Hollywood Hunter

After negotiating a total package price of 150 million U.S. dollars for the next three quarters and several additional conditions issued by NBC, the two sides began to negotiate on important details such as payment settlement.

In order to reduce its own cash flow pressure as much as possible, in the process of purchasing TV programs, TV networks generally adopt a strategy of delaying payment as much as possible, which is the same as Hollywood film distributors. Most independent producers in the industry can only withdraw funds from the TV network after the episode is over.

Daenerys Entertainment and ABC's "Who Will Be a Millionaire", in the case of its own obvious advantages, ABC is only willing to pay 30% of the advance payment before the first season starts, and the remaining balance will be during the winter break After the end of the period and the first season, the other 30% and 40% are paid in two installments.

As for "Survivor", after several hours of repeated disputes and discussions, NBC finally agreed to pay 50% before and after the broadcast of each season.

At the end of the meeting, after everyone had lunch together, Robert White returned to the East Coast in a hurry. He also personally supervised the TV network's marketing adjustments to the subsequent broadcast of "Survivor" in order to maximize the influence of this reality show. .

The specific contract needs to be drawn up by the staff of the two companies based on the meeting memorandum, and it takes about a week to formally sign.

After leaving Los Angeles for two weeks, Simon has maintained a remote control of Daenerys Entertainment through telephone and fax and other means. After dealing with "Survivor" in the morning, Simon did not rush back to Malibu, but personally checked the production progress of several films.

"Scream" has been sent to the MPAA for grading at the end of the first few days of the month and is still waiting for the result.

He took over the later stage of "Rain Man" from Barry Levinson. After more than a month of busy work, the re-editing of the film has been completed, and Simon himself wrote the soundtrack for the film during his time in Melbourne.

The soundtrack of the original "Rain Man" was Hans Zimmer, who later won his first Oscar nomination for best soundtrack. But at the moment, Hans Zimmer is just an obscure little figure. The soundtrack of "Rain Man" is not complicated. Coupled with the bottoming of the memory version, Simon can easily complete it, so he didn't have to spend his time searching for each other.

The later stages of "Steel Magnolia" and "Death Poetry Society" are progressing smoothly. Not surprisingly, the three films "Rain Man", "Steel Magnolia" and "Death Poetry Society" will be completed by the end of September.

After checking the later stages of several films, more than two hours of production meetings were held to discuss the preparation progress of a series of films that Daenerys Entertainment is advancing.

The meeting is drawing to a close, and it is already early evening.

After reporting on the preparations for a series of projects such as "Sixth Sense of Supernatural", "Bodyguard", "Flying over the Innocence", "Uncle Buck", the executives and producers who participated in the meeting dispersed in advance, and as usual, only left in the conference room A few of Simon and Amy.

Sitting by the window, feeling the golden sunset that sprinkled into the meeting room in the evening, Simon closed the folder in front of him, and said to Amy on the other side: "Since you have already got "Wonder Woman", you recently let Several major agencies send a shortlist here. Like "Batman", I need new people, between 20 and 25 years old, about six feet tall." Noting the puzzlement on Amy's face, Simon added with a smile: "I didn't plan to start making this movie now. I must finish the first part of "Batman" and "Superman" first. However, I hope to be able to train several candidates from scratch and determine the candidates. After that, in recent years, I have arranged some small roles for them to sharpen their acting skills. Speaking of which, Batman's choice is a bit hasty."

After winning the DC Big Three, the obstacles to advance the DC movie universe are not big. As for the need to introduce other DC superheroes in the future, Simon does not think this is a problem. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are all in their hands, and Warner has no choice at all. Because he reserved the investment authority to share profits for Warner, he did not think that Warner had the courage to use second-tier heroes to create a new movie universe.

However, in Simon's impression, there is no suitable candidate to play Wonder Woman in Hollywood at the moment, and he still hopes to find a Diana Prince who is similar to Gal Gadot. "Wonder Woman" will start at least after "Batman" is released, so there is plenty of time to cultivate from scratch.

Amy nodded in understanding, and said: "Then, shall we re-select Superman actors? Christopher Reeve must have been inappropriate.

Simon nodded and said, "Yes, let the brokerage company pick some people over."

Amy wrote this down in the memo, then looked up again: "between 20 and 25 years old, six feet tall, Simon, isn't Miss Kidman just right?"

"You reminded me of that," Simon shook his head slightly, and said: "I went to the crew of the "Sky Crossing" when I was in Australia, and Nicole rejected the role in the "Angels and Gods". She I have my own ideas for acting career."

Amy heard Simon say this, just smiled, and nodded: "I also received a call from Nicole. So, let's let the Wonder Woman candidate we selected try the "Angel Gods" first Heroine?"

"It depends on the situation," Simon asked noncommitantly, "How has the script of "Angels and Gods" been revised?"

"The first draft has been completed, I will ask someone to prepare a copy for you tomorrow," Amy said, seeing that there was nothing else, she also packed up the folder in front of her. After a while, remembering something, she looked up again: "There is another one. Something, Simon, "Who Will Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor" are so successful, do you want to celebrate this weekend?"

Although the other two reality shows have not yet started, with the two hot reality shows "Who Will Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor", Daenerys Entertainment has become the envy of all Hollywood TV show providers. It is also right to hold a celebration party to reward all the creators.

Moreover, the maintenance of contacts has always been very important for the development of a film company.

Many executives of major Hollywood studios hold various party receptions almost every week to connect with the industry’s superstars and celebrities. Compared with this, Simon appears to be very unenthusiastic about this matter. It's far more than the frequency of self-hosting. However, Simon also understands that this kind of thing cannot be avoided at all, nor can it be avoided. If these things are completely handed over to executives such as Amy, once the company management changes unexpectedly, his contacts will change. Be very passive.

After thinking about it for a moment, Simon said: "Just hold it at the villa in Palisades. The date is set on Saturday. You can draw up a list of invitations."

On the first day of broadcasting, it gained more than 20 million viewers, and "Survivor" quickly became a hot topic in the media in the following days.

NBC quickly adjusted the marketing efforts of "Survivor". At the same time, in order to avoid falling into a big disadvantage, ABC also strengthened the marketing offensive of "Who Will Be a Millionaire". FOX and CBS are even more looking forward to the "Big Brother" and "Beverly Wife" that will be broadcast simultaneously on Wednesday.

However, as expected, "Big Brother" and "Beverly's Wife" still failed to replicate the ratings miracles of "Survivor" and "Who Will Be a Millionaire". On the first day of the broadcast on Wednesday, the average viewership of "Big Brother" at 8 o'clock in FOX was finally 15.35 million, and the average viewership of the first episode of "Beverly Wife" at 9 o'clock in CBS was even lower, at only 11.7 million.

Of course, such ratings data are actually only relative to "Survivor" and "Who Will Be a Millionaire".

Compared with most of the first episodes of this era, the two reality shows, both of which have exceeded 10 million levels, are already very good. The 15.35 million viewers of "Big Brother" has even reached an excellent level. With the accumulation of popularity , The future ratings of this reality show can even hit the 20 million mark, and the average ratings for the next few seasons should also be able to stay around 15 million.

As for "The Sweet Wife of Beverly", although it ranked last among the four reality shows, the number of viewers exceeding 10 million exceeded Simon's expectations. In the original time and space, because it is a basic cable station's TV program, the best ratings for "The Beverly Wife" is about two to three million.

Moreover, although it did not explode like "Survivor" and "Who Will Be a Millionaire", both FOX and CBS also expressed their willingness to renew the series after the series started.

Faced with the sudden wave of reality shows, Hollywood film and television production companies have also begun to look for similar TV shows, and North American media have analyzed several reality shows in a row.

There is no doubt that the reason why Daenerys Entertainment was able to start its own TV business with four reality shows in this fall season is ultimately due to the previous Hollywood screenwriter strike. If there were no screenwriters' strike for more than five months, the four major television networks would never give up so much initiative to sign such a generous contract with Daenerys Entertainment.

Now, all parties in the industry have generally reacted.

In the previous strike, the American Screenwriters Guild and the four major television networks were completely lost. Other Hollywood production companies also suffered heavy losses to varying degrees in this strike. Only Daenerys Entertainment made a big profit from this strike.

Not only are these four reality shows that made Daenerys Entertainment earn a lot of money, but at the end of the year, a large number of movie projects will be suspended due to a long strike, and Daenerys Entertainment’s movies can also get more. More market resources.

I fully want to understand this, and feel the good luck of Daenerys Entertainment, but Hollywood's traditional forces have also begun to instinctively safeguard their own interests.

On the following Friday, Daenerys Entertainment received a rating report from the MPAA for "Scream and Scream", requesting Daenerys Entertainment to revise a large number of excessively violent and **** plots in the film, otherwise, the film will be Was rated as the most stringent NC-17 level.

"Scream" was originally aimed at young audiences over the age of 16, and Simon never thought of earning tickets for this film from children aged twelve or thirteen. However, the NC-17 rating does not only mean that audiences under the age of 17 are prohibited from watching. Once a movie is determined to be such a rating, it also means that the movie can only be played in a limited number of specific theaters, and it cannot be used on a large scale. Publicity.

In the original time and space, "Screaming and Screaming" did have news that it had undergone multiple revisions to avoid NC-17-level fate, but Simon, who was very familiar with the Weinstein brothers, knew that this was basically just a publicity stunt.

Almost from the beginning of their debut, the two brothers have been operating with this rating gimmick, and it is very useful. Sometimes, the Weinstein brothers even took the initiative to send NC-17-level movies for MPAA review, and wait until the wind is released. Modified to R-level standard and resubmitted for review. Audiences are also generally more interested in a film that has been rated as NC-17.

But this time, Simon knew very well that what happened to the new version of "Screaming and Screaming" was not a gimmick at all, but a slamming power for Daenerys Entertainment by the MPAA Rating Committee under the control of the Seven Majors. There was only one and a half months left before "Screaming Scream" was released. Suddenly encountered this situation. Director Wes Craven had to rush to work on the weekend to revise the film, and Simon had to participate in it himself.

Busy, time came unconsciously on Saturday, September 17.

Near the evening, people from all over the city began to gather at Simon’s Mansion in Palisades. Today is Daenerys Entertainment for "Who Will Be a Millionaire", "Survivor", "Big Brother" A celebration party with "The Beverly Wife".

However, it is not just a series of main creators of the four reality shows, many Hollywood celebrities have also received invitations. Because Daenerys Entertainment is frequently looking for actors for a series of projects in the recent period, many stars who did not get the invitation letter also tried to attend the party through various channels, hoping to get a relationship with Simon Weiss Tello or Daenerys Entertainment has the opportunity to contact other executives.

Simon and Wes Craven spent a whole day in the editing room for the modification of "Scream and Scream", and when they arrived at Simon's mansion in Palisades, it was almost eight o'clock.

After a busy day, the hungry two simply greeted the guests in the mansion and hurried to the buffet table.

After choosing a plate full of food, Simon and Wes Craven were hiding in the corner and continuing to discuss the revision of the film in a low voice. Sandra Bullock leaned over with a smile and directly took Simon’s arm. Saying hello to Wes Craven, he leaned into Simon's ear and whispered: "I didn't see Jenny, did she not come over tonight?"

Simon looked at Wes Craven who turned to leave with an ambiguous expression. He picked up a grilled shrimp and stuffed it into Sandra's mouth, saying: "There is no need to express the idea of ​​affair so straightforwardly, everyone? All decent people."

Sandra rolled her eyes and raised her hand to stop Simon's grilled shrimp, and squeezed it in her hand to eat. She still didn't let go of Simon with the other hand, and said: "I regret not being more active like Jenny. It turned out that the man was snatched away. But, I really didn’t see Jenny?"

Simon took Sandra to the table near the cliff and sat down, looking at the beautiful view of Los Angeles at night, and explained with a smile: "She went to France."