Chapter Ninety-Six: Suddenly in High Demand

That chance encounter with Lucas had freed William White from temptation, and it would have been even better if he could have secured the Raiders of the Lost Ark investment as well. Unfortunately, Lucas was far too shrewd. The fact that he had become interested in the script after only a brief description proved that it was indeed an excellent one.

That was not Lucas being overly modest. For this damned script, he had already run into far more resistance than he cared to remember.

The situation was obviously different now. William White was willing to invest, and he was not even overly concerned about the profit split. The real sticking points were merchandising and sequels.

In other words, William White had great confidence in the film. He did not even blink at a thirty-million-dollar budget. He acted as though it were only natural. One had to remember that the movie he was currently shooting had a budget of barely over ten million.

Lucas had managed to thrive in the shark-infested waters of Hollywood for a reason. It was certainly not luck.

What level of IP was Star Wars, after all?

It was the kind of property every major studio wanted. For Lucas to keep it in his hands all this time was no accident.

Lucasfilm was doing much better than DreamWorks. If one spoke only of directing talent, Spielberg was clearly superior, but when it came to running a company, Lucas had the edge. If the old boy had not gone through so many divorces, he would probably already be a billionaire several times over.

After the boring dinner finally ended, William White chose to head straight home. If Raiders of the Lost Ark had been successfully negotiated, perhaps he would still have been in the mood to celebrate a little. But now, after that old fox had dragged things out with his stalling tactics, he had lost all interest.

He sighed inwardly. “Dealing with that kind of old fox, I’m really not up to the task.”

William White finally understood that he would definitely be used.

The giants of Hollywood were in a sensitive period right now. Every move William White made would be dissected with great care. Even if it did not immediately change anyone’s attitude, it would at least make people reassess the film.

One should never find that strange. Americans were very superstitious about luck.

Since there was no hope of investing in a William White film, then investing in a film he himself favored was not a bad alternative.

He was a little annoyed, but not overly so. After all, he could not possibly snatch up every hit movie in existence.

If anyone really tried to do that, it would no longer be business. It would be a fool’s suicide mission.

Balance. Balance was important.

Whenever AMD was on the verge of collapse, it was usually Intel that pulled it back from the brink. The two companies’ love-hate relationship could practically be turned into a movie.

Looking at it from another angle, William White felt it had all been deliberate. The constant warfare between the two companies had, in effect, wiped out the rest of the chipmakers. It might all have been one grand scam from the start.

Weren’t people always mocking Intel for making only tiny improvements?

Then AMD would appear, usually ahead for a year or two, only to be crushed into dust soon after. And then, naturally, Intel would go back to making those tiny improvements.

William White had come to enjoy life. As long as no one bothered him, he had no intention of looking for trouble. Money could never be earned in full anyway, and if earning it became too troublesome, then forget it. It was hardly worth the effort.

This incident had also reminded him of something else: professional matters should be left to professionals. He was really not suited to negotiation.

If he ran into Lucas, that old fox, again, William White would insist on an exclusivity agreement: under comparable terms, Lucas could only sign with him.

His judgment turned out to be correct. The dinner affair was quickly spread by interested parties, and Lucas also managed to shake off the awkwardness of the previous period.

Hollywood was a place where capitalism had taken root very thoroughly. If one did not want investors to hold the reins, the best choice was to find a whole flock of them.

Lucas was naturally an expert at this. By the next day, things had already changed. The old man had not only secured several investments, but the distributor had also essentially been decided.

As for Lucas’s apology call, William White could only accept it helplessly. Fortunately, he was young and shameless enough. In any case, he had made Lucas owe him a favor.

The old man did not want to offend this fellow either. A favor was a favor. He would help when he could, and if it truly became difficult, he would have to apologize.

Lucas could not help feeling emotional. Was this the younger generation overtaking the older one? He was still very young himself. A film that had not been highly regarded had suddenly turned around in one stroke.

He was the producer, Spielberg was the director, and Harrison Ford was the lead.

That was practically Hollywood’s strongest possible combination. How could no one want to invest in it?

White Pictures had already had two box-office hits, and Lucas had Star Wars, while Spielberg had Jaws. Neither was any worse than those two White Pictures films.

Lucas’s reasoning was not wrong, but Hollywood cared about short-term profit. Star Wars was indeed formidable, but its production cost was high as well. Its investment-to-return ratio was far inferior to that of White Pictures.

Christmas was already over, and Home Alone was still raking in ticket sales. Although the box office had shrunk sharply, it was still far ahead of other films released at the same time.

At this rate, even if it could not overtake Police Academy, the gap probably would not be too large.

“Uncle Fu, has the venue been set up yet?” William White no longer had the time to dwell on it. He still had very important matters to attend to.

“Everything has been arranged, Young Master. Even the refreshments have all been confirmed. There will be no problems.”

Two days remained until the press conference. For William White, this year’s work had only just begun. Aside from this arcade project, his comic business also needed to be accelerated.

Although he did not doubt his staff’s ability, he still decided to check it personally. After all, the people in the company had no experience. It would be fine to discover problems now, but if he found them too late, it would be impossible to fix them in time.

Although many Japanese had come, he had no intention of serving Japanese food. Japanese cuisine was simply too troublesome, and it was not filling.

The building was not large, only a six-story structure, and looked a little flashy. The exterior walls were covered entirely in sprayed cartoon images borrowed from the game.

He was still at the very beginning, and he had no ability to build some grand headquarters tower anyway. Besides, land in America was cheap, so there was no real possibility of a price explosion.

Even during the wildest boom in American real estate, it had still fallen far short of Japan and China.

One had to remember that their governments and banks actively encouraged property speculation, and even then prices had not risen all that much.

“David, have them turn on the ventilation. There’s still a bit of a smell.”

As soon as he entered the company lobby, William White immediately caught a strange odor. His body was rather sensitive now, and the thing he disliked most was the smell of chemicals.

“Yes, boss. I’ll arrange it right away.”

“Also, get some air fresheners. It’s fine to spray them today, but once the event officially begins in a couple of days, they must not be used.”

The employees could only comply helplessly. They did not think there was any smell at all, but since the boss had spoken, even if they smelled nothing, they still had to do it.

After walking around the company and finding nothing amiss, William White left surrounded by a group of bodyguards.

A new year had begun, and Los Angeles did not seem quite ready for it yet. The people in the streets all looked a little lazy.

Including White Pictures, none of the film crews had started work yet. William White could not do anything about that. Americans were like this. Aside from the elite class, everyone else preferred vacations.

Lucas had already begun preparing his production team. Now that he had enough money in hand, the rest was easy. He moved much faster than William White.