Hollywood Hunter

Entering July, half of the summer vacation in 1987 has passed unconsciously.

Apart from "Detective Beverly 2", this summer file has no other local box office explosions that are expected to exceed 100 million.

"Witches of East Town" led by Jack Nicholson, "Predator" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, "Sky Luodi" partnered by Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd and several other expected North American gross box office Movies that can reach 50 or 60 million US dollars can only be regarded as small profits, and basically have not met the expectations of major film companies.

Among them, the new film "Project X" starring Matthew Broderick, who had a conflict with Simon, was scheduled to be released on June 5 by Fox Pictures. With the opening scale of 1022 screens, the box office in the first week was US$4.57 million, and the cumulative box office in June was only more than US$12 million. Relative to the production cost of US$15 million, although Fox Pictures will not lose money through post-production operations, the film is completely unable to afford the high-quality schedule and publicity resources it has obtained.

Simon paid attention to the film before the release of "Project X", but he didn't feel much in his heart.

The original matter has long been over, as long as Matthew Broderick doesn't provoke him, Simon will never have any intersection with him in the future.

On the other hand, on July 2nd, the S&P 500 Index broke the 290-point mark. After a month and a half of silence, Simon again began to issue trading instructions to Noah Scott, gradually liquidating the original holdings in the Westeros account. 4500 contracts, and at the same time began to open positions again.

In this era when stock index futures trading does not have a'daily debt-free settlement system', there are naturally many benefits for futures speculators, but the disadvantage is that Simon cannot directly use the original book profit of 4,500 contracts for buying operations and wants to increase his position. , It is necessary to complete a clearance and change hands.

Simon originally expected to be able to complete the handover in the S&P 500 index between 290 and 295 points. However, after the more volatile June stock index futures delivery month, the rise of the S&P 500 index has accelerated significantly.

Westeros’ account opened a position at an average of 272 points in the S&P 500 index in mid-May, but in the end it was cleared and changed hands at an average of 295 points.

With an average increase of 23 points, the book profit of each contract reached about $11,500.

After settlement, the 4,500 long contracts in the Westeros account, excluding various transaction costs, earned a cumulative profit of 50.65 million U.S. dollars in one month, and the principal owned by Simon increased to 125 million U.S. dollars.

After the change of hands, Westeros' long positions increased to 6,800, and the proportion of positions still reached a very dangerous 80%.

Fortunately, from July 2nd to July 10th, the second layout ended. The S&P 500 index had risen to 298 points at the close of the day on July 10th, but in just a few days, Westeros The long contract in the company's account once again generated a very substantial book profit.

Simon found that he would probably no longer need to use the Wells Fargo loan at all. In fact, he did not want to use the loan as a last resort.

Violation of the loan contract is second, and most importantly, once the misappropriation of the loan is discovered, Simon's operation in the futures market is likely to be exposed.

Compared with the daily trading volume of more than 80,000 stock index futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the thousands of contracts held by Westeros would not have much impact on the market.

However, if someone finds out that a young man who has just created a box office miracle in Hollywood has also joined the game, and has already made a lot of money without knowing it. Then, according to Soros’ well-known reflexivity theory of “the 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 this. change.

At the same time, in the last week of the filming plan, the crew of "Reaper Is Coming" returned from New York to Los Angeles and completed the film's opening air crash in the studio of Fox Studios. The film was successfully completed on July 9.

Simon spent a few days discussing with Wes Craven and confirming the detailed post-production plan of "Reaper Is Coming". On July 13, the filming of "Pulp Fiction", which had been in preparation for several months, officially started.

Inside a bar in Venice Beach.

On the third day of the boot, the crew was filming a plot in which gang boss Martha Wallace lobbied Butch Coolidge to fight fake punches.

There is a soundtrack for this episode in the main film, but at this time, the atmosphere in the bar is very quiet.

The various departments of the crew were organized around the two actors who played Martha Wallace and Butch Coolidge, and there was only the narration of the black actor Wen Remus who played Martha Wallace.

"When all this is over, you will find that you are the one who laughed last. Butch, although you are still strong now, unfortunately, you will not be strong for long..."

Because it is a fixed-camera shooting, Simon does not need to view the composition of the lens in real time through the monitor, but stands outside the photographers, lighting engineers and other staff, holding his arms to watch Robert De Niro's passage without a few lines. I couldn’t help but compare with the original Bruce Willis.

Among a large group of tough actors such as Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis' acting skills can be said to be the best.

However, in this scene of the original "Pulp Fiction", watching Lao Bu sit in front of the camera and listen to the instructions of the gang boss, most people still subconsciously have an idea, this is Bruce Willis, this is Bruce Willie S, this is Bruce Willis...

at this time.

Simon looked at Robert De Niro, who was suppressing anger and dissatisfaction with his shoulders and slightly pursed in the court, but was completely afraid to attack in front of the gang boss, but his inner feeling was that this was Butch Coolidge, a certain This professional career is nearing the end and there are still some down-and-coming boxers who have not been able to get ahead.

In "Pulp Fiction," Butch Coolidge's room for play is actually not much smaller than that of Vincent and Jules. However, in the original film, due to lack of acting skills or no effort at all, this role was basically acted as a real Bruce Willis.

This is probably why the media and the audience will talk about characters such as Vincent, Mia, Jules, etc., but few people discuss a boxer with a heavy role.

In contrast, Robert De Niro, who has always had a reputation for dedication, has made preparations for this role in recent months, even Simon can't help being impressed.

Although he is a boxer, Butch Coolidge does not appear on 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.

For the current scene, Robert De Niro not only discussed with Simon many times the character's mental changes and performance methods and other details, but also asked Vin Remus to record this dialogue for himself to repeatedly figure out.

Now, it is only the first scene that Robert De Niro participated in after the filming started. Simon is sure that this time Butch Coolidge will definitely leave the audience no less profound than the characters of Vincent and Jules. impression.

Three minutes later, when the first performance of Robert De Niro and Vin Reims ended, Simon motioned to the others to rest and brought them to the monitor.

The video assistance system in the 1980s has only just emerged. The monitor screen is only 6 inches in size, but the rental of the entire equipment is very expensive, almost equal to the rental price of a camera.

In the previous "Lola Run", in order to save the budget, Simon simply did not use this equipment.

Naturally this time there is no need to be so frugal.

The three of them watched the replay in front of a monitor screen that was only comparable to later large-screen mobile phones. After a while, Simon pressed the pause and fixed the picture on a small detail of Robert De Niro that twitched the corner of his mouth. He turned to ask Robert De Niro who was standing next to him, "Bob, what do you think?"

Robert De Niro looked around for a moment, shook his head and smiled, and said, "Exercise too much."

Simon nodded and said: "As a small person, Butch is actually very jealous of Marsha. His long silence has already shown his inner resistance, but he can't dare to show too obvious dissatisfaction. Therefore, Next, you need to converge a little bit."

Robert De Niro said nothing, "Simon, I will brew it."

Simon waited for Robert De Niro to return to his seat before turning to Martha Wallace's actor Vin Reims.

Like Samuel Jackson who played Jules, Vin Reims is also an original actor.

Moreover, Vin Remus is similar to Samuel Jackson in other respects.

This black actor is also a standard academic background. He has studied theater performance at the State University of New York and the Juilliard School in New York, which is known as the "Harvard of Music." Has been playing some humble little roles in Hollywood.

From Samuel Jackson and Vin Remus, it is not difficult to see that Hollywood still has deep-rooted racial discrimination after all. In Hollywood, many black movie stars have a higher education level. Relatively speaking, the ‘threshold’ for whites to realize the American dream is much lower.

Due to his professional background, in the three-minute performance, Vin Remus didn't show his face at all, but Simon was amazed by the profound lineage skills he showed.

Simon and Vin Remus talked a few words and had a very good impression of this actor who played the role of the gang boss but has a gentle personality in reality. Finally, he reached out to the other party and said: "Wen, your line skills are very good, I I think we will definitely have the opportunity to cooperate in the future."

Vin Reims shook his hand with Simon, and smiled: "Of course, I'm also looking forward to it."

With that said, Robert De Niro said he could start shooting again, and Simon told everyone to prepare again.

Today, the main shots were the scenes of Butch, Martha, Vincent and Jules in the bar. A set of scenes in which Masha persuaded Butch to fight fake punches was repeatedly shot for an hour before Simon said it passed.

John Travolta and Samuel Jackson had already finished makeup, and then quickly started other shots.

So busy until five o'clock in the afternoon, the crew officially ended.

The others dispersed. Simon and several associate directors confirmed the filming plan for tomorrow, and sent today's filming film to the Fox Studios laboratory. It was already 6:20.

Inside Fox Studios.

Leaving the post-production center, Simon looked at Jennifer Rebald, who had been accustomed to following him these days. After his last invitation, the girl quickly resigned from George Norman’s law firm and came to give Work by yourself.

Slowed down and walked on the paved corridor in the studio, Simon asked the girl beside him, "Jenny, how do you feel these days?"

Jennifer Rebald was carrying a briefcase and a folder in his hand. Hearing Simon's question, he couldn't help but think of his experience these days. At the end of last month, she suddenly made the decision to abandon her career as a lawyer. All her relatives said she could not accept it, and her parents even flew over from New York.

However, Jennifer, who has been a good girl since childhood, 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, and her parents required her to complete the California Bar Exam at the end of July and get her practising certificate officially. In this way, she will be able to return to the legal profession at any time in the future.

then.

From July 1st, 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 a company, assistants usually have much higher authority than secretaries.

In the past half month, Jennifer is still at the stage of getting acquainted with her work.

In fact, Simon's career in Hollywood has just started, and there are not many jobs that can be entrusted to her.

However, as long as the operation of the stock index futures market is successfully completed and a large amount of capital is available, the industry under Simon's name will certainly expand rapidly. At that time, the workload of girls will increase significantly.

At this time, upon hearing Simon’s question, Jennifer said: “I, it feels like I can’t do much for you. Maybe I should take some film professional courses in USC.”

Simon heard this, but shook his head with a smile, and said, "It's not necessary, Jenny. You know, in Hollywood, experience is more important than education. Moreover, I have no plans to train you as a filmmaker."

Jennifer wondered: "Simon, what are you going to let me do?"

"It's just my assistant," Simon smiled, paused, and said, "Actually, I'm doing some other things recently, but it's not convenient to tell you. After a while, you will find that you may be busy. It's time to fly."