Hollywood Hunter

After Simon took out the "Instinct" script, in the past week, Jonathan and Amy have been busy working on the project.

The original version of Instinct won a high box office of more than US$350 million in the world at a production cost of US$49 million in 1992.The success of this film is mainly due to the strong controversy caused by the theme of the film and the super large scale of nearly NC-17 level. Sharon Stone’s leg-hanging lens still impressed many audiences many years later. .

Even the box-office sale of "Instinct" has led the trend of thrilling and erotic filming with viper women as the gimmick throughout the 1990s.

The original director of Instinct was Paul Van Hoven, a Dutch director who directed films such as "Total Memories" and "Team of the Galaxy".However, after completing the outline of the script, Simon directly passed the story to Brian de Palma.

Compared to Paul Van Hoven, Brian de Palma, who has a preference for peeping subjects, is obviously more suitable for directing the film.

Although Simon made it clear during the communication with Brian de Palma that this movie is like "Butterfly Effect", the future media reputation will not be too good, and it may also cause great controversy, Brian de Palm Erma nodded quickly and agreed.

The next actor, Simon is still inclined to Michael Douglas.

Michael Douglas also happened to be a WMA customer. The unexpected success of "Fatal Temptation" brought the middle-aged actor from the film family to a higher level. After several contacts, the other party quickly agreed to participate in the show.

After getting the two main creators, Jonathan and Amy formally started negotiations with Fox Pictures.Now that enough capital has been accumulated, the business prospects of Instinct are also very secure, and Simon decided to participate in the investment this time.

Simon initially hoped to be able to invest the film entirely in Daenerys Pictures, and then distribute it to Fox to conclude the contract for the first three scripts.

However, after the success of the three films of "Rola Run", "Butterfly Effect" and "Reaper", although the story that Simon took out still deviates from the mainstream, there are three positions of Simon, De Palma and Douglas At the box office, Fox is naturally reluctant to let go.

After a week of consultations, Fox and Daenerys film formally negotiated a production plan.

After "Butterfly Effect" and "Fatal Temptation", Brian de Palma and Michael Douglas's pay quotes have risen to 6 million US dollars, Simon's script is still nominally priced at 1 US dollars, the film's budget is initially determined as 20 million US dollars.

With a production budget of US$20 million, Fox Pictures and Daenerys Pictures each bear US$10 million. The film is produced solely by Danellis Pictures. Fox secures the release and directly determines the date on July 15 next year. The number of guaranteed screens increased to 1500.

Benefit distribution.

After several rounds of sawing, it was finally determined that all channel revenues of the film will be settled in accordance with the investment proportion of 50%.To put it simply, Fox’s investment budget will no longer participate in the distribution of benefits as the investment cost of the film, which also makes Daenerys avoid the most watery area of ​​the “Hollywood Ledger”.

The cost of disseminating Hollywood movies usually reaches about half of the production cost.

The production budget of "Instinct" is 20 million US dollars, and the theoretical advertising budget will reach 10 million US dollars.According to the investment ratio, it is divided into five or five with Daenerys Pictures. It seems that Fox Pictures has suffered a big loss, but it is not.

In the "Death Is Coming" project, Daenerys has not invested a penny, and it is expected that the income will reach 10 million US dollars.

This time, if he does not participate in the investment, Simon can at least get a share clause equivalent to "The Grim Reaper" in the "Instinct" project.Now, Daenerys Pictures has given up this part of the additional income, and at the same time, Fox Pictures has also given up the deserved income of the announced budget,

Moreover, a series of clauses detailed in the contract between the two parties stipulating how long the TV trailer needs to be broadcast can also ensure that Fox invests enough advertising resources.

Fox Studios.

The time is already Tuesday, November 10.

In a conference room in the Studio’s administrative building, Ronald Goldberg, Amy Pascal, Jonathan Friedman, and other senior executives from Fox Pictures, Daenerys Pictures, and WMA, Stars and agents and other officials formally signed several investment and actor participation contracts related to the "Instinct" project.

However, Simon was not present today.

After the official press conference, at the dinner party arranged by Fox Pictures, Ronald Goldberg found Amy Pascal and asked about Simon’s trend.

Since the middle of last month, many people around Simon have noticed that he was obviously distracted during this time. Norman Broca, the president of Orion Pictures, couldn’t help but complain about the slow late progress of "Pulp Fiction". For many months, the rough cut of the film has not been completed.

Amy Pascal heard Ronald Goldberg’s inquiry and recalled Simon’s erratic movements in recent times, and he could only shake his head, but on the surface, he still had to speak for his boss. De, you know, Simon has been busy for a whole year since last year, and it should be okay to relax a little now."

Ronald Goldberg didn't believe Amy's excuse, hesitantly holding the red wine in one hand and lowered his voice slightly, said: "Amy, you tell me the truth, did Simon take him from The money earned in "Rola Run" was invested in the stock market and then lost?"

Amy immediately thought about Simon's failure to come to the company for a week after the North American stock market crash last month.

During this time, although the North American stock market has stabilized, the Dow Jones index is still hovering around 2,000 points, far below the highest 2,700 points in August.Simon had earned more than 100 million US dollars in the previous half of the year with "Rola Run". Under the circumstance that the stock market was still advancing, it is difficult to guarantee that he would not want to make another profit.

"This, Ronald, I really don't know very well," Amy still shook her head again after some speculation, and added after thinking about it, "However, Ronald, you can rest assured, anyway, this is all It will not affect Daenerys' investment in Instinct."

Ronald Goldberg continued to ask a few words. He couldn't hear anything from Amy and had to turn around and leave.

Amy Pascal watched Ronald Goldberg walk away, frowning.I couldn't help thinking of Simon talking with myself about investing in Instinct some time ago.

Although I don’t think it’s a good choice to invest my own money in movies, Amy originally thought that Simon would use the money she earned from “Rola Run” to participate in this investment.Simon's decision deviated from Amy's prediction. He hoped that Amy would take the contract of "Death Is Coming" to the bank and use the loan to invest in Instinct.

A large part of Hollywood movie production funds come from bank loans.

In the initial financing process of "When Harry Meets Sally", Daenerys Pictures did not have enough information to obtain production funds from the bank.Now that Simon has succeeded in three consecutive films, "Instinct" is a script written by Simon himself. It is not too difficult to get a loan from a bank.

However, contacting this matter, plus Simon at the end of October, yesterday suddenly rushed to New York again without any explanation, and even missed today's signing ceremony.This series of clues is a little bit concatenated. Obviously, this little boss, and certainly his girlfriend, may have really lost a lot of money in the stock market crash.

Over $100 million, I don’t know how much I lost.

Thinking about the tragic situation when the stock market crashed on October 19, Amy couldn't help but shake her head. After all, she was still a young man.

just.

I don't know if the little boss will encounter such a Waterloo in the movie next.

You should know that the income of "The Grim Reaper" should be carefully calculated to still have 5% of her.For Instinct, or most of the films produced in Hollywood using loans, the pre-sale contract of the film should usually be used to apply for a loan from the bank, but Fox and Simon do not agree to the pre-sale, and the film production funds must be needed. Mortgage, Daenerys Pictures can only use the revenue contract of "The Grim Reaper" as a bargaining chip.

If Instinct fails.

If "When Harry Meets Sally" also fails.

Even if "Pulp Fiction" also fails.

Then I have been working in vain for more than a year, and may have to find a new job.

These thoughts flashed through Amy Pascal’s mind, and the more she thought about it, the more worried she was. After the dinner, she had just returned to her residence in Palisades. , This did not rush into the past.

After drinking alcohol last night, falling asleep with worries, and making a Daenerys film bankruptcy, I pitifully begged Ronald Goldberg to return to Fox’s nightmare when the phone was piercing. The bell awakened, and Amy Pascal looked at her watch, just after four o'clock in the morning.

God.

At four o'clock, what can be urgent now?

Did the aliens attack the earth?

Everyone is going to flee?

After talking like this, Amy still touched the microphone.

The call was made by Jonathan Friedman, and the agent didn't talk too much, just let Amy receive the fax.

After a moment.

Pulling a page of newspaper clippings from the fax machine, Amy Pascal just glanced at her, and immediately opened her eyes, her sleepiness was completely swept away.

"Simon Westeros Makes a Miracle Again, Hollywood Boy Earns $1.6 Billion"

This.

Must be a joke?

It's better to say that the aliens have hit Los Angeles. You can drive to Mexico to hide, and recently want to take a break.

After receiving a page of newspaper clippings, the fax machine did not stop, and then a few newspaper clippings were sent.

"US$75 million to US$1.62 billion, the youngest billionaire is born"

"Westero accepts the question of the Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission and may be suspected of insider trading"

"Quantum Fund sues Lehman Brothers, Simon Westero is involved"

"Simon Westero's $1.1 billion hit the technology sector"

"..."

After reading several newspaper clippings in a row, Amy Pascal finally confirmed that although it is somewhat unrealistic to look at it, this is really not a joke.

My little boss, inexplicably, became a billionaire.

wrong.

$1.6 billion.

God, how did he do it?

When Amy received a fax from Jonathan Freedman, Los Angeles hadn't lighted up yet, countless people's phone faxes started to work insanely. When the rising sun in the winter of Los Angeles slowly reached the horizon, the entire Hollywood remained An explosive message was obtained and repeatedly confirmed.

Simon Westero, in just a few months, through the operation of the stock index futures market, has madly made more than 1.6 billion US dollars in profits.

Although many people have subconsciously thought of taxes, in any case, suddenly, a little guy who has just emerged in this circle has become one of the richest people in Hollywood, and his personal net worth has even exceeded Behind the seven scenes, most control people's wealth.

How did he do it?

what's going on?

Is this a big joke that the "unscrupulous media" collective on the East Coast gave Hollywood?

but.

"New York Times", "Wall Street Journal", "Washington Post" and other newspapers, obviously will not rush into such a clumsy joke, today is not April Fool's Day.

It's just that the news was exposed almost on the same day, and many people still smelled it differently.

There will definitely be something big happening next.

After confirming the news, Amy Pascal, Jonathan Friedman, George Norman, and others related to Simon flew to New York.In any case, your employer or client suddenly becomes a billionaire, which is very exciting.

East Coast.

In the Presidential Suite of the Plaza Hotel, Simon stood on the terrace and looked at the road in front of the hotel. He looked at the densely packed group of journalists with one or two hundred people, and he also felt scalp numb.

Last week, Simon suddenly received a notice from the Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission, asking him to submit all Westero's trading records on S&P 500 index futures and even stocks during this period. Simon knew that trouble was about to come.

However, according to the other party's request, Simon passed a series of documents to Wharton unreservedly, and there were no violations in his operation.

However, what happened today made Simon realize again that this matter may have just begun. In the eyes of many people, he may have become a fat sheep.It's just that Simon didn't expect that if things really broke out, they would look so aggressive.