Chapter 161

The North American video of "Lola Run" has been on the market, and the overseas distribution of the film is also continuing.

In order to stimulate video sales and overseas market revenue, Simon unexpectedly won the Oscar for best editing with the help of Orion and Warner. In the following days, the media popularity even surpassed that of the last emperor who won many awards.

Most of the media tend to complain about Simon, and think that the conservative and aging of Oscar make "Lola Run" unable to get the nomination and honor it deserves.

Then, on April 13, the 41st Cannes Film Festival, which will open next month, announced the shortlist, and vulgar novel became one of the 21 films that entered the main competition.

At the press conference of the shortlist of Cannes local film festival, a reporter specially mentioned the experience of "Lola Run" in the Oscar, and asked if the famous Italian director ITO Scola, the chairman of the jury of Cannes Film Festival, would discriminate against "vulgar novel" because of Simon westero's age, although the answer was just an official cliche, and the news was sent back The United States, however, has once again triggered a heated debate.

"Vulgar novel" is scheduled for June 3. The news that Cannes films are shortlisted for the main competition unit is back home, and Orion film also released its first TV Trailer.

Because of the integrated plot structure of vulgar novel, it is not easy for the film to produce a wonderful Trailer.

Several previews provided by Orion didn't satisfy Simon, so he had to do it himself. After careful consideration, the length of the first trailer is 1 minute and 30 seconds. Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Robert Redford and other celebrities all come out. Through a series of suspense dialogue carefully captured, the picture is finally fixed on the golden box.

The plot of vulgar novel is still in a state of secrecy. Therefore, after the announcement of the trailer, the media quickly judged that it was a "looting" movie.

In fact, the judgment of nature is quite different from that of the media. However, this is exactly what Simon wants to see. Throwing out a topic to arouse media discussion has always been the most simple and effective way of film marketing. The box office curve of "when Harry meets Sally" has proved this.

In the third week of large-scale release, "when Harry meets Sally" received another $12.11 million, with a cumulative box office of $49.16 million. The decline of the whole week was finally locked at 21%. The box office decline curve was better than that of other films in the Easter season.

Although the next week's show expanded by 50% at a time, Tim Burton's "beetle juice" box office fell nearly 25% in the second week.

The box office of "good Johnny" released by Orion pictures at the same time as "when Harry meets Sally" even dropped by 51%. This week, the box office of the film only received $1.97 million. The film with a budget cost of $22 million grossed only $13.3 million in three weeks. After next week, the one month screening contract with the cinema will expire, and the film will basically withdraw from the big screen.

In Simon's view, the failure of good Johnny foreshadows Orion film's doomed decline this year.

Two years ago, after producing several box office blockbusters, the blind expansion of Orion film this year's production and distribution scale is completely the same as that of the big seven, even surpassing MGM and other major film companies with relatively low performance.

However, except for vulgar novel, Simon didn't see the second film with great potential in Orion's long list.

After last year's stock market crash, life in Hollywood will not be so good in the next few years. The decline of Orion is as inevitable as canon, new world, de Laurentiis entertainment and other companies, and Simon can only watch coldly.

At the beginning of this month, we negotiated with Disney and signed the overseas distribution rights contract of when Harry meets Sally. In late April, danelis pictures received $30 million in sale out money.

Compared with the $15 million production cost of when Harry meets Sally, the company has doubled its direct return. Of course, the proceeds of the film also need to be shared with the British handicraft film industry, which has participated in the investment together.

According to the original contract, danielis pictures will get 60% of the film's net profit excluding production costs. In this way, danielis pictures can get 16.5 million dollars for the $30 million sale. After offsetting the production cost of $15 million, Denise pictures will be able to get 60% of all the next revenue.

Before "when Harry meets Sally" was released, danelis film industry had been spending money like water. Now it has finally started to earn money, and Amy Pascal's tight mind has obviously relaxed a lot.

Simon can see that she has been worried that Denise pictures will rise and collapse as fast as canon and other companies.

Although Simon has a lot of wealth now, if danilisi pictures really follows canon and other companies, he will not continue to spend money on this company. Amy obviously knows this very well.

However, the expansion of daenerys film industry seems to be equally blind, but Simon knows how much the company has won in a series of projects.Whether it's the big seven or the second tier film companies like Orion, they usually invest in a large number of projects in order to expect several box office blockbusters. As long as this can be achieved, the film company can basically make a good profit.

Due to Simon's advantage as a prophet, danelis film has raised several big fish directly in the fishing net.

April 21.

In the new week, Simon got up early in the morning and saw from the Los Angeles Times that the negotiations between the producers' Union and the American writers' Union broke down again.

Santa Monica.

Denise film headquarters, arrived at the company at eight o'clock, Simon watched the recent days of "Rain Man" sample, time just to work time. Amy also arrived at the company ahead of time. When Simon came out of the screening room, she said, "Simon, have you heard the news?"

Because it's Monday, Denise pictures' department heads and a series of project leaders will hold a weekly meeting.

Simon and Amy went to the conference room together, nodded with other executives who had already arrived, and said, "of course, so our reality TV show project can enter the substantive production stage."

The talks between the producers' Union and the writers' Union broke down. Naturally, it is impossible to restart the talks on the basis of restart. Both sides need to make a pinch and come to the negotiation table again, at least next month.

According to the operation process of American TV industry, in March and April every year, TV program manufacturers of all sizes will start to find projects and make trial episodes, and then sell them to several major TV networks and cable TV stations in the annual TV program promotion season in May.

Due to the strike of the writers, not to mention the trial episodes, many film dealers now don't even have a few scripts in their hands.

Originally, if we could reach a settlement this month and rush the construction period, we would not delay the promotion season next month. The negotiation broke down again, and naturally there was no way to talk about it. If we miss this most important time node, the TV business of several major TV networks will be affected throughout the year.

Amy nodded when Simon said this, but said, "Simon, I heard that WGA is trying to reach an agreement with second - and third tier production companies recently. What should we do?"

Simon thought about it. In 1988, during the strike, a large number of second - and third tier production companies signed agreements with WGA ahead of big studios and television networks. However, the Hollywood giant's anti-monopoly action was also very decisive. The four major TV networks directly announced that they would no longer purchase programs from the production companies that signed contracts with WGA in advance. Then WGA sued the four major TV networks with an anti-monopoly lawsuit.

As the information flashed through his mind, Simon shook his head and said, "no matter what other people do, we don't participate."

Even if WGA can win the antitrust lawsuit, it will be easy for the TV network to give small shoes to the second - and third tier production companies who are going against the water ahead of time. What's more, going to WGA ahead of time won't bring any benefits to Denise pictures. Simon doesn't want to get involved in this mess.

Simon and Amy are chatting. The senior executives of various departments and relevant project leaders arrive one after another, and the meeting starts soon.

A large number of projects need a lot of manpower. After several months of continuous recruitment and expansion, danilisi film now has film, television, distribution, personnel, finance and other departments. Even if it does not count the temporary employees of a single project, the number of fixed employees of danilisi film has exceeded 50.

Simon has been looking for new office space for the company recently.

However, this is not an easy thing.

If all goes well, Simon plans to upgrade danilisi film industry to danilisi entertainment next year, and all major departments such as film, television and distribution will also be subsidiaries, which will surely lead to another large-scale expansion of the company.

Denise pictures has moved once, and Simon doesn't want to make such a fuss in a year or two.

The meeting lasted more than two hours, and it was near noon when everyone dispersed.

On the whole, all the projects of Denise pictures are progressing steadily.

"Instinct" and "Rain Man" have been filmed.

Scream will also be filmed in a small town in Northern California at the end of the month.

The negotiation between the producers' Union and the writers' Union broke down, and Simon was determined to make "dead Poetry Society" and "steel magnolia flower" the two hottest schedules at the end of the year. Therefore, the preparation of these two projects will also be accelerated, and it is expected that shooting will start in the next one to two months.

The two low-cost films "sisters" and "metropolises" were selected from Sundance, and Simon gave them to the following producers.

As for the movie "Thunderbolt Blue Angel", Simon just holds a kind of "men make money, women spend money" mind, and let it go more thoroughly. Katherine can toss about as much as she wants, and if she loses it, she will lose it. Who let her be her own woman.

Finally, in addition to the four reality shows still in the pipeline, only Batman, which Simon himself controls, is left.

After the regular meeting in the morning and that afternoon, Denise pictures opened the first round of casting for Batman.Simon has released the tough conditions for playing Bruce Wayne ahead of time.

With a five-part contract and a 15-year contract term, danelis pictures fully controls the terms of the contract.

It's no surprise that all the first-line stars in Hollywood who are trying to get Batman's role have backed out, and most of the second-line stars have made the same choice.

However, the biggest advantage of Hollywood is that it never lacks actors.

Even though danilisi film has put forward many other restrictions under several strict contract conditions, the company still received more than 1200 resumes before the first round of casting. Simon naturally does not have enough time to participate in such a large-scale audition. The casting work in the afternoon is entirely in the charge of several casting directors.

In the first round, there will be no face-to-face audition, but most of them will be wiped out by looking up resumes and performance videos. In the end, only about 200 people will enter the second round.

Simon also knows that this kind of operation will certainly cause many actors with good qualifications to lose the election, and even be carried by several casting directors. But the world is like this. If you meet the conditions and are eliminated, it can only be said that they are not lucky. If you do not meet the conditions but can enter the second round audition through the network, it is also strength.

Just think about it in your dreams.

Meanwhile, Simon and Amy come to Culver City in the afternoon.

Calver city is located to the east of Beverly city and to the north of Santa Monica city. Compared with Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Burbank and other cities, Carver city is not very conspicuous in Greater Los Angeles. Simon arrived here mainly because the MGM studio was in the center of Carver city.

In the process of transforming MGM into a hotel company, gambling tycoon Kirk cochrian, the owner of MGM, sold the MGM studio, which has a history of more than half a century, to a TV program production company called lorimar Telepictures.

In the previous few years, lorimar was also expanding vigorously, supported by the influx of hot money capital into the entertainment industry.

With the outbreak of the stock market crash and the current Hollywood strike, lorimar, which has a more single business field than new world entertainment, is inevitably in trouble. If it is not for some information from other people in his memory, Simon has never heard of lorimar in his previous life.

Now lorimar is looking to sell its assets to avoid bankruptcy.

MGM Studios, with a long history, is undoubtedly the most valuable property owned by lorimar. It took half a day to walk around the 20 hectare MGM studio. Simon and Amy left together. In the face of Amy's questioning eyes, Simon just shook his head regretfully.

Lorimar's offer for MGM Studios is not expensive. It's $100 million.

However, Simon found that most of the studios and buildings on the set were dilapidated. If danielis pictures bought them, they would have to spend at least another 100 million dollars to repair them. Moreover, although it has a long history, the location of MGM studio is not satisfactory to Simon.

MGM studio is relatively close to Beverly Hills, but it is far away from Malibu, which is 30 to 40 kilometers. Simon plans to live in Malibu. If he buys MGM Studios, he will spend at least two or three hours on his way to work every day.