Hollywood Hunter

"Hunting Hollywood ()"

Los Angeles, Daenerys Studios.

With a folder in her arms, the A-girl lifted her wrist to her watch and greeted her own boss, who had just finished a meeting with Pixar management.

"You've got a year, John, to put together a revision as soon as possible, I want to see it after the new year."

John Lasseter, who had just been trained to follow Simon slightly sideways, sniffed, "I promise, Simon, I'll be quick."

Simon, his face still cold, finished with John Lasseter, walked straight to the A-girl and asked, "Next?"

"Everyone's already here for the viewing party for Spectre of Terror."

Simon nodded and walked out quickly, with the A-girl keeping up.

Returning from the East Coast, Simon had spent the last few days mainly combing through Daenerys Entertainment's film projects for the next two years, and had just been discussing with the Pixar team about another Pixar 3D animated film, Bug Squad, which would be released at the end of next year.

Compared to Toy Story and Finding Nemo, Bug Squad is one of the lower-grossing Pixar animated films in terms of both word-of-mouth and box office.

As to why, there are actually many problems.

The main one, in Simon's opinion, is that the main story line tends to be the love of two ants, the 'hero' Felix out of his love for Princess Atta, rose up against the Grasshopper Legion, and in the end, the lovers ended up together, this theme seems too adult, not enough for all ages. Add to that the fact that it's not a live-action fairy tale of a prince and princess, and it's hard to relate to it, and so a seemingly insignificant problem largely contributed to the low point of The Bug Squad in the Pixar animated series.

Looking at the others, Toy Story, at its core, is about friendship, for young and old alike. Finding Nemo, which set box office records, has a focus on family ties, which is even more old and young. There is also Simon, the big butterfly intervention from 2D to 3D still created a box office miracle "The Lion King", although the story is taken from "The Prince's Revenge", the core is to grow up, which is still suitable for all ages.

The simple truth is that the more diverse the audience, the better the box office, as long as the quality of the film is maintained.

Simon raised this issue at the beginning of the project, but the Pixar team didn't strictly enforce it, as anyone would be impatient with the continuous success.

Leaving Pixar's headquarters and returning to a screening room on the third floor of the administrative area, the creators of "Spectre", including director Peter Jackson, lead actor Ben Stiller and actress Mia Sara, have all arrived, along with Danny Morris and other New World Pictures executives responsible for the distribution of the project.

Everyone was greeted briefly and quickly settled into their seats.

Simon went to the second row of the best view of the middle position, from the left side of the female assistant took a memo, just a few eyes, felt the right side of the faint fragrance of unfamiliar women, turned his head to look, "Ghost of Horror" actress Mia Sara sat down beside him, see Simon look over, the very kind of golden age of Hong Kong actress temperament very much in line with the Oriental aesthetic beauty expression slightly apprehensive. "Mr. Westeros, may I sit here?"

Simon just nodded slightly, his eyes falling back to the memo in front of him presenting a general overview of "Spectre of Terror" and flew through the information.

The lights in the screening room quickly dimmed and the screen lit up.

Peter Jackson's first draft of "Spectre of Terror" tells the story of Frank, who accidentally gains psychic powers, colludes with his ghostly friends to con them out of money, only to encounter evil spirits who murder him, and in the end, good triumphs over evil.

The original script, in Simon's opinion, was terrible.

Western ghost movies, by the way, usually suffer from one major flaw: the lack of a well-established model for human confrontation with ghosts.

Just like the original Ghost of Horror script, the protagonist's first victory over the evil spirit relies on two machine guns conjured up by the dead sheriff.

Bullshit.

By comparison, Eastern ghost movies, especially Hong Kong movies, have a pretty convincing and complete set of routines.

In the last few years, Daenerys Entertainment has been pioneering a new universe for ghost movies, and Simon has been intervening to perfect a westernized way of exorcising ghosts, which is very effective. As for this "Ghost of Horror", Simon specially threw a Hong Kong film "Mr. Zombie" to Jackson, let him watch it a few times to find inspiration to revise the script, so that the original "Ghost of Horror" is neither horror nor comedy into a qualified commercial film.

Peter Jackson compared to other directors with strong personalities, one of the biggest advantages is pragmatic, listening to other people's opinions and willing to cooperate with investors to improve the requirements, the final shooting script deleted a lot of the original version of the redundant story strands, and from Simon's "Mr. Zombie" to pick up a lot of inspiration, is basically another story.

On the big screen.

The film begins with a haunting, a castle that is haunted, and the owner hires Frank, a psychic, to catch the ghosts.

Enough to make anyone with even a modicum of intelligence feel like a con man, the actor has a bit of a cock-and-bull routine in the castle, and finally shows the suspicious-looking hosts that he's done, gets paid and leaves.

The actor's character, Ben Stiller, gives a completely different impression than the original Michael J. Fox when he appears, and the Saturday Night Live-born comedian comes out with a very debilitating quality that makes you laugh. In comparison, Michael J. Fox, the lead actor of the Back to the Future series, still gives the impression of being more of a teen movie kid than a comedian.

Perfect casting with a fitting story, just a beginning, makes Simon a little more certain of the film's quality.

The movie continues.

As he bids farewell to his hosts and Frank drives away from the castle grounds, inside the car, two ghosts suddenly and furtively appear from the backseat and under the car, first confirming to the audience that there really are ghosts in the film.

However, the two ghosts, which at first make one think they are attempting to attack the protagonist's evil spirit, soon prove to be merely joking with the protagonist, that they are friends of the protagonist who possesses psychic powers, and that the ghost-hunting scene has just been a hoax in which both parties are working together.

The wedge proceeds here, and the background is basically explained.

The main character is psychic, has two ghost friends, and makes a living as a deceptive ghost hunter. Also, from their conversations, the audience learns that the supposed haunting of the castle just now is not 'haunted' of their own accord, but that they don't really know what the problem is.

In the course of driving and chatting, the plot then takes a sudden turn.

On the winding and dark night road, a man and two ghosts are discussing how to spend the money they've just received, when suddenly another car rushes straight at them, and Frank scrambles to avoid it, but the last thing he sees is a shadow sweeping off the roof of the oncoming car, disappearing in the direction of the castle manor they've just come from.

Immediately, Frank's car also crashed into a tree trunk.

The screen goes dark with a thud, and the title of "Spectre of Terror" and the subsequent credits appear.

Five minutes into the wedge, in addition to the story, Simon was satisfied with the special effects.

In the original version of the Ghost of Terror, the ghost effects were very rough, giving people a strong sense of cheap fifty cents, but this time it was the Australian branch of Daenerys Special Effects, which had experienced many blockbusters, was responsible for the production, the ghost in the camera faded, as if the wind could disappear at any time, giving people a kind of this is probably the appearance of the soul after death.

In addition, special effects companies are just doing things after all, Peter Jackson was able to skillfully apply special effects to such an extent that in Simon's opinion could already feel comfortable handing over the Tolkien series to the other side.

As he was thinking about these things, a close voice in his ear said, "Mr. Westeros, I've always wanted to thank you in person for this opportunity."

But it was Mia Sara, who was beside her while the film was in stitches.

Simon's thoughts were interrupted, but he just hmmmed and looked up slightly towards the big screen.

So quiet.

The main film begins with a funeral, the deceased is an employee of a small town museum, and although Frank is not responsible, he attends the funeral because of what he saw and heard that night, and meets the deceased's daughter Lucy, played by none other than Mia Sara.

It's love at first sight.

In order to get closer to Lucy, Frank introduces Lucy to his profession and voluntarily reveals that her father may not have died of a heart attack, but rather was killed by an evil spirit.

Lucy, of course, doesn't believe this nonsense and develops a bad feeling towards Frank as a result.

Frank and his two ghostly friends are also on the lookout for Lucy, and it's all very funny.

In the meantime, a series of strange deaths similar to Lucy's father's heart attack occur in the town.

When the actress Lucy is shown on the big screen taking a shower, and Frank, who is outside her window for security reasons, struggles to decide if he should peek, Simon in the screening room feels a seemingly unintentional touch on his right thigh, and once again, Mia Sara's voice is heard inquiringly, but with a distinctly different meaning: "Mr. Westeros, I'm playing...". How's that?"

Simon frowned slightly, turned his head to look at the bespectacled Mia Sara next to him, and reached up, passing his hand through the girl's long, soft hair, grabbing a slender neck and exerting a little force.

Mia Sara resisted just a little instinctively and quickly softened, leaning over to the man's strength.

The screening room was a five-by-five layout, as the big boss had chosen the second row, with two beautiful women sitting on the left and one on the right, and of course no one was uninterested in the two extra seats on the edge, but all sat in the front and back rows.

Danny Morris in the front row was still left alone, and the New World Pictures executives who were fortunate enough to participate in this movie together in the back row naturally found out very soon that there was suddenly one less person beside the big boss. Bad luck for mistaking them for peeking. Sitting upright for a moment, still feeling uncomfortable, I quietly moved my body and voluntarily withdrew to a more rearward position.

The story continues on the big screen.

After a lot of bad blood, Lucy finally believes in the existence of ghosts and suspects the truth about her father's murder and begins to launch an investigation with Frank. Meanwhile, because Frank is always able to appear around the dead, the small town sheriff arrests Frank as a suspect, and the evil spirit discovers that Frank is on his trail and wants to kill the psychic.

This leads to another climax of the film's man vs. ghost battle in the town's police station.

After the police department battle, the sheriff also sides with Frank, and the group gets closer to the truth.

Frank realizes that the tricks he used to catch the ghosts won't work with the evil spirits. After a discussion with his ghost friends, he learns that the ghosts are afraid of things like crosses in churches and holy water used by priests to baptize newborns, so he starts preparing 'professional' tools.

The story soon comes to an end.

The truth is that in the castle where Frank was hunting the ghost at the beginning of the story, the lady's daughter Barbara was already dead and was brought back to life through an evil witchcraft. However, in order to stay alive, Barbara has to frequently take the form of an evil spirit who hunts the souls of the living for sacrifices in order to keep her 'life' alive.

This also echoes some of the details in the opening wedge.

This is followed by an exciting final battle where good triumphs over evil and the lovers are united.

The screening ends and everyone moves on to the next meeting room, during which Girl A quietly leaves with Mia Sara, all looking as if they hadn't heard.

Simon was far more pleased with The Phantom of the Opera than he had been with the earlier temper tantrum about Finding Nemo, and after suggesting a few changes to the soundtrack and briefly discussing next year's Easter release with the New World Pictures team, he turned his attention to Peter Jackson and Ben Stiller.

Both are key filmmakers for Daenerys Entertainment.

Eight years have passed since the original Batman: The Hour of War as assistant director, and since it was determined that Peter Jackson was capable of taking control of the Lord of the Rings series, the project could naturally start.

However, since many of the projects for 1997 and 1998 had already been finalized, the first installment of The Lord of the Rings wouldn't be released until at least 1999, the date Simon had tentatively set for the end of 1999, giving Jackson three years to produce this Middle-Earth epic series.

Of course, Simon's plan is still to shoot the trilogy back-to-back, and three years isn't really that long, considering the massive amount of work it requires.

And then there's Ben Stiller.

As one of the core of the formerly rotten gang, Stiller, with Simon's help, has been involved in two projects for Daenerys Entertainment just in the second half of this year, appearing in Peter Jackson's "Spectre of Terror" back-to-back and as a director on that Kim Carrey film, "The Cable Repairman.

Next, Simon also plans to cast the other in "The Hangover," which was made to promote Atlantic City.

As long as The Hangover is successful next year, if not as successful as it once was, only breaking $100 million at the local box office, the Rotten Gang will be largely formed enough to rival most of Hollywood's older generation of comedy stars.

Of course, Simon doesn't plan to work with the Rotten Gang for too long, after all, the later the group becomes, the less cost-effective it becomes, and although the films produced are very guaranteed at the box office, most of the proceeds are divided among the creators, and the studios often just make a hard-earned profit, which is completely inconsistent with Simon's philosophy.

Talking to the two men, the time was off the clock.

Peter Jackson and Ben Stiller were currently leaving, and Simon spent another hour or so with Danny Morris discussing the development progress of New World Pictures' related film projects for the next two years.

The ultimate goal was to reduce the number of major Hollywood studios and create a near-monopoly that would allow Daenerys Entertainment to dominate Hollywood.