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"Ok?"
Janet shook the check she was still holding in the other hand, gestured to Tasmania on the map, and said, "68401 square kilometers, which is larger than many states in the United States. Well, it is impossible to buy it all at once. However, from now on, if you buy some every year, one day the island will be completely ours. Tasmania is actually very deserted, most of it is pristine Next to the forest and barren hills. Just 100 million US dollars is enough for us to buy a large piece of land. By the way, there are still tens of thousands of people on the island. If you want to do this, you must plan well. Well, it’s best to set up a lot of shell companies and then buy them without knowing it, otherwise it will definitely cause land prices to rise.”
Listening to Janet's increasingly excited tone, Simon raised his wrist and looked at his watch, and said, "In that case, I'll leave this matter to you. However, we'd better go to sleep now."
Janet was obediently dragged away from the study by Simon, the man took a shower, and the two hugged each other on the big bed.
But, still very excited.
Discussed with Simon in detail what to do after buying the entire Tasmania, and then talked about his other two wishes.This continued until after two o'clock in the morning, feeling the steady breathing of the man beside her, but she still did not fall asleep.
Repeatedly recalling bits and pieces about dreams in this late night.
At a certain moment, I suddenly understood.
During many moments of getting along, she could clearly feel that there were too many things bound in his heart.
perhaps.
All he really wanted, after all, was freedom.
Chapter 115
Entering July, half of the summer vacation in 7 has passed without knowing it.
Apart from "Beverly Cop 2", there are no other blockbusters expected to exceed [-] million domestic box office this summer.
"The Witches of East Town" led by Jack Nicholson, "The Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and "The Net" starring Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd. Movies that can reach 6000 to [-] million US dollars can only be regarded as small profits, basically failing to meet the expectations of major film companies.
Among them, the new film "Project X" starring Matthew Broderick, who had conflicts with Simon at the beginning, was scheduled to be released on June 6 by Fox Films. With an opening scale of 5 screens, the box office in the first week was 1022 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office in June was only more than 457 million US dollars.Compared with the production cost of 1200 million US dollars, although Fox Pictures will not lose money through post-production operations, this film is completely unable to match the high-quality schedule and publicity resources it has obtained.
Simon paid attention to the film "Project X" before it was released, but he didn't feel much in his heart.
The original matter has long been over, as long as Matthew Broderick does not provoke him, Simon will not have any intersection with him in the future.
On the other hand, on July 7, the S&P 2 index broke through the 500-point mark. After a month and a half of silence, Simon once again began to issue trading orders to Noah Scott, gradually liquidating the original holdings in the Westeros Company account. 290 contracts, and at the same time start building positions again.
In this era of stock index futures trading without a "daily debt-free settlement system", there are naturally many benefits for futures speculators, but the disadvantage is that Simon cannot directly use the book profits of the original 4500 contracts for buying operations, and wants to increase positions , it is necessary to complete a liquidation change of hands.
西蒙原本期待能够在标普500指数位于290点到295点之间的区间完成换手。不过,度过了波动比较频繁的6月份股指期货交割月,标普500指数的涨势明显加快。
In mid-May, the account of Westeros opened a position at an average of 5 points in the S&P 500 index, but finally completed the liquidation and change of hands at an average of 272 points.
With an average increase of 23 points, the book profit of each contract reached about 1 US dollars.
After settlement, the 4500 long contracts in the Westeros account, excluding various transaction fees, made a cumulative profit of 5065 million U.S. dollars in one month, and Simon's principal also increased to 1.25 million U.S. dollars.
After the handover operation, the long position of Westeros increased to 6800, and the position ratio still reached a very dangerous 80%.
Fortunately, from July 7nd to July 2th, the second layout ended, and the S&P 7 index had risen to 10 points at the close of trading on July 500th. In just a few days, Westeros The long contract in the company's account once again generated a very considerable book profit.
Simon found that he might not need to use the Wells Fargo loan at all in the future.In fact, he really didn't want to use that loan unless it was absolutely necessary.
Violation of the loan contract is still second, and most importantly, once the misappropriation of the loan is discovered, Simon's operation in the futures market is likely to be exposed as well.
Compared with the stock index futures trading volume of more than 8 contracts per day on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the thousands of contracts held by Westeros would not have had much impact on the market.
But if someone finds out that some young man who has just made a box-office miracle in Hollywood is also in the game and has made a lot of money without knowing it.Then, according to Soros's famous reflexive theory of 'interaction between market participants and the market', the interference of Simon's operation on the stock index futures market will also be amplified, and the original market trend in his memory is likely to be affected by it. Change.
At the same time, in the last week of the filming plan, the crew of "Death Comes" returned to Los Angeles from New York and completed the opening scene of the air crash in the studio of Fox Studios. The film was successfully completed on July 7.
Simon spent a few days discussing with Wes Craven and confirming the detailed post-production plan of "Death Comes". On July 7, "Pulp Fiction", which has been in preparation for several months, officially started shooting.
Inside a bar in Venice Beach.
On the third day of the filming, the film crew was filming the scene where gang boss Martha Wallace lobbied Butch Coolidge to punch fake punches.
There is a soundtrack for this episode in the feature film, but at this time, the atmosphere in the bar is very quiet.
All departments of the crew surrounded the two actors who played Martha Wallace and Butch Coolidge in an orderly manner, and there was only the narration of the black actor Ving Rhames who played Martha Wallace.
"When all this is over, you will find that you are the one who has the last laugh. Butch, although you are still strong now, unfortunately, you won't be strong for long..."
Since it is a fixed-camera shooting, Simon does not need to check the composition of the lens through the monitor in real time. Instead, he stands outside the photographer, lighting engineer and other staff, and watches Robert De Niro with his arms crossed. I can't help but compare it with the original Bruce Willis.
Among a large group of tough guy actors such as Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis' acting skills can be said to be the best.
However, in this shot of the original "Pulp Fiction", watching Lao Bu sitting in front of the camera and listening to the instructions of the gangster boss, most people still have an idea subconsciously, this is Bruce Willis, this is Bruce Willis Hey, this is Bruce Willis...
at this time.
Simon looked at Robert De Niro, who had slumped shoulders and pursed his lips slightly, suppressed his anger and resignation, but did not dare to explode in front of the gang boss, and felt in his heart that this was Butch Coolidge, a certain A down-and-out boxer whose career is nearing the end and still has some strength but failed to stand out after all.
In "Pulp Fiction", Butch Coolidge's room to play is actually not much less than that of Vincent, Jules and other characters.But in the original film, due to insufficient acting skills or no thought at all, this role was basically played as a real-life Bruce Willis mess-in.
This is probably why the media and audience will talk about characters such as Vincent, Mia, and Jules, but few people discuss a boxer with a heavy role.
In comparison, Robert De Niro, who has always had a reputation for dedication, has prepared for this role in recent months, even Simon can't help but be amazed.
Although a boxer, Butch Coolidge does not appear in the ring in the film.But even so, in order to make himself look like a professional boxer, Robert De Niro still carried out physical training for up to two months and gained weight.
Regarding the current scene, Robert De Niro not only discussed with Simon many times the details of the character's psychological changes and performance methods, but also asked Ving Rhames to record this dialogue for himself to ponder over and over again.
Now, it is only the first scene that Robert De Niro participated in after the filming started, and Simon is sure that this time Butch Coolidge will definitely leave the audience with no less profound impression than Vincent, Jules and other characters. impression.
Three minutes later, when the first performance of Robert De Niro and Ving Rhames was over, Simon motioned for the others to rest and led the two to the monitor.
In the 80s, the video assistance system had just emerged, and the monitor screen was only 6 inches in size, but the rental of the whole set of equipment was very expensive, almost equivalent to the rental price of a video camera.
In the previous "Run Lola Run", in order to save the budget, Simon simply did not use this set of equipment.
Naturally, I don't need to be so frugal this time.
The three of them watched the replay in front of a monitor screen that was only comparable to a large-screen mobile phone later.After a while, Simon pressed pause, and fixed the picture on a small detail of Robert De Niro's mouth. He turned his head and asked Robert De Niro who was standing next to him, "Bob, what do you think?"
Robert De Niro looked at it for a moment, shook his head and smiled, and said, "Excessive force."
Simon nodded and said: "As a small person, Butch is actually very afraid of Marsha. His long silence has already shown his inner resistance, but it is impossible for him to dare to show too obvious dissatisfaction. Therefore, Next, you need to hold back a little bit."
Robert De Niro didn't say much, and said, "Simon, let me brew."
Simon waited for Robert De Niro to return to his seat before turning to Ving Rhames, who played Martha Wallace.
Like Samuel L. Jackson who played Jules, Ving Rhames is also an original actor.
Moreover, Ving Rhames is similar to Samuel L Jackson in other ways.
This black actor is also a standard professional background. He has studied drama performance at the State University of New York and the Juilliard School of New York, which is known as the "Harvard of Music". Has been playing some unremarkable small roles in Hollywood.
From Samuel Jackson and Ving Rhames, it is not difficult to see that Hollywood still has deep-rooted racial discrimination after all.In Hollywood, many black movie stars have a relatively high level of education.Relatively speaking, the "threshold" for white people to realize the American dream is much lower.
Due to his professional background, although Ving Rhames did not show his face at all in the 3-minute performance just now, Simon was amazed by his profound line skills.
Simon chatted with Ving Rhames for a few words, and he had a good impression of this actor who played the role of a gangster but has a gentle personality in reality. Finally, he stretched out his hand and said to him: "Ven, your lines are very good. I think we will definitely have the opportunity to cooperate in the future.”
Ving Rhames shook hands with Simon vigorously, and said with a smile, "Of course, I'm looking forward to it too."
Having said that, Robert De Niro said that the filming could start again, and Simon ordered everyone to prepare again.
Today's main shoot was the scenes of Butch, Martha, Vincent and Jules in the bar. Martha lobbied Butch for fake punches, and it took an hour to shoot repeatedly before Simon agreed.
John Travolta and Samuel L. L. Jackson had already done their make-up, and other shots quickly began.
So busy until five o'clock in the afternoon, the crew officially closed work.
After the others dispersed, Simon and several assistant directors confirmed tomorrow's shooting plan and sent today's film to the Fox Studios laboratory. It was already [-]:[-].
Inside Fox Studios.
Leaving the post-production center, Simon looked at Jennifer Raybould, who was used to being by his side these days. The girl left George Norman's law firm soon after his last invitation and came to give work by yourself.
Slowing down and walking on the asphalt road in the studio, Simon asked the girl beside him, "Jenny, how are you feeling these days?"
Jennifer Raybould was carrying a briefcase and holding a folder in her hand. Hearing Simon's question, she couldn't help but think of her experiences these days.At the end of last month, she suddenly made the decision to give up her career as a lawyer. All the relatives around said she could not accept it, and her parents even flew over from New York.
However, Jennifer, who has always been a good girl since she was a child, does not intend to obey her parents' wishes this time.
After several confrontations, she finally got what she wanted.
However, Jennifer also made some compromises. Her parents required her to complete the California bar exam at the end of July and officially obtain a practicing certificate.In this way, she will also be able to return to the legal profession at any time in the future.
then.
Beginning on July 7, the girl officially became Simon's personal assistant.
The occupational categories of secretaries and assistants overlap, but they are basically two different jobs.To put it simply, in an enterprise, the authority of an assistant is usually much higher than that of a secretary.
For the past half month, Jennifer is still in the stage of getting familiar with her work.
In fact, Simon's career in Hollywood has just started, and there are actually not many jobs that can be given to her.
However, as long as the operation in the stock index futures market is successfully completed and there is a large amount of funds, the industry under Simon's name will definitely expand rapidly.At that time, the workload of girls will increase significantly.
At this moment, upon hearing Simon's question, Jennifer said, "I don't feel like I can do much for you. Perhaps, I should take some film courses at USC."
Simon smiled and shook his head when he heard this, and said, "No need, Jenny. You have to know that in Hollywood, experience is more important than education. Besides, I don't plan to train you to be a film producer."
Jennifer wondered, "Simon, what are you going to ask me to do?"
"It's just my assistant," Simon smiled, paused, and said, "Actually, I've been working on something else recently, but it's not convenient to tell you now. Wait for a while, and you will find that you may be busy. It's time to fly."
Chapter 116
Fox Studios.
It was already the end of July, and Catherine Bigelow entered a studio in the studio, greeted people she knew well, and soon found someone who was lecturing for Robert De Niro and Janet Johnston. Simon.
Today's filming is the interaction between Butch Coolidge and cab driver Esmeralda Villalobos.
In order to allow the actors to perform without distraction, this episode was shot in a studio except for the beginning and the end. The street scene outside the car window in the original film is obviously a big screen projection.
Simon gave Janet the role of female taxi driver that he likes very much. These days, women also prepare very carefully.When Catherine learned about this, she agreed to come to visit the class today, and by the way, see how her best friend who has never appeared in front of the camera performed.
Seeing that Simon and the others were busy, Catherine didn't step forward to interrupt, but nodded to Janet who noticed her, and sat down in the rest area first, chatting casually with the film's producer Laura Zerkins.
Ron McMillan, the producer who worked with Simon on "Run Lola Run", was sent to be the producer of "Death Comes".For this "Pulp Fiction", Orion Films recommended Laura Zerkins.
Laura Zerkins, a blond woman in her 30s, had just helped Orion finish "Spirit of Souls," starring Kevin Costner and Sean Young, which doesn't open until next month.
The two chatted for a few words, and Simon and Janet walked over together.
After hugging Catherine intimately, Janet raised her arms and swirled in front of her: "Kate, how are you?"
Catherine looked at Janet's pajama-like loose red robe with flower and bird prints and her fluffy and lazy brown hair, and said, "It feels a little weird."
Janet smiled and shook her body again, revealing a pair of bare feet with nail polish under the moon white wide-leg pants, and said: "I think so too, but if it feels good, then it must be right."
Seeing Catherine looking at him probingly, Simon explained: "Actually, I thought about using pure red. Red represents danger, and, in oriental ghost stories, women wearing red clothes in the middle of the night are usually not human beings, but She is a very dangerous female ghost."
Catherine felt Simon's approaching eyes, subconsciously dodged a little, and said, "Why don't you use it?"
Simon smiled and said: "Because this is a black comedy, adding surreal elements will interfere with the style of the whole movie."
Laura Zerkins, who had been standing next to the three of them and listening quietly just now, heard what Simon said, and interjected: "Simon, in this case, what is in that suitcase? You haven't explained it in the script. What exactly is the golden light, it feels like there is something in it that shouldn't exist in reality."
"This is just an Easter egg left for the audience to guess," Simon shook his head and said, "Since no one knows what's in the box, naturally it won't affect the plot of the movie."
Several people were chatting, the assistant director came over and said that the filming could start again, and everyone walked towards a car model in front of the projection screen not far away.De Niro and Janet got into the car and started to bury their seats. Simon re-checked, then gestured OK to the assistant director, and then operated the camera himself.
Naturally, a full-time photographer was hired for this film, but when it came to Janet's role, Simon decided to come in person without even thinking about it.
When Simon was ready, the projection on the big screen and the car model started working at the same time, simulating the state of the taxi moving.
"Everyone is ready."
"Pulp Fiction, episode 26, third."
"Action!"
The clapperboard was laid down.
In the carriage, Robert De Niro began to tear off the boxing gloves from his hands with a tear and a bite.Janet in the front row rested one hand on the steering wheel, her expression showed a little vigilance and curiosity, and she squinted at the rearview mirror from time to time.
It was a moment before Janet spoke in a soft accent she had been practicing for weeks.
"Sir... hey, sir?"
"What?"
"You were in that fight, right, that fight on the radio, were you the fighter?"