After dinner, Simon took Janet straight back to Palisad.

In the cabin of the Chevrolet SUV, Neil Bennett, who was the driver, drove the car very smoothly, and Simon leaned against the window, seriously thinking about tonight's meeting with Mike Meadow.

Michael Medowa's reaction to Pulp Fiction was even more negative than Simon had expected, which worried him a little.

In addition to the quality of the "Pulp Fiction" that once achieved great fame, the Weinstein brothers' unsparing public relations operation was also a very key decisive factor.

From this year's 18 Oscar nominations, it can be seen that Orion is no less powerful in award public relations than the later Miramax, but if Orion's top management expresses their disapproval of "Pulp Fiction", it is obviously unrealistic to expect them to run the awards for the film as much as possible like the Weinstein brothers in the past.

What's more, Simon's age is still the biggest variable limiting the recognition of "Pulp Fiction" for awards

In any case, he is not yet 20 years old.

Speaking of which, Simon doesn't lack other options. But according to the previous contract with Orion, this second film is not worth it for him to come up with certain ideas.

In order to promote the release of "Lola Run", Simon signed a contract with Orion, and his director and screenwriter combined basic salary was only $500,000.

Although Simon retains the right to renegotiate the terms of the sharing, in any case, the new film is unlikely to give him much revenue, and the best outcome may only be similar to the sharing terms of "The Grim Reaper".

But compared to "The Grim Reaper", Simon needs to put more effort into the films he directs.

Unable to make enough money, Simon decided to choose a film that he was more interested in, while also consolidating his popularity as a stylized director.

Naturally, Jonathan will negotiate with Orion about the specific share of "Pulp Fiction", but then, negotiating the outright to sell "Lola Run" is also a time-consuming chore.

Furthermore.

Whether it's "The Butterfly Effect," "Here Comes Death" or "Pulp Fiction" or "When Harry Met Sally," all of these projects, there's still a lot of work to be done as soon as possible.

Even, considering the schedules of the three movies "The Grim Reaper", "Pulp Fiction" and "When Harry Met Sally", Simon found that the end of this year, next year's Easter, is obviously also suitable for inserting at least one more movie.

Time is money.

But Simon is either short of money or lack of time right now.

And.

And that's just the movie-related thing.

The U.S. stock market crashed in the second half of the year, and Simon remembers the date very well, October 19, Black Monday. In order to get enough benefits from this financial turmoil, in addition to raising large sums of money in advance, there must be a lot of other preparations, which also require time and energy.

Simon was brooding all the way, and Janet leaned quietly beside him without interrupting.

Back at the Palisades mansion, it was already nine o'clock in the evening.

Simon entered the villa and saw the phone message prompt light flashing in the living room, so he walked over and pressed play.

Janet followed suit.

The call came from Amy Pascal.

In the message, Amy expressed concern about the outcome of Simon's afternoon meeting with Wells Fargo executives, but then talked about something else: A vice president of Mattel contacted her today to discuss the development of Lola Run toys.

Mattel is one of the world's largest manufacturers of toy design, production and sales, with a focus on Barbie dolls of all kinds.

After listening to Amy's message, Simon immediately lifted his spirits again.

Around.

A movie that is almost certain to be the annual box office champion in North America.

That's definitely another big gain.

Simon personally designed the wall clock, ring and other props in "Lola Run", in fact, with this idea in mind. Since most of the props and even the image of Lola herself are original, according to the copyright law The copyright of these props and characters is owned by Daenerys Pictures.

There have been so many things going on lately, and Simon doesn't have the energy to take care of them at all.

Right now.

Someone else came to the door.

Naturally, you can't miss it again, and you need to plan it well.

Standing next to the telephone and thinking about it quickly, Simon turned around and was about to go to the study, only to find Janet standing behind him. Because Simon turned around suddenly without warning, the woman was obviously startled, and her eyes widened.

Looking at Janet's appearance, Simon smiled apologetically, reached out and held the woman's delicate face and kissed it, and said, "Baby, you go take a shower first, I still have some things to do." ”

All day today, or all these last days, seeing Simon busy to the ground, Janet has been thinking about something.

At this time.

Watching Simon's footsteps hurried upstairs, Janet followed suit.

Arriving at the bedroom, Janet took off her evening gown and took a shower absentmindedly, but instead of wearing the silk bathrobe that she likes very much, she changed into a slightly OL-style women's shirt and white trousers.

Standing in front of the fitting mirror and looking around, Janet went to Simon's study.

Unlike the large study downstairs where he met with Paul Olson, senior vice president of Wells Fargo, in the afternoon, this is another small study in the mansion, located next to the bedroom on the second floor, which is very private.

Janet rarely comes here on weekdays.

Because she always felt that many of Simon's secrets might be hidden in this study. Although he is very curious about everything about his boyfriend, he doesn't take the initiative to tell himself, and Janet never deliberately explores.

The study door was not closed.

Janet knocked on the door panel and walked in.

Simon was standing by the wall of the study, which contained a whole white clipboard, with a water-based pen in one hand and a microphone in the other, talking to the other side.

A long list of nouns has accumulated on the clipboard.

Original soundtracks, poster albums, video games, character figures, butterfly wall clocks, T-shirts, rings, magazines, releases, ......

These are obviously developable merchandise options for Lola Run.

Underneath the slightly scattered nouns, there are a few names and some contact numbers.

Janet saw that Simon was busy discussing with the other side, so she just nodded at her and made a casual gesture, so she walked to the bookshelf on the other side, looked over the entire row of folders, and took down a blue folder at random and opened it.

It's a stack of newspaper clippings.

Each page of the hand-bound 16-page scratch paper is pasted with newspaper news the size of a tofu block.

The first page of the news came from the Los Angeles Times with the headline 'New World Pictures Acquires Marvel Entertainment'.

Curiously read the contents.

New World Pictures on Thursday formally entered into an agreement with Marvel Entertainment to acquire the company, with a spokesperson claiming the move is aimed at expanding the company's comic book publishing and television animation businesses. ”

"Marvel Entertainment is one of the largest comic book production companies in North America, with assets including Marvel Comics in New York, Marvel Comics and Marvel Productions in the United Kingdom, and animation studios in the San Fernando Valley of California, which owns popular superheroes such as Spider-Man, Hulk, and X-Men. ”

In 1985, Marvel Entertainment had an annual turnover of $72 million and a profit of $5.1 million. ”

Previously, Candace Industrial Holding Group, the parent company of Marvel Entertainment Group, officially entered bankruptcy liquidation procedures, and the two parties did not disclose the detailed terms of the transaction, but industry rumors said that the price of Marvel Entertainment Group was roughly between $40 million and $50 million. ”

"The transaction is expected to be fully completed by the end of the year. ”

In the more than half a year since they met, Janet had never seen Simon read comics, and she didn't know why the little man would be interested in such a piece of news.

I turned my head sideways and read the news carefully, but I still didn't have a clue. There is nothing left in the margins of the page except for a handwritten 'November 21, 1986' date marker.

So I had to flip back.

Most of the next pages are still simple news with simple dates, with few annotations.

After most of this, another newspaper clipping caught Janet's attention.

This is the list of films nominated for the 59th Academy Awards, which was announced in late December last year.

However, only a small part of the newspaper clipping remained, and the three nominations for Best Animated Short Film, the red oil-based pen drew a circle on one of the short films called "Naughty Jumping Lights", next to the usual 'December 20, 1986' annotation, with one word: Pixar.

Pixar.

Janet remembered this time that an animation in the opening credits of "Lola Run" was made by this animation studio, as if it was a rare 3D animation studio.

Marvel Comics, 3D animation.

Scold.

Is the little boy interested in cartoons?

With that in mind, Janet casually flipped another page of the newspaper clipping.

This time, it is the professional news that a software company called 'Microsoft' is testing a new version of the operating system internally, and it is accompanied by a paragraph of evaluation of Microsoft's recent stock price, which has officially exceeded $1 billion due to the continued hot North American stock market.

After reading this news carefully, I still don't have any clue.

All these newspaper clippings are like going from east to west, without any focus at all. Janet even thought about it for a while, but still couldn't catch any of the connections.

Seriously having to put the folder back in its original place, Janet turned and walked back to the man.

Simon's phone call was also coming to an end, and he was listening to the narration across the street jotting down a name and a string of phone numbers on his clipboard.

"Thank you, then, Peter, sorry to bother you so late...... Haha, of course, we have time to eat together," and finally speaking, Simon casually pressed the hang-up button on the landline next to him, and then turned to Janet, who was dangling beside him for a while, looked the woman up and down, and said, "It's late, why did you suddenly change into this outfit?"

Janet spread her arms and spun around in front of Simon, "How's it going?"

Although Janet is not as tall as Catherine, she definitely belongs to the kind of figure that looks very good with or without clothes.

When Simon heard this, he nodded without hesitation and said with a smile: "It's very tasteful, wait and put on high heels." By the way, is this outfit expensive?"

Janet immediately understood some of the subtext in Simon's words, and immediately gave the man a fierce look.

Reaching out to take the microphone in Simon's hand and putting it aside, Janet pushed the man to sit down on the sofa in the study, and sat down opposite herself, and said seriously: "Simon, I said before, I will help you." So, next, I'm going to talk to them about the follow-up release negotiations for "Lola Run". And these peripherals, you can also leave them to me, you just have to do what you want to do. ”

Simon originally had a smile on his face, but after listening to Janet's words without any jokes, he put away the smile on his face and said, "Jenny, this will be very tiring." ”

Janet shook her head and said firmly, "I've already decided. ”

Simon and Janet looked at each other for a moment, then finally nodded, "Okay." However, if you feel like you don't want to do it at any time, feel free to let me know. ”

Janet's lazy appearance on weekdays really left a deep impression on Simon, after all, there is some machismo in his bones, and Simon doesn't think there is anything wrong with this, so he doesn't expect much from Janet's plan to help him work.

Maybe the expectations were too low, and in the days that followed, Simon was really surprised. At the same time, I also realized what kind of level Catherine once unintentionally mentioned that can squeeze Buffett into a speechless Columbia University top student.