After the weekend, it’s the last week of June.
Prior to this, "Wonder Woman" officially started filming in the UK last Monday, June 17.
Australia was not chosen for filming this time, mainly because the origin story still follows the background of Gal Gadot’s World War I in Simon’s memory. Australia does not have similar locations such as London during World War I and the Amazon’s paradise island. land.
Therefore, the film will mainly be shot in two European countries, the United Kingdom and Italy.
With a series of films planned and shot in recent months, Daenerys Entertainment's slate of important projects for 1992 has basically been confirmed.
In 1992, there are currently four key projects independently produced and distributed by Daenerys Entertainment, namely "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2" for Easter, "Wonder Woman" for summer, and "Home Alone 2" for Thanksgiving. and "Jurassic Park" in the Christmas season.
At the same time, Daenerys Entertainment's film list for external cooperation has been confirmed with three films, namely "The Last of the Mohicans" with Warner Bros., "Peach Deal" with Paramount and MGM. 's "A Time to Kill."
Seven films, all blockbusters in Simon's memory.
After clarifying some of the rules for films produced by Daenerys, these seven projects have become the focus of all Hollywood filmmakers.
"Thank you for coming today, Sam, and Renee."
"You're welcome, Simon, this is what I should do."
"It's an honor to work with you, Steven."
Malibu, Daenerys Studios.
The final auditions for the leading actors and actresses in "Jurassic Park" are finally over.
After this period of screening, Simon and Spielberg passed the audition today and finalized the roles of Sam Neill and Rene Russo as paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant and paleobotanist Ellie respectively in the film. ·The actor who plays Dr. Stella.
The original "Jurassic Park" is more like an ensemble drama, except that the couple Dr. Grant and Dr. Steller have more scenes.
Simon doesn't plan to make too many changes to the plot of the original "Jurassic Park."
However, this time it will change some of the mistakes made by the original series.
The most important thing is to maintain the continuity of the series.
In the "Jurassic Park" trilogy of the 1990s, except for the first film, which had a global box office of over 900 million U.S. dollars, the last two films were not as good as the other at the box office.
In Simon's view, in addition to the plot severely imitating the first film and lacking innovation, the most important reason is the lack of coherence in the story.
In "Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World", all the protagonists of the first part have withdrawn. Except for the dinosaur elements, it is basically another story. This has largely caused the North American box office of the sequel to be directly higher than that of the first part. Shrunk by half.
When "Jurassic World" was restarted many years later, the producers did not make this mistake again.
The leading actors Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard still participated in the film after the first film grossed US$1.6 billion at the global box office. The coherent story made the sequel still receive more than US$1.3 billion despite its mediocre reputation. Global box office.
Therefore, Simon established at least two recurring characters from the beginning this time around.
It is a pair of scientists played by Sam Neill and Rene Russo, and Daenerys Entertainment will directly sign a trilogy contract with the two.
Of the two, Sam Neill is the original actor and needs no mention.
Rene Russo replaced the original Laura Dern.
In addition to personal factors, Simon feels that Rene Russo is more suitable for the role of a paleobotanist than Laura Dern in terms of age and temperament.
Laura Dern looked like she was in her thirties in the original film, and she seemed to be a perfect match for Sam Neill, but in fact, this actress who looks very old is only 25 years old this year.
In memory, Laura Dern was able to get this role mainly because she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress a year before the filming of the film began.
Steven Spielberg doesn't like to work with actors who are too high-profile. Laura Dern, who is nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, is just right in terms of popularity and acting skills.
This time, "Jurassic Park" has been moved forward a year, and "La Rose", the film for which Laura Dern was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, has not yet been released. Coincidentally, Rene Russo received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at this year's Oscars for her role in "Goodfellas" that Simon brokered last year.
Simon has no interest in Laura Dern, and Rene Russo is very suitable, so there is no need to bother with anything else.
After the audition, Sam Neill and Rene Russo left first. Simon discussed other supporting role candidates with Spielberg, and also went to Daenerys Special Effects to check out the special effects developed specifically for "Jurassic Park" Motion capture technology.
The Velociraptor in the film will be shot this time using motion capture technology that can make the picture more vivid and realistic, instead of pure CG animation.
At the same time, motion capture technology has matured ahead of schedule and can also be applied to other Daenerys Entertainment films.
So busy until noon, I had lunch with Spielberg. Simon personally walked each other to the parking lot. Just as he was about to say goodbye, Spielberg seemed to suddenly remember something and said: "There is one more little thing, Simon."
Looking at Spielberg's expression, Simon probably realized something and smiled, gesturing for the other person to speak.
Spielberg also smiled and said: "Regarding the film "The Last of the Mohicans" that you are preparing, I have a goddaughter who hopes to try the role of the younger sister of the two kidnapped sisters in the script. "
"Is your goddaughter, Steven, the little girl from E.T., Drew Barrymore?"
Spielberg shook his head and said: "No, it's another one, called Gwyneth Paltrow. His father and I have known each other for a long time, and we worked together at Universal. She is 19 years old this year, and she just I had a small cameo in Captain Hawke."
So, with such a godfather, what can others say
Simon sighed inwardly, but without any hesitation. This favor must still be given, so he nodded readily and said: "No problem, I will arrange it."
Michael Mann has been writing the script for "The Last of the Mohicans" during this time. Simon has already read the first draft, and the sisters' scenes are not too many.
Moreover, since she can win an Oscar, Gwyneth Paltrow is definitely not without talent in acting. Although he is the godfather, the other party should understand that Spielberg's favors are not unlimited, and he will not be like the "goddaughters" in Simon's memory who rely on their background to treat him lightly.
Simon's rapid rise has overshadowed the brilliance of the older generation of first-line directors like Spielberg.
It is simply impossible to say that there is no grudge in my heart.
Originally, given Spielberg's status in Hollywood, such a small role might only require a phone call. The reason why I had to mention it to Simon in person was because Daenerys Entertainment was a key project, and Simon had to make his own decision on all the main creative candidates.
Seeing that Simon agreed so simply, Spielberg's subconscious barrier to the young man could not help but disappear a lot.
The two continued to chat next to the car for a while before Spielberg drove away.
After seeing Spielberg off, Simon had just turned around when the female assistant came over holding a folder.
"AOL has just sent the latest revised prospectus. If you have no objection, it will be submitted to the SEC tomorrow. The IPO road show will start on July 1 and the company will be officially listed on July 12."
According to the U.S. stock listing process, AOL's prospectus was submitted two months ago, and this time only some detailed clauses were modified.
As Simon walked, he took the document handed over by the female assistant, opened it, and found the marked revisions.
After recent split adjustments, AOL's total share capital is roughly determined to be 150 million shares, of which Westeros holds 112.9 million shares, a shareholding ratio of slightly more than 75%. The remaining approximately 25% of the shares are owned by early investment companies and AOL management.
In addition, AOL's IPO will adjust the company to a dual-class share structure.
The original 150 million shares belong to Class A shares, and the 22.5 million shares to be issued belong to Class B shares.
Class B shares have only one-tenth the voting rights of Class A shares.
After issuing new shares equivalent to 15% of the total share capital, the voting rights of Westeros Company actually decreased by less than 1%, still reaching 74.1%.
Therefore, unless Simon voluntarily gives up, almost no one will be able to wrest control of AOL from Westeros in the future, not even the original shareholders who also own some Class A shares.
In the revised document in Simon's hand, the main adjustment this time is AOL's issuance price range.
Morgan Stanley, which was responsible for the underwriting of this IPO, valued the AOL IPO at US$2.5 billion more than two months ago. During this period, due to the continued explosion of AOL users and the market's expectations for the AOL IPO, initially Valuations have also continued to rise.
For this revision, AOL submitted an offering price range of $19 to $21.
Based on the maximum new share issuance price of US$21, this is equivalent to a valuation of US$3.15 billion for AOL.
Based on AOL's user growth rate, in the first half of 1990, the total number of users is expected to reach 3.5 million, and the number for the full year is expected to exceed 7 million.
Based on an average payment of US$30 per user per month, with the number of users reaching 3.5 million, AOL's monthly revenue will exceed 100 million, not counting additional user growth in the second half of the year. Therefore, Simon actually feels that the valuation of US$3.15 billion is still low.
However, he does not intend to increase the issuance price.
Leaving excess stock price growth potential to the market will have many benefits for AOL and the entire Internet industry.
You know, Cisco's IPO is also in preparation.
Cisco targets ISP companies throughout the United States. Taking advantage of the rise of the Internet and the Westeros system's monopoly on World Wide Web technology, the company's growth has actually been even faster over the past year. Just as a hardware manufacturer, Cisco's performance is not as intuitive as America Online's rapid growth in the number of users every month.
Simon listed Cisco after America Online because of this consideration.
If AOL can get off to a good start, the capital market will certainly be equally enthusiastic about Cisco.