Hollywood Hunter

"Hunting Hollywood ()"

"I'm now on the phone with Cameron at least once a day, and the latter stages of Titanic are pretty much guaranteed to be finished by the end of May. Simon, there's a lot of negative news about the film coming out in the media, and I think the longer it drags on, the worse it will be for us, so it's better to release it on time in the summer."

"Summer time is even better, it's too tight, and if anything else goes wrong, a lot of plans will be disrupted. Also, tell Jim to just stay in Australia and don't come back if he doesn't finish Titanic."

Malibu, Daenerys Studios.

It's Wednesday, January 8, 1997.

Beginning the previous Christmas, at Simon's insistent urging, Amy Pascal, who was entering her due date, went on maternity leave for a month. It's always said in business management that if you want to know if a company is healthy, you just have to see if it's still functioning after the head of the company has been away for a while.

Simon wanted to see that too.

However, as chairman of the board, since he returned to Los Angeles, professional and tedious financial, personnel, legal and other matters Simon can interfere with not much, as the most core content areas of Daenerys Entertainment, at least the general direction, he can still take up.

The ongoing meeting is with the heads of the three labels and several other executives to discuss the production and distribution arrangements for a series of key projects for 1997, mainly in terms of scheduling.

As the three labels begin to work in tandem, it's inevitable that if Simon or Amy don't make the decisions themselves, disputes over schedules and the resulting disagreements will become so fierce that they could hurt the business.

Simon was just talking to Daenerys Pictures president Tom Pollack about Titanic, which finally wrapped before Christmas last year.

The news that the Titanic project is seriously out of control has been circulating since late last year, finally showing that Simon Westeros has his moments. Tom Pollack, as president of Daenerys Pictures, went to Australia to follow up on the film for over a month, finally killing it before the end of 1996.

Now the schedule is again a problem.

Indeed, as Pollack said, to break the rumors of the outside world, according to the initial plan to release in the summer of this year is the most secure, but not to say whether Cameron can finish on time late, even if it is completed, the time is too fast, there is no guarantee that there will not be other changes, or at the end of the year is more secure.

Inside the conference room.

Everyone heard Simon's last words, and finally felt that someone was still a little angry about it, about not letting some guy come back from Australia, or maybe the subtext is that once this project is a complete failure at the box office, don't ever come back to Hollywood again.

Nowadays, Daenerys Entertainment definitely has the power to shut down a director.

As for his own boss, those who are in regular contact with him will always inevitably lament the young mogul's calm and easy-going nature, which seems to have never been young and carefree, making it easy for people to get close to him, but if they stand a little farther away, they will immediately feel another layer of emotion.

Tough guy!

Tom Pollack saw Simon make his decision and had to say, "At the end of the year, the Thanksgiving slot is already set for 'Bug Squad' and MGM is responsible for 'Time Out Contact', and 'Titanic' can only be a Christmas slot. However, the Christmas slot has The Flash 2, the first Flash, which was a mediocre box office hit, but after the crossover preview of Wonder Woman 2, The Flash 2 could be a step up, and if we want to play it safe, Simon, maybe we should swap the Time Out Contact and Titanic slots."

As soon as Tom Pollack finished speaking, Mark Belford, the next VP of worldwide operations for Daenerys Entertainment, reminded him, "Tom, no surprise, there's a good chance that Disney will put Terminator 3 in the Thanksgiving slot in order to avoid The Flash 2, and maybe the one that Sony invested in Paul Van Hoven's Starship Troopers, which reportedly cost $100 million.

Tom Pollack countered, "I've read Paul Van Hoven's script for 'Starship Troopers,' a very mediocre one with a low likelihood of selling. Titanic moves to the Thanksgiving slot, the subject matter doesn't conflict with Bug Squad, and the remaining Terminator 3 is never going to be higher in body count than Flash Gordon 2."

"I also think Titanic is still in the Christmas slot," interjected Danny Morris, president of New World Pictures, "The Thanksgiving slot can't be jammed with more than Bug Squad and Contact Out of Time, and don't forget an Adam Sandler film on my side, The Wedding Singer. "

Ira Deutschman, president of Goldman Pictures, also voiced his opinion: "Why not, similar to Wonder Woman 2, move The Flash 2 to the Thanksgiving slot, where we should be able to get Warner to compromise?"

"We can't," this time it was Nancy Brill, who was the original observer, who immediately objected, "Bug Squad has to make sure that it runs through both slots, and this project is the most important film we'll make at the end of the year."

Ira Doichman reacted to the news, knowing he'd misspoken.

Pixar's 3D animated movies involved far more than just the box office itself, but also the sales of peripheral products that easily amounted to billions of dollars and even the entire massive business of Daenerys Entertainment in family entertainment, theme parks, game development, etc. even if Titanic was a complete smash, the schedule of the animated movie Bug Squad had to be ensured.

Thinking about it this way, the more Ira Doichman felt that some super-heavy bombshell that was expected to burn through $200 million would probably end up like Waterworld of the Future or Cutthroat Island from the previous two years.

Simon, who was sitting at the head of the table, listened to the discussion, looked down and studied a bit of the 1997 box office weekly ranking list in front of him, and after a moment interrupted the argument to say, "Stop arguing, Titanic is on Christmas, Flash Gordon 2 is on the most prime December 19, that's been established, let's move it up a week and put it on December 12. "

We all looked at each other again for a moment, then at our own boss.

Tom Pollack hesitated a little, but still said, "Simon, I think it might be better to postpone it for a week?"

A one-week early release of The Flash 2 is seen as almost the same as actively lying down to let The Flash 2 crush it, just like those films the week before Wonder Woman 2 just this past Thanksgiving, and if word of mouth doesn't live up to expectations, Titanic could go completely off the rails in a week.

By contrast, if delayed by a week, The Flash 2 has a slightly slower momentum and maybe there's room for Titanic to survive.

It's no surprise that Simon feels the crowd's eyes and probably understands what they're thinking.

If you just want to keep Titanic alive, it's a good choice to actively avoid Christmas, where Flash 2 is, to catch the tail end of the New Year's Day period, but in that case, after New Year's Day, it will go directly into the cold period. The local box office totals are down a notch.

If they can withstand the pressure of the super-bomb to create a miracle, and if they have the room to play in the hot time slot at the end of the year, "Titanic" will be able to create the miracle at the box office.

In the end, the executives in the room were thinking about how to make Titanic not too ugly, while Simon was expecting the film to create another box office miracle.

In fact, if you don't consider anything else, putting Titanic on Thanksgiving is the best choice, so that once the big ship explodes and continuously crush the two popular dates, it's not impossible for the local box office to directly break 700 million. It's just that by doing so, there would be no way for the other movies to survive.

In the end, because the plate is so big, this one will decrease and the other will grow.

On balance, December 12 is undoubtedly the most appropriate time slot.

In addition to Simon's confidence in Titanic, there's also the fact that The Flash 2 won't be as awful as everyone thinks it will be.

Because according to the original agreement, Warner fully retains the rights to the two superheroes to keep Daenerys Entertainment out of the investment on the condition that the Big Three and the big crossover movie can use the 'Steel Bones' and 'The Flash' images as they please, and the 'Steel Bones' and 'The Flash', unless Daenerys Entertainment agrees, will have to 'go it alone'.

The popularity of a solo show can't end up with a crossover collection of three heroes like Wonder Woman 2.

The company's first-ever sales and marketing strategy is to provide a competitive advantage to its customers. Next, um, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Ira, your side of the proposal is to attend the Cannes Film Festival, this one is cancelled, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is not supposed to be positioned as an art film, attending Cannes, regardless of whether it gets an award or not, will not be good for the distribution of this film. However, the film could premiere in Cannes. Also, the schedule is a little further back, and the box office momentum of various blockbusters is still there in mid-July, put it in late July."

Ella Doichmann considered it a little, but didn't object, just said, "Simon, we'll let The English Patient win the Oscar this year, so we can always fight for it next year, right?"

Simon's expression slightly paused, he can't say in advance that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Titanic" is the focus of this year's rushing awards. For the executives who don't have the prophetic advantage of Simon, these two films, where can you think of the Oscars if they don't completely fail from a selling point of view and are considered successes?

Considering for a moment, Simon said, "You've been following up on a couple of projects we invested in in Europe last year, the one in the UK, The Six Strong Men of Light Pigs, and two films in Italy, Tonadore's The Pianist at Sea and Roberto Benigni's A Beautiful Life, they should both have the potential to be punchy films."

Ira Deutschman nods and shakes his head, "But none of them can be considered mainstream and the box office body count won't be too high, boss, I want to do The Shakespearean Affair, which has been on the back burner for two years, and starting it now would be just right for the end of the year."

Not to mention "The Pianist at Sea" and "A Beautiful Life", once "Six Strong Men with Light Pigs" cost a mere £2 million and made over $250 million at the global box office, which is not a high volume?

But you can't be a diva.

Simon could only resist and his thoughts turned to The Shakespeare Affair, the once historically controversial Oscar-winning film.

The Shakespearean Affair was a long-running and well-known script in Hollywood, the story idea had been born in the late eighties, and the once-historic Julia Roberts, who had been a popular sister in Hollywood in the nineties, had personally worked on the project, and for various reasons, had failed to cast it, going around for ten years before it was finally produced by Miramax.

And then it was a huge success.

The quality of the film was certainly excellent, but it just ate a little harder and gave birth to one of Hollywood's most watered-down movie queens, beating the even better Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, and A Beautiful Life to the Oscars in what was once 1998.

Danielle Entertainment picked up the script a few years back and was pressured by Simon to wait for the right time, when he saw Ira Deutschman gazing at him expectantly, and Simon was a bit helpless. Since the start of the year with Room with a View, Ira Deutschman has always had a fondness for classical literary films, and Shakespearean Affair naturally became a favorite.

In the face of the executive's expectations, Simon couldn't say "Ira, let's wait a little longer or the film will be cannon fodder.

Still can't be a prodigy.

A little hesitation, Simon finally nodded: "Okay, by the way, do you have any consideration for the male and female leads?"

Just as well.

Consider this movie 'last life' a defeat of your character, and this time pay the debt.

Ira Deutschman saw the boss nodded, but was very happy: "I'd like to invite Daniel Day-Lewis for the male lead, and Julia Roberts for the female lead, Julia just worked on that "BJ's Single Diary" last year, specially trained in accents, so she can get straight to work, and she also loves the script."

Daniel Day-Lewis was arguably the first male alternative to the former "Shakespearean Affair," only to be hired a few times before and after because of the schedule.

As for Julia Roberts, Simon wasn't too happy with it, the actress really lacked a classical British beauty.

Thinking of this, Simon said: "Daniel is no problem, as long as you can hire him. As for the actress, let's give Kate a try first, Kate Beckinsale, she's done very well in her last few films and got a Golden Globe nomination for Supporting Actress for Mindcatcher, the key is that she's still British."

Designating an actress is a lot of fun for your own boss.

Fun for who isn't?

Ella got the promise to start shooting, of course, will not make a fool of herself in this matter, not to mention the self boss did not mess around, a little thought, Kate Beckinsale is indeed more suitable than Julia Roberts, Ella Deutschman simply can not find a reason to refute, quickly nodded.

This matter is finalized, a bit of running to get together the suspicion of Nancy Brill said: "Boss, I over here want to reboot the Street of Fierce Ghosts, Shay recently gave a very good proposal, and, aren't you also promoting youth film plans, I think we can try."

When Simon's operation, New Line and Miramax, which were supposed to be big in Hollywood in the nineties, went out of business, Nancy Brill, as the controller of Blockbuster, at one point brought in the heads of the two companies to try to roughly Blockbuster's production department, and Simon acquiesced in the matter, as a way of laying the groundwork in advance for the future streaming era.

The Weinstein brothers were then fired by Nancy for misconduct, leaving only New Line founder Robert Shay.

Simon has also paid some attention over the years.

Robert Shay is a distribution background, although presiding over the production department of Blockbuster's performance was mediocre, mainly because they were able to get not many resources, but in the purchase of films, but did very well, to help Blockbuster buy a lot of quality and inexpensive film rights.

Hearing Nancy mention it out of the blue, Simon also realized that Shay probably had a comeback in mind, and just said, "I didn't see the memo you gave me in advance, Nancy, how much are you going to spend, and how are the schedules going to be set?"

"For $15 million, Shay wants to use some CG effects this time, and to save money, we're going to get a solo effects studio. Boss, if you think the cost is on the high side, Blockbuster can fund part of it. As for the schedule, if you give the green light, I'm hoping for a mid-September release."

"Sharing the investment is fine, you can discuss it with Danny first and submit a memo to me."

After talking about this matter, Simon took back the initiative on the topic and said, "Next about overseas, last year we launched a number of projects in European and Asian countries, and there will be more in the future, considering the cultural factors, these projects will first be distributed in their localities in the future, or even limited to local local distribution and no longer introduced to North America, which will require our production and distribution network overseas! Further reinforcement, Mark, you've been in charge of this, I hope you don't let me down next."

Mark Belford nodded confidently, "Of course, boss."

"Specifically for some of this year's films, over in the UK, Two Smoking Guns and Six Strong Light Pigs, with a strong local style, will be released in the UK first and see how it is introduced into North America. The same goes for the two Italian films. These two will also be award-winning, requiring cooperation between you, Mark, and the Goldman Pictures team. Over in China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will be introduced directly, and the rest will be ignored for now."

Mark Belford and Ira Deutschman echoed the sentiment, taking notes.

Identifying overseas, Simon began combing through the most important local film list with the crowd again.

This year, the three labels of Daenerys Entertainment are expected to release more than 40 films in total, but of course, not all of them are priorities, such as Christopher Nolan's first feature film The Following, which was recruited by Simon last year, Quentin's new film Dangerous Liaisons, and a Hong Kong film that Simon remembered to buy after the success of Black Mask last year, Young Wong Fei Hung's Iron Monkey, and so on, are only secondary.

Of course, these projects are not no chance of dark horse, perhaps Nolan's "Follow" will be a hit, after all, Simon has seen the dailies, very Nolan style, the cost is only $6 million, operate properly, earn a fortune easily, but these projects are not focus.

Specifically, starting with the February 14 Valentine's Day slot, the first major project of 1997 was "BJ's Bachelor Diaries," which Simon bought the rights to last year starring Julia Roberts.

Once upon a time, it was a miracle that "BJ's Bachelor Diaries," which frankly had a one-woman lead, still grossed nearly $300 million at the worldwide box office.

This time around, Simon has picked the more likeable Julia Roberts, the two male leads are still Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, and with the creative team behind the scenes largely unchanged, Simon is at least confident about reaching the box office success it once had.

The time frame is set for Valentine's Day, and it's also a strategy for cold-hearted backlash.

Aside from the overcrowded summer and end of the year, Valentine's Day couldn't have been more appropriate for BJ's Bachelor Diaries.

Subsequently, the Easter schedule was followed by four majors.

Peter Jackson's "Spectre of Terror," Kit Lee's version of "Hurricane Rescue," Kim Carrey's "The Cable Repairman" and Natasha Henschel's "Alias 2. Frankly, none of the four films have sold in the local breakout, and this time it's considered a win by volume.

Of these, "Fae 2" was released by MGM as the first film in its 'Foreign Partnerships Program' to channel overseas funds, and is comparable in nature to the "Day of the Lone Ranger" and "Contact with Time" that followed this year.

And then there's the summer season.

Five films are released: "Changing Faces," May 23; "Tornado," June 6; "American Pie," June 20; "Power Alone Day," July 4; and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," July 25.

Finally, there are three major year-end slots.

The Halloween slot is the newest installment of the Trick or Treat Cinematic Universe, Trick or Treat 3.

Thanksgiving is the three main ones, "The Bug Squad," "Contact Out of Time" and "The Wedding Singer.

Needless to say, The Bug Squad and Contact Out of Time star Adam Sandler, and The Wedding Singer is actually Adam Sandler's claim to fame.

If 1994 was the year of Gene Carrey's glory, with three hits - "The Mask," "Dumb and Dumber" and "The Incredibles" - then 1998 should be considered the year of Adam Sandler's breakout, with "The Wedding Singer" plus "The Waterboy," all of which were also hits.

One of the "Wedding Singer" date is 1998 Valentine's Day, although suffered "Titanic", but still with $ 18 million cost to cut $ 80 million box office, it can be said that, if there is no "Titanic", the schedule is more quality, break a hundred million easily.

This time, Simon has offered just that.

Another film, The Tea Boy, released at the end of that year, also $23 million low-budget and $160 million at the local box office, went straight into fifth place on the annual list.

However, although Adam Sandler does not belong to the gang of rotten boys, only intersecting, but similar to the gang of rotten boys, the comedy star also lacks overseas box office appeal, this is mainly a cultural factor, the United States of America's various comedy bridge, overseas can not understand. Unlike Kim Carrey, body language, global accessibility.

Last of all.

Christmas file: "Titanic".

As well as, Ira Doichman unknowingly volunteering to 'sacrifice' The Shakespearean Affair.

A careful analysis of the slate will easily reveal that the biggest difference in 1997, compared to previous years, was the drastic reduction in co-productions.

This past 1996, including "Wonder Woman 2", "Mission Impossible 2", "The Mummy", "Braveheart" and "Charlie's Angels" were all co-productions, but this year, there were only "Fae 2", "Powerpuff Girls" and "Contact".

In addition, there is a full world-wide footprint.

All in all, global expansion and one company will be the core of Daenerys Entertainment's growth strategy for many years to come.