Sophia, who was chatting with a guest, felt a big hand around her waist, looked at the man next to her, and teased: "I thought I wouldn't see you tonight." ”

Simon nodded to the guest across from him and said to Sophia, "It's time for us to go back." ”

"Okay. ”

Sophia smiled and agreed, and the two greeted some necessary guests and walked out of the auction house together.

After getting into the car, Sophia was very clever not to mention a certain woman at the reception, but said: "Agnelli has just asked me about some details of the Westeros system's investment in China, and it seems that he does not plan to give up on entering China." ”

In the auction house lounge, Simon and Gianni Agnelli's conversation Sophia was also in attendance.

Simon said: "That's for sure, but whether it will work out or not is another matter. ”

"I think he still wants to work with us. ”

"The key is the issue of control, if Fiat enters China, Agnelli will not give up control of the project, and if he can't take the initiative, I won't participate, so I can't talk about it at all. ”

Sophia looked at the little man beside her, and her tone was a little provocative and adoring: "If it were me, I would definitely be very willing to take a step back, this is to cooperate with Simon Westeros." ”

"It's hard to imagine how much better the world would be if everyone could make the right choices. ”

"Anyway, with you, my world is the best. ”

Simon reached out and grabbed the woman's face and kissed it, and suddenly turned serious: "It's useless to please me again, I'm very tired in the afternoon, and I won't do anything tonight." ”

Sophia gave someone a blank look, leaned over again, and the two kissed again.

We set off again early the next morning.

At Milan's Malpensa International Airport, Simon said goodbye to Sophia, boarded the gangway, and just entered the cabin of the Boeing 767, he was greeted by a certain crescent-eyed woman who had just met at the reception last night.

"Oh, Simon, it feels like a dream. I could be crazy. We just met last night, and I'm going to the United States with you today, and it's my first time going to the United States, and I'm not even very proficient in English. ”

Alessandra Martinis said this in Italian, but she was already naturally holding Simon's arm, and her eyes couldn't help but look around.

This is also her first time flying on a private jet, and she didn't expect it to be such a luxurious Boeing 767, and the man next to her makes Martinis feel like a dream.

Simon Westeros.

Regardless of the outcome, this is enough to write a strong note in your memoir in the future, if there is a memoir.

That's why the man asked last night, and she agreed without thinking about it.

Alessandra Martinis, 33, is married, of the descendant of a wealthy French nobleman, but compared to Simon Westeros, her husband's barely decent family has nothing to offer.

The reason why she married each other a few years ago, Martinis hoped that her husband, who was related to the French film and television industry, could help her develop her career, but unfortunately she miscalculated, until now she is a little star who is reluctant in the third tier of France.

So, I met Simon last night, and when this man expressed interest in her, he was decisively desperate.

After all, if you miss it, you may never have such an opportunity again.

All in all, it was an elopement.

Bringing the woman to the living room in the middle of the cabin, Simon motioned for the other party to sit down in a leather chair near the porthole, and sat next to him, and a waitress of the Wei family took the initiative to help Alexandra fasten her seat belt.

Simon himself skillfully fastened his seat belt and said to the somewhat confused woman beside him: "There may be some bumps during takeoff, but we can move freely when it is stable." ”

Alexandra nodded hurriedly.

She didn't know this, and thought that private jets didn't need any restrictions, but fortunately she didn't make a fool of herself by asking indiscriminately.

Waiting for the waitress to fasten her seat belt and leave, Simon looked at the cautious appearance of the woman next to her, and asked with a smile, "Yalie, have you had breakfast?"

Alexandra subconsciously wanted to nod, but she was still honest: "Not yet." ”

I didn't sleep all night last night.

After dawn, she was busy packing up, and when Simon's car came to pick her up, she rushed over immediately, and she didn't even think of eating.

Simon said, "It's okay to skip breakfast, I'll let them prepare later." ”

"Thanks, Simon, you're so thoughtful. ”

Girl A walked over with a stack of papers in her hand, handed some of the newspapers to Simon, and sat down across from her.

Simon took the newspaper and saw that Alessandra was slightly embarrassed by Girl A's coldness, and helped to introduce: "This is A, my assistant." ”

Alexandra took the initiative to reach over and changed her English to which she was obviously not very proficient: "Hello, A, I'm Alexandra Martinis, you can call me Ally." ”

Girl A didn't give face to someone, and shook Alexandra's hand.

The waitress who had just helped fasten her seatbelt came over again, checked with Simon, and then informed the crew that she was ready to take off.

Simon was chatting casually with Alessandra as he picked up the newspaper handed over by Girl A, a copy of the French newspaper Le Ouest, France's largest national daily newspaper with the largest circulation, Girl A had already marked, and this newspaper was not very important but the prominent current affairs page was a comment on yesterday's announcement by the Rwandan government that new evidence of French involvement in the massacre had been discovered.

The position is very correct.

The article harshly criticized the Rwandan government's accusations as groundless slander and a deliberate smear under the manipulation of certain anti-French forces.

The newspapers did not specify which side of the so-called 'anti-French forces' were.

The article was accompanied by a sticky note explaining that although the newspaper claimed to be neutral, it was in fact the mouthpiece of the French government, and Simon immediately understood that it was probably like a super-newspaper in China.

Then there was a copy of the French left's Le la Humanité.

In contrast to the Western newspaper, which deliberately placed the relevant incident article on a secondary page, the "Humanitarian Daily" directly put on the front page, briefly recalling the Rwandan massacre that shocked the world two years ago, and at the same time, the article strongly urged the French government to set up a special investigation team to investigate members of the French military who may have been involved in the massacre that year.

The article also criticized a series of military policies of current President Jacques Chirac, especially the nuclear test program that has been relaunched since taking office last year.

After taking office in June 1995, the French government abruptly announced the resumption of nuclear testing, and from September 1995 to January 1996, in less than half a year, the French military intensively conducted six consecutive nuclear tests in the French New Coledonian Islands in the South Pacific. The newspaper Humanité criticized Chirac's move as potentially provoking a new round of the nuclear arms race and bringing the entire human race into an unknowable and dangerous situation.

Looking at the other newspapers, the attitude position is basically half to half.

In fact, one can imagine the pressure of public opinion faced by the French government at this time, after all, the crime of participating in the Holocaust, just like Germany, once it is labeled, will not be stained for tens or even hundreds of years, and even become an original sin.

Because of the coming to power of Jacques Chirac, a right-wing politician, the already discordant relations between the United States and France have been strained again.

Simon's use of Rwanda's attack on France, although motivated by personal vendettas, is actually in line with the general trend, and this matter will not be concluded just yesterday with a New York Times article, but until the French government privately gives Simon an explanation.

Or, it may not be confessed, but tear their faces against each other.

Simon doesn't have any fears about it.

At that time, the Westeros system will lose some of its business in France at most, and it will be difficult to determine what France will lose.

After a quick glance at a few newspapers, the Boeing 767 also took off smoothly and stabilized at high altitude.

Simon summoned a waitress and asked her to take Alexandra to breakfast and take a tour of the cabin. Probably understanding that Simon was going to discuss work with his assistant, Alessandra obediently followed the waitress away.

There were only Simon left, and Girl A reported some things that Simon needed to know.

Today it's mostly cinematic.

"There is news from Los Angeles that Golden Harvest has rejected our cooperation plan for "Police Story 4" and switched to Disney. Disney has offered a 28% North American box office share plan, which is 5 points more than the share plan we gave, and is willing to make more concessions in publicity and follow-up channels. Danny's last attempt yesterday was ineffective, and he could only send a restriction letter to Golden Harvest, demanding that the film not use the script ideas that had been discussed by the two parties in the past, let alone imitate the "Rush Hour" series. ”

The Police Story series needs no more to say.

According to common sense, after the success of the "Rush Hour" series, Jack Cheng should focus his work on Hollywood. However, "Police Story 4" is a cooperation project that has been promised to the old club before the filming of "Rush Hour", and with the relationship between Jack Cheng and Golden Harvest, of course, he can't break his promise.

After the North American explosion of "Rush Hour", Golden Harvest, which has been trying to enter Hollywood for so many years, will certainly not let go of this opportunity to revise the script that has been completed, intending to make "Police Story 4" an international film that will impact Hollywood again.

To put it simply, it is to add overseas characters and related story lines, and shoot overseas.

Similar to "Red Fan Zone".

The first thing to replan the project is, of course, to select a Hollywood partner, and the New World Pictures team under Daenerys Entertainment, which has worked happily with each other several times before, is naturally the first choice, and New World Pictures has also responded positively.

However, because of the success of "Rush Hour", Golden Harvest, which has greatly increased its confidence, began to try to strive for more benefits, especially when there happened to be a negative case like "Black Man" recently, Golden Harvest was more resolute.

At least this time it is impossible to sell out the rights anyway.

After the re-planning of the project, the New World Pictures team's box office expectations for "Police Story 4" are relatively optimistic and only about $50 million, after all, the project itself has some defects that cannot be fully integrated into Hollywood, and $50 million is still based on the popularity of "Rush Hour".

All in all, New World Pictures is unlikely to give too outrageous conditions. So it was snatched away by other studios that Hollywood was eyeing and finally spent on Disney.

Overseas films are distributed in North America, and if the producer asks for a share, there are usually only a dozen points, and more than 20% are very few, because of the nature of the film itself, most distributors will get a share ratio lower than the standard 55% from the theater chain, and the distribution share charged is generally higher than the Hollywood average.

Although the project of "Police Story 4" is special, Golden Harvest does not intend to let outsiders interfere in the investment at all, New World Pictures only does distribution, and it is quite generous to offer a 23% net share under the promise of all-inclusive publicity, after all, this is a movie with clear Hong Kong film genes, and the risk is not small.

Moreover, if there is not enough profit to drive, why should New World Pictures give you resources and distribute its own films? After all, the annual film schedule and film resources are limited.

Disney's share ratio seems to be only 5 points higher than that of New World Pictures, but if it retreats on publicity and follow-up channels, even according to the optimistic box office expectation of $50 million, it will be basically not profitable, unless the film is as successful as "Rush Hour".

It's just that this probability can't be said to be absolute, but it's not much higher than the probability of a country's men's football team entering the World Cup.

After the female assistant finished speaking, she looked at Simon.

Simon just nodded, in understanding.

Disney, controlled by Vivendi, is now in a similar state to Sony, eager to create a situation and launch some high-quality projects, so it is not so concerned about profits.

The end is actually conceivable.

Seeing that her boss didn't mean to fight for it again, Girl A continued: "On the Chinese side, after we sent out the invitation, several Chinese directors gave positive responses, which was a plan proposed by Zhang, Chen and other directors. ”

After the launch of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", with the recent success of "Black Man", in order to praise Jett Lee, Simon planned to create several other costume Chinese films at the same time, martial arts, war, and fantasy, so he sent invitations to some famous Chinese directors, the core is to show Chinese culture, and at the same time take care of the tastes of Western audiences.

Moreover, the planned investment of $15 million to $30 million is only medium in Hollywood, so the risk is controllable, but in China, it is an absolute sky-high investment in this era. Just like the "Opium War" that Director Xie is producing, with an investment of 100 million, equivalent to less than 15 million US dollars, it is already a national concern.

Simon, of course, is not here to do good, and investing in these projects can be said to have multiple purposes.

First of all, it is to make money, and secondly, to be able to get closer to the Chinese government. Then, these big-budget films, on the one hand, can activate the Chinese film market, and on the other hand, they can also alleviate the backlash of the Chinese film industry against the invasion of Hollywood films.

On the other hand, it can be regarded as a little selfishness of Simon.

Such a large-scale investment can also maximize the use of China's film and television resources, not to mention the good mountains and rivers, but also for example, the army that can pull out several divisions to shoot a large-scale war movie with shocking scenes, similar images are quite precious, and they can still be used in these years, after the new century, both the East and the West will gradually no longer have it, and can only use special effects.

Because of "Black Man", Simon's first goal is actually "Hero".

When the film was first released in China, it was a scolding thing, but it was an absolute success at the box office.

Moreover, ten or twenty years later, when the domestic audience encountered a large number of bad movies, they found out how well-made and full of sincerity were the blockbusters shot at the beginning of the century in order to open up the Western market.

In the past, "Hero" was only made up by Lao Mouzi after the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and now there is no shadow.

Simon flipped through the ideas provided by several Chinese directors, and the ideas were all quite good, but "Hero" was safer, after all, it had proven successful, so he planned to provide the ideas himself and let the old planner improve them, which was not that Simon was conservative, but that he took care of the Chinese side.

Daenerys Entertainment can afford to fail, but many of its goals won't be met if a China-specific project fails.

Simon looked at the plans of several Chinese directors and motioned for Alison to continue.

Girl A continued: "Also, on the British side, the tentative famous film team has negotiated the cooperation agreement with Guy Ritchie and Peter Catanius respectively for "Two Big Smoking Guns" and "Six Heroes of Light Pigs", and the adaptation rights of "BJ's Single Diary" are still being negotiated, but only some last details are left, and there is no big problem. ”

The first stop on Simon's European trip was the United Kingdom.

Some time before the departure, Simon asked Daenerys Entertainment UK to collect various popular books or movie scripts here, and finally personally selected three projects: "Two Big Smoking Guns", "Six Heroes of Light Pigs" and "BJ's Birth Diary".

In fact, they have all been concerned for a long time.

During the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Simon thought of Guy Ritchie because of the early discovery of Nolan, but he has always been used to doing certain things more logically, so he chose the time of this trip to Europe.

The former "Two Big Smoking Guns" was only released in 1998, and the script is now complete.

Guy Ritchie's experience is somewhat similar to Quentin's, working as a film projectionist, then starting to shoot short films and music videos, and after a short film "Hard Shell" caught the attention of the industry last year, he began looking for investment for his first feature screenplay, "Two Big Smoking Guns." In the past, just to raise funds for the filming of "Two Smoking Guns", Guy Ritchie and his partners spent more than a year. The film was released in 1998 and was an instant hit.

Now, Simon has cut off his beard ahead of schedule.

In addition, "Six Heroes of Light Pigs" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" are as famous as "Four Weddings and a Funeral", and the box office is even more complete "Two Big Smoking Guns". This low-budget film about several laid-off workers who want to become strippers in the midst of the economic depression in England has historically grossed more than $250 million worldwide with a production cost of a measly £2 million, and has topped the all-time box office in the UK.

is also director Peter Catannius's debut feature film, the reason why this project that should have been unknown entered Simon's field of vision is mainly because of the recommendation of Robert Carlisle, the star of "Trainspotting" purchased by Daenerys Entertainment during Sundance this year, the director of "Six Heroes of Light Pigs" found Carlisle with the script, hoping that he could participate, Carlisle liked this story very much, and it happened that "Trainspotting" established a connection with Daenerys Entertainment's team, so he recommended it.

Taken down by Simon again.

Finally, "BJ's Single Diary", which is a story serialized in a British newspaper since last year, like Daenerys Entertainment's already produced "Sex and the City". "BJ's Single Diary" in the original time and space was only released in 2001, with a cost of $25 million, a global box office of $280 million, and made into a series of movies.

Now that he has encountered it, Simon will naturally not let it go.

In addition to China and the United Kingdom, on the Italian side, Simon also personally finalized two projects during his trip to Europe, a "Pianist at Sea" by Giuseppe Tornatore, and a "Life is Beautiful" written, directed and performed by Roberto Bernini.

Both are classics that once had widespread popularity around the world.

In fact, whether it is the layout of China, the United Kingdom or Italy, it is an important part of Simon's new phase of film strategy for Daenerys Entertainment, and Simon has been paving the way for it in the past few years.

After the Hollywood film pattern was determined, Daenerys Entertainment no longer retained its strength from this year, and the three labels broke out in full swing.

Similarly, on a global scale, Simon also intends to fully blossom, invest more resources to support filmmakers in various overseas markets to produce excellent films, provide a diversified source of films for North America, and at the same time, directly distribute in related markets, on the one hand, make profits, on the other hand, reduce the hostility and backlash of various overseas markets to Hollywood invasion, and at least reduce the resistance of Daenerys Entertainment films to be distributed in various overseas markets.

For other individuals or companies, this full-fledged program is actually difficult to operate.

After all, no one can be omniscient enough to be familiar with film markets around the world, and if you do this blindly, you are more likely to lose all your money. With the prophetic advantage of two lifetimes, Simon happens to be a very special exception.