Hollywood Hunter

Simon took the "Butterfly Effect" script from his backpack and handed it to Jonathan Friedman.

Jonathan Friedman didn't open it, just glanced at the cover, then pressed the script on the table and continued to look at him with a smile.

In this case, Simon sorted out his thoughts and began to elaborate: "This is a suspenseful thriller of soft science fiction. From a very young age, people around Ivan often found that this kid would make some extraordinary things for no reason. Strange or even weird behavior. However, Ivan always claimed afterwards that he did not remember the situation at all. The doctor classified Ivan’s illness as intermittent amnesia and recommended him to take a diary for supplementary treatment. "

Simon said that, noticing that Jonathan Friedman had already shown a little curiosity in his expression, and continued.

The general plot idea of ​​"Butterfly Effect" is a young man who has the ability to go back to the past by reading his diary. In order to make up for his regrets, he travels through time and space again and again to change his life.

It's just that, every time the actor tries to change the past, when he returns to the time when he is 20 years old, he finds that everything around him has not developed as he imagined, or even worsened.

The biggest feature of "Butterfly Effect" is its rigorous plot that is so interlocking to make people take a shot. The whole story is like a large web of well-conceived ideas, and all the details can be found in other places.

Therefore, this film is a classic in the hearts of many suspense thriller fans.

In the original time and space, the production company of "Butterfly Effect" is Xinxian Pictures, and Simon heard that the film had many endings during the editing process. However, he finally chose the darkest and most impactful one. The actor returned to his mother's womb in despair after trying again and again but was not satisfactory, and strangled himself with his umbilical cord.

Then the whole story came to an abrupt end.

After Simon finished the briefing, Jonathan Friedman, who had no expectation of him, fell silent.

The first part of "Back to the Future" by Robert Zemigis was released last year and won the 1985 box office championship.

Therefore, Simon’s script, which has similar time-travel elements to "Back to the Future", is far beyond Jonathan Friedman's expectations. He even feels that this story is even better than "Back to the Future" in terms of pure conception. Even better.

At least for now, just such a novel script idea is enough to persuade him to recommend Simon to WMA's literary agency department.

You should know that Hollywood is also full of a lot of follow-up phenomenon. It is only because of the generally long production cycle of Hollywood movies that people do not feel that a lot of movies of the same type will be released in the second half of the year.

Therefore, when "Back to the Future" won last year's box office championship, Simon's idea, as long as it is matched with a relatively complete script, can definitely arouse the strong interest of Hollywood studios.

In addition, such a strangely conceived thriller happens to be the type project that Jonathan Friedman is looking for recently.

The key now is, what is the quality of the script in hand?

After all, Hollywood has never lacked creativity. What it lacks is just a perfect story script that can be transformed into a wonderful film on the basis of relevant creativity.

Many Hollywood movies usually have to undergo several years of long revisions during the script creation stage. The main reason is that there are too many details that need to be adjusted and modified between an operable script and the original story idea.

Thinking quickly in his mind, looking down at the cover of the script in his hands, Jonathan Friedman subconsciously asked a question similar to Katherine yesterday: "Simon, can you explain the meaning of the'butterfly effect' first?"

Simon nodded, and once again explained the theory of Professor Edward Lorenz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After listening, Jonathan Friedman asked a question that surprised him: "So, you went to MIT?"

"No," Simon shook his head, but immediately added: "I entered Stanford last year and received a full scholarship, but I dropped out early due to some changes."

Simon said so, Jonathan Friedman's expression changed a little more obviously.

Although Stanford University is not part of the American Ivy League school, in fact, the overall strength of this top university on the west coast of the United States has surpassed most of its members, and it has its own prominent place in the world university rankings.

Simon was able to enter Stanford University in the form of a full scholarship. Even though he has dropped out at this time, this qualification can definitely make Jonathan Friedman's evaluation of him several levels higher.

Simon knew in his heart that he was actually doing an interview now.

Westerners don't pay attention to modesty. The better a person performs in the interview process, the more successful they will be.

Therefore, Simon did not hesitate to be able to use the qualifications at this time.

After Simon finished speaking, seeing Jonathan Friedman glance at his watch, his expression was a little hesitant, and he spoke at the right time: "Mr. Friedman, the first ten pages of the script are the outline of my story. Maybe you can take a look. It’s more detailed than what I just said."

Jonathan Friedman nodded when he heard the words, no longer tangled, and opened the script in front of him.

However, the content of the first page of the script once again froze him, but it was a copyright registration certificate from the American Screenwriters Guild.

Shaking his head slightly and smiling, Jonathan Friedman turned it over, but his original impression of Simon was completely changed. The young man on the opposite side is obviously not the stunned guy who rushes into Hollywood and thinks he's going to rise up.

After seeing the beautiful and neat English handwriting, although it was a photocopy, Jonathan Friedman was not too surprised. Of course, the evaluation of Simon in his mind inevitably improved a lot again.

Hollywood may file more copyright disputes every year than it produces movies. It is Simon's helpless action to post the WGA copyright registration certificate directly on the title page. He is not naive enough to think that industry giants like WMA can't do the small actions of embezzling other people's scripts.

Now Simon can't withstand such twists and turns, so he simply cut off some possible disputes from the source.

In fact, as Jonathan Friedman thought, although he inherited the memories of twelve other people, Simon is definitely not the kind of stunner who thinks he will be a blockbuster in Hollywood.

From the beginning of the idea of ​​rushing to Los Angeles, Simon has already begun to make very detailed planning.

Although he has a pretty good skin, Simon has no plans to take the path of an actor. His first stage goal is to become a director, but without any qualifications and contacts, this is obviously unlikely in the short term.

So, it is a very good choice to start with a screenwriter with a lower threshold.

According to some information in Simon's memory, the two major screenwriting unions on the east and west coasts of Hollywood have more than 60,000 registered scripts each year, which seems to be a very large number. But throughout Hollywood, the total number of all theatrical movies, TV movies, and low-cost independent films that are directly released on video tapes each year is no problem.

The 1% success rate is already very high in Simon's view.

What's more, in the tens of thousands of scripts that appear every year, the mediocre still accounts for the majority. But as a traverser, the scripts Simon can come up with are basically fine works after going through the waves.

Moreover, during the initial selection of the script, Simon also carefully weighed various factors.

As a newcomer to Hollywood, if you want to ensure that your script is seen by the film company as much as possible, you must first produce it at a low cost. If Simon now takes out the script of "Titanic", there is a 99% chance that it will be People throw them directly into the trash can. Second, the story must be novel enough to make people shine. Finally, the script idea should best cover the popular elements of some box office blockbusters in recent years.

"Butterfly Effect" is exactly in line with the above three: low cost, new ideas, through elements to follow the box office champion "Back to the Future" last year.

In the office, as Jonathan Friedman read, there was a moment of silence around him.

When the knock on the door remembered, Jonathan Friedman found that he had unknowingly started to read the text of the script. The text of the script in the standard Hollywood format is also impeccable. The beautiful handwritten English not only has no sense of contradiction, but also creates a more comfortable reading experience.

Suddenly disturbed by someone immersed in reading, Jonathan Friedman raised his head a little displeased, and found his assistant Owen Wright standing by the door and making a gesture to him, and then he reacted.

Looking at his schedule, Jonathan Friedman said to the assistant: "If Courteney has nothing else to do, let her wait a while. The same goes for the appointments later. I will get off work later today."

When Owen Wright heard the words, he looked at Simon who was sitting with his back turned to him somewhat unexpectedly, nodded and was about to exit the office, Jonathan Friedman shouted to each other again, and said: "Also, make two cups of coffee in. ."

When the door closed again, Jonathan Friedman smiled at Simon, did not explain anything, just turned his attention back to the script in front of him.

Simon didn't mind, and casually glanced at the digital watch on his wrist.

The time now is 4:13.

In other words, Jonathan Friedman should have only reserved 10 minutes of meeting time for himself. If he did not perform satisfactorily, he may have been sent away now.

Regarding this, Simon didn't have any grudges in his heart, and he would probably do that too.

Politeness is the cultivation of a person, but work still has to follow the rules. He is still an unknown Hollywood rookie, naturally only worth 10 minutes.

Owen Wright quickly brought two cups of coffee in. Simon took the coffee cup, thanked him, and continued to wait patiently for Jonathan Friedman to read the script.