Los Angeles, Malibu Daenerys Studios.
Jet Lee and his agent Jeremy rushed to the No. 1 office building in the studio area. The other two Hollywood filmmakers Doug Liman and Tony Gilroy, who he met frequently during this period, had already arrived and were working on Waiting in the lounge outside Simon's office.
It's Thursday afternoon, July 25th.
Several people present will have 30 minutes to meet with Simon Westeros at 5 o'clock.
It was already time to get off work at 5 p.m., but since Simon Westeros was able to arrange his work at this time, others naturally had no objections.
Seeing Jet Lee's arrival, several people greeted him warmly. Seeing that there were still a few minutes left before the meeting, they discussed a project that was being negotiated recently. It was an idea proposed by a young tycoon himself. The name had been finalized in advance, and the English name was Plain and simple, Taken.
If translated into the name that Simon remembered later, it would be famous, "Hurricane Rescue".
Simon was not satisfied with the several ideas provided by the New World Pictures team around Jett Lee some time ago, so he took charge of the project himself again. Of course, he now has no time to write the script himself, but just provides a rough idea. It just so happened that Disney, controlled by Vivendi, announced several blockbuster movies of its own in those days, including "The Fifth Element" in collaboration with Luc Besson. , reminded Simon of the hit action film "Taken" written by Luc Besson and starring Liam Neeson.
Luc Besson, who is known as the French 'Spielberg', has two obvious tendencies in his personal works. The films he directed personally are all quite creative, such as "Blue Sea and Blue Sky", "The Fifth Element", "This Killer Isn't Too Good" "Cold" and so on, and screenwriting works are often Luc Besson-style assembly lines, such as "Taxi Express", "Fast Delivery" and "Taxi".
Of course, occasionally the two aspects overlap, and there are cases of success and failure, such as "Super Body" and "Anna".
Among them, "Taken" is definitely the most successful series on the Feisong assembly line. Now that he thought about it, Simon picked it up casually. After all, it was an assembly line. With a slight modification, it would not be inconsistent at all to put it on Jet Lee.
In fact, Luc Besson and Jett Lee also collaborated on "Kiss of the Dragon". It's just that the film's commercial performance was very average and was not considered by Simon.
In the lounge.
The few people who arrived early chatted for a while. New World Pictures President Danny Morris arrived on time. Girl A also came to inform, and everyone came to Simon's office together.
Returning from Ukraine on Tuesday, Simon immediately threw himself into the work that the Westeros system can never finish if it wants to.
Before the five o'clock meeting, Simon had just finished a conference call with AOL. The discussion was about the results of AOL's US$3 billion corporate bond issuance a few days ago.
This financing went very smoothly.
3 billion US dollars of corporate bonds, half with 10-year maturity and half with 20-year maturity. Although the interest rate is lower than the industry average during the same period, relying on the hot development momentum of AOL and the credibility of the entire Westeros system, this batch of bonds After the sale, it was quickly subscribed by investors from all over the world.
Moreover, during the entire process, AOL only paid a commission cost of 1.3% of the financing amount, which is equivalent to US$39 million, which is also far lower than the industry level.
This is the result of major underwriters vying to give the biggest discounts in order to secure the Westeros System, a big customer.
You know, in addition to several large-scale bond issuances and the Verizon IPO that have been finalized in the second half of the year, there are countless small-scale financing operations in the entire Westeros system. With such a large number of customers, no investment bank will do its best to win over them, whether it is Wall Street in the United States or the City of London.
In the final analysis, the current wave of new technology is too hot.
Some time ago, after Igret's market value exceeded 400 billion, becoming the first company with a market value of 400 billion US dollars, everyone discovered that the Nasdaq market not only showed no signs of peaking, but was still growing strongly. It seemed that there was indeed a possibility. This kind of momentum directly creates one or even several giants with a market capitalization of trillions of dollars.
Now that history has seriously changed, even Simon can't tell how far the Nasdaq index can go this time.
Seeing Jet Lee and others coming in, Simon stood up and shook hands with everyone one by one, then sat down in the reception area.
Simon personally selected the three main creators of the new version of "Taken". In addition to Jett Lee, the other two Doug Liman and Tony Gilroy are also familiar to Hollywood fans in the original time and space. Both of them are "The Bourne Supremacy". "The main creators of the series, one is the director of the first film and has also directed "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and the other is the screenwriter of the entire "Bourne" series.
The three of them now are all relatively new in Hollywood, so they can be screwed together by Simon.
Simon provided the creative ideas and instructed the three people to participate in the script writing, with Tony Gilroy as the main lead, Doug Liman as the designated director, and Jet Lee as the actor and action director.
Now that the main creator has been changed, the plot can no longer follow the original version. In fact, it has changed a lot.
And, inevitably, to make up for Jet Lee's lack of Asian popularity, the story naturally transitions into a buddy movie format, akin to "Beverly Cop," "Lethal Weapon" and Jack Cheng and "Rush Hour" series with Reese Tucker.
The three even discussed a three-protagonist model.
Everyone sat down, Simon went straight to the topic without too much nonsense, and said to the three people on the couch next to him: "I have read the script outline and some drafts. Your three protagonists are very creative, because they involve three types of people, and about race. Baggage is also great, but with this story framework, we would just end up with another three-person "Rush Hour". I don't know if the audience will buy it, I definitely won't, and it also betrays the I gave the core of the idea. I needed an R-rated action movie that was straightforward and straightforward. The three protagonists would definitely slow down the pace of the story. In fact, even if it is a dual male protagonist, I still need Jet's kung fu as the core. Continue. For the complete script creation, I want you to follow what I just said. Do you have any questions?"
After Simon finished speaking, Jet Li and the other three looked at each other and nodded slightly.
Speaking of which, if the model of three male protagonists in black, white and yellow is adopted, Jet Lee's role will definitely be compressed. However, Jet Lee did not object during the script discussion. After all, he was very concerned about his Hollywood debut. , he does not have enough confidence and inevitably seeks stability.
Simon roughly understood what Jet Lee was thinking, but he didn't agree with it. Seeing the three of them nodding, he said, "Then let's brainstorm, and you can also share your thoughts."
After deleting the story line of the black character, everyone discussed it and a new script framework was quickly formed.
Zhao Qiang, who immigrated to the United States in his early years, got married, had children, and opened a Chinese restaurant, welcomed his sister Zhao Min, who arrived in the United States to study and pursue another American dream. As a result, the girl encountered human trafficking soon after arriving in the United States. The disappearance of her sister made her grow up. Zhao Qiang, who was practicing Chinese Kung Fu, went on a rampage and chased him all the way from the United States to France, killing everyone.
In addition, Zhao Min was abducted because Jack, a white American best friend of Zhao Qiang, took the girl to a nightclub. Out of guilt, Jack followed Zhao Qiang all the way to find Zhao Min, and was stunned by Zhao Qiang's violent behavior.
The story finally has a happy ending.
There is also a hint of a possible sequel.
Regarding Zhao Qiang’s happy family of three, if the film is successful and a sequel is developed, Zhao Qiang’s daughter can be kidnapped again.
All right.
Capitalists have no bottom line.
Different from the funny kung fu and gags of Jack Cheng and Chris Tucker's "Rush Hour" series, what Simon wants is the hard-core violence of Jet Lee fighting all the way to the end, which can also distinguish the two kung fu stars to the greatest extent Come on.
In addition, the core of the story, family love, can also break through the racial barriers of the characters and achieve empathy with more audiences. This is also a key factor in the original "Taken" series being more successful than Fatsatsu's other assembly-line action films.
Half an hour is not a long time.
Simon directly fixed the frame of the story, and Jet Lee and the other three discussed the action style, shooting techniques, etc. The 30 minutes passed quickly.
After leaving Simon's office and saying goodbye to Danny Morris, Doug Liman spoke first and invited the other two people to attend a party in the circle tonight. He has become very familiar with them recently, and several people also agreed. In addition to Continuing to discuss the script, it is probably understood that this is Doug Liman trying to introduce some people into the project.
It’s interesting to say that of the three main creators, Tony Gilroy is a client of CAA, Jet Lee is signed to WMA, and Doug Liman belongs to ICM.
Noting this, sometimes it’s hard not to wonder whether this is someone’s way of balancing.
Simon has always paid attention to the balance between the three major Hollywood agencies, and will not deliberately neglect the second-tier agencies to avoid domination by the three agencies.
However, this time it was a complete coincidence. The main reason is that the three of them are Simon's special attention, and they are very suitable for the project of "Taken". Just like Doug Liman, although he only completed one "Hustler", but In fact, like Quentin, this filmmaker is also a fan of kung fu movies and likes Hong Kong movies very much. This is also the basis for him to later become a well-known action film director in Hollywood.
Tony Gilroy, as Simon prepares for the "Bourne" series.
Doug Liman invited the other two people really to introduce friends from his circle to join "Taken". Simon Westeros personally provided creative projects. Even if it was just a supporting role, it was enough for Hollywood stars who were eager to star. Broken head. Doug Liman wants to recommend his good friend Jon Favreau or Sam Rockwell as the leading actor this time.
It's just that these two names, when later expanded, became a large number.
For example, Robert Downey Jr., who was still addicted to drugs at this time, was also under ICM and was already familiar with people like Jon Favreau. As a famous second-generation star in Hollywood, Downey and Judy, who is also a second-generation star, Foster and others can be called buddies. Jodie Foster also has buddies like Mel Gibson. Later, Gibson was banned. Jodie Foster has been trying her best to help each other, while Downey is addicted to drugs and cannot extricate himself. At that time, it was these friends who forcibly sent each other to drug rehabilitation centers.
Hollywood is a circle.
In fact, sometimes there is another layer of closer connection, called the bed chain, which is also a magnificent network.
This is beside the point.
Regarding the project of "Hurricane Rescue", both CAA and WMA are paying close attention to it.
Simon didn't care much about these private connections in Hollywood. He just needed to find the right actors, send off the "Rescue" team, and continue to be busy until seven o'clock, when he went home from get off work.
Janet has been a little depressed recently.
It's just that the man in the family ran away and fooled around for more than a week. The other Jennifer also accompanied the Raybould family to Atlanta to watch the Olympic Games, and she just came back this afternoon.
Finally back.
Otherwise, she would simply abandon the few annoying little people at home and run away from home. Taking care of children is simply a horror in the world.
When Simon returned home, he saw the female assistant who had returned to home life and Janet who finally relaxed and slumped on the sofa beside the glass curtain wall to watch the sunset. He greeted Jennifer who was holding little Snow, and came to the curtain wall. Janet Te immediately looked like he wanted a hug.
Simon stretched out his hand to pick up the woman, but was pulled down by Janet on the sofa. Under him was the soft woman and the soft coquettish girl. He kissed Janet on the lips and said with a smile: "Okay, Jenny is back now. ?"
Janet leaned her head forward and bit Simon's lip to grind her teeth a few times. She then put her arms around Simon's waist to prevent him from getting up. Feeling the man's heavy pressure, she hummed comfortably: "Dad still wants me to I don’t want to have two more children, children are really scary.”
Simon wanted to turn sideways to prevent all the weight from falling on Janet, but the woman stopped him and had to keep his posture: "Then don't give birth, don't listen to the old man."
Janet hummed a few times, then opened her eyes and stared at Simon: "However, I know that Janet actually wants a child, and she only has Nick."
"Did you remember something wrong?"
"Um?"
"Nick?"
"It's Nick. Syl is so smart, how could he not be born to me?"
"All right… "
Janet shook her head in success, and continued: "I mean, we will go to Australia for vacation in a few days, and you and Jenny can try to have another baby."
"Actually, I also think it's troublesome to have more children."
Janet pouted with disdain: "You didn't even care, what's the trouble?"
Women complain for a reason.
In fact, with so many servants in the house, if Janet didn't want to be tired, she wouldn't have to do anything in the past few days. Although she complained, in fact, Janet was still very dedicated to the children without the female assistant, otherwise she wouldn't be so tired.
Simon, on the other hand, is a truly standard hands-off shopkeeper.
There was no way to refute this, and Simon just smiled.
Janet glanced at him and said, "Actually, I know you just lied."
"Um?"
"You also want more children," Janet said, and added: "It's not like you have to raise them anyway."
"I was wronged."
"How could a guy who advocates the theory of genetic instinct not want to spread his genes to the maximum extent," Janet said, holding Simon's face and looking at each other: "Am I right, little bastard?"
Simon pretended to open his mouth and bite the woman's little hand. Janet was not afraid and held Simon's head tightly to prevent him from changing the subject.
Send me a question, let alone answer it.
There was a small stalemate for a moment, and Janet suddenly showed an evil smile with obvious eagerness to try: "You can do this if you want, little bastard."