Hollywood Hunter

This year's Sundance Film Festival opens on January 15.

Robert Redford personally called Simon to participate in the opening ceremony of the film festival. It happened to be Friday, and he planned to take Janet to Park City for the weekend.

The Westeros system is too large, and if Simon wants to work now, there will always be things he can’t do.Therefore, although more work schedules will be arranged as much as possible on weekdays, they will no longer be fully invested, but will reserve enough rest time.

The opening ceremony was routinely held at 1 pm on Friday, still in the Egyptian Theater in Park City.

However, compared to Simon's first appearance in Park City, Sundance is now a different place.

Over the past six years, the Sundance Film Festival has successively appeared "Lola Run", "Sex, Lies and Videotapes", "Some Girls", "Metropolitan Man", "Falling Dogs" and so on. , Even the classic love movie "Wind Moon Pretty Girl", which was originally a super-sell, was originally written by Sundance.At the same time, the film festival also trained a large number of cutting-edge filmmakers including Simon.

All of these have made Sundance Film Festival's attention continue to increase, and thus formed a virtuous circle, attracting more and more filmmakers to participate.

Simon and Janet arrived at the Egyptian Theater ten minutes early. Compared with the deserted exhibition of "Rola Run" in memory, this time the Egyptian theater was bustling outside.Although there is still no red carpet, it does not prevent media reporters and a large number of fans from gathering around.

Through the crowds and screams of the media and movie fans frantically rushing through the crowd, just entering the theater, Robert Redford greeted him personally, and there was also Robert Redford who also came to the festival.

When he called to invite, Redford had no expectations at all.

Simon's current status is different than before. Even if the development of the Sundance Film Festival is equally rapid, it is difficult for this young man to have too much confidence.

Unexpectedly, Simon agreed.

Naturally overjoyed.

As Simon’s current identity, as long as he is exposed in Park City, even if he does nothing, it can bring a very powerful advertising effect, which not only means that Sundance’s style will be greatly improved, the film festival wants to promote Many things will become easier.

After all, Westeros has appeared, what else is impossible?

After a brief hug and greeting, everyone temporarily turned to the background.

Then there was a series of greetings.

Robert De Niro appeared this time, mainly because a film he starred in will be used as the opening film of this festival, the film name is "The Life of a Boy".

This is a biographical feature film about a series of stories that happened after a dependent mother and son moved to Seattle.

Simon, who plays Toby, the boy in the film, is also very familiar with Leonardo DiCaprio.The actress who plays the mother of'Boy' is Allen Bucking. Simon also knows that Highgate also bought the copyright of "In the Name of the Father" from Bucking's husband Gabriel Byrne last year.

The opening ceremony soon began.

Everyone was seated in the screening hall.

Simon has already read the relevant materials of this year's Sundance Film Festival in advance.

In this year's competition, there are two films belonging to Gaomen Pictures.

One is a self-invested production of Highgate Pictures, called "The Youth of Fire", the film starring Tim Rose, Phoebe Katz, Brigitte Fonda and other stars, telling several young people in small Arizona towns Love, desire, promise and life.

The production cost of "Hot Fire Youth" is 2.5 million US dollars, and it cannot be regarded as a key project of Gaomen Pictures in 1993.

Simon has watched the film, not bad or excellent, but it is very in line with the Sundance atmosphere.

Of course, the possibility of winning is not too great.

Because there are several other very good movies this year.

Another one is called "The Killer Elegy".

This is a new Mexican director Robert Rodriguez's self-raised $7,000 work.

Because of the close cooperative relationship between Daenerys Entertainment and Gaomen Films, when the movie was submitted for selection, it was noticed by the Gaomen Films team and bought in advance at a price of 100,000 US dollars. Not only that, Daenerys Entertainment also signed with Rodriguez in advance for the next movie.

In addition to the two Daenerys Entertainment films, Simon is also concerned with a "Beauty in a Box" and another new director director Brian Singer's feature film debut "The Media".

"Beauty in a Box" starring Julian Sanders and Xuelin Fen tells the story of a surgeon who cut off his limbs and kept them in a box in order to get an obsessed woman.

As for "Media Storm", it is the memory of this Sundance Jury Prize winner.

Simon actually noticed in advance this film produced by a single film company, but did not instruct Gaomen Pictures to buy the copyright.

The main reason is not to catch Brian Singh.

It's not because of Brian Singh's private incidents, the people in the circle who are worse than him are numerous.

In the final analysis, Hollywood is largely a hunting ground, with a brutal food chain from top to bottom.If you can't climb the upper level of the food chain to become a hunter, and you don't want to leave this circle, you can only admit your fate.

Simon just doesn't like Brian Singh's personal preference in the film he is in charge of.

For example, in the "X-Men" series, not to mention the starring role, the supporting characters in the film are full of beautiful guys who are haunted by the ghosts.

Because there were no other arrangements, Simon did not leave after the opening ceremony and continued to stay in the Egyptian theater to watch the opening film.

In the evening, the Egyptian Theatre was separated, and Redford and others had dinner together, and everyone rushed to the Sundance College at the foot of the ski slope on the west side of Park City to attend the opening party.

"About Lie Behind the Scenes, Simon, this time I am really sorry. Of course I am more inclined to work with Daenerys. However, the project is led by Michael. You also know his relationship with Eisner."

At the crowded party scene, Redford and Simon chatted about his next movie, with a little apology in his tone.

"The Lies Behind the Scenes" is an adaptation of a TV competition scandal when the television industry first emerged in the 1950s. It tells the story of a producer of a puzzle quiz TV game who, in order to get ratings, did not hesitate to reveal the answers to the contestants in advance.

Robert Redford collaborated with Daenerys Entertainment last year on two films, "Peachy Deal" and "Dahe Lian".

The two films, "The Peachy Deal" sell well, needless to say, after the release of "Dahe Love" in September last year, it finally achieved more than 40 million US dollars at the box office, which also brought good benefits to Daenerys Entertainment. , And also initially won the new Superman player Brad Pitt.

Redford’s brokerage contract has been in CAA for these years, and two consecutive works have been sold, which makes Redford’s next work, Lies Behind the Scene, also highly sought after.

After the project news was exposed, Daenerys Entertainment immediately expressed interest.

Then, other studios were naturally unwilling to show their weakness.

After some competition, because of the personal relationship between CAA President Michael Ovitz and Disney's head Michael Eisner, plus the price, "Lie Behind the Scenes" was finally won by Disney.

The film is also in the near future and is expected to be released at the end of the year.

All in all, movies are business after all.

If Daenerys Entertainment is willing to raise some price tags, it is not impossible to get this item.

It's just that Simon was not interested in the movie that was destined to fail in the beginning. To show interest intentionally is just a strategy.

In the final quotation phase, Simon actually stopped the possibility of continuing to add more.

Although Disney snatched the film, it is also under scramble for everyone, making the production cost of the film increase from the original 30 million US dollars to 40 million US dollars.

The production cost of 40 million US dollars, considering the announcement, the film in the North American market must obtain at least a box office that is comparable to the production budget, in order to ensure that all inputs are recovered within the scope of all channels.

In Simon's fragmented memory, the box office of "The Lies Behind the Scenes" is only about $20 million.

Now that the project is in the hands of Disney, this film company will not only lose money, but also bear the loss of the hot schedule at the end of the year.

This is actually something Simon promoted intentionally or unintentionally.

At the beginning, there was the idea of ​​suppressing Disney step by step, and Simon had never forgotten it.

This "lie behind the scenes" is just a pawn dropped randomly.

Of course, on the surface, Simon will not show any flaws, and his face also shows a regretful expression, saying: "Lie Behind the Scenes" is a very exciting project, I also feel very sorry, but everyone will certainly have the opportunity to cooperate in the future ."

The two sides chatted for a while, Redford left to entertain others, and Simon also walked to De Niro, wanting to talk to him about another project.

Janet held Simon's arm and waited for Redford to walk away, smiling and saying: "You don't actually think about that project, do you?"

Simon nodded: "Yeah, a pit for Disney."

"Aisner provokes you?"

"No," Simon said, saying hello to Denzel Washington who had come over, and then continued to whisper: "Daenerys wants to continue to expand, she can only squeeze other studios as much as possible. Living space."

In the past year, the box office share of the entire Daenerys Entertainment produced films in the North American market has been close to 40%. For the film industry, this is definitely a ceiling level of existence.

Hollywood is still the coexistence of the seven majors, and has been strongly impacted by Daenerys Entertainment. In the past year, the average market share of the other six major studios has been less than 10%.

For example, Sony Pictures' Columbia Pictures had the best box office movie last year. It was Coppola's "Four Hundred Years". As of December 31, 1992, the box office was just over $80 million and 15 films were released throughout the year. In addition to "Four Hundred Years", other films have received less than US$50 million at the box office. The total box office of all 15 movies is only US$330 million, accounting for a poor 6.1% of the annual box office share of US$5.36 billion in North America.

After the annual box office statistics were released, the media once again heard the news that Sony plans to withdraw from Hollywood.

There is also Paramount, the best movie "Patriot Game" at the box office last year, which was released in the summer. The final box office was also only $83.35 million, and 16 movies were released throughout the year, except for the "Patriot Game" and the box office that exceeded $80 million. Eddie Murphy's comedy "Darts" with more than 70 million US dollars, other projects are not tepid. The total box office for the year is 310 million US dollars, with a market share of 5.7%, which is more bleak than Columbia Pictures.

Except for Columbia and Paramount, which are the bottom of the Seventh National Congress, the other four are in a stronger situation, but they are incomparable with the strength of Daenerys Entertainment.

Outside of the Big Seven, because Daenerys Entertainment's involvement in niche fields such as horror and literary films, other second- and third-tier film companies such as New Line and Orion have an overall market share of only 11%, of which explosive models There is not even one movie.

Obviously, Hollywood’s seven competitors have been squeezed to a certain limit by Daenerys Entertainment.

Under such circumstances, Daenerys Entertainment wants to continue to expand, it can only take the means of eliminating competitors completely.

In the short term, big studios like Disney will certainly not be able to'eliminate', but they can also take some measures to make these film companies weaker.

Simon’s relatively short-term goal is actually to clean up the second and third-tier film companies in Hollywood with independent distribution capabilities, such as Miramax, who was completely killed by Simon a few days ago, and the deteriorating Orion and Simon reversed the development direction. The troubled new line of film industry.

Hollywood's second- and third-line film companies want to grow and develop, the key is to have independent distribution capabilities, otherwise, they can only become a vassal of major studios forever.

When Daenerys Entertainment was first established, Simon wanted to break the monopoly of such a large studio.

Now, with the change of identity and position, the concept will naturally change. What Simon does is naturally to further strengthen the monopoly on the distribution channels of Hollywood movies.

After completing the planned clean-up, small and second-tier filmmakers can of course continue to exist. However, they can only exist as independent production companies attached to large studios. They only participate in the production and provide content supplements for large studios. If these companies show ambitions to get involved in the distribution field, Daenerys Entertainment will relentlessly suppress it.

At the party, Simon and Janet whispered and came to De Niro. The two stopped talking, and Simon and De Niro discussed another recent project.

Last year, he worked with Michael Mann on "The Last Moxigan", and the director of the TV drama field transformation submitted a new project called "Theft".

"Theft", this is exactly one of Simon's favorite Hollywood movies.

When I first broke into this circle and attended the Brian de Palma party, standing on the side of the Beverly Hill overlooking the brilliant lights of Los Angeles, Simon inexplicably remembered this movie.

Many things have changed in recent years. The project "Theft of Fire" has not been fanned out by his big butterfly, because like many bumpy films, this project, Michael Man had already had an idea in the 1980s. It wasn't until the "Last Moses Man" box office was a big success that this project that has been passed between many studios won the green light of Daenerys Entertainment.