Hollywood Hunter

The Port of Long Beach south of Los Angeles.

For a whole day, Simon personally supervised the various props needed for the shooting of "Batman" to pack the ship, and he did not leave until all six large containers were placed on a freighter of the shipping company of Johnston Holdings. Return to Santa Monica from the dock.

The Australian based team of the Johnston family and the "Batman" crew will take over the next process. Because many media are staring at the preparation details of "Batman", in order to avoid leaks, the Australian local customs will organize a team that has signed a non-disclosure agreement to be responsible for the customs clearance and acceptance of these items.

In December, Simon began to spend most of his time on "Batman". He will only show up at Daenerys Entertainment for an hour every day, and then rush to the Fox Studios "Batman" crew to rent it out. Discuss the shooting details with the creators in the studio.

It was already off work, and Simon returned to the Santa Monica Daenerys Entertainment headquarters, but Amy and Docman were both waiting for him.

The three entered Simon’s office and sat down, and Amy said, “As for the heroine of "Flying by the Innocence", Simon, CAA still didn’t let go. I think we’d better change and force Meg Ryan to fulfill the contract. She will certainly not spend much effort on this movie, so the result will only be worse."

"Then change someone," Simon nodded, and said, "As for our option contract with Meg Ryan, let it go on for a year, and then let her lose money."

Hollywood option contracts are very common. However, once a celebrity becomes popular, in order to maintain a relationship and promote future cooperation, the film company usually takes the initiative to make concessions. If you follow Simon’s approach, Daenerys Entertainment and Meg Ryan will stop cooperating in the future, and the relationship between the company and CAA will deteriorate.

However, now that Simon has made a decision, Amy did not persuade her much, and she was also very disgusted with CAA's wild asking price.

Simon finished speaking, took a sip of the coffee that Secretary Susan had just brought in, and raised his eyes to notice that the female secretary was still in the corner of the shelf with her back facing him. He wondered: "Susan, there are What's the problem?"

Susan Landis turned around and raised several folders towards Simon. One of them seemed to be unsteady and fell to the ground with a snap. She leaned over to pick it up, and said: "Mr. Westeros , I think there’s a mess here, so I’ll clean it up."

Simon looked at the female secretary who had entered the company since Daenerys Films was founded, rubbed his finger on the coffee cup, and said, "When you are done, go out."

When the female secretary left, Simon continued to say to Amy: "Also, from now on, all future projects of the company will continue to invite CAA artists, but we will not hire any of them. Ira, the same goes for you. ,do you understand?"

Amy and Deutschman looked at each other, this strategy was simply too detrimental.

If Daenerys Entertainment can continue to create this year's box office brilliance, then CAA's obvious is equivalent to watching the projects that you can obviously get involved in slipping away. When this happens too many times, the CAA agent's ability will be questioned, and eventually it may even cause the star to leave CAA.

However, both Amy and Deutschman also understand why Simon, who has always been gentle, will not leave any room today.

Today is December 8th, and there are only eight days left before the release of "Rain Man".

These days, the publicity work of "Rain Man" can be described as difficult. Although I don’t expect several creators to participate in the promotion of the film, it seems to be to completely cut off Daenerys Entertainment’s “thinking” in this respect, Das Ting Hoffman left Los Angeles for a holiday in the UK last month, and Tom Cruise has stayed in Mexico to shoot Oliver Stone’s new film "Born on July 4th."

Moreover, in an interview with a British media, Dustin Hoffman also made no secret of publicly saying that the experience of filming "Rain Man" was as bad as "Esda". Last year, Dustin Hoffman "Esda" starring Warren Beatty burned a budget of 55 million US dollars, but the North American box office was only more than 10 million US dollars. The producer, Columbia, has lost his money.

Dustin Hoffman made such a public statement that before "Rain Man" was released, it was rendered into a bad "Esda" style film by the media.

In addition, the budget cost of "Rain Man" has also become one of the hot topics in the media.

The film’s original production budget was as high as 25 million U.S. dollars. In order to buy back the distribution rights of various channels in North America from MGM, Daenerys Entertainment spent another 5 million U.S. dollars. In the recent promotion process, Daenerys The budget for entertainment investment has also exceeded $5 million.

Counting other expenses such as subsequent film copies, the total investment of "Rain Man" has been close to 40 million US dollars.

With a total investment of 40 million U.S. dollars, Daenerys Entertainment wants to recoup the cost with the box office. According to the share ratio of 55%, "Rain Man" also needs to get more than 70 million U.S. dollars in the box office to achieve this goal.

However, even though Daenerys Entertainment has created box office miracles one after another, not many people now believe that "Rain Man" can continue to continue the brilliance of films such as "Screaming" and "Steel Magnolia".

"Death Poetry Society" of the company's Christmas file will be screened tomorrow. Although the audience groups of "Death Poetry Society" and "Rain Man" will not overlap too much, in order to avoid the spread of publicity, "Rain Man" This time there is no arrangement to show it. The film will be released directly on December 16. Daenerys Entertainment’s strategy chosen by Daenerys Entertainment has once again been treated as an expression of guilty conscience by the media.

Simon frowned slightly thinking about these things, then looked at Ella Deutschman.

Ella Deutschman did not wait for Simon to ask, and said: "Robert Newmeier called me in the afternoon. They don't plan to sell the rights to distribute the "Sex, Lies, and Videotape"."

Simon just froze for a moment, then smiled wryly, not surprised at all in his heart.

The main investor in "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" is MCA/Columbia Home Entertainment, a joint venture between Universal and Columbia. Under the influence of Daenerys Entertainment’s series of box office miracles, the company’s Gaomen Pictures Interested, if there is no response from Universal and Colombia, then it is not normal.

Simon wants to get "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", mainly to intercept the rise of Humi Lamax. A film with a box office of more than 20 million US dollars in North America can make a small studio-style independent film company rise, but it cannot have much influence on a large film company. Even if it doesn't work properly, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" may not even be as successful as in original time and space.

Since there was no hope, Simon didn't struggle too much, and asked: "Has Robert Altman's "Intersection of Life" signed?"

"I have signed a screenwriting and director contract with Ultraman." Ira Deutschman nodded and said: "In addition, Simon, Sundance Film Festival Chairman Tony Safford told me that the company only Being able to choose one of the three films "Sisters", "Metropolis" and "Sisters of Sid" to participate in the main competition unit of the festival, he let us make a decision as soon as possible."

Simon picked up a pencil from the table and played with it. Although Daenerys Entertainment’s series of successes did not receive a strong reaction from Hollywood’s traditional forces, Simon also felt obvious constraints from the recent incident. .

There are a total of 16 films in the main competition unit of the Sundance Film Festival. Simon never thought of squeezing all three films in from the beginning. Even if he could get "Sex, Lies and Videotape", he planned to bypass it directly. Sundance, at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Of the remaining three films, Simon only expects to be selected for two.

Now, Sundance directly stated that Daenerys Entertainment has only one quota, which is probably due to the personal friendship between Simon and Redford. Without this network, Daenerys Entertainment might not be selected for any one this year.

"So, which one do you think is appropriate?"

""Metropolitan"," Ella Docman said: ""Sisters" will adopt the propaganda method of youthful comedy, so you don't need to participate in the film festival. The problem of teenage suicide in "Sisters of Sid" should be Not too popular with film festivals. In comparison, Whit Stillman's "Metropolis" fits the tastes of Sundance and the media best."

The next day was Friday, and another week passed.

From December 2nd to December 8th, Paramount Pictures’ new film "The White-headed Detective" finally squeezed "Steel Magnolia" from the box office champion. In the first week and seven days, the North American box office of "The Detective" reached 12.21 million US dollars.

In the third week of the large-scale painting, the number of screens of "Steel Magnolia" increased again, reaching 1,215 yuan, and the box office this week was 9.68 million US dollars. Compared with last week, the box office fell only 15%, and the cumulative box office reached 36.6 million US dollars.

In addition, "Scream" was also squeezed to fourth place by Warner Bros' new film "Tyquila Sunrise", "Tyquila Sunrise" starring Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer, opened the painting The box office reached 8.23 ​​million US dollars in the first week.

In the sixth week of its release, the drop of "Screaming Scream" narrowed to 11% compared with last week, and it received another 7.79 million US dollars, with a total box office of 81.16 million US dollars.

At the same time, on December 9th, "Dragon Brother and Mouse" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger opened on 1396 screens in North America, and Daenerys Entertainment's "Death Poetry Society" also opened on 25 screens in North America. The movie opened on the movie, and the movie "Mississippi is Burning" by Orion Pictures was also opened. In Simon's memory, this film about American racial issues is also the most popular Oscar this year.

Although "Dragon Brother and Rat Brother" won the first day's box office that surprised the producer like "The White Headed Detective", the next day, "Death Poetry Society" immediately became the focus of media discussion.

Robert De Niro also does not assume the name of an actor who can perform any type of role. Mainstream media such as "Hollywood Reporter", "Variety", "Los Angeles Times" and other mainstream media all mentioned De Niro in the film reviews. "The Poetry Society" is full of passionate teacher images, thinking that this movie will definitely bring De Niro an Oscar nomination again.

Compared with the media's affirmation of De Niro's performance, the views expressed by the "Dead Poetry Society" have caused some controversy.

"Chicago Reader" believes that, compared with the dogmatism of Wilton School in the film, Keating's behavior of asking students to tear up other people's poems is also an indoctrination of students.

However, the fundamental concept of "Death Poetry Society" is still a yearning for freedom. This is a kind of "political correctness" that cannot be more positive in the United States. Therefore, although there are some controversies, the overall media reputation of the film is still very good. Strong, the comprehensive film review score is close to the classic level of 8.6 points.

Monday, December 12.

When the weekend passed, the most watched thing in Hollywood this week was the announcement of the Golden Globe nomination.

According to the previously discussed strategy, Daenerys Entertainment submitted Golden Globe Awards for two films in total, namely "Steel Magnolia" and "Death Poetry Society". "Steel Magnolia" is aimed at the best film in musical comedy. "Death Poetry Society" is for the best film in the drama category.

However, just like the encounter at the Sundance Film Festival, "Steel Magnolia" only received a Julia Roberts nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Obviously there are factors for the additional operation of ICM. Other musical comedies. Nominations for best picture, best director and best actress were all rejected.

"Death Poetry Club" has successfully received four nominations for best film, best director, best actor and best screenwriter in a drama category.

In order to concentrate public relations resources to ensure maximum profits, Daenerys Entertainment abandoned "When Harry Meets Sally" at the beginning of the year, and did not apply for a nomination for "Rain Man", which has not been optimistic by everyone. However, "Steel Mulan" The failure of "Flower" left Simon depressed.

Among the five nominated best films in the musical comedy category, "Flying over the Future", "A Fish Named Wanda" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" are well deserved, but the other "Working Girl" won The nomination made Simon feel a little ironic. The most important reason why this film can be nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress in a Musical Comedy is probably because the director of this film is named Mike Nichols, he was the director of "Graduate" and "Long Desire".

"Graduate" and "Spring Night" are naturally classics, but the plot of "Working Girl" starring Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith can only be described as mediocre and old-fashioned. , Is also a business war movie, "Working Girl" and last year's Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" is simply incomparable.

In addition, Simon’s "Pulp Fiction" also ironically only won two nominations for John Travolta's Best Actor and Symbolic Best Screenplay. The copyright of "Pulp Fiction" is in the hands of Orion, I don’t know. For what reason, Orion focused this year's public relations on "Mississippi Is Burning", which successfully won four nominations including best picture in a drama.

Seeing this situation, Simon also realized that Daenerys Entertainment should be difficult to make a difference in the awards this year.

With such helplessness and depression, time came unconsciously on December 16, and the controversial "Rain Man" was finally released online in major theaters in North America.