Hollywood Hunter

At about five o'clock in the afternoon, the audition for the leading actor in "Ten Days of Crisis" ended.

There were only three candidates for the final round of small-scale auditions, and the last one to participate in the audition was Don Johnson, the husband of Melanie Griffith.

Simon originally didn’t think that Don Johnson, whose style tends to be a tough guy, could play a good role as a writer, but with the help of some connections in the Griffith family, and watching the audition tape carefully prepared by Don Johnson, he changed his view. .

Moreover, Don Johnson and Susan Sarandon are the same age, and an alternative CP effect can also be formed between the two.

Discussing the role perception, performing the script fragments, and finally the heroine Susan Sarandon came to play in person. This audition took a full hour and a half. The actor of Don Johnson was basically finalized, and then only the production was required. The film party and Don Johnson’s agent discussed details such as remuneration.

After get off work, everyone talked and left the audition room with a smile.

Waiting for the others to leave and staying at the end, Don Johnson said to Simon: “One more thing, Simon, May and I are going to hold a baptism ceremony for Dakota on the 16th next month. I don’t know if you are free to attend, Xiao You took the guy’s name."

A few months ago, at the box office celebration of "Deadly Weapon 2", Simon casually named the Johnsons’ upcoming daughter an “original” Dakota Johnson’s name for fun, and he almost forgot about it later. thing.

The child was born in October, but the Johnsons actually used this name and spread the news that Simon himself named it.

A new-born girl has attracted a lot of media attention. After Vanity Fair opened a price tag, a group photo of the Johnson family of three was finally registered on the cover of Vanity Fair in November. The interview article was once again deliberate. Mention the name Simon.

Simon's interpretation of Dakota's name "Eternal Smile" has even caused controversy among some linguists.

"Next month on the 16th," Simon thought for a while, and said, "Tang, I'm not sure if I will be in Los Angeles then. If I am, I will definitely be there."

"Batman" will be released on December 22, and Warner Bros. confirmed that the premiere of "Batman" in Los Angeles will be on December 20. Simon does not intend to participate too much in the specific publicity of the film, so it will be before December 20 Probably not coming back.

Don Johnson didn't know Simon's arrangement. Hearing his promise that he would definitely attend as long as he was in Los Angeles, he happily reached out and said, "That's OK."

Simon and Don Johnson shook hands and said with a smile, "Of course."

The main creation of "Ten Days in Crisis" is basically finalized, and the only project planned to be released next year among the 10 films is "League of Red Fans".

Now that the ban on CAA has been lifted, the crew has officially sent an invitation to Tom Hanks.

Tom Hanks has been firmly among the top male stars after "Flying the Future". However, he has not yet shown the strong box office appeal of many veteran male stars. Therefore, the price quoted by him is also a fairly satisfactory $5 million. Simon There is no bargaining.

Sony, which has just won Columbia Pictures, is in the midst of ambition and spending money, but Simon has limited the budget of the "League of Pink Fans" to $25 million.

Tom Hanks took away 5 million US dollars, Gina Davis paid 2 million US dollars, the original director Penny Marshall and Hanks also promoted to the top after cooperating with Hanks, the director’s pay was also 500 Ten thousand U.S. dollars.

The three main creators took away 12 million U.S. dollars and secured another 10 million U.S. dollars in filming costs, leaving little salary reserved for other supporting actors. Madonna, who has played soy sauce in the original version, will definitely not be invited again. Many supporting roles can only get a low weekly salary.

However, for projects led by Simon himself, there is absolutely no shortage of actors in Hollywood today, even if it is inverted, so the tight budget will not affect the quality of actors.

In addition to the official production projects, Simon has been looking for the remaining list of the 10 film plans.

The next day is Thursday, November 16.

"Flying over the Innocence" will begin painting tomorrow, and the premiere of the film will be held in the evening at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

The lively premiere began at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Simon attended by himself. After a short stay on the red carpet to take pictures, he went directly to the theater. At 8 o'clock, the premiere was over, and most of the invited guests went to a nearby hotel to participate in the after-party.

Simon had planned to leave early, but was stopped by Terry Semel.

In the hotel banquet hall, after some entertainment, Semel and Simon came to a corner together: "That's it, Simon, next month's "Time" Weekly Man of the Year, Time has confirmed it. "

Seeing Semel's expression of congratulations, Simon didn't understand why he said, "Me?"

"Of course, besides you, who else has this qualification?" Terry Semmel smiled: "Speaking of which, you already have this qualification in the first two years, so you can arrange to take a group recently. The cover blockbuster, of course, you can't shirk this interview."

"Time" Weekly Man of the Year.

Simon sighed in his heart, of course he knew what it meant.

As a current affairs weekly with great influence worldwide, the cover characters of each issue are attracting attention. In order to gain fame, some people even fake their own fake cover of Time magazine.

"Time" Weekly's Man of the Year is the top priority of "Time" Weekly's cover each year.

Therefore, the cover of such a magazine is definitely not so good.

In fact, last year, some media predicted that Simon would become "Time" Weekly's 1988 Man of the Year, but in the end, Time would rather give the place to the "endangered earth" instead of falling on Simon.

Faced with doubts from the outside world, Time magazine explained that Simon was still too young and did not meet the criteria for becoming a man of the year.

Suddenly it reached the'standard' this year.

This is certainly not accidental, it is more of a matter of course.

Thinking about it a little bit, you can understand that this is the result of Warner’s efforts. Time and Warner Bros. have got rid of the entanglement of Paramount and have officially reached a merger agreement.

Simon has become the richest man in the Federation at the age of 21 this year. He is qualified enough. In addition, in order to be able to create momentum for "Batman" to be released next month, this year's "Time" man of the year will naturally not fall on others.

There has never been a truly impartial and neutral media in this world. Since Time magazine has belonged to the brand-new Time Warner Company, it naturally has to favor the company's interests.

Simon clearly remembers that after the release of "Wonder Woman" in the original time and space, as the treasure of Warner Bros., all the main creators of the "Wonder Woman" project have been "carefully taken care of" by Time Warner's media, and they have no qualifications at all. The director of "Wonder Woman" Patty Jenkins was shortlisted for the "Time" Weekly Man of the Year because of the far-fetched'Patty Jenkins redefines how the world should treat women' .

Thinking about this, Simon did not refuse, but said: "However, Terry, I am going to Europe this weekend."

"This is not a problem. As long as you cooperate, someone will be sent to Europe to take pictures and interviews for you. The time will probably be at the end of the month."

"Let them contact my assistant at that time." Simon nodded. He has received enough attention in recent years, but he hasn't generated much excitement. He turned a topic and said: "You are here for Cooper- Peters Productions is claiming 1 billion US dollars from Sony, which is really cruel."

Sony has determined that two veteran Hollywood producers, Peter Cooper and John Peters, will be in charge of Columbia Pictures. For this reason, it has not only issued high salary terms, but also acquired the production of the two for 200 million US dollars in cash. the company.

However, the Cooper-Peters production company was originally affiliated with Warner Bros. Pictures. Sony has just completed the acquisition of this production company, and Warner filed a lawsuit against Sony for breach of contract by the Cooper-Peters production company. Claim 1 billion U.S. dollars.

Terry Semel listened to Simon mention this and smiled: "You know Steve, he can't bear to see the Japanese put their hands in Hollywood. This is our place."

Simon knew that Warner eventually knocked away $600 million from the Japanese and became Sony's first ‘tuition fee’ in Hollywood. He admired Steve Rose’s method and secretly reminded himself not to make similar mistakes.

After the premiere, the next day, "Flying Through the Innocence" was officially opened in North America with 2,206 screens.

Universal Pictures produced the sequel to the 1985 box office champion "Back to the Future" "Back to the Future 2" scheduled for Wednesday, November 22.

In order to avoid the edge of "Back to the Future 2", a total of 6 new films were released on November 17th. Among them, Daenerys cooperated with Warner Bros. "Flying the Innocence" and "Harlem Nightclub" produced by Paramount. The number of screens on screen with Orion Films' "Illusory Sea Childhood" is around 2,000 yuan.

Daenerys and Warner Bros.'s "Flying by the Innocence" should not be underestimated, but other studios seem to think that "Flying by the Innocence" is better.

As for next week, except for the Gucci fashion documentary officially named "Gucci Mark" released by Daenerys Entertainment's Gaomen Pictures, "Back to the Future 2" can be said to dominate the Thanksgiving Week schedule.

Ella Deutschman is also quite puzzled about Simon's decision to insist on playing "Gucci Mark" and "Back to the Future 2", but Simon did not explain much to him.

In my memory, the box office of the sequel to "Back to the Future 2" has shrunk by half compared to the first annual box office champion with a local box office of more than $200 million. Universal has invested all available resources for this sequel movie, but the production budget is as high as 40 million US dollars. Although the box office of "Back to the Future 2" is still surpassing 100 million, it is far from reaching the producers' expectations. It is a failure. Describe it without exaggeration.

"Back to the Future 2" is not as strong as outside imagination, and "Gucci Mark" will naturally not be too severely affected.

On the other hand, because a lot of preparatory work has been done in advance, after obtaining Simon's permission, Nancy held another meeting on the acquisition of EA on Friday. James Leibald also flew over from the East Coast to participate.

Cersei Capital’s funds are unlikely to be transferred back to China in the short term. Nancy plans to formally contact EA this weekend, and it is likely that the money will not be used. However, after summarizing all aspects of the income in the second half of the year, Daenerys Entertainment does not rely on Cersei Capital’s funds to win EA within the $350 million budget.

At the end of the meeting on the acquisition of EA, Simon sent away the others and formally discussed the plan to acquire MCA with Amy and James.

After facilitating the deal between Sony and Columbia, Michael Ovitz should have been pushing Panasonic to acquire Universal’s parent company MCA, but this business will be delayed for a long time just like Sony’s acquisition of Columbia. Simon has many opportunities to intercept Hu.

Simon's plan to acquire MCA was only slightly revealed to the female assistant before. Amy and James were very surprised, and excitement followed.

If it can win the MCA, Daenerys Entertainment will become the largest studio in Hollywood, and the company's previous shortcomings in records, TV, content and theme parks will also be immediately made up.

Of course, this is not without problems.

The current market value of MCA is close to US$4 billion. Both Amy and James believe that Daenerys Entertainment may have to prepare US$8 billion if it wants to win the company.

It is no secret that MCA chairman Lou Vasalman made a $8 billion offer to Sony last year.

Knowing the economic trends in North America in the coming year, Simon is more optimistic than Amy and James, knowing that it will not take so much money to complete the acquisition. However, even if it reaches 8 billion US dollars, this figure will not be too big a problem for Simon.

After ending the operation of the US junk bond market a year ago, Cersei Capital's capital volume is enough to reach 8 billion US dollars. Next, the oil price turbulence caused by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War was enough for Simon to continue to make a lot of money.

Entering the 1990s, the prices of major Hollywood studios will only get higher and higher, and the sooner it is to win Universal, the better it will be for Daenerys Entertainment.

Of course, this matter cannot be accomplished overnight.

This time, Simon just informed Amy and James of their plans, so that they can start some related preparations now. Compared with EA, which has a market value of less than 200 million US dollars, it will be at least next year if it wants to win a company like MCA that has been considered a giant in this era.

At the same time, Simon did not intend to take a hostile takeover this time, so he did not let James start absorbing MCA stock in advance. Although this can save some money in future acquisitions, it is easy to cause misunderstandings by MCA management, making Lou Vasalman and others think that Simon is going to initiate a hostile acquisition.

In order to save one or two billion dollars to cause hostility from the MCA management, it is not worth the gain for a multi-billion dollar business.

Janet will arrive in Los Angeles at about two o'clock in the afternoon to end the meeting with the two of them. After everyone had lunch together, Simon rushed to the Los Angeles International Airport to pick them up.