the way to the bank and listening to the message on Ellen’s voice mail. ‘Put the champagne on ice,’ he said when the recording had finished, ‘we’re in business. If I don’t hear from you in the next hour, I’ll put a call in to Conway’s people to set up a meeting. Oh, and by the way, we need to talk some more about hiring an investment manager. Did you mention it to Rufus yet? Call me when you get this message, I guess you’re still tied up with Gromer. Are you free for dinner tonight? I’ll cook. Love you.’
Hoping the good news would go some way to easing the tension that seemed to have arisen between them lately, he rang off, and making a left onto the freeway he started heading down town.
Not even the fact that Chambers had failed to call again could take the edge off his exhilaration right now. In fact he was feeling so charged up and good about everything that he was actually allowing himself the fantasy of an Oscar speech, and whom he was going to thank. If things carried on the way they were going then the list would certainly be long, and could even include Ted Forgon, since, to Michael’s amazement, the old boy had recently contacted Ellen from the bar at the Hillcrest and pledged a million dollars of his personal money if they managed to sign Richard Conway. Quite some vote of confidence considering its source, and in truth it had done more to buoy Michael than he was prepared to admit.
‘Maggie,’ he said into the phone.
‘Ah, my lord and master,’ his Scottish assistant responded. ‘Where are you? And how did it go with Virago Knox?’
‘We got it,’ Michael told her, and grinned as she squealed with excitement, then relayed the news to the rest of the office. More cheers went up and, laughing, he waited for everyone to call out their congratulations before speaking to Maggie again.
‘It’s time,’ he told her, ‘to e-mail the rest of the gang in London, Sydney and New York, and let them know that I’m proposing to allocate eighty per cent of World Wide’s capital to Tom Chambers’s movie. The fact that we’re going to be calling on them to come up with a further fifteen-plus million in the next couple of months we’ll save for a later date.’
Sandy Paull was looking down at an e-mail printout and the set of spreadsheets that had come with it, as she left her office, threaded a path through the usual mayhem going on in the agency’s main office, and pushed open Zelda Frey’s door.
‘I knew he was aiming for something big,’ she said, looking at the extremely large and colourfully dressed agent , who was one of Michael’s closest friends and confidantes. ‘Did you get the same e-mail? Or don’t tell me, you already knew.’
‘About the Tom Chambers and Rachel Carmedi story?’ Zelda said, cutting short the number she was dialling. ‘I guessed it was the direction he was heading in. No sign of a script, I suppose?’
Sandy shook her head. She was scanning the spreadsheets again. ‘I need to talk to him about this,’ she said. ‘Eighty per cent of our capital …’ She looked up as Zelda’s phone rang, then seeing Zelda grimace to say she had to take this call, she turned back to her own office.
After checking her watch to calculate the time in LA, she picked up the phone and dialled the ATI number. If this ‘Untitled Feature’ was going to be as big a project as the proposed budget was suggesting then she wanted to know more, and she wanted to know it now.
As she waited for someone to answer the phone she quickly checked her calendar to make sure World Wide LA’s move to the ATI building had already taken place. Yes, it had happened a week ago, which meant that Michael and Ellen were no longer working from home. Sandy didn’t allow herself to dwell on how snug and secure it all seemed over there for those two, it was best, she found, to blot that from her mind – at least for the time being.
‘Michael McCann, please,’ she said when someone finally
Hoping the good news would go some way to easing the tension that seemed to have arisen between them lately, he rang off, and making a left onto the freeway he started heading down town.
Not even the fact that Chambers had failed to call again could take the edge off his exhilaration right now. In fact he was feeling so charged up and good about everything that he was actually allowing himself the fantasy of an Oscar speech, and whom he was going to thank. If things carried on the way they were going then the list would certainly be long, and could even include Ted Forgon, since, to Michael’s amazement, the old boy had recently contacted Ellen from the bar at the Hillcrest and pledged a million dollars of his personal money if they managed to sign Richard Conway. Quite some vote of confidence considering its source, and in truth it had done more to buoy Michael than he was prepared to admit.
‘Maggie,’ he said into the phone.
‘Ah, my lord and master,’ his Scottish assistant responded. ‘Where are you? And how did it go with Virago Knox?’
‘We got it,’ Michael told her, and grinned as she squealed with excitement, then relayed the news to the rest of the office. More cheers went up and, laughing, he waited for everyone to call out their congratulations before speaking to Maggie again.
‘It’s time,’ he told her, ‘to e-mail the rest of the gang in London, Sydney and New York, and let them know that I’m proposing to allocate eighty per cent of World Wide’s capital to Tom Chambers’s movie. The fact that we’re going to be calling on them to come up with a further fifteen-plus million in the next couple of months we’ll save for a later date.’
Sandy Paull was looking down at an e-mail printout and the set of spreadsheets that had come with it, as she left her office, threaded a path through the usual mayhem going on in the agency’s main office, and pushed open Zelda Frey’s door.
‘I knew he was aiming for something big,’ she said, looking at the extremely large and colourfully dressed agent , who was one of Michael’s closest friends and confidantes. ‘Did you get the same e-mail? Or don’t tell me, you already knew.’
‘About the Tom Chambers and Rachel Carmedi story?’ Zelda said, cutting short the number she was dialling. ‘I guessed it was the direction he was heading in. No sign of a script, I suppose?’
Sandy shook her head. She was scanning the spreadsheets again. ‘I need to talk to him about this,’ she said. ‘Eighty per cent of our capital …’ She looked up as Zelda’s phone rang, then seeing Zelda grimace to say she had to take this call, she turned back to her own office.
After checking her watch to calculate the time in LA, she picked up the phone and dialled the ATI number. If this ‘Untitled Feature’ was going to be as big a project as the proposed budget was suggesting then she wanted to know more, and she wanted to know it now.
As she waited for someone to answer the phone she quickly checked her calendar to make sure World Wide LA’s move to the ATI building had already taken place. Yes, it had happened a week ago, which meant that Michael and Ellen were no longer working from home. Sandy didn’t allow herself to dwell on how snug and secure it all seemed over there for those two, it was best, she found, to blot that from her mind – at least for the time being.
‘Michael McCann, please,’ she said when someone finally
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