hunt hollywood

When Madonna heard this question, she immediately became excited: "216 million in North America, about 335 million overseas, a total of 551 million. I thought it would be good to sell a total of 500 million copies. Now, this number can be doubled at least. So , Simon, when are you going to give me the next song?"

Simon said: "We must wait for your next album, it's impossible to write a song casually, right?"

"It doesn't matter if you write any song, as long as it is good enough, I can create an album based on your song." Madonna said with a look of having tasted the sweetness, "Also, Simon, do you have any other songs that are suitable for me? I don’t need any money this time, just a guest appearance in one song at a time will do.”

Simon said: "A campus thriller. In the opening scene, a girl received a call from a perverted murderer and was quickly killed. The body was not only hung on a tree, but also disemboweled. Do you want to play it or not?"

Madonna immediately shook her head: "No acting, this kind of situation can easily be imitated by extreme fans, I don't want to be like John Lennon."

Simon shrugged: "Then there is nothing else."

Madonna hesitated, and said, "Is there really such a role?"

"Yes, but hearing what you said just now, I'm also a little worried, so I won't give it to you." Simon shook his head, turned to Sean Penn, skillfully found a topic, and said, "Sean, you and Robert How about the "Rattlesnake" with Duvall?"

"The schedule has been confirmed. On April 4th, I think the finished film is very good. However, Orion's confidence in this film is not too high," Sean Penn said in a regretful tone, "Simon, I heard that You signed on to that 'Rain Man' that Ovitz has been pushing himself?"

Simon remembered the reactions of the newspapers, the media and some people around him in recent days, and said with a smile: "Yes, I'm already recognized as a fat sheep, you don't want to laugh at me, do you?"

Hearing this, Sean Penn had a hesitant expression on his face.

Madonna said bluntly: "Sean also wants to become a director, Simon, you are so rich now, help us invest some money."

Simon nodded with a smile, and said, "Let me read the script first. If it's okay, if my fat sheep hasn't been eaten by then, then there's no problem."

Madonna envied: "16 billion dollars, I think it's enough for me to spend my whole life."

Simon winked at Sean Pan: "Sean, it seems that you have to work hard to make money. This woman plans to spend 16 billion in her lifetime."

Sean Penn shrugged his shoulders manly: "After a beating, I won't have so many thoughts."

Madonna thumped Sean Penn's shoulder in dissatisfaction, and said, "Maybe I can make so much money by myself."

After the three of them had lunch, Simon sent the couple away, and as soon as they got into his car, Neil Bennett in the front row said: "Mr. Mr. Cogo would like to talk to you, he is already with the company."

Simon looked at his watch. He was planning to go to the WMA headquarters in the afternoon. Since Amy called in person, this matter obviously cannot be avoided, so he had to say: "Then go back to the company first."

Neil Bennett started the car, and Simon picked up the car phone to say hello to Jonathan Friedman. After a few chats, the SUV had already parked outside Daenerys Films headquarters.

Seeing Simon's car, Amy greeted him.

On the way back, Simon had roughly guessed the intention of WGA Chairman George Cogo, and Amy's explanation confirmed Simon's guess.

The WGA is divided into two major branches, the East and the West. To be precise, George Cogo should be the chairman of the West Branch of the WGA. Simon met him in his office. This is an old man in his early sixties with a round face and silver hair. , the spirit looks very hale and hearty.

After a brief chat, George Cogo explained his intentions: "Simon, you must know that we are negotiating with the Producers Union. As the best young screenwriter in Hollywood, we very much hope that you can join WGA, Give your voice to the screenwriting community."

A embarrassed look appeared on Simon's face, and he said, "Mr. Ke Ge, I now own my own production company. If I join the screenwriters' union, once the WGA goes on strike, I won't be able to abide by the strike regulations."

George Kego shook his head and smiled, "Simon, the negotiations are still going on, and it may not necessarily reach the level of a strike. Moreover, there will always be exceptions. Even if a strike does happen, you only need to not participate in the script creation for a period of time." And just stop signing new deals with the big studios."

Simon heard what George Cogo said, and realized that the other party was obviously an optimist, and didn't realize how serious the next strike would be.

With the five-month strike, it is impossible for Daenerys Films to hire professional screenwriters for a series of projects in progress. If Simon binds himself under the rules of WGA, the company will close down.

Shaking his head firmly, Simon regretted, "George, I'm really sorry, it's really inconvenient for me to join the WGA right now."

George Ke Ge did not give up easily, and continued to lobby for more than ten minutes. Seeing that Simon was persistent, he had to get up and leave.

Politely sending George Cogo out of the company headquarters, watching his car drive out of the parking lot, Amy said to Simon: "The nominations for the Writers Guild of America Awards will be announced next week."

Simon didn't rush to the WMA, and returned to the office building with Amy, saying, "You want me to join the WGA?"

Amy nodded and said: "The voting for the Oscar screenwriting award is also in the hands of WGA members. The screenwriting award is the project you are most likely to win this year. If you reject George Cogo, "Run Lola Run" must be hopeless." gone."

Simon smiled bitterly: "WGA lacks me, so it should be fine, right?"

Amy smiled and said, "Last year's "Run Lola Run", "Butterfly Effect" and "Death Comes" all three of your scripts were in the top ten of the annual box office list. If such a screenwriter is not a WGA member, they You don’t even have the confidence to go on strike.”

Simon was a little helpless, he actually understood what George Cogo and Amy were thinking.

Neither clearly felt that this year's strike was going to be that serious, or even that the WGA would necessarily go to the extent of a strike.

If Simon, a top screenwriter who is in the limelight in Hollywood, joins WGA at this time and expresses support for the negotiations between WGA and the Producers Union, it will be very beneficial to both parties.

At an important juncture of voting in this awards season, Simon's statement will definitely win the favor of many screenwriters who have voting rights.

in contrast.

If the WGA goes on strike, and Simon, the top screenwriter who created three films that squeezed into the annual box office list last year, breaks away from the strike group, he can not only create freely without restraint, but also continue to sign contracts with the studio. It's too face-slapping, and it will even embarrass the entire WGA.

After last year's "Run Lola Run", Simon has already gained fame in Hollywood, and he has also met the criteria to join the WGA, but the WGA has never made any initiative, and it is not accidental that the invitation has not been sent until now.

Everyone can easily understand the subtext of this.

Like Amy just said.

Nominations for the Writers Guild of America Awards will be announced next week.

Obviously.

If Simon agrees to join the WGA at this time, he will be a 'big favourite' for next week's nominations, and indeed the following awards.

but.

Simon, who had a clear view of the developments in the next few months, could not have agreed to the WGA invitation.

Chapter 142 The Background (Revised)

Jonathan Friedman and others are still waiting for him at the WMA headquarters. In the afternoon, everyone will discuss the heroine of "Basic Instinct".After chatting with Amy, Simon left the company's office building, and Jennifer followed the car with a stack of documents.

As the SUV shuttled through the streets of Los Angeles, Jennifer handed a meeting memo to Simon, saying: "Dad held a conference call with the senior management of SUN in the morning and confirmed that he will join the board of directors of this company. So far, we have obtained the proposals from 16 companies." Seats on the board of directors. Dad said that Apple and other companies are actually very promising, do you really plan to join?"

Simon flipped through the memo in his hand.

The full name of SUN is Sun Microsystems Inc., which is a new technology company that mainly produces servers and workstations. The powerful Java language is developed by this company.

In Simon's memory, SUN's market value at the peak of the Internet bubble once exceeded 2000 billion US dollars.After the Internet bubble burst, the company began to decline rapidly due to various reasons, and was eventually acquired by Oracle.

During last year's stock price crash, Westeros began bottom-hunting when Sun's market value was around $8.5 million.Counting the recent small-scale increase in holdings, Simon spent a total of less than 5 million US dollars for a 4500% stake in SUN.

If history does not change, this group of stocks will be worth $100 billion at the peak of SUN's market value in the future.

However, SUN's potential return on investment obviously cannot be compared with Microsoft.

Simon bought 4.9% of Microsoft's shares last year for only 5600 million US dollars. In the latest increase in holdings, he unknowingly increased the number of shares to 300 million shares, compared to Microsoft's total share capital of 5000 million shares at this time. , the shareholding ratio is exactly 6%.

According to the highest point of Microsoft's market value of 2000 billion U.S. dollars in 6000, just 6% of Microsoft's stock will increase Simon's personal wealth by 360 billion U.S. dollars.

Therefore, whether it is SUN or Microsoft, the next few years will be Simon's key goal of increasing holdings.Simon plans to increase its stake in these companies to at least 10%.

In contrast, Simon is not so interested in the current Apple.

西蒙去年在苹果公司市值30亿美元左右的最低点为这家公司4.9%的股票投入了大概1.5亿美元，比微软和SUN加在一起都还要多，仅次于摩托罗拉的2.5亿美元和英特尔的1.7亿美元。

However, according to the information in memory, after Apple's market value exceeds 70 billion U.S. dollars in the next few years, it will start to flourish and decline. Naturally, Simon has no desire to hold it for a long time.

Reading the meeting minutes in his hand, Simon heard Jennifer's question and said, "Last time, I made a promise to join the board of directors and not reduce my holdings for three years. There must be no way for the current money of Westeros Support for three years. Therefore, we must take the initiative to give up some board seats.”

Jennifer nodded and talked about another matter, saying: "Also, before the market closes today, New World Entertainment has bought 123 million shares in New World, with an average price of 7.5 US dollars and a total expenditure of about 900 million US dollars. New The total share capital of World Entertainment is 2500 million shares, and we happen to be stuck at around 4.9% that needs to be reported. After submitting the report to the SEC next Monday, the stock price will definitely rise as the news becomes public. Dad plans to continue to absorb it within $10 , and then make a takeover offer to New World Entertainment."

Due to problems in the capital chain, the current stock price of New World Entertainment is far below the actual value.In the acquisition plan previously discussed by Simon and James, a 50% premium cap was imposed on the final transaction price.

"For this matter, just let your father implement it according to the plan. There is no need to tell me all the details."

Jennifer responded, and handed over another thick folder, and said, "Also, here are some aircraft information you asked me to collect a few days ago, and the prices on the documents are just the airline's public quotations. In the actual transaction process, buyers usually get a certain discount.”

For the work and travel needs of himself, Amy, James and others, Simon decided to buy a business jet first, so he ordered Jennifer to collect some information.

Glancing out the car window, it was still some distance away from the WMA headquarters. Simon opened the folder and asked Jennifer, "Is there a type you like? I bought the plane, and it must be used by everyone."

Although the man next to her was not looking at her, Jennifer still dodged her eyes a little and said, "This is of course up to you to decide."

Simon smiled, looked at the information on the latest Gulfstream IV business jet in front of him, and said, "Speaking of which, I haven't officially thanked you for the video tape. If you have a favorite type, this time I will follow yours." Thinking about buying it."

Hearing Simon's relaxed tone, Jennifer felt a little dissatisfied, and couldn't help saying, "It's yours to buy it, so it's really dishonest."

Simon glanced at Jennifer and noticed that she tied her hair up again today, revealing her fair neck: "If I change the ownership of this plane to your name, will your father think we have something, and then Beat me up."

Feeling Simon's gaze, Jennifer shrank her neck, shook her head and said, "My father won't, Miss Johnston will, maybe I'll be beaten too."

Simon pretended to hesitate, and shook his head: "Forget it, it's not worthwhile to be beaten for nothing."

Jennifer's face turned red immediately, and a certain image appeared in her mind again.

Noticing that Simon turned his eyes to the information in front of him, he raised his hand, carefully touched the back of his head and secretly tore off the ribbon tied in his hair, feeling the loose hair, and then relaxed a little.

She thought he hadn't noticed, but just as she was about to quietly put the ribbon into the satchel, a voice came from her ear: "It doesn't look good like this."

Oh my goodness.

Resisting the urge to jump out of the car and flee, Jennifer clutched her satchel and mustered up the courage to glare at Simon: "I won't let you see it."

Sensing the slight vibrato in the girl's tone, although Simon was still a little confused, he stopped teasing and focused on the plane information in front of him.

Due to the loose aviation control system, the private jet industry in the West is very developed, and the price is not high.

According to the information in Simon's hands, the latest Gulfstream IV luxury business jet has a total passenger capacity of about 20 people and a cruising distance of nearly 8000 kilometers. The current official price is only 1600 million US dollars.According to what Jennifer just said, this price can still be discounted.

Of course, cheap is definitely only relative.

According to the latest media statistics, Simon's current net worth of around US$16 billion is enough for him to be included in this year's Forbes Global Rich List 50.What's more, most of the assets under Simon's name are stock assets that can be quickly converted into cash, which further increases the gold content of his personal wealth.

In contrast, many billionaires who are as wealthy as Simon may not be able to easily spend $1600 million in cash to buy a private jet.

Looking through the previous small business jet brands, Simon quickly saw some models that he was more interested in.

The Boeing 747 300, priced at $1 million.

This is Simon's ultimate goal.

Currently, the Boeing 747 400 is still in the research and development stage. The Boeing 747 300 is the latest model in the Boeing large aircraft series. As for data such as passenger capacity and cruising distance, if it is transformed into a private aircraft, there is obviously no need to pay attention to it.Such a model is enough to connect any two places on the earth with a full tank of fuel.The fuselage is six stories high, 70 meters long, and the interior space is spacious enough to build a swimming pool.

but.

Simon can only look at it now. Although the cost of 1 million US dollars is almost double that of the same type of large airliner more than ten years later, and he can afford it, he cannot buy it right now.

Too flamboyant.

If Simon buys now, he will definitely be drowned by the spittle stars of the entire North American media.

Even if Simon doesn't care about these things, after buying such a giant, parking and maintenance issues will definitely make him burnt out.In the final analysis, it is still a matter of foundation.If the Rockefeller family purchased such an aircraft, even if it would still be criticized, more people would take it for granted.

As for Simon Westeros.

Ok.

upstart.

The car stopped outside the WMA headquarters on Camino Street. Simon had already made a very wise decision to buy a Gulfstream IV first.Compared with the large Boeing, the delivery period of this small aircraft is also very short. Once the order is placed, it can be delivered in three months.

Entering the WMA headquarters with Jennifer, Jonathan Friedman, Brian De Palma and others are already waiting for Simon.

For more than a year, Simon has been different from what it used to be, but the turmoil within WMA has never stopped.

At the beginning of the new year, Ed Limato, one of the vice presidents of WMA, brought a large number of stars under his own name, such as Mel Gibson, Steve Martin, Denzel Washington, Michelle Pfeiffer, etc. Switched to ICM, this move once again hurt WMA's vitality.

In Simon's view, this is almost inevitable.

The control of WMA is still firmly controlled by several old men such as Norman Broca. It is difficult for Ed Limato to go further in the short term, but this gold medal agent jumped to ICM and immediately obtained the ICM partnership people and the position of co-president.

After Ed Limato switched jobs, due to the agency of Brian De Palma, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Matt Dillon, Sandra Bullock and Simon and other top movies People, coupled with the support of WMA chairman Lou Weiss, Jonathan, who was originally not too conspicuous among a bunch of vice presidents, has unknowingly become a popular candidate for the next president of WMA.

Simon is actually very interested in the talent agency industry.

However, due to the restrictions of California's "Talent Agency Act", agents cannot get involved in the field of production, and similarly, it is impossible for film companies to intervene in the talent agency industry.Simon can only slightly interfere with the changes in the pattern of the talent agency industry based on his limited influence, but he cannot affect the overall situation.

In a large conference room at WMA headquarters.

Simon greeted everyone one by one, and soon came to a tall black-haired actress. This actress was Linda Fiorentino, the heroine of "Basic Instinct" chosen by Simon.

In the original time and space, Linda Fiorentino's most well-known role is the female forensic doctor in "The Man in Black".

However, the reason why Simon chose the other party was because of another movie she starred in, "The Last Temptation". This 1995 film in the original time and space is a thriller and erotic genre that clearly follows the trend of "Basic Instinct".Linda Fiorentino's femme fatale deftly plays with the men around her.

After the release of "The Last Temptation", Linda Fiorentino's performance won almost unanimous praise from the critics.Linda Fiorentino regrettably failed to get nominated for an Oscar that year only because the film was first aired on HBO and did not meet the Oscar selection criteria.

Simon and Linda Fiorentino shook hands, and everyone sat down around the conference table.

Simon had singled out Linda Fiorentino from a pool of actress profiles the other day and had arranged an audition for her and Michael Douglas.

The effect is also very satisfying.

Michael Douglas did not come today, the audition tape was played, Brian De Palma also expressed his approval, and everyone discussed the details of the film with Linda Fiorentino's agent George Lipton and contract matters.