344 - New Rules for the Industry

The Lucasfilm sale took over the entertainment pages the next morning.

ETHAN HAWTHORNE BUYS LUCASFILM FOR $3.055 BILLION.

STAR WARS, INDIANA JONES, ILM, AND SKYWALKER SOUND CHANGE HANDS.

GEORGE LUCAS JOINS MGM'S LARGEST INDIVIDUAL SHAREHOLDERS.

The stories moved quickly from price to possibility. Fans wanted another Indiana Jones film and wanted to know whether Ethan's proposed series, The Mandalorian, was real. Effects artists wanted to know who would lead ILM. Employees wanted to hear that their jobs would survive a wealthy owner's first burst of enthusiasm. Ethan had promised no sweeping reorganization and new investment in equipment. They would judge him by what happened after the press left.

There was also the Warner question. MGM's purchase of the Warner studio was still under review in June. Lucasfilm, by contrast, belonged to Ethan personally. The distinction would not prevent regulators or reporters from asking how much control one man could gather across production, effects, libraries, and distribution.

Peter Jackson called before the story was a day old.

"You move fast," Peter said. "I thought you'd at least wait until the ink on the Warner offer dried."

"Facebook gave me more room to move than I had a month ago."

"I know you bought Lucasfilm for Star Wars. You also bought ILM. That changes our business."

Ethan leaned back at his desk. Weta Digital had handled effects work for MGM before. With ILM under his control, he had another place to send a large picture and a company that could compete for other studios' work.

"I'm going to invest in ILM," he said. "George asked me to keep the name and the people who know what they're doing. I intend to keep that promise."

"How much investment?"

"Enough to make you ask again later."

Peter laughed, but neither of them mistook the call for a social visit. Weta could lose its largest customer; ILM could gain one. The two men had been friends in meetings where only one of them owned an effects house. They would have to work out what friendship meant when both did.

"Come down and talk," Peter said. "Fran and I will be near Queenstown this weekend. There's snow on the mountains, and you can pretend you're here for a holiday."

"You ski?"

"I did before I spent every waking hour in an editing room. I still know which end points downhill."

"I'll come. We can speak with the people who actually run these facilities before either of us promises too much."

Nicole heard the last part of the call as Ethan hung up. "Who was that?"

"Peter Jackson. He wants to talk about Weta and ILM."

"I thought you said Peter Parker," Mary-Kate said from the other end of the room.

"If Spider-Man calls, you'll be the first to know."

Charlize looked up from her script. "Queenstown? In winter?"

"Peter has a place near the slopes. I was going for one night."

"Then I'm going," she said. "You can discuss effects budgets while I ski."

Ashley and Mary-Kate wanted to come too. Gal had never seen the New Zealand mountains in winter. Nicole said it had been too long since all of them had gone anywhere without a premiere waiting at the end of the trip.

Elizabeth, who was visiting her sisters, asked whether she could learn to ski. Ethan looked to Ashley and Mary-Kate before answering.

"You can come with your sisters," he said. "Beginner lessons, helmet, and no racing the adults down the mountain."

"I wasn't going to race anyone."

"You said that before the last thing you tried to learn."

Mary-Kate promised to keep an eye on her. Nicole took the lesson brochure from Ethan, found the right class, and handed it to Ashley.

By Friday, Carol had arranged a villa near Queenstown large enough for the group. Ethan called the trip a family holiday. He also scheduled time with ILM's managers before leaving Los Angeles. If he arrived at Peter's table knowing only the price of his latest purchase, Peter and Fran would have good reason to send him back across the Pacific.

The flight crew had never carried so many recognizable faces on one private trip. Ethan noticed the looks and reminded the senior attendant that the crew's confidentiality agreements still applied. Charlize overheard him.

"Do you ever let anyone have a day without a contract?" she asked.

"I pay them well. Experience matters, and people with families aren't eager to gamble a good job on a rumor."

"That's a grim way to describe why you hired them."

"It's still true."

She settled beside him after Elizabeth and her sisters had moved to another part of the cabin with a film. Ethan drew Charlize close; his hand wandered, and she caught it before the flight attendant came back.

"I wanted to watch a movie," she said.

"There are discs in the cabinet."

The first case she picked up was an adults-only film from the San Fernando Valley. So was the next. She held them up, one in each hand.

"Are these all you have?"

"Other side of the cabinet," Ethan said. "I gave you the wrong shelf."

"Convenient mistake." She returned both cases and found the regular films herself.

Queenstown's cold hit them as soon as they stepped off the plane. By the time Carol's cars had taken the group to the villa, Elizabeth was asking about the morning's lessons and the adults were arguing over who still owned gloves that fit. Ethan checked the time, then told Nicole he was going to Peter's estate for dinner.

"Tonight?"

"He's close. Better to settle the business early and ski tomorrow."

"Then eat first and don't let him talk you into drinking too much."

Fran Walsh met him at the door. Peter announced that he had prepared New Zealand lamb and seafood; Fran informed Ethan that Peter's contribution had consisted mostly of buying them.

"The most important part," Peter said.

"You can defend that claim after dinner," she replied.

They ate before opening a folder. When the dishes were cleared, Peter folded his hands.

"Tell us what you want."

"I want Weta and ILM to share more work," Ethan said. "Talent, methods, the sort of large projects neither side ought to lose for lack of capacity. You have technical strengths I don't. I have clients and a film slate you could use."

"Cooperation is a broad word," Fran said.

"I'm thinking about an industry where we stop undercutting one another just to win a contract. ILM can raise its rates as it upgrades. Weta doesn't have to race to the bottom. We'd hire aggressively, especially from the smaller houses that keep losing people because they can't pay them."

Peter's expression changed. "You said you wouldn't raid Weta."

"I won't."

"But you would raid everyone else."

"If their people want the work and the salary, yes."

Fran looked from one man to the other. "And when you say we should stop competing on price, what exactly are you proposing?"

Ethan had expected the question. He opened the folder and let them see the plan he had brought.

"ILM and Weta would set a floor neither of us undercuts," he said. "We invest in equipment, hire the people the smaller houses can't afford to keep, and take the major work between us. Once those shops lose the crews to bid on a tentpole, the studios have two serious places left to go."

Peter looked down at the page. "You said cooperation. This is a plan to push everyone else out."

"We wouldn't have to buy them," Ethan said. "They'd fail on their own."

Fran kept her hands off the folder. "And you think agreeing on prices with your largest competitor is something our lawyers would let us do?"

He had come to sell them a vision of the industry. Instead, he was hearing how it sounded from the other side of the table. Fran waited for an answer, and Ethan knew it could cost him Peter's trust.