Simon looked at the situation in front of him, and wondered why the first production meeting of "The Butterfly Effect" fell into such a-for-tat situation.

However, considering the attitudes of David Giller and Brian De Palma, Simon is not too worried about the progress of the matter, and these two Hollywood celebrities who are also not lacking in voice obviously have the same position as himself.

Confirming this, Simon put his mind at ease and secretly began to analyze the situation in front of him.

Hollywood also has a very complex power structure. But usually, if you want to determine the size of a person's authority in Hollywood, it is actually very simple, you only need to look at his subordination, that is, which level of Hollywood the person is directly responsible for.

From David Giller's words just now, Simon realized that the other party should be directly responsible to Ronald Goldberg, the president of Fox Films, and not under the control of Peter Sanders, the vice president of Fox, and the two can be said to be equal.

Even, judging from the momentum of the communication between the two, Simon also sensed that David Giller clearly had the upper hand.

Since he was going to work together on the "Butterfly Effect" project, Simon naturally did some homework in advance.

David Giller, who is in his fifties this year, is the producer of Fox's "Alien 2", which is being released, and Simon is well aware of this. Then, combined with the deliberate contrast in David Gieller's words just now, Simon realized that Peter Sanders was likely to have something to do with Fox's "Space Station" project that failed at the box office in the summer.

With a budget of $18 million, the best schedule in early June, the box office is only a little over 9 million, which is not ordinarily big.

It turned out to be just as Simon had predicted.

With David Giller's last words, Peter Sanders's face suddenly looked a little unsightly, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and then he said: "David, I am only responsible for the company's $10 million investment by doing this, and I don't mean to target anyone." ”

David Giller felt Peter Sanders' momentum soften, and he stopped chasing and fighting, and said, "Of course, this is your responsibility. Still, Peter, what you need to make sure is that the film investment is being used in the right place, not dictating to the content of the film, which is my job with Brian. ”

Peter Sanders sensed the non-negotiable strength in David Giller's tone, hesitated for a moment, and then shrugged: "Okay, I hope you don't mess up the movie." ”

The seizure of power failed.

Simon secretly came to such a conclusion in his heart, glanced at Peter Sanders again, and realized at the same time that this is a guy who is very good at bullying the weak and afraid of the wind.

Peter Saunders' attempt to seize the creative lead of "The Butterfly Effect" was defeated by David Giller, and the next meeting was obviously much more normal.

Even so, David Giller and Brian de Palma still had a lot of suggestions for the script revisions.

David Giller's comments focused on the title of the movie and the ending of the story, which is similar to what was just mentioned in the memo.

As a producer who needs to think about the future commercial prospects of the film, David Giller also wants the film to have a more popular name. At the same time, David also hopes that Simon will rewrite a more gentle ending instead of ending with the male protagonist strangling himself in his mother's womb.

This is undoubtedly back to the original ending.

Brian de Palma's opinion was to compress the protagonist's childhood scenes to less than 20 minutes, so as not to make the foreshadowing too long.

Compared to the initial memo that was almost chaotic, the opinions of both of them at this time were very professional, and Simon, although he could not fully agree with it, was also very serious about dealing with it.

The three main creators discussed as if no one was around, but Peter Sanders, who was left aside, did not leave, still lying in the conference room, occasionally interjecting a few words. It wasn't until lunchtime that Peter Sanders got up to say goodbye, saying that he had other work in the afternoon and would not come back.

In the internal restaurant of Fox Studios, after several contacts, David Giller and Brian de Palma both had a good impression of Simon, a promising young man, and after ordering lunch, David Giller also took the initiative to reveal some secrets to Simon.

It turned out that "Space Station", which failed at the box office in the summer, was a project that Peter Sanders matched, Fox not only gave the film a production budget of $18 million, but also the best movie schedule, and Ronald Goldberg, president of Fox Films, also personally named the executive producer.

All of this is because of the heroine of "Space Station", named Kate Capshaw, Steven Spielberg's fiancée.

Hearing this, Simon also immediately understood what Fox was doing.

In the original time and space, it is no exaggeration to say that in the last thirty years of the twentieth century, Hollywood was almost Spielberg's world.

With the success of films such as "Jaws", "Alien ET", "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Jurassic Park", Spielberg is completely a star-studded presence in Hollywood. Although Spielberg belongs to the three direct directors of Warner, Universal and Paramount, apart from these three, any other company is also trying to get along with Spielberger.

In addition to "Space Station" just now, Simon recently saw on "The Hollywood Reporter" that Disney has also just approved an animated live-action film with Spielberg's Amberlin Pictures, called "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".

In order to be part of the 'Spielberg camp,' Disney has set a budget of $45 million for the film. You must know that in the 80s, the budget cost of Hollywood's big-budget movies was generally controlled within $20 million. Only films related to Spielberg can easily break through this heavy budget limit, and even increase the average budget cost several times.

In the restaurant, I noticed a faint envy and fascination on Simon's face, and the two middle-aged people, who were already forty or fifty years old, looked at each other and smiled.

Every year, countless young people in Hollywood dream of becoming a second Spielberg, but few can achieve something in the end.

But the young man in front of him, who has only been in Hollywood for less than two months, has already attracted a lot of attention, coupled with Simon's undoubted talent, David Giller and Brian De Palma both realized that Simon will definitely be able to break through in Hollywood in the future.

Therefore, at this time, the two Hollywood celebrities, who have already reached middle age and become famous, do not mind pushing this young man easily.

David Giller sparked Simon's ambition a little, and Brian de Palma, who was also sitting across from Simon, asked, "Simon, I heard Jonathan say that you are going to make an experimental film, can you talk about it?" ”

Simon didn't realize that the two middle-aged people in front of him were intentionally or unintentionally thinking together, and even if he knew, he would only be grateful for the other party's kindness. In his previous life, he had been in a similar circle for more than ten years, and Simon knew that in this kind of circle, connections and even favors were important.

"Actually, I wanted to talk about it in the morning meeting," Simon heard Brian De Palma's question, took out the script and storyboard of "Lola Run" from his backpack on the chair next to him, handed it to David Giller and Brian De Palma, respectively, and said, "David, and Brian, I don't think we need to change the name of the movie "The Butterfly Effect." In that incident some time ago, due to a lot of media reports, many people have actually noticed the term 'butterfly effect'. Moreover, the experimental film I plan to make called "Lola Run" can also explain the concept of the 'butterfly effect' very vividly. At that time, if Fox can give some media resources to support, through this film, the concept of the 'butterfly effect' will spread more widely. In the end, even if some people still don't understand the meaning of this word, as long as the overall popularity of the movie is operated, this set of words can become a suspense to attract audiences into the theater. ”

Although he realized Simon's careful intention to use Fox to help promote his film, Simon's remarks about film marketing, which made David Giller, who had just opened the script of "Lola Run", nod slightly. Next to David Giller, Brian de Palma was attracted by Simon's highly professional storyboard drawings.

Seeing that both of them were interested, Simon shifted the conversation to Lola Run, continuing: "About Lola Run, this is an experimental film with a parallel three-part structure. The story is simple, Lola's boyfriend Manny accidentally loses $100,000, and in order to prevent her boyfriend from being killed by her boss, Lola must raise $100,000 in 20 minutes and rush to Manny's location. However, I wanted to show the story through the video game's playthrough mode. According to the video game's rollback setting, Laura makes three different attempts in the same scenario in order to raise $100,000 and rush to her boyfriend's side. The results of these three attempts varied, and at the same time, each run of Lola also had a very subtle impact on the lives of some of the people she met on the road, and these effects continued to amplify, eventually leading to completely different life experiences for these people, which is the butterfly effect. ”

The script for "The Butterfly Effect" is not very long, and David Giller listens to Simon's commentary and has quickly flipped through the scene where Lola bumps into a woman pushing a stroller at the first intersection. Brian de Palma was fascinated by Simon's storyboard sketches, and did not ignore Simon's explanation, looking up at this time and asking, "Simon, how are you going to represent this 'butterfly effect'?"

"Photo montage," Simon replied dryly, "Every time Laura meets a clue person, she can intersperse a quick photo montage to show the rest of their lives." ”

Hearing Simon's explanation, Brian de Palma thought for a moment, and gradually showed an expression of appreciation on his face, and couldn't help but raise his hand and gently tap on the table, saying, "Very amazing idea." ”

Although he had already seen this form of expression in the script in advance, David Giller still nodded in agreement at this time, and praised without hesitation: "Very good." ”

David Giller and Brian de Palma have both been in Hollywood for decades, and the longer they spend in Hollywood, the more they appreciate how difficult it is to innovate in this circle.

As Simon continued to explain, the two even vaguely felt that Simon's movie, if done well, would definitely become a learning and imitation object for many Hollywood filmmakers in the future.

The waiter in the restaurant had already brought lunch, but none of the three had any intention of eating.

After chatting carefully for more than half an hour, David Giller said, "So, Simon, you mean, you plan to use your "Butterfly Effect" remuneration to complete this movie?"

Simon nodded, "yes." ”

David Giller thought for a moment and said, "Your contract remuneration is a total of $200,000, and after deducting the broker's commission and set aside taxes, there is only $150,000 left at most." IF YOU SHOOT WITH A 16MM CAMERA, IT MIGHT BE ENOUGH, BUT IT'S A WASTE OF YOUR SCRIPT, SO WHY NOT MAKE IT INTO A STANDARD 35MM FILM?"

Simon paused and said, "David, I originally planned to shoot on 35MM film. ”

David Giller also paused this time, and said, "You mean, $150,000, 35MM film shooting? Simon, you have to understand that although it seems that there are only two different shooting modes, 16MM film and 35MM film are definitely two completely different production specifications. Your film also involves a lot of location scenes, and without the support of a complete professional crew, it is very difficult to shoot in real time. So, $150,000 can't finish the movie at all. ”

Hearing David Giller, a well-known Hollywood producer with decades of production experience, say this, Simon finally confirmed a doubt that has been haunting his mind for a while.

The original "Lola Run", the production level in all aspects, whether it is the picture, soundtrack, lighting, set or even editing, there is not much sign of a low-budget movie at all. Simon had always thought that this might be due to the genius of director Tom Tykway. The production cost and elasticity of the film industry have always been very large.

Moreover, Simon is not very aware of the general specifications of German filmmaking.

The 350,000 Deutsche marks in my memory, converted into dollars, is about 180,000. In 1998, converted into RMB, it was almost 1.5 million. 1.5 million yuan, in 1998, it was definitely more than enough to make a movie.

However, as he has personally made progress in preparing for "Lola Run" in various aspects these days, Simon has also become more and more suspicious that he may have misremembered the budget size of "Lola Run".

Perhaps, in the original time and space, the production cost of "Lola Run" was not 350,000 Deutsche marks at all, and he probably remembered one less zero!