Simon rested for less than five hours and woke up early at eight o'clock the next day.

In order to save time, he does not plan to drive back himself this time, and the crew will hire a substitute driver to send the SUV back to Los Angeles. After a brief breakfast and goodbye, Edward Feldman, the producer of "Night of the Bloody Corpse," drove him to the Phoenix airport.

Due to the time difference, when I arrived in Los Angeles, it was only 9 o'clock in the morning.

Los Angeles International Airport.

Simon got off the plane and walked all the way to the pick-up hall and looked around.

I called Janet last night to pick me up, but I didn't expect it to be Jonathan's assistant Owen Wright who appeared at this time. Owen Wright also saw Simon quickly, and hurriedly walked over, without greetings, but directly handed him a pair of sunglasses, and said, "Simon, you'd better wear this." ”

There were not many people in the pick-up hall at this time, and before Owen Wright could continue to remind him, Simon had already seen seven or eight guys with cameras trotting towards him, and some people even couldn't wait to raise their cameras and press the shutter, and a series of flashes suddenly lit up around them.

With the movement here, many pairs of eyes in the hall were also projected at the same time.

Although it was the first time in his life that he had encountered such a situation, Simon did not panic, casually put on his sunglasses, lifted the suitcase that was originally pulled behind him, and hurried out of the hall with Owen Wright.

The paparazzi saw Simon and Owen speeding up their pace and planning to leave, so they trotted after them again, tightly surrounding the two of them in front and back, left and right, and asked questions while continuing to take pictures.

"Simon, can you stop and say a few words?" "Simon, "Lola Run" won the box office last weekend, let's talk about my impressions. "Simon, I heard that you are looking for a partner for your new script to offer a 10% share of the North American box office, do you think this is possible?" "Simon......"

Buzz, buzz.

In the chaotic questioning, Simon just bowed his head slightly in silence, and slowly moved out with Owen Wright squeezing the gap between the paparazzi, and didn't dare to push too hard, he heard the news of Stallone being 'touched' by the paparazzi in Arizona, but he didn't want to encounter this kind of as soon as he returned to Los Angeles.

After a bit of difficulty in getting to the parking lot, the two got into the car, and it wasn't until they drove into the highway around the airport that Simon breathed a sigh of relief, but soon found that the paparazzi were all following Owen Wright's car.

Owen in the front driver's seat glanced up at the rearview mirror and said with a smile: "Simon, how does it feel to be famous?"

Simon said honestly: "I kind of want to hit someone. ”

"Heh, you'll get used to it later, there are actually very few people like this, and you came back suddenly, it should have been a temporary contact from the reporter in Arizona," Owen stepped on the gas pedal and sped up a bit before continuing: "Miss Johnston was going to pick you up, but when she was about to go out, she found that the house was surrounded by people, so she had to call Joe, and then I came." ”

When Simon heard this, he immediately asked, "What's going on?"

Owen made a calm gesture to Simon, who leaned over in the back row, and said, "Didn't you tell reporters last night that you have a girlfriend?"

Simon was surprised, "I didn't say Jenny's name, and, why is it so fast?"

"There are thousands of newspapers in the whole federation, how can they sell if they are not fast? But don't worry, those paparazzi are basically still well-behaved, and as long as Miss Johnston doesn't go out, there will be no problem. After a few days, the news about this was almost the same, and the paparazzi blocking her door dispersed," Owen explained, and then asked, "Simon, where are you going now?" I suggest you better not go to Miss Johnston's, that will only bring more paparazzi over. ”

Simon thought about it, since Jenny was blocked at home, there must have been someone squatting outside his villa in the Montana district.

"Let's go to WMA headquarters," Simon said quickly, "It just so happens that I have something to talk to Joe about." ”

Owen nodded, "Joe actually wants to talk to you as soon as possible." You've been away for a month, especially in the last two weeks, looking for cooperation, asking for interviews, asking for news, all sorts, they can't find anyone with you, they can only contact us, Joe is about to be driven crazy, even I have to block dozens of calls about you every day. ”

Although he had clearly felt the changes around him in Arizona, Simon still smiled when he heard Owen say this, "It's not that exaggerated, right?"

Owen glanced at Simon in the rearview mirror again before saying, "It seems that you obviously don't know your current situation very well. Simon, "Lola Run" is very promising to win the North American box office championship this year. If you think about how beautiful Tom Cruise was when Top Gun was a box office hit last year, and now, so are you. ”

Simon noticed a pedagogical paparazzi outside the window trying to manipulate the camera with one hand in vain to take pictures of one-way glass, nodded, stopped talking, and began to think about the next few things.

More than 20 minutes later, Owen parked his car in the parking lot in front of the WMA headquarters, and before the paparazzi could surround him again, the two hurriedly entered the WMA headquarters building.

It was the busy time when I had just started work, and the WMA headquarters building was full of people.

Noticing that Owen Wright walked in with a young man, most of them were puzzled at first, but as some of the people who recognized Simon eagerly took the initiative to greet him, everyone quickly realized Simon's identity, so they either nodded in greeting or took the initiative to talk.

Coming to Jonathan Friedman's office with such a buzz, the agent has already greeted him.

"Simon, you're finally back. ”

Greeting, Jonathan stepped forward to hug Simon, let go and patted him on the shoulder, and then led him into his office with envious eyes from other WMA employees and customers.

Entering the office, Jonathan motioned for Simon to sit down on the couch in the reception area, but he turned to his desk and took out a thick stack of folders from the filing cabinet.

Simon watched his agent busy, but didn't go to the reception area, came to his desk and pointed to the landline on the desktop, and said, "Joe, I want to call Jenny first." ”

"Of course," Jonathan nodded understandingly, put the stack of folders on his desk, pressed it casually, and said with a smile: "You hit first, I was just about to go out for a while, and just said that there was a document in the mailroom that I needed to sign for it personally." ”

Simon smiled as he watched his agent leave the office before picking up the microphone and dialing Janet's number.

After getting along for so long, Simon also found that Janet was a person who hated answering the phone, and it took a while for someone to pick it up and snort lazily.

Simon smiled at the corner of his mouth and said, "Jenny, it's me." ”

Hearing Simon's voice, Janet on the other side of the phone became energetic, but immediately began to condemn Simon for causing her a lot of paparazzi.

After chatting for a while, under the woman's obsession, although he knew that his rush to Malibu would definitely lead more paparazzi over, Simon finally promised Janet to rush over as soon as he was done talking to Jonathan.

Hanging up the phone, Jonathan, who had obviously been waiting outside for a while, pushed the door open and walked in.

The two of them went to the reception area together and sat down, and Owen Wright brought in two more cups of coffee. Waiting for Owen to leave, Jonathan introduced the stack of folders he had just handed to Simon, and said, "Simon, these are some memos related to you in the last few weeks, from the media, from the studio, from other filmmakers, I told you some on the phone. You'd better see for yourself, though. ”

Simon nodded in response, and opened a folder to glance at it.

Jonathan waited for Simon to flip through a few pages, handed over two more scripts, and said, "Also, the screenwriter named Nora Ephron you asked me to inquire about happens to have two scripts under her name. A crime comedy called "Ghost Horse Father and Daughter", which I think is not bad, but it has been bought by Warner Bros. Another romantic comedy, called "When Harry Met Sally", has a very special plot structure, but perhaps it is too far from the mainstream for no studio to fancy this story. ”

Simon took the two scripts and flipped through them casually, still smiling.

Jonathan looked at Simon's expression, then handed over the last folder and said, "Also, about "Death is Coming", after you asked me to release the news, in recent days, Warner, MGM, Columbia, and second-tier Canon, New Line and other companies have asked me about this matter. Although no reply was given, the heads of these companies said they would like to talk to you in person. ”

Simon took the last folder and opened it, but it was Jonathan's assessment of the possibility of Warner and others working together on the "Death is Coming" project.

After a few brief glances, Simon also put the document in front of him, then looked at Jonathan and said, "Joe, I think, let's talk about the new contract first." ”

Simon originally signed a three-year contract with Jonathan for a simple script agency.

But now, Simon's sudden and rapid rise in Hollywood with "Lola Run" is going to continue to work together, and the original contract is obviously not suitable.

Jonathan piled up this large stack of script document memos in front of Simon at this time, not only to show that he had invested enough experience for him, but also to remind Simon that the two needed to renegotiate the contract.

Therefore, Jonathan listened to Simon speak on his own initiative, just smiled and nodded, waiting for him to continue.

Simon is not a stingy person, so naturally he will not let Jonathan take the script agent's commission to do the work of a full-fledged agent. However, considering his next series of plans, Simon is unlikely to sign a sharing contract with Jonathan again.

After reorganizing his thoughts, Simon said, "Joe, I thought about it before I came back, and next, I hope we can sign a fixed-salary contract, three years, $500,000, what do you think?"

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

Simon noticed the change in Jonathan's expression, only to realize the ambiguity in his words just now, and quickly explained: "You misunderstood, Joe, it's $500,000 a year, not $500,000 for three years. ”

Jonathan still has an idea of what Simon is about to get from Lola Run.

Judging from the current box office data and sharing terms, Simon's personal income from the release of "Lola Run" through various channels in the future will definitely not be less than $20 million. With such a huge amount of money, it is understandable that he is reluctant to sign a sharing agency agreement with himself.

However, at first, it was thought that Simon would only give him a fixed salary of $500,000 for three years, although this offer is not too low strictly speaking, if Simon insists, in order to be able to maintain cooperation with the boy in front of him and give himself other customers opportunities, Jonathan will agree, but the disappointment in Simon in his heart must be inevitable.

Now, with $500,000 a year, Jonathan Friedman is suddenly free of any grievances.

In this era, only a handful of A-list superstars can earn $5 million, and these people often don't take on a starring film until a year or two. As a result, the average annual commission they give to the broker is certainly less than $500,000.

Simon's offer is tantamount to directly putting himself in the position of a first-line superstar starring in an average of one full-paid film every year. Although he had a hunch that the young man's annual income in the future would definitely be more than that, as an agent, Jonathan also knew that he couldn't ask for more.

With a smile on his face, Jonathan happily reached out to Simon and said, "Well, happy cooperation." ”

Simon also stretched out his hand to the agent and said, "It's a pleasure to work with." ”

Naturally, there was no rush to change the contract, and Jonathan immediately began to explain the documents on the coffee table to Simon in detail. However, after less than half an hour of talking, the phone on Jonathan's desk rang.

Jonathan gestured to Simon for a moment, walked over to pick up the phone, and had a few words with the other person, then covered the microphone and quickly whispered 'Goldberg' to Simon before continuing to talk to the other side of the phone.

Simon didn't get up either, just quietly sat in on Jonathan's conversation with Ronald Goldberg, president of Fox Films.

After hanging up the phone for a while, Jonathan said to Simon, who already had a general understanding of the situation: "Goldberg wants to invite you to a meal at noon, and, listening to what he just said, Fox should have agreed to your conditions." ”

Jonathan said this, with some disbelief evident in his expression.

10% of the North American box office and 5% of the sales of videotapes.

It's incredible that even Spielberg wouldn't rush to put forward harsh conditions, and Fox should agree to it.

Although he tried his best to communicate with the film company for Simon, Jonathan originally only thought that after some bargaining, Simon could finally get half of the conditions he proposed.