As if suddenly, the first quarter of 1993 was coming to an end.
In the coming March, the hottest media topic is undoubtedly the "Information Superhighway Plan" bill that was officially passed at the beginning of the month, and the ensuing social-wide focus on this huge investment bill involving US$400 billion in the next two decades. Through various discussions, new technology companies such as Eagle, Cisco, AOL, Microsoft, and Intel have become the darlings of the capital market for a while.
The most powerful young man in Hollywood is undoubtedly the one who attracts the most attention in this trend.
Just two new technology companies, Cisco and AOL, which both exceeded US$30 billion in market capitalization, have brought each other nearly US$50 billion in wealth, and even some Hollywood superstars who have a lot of balances in their hands have begun to look for new technologies. investment in the field.
However, for most Hollywood natives, new technology, the Internet, the information age, tens of billions of dollars... these are still a bit far away from them.
The time has come to the end of March, and what everyone is paying most attention to is still the most important ceremony of the awards season that lasts for several months, the 65th Academy Awards.
Simon returned to Los Angeles from his schedule in New York and was immediately surrounded by work.
Easter this year is April 11th, and Daenerys Entertainment’s Easter-scheduled film “Rise of the Stars 2” will be released on April 9th. Simon needs to pay attention to the film’s publicity and distribution work.
Summer films such as "Superman", "Sleepless in Seattle", "Sugar-Coated Trap", "Gannet" and other films have been basically completed, and Simon must also personally control them.
There are also a large number of projects in the production stage such as "Mission: Impossible", "Seven", "Schindler's List", etc., all of which require Simon to devote a certain amount of energy.
The copyrights related to the "Conjuring" universe that have been entangled for some time have finally been resolved recently. Simon discussed the development plans of related projects with Danny Morris, the head of New World Pictures, in the morning. At one o'clock in the afternoon, he had lunch and attended again non-stop. Production meeting for "Stargate" written by Roland Emmerich and directed by Michael Bay.
At two o'clock, the "Stargate" production meeting ended, and Amy Pascal and Universal Music President Richard Palmes were already waiting for Simon.
After completing the acquisition of MCA, Daenerys Entertainment has basically completed the adjustment and integration of film, television, theme park and other businesses. However, in terms of records, because it has been unable to spare the energy before, and also because it is not interested in the record industry Knowing too well, Simon never made much of a move to the label.
In the past two years, Universal Music has been in charge of Richard Palmes. Although this former MCA executive in his fifties has failed to achieve outstanding results, he has managed the record company in an orderly manner. Relying on the sales of soundtrack albums for some of Daenerys Entertainment's outstanding films, the record business has also provided the group with good profits.
There is no need to rely on the distribution channels of other record companies like during the "Bodyguard" period. This was also what Simon originally valued most.
However, this is clearly not enough.
The last time he saw the digital music player prototype developed by Tinker Bayer in San Francisco, Simon realized that it was time to re-plan the record business.
If you miss the last boom period of physical records, it will be difficult to make much progress in the music field in the future.
In recent years, Universal Records has always been more inclined to the rock field. The famous Guns N’ Roses is a group under Universal Records. In addition, there are heavy metal bands such as Dream Theater and Thunder Tango. In addition to rock and roll, there are some contracted singers in other genres. The more famous one is Cher, the actress who co-starred with Cage in "Moonlight" and won the Oscar for Best Actress.
Guns N' Roses is famous enough, and their record sales are also very good. The global sales of their last two records reached 35 million copies, but the rock band has finally deviated from the mainstream.
Cher's peak period was in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the 1980s, she has focused more on acting.
Therefore, compared to Sony's Columbia Records, which owns Michael Jackson, and Warner Records, which owns Madonna, Universal Music's biggest shortcoming is the lack of a phenomenal mainstream superstar.
Simon happened to have a pretty good grasp of what was going on in the record industry in the nineties.
In the 1990s, teenage pop singers such as Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, etc. emerged one after another, and for a time almost suppressed the edge of all traditional singers. Moreover, compared to the past, where a lot of luck was required to create a top singer, teen pop singers are something that can be 'mass-produced'.
Speaking of teen pop, we have to mention the famous Jive Records in the 1990s. From the earliest Backstreet Boys to the later Britney Spears, Jive Records was the first to create.
Simon had already researched Jive Records’ information in advance.
Jive Records is now one of the subsidiaries of General Electric's RCA Group Records subsidiary. RCA Group is also the parent company of NBC. The relationship between RCA and RCA Records is the same as that between MCA and Universal Music.
As a subsidiary of a subsidiary of the giant General Electric, and it is only a subsidiary of a partial shareholding, if other record companies want to poach them, it will not be too difficult. Large record groups usually have There are many subsidiaries, and these subsidiaries change their parent companies quite frequently.
However, if the poacher is Daenerys Entertainment, the most popular company in Hollywood, things will not be so easy.
After an afternoon of discussion, Simon made two decisions. Daenerys Entertainment’s recording business was officially renamed Daenerys Music Group, announcing that Daenerys Entertainment has begun to develop its efforts in the recording field. , another decision was to contact Barry Weiss, president of Jive Records.
After thinking about it, Simon gave up the decision to swallow the entire Jive record. Instead, he hired Barry Weiss, the president of Jive Records who remembered the youth pop scene in the 1990s. This was easier than buying the entire Jive record. A lot, it can also save time and avoid all kinds of unnecessary pull.
This went on until five o'clock in the afternoon, when the meeting ended and after Richard Palmes left, Amy Pascal asked Simon: "What are the arrangements for the evening?"
The red carpet ceremony of the Oscars in the city center should have already begun. Simon had no intention of joining in the fun and said with a smile: "I will go home to have dinner with Jenny first. After the award ceremony, I will probably go to the party to stay for a while."
Amy already knew that Janet was pregnant again, and even vaguely guessed something else from Simon's rearrangement of the female assistant's work, but she had no intention of going into details, and instead turned the topic to Osaka Universal Studios in Japan. Regarding the construction of the city, she will fly to Japan tomorrow to check the construction progress of the movie theater.
The two chatted for a while, and Amy left. Simon continued to look through some documents in the office until six o'clock, then left the studio and rushed back to Malibu.
Tonight, the three of us actually had dinner together.
The two women are pregnant together. Simon actually hopes that the female assistant will also live in Dumei Point Manor, which will make it easier to take care of him. There are many beautiful girls in the manor, and it will not be too common to have more female assistants. However, Jennifer did not agree and continued to live in the home of her uncle George Norman.
As Simon's former personal lawyer, George Norman now also serves as a director on the boards of some Westeros system companies. Like the Raybould family, he has a very close relationship with the Westeros system, coupled with personal relationships , the female assistant’s pregnancy was not hidden from George Norman.
The female assistant insisted on living at her uncle's house, and Simon had no objection. He just accompanied Jennifer with an additional female bodyguard and assistant to take care of her 24 hours a day.
The Normans also knew that this matter was of great importance. In order to prevent the news from leaking, they deliberately sent their youngest son to a boarding school.
Moreover, the plan is that after the female assistant becomes pregnant, she plans to move to Simon's mountain villa in Woodside, San Francisco, so that it is not too far from Los Angeles and can avoid a lot of attention here. It is also very convenient to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
Although they were not able to live together, Janet often took the initiative to invite Jennifer to dine at home during this period. The two women had a very good relationship originally. After becoming pregnant together, the relationship seemed to be closer.
When Simon rushed back to Point Dume Manor, the 65th Academy Awards ceremony officially opened in the Dorothy Chandler Theater at the Los Angeles Music Center. The host of this year's Oscars was still Billy Crystal.
Compared with previous years, this year can be described as a typical Oscar year.
Daenerys Entertainment originally had three movies, "Scent of a Woman", "The Crying Game" and "Howards End", which were enough to be included in the best picture ranks. However, in order to avoid distracting the judges' energy, Daenerys Entertainment only The main film is "Scent of a Woman", and the other two films only applied for some nominations such as Best Screenplay or Best Actress.
"The Crying Game" and "Howards End" voluntarily withdrew from the competition for the Best Picture award. This year's five Best Picture nominees suddenly looked a lot more gloomy.
In addition to "Scent of a Woman," the other four best picture nominees include Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," Mike Neville's "April," Spike Lee's "Malcolm X" and "Chaplin" starring Robert Downey Jr.
When the nominations were first announced, many media outlets in North America bluntly criticized some of the best picture nominees for appearing to be unworthy of their reputation, and that the Oscar organizing committee was simply making up the numbers. Daenerys Entertainment's "The Crying Game" and "Howards End" were also specifically mentioned.
Oscar was also helpless about this.
Daenerys Entertainment did not apply for relevant nominations, and she could not impose it on the other party.
It’s just that most of the public obviously doesn’t know the Oscar judging rules.
Under the influence of the media, everyone only saw Oscar’s bias against Daenerys’ entertainment.
Even the old story of last year's mediocre "Tales of Time" defeating Daenerys Entertainment's "The Piano" and "Thelma and Louise" was mentioned again, thus triggering Oscar's criticism of Daenerys Entertainment as a new player. Unkind speculation.
In fact, this public opinion situation also has factors behind the guidance of Daenerys Entertainment.
The Oscars are actually greatly affected by media public opinion.
The entire Oscar jury team reaches 6,000 people. There are not many of these judges who really care about the quality of the film. Most of them are easily influenced by public relations and public opinion.
Last year, "The Storm of Days" won the first Oscar for Best Director and the most important Best Picture, which has caused strong controversy. If Daenerys Entertainment is ignored again this year, the credibility of the Oscars may be affected. Influence. Even if they don’t care whether a truly outstanding film wins or not, since they become a member of the Oscar jury group, due to the group nature of human instinct, this group of people will inevitably tend to maintain the credibility of the Oscars.
At the evening awards ceremony, last year's voluntary abandonment of the Oscars and the public opinion guidance strategy some time ago clearly had an effect.
In the Dorothy Chandler Hall, Erin Lauder, who was attending this film festival for the first time, obviously didn't know all the inside stories behind the Oscars. Sitting in the seventh row in the middle of the hall, a guy made a pretty good arrangement for her. Sitting in the position, surrounded by all kinds of stars that could only be seen on the big screen in the past, the girl was only excited instinctively, and did not feel at all that a guy said yesterday that doing three hours at the award ceremony would be very boring.
As the awards officially began, Erin Lauder, who had done some homework in advance, couldn't help but start paying attention to Daenerys Entertainment's films.
Best Sound, "Wonder Woman."
Best Visual Effects, "Wonder Woman."
Best Cinematography, "River Love".
Best Actress, Emma Thompson, "Howards End."
Best Original Screenplay, "The Crying Game."
Best Adapted Screenplay, "Scent of a Woman."
Best Film Editing, "Wonder Woman."
Best Actor, Al Pacino, "Scent of a Woman."
Best Director, Martin Brest, "Scent of a Woman."
Best Picture, "Scent of a Woman."
Unknowingly, when the awards ceremony was over, Irene Lauder discovered that among all the 22 Oscar awards this time, only films related to Daenerys Entertainment had won 10 statuettes. Moreover, these All are the most important Oscar awards.
Among the awards that fell, the most important ones were only Best Supporting Actor and Actor. The others were minor technical awards such as Best Animated Short Film, Best Documentary, and Best Soundtrack.
Although she had only known Simon for less than three days, at the Oscars ceremony, Erin Lauder could clearly feel how powerful Daenerys Entertainment was in Hollywood, and she couldn't help but feel some inexplicable pride. feel.
Unfortunately, a certain guy is not here.
Fortunately, the company has won so many awards. There is no way you will not attend the next Melisandre party, right