Chapter 161: Nominated

"Run Lola Run's" North American VHS tapes have hit the market, and the film's overseas distribution efforts are ongoing.

To boost VHS sales and overseas market revenue, with Orion and Warner Bros.' support, Simon unexpectedly winning the Oscar for Best Editing became even hotter in the media than "The Last Emperor," which won multiple awards, in the days following the announcement.

Most media outlets tended to sympathize with Simon, arguing that the Oscars' conservatism and aging prevented "Run Lola Run" from receiving the nominations and honors it deserved.

Following that, on April 13, the 41st Cannes Film Festival announced its lineup for the next month, with "Pulp Fiction" smoothly becoming one of the 21 films in the main competition.

At the local press conference in Cannes, a reporter specifically mentioned "Run Lola Run's" Oscar situation and asked whether the jury president, the famous Italian director Ettore Scola, would discriminate against "Pulp Fiction" due to Simon West's age. Although the response was official rhetoric, the news sparked heated debate in the US once it reached home.

"Pulp Fiction" is scheduled for June 3. With the news of the film's inclusion in the main competition at Cannes reaching home, Orion Pictures also released the first TV trailer.

Given "Pulp Fiction's" integrated narrative structure, crafting an exciting trailer was challenging.

Unsatisfied with the trailers provided by Orion, Simon took it upon himself to edit. The first trailer, 1 minute and 30 seconds long, featured Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Robert Redford, and other stars. A series of suspenseful dialogues carefully extracted ended with the frame freezing on a box emitting a golden glow.

With "Pulp Fiction's" plot still under wraps, the trailer led the media to quickly label it a 'treasure hunt' movie.

Of course, the reality was far from the media's guess, but this was precisely the outcome Simon wanted. Generating discussion has always been the simplest and most effective marketing strategy for movies, as proven by the box office success of "When Harry Met Sally."

In its third week of wide release, "When Harry Met Sally" grossed another $12.11 million, totaling $49.16 million, with a drop of only 21% for the week, an excellent performance compared to other Easter releases.

Despite expanding its screen count by 50% in its second week, Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice" still saw a nearly 25% drop.

Orion's concurrently released "Good Johnny" plummeted by 51%, grossing only $1.97 million for the week. This $22 million budget movie had only accumulated $13.3 million in three weeks. After the next week, with the end of its one-month theater agreement, the film would largely exit cinemas.

To Simon, the failure of "Good Johnny" indicated Orion Pictures' inevitable performance decline this year.

After producing several box office hits in the past two years and blindly expanding, Orion's production and distribution scale was comparable to, or even surpassed, some of the struggling majors like MGM.

However, besides "Pulp Fiction," Simon saw no other film with blockbuster potential in Orion's long list of projects.

Following last year's stock market crash, Hollywood faced tough times ahead, and Orion's decline, like Cannon, New World, and De Laurentiis Entertainment, was inevitable. Simon could only watch from the sidelines.

In early April, after finalizing and signing the overseas distribution rights contract for "When Harry Met Sally" with Disney, Daenerys Studios received a lump sum payment of $30 million by late April.

Compared to the $15 million production cost of "When Harry Met Sally," the company effectively doubled its return. Of course, the film's profits were to be shared with the co-investor, HandMade Films.

According to the initial contract, Daenerys Studios would receive 60% of the film's net profits. Thus, out of the $30 million lump sum, Daenerys Studios would take $16.5 million. After offsetting the $15 million production cost, all subsequent income would give Daenerys Studios a 60% share.

Before the release of "When Harry Met Sally," Daenerys Studios had been spending freely. Now, with incoming revenue, Amy Pascal's previously tense mindset noticeably relaxed.

Simon could tell she had been worried Daenerys Studios might rise and fall as rapidly as Cannon and other companies.

Although Simon was wealthy, he wouldn't continue to invest in the company if it followed the fate of companies like Cannon, and Amy was acutely aware of this.

However, despite Daenerys Studios' seemingly blind expansion, Simon knew the massive potential of the company's lineup of projects.

Whether it's the majors or second-tier studios like Orion, they usually invest in a broad range of projects, hoping for a few to become box office hits. Achieving this ensures decent profits for the film company.

Thanks to Simon's foresight, Daenerys Studios effectively had several big fish in its net.

On April 21,

A new week began, and Simon read from the "Los Angeles Times" that the negotiations between the Producers Alliance and the Writers Guild of America had broken down again.

In Santa Monica,

At Daenerys Studios' headquarters, arriving at 8 a.m., Simon reviewed the recent dailies for "Rain Man." Amy, who also arrived early, brought up the news as Simon emerged from the screening room, "Simon, have you heard the news?"

Since it was Monday, Daenerys Studios' department heads and project leaders held their weekly meeting.

Simon and Amy headed to the meeting room, greeting the few executives who had already arrived, "Of course. That's why our reality TV projects can now move into the production phase."

The breakdown in negotiations between the Producers Alliance and the Writers Guild meant talks couldn't simply restart; both sides needed to posture before returning to the negotiation table, likely not until next month.

According to the American TV industry's workflow, every March and April, TV producers begin scouting projects and producing pilots to pitch to major networks and cable channels during May's annual TV show market.

Due to the writers' strike, many producers lacked even scripts, let alone pilot episodes.

Originally, if a resolution could be reached this month and work hurriedly resumed, the delay wouldn't affect next month's pitching season. With negotiations failing again, this plan was off the table. Missing this critical period would impact the entire year's TV business for the networks.

Amy, hearing Simon's plan, nodded but then mentioned, "However, Simon, I heard WGA is trying to reach agreements with smaller production companies first. What do we do?"

Simon recalled that in the 1988 strike, indeed, a large number of smaller producers had reached agreements with the WGA before the major studios and networks. The big Hollywood players responded decisively, with the major networks announcing they would no longer purchase programs from those producers who had signed early agreements with the WGA. The WGA then sued the networks for antitrust violations.

With these thoughts flashing through his mind, Simon decisively shook his head, "No matter what others do, we won't participate."

Even if the WGA won the antitrust lawsuit, it would be all too easy for the networks to make life difficult for those smaller producers who had defected early. Moreover, siding with the WGA early wouldn't benefit Daenerys Studios in any way, and Simon had no interest in getting involved in this mess.

As Simon and Amy discussed, the department heads and project leaders gradually arrived, and the meeting soon began.

With a long list of projects needing a lot of hands, after months of continuous recruitment and expansion, Daenerys Studios now had film, TV, distribution, HR, finance, and other departments. Even excluding temporary project hires, the company had over 50 permanent employees.

The two-story office leased initially was now cramped. Simon had been looking for new office space.

However, finding a suitable location wasn't easy.

If all went well, Simon planned to upgrade Daenerys Studios to Daenerys Entertainment next year, with major departments like film, TV, and distribution becoming subsidiaries. This would inevitably lead to another significant expansion.

Daenerys Studios had already moved once, and Simon wasn't keen on such a disruption again soon.

The meeting lasted over two hours, ending around noon, with everyone dispersing.

Overall, all projects under Daenerys Studios were progressing steadily.

"Basic Instinct" and "Rain Man" had started filming.

"Scream" would also begin shooting at the end of the month in a small town in Northern California.

With the breakdown in negotiations between the Producers Alliance and the Writers Guild, Simon was more determined to squeeze "Dead Poets Society" and "Mulan" into the year's hot release periods. Thus, preparation for these projects would accelerate, expected to start within the next one to two months.

Simon left the two low-budget films selected from Sundance, "Sisters" and "Metropolitan," entirely in the hands of the producers.

As for "Top Gun," Simon approached it with a 'men earn money for women to spend' mindset, giving Katherine complete freedom to do as she pleased, even if it meant a loss.

Lastly, besides the four reality TV projects still in development, only "Batman," which Simon personally controlled, remained.

After the morning meeting, Daenerys Studios kicked off the first round of casting for "Batman" that afternoon.

Simon had already set strict criteria for playing Bruce Wayne.

A five-picture deal, a fifteen-year contract term, and complete control over salary by Daenerys Studios.

Unsurprisingly, these conditions deterred all A-list actors aiming for the Batman role, with most second-tier actors making the same choice.

However, Hollywood's greatest strength is its abundance of actors.

Even with Daenerys Studios imposing many strict conditions on top of the harsh contract terms, the company still received over 1200 resumes before the first round of casting. Given the massive scale of the audition, Simon didn't have time to participate personally. The afternoon's casting was entirely managed by several casting directors.

The first round didn't involve face-to-face auditions but screened most applicants through resumes and acting reels, narrowing the field to about 200 for the second round.

Simon was aware that this process might disqualify many potentially qualified actors and even allow some casting directors to sneak in their preferences. But that's how the world works—if you're disqualified despite meeting the conditions, it's just bad luck. If you don't meet the conditions but make it to the second round through connections, that's also a form of strength.

Fairness is something to dream about, not expect in reality.

Meanwhile, Simon and Amy spent the afternoon in Culver City.

Located east of Beverly City and north of Santa Monica, Culver City isn't as prominent as Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, or Burbank in the greater Los Angeles area. Simon's visit was mainly due to the historic MGM Studios located in downtown Culver City.

After transforming MGM into a hotel company, casino magnate Kirk Kerkorian sold the over half-century-old MGM Studios to Lorimar-Telepictures, a TV production company.

In recent years, with the influx of entertainment capital, Lorimar also expanded aggressively.

With the stock market crash and the current Hollywood strike, Lorimar, unlike New World Entertainment with a more diverse business, inevitably faced difficulties. Without information from others in his previous life, Simon might not have even heard of Lorimar.

Now, Lorimar was seeking to sell its assets to avoid bankruptcy.

The historic MGM Studios was undoubtedly Lorimar's most valuable property. After spending half a day touring the 20-hectare MGM Studios, Simon and Amy left. Facing Amy's inquiring look, Simon shook his head in regret.

Lorimar's asking price for MGM Studios wasn't expensive, $100 million.

However, Simon found most of the studios and buildings within were dilapidated. Daenerys Studios would need to spend another $100 million on renovations if it purchased the property. Moreover, despite its history, MGM Studios' location didn't satisfy Simon.

MGM Studios was relatively close to Beverly Hills but far from Malibu, about 30-40 kilometers away. Simon planned to live in Malibu. If he bought MGM Studios, he would spend at least two to three hours commuting daily.

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