Hollywood Hunter

Simon took out the "Butterfly Effect" script from his backpack and handed it to Jonathan Friedman.

Jonathan Friedman didn't open it, just glanced at the cover and pressed the script on the table to continue to look at him with a smile.

In this case, Simon sorted out his thoughts and began to elaborate: "This is a suspense thriller of the nature of soft science fiction. From a very young age, people around Ivan have often found this child to make some very Strange or even weird behavior. However, Ivan always claimed afterwards that he did not remember the situation at all. The doctor classified Ivan's illness as intermittent amnesia and recommended that he write a diary for adjuvant treatment. "

Simon said here, noticing that Jonathan Friedman's expression had shown a little curiosity, he continued.

The approximate plot idea of ​​"Butterfly Effect" is a story of a young man who has the ability to go back to the past by reading a diary. In order to make up for the regrets, he tried to change his life through time and time again and again.

It's just that every time the actor tries to change his past, when he returns to the 20-year-old time point, he finds that everything around him hasn't developed according to the situation he envisioned, or even worse.

The biggest feature of "Butterfly Effect" is its rigorous plot that interlocks with people to make a film. The whole story is like a well-conceived large network, and all details can find nodes that echo each other in other places.

Therefore, this film is a classic among many suspense thriller lovers.

In the original time and space, the production company of "Butterfly Effect" was New Line Pictures, and Simon heard that the film had many endings during the editing process.However, he finally chose the darkest and most impactful one. After trying again and again but unsatisfactoryly, he returned to his mother's womb desperately and strangled himself with the umbilical cord.

Then the whole story came to an abrupt end.

After Simon's briefing, Jonathan Friedman, who had no expectations of him, fell silent.

The first part of Robert Zemigis' "Back to the Future" was only released last year and won the 1985 box office of the year.

Therefore, Simon's script similar to "Back to the Future" has a time and space element far beyond Jonathan Friedman's expectations. He even feels that this story is even more simple in concept than "Back to the Future". Even better.

At least for now, just such a novel script idea is enough to convince him to recommend Simon to WMA's literary agency.

You know, Hollywood is also flooded with a lot of follow-up phenomenon. It is only because of the generally long production cycle of Hollywood movies that people do not feel that there is a lot of the same type of movie in the first half of the year.

Therefore, with "Back to the Future" winning the box office last year, Simon's idea, as long as it cooperates with a relatively perfect script, can definitely arouse the strong interest of Hollywood film companies.

In addition, such a strangely conceived thriller happens to be the type of project that Jonathan Friedman is looking for recently.

The key now is, what is the quality of the script in hand?

After all, Hollywood is never short of creativity, what is lacking is just a perfect story script that can be transformed into a wonderful film based on related creativity.

Many Hollywood movies usually undergo long revisions during the script creation stage for several years. The main reason is that there are too many details that need to be adjusted between the operable script and the original story.

Thinking quickly in his head, glancing down at the cover of the script in his hand, Jonathan Friedman subconsciously asked a similar question to Catherine yesterday: "Simon, can you explain the meaning of the'butterfly effect' first?"

Simon nodded and once again explained the theory of Professor Edward Lorenz of MIT.

After listening, Jonathan Friedman asked a question that surprised him: "So, have you been to MIT?"

"No," Simon shook his head, but immediately added: "I entered Stanford last year and got a full scholarship, but I dropped out early because of some changes."

Simon said that, Jonathan Friedman's expression changed significantly.

Although Stanford University does not belong to the United States Ivy League school, in fact, the overall strength of this top school on the west coast of the United States has surpassed most of the members of the alliance school, and has its own prominent place in the world university rankings.

Simon was able to enter Stanford University in the form of a full scholarship. Even if he had dropped out at this time, this qualification would definitely allow Jonathan Friedman to evaluate him by several grades.

Simon also knew in his heart that he was actually conducting an interview now.

Westerners do not pay attention to humility. The better a person performs during an interview, the more successful he is.

Therefore, Simon was not hesitant to use his seniority at this time.

After Simon finished speaking, Jonathan Friedman glanced at his watch with a hesitant expression and said in due time: "Mr. Friedman, the first ten pages of the script are the outline of the story I made. Maybe you can take a look first. It’s more detailed than what I just said."

Jonathan Friedman nodded when he heard the words, no longer tangled, and opened the script in front of him.

However, the content of the first page of the script made him stunned again, but it was a copy of the copyright registration certificate of the American Screenwriters Union.

Shaking his head slightly, Jonathan Friedman turned it over, but his mind completely changed his initial perception of Simon.The young man on the opposite side is obviously not the stunned young man who thought that he could fly Huang Tengda when he hit his head in Hollywood with a fever.

Then I saw that although it was a copy but still beautiful and neat English handwriting, Jonathan Friedman had not felt too surprised.Of course, the evaluation of Simon in his heart inevitably improved a lot again.

Hollywood may have more copyright dispute lawsuits each year than the movies it produces. It is also Simon's helplessness to directly paste the WGA copyright registration certificate on the title page.He wouldn’t be naive enough to think that an industry giant like WMA couldn’t do the little thing of engulfing someone else’s script.

Now Simon cannot withstand this kind of twists and turns, so he simply cuts off some possible disputes from the source.

In fact, as Jonathan Friedman thought, although he inherited the memories of twelve other people, Simon was definitely not the kind of stunned person who thought he would step into Hollywood.

Since the initial idea of ​​coming to Los Angeles for a fight, Simon has begun very detailed planning.

Despite having a fairly good skin, Simon did not intend to follow the path of an actor.His first stage goal is to become a director, but without any qualifications and connections, this is obviously unlikely in the short term.

Well, it is a very good choice to start with a lower threshold.

According to some information in Simon's memory, the two major screenwriter unions on the east and west sides of Hollywood have more than 60,000 registered scripts each year, which seems to be a very large number.But for all Hollywood, the total number of cinema movies, TV movies, and low-cost independent movies that directly distribute videotapes each year adds up to more than 600 movies.

The success rate of 1% seems to Simon to be very high.

What's more, among the tens of thousands of scripts that appear every year, the mediocre still accounts for the majority.But as a traverser, the scripts that Simon can come up with are basically fine works after going through the waves.

Moreover, in the process of initially selecting the script, Simon also carefully weighed various factors.

As a newcomer to Hollywood, if you want to ensure that your script is as fancy as possible by the film company, it must first be produced at a low cost. If Simon now takes out the Titanic script, the 99% chance will be People threw them directly into the trash can.Second, the story must be novel enough to make people shine.In the end, the script ideas should best cover the popular elements of some blockbuster blockbusters in recent years.

"Butterfly Effect" is exactly in line with the above three items: low cost, new ideas, through elements follow the box office champion "Back to the Future" last year.

In the office, following Jonathan Friedman's reading, the surroundings were quiet for a moment.

When knocking on the door, Jonathan Friedman found that he had begun to read the text of the script unconsciously.The text of the script in the standard Hollywood format is also impeccable. The beautiful handwritten English not only does not have any sense of violation, but also produces a more comfortable reading experience.

Suddenly disturbed by reading, Jonathan Friedman raised his head in a disappointed manner, and found his assistant Owen Wright stood by the door and made a gesture to him, which reflected it.

Looking at his own schedule, Jonathan Friedman told the assistant: "If Courteney has nothing else, let her wait for a while. The same is true for the appointments that follow, and I will get off work later today."

Owen Wright heard something, and looked at Simon, who was sitting with his back to himself, nodded and was about to leave the office. Jonathan Friedman called out to each other again and said, "Also, come in with two cups of coffee." ."

When the door closed again, Jonathan Friedman smiled at Simon without explaining anything, just turning his attention back to the script in front of him.

Simon didn't mind, he casually glanced at the electronic watch on his wrist.

The time now is 4:13.

In other words, Jonathan Friedman should have reserved only 10 minutes of meeting time for himself. If he did not perform well, he might have been dismissed.

For this, Simon does not have any mustache in his heart, and it may be the same for himself.

Politeness is a person's self-cultivation, but work must still follow the rules.He is still an obscure Hollywood rookie, naturally only worth 10 minutes.

Owen Wright quickly brought two cups of coffee in. Simon took the coffee cup, thanked him, and continued to wait patiently for Jonathan Friedman to read the script.