hunt hollywood

noon.

In an Italian restaurant near Santa Monica Beach, when Simon arrived, Terry Semel had arrived ahead of schedule and was sitting at the table reading a newspaper.Seeing Simon appear, Terry Semel got up and shook hands with him, and the two sat down together.

Simon took the menu from the tall waitress with eager eyes, opened it and casually asked Semel, "Any news today?"

Because he has been too busy recently, it is difficult for Simon to spare much time to pay attention to the news.

Terry Semel also opened his own menu and said with a smile: "The two presidential candidates spoke at the same time in the interview, saying that once elected, they will formulate stricter regulatory measures for the financial derivatives market to avoid 'Westeros'. Event' happened again."

Simon quickly ordered a lunch, handed the menu to the waitress, and said, "This has nothing to do with me. They will only offend their Wall Street patrons by doing this."

Terry Semel raised his eyes from the menu and looked at Simon, tentatively: "You are not going to tell me that you will never set foot in the futures market again?"

Simon was noncommittal about Semel's question, saying: "Stricter regulatory measures will only affect those who want to make huge profits through unconventional means such as insider speculation. On the "Forbes" list, at least the top ten No one in the list relied on those means to squeeze into the list, and I certainly didn't."

Terry Semel couldn't help but think of some rumors in the circle that the Southern District Court of New York and several other major regulatory agencies have not completely given up the secret investigation of Simon.However, so far, there is still no news that is not good for Simon.

Over time, those investigations are bound to fade away.

After ordering, Terry Semel said to dismiss the waitress who had been staring at Simon, "Simon, we recently acquired Lorimar, you must know about it, right?"

Simon nodded, probably understanding why Semel brought this up.

Founded in the 60s, Lorimar Production Company is the largest TV program studio in this era. This company rose in the 70s and reached its peak in the first few years, and then declined rapidly with last year's stock market crash and this year's screenwriter strike. .

A few months earlier, Simon and Amy had visited together the Culver City MGM set that Lorimar wanted to sell.

Hearing the news of Warner's acquisition of Lorimar at the beginning of the month, Simon also realized that this was probably the basis for Warner's TV department to continuously produce many popular American dramas such as "Friends" and "Stories in the Emergency Room" in the 90s.Prior to this, Warner's TV business was not outstanding.

Seeing Simon nodding, Terry Semel continued: "I heard that you are interested in the MGM studio in Culver City. We just plan to sell this part of the property. Do you still want it now? I promise the price will be very high." Affordable."

Warner Bros. has such a large production base in Burbank that there was clearly no need for a second location.

However, Simon didn't hesitate, he shook his head and said, "Terry, that studio is too dilapidated. Instead of buying it for a large-scale renovation, I might as well pick a new piece of land and start from scratch, which would be cheaper."

Terry Semel said: "But, Simon, unless it's a suburb, you're going to be hard-pressed to find a 50-acre lot in downtown Los Angeles again."

Simon said indifferently: "There is nothing in the suburbs. When these studios were first built, they were all in the suburbs. It was only the continuous development of the city that surrounded them in the urban area."

Terry Semel thought that he would be able to push the MGM studio to Simon with certainty, but he had no choice but to give up with a look of lack of interest, saying: "So, Simon, about the matter we discussed last time , you have acquired Marvel Entertainment, mastered a large number of superhero copyrights such as Spiderman, Fantastic Four, and X-Men. I am curious, why are you still interested in DC superheroes? If there is no good reason , it will be difficult for Warner to hand over Wonder Woman to you again?"

"Marvel's superhero movies are too difficult to shoot, such as Spider-Man. With the current technology, it is difficult for us to realize the scene of Peter Parker flying between the walls of the metropolis," Simon replied without thinking too much: "Perhaps In contrast, the possibility of DC's superhero movie is very high. As for my purpose, Terry, it is obvious that I want to accumulate more copyrights, and Hollywood studios will do this. There is nothing to hide. Before me , Canon Pictures bought the shooting rights of Marvel’s most popular Spider-Man and DC’s Superman at the same time. Of course, the copyrights of these two superheroes are now in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment.”

"You are different from them," Terry Semel shook his head and said, "I remember at the Oscar afterparty at the beginning of the year, you told me that you planned to link Superman and Batman, um, "Batman v Superman", you are So, right? Now, you want Wonder Woman again."

"Terry, I don't want to waste time on these meaningless words, can you directly ask Warner's conditions?"

Terry Semel stopped beating around the bush and said: "Simon, Warner can give you both "Bourne Shadow" and "Wonder Woman". We are willing to let "Bourne Shadow" go completely, but "Wonder Woman" , Warner must retain 50% of the investment rights. However, unlike "Superman" and "Batman", Daenerys Entertainment can be responsible for the distribution of "Wonder Woman" by itself. In exchange, Daenerys and Warner need to cooperate A project with a box office of over [-] million, the profit sharing model of "Basic Instinct". If the local box office of the project we cooperate with does not exceed [-] million, the contract will automatically continue for another one until this goal is achieved."

Simon considered the conditions offered by Terry Semel in his mind, and quickly said: "In this case, it is impossible for me to hand over the distribution rights to Warner. It is difficult for a film to achieve a North American box office of over [-] million, but I want to It would be too easy for it to fall short of that."

"Of course I understand," Terry Semel said with a smile on his face, "So, if you insist, the distribution rights can go to Daenerys Entertainment."

Simon suddenly realized that doing Daenerys entertainment would be very disadvantageous.

In the original "Basic Instinct" profit-sharing model, the two companies not only shared the production costs equally. Daenerys Pictures provided the script copyright of "Instinct" and invested energy in the production. Fox was responsible for the announcement of the film. The input is basically equal.

Now, if the distribution rights are left, it is equivalent to Warners only investing half of the film production budget, and then completely throwing their hands away and waiting to share half of the revenue. Daenerys Entertainment is responsible for the entire process of production, promotion and distribution.

This is obviously impossible.

After weighing for a moment, Simon added: "Daenerys Entertainment retains the distribution rights, and Warner must also share an additional half of the publicity budget."

Terry Semel nodded readily and said, "No problem."

The two just set out a general framework for cooperation, and the specific plan will definitely need detailed consultations to meet the interests of both parties.Therefore, Simon did not hesitate any longer, reached out his hand to Semel, and said, "Deal."

Chapter 194 Production and Distribution Plan (Revised)

After lunch with Terry Semel, Simon returned to Daenerys Entertainment headquarters to resume work for the afternoon.

These days, several high-level executives such as Simon and Amy have been re-discussing and arranging the film and television production and distribution plans of the new company.Originally planned to work overtime for two days on the previous weekend to complete these things before the trip to Australia. Because of the release of the "Forbes" Rich List, Simon has been entangled in various things over the weekend, so he had to postpone it until the working day.

Except for the several reality shows that Daenerys Pictures has already prepared and the TV series that have been renewed by New World Entertainment, the company does not plan to develop new projects this year.Therefore, the business in this area was quickly straightened out.

In terms of movies, it is mainly production and distribution.

After the merger and acquisition is completed, the issuance business of the new company will start next month.

In addition to the 7 films released in the first half of the year, New World Entertainment has another 6 films of various genres waiting to be released.

After reviewing and discussing the films, New World Entertainment finally confirmed that there are three films that will be released in theaters, namely "Avella Cry", "Sisters of Sid" and "Ghost Hunt 2". issued.

"Evila" is a brand of horror films that actress Cassandra Peterson has been focusing on creating over the years, and it generally belongs to the style of horror comedy.However, the biggest selling point of the film is probably only the heroine's big half-covered breasts under a black dress.

Simon had a low opinion of the B-movie-style film, didn't see any blockbuster potential, and wanted to dump it on video as well.However, New World Entertainment has already carried out some pre-publicity before, and even asked Marvel to develop a set of comics specially for this movie.

Considering that the company has no other theatrical distribution plans in September, Simon reluctantly agreed to re-edit the film and send it to the theaters, but limited the number of screens to less than 9.

"The Sid Sisters" is a low-cost independent film starring the actress Winona Ryder who just appeared in Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice" in the first half of the year. The story explores teenagers' perception of life through a series of campus murders. Disappointed and confused state of mind.

After seeing the sample, Simon decisively decided to let this film participate in next year's Sundance Film Festival together with "Sisters" and "Metropolitan" previously invested by Daenerys Films.

Because the box office potential of the film is too low, the schedule will be confirmed in February and March next year.

The last "Halloween 2" is a horror film series developed by New World Entertainment imitating the new line "A Nightmare on Elm Street". Compared with the "Elmite Street" series, it is also a big profit.

The production cost of this sequel has increased to 300 million U.S. dollars, and with the word-of-mouth accumulation of the first one, the profit seems very guaranteed.

New World Entertainment originally planned to schedule this film in the Christmas schedule at the end of the year.

This would have been an obvious choice before the two companies merged, but now, the distribution team of the new company must focus on the announcement of the few films that Daenerys Pictures has established.As a result, the release date of Ghostbusters 2 has been postponed to Easter next year.

In addition to MGM's "Rain Man" scheduled for December 12th, Daenerys Pictures produced and will independently release three films "Scream", "Steel Magnolia" and "Dead Poets Society" The schedule was also thoroughly finalized during this discussion.

Scream has a release date of October 10.

"Steel Magnolia" has a November 11 release date.

Dead Poets Society has a December 12 release date.

Michael Hoffman's "Sisters," Whit Stilton's "Metropolitan" and Catherine's "Blue Angels" are also in the late stages. The exact dates have not yet been confirmed, but they are all expected to be released. It will enter theaters in the first half of next year.

film production.

Among the several projects that New World Entertainment was planning, Simon finally only retained "Angel God" originally scheduled to star Brooke Shields, and canceled all others.

Among the canceled projects are "Revenge" starring Kevin Costner and "The Punisher," starring Dolph Lundgren and Marvel Comics.

"Revenge" tells the ethical film about a retired naval officer who seduces his friend's wife and both of them are revenged. Well-known films such as "Beverly Cop 2" can also be regarded as Hollywood's first-line directors.

It's just that Simon couldn't understand the concept that "Revenge" wanted to express at all.Although the film was jointly invested with an affiliated company under Columbia Pictures, the production budget of 2000 million US dollars still exceeded Simon's expectations, so he chose to give up.

As for The Punisher.

Simon has read the script and found that apart from the name, the story is completely devoid of Marvel's classic comic setting. It is purely a B-grade gunfight movie imitating the style of Stallone's "First Blood", so there is no need to keep it.

During the strike, Bruce Joy Robin completed the scripts of the other two "The Sixth Sense of Psychic" and "Ghostly Love" that Simon had originally ordered from him.

Simon put aside "The Love of Ghosts" for the time being, but set up a project for "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality".

Robert De Niro signed two packages of "Dead Poets Society" and "The Sixth Sense". "Dead Poets Society" has been completed, and it happened to take over "The Sixth Sense" at this time.

In addition, with the end of the Hollywood screenwriters' strike, Daenerys Entertainment has also begun to intensively accept the promotion of various projects during this period, and Simon has selected several very good scripts from them.

One of them is called The Bodyguard.

That's right, the original Time and Space starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston.

The screenwriter of the film, Lawrence Kasdan, is well-known in Hollywood. He used to be the screenwriter of the "Star Wars" series and the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series.

However, the script of "Bodyguard" has been coldly received since it was written in the mid-70s. It is said that before Simon took over, the film had been rejected by more than 60 producers in a row. The plot of this movie is too old-fashioned, and the mansion scene of the female singer Rachel in the film is too expensive.

Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment bought the script for only $30 despite the high status of Lawrence Kasdan.

Another script is "Flying Beyond Childhood" by Hollywood female screenwriter and director Amy Heckerling. The biggest feature of this comedy is to let babies learn to think and speak like adults.In the original time and space, "Flying Beyond Childhood" starred John Travolta, voiced the baby by Bruce Willis, and successfully squeezed into the top ten of the annual box office list that year.

The script was also not favored before, so it was won by Daenerys Entertainment.This is actually not surprising. Hollywood's generally optimistic projects have basically fallen into the hands of major film companies a few years in advance.

Just one thing, because of his participation in "Pulp Fiction", John Travolta is no longer suitable to star in the tender comedy "Flying Childhood", Daenerys Entertainment can only choose other male leads.

Ultimately, "The Sixth Sense," "Batman," "The Bodyguard," and "Oneshot Of The Child" will all be Daenerys Entertainment's flagship projects for next year.

"The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", which has achieved an astonishing box office of more than 6 million US dollars in the original time and space, and the relatively inferior "Bodyguard" are preliminarily confirmed to be in the summer of next year. Christmas.

but.

Speaking carefully, this is actually just Simon's idea.

Because these four projects basically do not belong to Hollywood's popular movie genres, scripts like "Bodyguard" have been ignored by Hollywood for more than ten years.Simon doesn't intend to explain too much to others, he just needs Amy and others to do their best to complete their work.

and.

According to preliminary statistics, the films that Daenerys Entertainment will release next year already include "The Sid Sisters", "Sisters", "Metropolitan", "Blue Angel", "The Sixth Sense", "The Bodyguard" , "Rampaging Pretty Girl", "Flying Over Childhood", and "Batman" are a total of 10 films.

The number of films that the company is still planning and the purchase department plans to buy will not be lower than this number.

This means that Daenerys Entertainment's production and distribution plans for next year will reach the level of the seven major studios.Therefore, surrounded by this piece of 'sand', "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality" and other four expected best-selling films are mixed in. Even if they can all achieve the same box office in the original time and space, they will not be as conspicuous as this year.

Chapter 195 Rent (Modify)

"John Hughes and I had several phone calls about "Uncle Buck", and he expressed his interest in cooperating with us. However, the salary contract Hughes offered was a basic salary of $600 million plus 10% of the North American box office share."

conference room.

Simon noticed the smile on Amy's face when he introduced the proposal, and said: "If he is willing to accept the basic salary of 1 dollar plus the sharing model of box office and video tapes, maybe I will agree immediately."

John Hughes is the screenwriter and producer of "Home Alone" in the original time and space.

Since "Spring is not a day for reading" two years ago, Simon has been paying attention to each other's movements.

Most of the works of this Hollywood filmmaker who created a standard "Hughes mode" are basically a rebellious protagonist with a "bear" attribute. Stupid thief's method is exactly the same as the details of the hero Phyllis pretending to be sick and asking for leave through electronic onomatopoeia in "Spring is not a day for reading".

After "Spring is Not a Day for Reading", the box office of John Hughes' films in the past two years has been very mediocre. If "Uncle Buck" hadn't appeared, Simon would not have had much interest in cooperating with him.However, Simon just remembered that John Hughes had the inspiration for "Home Alone" during the filming of "Uncle Buck".

Listening to Simon's teasing, Amy explained: "Hughes's previous films, on the basis of the basic salary, all required 10% omni-channel profit sharing. However, he probably imitated it because he did not have confidence in our distribution capabilities. The model of your cooperation with Fox and Orion has called out the quotation of the box office share. In fact, the remuneration he can get in the two ways is similar, but the return directly from the box office will be a few years earlier than the profit sharing model.”

Although the film model is single, John Hughes' films basically rarely lose money. In addition, every project of this filmmaker is written and produced by himself, and sometimes he also directs himself, requiring 10% The omni-channel profit sharing model is not too much.

Simon flipped through the materials of John Hughes' previous works.

After "Spring is Not a Day for Reading", in the past two years, John Hughes has created four scripts, two of which have a box office of more than 4000 million U.S. dollars, and two of which have a box office of only more than 1000 million U.S. dollars. It is already a very good result.

As for "Uncle Buck", the initial budget cost is 1500 million US dollars, and John Hughes is personally responsible for the three positions of screenwriter, director and producer.

Simon doesn't know the box office results of this movie, so he is more optimistic. If calculated based on the North American box office of 4000 million US dollars, the production cost is 1500 million US dollars, and Hughes will take away 1000 million US dollars, including the cost of publicity. Daenerys Entertainment is bound to lose millions of dollars at the box office and will have to rely on later videotape and TV rights sales to recoup the costs.

Since the fundamental goal is "Home Alone", Simon quickly made a decision, saying: "The basic salary of 600 million US dollars is too high, the maximum is 500 million US dollars, and the budget cost of 1500 million US dollars must also be stuck. If it exceeds, then we must It will be deducted from Hughes' share. In addition, Daenerys Entertainment needs a priority option for Hughes's future script under the same contract, Amy, you can talk to Hughes according to this framework."

Speaking of it, Simon is actually looking forward to the script of "Home Alone" being dropped by butterflies.

This possibility is actually very high. Unlike some screenwriters who tend to brew an idea in their minds for many years, John Hughes is a typical mass-produced screenwriter. This filmmaker writes two scripts every year, and then produced and distributed.At the frequency of the assembly line, maybe it was just a thought difference, and the original wonderful script was gone.

If the "Home Alone" script is fanned out, things will be much easier to follow.

There are too many filmmakers in Hollywood to imitate the Hughes model, even the Weinstein brothers have done so. It won’t be too abrupt for Simon to toss a Hughes model script in the future. He can even be said to be from "Uncle Buck" Inspiration from.

"In this case, I will take time to fly to Chicago to interview Hughes in the next few days. It is not a big problem to win this project," Amy wrote down the matter in the memo, and looked at her watch. Before she knew it, it was approaching six o'clock. It was already past the off-duty time, so I closed the memo and asked about the noon: "How did you talk with Semel?"

Simon briefly summarized the cooperation terms agreed with Semel at noon, and urged: "During the time I am in Australia, you should draw up a specific contract with Warner as soon as possible."

Amy reopened the memo to record these things, and asked again: "So, which project do you plan to choose with Warner?"

"Amy Hecklen's One Fleet."

Amy paused her writing hand, and said, "Simon, I think it's better to be "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality". This is a script signed by you personally, and the creativity is also very good. It should be no problem to break the box office of [-] million. As for "Flying Over Childhood Innocence, this story is indeed very interesting, but if the box office fails to exceed [-] million, we will lose another movie to Warner."

The North American box office of the original "The Sixth Sense" exceeded 2 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office was close to 9000 million U.S. dollars.Taking out this project and cooperating with Warner, even if the box office of the new version of the film has shrunk to only 7 million worldwide, Simon is reluctant.

Between "Bodyguard" and "Flying Childhood", Simon chose the latter, mainly because "Flying Childhood", a comedy with a strong local style, should not have much overseas box office potential compared with "Bodyguard".

Simon didn't explain too much to Amy, and decided: "I don't want to give my script to others, which is "Flying Beyond Childhood". Since we are cooperating with Warner, we can increase the budget and invite a few more famous people. I am still very confident in this project."

Amy nodded, continued writing, and asked again: "Simon, when I discussed the script of "Bodyguard" with Costner last Friday, he asked about "Dances with Wolves". During the beginning of the year, we I bought a lot of copyrights, when do you plan to do it?"

"Those are all projects that I am very optimistic about. Let's wait for another year or two to consolidate the company's strength. I don't want to mess up any of them," Simon said, closing the document in front of him, and said: "Also, you just now Said to fly to Chicago?"

Amy explained: "John Hughes has always lived in Chicago, and most of his movies are shot in Chicago, he doesn't like Los Angeles."