Hollywood Hunter

Port of Long Beach in southern Los Angeles.

For a whole day, Simon personally supervised all kinds of props needed for the filming of "Batman" to pack the ship. He did not leave until all six large containers were placed on a freighter of the shipping company under Johnston Holdings. The pier returns to Santa Monica.

The Johnston family and the Australian team of the Batman crew will take over the next process.Because many media are staring at the details of the preparation of "Batman", in order to avoid leaks, the Australian local customs will also organize a team that signed a confidentiality agreement to be responsible for the clearance and acceptance of these props.

In December, Simon began to spend most of his time on "Batman". He will only show up for Daenerys Entertainment for one hour every day, and then he will rush to the "Batman" crew of Fox Studios to rent it. 'S studio discusses the details of the shooting with you.

Already after get off work, Simon returned to Santa Monica Daenerys Entertainment headquarters, but Amy and Deutschman were waiting for him.

When the three of them entered Simon’s office and sat down, Amy said, “About the heroine of “Flying Over Childhood”, Simon, there is still no relief from CAA. I think it’s best for us to make a substitution and force Meg Ryan to fulfill the contract. She certainly won't spend much time on this movie, so the result will only be worse."

"Then substitute," Simon nodded. "As for the option contract between us and Meg Ryan, it will be dragged on, for a year, and then let her lose money."

Hollywood’s option contracts are very common, but once a celebrity is on fire, in order to maintain a relationship and facilitate future cooperation, the film company is usually the party that actively makes the concession.If, according to Simon's approach, Daenerys Entertainment and Meg Ryan don't want to cooperate anymore, the relationship between the company and CAA will deteriorate.

However, since Simon had already made a decision, Amy did not persuade her much, and she was very disgusted with CAA's sky-high asking price.

After Simon finished speaking, he took a sip of the coffee that Secretary Susan had just brought in. He raised his eyes and noticed that the Secretary was still packing her hands beside the rack in the corner, wondering: "Susan, there are What's the problem?"

Susan Landis turned around and raised several folders towards Simon. One of them didn't seem to hold, and fell on the ground with a click. She quickly leaned over to pick it up and said, "Mr. Westeros , I think it’s a bit messy here, so just clean it up."

Simon looked at the female secretary who had been in the company since the establishment of Daenerys, and rubbed her fingers on the coffee cup, saying, "Go out and get ready."

After the female secretary left, Simon continued to say to Amy: "Also, from now on, all projects in the company will continue to send invitations to CAA artists, but we will not hire any of them, Ella, the same is true on your side. ,do you understand?"

Amy and Deutschman glanced at each other, and this strategy was simply too bad.

If Daenerys Entertainment can continue to create box office brilliance this year, then the obvious thing for CAA is to watch the projects that one can obviously get away from.When this happens too many times, the ability of the CAA broker will be questioned, and may even cause the star to leave the CAA.

However, both Amy and Deutschman also understand why Simon, who has always been gentle, has no room at all today.

Today is December 8, and there are only eight days left before the release of "Rainman".

These days, the publicity of "Rainman" has been difficult, although I haven't expected several main creators to participate in the film promotion.

Moreover, in an interview with a British media, Dustin Hoffman also unabashedly publicly stated that the experience of shooting "Rainman" is as bad as "Esta". Last year Dustin Hoffman "Esta" starring Warren Beatty burned a $55 million budget, but the North American box office was only more than $10 million. The producer, Columbia, is nowhere to be found.

Dustin Hoffman made such a public statement that "Rainman" has not been released yet, and has been rendered into a "Esta"-style bad film by the media.

In addition, the budget cost of "Rainman" has become one of the hot topics in the media.

The original production budget of the film was as high as 25 million US dollars. Daenerys Entertainment spent another 5 million US dollars to buy back distribution rights from MGM in North America. During the recent publicity process, Daenerys The budget for entertainment has also exceeded US$5 million.

Counting other expenses such as the next film copy, "Rainman" has a total investment of nearly 40 million US dollars.

With a total investment of 40 million US dollars, Daenerys Entertainment wants to recoup the costs at the box office. According to a 55% split ratio, "Rainman" also needs to get more than 70 million US dollars at the box office to achieve this goal.

However, even though Daenerys Entertainment has created one box office miracle after another, not many people now think that "Rainman" can continue to continue the glory of "Scream", "Steel Magnolia" and other films.

The "Death Poetry Society" of the company's Christmas file will be opened tomorrow. Although the audience of "Death Poetry Society" and "Rainman" will not overlap too much, in order to avoid the dispersion of publicity, "Rainer" There was no scheduled screening this time. The film will be released directly on December 16. This strategy chosen by Daenerys Entertainment has once again been regarded as a guilty expression by the media.

Simon frowned slightly and thought about these things, then looked at Ella Doichman again.

Ella Doichman waited for Simon to ask and said, "Robert Newmayer called me this afternoon, and they don't plan to sell the rights to the distribution of "Sex, Lies and Videotapes."

Simon just froze and smiled bitterly, not surprised at all.

The main investor in "Sex, Lies and Videotapes" was MCA/Columbia Home Entertainment, a joint venture between Universal and Colombia, which was influenced by a series of box office miracles by Daenerys Entertainment. Interested, if there is no response from Universal and Colombia, it is not normal.

Simon wanted to get "Sex, Lies and Videotapes", mainly to intercept the rise of Humila Max.A film with a box office of more than 20 million US dollars in North America can make a small studio-style independent film company rise, but it cannot cause too much impact on a large film company.Even if it is not functioning properly, "Sex, Lies and Videotapes" may not even be as successful as it was in time and space.

Since there was no hope, Simon did not have too many entanglements and asked: "Is Robert Altman's "Cross Life" signed?"

"I've signed a screenwriter and director's contract with Altman." Ella Doichman nodded and said, "In addition, Simon, the Sundance Film Festival chairman Tony Saford told me that the company only Can choose one of the three films "Sisters", "Metropolis" and "Sister Sid" to participate in the main competition of the film festival, he let us make a decision as soon as possible."

Simon took a pencil from the table and played with it in his hands. Although the series of successes of Daenerys Entertainment did not receive a strong reaction from the traditional Hollywood forces, Simon also felt a significant constraint from this recent incident .

There are sixteen films in the main competition unit of the Sundance Film Festival. Simon has never thought of cramming all three films from the beginning. Even if he can get "Sex, Lies and Videotapes", he intends to bypass it directly Sundance, at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Of the remaining three films, Simon is only looking forward to being selected for two.

Now, Sundance directly stated that Daenerys Entertainment has only one place, which is estimated to be based on the personal relationship between Simon and Redford.Without this connection, Daenerys Entertainment may not be selected for this year.

"So, which one do you think is appropriate?"

""Metropolis"," Ella Doichman said: ""Sisters" will use the propaganda of youthful comedy, you don't have to participate in the film festival. The problem of youth suicide in "Sister Sid" should be It won’t be too popular at the festival. By comparison, Whit Stillman’s "Metropolitan" best fits Sundance and the media."

The next day was Friday, and another week passed.

From December 2 to December 8, Paramount Pictures' new film "Baldhead Detective" finally squeezed "Golden Magnolia" from the box office championship.Seven days in the first week, the North American box office of "Bald Detective" reached 12.21 million US dollars.

In the third week of large-scale painting, the number of screens of "Magnolia Flower" increased again, reaching 1,215 pieces, and this week's box office was US$ 9.68 million.Relative to last week, the box office decline is still only 15%, cumulative box office reached 36.6 million US dollars.

In addition, "Scream" was also squeezed into the fourth place by Warner Bros.'s new film "Tequila Sunrise", "Tequila Sunrise" starring Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer and opened. The box office reached US$ 8.23 ​​million in the first week.

In the sixth week of the release, "Scream" narrowed to 11% compared with last week, and then received another 7.79 million US dollars, with a cumulative box office of 81.16 million US dollars.

At the same time, on December 9th, "Brother Dragon" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was also opened in 1396 screens in North America, and "Death Poetry Society" by Daenerys Entertainment was also on 25 screens in North America. On the screen, there is also the opening of "Mississippi is burning" in Orion Pictures. In Simon's memory, this movie about American race issues is also a popular Oscar this year.

Although "Dragon Brother Mouse", like "Baldhead Detective", made the first day of the box office unexpected to the producer, but the next day, "Death Poetry Club" immediately became the focus of heated discussion in the media.

Robert De Niro also does not bear the name of an actor who can perform any type of role. "Hollywood Reporter", "Variety", "Los Angeles Times" and other mainstream media all mentioned De Niro in "Death" in the film reviews. "Poetry Club" is full of passionate teacher images, thinking that this movie will definitely bring De Niro an Oscar nomination again.

Compared with the media's affirmation of De Niro's performance, the views expressed in "Death Poetry Society" have caused some controversy.

"Chicago Reader" believes that compared with the dogmatism of the Wilton School in the film, the behavior of Teacher Keating asking students to tear off others' poetry is also a forced indoctrination of students' ideas.

However, the fundamental concept of "Death Poetry Society" is still a yearning for freedom. This is a kind of "political correctness" that can not be more positive in the United States. Therefore, although there are some disputes, the overall media reputation of the film is still very high. Strong, the comprehensive film review score is close to the classic level of 8.6 points.

Monday, December 12.

When the weekend passed, Hollywood's most watched this week was the announcement of the Golden Globe nomination.

According to the strategy discussed earlier, Daenerys Entertainment submitted a total of two Golden Globes judges for the two films, "Steel Magnolia" and "Death Poetry Society", "Steel Magnolia" for the best film in the musical comedy category, "Death Poetry Club" is for the best movies in the plot category.

However, like the encounter at the Sundance Film Festival, "Steel Magnolia" has only been nominated for a best supporting actress by Julia Roberts, which obviously has additional factors for ICM's operation. Other musical comedy categories The nominations for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress are all lost.

"Death Poetry Club" successfully received four nominations for best film, best director, best actor and best screenwriter in the plot category.

In order to concentrate public relations resources to ensure maximum profits, Daenerys Entertainment gave up "When Harry Meets Sally" at the beginning of the year, and did not apply for nomination for "Rainman" that has not been optimistic about everyone. However, "Gan Mulan" The loss of "Flower" made Simon depressed.

Among the five best-nominated films in the musical comedy category, "Flying Over the Future", "A Fish Called Wanda" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" are still well-deserved, but another "Working Girl" won The nomination made Simon feel ironic. The most important reason why this film can be nominated for the best film, best director, best actor and best actress in the musical comedy category is probably the director of this film is Mike · Nichols, he was the director of "Graduate" and "Spiritual Desire".

"Graduate" and "Spiritual Desire" are naturally classics of a generation, but this "Working Girl" starring Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith can only be described as mediocre and old-fashioned. , Also a commercial warfare movie, there is no comparison between "Working Girl" and Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" last year.

In addition, Simon's "Pulp Fiction" is also very ironically only two nominations for John Travolta's best actor and symbolic best screenwriter. The copyright of "Pulp Fiction" is in the hands of Orion, I don't know For what reasons, Orion put this year's public focus on "Mississippi is burning", this film successfully won four nominations for the best film in the plot category.

Seeing this, Simon also realized that Daenerys Entertainment should have a hard time making a difference at the awards this year.

In such frustration and depression, time came unconsciously on December 16, and the controversial "Rainman" was finally released in North American courts.