Chapter 491 Paramount’s Dilemma
Soon, the excited Coen brothers sent Shen Lang's audition clip back to the United States.

Paramount's headquarters in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Shirley is listening to the work report of the legal director in the office.

"Boss, I have to remind you that the Senate will hold a hearing in four months to discuss the continuation of the Paramount Act!"

"If the Senate and the Department of Justice pass a decision to continue the bill!"

“Then Paramount will be further broken up!”

After hearing the legal director's narration, Shirley turned to look at Vice President Joe Etsehaas and said, "Joe, some of my friends in the Senate said that the Paramount Act is very likely to continue. Many senators feel that the eight major film companies still control the film market even after being split up."

"They believe that further breaking up Hollywood's film companies is what the independent film market and streaming media need to develop!"

"Our difficulties will be great, very great!"

Joe frowned and said, "It would be best if the eight major film companies could unite and ask the lobbying companies to lobby the senators. Otherwise, if this bill is really allowed to continue, it will be a fatal blow to us!"

Shirley nodded. This was the usual practice of large American companies. However, the film industry has become increasingly sluggish in recent years, and some of the eight major film companies have become empty shells.

As a result, they will certainly no longer be willing to invest money to lobby Congress, nor will they use their own connections to conquer the Senate masters one by one.

More importantly, because the company had just invested huge amounts of money in filming "Transformers" and "Indiana Jones", its cash flow became a major obstacle to lobbying.

"Unless, we get a loan from the bank!" Shirley told Joe about her concerns.

Before Qiao could express his opinion, the legal director shook his head and said, "If the news leaks out, the company's performance in the stock market will suffer a major blow."

"And this will also expose our concerns about the extension of the bill in advance! Finally, it will cause a stock market avalanche!"

Shirley held her forehead, feeling very embarrassed.

Paramount has not been doing well in recent years. Several big productions it invested in suffered huge losses. The rise of independent producers has challenged the model of big companies taking care of everything starting from the script.

In addition, the government's antitrust laws set red lines specifically for Hollywood film giants like Paramount...the famous Paramount Act.

It stipulated that eight companies, including Paramount, Warner Bros., MGM, Fox, RKO, Universal, Columbia, and United Artists, should divest themselves from their own cinema businesses.

This decree is more than seventy years old and is about to expire.

However, the Department of Justice, the courts, and the Senate decided to further divest the businesses of several existing large companies.

When the news came out, major Hollywood companies including Paramount were in mourning.

There are even rumors that several large companies are contacting China Wanda Group to secretly discuss equity transfers.

This doesn't work, and that doesn't work. Is this just a matter of sitting there and waiting to die?
Shirley was very distressed and didn't know how to deal with such a difficult situation.

At this time, Qiao said: "In the current situation, lobbying is certainly a good solution, but it is only a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution!"

"The best way to deal with this is to show that we are not a monopoly!"

Hearing this, Shirley got an even bigger headache.

The recently filmed "Transformers" and "Indiana Jones" have always been the company's signature film series.

Of course, from the script to shooting, production and release, the entire process is handled by Paramount Pictures.

If such a movie is released on the market, wouldn't it solidify the "status" of the film industry trust?

"The key is that we have already signed contracts with our subsidiaries for both of these films!"

Although it is an internal contract of the group, it is still a contract and is protected by law. It is easy to handle it in normal days, but now the Ministry of Justice is keeping an eye on Paramount. If it is found out, it will not be a matter of continuing the law.

Just when the three of them were in a dilemma, Shirley's assistant came in and whispered something to her.

Shirley nodded after listening to her, and the assistant put the things on the table and prepared to leave.

Suddenly, Shirley seemed to have thought of something and said to her assistant, "Wait!"

The "wait" was so loud that Joe and the legal director were startled.

Shirley looked at her assistant and said, "We signed an outsourcing contract with the Coen brothers, right?"

The assistant nodded: "Yes, the Coen brothers have their own film studio, and the filming of No Country for Old Men was indeed outsourced to them!"

After hearing this, Joe immediately understood Shirley's thoughts.

Isn't it to establish to the Ministry of Justice and the Senate that Paramount is not a trust?

Shirley wanted to use the movie No Country for Old Men as an example!
Report to those masters.

"Is it the No Country for Old Men that Jeff was originally asked to direct?"

Shirley nodded and said, "That's right, but he refused. We originally planned to use Jeff's Oscar as the new best director to grandly launch this movie, but who knew that this guy actually refused!"

"But although he refused to be the director of this film, he asked to play a villain in the film!"

Joe and the legal director looked at each other. What the hell is wrong with this?
"So, in the end, we had no choice but to choose the Coen brothers! The two brothers are frequent visitors to Cannes. At that time, my idea was that they were more mature in shooting thrillers, so I invited them to shoot this western and make it feel thrilling!"

"They agreed, but their first request was to go to China in person to invite Shen Lang to join! It is said that they brothers are all fans of Jeff!"

Qiao: “…”

Legal Director: “…”

"So, what's on your desk...?" Joe looked at the USB drive on Shirley's desk.

"A script segment performed by Shen Lang. The Coen brothers tried to use this segment to convince us to increase investment in No Country for Old Men and invite Tommy and Woody Harrison to join."

Joe was shocked.

Tommy is Tommy Lee Jones, the old guy is also a frequent winner of the Oscars. As for Woody Harrison, he is a first-line actor in western films and is also a frequent winner of the Emmy Awards, Oscars, and Golden Globe Awards.

This means that the pay for these two alone is extremely high.

But with the company so strapped for cash, increasing investment in No Country for Old Men is nothing short of a gamble.

Joe sighed and said, "Let's see how Jeff performs first!"

Shirley nodded, inserted the USB drive into the computer, and clicked on a three-minute video.

……

Three minutes passed quickly and the video ended.

Shirley looked at Joe: "Joe, I think we can give it a try!"

"I think so too!"

(End of this chapter)