Hollywood Hunter

Santa Monica.

In a five-story office building on 2nd Street not far from the headquarters of Daenerys Films, it was originally the headquarters of a real estate company.

Last year’s stock market crash led to the collapse of the North American property market. The bleak real estate company moved to the southern Ocean Park area in order to save money. Simon rented out the five-story office building as the office space of Daenerys Special Effects Company.

Speaking of it, although this office building is not as large as the two-story office building of Daenerys Pictures headquarters, and there is no separate parking lot, the total area of ​​the five-story office building is still larger than Daenerys Pictures’ headquarters. There are many headquarters, but they happen to meet the needs of Daenerys Special Effects Company.

After several months of adjustments, Simon has integrated the two companies that were originally acquired, Alias-Research and Wavefront-Technologies, and the original Wavefront-Technologies founder Mark Silvers has served as the president of the new company.

During this period of time, Daenerys's special effects have been continuously recruiting. In just over three months, the number of employees has reached more than 110, and the staff size is twice that of Daenerys Pictures.

However, compared with Daenerys Films' continued to make huge profits through "When Harry Meets Sally", "Who Will Be a Millionaire" and other projects, Daenerys's special effects are still completely burning money. Status, Simon also plans to incorporate Daenerys special effects into the upgraded Daenerys Entertainment company in the process of integrating New World Entertainment.

The time is already July 26th, in the afternoon.

In a small meeting room where Daenerys special effects, Simon, Terry Semel, and Mark Silver from the special effects company are sitting around their desks watching a shot from the projector.

In just three months, a series of actions such as acquiring two companies, hiring employees, and purchasing expensive graphics workstation equipment have cost Simon more than 10 million U.S. dollars. Naturally, he will not let more than 100 people idle.

The development of movie special effects is actually driven by various projects. Simon has been providing Daenerys special effects with a variety of project ideas about "Batman" and even the planned "Human Ghost" and other projects. , And let these people research solutions and make various CG special effects shots to practice hands like making 3D animation short films.

On the projector screen, swarms of bats pass through the city streets like a terrifying dark cloud. Although there is no sound, the scene still makes people feel a little numb. Mark Silves personally operated the video recorder to play the footage, which was less than ten seconds, several times, and the staff reopened the curtains they had just closed.

Simon played with the pencil in his hand, waited for the room to light up, and said to Mark Silvers: "The synthesis effect is very good, but the bat doesn't look real enough. I hope it can be more refined by then."

"This is a problem of rendering," Mark Silvis explained, then added: "Simon, if possible, we would like to redevelop a set of rendering software on the basis of existing technology, with sufficient funding and manpower. It will be completed in about a year."

Movie CG special effects production is roughly divided into several steps: modeling, rendering and compositing.

The two companies that Simon had previously acquired, Alias ​​developed 3D modeling software, which is probably the predecessor of Maya. Wavefront's technical achievements are more inclined to post-compositing, and between the two, there is exactly a technical shortcoming of rendering.

The so-called rendering is to make the original digital CG model present a real object effect through a series of complex lighting, shadow and texture effect operations.

Speaking of, Pixar's famous Renderman rendering tool has been developed. This software can not only be used for 3D animation production, but also suitable for CG rendering of live-action movies. However, Jobs still has no intention of letting go, and Simon does not intend to pin his hopes on Pixar anymore.

"I can agree with you to do this," Simon nodded and said, "However, "Batman" can't wait for a year. From now on, you will only have eight months at most. Eight months later, "Batman" "It will enter the post-production stage."

Mark Silvers thought for a while, and said: "Eight months is no problem, we can take the lead in perfecting the technology that "Batman" needs."

The two continued to chat for a while, and Mark Silves left the meeting room with several executives.

As the others left, Warner Bros. Pictures CEO Terry Semel, who had just been quietly watching, said: "Except for the schedule to wait until the end of next year, I am more and more optimistic about Batman."

Simon knows that Terry Semel has specifically called in the last few days to see the progress of the preparations for "Batman". The fundamental purpose is definitely more than that, but following the other party's topic: "Good movies are always Take time to grind."

Terry Semel stopped going round and said, "Simon, I heard that Pascal is looking for a new project recently?"

"Yes," Simon did not deny it, saying: "The company is too small, and suddenly found that everyone has done what they are doing, and there will be no movies available for next year's popular schedule."

Terry Semel simply said directly: "So, how about our cooperation?"

"Ok?"

Terry Semmel said: "I remember you were interested in the copyright of the "Bourne Shadow" novel in Warner's hands at the beginning of the year. It just so happens that our company also wants to start this project recently, so it's better than Warner and Danny. Lisi Pictures cooperated."

Simon smiled and didn't reveal it.

If it weren’t for the film’s interest, Warner would probably sell "The Bourne" as a miniseries to the TV network this fall. This is a common practice for production companies after a screenwriter strike.

The movie version of "Mission Impossible" that Paramount had been brewing was also aborted because of this strike. However, Paramount has released "Grocery Dundee 2" and "Journey to America" ​​just this summer file and it is expected to break the box office. The blockbuster of 100 million yuan, this year is definitely a good harvest, so there is no need to seek cooperation with Daenerys Pictures like Warner.

Simon heard the news that after the movie version was aborted, Paramount had planned to restart the TV version production this fall.

Terry Semel noticed the smile on Simon's face, and his heart was also bitter.

Unlike the serial blockbuster films of companies such as Paramount, Fox, Daenerys and Orion in this summer, Warner Bros. Pictures' summer box office results seem mediocre.

In June, Chevy Chase's "Funny Farm", the final box office was less than $25 million. Eastwood’s new film "Tiger Quest", which was released at the same time as "Instinct" this month, had a 33% drop in the box office compared to the first week. Such a drop is difficult to go out of the long-term. It is expected that the total box office in North America may be possible. Only more than 30 million US dollars.

In contrast, although "Instinct" has caused various controversies, the box office dropped only 17% in the three days of the following weekend, and received another 13.91 million US dollars.

Counting the US$23.92 million in the box office in the first week and four days after the release, the total box office of "Instinct" in North America has reached 37.83 million US dollars. This figure may be difficult to catch up with the next stage.

Moreover, in the same past weekend, another family comedy by Warner Bros. "Little Caddy 2" opened at 1,556 yuan. The box office for the first three days was only $3.96 million in the first weekend, which ended in failure again. As of now, Warner Bros. plans to release a total of 24 films this year, but the best box office is Tim Burton’s "Beatles Juice", which was originally not optimistic. The North American box office is currently $71.63 million. Before the downgrade, the largest gross box office in North America was only about $73 million.

What is even more frustrating is that after "Beatles Juice", Warner's second-half film release score happened to be Chevy Chase's "Funny Farm", which currently only had a box office of $23.51 million.

This kind of movie performance can only be described as dismal.

Terry Semel is a direct line of Warner Bros. Chairman Steve Rose, so he is not too worried that the company's poor performance will affect his own future. Steve Rose is a very short-term person. However, as a listed company, the performance of Warner’s film business is too bleak, and his person in charge still has to take responsibility. Recently, even Steve Rose has begun to urge him to improve the operating conditions of Warner Bros. Pictures as soon as possible.

No one can guarantee the success of a high-risk business like a movie.

Even Spielberg, who was highly sought after a few days ago, and the "Empire of the Sun" that Warner collaborated with last year, relative to the production cost, the box office can only be described as tepid.

However, the emergence of Daenerys Films completely broke the usual cognition of many people.

Since "Lola Run" turned out to the present, a series of movies related to Simon Westeros, "Lola Run", "Butterfly Effect", "Death Is Coming", "When Harry Meets Sally" , "Pulp Fiction" and even the most recent "Instinct", five of the six films have reached the standard of the North American box office billion-dollar club. This cannot even be described as a miracle. This is simply a miracle.

If Simon Westero is not a hairy boy in his early twenties, his current prestige in Hollywood will definitely reach the level of ‘God’, this is not an exaggeration. After the success of "Alien ET", some people in Hollywood pointed to Spielberg and said, "Look, that's God", but Spielberg failed to continue the miracle of "Alien ET".

Simon also knows that he has become more and more in the limelight over the past year, and he has also made several slightly mediocre movies more than once in order to make Daenerys Pictures not so glaring. However, just as there is a big pit in front of him, it is difficult for people with normal thinking to convince themselves to go over and trip themselves, Simon's subconscious is also very resistant to the idea of ​​deliberately making several failed films.

At this moment, feeling Terry Semel’s ardent eyes, Simon spread his hands around and said: "Terry, you can see, I am very busy now, and I don’t have time to take care of too many things."

"You don't need to be like this, Simon, none of us have so much energy to take care of too many things," Terry Semel said: "As long as you agree to cooperate with Warner, we can invite all the people you want and follow You wish to make this film."

Simon thought for a while and said, "So, Terry, what about the specific cooperation plan?"

Seeing that there is a play, Terry Semel immediately said: "We can adopt the "Instinct" cooperation model, Warner and Daenerys each have half of the rights, Daenerys Pictures is fully responsible for the production, and Warner Bros. is responsible for the distribution. "

The biggest factor in the success of "The Bourne" is the crisp action style and realistic shooting technique. It is not impossible to produce it more than ten years in advance. However, Simon also knows that if he cannot supervise the whole process, Hollywood currently No director has mastered this project, and it is more likely that the final production cost of a film with four different characteristics.

In fact, Simon is already facing this kind of problem on the "Rain Man" project.

After thinking about it for a moment, Simon still shook his head and said, "Terry, I have a lot of ideas about "The Bourne", but I don't have enough time to personally supervise the realization of these ideas."

Of course Terry Semmel would not fail to know the workaround, and quickly said: "Of course other projects are also possible, Simon."

Simon shook his head slightly and smiled, and said: "Terry, if it's other projects, I don't necessarily have to cooperate with Warner."

Terry Semel also smiled and said, "Simon, what do you want?"

"Daenerys Pictures can cooperate with Warner on a project, the "Instinct" model. As a condition, I need two copyrights in Warner's hands, "The Bourne Shadow" and "Wonder Woman."

"No problem," Terry Semel said very simply, "However, Warner must also retain the investment and distribution rights of these two projects."

"This is definitely not possible," Simon also shook his head, and said: "I can't always bind the company's projects with other studios. A project similar to "Instinct" is calculated based on the North American box office exceeding 100 million yuan. Can get such box office results, including the subsequent omni-channel operation, only half of the equity, the partner may get hundreds of millions of dollars in profits during the entire operating cycle. Therefore, "The Bourne" and "Wonder Woman" "This is a bargaining chip."

The two bargained for a while, but Terry Semel could not agree.

Simon does not worry that Warner will launch these projects on its own. Everyone in Hollywood knows that different projects are definitely two complete results in the hands of different people.

Separating from Terry Semel, after a busy afternoon at work, Simon left work at six o'clock and did not return to Malibu, but rushed to Beverly Hills.

Today is Sandra’s birthday, and Simon was invited to the girl’s birthday party last week. However, although Janet also knew about this, she didn't mean to participate with Simon this time, but her little eyes viciously told him that he must go home before twelve o'clock.