Hollywood Hunter

The North American video tape of "Lola Run" is already on the market, and the overseas distribution of the film is also continuing.

In order to stimulate video tape sales and overseas market revenue, with the help of Orion and Warner, Simon unexpectedly won the Oscar for best editing award. In the following days, the media popularity even surpassed the "Last Emperor" who won multiple awards. ".

Most of the media tend to complain about Simon, believing that Oscar's conservativeness and aging make "Lola Run" unable to get the nomination and honor it deserves.

Then, on April 13, the 41st Cannes Film Festival, which is about to open next month, announced the shortlist. Pulp Fiction successfully became one of the 21 films that entered the main competition.

At the Cannes local film festival shortlist press conference, a reporter specifically mentioned the experience of "Lola Run" at the Oscars, and asked the chairman of the Cannes Film Festival jury, the famous Italian director Ito Skola. Discrimination against "Pulp Fiction" because of Simon Westero's age issue. Although the answer was only official rhetoric, the news returned to the United States, which triggered a heated discussion again.

"Pulp Fiction" is scheduled for June 3, and the news of Cannes's finalists for the main competition unit returned to China, and Orion Pictures also released the first TV trailer.

Due to the integrated plot structure of "Pulp Fiction", it is not easy for this movie to cut a wonderful trailer.

Several trailers provided by Orion were not satisfactory to Simon, so he had to do it himself. After careful consideration, the first trailer has a length of 1 minute and 30 seconds. Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Robert Redford and other big names have all appeared on the scene, and a series of suspenseful videos have been carefully selected. The dialogue finally freezes the picture on the box that emits golden light.

The plot of "Pulp Fiction" is still in a state of confidentiality. Therefore, after the trailer was released, the media quickly judged that it was a "treasure hunting" type movie.

The facts are naturally very different from the media’s judgment. However, this is exactly what Simon wants to see. Throwing a topic to trigger media discussion has always been the simplest and most effective way of film marketing. "When Harry Meets Sally" is a hit at the box office. The curve has proved this.

In the third week of the large-scale release, "When Harry Meets Sally" received another 12.11 million US dollars, with a cumulative box office of 49.16 million US dollars. The decline for the whole week was finally locked at 21%. The box office decline curve is relative to other films in the Easter schedule. All are outstanding.

Although the scale of screenings in the following week was expanded by 50%, the box office of Tim Burton's "Beatles Juice" in the second week still dropped by nearly 25%.

The box office of "The Good Johnny", which was released by Orion Pictures and "When Harry Met Sally" at the same time, dropped by 51%. This week, the box office only received $1.97 million, and this film with a budget of $22 million lasted three weeks. The box office totaled only 13.3 million US dollars. After next week, the one-month contract with theaters expires, and the movie will basically withdraw from the big screen.

In Simon's view, the failure of "The Good Johnny" heralds the destined decline of Orion Pictures this year.

In the first two years, after producing several box-office hits, the blindly expanding Orion Films' production and distribution scale this year is exactly the same as that of the Big Seven, and even surpassed that of several major film companies with sluggish performance such as MGM.

However, apart from "Pulp Fiction," Simon did not see a second movie with big selling potential in Orion's long list.

After the stock market crash last year, the life of Hollywood will not be too easy in the next few years. The decline of Orion is as inevitable as Canon, New World, DeLaurentis Entertainment and other companies, and Simon can only watch with cold eyes.

At the beginning of the month, we negotiated with Disney and signed the overseas distribution rights contract for "When Harry Meets Sally". Daenerys Pictures received a $30 million sell-out payment in late April.

Compared with the US$15 million production cost of "When Harry Meets Sally", the company is equivalent to a direct double return. Of course, the proceeds of this film also need to be shared with the British Arts and Crafts Film Industry that participated in the investment.

According to the original contract, Daenerys Pictures will receive 60% of the film’s net profit after excluding production costs. Calculated in this way, Daenerys Pictures can get $16.5 million for the sale of $30 million. After the US$15 million production cost is offset, Daenerys Pictures will be able to get 60% of all subsequent income.

Before the release of "When Harry Meets Sally", Daenerys Pictures had been spending money like water, and now it has finally started to make money, and Amy Pascal's tight mind has been relaxed a lot.

Simon could see that she was always worried that Daenerys Pictures would rise and collapse as quickly as Canon and other companies.

Although Simon now has a wealth of wealth, but if Daenerys Pictures really follows in the footsteps of Canon and other companies, he will definitely not continue to invest money in this company. Amy is clearly aware of this.

However, the expansion of Daenerys Pictures seems to be equally blind, but Simon knows how much the company's series of projects have won.

Whether it is the Big Seven or the second-tier film companies such as Orion, they usually invest in a large number of projects, which is a way of spreading the net, in anticipation of a few box-office works. As long as this can be achieved, the film company can basically achieve good profits.

Due to Simon's prophetic advantage, Daenerys Pictures is tantamount to raising a few big fish directly in the fishing net.

April 21.

In the new week, Simon got up early in the morning and saw news from the "Los Angeles Times" that the talks between the Producers League and the American Screenwriters Union broke down again.

Santa Monica.

Daenerys Pictures’ headquarters arrived at the company at eight o’clock. Simon had just watched the samples of "Rain Man" in the last few days, and it was only time for work. Amy also rushed to the company ahead of time. When Simon came out of the screening room, she talked about it: "Simon, have you heard the news?"

Because it is Monday, the heads of various departments of Daenerys Pictures and the heads of a series of projects will hold a weekly meeting.

Simon and Amy came to the conference room together and nodded with several other executives who had already arrived, saying: "Of course, so, our reality TV show project can enter the substantive production stage."

The negotiations between the Producers Union and the Screenwriters’ Union broke down. Naturally, it is impossible to restart as soon as it is restarted. Both sides need to figure it out. It will be at least next month for both sides to be on the negotiating table again.

According to the operation process of the American television industry, in March and April every year, TV program producers large and small will start to look for projects and produce pilot episodes, and then to several major TV networks and cable stations during the annual TV program promotion season in May Promote.

Due to the screenwriter’s strike, let alone the pilot episode, many filmmakers now have few scripts in their hands.

Originally, if a settlement could be reached this month and the construction period should be rushed, everyone would not delay the promotion season next month. Negotiations broke down again, and naturally there was no way to talk about it. Missing this most important time node will affect the TV business of several major TV networks throughout the year.

Amy nodded when he heard Simon say this, but then said, "However, Simon, I heard that WGA is currently trying to reach an agreement with second and third-tier production companies. What should we do?"

Simon thought about it. In the 1988 strike in his memory, a large number of second and third line production companies did sign agreements with WGA before major studios and television networks. But the Hollywood giant’s countermeasures were also very decisive. The four major television networks directly announced that they would no longer purchase programs from production companies that had signed contracts with WGA in advance. WGA subsequently used an antitrust lawsuit to bring the four major television networks to court. .

After flashing this information in his mind, Simon shook his head decisively and said: "No matter what others do, we will not participate."

Even if WGA can win the antitrust lawsuit, it would be easier for the TV network to wear small shoes for those second- and third-tier production companies that have turned against water in advance. What's more, falling to WGA in advance will not bring any benefit to Daenerys Pictures, and Simon does not intend to mix up this muddy water.

Simon and Amy chatted, the executives of various departments and related project leaders arrived one after another, and the meeting began soon.

A large number of projects need a lot of manpower to roll out. After months of continuous recruitment and expansion, Daenerys Pictures now has various departments such as film, television, distribution, personnel, finance, etc., even if it is not a temporary hire of a single project , The number of regular employees under the company has exceeded 50.

The two-story office building that was originally leased is now very crowded, and Simon has been looking for new office space for the company recently.

However, this is not an easy task.

If all goes well, Simon plans to upgrade Daenerys Pictures to Daenerys Entertainment next year, and all major departments such as film, television, and distribution will also be subsidiary companies, which will surely bring about another large-scale expansion of the company.

Daenerys Pictures has moved once, and Simon doesn't want to toss like this once in a year or two.

The meeting lasted for more than two hours, and it was close to noon, everyone dispersed.

Overall, all projects under Daenerys Films are advancing steadily.

Filming of "Instinct" and "Rain Man" has started.

"Screaming" will also start filming in a small town in northern California at the end of the month.

The talks between the Producers Union and the Screenwriters’ Union broke down, and Simon also firmed up his determination to let "Death Poetry Society" and "Steel Magnolia" squeeze into the two popular schedules at the end of the year. Therefore, the preparations for these two projects will also be accelerated. It is expected to start shooting in the next one to two months.

From the two low-cost films "Sisters" and "Metropolis" selected by Sundance, Simon completely let go to the following producers.

As for the "Thunderbolt Blue Angel", Simon just had the idea of ​​"men make money and women spend money", and let go more thoroughly. Catherine can toss as much as he wants. If you lose it, you lose it. Who will let it be? What about women.

In the end, apart from the four reality shows that are still in the pipeline, only "Batman" controlled by Simon himself.

After the morning meeting, Daenerys Pictures opened the first round of casting for the hero of "Batman" that afternoon.

Simon had already let go of the harsh conditions for acting Bruce Wayne in advance.

With five film contracts and a fifteen-year contract period, Daenerys Films is in full control of the contract terms for the initiative to pay.

Unsurprisingly, just these three terms have made all Hollywood first-tier stars who tried to get the role of Batman retreat, and most second-tier stars have made the same choice.

However, Hollywood’s biggest advantage is that it never lacks actors.

Even though Daenerys Films put forward many other restrictions under several strict signing conditions, the company still received more than 1,200 resumes before the first round of casting, which is close to a large-scale audition. Simon Naturally, there is not enough time to participate in person. Several casting directors are responsible for the casting work in the afternoon.

The first round will not be used as an interview mirror, but most people will be wiped out by checking resumes and performance videos. In the end, only about 200 people will enter the second round.

Simon also knows that such an operation will definitely cause many actors with good qualifications to lose the election, and even some private goods will be carried by several casting directors. But this world is like this. If the conditions are met and eliminated, it can only be said that they are out of luck. If you do not meet the conditions but can enter the second round of auditions through your contacts, that is also strength.

Just thinking about things like fairness is enough when dreaming.

Meanwhile, Simon came to Culver City with Amy this afternoon.

Culver City is located east of Beverly City and north of Santa Monica. Compared to cities such as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Burbank, Culver City is not too conspicuous in the greater Los Angeles area. The reason why Simon arrived here is mainly because the former MGM studio was in Carl. Fuchs City Center.

MGM’s owner, casino tycoon Kirk Cokerian, was in the process of converting MGM into a hotel company. The MGM studio with more than half a century of history was sold to a company called Lorimar-Telepictures. TV show production company.

In the previous few years, with the support of hot money capital pouring into the entertainment industry, Lorimar also expanded aggressively.

With the outbreak of the stock market crash and the current Hollywood strike, compared to New World Entertainment, Lorimar, which has a more single business field, is inevitably in trouble. If it were not for some information from other people in his memory, Simon had never even heard of Lorimar in his previous life. This company.

Now, Lorimar is already seeking to sell assets under its name to avoid bankruptcy.

The MGM studio with a long history is undoubtedly one of Lorimar's most valuable properties. After spending half a day walking around the 20-hectare MGM studio, Simon and Amy left together. Facing Amy's questioning eyes, Simon just shook his head regretfully.

Lorimar's offer for the MGM studio is not expensive, $100 million.

However, Simon found that most of the studios and buildings on the set were already dilapidated. If Daenerys Pictures bought it, it would cost at least another $100 million to repair it. Moreover, despite having a long history, the location of the MGM studio really cannot satisfy Simon.

The MGM studio is relatively close to Beverly Hills, but it is far from Malibu, thirty or forty kilometers. Simon intends to live in Malibu. If he buys the MGM studio, it will take at least two or three hours for him to spend his time on the way to work every day.