America Tycoon: The Wolf of Showbiz-Chapter 764 757: Change of Presidency

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The internal dynamics of a large company, especially its internal conflicts, are often difficult to hide. To those outside the industry, it may seem like a mystery shrouded in clouds, but to those within, it's as clear as day.

That afternoon, Martin received news that at a Warner Bros. executive meeting, Daniel and Jon Berg had once again erupted in an argument, publicly accusing Jon Berg of causing consecutive project failures with his reckless actions, holding him responsible for the fiascos of "Pharaoh and the Gods," "Green Lantern," "Dark Places," and "Jack the Giant Slayer."

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The conflict between the two intensified and was laid out on the table.

According to Hollywood tradition, Jon Berg, as the initiator and lead producer of the project, should take responsibility for "Jack the Giant Slayer" failure.

But Jon Berg kept passing the buck.

Kevin Tsujihara, using the unclear international market performance as a reason, temporarily shelved the matter.

The two assistant directors from Bryan Singer's team then gave interviews. Much like Bryan Singer himself, they pointed the finger at Jon Berg, claiming his nearly absurd operations were the main cause of the failure of "Jack the Giant Slayer."

On set, they were nearly driven mad by the six producers.

The next morning, the front of Warner Bros. Studios was unusually lively, with over fifty stars, directors, and screenwriters gathered to demand their overdue shares from Warner Bros.

Representatives from several investors also arrived in succession, joining them.

"We have already sued Warner Bros. and are going through legal proceedings. We came here this time to demand an explanation from the Warner executives," Nolan told the media, getting straight to the heart of the issue: "According to our understanding, the revenues from distribution channels have long been received. This money was misappropriated by Jon Berg for the post-production of 'Jack the Giant Slayer.' With such a severe issue in Warner's management, shouldn't they give us an explanation?"

Martin then stepped forward, "The matter has dragged on for half a year without resolution. During numerous mediations, Warner Bros. kept stalling, and Warner's management never considered our interests. How can we continue to work with Warner under these conditions?"

Others also made their stance clear, with many past-their-prime stars relying on residual payments from past works to get by. Warner's actions were tantamount to directly reducing their quality of life.

Don't high-quality lifestyles, like drinking and womanizing, cost money?

All fingers were pointed at Jon Berg as well.

Warner Bros. then sent a vice president to the studio front to speak with the crowd.

The issue seemed to have temporarily settled down.

But by the next day, including Syncopy Films represented by The Nolans, Louise's Pacific Pictures, as well as Relativity Media and DreamWorks, backed by Wall Street funds, several companies and investment funds publicly stated that given Jon Berg's precedent for misappropriating funds, they would carefully consider future collaborations with Warner Bros.

Many companies cooperating with Warner Bros. followed suit voluntarily. Having worked with Warner Bros. for a long time, who would dare to lightly participate in Warner Bros.' combined projects and investments with Jon Berg, a "super genius," sitting in the president's seat?

Meanwhile, Daniel led a group of Warner management in an intense inside fight against Jon Berg.

Time Warner Group quickly intervened.

Overall, Warner Bros. was still performing well, but the main revenue was from legacy projects of the previous administration. Projects promoted by Jon Berg not only lacked performance but also posted shockingly huge losses.

"Jack the Giant Slayer" spent its second weekend in North American theaters.

The already dismal box office took a nosedive, raking in only 4.56 million US dollars for the second weekend, barely exceeding 20 million US dollars in North America when including the previous four weekdays.

However, such a box office trajectory suggested that the final North American box office would be hard-pressed to exceed 30 million US dollars.

The film's production cost alone was a whopping 250 million US dollars!

Due to Jon Berg's multiple mishandlings of the project, this wasn't even the production cost under accounting rules but the actual filming and production investment.

At a crucial moment, Kevin Tsujihara chose to cut losses to save himself.

Soon, Warner Bros. announced the dismissal of Jon Berg as president of Warner Bros. and named Daniel, from the distribution company, as president.

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In the president's office at Warner Bros.

Daniel's team and Jon Berg's team had completed the handover.

Jon Berg packed his personal belongings and stood at the center of the office, hesitant to leave.

He had come with dreams of grandeur, only to leave in disappointment.

Releasing the pent-up frustration of the past few days, Jon Berg picked up his bag and headed for the door.

As the door opened, he saw Daniel waiting in the hallway.

"You won," Jon Berg said.

But Daniel shook his head, "I didn't win; you lost."

Facing this jerk who always tried to shift the blame for every movie project failure onto him, of course, he had no kind words, "You did too badly, one of the worst presidents Warner Bros. has ever had. The fact that I can take over your position doesn't mean I am good, it means you are terrible."

Jon Berg's face grew terribly sullen, "This seat is not easy to sit in."

"I know," Daniel had long been patient with him, "But with you as the worst president as a predecessor, it's easy for me to show results; after all, performance is relative."

"You..." Jon Berg's chest heaved rapidly, almost exploding with anger.

Daniel, having held back his words after being blamed so many times, was not finished, "You will go down in Hollywood's history. In the future, whenever someone brings up 'Jon Berg-style editing,' they will have to laugh for minutes. Who knew that producing movies could be so entertaining and amusing?"

The more he spoke, the more he relished, "Jon, when you start at your next company, all your colleagues will wonder how you came up with such brilliant ideas."

"Enough!" Jon Berg, carrying his bag, stormed off, not giving Daniel the chance to continue.

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Daniel said again, "No need to see you out, you've left a mess for me to sort out."

Jon Berg took the elevator downstairs and after entering the lobby, realized that all eyes had turned toward him.

Perhaps because of what Daniel had said earlier, Jon Berg's ears buzzed with murmuring voices.

He hastened his steps, walking toward the building's exit.

But still, whispers reached his ears.

"The worst president of Warner Bros. in fifty years."

"It was him who drove away Martin, the most marketable actor right now, and nearly did the same to the most marketable director, Nolan."

"Lacks professional capability, yet he's good at internal strife."

Without any pause, Jon Berg took his bag and walked out the main entrance alone.

There was no dedicated driver and no company car; Jon Berg got into his own vehicle and left Warner Bros. behind for good.

Upstairs, Daniel had no plans to continue using Jon Berg's office but decided to renovate a new one.

In the meantime, he would work from a temporary office.

Assistants were busy packing up the office.

Daniel called in Secretary Becker and said, "Call Martin Davis, Christopher Nolan, and Spielberg, and tell them I…"

He suddenly broke off, changing his mind, "Forget it, I'll call them myself."

Daniel moved to the quiet window and first dialed Nolan's number, telling him that he would push forward with the "Interstellar" project as soon as possible, and highly recommended Martin for the leading role.

Next, he called Martin, inviting him to definitely take the lead role in "Interstellar."

Warner Bros. would not only invest in but also distribute the film.

"Interstellar" would also be the first major production he advanced since taking his new position.

Daniel realized he should thank that genius, Jon Berg, for leaving such a great performance record behind.

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Beverly Hills, Davis Estate.

Martin hung up the phone and returned to the living room, saying to Thomas, "You should expect a call from the 'Interstellar' studio soon; they'll probably want to talk about my acting fee contract."

With the final barrier at Warner Bros. now gone, the project was likely to officially start soon.

Thomas asked, "You sorted it out that quickly?"

Martin replied simply, "Daniel officially took over as the president of Warner Bros. today."

Understanding, Thomas asked, "For the acting fees, 20+20?"

This was treatment reserved for superstars: a base salary of $20 million plus up to a 20% cap on North American box office tiered earnings.

Martin said, "That's the baseline, and there's the DVD share."

"I'll aim to negotiate between 5% and 10% of the North American sales," Thomas thought for a moment. "Even Leonardo would struggle to get such terms."

Martin nodded, as the highest share of Hollywood DVD profits belonged to Tom Cruise, who received a 22% share from DVD sales of "Mission: Impossible III."

22% of the sales revenue, not net profit.

"Mission: Impossible III" had the worst box office performance in the series, and it was said that Tom Cruise took more than half of the profits, causing Paramount Pictures to become so enraged that they temporarily fell out with him.

The difficulties Tom Cruise faced in the past few years were not unrelated to this.

Before their conversation concluded, Martin received another call, this time from his lawyer, Hamlin.

Warner Bros. legal department notified him that they would re-enter settlement discussions in three days to resolve the backend compensation issues for many stars and directors, including Martin and Nolan.

Martin entrusted the negotiations entirely to his lawyer and instructed Thomas to follow up closely.

Warner Bros. was not short of funds, but Jon Berg's maneuvering was truly baffling.

Martin couldn't comprehend it and decided not to ponder these matters since it was consistent with the behavior of Warner executives he remembered after 2010.

The next morning, Martin received another call from Daniel, who wanted to meet and discuss continuing their film collaboration since Warner Bros. wanted to renew their partnership with him.

Of course, Martin wouldn't refuse, but the detailed conversation with Daniel would have to wait until he returned from Boston.

After six months of preparation, the movie "Thieves of the City," adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel "Prince of Thieves," officially entered the filming phase.

Under the leadership of Director Denis Villeneuve, the crew would travel to Boston for on-location shooting.

Per Martin's request, Villeneuve arranged all of the male lead's scenes at the beginning of the schedule.

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