Chapter 124: The Easy Target

Since Simon released the "Basic Instinct" screenplay, Jonathan and Amy had been busy with the project.

The original "Basic Instinct" in 1992, with a production cost of $49 million, garnered over $350 million worldwide. The film's success was largely due to the intense controversy it sparked and its near NC-17 level explicit content, with Sharon Stone's infamous leg-crossing scene talked about for years afterward. The film's box office success even spurred a trend of thriller films centered around femme fatale characters throughout the '90s.

The original director of "Basic Instinct" was Paul Verhoeven, a Dutch filmmaker known for directing "Total Recall" and "Starship Troopers." However, after completing the screenplay outline, Simon passed the story to Brian De Palma.

Compared to Paul Verhoeven, Brian De Palma, known for his affinity for suspense and voyeuristic themes, was a more suitable choice to direct this movie.

During discussions with Brian De Palma, Simon made it clear that, like "The Butterfly Effect," the media response to this film might not be positive and could even stir considerable controversy. Nonetheless, De Palma, who was quite fond of the story, quickly agreed to take on the project.

For the male lead, Simon still preferred Michael Douglas.

Michael Douglas, also a WMA client and whose career soared after the unexpected success of "Fatal Attraction," quickly agreed to take part after several meetings.

Simon was well aware that choosing the right actress for the female lead was crucial to the film's success. With the key players on board, Jonathan and Amy officially began negotiations with Fox. Having accumulated sufficient capital and given the promising commercial prospects of "Basic Instinct," Simon decisively chose to invest in the project.

Simon originally hoped that Daenerys Cinema could fully fund the production of the film and then distribute it through Fox, thereby settling the contract that initially covered three screenplays. However, after the success of "Run Lola Run," "The Butterfly Effect," and "Final Destination," even though the story presented by Simon still deviated from the mainstream, Fox was not willing to let go given the involvement of big box office names like Simon, De Palma, and Douglas.

After a week of negotiations, Fox and Daenerys Cinema finally agreed on a partnership plan.

In an environment where Hollywood film salaries were generally rising, following "The Butterfly Effect" and "Fatal Attraction," the salary bids for Brian De Palma and Michael Douglas had risen to $6 million each. Simon symbolically priced his screenplay at $1, and the budget for the film was initially set at $20 million.

The $20 million production budget was to be equally shared by Fox and Daenerys Cinema, with each contributing $10 million. The film was to be entirely produced by Daenerys Cinema, with Fox ensuring distribution and setting a release date of July 15 of the following year, with a guaranteed minimum of 1500 screens.

In terms of profit distribution.

After several tug-of-wars, both parties agreed that all channel revenues would be split fifty-fifty based on investment ratio. Simply put, the marketing and distribution budget contributed by Fox would no longer be counted as part of the film's investment costs in profit sharing, thus avoiding the most inflated area in the "Hollywood accounting."

The marketing costs for Hollywood films typically equaled about half of the production costs.

With a production budget of $20 million for "Basic Instinct," the theoretical marketing budget would reach $10 million. Based on the investment ratio with Daenerys Cinema, splitting it fifty-fifty seemed like Fox was at a loss, but in reality, it was not.

On the "Final Destination" project, Daenerys Cinema did not invest a penny, yet was expected to earn about $10 million.

This time, if not participating in the investment, Simon could have secured a deal for "Basic Instinct" similar to that of "Final Destination." Now, Daenerys Cinema was forgoing this additional revenue, while Fox also gave up its rightful profits from the marketing budget, keeping the investments equivalent.

Moreover, the contracts specified in detail how long TV trailers should run, ensuring that Fox committed sufficient marketing resources.

Fox Studios.

It was November 10th, a Tuesday.

In a meeting room within the studio's administrative building, Ronald Goldberg, Amy Pascal, Jonathan Friedman, and executives, stars, and agents from the three companies formally signed several contracts related to the "Basic Instinct" project.

However, Simon did not attend this signing ceremony.

After the news conference, despite receiving a pre-emptive explanation call from Simon, Ronald Goldberg still approached Amy Pascal at the dinner organized by Fox to inquire about Simon's recent activities.

From mid-last month, many around Simon had noticed his distraction, and Orion Pictures' president, Mike Medavoy, even complained about the slow post-production progress of "Pulp Fiction," which had wrapped over a month ago yet the rough

 cut had not been completed.

When Ronald Goldberg asked about this, recalling Simon's inattentiveness lately, Amy could only shake her head, but still defended her boss, "Ronald, you know Simon has been busy non-stop for a whole year. It's okay for him to relax a bit now."

Ronald Goldberg didn't buy Amy's explanation and, lowering his voice, leaned in to ask, "Amy, be honest with me, did Simon invest the money he made from 'Run Lola Run' into the stock market and then lose it?"

Amy immediately thought of the fact that Simon had been absent from the company for a week following the stock market crash last month.

The North American stock market had stabilized since then, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average was still hovering around 2000 points, well below its August peak of 2700 points. It was possible that Simon, having made over $100 million from "Run Lola Run" during the bull market, might have been tempted to earn more in the market.

"I really don't know," Amy replied, still guessing, then added, "But, Ronald, you can rest assured, no matter what, this won't affect Daenerys Cinema's investment in 'Basic Instinct.'"

Ronald Goldberg pressed a bit more but couldn't glean anything from Amy and eventually walked away.

Amy Pascal watched Ronald Goldberg leave, her brows furrowed with concern. She thought back to when Simon had discussed financing "Basic Instinct" with her.

Although she didn't think it was a great idea to use his own money to produce films, Amy had assumed Simon would use the profits from "Run Lola Run" to invest in "Basic Instinct."

However, Simon's decision surprised her; he wanted Amy to mortgage the contract from "Final Destination" to obtain a bank loan to finance "Basic Instinct."

A significant portion of the funding for Hollywood films came from bank loans.

Daenerys Cinema hadn't had the standing to secure production funds from banks for "When Harry Met Sally" and had chosen to collaborate with Artisan Entertainment instead. But now, with three consecutive successful films and with "Basic Instinct" being a screenplay written by Simon himself, securing a loan from a bank was no longer a difficult task.

Yet, connecting this to Simon's sudden, unexplained trip to New York again, missing today's signing ceremony, it was clear from these clues that her young boss, and likely his girlfriend, had indeed lost a significant amount of money in the stock market crash.

Over $100 million, now who knows how much was left.

Thinking of the brutal stock market crash on October 19th, Amy couldn't help but shake her head; he was still so young.

Yet.

She wondered if the young boss would also face a similar downfall in the film industry.

After all, the profits from "Final Destination," carefully calculated, should include her 5%.

For "Basic Instinct," and indeed most Hollywood films financed through loans, it was usual to apply for loans using the pre-sale contracts of the film, but neither Fox nor Simon agreed to pre-sales. The loan still required some collateral, so Daenerys Cinema had no choice but to use the earnings contract from "Final Destination" as a bargaining chip.

Now.

If "Basic Instinct" failed. If "When Harry Met Sally" failed. Even if "Pulp Fiction" also failed, and the young boss had just lost a large sum of money in the stock market crash, she might end up working for nothing and possibly need to look for a new job.

As Amy Pascal pondered these thoughts, more worried by the minute, she just returned to her Palisades residence after the dinner. Unable to resist, she picked up the phone, thinking to call the East Coast, but realizing it was already late at night there, she decided against calling so late.

After a night of drinking and filled with worries, Amy slept poorly and even had a nightmare about Daenerys Cinema going bankrupt and having to beg Ronald Goldberg to let her return to Fox. When she was awakened by the shrill ring of the phone, Amy Pascal looked at the clock; it was just past four in the morning.

Rubbing her forehead and sitting up, feeling the still dark early morning outside, Amy's mood was inevitably a bit irritable.

Oh my god.

Four o'clock, what could possibly be so urgent?

Could it be an alien attack on Earth?

Is everyone fleeing?

With such thoughts, Amy still picked up the receiver.

The call was from Jonathan Friedman, who didn't waste words and asked Amy to receive a fax.

Moments later.

Pulling a page from the fax machine, Amy Pascal only glanced at it briefly before her eyes widened, and her initial irritability, fatigue, and sleepiness completely vanished.

"Simon Westeros Strikes Again, Hollywood Kid Earns $1.6 Billion"

This.

It must be a joke, right?

Might as well say aliens have hit Los Angeles, she could drive to Mexico to

 hide; she had been wanting to take a break recently, after all.

But after the fax machine delivered one page, it didn't stop; several more cuttings came through.

"$75 Million to $1.62 Billion, Youngest Billionaire Emerges"

"Westeros to Attend Federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission Inquiry, Suspected of Insider Trading"

"Quantum Fund Sues Lehman Brothers, Simon Westeros Implicated"

"Simon Westeros Spends $1.1 Billion on Tech Stocks"

"…"

After reading several clippings in succession, Amy Pascal finally confirmed, although it still seemed unbelievable, that this was indeed not a joke.

Her young boss had somehow become a billionaire.

No.

$1.6 billion.

Oh my, how did he do it?

As Amy received the fax from Jonathan Friedman, and with dawn not yet breaking over Los Angeles, countless other phones and faxes began their frantic activity. As the winter sun slowly rose above the horizon in Los Angeles, the entire Hollywood was buzzing with the repeatedly confirmed explosive news.

Simon Westeros, in just a few months through operations in the futures market, had insanely earned a profit of $1.6 billion.

Although many instinctively thought about taxes, nonetheless, a young upstart in the industry suddenly becoming one of Hollywood's wealthiest, his personal fortune even surpassing most of the behind-the-scenes powers of the big seven, was truly unbelievable.

Many, after confirming the news, aside from astonishment, had only a series of questions left in their minds.

How did he do it?

What happened?

Is this some kind of massive joke played on Hollywood by those 'unscrupulous media' on the East Coast?

However.

The likes of "The New York Times," "The Wall Street Journal," "The Washington Post," and other such influential newspapers certainly wouldn't carelessly engage in such a poor joke, and today wasn't April Fool's Day.

Moreover, as the news suddenly exploded on this morning, many also sensed an unusual undertone suggesting perhaps something bigger was about to unfold.

After confirming the news, Amy Pascal, Jonathan Friedman, George Norman, Pat Kingsley, and others connected to Simon all rushed to New York. Regardless of the circumstances, their employer or client suddenly becoming a billionaire was quite an exciting event.

East Coast.

In the Presidential Suite of the Manhattan Plaza Hotel, Simon stood on the balcony looking down at the road in front of the hotel, watching a dense crowd of a couple of hundred journalists, feeling his scalp tingle.

Last week, Simon suddenly received a notification from the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission demanding all of Westeros Company's recent records on stock index futures and stock transactions, indicating something was about to happen.

But Simon, complying with their request, submitted a series of documents to the headquarters of the two agencies in Washington without reservation.

Since there was nothing irregular about his operations, Simon wasn't overly worried.

On Monday, upon receiving the inquiry notice from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Simon cooperated fully by rushing to New York. Yesterday morning, he completed a three-hour meeting with the Commission's staff in his hotel suite, answering a barrage of questions without sensing anything amiss.

However.

Simon did not expect that he would wake up to this storm. "The New York Times," "The Wall Street Journal," "The Washington Post," and several other major newspapers had almost completely exposed all of Westeros Company's transactions over the past few months.

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