Hollywood Hunter

The party in the villa started at eleven o'clock in the middle of the night, and at eleven thirty, the guests basically left.

Simon personally ‘boomed’ Madonna, who wanted to stay here after being drunk, and returned to the living room of the villa. The party company’s waiter team was cleaning up, and the Wei family maid led by Naomi joined them.

Seeing Simon, Lady A walked over and asked, "Boss, is Miss Kirchner staying tonight?"

"Send her back, contact her agent tomorrow, and collect a copy of information for me." Simon ordered, went straight to the stairs, motioned Alison to follow up, and asked in a low voice: "How about the script ?"

Alison followed Simon and whispered: "A lot of people should have seen it."

Simon nodded and said: "The room below will be cleaned carefully tomorrow, and throw away the ones that should be thrown away; Ella will come over to have breakfast with me tomorrow morning. Remember to send a car to pick you up. The traffic here is not convenient; The media feedback on "A Wedding and a Funeral" will be sorted out by Los Angeles before noon tomorrow..."

While thinking about something, the two came to the third floor. After Alison had finished writing on the memo, Simon finally said, "Also, let Nata come up."

Alison agreed. Seeing Simon turned to the corridor, he subconsciously followed the previous step: "Boss, do you want me to prepare bath water for you?"

Simon stopped when he heard the words and turned to look at the girl behind him.

Alison's words were a bit regretful. He noticed his boss' gaze, and lowered his head with a guilty conscience, holding the small memo with his slender fingers anxiously.

Just for a moment, the man's voice in his ear: "This is the first time. Don't be greedy. I usually don't like giving people a third chance."

Girl A is like a little girl who made a mistake, whispering softly: "Boss, I was wrong."

Simon said: "Go down, rest early."

Seeing the man in front of him turning around again, Alison raised his head and glanced up, and suddenly said, "Boss, you have to be punished if you make a mistake."

Simon stopped again, turned his head and looked at the elegant and graceful girl in a black OL suit, and asked, "Are you afraid of pain?"

Girl A's eyelashes are lowered: "You can remember things only when it hurts."

Simon nodded: "Come on."

He turned and walked towards the master bedroom again.

Alison lowered his head to follow with small steps, and heard a slight click in front of him. This was the sound of the man's belt being pulled out, and he immediately felt that his strength was also being emptied instantly.

The 10th Sundance Film Festival ended successfully on the second day. The two films "Hit the Monkey" and "Barcelona" which were shortlisted by Gaomen Films in the main competition unit, only "Hit the Monkey" won a relatively marginal audience award. The other core awards have nothing to do with Daenerys Entertainment.

This result is not disappointing.

For Sundance, what Simon values ​​most is the platform’s ability to cultivate new film talents. Daenerys Entertainment's film talents, excellent scripts and finished films excavated from Sundance in recent years have brought more gains than simply The meaning attached to the award.

The lack of Sundance awards at Gaomen Pictures this year is also the result of Simon's deliberate restrictions.

Even if he already has the strongest public relations team and network resources in Hollywood, Simon definitely does not want major film festivals to become Daenerys Entertainment's own land, which is harmful and unhelpful.

Of course, in the face of absolute strength, there must be exceptions.

Such as this year's Oscar, and next year.

On the second day of Sundance’s closing, on Monday, January 31, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially announced the list of films nominated for the 66th Academy Awards.

Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List", which tells the history of the Holocaust during World War II, became the biggest hit of this year's Oscar without any suspense. It has won the best film, best director, best actor, and most 12 nominations including good adapted screenplay.

Not only that, Daenerys Entertainment also set another record.

The 3D animated film "The Lion King" produced by Pixar, after winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture in Musical Comedy, has further become the first animated film in Hollywood history to be nominated for Oscar for Best Picture. The best screenplay, best soundtrack and three best original songs have accumulated 6 nominations.

The best screenwriter among them also represents another Oscar nomination by Simon.

In previous history, the first animated film shortlisted for Best Picture Oscar was Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" in 1992. Because of the appearance of Simon, this animated film project abandoned by Disney has fallen under the banner of Daenerys Entertainment. In the hands of the Pixar team, it will be a 3D animated version of "The Lion King" at a glance.

This year's "Lion King" is actually more well-deserved than "Beauty and the Beast".

As of January 27, "The Lion King", which was released in the 10th week, has reached a cumulative box office of US$286.55 million in North America. It only takes three weeks to break the US$300 million box office.

The Oscars before the new century are still very fancy film commercial performance.

As the first Hollywood animated film with a local box office of 300 million US dollars, if such a phenomenal box office performance can not be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture, there are not many movies in Hollywood that have such qualifications.

With the announcement of the Oscar nomination, in the week from January 28 to February 3, "The Lion King", which once again attracted widespread public attention, dropped only 13% in a single week, and received another 6.75 million US dollars, with a cumulative box office of 293.3 million US dollars. . If Daenerys Entertainment is willing to spend some money on the box office, it will be able to exceed 300 million in the following week.

"The Lion King" has already won enough glory, and it's no doubt that it's breaking 300 million yuan. Naturally, there is no need to buy box office to give others a handle.

In addition to the two most watched Oscar-nominated films, Daenerys Entertainment’s another literary film "In the Name of Father" starring Daniel Day Lewis also won Best Director, Best Actor, Best Six nominations including screenplay adaptation.

The previous "In the Name of the Father" also received a Best Picture nomination.

This time, Daenerys Entertainment has already occupied two best film nominations through "Schindler's List" and "The Lion King". It is impossible to ask for more. "In the name of the father" is nominated for the best film. The declaration can only be abandoned.

In addition, Tina Turner’s biographical film "What to do with Love" for best actress and best supporting actor nominations and "The Wedding Banquet" for best foreign language film nomination and other scattered gains, the 66th Oscar in 1994, Dan The total number of nominations for films directly produced and distributed by Nellis Entertainment has reached 29, not counting the distribution rights of Disney’s "Sleepless in Seattle" and various other nominations for films such as "Superman" released by Warner Bros.

In addition, "Philadelphia Story", which was originally transferred by Simon to MGM, also successfully won 5 nominations including Tom Hanks for Best Actor.

Taking into account the almost inevitable result of the award, it is no exaggeration to say that Daenerys Entertainment monopolized this Oscar.

Many people have the impression that Daenerys Entertainment still knows how to converge in terms of awards. Therefore, Hollywood generally believes that after this year, next year’s Oscars will be the stage for other studios to play, but they don’t know that this summer file will still Another phenomenon-level "Forrest Gump" is ready to go.

On the other hand, Simon used the sinkhole dug by the "Cut Throat Island" script at the Sundance party, and it really worked in the following days.

When the news spread, both the executives of major studios and the management of talent agency companies got the script of "Cut Throat" as soon as possible, and many filmmakers began to inquire about the project. Warner’s Terry Semel even called Simon directly to test the news.

Do a full set of play.

Under Simon's instruction, Amy Pascal personally had a meeting with the management of Carlock Pictures.

Of course, the two sides did not reach an agreement.

The conditions given by Daenerys Entertainment are not harsh, and it is a customary practice for foreign cooperation films. Both parties share 50% of the investment, but this time Daenerys Entertainment must be responsible for the distribution, and Amy’s proposed distribution commission ratio The same is not high, referring to 12.5% ​​of the DC Cinematic Universe project.

According to Amy's feedback, there are obvious differences within Carlock Pictures.

There is no shortage of shrewd people in Hollywood. With Daenerys Entertainment's presence in Hollywood at this time, there are many people in the management of Carlock Pictures that they can see at a glance that a rough estimate of the budget for "Cut Throat Island" reaches 7000. For the million-dollar super blockbuster, cooperation with Daenerys Entertainment is undoubtedly the most secure choice. This studio has proven this on too many projects.

However, the most indispensable thing in this world is lack of human heart.

Since Simon Westero is very optimistic about this project, naturally some people think that there is no need for Carlock Pictures to give up so much. After all, Carlock Pictures, which relies on overseas capital support, is not short of money. Cooperating with Daenerys Entertainment can be regarded as investment and issuance income, which is at least equal to giving up 60% of the income.

The parties contacted each other for a week, and the form quickly became clear.

The projects that other Hollywood studios once snatched from Daenerys Entertainment have failed more than once, such as the "Rocket Expert" and other films a few years ago, and Disney snatched them from Daenerys Entertainment last year. Redford's new film "Behind the Scenes" is still in his hands.

Although there is no evidence to prove that these failed films are traps deliberately thrown by Simon Westero, Hollywood has gradually formed a concept that Daenerys Entertainment’s fancy project is not captured by other studios. I can do it well.

Therefore, before the last moment, other studios were in a wait-and-see state, except for Paramount Pictures.

Seagram Group bought Paramount Communications last year and successfully entered Hollywood. Like Sony at the time, Seagram CEO Edgar Bronfman also hopes to make his company famous through one or two blockbuster films as soon as possible.

Considering that the first part of the cooperative "Mission Impossible" is still in theaters and the development of the sequel is already on the agenda, Edgar Bronfman understood that it is not appropriate to offend Simon at this time, so he specifically called Simon to communicate.

Yu'er has bitten the hook, Simon changed a decisive strategy, and directly stated on the phone that Daenerys Entertainment had abandoned the project "Cut Throat Island" because he was not optimistic about the prospects of pirate films, and at the same time it was half true. Persuaded Bronfman not to mess with the project.

Simon's attitude was very real this time, but Bronfman obviously did not believe it, and soon began further negotiations with Carlock Pictures.

Immediately, news of Daenerys Entertainment's abandonment of the "Cut Throat Island" project spread quickly, as well as Simon's personal statement on the script.

Hollywood suddenly became confused again.

Many people have seen the "Cut Throat Island" script in the Westeropark Villa, Daenerys Entertainment has also discussed cooperation with Carlock Pictures, and these are enough to prove that Daenerys Entertainment intends to participate in this The project.

Simon's sudden statement made him feel a little bit trying to cover it up.

Obviously.

This is to hope that other people will quit because of scruples, and Daenerys Entertainment will wait for an opportunity to take action.

Can you believe such a clumsy routine?

So the negotiation continued.

In order to attract more competitors, Carlock Pictures also quietly leaked out the terms of cooperation issued by Paramount. Paramount Pictures is generally willing to join the "Cut Throat" with a 30% budget ratio and 10% distribution commission. "Island" project, at the same time give the best quality schedule for next year's summer vacation, and guarantee to open a screen of more than 2,500 yuan.

After conversion, Carlock Films can probably retain 60% of its revenue.

Moreover, the conditions given by Daenerys Entertainment do not include the terms of schedule and screen guarantee. Anyone who knows a little about Hollywood knows the importance of schedule and screen. For the same movie, the box office performance of the popular summer season and the unpopular spring season is absolutely different, and the commercial potential of the 1,000-screen opening scale and the 2,000-screen opening scale is definitely quite different.

One of the most important gaps between Hollywood independent filmmakers and major studios is that the seven major film companies basically monopolize the high-quality screens and marketing resources of Hollywood’s most popular periods. Without these resources, the second and third-tier independent filmmakers are very Difficult to join the ranks of the big film companies.

Now, unless they are willing to only take on the distribution work, other Hollywood studios cannot offer more favorable terms of cooperation than Paramount. When it is completely impossible to predict the effect of a movie, it is a bit risky to give a popular schedule and a large number of screens.

Moreover, several other studios are still waiting for Daenerys Entertainment's further response.

Unless Daenerys Entertainment takes a shot at the last minute and triggers a bidding war, in its current state, this project will almost certainly fall on Paramount.

Of course Daenerys Entertainment will not take action.

Even MGM CEO Shirley Lansing was vetoed when he was testing whether Simon could take over the project.

Of the seven major Hollywood studios, only MGM can offer more'favorable' conditions than Paramount. Because its vitality has not yet recovered, at this stage, it is possible to avoid blockbuster projects as much as possible. Not participating in investment, only seeking distribution rights and drawing commissions, which happened to be 100% in line with Carlock Pictures' expectations.

The publisher of "Cut Throat Island" was MGM.

However, under the control of Simon, the current MGM does not lack high-quality film projects, and Simon does not allow the film company to waste schedules. Even if "Cut Throat Island" can be renewed this time under the strong attention of the film company and the main creative team, if MGM only takes the distribution commission, it is better to focus on developing one or two mid-budget films that are entirely its own.

After the incident was provoked, Simon's attention quickly shifted to other areas. His most recent concern was "Four Weddings and a Funeral."

After the premiere of the Sundance Film Festival, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" received a very good media evaluation, because the media invited to watch the film at the premiere basically had a good relationship with Daenerys Entertainment. The following days and two More than a dozen mainstream newspapers and magazines gave the "Four Weddings and a Funeral" a staggering 9.5 points.

Entering February, Valentine's Day is coming soon.

After Daenerys Entertainment combined the film’s excellent media reputation for the last wave of intensive marketing and promotion, "Four Weddings and One Funeral" officially landed on the North American theaters on February 11th. The number of screens opened was 1,672, in order to maximize To avoid the audience's misunderstanding that "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is a literary film, the distribution of the film is also transferred to the mainstream Daenerys Pictures.