hunt hollywood

The two came to the reception area to sit down, and Owen Wright brought in two more cups of coffee.After Owen left, Jonathan introduced the stack of folders to Simon one by one, saying: "Simon, here are some documents and memos related to you in recent weeks, from the media, from the studio, From other filmmakers, I've spoken to you about some on the phone. You'd better see it for yourself, though."

Simon nodded in response, and opened a folder for a few glances.

Jonathan waited for Simon to turn over a few pages of the document, then handed over two more scripts, and said, "Also, the screenwriter named Nora Ephron you asked me to inquire about happened to have two scripts under her name. A crime comedy called "Father and Daughter", I think it's not bad, but it has been bought by Warner Bros. Another romantic comedy called "When Harry Met Sally", very special plot The structure, though, is perhaps too out of the mainstream for the studios to have picked up on the story."

Simon took over the two scripts and flipped through them casually with a smile on his face.

Jonathan looked at Simon's expression, and then handed over the last folder, saying: "Finally, after you asked me to release the news about "Death Comes", in recent days, Warner, MGM, Columbia and Second-tier Canon, New Line and other companies have inquired about this matter with me. Although they did not give a definite reply, the leaders of these companies expressed their hope to talk to you in person.”

Simon took over the last folder and opened it. It was Jonathan's assessment of the possibility of cooperation between Warner and other companies on the "Death Comes" project.

After a brief glance, Simon put the document in front of him, then looked at Jonathan, and said, "Joe, I think we should talk about the new contract first."

What Simon signed with Jonathan at the beginning was just a simple script agency contract with a period of three years.

But now, Simon has risen rapidly in Hollywood with "Run Lola Run". If the two want to continue to cooperate, the original contract must no longer be suitable.

At this time, Jonathan piled up this large stack of script documents and memos in front of Simon, not only to show that he had devoted enough energy to him, but also to remind Simon that the two needed to renegotiate the contract.

Therefore, Jonathan just nodded with a smile when he heard Simon take the initiative to speak, waiting for him to continue.

Simon was not a stingy person, so he naturally wouldn't let Jonathan take the script agent's commission as a full-scale agent.However, considering his development plan for the next few years, it is impossible for Simon to sign a sharing contract with Jonathan.

After reorganizing his thoughts, Simon said: "Joe, I thought about it before I came back. Next, I hope we can sign a fixed salary contract, three years, 50 US dollars, what do you think?"

When Jonathan heard the conditions offered by Simon, some disappointment flashed in his eyes, but he didn't speak for a while.

Simon noticed the change in Jonathan's expression, and realized the ambiguity in his words just now, and quickly explained: "You misunderstood, Joe, it's $50 a year, not $50 for three years."

Jonathan still has some idea of ​​what Simon is about to get from "Run Lola Run".

Judging from the details he knows, Simon's personal income from the distribution of "Run Lola Run" in various channels in the future will definitely not be less than 2000 million US dollars.With such a huge amount of money, it is understandable that he is unwilling to sign an agency agreement with himself.

However, at first, I thought that Simon would only give him a fixed salary of 50 US dollars for three years. Although this offer is not too low strictly speaking, if Simon insists, in order to maintain cooperation with the boy in front of him and win opportunities for his other clients, Jonathan would also agree, but the disappointment with Simon in his heart must be inevitable.

Now, at $50 a year, Jonathan Friedman has no complaints.

In this era, only a small number of first-line superstars can earn $500 million in salary, and these people often only take a starring role in a year or two.Therefore, on average, the annual commission they bring to the broker must be less than $50.

Simon's asking price is tantamount to directly placing himself in the position of a first-line superstar who averages one full-paying film per year.Although he had a hunch that the young man's future annual income would definitely be more than this, but as an agent, Jonathan also knew that he couldn't ask for more.

With a smile on his face, Jonathan readily reached out to Simon and said, "Then, happy cooperation."

Simon also stretched out his hand to the manager and said, "It's a happy cooperation."

Naturally, there was no rush to replace the contract, and Jonathan immediately began to explain the series of documents to Simon in detail.However, within half an hour of talking, the phone on Jonathan's desk rang.

After gesturing to Simon to wait a moment, Jonathan walked over to pick up the phone, talked to the other side for a few words, then covered the microphone, quickly said "Goldberg" to Simon softly, and then continued to talk to the other side.

Simon didn't get up either, but just quietly listened to the conversation between Jonathan and Fox Pictures President Ronald Goldberg.

After a while, after hanging up the phone, Jonathan said to Simon who already had a general understanding of the situation: "Goldberg would like to invite you to have a meal at noon. Moreover, from what he said just now, Fox should have agreed to your terms."

As Jonathan said that, there was obviously some disbelief in his expression.

10% North American box office share, 5% videotape sales share.

Even Spielberg would not rush to raise harsh conditions, and Fox actually agreed to it, which is really incredible.

Although he tried his best to communicate with the film company for Simon, Jonathan originally just thought that after some bargaining, it would be very rare for Simon to finally get half of the conditions he proposed.

Chapter 075 First

Ronald Goldberg only expressed his intentions on the phone, but it was not finalized after all.In order to avoid another tug-of-war at noon, or even a stalemate again, Simon simply rejected the other party's lunch invitation, but asked Jonathan Friedman to attend instead.

Agents often act as a buffer between filmmakers and studios.

Near noon, Jonathan rushed to meet Ronald Goldberg's invitation. Simon borrowed a car from WMA, still brought a bunch of paparazzi, and rushed back to the villa in the Montana area.

Sure enough, there were also paparazzi standing guard in front of the villa.

Simon drove the car into the parking space in front of the villa. After getting out of the car, he was a little worried that the paparazzi would pounce on him. Fortunately, the group of people just stood on the side of the road outside the lawn of the villa and frantically took pictures, and some of them tried to communicate with him. , naturally to no avail.

Taking out the key to open the door, Simon heard the dense clicking sound behind him, and made up his mind to change the residence as soon as possible.This kind of open community in the United States and the residential layout of the front house and the backyard are hard to give him a sense of security. If he continues to live here, he will lose even a little privacy.

Entering the living room and putting down the suitcase, Simon immediately noticed that the message indicator light on the telephone was blinking.

I walked over and took a look, and the message was already full.

Pressing play casually, the voice of Mike Meadova, president of Orion Films, came out. There was nothing serious about it, just a few casual greetings, and hoped that Simon would call him back when he got home.The second call was from Ron McMillan. Ron expressed his congratulations on the recent box office of "Run Lola Run" and asked if Simon was free recently. Everyone who participated in the filming of "Run Lola Run" Want to throw a party to get together, it is a big sale to celebrate the film.

Simon had to rush to Malibu. After listening to two messages, he realized that the ensuing call would not be too important, so he let it play automatically, pulled up his suitcase and turned to go to the study.

This villa doesn't even have a home security system installed, and Simon doesn't plan to come back to live in it, and plans to take all important things away this time.

After freeing up the clothes in the suitcase, he carefully sorted out the manuscripts, notes, and newspaper clippings accumulated over the past six months and put them in. After confirming that there were no omissions, Simon took the suitcase back to the living room, and Sandra happened to be on the phone. Blah blah blah blah blah for "Run Lola Run" being rated R.

Simon was in Arizona when the rating of "Run Lola Run" was confirmed. After hearing the news, he was also very depressed for a while, but now he was relieved.

Movies are a business after all, and business competition has never been peaceful.Since Simon rejected the Seven Greats and chose Orion, he should be prepared to be tricked by others.

and.

After the pit is over, everyone has to continue to discuss business.

This is the way of the world.

Leaving the Montana area, Simon continued to ignore the trailing paparazzi and drove towards Malibu.

Arriving at Janet's mansion near Cape Dume Park in Malibu, Simon saw more than a dozen paparazzi guarding the side of the not-so-spacious asphalt road, and those paparazzi who came with Simon were also chasing after him Behind his car, these people have just parked their cars in a public parking lot outside the community.

Parking is currently prohibited on this community paved road.

Simon originally thought that if paparazzi drove over, should they call for their cars to be towed away.From the looks of it, he still underestimated these apparently 'battle-hardened' guys.

Before the paparazzi behind him approached, he came to the gate of Janet's mansion. Simon quickly got out of the car, squeezed through the paparazzi who had surrounded him with the sound of shutters, and pressed the button of the communicator a few times. Janet responded and returned to the car again, put on her sunglasses, and let the paparazzi around put their cameras on the front window of the car and take wild shots.

Inside the mansion.

Janet was wearing a very homely knitted sweater and jeans, and was stirring a big bowl while coquettishly saying to the phone clipped around her neck: "Mom, I know, I'm not a child... how can this work?" ...Anyway, don't let Anthony and the others come over, don't let Dad come over, and don't let Bingshan come over, you don't want me to get a boyfriend with great difficulty and break up soon... Haha, don't call her Bingshan, call her anything After all these years... oh, the doorbell rang, it must be Simon, I'm going to answer the door, that's all...bye, love you."

After speaking so quickly, Janet put down the big bowl in her hand, threw away the microphone, and ran out of the villa.

Outside the mansion.

The black sliding iron door opened slowly, and Simon still ignored the paparazzi who were already blocking the front of the car, slightly stepped on the accelerator, and slowly moved into the yard.The paparazzi insisted on following the car back to the door. Seeing that Simon's speed was still slow and steady, and he was not worried about hitting anyone, they had no choice but to back away.

The car entered the yard, and the closed iron gate was closed again.

After getting out of the car, Simon glanced at the whole row of cameras raised up above the iron gate to blindly take pictures of the yard. While unloading the luggage from the car, he said to Janet who was hiding in a blind spot: "The gate is good, better than the fence gate. , it would be perfect if it could be higher.”

Janet smiled and said, "I'll call the worker to replace the gate later."

Simon shook his head and said: "Let's forget it, it's just right now, it will be ugly if it is raised."

Having said that, Simon held a stack of folders brought back from WMA, pulled the suitcase and hid where Janet was standing. Janet reached out to take the stack of documents, and the two walked into the villa.

As soon as she entered the villa, Janet raised her chin slightly and gestured to the surroundings, saying, "How is it here?"

Simon looked at the warm and simple decoration in the villa, heard the faint sound of waves beating from the terrace, nodded, and said, "Very good, I don't want to leave now."

"Hehe," Janet smiled and put a stack of documents in her hand on the coffee table, and said, "Then marry me quickly, then half of this place will be yours."

Simon glanced at Janet up and down, and said, "Is it only half?"

"Hmm," Janet leaned over and hugged Simon, and changed her tone softly: "It's all yours, even me."

Simon lowered his head and pecked the woman's lips, and said, "Find me a study room first. Before I find a house, I will probably only be able to live here. It just so happens that I can also accompany you. A lot of paparazzi are staying outside for me. Still very worried."

Janet let go of Simon and took him to another room, but she was a little dissatisfied and said, "Why are you still looking for a house? Isn't it good to live here?"

Simon shook his head and said, "I'm not used to it."

Janet curled her lips: "Hmph, machismo."

"This has nothing to do with doctrine. Lions don't live in other people's territories. How can you understand, a kitten."

"Okay, okay, I'm a kitten," Janet said in a tone of being too lazy to argue with Simon, and led him to a room facing the sea, "Here, how is it?"

Simon looked at it, a very spacious study room.On the east side is a whole wall of bookshelves, on which are placed various handicrafts, next to the bookshelf is a large desk, and on the south side is the floor-to-ceiling windows leading to the terrace, on which there is a set of sofas for sunbathing.

"It's not bad, it would be nice to have another phone."

"Yes," Janet pointed to the cabinet under the bookshelf, and said, "Look for it. It's in the cabinet. There's a phone port here, and you can use it after you install it."

"That's no problem," Simon nodded, put the suitcase beside him, and said, "Have you prepared lunch?"

"I'm planning to bake a small cake. I don't have much left at home, so I can only make this."

Simon pushed Janet out and said, "That's it for now, let someone buy something for us in the afternoon."

After a simple lunch, Simon got into the study and started working.

Since "Run Lola Run" is much more successful than expected, Simon also plans to re-plan his next development.

Before that, he first had to build a team dedicated to himself.

Simon now only has a broker and a private lawyer, and Jonathan Friedman and George Norman are enough to fill these two positions around him.

But this is far from enough.

In addition to agents and private lawyers, Simon also needs a dedicated public relations manager to deal with media issues; to manage personal assets, Simon also needs a reliable financial manager; and Daenerys Films, Simon also wants to find a A professional manager with sufficient qualifications; finally, there is the issue of security. Although he doesn't like having people around him all the time, at least when he attends public occasions, having bodyguards around him can definitely help him avoid many problems...

There are a lot of them.

Simon spent the whole afternoon calling some contacts accumulated in the past six months, either seeking introductions or experience, and occasionally making judgments based on some information in his memory, which seemed very cautious.

He also had to be very cautious.

Take the financial manager as an example. In Simon's memory, more than one Hollywood star was tricked into bankruptcy in this regard because of misbehavior.After several considerations, Simon even simply canceled his plan to hire a financial manager, and only planned to seek an accounting firm to help him and the two companies in his hand handle accounting details and tax returns.

As for the management of personal assets, don't worry about it.What's more, although my wife is lazy, she is a graduate of a genuine business school after all, and the occasional whip can still be used.

During this period, Jonathan Friedman also called and said that he had talked with Ronald Goldberg.

Fox basically agreed to Simon's sharing terms and absolute control over the project, but Fox also asked for the minimum box office guarantee for Simon to get a share to 2000 million US dollars.

Only if Simon agrees to this can the parties proceed to discuss the specifics of the contract.

The difference between $1600 million and $2000 million is actually not that big.

Simon understood that Fox did this just to save some face, so he didn't insist, and readily agreed.

Time flies so fast when you are busy, and before you know it, the sun is setting.

Janet was also helping Simon's staff at the side, but she lost interest in less than an hour and sat on the balcony sofa with a lot of documents and materials he brought back, looking through them with relish.

After hanging up the phone again, Simon glanced at the contact number of a public relations company called PMK in front of him. He felt quite interesting, because the owner of PMK was Pat Kingsley, a famous public relations queen in Hollywood.

Pat Kingsley's most famous client is, of course, Tom Cruise.Of course, in Simon's memory, Jodie Foster, Al Pacino, Will Smith and other stars are Pat Kingsley's clients.

As for why Tom Cruise is most famous for his cooperation with each other?

Obviously, because Cruise's public image is so difficult to maintain, Pat Kingsley has done the job perfectly for more than ten years.

In the original time and space, in 2004, Cruise fired Pat Kingsley and rashly appointed his sister to be in charge of public relations work. As a result, the former Tom Cruise quickly became a sofa-jumping clown.

Just as he was about to call PMK to make an appointment, Simon heard Janet, who was lying on the sofa, suddenly laughing foolishly.

Looking up, Simon also smiled and asked, "What's wrong?"

Janet raised a script in her hand, still smiling: "Hehe, this is so interesting."

Having said that, Janet simply got up, ran to Simon and sat down in his arms, showed a page of the script, and said, "Simon, will you shoot this for your next movie?"

"You should let me read the script first."

Simon held Janet's little hand that was still shaking because of too much joy and looked at the script in front of him. It turned out to be "When Harry Met Sally" and the most memorable part of the story.

Harry and Sally were having dinner in the dining room, and suddenly discussed the issue of whether a woman's reaction on the bed was true or false.

Harry insisted that it was impossible for a woman to cheat in bed, at least not in his own case.Sally despised this very much, and woke up vividly in front of everyone in the restaurant.

Simon looked at the short plot description in the script, but the relevant scenes immediately appeared in his mind.

Thanks to the masterful performances of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, there's nothing raunchy about this episode, and it's a bit of a laugh.

There is also an old lady in my memory. After Sally yelled excitedly, she pointed to the food in front of her and told the waiter: "Bring me a piece like she did."

The effect is even more hilarious.

However, there is no such detail in the script in front of me, it should be a temporary play by the director during the filming process.

Simon made a mark on the script with a pencil, reminding himself to make up this paragraph in the future, and asked Janet with great interest: "Aren't you just pretending in bed?"