Hollywood Hunter

Natasha Henstridge, who was shrunk in the bed, was about to take the initiative to turn lunch into herself. Simon had already retracted his hand, once again reminded him to turn and left the bedroom.

Watching the man go out, Natasha touched her watch on the bedside table. It was 11:30 in the morning.

After getting out of bed, I thought about it for a while, chose a black knit dress suitable for winter indoor wear, and simply put on light makeup, and went downstairs in only 15 minutes.

Simon was sitting on the sofa in the living room, flipping through a script at random, and when he saw Natasha come downstairs, he looked up and said, "It's beautiful."

"Thank you," Natasha agreed, came to Simon to sit down, glanced at the script in the man's hand, and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Simon showed her the cover and said: "Cut Throat Island, a pirate film script."

Natasha nodded and quickly searched for information about the pirate movie in her mind, but unfortunately she couldn't find it. Fortunately, the man didn't mean to wait for a response. He put down the script and gave a sentence to girl a not far away, got up and led her to the restaurant.

In the restaurant, the maids served lunch to the two and poured red wine on them before they retreated.

Simon picked up the tableware and asked the girl opposite: "What do you want to do this afternoon?"

Natasha cut the fried cod on the plate, stopped when she heard the words, and said: "I don't know, I will do what you do."

Simon smiled and said, "There are only two main things for everyone to come to Park City, movies and skiing, which one do you choose?"

Natasha hesitated and said, "Is it okay to ski? But, I don't know how."

Born in Canada, Natasha is actually quite good at skiing, but of course she has to be clumsy in front of men, and even a little worried after finishing speaking, in case he can't ski, it would be embarrassing.

Simon just nodded and said, "So, we will go skiing in the afternoon and attend the premiere of a movie in the evening, and there will be parties here afterwards."

Natasha finally caught the topic this time: "Is it the "Four Weddings and a Funeral"?"

"Yeah, you know?"

"I came over with the two protagonists of this movie yesterday," Natasha said: "However, this movie does not seem to be a Sundance contest?"

Daenerys Entertainment's support and cultivation of the independent film market is the key to the rapid rise of the Sundance Film Festival. In recent years, Sundance will inevitably have Daenerys Entertainment finalists for the main competition unit every year.

Before Natasha came to Park City, she did some homework related to the film festival. She knew that Daenerys Entertainment had two films shortlisted in the main competition of Sundance this year: Whit Stillman's "Barcelona" and "Hit the Monkey" by Wei Russell.

Whit Stillman is a direct-line director from Sundance. His previous work "Metropolis" was well received and box office, and "Barcelona" was his second directorial work. "Hit the Monkey" is the first novel written and directed by the new director David Russell. This is a mother-child ethics film. "Hit the Monkey" is a slang related to sex.

Choosing to be screened on Saturday before the closing of the film festival, and Simon attended in person, which shows that Daenerys Entertainment attaches great importance to this film. In this case, the film failed to enter the main competition unit to make Natasha a little confused.

"Four Weddings and a Funeral" did not make it into the main competition unit, of course, not because of insufficient qualifications. Simon explained: "This film is positioned as a commercial romantic comedy, featuring the Valentine's Day schedule in February. If it is selected for the main Sundance competition, it may be misunderstood by the audience as a literary film and restrict the audience."

Natasha suddenly said, "It turned out to be like this. I thought it would be the best to be shortlisted for the film festival and win an award."

Simon smiled and shook his head: "Of course not, all types of movies have their own distribution models."

Hollywood film distribution is simple and simple, but difficult to say.

Large-scale advertising bombing on various media platforms is undoubtedly the most effective way to promote a movie, but this is only suitable for a small number of super blockbusters that have sufficient box office potential, such as the dc movie universe series.

Most Hollywood movies still need to formulate targeted publicity strategies to get the best marketing effect within the marketing budget.

There is no doubt that film quality is fundamental to the commercial success of a film. However, once a serious mistake occurs in the marketing strategy, the result may be disastrous.

Knowing that Natasha would not have much interest in these business details, Simon did not talk too much about similar topics, and instead asked about the girl's recent situation.

The two ate lunch happily, sending the girl upstairs to change clothes and preparing to go skiing, Simon returned to the living room, and again picked up the "Cut Throat Island" script that he had read before lunch.

This is a project that Carlock Pictures is currently promoting to Hollywood studios, and the seven major studios have received the script.

Relying on the support of foreign capital such as Germany, Carlock Films has a good reputation in Hollywood. This independent film company is different from other diligent and thrifty second-tier studios, but on the contrary is known for its high-budget films. In the original time and space, Hollywood’s first "Terminator 2" with a production budget of over 100 million US dollars was a project invested by Carlock Pictures. In addition, Carlock also produced films such as "Instinct" and "Total Memories".

The appearance of Simon caused Carlock’s most successful film projects, such as "Terminator 2" and "Instinct", to be cut off in advance, but in the past few years, Carlock Pictures has invested in Silvestre Stallone and Arnold Schwartz Singer and other action superstars have made many movies, and directly pushed the salary of Hollywood stars to 15 million US dollars.

As an independent studio that does not undertake distribution work, Carlock Pictures has been cooperating with Columbia Pictures for several years.

The turmoil of Columbia Pictures last year led to the collapse of the partnership between the two parties. Carlock is currently looking for a new partner. Cut Throat Island is a stepping stone.

Speaking of Hollywood movie history in the 1990s, the most successful "Titanic" cannot be avoided, and the most failed "Cut Throat Island" cannot be avoided.

The production budget of "Cut Throat Island" in my memory is as high as 98 million US dollars. After the film was released, the total box office in North America was only a little over 10 million US dollars. The tragic failure not only caused the investors to lose their money, but was even included in the Guinness World Records.

Is "Cutting Throat Island" really useless?

This is definitely not the case.

The film is excellent in terms of lens, editing and soundtrack, and the large-scale naval battle scenes are even more epic. Many years later, "Pirates of the Caribbean" all borrowed a lot from this film. Even the shortcomings of a weak storyline are not fatal to a blockbuster movie, because this is a common problem with many big budget movies.

The blockbuster films in the North American film market were far from saturated in the mid-1990s. They were just a gimmick of a huge investment of close to 100 million U.S. dollars. If they were used well, they could attract a large number of audiences, and the total box office would never reach 10 million U.S. dollars. .

So, why did "Cut Throat Island" fail so thoroughly?

The reasons are also related to many aspects.

As a studio supported by foreign capital such as Germany, Carlock Pictures is naturally suppressed by the Hollywood snake.

Director Renee Haring pushed his wife Gina Davis into the role of the heroine, and she was the first protagonist who overwhelmed the actor, but Gina Davis was far from supporting a super heavy The box office appeal of the pound bomb.

"Cut Throat Island" is an original script that does not have the popularity accumulation of superhero movies.

MGM Pictures, which is responsible for the distribution of the film, is in a state of serious internal turmoil and has no intention of promoting the film.

Such all kinds.

Multiple reasons have accumulated infinitely magnified the plot weaknesses of "Cut Throat Island" that were not fatal, making audiences discouraged from entering the theater to watch the movie, and finally created a Guinness record in the film industry.

Even if he understands that if Daenerys Entertainment manages this time and space, "Cutting Throat Island" will definitely be much better at the box office, Simon has no intention to take over. Moreover, in accordance with Daenerys Entertainment’s ‘one-and-for-all’ strategy that Daenerys Entertainment has been implying, Simon also plans to throw this box office dud to others.

The success of blockbuster bombs such as the DC Cinema Universe and "Jurassic Park" has made Hollywood seek large budget projects. "Cut Throat Island" should be a very good option.

If it is valued by Simon Westero himself, other studios will definitely scramble for it.

Speaking of, there is another giant pit project that was also released in 1995, Kevin Costner's "Future Water World".

Because it was once invested in production by a large studio like Universal, the box office of "Future Water World" is not as bleak as "Cut Throat Island". However, the huge cost of the film 175 million US dollars has also created a new production cost for Hollywood movies. For the record, Universal still suffered heavy losses even when the film's box office was fairly good.

"Future Water World" was not fanned off by Simon this butterfly.

However, the former producer was Universal, but now it has become Warner.

After cooperating with Daenerys Entertainment in "Dancing with Wolves" and "Bodyguard", Kevin Costner has switched to Warner Bros. Pictures in recent years. The two sides have successively collaborated on "Assassination of Kennedy" directed by Oliver Stone and At the end of last year, he co-created "The Perfect World" with Clint Eastwood.

This summer, Costner will also screen a Warner-invested blockbuster Western movie "Law Enforcement Titans."

After three consecutive collaborations, Costner signed a contract with Warner for the next "Future Water World" very smoothly. It is expected that the auction will start in May and June this year, and it will be scheduled for next summer.

Simon just watched this with cold eyes and did not interfere.

The main reason why the original "Future Water World" budget was out of control was that Costner chose to shoot the movie in Hawaii, ignoring the local tidal storms and other natural factors, causing the expensive set of the studio to be repeatedly destroyed by the waves.

According to the information revealed, this time "Future Water World" will still be filmed in Hawaii.

This is not accidental.

As one of the most well-known tourist destinations in the world, Hawaii can provide a very comfortable working environment for film crews, especially stars. Spielberg had previously filmed "Jurassic Park" in Hawaii for the same reason. Daenerys Entertainment For this reason, considerable additional costs have been borne, and there is no tax refund.

Fortunately, "Jurassic Park" was filmed on land, even so it was hit by a storm.

If Daenerys Entertainment took over "Future Water World", Simon would certainly not make the same mistake. Although maintaining a fairly good cooperative relationship with Warner, he certainly didn't mean to remind each other.

"Future Water World" and "Cut Throat Island" in hand at this time, not only met the big studios' demand for blockbuster bombs, the two major box office pits, but also enough for Daenerys Entertainment in next year At least $100 million in box office space is freed up during the popular schedule.

After making up his mind, Simon got up and went to a living room next to the villa's living room, looked for a moment, and placed the "Cut Throat Island" script on the shelf under the glass coffee table.

After "Four Weddings and a Funeral" tonight, there will be a party in the villa under the name of Daenerys Entertainment Group, and the living room will also be open.

Alison just came in with a men's down jacket, served Simon to dress it, glanced at the script that the man had just put on the coffee table intentionally, and asked with some doubts: "Boss, do I need to put it away?"

"No, remember not to let Naomi and the others touch this script. You can come and take it away at night when there are too many people."

Alison understood instantly, and asked in a low voice: "The boss is not optimistic about this script?"

"Yeah, pretend to be something like that then, don't show it."

"Well," Alison nodded slightly, and then said, "There is only one script that is too obvious. I'll wait to put a few magazines next to him."

"Yes, Ellie is so smart."

The two secretly discussed bad things, and Natasha quickly changed her clothes and went downstairs.

Alison sent Simon two out, watching his boss’s car disappear between the mountain roads, a little bit disappointed, and then quickly dispelled the idea, that woman has not seen him several times a year, and only one year. You can stay by his side for a long time, so be content.

Simon and Natasha played at a member-only ski club in the south of Park City until more than four o'clock in the afternoon. Instead of returning to the mountain villa, they rushed directly to the city.

The premiere of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" begins at 5 pm at the Egyptian Theatre, the main venue of the festival.

Because it is a project highlighted by Daenerys Entertainment, many well-known filmmakers including Robert Redford were invited to attend, and there were also a large number of film critics from all over North America.

These people alone are enough to support the popularity of the film in the news media. Simon does not intend to appear in the press release himself, at least he has no plan to be photographed by the media, so he took Natasha into the theater through the back door and came Natasha did not stay with Simon consciously in the Egyptian theater's projection room, but chose to sit with Nancy Josephson of ICM.

As a phenomenon-level film that won a huge box office of 245 million worldwide at a production cost of less than 5 million US dollars in original time and space, although the theme is slightly different from Sundance's avant-garde film festival style, the film is the first The public screening was very successful. After the film was broadcast, it received unanimous applause from the audience.

After the premiere, many guests continued to set off to the private mountain villa in Simon, southeast of Park City.

Accepted Redford's invitation at the Golden Globe Entertainment Party last weekend, Simon then decided to hold such a party, which can greatly consolidate Daenerys Entertainment's position in the independent film circle.

After the news was released, this party has become the most anticipated party for Sundance filmmakers this year. Many people have racked their brains in the past week to get an invitation letter, including some who were not interested in the Sundance Film Festival. Interested stars came to Park City specifically, only hoping to get the opportunity to contact Simon Westeros.