Hollywood Hunter

Daenerys Entertainment Division in Burbank.

After two weeks of see-saw negotiations, New World Pictures President Danny Morris finally obtained the copyright to a thriller novel called "The Silent Lambs."

"The Silent Lamb" was published two years ago and is a sequel based on his other novel "Red Dragon" by author and screenwriter Thomas Harris.

"Red Dragon" was published in 1981, and was brought to the big screen in 1986 under the name "Night to Kill".

It's just that "Night to Kill" originally invested 15 million US dollars in the budget, but only recovered more than 8 million US dollars in the box office, which can be described as a failure. Therefore, although the novel of "The Silent Lambs" is very popular, Hollywood is not very keen on its film and television adaptations. In the past two years, the project has been transferred between some filmmakers, and the shooting has not been successful.

Until Daenerys Entertainment expressed interest.

Prior to this, only Orion Pictures, which had just received a US$200 million injection from the Canadian Seagram Group and survived the bankruptcy crisis, had intermittent contact with this project.

As the news spread, Hollywood studios immediately expressed their concerns and made tentative bids.

When Daenerys Entertainment did not retreat decisively because of the competition as before, the bidding war started.

According to Daenerys Entertainment’s practice of buying copyrights in the past two years, when a project is looted, the company will not participate in the bidding war.

However, "The Silent Lamb" is an exception.

Because Simon said that the copyright must be negotiated.

Then we talked about it.

The final transaction price is US$1 million plus a 5% share of global box office net profit.

The basic transaction price of US$1 million for copyright is far more than the original offer for the adaptation rights of "The Silent Lambs."

According to Hollywood Accounting Standards, net profit sharing usually does not exist.

However, Thomas Harris's agent is not a layman, and the cost of the project is set at $30 million in the contract. In other words, no matter how much Daenerys Entertainment invests in this project in the future, it will only be calculated at a fixed cost of $30 million.

This cost limit is actually very high.

You know, if you want to get a share, it means that the future global box office of "The Silent Lamb" will reach at least 70 million US dollars.

However, even if it does not get the share, the $1 million advance payment is far beyond Thomas Harris' expectations.

Moreover, Danny Morris feels that if "The Silent Lambs" really has the value that is valued by Simon, the global box office will be at least 200 million US dollars.

200 million US dollars, 30 million fixed costs, by then, Thomas Harris can still get another 3 million US dollars in share

Of course, if calculated at the global box office of 200 million U.S. dollars, Daenerys Entertainment is definitely making a lot of money, and such expenditure is worth it.

It's just that Danny Morris still doesn't quite understand why Simon suddenly expressed a strong interest in this project, so he didn't hesitate to make an exception. Once such a case opens, more copyright holders will definitely open their mouths after Daenerys Entertainment has expressed interest.

Santa Monica.

Simon ended the call with Danny Morris, feeling helpless.

Why is there an exception to "The Silent Lamb", not only because it is a big box office movie in the original time and space, but also to snipe Orion.

Speaking of it, this is also an oversight by Simon.

I should have thought of this project a long time ago.

The second horror film nominated for Best Picture after "The Exorcist". Just 15 minutes of performance created a actor, and the box office is also very good, but these are not allowed for Simon to miss.

However, before accidentally seeing a batch of copyright materials sent by New World Pictures, he ignored the film.

If other Hollywood studios have already obtained or tried to obtain the copyright of this project, Simon may be able to cooperate with the other party to include "Silent Lambs" as one of the original 10 film plans.

However, Orion does not work.

In original time and space, "The Silent Lamb" can be said to be the last box office hit film by Orion Pictures.

Now, because of Simon's appearance, things have changed a lot.

Affected by Simon's series of great successes in Hollywood, many capitals are more interested in the North American film and television industry.

As a result, Australia’s Qintex successfully acquired MGM, and Canada’s Seagram Group also tested Hollywood in advance. At the beginning of this year, it injected US$200 million into the bankrupt Orion, from Orion’s original major shareholder John Kruger. Acquired a 25% stake in this company.

With financial support, Orion has weathered the storm and is preparing to regroup.

"The Silent Lamb" was not originally a key project for Orion. First of all, its predecessor, "Night to Kill the Night", failed at the box office, which has largely affected the producer’s judgment and memory on the film’s box office prospects. In February, the movie’s release time was an unpopular February, and it was almost abandoned.

However, it was so successful.

If Daenerys Entertainment gives up immediately after contacting it as usual because of peer attention and competition, this project may eventually fall into the hands of Orion Pictures.

In order to obtain Orion's film library and to reduce Daenerys Entertainment's Hollywood competitors, Simon did not allow Orion to have such a successful appearance.

Having taken away "Dancing with Wolves" that originally belonged to Orion, and now taking away "The Silent Lamb", Simon's memory of the last two Orion movies has all fallen into his hands.

The Seagram Group is actually just testing the waters. The Canadian Bronfman family's ambitions for Hollywood go beyond that. It is impossible to continue to inject capital into a small pool like Orion.

As long as the 200 million US dollars burned, but the performance failed to recover, Orion will come to an end in Hollywood.

After cutting off "The Silent Lamb", the next step was naturally to set up a project to shoot.

This time, Simon decided to give up the idea of ​​Anthony Hopkins as the leading actor without any hesitation.

As the actor of "Batman" series butler Alfred, if Hopkins suddenly becomes the actor, it will only add more changes to the advancement of the project. Therefore, Simon would rather "Silent Lambs" shrink or even fail at the box office due to changing roles, and would not allow Daenerys Entertainment's focus on the DC movie universe plan to sprawl.

Speaking of which, if the actors participating in the DC Movie Universe series can fulfill the contract safely, Simon doesn't mind praising these people. But because of the events after the release of "Batman: Hour of War", Simon directly gave up this idea.

People's hearts are always fickle.

Simon is not a person who believes too much.

Busy, the first week of Easter in 1990 passed quietly.

Easter this year is April 15th.

During Easter week from April 13th to April 19th, there are two films released in Hollywood, namely "Children in the Cornfield 2" produced by Daenerys Entertainment's New World Pictures and Paramount Pictures Produced the family comedy "The Genius Family" starring Daryl Hanna. The opening screens of the two films are both around 1,300 yuan.

"Children in the Cornfield 2" film reviews are not excellent, nor does it show the potential of a dark horse. In the first week of the show, the box office was only 7.13 million U.S. dollars. After the 11th week of the show, the box office momentum of "Pretty Beautiful Lady" has slowed, and it barely won this week's box office championship. The total box office in North America is expected to be around 25 million U.S. dollars.

Compared with the film's cost of 3 million US dollars, the expected box office of 25 million US dollars is naturally very successful.

Paramount Pictures’ "Genius Family" had a box office of $5.76 million in the first week. If the decline can be controlled, the total domestic box office is expected to exceed 15 million US dollars, which is not too bad. However, the budget cost of this film is also US$15 million. Paramount wants to recover the cost and can only rely on overseas and other channels for distribution.

At the end of last year, "Batman: Hour of War", "Driving for Miss Daisy" and "Pretty Pretty Lady", which was scheduled for Valentine's Day in February, have all entered the final stage.

The box office champions of the Easter week failed to exceed 10 million in the box office of the first week, so this Easter seems a little deserted.

By the end of April, Hollywood also generally began to prepare for the summer vacation one month later.

Daenerys Entertainment has recently started to put the TV trailers of "Human Ghosts Are Coming" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on TV. These are the key projects of Daenerys Entertainment this summer. On the 6th. In addition, there is also a "Hunter Ghost Chaser 2". The schedule is confirmed on August 10, the end of the summer file. Naturally, the scale of the announcement cannot be compared with the previous two movies.

"Sleep with the Enemy" cooperating with Fox and "Hands Shaking the Cradle" cooperating with Disney are scheduled for June 15 and July 27 respectively. The announcement of the two films does not require much investment from Daenerys Entertainment. energy.

However, counting, there are 5 projects related to Daenerys Entertainment this summer, which is more than any studio in Hollywood.

Simon has always wanted to converge subconsciously, but reality is hard to avoid.

Saturday, April 21.

There are too many things to be busy recently, and I still work overtime on weekends.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, I was communicating with Warner Bros’ Terry Semel on the phone about the preparations for "Death of the Dead". Jennifer opened the door and Sandra followed the female assistant to see Simon on the phone. He walked in unceremoniously and sat down opposite him.

Simon talked a few more words with Terry Semel, put down the microphone, and made a mark on an actor profile in front of him.

This is the candidate actor profile of Harrison Ford's murdered wife in "Death of the Dead", a role with few scenes. The original version was played by Shera Ward.

This time, Sheila Ward still delivered her resume.

After all, she was a woman who spent the Spring Festival evening with herself, and she was an original candidate. Simon directly gave the role to the other party without planning to audition.

Putting the information aside, looking up just to catch Sandra who was probing, Simon put down his pencil and smiled: "Don't look blindly, this is a trade secret."

Sandra curled her lips: "I'm not interested. Let's talk about it. What are you calling me? Very busy. I made an appointment with everyone to go to Palm Springs for the weekend. I will leave later."

Simon handed over the script of "The Silent Lambs" and said: "I am not interested in seeing it. I have already asked Bob to pass the script to Bob. If you are also interested, you brothers and sisters can just star in this movie together. ."

Simon said that Bob is Robert Duvall, who is also a client under Jonathan's name, and because he has studied under the name of an acting teacher at the same time, he and Sandra are considered teachers even though they are more than 30 years old. Brother and sister. When Sandra first entered Hollywood, Duval also helped the little sister.

Since Anthony Hopkins is not going to be used, Simon no longer has to pursue the original version of "The Silent Lambs". He and the original heroine Judy Foster are not too familiar with each other. It is better to let Sandra Try it. In addition to not having a queen title, Sandra's personal fame and box office appeal in the last two years are actually stronger than Judy Foster.

Moreover, if the project is still successful, perhaps it can help Sandra get an Oscar nomination for best actress.

If it fails, it fails.

Sandra picked up the script and flipped through a few pages, then put it in her bag, and said, "I'll watch it again on weekends. Is there anything else?"

Simon pretended to be sad: "Leaving in such a hurry, I am so displeased by you now?"

Sandra rolled her eyes: "You are already a married man, Mr. Westeros, I don't want to have a scandal with you again."

"I understand, you are worried that Jenny will settle the account with you."

"whatever you think."

When Sandra said this, she was obviously excited by Simon. She stood up as if she wanted to say goodbye, but suddenly leaned over across the desk, grabbed Simon by the collar and pulled to herself.

Simon thought she wanted to kiss herself forcefully, but saw Sandra open a mouthful of white teeth and snapped into his nose, which shocked Simon. When she reacted, the girl had already smiled and walked out of the office.

Touching his nearly bitten nose, Simon shook his head helplessly.

The female assistant opened the door again to remind, Simon got up and left the office, and walked to a conference room in the office building.

James Rebold and Leon Black of Apollo Management both came to Los Angeles at the weekend. Today, they will discuss the MCA acquisition, mainly about the funding issues after the formal acquisition.

Although it started operations very early and it is known that Panasonic Corporation of Japan is also secretly preparing for the acquisition of MCA, Simon decided to formally initiate a tender offer for MCA in September in the second half of the year.

In my memory, although the acquisition negotiations between Panasonic and MCA started very early, the North American stock market suffered a severe setback because of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Enough time.

After the war broke out, MCA's stock price fell due to the setback in the stock market, which happened to be the best time for Daenerys Entertainment to enter the game.

However, the early preparations are naturally the sooner the better.

The more prepared you are, the more chances you will win in the future.

After this period of private contact with some banks in North America and overseas, James Rebold has basically solved the problem of funding sources. Some big banks in Europe, Australia and even Japan are all very interested in Daenerys Entertainment's financing plan.

Because of the outstanding financial data exposed by Daenerys Entertainment and the huge assets accumulated by the entire Westeros system in recent years, these banks are not worried about the huge amount of funds borrowed by Simon that cannot be repaid.

The huge amount of funds in the plan of more than 3 billion U.S. dollars, of course, Simon will not only choose a bank to carry out, although even if he does, there is a great possibility of success. However, diversifying loans is actually tantamount to drawing together potential allies for Daenerys Entertainment.

In this world, as long as you borrow enough money, you can always be more assertive.

Constantly using interest to implicate a big net for Daenerys Entertainment and the entire Westeros system is what Simon has focused on in recent years.