hunt hollywood

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"Good evening, Bob, is Havana finished yet... of course no problem, I happen to be free next week, and you make arrangements to call me."

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"You are so beautiful tonight, Julia... Yes, I know about "Captain Hawk", Steven called me specifically. Daenerys Entertainment just doesn't have a project suitable for you, There's nothing wrong with you playing Tinkerbell."

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"Pierce, I didn't expect you to meet Joanna..."Northern Lights"? Maybe I should find time to watch it."

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"No need to worry too much, Joe, "Terminator 2" is much better than "The Abyss", and I am also watching personally, and will definitely make sure that Cameron completes this project within 7000 million US dollars... well, you can Tell Barry, in fact, I thought 5000 million was unlikely from the beginning."

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"I'm sorry, sir, but you can submit scripts to Daenerys Entertainment's writing department, which is not my working hours."

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"It seems that you already know each other, Jane, and Holly...I think the heroine of "The Piano" is completely tailor-made for you...Well, Ella, you arrange a formal meeting next week , call Harvey again, let everyone have a good talk... I, I will go over if I have time."

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"I saw the finished film of "Ten Days of Dangerous Love" for the first time last week, and I have to say that the performance of the two of you is even better than I expected...By the way, May, how is Dakota doing recently? ?”

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"Maggie, isn't Warren here tonight... oh, happy breakup... Haha, stop, I don't want to gossip with you... Speaking of which, don't you think you should Share it with me... well, let's change the topic."

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"Unfortunately, Curt, the heroine of "The Flash" has basically been determined, and the schedule of "Scream 3" and "The Flash" is relatively close, you are not suitable to participate in this movie... If there is a suitable project, I will definitely consider yours first... "Fighting Wits", Curt, if you want to act, I can agree now, but you are almost stereotyped by horror movies, and you will be marked again Is it a vase label for comedy films... Spend two or three years, try out various types of roles, don't care whether it is a heroine, and don't pay too much attention to the salary, the most important thing is to hone your acting skills and broaden your play. After two or three years, You can probably complete the transition."

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"Nice to meet you Ms. Mikaela...yeah, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills isn't cancelled, it's just on hold for this season, I think Iger should have talked to you guys...well, you get Wes now Tello's personally confirmed...Dinner, tomorrow night, I'm not in Los Angeles tomorrow...The night after tomorrow, unfortunately, can't do it...so you can talk to my assistant later, she's all on my schedule Arranged."

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Shutting through the crowd in the lobby, Simon continued to compliment, seduce, flatter, tempt, lobby, and recommend for more than an hour, and finally got time to gather with Amy Pascal and other company executives.

Robert Iger was also in Los Angeles these two days. While everyone was talking and laughing, something Iger inadvertently mentioned quickly aroused Simon's interest.

The matter is related to the ESPN TV station under Metropolitan/ABC Group, the parent company of the ABC TV network. Although Iger left ABC, the relevant contacts have not been broken.

North America's largest sports TV station ESPN, which is as famous as CNN, HBO, MTV and other cable stations in the original time and space, was established in 1979. It was initially invested by the famous Getty family in the United States. It was the younger generation who was kidnapped and cut off one ear but still refused The Getty family who paid the ransom.

The Getty family has long lost its glory due to the continuous heir wars. The shares of ESPN were also sold during the family infighting in the 80s. 80% of the shares were acquired by ABC, and the other 20% of the shares fell into the hands of Nabisco. , With ESPN's prospects constantly improving, this shareholding ratio has been maintained since 1984.

In the process, the ABC television network was acquired by Metropolis Media and integrated into Metropolis/ABC Group.Nabisco was acquired by the Reynolds Tobacco Company for a huge sum of US$250 billion, making it the largest leveraged buyout in American business history. ESPN's shares have also unknowingly changed their parent company.

Now, Reynolds Nabisco, deeply mired by a disastrous merger a year ago, has to pay off massive debts in the form of massive asset sales.As a tobacco and food company, Reynolds Nabisco's ESPN stake naturally became a 'non-core asset' that needed to be sold to pay off debt.

Although he knew that Simon had always hoped to develop into the TV industry, Robert Iger did not expect that he would be interested in this equity, and explained: "Simon, this is only a 20% stake in ESPN. Very high, like $2 million, with the approval of the Mets/ABC Group.”

At its peak, ESPN was valued at US$500 billion. In the original time and space, some media even commented that Michael Eisner contributed to Disney’s US$190 billion merger of Metropolis/ABC. The biggest gain was ESPN.In my memory, it was precisely in the 90s that ESPN completely secured its position as the largest sports television network in the United States.

With an investment of 2 million US dollars now, Simon believes that ten years later, the dividends for this batch of holdings will be more than that every year.

Although Simon has more demands on ESPN and the entire Mets/ABC group, taking the 20% stake now is a very cost-effective investment anyway.

Telling Iger to collect a more detailed information for himself as soon as possible, Simon looked at the time, and it was already past nine o'clock in the evening, so he took the female assistant to leave early.It takes just over an hour to fly from Los Angeles to Seattle, but it should be close to the wee hours of the morning when we set off now.

Chapter 372 Taking Advantage of Age (Revised)

Entering the last week of September, MCA and Panasonic had another meeting on Tuesday, September 9th. The result was still unhappy. Daenerys Entertainment, which was closely watched by the media, did not make any progress. The case appears to have reached a stalemate.

After the "Forbes" American 400 richest list at the beginning of the month passed, this week, the team of the Westeros system restarted the preliminary preparations for the acquisition of Bell Atlantic. Before the exposure, it took a 4.9% stake in Bell Atlantic in advance.

Although "Forbes" magazine will release the list of the world's richest people next month, there is no suspense about Simon's ranking on this list, so it will not cause too much disturbance.

On Daenerys TV, the sitcom "Seinfeld" personally selected by Simon at the beginning of the year also officially launched on the ABC television network this Tuesday. Millionaire" as the lead.

After the official launch, the first episode of "Seinfeld" received 1560 million viewers, which directly led ABC to announce that it would renew the next two seasons at once.

In terms of movies, David Lynch, who previously won the Cannes Palme d'Or, "Wild at Heart" opened with 532 screens last Friday. From September 9st to September 21th, the box office reached 9 million US dollars in the first seven days, and the average box office exceeded 27 US dollars, which exceeded many people's expectations.

After seeing the three-day box office data of "Wild at Heart" in the first weekend, Gaomen Pictures began to urgently deploy screens. It is estimated that the number of screens in the second week of the opening will reach about 800. The film is also expected to hit 2000 million US dollars in North America. box office mark.Although it signed a share distribution contract, the box office in North America exceeded 2000 million US dollars. Counting the subsequent distribution of video tapes and TV broadcasting rights, Daenerys Entertainment can still make a good fortune.

Compared with "Wild at Heart", Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore's new film "Family Journey", which was released on September 9, failed to arouse any interest from the audience after several screenings. Response, in the end, it only hastily recovered 7 US dollars at the box office in the North American market.

Gaomen Films invested 100 million US dollars to obtain the North American omni-channel copyright of "Journey to Family". Judging from the box office results in theaters, losses are inevitable.

Including "Paradise Cinema", which was bought by Universal Pictures for a large sum of money and was screwed up due to a mistake in the distribution strategy, neither of Tonadore's two films made any waves in the North American market. Difficult to win the favor of Hollywood.

Except, of course, Simon.

If Tonadore's two excellent films, "The Pianist on the Sea" and "The Beautiful Legend of Sicily" still appear, Simon will definitely make a move.

Los Angeles.

After a brief day off in Seattle with the female assistant, Simon returned to Hollywood to start a week of work.

Knowing that Simon intends to readjust the advancement speed of the DC movie universe, Warner Bros. Pictures CEO Terry Semel immediately expressed his opposition, and then Steve Ross also called Simon's office.

The follow-up plan of the first phase of the DC movie universe has always been the highlight project of Time Warner's continuous publicity for more than half a year after the merger.

Moreover, although most investors recognize the win-win status of Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner Group in the DC movie universe plan, there are also shareholders who criticize Time Warner management for giving too much interest and initiative to Daenerys. wire entertainment.

It is conceivable that once the planned development cycle of the first phase of the DC movie universe plan with ten films in five years is suddenly extended to seven to ten years, those shareholders who have been accusing Time Warner management of giving too much profit will definitely be more dissatisfied. Investors on the management side of this site may also change their attitude.

What's more serious is that this incident will definitely affect the stock price of Time Warner Group.

Now that he has made up his mind, Simon will not change his mind easily.

After several disputes, Time Warner still had to compromise, because the control of the entire DC movie universe is actually completely in the hands of Simon.If there is a real trouble, Daenerys Entertainment is definitely not afraid of completely shelving the plan, but Time Warner cannot bear the consequences caused by it.

However, Simon also made appropriate compensation.

The last two spots remaining in Daenerys Entertainment's 10-film plan were all handed over to Warner Bros. Pictures, further tying the interests of both parties together.Moreover, Simon also agreed that he would not officially disclose this adjustment to the outside world, and would only unknowingly delay the plan through some excuses such as poor project preparation during the implementation process.

Reluctantly reached an agreement on this matter, Simon understood that there must still be cracks in the cooperation between Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner Group.

However, such things are inevitable.

If Daenerys Entertainment and the entire Westeros system wants to continue to expand, it is destined to harm the interests of more and more people.

Friday, January 9th.

In the office LOFT on the second floor of Daenerys Studios, the team responsible for the DC movie universe project occupies a dedicated office area next to Daenerys special effects company in the 2nd LOFT, where all aspects of DC movie universe planning will be held produce.

Moreover, the team is stationed here, and it is also convenient to discuss the feasibility of various special effects scenes with Daenerys Special Effects Company at any time.

An activity room of more than 70 square meters in the DC movie universe office area. Simon, Amy and Semel all appeared here today. The activity room was also used as an audition a few days ago. At this time, the walls are densely packed with various actors. The photos mainly involve the three series of "Batman", "Wonder Woman" and "The Flash".

The core role of "Batman" has already been decided, and there is no need to discuss it.

A series of main creators of "Wonder Woman" have also been finalized during this time, including Famke Janssen who played Diana Prince, Joanna Cassidy who played Queen Hippolyta, Hippo Linda Hamilton, who played Queen Lute's sister Antiope, and so on.During this week, the various supporting roles in the series, such as Steve Trevor and Ares, the God of War, were finally decided.

What everyone is discussing today is the final candidate for the characters of "The Flash".Of course, speaking of discussions, the power to make the final decision is still in the hands of Simon.

"Since everyone agrees, the role of Barry Allen is given to Jason Gedrick."

After carefully watching a few samples and the background information of the actors, after some discussion, Simon said so.

Jason Gedrick, 25 years old, debuted in 1983, previously participated in "Guaranteed Admission" starring Tom Cruise, "Born on the Fourth of July" directed by Oliver Stone, Michael Hoffman His acting skills and qualifications are sufficient in films such as "Land of Dreams", and Simon also appreciates the other party's performance in "Land of Dreams".

Moreover, when Simon was invited by Robert Redford to watch his new film "Havana" on Wednesday night, Redford also specially recommended Jason Gedrick, who had entered the final list, to Simon.The difference between the last few candidates was not that great. Jason Gedrick had enough conditions in all aspects, so Simon just sold a favor to Radford.

After everyone nodded, a staff member in the activity room nailed a photo of Jason Gedrick on the wall where the leading actor of "The Flash" was.

After finalizing this matter, Simon let go of another document in front of him and said, "Next, the heroines, Tracy Paulland, Robin Wright, and Amanda Wise, let's revisit a few passages of the three of them. audition tape."

After Simon finished speaking, the staff in the activity room closed the curtains and turned on the projector without ordering.

After a while, Tracy Paulland's audition video first appeared on the projector screen at the side of the activity room.

Tracy Paulland is 30 years old this year, debuted earlier than Jason Gedrick, and has equally rich acting experience.In addition, this actress is also the wife of Michael Fox, a popular niche in Hollywood, which is the most important condition for her to enter the final round of casting.

Robin White, 24 years old this year.Not only the "Jenny" in "Forrest Gump" and the "Mrs. Shimoki" in "House of Cards" in Simon's memory, but Robin White also happened to be the first character who was produced by New World Pictures and was later replaced by Daenerys. The heroine of the hit series "Santa Barbara" that Entertainment took over.

"Santa Barbara" started broadcasting in 1984 and officially stopped broadcasting last year. During this period, Robin White also participated in Rob Reiner's "The Princess Bride" and other films.

Amanda Pais, 31 years old, was born as an actress in the same TV series. Because she is the oldest, she has more acting experience than the previous two.Moreover, Amanda Paes should be considered the most beautiful among the three candidate actresses.

After the audition videos were played one by one, Simon looked at the people around him.

Terry Semel first said: "I think Tracy Paulland is good. As Michael Fox's wife, this can also be used as a very good publicity point."

Although the "Back to the Future" series starring Michael Fox has come to an end, it is not a problem for this popular young man in Hollywood to continue to maintain his first-line popularity for several years.As Fox's wife, like Demi Moore, Tracy Paulland does have a natural edge.

However, as soon as Semel finished speaking, Amy said: "I don't think the advantage of Michael Fox's wife is obvious, Amanda Pais should be better, and she has more acting experience than the other two. Moreover, her image and temperament are more in line with the setting of Iris West's journalist."

George Cosmatus, the director of "The Flash" recommended by Warner, said at this time: "But, Amy, Amanda Pais is 31 years old."

George Cosmatus has served as the director of big-budget films such as "First Blood 2" and "Blood to Catch the Devil". Although it does not meet Simon's criteria for choosing the director of the DC movie universe series, Warner is not as concerned as Simon after all. Big, so I hope there will be a more experienced director directing the "Flash" series.

The budget for "The Flash" was borne by Warner, and Cosmatus was unable to intervene in crossover films such as "Justice League". After several communications, it was confirmed that the other party's production ideas were not too inconsistent with his own, and Simon agreed.

Hearing what Cosmatus said, Amy picked up a photo and showed it to him, saying, "George, if I say that Amanda is 20 years old, maybe some people will believe it?"

Amanda Pais has a soft Asian face. Although she is 31 years old, she is well maintained. Some people believe that she is 20 years old.

Now that the last three are selected, Simon is actually satisfied with every actor, and it is no problem for any one of them to finally be the heroine of "The Flash".The other few people will discuss it seriously just because they know Simon's attitude.Otherwise, everyone can simply wait for Simon to decide on his own, and there is no need to waste words.

"But, Amy," Cosmatus continued, "Amanda Pais is really beautiful now, but if the "Flash" series lasts for ten years, can you imagine that she will still be at 41 in ten years? look?"

Simon didn't notice this problem at first, but Cosmatus' words suddenly woke him up.

Imagine the "Friends" series that has lasted for ten years in my memory. When the series started, the heroines were all very good, but at the end, even Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox, who were the most handsome, gave a bad impression. People have a strong feeling that time is a butcher's knife.

Moreover, even without the "Friends" analogy, the "Iron Man" series, the "Little Pepper" Gwyneth Paltrow, who was originally quite attractive, appeared on the scene after the series lasted for ten years, which is already unbearable to look at.

Amy said again at this time: "According to what you said, George, Amanda Wise and Tracy Paulland can be eliminated directly."

Simon ignored the dispute between the two and looked at the information in front of him again.

Although any of the three candidates is fine for playing Iris West, Simon naturally has some tendencies, and he originally preferred Amanda Paes.This actress does not lack the intelligence of a female reporter, but she also has another kind of capable temperament.

Moreover, in the plot of "The Flash", Iris West is definitely not a vase-like existence, because of her profession as a reporter, she will also trigger many plots, including the plot of the DC movie universe crossover.

Amanda Pais in the original time and space is not very famous, and Simon can't remember what she will look like in ten years. What's more, Simon can also see that this woman should have undergone plastic surgery, and he didn't care too much about it. A little bit, but it is obvious that women who have plastic surgery are actually more vulnerable to the ravages of time.

After thinking about this, Simon directly drew a cross on Amanda Pais's profile page, then looked up, interrupting the dispute between Amy and George, and said: "Amy, George's words just reminded me that age is indeed a very important factor. Important question, I remember thinking about it before, if George hadn’t reminded me, I would have almost forgotten it, Amanda Paes is really not suitable, PASS.”

Amy paused, nodded, and said, "So, what about Tracy Paulland?"

Simon didn't hesitate too much, and said, "Get rid of it too."

Three to two, the heroine of "The Flash" is ready to come out.

Everyone in the office also realized that a certain girl who was only 24 years old this year had unknowingly taken advantage of her age.

Chapter 373 The Hearst Family (Revised)

Any branch series of the DC movie universe, even if it can only reach half the box office level of "Batman: Beginning of War" in the future, is enough to support the performance of a major studio.Therefore, the top executives of Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner Group will personally come forward to finalize the role candidates for the project.

Similarly, because these roles represent opportunities for many actors to step up to the sky, the entire Hollywood, whether it is those actors who are looking forward to it or various brokerage companies, are paying close attention to any rumors from Daenerys Studios. Related Information.

When the news of the finalization of the male and female protagonists of "The Flash" came out, not to mention the joy of the parties involved, countless eyes inside and outside Hollywood instantly focused on Jason Gedrick and Robin White, both of whom were only 24 and [-] years old. Man, who became the focus of Hollywood's attention in just a few hours.

Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner Group allow actors who have signed a long-term contract with the DC movie universe to appear in other movie projects. Although there are very strict restrictions, when the DC movie universe team has not formally contacted the parties to sign the contract, many producers The studios have already handed out a series of offers to the two actors' agencies, trying to get them ahead of schedule when they are not participating in DC movie universe projects.

In the morning, the candidates for the male and female protagonists of "The Flash" were confirmed, and in the afternoon, the core supporting roles of the project were also finalized.

Although not comparable to the hero and heroine, these people also received a lot of attention.

Speaking of which, the casting process of the DC movie universe is very different from the Hollywood tradition.

Traditional Hollywood film projects are constantly contacting and negotiating with filmmakers, and slowly piece together the entire team.In the DC movie universe project, the initiative is entirely on the side of the producer, because this series will not deliberately pursue any first-line star. Superheroes such as Batman, Superman, and The Flash are household names in themselves. .

Therefore, when the casting starts, if an actor wants to get a certain role, as long as he passes the initial selection, he must first sign an agreement of intent. Accept, then there is no need to waste the time of both parties.

This kind of casting process also means that once an actor is selected, the two parties can quickly sign a formal contract, and there is no need to argue about the details.If an actor suddenly changes his mind after being selected and wants to raise the price, not only will he be abandoned immediately, but he will also face huge claims.

After confirming the main cast of "The Flash", the subsequent signing and arranging for the actors to carry out related physical fitness and performance training will be taken over by someone.

Simon sent Terry Semel and others away, and as soon as he returned to his office in the administrative area, the female assistant followed him in and told him that James Raybould had called before and said that there was something very important.