The North American cassette of "Lola Run" is already on the market, and the film's overseas distribution is also ongoing.

In order to stimulate video sales and overseas market revenue, Simon's unexpected Oscar for Best Editing, fueled by Orion and Warner, even surpassed the multi-award winning "The Last Emperor" in the following days.

Much of the media tends to complain about Simon, believing that the Oscars' conservatism and aging have prevented "Lola Run" from getting the nominations and accolades it deserves.

Then, on April 13, the 41st Cannes Film Festival, which will open next month, announced the shortlist, and "Vulgar" successfully became one of the 21 films entering the main competition.

At the press conference of the shortlist of the local film festival in Cannes, a reporter specifically mentioned what happened to "Lola Run" at the Oscars, and asked the chairman of the jury of this Cannes Film Festival, the famous Italian director Ito Scola will discriminate against "Vulgar" because of Simon Westeros's age.

The schedule of "Vulgar" is June 3, and the news that the Cannes film was shortlisted for the main competition unit came back to China, and Orion Pictures also released the first TV trailer.

Due to the cohesive plot structure of "Vulgar", it is not easy for this film to cut a great trailer.

Several trailers provided by Orion failed to satisfy Simon, and he had to do it himself. After careful consideration, the first trailer is 1 minute and 30 seconds long, and Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Robert Redford and other big names all appear, through a series of carefully captured suspenseful dialogues, and finally freeze the picture on the box that glows with golden light.

The plot of "Vulgar" is still under wraps, so after the trailer was announced, the media quickly judged that it was a 'treasure hunting' type of movie.

Naturally, the facts are very different from the judgment of the media, but this is exactly what Simon wants to see, and throwing up topics to cause media discussion has always been the easiest and most effective way to market a movie, as evidenced by the box office curve of "When Harry Met Sally".

In the third week of its large-scale release, "When Harry Met Sally" collected another $12.11 million, with a cumulative box office of $49.16 million, and the decline for the whole week was finally locked in at 21%, and the box office decline curve was better than other films in the Easter schedule.

Although the next week's screening was expanded by 50% at once, Tim Burton's "Beatle Juice" still fell by nearly 25% in the second week.

Orion Pictures' "Good Guy Johnny," which was released at the same time as "When Harry Met Sally," even fell by 51 percent at the box office, grossing just $1.97 million this week, and the $22 million film grossed $13.3 million in three weeks. After next week, the month-long screening contract with the theater chain expires, and the film will basically be retired from the big screen.

In Simon's view, the failure of "Johnny the Good Guy" is a sign that Orion Pictures is destined to decline sharply this year.

In the past two years, after producing a few box office hits, Orion Pictures, which has blindly expanded, has produced and distributed the same scale this year as the Big Seven, even surpassing several major studios such as MGM that have relatively sluggish performance.

However, apart from "Vulgar", Simon didn't see a second film with big selling potential in Orion's long list of films at all.

After last year's stock market crash, the next few years will not be too easy for Hollywood, and Orion's decline is as inevitable as Canon, New World, DeLaurentiis Entertainment and others, and Simon can only sit on the sidelines.

Earlier in the month, the contract was negotiated with Disney for the overseas distribution rights of "When Harry Met Sally," and Daenerys Films received $30 million in the sale in late April.

Compared to the $15 million production cost of "When Harry Met Sally," the company directly doubled the return. Of course, the proceeds of the film will also need to be shared with British Craft Films, which also participated in the investment.

Under the original contract, Daenerys Pictures would receive 60% of the film's net profits, excluding production costs. In this way, for the $30 million sellout, Daenerys Films can get $16.5 million. After offsetting the $15 million production cost, Daenerys Pictures will be able to get 60% of all the next revenue.

Before the release of "When Harry Met Sally", Daenerys Films had been spending money like a stream, and now that it has finally begun to make money, Amy Pascal's nervous mind has obviously relaxed a lot.

Simon could see that she had been worried that Daenerys Pictures would rise and collapse as quickly as companies like Canon.

Although Simon now has a rich net worth, if Daenerys Pictures really follows in the footsteps of companies such as Canon, he will definitely not continue to throw money at this company, and Amy obviously knows this very well.

However, Daenerys Pictures' expansion seems to be just as blind, but Simon knows how much the company's portfolio of projects can win.

Whether it is a second-tier film company such as Seven or Orion, it is usually by investing in a large number of projects to cast a wide net in the hope that a few of them will be box office hits. As long as this can be achieved, the studio will basically be able to make a decent profit.

Because of Simon's prophetic advantage, Daenerys Pictures is equivalent to raising a few big fish directly in the fishing nets.

April 21.

In the new week, Simon woke up early in the morning and saw from the Los Angeles Times that the negotiations between the Producers Union and the Writers Guild of America had broken down again.

Santa Monica.

Daenerys Pictures headquarters, arrived at the company at eight o'clock, Simon finished watching the samples of "Rain Man" in the last few days, and the time was just about to go to work. Amy also arrived at the company early, and when Simon came out of the screening room, she talked about it: "Simon, did you hear the news?"

Because it's Monday, the heads of Daenerys Films' departments and the heads of a range of projects have a regular weekly meeting.

Simon and Amy came to the conference room together, nodded to the other executives who had already arrived, and said, "Sure, so our reality TV project can move into the actual production stage." ”

The negotiations between the Producers Alliance and the Writers Guild have broken down, and naturally it is impossible to say that the reboot will be restarted, both sides need to take care of it, and it will be at least next month to be on the negotiating table again.

According to the U.S. television industry, in March and April, TV producers of all sizes begin sourcing projects and producing pilot episodes, and then market them to major TV networks and cable networks during the annual TV launch season in May.

Due to the writers' strike, not to mention the pilot episode, many studios will not even have a few scripts in their hands now.

Originally, if a settlement could be reached this month, and the construction deadline could be rushed urgently, everyone would not delay the promotion season next month. Negotiations broke down again, and the matter was naturally out of the question. If this most important time node is missed, the TV business of several major TV networks will be affected throughout the year.

Amy heard Simon say this, nodded, but said again: "But, Simon, I heard that GA is trying to reach an agreement with the second- and third-tier production companies first, what should we do?"

Simon thought about it, and remembered that in the 1988 general strike, a large number of second- and third-tier production companies did sign agreements with GA before the big studios and television networks. But the Hollywood giant's countermeasures were also very decisive, and the big four TV networks directly announced that they would no longer buy programs from production companies that signed contracts with GA in advance, and GA also took the big four TV networks to court with an antitrust lawsuit.

With this information flashing in his mind, Simon shook his head decisively and said, "No matter what others do, we don't participate." ”

Even if GA can win the antitrust lawsuit, it will be easier for the TV network to put small shoes on the second- and third-tier production companies that are anti-water in advance. What's more, going to GA ahead of schedule won't bring any benefit to Daenerys Films, and Simon doesn't plan to get involved in this troubled waters.

Simon and Amy chatted, and the meeting began soon as the heads of various departments and related projects arrived.

After months of continuous hiring and expansion, Daenerys Pictures now has film, television, distribution, human resources, finance and other departments, and the company has more than 50 permanent employees, even if you don't count the temporary hires for individual projects.

The two-story office building, which was originally leased, is now crowded, and Simon has been looking for new office space for the company lately.

It's not an easy task, though.

If all goes well, Simon plans to upgrade Daenerys Films to Daenerys Entertainment next year, and the main divisions such as film, television and distribution will all be subsidiaries, which will surely lead to another major expansion of the company.

Daenerys Pictures had already moved once, and Simon didn't want to have to toss around like this once in a year or two.

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

Overall, all of Daenerys Films' projects are progressing steadily.

"Instinct" and "Rain Man" have already started filming.

"Scream" will also begin filming in a small town in northern California at the end of the month.

Negotiations between the Producers' Union and the Writers Guild have broken down, and Simon has also strengthened his determination to squeeze "Dead Poets" and "Steel Magnolia" into the two hot schedules at the end of the year, so preparations for these two projects will also be accelerated, and filming is expected to start in the next one to two months.

Picking out the two low-budget films "Sisters" and "Metropolitans" from Sundance, Simon completely let go of the producers below.

As for the "Thunderbolt Blue Angel", Simon just has a kind of 'men make money and women spend money', and let it go more thoroughly, Catherine can toss as much as she wants, and if she loses it, she will lose it, who will let it be her own woman.

In the end, in addition to the four reality shows that are still in the pipeline, only "Batman" controlled by Simon himself remains.

After the regular meeting in the morning, in the afternoon of the same day, Daenerys Pictures opened the first round of casting for the actor in "Batman".

Simon had already put out the harsh conditions for playing Bruce Wayne in advance.

With a five-film contract and a fifteen-year contract term, Daenerys Films fully controls the terms of the contract for the initiative.

Not surprisingly, just these three clauses have made all the first-line stars in Hollywood who tried to get the role of Batman retreat, and most second-tier stars have made the same choice.

However, Hollywood's biggest advantage is that there is never a shortage of actors.

Even though Daenerys Films put forward many other restrictions under the premise of several strict signings, the company still received more than 1,200 resumes before the first round of casting, so Simon naturally did not have enough time to participate in the almost large-scale audition. The afternoon casting was entirely handled by a few casting directors.

The first round will not be used as an interview mirror, but most of them will be brushed off by reviewing resumes and performance tapes, and only about 200 people will eventually make it to the second round.

Simon also knows that such an operation will definitely cause many actors with good qualifications to fail, and even some private goods will be carried by several casting directors. But this world is like this, if the conditions are met and eliminated, it can only be said that they are unlucky, and if you do not meet the conditions but can enter the second round of auditions through your connections, that is also strength.

Fairness is such a thing, it is enough to think about it when you dream.

Simon, meanwhile, was in Culver City with Amy in the afternoon.

Culver City is located east of the city of Beverly and north of the city of Santa Monica. Compared to Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Burbank and other cities, Culver City is not too conspicuous in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, and Simon rushed here mainly because the MGM set was once in the center of Culver City.

In the process of converting MGM into a hotel company, MGM Studios was sold to a television production company called Lorimar-Telepictures.

In previous years, Lorimar had also been expanding aggressively, backed by the influx of hot-money capital into the entertainment industry.

With the stock market crash and the current Hollywood strike, Lorimar, whose business is more one-dimensional than New World Entertainment, is inevitably in the same trouble, and Simon would not have even heard of Lorimar in his previous life if it weren't for some information from other people's memories.

Now, Lorimar is already looking to sell its assets to avoid bankruptcy.

The MGM Studio, with its long history, is undoubtedly one of Lorimar's most valuable properties. After spending half a day on the MGM set, which covers an area of twenty hectares, Simon and Amy left together. Faced with Amy's inquiring eyes, Simon just shook his head regretfully.

Lorimar's offer for MGM sets wasn't too expensive, $100 million.

However, Simon found that most of the studios and buildings on the set were dilapidated, and Daenerys Pictures would have to spend at least $100 million to repair them if they were to buy them. And, despite its long history, the location of MGM's set really didn't please Simon.

The MGM set was relatively close to Beverly Hills, but it was far from Malibu, thirty or forty kilometers. Simon plans to live in Malibu, and if he buys a MGM studio, he will spend at least two or three hours a day just on his way to work.