After the lively New Year's countdown, tonight's party begins to wrap up.
At about one o'clock in the morning, Simon sent James Raybould's family of three away and returned to the villa. Only the waiter who was cleaning up the mess was left in the empty living room. There should be some guests in the backyard, but Simon himself was not needed. Send each other off.
So he walked along the stairs to the second floor. Still outside a living room, Simon heard Janet's chuckle.
After entering the door, four women, Janet, Catherine, Amy and Nancy Brill, were cuddling on the sofa in different postures and talking about something. The women were holding goblets in their hands, and they were all obviously drunk. Jenny The extremely fair face had turned red at this time.
Walking to Janet's sofa and sitting on the armrest, Simon gently took the red wine from the woman's hand and prevented her from drinking any more. He looked at Amy and the others and said: "Ladies, it's already very late, do you want to continue? "
Amy raised her wrist and looked at her watch, and then she showed a surprised expression: "It's already 1:25, Simon, have you seen Cliff?"
Cliff is Amy's new boyfriend, who is introduced as the owner of a French restaurant in Brentwood.
Simon thought for a moment and said, "He should be on the backyard lawn."
"Then, it's time for me to go," Amy put the goblet in her hand on the coffee table in front of her, stood up on the armrest of the sofa, shook her head slightly, and said to Simon with a smile: "Boss, I will go to the company later tomorrow. , the reason should be legitimate, right?"
Simon smiled and nodded: "Of course."
The tomorrow in Amy's mouth is actually today, so Simon will naturally not be serious about such small details.
New Year's Day is supposed to be a legal holiday in the United States, but Simon will fly to Australia tomorrow. There are still many things to arrange before leaving. At least Daenerys Entertainment's senior executives need to continue to appear in the company tomorrow.
As Amy stood up, the other three women also stood up.
After Simon stood up, he hugged Janet, who was leaning against him, and swayed. His eyes inadvertently noticed Nancy Brill, and couldn't help but say: "She's so short."
It turned out that Nancy Brill, who had just curled herself up on the single sofa, had taken off her high heels.
In the past, he had not noticed that the woman was standing barefoot on the carpet. Only then did Simon realize that Nancy Brill was not even 1.6 meters tall. Not to mention Catherine, even Janet and Alan, who were about 1.7 meters tall. Both girls were obviously shorter in front of them. However, the woman's curvaceous and mature charm combined with her height gave her a very strange aura.
Simon said this, and Janet and the three of them, who had obviously just discovered this, also showed surprised expressions.
Nancy Brill was watched by several people, but she sat down again as if nothing had happened. She found her 10cm high heels from the side and put them on her feet. She glanced at Catherine casually, and her tone seemed to be a little more defensive. , said: "Boss, are you discriminating?"
"Of course not," Simon denied with a smile, watching Nancy Brill stand up again quickly, her sky-high pair was hidden under the skirt of her rose-colored dress, and she had obviously grown a lot in height, and said: " Actually, it doesn’t seem right to always wear such high shoes.”
Nancy Brill obviously didn't want to continue this topic, and just said lightly: "If you don't wear it, the result will be worse."
Since Nancy didn't like discussing her height, Simon stopped. But I couldn't help but wonder whether this woman cared about her height because she was too strong, or whether she became so strong because of her height. At a little over 1.5 meters, she is indeed a bit short among Western women.
Everyone went downstairs together, and Amy found her boyfriend among the last guests in the backyard. Watching the driver drive away the two of them, Simon noticed that Nancy Brill was still alone.
The parking attendant drove a black Mercedes-Benz car over. Simon watched Nancy say goodbye to everyone and got into the driver's seat. He stepped forward and pressed the car door that the woman wanted to close, and said, "Yourself?"
Nancy sat in the driver's seat, took off her high heels again and put them next to her, looked at Simon and said, "Boss, do you have any questions?"
Simon opened the car door a little and moved aside: "Sit in the back and let the driver take you back."
Nancy shook her head: "No need."
Simon looked at the woman insistently: "Get out of the car."
Nancy stared at Simon for a moment, and finally said, "I'm not used to strangers sending me home."
Simon looked up and found Neil Bennett's figure, gestured to him, looked at Nancy again, and said, "I'll ask my driver to take you back."
Nancy hesitated for a moment, then got out of the car and moved to the back seat.
Simon said a few words to Neil Bennett, watched him drive Nancy away, and then turned around. Janet was looking at him with a smile, with a little teasing: "Nancy obviously wants you to This boss sent her back, you are really ignorant."
Neil Bennett was originally going to send Simon and the two back to Malibu, but now he can only wait a little longer.
Simon ignored Janet's teasing and asked Catherine next to him: "Shall we go back to Malibu together later?"
"Okay," Catherine nodded somewhat unexpectedly, but then added: "I just recently rented a house in Paradise Bay, not far from Cape Dume, just on the way."
After the three of them got together, Catherine never gave Simon another ridiculous chance.
Seeing Simon's depressed expression, Janet stepped forward with a smile, took Catherine's arm and walked towards the villa, saying: "You little bastard will go to Australia the day after tomorrow, Kate, then you can come and live with me."
Catherine glanced at Simon who was falling next to the two of them, and said with some surprise: "Aren't you going with him?"
"Our house in Dume Point Park will be under construction soon," Janet shook her head and said, "Besides, Daenerys Entertainment will conduct a financial audit in the next month or so. I can help her by staying in Los Angeles. Staring, um, on his birthday in February, we went over to visit him together."
Neil Bennett came back after sending Nancy Brill home. After another torment, it was already past two o'clock in the morning when he went to bed.
Wake up the next day and the new year officially begins.
A high-level meeting was held at ten o'clock in the morning and lasted until one o'clock in the afternoon. The main topic was the company's main work arrangements during Simon's departure from Los Angeles.
In the coming months, Daenerys Entertainment will focus on establishing overseas distribution channels and promoting the overseas distribution of several films such as "Scream" late last year.
In this era, it is rare for Hollywood movies to be released overseas at the same time as North America. On the contrary, it is very common to delay the release of movies by two or three months. Therefore, Daenerys Entertainment simply stopped focusing on overseas releases at the end of last year and focused all its energy on local distribution.
Now, several films such as "Scream" have all achieved great success at the box office, which has created very good prerequisites for the expansion of Daenerys Entertainment's overseas distribution channels. With these blockbuster films as bargaining chips, Daenerys Entertainment can easily establish ties with overseas cinema operators.
In addition to the release of the film, the next most important task is the financial audit of the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group.
Because it is not a listed company, Daenerys Entertainment does not need to publish annual financial reports. However, due to the rapid expansion of the company, even Simon himself is not very clear about the detailed financial revenue data of Daenerys Entertainment, including its subsidiaries, let alone whether there are potential problems. This requires a very detailed financial review of Daenerys Entertainment.
In order to ensure the accuracy of financial reports, Simon also specifically authorized Janet to supervise the entire audit at today's meeting.
Finally, there is Daenerys Entertainment’s strategy for winning awards during the awards season for several films produced in the coming months.
Simon's attitude towards awards such as Oscars has never been too enthusiastic. Although he has established Gaomen Pictures, which specializes in art films and has received a large number of major film awards, in his concept, Oscars and other awards should always be the 'icing on the cake' Such existence should not be the fundamental goal of a movie.
At two o'clock in the afternoon, after a simple lunch, Simon, Amy and other senior executives met with Wayne Huizenga, chairman of Blockbuster, to discuss the specific plan for Daenerys Entertainment to invest in Blockbuster. .
After several hours of negotiations, the two parties reached a preliminary agreement. Daenerys Entertainment invested US$120 million to acquire 35% of Blockbuster's shares. At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment promised not to interfere in the management of Blockbuster within the next three years. , Correspondingly, Blockbuster also guaranteed that Daenerys Entertainment’s shares will not be diluted in the next three years.
Nancy Brill was also confirmed as a Blockbuster board member following this meeting.
That night, Simon once again invited the Raybould family to dine in Malibu. During this period, he and James Raybould privately discussed some Westeros company matters. Simon had finally completed the arrangements he had made before leaving.
Although he still had some concerns about letting go of the steering wheel of Daenerys' fast-moving sports car, Simon also understood that he had to do this. If a company cannot continue to operate without one person, the company is destined to fail to grow.
On January 2, Simon officially flew to Melbourne, Australia, with his entourage in the morning.
The preliminary preparations for the "Batman" project have been completed. After arriving in Melbourne, Simon only needs to spend a few days to familiarize himself with the environment. The film will officially start shooting on January 9. The planned shooting period is 13 weeks and 91 days. If all goes well, the film will be completed in early April and will take three months.
Simon immediately arrived in Los Angeles, but the operation of Hollywood did not stop at all.
Daenerys Entertainment’s award-winning public relations work this year was handed over by Simon to Ella Deutschman, the head of Highgate Films. Immediately after Simon, Ella Deutschman began working on “Dead Poets Society” The Golden Globe Awards public relations efforts were launched, and at the same time, preparations were made for Oscar nominations for a series of films under Daenerys Entertainment.
With the unexpected hit at the box office of "Rain Man", Hollywood has also become extremely concerned about the film's Oscar public relations strategy.
Daenerys Entertainment had completely given up on this year's Golden Globe Awards for "Rain Man" before. Many people speculated that due to conflicts with the main creators of "Rain Man", if Simon Westeros is young enough, he will win the Golden Globe Award. Daenerys Entertainment will likely continue to forego this film’s Oscar bid.
"Rain Man" has completely become a phenomenal movie. If this movie joins the Oscar battle, other films this year basically have little chance.
Therefore, the entire Hollywood is looking forward to Simon Westeros' youthful spirit.
However, "Rain Man" gave up the Golden Globe Award, which is just Simon paving the way for "Dead Poets Society". He still has the same view as before. He will not do such stupid things as throwing a pot at his own house when he is angry with others. "Rain Man" will apply for all possible awards as scheduled.
However, Ella Deutschman also got a very difficult job.
Among the nominations submitted for "Rain Man", it is obvious that Best Director and Best Actor can easily win. In the original time and space, these two nominations also successfully allowed Barry Levinson and Dustin Hoffman to win the awards. .
But this time, the task that Simon assigned to Ella Deutschman was to make Barry Levinson and Dustin Hoffman only receive nominations but not awards, just like Daenerys Entertainment. Time will continue to send invitations to CAA artists for role auditions, but it will not be the same as hiring them.
Reverse public relations often happens between competitors, but it is still very difficult to prevent your own film from winning awards.
This was also one of Simon's tests for Ella Deutschman.
In addition to "Rain Man", Daenerys Entertainment will continue to focus on public relations for "Dead Poets Society". The company's goal is to win the best picture for "Rain Man" and the best director for "Dead Poets Society".
The major Hollywood film companies have clearly shown a tendency to suppress Daenerys' entertainment. At this time, the "shortcomings" that were originally difficult to influence the Oscar judges have turned into "advantages." The Oscar jury team has more than 3,000 people. As long as Daenerys Entertainment does not hesitate to invest and has high-quality films, it is still very likely to receive nominations and awards.
Simon also went out of his way to give Ella Deutschman some advice in private, teaching her the public relations techniques he remembered from the Weinstein brothers.
Unknowingly, the New Year's Eve week has passed again.
Films released at the end of last year are still collecting box office, but compared with the box office explosion during the Christmas week, from December 30 to January 5, the single-week box office in North America was US$122.36 million compared with last week. It shrunk back to US$91.56 million, with most films experiencing declines.
Except for "Rain Man."
As the box office unexpectedly bucked the trend in the second week of release, in the third week, Daenerys Entertainment urgently negotiated with theaters and reallocated 262 screens, increasing the number of screens for "Rain Man" from 1,136 to 1,398. .
Coupled with the phenomenal reputation that "Rain Man" continues to spread, in the third week of its release, this movie became the only film to reverse the decline on the market this week, with a box office increase of 7%, and another US$17.91 million, with a total box office of US$46.23 million. , and also easily surpassed "Dead Poets Society" and became the number one box office list this week in the third week of the film's release.