Hollywood Hunter

Chapter 800.

Simon continued to spend the weekend in Australia and again on the new Monday departed on his own to return first to North America.

At the end of the day, though, even Amy Pascal reminded Simon in a personal call with him that he should probably visit the set of Titanic, which had clearly gotten out of hand, and Simon didn't go over there after all, and reminded the producer in charge of the project's budget here at Daenerys Entertainment not to waste time on a fight with James Cameron and to do his best to cooperate with the other side to finish the film.

It's already an implication that there is permissiveness.

Simon didn't really ignore it completely, and privately had it re-estimated, and at this point in time, Cameron would need about $150 million to complete the film, and even if he ended up going a little over, it might be a significant savings from the $200 million he once had.

In addition, the former "Titanic", but also indirectly achieved James Cameron's Lightstorm effects studio, this time, starting with "Terminator 2", Cameron production of the film, all the special effects technology involved in the film, are retained in Daenerys effects, and "Titanic", the "Star Wars", "Transformers" and other films may not seem so cool, but the special effects technology contained in it Just more and less.

These special effects innovations were invaluable technical assets to Daenerys Special Effects.

Plus, Simon was also really hoping that something would happen to Daenerys Entertainment to 'entertain' the public, after all, even if this Titanic was a complete failure, it wouldn't hurt the fundamentals of the Daenerys Entertainment Group, which had already completed a fully diversified layout.

Anyway, Kagami can play it any way he wants this time.

Simon pays the bills.

Back in Los Angeles, the local time is still September 9.

Monday.

Simon's first concern is that the 1996 summer season, which has officially wrapped up, is actually the underpinning of the idea that Daenerys Entertainment can support James Cameron's casual play.

This summer season, to be exact, lasted for 17 weeks from May 10, when "The Secret Order of Vaporization" and "Romeo and Juliet" were released, to September 5, when the school year started all over North America, and just this past three-day weekend from September 6 to September 8, the box office in North America dropped from more than 62 million in the same period last week to about 35 million, which obviously announced the end of the summer season. .

For 17 weeks, North America has seen a total of six box office breakers, six films, all of which have been linked to Daenerys Entertainment in one way or another, even if Daenerys Entertainment had absolutely no hand in investing and distributing Eddie Murphy's new film, The Fat Professor, which Simon privately pulled strings to push to Fox.

Keep in mind that the proto-temporal Professor Fatty was a Universal-funded film, and Universal is now part of Daenerys Entertainment.

And, in addition to the six local box office breakers, the entire summer, not to mention the collaborative projects like The Mummy and Mission Impossible 2, just the three solo releases from Daniels Entertainment's three labels, whether it's Black Mask, Police Empire, Ice Blood Storm, etc., have all done quite well.

If you stretch the timeline to the first eight months of 1996, from the start of the year to the end of the summer season on September 5, North American theaters have seen a total of nine box office breakers, namely.

First place: "James Bond's Ghost Party," $307 million.

Second place: "Mission Impossible 2," $216 million.

Third place: "The Valley of the Broken Heads," $177 million.

Fourth place: "The Mummy," $156 million.

Fifth place: "Peaky Blinders," $141 million.

Sixth place: "The Haunting of the Morgue 2," $137 million.

Seventh place: "Romeo and Juliet," $123 million.

Eighth place: "The Fat Professor," $113 million.

Ninth place: "Godspell Airplane 2," $108 million.

The entire list, at a glance.

Of these, Danielle Entertainment produced five of the nine films entirely on her own, and there were two other co-productions, even if the No. 1 film, James Bond's Ghostbusters, was also of interest because of MGM's lack of distribution capabilities and the fact that many overseas markets were distributed by Danielle Entertainment.

There's only one "The Fat Professor," which is sort of a complete Fox exclusive.

Although the top spot is temporarily held by MGM's James Bond's Ghostbusters, and Simon doesn't really want to compete for the top spot, it's still unclear how the year's list will turn out, considering the release of Wonder Woman 2 at the end of the year, which also happens to be distributed by Daenerys Entertainment in the DC Cinematic Universe.

Either way, just looking at the list so far, Daenerys Entertainment is as good as Disney at the peak of Simon's memory.

It is not too much to say that Simon has taken control of the entire Hollywood at this point.

Daenerys Studios.

Simon's office, as a circle of people as an observer of the entire process of the rise of Simon Westeros, David Geffen looked at the opposite side of the youth, can not help but feel a lot of emotion. Even if he was the one who founded the Gefen Records back then, touting, at this point, it was already part of Daenerys Records.

And now, not to mention other things, just this young man's power in Hollywood, are enough for everyone to look up to.

On the sofa in the meeting area, Simon took a sip of the soda that the A-girl had just served up, and was very uncomfortable with David Geffen's sizing him up, you know, the man who was a recognized out-of-the-closet big shot in Hollywood, and putting the glass down, Simon got straight to the point, "David, I have a meeting later, so let's keep it short."

"Oh, sure," said David Geffen, who was also busy gathering his thoughts, "I've emailed the gist of things in advance, DreamWorks wants to buy that Saving Private Ryan script in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment, Simon, and I've checked in advance, and Daenerys is not interested in the project Making any standing preparations, I don't think you'd mind changing hands."

Simon was noncommittal and said, "David, Saving Private Ryan is a World War II script, and it's bound to be a bombshell investment with a lot of risk, so why do you want to make this project?"

"Mainly ......" David Geffen was trying to be vain and slightly hesitant, but eventually told the truth with a bit of a grin on his face: "Well, Simon, it was actually Steven who saw the script and was very Heartbeat, too bad we're late to the party."

Hollywood is full of Erdnase.

It's just that for Simon Westeros, if he uses the lie today, even if he gets the script for Saving Private Ryan, if things go south, the young man isn't like the other gullible filmmakers who can only admit their misfortune, and if it bounces back, the whole DreamWorks is implicated.

Might as well tell the truth.

Even if not for Spielberg, David Geffen did not want to accept this job, as a shareholder of DreamWorks, his attitude and Simon just said the same, also not very optimistic about such a huge investment in the future may not be popular with the audience of the war film.

Simon had already figured out the details of the situation, but since Geffen confessed, he didn't beat around the bush and said, "Since Steven is the one who is interested, Daenerys can let go. However, it also happens to be an opportunity, so why don't Steven pay off the last film contract he owes to Daenerys Entertainment this time."

David Geffen didn't expect Simon to agree so readily, only to then be stunned.

Sizing up the expression on Westeros' face, the big man who had also been in Hollywood for many years somehow felt that his side might have actively stepped into a hole.

It was only a feeling.

No evidence.

However, David Geffen quickly reflected again that if the project could be made into a co-production with Daenerys Entertainment, it would be a boon to DreamWorks, which has been ambitiously established but not so smoothly developed since its inception.

The problem was that Spielberg had asked him to come over to talk about the script because he didn't want any more contact with Daenerys, who had kicked him out after the success of the Jurassic Park series, which had produced two hits in a row: Jurassic Park and Schindler's List.

The young man's subsequent ditching of Spielberg for a newcomer was a bit teeth-changing.

Simon saw David Geffen hesitate, then said, "David, you can go back and talk to Steven, if he wants this project, my terms are simple, our two companies will jointly invest in it, Daenerys Entertainment will distribute it, oh, and production-wise, I'm very comfortable with Steven, so I won't interfere at all. "

There's one other thing Simon didn't say, and I think it's easy for both Geffen and Spielberg to think it through. The company's main business is to provide a wide range of services and products to its customers.

Seeing that Simon had already made a clear offer, David Geffen nodded slightly, but then said, "The problem is, Simon, we have an agreement with Paramount."

"That's not a problem, I think Paramount is open to negotiation, and on Daenerys' side, I'm only asking for half of the investment share and distribution rights to the film."

David Geffen hadn't been very optimistic about Saving Private Ryan, but at this point, seeing Simon Westeros, who had previously been expressing the same attitude, asking for this, his heart suddenly confirmed some sort of intuition he had just had, and naturally felt that leaving only half of the investment share for DreamWorks and Paramount to share was definitely not enough.

Only, to continue the discussion, but Simon refused to give in again, only temporarily got up to leave, inner calculations back to how to discuss with Spielberg, as well as, or is not Paramount can be completely dumped.

Simon is on his way to an American Pie production meeting that was just set up some time ago, when he is stopped by something else.

The A-girl brought news that had just come in from San Francisco.

After this period of secret negotiations, C Girl in charge of Tinkerbell successfully negotiated an acquisition agreement with Apple.

After all, it was only a few billion dollars of small business, Simon explained to C Girl last month, just a month, Apple agreed to Tinkerbelle's acquisition offer.

Mostly too, Apple is really broke.

Obviously in recent years, the new technology industry is booming, as the creation of the PC era of the old giants, Apple is in the impact of Microsoft all the way downhill against the trend, the most direct performance is the market value, compared to the early nineties, the highest in those years more than $ 7 billion in market value, the recent Apple market value has almost to fall to $ 2 billion threshold, compared to the peak of the shrinkage of more than 70%.

Moreover, a few years ago, Apple was able to barely maintain profits, since last year, has been mired in losses, and in the first two quarters of this year, Apple's total losses have reached $300 million, and is expected to lose more than $600 million for the year.

Unless a miracle happens, Apple will be headed for bankruptcy in two years at most.

On the other hand, this time, Steve Jobs, who had already sold Pixar to Simon, had somehow fallen into obscurity, and without the appeal brought by Toy Story, the other side was unlikely to return to take charge of Apple, and Simon was not going to allow that to happen.

Therefore, selling out to Tinkerbell is pretty much the only way out for Apple.

Even probably many people wouldn't quite understand Tinkerbell's intentions of acquiring such a shabby household as Apple for a while.

Continuing to a nearby conference room, signaling that New World Pictures president Danny Morris could begin the meeting, Simon held in his hand the draft of the acquisition agreement between Tinkerbell and Apple.

Tinkerbell will make the acquisition of Apple in the form of cash plus stock, the final transaction price of $2.8 billion, compared to the market value of about $2.1 billion at this time, a 33% premium, of which $1 billion cash payment, the other $1.6 billion is Tinkerbell's stock.

Tinkerbell will also assume about $1.2 billion of Apple's debt.

Calculated, the total value of the deal is $4 billion.

That's a significantly high price relative to Apple's depressed state at this point. However, the higher offer is also key to Tinkerbell's ability to negotiate a good buyout agreement within a month. After all, if it drags on too long and news leaks out, Apple's stock could rise more than 30% in a matter of days.

Simon does not want to nightmare, private get Simon face-to-face C girl also does not want to nightmare. As for the Apple side, at this time there is no take Tinkerbell as fat sheep slaughter the bottom of the knife, probably also do not want a long night's sleep.

So this is basically the final solution.

As long as there is no objection from Simon, the news will be announced tomorrow morning.

In addition, such an acquisition, the authorities will not encounter any resistance in terms of review, Simon can now consider the next step in the layout.

First was the system.

Since Ygritte received the original source code for Linux in 1991, Simon has been planning a graphical interface PC operating system with Linux as the kernel, which the Ygritte team has been developing for five years and is now being used in Ygritte's self-built data center.

As for the PC version, the plan was to formally launch it in 1997, and now, with Apple and a series of core patents for the GUI operating system, the Westeros system will also be free of Microsoft's patent barriers.

The big deal is a lawsuit tug-of-war.

Second, there's the hardware.

Many people may not know, put forward the ARM architecture of the British ARM company, the earliest is invested by Apple, now Apple is still a major shareholder of ARM, in recent years the Newton tablet is to use the ARM architecture of the processor.

Take down Apple, followed by full control of ARM.

Then, using the resources of the Westeros system, to promote the development of ARM architecture chips suitable for mobile electronic devices, even though the mobile Internet era may take 10 years to fully come, but with the success of iCam, and other products, with ARM chips as the core, the development of more portable mobile electronic devices, and through the Bluetooth, WIFI and other technologies that have emerged at this time, to create a mini home-based mobile Internet ecosystem, more than enough.

Simon read the draft agreement between Tinkerbell and Apple and flew off to start writing down various brainstorms on the draft paper in front of him, and before he knew it an hour had passed.

It wasn't until Danny Morris reminded him that this was a production meeting for American Pie.

Simon took a quick glance at the meeting memo that A-girl was handing over to him, and finally collected his thoughts and turned to the subject of the meeting, telling Danny Morris and the others: "On this project, publicly, we need to package the film as a coming-of-age story with special meaning, but you have to understand that, in reality, the only thing that sells this film is the fact that it's about growing up. One word, sex. It's only by clinging to that, both in the making of the film, and in its future distribution, that people won't take their paths astray."

Over the years, many of the films Simon remembers have been butterflies dropped and many never-before-heard of films have emerged.

American Pie, which is being discussed, is one of the more fortunate stories that didn't get butterflies dropped, and while the details of the script are very different from what Simon remembers, the whole thing hasn't changed much, so it was taken decisively by Simon and greenlit in its entirety.

Once upon a time, American Pie, the first part of which sold over 200 million at the box office worldwide for a mere $11 million, even Simon couldn't remember how many sequels were made.

Although there is a variety of analysis of the film's core, youth ah grow ah, blah blah blah, but in fact, the reason for the success of the series, the key is really only one word, sex. The film even coined such terms as 'MILF' which became a fixed adult vocabulary, so it is evident.

As for the rest, it's all a companion piece to that kernel.

So, for this new version of American Pie to succeed, no matter how much it may whitewash one of the more vulgar themes in the future, Simon must make sure that the New World Pictures team understands the core of the project.

Catch the main conflict.

While there's no comparison to the DC Cinematic Universe, not even as good as the Summoner's Cinematic Universe, from memory, the series is actually a gold mine of IP, and as long as the first installment is successful, the follow-up could continue to be made for years on end as it was in the original time period, including multiple non-theatrical releases that would only supply the video and DVD market.

Daenerys Entertainment still holds the vast Blockbuster video chain system, so it can all-round maximize the benefits of this series. From memory, this seemingly insignificant teen movie series, if properly developed, could generate billion-dollar revenues for Daenerys Entertainment in the future.