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It was impossible to continue the charming just now. Jennifer returned to her seat with a smile on her lips, but she did not respond to Simon's eye call, and bowed her head pretending to be serious about sorting out some materials.

Simon had no choice but to casually open the document where he had just written the poem.

This is Ella Deutschman's report on the release of "The Sid Sisters". Deutschman is still directly responsible to Simon personally. Eichman will regularly summarize the work and report to Simon.

Today is April 4th, Saturday.

The third film "The Sid Sisters" released by Gaomen Films this year will be released on April 4.

Compared with "Metropolitan" and "Sisters", the release scale of "Sisters of Sid" is very small. Deutschman only promoted it in New York, where the audience of literary films is relatively wide, and arranged 35 opening screens .

Although the promotional points of the film were excavated as much as possible, "Sisters of Sid" also received unanimous praise from the media, but in the first week of its release, this partial literary drama focusing on campus bullying only recovered US$26 at the box office , The average price of a single hall is only 7500 US dollars.

Compared with some other blockbuster films that cost 35 to [-] US dollars at the single-house box office during the test screening stage, the small-scale release of "Sisters of Sid" with [-] screens did not even reach [-] screens, and this film did not increase. Necessary for the size of the issue.

According to the current pace of release, the total box office of the film in North America is roughly only more than 100 million US dollars. Compared with the production cost of 300 million US dollars, the film will definitely fall into a loss.

"The Sid Sisters" will also become the second loss-making film released by Daenerys Entertainment this year.

Ella Deutschman analyzed in the report that the main reason for the failure of "The Sid Sisters" was that the subject matter and the audience deviated too much.

The film, which stars high school students, is also aimed at teenagers, but most teenagers obviously don't like literary films.Movie-watching groups over the age of 18, who are relatively easy to accept literary films, find it difficult to arouse interest in the genres of "Sisters of Sid".

It is precisely because of these factors that the film will fail.

"The Sid Sisters" is a project left over from New World Entertainment. Deutschman has done his best, and the failure at the box office is not the responsibility of the distribution team.At the same time, Ella Deutschman also concluded in the report that Daenerys Entertainment should avoid making movies with similar themes as much as possible in the future.

Chapter 256 Shock (Revised)

Santa Monica.

In a screening room at Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters, when another sample of "Batman" ended on the screen, the assistant stepped forward to remind him in a low voice, and Terry Semel realized that it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.

Reminiscing about the movie watching experience of the previous three hours, Semel's heart was filled with a strong shock.

Today is Friday, June 5th.

Simon was in an accidental coma in February, and Semel flew to Australia to visit as a representative of Warner. At that time, he was unable to take time to watch the footage of "Batman", and it was the first time he saw the sample today.

The post-editing and other work of "Batman" was synchronized with the shooting. It took Simon only one week after returning to Los Angeles to roughly complete the first version of the film's six-and-a-half-hour rough cut sample.

Terry Semel came in the afternoon, and originally only planned to spend an hour browsing the dailies, but ended up staying in the screening room for a whole afternoon. Even Simon, who accompanied him to watch the dailies at the beginning, had no idea when he would leave. Nothing.

Although it was time to get off work, Terry Semel still had the urge to watch all the remaining three hours of samples.

Can a movie still be shot like this? !

It's a thought Semel repeated countless times as he watched the dailies.

During the preparatory stage of "Batman", Semel expressed his concerns when he heard that Simon would try to use live-action shooting as much as possible.

Live-action shooting can indeed increase the audience's sense of substitution, but at the same time it can easily make the whole movie mediocre.Because in essence, "Batman" should be a sci-fi movie, and it is a soft sci-fi movie. This type of movie should pursue a surreal feeling.

It is too close to reality, and the creators failed to fill the film with enough rich and exciting superhero elements. As a result, it is easy for the audience to have a psychological gap of 'this is not the superhero world they imagined'.

If so, the film is doomed to fail.

Therefore, during Warner's many fruitless preparations over the years, the directors who intend to take over the "Batman" project basically tend to set up scenes and create a Gotham City in the studio.

Now, Terry Semel has completely lost the original worries.

It's just that most of the sample shots have not been carefully graded, and they have already shown a level of stunning shots that are no less than the original "Run Lola Run", which made Terry Semel confirm this.Simon's "Run Lola" has become a teaching sample for many film schools, but in Semel's view, many shots in the "Batman" sample are even better than "Run Lola".

Through the exquisite use of lighting, color, composition and other elements, Simon shoots the shots taken from real city street scenes like oil paintings carefully drawn by the top painters. Some pictures are even enough to be printed out and hung on the wall as art. Taste.

Moreover, the overall grim and dark tone style is enough to visually give the audience a surreal psychological hint, making people feel that this is not only their own city but also Gotham City in the comics.

Of course, if it's just the stunning style of the lens, it's not enough to shock Semel.

Although the young man's control over the technical details of the film has reached the Oscar level, it is not impossible for other films to imitate, as long as they are willing to spend money to form a master-level behind-the-scenes team.

What really struck Semel was the content, especially the action scenes in the dailies.

Among the traditional Hollywood action movies, Bruce Lee's kung fu is the most high-end one. The performance of action stars with profound skills such as Jean-Claude Van Damme on the screen can be regarded as remarkable, but most of them are still going back and forth. Ordinary fists and kicks without aesthetics.

Because of the lack of bright spots, the most popular in Hollywood these years are the gunfight action movies of Stallone and others. The muscular man with a bare upper body carries a machine gun and ignores the enemy's hail of bullets all the way.

Terry Semel has actually seen some oriental kung fu movies, but he also feels that the action design of those movies is too complicated and lacks practicality.

The action scenes in Simon's "Batman" made Semel feel strongly that he seemed to have seen the future of Hollywood action movies.

Fighting, there is no old-fashioned street drunken fight, Batman punches to the flesh but not simple sense of strength makes people excited, Catwoman's lightness and fierceness and extreme display of female body advantages also make blood spurt.

Car chasing, there is no crash and explosion for no reason, but the vehicles crashing and rolling against the big screen are more shocking than blowing up a bunch of cars directly.

In the gun battle, there was no brainless rush under the rain of bullets, the thrilling duel between the dead shooter and Batman, in the slow motion, the oppressive feeling from the CG composite bullet made Semel hold his breath.It turns out that a bullet can also become the protagonist of the shot at a certain moment.

In addition to these mainstream action scenes, details such as Batman's wing suit flying, the use of bat darts and other props, Catwoman's gymnastics skills to leap between city rooftops, etc., in Semel's view, are enough to become Hollywood commercial movies in the future. textbooks.

Terry Semel can't wait to see the final film. Simon has perfected these details. As the best screenwriter in Hollywood, Semel doesn't think the plot of the film will be better These details are lacking.

Even, Semel had a faint feeling in his heart that this groundbreaking superhero movie will also achieve a groundbreaking box office figure.

However, this feeling is not good.

Remembering that DC has sold the copyrights of Batman and Wonder Woman to Daenerys Entertainment, and Warner did not raise any objections to the transfer of Superman's copyrights, Semel felt a strong regret.He now firmly believes that Warner must have made a series of irreparable mistakes in the copyright of these three superheroes.

After all, although there are time limits in those licensing contracts, in fact, if the interests involved are too great, the copyright holder will not be able to let go anyway.

Just like the copyright of "Superman" at the beginning, although "Superman 4" failed at the box office, as far as Semel knows, Simon bought back the copyright of "Superman" from the Salkind family with only 5 years left, and it still cost A whopping $600 million.

Moreover, although the contract signed by DC and British producer Alexander Salkind will expire in 1992.However, according to the automatic renewal clause in the agreement, as long as the copyright of "Superman" is not shelved for a long time, after 1992, if Salkind still intends to make a sequel, the authorization period will be automatically extended.

Now, the power over these terms is in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment.

Obviously, as long as Daenerys Entertainment does not take the initiative to let go, Warner will not get back the copyright of "Superman" anyway, and the same is true for the copyrights of "Batman" and "Wonder Woman".

Mistake.

After continuing to sit in the screening room for a few minutes, Semel stood up and walked towards the door, asking the assistant beside him, "Is Simon still in the company?"

The assistant followed Semel out, and replied: "Mr. Westeros left the company at three o'clock to go to the "Pretty Woman" film crew."

Terry Semel was a little puzzled: "Pretty Woman?"

The assistant explained: "Daenerys Entertainment just started filming a project this week, a romance film. Some time ago, the competition for the leading actor in the film was very fierce. Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Alec Baldwin, Daniel Male stars such as Day Lewis have tried to win this script, but the role finally fell on a second-tier British actor. It is said that Westeros personally decided, named Pierce Brosnan. The heroine is "Steel Magnolias" Julia Roberts in "Flowers", this one seems to have been decided very early."

As Steve Ross's right-hand man, Terry Semel has been busy participating in the merger negotiations between Time Inc. and Warner Bros. in recent months, but he has ignored a lot of news from Hollywood.

Looking back, he failed to find out Pierce Brosnan's information. Semel ordered his assistant to organize a copy of the other's resume for himself. He was also a little surprised. He didn't expect that Harrison Ford would even start to fight for the project of Daenerys Entertainment. , and have not been able to negotiate.

Think about it carefully but feel relieved.

The two series of "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" that started in the late 70s allowed Harrison Ford to maintain his status as one of the few super first-line male stars in Hollywood.

However, the release of "Raiders of the Lost Ark 3" at the end of the month also means that both of Harrison Ford's two aces will fall into a long period of silence.Ford's films other than "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" have not been outstanding at the box office in recent years. If he wants to continue to maintain his position after the two major series are dormant, he must actively pursue some projects that are easy to sell.

Terry Semel left the screening room with his assistant, and Simon did not come back from the "Pretty Woman" crew, but asked the staff to hand over an invitation to tonight's cocktail party.

Back in Los Angeles, Simon only took a short rest for a weekend before returning to work.

The first to tackle is The Bodyguard and The Sixth Sense.

The later stages of the two films have been basically completed, and Simon did not completely let go of his attention to these two projects when he was in Melbourne, and the final film effects have met his expectations.During this week, Simon personally adjusted some details of the two films, and will officially send them to MP for rating next week.

The first TV trailer for "Bodyguard" starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston has been officially broadcast, the schedule is June 6, and the number of opening screens is 2.

"The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", which is scheduled to be released on June 6, has also begun to release promotional materials, but the final stage of the publicity strategy has not yet been finalized.

Simon asked the plot of "The Sixth Sense" to be kept strictly confidential during the film's production stage.

Until now, apart from the core creators of the crew, many supporting actors don't even know the complete plot of "The Sixth Sense".However, after "The Sixth Sense" was completed, executives such as Amy and Rem generally felt that, except for the final plot reversal, the film as a whole seemed very ordinary and basically had no bright spots.

If it weren't for the screenwriter of this film to be signed by Simon himself, and Robert De Niro would also participate, and the company would have no other choice. Amy would even propose to Simon to adjust the schedule of "The Sixth Sense".

According to Amy, the sample of John Hughes' "Uncle Buck" is pretty good, but the film will not be finished until mid-June, so the company had to arrange the schedule at the end of the summer vacation on August 6.

In addition, John Hughes' second film this year, "Crazy Christmas Vacation", is already in the filming stage. This film will start shooting after "Uncle Buck" is finished, and the investor is Warner Bros. It is planned to be released on Christmas.

Simon originally collaborated with John Hughes on "Uncle Buck" for the purpose of "Home Alone", for which he also retained a first option agreement for Hughes' script.

The script of "Crazy Christmas Vacation" was first sent to Daenerys Entertainment, and Simon naturally chose to give up.

However, the late stage of "Uncle Buck" is already halfway through, and the script of "Home Alone" inspired by "Uncle Buck" by John Hughes in the original time and space has no shadow yet, and Macaulay Culkin has not appeared in "Uncle Buck". Uncle Buck.

Simon plans to wait until the end of the year. If John Hughes still doesn't come up with the script of "Home Alone", he will have to "reluctantly" himself.

After watching the samples with Semel at the company headquarters in the afternoon, Simon rushed to visit the crew of "Pretty Woman" and stayed until after get off work.

Except that Richard Gere is no longer used as the leading actor, "Pretty Woman" is basically the original cast.

The rationale for dropping Richard Gere is similar to Simon's previous dismissal of Sharon Stone in Instinct.As for Pierce Brosnan, although James Bond left the deepest impression on the audience in the original time and space, Brosnan's tall and handsome appearance and British gentleman style completely fit the role of Edward Lewis, a handsome Wall Street businessman.

The evening cocktail party was held at the mansion in Palisades.

After leaving North America for a few months, it is necessary to reconnect with everyone.

This kind of thing should have been prepared by Janet. Janet is in Australia, and Simon wants to hand it over to Catherine.

However, in recent months, Catherine has helped Simon take care of the construction of Cape Dumey Manor. When Simon passed out, she flew to Melbourne as soon as possible. Coupled with all the past, this kind of public closeness is not even bothered by the gossip tabloids. However, Catherine, who is very thin-skinned, kept deceiving her.

When Simon returned to Los Angeles, Catherine, who had been staying at Janet's villa on the east side of Cape Dume, flew to New York on the grounds of preparing her next movie. The appearance of drawing a clear line.

Finally, the preparations for the reception were handed over to Jennifer.

The female assistant is also not thick-skinned, and she treats this matter as a business in a serious manner, and even draws up the guest list with Amy's assistant Vanessa.So the originally scheduled small-scale cocktail party turned into a lively business reception.

Chapter 257 Taking advantage of loopholes (editing)

"Of course we hope to work with Ford, but he is not suitable for "Pretty Woman", which is a romance film. Ford is better at playing the role of the lonely hero, and it is difficult for him to spark with the heroine."

……

"Be confident, Kevin, you are very familiar with Michael, and you have been preparing for so many years. No one in Hollywood is more familiar with how to shoot "Dances with Wolves" than you. It is absolutely right for you to be the director yourself."

……

"Mike, Orion recently released "The Adventures of Abby and Brother" at the box office... haha, you know what I mean, the cut of "Pulp Fiction" has been delayed for half a year, this movie has earned so much for you, I can't I don't want everyone to make too much trouble."

……

"This year's Cannes jury is chaired by Wim Wenders, who definitely prefers the genre of Sex, Lies and Videotape. So, we're not competing for the Palme d'Or this time, Ella, and sometimes it's okay to take a step back. It is very necessary."

……

"Japan? Sandy, what do you care about in Japan? Girls should act, go to SPA, take care of themselves beautifully, and find a girlfriend if you have free time... No, everyone is watching, lady, Be a lady."

……

"Good evening, Bob, and Martin. Nice to meet you. How's that "Goodfellas" going?"

……

"Terry, I heard that Martin Davis from Paramount is also interested in Time Inc. You may be in trouble... Me, of course I am interested, but this is big business, Daenerys Silk Entertainment can't do it for the time being, you can rest assured."

……

Inside the mountainside mansion in Palisades.

The cocktail party started at 07:30 in the evening. Hundreds of guests were scattered in groups in the spacious courtyard, but the atmosphere did not seem noisy at all.There is no strict time limit for the reception, some people are still coming, and some people have left early.

Simon was socializing in the crowd, chatting with Terry Semel, and Nicole Kidman walked towards them in a full suit.

Seeing Nicole approaching, Terry Semel raised his glass to Simon with a smile, then turned and walked away.

Nicole Kidman came to Simon, concealing her guilty conscience, and said nonchalantly, "Simon, did you call me over?"

Simon took Nicole to the edge of the cliff, leaned on the railing and looked at the night view of Los Angeles at the foot of the mountain, and said, "Joe told me that you want to leave WMA, and you also hope to cancel the remaining two options with Daenerys Entertainment." contract?"

Nicole hesitated for a while, and summoned up her courage to say, "I am very grateful for the opportunity you gave me in "Pulp Fiction", Simon, but I hope to be able to plan my future more freely."

Simon shook his head directly: "If you want to leave WMA, I will not stop you. However, you must complete the remaining two option contracts with Daenerys Entertainment."

"Why is this, Simon, haven't you already let Meg Ryan go?"

Simon was not moved by the pitiful tone in Nicole's tone, and stared at her eyes slightly sideways, saying: "Daenerys Entertainment's termination of the contract with Meg Ryan does not mean that the matter is over. I don't have that kind of It’s unrealistic in Hollywood to have the mentality that you’re famous and you want you to be grateful. All I ask is that you continue to fulfill the promise you signed after you succeed. I really, really hate people who don’t want to keep their contracts.”

Nicole felt Simon's stern tone, and his momentum became a little weaker.Simon's words revealed that the incident with Meg Ryan hadn't completely ended, which made her a little uneasy.

In a flash, Nicole also quickly understood why Simon's attitude was so strong.