Hollywood Hunter

The next day, another Sundance Film Festival closed.

The jury award was given to a low-cost black-and-white feature film "The Deep Water", which tells the story of a down-and-out screenwriter and a failed producer who tried every means to raise funds to make the film.

In previous media reviews, "Falling Water Dog" was controversial, but its reputation was very good.

However, because the judges of the jury didn't like this movie that was too naked and violent, "Falling Dog" ended up with nothing.

Daenerys Entertainment has purchased movies or scripts from Sundance almost every year in recent years, and the relationship between the two parties has been very close.

However, it is precisely because of this that, in order to maintain the fairness of the Sundance award judging as much as possible, Daenerys Entertainment will not easily interfere with the judging work of the award unless necessary.

Simon returned to Los Angeles directly after attending the closing ceremony of the film festival. As for the follow-up to "Falling Dog", the $2.5 million project was not enough to make him pay too much attention.

In the original time and space, the North American release of "Falling Water Dog" ended in failure, but it also allowed Miramax and Quentin Tarantino to establish a long-term cooperative relationship. It was not until the Weinstein scandal broke that this cooperation was finally End.

After a long talk that night, Catherine went to New York.

I didn't have many choices, so I had to shoot subjects that I didn't really like.

Now, several films with good box office results have been accumulated, and with Simon’s support, Catherine no longer has the troubles of many filmmakers who are just starting out in her career. She is awakened by Simon again, and she decides to spend the next year or two. Time carefully sort out some projects.

The plan also plans to go to Europe.

The great changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, as well as the subsequent trends of these countries, made Catherine Guang curious, and she also wanted to shoot one or two documentaries first.

From "The Imprint of Gucci" to "True and Brave" to last year's "Ice and Snow World", the success of three documentaries at the box office has made documentaries a category that Hollywood pays attention to.

Simon herself is Catherine who can shoot whatever she wants, no money.

It doesn't matter if the original "Widow Maker" is filmed in the original time and space. Daenerys Entertainment currently lacks a huge loss project.

Of course, throughout Hollywood, Simon would only indulge Catherine alone.

Even he would not be so indulgent.

After Sundance closed, it was the end of January unconsciously.

Back in Los Angeles, the first thing to deal with was Daenerys Entertainment's second layoff.

This month, after repeated reviews and evaluations by the company's human resources department, a preliminary list of 800 layoffs was drawn up. This number is less than Simon had imagined. However, the matter has been announced, which still caused media controversy.

The U.S. economy as a whole is still at its bottom. In 1991, the federal unemployment rate reached a new high.

If it is another company, there is nothing wrong with layoffs at this time.

The survival of the enterprise is the most important thing.

However, Daenerys Entertainment's layoffs have made it difficult for many people to accept.

Just looking at the box office data of a series of blockbuster movies from Daenerys Entertainment last year, the company's 1991 performance can be seen.

A company with such a good business situation still insists on laying off employees. From the outside, it is a manifestation of a very lack of social responsibility and an act of unscrupulous capitalists.

In fact, the layoffs of 800 people can only save Daenerys Entertainment less than 200 million U.S. dollars a year under all costs. However, Simon insists on layoffs, but the fundamental purpose is not to save money, but to save money. In order to maintain Daenerys Entertainment's continuous and efficient operation.

The illnesses of many corporate giants start with bloated personnel.

If Daenerys Entertainment wants to maintain its rapid development momentum for as long as possible, it must maintain a sense of crisis among its employees.

No matter how good the company is, if you don't work hard, you will still lose your job.

Therefore, it did not pay too much attention to the doubts from the outside world. After the layoff list was drawn up, Daenerys Entertainment began to implement it quickly, and 800 employees were simply fired within a week.

Some employees who were not reconciled also organized other organizations to initiate a class action, and Daenerys Entertainment was naturally not afraid of this.

The layoff process is strictly selected and implemented in accordance with the US labor law, and may be morally lacking, but there is no legal violation.

Of course, allowing these people to initiate lawsuits will certainly continue to damage Daenerys Entertainment's reputation.

Therefore, news spread quickly in Hollywood.

This group of employees who resigned from Daenerys Entertainment, if they continue to make trouble, the doors of all Hollywood studios will be tightly closed to them.

More straightforward, restless people, don't want to mix in Hollywood in the future.

With Daenerys Entertainment's current influence, many people would not doubt that this company has such strength.

You know, even big coffees like Dustin Hoffman are planning their careers under Daenerys Entertainment's aim, not to mention their little fish and shrimps.

Moreover, even if you really don't plan to mix in Hollywood, everyone still has to live. However, there is probably no boss who likes this kind of employee who is entangled with the employer after being fired.

What's more, Daenerys Entertainment did not violate the rules. The lawsuit was forced, and the result was difficult to predict.

As a result, the so-called class action was soon gone.

After completing another round of layoffs, Daenerys Entertainment subsequently announced a salary increase plan.

The employees who merged from MCA into Daenerys Entertainment last year originally still maintained a relatively low salary level during the MCA period. In this salary increase plan, most of the employees from MCA’s salary have been increased to the same level as that of Daenerys Entertainment. The staff of the entertainment company is of a good standard.

After careful media calculations, it was found that such a salary increase was basically equivalent to completely offsetting the labor costs that Daenerys Entertainment had just finished layoffs.

After the news was announced, the negative impact of the layoff plan was also greatly reduced.

The world has never lacked discerning people.

The salary increase followed immediately after the layoffs, so that many people understand that Daenerys Entertainment’s layoffs were not to increase profits, but more likely to be a consideration of the development of the company itself.

After the salary adjustment, Daenerys Entertainment as a whole remains the company with the highest average salary in Hollywood.

To a large extent, this also makes Daenerys Entertainment's employees cherish their work more, thus enhancing the vitality of the entire company.

Time entered February 1992.

In the last box office week of January, the North American box office of "The Flash", which was released for exactly six weeks, officially exceeded US$200 million, reaching US$211.81 million.

At the same time, from January 23 to January 30, the single-week box office of "The Flash" still reached 10.77 million US dollars. Based on the long-term box office trend of this movie, it is not a problem to make another $40 million in follow-up. "The Flash" is sure to exceed the total box office of US$250 million in North America.

"The Flash" was a big success at the box office, and the execution of the DC movie universe project became smoother.

The post-production of "Wonder Woman" scheduled for this summer is coming to an end, and the preliminary preparations for "Superman", "Steel Bones" and "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises" are continuing.

Simon returned to Los Angeles from Sundance, and Warner began asking questions about the sequel to The Flash.

The copyright of "The Flash" is completely held by Warner, even if Simon is aside, Warner can develop the second part according to his own ideas.

However, the first episode of "The Flash" has achieved such outstanding results, such a good situation, the entire Time Warner, even a group of people who are tit-for-tat against Steve Rose, dare not easily destroy it.

Therefore, the actual control of this series is in the hands of Simon, the first producer.

Because last year, in addition to "Batman: The Dark Knight" and "The Flash", Warner Bros. also released box office sales such as "Robin Hood" and "Death of the Dead". Warner originally extended the production cycle of the DC movie universe project to Simon. The resentment is also much smaller.

Anyone who is a little bit savvy probably understands the truth of the long flow.

Malibu, Daenerys Studios.

The time is February 5th.

Disney CEO Michael Eisner rushed to the administrative area from the northern entrance of the studio and learned that Simon had special effects for Daenerys on the second floor of the studio, so he was taken here again.

The appointment time is four o'clock in the afternoon, and it is just right now.

Simon just spent two hours reviewing the later stages of "Wonder Woman" when he was in the model special effects department of Daenerys's special effects.

Although CG is a major trend in Hollywood special effects, the demand for model special effects will be greatly reduced in the future, but it will never disappear.

The model special effects department of Daenerys's special effects is more than just making monster models imagined by ordinary people, such as the superhero cars of the "Batman" series, the large-scale dinosaur props of the "Jurassic Park" that has just started shooting, and large-scale production films The props required for scenes such as the speed explosion and so on involved in the model are all responsible for the model special effects department.

Taking advantage of the gap between meeting with Eisner, Simon wanted to see the shape of the Plant Girl.

In the last "Batman: The Dark Knight", the two villains are the Joker and the Plant Girl.

According to the plot setting that has been basically completed, the ending of this opening trilogy, the clown will also shine, but for Simon, he actually looks forward to the performance of Plant Ivy.

In addition, the actor who plays Poison Ivy has also been determined.

Simon gave the role to Nicole Kidman.

There are some small coincidences.

In the original timeline, the role of Mia in "Pulp Fiction" was played by Uma Thurman. Uma Thurman then starred in the 1997 "Batman and Robin" as the Plant Girl.

Now, Nicole has the role of Mia in the new version of "Pulp Fiction", and she has also been chosen by Simon to play the Plant Ivy.

Of course, Simon did not deliberately create such a coincidence, but compared to several other female stars of the same age, Nicole is indeed very suitable for this role in terms of acting, fame, and temperament.

In comparison, Simon felt that Uma Thurman's Poison Ivy could no longer be described as bad, and it was completely nonsense. Only the green tights, which looked very cheap, completely lost the illusion of Plant Ivy.

The Plant Girl should have been green, not just a green tights.

Simon's initial setting was to refer to the Plant Ivy setting in the game version of "Batman: Arkham Knight". However, after testing, the shirt with only one button and exposed style was obviously not suitable for actual shooting.

After repeated adjustments by the stylist, the long sleeves and hem of the'shirt' were cut off. After trying again, the modified'shirt' became a more textured dark red leather'jacket', of course, it was still short sleeves. The hem length is just below the breast, somewhat similar to a female sports vest.

In fact, I also considered wrapping with plants.

This is more in line with many of Poison Ivy’s settings, but it is really difficult for Simon to accept the false feeling brought by plastic plants.

If it is many years later, it is completely possible for actors to wear motion capture suits and directly apply a layer of "real plants" to the body of CG. Although the current technology can do this, the effect is not very good, and the cost appears Too high. So I chose a **** burgundy bust jacket.

In addition, the Poison Ivy reference game version's briefs settings have also been modified to more conservative hot pants.

Doing this is also out of consideration for actual shooting. Once the character modeling in the game is completed, it will definitely not be "exhausted", not necessarily in reality.

Moreover, the actual effect of briefs is not as good as hot pants.

For the most critical Plant Ivy skin, Simon will of course not let the character wear a cheap green tights like Uma Thurman, but really paint the skin green.

This is also the most complicated part of the image of the Plant Girl.

Simply apply a layer of green, it will definitely look very fake.

What Simon hopes is a very natural green, a feeling that the viewer instinctively feels that this person should be green after seeing it.

Therefore, the green makeup of Plant Ivy needs to show a natural sense of chlorophyll quality, and even the details of natural skin texture defects are involved.

All in all, it gives people a sense of reality.

In order to achieve the effect Simon wanted, Daenerys Special Effects specially mobilized a team of special effects artists and makeup artists to take charge of this matter. After months of repeated attempts, only recently did he come up with something that gradually satisfied Simon Makeup effect.

When Michael Eisner entered the office area of ​​the special effects department of Daenerys's special effects model, his eyes were immediately attracted by several hot and slender "Poison Ivy Girls".

If he didn't understand where he was, he might even feel that he might have seen another race.

This is the final result produced by Daenerys's special effects team for Poison Ivy.

Nicole Kidman certainly didn't have time to follow up the styling development personally. Therefore, several "Poison Ivy Girls" are model stand-ins found by Daenerys's special effects.

From the bottom of my heart, I was a little dissatisfied with Simon's dedication and dedication when meeting with him, but Eisner did not show it.

I followed the comments enthusiastically, and as a filmmaker, I couldn’t help but envy Daenerys’ technical level of special effects. After a while, I sent away several people who spent four hours putting on makeup but were only seen by a certain man. After a few glances at the girl, Simon and Eisner started talking about business.

It's about the incidental contract that Simon signed with Disney for the release of "When Harry and Sally".

Seeing that Simon's status in Hollywood is getting higher and higher, there have been more than one rumors that Simon may no longer direct the film himself, and Disney does not plan to wait any longer.

After communicating several times in advance, Disney's intention is to hope that this film can be replaced by a cooperation project with Daenerys Entertainment.

In the short term, it is definitely impossible to direct the film, and Simon did not reject Disney's suggestion.

In addition, Daenerys Entertainment also needs to add some more external cooperation projects to ensure a close relationship with other studios, so today she invited Eisner for a face-to-face interview.