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As a result, the screenwriters who were in the most anxious state quickly pointed their fingers at Daenerys Pictures.

In the last few days of June, many people raised signs to express their dissatisfaction outside the headquarters of Daenerys Films, which immediately aroused media attention and reports.Responding to this situation cautiously, the internal work of Daenerys Films has not been affected much.

The contracts of the leading actors and actresses of "Batman" were fully finalized in the last week of June.

Adam Baldwin, who is about to play Bruce Wayne, has signed a 15-year, five-film deal with Daenerys Films.

Among the core remuneration terms, Adam Baldwin's first film remuneration is 30 US dollars.

This is a relatively high number for a young actor who has only played supporting roles in some film and television dramas.However, considering the difficulty of shooting "Batman", Simon still generously gave the remuneration.Daenerys Pictures will also bear Adam Baldwin's physical training and other expenses for the next six months.

However, after the first film, Adam Baldwin's salary will increase by a base of up to $300 million.

To put it simply, Adam Baldwin can only get a maximum of $300 million for the second part of the sequel, a maximum of $600 million for the third part, a maximum of $900 million for the fourth part, and a maximum of $1200 million for the fifth part.

Of course, there is no sharing clause.

In this era, apart from the stars who rely on sharing and accidentally earn tens of millions of dollars in salary, there are no superstars in Hollywood whose basic salary can reach tens of millions of dollars.Therefore, neither the WMA nor Adam Baldwin himself has any issue with the contract.

However, Simon knew that in the next few years, with the continuous and rapid expansion of the European market and the video market, the salaries of Hollywood stars would increase significantly.

Even if calculated based on the global box office performance of the first "Batman" in the original space-time of 5 million US dollars, by then, Adam Baldwin may not be satisfied with only getting 300 million US dollars for the sequel.

However, dissatisfaction is dissatisfaction, and Simon is not worried that Adam Baldwin will repeat.

Not only the 15-year contract period and the pre-determined salary plan, but also many other restrictive clauses in the contract.

In order to avoid other film roles that Adam Baldwin took during the contract period to form a type conflict with "Batman", any film contract for Adam Baldwin outside of "Batman" needs to be approved by Daenerys Films.

This means that if Daenerys Pictures does not nod, Adam Baldwin will not be able to play any role other than Batman in the next 15 years of the long contract period.

If Adam Baldwin wants to get out of the deal early, it's not out of the question, but he'll have to pay Daenerys three times all of his income for the full term of the contract and for three years after the deal ends.This harsh and expensive breach of contract clause is enough to completely beat Adam Baldwin back to his original form.

As for Valerie Golino, who plays Catwoman, Daenerys Pictures has signed three film contracts with her.

Considering that the "Black Widow" played by Scarlett Johansson in the original space-time Marvel movie universe can get the top salary of 2000 million US dollars second only to Robert Downey Jr., and even surpasses all other superhero actors. Liz Films also signed rainy-day terms with Valerie Golino.

Although she is the youngest actress at the Venice Film Festival, European actresses have always been low in Hollywood.Good quality and low price, this is actually one of the important reasons why Simon chose the other party to play Catwoman.

Valerie Golino's first film salary was $20, a notch below Adam Baldwin's.For the next two film contracts, Daenerys Films offered a salary increase base of 250 million US dollars, the second film had a maximum of 250 million US dollars, and the third film had a maximum of 500 million US dollars.

Simon didn't plan to have Valerie Golino as the lead actress in all of the trilogy.

If the actress' performance in the first film is good enough, Simon plans to split one of the three film contracts she signed to make a "Catwoman" independent movie.

of course.

All these plans depend on the market performance of the first part of "Batman".

The casting of "Batman" is a major entertainment event that the entire North American media is paying close attention to, so it is unlikely to conceal the news.

Although Daenerys Films issued a gag order, the detailed information of Adam Baldwin and Valerie Golino and their upcoming roles have been exposed by the media before the contract is completely finalized under the pervasive media probing. .

Just like every Batman casting in the original time and space, when the news was confirmed, many comic fans jumped out to express their dissatisfaction, thinking that Adam Baldwin was not the candidate for Batman in their minds. A lot of similar letters can be received almost every day.

Valerie Golino has not escaped similar doubts.

Daenerys Pictures has brushed aside the controversies.Now that the news has been exposed and the contract is signed, the company held a media conference to formally introduce the two protagonists to the public.

However, after the press conference, Simon sent them to Australia, where he arranged the first stage of training for the two.

The reason for doing this, on the one hand, is to avoid the pursuit of the media. There is still a year and a half before the film is released, and overexposure is not a good thing.On the other hand, it is also to let the two get familiar with the future shooting environment in advance.

That's right.

The first "Batman" will be filmed in Australia.

In the comic setting, the prototype of Gotham City is more inclined to Chicago.However, the reason why the author of "Batman" created a virtual city was to express the concept that 'Gotham' could become any city in the world.

Simon actually leaned towards shooting in Chicago initially.

However, given The Batman's start date, that obviously wouldn't work.

"Batman" is expected to start shooting early next year, at that time, Chicago is the coldest winter.Not only is the temperature easily reaching minus ten or twenty degrees, but it is also possible to be hit by a snowstorm at any time.In such a climate environment, it is impossible for the crew to start work normally.

By comparison, it will be summer in the southern hemisphere at that time.

Simon chose between Sydney and Melbourne, the two most prosperous cities in Australia, and finally confirmed the filming location in Melbourne under the influence of Janet.Janet's home is in Melbourne, and the pattern of rivers and rivers in Melbourne's urban area is somewhat similar to Gotham City in the setting.

Most importantly, as the foundation of the Johnston family, choosing to shoot in Melbourne, the "Batman" crew can also obtain the greatest degree of administrative support.

Making a movie also requires connections, and no one can deny this.

Simon wasn't too pretentious to let such a deep resource and network not be used.

of course.

Over the course of several months of filming, Simon will definitely have frequent contact with everyone else in the Johnston family, which is probably what Janet wants.

In the midst of the turmoil, June 1988 passed away quietly.

July 7st happens to be another Friday.

从6月3日到6月30日，28天时间，《低俗小说》恰好上映四周。

Following the first week's $2753 million and the second week's $2338 million, "Pulp Fiction" received another $1730 million and $1503 million at the box office in the third and fourth weeks of its release.As a result, throughout June, the cumulative North American box office of "Pulp Fiction" finally reached 6 million U.S. dollars, which is less than 8326 million U.S. dollars away from breaking the box office.

Considering the strong box office trend of this film, "Pulp Fiction" will successfully achieve a box office of over 7 million in the next two weeks, and complete another "relay" with "Instinct" released on July 15.

For half a month since the preview, although various big events have been happening in Hollywood, under the joint guidance of Fox and Daenerys Pictures, the controversy and discussion caused by "Basic Instinct" have continued. Various news are constantly released to maintain the media popularity of this movie.

During the release of "Pulp Fiction", on June 6, Disney's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" also started painting as scheduled.

This combination of animation and live-action film, which cost a huge sum of 7000 million U.S. dollars, ended up with a box office of 2156 million U.S. dollars in the first week, although compared with the previous "Crocodile Dundee 2", "Rambo 3" and "Pulp Fiction", such a box office The start was not very good, but "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" has aroused unanimous praise from the media and audience, and it is expected to produce a very beautiful long-term data.

Sandra Bullock's "A Fish Named Wanda" will also be released on July 7.As the second work of last year's box office champion heroine, due to Sandra's participation, MGM, the distributor, paid full attention to this film, not only invested a lot of publicity and distribution resources, but also gave 1 yuan Open the screen.

In the test screening before the release, "A Fish Named Wanda" also received general praise from the media, and now we only need to look forward to the next box office performance of the film.

In addition to all these things, "Rain Man", which Daenerys Films invested 2500 million US dollars in production, was also successfully completed at the end of June. The two leading actors did not drag the filming cycle until July.

However, the $2500 million shooting budget of "Rain Man" has been depleted after wrapping up.

Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise were each paid $600 million for the entire project, and director Barry Levinson also took home $300 million, thanks to Daenerys Pictures The reason why he signed a director contract with "Good Morning Vietnam" before its release at the end of last year.

"Good Morning Vietnam", which broke [-] million at the box office last year, not only made the leading actor Robin Williams popular, but also made Barry Levinson a success among first-line directors.If it is signed after the release of "Good Morning Vietnam", Daenerys Pictures may have to pay the same salary as the two leading actors, or offer a sharing clause.

The three main creators took away 1500 million US dollars, and the remaining 1000 million US dollars, and the three-month filming cost more than 700 million.

Now, less than $300 million is left to spend on post-production.

Fortunately, a feature film like "Rain Man" does not require too much post-production investment. The main post-production work of the film is editing and soundtrack.Therefore, the last fund should be enough, even if it is overspending, it will not be too much.

However, there is another very important issue.

"Rain Man" is not the kind of high-concept movie with a clear main line.As an anti-genre road movie with a gentle plot, editing and soundtrack are very important for the film to achieve the same success in the original time and space.Because if you don't pay attention, this movie, which is composed of a lot of trivial plots, can become unrecognizable compared with the original.

Chapter 182 Marvel Got It (Revised)

Los Angeles Country Club in Beverly Hills.

The time is July 7rd, Sunday.

Just as Simon got off the car in the parking lot, a young man in a white shirt who looked like an assistant greeted him and said respectfully: "Mr. Westeros, Mr. Welch, they are already waiting for you, please follow me. "

Following the young man into the top golf course with the largest area in Los Angeles, Simon soon saw three other people talking and laughing on the edge of the course.Noticing Simon's arrival, the three of them walked over together. One of them, a balding middle-aged man in his 50s, was Jack Welch, the current chairman and CEO of General Electric.

"Hello, Simon, I'm so glad to meet you," several people approached, Jack Welch looked at Simon with a gentle smile, shook hands with him familiarly, and introduced the other two: "This is Robert White, he is now in charge of the NBC television network business. This is Larry Kupin, he is the majority shareholder of New World Entertainment, you must know that."

Unexpectedly received an invitation from Jack Welch, Simon made some preparations for the meeting in advance, and naturally knew the other two at this time.

Robert White was originally the head of the financial services group of the General Electric system and is currently the CEO and president of the NBC television network.In all fairness, Simon felt that the appointment of Jack Welch could only be described as bad, a typical layman leading an expert.

Of course, this is GE's internal matter, and Simon doesn't intend to comment on it.

Larry Kupin is the major shareholder of New World Entertainment. He and another partner, Harry Sloan, jointly hold more than 40% of the shares of New World Entertainment.

Simon greeted the three of them separately, and everyone entered the stadium together.

Each of them knew the purpose of this meeting well, and none of them was in a hurry to get to the point. They just casually chatted about some recent current events while playing ball.It is an election year, and the upcoming presidential election is naturally a very hot topic of conversation.

"The New York Times article on 'Who Will Be a Millionaire' was really interesting, and I really thought it would be a good idea to have Bush and Dukakis on the show," said Jake Weir, Inside the Stadium Qi changed a club from the caddy, walked back and glanced at Simon, and asked casually, "Speaking of which, Simon, Bush or Dukakis, which one do you support?"

The candidates of the two parties in the United States were finalized in May this year, namely the current Vice President George Bush and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

Simon noticed that both Robert White and Larry Kupin were looking at him intentionally or unintentionally, so he just shrugged casually and said, "As a Californian, of course I support Dukakis."

Jack Welch took a swing, pushed the ball into the hole, nodded in satisfaction, turned to Simon, and said, "What if Bush wins?"

Simon watched as Larry Kupin, who was divided into his own group, walked over with a cue, stepped aside, and said, "In this case, if I have spare funds, I will buy as much military industry and oil as possible." shares."

After Simon's words came out, the expressions of Robert White and Larry Kupin obviously changed.

This young man has earned himself a net worth of 20 billion U.S. dollars in just two years. Although his tone was casual at this time, Robert White and Larry Kupin immediately remembered this sentence. In my heart, I made up my mind to study it afterward.

Jack Welch concealed his inner fluctuations, watched Larry Kupin miss the ball without any accident, and asked: "Simon, what do you mean?"

Simon looked at the ball launched by Larry Kupin with some regret, and said: "It's very simple. When Bush comes to power, there will probably be a war. War is the fastest factor to promote the rise of oil prices."

Robert White interjected at this point: "Simon, if you made these remarks public, there would be controversy."

"So, of course I wouldn't do that."

Jack Welch and the others chuckled in agreement.

The four of them chatted like this and played a few holes leisurely. Jack Welch, who had been waiting for Simon to speak up, found that this young man seemed to be more patient than the three middle-aged men, so he took the initiative to turn to the topic: " Simon, regarding New World Entertainment, I still hope you can consider my suggestion some time ago."

The two stood between the greens and watched Robert White and Larry Kupin hit the ball. Simon glanced at Jack Welch and said, "Jack, don't you plan to adjust the quotation now?"

It's just that the hit "Who Will Be a Millionaire" is expected to bring Daenerys Pictures hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.If Daenerys Films is a listed company, even if it is based on a price-earnings ratio of 10 times, the market value of this company can exceed US$10 billion.

In several phone calls with Simon, Jack Welch proposed to use the shares of New World Entertainment as a bargaining chip to participate in Daenerys Films, but his valuation of Daenerys Films was only about 2 million US dollars.

"I have to say that your ability to make money is really amazing," Jack Welch said, "However, Simon, I heard that Daenerys Films and ABC did not agree on the distribution of benefits. Amid the stalemate, the future of the project is not so sure."

"The profit share that I set aside for ABC exceeds the profit level of all their TV shows in recent years."

Jack Welch said: "However, Daenerys Pictures seems to ask for more. Simon, are you not worried that ABC will really abandon this project? As far as I know, according to the contract, Daenerys Pictures It is no longer possible to transfer this project to another network."

Simon shook his head and said: "If ABC just feels that Daenerys Pictures has got too much inner imbalance and then abandons this project, then I can only let them continue to be unbalanced. Of course I will feel sorry, but, abandon this program , the impact on Daenerys Films is not as great as expected. On the contrary, this is actually beneficial, because in the next bargaining process, Daenerys Films competitors will realize that if I don’t want to If you make concessions, you will not make concessions."

Jack Welch said: "But you really want to get New World Entertainment, don't you? Simon, if you want to get what you want, but you are not willing to pay enough, it must not work."

"If I don't make an offer, Jack, the most likely outcome for New World Entertainment is bankruptcy and liquidation. At that time, the creditor's settlement priority will be very low. You may not even be able to recover half of your $2 million loan .Now, I can guarantee that GE gets all of its money back, and that's what I paid for."

"Simon, you seem to be very resistant to working with others, which is not good. Even at GE, we often have joint ventures with other companies."

Simon watched Larry Cuppin and Robert White play a hole, and they walked off the green together, asking, "Jack, why are you working with another company?"

"In this way, the resources of both parties can be fully utilized to achieve a win-win situation."

"That's right," Simon nodded and said, "So, if I agree to General Electric's participation in Daenerys Pictures, what kind of help can you give me?"

"We have the NBC network that can help distribute Daenerys TV shows. We also have a strong capital position that can support Daenerys' rapid expansion."

Simon nodded again, but with a smile on his face, he said: "Jack, but the fact is that there is no shortage of buyers for the TV programs produced by Daenerys Pictures. On the contrary, if it weren't for the several projects in Daenerys Pictures' hands, Maybe we wouldn't be here today, it's a seller's market. So, NBC as a platform doesn't appeal to me that much. Second, maybe most of the Hollywood companies are short of money all the time, but, This is not the case with Daenerys Films. My personal assets are already sufficient to support the expansion of my business, and the profitability of Daenerys Films is also very strong, which is enough to ensure that I can easily get what I want from major banks. loans. GE’s financial advantage didn’t appeal to me either.”

Jack Welch shook his head and said, "Simon, you are still young, and many things are not as simple as you imagined."

"Only those who are not strong will complicate simple things in order to win by surprise." Simon swung the cue with one hand in the air, and said: "Daenerys Films does not need this now, and I prefer simplicity and directness. Jack, I don't mind cooperating with others, the premise is that, as you just said, both parties must be able to achieve a win-win goal, instead of me selling my fast-growing company at a low price, just in exchange for the fact that I don't resources needed."

"In this case, Simon, General Electric can only try its best to fight for its own interests," Jack Welch gestured to Larry Kupin, and said, "We have already negotiated with Larry that General Electric will In exchange for 90% of the shares of New World Entertainment in the form of share transfer, the relevant contract will be signed next week. Now, if Daenerys Films wants our shares, General Electric’s offer is 3 million U.S. dollars. In addition, NBC also hopes To be able to get the two reality shows Daenerys Pictures is developing, "Survivor" and "Big Brother."

"I really want to get New World Entertainment, I don't hide it," Simon stopped and said to Jack Welch: "But, in the final analysis, this company is not as attractive to me as you think Great. I am more interested in Marvel Entertainment under this company, because I want to own a comic book company. As for the other assets of New World Entertainment, Jack, this is very helpful for the development of Daenerys Pictures, But for General Electric, it is completely dispensable. You hold this company in your hands, and the final result will only slowly rot. So, I will not accept such an offer, $2 million, This is the limit I can give, including all the shares of New World Entertainment, not just the 5000% in your hands."

It is obviously impossible for Jack Welch to know Simon's mentality that Marvel is bound to win. Simon's words fully fit his judgment on New World Entertainment.

Although the scale of New World Entertainment is not comparable to that of the Big Seven, it can be regarded as a comprehensive entertainment company. In addition to the comics department, it also includes New World Pictures, New World TV, New World International, New World Home Entertainment and several other companies. Previously merged production and distribution company.

However, with last year’s stock market crash and the ongoing Hollywood screenwriters’ strike, New World Entertainment’s operations are in trouble. Except for Marvel Entertainment, a relatively independent subsidiary that has not been greatly affected and can barely maintain profitability, other New World Entertainment Departments are losing money.

If Simon is unwilling to take over, after the debt-to-equity swap, GE can only choose to lay off employees and provide as few resources as possible to barely maintain these departments.

The most direct consequence of doing so is to lead to a more rapid depreciation of the value of New World Entertainment.

In fact, if it were not for Simon's interest in New World Entertainment, the management of General Electric would have been more inclined to liquidate New World Entertainment in order to recover losses as much as possible.

Jack Welch stopped along with Simon, stroked the golf club in his hand and thought for a moment, before he said, "Simon, what about the two reality shows that NBC needs?"

What Simon said just now is indeed true. If it weren't for the success of "Who Will Be a Millionaire", the other three reality show projects in the hands of Daenerys Films have attracted the attention of General Electric. In a short time, there will indeed be no such projects. meeting.

It is now July, and the autumn season is coming soon.

Although NBC's situation has been better than that of ABC and CBS in the past few years, in this generally dismal fall after the strike, if the other companies get a similar "Who Will Be a Millionaire" from Daenerys Films? Such a reality show, NBC is indifferent.Then, the result is likely to lead to NBC's ratings ranking quickly slipping below the other two TV networks after experiencing this fall season.