Chapter 195: Production and Distribution Plans

After finishing lunch with Terry Semel, Simon returned to the headquarters of Daenerys Entertainment to resume his afternoon's work.

These days, Simon and executives like Amy have been re-discussing the arrangements for the new company's film and television production and distribution plans. Originally, they planned to work overtime during the previous weekend to complete these tasks before their trip to Australia, but due to the release of the Forbes rich list, Simon was entangled in various matters over the weekend, thus delaying to the weekdays.

Aside from a few reality shows and renewed TV dramas that Daenerys Film had previously prepared, the company does not plan to develop new projects this year. Hence, this aspect of the business was quickly organized.

The main focus was on production and distribution.

After the completion of the merger, the new company's distribution operations will begin next month.

In addition to the 7 movies released in the first half of the year, New World Entertainment has another 6 films of various genres waiting for release.

After the screening discussions, New World Entertainment finally decided to release three films in theaters: "Elvira's Horror," "The Sid Sisters," and "Ghostbusters 2," while the other three will be released directly to video.

"Elvira's Horror" is a horror-comedy brand that actress Cassandra Peterson has been focusing on creating over the years. The film's main selling point is probably just the leading actress's barely concealed cleavage under her black attire.

Simon had a very low opinion of this B-movie style film and did not see any box office potential. He initially wanted to throw it into the video market as well. However, New World Entertainment had already conducted some preliminary promotions, even developing a comic series for the movie through Marvel.

Considering there were no other cinema releases planned for September, Simon reluctantly agreed to re-edit the movie before releasing it to theaters, but limited the number of screens to 500.

"The Sid Sisters" starred Winona Ryder, who had just made a name for herself in Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice." The low-budget independent film explores teenagers' disillusionment with life through a series of campus murders.

After viewing the sample, Simon decisively decided to have this movie join Daenerys Film's previously invested "Sisters" and "Metropolitan" in next year's Sundance Film Festival.

Due to the film's very low box office potential, its schedule will be set for next March.

The last one, "Ghostbusters 2," is a horror series developed by New World Entertainment, modeled after New Line's "Nightmare on Elm Street." The first film had a production budget of $1 million and garnered over $14 million at the box office. Although it cannot compare with the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, it was still a huge profit.

The sequel's production budget increased to $3 million, and with the reputation of the first film, the profit seemed very secure.

New World Entertainment originally planned to schedule this film for the Christmas season at the end of the year.

If it had been before the merger of the two companies, this would have been a good choice. However, now the new company's distribution team must focus on the promotion of the several films already planned by Daenerys Film. Therefore, the release date for "Ghostbusters 2" has been postponed to next Easter.

Outside of MGM's December 16 release of "Rain Man," the schedules for the three films produced and independently distributed by Daenerys Film, "Scream," "Steel Magnolia," and "Dead Poets Society," were also finalized in this discussion.

"Scream" will be released on October 28.

"Steel Magnolia" will be released on November 18.

"Dead Poets Society" will be released on December 23.

Michael Hoffman's "Sisters," Whit Stillman's "Metropolitan," and Catherine's "Blue Angel" are also in the post-production stage, with specific schedules yet to be determined but expected to enter theaters in the first half of next year.

On the film production side.

Simon ultimately retained only the originally planned "Heavenly Mission," starring Bo Derek, from the few projects that New World Entertainment was brewing, canceling all others.

The canceled projects included Kevin Costner's "Revenge" and Dolph Lundgren's Marvel comic adaptation "The Punisher."

"Revenge," a drama about a retired naval officer who seduces his friend's wife and both are subsequently retaliated against, was originally to be directed by Tony Scott, Ridley Scott's brother, who had previously directed "Beverly Hills Cop II" and other well-known films, and is considered a top Hollywood director.

However, Simon could not comprehend the concept that "Revenge" was trying to convey. Although the film was co-financed with a subsidiary company under Columbia Pictures with a production budget of $20 million, it still exceeded Simon's expectations, so he chose to give it up.

As for "

The Punisher."

After reading the script, Simon found that apart from the name, the story was completely detached from Marvel's classic comic settings, purely a B-grade gunfight film imitating Stallone's "First Blood," and naturally, there was no need to retain it.

Bruce Joel Rubin completed the scripts for the other two films, "The Sixth Sense" and "Ghost" during the strike period that Simon had initially ordered.

Simon temporarily shelved "Ghost" and instead started the project for "The Sixth Sense."

Robert De Niro had initially signed a package deal for "Dead Poets Society" and "The Sixth Sense." With "Dead Poets Society" already completed, it was just right to take over "The Sixth Sense."

Furthermore, with the end of the Hollywood screenwriters' strike, Daenerys Entertainment has also started intensively accepting various project pitches during this period, and Simon selected several very good scripts from them.

One of them is called "The Bodyguard."

Yes, it's the one starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston from the original timeline.

The screenplay's writer, Lawrence Kasdan, is quite famous in Hollywood; he was the screenwriter for the "Star Wars" series and the "Indiana Jones" series.

However, since "The Bodyguard" script had been written in the mid-70s, it had been coldly received until Simon took over. Before that, the film had been rejected by over sixty producers, and most film companies thought the plot was too cliché, and the scenes set in the female singer Rachel's mansion were too costly.

Thus, even though Lawrence Kasdan's status is high, Daenerys Entertainment managed to buy the script for just $300,000.

Another script was from Hollywood female screenwriter and director Amy Heckerling, a comedy called "Look Who's Talking," whose main feature is having babies talk with the minds and voices of adults. In the original timeline, "Look Who's Talking" starred John Travolta, with Bruce Willis voicing the baby, and successfully entered the top ten of the year's box office rankings.

Previously, this script was also not well regarded, which is why Daenerys Entertainment was able to secure it. It's not surprising, as projects generally favored by Hollywood are usually secured by major film companies several years in advance.

Just one thing, because of his participation in "Pulp Fiction," John Travolta was no longer suitable for the heartwarming comedy "Look Who's Talking," and Daenerys Entertainment had to select another male lead.

In the end, "The Sixth Sense," "Batman," "The Bodyguard," and "Look Who's Talking" will be Daenerys Entertainment's main projects for next year.

The globally successful "The Sixth Sense," which garnered over $600 million in the original timeline, and the relatively less successful "The Bodyguard" are preliminarily confirmed for next summer, while "Look Who's Talking" and "Batman" are scheduled for next Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively.

However.

This is actually just Simon's idea.

Because these four projects are basically not Hollywood's popular movie types, and a script like "The Bodyguard" has been coldly treated by Hollywood for more than a decade. Simon does not plan to explain too much to others; he just needs Amy and others to do their work diligently.

Moreover.

After a preliminary count, the films that Daenerys Entertainment has confirmed for release next year already include "The Sid Sisters," "Sisters," "Metropolitan," "Blue Angel," "The Sixth Sense," "The Bodyguard," "Charlie's Angels," "Look Who's Talking," "Batman" - a total of 10 films.

The number of films the company is still brewing and planning to buy will not be less than this number.

This means that Daenerys Entertainment's production and distribution plans for next year will reach the level of the seven major studios. Therefore, surrounded by this 'sand,' even if films like "The Sixth Sense" expected to be blockbusters achieve box office results like in the original timeline, they will not stand out as much as this year.

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