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He didn't read the script, and Simon didn't express much opinion. He continued to chat for a few words. He looked at Danny Morris, the person in charge of New World Pictures, and asked, "Danny, what about the movie "The Kid in the Cornfield?" How is the preparation for the sequel going?"

Danny Morris was originally appointed as the head of High Gate Films. Because he was not optimistic about the prospects of literary films and had a negative attitude, Simon sent him to be in charge of New World Films, which specializes in thrillers and horror films.

During the communication process just now, Danny Morris somewhat regretted giving up the position of president of Gaomen Films when he felt Simon's emphasis on Deutschman and his discourse on "big business" and "small business". .

New World Pictures is currently responsible for not many projects, mainly last year's "Scream" sequel "Scream 2", the third sequel of "Hell's Ghost" and "Hell's Ghost 3" And Boys of the Corn 2, the sequel to The Kids of the Corn, which Simon Asked about.

All three films were commercially successful.

Therefore, if the sequel is done well, unless it is much better than the previous one, the credit will not be too great, but if you mess up, it will definitely seriously affect your future.

With these in mind, Danny Morris quickly said: "The script has been completed, and I am looking for a director recently. In addition, I plan to shoot this movie in Australia, which can save at least 10% of the budget."

The budget of "Kids in the Cornfield" is US$300 million. Since it is a low-budget film, filming in Australia will definitely not be able to get the generous tax rebate conditions of "Batman".A 10% reduction in budget actually saved only $30.

Going to Australia to shoot was originally just an idea that Danny Morris still hesitated in his mind, but after hearing what Simon said just now, he made a decision without hesitation.

At least, such an attitude can win a lot of goodwill from the boss.

Simon was indeed satisfied.

Although a company's profits are not saved, if it can be calculated carefully, it must be calculated carefully.

After chatting for a few words, Simon didn't neglect Rem, and talked about "Bodyguard" again.

The box office of "Bodyguard" in the first week was 2363 million US dollars, which is slightly lower than Simon's expectations, and even worse than that of "Raiders of the Lost Ark 3" in the same period.

Fortunately, the original soundtrack album of "Bodyguard" is as unexpectedly popular as the original time and space, which makes Simon full of expectations for the film's next box office trend and overseas box office performance.

Moreover, compared to the original soundtrack, Simon actually still values ​​the box office more.

If "Bodyguard" can achieve the original global box office of 4 million US dollars, Daenerys Entertainment will be able to obtain at least 1 million US dollars in net profit in the next year or two, and later channels such as video tapes will also start to provide income.

In comparison, the expected revenue of the original soundtrack is equally astonishing, but in my memory, the sales of more than 4500 million albums are the result of long-term accumulation in the next ten or twenty years.

In addition, Simon is also a little worried about the impact of "Ghostbusters 2" on "Bodyguard" when it is released this week.

I don't remember getting specific box office figures for "Ghostbusters 2," but the $3700 million blockbuster was apparently also a top-[-] bestseller on the year's list.

Moreover, "Ghostbusters 2" is comparable to "Raiders of the Lost Ark 3" and "Bodyguard" in terms of its release scale and publicity.

After lunch, just as everyone returned to the office building of the Burbank branch, they heard another piece of breaking news.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Paramount Communications suddenly held a press conference, stating that it would launch an acquisition of Time Inc., and offered a high price of $175 per share, totaling $107 billion.

Prior to this, the merger negotiations between Time Inc. and Warner Bros. have been open for three months and have recently come to an end.

Paramount Communications made a sudden move, and the executives of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. were caught off guard for a while.

Time Inc. immediately issued an announcement saying that it does not welcome the hostile takeover of Paramount Communications.Warner Bros. quickly followed suit, expressing solidarity with Time Inc.'s announcement.

It is difficult for ordinary people to understand the details of this acquisition, but the whole of Hollywood is paying close attention to this matter.

The entanglement of the three companies is also very interesting.

Between Time and Warner, the previous transaction was actually Time Company's acquisition of Warner Bros., and Time Company was the acquirer.Now, Paramount Communications initiated an acquisition of Time Inc., and Time Inc. immediately became the acquired party.

The main reason why Time Inc.'s executives reacted so strongly was this shift of subject and object.

In the acquisition transaction between Time and Warner, as the acquirer, Time Inc.'s high-level executives will still be the controllers of this brand new large media group after the merger is completed.

Moreover, according to the news that Simon heard, the top executives of Time Company have even prepared a ten-year generous salary contract for themselves. Time compensation benefits.

In comparison, if Time Inc. is acquired by Paramount Communications, after the merger is completed, Time Inc.'s management is likely to be kicked out of the company, and a ten-year salary contract is out of the question.

After the announcement of Paramount Communications was released, the two parties exchanged opinions in the media for a few days. Paramount Communications soon publicly stated that for the benefit of shareholders, Paramount will file a lawsuit in the Federal Court of Delaware to stop Time Inc.'s deal with Warner Bros.

In the transaction plan between Time Inc. and Warner Bros., the two parties adopt a stock swap model. Time Inc.'s own stock price is about 70 billion US dollars.Paramount Communications offered a cash acquisition plan of US$107 billion. Judging from the numbers alone, it is obviously much better than the deal plan between Time and Warner.

However, pure numbers are actually just an appearance.

According to the capital gains tax rate in the United States as high as 28% at this time, if Paramount Communications’ cash offer is accepted, shareholders will cash out and pay taxes.Because stock swap transactions do not need to pay capital gains tax.

Therefore, Paramount Communications' statement about safeguarding the interests of shareholders is actually not so tenable.

As a bystander, Simon knew the final result of this acquisition.

Moreover, Simon was actually a little envious of this deal.

Not to mention Warner Bros., Time Inc. owns HBO, the most profitable premium cable TV network in North America, and this alone makes Simon extremely envious.

And the print media business of Time Inc., which owns platforms like Time magazine, is now equally lucrative.

However, Daenerys Entertainment does not yet have the strength to participate in a large-scale acquisition involving tens of billions of dollars.

Simon is now paying attention to this acquisition, just wanting to gain some experience for Daenerys Entertainment's future layout.In fact, this day is not too far away, even, just need to wait until next year.

On the other hand, a week after the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" was released, the sales figures for the first week were also quickly released.

For later marketing considerations, Alistar Records and Daenerys Entertainment originally made up their minds that even if the first week sales of this record cannot exceed 100 million copies, the two parties will privately promote this number to exceed 100 million.

Fortunately, the final sales statistics of the original soundtrack of "Bodyguard" were 102 million copies, so you don't have to take the risk of counterfeiting. The two companies quickly launched a large-scale follow-up publicity on this sales data.

In the fierce summer competition, on June 6, the box office data for the new week was released.

In its first week of filming, "Ghostbusters 2" earned $3 million at the box office just like "Raiders of the Lost Ark 4491", and it won the No. 1 box office ranking without any suspense.

"Raiders of the Lost Ark 3", which has entered its fourth week of release, has a single-week box office of 2388 million US dollars, ranking No.

Stimulated by the popularity of the original soundtrack, the box office of "Bodyguard" fell by only 15% in the second week, and it collected another US$2006 million, bringing the cumulative box office to US$4396 million.

Although the two-week box office of "Bodyguard" is not as good as the complete first-week data of "Raiders of the Lost Ark 3" and "Ghostbusters 2", under the attack of the two blockbusters, "Bodyguard" has suffered from the reputation of Waterloo. It is actually very rare to be able to maintain such a strong box office curve.

Chapter 268 Surprise (Revised)

San Francisco.

Palo Alto is home to tech companies in the southern Bay Area.

Within a month of coming to the United States, relying on the rich scientific and technological human resources in Silicon Valley and the financial support of Westeros, Tim Berners-Lee quickly built the basic framework of Eaglet.

Eaglet's headquarters is located in a three-story white building on Thurman Street, east of Stanford University.

After returning from Europe, Simon has been in close contact with Tim Berners-Lee by phone. Today, when he has time, he flies to San Francisco to check this technology company that is crucial to his layout.

Tim Berners-Lee personally welcomed Simon to the headquarters of Eaglet Corporation. The two entered the lobby on the ground floor of the office building and stopped at the same time.

The hall is in a horizontal rectangular pattern, and the area is not too large.

Outside the reception desk, the most eye-catching thing is the phrase behind the reception desk inlaid on the wall with different colored letters: You know nothing.

Satisfied to stop and look for a moment, Simon noticed that Tim Berners-Lee next to him looked at the phrase on the wall and seemed to be planning to say something, so he quickly stopped him: "Tim, don't say anything, you can't do it anyway. Decipher the true meaning of this sentence."

Tim Berners-Lee nodded slightly, but still said: "I just think this sentence is a bit of a warning to the world. No matter how hard we try, our understanding of this world is still shallow."

Simon almost laughed. He felt that he couldn't bully the honest man too much, so he held back forcibly, patted Li on the shoulder and said, "That's right, so let's go in."

Tim Berners-Lee noticed the strangeness in Simon's expression, but didn't delve into it.

The two came to the office area on the first floor. Li introduced the newly hired employees to Simon while explaining the results of his work in the past month.

"I have sorted out the most basic technical framework of the World Wide Web, and submitted patent applications to major countries in North America and Europe. Simon, this is Michael Levy, he is the leader of the team on the first floor, and he is mainly responsible for perfecting HTML and language networking sites.

Simon still had a lot of work to do. He just stayed in Palo Alto for a morning and had lunch with several core employees of Eaglet, and then flew back to Los Angeles.

Daenerys Entertainment's Falcon business jet landed directly at a private airport in the San Fernando Valley.

Arriving at the nearby Warner Bros. Studios, Simon just got off the car in the parking lot and was about to go to the post-processing center when a white car drove in.

Noticing the figure of a certain woman in the cab, Simon wanted to pretend he didn't see it and leave directly. After hesitating for a moment, he stopped.

The white car chose a parking space and stopped. Renee Russell, who was wearing a black wide-shouldered dress today, got out of the car and turned to look at Simon.

Seeing that the man hadn't left, Renee Russell closed the car door and walked over here with a brown satchel.

However, when she came close, the woman hesitated again, not knowing whether to shake hands with him or hug him, she hesitated in her heart, but she smiled on her face and said, "Good afternoon, Simon."

Simon nodded, turned and walked out of the parking lot.

Renee Russell followed naturally, feeling a little resentful about the man's inexplicable indifference, but dared not express it.

After a moment of silence, Simon asked, "What are you doing here?"

"The script reading meeting for "Goodfellas" is in the administrative area."

"Oh."

Simon responded, remembering the incident.

Martin Scorsese's new film "Goodfellas" is invested by Warner, which is actually the reason why Simon can easily insert Renee Russell into the film crew. "Goodfellas" has three male protagonists. Among the three, Warner was very dissatisfied with Scorsese's decision to use Ray Liotta to play with De Niro and Joe Pesci. Otta's reputation is too low.

As the first heroine of "Goodfellas", if it wasn't for Simon's recommendation, Renee Russell would definitely not be able to get this role given that she only has one film acting qualification.

Robert De Niro is still busy with the promotion of "The Sixth Sense", and "Goodfellas" is scheduled to start in July.However, today is already June 7, and it is indeed time for the actors to officially rehearse.

The two got off at the parking lot at the north gate, because it was a weekday and there were many people in the studio.

Renee Russell has been by Simon's side all the time. Hearing that almost all the passers-by along the way greeted him proactively, and his bodyguards also blocked several men and women who wanted to approach him to talk to him, some inexplicable feelings of pride arose in her heart .As a vase beside him, she could clearly feel the envy of those passing girls towards her.

After all, this is Westeros.

In recent weeks, when almost everyone thought that Daenerys Entertainment's "Bodyguard" would fail at the box office, the soundtrack album of this film has created a miracle of selling more than one million copies for two consecutive weeks.Moreover, in terms of box office, in the third weekend that just passed, "Bodyguard" dropped by only 11% compared to last week. In two and a half weeks, the cumulative box office has exceeded 5600 million US dollars.

Because of the weak drop of more than ten percent for two consecutive weeks, Renee Russo remembered that the North American box office estimate of "Bodyguard" in an article in the "Hollywood Reporter" on Monday had reached 1.2 million US dollars.

In comparison, "Ghostbusters 2", whose box office was almost twice that of "Bodyguard" in the first week, dropped by 55% in the three-day box office of the second weekend. 2"'s total North American box office forecast is only $1 million.

Renee Russo remembers a review of "The Bodyguard" in The Hollywood Reporter very well.

After Lawrence Kasdan, the gold medal screenwriter who once created "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Wars", completed the script of "Bodyguard" in the 70s, he was rejected more than 60 times in these years, and almost all Hollywood film companies did not accept it. Like this project.

However, the script fell into the hands of Simon Westeros, and when everyone was still not optimistic about the film until after the film was released, "Bodyguard" accidentally created a miraculous soundtrack sales data, with consecutive weeks. The strong box office figures far exceeded everyone's expectations.

The reporter from The Hollywood Reporter praised the film in a tone full of admiration, largely due to Simon Westeros, a young man who seemed to have a talent for miracles.

At this time, she could walk with him under the envy of many other women.

Although he was very indifferent to herself, she understood that following him out of this small road, and the news spread, her future acting career in Hollywood would be a little smoother.

Hollywood is actually very superstitious about authority.

The budget of "Goodfellas" is 2500 million US dollars. Even if the budget of Hollywood movies has generally skyrocketed in recent years, this figure is definitely not low.

It is said that if De Niro hadn't agreed to participate, Warner would not have approved this project at all, even if the director of the film was Martin Scorsese.Now, because of the attention of Simon Westeros, Warner seems to have a little more confidence in this project.

In recent meetings, whether it is "Goodfellas" director Martin Scorsese or the film's producer Ivan Winkler, intentionally or unconsciously asked her about Simon Westero's contribution to "Goodfellas" Guy's script.She is a woman who has no roots in Hollywood. During this period of time, she has not encountered some situations of new actresses among the big names. They all take her for granted as Simon Westeros' lover.

At first, I was a little worried that others would despise me because of this status, but I gradually realized that most people who knew about it were just envious.

During some chats in the circle, she also learned that compared to many big names in Hollywood, the private life of this young and famous young man next to him is actually very restrained, and there are very few women who can walk by his side.So you can see how lucky she is.

lucky?

Maybe, she has never been a naive woman, and it is difficult for her to refuse such a reliance that can make her career so easy. In her 35 years of life, she has long lost the idealism of a young girl, and she is even more aware of how rare it is to meet such an opportunity in this circle.

just.

Most people may not know that since they met, she and him have actually only met twice.

Ok.

Count today, three times.

The administrative area of ​​the film city is in the southeast corner, but the post-production center arrived very quickly.

Seeing that he was about to walk directly into the post-production center in such a way, the resentment in her heart became stronger, but she could only take the initiative to say: "Simon, are you, uh, going to have dinner together tonight?"

Simon stopped, looked at the woman beside him, and shook his head: "I'm a little tired today, let's talk about it next time."

Watching the figure of the man disappear, there was even a faint urge to shed a few tears.

Brace yourself.

There are several people around him looking at him, how can he lose his composure.What's more, he lost his composure for a hateful man who was so much smaller than himself.

Too useless.

Taking a deep breath, she smiled at a pair of men and women who were looking at her, put the satchel on her shoulders, turned around and walked towards the administrative area as if nothing had happened.

It was a carelessly busy afternoon.

In the evening, when Simon left the studio, he didn't meet Renee Russell again, but Scorsese came to his studio to say hello in the afternoon.

When he arrived at the Burbank branch of Daenerys Entertainment, the female assistant was already waiting for him, reporting some things that needed his attention today.