hunt hollywood

All kinds of tossings over the years have caused the Gucci family to lose its reputation in Italy, but after all, some heritage is still accumulated, especially this time, the guest is Simon Westero, a newly promoted world-class wealth upstart and Hollywood tycoon.Therefore, for the first time in so many years, the Gucci family was full of guests and friends again. Many Italian government and enterprise celebrities attended, and also attracted a large number of local Italian entertainment circles who came to Simon.

Even though Aldo Gucci, who insisted on not wanting to sell the family company and still held 20% of Gucci's shares firmly, changed his attitude towards Simon a lot because of the dinner that brought back the glory of the Gucci family.

Because there was no language barrier, Simon was able to socialize with ease among the banquet crowd until 10 o'clock in the middle of the night, and then he said goodbye and left.

The 83-year-old Aldo Gucci still didn't rest, and personally brought his two sons and a large group of celebrities to send Simon and Sofia out of the Gucci family's manor.

In the car, seeing the brightly lit manor of the Gucci family disappear from view, Sophia said: "Now, it will be even more difficult for us to acquire the remaining shares of the Gucci family."

Simon naturally understood what Sophia meant.

Over the past few months, the recovery of Gucci company is obvious to all.

If Gucci continues to maintain its previous state of decline and survive for a few years, the Gucci family will definitely sell all the shares in their hands.But now, even the ineffective children of the Gucci family understand that it is a long-term solution to hold on to the shares in their hands and rely on the big tree of Simon Westeros.

"It is impossible for us to occupy all the interests. It is enough to have an absolute controlling stake in Gucci. After Gucci's operation is stable, we can just turn our resources and energy to other luxury brands," Simon said, laughing: "Moreover, the Gucci family Maybe I borrowed some of my fame this time, but again, if we realize 100% holding of Gucci, the Gucci family will definitely not be so considerate. When we go to Italy, we can only sit like a black-eyed outsider. It's a cold bench. So, this kind of leverage is mutual."

Sophia nodded approvingly.

Simon was only purely entertaining at the party just now, but she actually got to know a lot of local snakes who may be helpful to Gucci's operation in the future.

Thinking of this, Sophia was about to talk about the Cannes incident again when the speed of the car suddenly slowed down and finally stopped.

Simon looked suspiciously at the front row and asked, "Neil, what's wrong?"

Before Neil Bennett could speak, someone knocked on the car window several times.

Simon looked out vigilantly, but saw a woman's face looming outside the window, and recognized the woman's identity. He rolled down the window and asked, "Miss Fraili, why are you here?"

The woman's name is Sabina Fureili, an actress.

At the party at Gucci's house before, Sabina Fureili took the initiative to chat with Simon several times very eagerly, and even left a business card, and Simon barely remembered the other party's name.

The car window was rolled down, and when she heard Simon's question, Sabina Fraili showed a pitiful expression, and said, "Mr. Westeros, my car broke down, can you give me a ride?"

Said Sabina Fraelli, pointing to a black sedan with a smoking hood on the side of the road.

Simon looked at the car a few times in the headlights, a little dumbfounded.

I didn't expect to encounter such a clichéd trick. Moreover, seeing the smoke from the car, this woman really did it. The car is definitely broken, and it may even be scrapped.

This is the southern suburb of Florence where various luxury manors gather. Simon's manor in this city is also not far away, less than five kilometers away by car.

After all, it was impossible to leave a young woman in the suburbs, so Simon had to open the car door and let Sabina Fraelli sit in, squeezed in the back row with him and Sofia.

In the front row are two bodyguards.

It is well known that kidnapping cases in Italy are rampant. When Simon was still in Los Angeles, when he heard that he was going to Italy, many people around him advised him to bring more followers.Therefore, this trip to Europe deliberately brought four bodyguards.Jennifer didn't come together tonight, and Simon left two bodyguards in his manor.

With one more outsider, Simon and Sophia stopped the conversation just now.

Sabina Fraili appeared to be very talkative, her hot body in light clothes was undisguisedly attached to Simon, asking about various things about Hollywood, and expressing her gratitude to Valerie Golino for being able to star in " The envy of Catwoman in Batman, and boldly asked Simon if he could take her to Hollywood for development.

Because they were not far away, Simon's car quickly drove into another manor in the southern suburbs of Florence.

Compared with other residences in Europe, the manor on the southern outskirts of Florence that satisfies Simon the most is that it has a stone wall over two meters high. The overall wall over 600 meters encloses the five-acre manor.When Simon first saw the information about this manor, although the Italian-style villa in the manor did not quite meet Simon's aesthetics, he still bought it without hesitation because of the fence.

Everyone got out of the car, and Simon, who had been covered in perfume by Sabina Fraili, asked, "Miss Fraili, where do you live? I'll ask the driver to take you back."

Sabina Fraili entangled again without any concealment, holding Simon's arm and begging: "Simon, can I spend the night here? I've been living in a hotel for the past two days, and I always feel like someone is following me .”

Seeing Simon being entangled, Sophia blinked at him, and walked towards the villa with a smile on her lips.

Simon felt that if he forcibly sent this woman away, she might make some troubles, maybe she would faint in his arms, so he waved to the two bodyguards and told them to go to the annex to rest by themselves, and took Sa Binna Friel walked to the main villa together.

In the living room of the villa.

Jennifer hadn't rested yet. When she saw Simon bringing a hot and tall girl in, she suddenly showed a small resentful expression on her face, and her tone became a little cold. She changed her address and said, "Boss, the movie at Cannes The results of the festival awards have been announced."

With that said, the female assistant handed Simon a folder, turned around and was about to go upstairs.

Simon took the folder, and helplessly reached out to grab the female assistant who was about to leave, and said, "Miss Fraili's car broke down, she's just staying here for one night."

The hand was held by Simon, and listening to him explain to herself, the sourness in Jennifer's heart eased a little, and she let Simon take her and sit down on the sofa in the living room.

Sabina Fureili is obviously a smart person. Seeing Simon and Jennifer's affectionate attitude, this young tycoon clearly values ​​each other more, so he wisely stopped approaching Simon and sat down obediently on the sofa next to him.Seeing Sophia come to the living room with a pot of coffee, she got up graciously and walked over to take the tray and pour coffee for everyone.

Unknowingly, the living room once again presents a situation of one man and three women, the prosperity of yin and the decline of yang.

Janet had long said that Simon's character was like a lion, but unconsciously, his personality seemed to be more obvious, and even the top executives in the company gradually showed a trend of yin and yang decline.

Simon also found that although sometimes the women around him are definitely no less thoughtful than men, but he is still more adaptable to this situation.

There is about an hour's time difference between Florence and Cannes, and tonight happens to be the time for the closing ceremony of Cannes.Simon had previously received an official Cannes invitation to attend the closing ceremony, but he chose to decline.

Pulling the female assistant to sit down in the living room, Simon opened the file of the Cannes awards.

Although many films in memory appeared as scheduled, however, the results of this film festival's awards were beyond Simon's expectations.

The biggest variable is undoubtedly the Palme d'Or.

The winner of the Palme d'Or in memory is Steven Soderbergh's "Sex, Lies and Videotape", because the jury chairman of this film festival is Wim Wenders. Simon also felt that this The German film director who always reveals a kind of emptiness and alienation in the film should prefer Soderbergh's film about the confused life of young people at the end of the beat generation in the United States.

however.

The actual result is that the winner of this Palme d'Or has become Giuseppe Tornatore's "Paradise Cinema".

Come to think of it, "Cinema Paradise" is also eligible for the Palme d'Or, and it is also biased towards Wim Wenders' preferences.Moreover, going deeper, Simon realized that the difference in the results of this award should be due to the fact that the publisher of "Sex, Lies and Videotapes" is different from the original time and space.

The original "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" was distributed by Miramax, and the Weinstein brothers are well known for their public relations skills.

Now, the distributor of the film has become Columbia Pictures.

Although Columbia Pictures does not know how much higher than the current small workshop Miramax, but in this kind of award public relations that requires a lot of thought, the Columbia Pictures team is obviously not as good as focusing on literature and art in terms of network and experience The film is also the Weinstein brothers who have been in the European film circle for many years.

However, "Sex, Lies and Videotape" did not return empty-handed, but won the second Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

"My Left Foot" won only one Best Actor award.

Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in "My Left Foot" definitely deserves this award.

Simon did not intend to let "My Left Foot" hit the Palme d'Or from the beginning, and he is also happy with the current results, especially "Paradise Cinema" won the Palme d'Or.

This is not because of the failure of "Sex, Lies and Videotape". The main reason is that the last Palme d'Or was "Pulp Fiction", which is a Hollywood movie. If this year's Palme d'Or is still a Hollywood movie, then, in the next few In [-], due to balance and other considerations, the possibility of Hollywood getting the Palme d'Or is very low.

Although it is difficult for Cannes Film Festival officials to interfere with the results of the awards, the judges involved in the award selection must also understand that it is definitely not wise to continue awarding the Palme d'Or to Hollywood.After all, most of the jury members are usually European filmmakers, and if they are too partial, it will be a kind of harm to their own interests.

Also, Simon's favorite Jane Campion's "Sweet Sister" got nothing.

Jennifer recovered from the jealousy just now, and brought over a script on the coffee table, and said to Simon: "This is from Deutschman in the evening, and the script of Tonadore's new film is called "Family Relationship." Journey” tells the story of an old man running all the way to visit his scattered children after retirement. Deutschmann said that he had already talked with Tonadore twice, but the other party should be waiting for the results of the awards in Cannes. Did not immediately agree to our cooperation invitation."

Sabina Frieli, who had been sitting quietly next to her, just heard that a director from her country had won the Palme d'Or, her eyes lit up.Seeing the script in Jennifer's hands at this time, his expression became more emotional.It is not extravagant for Valerie Golino to step into Hollywood with the best actress in Venice. If she can play a role in an Italian film invested by Daenerys Entertainment, it will be a springboard.

It's a pity that she doesn't know much English, so she didn't understand the words in Jennifer's words that Daenerys Entertainment didn't negotiate with Tonadore, and thought that Simon would invest in the movie.

Everyone was up for grabs, and Simon wasn't surprised.

He had already watched Jane Campion's "Sweet Sister" when he was in Geneva. Although the New Zealand film studio was very enthusiastic, they also did not immediately agree to Daenerys Entertainment's invitation to buy the film, apparently waiting for the results of the awards.

Giuseppe Tornatore would have been more of a choice.

Even, because of the changes in the results of the awards, Simon found that the possibility of Daenerys Entertainment wanting to get "Paradise Cinema" at a reasonable price has been greatly reduced.Obviously, with the aura of the Palme d'Or, even if the Italian original version of this film seems very protracted and long, with Daenerys Entertainment already bidding, Hollywood filmmakers certainly don't mind fighting for it.

In my memory, the North American box office of this film is only about 1000 million U.S. dollars. This is the result of the Weinstein Brothers' careful operation of an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film Award, and the North American theater version of the film has also been cut.Once the bidding war started, Daenerys would not have much profit to speak of even if she forcibly got the movie.

Now, the Weinstein brothers obviously couldn't reach out to this movie, they don't have this kind of strength.But the film fell into the hands of other Hollywood filmmakers, and the result was unpredictable.

Just like Luc Besson's Cannes opening film "Blue Sea and Blue Sky" last year, Simon liked this movie very much. If Daenerys' entertainment was not strong enough at that time, he would definitely buy the North American distribution of this movie right.

After its premiere in Cannes, "Blue Sea and Blue Sky" also achieved a record box office in France.

However, due to the strategic mistakes of the Hollywood distributor, the box office of the film in North America was only a little over 300 million US dollars.

In many cases, if a film wants to achieve commercial success, an appropriate publicity strategy is even more important than the quality of the film itself.

Chapter 264 The Aggressiveness of Westeros (Revised)

It was past seven o'clock when she woke up in the morning, and Sabina Frielli came to the window in a dark blue silk nightgown, opened the bedroom window and lay down on the window sill to look out.

Here is a bedroom facing south on the second floor of the villa.

Looking around, this Italian neoclassical villa is located on the highest point of a rolling hill in the southern suburbs of Florence. The villa has three floors. The light gray and simple appearance complements the rough stone walls around it.Looking around, there are many other large and small manors scattered in the wide field of vision.

Judging from the terrain, the north side of the villa should overlook the entire ancient city of Florence.

Obviously, this place was probably once the residence of some nobleman.It's a pity that the monarchy was abolished after World War II, and the Italian aristocrats have generally declined, replaced by many capital upstarts that have emerged with the recovery of the Italian economy.

Compared with the large tracts of farmland on the outskirts of other cities, the surrounding area of ​​this manor still maintains the original state of bushes. It is not difficult to imagine that the surrounding land should also be privately owned.

Sabina Fraili was curiously guessing the price of the manor when someone knocked on the bedroom door.

Opening the door, Sabina Fureili saw Sofia Feisi appearing outside the door in neat clothes. The well-tailored white shirt and beige trousers made Sofia look more capable than a strong woman in the workplace.

"Good morning, Miss Fraili, breakfast is ready, do you want to come together?"

"Oh, okay, I'll change my clothes." Sabina Furilli nodded, remembering the pajamas she was wearing, she scratched the neckline unnaturally, and continued: "Also, you are early too, Ms. Fish .”

With a smile on her face, Sofia watched Sabina Fulili return to the big bed and take off her pajamas, and said, "Don't worry, you can wash up or take a shower first. Besides, I've already sent someone to deliver your car." There is a repair shop, and it can be repaired at noon. However, it will probably cost a lot of money."

Sabina Fraili was about to change into the dress she wore last night. Hearing this, she picked up the clothes and walked to the bathroom. When she heard about the car, she glanced at Sophia guiltily, and said, "Thank you, Ms. Fei Xi."

Sophia smiled unabated, gestured slightly, and said, "Then, the restaurant downstairs."

Half an hour later, Sabina Frielli came to the dining room, and everyone was seated at the table.

However, Simon Westero had already had breakfast, and was sitting at the dining table flipping through a thick stack of local Italian newspapers, holding a pencil in his hand, occasionally drawing in circles.

The ponytailed female assistant named Jennifer was still sipping food, but after greeting her lightly, she lowered her head and started eating again.Because her hair was tied up, the female assistant's neck was as white as jade, with her head hanging down.Sabina couldn't help but take a few more glances. She is a standard black-haired Latina girl with a hot body and wheat-colored skin, so she is very envious of Jennifer's fair skin.

After saying hello, Sabina Frieli took the breakfast that Sophia handed over, and also ate in small bites, looking for opportunities to chat with Westeros from time to time.

In my heart, I no longer have any expectations.

Everything had gone well last night, or so she thought.Unexpectedly, there was another woman beside Simon Westeros, and she was a woman who was easily jealous.Last night until she was taken to the guest room by Sophia, the female assistant stayed by Simon Westero's side and didn't give her a chance.

Sabina Fraelli originally fantasized that Westeros might come to her bedroom late at night, but it didn't happen until dawn.

In addition, the relationship between the more mature Sofia Fish and him is obviously not ordinary.Otherwise, this woman probably wouldn't live here.

He is also said to have an official girlfriend.

The current situation, um, is really a playful guy.

Thinking of this, he felt that he should still have a chance, as long as the other two women left.

However, the difficulty seems to be a bit high.

Thinking so wildly, after breakfast, Sophia put away everyone's tableware. She wanted to help, but noticed that his female assistant was still sitting where she was.

The atmosphere in the restaurant couldn't help but feel a little stalemate.

Until Sophia appeared again, she smiled and said to Jennifer: "Jenny, can you help me pack my luggage together? I'm not sure if there is anything missing."

Sensing the faint ridicule hidden in Sophia's tone, Jennifer blushed slightly, so she got up and walked out.

After the two women left, Sabina Furilli immediately relaxed a little, looked at the man who was still flipping through the newspaper, and asked without words, "Simon, are you leaving Italy?"

Simon looked up at the woman, nodded and said, "Yes, I'll leave in the morning."

Sabina Friel was stunned for a moment, and said, "That's, what a pity."

"It's nothing, there must be many opportunities to come over in the future."

"Oh," Sabina Frieli ran her fingers on the dining table, and quickly asked boldly, "Then, can I still see you?"

"maybe."

Simon picked up a pencil and marked an article, and looked at the stunner across the table again.

In fact, he is not ignorant of the actress.

In his memory, Sabina Frielli played a dancer in one of his favorite Italian movies, "The Beautiful City", and performed every night in her father's club.It was a 2013 film, directed by the famous Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Many characters in the film and the well-chosen soundtrack left a deep impression on Simon.

The current Sabina Fureili should be 24 or [-] years old, at the peak of a Latin girl's appearance.However, Simon still prefers the seductive silhouette of 'Ramona' licking the back of his hand when dancing in "The Beautiful City".

Seeing that Simon stopped talking, Sabina Friel took the initiative to find another topic and asked, "Simon, is this house yours?"

Simon did not answer her question this time, but asked instead: "Can you dance?"

"I, um, a little bit."

"Learn to dance when you have time," Simon marked another issue in the newspaper in front of him, and said, "Next time if you have a chance, dance for me."