"William Friedkin can't do it, Tom. "The Exorcist" back then was really brilliant, and "The French Trafficker" was also classic enough. However, William has been just resting on his laurels these years. What "The Ring" needs is A stylistic breakthrough that is very different from traditional Hollywood horror films, I don’t think William can achieve it.”
Daenerys Studios.
Simon is discussing the director of "The Ring" with New World Pictures president Danny Morris in his office.
Although William Friedkin was the husband of Shirley Lansing, the head of MGM, and understood that there must be a human factor in Lansing being brought up by Danny Morris first, Simon still rejected it without hesitation.
After "The Exorcist" and "The French Traffic", William Friedkin has the richest resources in Hollywood, but he has not directed a movie that performed well in terms of both word-of-mouth and box office in more than ten years.
In fact, Danny Morris was not optimistic about William Friedkin, and continued: "So, Simon, where is Wes Craven?"
"Wes is better at blood plasma, which doesn't fit the style of this movie at all."
"Jonathan Demme?"
Today is Wednesday, October 9th.
It has been eight and a half weeks since "The Silence of the Lambs" directed by Jonathan Demme was released on August 9. Just last weekend, the starring role was changed to the classic horror film starring Sandra Bullock and Robert Duvall. The film's cumulative box office just exceeded the US$100 million mark, reaching US$102.71 million.
Simon thought for a while and nodded: "Qiao can be an alternative. However, "The Ring" places great emphasis on the atmosphere creation of the camera and soundtrack. I hope the director can have a stronger foundation in these two aspects."
Danny Morris smiled and said: "Simon, in this case, only you are the most suitable."
"Actually, I think so too," Simon shrugged and said, "But, unfortunately, I don't have time."
Danny Morris just mentioned it casually and continued: "There is also Joe Dante, but if it is scheduled for Halloween next year, Dante's schedule will definitely not be available."
Joe Dante became famous with "Piranha" in the 1970s and "Gremlins" in the 1980s. It just so happened that Daenerys Entertainment's "The Sixth Sense" was a box office hit last summer, and Simon chose the director. It's Joe Dante.
Because he was already a famous director, the two parties only signed a one-film contract.
Although everyone in the industry knows that the key to the success of "The Sixth Sense" is Simon, because the film sold more than 600 million US dollars worldwide, Joe Dante still became very popular and was snatched away by other studios with huge sums of money. Until now, the schedule is still full.
If there is no other good choice, we can only continue to leave Jonathan Demme in charge.
However, Simon still had some concerns.
"The Ring" will be a completely new style that is completely different from traditional Hollywood horror films.
However, these veteran directors who have been in Hollywood for many years have basically formed their own fixed directing styles. It is very difficult to reverse their past habits and achieve breakthroughs.
After thinking for a moment, Simon said: "In this way, Danny, you screen out some relatively young alternative directors, and I will personally keep an eye on this project. Therefore, the director should have enough plasticity."
After hearing what Simon said, Danny Morris nodded quickly.
Simon was originally directly responsible for this project. At this time, the boss said that he would personally monitor it, which meant that he would spend more energy on this project.
In this case, if the director is younger and has less seniority, he will be more obedient and useful.
After negotiating the matter, Danny Morris looked at his memo and continued: "And the heroine..."
Simon waved his hand and said: "I have already given the heroine to Nicole Kidman. You just need to negotiate the contract with her agent directly."
Danny Morris paused and could only nod again.
I feel sorry for those actresses who have recently racked their brains to get this project.
In the original American version of "The Ring", the heroine was Nicole's best friend Naomi Watts. This actress is still unknown, but Simon decided to let Nicole serve as the spokesperson of Van Cleef & Arpels, so he Leave this promising project to the other party.
"Midnight Ring" is a movie with a female protagonist. Although it is a horror movie, as long as it sells well enough, it will definitely help Nicole Kidman improve her reputation and solidify her status as a star.
Continuing to discuss some details, the two turned to other projects of New World Pictures.
An hour later, Danny Morris left, and Ella Deutschman rushed over.
As of last weekend, "Thelma and Louise" directed by Catherine, the cumulative box office reached 25.41 million US dollars in four and a half weeks.
Due to the film's excellent reputation and continued weak decline, the film's single-week box office remains at around US$4 million, and is expected to exceed US$40 million before it is released, which is enough to recover the film's entire production and promotion costs.
Now that he has decided to give up the fight for next year's Oscar, Simon has made "Thelma and Louise" the focus of his application for the next Oscar, mainly to first accumulate an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Catherine.
Awards are not a luxury.
Barbra Streisand's "The Storm of Days" is scheduled to be released at the end of the year and will also be a favorite for next year's Oscars.
Therefore, it is very hopeful that there will be two female Oscar nominees for Best Director at next year's Oscars. As long as she works a little bit and hypes up the topic, with Hollywood's politically correct nature, the first female Oscar-winning director will be ready.
Catherine certainly cannot be compared with Streisand, who has extensive connections in Hollywood and a deep foundation.
If we force a fight, it's not impossible.
However, Simon has no intention of fighting for Catherine. On the one hand, it is Daenerys’ established entertainment strategy. On the other hand, missing this Oscar is not without benefit to Catherine. After all, women's accumulation is not enough, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in the future.
After chatting about the Oscars, Simon and Ella Deutschman discussed several key projects of Gomen Pictures next year.
Basically, they are all selected by Simon himself.
One is the copyright obtained after the acquisition of Universal, called "Scent of a Woman".
This is a remake of the 1974 Italian film "Scent of a Woman". The original version in my memory starred Al Pacino and included a tango dance that has been talked about by movie fans for many years.
Simon has no plans to change the lineup of "Scent of a Woman," and this film will be the flagship of Gomen Pictures' end-of-year 1992 schedule.
Another work is somewhat 'alternative', called "The Crying Game".
This film directed by Neil Jordan tells a very complicated love story, involving many elements such as war, politics, love and transvestism.
The "Crying Game" in my memory triggered a movie-watching craze in North America because of its bizarre twist. It eventually earned more than $60 million at the box office with a production cost of about $3 million. Therefore, it is also the North American distributor Miramax. One of the turnaround works.
It was the film's success that brought Miramax to Disney's attention, and eventually it became a part of Disney.
Now, Miramax is basically unsustainable, and Simon will not give the Weinstein brothers any chance to turn around.
Neil Jordan, the director of "The Crying Game", has been preparing for this project for several years. After High Gate Pictures took over, the specifications of the film have not been improved, and the budget cost is still US$3 million.
However, because Daenerys Entertainment was interested in it, the project naturally attracted the attention of other studios during the negotiation process.
In order to finalize the project, Daenerys Entertainment also agreed to an additional 10% share of Neil Jordan's North American box office net profits and the same proportion of subsequent video and television broadcast revenue.
If "The Crying Game" can get the original US$60 million in North American box office, according to the agreement, Neil Jordan will be able to receive a total of at least US$5 million in follow-up share income, which is already the salary level of a first-line director.
Of course, if the box office is not satisfactory, dividends will naturally be out of the question.
Simon also agreed to this plan.
Although US$5 million is a large expense, it is still nothing compared to the expected income of Daenerys Entertainment. Moreover, this relatively generous sharing plan can also attract more other filmmakers to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.
As the entire Westeros system becomes larger and larger, Simon becomes more and more inclined to recruit talents through profit sharing.
Money will definitely never be earned. Through benefit sharing, more people can be tied into the Westeros system to form a community of interests.
After Ella Deutschman left, the female assistant knocked on the door and came in, holding a stack of cards similar to bank cards in her hand. She came to the reception area and handed it to Simon and said: "This was just sent from San Francisco." of."
Simon took the card, took the female assistant's little hand and sat down next to him, and then looked at the items in his hand.
The development and preparation took more than half a year, and the card in hand is actually the consumption point card that Igret will launch in the near future. The point card only has two denominations of US$10 and US$50.
This can be seen from the caution of Yigret’s management team.
Online payment has just begun to be promoted, and security is definitely the first priority.
If a user is new to online payment and encounters something bad like account theft, it will definitely leave a bad impression.
As a new payment method, it is easy for traditional media to over-interpret this kind of thing.
In the plan, this consumption point card will be sold through Internet cafe channels and Blockbuster chain stores gradually spreading across the country. Although AOL has sold the Internet cafe business, the Westeros system still maintains a strong influence on this Blockbuster is Daenerys Entertainment's own channel. The current number of chain stores is close to 3,000, spread across North America, and it is definitely the most suitable retail distribution network.
In fact, it is not just a consumption point card. With the opening of the Yigret app store, Yigret’s online payment tool Ypay will also be launched at the same time. Users of the Yigret portal can use Bank of America and Citibank Banks that have signed agreements with the company handle specialized online consumer credit cards.
Jennifer sat quietly next to Simon, waiting for the man to play with the consumption point card in his hand for a moment, and then said: "The official product launch will be next Monday, and by then, the Yigrit App Store will also be officially opened.
Simon nodded.
Privately, he has actually experienced the internal beta version of the online application store.
In the early days, the App Store mainly focused on video games, and there were not many application software. Jeff Bezos had contacted Bill Gates. Microsoft's operating system was definitely not good, but he hoped to put the Office series application software on the app store for sale, but was rejected by Daimon.
However, Simon is very optimistic about the prospects of the app store.
In the computer field, developing an operating system is not as difficult as imagined. The real difficulty lies in creating a software ecosystem that matches the operating system. Otherwise, no matter how excellent and smooth your operating system is, it will all be in vain if it lacks application software.
On the other hand, the number of technical talents who can develop software in the industry can actually be described as countless. In the past, what limited the enthusiasm of these people was mainly that the developed software was difficult to promote and sell.
Distributing through physical sales is definitely a very expensive thing.
Now, Igret has provided a platform that can bring profits to developers, which will naturally increase the enthusiasm of developers.
In the longer term, Igret's online application store can even affect the popularity of an operating system to a great extent.
In fact, from now on, Igret's online application store will only be open to users of two types of operating systems, one is Microsoft's Windows and the other is Apple's Macintosh.
As for the old DOS system or other non-mainstream operating systems on the market, the Igret App Store will not support it.
As the Internet becomes more and more popular, the choice of Yigrit Portal is destined to affect the preferences of users.
Users who purchase computers, considering choosing other non-mainstream systems, may not be able to get support from the Igret portal, so they will naturally turn to Windows and Macintosh.
even.
If one day, the Yigrit App Store closes Apple's Macintosh version...
Of course, this is just an idea.
Even if he is already a major shareholder of Microsoft, Simon will not do this easily, or it is precisely because he is a major shareholder of Microsoft that Simon cannot do this.
Apple's market value has continued to rise this year, with its recent peak approaching $8 billion.
However, this will also be Apple's 'peak' in the 1990s, and from now on, the company will only go all the way down.
It is actually beneficial to retain Apple and prevent Microsoft from completely monopolizing the market and encountering all kinds of troubles. In the original time and space, students from Zhongdamen chose to invest in Apple in the late 1990s because of this consideration. Including Intel's later explicit or covert support of AMD, this is the reason.
Putting down the consumption point card in his hand, Simon said to the female assistant beside him: "Please make arrangements, and we will attend the new product launch conference together next Monday."
Jennifer blinked slightly, then let out a small hum.
Monday has passed, and I will definitely be back that day.
That is, it won’t last any longer.
Simon smiled, knowing that the female assistant actually wanted to go there with her on the weekend, so he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, and said: "You know, Jenny is more than seven months old, and she has been in a bad mood recently. I will answer I don’t plan to leave Los Angeles for a few months.”
There was nothing unusual about Janet's early pregnancy, and she looked very much looking forward to it, and she was happily making preparations for the arrival of the little one.
However, as the baby's birth date approaches, women inevitably become anxious during this period, and even have the idea of ejecting the baby from their belly in advance.
Simon understood that Janet was born with a free-spirited personality. When she was looking forward to getting pregnant and giving birth to a baby, a large part of the reason was because of Simon. There was also some influence of traditional ideas. After all, women grew up in a very traditional society. And in a conservative Western family.
After all, Janet was secretly repulsed by a little guy who might change her past life.
Hearing this, Jennifer nodded in understanding and said nothing more.
Seeing the quiet and submissive look of the female assistant, Simon was also a little moved and stretched out his arms to hug her.
Jennifer was hugged by Simon and subconsciously shrank her neck.
I'm not used to being intimate in the office.
What's more, it's still working time.
However, the female assistant quickly relaxed her body, raised her chin slightly, and allowed the man to kiss her white neck, whispering softly: "Ms. Brill... we will be there soon."