"Lola Run" was a blessing in disguise, and in the eyes of many people, it was almost the North American box office champion in 1987.

But.

Simon, however, found that he was now more and more inclined to be a poor ghost.

During this time, renting a mansion, hiring Pat Kingsley, signing Amy Pascal, maintaining Daenerys Pictures, and even dealing with public opinion turmoil all cost a lot of money.

Now, not to mention Simon's own pocket, even Janet's little purse has been wiped out. The more than $50,000 saved from filming "Lola Run" has long been exhausted in various expenses.

On the other hand, although tens of millions of dollars are expected to be earned, the North American box office share of "Lola Run" will not be settled until the film is released, and the distribution rights of other channels still in hand do not know when it will be realized.

Thereupon.

Simon still has a lot of bills on him.

The rent of the mansion is owed, Kingsley's commission is owed, Amy's basic salary is also owed, and even the money that Amy wants to hire an assistant for herself after joining the company is temporarily out of her own pocket, and the woman also complains to Simon for this.

Now, getting a sum of money as soon as possible is simply imminent for Simon.

In fact, Simon had already instructed Janet last month to take Daenerys Pictures' "Lola Run" distribution contract with Orion to the bank for mortgage evaluation.

It's just that compared to the $100,000 loan he borrowed from Wells Fargo Bank by relying on the script contract of "The Butterfly Effect", Simon applied for tens of millions of dollars this time, so naturally it is impossible to do it in a short period of time.

It took a full month to review all aspects of the materials in the early stage, and then Simon encountered this public opinion storm, and several banks simply rejected Simon's loan application considering the risks.

In the end, it was Wells Fargo that remained.

Los Angeles.

Inside a cliff mansion in Palisad.

After evaluation, Wells Fargo ultimately only offered a loan amount of $20 million, which is $10 million less than Simon's expected contract share.

However, $20 million is clearly not a small amount.

Because of the large amount of the loan, Wells Fargo sent a senior vice president named Paul Olson to personally work with Simon and Janet on the most critical customer visit process in the loan review.

Paul Olsen is about forty years old, with brown hair, a square face, and a polite appearance, although he is a very talkative person in private, but when he officially starts working, he immediately becomes meticulous and even a little old-fashioned.

At this time.

In the study room in the mansion, three people sat on the sofa in the reception area.

Paul Olsen held a folder in his hand, asked all the questions in the routine list word by word, and then turned his eyes to Simon and Janet, and said again: "Mr. Westeros, Miss Johnston, I must ask you two to confirm again that the loan you are applying for is limited to personal consumption and will never be used for illegal operations such as film investment, right?"

The third time.

Simon muttered secretly in his heart, but nodded without hesitation and said, "Yes." ”

Janet echoed the answer.

"Again, then, I need to reiterate, Mr. Westeros, Miss Johnston, that we will be tracking the flow of their loans on a regular basis. Wells Fargo has the right to recover the loan early if it is found that the two have used the loan to invest in movies and other irregularities. Moreover, the credit history of both will also be seriously affected. ”

Simon and Janet both had stiff smiles on their faces and nodded mechanically together.

"In that case," Paul Olsen finally closed the folder in his hand, smiled, and got up, "It's a pleasure to meet you two, and I hope we have a good time working together." ”

Simon and Janet finally relaxed, quickly got up, and shook hands with Paul Olsen respectively.

After sending Paul Olsen away, Simon returned to the living room of the villa, and lay down on the sofa a little tiredly, and Janet also came over with an exhausted look, and her soft body lay on Simon.

Simon put his arm around the woman's thin waist, looked at the ceiling, and sighed, "Finally got the money." ”

Janet replied weakly, "Yes." ”

Simon arbitraged the money in advance, and the ultimate goal was to use it to invest in stock index futures in the second half of the year, but this kind of thing must not be said.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that banks simply don't lend to borrowers with such intentions, even if they are secured.

However, for loan applications of up to $20 million, there is always a legitimate need for a loan.

After some consultation, the two filled in the "personal consumption" column in the loan demand column in the original application, and the repayment period was one year.

Many of Hollywood's biggest stars often apply for huge loans from banks for spending purposes.

Since personal consumption is usually the purchase of luxury houses, famous cars and other physical goods, even if the borrower is unable to repay the loan for some reason, the bank can recover this part of the assets to make up for the loss. Therefore, this is a very valid reason to borrow.

However, Simon's application still raised questions from Wells Fargo.

The main thing is that the amount is too large.

Even if Simon and Janet are very profligate, the huge sum of $20 million is definitely not a small amount of money that can be easily spent.

The two even made up an excuse to buy a private jet, but they still couldn't get Wells Fargo to fully accept it.

Private jets can be installed, and wealthy people who buy private jets usually choose to installments, and they don't need so much money.

Given Simon's status, Wells Fargo could easily imagine that he would more likely want to use the money for film investment.

Film investment is no less risky than stocks and futures.

Usually, banks will not approve this type of loan.

Of course, this cannot be said absolutely, after the establishment of Orion, Mike Medois and others directly obtained a credit line of 200 million US dollars from a bank in New York.

However, although "Lola Run" was a box office hit, because there was only one box office success, Simon obviously couldn't enjoy the kind of treatment that Orion had at the beginning.

So there was the process of repeatedly reminding or warning Simon by Paul Olsen.

If Wells Fargo had known Simon's true intentions, he probably wouldn't even have today's conversation.

Moreover, it is also a big trouble to be accidentally discovered during the operation process in the future.

Anyway.

I can't do that much for the time being.

In fact, the loan is like this, and borrowing is the ability. There are not many people who are completely honest after actually getting the money.

Otherwise, the bank would not have so many bad debts.

Relaxed and took a deep breath, thinking that the money would not arrive until next week at the earliest, Simon was still a little worried, hugged Janet's arm tightly, and said, "Baby, there is still no money now, why don't we save a little bit and only eat two meals a day?"

Janet rubbed her face against Simon's chest and said, "I'm afraid of being hungry, so I'll eat three meals, and you can eat one meal." ”

Simon nodded: "Well, I understand. ”

"What?"

"You count one meal, so there are two. ”

"Uh-huh, or I'll call Kate too. ”

"Huh?"

"She's counted one meal, so it's three more meals. ”

"Good girlfriend of the Federation, come, I'll kiss you. ”

"Phew, little bastard. ”

After a few laughs, the two fell silent again.

Simon began to sort out the recent events again, and the most curious thing in his mind was where the ABC tape came from.

Thinking back to the day, Simon still can't remember who recorded the video.

Moreover, I made several phone calls, and went to the ABC headquarters to inquire while in New York, but I also did not get an answer, and the ABC responded that the video provider asked for the source to be kept secret, and I don't know why.

Today is Tuesday, March 24th.

The turmoil dissipated.

Yesterday, Simon finally officially signed a contract with Fox Films for "The Grim Reaper".

Fox's budget for the film will also arrive next week, and it's not a one-time payment. The total budget of 8 million US dollars, the first of which is only 500,000 US dollars, is used for casting, scenery and other work in the early stage of the project.

In addition, Orion Pictures has already started talking about Simon's next film and needs to start working on it recently.

Both of these projects are in place,

Simon's last film in the project, Nora Epron's When Harry Met Sally, is still hanging in the air.

Actually, Simon hasn't quite taken the script yet.

Although due to the failure of the previous "Heartfire" and the rather alternative story structure of "When Harry Met Sally", no film company is interested in this script for the time being. But during the initial contact, Nora Ephron said that if Daenerys Films wanted to buy the script, it had to come up with a feasible production plan.

Obviously, Nora Ephron is worried that Daenerys Films is just an empty shell, completely incapable of producing and wants to hoard her own scripts.

Hoarding of scripts is so common in Hollywood that studios often buy exclusive rights to some scripts for a few years. If the production is put into production during the contract period, the screenwriter's follow-up remuneration will be paid, and if the project is still not started after the expiration, the copyright of the script will automatically return to the screenwriter.

The box office of "When Harry Met Sally" was even the most guaranteed of the three films in Simon's initial plan, and his original consideration was that if he really couldn't find an investor, he would simply invest in the film himself.

But now.

If you want this movie to be released next summer, then the project must also start immediately.

So, all the problems come back to the same starting point.

Money!

You can't do anything without money.

Moreover, it is estimated that the investment in "When Harry Meets Sally" may still be the highest among the three planned films, and even reach $15 million.

In all fairness, Simon really didn't want to invest in the film himself.

Although the expected revenue of "Lola Run" is quite large, he prefers to invest the money in other goals with greater potential for value-added.

After thinking about it for a while, Simon patted Janet on the body and said, "Get up, wait for dinner with Medova, will you go?"

Janet gave a small hum and nodded.

Now that the North American box office potential of "Lola Run" has been determined, the issue of the film's other channel distribution is also on the agenda. Since it signed a North American theatrical distribution contract with Orion, Orion naturally has priority for the distribution rights of the remaining channels of the film.

Simon's plan is to sell all other rights at once, so that he can get a lump sum of money as soon as possible for the second half of the year, as well as other investments.

However, with the North American box office scale of "Lola Run", the film's overseas distribution rights, videotape distribution rights, and subsequent TV broadcast rights, the profit scale is at least twice that of the North American box office.

Simon is not aware of Orion's subsequent sharing agreements with other theaters, but even if the average is only calculated on a five-and-a-half basis, "Lola Run" is expected to bring a total of $100 million to Orion and Daenerys Pictures.

Compared with the negligible investment in production and publicity, the $100 million is almost a net profit.

With this as a reference, the profit scale of the remaining channels is at least about 200 million US dollars.

According to the profit distribution rules of the North American domestic box office, "Lola Run" is released through other channels, and Simon will probably be able to call out a $60 million outright offer.

$60 million, even if it is a huge amount of money for the Big Seven, Orion Pictures naturally can't afford it.

Therefore, if Simon wants to complete the outright operation in the short term, Simon can only sell separately if he wants to complete the outgoing operation in the short term.

However, due to contractual constraints, Simon must first obtain Orion's consent before doing so.