Hollywood Hunter

Sophia, who was chatting with one of the guests, felt a large hand around her waist and looked to the man next to her, speaking in a teasing manner, "Thought I wouldn't see you tonight."

Simon nodded to the guest across the room and said to Sophia, "We should get back."

"Yeah."

Sophia agreed with a smile, and they greeted some more of the necessary guests and walked out of the auction house together.

Getting into the car, Sophia wisely didn't mention one of the women from the cocktail party again, instead saying, "Agnelli just asked me for some more details about the Westeros system's investment in China, and it looks like he's not going to give up his foray into China."

In the auction house lounge, Simon and Gianni Agnelli's conversation with Sofia was also overheard.

Simon said, "That's for sure, but whether or not it will work is another matter."

"I think he still wants to work with us."

"The key is the issue of control, if Fiat moves into China, Agnelli won't give up control of the project and I won't be involved if I can't get the initiative, so we can't talk at all."

Sophia looked at the little man beside her with a bit of love and admiration in her tone, "I would have been very willing to take a step back, it's a partnership with Simon Westeros."

"It's hard to imagine how much better the world would be if everyone made the sensible and right choice."

"Anyway, my world is the best with you in it."

Simon reached out and caught the woman's face and kissed it, suddenly turning serious, "It's no use trying to please me, but it's been a long afternoon, nothing tonight."

Sophia gave someone a blank look, leaned in again and they kissed again.

The next morning they departed again early in the morning.

At Milan Malpensa International Airport, Simon said goodbye to Sophia, who had come to see her off, climbed the gangway, and had just entered the Boeing 767 cabin when a certain moon-eyed woman, whom he had just met at last night's cocktail party, greeted him.

"Oh, Simon, it feels like a dream. I'm probably crazy. We just met last night and I'm going to America with you today and it's my first time and I'm not even fluent in English."

Alexandra Martinez said so in Italian, but had taken Simon's arm so naturally that she couldn't help but look around.

This was also her first time flying in a private jet, but she didn't expect it to be such a luxurious Boeing 767 straight away, and the man next to her was even more of a dream come true for Martinez.

Ah, Simon Westeros.

Regardless of the outcome, this was a past event that would be enough to write about in her memoirs, if there were memoirs at all.

Which is why the man had asked for an invitation last night and she'd agreed to come down without even thinking about it.

Thirty-three-year-old Alexandra Martinez was already married, to the scion of a small French aristocracy, but compared to Simon Westeros, her husband's family, which was only barely respectable, had absolutely nothing to offer.

The reason why she married a few years ago, Martinez had hoped that her husband's family, which is connected to the French film industry, would help her develop her career, but unfortunately she missed her chance, and until now she has been a small star in France, barely in the third line.

So when she met Simon last night, when the man showed interest in her, she was decidedly desperate.

After all, once missed, an opportunity like this may never come again.

All in all, it was an elopement.

Showing the woman to the mid-cabin living room, Simon motioned for the other man to take a seat in a leather chair near the porthole, seated himself next to her, and a Vicar waitress offered to come over and help Alexandra fasten her seat belt.

Simon himself skillfully fastened his seatbelt and said to the somewhat confused woman beside him, "The takeoff may be a little bumpy, we can't move around freely until it's smooth."

Alexandra nodded her head evenly.

She didn't know any of this and thought private jets didn't need to have any restrictions, but luckily she hadn't just made a fool of herself by asking random questions.

When the waitress buckled her seatbelt and left, Simon smiled at the cautious look of the woman beside him and asked, "Have you had breakfast yet, Ari?"

Alexandra's subconscious wanted to nod, but her mouth was still honest, "Not yet."

She hadn't slept all last night.

She was busy cleaning up and dressing again after sunrise, and when the car Simon had sent came to pick her up, she rushed over immediately, not even remembering to eat.

Simon said, "You can't skip breakfast, I'll have them prepare it later."

"Thank you, Simon, that's very thoughtful of you."

The A-girl now came over with a stack of papers in her hand and handed a few of them to Simon, sitting herself down across from him.

Simon took the papers, seeing that Alexandra was slightly embarrassed by the A-girl's coldness, and helpfully introduced her, "This is A, my assistant."

Alexandra reached over voluntarily and also switched to a decidedly less proficient English, "Hello A, I'm Alexandra Martinez, you can call me Aly."

Lady A, however, didn't disrespect someone to their face and shook Alexandra's hand.

The waitress who had just helped with the seat belt came over again to check with Simon and then informed the crew to prepare for takeoff.

While chatting casually with Alexandra, Simon picked up the newspaper that A-girl had handed over, which was a French newspaper called Le West, the largest circulation national daily newspaper in France, which A-girl had already marked.

The stance is squarely set.

The article severely criticized the Rwandan government's accusations as a completely unfounded and deliberate smear campaign, manipulated by certain anti-French forces.

The newspaper did not point out which side the so-called 'antifa forces' were.

There was a sticky note next to the article explaining that the newspaper, while claiming to be neutral, was in fact a mouthpiece for the French government, which Simon immediately realized was probably the same as a Chinese super newspaper.

It was immediately followed by the leftist French newspaper, Le Humanité.

Compared to the West, which deliberately placed the article on a secondary page, Humanité put it directly on the front page, briefly recalling the Rwandan massacre that shocked the world two years ago and strongly urging the French government to set up a special investigation team to investigate any members of the French military who may have been involved in the massacre.

The article also criticized current President Jacques Chirac's military policies, especially the nuclear testing program, which was restarted last year after he took office.

After taking office in June 1995, the French government suddenly announced that it was restarting nuclear testing, and in less than half a year, from September 1995 to January 1996, the French military intensively conducted six successive nuclear tests in the French New Caledonia archipelago in the South Pacific. The newspaper Humanité criticized Chirac for a move that could provoke a new nuclear arms race and lead the whole of humanity into an unknown and dangerous situation.

Looking at several other newspapers, the stance is basically half to half.

Without taking one side or the other, one can actually imagine the pressure of public opinion that the French Government is facing at this time; after all, the crime of participating in the Holocaust, like that of Germany, once it is labelled, it will remain tainted for tens or hundreds of years, and may even become a kind of original sin.

Because of the rise to power of Chirac, a right-wing politician, the already discordant U.S.-French relations were once again strained.

Simon's use of Rwanda to attack France, although out of personal grudges, in fact, a hidden trend, this matter will not just yesterday a New York Times article to declare the end, but until the French government privately to Simon an explanation.

Or, it may not be an explanation, but rather a torn face against each other.

Simon has no scruples about that either.

At most, the Westeros system would then lose some business in France, and what France lost, that was hard to determine.

After a quick perusal of a few newspapers, the Boeing 767 also took off smoothly and stabilized at high altitude.

Simon summoned a waitress so that she could take Alexandra to breakfast and along the way she could take a tour around the cabin. Understanding that Simon wanted to discuss work matters with his assistant, Alexandra obediently followed the waitress and left.

With only Simon and the two of them left, the A-girl then reported on some matters that Simon needed to know about.

Today it was mostly on the movie front.

"Word from Los Angeles is that GH has turned down our proposal for Police Story 4 and switched to Disney. Disney has offered a 28% share of the North American box office, which is five points more than what we offered, and is willing to concede more on distribution and follow-up channels. Danny's last attempt to hold back yesterday was ineffective, and he had to send a restriction letter to Golden Harvest, demanding that the film not use script ideas that had been discussed between the two sides at some point in the past, and not to be a parody of the "Peaky Blinders" series."

The "Police Story" series needs no further comment.

Common sense would dictate that Jack Seng should focus his efforts on Hollywood after the success of the "Peaky Blinders" series. However, "Police Story 4" is a collaborative project that was promised to the old owners before "Peak Hour" began filming, and with Jack Seng's relationship with GH, he certainly can't break his word.

After the success of "Peak Time" in North America, Golden Harvest, who has been trying to enter Hollywood for so many years, will not let go of this opportunity.

The plan is to make "Police Story 4" an international film that will once again hit Hollywood, adding overseas characters and related story lines and filming overseas.

Something like "The Red Zone".

New World Pictures, a subsidiary of Daenerys Entertainment, was the first choice, and New World Pictures responded positively.

However, because of the success of "Peak Time", Golden Harvest started to try to get more profit, especially because of the recent negative example of "Black Mask", Golden Harvest was more resolute.

At least this time, it is unlikely to sell off the rights no matter what.

After the re-planning of the project, the New World Pictures team is relatively optimistic about the box office expectations of Police Story 4, which is only about $50 million, after all, the project itself carries some flaws that can't be fully integrated into Hollywood, and the $50 million is still based on the popularity of Peak Time.

All in all, New World Pictures can not give too outrageous conditions. So it was snatched up by a bunch of other studios that Hollywood was eyeing, and eventually it went to Disney.

Overseas film distribution in North America, if the producer asks for a share, usually only a dozen points, more than 20% are rarely, because of the nature of the film itself, most of the distributors would have received from the theater from the share will be less than the standard 55%, and receive a distribution share is also generally higher than the average Hollywood.

New World Pictures only does the distribution, and the 23% pure share is already quite generous when it promises to distribute the whole package.

After all, this is a film with clear Hong Kong genes, and the risk is not small. Moreover, without enough profit, why should New World Pictures give you the resources to distribute its own films? After all, movie slots and movie resources are limited each year.

Disney's offer of a share seems to be only five points higher than New World Pictures, but a further concession in distribution and follow-up channels, even according to the optimistic box office expectations of $50 million, there is basically not much profit, unless the film is as successful as "The Peak".

It's just that the odds, can't say absolute, but it's not much higher than the likelihood of a certain country's men's soccer team entering the World Cup.

The female assistant finished and looked at Simon.

Simon just nodded his head, indicating that he knew.

Vivendi's control of Disney is now in a similar state and the original Sony, are eager to create a situation to launch some quality projects, so in the interests of not so calculating.

The end is actually imaginable.

Seeing that her own boss didn't have the intention to fight for a bit more, A-girl continued, "On the Chinese side, after we extended the invitation, several Chinese directors gave a positive response, and this is the planning proposed by Zhang and Chen."

After the launch of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with the recent success of Black Mask, in order to hold up Jet Li, Simon intends to create several other costume Chinese films simultaneously, martial arts, war and fantasy can all be made, so invitations were sent to some famous Chinese directors, the core of which is to showcase Chinese culture, while at the same time catering to the tastes of Western audiences.

Moreover, the planned investment of $15 million to $30 million is only moderate in Hollywood, so the risk is manageable, but in China, this era of discount is absolutely sky-high investment. Like Director Xie's "Opium War", a 100 million investment, or less than $15 million, is already a national concern.

Of course Simon is not doing this for the good of course, these projects can be said to be invested with multiple purposes.

Firstly, to make money, and secondly, to get closer to the Chinese authorities. And then, these big-production films can activate the Chinese film market on the one hand, and alleviate the backlash of the Chinese film industry against the invasion of Hollywood films on the other.

On the other hand, it's sort of a bit of selfishness on Simon's part.

This kind of large-scale investment, but also can maximize the use of China's film and television resources, good mountains and good water needless to say, but also for example can pull out a few divisions of the army to shoot scenes shocking large-scale war movies, similar images are quite precious, and also just these years can also be used, after the new century, regardless of the East and West are gradually will no longer have, can only use special effects.

Because of Black Mask, Simon's first target was actually Heroes.

The film was an absolute box office success when it was first released in China to much fanfare.

It's only ten or twenty years later, when domestic audiences were exposed to a large number of bad movies, that they discovered how well-made and sincere those early-century blockbusters were in order to open up Western markets.

Once upon a time, the heroes were plucked up by the old mastermind after the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and there's no shadow of it yet.

Simon looks over the ideas provided by several Chinese directors and finds that they are all quite good, but Hero is still a safer bet.

Daenerys Entertainment could afford to fail, but if a project specifically for China failed, many of its goals would not be achieved.

Simon motioned for Alison to continue as he looked at the proposals of several Chinese directors.

The A-girl continued, "Also, over in the UK, the tentatively-named film team has already negotiated agreements with Guy Ritchie and Peter Catanu for Two Big Smoking Guns and Six Strong Light Pigs, respectively, and the rights to adapt BJ's Single Diary are still being negotiated, but there are only a few final details left and there are not many problems."

The first stop on Simon's European tour was England.

Some time before the trip, Simon had the UK branch of Daenerys Entertainment collect various popular books or movie scripts from this side of the world, and eventually personally picked the three projects "Two Big Smoking Guns", "Six Strong Light Pigs" and "BJ's Birth Diary".

All were actually early concerns.

During the Sundance Film Festival process earlier this year, Simon even thought of Guy Ritchie because of his early discovery of Nolan, but he's always had a habit of making certain things a little more logical, and picked the timing of this European trip.

Once upon a time, Two Sticks of Smoke was only released in 1998, and the script is now finished.

Guy Ritchie's experience is somewhat similar to Quentin's to say the least, having worked as a film projectionist, then started making short films and music videos, and after a short film last year, Hard Case, caught the attention of the industry, began looking for investment for his first feature script, Two Big Sticks of Smoking Gun. Once upon a time, it took Guy Ritchie and his partners more than a year just to raise the money to make Two Sticks of Smoke. The film was released in 1998 and was an instant hit.

Now, Simon is cutting it short early.

The other film, Six Strong Bare Pigs, was just as big a hit as Four Weddings and a Funeral, and finished off Two Sticks of Smoke at the box office. The small-budget film about a group of laid-off workers who find a way to become strippers during England's economic depression has grossed more than $250 million at the box office worldwide with a production cost of just £2 million, and is the all-time box office hit in the UK.

Also director Peter Catanucci's debut feature, this otherwise obscure project came to Simon's attention largely due to the recommendation of Robert Carlyle, star of Guess the Train, which was acquired by Daenerys Entertainment during this year's Sundance. The team under Entertainment made a connection and so recommended it over.

Again, it was picked up by Simon.

The final one was "BJ's Bachelor Diaries," a story serialized in a British newspaper since last year, just like "Sex and the City," already produced by Daenerys Entertainment. The proto-temporal "BJ's Bachelor Diaries" was only able to be released in 2001, costing $25 million, selling $280 million worldwide at the box office, and made into a series of movies.

Now that he's encountered it, Simon won't let it go.

In addition to China and the UK, Simon has also personally finalized two projects on his trip to Europe, one is Giuseppe Tornadore's "The Pianist at Sea" and the other is "A Beautiful Life" written and directed by Roberto Benigni.

Both are classic films that once had wide global recognition.

Whether it's China, the UK or Italy, it's an important part of the new phase of the film strategy Simon has designed for Daenerys Entertainment, and one that Simon has been paving the way for some years now.

With the Hollywood film landscape set, Daenerys Entertainment is no longer holding back this year, with all three labels exploding.

Simon is also planning to expand his business globally, investing more resources to support filmmakers in overseas markets to produce films that will provide a diverse source of material for North America and direct distribution in relevant markets. Resistance.

For any other individual or company, this full-blown plan would actually be difficult to maneuver.

After all, no one is omniscient enough to be familiar with film markets around the world, and doing so blindly is more likely to result in a loss of blood. With the prophetic advantage of two generations, Simon happens to be a very special exception to the rule.

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