Chapter 287: The Alliance Between Sony and DreamWorks

North America was home to many bizarre yet highly influential organizations, and provoking them invited endless trouble. These included the environmental and animal protection groups that gave Hollywood directors and producers massive headaches, as well as the National Parent Teacher Association, which dedicated itself to safeguarding the rights of minors.

Though an unofficial organization, it wielded terrifying influence in America, even possessing the power to amend and uphold the Child Labor Law. It owed its current standing to a long history of relentless effort, backed by mainstream society's zero-tolerance attitude toward the exploitation of minors.

True, in the hidden corners of the country, the lives of some minors were far from ideal, but those realities rarely saw the light of media scrutiny. Yet whenever such abuses were exposed—especially when public figures were involved—society's tolerance was absolute zero.

Morgan Freeman's step-granddaughter was only sixteen. She was still a student, and an absolute minor in every sense of the word.

Consequently, the National Parent Teacher Association reacted with intense fury. Fanned by the media, the organization convened a dedicated press conference to announce a targeted investigation. If the allegations proved true, they vowed to call on parents and minors across America to boycott any film starring Morgan Freeman, and reserved the right to take legal action.

From the moment the scandal broke, Morgan Freeman and DreamWorks had been conducting crisis PR. But the existing evidence was already stacked against them, and the sheer might of the Big Six Companies and their parent media conglomerates was far beyond anything DreamWorks could withstand.

Just as Duke had predicted, nobody actually cared whether Morgan Freeman lived or died. A second-tier Black movie star simply wasn't worth a bloodbath between the Big Six Companies and DreamWorks. He was merely collateral damage—a fish caught in the moat when the city gates caught fire. From the day DreamWorks first revealed its towering ambitions, the Big Six Companies had been waiting for exactly this kind of opportunity to crush them.

The media's power to guide public opinion was colossal, particularly the Big Four Television Networks, whose influence in this era was nothing short of terrifying. ABC belonged to Walt Disney, CBS was owned by Paramount Pictures' parent company Viacom, the Fox Television Network was inherently part of Twentieth Century Fox, and while the NBC Television Network belonged to General Electric, it maintained close ties with Time Warner...

When the Big Four Television Networks concentrated their coverage on this scandal, what did DreamWorks and Morgan Freeman have to defend themselves?

As the release date for Deep Impact drew near, the media's reporting and digging grew increasingly fierce. Unable to resist the media's temptations, even some members of the Freeman family stepped forward to leak explosive details. And while there was no direct evidence proving Morgan Freeman had slept with his step-granddaughter, it was just like the situation with Michael Jackson—did evidence even matter at this point?

Incited by the media and those with ulterior motives, some zealous members of the public began gathering to protest outside DreamWorks' headquarters in the Hollywood District. Various grassroots public interest groups went further, flooding the North American Theater Alliance with calls to demand a theater boycott of Deep Impact.

The conservative state of Utah had the fiercest reaction, outright banning Deep Impact from being screened within its borders.

A complete theater boycott of Deep Impact was impossible, but the public protests couldn't be entirely ignored either. Most importantly, it was highly likely that a significant portion of the audience really would boycott the film.

"In the past three days alone, we've received protest calls from twenty-two activist groups!"

In the conference room at AMG headquarters, Lynch addressed the executives seated around the table. "Then there are the Big Six distribution companies. They've been jointly pressuring us without pause!"

Although the theater chains were independent, their relationships with traditional Hollywood powers like the Big Six Companies were something DreamWorks couldn't even begin to match.

"If the film has enough potential, we can ignore all these protests."

On the other side of the room, the head of the film selection department chimed in. "According to our sampling of the potential audience, nearly a fifth of the people surveyed have already canceled their plans to see Deep Impact."

A brief silence washed over the conference room before Lynch spoke up again, "My recommendation is for AMG to cut the number of opening theaters for Deep Impact. If the film's opening box office is exceptional, we can always reallocate screens later."

Everyone in the room knew perfectly well that Deep Impact would inevitably be affected by the scandal. Furthermore, word had already come from the Regal Theater Chain that they had decided to cut Deep Impact's screening locations just yesterday.

"Opening in the same window as Deep Impact is Disney's The Parent Trap," Lynch said, looking toward CEO Paul. "That PG-rated film tested extremely well with student demographics. We can allocate the freed-up theaters to that all-ages movie instead."

After considering it for a few minutes, CEO Paul handed down his final decision. "Proceed with your plan!"

Just like DreamWorks' earliest productions, the towering ambitions of the Big Three were continuously battered in the face of encirclement by traditional powers. In the week leading up to the release of Deep Impact, major commercial theater chains across North America used an array of excuses to reduce the film's opening screen count to varying degrees. Since theaters and distributors operated on flexible contracts, and Deep Impact was already mired in scandal, DreamWorks had no grounds to complain; all they could do was step up their PR efforts.

North American opening theaters for Deep Impact were reduced from the originally planned 2,850 to 2,410. Before the film even opened, DreamWorks suffered a heavy blow.

"There are numerous entanglements of interest between North American commercial theaters and the Big Six Companies."

Inside Steven Spielberg's mansion, Martin Bob looked at the DreamWorks Big Three. "It's pointless to keep haggling with the theaters now. As long as Deep Impact posts an excellent first-week box office, the theaters absolutely won't consider the pressure from the Big Six Companies anymore."

Everyone present was an industry insider, so naturally they understood this. David Geffen asked Spielberg, "Can Morgan Freeman's character be cut?"

"He's a vital supporting character!" Spielberg emphasized. "With less than a week until release, we can't do reshoots. If we cut his scenes, serious problems will emerge in the film's plot. It's completely unfeasible."

David Geffen thought for a moment. "Then our top priority right now is to reduce the impact of Morgan Freeman's scandal to a minimum."

"How do we minimize it?" Jeffrey Katzenberg frowned deeply. "Behind this incident..."

He shook his head. As the former head of the Disney Animation Studio, how could he fail to see the truth of the situation?

"News is time-sensitive, and the media and the public are always pursuing novelty." Martin Bob suddenly stood up, took a few steps nearby, and said, "The best way to suppress a scandal is to do exactly what Warner Brothers did—manufacture a new one!"

Spielberg looked up at Martin Bob. "An actor without enough weight is completely useless. The most famous names in The Matrix are Keanu Reeves and Duke Rosenberg. We already hyped a scandal for the former, so the appeal isn't that great anymore. As for the latter..."

He sighed. "Duke certainly has a lot of romantic gossip, and his flings are no secret to us, but he never gets involved with minors. Those ordinary tabloid affairs simply lack lethal impact."

"Yes, my people looked into him." A hint of disappointment appeared on Martin Bob's face. "To think this famous playboy actually has the self-control..."

At this point, Martin Bob brought the topic back. "Abandon the attacks on The Matrix. We can shift our target to another film that poses a direct competitive threat. There are certain methods we can't use on actors from the English-speaking sphere, but actors hailing from the European continent are an entirely different story."

Every May, news regarding the hottest movies emerged endlessly. Among them were flattery, praise, criticism, and calculated smears from competitors.

This year was no exception. While The Matrix and Deep Impact hadn't explicitly declared war on one another by name, the series of events they triggered and the variety of gossip manufactured had already captivated the public's attention. And Morgan Freeman's scandal had been out for barely four days when the media exposed a brand-new piece of dark material!

One of the leading stars of Godzilla, the renowned French actor Jean Reno, was suspected of soliciting underage prostitutes...

This time, it wasn't just a tabloid report. A fifteen-year-old prostitute from New York personally stepped forward to testify against Jean Reno, alleging that while he was filming Godzilla in New York, he used a massive sum of money to lure her into sleeping with him...

The girl subsequently filed a formal report with the New York police, who quickly announced their intention to summon Jean Reno for questioning.

As soon as this news broke, the media's coverage of Morgan Freeman instantly plummeted. The public, in particular, collectively shifted their gaze toward Jean Reno and his starring role in Godzilla.

"Does it even matter if this story is true or false?"

Eno Martin looked at Pat Kingsley and Tom Cruise. "Actually, it doesn't matter at all. With the capabilities of DreamWorks and Martin Bob, finding an underage prostitute isn't difficult. Even if this matter ultimately fails, it won't implicate them, yet it effectively diverts the media and public's attention."

"Do we need to do anything?" Pat Kingsley asked.

Eno Martin didn't even think about it before saying directly, "We do nothing for the time being. We watch from the sidelines. We wait, and wait for them to destroy each other..."

DreamWorks wasn't just manufacturing scandals to divert attention. When it came to the intensity of suppression, Warner Brothers and its backer Time Warner were undoubtedly the most heavy-handed. After all, Deep Impact was in direct competition with The Matrix, but Martin Bob knew full well that Godzilla was in competition with The Matrix as well. Given any opportunity, Warner Brothers and Duke Studio would certainly never pass up the chance to strike at Godzilla.

"Why would we pass up an opportunity like this?"

This was what Duke said to Tina Fey: "Deep Impact is our competitor, and so is Godzilla."

Doug Walter, who was having dinner with them, completely agreed with Duke's words. "Warner's media has already joined in hyping Jean Reno's scandal, and headquarters has always had a good relationship with the New York police."

In the 1998 Summer Season, before the major productions had even begun screening, the fierce competition never lacking in any commercial sphere was already in full swing.