Hollywood Hunter

Santa Monica.

The time is Thursday, February 1.

Simon arrived at the company headquarters at eight o'clock, and Jennifer, who had arrived early, followed him into the office with a stack of documents.

Because Simon has been letting go of many things intentionally or unintentionally, and often not in Los Angeles during this time, Jennifer's authority has grown under Simon's instruction, and he almost has to assume the role of Simon's internal spokesperson.

In recent weeks, the female assistant has personally led the team in charge of the financial audit work for the past year.

In the second half of last year, due to the big sales of "Bodyguard", "Sixth Sense of Supernatural", "Scream 2" and other films, the sales of the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard", the success of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" video game, TV projects With the continuous revenue and the overseas and video release of films such as "Rain Man" at the end of 1988, Daenerys Entertainment’s revenue has experienced an explosive growth.

Compared with the net profit scale of 110 million US dollars in the first half of last year, even if large expenditures such as the construction of Daenerys Studios and the acquisition of EA equity in the second half of the year are excluded, Daenerys Entertainment’s net profit after tax for the entire year The scale is also expected to exceed 500 million US dollars.

Relying on Daenerys Entertainment's continuous supply of abundant funds, James Leibald has been continuously increasing investment in new technology fields.

Right now, Westeros’ shareholding in Microsoft has reached 21.3%, of which 10% is taken over from Microsoft’s two major shareholders, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, in the form of loans, and the remaining part is made up of Dannelly The funds provided by Silk Entertainment were absorbed from the open market, and Gates personally approached Simon because of this incident.

With the release date of Windows 3.0 approaching, Microsoft's stock price has begun to rise again during this period of time because of the outflow of the beta version.

The control of 21.3% of Microsoft's shares has exceeded Simon's expectations, and Westeros does not plan to increase its holdings of Microsoft shares.

Westeros' shareholding ratio in Intel has also increased to 15.6%, which is also the result of re-accepting it last year. Westeros invested nearly US$300 million for this 5% share based on its original holdings, all of which were funds sent by Daenerys Entertainment.

Simon sat down behind his desk, and the female assistant handed over today’s work schedule. While putting down the documents in her hand, she said: “The financial audit work will probably be over next week. Here is a briefing. In addition, there is a Warner for you. Serving as the salary package provided by the producers of "The Flash" and "Steel Bones", each film has a base salary of 2 million US dollars plus a 10% local box office share. Finally, the company has just bought several novels and script materials, including The dinosaur science fiction by Michael Clayton you mentioned."

Hearing Michael Clayton's dinosaur novel, Simon raised his head and raised his eyebrows slightly.

Jennifer noticed Simon’s expression and proactively explained: “Amy personally communicated with Mr. Friedman, because other studios also noticed the project in Clayton’s hands, and everyone put forward an offer. The negotiation was finally settled. The price is 2.5 million U.S. dollars, 2 million U.S. dollars is the buyout cost of the novel, 500,000 U.S. dollars is the script adaptation cost, the latter point is the result of Mr. Friedman's insistence."

Simon nodded, understanding why Jonathan asked for this.

Participating in the adaptation of the script, Michael Clayton can also receive additional revenue sharing according to the "Basic Agreement" of the screenwriters union after the film is released.

For an unpublished novel, the $2.5 million offer is indeed a bit high.

Although Michael Clayton has made a lot of fame in the novel industry these years, his film and television projects were not successful before "Jurassic Park". Last year, Clayton personally directed a crime thriller. The film "Edge of the Trap", with a production cost of US$17 million, only received a poor box office of US$3.3 million, and the investor Columbia Pictures has lost money.

This is why Jonathan can easily dig his opponent from CAA to WMA.

Speaking of it, if it were not for Simon's expressed intentions, Jonathan might not have much interest in Clayton.

Thinking of this, Simon asked the female assistant: "When will the novel be published?"

"Clayton has just completed the outline of the story, at least until the end of the year."

"Transfer the information of this project to the special effects studio, and ask them to come up with a CG dinosaur development plan to me in the near future, and put it on hold for the time being."

Jennifer nodded, noted the matter in the memo in her hand, and continued: "Also, Joe Rose from Fox called yesterday. Regarding the "Terminator", he asked if you would have time to talk about it tomorrow night. thing?"

Simon wondered: "Tomorrow night?"

"Ross organized a reception at his home in Lengshui Canyon tomorrow night," the female assistant tore a page from her pocket memo and handed it over, "This is the address."

"You can keep it for me," Simon pushed the page over again, looked at the female assistant and smiled: "Why, go together tomorrow night?"

Jennifer shook her head and said, "I'm very tired recently. I want to go home to sleep."

"Or I will go to your place after attending the reception, Bel Air is still very close to Coldwater Canyon, remember to leave me a window."

The female assistant curled her mouth and said, "Uncle has a good shotgun at home, and he will beat you like a boar."

Jennifer has always lived in her uncle George Norman's house. In this regard, it may be because of being close enough, but the female assistant has no psychological barriers like Simon's.

Simon had a scared expression on his face, but curiously asked: "Why a wild boar?"

The female assistant tilted Ponytail's delicate head and said, "It could also be a rabbit."

Not as good as a wild boar!

Simon pretended to be angry and waved his hand: "Go out, the boss is about to start working."

Jennifer smiled and helped Simon tidy up the table, and asked, "Do you want coffee?"

"Mineral water is fine, I have quit caffeine recently."

The female assistant nodded and turned to leave.

Simon lowered his head and glanced again at today's work schedule. The production meeting of "The League of Pink Fans" began at nine o'clock, which is expected to last the entire morning.

The preliminary preparations for "League of Stars" are ready, and shooting will begin next week.

Because it is a female film, Amy is basically responsible for this project. However, as one of the projects in the 10 film plans, Simon still has to attend the final production meeting in person.

Next, the rough cuts of the two films "Men and Ghosts Are Coming" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" have been completed. In the afternoon, I will discuss with the main creative team about the final cutting and soundtrack plan.

It's just these three things, it will probably be busy until six o'clock in the afternoon.

Putting the work schedule aside, Simon took the information just left by the female assistant and took away the top financial briefing. He planned to wait for the audit to be completed before looking at the final financial report, which would save time.

The information of "Jurassic Park", the female assistant has already introduced, and put it aside.

Simon looked at the "Flash" and "Steel Bones" producer compensation plan roughly, and then signed an agreement. For the detailed contract, the following people will continue to negotiate with Warner.

Finally, there is a stack of novels and script copyright materials.

Like other Hollywood studios, Daenerys Entertainment started to acquire the copyrights of various novels and screenplays after its operations were on track. Of course, most of them may not end up in the end.

This is how Hollywood spends huge sums of script development budgets every year.

However, these expenditures will actually be calculated into various other movie projects according to the rules of the Hollywood ledger.

In addition to "Jurassic Park", there are a total of seven novels and script materials sent. Simon has roughly read through it. In addition to the basic information of the project, there are also various annotations on it, or which director feels about the project Interest, or which celebrity is interested in acting, or the corresponding producer’s opinion on the script.

The Hollywood circle is very small, or the information in Simon's mind is too rich. Among the seven materials, Simon easily found a relatively familiar work: "The End of the Road".

In my memory, this is a film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Susan Sarandon and Gina Davis. The reputation and box office seem to be very good.

The project commentary was written by Amy himself, indicating that actresses such as Gotty Han, Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer and other actresses who have read the script are interested in acting, so you can The project was initiated and the project budget was about 15 million US dollars.

15 million was still a big production a few years ago, but now it can only be regarded as low-middle.

Simon read the outline of the story, and suddenly remembered that perhaps Catherine could try this story.

Catherine is definitely a feminist in her bones, and she happened to have completed a similar road-style movie "Blood Corpse Night", which is very suitable for directing this project.

Thinking of this, Simon took a pencil and wrote his comments on it, asking Amy to transfer the script to Catherine.

Catherine is about to start filming "Surprising Point", but as long as a woman is interested in this project, Daenerys Entertainment can of course wait for her to finish the project before launching the film.

Except for "The End of the Wild Flower", several other projects failed to arouse Simon's interest.

Next year Daenerys Entertainment’s key projects will basically be "Batman: The Dark Knight" and "Death of the Dead" and other foreign cooperation films. There are still many project vacancies. Therefore, Simon gave the directors of the three labels enough to set up projects. Permission, he also didn't want the growing Daenerys Entertainment to rely entirely on him alone.

After reading the information sent by the female assistant, it was almost nine o'clock.

The production meeting of "League of Pink Fans" took place at Daenerys Entertainment headquarters. Jennifer opened the door to remind the film director Penny Marshall and others that they had arrived, and Simon got up and rushed to the meeting room.

The next day is February 2nd, Friday.

Another week passed from January 26 to February 1.

Although in the past week, "Batman: Hour of War" still locked the single-week box office champion position with $23.4 million at the box office, and the cumulative box office reached $326.76 million. However, Hollywood's eyes were attracted by another film adapted from a stage play that was not too conspicuous.

"Drive for Miss Daisy."

Obviously, this is another film produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

Prior to this, at the 47th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards on January 20, "Drive for Miss Daisy" won three mentions and won the best film in the musical comedy category, the best actor in the musical comedy category and music Three awards for best actress in a comedy category.

Subsequently, in the 62nd Academy Awards nominations announced on January 22, "Drive for Miss Daisy" won 9 nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and other awards. The film with the most Oscar nominations.

Counting the nominations for films such as "My Left Foot", "Bodyguard", "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural" and "Metropolis", Daenerys Entertainment will receive a total of nominations in this upcoming Oscar. For 21 items, it also ranks first among the studios.

The distribution rights of "Batman: Hour of War" belong to Warner, and Terry Semel originally hoped to nominate a best picture for the film's public relations in order to boost the late box office. However, the Oscar judges are obviously not interested in this commercial comic film. The film finally won only three technical awards, and the relevant nominations were not included in Daenerys Entertainment's name.

Of course, this is a digression.

Going back to "Driving for Miss Daisy", until January 25, the film remained in a small-scale screening state, and the number of screens was only increased to more than two hundred in the two weeks before and after the Golden Globes.

Taken together, from December 8th to January 25th last year, the word-of-mouth and popularity of "Driving for Miss Daisy" has continued to rise, but due to the limited screening scale, the cumulative box office of the film only exceeded 1,000. Ten thousand U.S. dollars. .

On January 26, taking advantage of the high attention brought by the Golden Globe Awards and Oscar nominations, Gaomen Pictures increased the number of screens for "Drive for Miss Daisy" from 278 to 895. This movie The box office potential is finally released.

In the first week of the large-scale painting, "Driving for Miss Daisy" won $8.03 million in the box office with 895 screens. The weekly box office ranking also jumped from seventh last week to second only to "Batman:" The second highest position in "Time of War".

After eight weeks of release, the cumulative box office reached 18.37 million US dollars, which seems to be unable to compare with the weekly box office of "Batman: Hour of War" in the sixth week of the release.

However, the large-scale box office numbers in the first week rushed to the second place on the weekly list. Between the Golden Globes and the Oscars, there are still many awards seasons. The box office popularity of "Drive for Miss Daisy" is easy to continue. Going on, this movie is destined to go out of a very bright box office curve.

Based on the gross box office of 8.03 million U.S. dollars in the first week of the large-scale opening, the industry predicts that the total North American box office of the film is likely to surpass 60 million U.S. dollars.

The production budget of "Drive for Miss Daisy" is only 7 million US dollars, and the scale of the announcement is completely incomparable with "Batman: Hour of War". The total box office of 18.37 million US dollars in eight weeks is enough for Daenerys Entertainment to recover all production and publicity costs.

With an estimated gross box office of 60 million US dollars, this is already a big seller.

Simon certainly knows that the box office potential of "Drive for Miss Daisy" is more than 60 million.

However, in any case, an obvious fact is that Daenerys Entertainment unknowingly created another box office dark horse.