Chapter 124

After Simon came up with the script for "Instinct", Jonathan and Amy have been busy with the project for the past week.

The original "Instinct" grossed more than $350 million worldwide in 1992 at a production cost of $49 million. The film's success is largely due to the strong controversy caused by the film's subject matter and its almost NC-17 scale, and Sharon Stone's cross-legged and bottomless shots are still memorable to many audiences many years later.

Even, the box office success of "Instinct" led the trend of thriller erotic films with femme fatales as a gimmick throughout the 90s.

The original director of "Instinct" was Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, who directed films such as "Total Recall" and "Starship Troopers". However, Simon passed the story directly to Brian de Palma after completing the outline of the script.

Compared to Paul Verhoeven, Brian de Palma, who has a preference for voyeurism, is obviously more suitable to direct this film.

Although Simon made it clear during his communication with Brian De Palma that this film is like "The Butterfly Effect", the media reputation in the future will still not be very good, and it may cause a lot of controversy, Brian De Palma quickly nodded and agreed.

The next male lead, Simon is still inclined to Michael Douglas.

Michael Douglas also happens to be a client of MA, and the unexpected success of "Fatal Temptation" has taken the middle-aged male star from a film family to the next level, and after several contacts, the other party quickly agreed to participate.

After getting the two main creators, Jonathan and Amy officially opened negotiations with Fox Films. Now that he has accumulated enough capital and the business prospects of "Instinct" are also very secure, Simon decisively chose to participate in the investment this time.

Simon initially hoped that the film would be fully funded by Daenerys Films, and then distributed by Fox, while closing the contract for the first three screenplays.

It's just that after the success of the three movies "Lola Run", "The Butterfly Effect" and "The Grim Reaper", although Simon's story still deviates from the mainstream, with Simon, De Palma and Douglas three box office bigwigs involved, Fox is naturally reluctant to let go.

After a week of negotiations, Fox and Daenerys Pictures officially negotiated the production plan.

After "The Butterfly Effect" and "Fatal Temptation," Brian De Palma and Michael Douglas both had their salary offers increased to $6 million, while Simon's script was still symbolically priced at $1, and the film's budget was tentatively set at $20 million.

With a production budget of $20 million, Fox Films and Daenerys Films each bear $10 million, and the film is produced by Daenerys Films, Fox ensures the distribution, and directly determines the schedule for July 15 next year, increasing the guaranteed number of screens to 1,500.

In terms of benefit distribution.

After several tug-of-wars, it was finally determined that all channel revenues of the film would be settled according to the 55% of the investment ratio. To put it simply, Fox's publicity budget will no longer be used as a film investment cost to participate in the distribution of benefits, which also allows Daenerys Films to avoid the largest area of the 'Hollywood ledger'.

The cost of publicity for Hollywood movies usually reaches about half of the production cost.

The budget for the production of "Instinct" is $20 million, and the theoretical budget for publicity and distribution will reach $10 million. According to the proportion of investment, it is divided into 55 with Daenerys Films, which seems to be a big loss for Fox Films, but in fact it is not.

On the "Death Comes" project, Daenerys Pictures did not invest a penny, and the revenue is expected to reach $10 million.

This time, if he didn't participate in the investment, Simon would have been able to get at least the same share terms as "Death Comes" on the "Instinct" project. Now, Daenerys Films has given up this additional income, and at the same time, Fox Film has also given up the revenue due to the publicity budget, and the investment of both parties is still equal.

Moreover, a series of terms detailed in the contract for how long the TV trailer needs to be shown can also ensure that Fox invests sufficient publicity resources.

Fox Studios.

It's already Tuesday, November 10th.

In a conference room in the Studios Administration Building, Ronald Goldberg, Amy Pascal, Jonathan Friedman, and a number of other executives, stars, and agents from Fox Films, Daenerys Films, and MA have officially signed several investment and actor contracts related to the "Instinct" project.

However, Simon was not there today.

After the official press conference, at the dinner arranged by Fox Films, although he had received Simon's phone call in advance, Ronald Goldberg still approached Amy Pascal and asked Simon about his recent movements.

Since the middle of last month, many people around Simon have found that he is obviously a little absent-minded during this time, and Norman Broca, president of Orion Pictures, can't help but complain about the slow post-production progress of "Vulgar", which has been completed for more than a month, and the rough cut of the film has not yet been completed.

Amy Pascal heard Ronald Goldberg's inquiry, thinking back to Simon's recent erraticism, and could only shake his head in his heart, but on the surface, he still had to speak for his boss, and said: "Ronald, you know, Simon has been busy for a whole year since last year, and it shouldn't be okay to relax a little now." ”

Ronald Goldberg didn't believe Amy's excuses, hesitated with red wine in his pocket with one hand, lowered his voice slightly, and said, "Amy, you tell me the truth, did Simon put the money he earned from "Lola Run" into the stock market and then lost it?"

Amy immediately thought about Simon's lack of coming to the company for a week after the North American stock market crash last month.

During this time, although the North American stock market has stabilized, the Dow Jones index is still hovering around 2,000 points, well below the peak of 2,700 points in August. Simon has received more than $100 million in the previous six months with "Lola Run", and it is difficult to guarantee that he will not want to make another profit when the stock market is still soaring at the beginning.

"Well, Ronald, I really don't know," Amy shook her head despite her speculation, thought for a moment and added, "But, Ronald, you can rest assured that no matter what, this won't affect Daenerys Pictures' investment in Instinct." ”

Ronald Goldberg continued to ask a few questions, but could not find anything from Amy, so he turned away.

Amy Pascal watched Ronald Goldberg walk away, but her brow furrowed. I can't help but think of Simon discussing with myself about investing in "Instinct" some time ago.

Although she didn't think it would be a good choice to invest her own money in movies, Amy originally thought that Simon would use the money she earned from "Lola Run" to participate in this investment. Simon's decision deviates from Amy's prediction, and he wants Amy to take the contract of "Death Comes" as collateral and use the loan to invest in "Instinct".

A large part of the funding for the production of Hollywood movies comes from bank loans.

Daenerys Films did not have enough foundation to obtain production funds from the bank during the financing process of "When Harry Met Sally". Now, Simon has succeeded in three movies in a row, and "Instinct" is a script written by Simon himself, and it is not too difficult to get a loan from the bank.

However, in connection with this matter, coupled with Simon's sudden rush to New York again yesterday morning without any explanation after the end of October, he even missed today's signing ceremony. This series of clues is connected a little, and it is obvious that his little boss, and his girlfriend, are likely to have really lost a lot of money in the stock market crash.

More than 100 million dollars, I don't know how much I lost.

Thinking about the tragedy of the stock market crash on October 19, Amy couldn't help but shake her head, after all, she is still a young man.

It's just that.

I don't know if the little boss will encounter such a Waterloo in the movie next.

You must know that the income of "The Grim Reaper" should still have 5% of her after careful calculation. For "Instinct", or most of Hollywood's films that use loans for production, usually they should apply for a loan from the bank with the pre-sale contract of the film, but Fox and Simon do not agree to the pre-sale, but the film production funds definitely need to be mortgaged, and Daenerys Pictures can only use the revenue contract of "The Grim Reaper" as a bargaining chip.

If Instinct fails.

If "When Harry Met Sally" also fails.

Even, if "Vulgar" fails.

Then I will have to work for more than a year, and I may have to look for a new job.

These thoughts flashed through Amy Pascal's mind, and the more she thought about it, the more worried she became, and after the dinner, as soon as she returned to her home in Palisad, Amy couldn't help but pick up the phone, thinking that it was already early in the morning on the east coast, so she didn't rush over.

I drank last night, fell asleep worried, and had a nightmare of begging Ronald Goldberg to bring me back to Fox after Daenerys Pictures went bankrupt, and when she was woken up by the screeching of the phone, Amy Pascal looked at her watch, it was just after four o'clock in the morning.

Oh, my God.

At four o'clock, what can be the urgency now?

Did aliens attack Earth?

Are you going to flee?

Complaining like this, Amy still touched the microphone.

The call was from Jonathan Friedman, and the agent didn't talk nonsense and asked Amy to receive the fax directly.

A moment later, pulling out a page clipping from the fax machine, Amy Pascal just glanced at it, and her eyes widened, and the sleepiness she had just had just had completely swept away.

"Simon Westeros Creates Another Miracle, Hollywood Kid Makes $1.6 Billion"

This.

It must be a joke, right?

It's not that the aliens have hit Los Angeles, I can drive to Mexico to hide, and I want to take a break recently.

The fax machine did not stop after receiving a page of newspaper clippings, and then several more newspaper clippings were sent.

"$75 million to $1.62 billion, the youngest billionaire is born"

"Westeros questioned by the Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission for suspected insider trading"

"Quantum Fund sues Lehman Brothers, Simon Westeros is involved"

"Simon Westeros' $1.1 Billion Crashes into Technology Stocks"

《......》

After reading several newspaper clippings in a row, Amy Pascal finally confirmed that although it was a little untrue no matter how you look at it, it was really not a joke.

His own small boss somehow became a billionaire.

Wrong.

$1.6 billion.

Oh my God, how did he do it.

At the same time that Amy received the fax from Jonathan Friedman, in Los Angeles before it was dark, countless people's phone calls and faxes began to operate wildly, and when the morning sun in Los Angeles slowly peeked out of the horizon, the whole of Hollywood still got and repeatedly confirmed a certain explosive news.

In just a few months, Simon Westeros made a frantic profit of more than $1.6 billion through the operation of the stock index futures market.

Although many people also subconsciously think about taxes, but, no matter what, all of a sudden, someone who has just emerged in this circle has become one of the richest people in Hollywood, and his personal net worth even exceeds the net worth of most of the people who control behind the scenes of the Big Seven.

How the hell did he do it?

What happened?

Is this a big joke made by the 'unscrupulous media' on the East Coast collectively to Hollywood?

But.

The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and so on are obviously not going to make such a clumsy joke, and today is not April Fool's Day.

It's just that the news broke out almost on the same day, and many people still smelled something different.

Something big is definitely going to happen next.

After confirming the news, Amy Pascal, Jonathan Friedman, George Norman and other people associated with Simon flew to New York. In any case, it's a great thing to have your employer or client suddenly become a billionaire.

East Coast.

In the presidential suite of the Plaza Hotel, Simon stood on the terrace and looked at the road in front of the hotel, looking at the dense crowd of reporters with one or two hundred people, and he also felt his scalp tingle.

Last week, Simon had already received a notice from the Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission asking Simon to submit all of Westeros' trading records for S&P 500 futures for that period, and Simon knew that trouble was coming.

However, he still followed the other party's request and carefully transmitted all the documents to Washington without reservation.

However, today's events once again made Simon realize that this matter may have just begun, and he may have become a fat sheep in the eyes of many people. However, today's events once again made Simon realize that this matter may have just begun, and he may have become a fat sheep in the eyes of many people.