Entering the last week of September, MCA and Panasonic held another meeting on Tuesday, September 25th. The result was still unhappy. Daenerys Entertainment, which was closely followed by the media, still had no movement. The acquisition that was originally a hot topic The case seems to have reached a stalemate.
After the Forbes 400 Rich List in the United States at the beginning of the month passed, this week, the Westeros System team restarted the preliminary preparations for the acquisition of Bell Atlantic. James Raybould also began to quietly absorb Bell Atlantic's stock, planning to acquire Bell Atlantic. Before the exposure, 4.9% of Bell Atlantic shares were acquired in advance.
Although "Forbes" magazine will release a list of the world's richest people next month, Simon's ranking on this list is no longer suspense, so it will not cause too much trouble.
On the Daenerys TV side, the sitcom "Seinfeld" that Simon personally selected at the beginning of the year also officially launched on the ABC TV network this Tuesday. ABC gave a broadcast time of 9 o'clock and started with "Who Will Be a Hundred "Millionaire" as a precursor.
After the official launch, the premiere episode of "Seinfeld" received 15.6 million viewers, which directly led ABC to announce that it would renew the show for the next two seasons at once.
In terms of movies, David Lynch's "Wild at Heart", which previously won the Cannes Palme d'Or, opened on 532 screens last Friday. This movie has been controversial and polarizing from Cannes to North America, 9 The box office in the first seven days from September 21st to September 27th reached 5.73 million U.S. dollars, exceeding the sales level of 10,000 U.S. dollars in each theater, exceeding many people's expectations.
After seeing the three-day box office data of "Wild at Heart"'s first weekend, Gomen Pictures began to urgently allocate screens. It is expected that the number of screens in the second week will reach about 800, and the film is also expected to hit US$20 million in North America. Box office mark. Although it signed a sharing distribution contract, the North American box office exceeded 20 million US dollars. Counting the subsequent distribution of video tapes and TV broadcast rights, Daenerys Entertainment can still make a good sum of money.
Compared with "Wild at Heart", Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore's new film "Family Journey", which was released earlier on September 7, failed to arouse any interest from the audience after several screenings. In the end, it only grossed US$170,000 at the box office in the North American market.
Gaomen Pictures originally invested US$1 million to obtain the North American omni-channel copyright of "A Family Journey". Judging from the theater box office results, losses are inevitable.
Including "Cinema Paradiso", which was originally purchased by Universal Pictures for a large amount of money and was messed up due to mistakes in its distribution strategy, Tornadore's two feature films failed to make any splash in the North American market. The Italian director is destined to be very popular in the future. It's hard to win Hollywood's favor again.
Except Simon, of course.
If Giuseppe Tornatore's two outstanding films "The Pianist" and "Legend of Sicily" still appear in the future, Simon will definitely take action.
Los Angeles.
After a short break in Seattle with his female assistant, Simon returned to Hollywood again to start a week of work.
Upon learning that Simon planned to re-adjust the advancement of the DC movie universe, Warner Bros. Pictures CEO Terry Semel immediately expressed his opposition, and Steve Ross immediately called Simon's office.
The planned follow-up movie plan for the first phase of the DC movie universe has been the highlight of Time Warner's continuous promotion for more than half a year after the merger, which has been in trouble.
Moreover, although most investors recognize the win-win situation between Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner Group in the DC movie universe plan, there are also some shareholders who criticize Time Warner management for giving too many benefits and initiative to Daenerys. silk entertainment.
It is conceivable that once the first phase development cycle of the planned 5-year, ten-film DC movie universe is suddenly extended to 7 to 10 years, those shareholders who have been accusing Time Warner management of giving away too much profit will definitely be more dissatisfied. Some reasons Investors who are on management's side may also change their attitude.
What's more serious is that this incident will definitely affect Time Warner Group's stock price.
Now that he has made up his mind, Simon will not easily adapt his ideas.
After several disputes, Time Warner still had to compromise, because control of the entire DC movie universe is actually completely in Simon's hands. If trouble really breaks out, Daenerys Entertainment is definitely not afraid of shelving the plan completely, but Time Warner cannot bear the consequences.
However, Simon also made appropriate compensation.
The last two spots remaining in Daenerys Entertainment's 10-movie plan were all given to Warner Bros. Pictures, further tying the interests of both parties together. Moreover, Simon also agreed that he would not officially disclose this adjustment to the outside world, and would only unknowingly delay the plan through excuses such as poor project preparation during the implementation process.
Although they reluctantly reached an agreement on this matter, Simon understood that there must still be cracks in the cooperation between Daenerys Entertainment and Time Warner Group.
However, this is inevitable.
If Daenerys Entertainment and the entire Westeros system wants to continue to expand, it is destined to harm the interests of more and more people.
Friday, September 28th.
In the office loft on the second floor of Daenerys Studios, the team responsible for the DC movie universe project occupies a special office area next to the Daenerys special effects company in LOFT No. 2. All aspects of the DC movie universe planning will be here. produce.
Moreover, the team is stationed here, making it easy to discuss the feasibility of various special effects scenes with Daenerys Special Effects Company at any time.
There is an activity room of more than 70 square meters in the DC Cinematic Universe office area. Simon, Amy and Semel are all here today. The activity room was used for auditions a few days ago. At this time, the walls are densely packed with various actors. The photos mainly involve the three series of "Batman", "Wonder Woman" and "The Flash".
The core character of "Batman" has already been decided and needs no discussion.
A series of main creators of "Wonder Woman" have also been finalized during this period, including Famke Janssen who plays Diana Prince, Joanna Cassidy who plays Queen Hippolyta, Hippo Linda Hamilton, who plays Queen Lyte's sister Antiope, and more. This week, a supporting role in the series, such as Steve Trevor and Ares, the God of War, were also finally decided.
What everyone is discussing today is the final candidates for the characters of "The Flash".
Of course, speaking of discussion, the final decision-making power still rests in Simon's hands.
"Since everyone has no objection, the role of Barry Allen will be given to Jason Jedrick."
Simon said this after carefully watching a few samples and the background information of the actors and discussing it.
Jason Jedrick, 25 years old, debuted in 1983. He has previously appeared in "Admission" starring Tom Cruise, "Born on the Fourth of July" directed by Oliver Stone, Michael Hoffman His acting skills and qualifications are sufficient in films such as "The State of Dreams". Simon also admires the other party's performance in "The State of Dreams".
Moreover, when Simon was invited by Robert Redford to watch his new film "Havana" on Wednesday night, Redford also specifically recommended Jason Gedrick to Simon, who had already made the final list. The difference between the last few candidates was not big. Jason Jedrick had sufficient conditions in all aspects, so Simon smoothly sold a favor to Redford.
After everyone nodded, a staff member in the activity room pinned a photo of Jason Gedrick to the wall in the blank space for the leading actor of "The Flash."
After finalizing the matter, Simon put down another document in front of him and said: "Next, the heroines, Tracy Paulan, Robin White, Amanda Wise, let's re-watch a few scenes of the three of them. The audition video.”
After Simon finished speaking, the staff in the activity room closed the curtains and turned on the projector without any instructions.
A moment later, Tracy Paulan's audition video appeared on the screen on one side of the activity room.
Tracy Paulan is 30 years old this year. She debuted earlier than Jason Jedrick and has equally rich acting experience. In addition, this actress is also the wife of Michael Fox, a popular Hollywood niche. This is the last time she can enter. The most important condition for casting.
Robin White is 24 years old. Not only is Simon's memory of 'Jenny' in "Forrest Gump" and "Mrs. Underwood" in "House of Cards", but Rob White also happens to be the character who was originally produced by New World Pictures and was later cast as Daenerys. The heroine of the hit drama "Santa Barbara" picked up by Entertainment.
"Santa Barbara" started airing in 1984 and officially stopped airing last year. During this period, Robin Wright also appeared in films such as Rob Reiner's "The Princess Bride."
Amanda Pace, 31 years old, is also a TV drama actress. Because she is the oldest, she has more acting experience than the previous two. Moreover, Amanda Pace should be considered the most beautiful of the three female candidates.
After the audition videos were played, Simon looked at the people around him.
Terry Semel first said: "I think Tracy Paulan is good. As Michael Fox's wife, this can also be used as a very good publicity point."
Although the "Back to the Future" series starring Michael J. Fox has ended, it is not a problem for this popular Hollywood actor to continue to maintain his first-line popularity for several years. As Fox's wife, just like Demi Moore, Tracy Paulland does have inherent advantages.
However, as soon as Semel finished speaking, Amy said: "I think the advantage of Michael Fox's wife is not obvious, Amanda Pesce should be better, her acting experience is more demanding than the other two. Moreover, her image and temperament are more in line with Iris West’s journalistic setting.”
"The Flash" director George Cosmatus, who was recommended by Warner, said at this time: "But, Amy, Amanda Pesce is 31 years old."
George Cosmatus has served as the director of big-budget movies such as "First Blood 2" and "Dragon". Although he does not meet Simon's criteria for selecting directors for the DC movie universe series, Warner is not as willing as Simon after all. Big, so hopefully a more experienced director will horizontally bar the "Flash" series.
The budget of "The Flash" was borne by Warner, and Cosmatus was unable to intervene in crossover series such as "Justice League". After several communications, it was confirmed that the other party's production ideas were not too inconsistent with his own, and Simon agreed.
Amy heard what Cosmatus said, picked up a photo and showed it to him, and said: "George, if I say Amanda is 20 years old, some people will probably believe it, right?"
Amanda Pace has a soft Asian face. Although she is 31 years old, she is well-maintained. Some people believe she is 20 years old.
Now that the last three have been selected, Simon is actually satisfied with every actor, and there will be no problem with any one of them eventually serving as the heroine of "The Flash." The other few people discussed it seriously just because they knew Simon's attitude. Otherwise, everyone can simply wait for Simon to make his own decision, and there is no need to waste any time.
"But, Amy," Cosmatus added: "Amanda Pace is indeed very beautiful now, but if the "Flash" series lasts for ten years, can you imagine that she will still be as beautiful as she is at the age of 41 in ten years? His appearance?"
Simon didn't notice this problem at first, but Cosmatus' words suddenly woke him up.
Imagine the "Friends" series that lasted for ten years in my memory. The heroines were very good at the beginning of the series, but by the end, even the most beautiful Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox were... People have a strong feeling that time is like a butcher's knife.
Moreover, even if the "Friends" analogy cannot be compared, the "Iron Man" series, the "Pepper Pepper" Gwyneth Paltrow, who was originally quite entertaining, appeared again after the series lasted for ten years, and it has also become unbearable to watch.
Amy added at this time: "According to your statement, George, Amanda Wise and Tracy Paulan can be eliminated directly."
Simon ignored the argument between the two and looked at the information in front of him again.
Although there is no problem for any of the three candidates to play Iris West, Simon naturally has some preferences. He was originally more interested in Amanda Pace. This actress not only lacks the intelligence of a female reporter, but also has another kind of capable temperament.
Moreover, in the plot of "The Flash", Iris West is definitely not a fancy existence. Because of her profession as a reporter, she will also cause many plots, including plots in the DC movie universe crossover.
Amanda Pace was not well-known in the original time and space, and Simon couldn't remember what she would look like ten years later. What's more, Simon could also see that this woman should have had plastic surgery, and he didn't care too much about it originally. A little, but it is obvious that women who have undergone plastic surgery are actually more susceptible to the ravages of time.
After thinking about this, Simon directly drew a cross on Amanda Pace's information page, then raised his head, interrupted the dispute between Amy and George, and said: "Amy, what George just said reminded me that age is indeed a very important factor. Important question, I remember thinking about this before. If George hadn't reminded me, I almost forgot about it. Amanda Pace is indeed not suitable, so PASS."
Amy paused, nodded, and said, "So, where is Tracy Paulan?"
Simon didn't hesitate too much and said: "Brush it off too."
After all, the heroine of "The Flash" is already ready to be revealed.
Everyone in the office also realized that a certain girl who was only 24 years old had unknowingly taken advantage of her age.