Daenerys Film Headquarters.
Jennifer Raybould knocked gently on the door of the editing room. After receiving a response, she opened the door and said to Simon who was busy in front of the editing table: "Boss, it's already four o'clock."
Simon just nodded slightly, his eyes still on the monitor screen of the editing table, and his hands kept moving, saying: "Wait a moment, it will be ready soon."
Jennifer didn't say anything else, walked in with gentle steps, closed the door of the editing room again from behind, and quietly watched Simon work amidst the slight clicking sound of the equipment. Pulp Fiction had a generous budget, so Simon didn't have to micromanage everything. The previous rough cuts of the film were completed by professional editors, but during the fine editing stage, Simon decided to do it himself.
Back in Los Angeles, Simon spends much of his time these days in the company's editing suite.
After a while, Simon archived the images and began to organize the tape notes and other items on the editing table. Jennifer also stepped forward and together they skillfully helped Simon put the tapes and other items into the safe in the corner of the editing room.
After secretly spending a quiet time with him, Jennifer talked about today's work after leaving the editing room: "I collected information from some major record companies and second- and third-tier labels in North America, and put them all on your desk in your office. Mr. Steve Jobs’ secretary responded in the morning, saying that Jobs has no intention to sell Pixar; Mr. Ed McCracken, CEO of Silicon Graphics, invites you to visit the headquarters of Silicon Graphics in San Francisco recently; Bill Mr. Gates’ assistant called. Gates is coming to Los Angeles next Monday and hopes to have lunch with you; and, um, a speaking invitation from Stanford University.”
Simon led Jennifer through the corridor, took the invitation from Stanford University from her hand, looked at it, and handed it back, saying: "If there is another invitation like this, just turn it down. It would be a disgrace for me to give a speech to them." Energy: Look, that guy is the same age as us, God is so unfair.”
Jennifer chuckled, put the invitation letter into the folder, held it against her chest, looked up, and asked, "Where are the invitations from Mr. McCracken and Mr. Gates?"
"I will definitely go there once in San Francisco, but I don't have time recently, so I need to push it back. As for Gates, please book a restaurant. We are the hosts and we must be more enthusiastic. In addition, I suddenly thought of something today. Well, now that all those stocks have been exposed, according to the shareholding ratio of Westeros Corporation, I already have the right to request board seats from these companies. Ask your father if he is interested in serving as a director of these companies for me. I didn’t have that much time myself. So the idea was that George would be in charge of the West Coast side of these companies and your dad would be in charge of the East Coast.”
Westeros Company's 4.9% shareholding ratio in 26 technology stock companies basically allows Simon to squeeze into the ranks of major shareholders of these companies.
If these holdings are not exposed, Simon also plans to be a silent individual shareholder, hiding in the dark and watching the development of these companies. Now that the holdings were public knowledge, Simon decided to claim his rights as a shareholder.
Theoretically, the board of directors is usually the most direct body for shareholders of a listed company to exercise their power. In most cases, company management is appointed by the board of directors through voting. As long as Simon gets a seat on the board of directors of the corresponding company, he will be able to exert his own influence on the future development of these companies.
Jennifer followed Simon, writing down the restaurant reservations in her memo as she walked. After hearing Simon's last words, her expression suddenly became a little surprised and a little inexplicably shy. Just as they were about to say something, the two of them had already arrived at a conference room in the company. Jennifer had to give up the idea of questioning for the time being, and followed Simon to sit down at the conference table.
But it was difficult to calm down in my heart.
The most direct manifestation of the power of the American consortium is that it controls hundreds of board seats of a large number of corporate giants around the world.
Simon's current wealth is naturally incomparable to any of the top ten consortiums in the United States, but if he can win the board seats of all 26 companies, this is definitely a strength that cannot be underestimated.
If Simon really allows his father and uncle to serve as directors of these companies, with the influence represented by Simon Westeros' huge wealth spokesperson and the seats on the boards of these companies, the Raybould family and the Norman family will immediately be able to The family of lawyers, who were originally slightly famous, suddenly became the most influential class in the country.
After all, a fortune of billions of dollars is definitely more than just a series of simple numbers on the surface.
Simon and Jennifer sat down at the conference table. There were actually only four people in the room. The other two were Amy and her assistant named Vanessa Lind. When she had just recruited Amy, Dani Lisi Pictures also had to pay Vanessa's salary out of her own pocket due to lack of funds.
Naturally, this dilemma will no longer occur.
However, the conference room with only four people still shows that Daenerys Films is still just a small workshop. Under normal circumstances, including Simon and the others, there are actually only fifteen permanent employees in the two-story office building of Daenerys Films responsible for finance, delivery, and logistics. As for the film production, it is completely done by the boss Simon and Amy Pascal.
Today is already December 16th, Wednesday.
The release of Daenerys Pictures' three planned film projects in 1987, "The Last Day" is nearing its end.
From its opening on October 23 to now, in seven and a half weeks, the cumulative box office of "Death is Coming" has reached US$67.53 million. With the news that Simon suddenly became a billionaire in November inevitably boosting the film's box office, "Dead Man" easily exceeded the expected $60 million at the box office.
Currently, "Dead Man" currently ranks seventh in the annual North American box office rankings with a box office of 67.43 million U.S. dollars, following the summer film "The Untouchables" starring Sean Connery. The film still received a box office of US$1.06 million in the three-day weekend from December 11 to December 13. In the next few weeks, the film's total box office before being released is enough to easily exceed the US$70 million mark.
Simon has paid special attention to the two major films at the end of the year.
According to the information in my memory, the Thanksgiving and Christmas movies include "Three Dads and a Baby" which was released on November 25th, as well as "Moonlight" on December 18th, and "Morning" on December 25th. "An Vietnam" is expected to enter the top ten of the annual list, and the others are not enough to pose a threat to "Death is Coming".
As a result, "Death Comes" unexpectedly moved from the top 15 in the North American box office list to the top 10. Not surprisingly, this movie will happen to be ranked 10 in the annual box office list.
Counting "Run Lola Run", which firmly holds the No. 1 spot, and "The Butterfly Effect," which is temporarily ranked No. 4, all three Simon-related movies in 1987 ranked at the top of the North American box office rankings. 10 people.
Even though Simon's operation in the financial market has shocked the whole world, in recent weeks, as "Dead Man" has successively surpassed films such as "Witches of Easttown", "Lethal Weapon" and "The Road to Prosperity". Winning the 7th place on the annual list, Simon's personal achievement of having three films in the top ten of the annual box office list in one year still attracts the attention of the entire Hollywood.
Therefore, although "Pulp Fiction" and "When Harry Met Sally" are still in the post-production stage, with the blessing of a personal fortune of more than one billion US dollars and three consecutive top ten films on the annual box office list, the capital market has finally The door was completely opened to Simon.
Simon actually also strongly believes in the principle of not investing your own money in movies.
In this world, no matter in any industry, using other people's money to make your own profits is absolutely king. However, even before the fortune was revealed in November, Simon had not yet reached the point where he wanted others to pay for him.
Now.
Daenerys Pictures finally became eligible to obtain loans from banks simply through brand guarantees, like top second-tier film companies like Seven and Orion Pictures. It’s obvious that Daenerys Pictures’ brand guarantor is Simon himself.
In the conference room.
Amy Pascal waited for Simon and Jennifer to sit down, then handed over a folder and said: "Simon, it has been negotiated. This is the draft contract. Wells Fargo is willing to provide 100 million for Daenerys Films. USD loan with a term of 5 years and an annual interest rate of 6.5%.”
Simon took the document and opened it, and couldn't help but said: "6.5% is still a bit high."
"If it was before the stock market crash, we might be able to get 5%," Amy looked at Simon and explained: "Now banks are generally tightening lending. 6.5% is the result of a long discussion between Wells Fargo and I. You also know Yes, the interest rate originally offered by Paul Olson was 8%. In addition, the US$10 million loan for "Basic Instinct" was not included in this amount of money. It was still mortgaged through the "Death Comes" share contract, with an annual interest rate of 8%. 5%, term 3 years.”
Paul Olson is the senior vice president of Wells Fargo who contacted Simon when he obtained the $20 million loan last time. He has the connection with the last loan. This cooperation can be said to be the result of the two parties hitting it off after contacting each other. .
Simon smiled and nodded, continuing to look through the contract draft in his hand.
There was less than an hour until get off work, and Amy continued without waiting for Simon to finish reading: "Simon, I have already talked to Wes Craven, and he is happy to continue working with us on the next movie. However, , he also hopes to see the script first."
"Death Comes" has entered the top ten at the North American box office. Although everyone knows that this is largely due to Simon's personal script and popularity, as a director, it is like Brian De Palma who has returned to the peak of his career. Similarly, Wes Craven was also successfully promoted to a first-line director.
"I already have a good idea, probably a campus thriller. I will take time to write a synopsis in the next two days. However, I don't have that much time to perfect the script now. You and Wes will discuss it then. , hire other writers to write it.”
When Amy heard what Simon said, she subconsciously said, "What about the signature?"
Simon smiled and said: "Three movies this year are enough. Amy, do you think there will be seven or eight movies written by Simon Westeros in Hollywood a year, and how much interest can the audience maintain?"
But Amy caught another layer of meaning in Simon's words. She put her arms on the conference table and raised her hands gently to gesture: "Simon, you mean, we will make seven or eight movies next year?"
"Of course, not only movies, but also TV shows," Simon flicked on the contract draft in front of him and said, "Otherwise, how would we need so much money. So, next, you can continue to hire people, we Next year we will not only get involved in TV programs, but we will also try to independently distribute films."
Although she had expected it, Amy couldn't help but feel that Simon was a little too eager. However, thinking about the series of miracles created by the young man in front of her this year, Amy quickly nodded.