Los Angeles, Daenerys Studios.
Girl A held a folder in her arms, raised her wrist to look at her watch, and faced her boss who had just finished a meeting with Pixar management.
"You still have one year, John. Come up with a modification plan as soon as possible. I will see it after the New Year."
John Lasseter, who had just been scolded, turned slightly sideways and followed Simon, hearing the words: "I promise, Simon, I will do it as soon as possible."
After Simon finished speaking to John Lasseter with his face still cold, he walked straight to Girl A and asked: "Next?"
"Everyone has already arrived for the viewing party of "The Ghost"."
Simon nodded and walked out quickly, and Girl A quickly followed.
Returning from the East Coast, Simon has been mainly sorting out Daenerys Entertainment's film projects in the next two years in recent days. What he just discussed with the Pixar team is another 3D animated film "A Bug's Life" that will be released at the end of next year. Team".
Compared with films such as "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo", "A Bug's Life" is one of the lower-tier Pixar animated series in terms of both reputation and box office.
As for why, there are actually many questions.
The most important one, in Simon's opinion, is that the main line of the story tends to be the love between two ants. The 'male protagonist' Felik rises up against the grasshopper army out of love for Princess Yating, and finally the lovers get married. The theme seems too adult and not suitable for all ages. In addition, this is not a real-life fairy tale of a prince and a princess, and it is difficult for people to feel immersed in it. Therefore, a seemingly inconspicuous problem has largely contributed to the low point of "A Bug's Life" in the Pixar animated series.
Looking at others, "Toy Story" has friendship at its core and is suitable for all ages. "Finding Nemo", which set a box office record, focuses on family relationships, making it more suitable for all ages. There is also "The Lion King", which changed from 2D to 3D under the intervention of Simon, a big butterfly, and still created a box office miracle. Although the story is taken from "The Revenge of the Prince", the core is growth, and it is still suitable for all ages.
The simple truth is: while ensuring quality, movies that cover a wider age range of the audience will definitely have higher box office.
Simon raised this issue at the beginning of the project, but the Pixar team obviously did not strictly implement it. After all, with continuous success, it is inevitable for anyone to be impetuous. Therefore, in the meeting just now, Simon rarely got angry and forced the Pixar team to do this. Modifications were made to downplay the love line between Felik and Princess Yating, focusing on friendship, while adding an insect circus scene that is more lovable and easier to sell peripherals.
Leaving the Pixar headquarters and returning to a screening room in the third-floor administrative area, the director of "Spooky Ghost" Peter Jackson, the actor Ben Stiller and the heroine Mia Sara and other main creators have arrived, as well as Dan Ni Morris and several other New World Pictures executives responsible for the project's distribution.
Everyone said hello briefly and were seated quickly.
Simon walked to the middle of the second row, where he had the best view, and took a memo from the female assistant sitting on the left. Just after taking a few glances, he felt the faint scent of a strange woman coming from the right, and turned to look, " Mia Sara, the heroine of "Horror Ghost", sat down next to him and looked over when Simon looked over. This beautiful woman who has a golden age Hong Kong actress temperament and is very in line with Eastern aesthetics had a slightly uneasy expression: "Mr. Westeros , can I sit here?"
Simon just nodded slightly, his eyes returned to the memo in front of him that introduced the general situation of "Horror Ghost", and he quickly read through the information.
The lights in the projection room quickly dimmed and the screen lit up.
Peter Jackson's first draft of "Spooky Ghosts" tells the story of Frank, who accidentally gains psychic powers, and his ghost friends collude to defraud money, only to be murdered by evil spirits. In the end, good triumphs over evil.
The original script, in Simon's opinion, was terrible.
Speaking of which, Western ghost movies usually have a big flaw, which is the lack of a mature model for humans to fight against ghosts. This also leads to the fact that the protagonists of many horror movies often rely on chance to defeat ghosts, or there are many completely inexplicable things. The routines, and even the use of love to influence others, are very far-fetched.
Just like the original "Scary Ghost" script, the protagonist's first victory over the evil spirit turned out to be two machine guns transformed from the dead police chief.
Nonsense.
In comparison, Eastern ghost films, especially Hong Kong films, have quite convincing and complete routines, such as glutinous rice, ink sticks, magic talismans, dog blood, donkey hooves, etc.
In the Conjuring movie universe created by Daenerys Entertainment in recent years, Simon has personally intervened and continuously improved a Westernized ghost-exorcism model, with very good results. As for this "Scary", Simon specially gave Jackson a Hong Kong movie "Mr. Zombie" and asked him to watch it several times to find inspiration and re-revise the script, turning the original "Scary" into a movie that was neither scary nor comedy. "Ghost" has been perfected into a qualified commercial film.
Compared with other directors with strong personalities, one of Peter Jackson's biggest advantages is that he is pragmatic, listens to other people's opinions and is willing to cooperate with investors' requirements to make improvements. The final script for filming deleted a large number of redundant story lines in the original version, and changed it from Simon provided a lot of inspiration for Mr. Zombie, which is basically another story.
On the big screen.
The film begins with a farce, a castle is haunted, and the owner invites psychic Frank to catch the ghost.
The male protagonist, who is enough to make anyone with a moderate IQ feel like a liar, puts on a lot of pretense in the castle. Finally, he tells the suspicious host that he is done, gets his salary and leaves.
As soon as Ben Stiller, who plays the male protagonist, appears, he gives a completely different impression from the original Michael J. Fox. This comedy star from "Saturday Night Live" has a very bad temperament when he appears. Makes you laugh. In comparison, Michael Fox, the leading actor in the "Back to the Future" series, gives the impression that he is more of a youth film nicher than a comedian.
The perfect casting coupled with a fitting story, just the beginning, made Simon more certain about the quality of the film.
The movie continues.
After bidding farewell to his host, Frank drove out of the castle grounds. In the carriage, two ghosts suddenly appeared from the back seat and underneath the car, first allowing the audience to confirm that there were indeed ghosts in the film.
However, at first sight, people thought that the two ghosts were trying to attack the protagonist. It soon turned out that they were just joking with the protagonist. They were friends of the protagonist with psychic abilities. The ghost hunting scene just now was also a collaboration between the two parties. scam.
At this point in the wedge, the background has basically been explained.
The male protagonist is a psychic who has two ghost friends and makes a living by hunting ghosts through deception. At the same time, from their conversation, the audience also learned that the so-called haunting of the castle was not that they actively 'haunted' it, but they did not know what the problem was.
While chatting while driving, the plot suddenly changed.
On the winding and dark road at night, a man and two ghosts were discussing lively how to spend the money they had just received. Suddenly, another car rushed straight towards him. Frank hurriedly avoided it. The last thing he saw was a black figure rising from the roof of the oncoming car. They flew up and disappeared in the direction of the castle manor they had just come from.
Immediately, Frank's car also hit a tree trunk on the roadside.
The screen dimmed with a bang, and the title "Scary Ghost" appeared followed by the opening credits.
In addition to the story of the five-minute wedge, Simon was also satisfied with the special effects.
In the original "Scary Ghost", the ghost special effects were very rough, giving people a strong sense of cheapness. However, this time it was produced by Daenerys Special Effects Australia Branch, which has experienced many blockbusters. The ghost in the lens is The shape is ethereal, as if it may disappear at any time if the wind blows, giving people the impression that it is probably the soul after death.
In addition, special effects companies are only doing things after all. Peter Jackson can skillfully apply special effects to this extent. In Simon's opinion, he can safely hand over the Tolkien series to him.
Just as I was thinking about these things, a voice came close to my ear: "Mr. Westeros, I have always wanted to thank you in person for giving me this opportunity."
But it was Mia Sara who was taking advantage of the opening of the film.
Simon's thoughts were interrupted, he just hummed and raised his head slightly to gesture towards the big screen.
So it became quiet.
The main film begins with a funeral. The deceased was an employee of a small town museum. Although Frank was not responsible, because of what he saw and heard that night, he attended the funeral and met the deceased's daughter Lucy, who was Miss. Played by Ya Sara.
love at first sight.
In order to get close to Lucy, Frank introduced his profession to Lucy and took the initiative to reveal that her father may not have died of a heart attack, but was killed by an evil spirit.
Of course Lucy didn't believe this nonsense, and she developed a bad feeling towards Frank because of it.
After meeting the girl he truly loves, Frank, who has never done anything on the side, decides to investigate the truth of the matter. At the same time, he pursues Lucy. Two ghost friends also help him, and he is full of laughter for a while.
At the same time, bizarre deaths similar to Lucy's father's heart attack occurred one after another in the town.
When the big screen showed the heroine Lucy taking a shower in the bathroom and Frank, who was guarding her window for safety reasons, was struggling to decide whether he should take a peek, Simon in the screening room felt that someone touched his right thigh unintentionally. , Mia Sara's voice came again to her ears with a somewhat anxious inquiry but obviously a different meaning: "Mr. Westeros, how was my performance?"
Simon frowned slightly, turned to look at the flattering Mia Sara next to him, raised his hand and stretched it through the girl's long, silky hair, grabbing a slender neck and exerting a little force.
Mia Sara just resisted slightly instinctively, then quickly softened and leaned over according to the man's strength.
The screening room is in a five-by-five layout, because the big boss chose the second row, and there are two beautiful women sitting on the left and right. Of course, no one would not move up to the two extra seats on the edge, but they are all Sit a few rows in front and behind.
Danny Morris was in the front row, and several New World Pictures executives in the back row who were lucky enough to attend the movie together soon discovered that there was suddenly a missing person next to the big boss, but they just happened to be sitting there. The two executives in the third row not only did not dare to show any intention of exploring, but were actually on pins and needles, worried that the big boss would misunderstand them for peeking and be unlucky. After sitting upright for a moment, I still felt something was wrong, so I quietly moved my body and took the initiative to move further back.
The story on the big screen continues.
After some mistakes, Lucy finally believed in the existence of ghosts, and suspected the truth about her father's murder, and began to investigate with Frank. At the same time, because Frank always appears around the dead, the town police chief arrests Frank as a suspect, and the evil spirit also discovers that Frank is tracking him and wants to kill the psychic.
So another climax of the film's battle between humans and ghosts appeared in the small town police station.
After the battle at the police station, the police chief also sided with Frank, and the group of people got closer and closer to the truth.
Frank understood that the ghost-catching tricks he originally used to deceive people had no effect on evil spirits. After discussing with his ghost friends, he learned that ghosts were afraid of the consecrated crosses in churches and the priests who used them to inject newborn babies. Baptismal holy water and other items, and then began to prepare 'professional' tools.
The story soon comes to an end.
The truth turns out to be in the castle where Frank caught ghosts at the beginning. The hostess's daughter Barbara was originally dead and was resurrected through an evil witchcraft. However, in order to maintain the state of the living dead, Barbara had to frequently transform into an evil spirit to hunt the souls of living people for sacrifice in order to maintain her 'life'.
This also echoes some of the details in the opening wedge.
Then comes the wonderful final battle, where justice defeats evil and the lovers finally get married.
After the screening ended, everyone moved to the conference room next door. During this period, Girl A quietly took Mia Sara away, and everyone present looked as if they had not heard anything.
Compared with "A Bug", which he lost his temper with before, Simon is much more satisfied with "Spooky". He only made some modifications to the details of the soundtrack and briefly discussed with the New World Pictures team about the production during Easter next year. Distribution matters, turned attention to Peter Jackson and Ben Stiller.
Both are filmmakers that Daenerys Entertainment focuses on cultivating.
It has been eight years since he was originally the director's assistant on "Batman Begins" until now. Now that it is determined that Peter Jackson has the ability to control the "Lord of the Rings" series, the project can naturally be launched.
However, because many projects in 1997 and 1998 have been finalized, the first part of "The Lord of the Rings" will not be released until at least 1999. Simon's initial date is the end of 1999, so Jackson has three years to make this Middle-earth movie. Epic series.
Of course, Simon's plan is still to shoot the trilogy back to back. Considering the huge workload required, three years is actually not a long time.
Then there's Ben Stiller.
As one of the core members of the gang, Stiller, with the support of Simon, participated in two projects of Daenerys Entertainment in the second half of this year. He participated in Peter Jackson's "The Dreadful Ghost" back to back and served as the protagonist. The director directed Jim Carrey's "Cable TV Fixer."
Next, Simon also plans to let him participate in "The Hangover" to promote Atlantic City.
As long as "The Hangover" can be successful next year, even if it is not as good as before, but the domestic box office exceeds 100 million, the gang of bad guys will be basically formed, enough to compete with most of the older generation of comedy stars in Hollywood.
Of course, Simon does not intend to cooperate with the Bad Boy Gang for a long time. After all, the later the time, the lower the cost performance of this group of people. Although the film produced has a guaranteed box office, most of the profits are divided among the main creators and the producers. Factories often just make hard money, which is completely inconsistent with Simon's philosophy.
After talking to the two of them, it was already after get off work time.
Peter Jackson and Ben Stiller are currently leaving, and Simon discussed with Danny Morris for more than an hour the development progress of New World Pictures' related film projects in the next two years.
If this year is just a buffer, starting from next year, Daenerys Entertainment will fully exert its efforts and no longer leave too much room for other Hollywood studios. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of major Hollywood studios and form Daenerys Entertainment. Liz Entertainment dominates Hollywood’s near-monopoly.