Chapter 339: Ongoing Strike

By the end of November, the Hollywood writers' strike had been going on for nearly a month, and Charles finally returned to Los Angeles.

At the same time, he had David Dane continue lobbying Arsenal shareholders on his behalf. Charles hated leaving things unfinished.

"Hollywood seems to have this feeling of suppression," said Charles, standing at the top floor of the Burbank headquarters, looking at the strikers on the street below.

"Not as many as before," explained Donna Langley next to him. "Now they're mainly doing shifts, and with support from the actors' guild, the numbers are decent. The screenwriters all refused to write and submit scripts, causing a large number of popular TV shows like 24, Desperate Housewives, ER, and NCIS to announce they'd stopped airing."

"The Writers Guild is quite influential, even getting members of Congress and the Mediation Committee to lobby the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers," Charles chuckled.

"California's economy isn't great right now. The state government has a high fiscal deficit, so Arnold Schwarzenegger must be having a tough time!"

"Who says he isn't? Hollywood now has a large number of unemployed people, and the subprime mortgage crisis has already weakened the economy. The writers' strike has only made things worse," said Donna Langley, shaking her head.

"The five major investment banks on Wall Street - Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, and Bear Stearns - were always a cash cow for Hollywood, but now they're hit hard!

Hollywood movie production has definitely decreased, and everyone is looking for ways to cut costs."

To cut costs, they had to reduce budgets for TV and movie productions, including salaries of crew members and expenses for overseas shoots.

The writers' strike sure seemed like it was sucking the blood out of movie company investors.

Moreover, the weak dollar policy recently prompted many movie companies to relocate overseas productions back to the U.S. Did Universal really delay the shooting of Angels & Demons because of the writers' strike?

The main reason was that Universal had to dismantle and pack up the sets built at Pinewood Studios in England and reconstruct them in the U.S.

This delayed things by at least three to four months, so Universal could only postpone the release to 2009.

Even with the current 1:2 exchange rate of the pound to the dollar and UK tax rebates, it was still cheaper to shoot in the U.S.

"Heh, in recent years, all sorts of funds poured into Hollywood, allowing studios to offer huge salaries to directors and stars. Now, the funding taps have tightened a lot," Charles, who didn't think much of high actor salaries, was nonetheless somewhat annoyed.

"The battle between Sony's Blu-ray high-definition DVD and Toshiba's HD-DVD format is about to come to an end. In the second half of this year, Paramount and our own Capet Entertainment chose to support Blu-ray, and Warner Bros., originally backing HD-DVD, seems to be in talks with Sony," reminded Donna Langley.

"Negotiations for the streaming rights with Netflix need to speed up. Streaming will become the main thing instead of tapes and TV," said Charles, noting how Netflix, which had a separate subsidiary for DVD rentals, was focusing on streaming strategy.

With digitalization, there would be more movie channels, and personalized movie services would also flourish, including pay-per-view (PPV), near video on demand (NVOD), and video on demand (VOD).

In the evening at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel, a gathering was held.

Charles was chatting with David Geffen, who was in semi-retirement. As one of the three big heads of DreamWorks, David Geffen wielded significant influence in the entertainment industry.

"What's up? Not happy at Paramount?" Charles teasingly asked. DreamWorks had joined Paramount only two years ago, and there were already conflicts?

David Geffen waved his hand. "You know Jeffrey runs DreamWorks Animation, Steven runs DreamWorks, and I enjoy retirement! I don't know the specifics of Steven's disagreements with Paramount's top brass. Are you interested?"

"Me? Capet Pictures?" Charles shook his head. "I can't handle Steven's films!"

Did this entertainment mogul think he'd take over DreamWorks? Not a chance.

DreamWorks Animation was worth considering, but the DreamWorks run by Steven Spielberg? No way.

David Geffen laughed. DreamWorks might attract other studios, but for a production powerhouse like Capet Entertainment, it was pretty ordinary.

"Failed to buy the Los Angeles Times?" Charles asked. He had heard earlier this year that David Geffen had bid to buy the Los Angeles Times group.

David Geffen nodded. "Yep, I offered 2 billion dollars, but they turned it down!"

Charles sneered inwardly. His 2 billion dollar bid included debts. The Los Angeles Times had over a billion dollars in debt alone.

Look at News Corp's grand acquisition of Dow Jones. The Los Angeles Times was one of the twin stars of Tribune Publishing, with the other being the Chicago Tribune.

Even though print media was declining, top U.S. newspapers like the Los Angeles Times wouldn't sell cheaply.

"There are other newspapers, like the San Francisco Chronicle, which is a major West Coast daily, or the Dallas Morning News, the Seattle Times, and the Houston Chronicle, all top 20 papers!" Charles wasn't optimistic about David Geffen's bid for the top three Los Angeles Times.

David Geffen shook his head. "Enough about that. You wanted to buy the Wall Street Journal this year too, didn't you?"

"Me? I'm fine with an internet paper like the Huffington Post. Plus, the New York Observer is a regional weekly. I'm not that interested in newspapers," Charles was blunt.

"Younger folks are sure to go for the internet."

Before long, they noticed Steven Spielberg approaching, but Charles was more interested in the woman next to Spielberg, Gal Gadot.

Do Jews always stick together like this? DreamWorks' movie Disturbia had done well, with young actor Shia LaBeouf starring. He was also the lead in next year's DreamWorks sci-fi film Eagle Eye.

Why? Because Shia LaBeouf is Jewish. Almost everyone at DreamWorks is Jewish, and Gal Gadot is a proud Israeli Jew.

With Universal's ties to Spielberg, getting her a role in Fast & Furious 4 was a cinch!

"Good evening, David, Charles!"

*****

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