Hollywood Hunter

In the western suburbs of Melbourne, an abandoned factory originally purchased by Daenerys, after continuous construction in recent years, has become a comprehensive film and television base covering an area of ​​50 hectares, covering an area of ​​the same size as Los Angeles’ Malibu Daenery Silk Shadow City is quite the same, the difference is that the building density is sparse.

There are a total of 9 large-scale studios in Melbourne Studios, of which only 3 are conventional studios, and the other 6 are virtual studios for special effects shooting. Other post-production centers, special effects studios and other supporting facilities are all available.

Through continued lobbying by the Westeros system and other stakeholders, the preferential policies of the Australian government and domestic states have not only been cut because more and more Hollywood films are filmed here, but support has continued to increase.

A large number of film projects were shot in Australia, making the only large modern film and television base in the southern hemisphere in full operation.Melbourne Studios invested more than $300 million in funds before and after. It was once thought that it might be a drag on the Daenerys Entertainment Group. After all, Daenerys already owned Malibu and Burbank in Los Angeles.Now, this film and television base not only has no losses and meets its own needs, but also contributes very good income to Daenerys Entertainment through the rental of venue equipment and other film and television project orders.

Ending his trip to Africa and completing the secretly progressing'Sword of Damocles', after Easter, Simon's attention finally turned to the project of "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice" which will be defeated at the end of April.

As a special-effect blockbuster, through the detailed planning in the early stage, the filming period of "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice" is only 3 months, shooting starts at the end of January, killing at the end of April, but it is expected that the post-production will take up to 6 months The time will be completely completed in October in the second half of the year.Having left North America for two weeks, after all, it is impossible to stay outside for too long. In order to complete the work here as soon as possible, on April 17, the day after Easter, Simon began to spend more than 10 hours a day in Melbourne, the western suburbs. Inside the studio.

Check all the shots taken in the past few months one by one, personally finalize the editing plan and participate in the editing, discuss the later special effects plan with the special effects team, and so on.

The work is trivial and heavy.

Unknown people always think that film director is a role of designer. In fact, this profession is more inclined to be an engineer, and it is still the kind of work that needs a lot of hands-on.

Because movies, especially blockbuster movies, are a very huge project in themselves.Simon has not personally been the director of this series since Batman: Moments of War, but as the leader of the entire DC movie universe series, his work is not easy at all. Just like now, Roland Emerici only Need to focus on the "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice" project, which is just a DC movie universe, while Simon is distracted by this project, he also has to take into account the related project planning for the next two years. This is not a move. What can be done.

From April 17 to April 21, five days, more than 10 hours of work per day, Simon finally completed the follow-up work of "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice".

Not only that, these days, Simon also sorted out the layout of the Westeros system in terms of private military power.

Mostly Africa.

For Africa, Simon’s position is a disguised training ground in the Westeros system. Since the Rwandan massacre broke out last year, Simon has withdrawn from Westero’s mercenaries stationed in Rwanda. The force has re-infiltrated into the industries of the Westeros family in African countries, and has been reorganized into zero areas. The security team model has remained active in the African region.

The Westeros system already has enough profitable core industries. Simon’s series of industrial layouts in Africa, the core of which is only for the purpose of raising soldiers, but earning money, but only second.

If any army is out of the battlefield environment for a long time,

And Africa, even after more than a decade or two, has never been completely peaceful.

The warlords in Africa are actually very smart.

For peacekeepers in other countries or mercenaries with a government background, such as EO in South Africa, they are actually very repulsive, because these people are well aware that modern Western troops can easily affect their rule.

In the second half of last year, Simon evacuated the Westero mercenaries from Rwanda, leaving many African countries including the Rwandan authorities to put down a lot of vigilance on the Westero system.

Not only that, this year, the Westeros system has also used a lot of lobbying activities in Africa. The message conveyed is only one. Simon is a businessman and has no interest in overthrowing their regime. Entering Africa is just to do Business, as long as you give enough benefits, the Westeros system can also give you everything you want, weapons and equipment, very simple, recognized by Western society, no problem.

As long as you can give enough benefits.

Faced with the message from Simon, the clever warlords certainly knew how to choose.

Apart from Rwanda, Angola quickly became another case of pleasant cooperation with the Westeros system.

This country that was originally a Portuguese colony fought for decades during the US-Soviet hegemony because of the game between the two parties. Unfortunately, the current power was a faction supported by the Soviet Union, and it was also recognized by the United Nations. It was the other side that the United States once supported gradually declined, and the short-term settlement reached by both parties in 1992 also failed to plunge the opposition into a civil war again because of a presidential election.

After the Westeros system contacted Angola, the current President of Angola, Dos Santos, quickly gave a positive response. The Angolan leader, who was once supported by the Soviet Union, knew that if he wanted to completely eliminate the opposition in the country, he must put an end to it. The United States may be behind the scenes.

Both parties hit it off.

The Westeros system not only provided Angola with a large number of cheap arms from Ukraine in the past year, but also promoted Dos Santos’ visit to the United States. The Black Hawk fell behind, and Washington did not want to participate in African affairs too much. Of course, it is necessary to accept the door, so it is also a coincidence. This visit declared that the internal opposition in Angola was completely abandoned by the United States.

In this process, the Westeros system obtained the development rights of many mineral deposits in Angola.

Moreover, Simon not only didn’t take it for nothing. While exchanging cash or arms, he quietly took the initiative to take out the shares to be handed over to the Angolan government dignitaries. The relationship between the two parties unconsciously became closer, even Verizon Telecom easily entered In the Angola market, although there is not much business for the time being, it is only a local mobile communication network limited to the surrounding of Luanda, the capital of Angola, but it is definitely a pioneering initiative for closed Africa.

Most importantly, Simon also quietly deployed 300 Westeros mercenaries in Angola under the pretext of military consultants and corporate security.

The small number of people and the distribution of zeros have not caused any objections in Angola.

Not only that, Simon visited Angola during the first anniversary of the Rwanda Holocaust, and Dos Santos also offered to obtain the support of 200 Westeros mercenaries on the basis of 100 military advisers to train the army. Of course, there is no money. After so many years of civil war, Angola has withered domestically, but it can be paid with mineral deposits.

Counting an otherwise negotiated arms order and two transactions in exchange for the management of a large coffee plantation area of ​​about 150,000 acres equivalent to 600 square kilometers in southern Angola.

As long as taxes are paid in accordance with regulations in the future, 150,000 acres of land are equivalent to Simon’s private territory.

Unlike Simon, which has unconsciously expanded to more than 2 million acres of private land in Tasmania, Australia, such an area has considerable economic value.

The landlord cause was extended to Africa.

Of course, it is still incomparable to Australia's super-large landlord families with tens of millions of acres.

This is one of Simon’s own selections from Angola.

Because the Angolan opposition is preoccupied with the region is in southern Angola.

The coffee plantation area selected by Simon was still in the hands of the opposition a few years ago. The two sides were fighting for each other. The local residents have little left. Large areas of high-quality coffee plantations have become a land of no ownership. They were harassed by quietly infiltrated opposition forces.

Such an area is just in the heart of Simon.

Being often harassed by the armed opposition, then the security task is also quite heavy. Sending a few more people to come to watch, it is a matter of course.

Moreover, such a large area of ​​coffee plantation always requires a large amount of local labor to take care of it. After the situation is completely stabilized in the future, there will definitely be a gathering area, and it will be convenient for the Westeros system to carry out some other operations. It is easy for people to have a sense of belonging to the Westeros system.

All in all, the success of Angola’s layout has made many African countries show goodwill to the Westeros system.

Simon is no longer irritable now, intending to penetrate quietly and quietly.

So until April 22, the Simons finally left Melbourne.

However, the two women and children will return directly to North America, Simon is going to Europe, the first stop is Ukraine, to deal with some extensions of this African layout, and then to Italy to visit Sofia, and then to the UK, The third project in the Spirit of the Movie Universe series, "Spirit 2", is being filmed there, before returning to North America.

At the same time, when Simon left this period, North America's two-week Easter period was declared closed.

"Rebel Stars 3", released on April 7, once again brought a surprise to Daenerys Entertainment.

The development of this project can be described as bumpy.

At the time, Daenerys Entertainment and the creator Mike Myers only signed a packaging contract for two movies. The first two "Rebel Stars" were successful. The first local box office was 120 million, and the second one was as high as 1.4. Billion, the third part, without the constraints of packaging contracts, Mike Myers can naturally sit on the floor and start the price.

Simon did not make any concessions at all.

The first budget is US$20 million, the second is US$30 million, and the third, because of the success of the first two, according to Hollywood practice, the budget doubled to US$60 million. Of course, Simon insisted on giving only a US$40 million budget. .Daenerys Entertainment does not lack high-quality projects, only 40 million US dollars, either continue or cancel.

Of course, this time we can be more lenient in terms of sharing.

This is also for risk avoidance.

If we make a budget of US$60 million that doubles that of the second part, plus the announcement of a halved US$30 million, the total cost of the third part will reach the bombshell level of US$90 million.As a vulgar spoof comedy that relies on local culture, the overseas market potential of the "Rebel Star" series has been very small, and basically can only rely on North America.

Therefore, even if the third part maintains the second local box office of 140 million US dollars, counting overseas, Daenerys can only barely return to the original.

Even though this new sequel has broken the curse of Simon’s memory of the second box office defeat in the series, Simon doesn’t quite believe that the third will still be a big success.

Therefore insist on risk control.

Mike Myers didn't plan to compromise at first. Until the summer "Honeymoon Dangerous Period" two years ago, the box office failed. The total investment of 30 million US dollars in production and distribution, but only brought less than 10 million US dollars to Sony Pictures. At the box office, the comedian was relieved.

The finalized plan is a base salary of 8 million US dollars plus 15% of the project's omni-channel profit sharing.

Because this series is a double protagonist, the other actor and the director who has been following up are rising, which is the highest price that Simon can accept. On the basis of salary increase, the other two main creators also received an equal 7.5% of the project. Channel profit sharing.

In the end, the project's production cost of 40 million plus 20 million was announced, with a total budget of 60 million US dollars.

Simon's initial expectation was that the box office would be able to exceed 100 million even if the task was overrun at the end of the series. Through overseas and subsequent video tapes and other channels, the cost was deducted. Daenerys Entertainment can recover a good profit and the three main creators can also get it. Quite a considerable share.

If the local box office is less than 100 million US dollars, both parties may need to find supplements through later stages.

The result now is, I don’t know if the three main creators have pinpointed the audience's taste through the first two parts of the training. The reputation of the third part of the film has not only improved significantly compared to the second part, but the comprehensive media score has increased from the previous 7.3 points To 8.1 points of excellent grade, the box office is surprising.

In the first week, 2,893 pieces of screens were opened. At the box office for the first week of April 7th to April 13th, the movie "Reverse Fighting Multi-Star 3" reached $49.29 million, an increase of $6 million from the previous one.

This is not over yet.

At the beginning of the second week of "Fighting Stars 2" fell 39%, for this kind of comedy, this is a very normal trend, also the Easter period, probably due to the Easter across April 16th, April From the 14th to the 20th of April next week, the box office of "Fighting Stars 3" dropped only a remarkable 27%, and received another 36.83 million US dollars.

In just two weeks, the cumulative box office at the end of this series has reached 86.12 million US dollars.

Even in the email communication with Simon, Danny Morris, the head of New World Pictures, suggested whether it was necessary to develop another one. After all, there was no public announcement that the series had ended.You know, the two-week box office of 86.13 million US dollars, although the Easter period has passed, but considering that there will be no other competitors until the summer period is opened, the word-of-mouth of "Rebel 3" is so good, the local box office is likely Will break the $200 million mark.

The total cost of 60 million yuan is just over 200 million US dollars at the local box office. It would be a pity not to develop a sequel.