to justify this spending by the end of the fiscal year. And there is a clear idea that they are taking an even greater Gamble than we are."
Alan was trying to give himself the confidence he needed since he had heard the news, to him and his board, and investors. He was thin ice. Soo thin that he did not even understand how the hell he was still on the board.
Everyone thought he was mad. Everyone thought that he had spent millions of dollars that he did not have, on projects and investments that would not possibly believe in.
He was standing alone now because they weren't here yet. But instead, he looked at his phone and made a single call, that might screw him, or save him. "Get me Richard Donner… and find that girl that everyone is talking about. Find me, Kennedy. Tell her that if she wants to prove herself, she'll have to impress me."
He was going to make another gamble. The most important one of his career.
Trusting unknown talent, and a producer that seems most interested in talking, instead of doing.
But you didn't have much choice now. Not anymore. You had dug your own grave, and now it was time to get out of it, before it buried you.
An assistant ran in. "We got John Williams to do the score."
Finally, a bit of good news.
That moment when your biggest gamble is not spending over half a billion in borrowed money but letting some 23 year old secretary in on the creative process and production staff, lol. Although in saying that, getting Kennedy isn't bad at this point as her track record points that she can work good when in a subordinate position and having firm boundaries to where her innovations can be accepted but she doesn't go overboard without anyone telling her no. I think Superman will be a success, it just depends if it's quiet, decent, great or Star Wars level. Honestly kind of rooting for Columbia, they seem to be just as much the underdogs as us and at the end of the day we need some competition to prevent Anti-trust laws from breaking us up, lol.
The Last Disney
Roy just looked at the papers and then the notes. "How many?"
"Well, only twenty left, and that was after we threatened to take off their severance. Only Bluth and his company left." Eric Larson said as he sighed in defeat. "So at least we have that going."
"Shit." He swore, before minding his own business towards Disney land in the distance. "At least we stopped more than half quitting thanks to quick thinking."
"The board doesn't like you working behind their back." He chuckled, "Even with Jones in the seat now, they still think Animation is a dead end. Your name doesn't protect you from all of them."
"We need to push animation forward Eric. staying in the past isn't what will help us. You know it as much as I do."
Eric coughed.
You sighed. "Am I doing something wrong?"
"No, you just remind me of Walt. Having a vision and sticking to it like a fool, even when it was a terrible idea."
"You stuck by him, even when he had nothing."
Eric laughed. "Your right."
"Just don't think of fighting a war by yourself. Get yourself friends?"
"Like Lucasfilms. They started Dreamworks, going to be taking animators away." You stated. "Running the company."
"Only if you let it," Eric replied. "So what are you going to do?"
You needed to think.
Poor Roy. My man just wants to make cartoons and honor his dad and uncle but everyone wants Disney to be a horror company. Would be absolutely hillarious if Black Hole bombs as OTL but War of the Worlds manages to be a smash success. So far it seems even with Chuck and the Looney Tunes things will go slightly as OTL for Disney. Just have to wait for Carpenter stuff and War of the Worlds to see the company's definitive future. Roy still has potential to take control, but he's got no Mike to sit on the throne this time.
Last couple of lines are inteeresting. Seems there's some sentiments within Disney of allying with Lucasfilms but our recent creation of Dreamworks has kind of tanked this idea by making Lucasfilms into a threat like how Universal sees us. Hope this isn't the case. Disney at this point even under Tatum and Walker is far away from their irredeemable megacorp monster that they are today and we can do some pretty cool stuff with collaborations, hell I'd love to see a couple Dreamworks characters be in Roger Rabbit. I guess it all depends if the board sees Lucasfilms or Universal as a threat and if they care about animation or live action more. Wonder if ILM is gonna be doing Black Hole.
Paramount:
(No POV)
Paramount would have a new channel on TV.
And Star Trek would be its flagship series.
And when asked for comment on Lucasfilm's purchases, they merely said. "So they burned all their money… let them spend it like reckless kids."
Huh, neat. Did Paramount have a high roll or is the board more willing to take a gamble in this new Wild West era of Hollywood and knows that they can't compete with Universal or Lucasfilms in movies so they gotta dominate TV before the others make their own network? Hopefully we can still get TNG as a natural transition once Phase II ends and ILM can do the SFX. Also some good news is that Gene Roddenberry is canonically a fan of Star Wars so no need to do blood feuds.
Gotta say I love the irony of Paramount calling us reckless kids when they are literally spending hundreds of millions on a new fourth network.
20th Century Fox.
(No POV)
There was no way they cared about certain things.
They only needed to survive the decade.
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United Artists
No information available.
Please Try again Later.
To be 20th Century Fox is to suffer. Are they making Alien or is that up in the air?
Also the UA section is very ominous. The fact that we don't even get any information like Fox presents an utter shitshow and is confirming my suspicion that UA is the sight of an open war between leadership and Transamerica. Maybe we'll get that walkout a year early and the beginning of UA's end will commence. Hopefully we can find Andy a spot in Lucasfilms, either that or he should make his christmas tree farm early.
Bluth and the crew still left huh?
We should talk to him about that little mouse picture he's been pitching.
Do people think we should let Don Bluth become head of Dreamworks? I like the guy but he's always given off the vibe of the best of the old rather than a master of the new.
As a privately owned company not on the open stock market... why? that makes no sense everyone else is beholden to the public stock market Lucasfilm isn't
I think Alan is just blowing smoke out of his ass to try and downplay Lucasfilms' moves and prevent the board from taking action against him when he's made such a huge gamble and doesn't have immediate returns.
