Natasha Henstridge, who was huddled in bed, was about to take the initiative to make lunch her own, but Simon had already retracted his hand, reminded her again and turned around to leave the bedroom.
Watching the man go out, Natasha touched her watch on the bedside table and looked at it. The time was 11:30 in the morning.
After getting out of bed, I thought about it for a moment, picked a black knitted long skirt suitable for indoor wear in winter, simply put on light makeup, and came downstairs in only 15 minutes.
Simon was sitting on the sofa in the living room, flipping through a script. He saw Natasha coming downstairs, looked at it, and praised: "It's very beautiful."
"Thank you," Natasha agreed, came to sit next to Simon, glanced at the script in the man's hand, and asked, "What are you reading?"
Simon showed her the cover and said, "'Cutthroat Island,' a pirate movie script."
Natasha nodded and quickly searched for information about pirate movies in her mind, but unfortunately she couldn't find it. Fortunately, the man didn't mean to wait for a response. He put down the script and gave instructions to Girl A who was not far away. He got up and took her to the restaurant.
In the restaurant, the maids served lunch to the two of them, poured red wine, and then left.
Simon picked up the tableware and asked the girl opposite: "What do you want to do this afternoon?"
Natasha was cutting the pan-fried cod on the plate. She stopped when she heard this and said, "I don't know. I'll do whatever you want."
Simon smiled and said, "There are only two main things people come to Park City for: movies and skiing. Which one do you choose?"
Natasha hesitated and said, "Is skiing okay? But I'm not very good at it."
Born in Canada, Natasha is actually quite good at skiing, but of course she has to act clumsy in front of men. After saying that, she was even a little worried, if he didn't know how to ski, it would be embarrassing.
Simon just nodded and said: "Then, we will go skiing in the afternoon and attend the premiere of a movie in the evening. There will be a party here afterwards."
Natasha finally picked up the topic this time: "Is it that "Four Weddings and a Funeral"?"
"Yeah, you know?"
"I came here yesterday with the two protagonists of this movie," Natasha said: "But it seems that this movie is not a Sundance entry?"
Daenerys Entertainment's support and cultivation of the independent film market is the key to the rapid rise of the Sundance Film Festival. In recent years, films produced by Daenerys Entertainment will inevitably be shortlisted for the main competition unit at Sundance every year.
Natasha had done some homework on film festivals before coming to Park City, and knew that Daenerys Entertainment had two films shortlisted for the Sundance main competition this year: Whit Stillman's "Barcelona" and "Barcelona" "Shooting the Monkey" by David Russell.
Whit Stillman is a direct director who was born in Sundance. His last film "Metropolis" was well received and box office. "Barcelona" is his second directorial work. "Spanking the Monkey" is the debut film written and directed by newcomer director David Russell. It is a mother-son ethics film. "Spanking the Monkey" is a slang term related to sex.
It was chosen to be screened on the Saturday before the film festival was about to close, and Simon attended in person, which shows that Daenerys Entertainment attaches great importance to this film. In this case, Natasha was a little confused when the film failed to enter the main competition.
"Four Weddings and a Funeral" was not shortlisted for the main competition, of course not because of lack of qualifications. Simon explained: "This film is positioned as a commercial romantic comedy, mainly for the Valentine's Day period in February. If it is shortlisted for the main competition of Sundance, it may be misunderstood by the audience as an art film and the audience base will be limited."
Natasha suddenly realized: "So that's it. I thought it would be best to be shortlisted for the film festival and win the award."
Simon smiled and shook his head: "Of course not. Each type of movie has its own distribution model."
Hollywood movie distribution is both easy and difficult.
Large-scale advertising bombing on various media platforms is undoubtedly the most effective way to promote a movie, but it is only suitable for a small number of super blockbusters with sufficient box office potential, such as the DC movie universe series.
Most Hollywood movies still need to develop targeted publicity strategies in order to obtain the best marketing results within the marketing budget.
There is no doubt that film quality is fundamental to the commercial success of a film. However, when a marketing strategy goes horribly wrong, the results can be disastrous.
Knowing that Natasha would not be too interested in these business details, Simon did not talk too much about similar topics and instead asked about the girl's recent situation.
The two had a pleasant lunch and sent the girl upstairs to change clothes and prepare to go skiing. Simon returned to the living room and picked up the "Cutthroat Island" script that he had read before lunch again.
This is a project that Carlock Films is currently pitching to Hollywood studios, with seven major studios receiving scripts.
Carlock Pictures, which relies on overseas capital such as Germany, is well-known in Hollywood. This independent film company is different from other thrifty second-tier studios. Instead, it is famous for high-budget films. "Terminator 2", the first Hollywood film in the original time and space with a production budget exceeding US$100 million, was a project invested by Carlock Films. In addition, Carlock also produced films such as "Basic Instinct" and "Total Recall".
Simon's appearance caused Carlock's most successful film projects, "Terminator 2" and "Basic Instinct," to be cut off early. However, in recent years Carlock Films has still invested in Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Singer and other action stars have made many movies, and directly pushed the salaries of Hollywood stars to 15 million US dollars.
As an independent studio that does not undertake distribution work, Carlock Pictures has been working with Columbia Pictures for several years.
The turmoil at Columbia Pictures last year led to the collapse of the partnership between the two parties. Carlock is currently looking for a new partner, and "Cutthroat Island" is a stepping stone.
When talking about the history of Hollywood movies in the 1990s, one cannot escape the most successful "Titanic", nor can one avoid the most failed "Cutthroat Island".
The production budget of "Cutthroat Island" in my memory was as high as 98 million US dollars. After the film was released, the total box office in North America was only a little over 10 million US dollars. The tragic failure not only caused the investors to lose their money, but was even included in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Is "Cutthroat Island" really useless
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The film is excellent in terms of lensing, editing, and soundtrack, and the large-scale naval battle scenes are even more epic. Even "Pirates of the Caribbean" many years later made many references to this film. Even the shortcomings of a weak story and plot are actually not fatal for a blockbuster film, because this is a common fault of many big-budget films.
The blockbuster movies in the North American film market were far from reaching saturation in the mid-1990s. They were just gimmicks with huge investments approaching US$100 million. If they were used well, they could attract a large number of audiences, and the total box office would never reach only US$10 million. .
So why was Cutthroat Island such a complete failure
The reasons also involve many aspects.
As a studio supported by overseas capital such as Germany, Carlock Pictures is naturally suppressed by Hollywood local snakes.
Director Renny Harling promoted his wife Geena Davis to the position of the heroine, and she was the leading role that surpassed the male lead. However, Geena Davis was far from supporting a super heavy film. Bombshell box office appeal.
"Cutthroat Island" is an original script and does not have the popularity accumulation of a superhero movie.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which is responsible for the film's distribution, is in a state of serious internal turmoil and has no intention of promoting the film.
All kinds of things.
A combination of multiple reasons led to the originally non-fatal plot weaknesses of "Cutthroat Island" being infinitely magnified, making audiences discouraged from entering theaters to watch the movie, and ultimately created a Guinness record in the film industry.
Even though he understood that if Daenerys Entertainment managed this time and space, "Cutthroat Island" would definitely do much better at the box office, Simon had no intention of taking over. Moreover, in accordance with the 'one trades off' strategy that Daenerys Entertainment has been hinting at promoting, Simon also intends to lose this box office dud to others.
The success of blockbusters such as the DC Cinematic Universe and "Jurassic Park" has made Hollywood as a whole look for big-budget projects, and "Cutthroat Island" should be a very good option.
If Simon Westeros takes it personally, other studios will definitely compete for it.
Speaking of which, there is another Big Pit project in my memory that was also released in 1995, Kevin Costner's "Waterworld".
Because it was once invested and produced by a major studio like Universal, the box office of "Waterworld" was not as bleak as "Cutthroat Island". However, the huge cost of the film of US$175 million also created a new production cost for Hollywood movies. record, Universal therefore still suffered serious losses even though the film's box office was relatively good.
"Waterworld" was not swatted away by Simon's butterfly.
However, the producer used to be Universal, but now it has become Warner.
After cooperating with Daenerys Entertainment on "Dances with Wolves" and "The Bodyguard," Kevin Costner switched to Warner Bros. Pictures in recent years, and the two parties have successively collaborated on "Killing JFK" and "JFK" directed by Oliver Stone. "A Perfect World" co-created with Clint Eastwood late last year.
This summer, Costner will also release a blockbuster Western film "The Enforcement" invested by Warner.
After three consecutive collaborations, Costner has successfully signed a contract with Warner Bros. for his next film, "Waterworld," which is expected to start filming in May or June this year and will be scheduled for next summer.
Simon just looked on with cold eyes and did not interfere in any way.
The main reason why the budget of the original "Waterworld" was out of control was that Costner chose to shoot the film in Hawaii, ignoring local natural factors such as tidal storms, which resulted in the expensive set being repeatedly destroyed by waves.
According to the news revealed, this time "Water World of the Future" will still be filmed in Hawaii.
This is no accident either.
As one of the most famous tourist destinations in the world, Hawaii can provide a very comfortable working environment for film crews, especially stars. This is also the reason why Spielberg previously shot "Jurassic Park" in Hawaii. Daenerys Entertainment Considerable additional costs were incurred for this, and there was no tax refund.
Fortunately, "Jurassic Park" was shot on land, and even so, it encountered a storm.
If Daenerys Entertainment takes over Waterworld, Simon certainly won't make the same mistake. Although he maintains a fairly good cooperative relationship with Warner, he certainly has no intention of reminding the other party.
"Waterworld", as well as "Cutthroat Island" in hand at this time, not only meet the needs of major studios for blockbusters, two heavyweight box office hits, but also enough to give Daenerys Entertainment next year. Freeing up at least 100 million US dollars in box office space during the popular period is what 'one loses and the other rises'.
After making up his mind, Simon got up and went to a living room next to the living room of the villa, looked at it for a moment, and placed the "Cutthroat Island" script on the shelf under the glass coffee table.
After "Four Weddings and a Funeral" tonight, a party will be held in the villa in the name of Daenerys Entertainment Group, and this living room will also be open by then.
Alison happened to come in with a men's down jacket and helped Simon put it on. She glanced at the script that the man had just intentionally placed under the coffee table and asked with some confusion: "Boss, do you need me to put it away?"
"No, remember not to let Naomi and the others touch this script. Come and take it away at night when there are many people."
Alison understood instantly and asked in a low voice: "The boss doesn't like this script?"
"Yeah, when the time comes, pretend to be a bit cool and don't reveal your secrets."
"Yeah," Alison nodded slightly and added, "It's too obvious to have only one script. I'll put a few magazines next to it later."
"Yes, Ellie is so smart."
The two secretly discussed bad things, and Natasha quickly changed her clothes and went downstairs.
Alison sent Simon and the two out, looking at her boss's car disappearing among the mountain roads. She felt a little disappointed, but then quickly gave up the idea. The woman didn't see him a few times a year, and it was only a year. You can stay with him for a long time, so be content.
Simon and Natasha played at a ski club in the south of Park City that was only open to members until about four o'clock in the afternoon. Instead of returning to the mountain villa, they rushed directly to the city.
The premiere of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" starts at 5 p.m. at the Egyptian Theater, the main venue of the film festival.
Because it is a project promoted by Daenerys Entertainment, many well-known filmmakers including Robert Redford were invited to attend, as well as a large number of film critics from all over North America.
These people alone were enough to support the popularity of the film in the news media. Simon did not intend to appear in the press release, at least he did not plan to be photographed by the media, so he took Natasha into the theater through the back door and came to In the screening room of the Egyptian Theater, Natasha consciously did not continue to stay with Simon, but chose to sit with ICM's Nancy Josephson.
As a phenomenal film in its original time and space with a production cost of less than 5 million US dollars, it has achieved a huge box office of 245 million worldwide. Although the subject matter is slightly different from the independent and avant-garde film festival style of Sundance, the film's first The first public screening was still very successful, and the film received unanimous applause from the audience after the film was played.
After the premiere, many guests continued to rush to Simon's private villa in the mountains southeast of Park City.
After accepting Redford's invitation to the Golden Globes after-party last weekend, Simon decided to host such a party that would greatly solidify Daenerys Entertainment's status in the independent film community.
After the news was released, this party has become the most anticipated gathering of filmmakers at Sundance this year. Many people have racked their brains in the past week to get an invitation, including some who were originally not interested in the Sundance Film Festival. Interested stars came to Park City specifically, hoping to get a chance to get in touch with Simon Westeros.