Hollywood Hunter

After Simon and Semel’s lunch, Daenerys Pictures and Warner Bros. soon began to negotiate on the specific cooperation matters of Batman.

Although money cannot ensure the success of a movie, a high budget is obviously easier to make an excellent movie. Now that Simon, with an ignorant and fearless nouveau riche temperament, paid 50 million US dollars, Warner also made up his mind to let Daenerys Pictures test the water first.

After finishing "Batman", Simon happily accepted the eyes of some people looking at the fat sheep, and continued to accelerate the other things in the plan as a fat sheep.

On the other hand, on Saturday after Simon and Semel negotiated "Batman", the 45th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards Ceremony was held at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel. Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" was nothing. Unsurprisingly, he became the biggest winner of this year's Golden Globe Awards, and the five nominations for "Lola Run" all failed.

Regarding the encounter of "Lola Run" at the Golden Globes, the media reacted with doubts, ridicules, regrets, and gloat, but Simon quickly brought it through. The nomination for the Screenwriters Guild of America was ignored, and he did not expect much of the Golden Globe Award, and he would not have much regret in the face of this result.

Although "Lola Run" has the common efforts of Warner and Orion, but in terms of the public relations strength of human resources, "Lola Run" is definitely not comparable to Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun". , Spielberg also returned empty-handed this time.

However, the 60th Oscar nomination announced immediately after the Golden Globe Awards ceremony once again allowed Simon to see the conservative side of Hollywood.

Many people originally thought that even if "Run Lola Run" could not win the award, they would definitely be able to get a few heavyweight nominations, but the result was that "Run Lola Run" only got an irrelevant nomination for best editing, and nothing else.

After analysis, everyone believes that this is mainly due to Simon's current complex identity.

If Simon is just a young director who has just risen in Hollywood, and "Run Lola Run" has achieved such a dazzling result, the Oscars will definitely not mind supporting the late.

But now, in addition to the director, Simon is still a super rich man with a net worth of more than one billion dollars. The judges may feel that since Simon Westero has made a huge amount of money in just over a year, it is not suitable for him to honor him immediately.

In any case, no matter what kind of mentality, "Rora Run" finally only won a technical nomination for best editing.

Of course, the nominee for this award is still Simon.

In early February, "Batman" cooperation negotiations continued, but Westeros signed another contract involving US$20 million with the British Tolkien Heritage Foundation in a low-key manner.

Although the price paid was twice the copyright of The Lord of the Rings, Simon actually got more.

In addition to successfully winning the Silmarillion, Westeros also re-signed a license agreement with the Tolkien Heritage Foundation for several works by Tolkien at a price of 20 million US dollars.

In the 1969 contract, the producer holding the copyright was required to pay a 7.5% share of the net profit of the Thor King Heritage Foundation.

Now, Westeros has paid a one-time payment of 20 million US dollars, and the original sharing clauses of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" have been cancelled. The "Simarabella" contract also does not contain a sharing clause. Simon will hold these three parts. The work is copyrighted until the end of the legal copyright protection period.

In addition, the new contract also expands the range of products that Westeros can develop and avoids disputes that may arise in the future.

In Simon's memory, because the 1969 contract did not explicitly cover the rights of digital game development, the Thor King Heritage Foundation claimed US$80 million for the illegal production of the "Lord of the Rings" series of online games by Time Warner. Although the lawsuits between the two parties were settled privately, the amount of compensation involved was definitely not $20 million.

The managers of the Thor King Heritage Foundation may not lack a long-term vision, but when Simon increased the copyright transaction price of about $1 million by several times, the money played its due power.

Perhaps both parties felt that they had taken a big advantage and the deal was concluded. Neither the Tolkien Heritage Foundation nor the Westeros Company disclosed this publicly. As for the future, regardless of the outcome, each has already bought out.

In all fairness, Simon himself does not dare to 100% guarantee that the Thor King Middle-earth series can achieve the same success as the original time and space, but his winning side is definitely too much.

From mid-January to mid-February, the negotiations between Daenerys Pictures and Warner Bros. lasted for a month, and the detailed cooperation plan for "Batman" was finally finalized.

The five-year licensing plan remains unchanged. Daenerys Pictures paid US$2 million for the copyright of "Batman", which is another fat sheep compared to the US$200,000 of "Spiderman". The two parties agreed that the first film will be invested by Daenerys Pictures, and Warner Bros. Pictures will obtain the worldwide distribution rights for this film. If the first installment is successful, Warner owns up to 50% of the investment rights in the sequel. However, after the sequel is approved, Warner must decide whether to participate in the investment within one month, and if it exceeds the time limit, it will be deemed to have given up automatically.

In terms of film distribution, Warner’s position was very firm. Daenerys Films finally won the opportunity to renegotiate the distribution commission for the sequel, and did not get the right to distribute independently.

In terms of peripheral products, because of the success of the "Star Wars" series that year, this part of the proceeds has become the focus of the two sides.

In the final contract, it took more than ten pages to confirm that the peripheral products are from real people and comics, as well as the first and sequel. The two parties negotiated on the condition that the DC Comics company under Warner Bros. will get the live action of "Batman" in the future. 10% of the net profit of movie-related peripheral products is shared, and the remaining income is determined by the investment shares of both parties.

All in all, this is another cooperation plan that is very unfavorable to Daenerys Films just like "Rain Man" some time ago.

but.

Winning the copyright of "Batman" is an absolute victory for Simon. Now that he had eaten the copyright, he didn't plan to let it go. As long as you hold onto the copyright of "Batman", the initiative for many things in the future is destined to be on your side.

In order to be more ‘active’, a week after Daenerys Pictures and Warner Bros. formally signed the contract, Simon once again bought the copyright of "Superman" from the British producer Alexander Salkind by spending money.

With the acquisition of "Superman" and "Batman" and the collection of Thor King's Middle-earth series, Simon's operation of collecting copyrights has also come to an end.

Unconsciously busy, the time has come to the end of February, and a very special day has also arrived.

February 22.

Simon's 20th birthday.

In a mansion halfway up the mountain in Beverly Hills, this is Sandra Bullock's new home.

After impulsively kissing a guy one night, she had to change her place in the face of subsequent frantic chase by paparazzi. Too much has happened in the past six months. After Simon and Janet reunited, plus some guilty conscience, Sandra found that he was inevitably alienated from Simon.

but.

Today is his 20th birthday party, for such a legitimate reason, he must go.

However, it always feels a little weird.

Think about my 20th birthday, when I was still in college, I didn't know what my future would be like.

His 20 years old.

Ugh.

Standing so high, people can't touch them, and they are not afraid of falling off.

Humph.

It was already five o'clock in the afternoon.

Putting on a well-prepared aqua blue evening dress, he just came out of the cloakroom when the doorbell rang and an appointment was made for a makeup artist, and he arrived just now.

Assistant Gina ran to open the door, and Sandra carefully sat down on the sofa in the living room, carrying the skirt. The TV in the living room had just been turned on. It was only then that I noticed that the CNN host and two other guests happened to be talking about Simon, and the screen behind them showed the live broadcast of that guy outside the Palisades mansion.

This is too exaggerated, right?

It’s just a birthday party, and even CNN was recruited and broadcast live.

but.

Thinking about what he has done from the summer two years ago to now, CNN’s current reaction does not seem to be too excessive.

Picking up the remote control and increasing the TV sound, Gina came in with the makeup artist. She motioned to the other party to help her make-up in the living room, but her eyes were fixed on the TV screen, listening to the host and the host with interest. Discussion of the two guests.

"Yes, Jim, Simon Westero also reminded me of Howard Hughes, but he is more legendary than Hughes. The first film Westeros produced won the North American box office champion, 4 worldwide. 100 million US dollars, this is a miracle relative to his age. What is even more amazing is his operation in the stock index futures market last year. In five months, Westeros is completely close to the S&P 500 The rise and fall of the index are buying and selling, as if he can fully predict the rise and fall of the index."

Another female guest with glasses said: "However, Daniel, but I think Simon Westeros has completely lost control after the stock market crash last year. Especially in the recent period, his various capital operations have almost nothing. Zhang Fa, and Motorola were angry and sold all of each other’s stock. They tried to acquire New World Entertainment, but after being frustrated, they quickly gave up. And Daenerys Pictures, Westeros was just spending money randomly, we It’s said that the young and wealthy have already established eight films. If you count the recent "Batman" and "Superman", this is ten. I have specially collected a list of films. According to public information, these films are basically all There is not much appearance, but the budget is generally higher than the average Hollywood level. Just like the "Rain Man", have you heard of it?"

The male guest named Daniel nodded and said: "I have heard that a movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise was reportedly rejected by all major Hollywood studios. Moreover, Dany Liz Pictures also seems to have signed a very unequal contract with MGM-Lianmei. However, I always think Westeros should have other considerations. If anyone thinks that a 20-year-old can earn more than ten The young man with billions of dollars is a fool. So don’t doubt, he is the fool himself.”

"Hey, Daniel, are you talking about me?" The female guest retorted with a smile, and said: "But I do think Simon Westero's behavior during this period is completely arbitrary. If this continues, maybe In a few years, his net worth will shrink drastically."

"This is just your speculation, Katie. When Howard Hughes produced "Hell Angels," everyone thought he might be bankrupt, but the result was that "Hell Angels" reached $8 million at the box office, which was 800 in 1930. Ten thousand dollars is definitely higher than the box office of "Star Wars" or "ET Alien". Moreover, I think Simon Westeros' personal assets should be mainly concentrated in those technology stocks. Reduce Motorola's holdings After the stock, based on the recent stock price, Simon Westero is just this part of the asset, worth more than $1.3 billion."

"It should be more," the host sitting next to him said at this time: "According to the news we got, after the failed acquisition of New World Entertainment, Westeros has recently taken in shares of some technology companies. For example, Silicon Graphics, it is said that Simon Westeros paid a special visit to this San Francisco graphics workstation production company last month. According to the latest reported data, Westeros owns 11% of Silicon Graphics. There is also Oracle, a shareholding company. The ratio is 9%. Next, Microsoft, Intel and other companies have increased their shareholding ratios from the original 5% to more than 7%. Calculated, Simon Westero has at least half of the Motorola stock obtained after cashing out Funds have been invested in the stocks of these companies. Many investment institutions on Wall Street have recently begun to follow suit again and once again greatly lifted the technology stocks. Now, the value of Simon Westero's stock assets should have been close to 1.6 billion US dollars. "

After the male guest waited for the host to finish, he said to the female guest: "Look, it’s still $1.6 billion. Simon Westero's profit from the stock market crash last year was about $1.6 billion. Now, Katie, follow your It is said that Westeros arbitrarily for a period of time, his net worth not only did not decrease, but increased again."

The female guest said: "But I still don't think that as long as Simon Westeros is a normal person, he will not perform miracles forever."

The host suddenly said: "Katie, then, do you think Simon Westero is normal?"

The male guest suddenly laughed.

The female guest also smiled and said: "Well, Westeros is indeed abnormal. But what I mean is, as long as he is not an alien, I think there should be no such possibility, then he will definitely face Failure. Just like the films of Daenerys Films, Westeros may be able to guarantee the box office success of one, two or three movies, but he is absolutely impossible to guarantee all of them. There is no shortage of major Hollywood studios every year. The works that sell at the box office, but their financial reports often lose money. I also know the Hollywood books, but I am not referring to these, but the real losses. Why, it is because they are in the high-profile movies In addition, there is a series of failed films."

After the host waited for the female guests, he patted and said, "No matter what the future is, today is Simon Westero’s 20th birthday. This young man who has only risen suddenly for more than a year has already created too much. Miraculous, I believe everyone must be very curious about him, then, let us once again give the camera to the reporter in front."