Natasha Hensquich, huddled under the covers, was about to take the initiative to make lunch herself, but Simon had withdrawn his hand, reminded him again, and turned to leave the bedroom.

Watching the man go out, Natasha felt for her watch on the bedside table and looked at it, it was half past eleven in the morning.

After getting out of bed, I thought about it for a while, picked out a long black knitted dress suitable for winter indoor wear, simply put on light makeup, and came downstairs in only 15 minutes.

Simon was sitting on the sofa in the living room reading a script at random, and when he saw Natasha coming downstairs, he looked at it and praised, "It's beautiful." ”

"Thanks," Natasha agreed, sat down next to Simon, glanced at the script in the man's hand, and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Simon showed her the cover and said, "Cut Throat Island, a pirate film script." ”

Natasha nodded, searching her mind for information about pirate movies, but unfortunately couldn't find it. Fortunately, the man didn't mean to wait for a response, put down the script and ordered Girl A not far away, got up and led her to the restaurant.

In the restaurant, the maids served lunch to the two of them, poured red wine, and then retreated.

Simon picked up the cutlery and took the initiative to ask the girl opposite, "What do you want to do in the afternoon?"

Natasha cut the pan-fried cod on the plate, stopped her movements when she heard the words, and said, "I don't know, I'll do whatever you do." ”

Simon smiled: "There are only two main things that everyone comes to Park City, movies and skiing, which one do you choose?"

Natasha hesitated and said, "Is skiing okay?" ”

Born in Canada, Natasha is actually quite good at skiing, but of course she has to behave clumsy in front of men, and she is even a little worried that if he can't ski, it will be embarrassing.

Simon just nodded and said, "Well, we'll ski in the afternoon, go to the premiere of a movie in the evening, and then there's a party here." ”

Natasha finally picked up the topic this time: "Is it the "Four Weddings and a Funeral"?"

"yes, you know?"

"I came yesterday with the two main characters of this film," Natasha said, "but this film doesn't seem to be a Sundance competition?"

Daenerys Entertainment's support and cultivation of the independent film market is the key to the rapid rise of the Sundance Film Festival, and in recent years, Sundance Entertainment has inevitably produced films produced by Daenerys Entertainment every year to be shortlisted for the main competition unit.

Natasha did some film festival-related homework before coming to Park City, and knew that Daenerys Entertainment had two films shortlisted for the Sundance Main Competition this year: Whit Stillman's "Barcelona" and David Russell's "Monkey Fighting."

Whitt Stillman is a Sundance-born director, and his last film, "Metropolitan," had a good reputation and box office, and "Barcelona" was his second directorial work. "Monkey Fighting" is the debut film written and directed by newcomer director David Russell, which is a mother-child ethics film, and "monkey fighting" is a slang term related to sex.

The selection of the Saturday before the closing of the festival, and Simon's personal attendance, shows the importance that Daenerys Entertainment attaches to this film. In this case, the film's failure to enter the main competition unit made Natasha a little confused.

"Four Weddings and a Funeral" was not shortlisted for the main competition unit, of course, not because of insufficient qualifications. Simon explained: "The film is positioned as a commercial romantic comedy, focusing on Valentine's Day in February, and if it is shortlisted for the Sundance main competition, it may be misunderstood by the audience as a literary film and limit the audience. ”

Natasha suddenly said: "I see, I thought it would be the best to be shortlisted for the film festival and win the award." ”

Simon smiled and shook his head: "Of course not, each type of movie has its own distribution model." ”

Hollywood movie distribution is easy to say, but difficult to say difficult.

Large-scale advertising bombardment on various media platforms is undoubtedly the most effective means to promote a movie, but it is only suitable for a few super blockbusters with guaranteed box office potential, such as the DC Cinematic Universe series.

Most Hollywood movies still need to develop targeted publicity strategies in order to get the best marketing effect within the marketing budget.

There is no doubt that film quality is fundamental to the commercial success of a film. However, if a marketing strategy is seriously wrong, the results can also be catastrophic.

Knowing that Natasha wouldn't be too interested in these business details, Simon didn't dwell on the same topic, instead asking about the girl's recent situation.

After the two had a pleasant lunch, and sent the girl upstairs to change clothes and get ready to go skiing, Simon returned to the living room and picked up the script of "Cut Throat Island" that he had read before lunch.

It's a recent project that Carlock Films is pitching to Hollywood studios, and all seven major studios have received scripts.

Backed by German and other overseas capital, Carlock Films has a reputation in Hollywood, and unlike other thrifty second-tier studios, the one-man studio is known for its high-budget films. Hollywood's first "Terminator 2", which had a production budget of more than $100 million, was a project invested by Carlock Films, and Carlock also produced films such as "Instinct" and "Total Recall".

Simon's appearance led to "Terminator 2" and "Instinct", some of Carlock's most successful film projects, being cut off early, but in recent years, Carlock Films has invested in many movies of action superstars such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and directly pushed the salary of Hollywood stars to $15 million.

As a solo studio that does not undertake distribution work, Carlock Pictures has been working with Columbia Pictures for several years.

Last year's turmoil at Columbia Pictures led to the collapse of the partnership, and Carlock is looking for a new partner in the near future, and "Cut Throat" is a stepping stone.

When it comes to Hollywood's film history in the 90s, you can't avoid the most successful "Titanic", and you can't avoid the most failed "Cut Throat Island".

The production budget of "Cut Throat Island" in memory was as high as 98 million US dollars, but the total box office in North America after the release of the film was only a little more than 10 million US dollars.

Is "Cut Throat Island" really good-for-nothing?

This is not the case.

The film's shots, editing, and soundtrack are excellent, and the large-scale naval battle scenes are epic, including many references to the film from Pirates of the Caribbean many years later. Even the shortcomings of the weak storyline are actually not fatal for a blockbuster film, because this is a common problem of many big-budget films.

The blockbuster films in the North American film market were far from saturated in the mid-90s, and were just a gimmick of close to $100 million in huge investments, which could attract a large number of audiences when used well, and never grossed only $10 million.

So, why was the failure of "Cut Throat Island" so complete?

The reasons are also many.

As a studio supported by overseas capital such as Germany, Carlock Films is naturally suppressed by Hollywood.

Director Renny Haring pushed his wife Gina Davis to the heroine position, and she is the first protagonist to overpower the male lead, but Gina Davis is far from supporting the box office appeal of a super blockbuster.

"Cut Throat Island" is an original screenplay that does not have the popularity accumulation of superhero movies.

MGM Pictures, which is responsible for the distribution of the film, is in a state of serious internal turmoil and has no intention of promoting the film.

And so on.

The accumulation of multiple reasons has led to the infinite amplification of the original non-fatal plot weakness of "Cut Throat Island", which made the audience shy away from entering the theater to watch the movie, and finally created a Guinness record in the film industry.

Even if he understands that if this time and space is operated by Daenerys Entertainment, the box office of "Cut Throat Island" will definitely be much better, Simon has no intention of taking over. And, in accordance with the 'one or the other' strategy that Daenerys Entertainment has been hinting at, Simon also intends to throw this box office dud to others.

The success of blockbusters such as the DC Cinematic Universe and "Jurassic Park" has made the whole of Hollywood look for big-budget projects, and "Cut Throat Island" should be a good option.

If Simon Westeros personally values it, other studios will definitely compete for it.

Speaking of which, there is another giant crater project that was also released in 1995, Kevin Costner's "Future Water World".

Because it was once invested and produced by a big studio like Universal, the box office of "Future Water World" was not as dismal as "Cut Throat Island", but the huge cost of the film of $175 million also set a new record for the production cost of Hollywood films, so Universal still suffered serious losses even though the box office of the film was not bad.

"Future Water World" was not fanned by Simon's butterfly.

However, it used to be made by Universal, but now it is Warner.

After working with Daenerys Entertainment on "Dances with Wolves" and "The Bodyguard", Kevin Costner has moved to Warner Bros. Pictures in recent years, and the two have collaborated on "JFK" directed by Oliver Stone and "Perfect World" with Clint Eastwood at the end of last year.

This summer, Costner will also release a blockbuster western "Law Enforcement Warrior" invested by Warner.

After three consecutive collaborations, Costner signed a contract with Warner very smoothly for the next "Future Water World", which is expected to start filming in May and June this year, and is scheduled for next summer.

Simon just watched from the sidelines and didn't interfere at all.

The main reason why the budget of the original "Future Waterworld" was out of control was that Costner chose to shoot the film in Hawaii, ignoring natural factors such as tidal storms in the area, which led to expensive sets being repeatedly destroyed by the waves.

According to the revealed information, this time "Future Water World" will still be filmed in Hawaii.

And this is no accident.

As one of the world's most well-known tourist destinations, Hawaii can provide a very comfortable working environment for movie crews, especially stars, and the reason why Spielberg previously filmed "Jurassic Park" in Hawaii is that Daenerys Entertainment has borne a considerable additional cost for it, and there is no tax refund.

Fortunately, "Jurassic Park" was filmed on land, but even then it encountered a storm at the beginning.

If Daenerys Entertainment takes over Future Waterworld, Simon will certainly not make the same mistake. Although he maintains a fairly good cooperative relationship with Warner, he certainly did not mean to remind the other party.

"Future Water World", as well as "Cut Throat Island" in hand at this time, not only meets the demand of big studios for blockbusters, two heavyweight box office holes, but also enough to free up at least $100 million in box office space for Daenerys Entertainment in next year's hot schedule, which is 'one trade-off'.

Having made up his mind, Simon got up and went to a living room next to the living room of the villa, looked at it for a moment, and placed the script of "Cut Throat Island" on a shelf under the glass coffee table.

After "Four Weddings and a Funeral" tonight, there will be a party in the villa under the name of Daenerys Entertainment Group, and this living room will also be open.

Alison happened to come in with a men's down jacket, served Simon to put it on, glanced at the script that the man had just obviously placed under the coffee table, and asked with some doubts, "Boss, do you need me to put it away?"

"No, don't let Naomi and the others touch this script, and you can take it back at night when there are many people. ”

Alison instantly understood, and asked in a low voice, "The boss is not optimistic about this script?"

"Yes, when the time comes, pretend to be a dot, don't show your stuff. ”

"Well," Alison nodded slightly, and added, "It's too obvious to have only one script, I'll wait to put a few magazines next to it." ”

"Yes, Ellie is so smart. ”

The two secretly discussed bad things, and Natasha quickly changed her clothes and went downstairs.

Allison sent Simon and the two out, watching his boss's car disappear into the mountain road, a little lost, and then quickly dispelled this idea, the woman didn't see him a few times a year, and only for a year, but he could stay by his side for a long time, be content.

Simon and Natasha stayed at a members-only ski club south of Park City until about 4 p.m., and instead of returning to the mountain house, they rushed straight to the city.

The premiere of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" began at 5 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre, the festival's main venue.

Because it is a project highlighted by Daenerys Entertainment, many well-known filmmakers, including Robert Redford, have been invited to attend, as well as a large number of film critics from all over North America.

It's just that these people are enough to support the film's popularity in the news media, Simon doesn't plan to appear in the press release himself, at least he doesn't have plans to be photographed by the media, so he takes Natasha through the back door of the theater and comes to the Egyptian Theater screening room, Natasha consciously did not continue to stay with Simon, but chose to sit with ICM's Nancy Josephson.

As a phenomenal film that grossed 245 million dollars worldwide at a production cost of less than $5 million, the film's first public screening was a great success, and the audience applauded after the film screening, despite the slight deviation from the style of Sundance's avant-garde film festival.

After the premiere, many guests continued to set off for their private villa in the mountains of Simon, southeast of Park City.

Accepting Redford's invitation at the Golden Globes afterparty last weekend, Simon decided to host such a party, which would greatly cement Daenerys Entertainment's position in the solo film scene.

After the news was released, the party became the most anticipated gathering of Sundance filmmakers this year, and many people racked their brains in the past week to get an invitation, including some stars who were not originally interested in the Sundance Film Festival, rushed to Park City in the hope of getting a chance to contact Simon Westeros.