His thoughts wandered briefly, and then he quickly returned to the script in his hand.
Let’s talk about the future later.
Since it is clear that nothing can escape the ups and downs, then try your best to do the things in front of you well.
According to the script in hand and the information in memory, judging from the standards of pure popcorn movies, the quality of "Deep Chill" is actually above the passing line, with a high-concept story style, tough guys, beauties, comedy, mysterious sea monsters and other commercial There is no shortage of elements, and they all leave a good impression on the audience.
The reason for its failure was mainly due to Disney's distribution strategy mistakes during the downturn and chaos. Later, it was proved that the film's video and TV sales were very good, and even China on the other side of the ocean introduced the film.
The laptop was placed on the round table at hand. Simon had read the script, thought about it a little, and typed out his opinions on "Deep Chill" in an email he planned to send to Amy Pascal.
According to the memo information on the script, Stephen Sommers hopes to direct the project himself, and also plans to invite big names like Harrison Ford to make it a blockbuster. From this information, Simon also saw Sommers' Being shrewd, he probably guessed Simon's idea of deliberately suppressing the production pace of various external cooperation projects.
If Simon agrees with Sommers to direct "Chill" himself, "The Mummy 2" will definitely be postponed.
For the "Mission: Impossible" series, Simon really has this idea.
Even if Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman of Seagram Group, personally came to talk about the project at the last celebration party, Simon would not be merciful. The gap between the release of the first "Mission: Impossible" and "Mission: Impossible 2" To be precise, it is two and a half years. As for "Mission: Impossible 3", at least it is the same interval, and it will be released as early as the end of 1998.
The same can’t be said for “The Mummy,” a collaboration with Fox.
The Westeros system and the News Corporation behind Fox are allies. Simon does not intend to suppress the "Mummy" series. The production interval of "The Mummy 2" will be the standard two years and will be released in the summer of 1998.
On the other hand, Stephen Sommers is a commercial film director that Simon is very fond of. He hopes that this filmmaker can further expand his abilities and develop into a producer. Sommers has been a screenwriter and director before. This time, I was able to test the waters with "Deep Chill". While directing "The Mummy 2", I also served as the producer of "Deep Chill", and the project was handed over to other directors.
In addition, Simon also hopes to control the production cost of "Deep Chill" within the previous US$50 million. Preparations are now underway to start filming in the first half of next year, and it will probably be released during the Easter period of 1998. In fact, a more suitable schedule is the end of next year, but "Titanic" will be released at the end of next year, and Simon does not want to put this movie under the pressure of a big ship.
Stephen Sommers will produce "Deep Chill" in the first half of next year and "The Mummy 2" in the second half of the year. The pace is just right.
Finally, after thinking about it, I added that Natasha Henstridge could be considered for the heroine.
The original Famke Janssen is now the famous "Wonder Woman" and is not suitable to play a vase in such a movie. Natasha Henstridge is just right, and the wealth will not go to outsiders.
After writing an email, Simon picked up another folder.
Inside are several movie synopses for Jet Lee's new project.
Simon generally remembers several of the films that Jett Lee shot in Hollywood around 2000, and they were all quite commercially successful. However, whether it was "Romeo" with black actors or "Dragon" written by Luc Besson, "Kiss", Simon didn't like it too much.
The main reason is that none of these movies truly show the essence of Chinese Kung Fu.
Simon also knows that this is mainly due to cultural differences. The people who really speak for relevant projects are Westerners. Jet Lee does not have as high a voice as Jack Cheng, who was promoted to the front line with the "Rush Hour" series. As a result, these films The action scenes generally lean towards Western fighting styles, and sometimes degenerate into more mediocre gunfight movies.
None of this is what Simon wants to see.
For the planned "Hero", Simon has just sent the idea to China recently, and the script is still being written. Moreover, such a big project is unlikely to start filming in the short term. Simon does not intend to let Jet Li Bai wait for a year, so Personal intervention gave considerable authority to Jet Lee himself and the screenwriting team of New World Pictures to proactively explore new projects. The condition is that the budget is US$25 million, and Jet Lee will also be named as the producer himself. As for the extent of his participation, it depends on the enthusiasm of the other party.
What Simon wants is real Chinese Kung Fu in Hollywood, not fighting and gunfights.
The information in hand is the result of recent brainstorming over there.
There is no eye-catching idea. The setting basically revolves around kung fu masters from China traveling to the United States to visit relatives and friends or to investigate criminals, etc., running rampant in Hollywood and killing everyone.
After browsing several story synopses, Simon directly drew a cross at the back.
I still plan to do it myself.
After all, most good ideas actually come from the creator's own accumulation of materials. If we talk about accumulation, there is probably no one in Hollywood who has more memories than Simon who has more than ten people’s memories in his mind, and he is also more professional.
I just picked up another script with "Saving Private Ryan" written on the cover, and heard light footsteps in my ears. The little girl, as delicate as a doll, came to Simon holding a fruit plate, and looked at Simon with a pair of dark eyes. : "Dad, this is what mom prepared."
The tone of the little girl calling her daddy is much more natural than that of an unscrupulous little girl who is obviously calling 'Sugar Daddy'.
Simon smiled and patted his knees, let the little girl sit on his lap, hugged the little person in his arms, continued to read the script in his hand, and said in Chinese: "MiuMiu, are you used to life in the United States? "
The little girl sat on Simon's lap, still holding the fruit plate, and obediently picked up a piece of apple and brought it to Simon's mouth, then carefully took the toothpick back. When Simon asked, she nodded and said, "Very good, every day." There are delicious food and lots of beautiful clothes to wear. Last weekend, my mother and I took a private plane to London, but it rained all the time in London, which was not as good as New York."
Simon ate a piece of apple, saw the little girl brought another piece of pineapple, bit it again, and said: "It rains here in New York too, you will encounter it sooner or later."
"No, that is, the weather in London is always gloomy, and the streets and people are also gloomy."
Simon didn't expect that this girl's feelings about London were quite accurate. He smiled and said, "If you don't like it, then you won't go there in the future."
"Well," the little girl said, and continued to put fruit into Simon's mouth. She was very restrained and did not eat any of it. At the same time, she said, "Dad, can you take time to go out with me and mom?"
Simon turned a page of the script in his hand and asked, "Where do you want to go?"
The little girl said: "I can go anywhere, as long as I'm with daddy."
Simon looked down at the little girl with beautiful eyes in his arms, smiled, and realized that these were probably the words taught by the little girl's mother. He turned around and saw that a certain woman was standing at the door of the villa not far away, looking at Looking here, he saw Simon noticed him, hesitated for a moment, and walked over without waiting for the man to call him.
Seeing her mother coming over, the little girl turned her eyes around her mother and Simon, took the initiative to jump off Simon's lap, and handed the half-remained fruit plate to her mother: "Mom, you talk to dad, I'll do it. homework."
When the girl ran away and disappeared through the door of the villa, Simon smiled and patted his leg. Ms. Liu blushed slightly and hesitated a little, then she leaned over and sat down, feeling the man's strong arms around her waist. After a while, she got used to it. He quickly relaxed and continued his daughter's task of putting fruit into Simon's mouth while actively looking for a topic: "Are you reading the script?"
Compared to the shirt and trousers that Simon was wearing when he arrived in the morning, the woman now put on a dark green sleeveless silk dress that showed off her figure. She was also a dancer. She was sitting in the man's arms with a soft figure and elegant temperament. The pleasant feminine fragrance made Simon, who had been abstaining from sex for nearly a week, feel a little ready to move.
"Yes." Seeing the woman looking for a topic, Simon nodded and asked, "Isn't it summer vacation now? What homework does MiuMiu do? Also, has her school been confirmed in advance?"
"The school has been confirmed. I have arranged summer tutoring for MiuMiu. I need to learn about various courses here in the United States."
Hearing this, Simon shook his head and said, "There's no need for this. Girls need to be rich and raised, and they don't need to do so much homework."
The woman nodded obediently and agreed, "You... let her call you daddy. You have the final say."
"Then just leave the English class, as long as you can communicate with the children here in the future." Simon said, smiling again, and continued: "Actually, Chinese Americans are smarter than most children of the same age here, and they have accumulated more knowledge. There is no need to do any extra tutoring, otherwise other children will not survive."
The woman obviously didn't know this, and she still had some doubts: "No way?"
"You will know after a long time."
"Well," the woman agreed again, hesitated a little, and asked, "Simon, will you be here this weekend?"
"Yeah, let's go to the art troupe tomorrow and see if they are lazy," Simon looked at the woman's fair and slender neck and said half-jokingly: "What about you, are you lazy?"
Feeling the man's gaze, the woman's face blushed even more, and she said: "No, we have been working very hard on creating and choreographing dances during this period, and sometimes we are busy until late at night. We all don't want to let you down. expectations.”
It has been exactly one month since the Guofeng Art Troupe arrived in the United States.
This month, if I had to describe it, compared to their previous lives, everyone seemed to have stepped into paradise in one step. Maybe the life of a princess in a fairy tale was nothing more than that.
As long as the IQ is normal, no one will think that this kind of generous giving is taken for granted for no reason.
Therefore, the entire team is working hard on the tasks assigned by Simon, and no one dares to slack off, for fear that the public performance at the end of the year will be messed up, and the glass slipper and pumpkin cart will all disappear. After enjoying the luxury at this time, no matter it is The girls from the Guofeng Art Troupe are still choreographers hired to come to the United States, and they absolutely don't want to go back to their old lives.
To achieve this goal, any effort is worth it.
Compared to the Guofeng Art Troupe, the mother and daughter here feel more like they are in a dream. If we use the simplest measurement, the treatment that the mother and daughter enjoy is ten times that of the girls in the Guofeng Art Troupe. Many times when Ms. Liu woke up in the bedroom of this seaside manor villa, she would wonder if she was dreaming.
Even if it is a dream, of course the longer such a dream lasts, the better.
Therefore, we also dare not slack off in the slightest.
After chatting affectionately like this for a while, and confirming that Simon would be here this weekend, Ms. Liu did not dare to ask for anything more from him, and returned to the villa with the empty fruit plate, leaving her time alone with the man.
Simon's attention returned to the script in front of him.
"Saving Private Ryan", an epic war blockbuster directed by Spielberg and released in 1998, once historically achieved a global box office of nearly 500 million U.S. dollars with a production cost of 70 million U.S. dollars, and was the North American box office champion in 1998.
Even compared to 1997's "Titanic" and 1999's "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace," "Saving Private Ryan"'s North American box office of $200 million was mostly due to the fact that 1998 was a small year for movies. , but since he can win the annual championship, such an achievement cannot be underestimated after all.
Simon's big butterfly didn't blow this script away.
However, because of Daenerys Entertainment’s strength in Hollywood, the best scripts will naturally flow into Daenerys Entertainment first, and this time is no exception.
As a war movie, the script of "Saving Private Ryan" is actually not that popular. Since a series of Vietnam War-themed movies in the 1980s, Hollywood has not seen a big-selling war movie for many years, and the production of war movies The budgets are usually very large and the risks are high, which also limits the investment studios can make.
In the original time and space, if it were not for Spielberg, it would be difficult for this movie to appear on the big screen.
Now, history has changed, the script of "Saving Private Ryan" has been successfully cut by Daenerys Entertainment, and Simon has to consider how to deal with this project.
Spielberg still owes Daenerys Entertainment a film contract inherited from the Universal era, but the gap between the two parties over the "Jurassic Park" series is deep. In order to win over Spielberg, Universal had The director's restrictions on fulfilling the film contract are also very broad. According to the agreement, it doesn't matter even if Spielberg delays the film contract for another ten or eight years.
In addition, Spielberg is now focused on the operation of DreamWorks, and it is unlikely that he will let the other party take over the project.
In this case, Simon can only consider other options.
According to Daenerys Entertainment’s film list, there is little hope of launching this project in the short term. Simon will not give up on making this film history classic. This is actually in line with Simon’s philosophy of maintaining diversity in Hollywood. However, this time, " "Saving Private Ryan" obviously cannot be released in 1998, and it must be considered in the long term.