Simon did not return to his mountain villa in Woodside that evening. Instead, after a reception at Tim Berners-Lee's house, he went with housekeeper Alice Ferguson to spend the night at her apartment in Atherton.
In fact, there are some small considerations.
The afternoon before, he couldn't help but go to bed with another female assistant. He realized that Celia was as ambitious as Sophia. Simon didn't want to give the woman too much room for fantasy, so he deliberately ignored her.
Early the next morning, Zoe Parks, who had had an affair with the housekeeper, was specially called to prepare breakfast. Naturally, Girl A also followed.
So there was a man and three women at the breakfast table.
During the meal, looking at the rosy-faced housekeeper who was eating salad casually while looking at the laptop screen at hand, Simon said to the baby-faced girl: “Zoe, you don’t have to go back with me on the weekend. I’m going to take Ally to Hawaii for some fun. God, um, remember not to tan.”
Simon had caught her being intimate with the housekeeper, and judging from the situation, she had already been labeled as lace by her boss.
However, since the housekeeper entered Ygritte, Zoe actually has not had much contact with Alice. At this time, hearing this, the baby-faced girl looked at her boss and then at Alice with some pity.
Going to Hawaii for the weekend is not a big deal, I’m really looking forward to it.
But, what's the point of spending time with a workaholic who's still dealing with emails during breakfast
Just like the last time Simon forced her to take a break, Alice looked up at the guy who bullied her last night and said subconsciously: "I still have a job."
Simon also said as he did at the beginning of the year: "No more now."
Alice stared at a certain guy with a pair of clear blue eyes. After a moment of confrontation, she realized that her resistance was doomed to be futile, so she simply turned her attention to the laptop again.
If you go to Hawaii, go to Hawaii.
Anyway, he couldn't keep staring at him, it was just a change of work place.
Unexpectedly, the man seemed to have noticed her thoughts, and added: "We will leave in the afternoon. You are only allowed to bring a change of clothes, and your laptop is not allowed on the plane. In addition, I will lend you my villa in Hawaii. Remember to clean it on the weekend."
Alice immediately raised her head again and bargained: "Tomorrow morning."
"This afternoon," Simon insisted, and added: "And, every weekend from now on, I will ask Zoe to accompany you."
After another moment of confrontation, the housekeeper still retreated and had to acquiesce.
As a boss, Simon certainly hopes that his employees can work tirelessly like animals.
As a man, Simon doesn't want his woman to only work all day long, resulting in a haggard appearance or even a exhausted body.
Compared with the three girls B, C, and D who have left, the housekeeper and Simon have actually maintained an original contract. This mansion located in the Lindenwood community of Atherton was purchased by Simon and given to the housekeeper. Claire and others did not have this kind of treatment, and they needed to be self-reliant after leaving.
After breakfast, everyone left the housekeeper's mansion together. Simon's destination was Miss C's Tinker Bayer Company, and he sent the housekeeper to the Ygritte headquarters on the way.
Arriving at the office building of Tinker Bayer Company, Lady C had already started a meeting, and Simon temporarily borrowed Claire's office to start the day's work.
Today is Friday, May 20th.
It’s the beginning of another box office week in Hollywood.
In the past week, from May 13th to May 19th, "Stargate" directed by Michael Bay undoubtedly ranked first in the single-week box office list, taking in US$36.61 million in the first seven days.
Although there will be big-budget movies released in the next few weeks, with the box office revenue of US$36.61 million in the first week, as long as the box office decline in the next week is not too severe, there is no big suspense for "Stargate"'s domestic box office total to exceed 100 million.
In comparison, the other two new films, "When a Man Loves a Woman," another romance film starring Meg Ryan, only had a box office of $11.29 million in the first seven days.
In order to save budget, Disney invited the not-so-famous Andy Garcia to be the leading actor. The greatest achievement of this actor who has been in Hollywood for many years was that he won a movie a few years ago for his performance in "The Godfather Part 3" Nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, it has little box office appeal. In "When a Man Loves a Woman," Andy Garcia even failed to have the same relationship with Meg Ryan as in "Sleepless in Seattle" and "When Harry" The strong spark between the hero and heroine in "Meet Sally".
As a result, the final budget of "When a Man Loves a Woman" was US$25 million, which is indeed very economical compared to Meg Ryan's high salary of US$7 million after last year's "Sleepless in Seattle". The box office was only US$11.29 million in the first week. Taking into account the film's mediocre reputation and subsequent blockbusters, the total North American box office of this love movie may only be about US$30 million.
Through overseas and subsequent distribution, Disney was able to recoup the cost, but it was basically a waste of time, and once again wasted a summer opening slot.
Black director Spike Lee's new film "Race" did even less well at the box office, taking in only $3.91 million in its first week.
Relying on the success of the previous film "Dark Tide", Spike Lee's new film received an investment of 15 million US dollars from Colombia. It started with 3.91 million US dollars and the local box office was approximately 10 million US dollars. The overseas market for black racial-themed films is very narrow, and Colombia has once again failed.
Speaking of which, Spike Lee has been cooperating with Universal Pictures in the past few years. Three consecutive works were invested and produced by Universal. However, after Daenerys Entertainment completed the acquisition of MCA, due to the turmoil during the integration of the two companies, It is a pity that this cooperative relationship has not been extended to Daenerys Entertainment.
As one of the most outstanding black directors in Hollywood, although Spike Lee's personal works usually do not have high box office for limited audiences, because the production budget is often relatively low, he can usually achieve good profits, even if he loses money, he will not lose money. There are too many, so he is definitely a director similar to Woody Allen who is worth wooing.
After reading last week's box office report, Simon specially sent an email to Ira Deutschman, asking him to take the time to chat with Spike Lee and take advantage of the other person's recent failure to try to win his next prize. It actually doesn’t matter whether a movie makes a profit or loses in the end. Doing so can further increase the diversity of Daenerys Entertainment’s films, which is of great benefit to the corporate brand.
In the new week, two new heavyweight films will be released in North American theaters, namely "Speed" produced by MGM and "Marvel" produced by Warner Bros.
"Speed" is directed by Martin Campbell, who previously successfully produced "Wonder Woman", and stars two popular Hollywood movie stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.
In the past, the three main creators of the original "Speed", Jane de Bont, Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, were not very popular, but the film was produced with a production cost of US$30 million. It has achieved outstanding results of exceeding 100 million at the North American box office.
This time, influenced by Simon's 'big butterfly', the three main creators are all very popular in Hollywood, and the production budget has increased from 30 million US dollars in the original time and space to 45 million US dollars, basically reaching the level of blockbuster .
In order to compete with "The Dark Knight Rises" on June 3, MGM also gave it a try this time, preparing 2,869 screens for the opening of "Speed", with a promotion budget of US$20 million.
Today's official large-scale production launch, the media reputation of "Speed of Life and Death" was also released at the same time. The preliminary comprehensive media score reached 9.4 points, directly surpassing the 8.2 points of "Stargate" last week, reaching a level that can be called a classic.
Another film, "The Gambler Ma Huali", is an out-and-out super blockbuster.
The film is adapted from an American western TV series of the same name in the 1950s. The director of the "Lethal Weapon" series, Richard Donner and Mel Gibson once again collaborated, and Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster was invited. Join. The lineup of the three main creators even surpassed "Speed of Life and Death".
Relying on the success of the "Lethal Weapon" series, the budget cost of "Marvel" is as high as US$75 million. Warner Bros. has also invested US$30 million in a promotional budget, and the number of screens for the film has reached 2,537.
Because they are not optimistic about it, Daenerys Entertainment basically does not touch the theme of western movies, but Warner is a big producer of western movies.
Simon is even less optimistic about this project. Even if the North American box office of "Marvel" in his memory has exceeded 100 million, it is basically impossible for Warner to make much profit from this project. It is completely A classic case of 'working' for a Hollywood star.
For the entire project, Mel Gibson directly received a high salary of US$15 million, and Richard Donner also received US$8 million from first-line directors. Even Jodie Foster's salary reached US$5 million. .
The three main creators all returned with a full harvest.
However, with the huge cost of "Marvel", Warner Bros. needs to earn about 250 million U.S. dollars in global box office to break even. In the past, the global box office of "Makari" was only 1.8 One hundred million U.S. dollars.
Not only that, this time, because there was "Stargate" in the past, "Speed" in the same period, and two weeks later there will be a super blockbuster "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises", with powerful enemies around, the media will be comprehensive after the opening of the film "Mahuali", which has a barely acceptable reputation, will find it difficult to regain its box office share of the original time and space. If the local film wants to exceed 100 million, unless a miracle happens.
The more likely outcome is that Warners will stumble on this project and further increase its dependence on the DC Cinematic Universe.
Celia Miller didn't see her boss again until they returned to Los Angeles in the evening.
However, the woman did not show the slightest resentment at being left out by a young man all night after having just had a moment of pleasure. She took advantage of the short time she returned to Los Angeles to continue discussing the various arrangements of the Westeros system in the military field with Simon.
During the business trip around the world, Celia was able to participate in secret negotiations between the Westeros mercenaries and the French government. The French authorities finally paid a compensation of US$25 million in exchange for the seizure of the mercenaries in Westeros. All members of the French advisory group of the former Rwandan government army, including all corpses, are in the hands of the army.
The price of 25 million US dollars was proposed by Celia after understanding the general situation.
It’s not that the French government can’t come up with more, but because if the claim is too high, it will exceed the limit of the French government’s secret treasury. At that time, funds will have to be raised through formal government financial channels. Once this happens, the French military adviser The group's affairs will inevitably be exposed.
This is an outcome neither side wants to see.
Allowing Celia to participate in this negotiation can be regarded as a small test for Simon, mainly to test the credibility of this former female Ministry of Defense official. The result exceeded Simon's expectations, and it also allowed him to see the benefits of having someone of his own who had worked in the federal defense system and was familiar with the unspoken rules of various authorities.
Prior to this, both Simon and the commander of the Westeros mercenaries, William McCraney, wanted to speak loudly to the French government lion. If they really did this, the two sides would probably break up.
After traveling for half a month continuously, Celia also completed the personnel infiltration plan of the Rwandan government, and had a private meeting with Leon Kuchma, the current prime minister of Ukraine and the next presidential candidate, not only to convince Ukraine, which had always been hesitant, The government agreed to the Westeros system to establish private military companies in Ukraine, and Celia was also personally responsible for forming a Ukrainian mercenary support team in Kiev for the aftermath.
"Here in the United States, I think our company should recruit mainly middle and low-level retired officers in the short term, and cooperate with about 300 former special forces, mainly to provide military training services to the outside world," Celia watched in the front cabin living room of the Boeing 767. He glanced at the little man on the sofa next to him and saw that he had no objection. He continued: "The French government arranged a military advisory group in Rwanda. Although the information has not been made public, I think other countries will learn from it in the future. Provide similar services in disguise through private military companies. The service can not only reduce the possible casualties of official soldiers, but also avoid being accused of interfering in other countries' internal affairs once the matter is exposed. We have a lot of business space in this regard."
Simon was looking through a private military company formation plan in Australia. He nodded and motioned for Celia to continue.
Celia glanced at Simon again, thought for a while, and temporarily changed the subject, saying: "Simon, here in North America, regarding the name of the 'Military Consulting and Security Services Company', are you really not going to give it another thought? "
Military consulting & security service (MCSS), this is the name of the private military company in the Westeros system in North America.
Australia and Ukraine did not directly name the XX branch, but gave similar new names. The former is the Perth Military Consulting and Security Company because its headquarters is located in Perth, Western Australia, and the latter is the Ukrainian Frontline Military. Service company, headquartered in Kiev.
The biggest feature of the three names is that they are ordinary and slightly long.
Simon heard Celia ask about this, raised his head and asked: "If it were named something like Daenerys Entertainment, what do you think it would be like?"
"I think it's better this way," Celia said: "It's very special and easy to be remembered."
Simon shook his head and said: "For entertainment technology companies, of course, the easier it is for people to remember their names, the better. However, for private military companies, do you think it is a good thing to be remembered by people all the time?"
Celia paused for a moment, then quickly came to her senses, shook her head and said, "It seems, no."
Simon shrugged: "So, that's correct."
Historically, Blackwater International, founded in 1997, has become famous in the industry in just a few years. Whether in the United States or overseas, when it comes to mercenaries, Blackwater is the first thing that many people think of, because This name just sounds very hardcore and domineering.
Because it was so famous and had too many eyes on this company, Blackwater began to have troubles after it became big. Various scandals were frequently exposed, so it lost a large number of orders.
Finally, Blackwater finally began to reflect on the fact that it was not the largest private mercenary company in the United States at all. If we talk about the United States, Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI) is the largest one, and it is not even among the top five companies globally. If we can’t get in, why are there so many troubles? Why don’t the media look for the big ones to cause trouble
Finally got it.
Oh, it turns out it’s a name issue!
The name Blackwater is too conspicuous and trendy.
So one day, Blackwater quietly changed his name to Xe Services Company.
What does Xe mean
who knows
Just don’t know!
Learning from the lessons of Blackwater, Simon confirmed from the beginning that the names of private military companies in the Westeros system must be as common as possible and as unmemorable as possible.