Hollywood Hunter

"MGM Pictures suddenly announced yesterday afternoon that it would take over the release of the family comedy "My Stepmother is an Alien" co-starred by Dan Aykroyd and Kim Basinger, and it is scheduled for December 23rd. "My Stepmother is an Alien" was produced by Hollywood independent producer Weintraub Entertainment and Katarina Productions at a production cost of US$20 million."

"According to public information, "My Stepmother is an Alien" was originally to be distributed by Columbia Pictures. A reporter from this newspaper called the film producer Franklin Levy. Levy said that the producer and Columbia Pictures could not specify certain distribution terms. Reached an agreement, so I switched to MGM."

"However, "My Stepmother is an Alien" is set for December 23 and will form a direct competition with MGM's other release film "Rain Man", which is set for December 16.

""Rain Man" is directed by "Good Morning Vietnam" director Barry Levinson, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. This film has previously exposed a fierce conflict between the creator and the producer. Dass Ting Hoffman and Tom Cruise once publicly supported Barry Levinson and condemned Daenerys Pictures for wanton interference in the creation of the film. Barry Levinson then withdrew from the film. Rumor has it that Simon Westeros Personally take over the later work."

"In response to MGM’s sudden introduction of "My Stepmother is an Alien" because of lack of confidence in "Rain Man", whether the release of "Rain Man" will be withdrawn, or whether it involves other internal affairs, the author called MGM and Danieli respectively Neither Silk nor CAA received a response."

"This newspaper will pay close attention to the follow-up progress of this matter."

Santa Monica.

In Simon's office at Daenerys Entertainment headquarters.

Putting down the "Daily Variety Show" in his hand, Simon looked up at Amy Pascal and Robert Rem who had just sat down opposite him.

Amy took the initiative: "I asked a friend in Colombia that the audience response to the internal preview of "My Stepmother is Alien" was very poor. Colombia wanted to increase the commission rate and asked the producer to share the publicity costs. It's breaking."

Simon picked up the pencil and turned it around in his hand, and said, "I'm not interested in this movie."

Robert Rem saw Simon looking at him and said: "For MGM, I just saw their "Rain Man" announcement yesterday. It was very sloppy. I even suspect that it was just an intern. Tony Tomopoulos also complained to me that "Rain Man" was useless, and MGM also asked us to prepay US$5 million in publicity fees as soon as possible, but from the current situation, we should only get the stipulations in the contract. It’s guaranteed to have 1,000 screens, not one piece. Even if MGM gets the money, it will definitely not try to promote the film. Although we can assign an accountant to follow up the release of the film according to the agreement, MGM There are still many ways to avoid our supervision."

Simon has long understood that the success of a movie depends on the quality of the movie, as well as strength and luck. There are too many uncertainties. But if you want to deliberately mess up, things become very simple.

Looking down at the newspaper on the desk again, Simon clearly noticed the shadow of CAA without Amy and Rem reminding him.

Dan Aykroyd is also an important customer of CAA. The actor succeeded in entering the front line with his 1984 box office runner-up "Ghostbusters".

Moreover, if there is no other external force, as an independent producer, Columbia Pictures suddenly asked for an increase in commission as the end of the year is approaching. The producer may only pinch his nose to recognize it in order to avoid missing the New Year's file.

CAA, which has become more and more powerful in recent years, happens to have the strength to facilitate this.

Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, and even "Rain Man" director Barry Levinson, are all CAA's ace customers. Since everyone has completely collapsed on the "Rain Man" project, and several main creators have successfully transferred the responsibility to Daenerys Entertainment, CAA obviously does not want "Rain Man" to have the slightest possibility of turning over. The result can only be failure, the more failure the better.

Simon listened to the two of them, raised his wrist and looked at his watch. In the morning there was an audition for the role of "Batman". He had a schedule for noon, afternoon and even evening. Today is another busy day.

No more nonsense, Simon said to Robert Rem: "In this case, you go to MGM now and get back the distribution rights of "Rain Man."

Robert Rem hesitated: "Simon, what if MGM is not willing to let it go?"

Simon stood up, buttoned his suit, and said, "This is your business, Bob. If MGM is unwilling, unfortunately, your year-end awards this year will shrink."

Robert Rem watched Simon walk straight out of the office, looked at Amy helplessly, and said, "Simon doesn't seem to be very happy today?"

Amy also stood up and said: "Maybe it's too tired recently, and no one will be too happy when encountering this kind of thing."

"Well," Robert Rem stood up together, followed Amy out, and then said: "After all, "Rain Man" is a dispute between us and CAA, although the Seventh National Congress has not been very friendly to us recently. But Tomopoulos should also be reluctant to completely offend Daenerys Entertainment. It is not a big problem to get the distribution rights back. But, Amy, how much do you think my offer is appropriate?"

"MGM owns the distribution rights of "Rain Man" through various channels in North America, and the cinema chain, video tape and TV platform are all 15%, and the overseas copyright is in our own hands." Amy recalled the original agreement and said: "The North American box office of "Rain Man" is calculated at 20 million U.S. dollars. If you want to withdraw the distribution rights, I think that 5 million U.S. dollars is more appropriate."

Robert Rem nodded, his price was roughly the same.

Based on the North American box office of 20 million U.S. dollars, MGM can get a distribution commission of 3 million U.S. dollars, not counting overseas, but the combined sales commissions for video tapes and TV platforms in North America should be equivalent to box office revenue, which is about 3 million U.S. dollars. But this means a long payment cycle for several years.

If Daenerys Entertainment is willing to spend $5 million to redeem the distribution rights in advance, MGM has no reason to refuse.

However, Robert Rem asked jokingly: "Amy, do you think "Rain Man" has only $20 million in box office potential?"

The two walked to the corridor outside Simon's office. Amy rolled her eyes gently and said, "Don't you think so?"

"Rain Man" has always been a project that many Hollywood film companies are not optimistic about. There has been such a big disturbance in the later stage of the film. Now several main creators will definitely not participate in the work of the film. It is a negative factor that hinders the film's box office success.

Although Simon's abilities are highly regarded in the circle, in addition to five films including "Lola Run", he also proved his vision in "When Harry Meets Sally". But in the eyes of many people, the production of "Rain Man" is really mediocre, and it does not have the many highlights of "When Harry Meets Sally".

At US$20 million at the North American box office, this is actually an overestimation.

Amy feels that the reason Simon is now supporting this movie is more of a juvenile spirit.

After all, his own boss is just a young man in his twenties.

Robert Rem couldn't comment on Amy's rhetorical question, but just smiled. Noting that Amy was walking down the stairs with himself, he asked again: "Are you planning to go out too?"

"For the consumer goods department, I recently found a manager to meet at Century City in the morning."

Although the acquisition of New World Entertainment has been completed, the adjustment and expansion of the company has not stopped in the past few months.

Since "Star Wars", the development of film and television derivative products has attracted more and more attention from major film companies, and it has also created a new profit growth point for Hollywood. As Daenerys Entertainment has more and more independent release films, this aspect will also bring substantial income to the company.

One of Amy's recent work focuses is the establishment of Daenerys Entertainment's consumer goods department responsible for peripheral product development and image authorization.

"Oh, actually, I think we should also acquire a record company or set up a record department as soon as possible. Starting from "Lola Run", the sales of soundtrack records produced by our company are very good. It is said that the soundtrack records of "Pulp Fiction" have Sold more than 6 million copies.” Robert Rem said this and couldn’t help but shook his head, saying: “It’s a pity that from the current situation, Pulp Fiction is likely to be the box office champion this year, but This movie supported Orion’s performance this year, and these profits should have belonged to us."

The stock market crash last year made life difficult for most Hollywood studios.

Without "Pulp Fiction," Orion Pictures, which had released more than a dozen movies this year but did not sell at the box office, would definitely be in trouble, or even go bankrupt like Canon Pictures, DeLaurentis Entertainment and other companies.

Now, the local box office of "Pulp Fiction" is close to 150 million U.S. dollars, and the total global box office may even reach 300 million. The losses of Orion Pictures on all other projects can be made up from the proceeds of this movie.

"Who knew that "Pulp Fiction" would be so successful, maybe even Simon himself didn't expect it. This is something that can't be helped," Amy also regretted, "As for the record department, Simon talked to me a long time ago. Do you know the best-selling single he wrote for Madonna? Simon’s talent in music is no less than that of movies. However, we are not familiar with the record business, and we can’t tell enough energy to take care of these now. Can be put on hold for now."

Robert Rem nodded in understanding, and said: "I have seen Simon playing the video of "Bumblebee Flying" on the guitar. It was amazing. I really don't know how he grew up like this."

The two chatted casually, came to the parking lot, and each got in the car and rushed to their destination.

On the other side, Simon moved to the audition room downstairs and started working in the morning.

Recently it has been the final round of auditions for an important supporting role in Batman. In addition to Batman Bruce Wayne and Catwoman Selena Kyle, the three most important roles in the first film are Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Peniworth and Gotham Police Chief James · Gordon and the most important villain "Black Mask".

The several "Batman" movies in the original time and space, starting with Tim Bolton, are basically a group of classic villains such as the clown, the riddler, and the double-faced man. The black mask has not appeared. In fact, the black mask is indeed not a well-known villain in the "Batman" comics. This character only appeared in 1985, only three years from now.

However, after carefully studying a series of comics in "Batman", Simon found that the role of the black mask is very suitable as the villain in the first part of the film.

In the comic setting, the black mask was originally named Roman Ciennis, who also came from a wealthy family in Gotham City, and was a classmate of Bruce Wayne when he was a child.

Moreover, Roman Ciennis also had an unfortunate childhood.

Although it is a rich family, the Cionnis family has inherited a gene of violence that is very easy to hysterical. Roman Ciennis grew up almost in the shadow of her parents' domestic violence from words to fists, so he became closed and developed a habit of collecting masks to hide himself. In the end, after his parents who disliked his hobby burned the masks he had collected for many years, Roman Ciennis broke out. He set fire to kill his parents and inherited a large amount of family wealth.

Losing the control of his parents, the violent gene in Roman Ciennis's character that was in line with the family began to recover, becoming irritable and combative. Because they were not good at business, the Cionnis family's industry was soon on the verge of collapse.

Bruce Wayne returned to Gotham after traveling abroad for many years. Hearing about the difficulties encountered by Roman Ciennis, the Wayne Group acquired the company of the Ciennis family that was on the verge of bankruptcy out of the friendship of classmates. Roman Ciennis became nothing, so he turned his anger on Bruce Wayne and gradually degenerated into Gotham's most notorious criminal.

In the comics plot, Roman Ciennis also has a deep entanglement with Catwoman, which happens to provide for the interaction between Bruce Wayne, Selena Kyle and Roman Ciennis in the movie version of the plot. Adaptation basis.

Of course, Simon’s movie script did not copy the comics settings, but made considerable changes.

Two people of similar origin, one tried to punish and punish evil and became a ‘Batman’ who frightened criminals, and the other fell completely into the darkness and became a ‘black mask’ who did no evil. There are a lot of things worth thinking about.

The fledgling Batman experienced this encounter and completed his first transformation of the advanced dark knight. The relatively simple duel between good and evil is also in line with the setting of the "Batman" series in Simon's plan from small to large.

Simon has a very clear positioning for his own "Batman", which will be a series of popcorn commercial blockbusters. However, under the premise of ensuring commerciality, he did not completely give up adding some thoughts about human nature and about good and evil.