This is Mr. Ronan Anderson, President of Sand Sea Entertainment.
This is my brother, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Director of the UAE Presidential Office and Minister of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
With Saleh’s introduction, Ronan shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with this big shot from Abu Dhabi.
After making the introductions, Saleh excused himself and left.
In this resplendent conference room, only four people remained: Ronan sat alone, next to the Abu Dhabi big shot, Mansour, with two attendants in their forties standing behind him.
From the moment Ronan saw Mansour, his mind began to race.
He had felt the name was familiar before, and seeing him in person only confirmed it.
This man looked four or five years older than Saleh, and he definitely recognized that typical Arab face.
“Mr. Anderson,” Mansour said very politely, “Welcome to Abu Dhabi.”
Ronan replied with a smile, “Thank you. I appreciate Abu Dhabi giving me this opportunity.”
A scene from his memory surfaced.
Wasn’t this the same Sheikh Mansour from the Premier League’s Manchester City club in his past life?
At that time, he was already the public face of the Abu Dhabi Consortium, which was said to have assets exceeding one trillion dollars.
This was definitely a big shot.
Not to mention his past life, his two current titles alone were enough to qualify him as a big shot.
Ronan had never dealt with someone of this level, and he felt a little nervous.
To climb to this level—while being a royal family member was crucial—certainly required impressive ability.
Getting him to open his wallet would definitely not be easy.
Furthermore, if he didn’t handle this well, all his previous efforts would go up in smoke.
This was a crisis.
But Ronan didn’t show it; his face remained calm and natural.
After all, wasn’t a crisis also an opportunity?
If it were ten years later, with Arab funds fully invading the Western world, he would have exchanged a few polite words and retreated.
But now…
Since arriving in Abu Dhabi, he had been in frequent contact with people from the Investment Bureau and could sense their mindset.
After accumulating wealth from oil, besides seeking investment returns, Abu Dhabi also wanted to make a name for itself worldwide and expand its influence.
Sheikh Mansour spending huge sums to invest in the Premier League was likely a prime example of this.
If Sheikh Mansour was willing to invest, the funding problem would be easily solved.
Although he had reservations, the opportunity was right in front of him, and he couldn’t let it slip away easily.
Letting it go might amplify the crisis countless times.
On the first day of the fundraising event, he had gone to the scene to observe, obtained a lot of materials, and specifically commissioned the Investment Bureau’s US headquarters to investigate the situation of Ronan Anderson and Sand Sea Entertainment.
Although the investigation results hadn’t been sent over yet, Mr. Anderson’s performance, along with the detailed data that even included tax records, made people feel quite reassured.
“Yes,” Ronan said.
He knew he couldn’t hide it, so he would tell the truth: “I raised six million dollars to produce an action film called dead end life, but the North America box office was only eight hundred thousand dollars.”
Sheikh Mansour frowned slightly, and a fat man behind him interjected, “The first one failed; can you ensure the second one will succeed?”
Their money was earned from oil, not blown in by the wind.
Ronan observed carefully; this kind of impolite question was something Sheikh Mansour couldn’t easily ask directly, so he simply let his subordinate ask.
“Many great Hollywood directors and gold-medal producers, like Spielberg and George Lucas, did not succeed with their first films,” Ronan said, not at all afraid to mention his past failures.
“James Cameron, the director of Titanic, also saw his first film, Piranha, end in a miserable defeat.”
“James Cameron’s first film also failed?” The fat man seemed skeptical.
Ronan smiled.
“This isn’t a secret in Hollywood.” He added, “I can’t compare to these brilliant figures, but dead end life was the first film I produced. I was impulsive and aggressive at the time and made many mistakes. The failure made me fully realize my errors, helping me avoid making similar ones in the next project.”
Sheikh Mansour laughed and proactively changed the subject: “I heard from Saleh that you’ve encountered a lot of trouble from the jewish people?”
Ronan smiled again, his smile somewhat bitter.
“It’s nothing, really. The non-jewish people forces in Hollywood, ahem…”
He deliberately looked at the two people behind Sheikh Mansour.
Sheikh Mansour understood what he meant and said, “Rest assured, I promise on the honor of the Al Nahyan family that our conversation will not leave this room.”
In reality, Ronan wasn’t afraid of it leaking; he could find plenty of excuses like ‘Arabs slandering’ if needed.
This was done specifically for Sheikh Mansour’s benefit to get his attention.
“You must have heard that the jewish people’s influence in Hollywood is very strong,” Ronan said, turning the conversation to the Arabs’ deadly enemies.
“There is even an underlying trend of them controlling the entire Hollywood.”
Frankly speaking, he didn’t have a good impression of either side, perhaps even worse for the Arabs, but this wasn’t the time to be emotional.
He once read a quote from a Hollywood big shot that made a lot of sense: “Remember, don’t be emotional. This is the entertainment industry; if you take it seriously, you lose.”
This could apply to who Hollywood films speak for, as well as personal relationships within the industry.
Sheikh Mansour nodded.
“The Hollywood controlled by the jewish people’s influence has always been smearing the Arabs.”
Anyone who pays even the slightest attention to Hollywood films can see that.
Ronan’s words remained factual: “There are quite a few people in Hollywood who don’t like the jewish people’s influence, but they are all suppressed and excluded by them.”
Think of Mel Gibson, an A-list superstar and Oscar best director; look at how miserable he ended up.
Mentioning the jewish people made Sheikh Mansour’s expression solemn, but he also knew that anti-semitic forces in the United States were widespread.
The conflict between the Arab world and the jewish people was extremely sharp, and the vast majority of the UAE military was used to defend against Israel.
“My father and I, as well as Sand Sea Entertainment, belong to the non-pro-jewish people forces in Hollywood.” Ronan wasn’t making this up; the Anderson family had almost no contact with the jewish people. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
“The Anderson family has no jewish people bloodline and has always kept a distance from them. All the films we have produced have never spoken well of the jewish people.”
Except for dead end life, everything Sand Sea Entertainment produced were typical grindhouse b-movies.
These films focused on simplicity, absurdity, violence, and gore, and they never mixed in things like ethnic sentiments that easily cause audience resentment.
Ronan began to slowly mix in fabrications with verifiable facts: “Since its inception, Sand Sea Entertainment has only received a total of two million dollars in loans from film industry investment capital deeply influenced by the jewish people, and all of them were asset-backed loans!”
A look of indignation appeared on his face.
“My father was very capable, but limited by funds, he couldn’t expand Sand Sea Entertainment.”
Old Anderson’s conservatism, coming from Ronan’s mouth, changed completely: “Many small companies founded at the same time as Sand Sea Entertainment have become medium-sized companies. But what about Sand Sea Entertainment? Funding and distribution channels were all restricted. Ten years later, it’s still a small company, only able to produce direct-to-video movies to maintain a half-dead state.”
“And your father?” Sheikh Mansour asked.
Ronan’s eyes reddened.
“He died in an accident.”
Sheikh Mansour quickly said, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Ronan continued adding more fabrications.
“My father told me a long time ago that we needed to make Sand Sea Entertainment big and produce big movies.”
He acted like a super dutiful son.
“That’s why I impulsively produced dead end life; I wanted to fulfill my father’s wish.”
Sheikh Mansour consoled him, “You will definitely succeed in the future.”
Ronan said sorrowfully, “If Hollywood wasn’t a Hollywood controlled by the jewish people’s influence, Sand Sea Entertainment would definitely not be in its current situation.”
He told the truth once again: “I applied for funding from the Producers Alliance’s ‘Film Industry Subsidy and Health Plan.’ Sand Sea Entertainment is a member of the Producers Alliance and pays substantial membership fees every year. This plan was originally intended to fund companies and producers within the alliance that were in difficulty, but the decision-making power of the Producers Alliance is controlled by big companies.”
He continued mixing in a little fabrication: “The senior management of big companies are basically all jewish people. Since I and Sand Sea Entertainment refused to align with the jewish people’s influence, we were rejected.”
Sheikh Mansour nodded slowly, associating Ronan’s words with the situation in the Middle East.
The jewish people have always been like this.
Suddenly, he felt a sense of shared hatred.
Ronan added, “Banks won’t lend me money, funding won’t pass, so I have to raise funds to save myself. No matter how difficult the fundraising is, I will never sing praises for the jewish people in my films.”
“Very well said,” Sheikh Mansour agreed.
“If you bow your head to the jewish people when you encounter difficulties, they will only become more arrogant and domineering.”
From Sheikh Mansour’s words and attitude, Ronan judged that at least he hadn’t made any mistakes.
There was no other way; the simplest way to win the favor of the Arabs was to make an issue out of the jewish people.
“Mr. Anderson, I personally appreciate your attitude towards Arab characters in your scripts,” Sheikh Mansour changed the subject again.
“Why not make the Arabs the protagonists?”