hunt hollywood

Moreover, for the subsequent distribution of videotapes and TV broadcasts, United Artists also insisted on splitting into agents, which once again reserved the "operating" space for future distribution operations.

MGM headquarters in Beverly Hills.

Tony Tomopoulos signed his name on the contract, and looked up at Simon Westeros, who was signing with his head bowed across the conference table. Even though he still felt that this matter was a bit strange, he still looked at the fat sheep to some extent. Emotions.

but.

Tomopoulos didn't know whether this was self-consolation.

As a veteran producer who has been in Hollywood for decades, Tomopoulos does not lack his own intuition in movies.

After his pre-Christmas meeting with Amy, Tomopoulos also considered doing Rain Man without Daenerys Films entirely.However, when he discussed the project with MGM United owner Kirk Kerkorian, it was outright rejected.

United Artists doesn't have much money on their books. If they want to independently produce "Rain Man", the company can only use the model of copyright pre-sale and bank loans for financing.

The whole of Hollywood is not optimistic about this project, and it is naturally impossible for United Artists to obtain too much pre-sale funds from theater operators.Then, most of the production budget of the film can only be obtained through loans.Counting the future issuance investment, United Artists will bear at least 2000 million US dollars in debt.

2000 million US dollars may not be a big deal to Simon Westeros who is now rich and powerful, but United Artists is very difficult to bear the risk.Once the project fails, the United Artists label is likely to fall silent again.

After the signing ceremony and a simple lunch, Simon and his party left Beverly Hills and returned to Santa Monica.

Inside Simon's SUV.

Amy looked at Simon who was reviewing the contract, and said, "Regarding "Charlie's Angels", Columbia Pictures insisted on 700 million US dollars and refused to lower the price. Simon, if you think it's okay, you can sign the contract tomorrow."

In Simon's memory, Drew Barrymore, who bought the copyright of the "Charlie's Angels" TV series in advance, easily earned 1.2 million US dollars through the rebroadcast of the TV series and the distribution of DVDs after the movie version was released.

700 million US dollars, in the eyes of many people, is a sky-high price that is completely taken advantage of, but Simon does not think it is high at all: "Sign it, and in addition, you have recently contacted Warner about "Batman", and Alexander Sal Kinder's rights to "Superman."

Amy was a little puzzled: "Aren't you going to buy DC?"

Simon shook his head helplessly, and said: "When I was in New York, I contacted Steve Ross and wanted to talk about it in person, but I was rejected directly on the phone, and I gave Ross an offer , got no response."

Steve Ross is the chairman and CEO of Warner Bros., and controls the entire Warner system. Warner Bros. Pictures is only a part of Warner Bros.Now Warner has not yet merged with Time Inc., but the two sides have already started relevant negotiations last year.

Amy asked: "Then how should we talk about this matter?"

Simon thought for a moment, and said: "Contact Warner first, and get the copyright of "Batman", even if you only get half of it. But you must ensure that Daenerys Pictures fully controls this project. Win "Batman" ", if you contact Alexander Salkind about "Superman", even if it costs money, we will take over the copyright of "Superman". By the way, there is also "Wonder Woman". By the way, this woman The copyright of superheroes has also been taken down."

Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman.

If you can hold the Big Three of the DC movie universe in your memory, you will basically hold the entire DC.

Amy listened to the excitement in Simon's words, and smiled and said, "Do you want "The Flash?"

Simon paused, came to his senses, and said with a wry smile: "Warner is not stupid. In this way, you make sure to get "Batman". This is the most important thing, let's not mention anything else."

Chapter 140 Afternoon

Santa Monica.

In the parking lot outside the headquarters of Daenerys Films, Simon and Amy got out of the car, Jennifer and Amy's assistant Vanessa also got out of another car, and the four walked into the company's office building together.

Simon is still talking about the movie with Amy: "I've thought about it, since CAA has temporarily changed its mind, Robin Williams is fine, you give this script and the outline of my ghost movie to Robert De Niro, it would be nice to sign him for both films at once."

Amy confirmed: "The "Sixth Sense" that Bruce Joy Robin is writing?"

The last time I met Bruce Joy Robin, the screenwriter of "Ghosts", Simon was reminded by the story of "Ghosts" and another ghost movie that came to mind was the original 1999 box office hit "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality".This well-conceived plot thriller was second only to "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" at the box office that year, with a global box office of more than 6 million U.S. dollars, which was even more popular than "Ghosts".

Simon nodded and said, "Yes, De Niro must be very interested in trying the roles of teacher and psychologist."

Amy smiled and said: "Actually, De Niro was the first thing I thought of. However, in this case, the budget cost of the two films must exceed 1000 million U.S. dollars."

Although Simon really hopes to get rid of his dependence on superstars, he also understands that with the current strength of Daenerys Pictures, it will not be able to challenge the traditional rules of Hollywood in the short term.

"If you exceed it, just exceed it. No matter what, ensuring the quality of the film comes first," Simon said, remembering another thing, and said: "The recent negotiations between the Screenwriters Union and the Producers Union have broken down again?"

"Yeah, there will probably be another strike this year," Amy also understood what Simon meant, and said, "I will urge Robert Haring and Bruce Joy Robin to finish "Steel Magnolias" and "Shocking" before the strike." "The Scream" script."

Listening to Amy's relaxed tone, Simon suddenly realized that the whole of Hollywood probably didn't anticipate the seriousness of the next strike.

The "Basic Agreement" between the Film and Television Producers Union and the Screenwriters Union is renegotiated every three years, and disputes arise almost every time, but they can basically be resolved quickly.Except for the first screenwriter strike in Hollywood history in 1960, which lasted 151 days, the other strikes were short, with the most recent strike in 1985 lasting only 15 days.

However, the 1988 Hollywood screenwriters' strike lasted 155 days.

Simon had originally considered taking advantage of this strike to expand Daenerys Pictures' TV program production business. Now, with Hollywood's optimistic attitude at this time, if it is done properly, Daenerys Pictures will be able to obtain The benefits are definitely not limited to these.

On the second floor, Amy took Vanessa to her office.

Simon looked at Jennifer, who was following up, and noticed that her hair was loose again today. Remembering that the female assistant's hairstyle is always changing between the shawl and the ponytail these days, she looked very struggling, and joked with a smile : "You, like Amy, started to adjust your hairstyle according to your mood?"

After getting along for a long time, Simon discovered that Amy Pascal had a little habit of changing her hairstyle according to her mood.

Jennifer didn't expect Simon to notice these details. Thinking of Janet's words that night, she suddenly felt that he must have noticed that he was so hateful.

His cheeks started to heat up again, and he didn't know how to answer, so he simply lowered his head and pretended not to hear.

Seeing that the female assistant was silent, Simon didn't ask any further questions, but just smiled and said, "Let's tie it up, I like the way you tie it up."

tie.

tie up.

Like riding a horse.

You bastard, don't even think about it!

Jennifer plucked up the courage to look up and gave Simon a harmless look, but she subconsciously quickened her pace and quickly fled into her office.

Simon watched Jennifer close the office door in bewilderment. He was very puzzled. He was just making a joke, isn't it so lethal?

When she came to her office, Susan told Simon that Ms. Bigelow had been waiting for more than ten minutes.

Pushing open the door, Catherine was sitting on the sofa in the reception area and flipping through a script. Today, the woman was wearing a dark green military-style jacket, bootcut jeans, and a pair of black high-heeled short boots. A heroic and awe-inspiring look.

Noticing that Catherine was about to stand up, Simon hurriedly stopped her: "No, just sit down."

Catherine was a little confused, so she stood up anyway.

then.

The woman's height immediately surpassed Simon's. With her attire today, it immediately gave Simon a feeling that you don't have to ask, 'If you kill me, I won't tell you'.

Catherine felt Simon's eyes, raised the script in her hand unnaturally and said, "Do you want to read it first?"

Simon came over to take the script, still looking at the woman who was completely helpless in front of him, and said with a smile: "Can you take off the coat? I'm afraid that you will beat me if you find something wrong with the script later."

Catherine gave Simon a reproachful look, but just sat down again on her own.

Simon walked to the couch next to Catherine and sat down, raised his legs and put the script on his lap, and glanced at the title, "Thunderbolt Blue Angel".It is Catherine's second theatrical feature film after "Blood Corpse Night" in the original time and space.

It’s no surprise that Eric Reed, the screenwriter of “Thunderbolt Blue Angel”, is also the screenwriter of Catherine’s last “Blood Corpse Night”. In some previous communications, Catherine said that she is working with Eric Reed. We perfected the script together, but the name of the story was only recently determined.

In fact, I have seen this movie in my memory, and Simon's biggest feeling is that Jamie Lee Curtis must not be allowed to play the heroine this time.Simon has feelings for many female stars with neutral temperament, but he always feels that Jamie Lee Curtis is not neutral, but a man at all.

As Simon opened the script, the atmosphere in the office suddenly became quiet.

Catherine looked at the profile of the man next to him who was concentrating on reading the script. After a while, she realized that she quickly picked up the coffee on the coffee table and took a sip. She wanted to find a random topic and ask him how he was doing.

but.

From the end of October, his every move seemed to be in the newspapers.

He suddenly made so much money, he was almost under investigation, even during the holidays, it made a big company like Motorola really upset

.

and.

Don't even talk about actively looking for a topic

It must have been intentional.

After a moment of silence, she raised the coffee cup in her hand and asked, "Do you want coffee?"

Simon looked up and said, "Okay."

Noticing that he was looking at his cup, he immediately remembered that morning, inexplicably worried that he would come over and snatch the coffee cup from his hand, and by the way...so he got up quickly: "I'll get it for you."

When I came to the door, I found that he had locked the door of the office just now, and he must have planned to do something bad.

.

Cursing softly again in my heart, I went outside to make a pot of coffee myself, returned to the office, hesitated for a while, silently found a reason, and locked the door behind me.

Poured him a cup of coffee, sat down again, thought for a while and said, "You must be busy, right? Otherwise, I'll go back first, and you can give me a reply when you finish reading."

Simon shook his head: "No, it's just your business in the afternoon."

Hearing his natural tone, he could only pretend to pick up the coffee cup again.Then I noticed the obvious hateful smile on the corner of his mouth, so I stretched my legs over, lifted the heel of the hard boots, and tapped lightly on the instep of his foot.

Not willing to use force, her boot was caught by Simon's feet, and she subconsciously retracted her leg, leaving the black boot on the man's side.

Looking at her boots, she really wanted to go and snatch them back, but she didn't dare to approach them.Instinctively felt that if I leaned over, I might not be able to come back.

"you can not do that."

"Ok?"

"I'll tell Jenny."

"Ah."

"Give me back the shoes."

"No."

"."

"Thank you for the compliment."

After a stalemate for a moment, she felt that she was getting more and more angry, um, it must be like this, and then she couldn't help getting up and leaning over to grab the shoes back.

then.

Sure enough, the whole person was caught.

After an unknown amount of time, Simon was still sitting in the same position as before on the couch, while Catherine was lying on the other side, raising one arm to cover her face, her chest still rising and falling rapidly.The military-style jacket on the woman that made Simon feel quite oppressive had been taken off, and she was wearing a close-fitting black turtleneck sweater. There were only thin silk stockings left on her feet, which were draped feebly on the man's legs.

Simon continued to flip through the script of "Thunderbolt Blue Angel" for a while, and when the woman calmed down, he tentatively asked, "Will you go to my place at night?"

"No," Catherine subconsciously refused. After a pause, she added in a low voice, "I don't want to see anyone if I'm found beside you. Also, Jenny."

Simon thought of the almost constant paparazzi around him, and was also a little distressed. When Catherine mentioned Janet, he was silent for a moment, and said, "I will confess to Janet. I am too greedy to be a good man."

Catherine immediately said, "Don't tell her."

Simon said: "Jenny is very smart."

Catherine insisted: "Anyway, you are not allowed to tell her."

"Okay," Simon said with a helpless smile, "I'll be going to San Francisco recently, and there are other things about the setting of "Basic Instinct". Or, you should go there too, and pay a little attention over there. be found."

With her arms still covering her face, Catherine shook her head and said, "No, I don't want to cooperate with you in doing this kind of thing."

Simon smiled bitterly: "Then what should we do? You don't want to be here, and you don't want to go to San Francisco. If you go to my place, you are afraid of being discovered."

Catherine lightly kicked Simon's leg: "It has nothing to do with me, this is your business."

Simon couldn't help but raised his hand and scratched the bottom of the woman's feet, but was kicked a few more times, so he said, "Forget it, let's talk about the script. What do you want to express in this story?"

"I don't want to talk now."

"Well, then don't talk."

Simon nodded, stroking the woman's calf on his body, occasionally turning a page of the script, quietly killing the beautiful time of the afternoon.

Chapter 141 WGA Invitation

"'You look familiar, I guess I didn't recognize you because you were wearing clothes' Haha, Simon, how did you come up with that monologue in Celebration? If I didn't know your age, I would definitely Think whoever wrote that sentence is a seasoned playboy."

Inside a restaurant in Santa Monica.

Madonna on the opposite side of the table leaned slightly towards Simon, discussing the song that Simon wrote for her last time.

"Pulp Fiction" has entered the final stage of sound editing. Simon was not satisfied with the recording effect of a few lines in the scenes of Sean Penn and Madonna. He called to see if they could find time to re-dub. The couple readily agreed.

After completing the dubbing work in the morning, Simon naturally did not hesitate to have a lunch.

If Sean Penn wasn't present, Simon wouldn't mind teasing a few words in turn. He just smiled and said, "Speaking of which, how many sales of "You Can Dance" are there?"