hunt hollywood

Janet pointed at Simon: "Look, he doesn't dare to approach you anymore."

Catherine immediately glanced at Simon with a little resentment in her guilty conscience.

Simon smiled and walked to the side sofa to sit down, and said, "It's just that you are here, affecting my performance."

Janet picked up a dress from the hanger and gestured in front of her, then gave Simon a casual glance: "Shall I leave first and give you a little time alone?"

"It doesn't have to be too long, an hour is enough."

"."

Catherine blushed: "If you do this again, I'm leaving."

After bickering like this, Janet quickly chose the dress, which was still the wine red she liked very much after all.After trying it on, he stopped taking it off, and called the blonde female stylist who had secretly winked at Simon just now, and went to the next door to touch up makeup together.

Perhaps because she didn't want to follow her from the bottom of her heart, Catherine stood in the distance and randomly arranged the dresses on the hangers, as if she could clearly feel the eyes of the man behind her.

Soon, a pair of big hands wrapped around her waist, and the man's breath got closer and closer, before Catherine said softly, "Jenny is here."

Simon just hummed lightly, stroked the woman's smooth silk dress, probed and kissed Catherine's neck, and said, "Take off your high heels, I really dare not approach you when you are wearing high heels. "

Catherine's original height reached 180cm. Putting on 5cm high heels, she immediately surpassed Simon, who was a little taller but still only 1.8 meters tall.

"Small, bastard, no, I will accommodate you."

Catherine murmured softly, but obediently kicked off the high heels on her feet, and her body was propped on the hanger a little limply.

After six o'clock, the mansion began to become lively.

Janet has been standing in front of the villa to greet the guests gathered here from all over Los Angeles until 06:30. Seeing Simon appearing beside her, the woman kept smiling and talked with the just-arrived heroine of "Steel Magnolia" Jessica The Lange couple greeted him, and when the other party entered the villa, they reached out and pinched Simon's waist unceremoniously: "You bastard, you have really been tossing around for an hour."

Simon held Janet's little hand and squeezed it, and he spoke nonsense: "No, it's just chatting."

"Nonsence."

Janet gave Simon a hard look, and then let Simon go when she saw Robert Lemm and his wife approaching from not far away.

At seven o'clock, the reception officially began.

Compared with the previous parties in this mansion, the scale of this reception is not grand, but it is definitely the one with the most celebrities.Due to the series of miracles that Daenerys Entertainment has created in the field of film and television over the past year, many top stars in Hollywood who were originally reserved began to take the initiative to make friends with Daenerys Entertainment.

Moreover, compared to the past, at tonight's party, most of the guests found it difficult to care about his age in front of Simon, and on the contrary, they were generally more in awe.After all, seven movies with a box office of [-] million yuan were produced in one year, and none of them missed it. All seven movies are destined to be among the top ten annual box office charts. This kind of pioneering work has never happened in Hollywood.

Perhaps, apart from Simon Westero himself, it is difficult for anyone else in Hollywood to break this record.

"Ms. Pfeiffer, the heroine of "One Fly More Childlike" needs the style of American Sweetheart. You are too beautiful, and your temperament is more glamorous, which is not suitable for this role."

On the lawn in the backyard of the mansion, the sky was completely dark, and there were many people in the brightly lit courtyard.

Simon stood at the buffet table and originally wanted to pick some food to comfort his hungry stomach. Tonight, Michelle Pfeiffer, who was wearing a water blue low-cut evening dress, came over and started a conversation with him.

Speaking of which, since Simon entered Hollywood, the name Michelle Pfeiffer has been talked about a lot.Michelle Pfeiffer, who just turned 30 this year, is also at the peak of her appearance at this time.Prior to this, Daenerys Entertainment and Michelle Pfeiffer originally had several potential cooperation opportunities. In the role of Mia in "Pulp Fiction", Simon even asked the other party to try the role, but it didn't work out in the end.

"In this case, Simon, do you think there are other suitable roles for me in Daenerys Entertainment's projects?"

Michelle Pfeiffer looked at Simon, and after saying this, he brought the glass of red wine in his hand to his mouth to sip, his eyes rolled, and he glanced over with a hint of hint.

Simon is just a little hungry, but in some respects he has just been 'full'. At this time, his resistance to women is at its strongest. Hearing this, he just said: "If there is, I will definitely contact you."

Michelle Pfeiffer didn't see the eagerness in Simon's eyes. Seeing that he was still holding the plate, she said, "So, Simon, how about going dancing together? Are you really that hungry?"

Simon said matter-of-factly, "Yeah, but Michelle, don't you have a boyfriend tonight?"

I vaguely remember that this woman should be married.

Michelle Pfeiffer shook her head and said frankly, "I just got divorced recently."

"Oh, what a pity."

"It's nothing," Michelle Pfeiffer said, "Since the two of you can't stay together, of course it's better to separate."

After chatting for a few more words, seeing that Simon never showed much interest, Michelle Pfeiffer walked away tactfully.

Michelle Pfeiffer had just walked away when Sandra Bullock walked over with Courteney Cox on her arm.

Simon was just about to walk away after picking out food. Seeing the intimate appearance of the two women, he suddenly remembered the joke he made with Sandra a few days ago.

This girl won't really start to act, can she?

However, after taking a closer look at Courteney's expression, Simon realized that the two women were not as close as he thought.

"Hey, what were you talking about with that woman just now?"

Simon smiled and said, "The discussion between men and women is of course about men and women."

Sandra immediately rolled her eyes when she heard Simon playing the game, and unceremoniously snatched a shrimp ball from his plate, stuttering: "I heard that you were recently robbed of two scripts. ?”

Not only did Simon not conceal the matter of the two scripts of "Rocket Scientist" and "Firebird Attack", but he released the news in private. He hoped that through this incident, Hollywood would understand one thing. Daenerys Entertainment liked it. Even if the project is snatched away, it may not be as successful as Daenerys Entertainment.

In fact, this kind of state of making things happen is very common in Hollywood.Just like the same superhero movie, with the same wide popularity, some explode to make people jealous, and some are so horrible.

Of course, these cannot be clearly stated to Sandra and Courteney.

Simon took them to a nearby seat and sat down, and said in a relaxed tone: "It's just two scripts, if they are robbed, they will be robbed."

Sandra saw that Simon spoke easily, but there was a little more suspicion in her eyes.She didn't believe that this guy would really be so indifferent. Based on her understanding of Simon, there must be something inside that she didn't know.

After Simon finished speaking, he took the initiative to change the subject and chatted with Courtney.

Compared with Sandra's carelessness in front of Simon, Courtney is obviously much restrained.

Everything that happened in the past year has caused her to lose even regret when facing Simon. Instead, she feels a little grateful that she can continue to retain some friendship with the young man in front of her.

Just seeing Simon chatting with Michelle Pfeiffer, Courteney remembered when she and Simon talked about the actress.

At that time, he and the young man in front of him were just nobody, and his state could even be said to be a little downcast.However, when she dreamed of becoming a big star like Michelle Pfeiffer, he was very indifferent, and said with great interest that he could try to date Michelle Pfeiffer in the future, which was naturally laughed at by her .

Just now, she found that Michelle Pfeiffer, whom she could only look up to at the beginning, did not have the airs that a first-line actress should have in front of this young man, but was obviously flattering.

The current him has indeed reached the point where most people in Hollywood can only please and look up to him.

Chapter 224 Blockbuster

PS: VIP is blocked, this chapter is a free chapter and will not generate duplicate subscriptions

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After eating something, Simon got up and started socializing among the crowd.

Janet was not by Simon's side, and Sandra began to play a guest role as his female companion very rudely. Courteney knew that her relationship with Simon could not reach this level of intimacy, so she tactfully left.

Sandra waited for Simon to chat with Orion Films President Mike Medova, and the two walked to the villa together and asked, "When are you going to Australia?"

Simon raised his glass to a guest he didn't know very well, without stopping, he said, "The day after tomorrow."

"The day after tomorrow?" Sandra was a little surprised: "In such a hurry?"

"It's not in a hurry, it's already been arranged," Simon said, looking at Sandra's surprised expression, "I'll probably stay in Melbourne for more than three months. If you're free, you can come and visit."

Sandra looked around for a while, pretending to be worried: "Australia is Jenny's base camp, and her family is still mining. Will I be caught and filled in the mine when I go?"

Simon nodded heavily: "Very likely."

Seeing Simon's appearance, Sandra became dissatisfied again, and said, "You don't care?"

There was a smile on the corner of Simon's mouth, but his tone was very awkward: "It's hard to manage, her family has a lot of mines, and some are still in Africa."

Sandra rolled her eyes: "Asshole."

With a smile on his face, Simon came to talk to Wes Craven, the director of "Scream".

Although the two parties had some friction over the remuneration of the director of the sequel of "Scream", after some consideration, Wes Craven still accepted Daenerys Entertainment's $1500 million package remuneration for the two sequels.

Apparently, Wes Craven wasn't carried away by the success of "Scream" and repeated his exit from the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series.The director's salary of $1500 million for the two sequels is already difficult to achieve higher for horror films.

After a few chats, Simon and Sandra are about to move forward. Nancy Brill, the president of the consumer goods department who just joined Daenerys Entertainment some time ago, is leading a middle-aged man in his 50s with a fat figure. People came over.

"Nancy, you are so beautiful tonight," Simon and Nancy Brill shook hands, looking at the middle-aged man curiously, waiting for Nancy's initiative to explain.

Nancy Brill shook hands with Simon with a smile, greeted Sandra again, and said, "Simon, this is Mr. Wayne Huizenga, he is the chairman of Blockbuster."

Simon originally thought that the middle-aged man was Nancy Brill's husband, and sighed inwardly that a flower was stuck in cow dung. After listening to Nancy's introduction, he realized that he had misunderstood.

Nancy has been gathering information on Daenerys' Entertainment Consumer Products division in the meantime since the possibility of getting into the video chain store business was discussed at a previous meeting.It can be seen that this woman is not reconciled to only being in charge of a consumer products department.

Simon actually likes ambitious women, especially ambitious and beautiful women.Of course, the premise is that they need to have the ability to match.Although he didn't know much about Nancy, Simon could basically tell that she was a woman with outstanding abilities.

Thinking of this, Simon did not hesitate. He reached out his hand to Wayne Huizenga and said with a smile, "Hello, Mr. Huizenga, your last name is really special."

"Hello, Simon, in fact, the surname in Westeros is really unique." Wayne Huizenga shook hands with Simon with a smile, and then obviously added on purpose: "Our family is a Nordic immigrant. , Huizenga is a Dutch surname."

Suddenly, Simon said, "I know some Nordic surnames, but they seem to be quite awkward."

While chatting with Wayne Huizenga, detailed information about Blockbuster also appeared in Simon's mind.

The company was founded in 1985 by a Texas software engineer named David Cook, but after just over a year in business, David Cook sold Blockbuster and quit the company.

Wayne Huizenga, who runs a garbage hauling business, discovered the company, bought Blockbuster with several other partners, and began investing heavily in its expansion earlier this year.In just one year, Blockbuster has grown from dozens of original chain stores to 386 according to Simon's recent data, which is growing at a rate of one every day.

In this era, the cost of investing in a video rental and sales store is about 50 U.S. dollars, which can be regarded as other expenses. In just this year, Wayne Huizenga and his partners have already invested nearly [-] million U.S. dollars. funds.

However, judging from the revenue data of the previous quarters, in 1988, Blockbuster's total turnover was only about 1.3 million US dollars. Because of the continuous large-scale investment, the annual financial report was naturally a loss.

Wayne Huizenga also started from scratch back then. He has been in business for more than 20 years, and his personal assets are less than 8000 million US dollars. Naturally, he can no longer continue to support the rapid expansion of Blockbuster, even with several other partners. After apportioning the investment, Blockbuster has accumulated liabilities of up to [-] million U.S. dollars in the past year.

Now, the North American stock market has not fully recovered, and Blockbuster is not suitable for financing through listing. If it wants to continue the current expansion frequency, Wayne Huizenga can only seek other investors to buy shares.

In my memory, five years later, Blockbuster was acquired by Viacom with a huge sum of more than 5 billion U.S. dollars. Even if the valuation of Blockbuster is higher now, based on its various conditions, it will not exceed 80 billion, accounting for less than 3% of the video chain market in North America. .

Therefore, although Simon has always been concerned about the video chain business, it is definitely the best time to enter Blockbuster at this time, and it will definitely bring very rich returns.

Because it was a New Year's Eve reception celebrating entertainment, Simon did not discuss too formal issues with Wayne Huizenga.After making an appointment for a meeting tomorrow morning, Wayne Huizenga left on his own initiative.

Simon watched the figure of Wayne Huizenga go away, looked at Nancy, and said, "How did the talk go?"

With the departure for Australia the day after tomorrow, Simon doesn't have the time to tug-of-war with Wayne Huizenga.At tomorrow's meeting, the two sides will basically determine whether a cooperation can be reached.Prior to this, Simon had instructed Nancy and Wayne Huizenga to negotiate.

Nancy Brill said: "He originally hoped to transfer 30% of Blockbuster's shares in exchange for a $1 million investment from Daenerys Entertainment. I talked about 35%, $1.2 million. Simon, we are not The only company interested in investing in Blockbuster, Summer Redstone's Viacom, has been in touch with Wayne Huizenga."

Simon thought for a while and said, "$1.2 million shouldn't be enough for Blockbuster's expansion next year, right?"

Blockbuster has already invested 2 million US dollars this year, and continues to grow at a rate of one store per day. It is estimated that Blockbuster will have 800 stores by the end of next year. Even if the company's own income will offset part of the financial pressure, next year's investment It should not be less than 2 million US dollars.

Nancy shook her head and explained: "It's really not enough, but the transfer of 35% of the shares is already the limit that Wayne Huizenga and others can accept. They don't want to lose control of this company. Viacom It was because they wanted to acquire more shares that the two sides failed to reach an agreement. As for the remaining funds, Blockbuster should use loans to solve the problem, and if necessary, they may introduce other investors or conduct an IPO in advance.”

Simon also nodded slightly.

If Daenerys Entertainment is now in urgent need of funds, even if it owns 100% of the shares in this factory, the most shares that Simon is willing to transfer are probably only 35%.

Wayne Huyzenga owns Blockbuster together with other partners. No one holds more than 30% of the shares. Daenerys Entertainment used 1.2 million US dollars to get 35% of the company. , should already be the largest shareholder of this company.

It is conceivable that in tomorrow's meeting, Wayne Huizenga will definitely raise the clause that Daenerys Entertainment should not excessively interfere with Blockbuster's business operations as a major shareholder.

However, if he can't intervene in the operation of Blockbuster, Simon really doesn't have much confidence in the company's longer-term development.

David Cook previously created Blockbuster, which only imitated Wal-Mart’s warehousing logistics and information coordination system to a certain extent. This management and operation model was very successful in the first few years of Blockbuster’s expansion, but the video rental and sales The development and changes of the industry are much faster than that of supermarkets. In the 90s, Blockbuster's business strategy at this time will soon appear outdated.

In my memory, an important inflection point in the development of Blockbuster was acquired by Viacom five years later.

After that, Blockbuster was under the control of Summer Redstone, who no longer had enough energy to manage the Viacom business empire. Although the scale was still expanding, it was actually going downhill, just like the entire The same is true of Viacom.

Although Blockbuster still existed until Simon's rebirth, compared with its latecomer Netflix (Netfix), the two are completely different.

To avoid repeating the same mistakes, Blockbuster must adjust its development strategy at any time during the development process in the next few years.Simon had no confidence in Wayne Huizenga's ability to do so.Therefore, if Simon wants to get involved in the video chain business for a long time, it is obviously the best choice to seize the control of Blockbuster.

However, this matter is actually not in a hurry.

Now the most important thing is to get a 35% stake in Blockbuster. Daenerys Entertainment only needs to ensure that this stake will not be diluted in the next few years. When necessary, Simon will have enough chips to win Blockbuster. Control.

Simon was talking with Nancy in a low voice, and a hearty greeting sounded from the side.

Turning around and seeing Robert Redford, Simon smiled and said, "Bob, I'm so glad you can come over tonight. How are you doing?"

"Very good, Simon." Robert Redford shook hands with Simon, and said, "I've seen the "Metropolitan", a very thoughtful movie."

Simon smiled, although Sundance only accepted one film from Daenerys Entertainment this year, he has no complaints against Redford, everyone is in the circle, and Redford is still one of the most important stars of CAA, he It is also impossible to be completely unaffected by those around you.

Moreover, this big Hollywood star helped him a lot at the beginning. Except for "Run Lola Run" which accidentally pushed the Sundance Film Festival into the fast lane of development, Simon himself did not repay the other party much. Owing something to Radford.

The two casually chatted about the recent situation, and Radford restrained his expression and lowered his voice slightly: "Simon, there is one more thing. Michael hopes to talk to you face to face. Are you free tomorrow?"

The Michael that Radford spoke of was, of course, Michael Ovitz, president of CAA.