Chapter 005 - Only worth ten minutes

Simon pulled the script of "The Butterfly Effect" out of his backpack and handed it to Jonathan Friedman.

Jonathan Friedman didn't open it, he just glanced at the cover and put the table and continued to look at him with a smile.

In this case, Simon sorted out his thoughts and began to elaborate: "This is a sci-fi suspense thriller. from a very young age, people around Evan often found that he will make some unreasonable and strange actions for no apparent reason. However, afterwards, Evan always claimed that he did not remember anything at all, the doctor classified Evan's condition as intermittent amnesia, and recommended that he write a diary to assist him in treatment."

Speaking up to here Simon noticed that Jonathan's expression had revealed some curiosity so he continued.

The approximate plot idea of "The Butterfly Effect" is that a young man who has the ability to go back in time to the past by reading his diary, so to make up for his regrets, he time and time again try to change his life.

However, every time the protagonist tries to change his past, he found that everything around him did not develop according to his wishes and the situation got even worse.

The biggest feature of "The Butterfly Effect" is its Interlocked rigorous stunning plot, the whole story is like a well-conceived big net.

Therefore, this film is a classic in the hearts of many suspense thriller fans.

In the original time and space, the production company of "The Butterfly Effect" was New Line Cinema. Simon heard that the film had many endings during the editing process, but they chose the darkest and most impactful one in the end. After the protagonist tried again and again but failed, again and again, he returned to his mother's womb and strangled himself with the umbilical cord.

Then the whole story came to an abrupt end.

After Simon finished his briefing, Jonathan Friedman, who had no expectations before, fell silent.

The first part of "Back to the Future" by Robert Zemeckis was just released last year and won the 1985 annual box office.

Therefore, when Jonathan heard that Simon's script has elements of the time travel genre he felt that this story may be a big gold mine for him.

At least for now, such a novel script idea is enough to convince him to recommend Simon to WMA's literary agency.

Hollywood is full of follow-up trends, It's just that Hollywood movies generally have a longer production cycle, so you can't feel that there is a bunch of movies of the same type released at the same time.

Therefore, with "Back to the Future" winning the box office last year, Simon's script, As long as it is a relatively good script, then it can arouse the strong interest of Hollywood film companies.

In addition, such a strangely conceived thriller happens to be the type of project Jonathan is looking for recently.

The key now is, what is the quality of this script in hand?

After all, Hollywood never lacks creativity, what is lacking is just a perfect story script that can be transformed into a wonderful film based on relevant creativity.

Many movies in Hollywood usually undergo a long period of revisions during the script creation stage sometimes even for years, The main reason is that there are too many details that need to be adjusted to get a smooth story.

Quickly thinking about those things in his mind, he looked down at the cover of the script in his hand. Jonathan subconsciously asked a question similar to that of Kathryn yesterday: "Simon, can you explain the meaning of the "The Butterfly Effect" first?"

Simon once again explained the theory of Professor Edward Lorenz of MIT.

After listening to Simon answer, Jonathan asked a question that surprised him: "So, have you been to MIT?"

"No," Simon shook his head, but immediately added: "I entered Stanford last year and got a full scholarship, but I dropped out early because of some changes."

Hearing what he said, Jonathan Friedman's expression changed significantly.

Although Stanford University does not belong to the American Ivy League schools the overall strength of this top school on the west coast of the United States has surpassed most of the Ivy League schools and has its prominent place in the world university rankings.

Being able to enter Stanford University with a full scholarship, even if he dropped out, this qualification alone can make Jonathan evaluate him several grades higher.

Simon also knew in his heart, that he was conducting an interview.

Westerners do not pay attention to humility, the better a person performs during the interview, the more successful he is.

Therefore, Simon didn't hesitate to use his qualifications at this time.

After Simon finished, Jonathan glanced at his watch and hesitated a little bit, and at this time Simon said: "Mr. Friedman, The first ten pages of the script are the outline of the story I made, Maybe you can take a look first, It's more detailed than what I just said."

Jonathan Friedman nodded No longer tangled and Opened the script in front of him.

However, the content on the first page of the script once again surprised him, it was a copyright registration certificate of the Writers Guild of America.

Shaking his head slightly, Jonathan Freedman turned the page over, but his mind completely changed his original perception of Simon. The young man opposite him obviously wasn't naive enough to think that everyone in will respect his rights.

Then he saw the beautiful neat English handwriting, and his evaluation of Simon in his heart improved a lot again.

Hollywood's annual copyright dispute lawsuit may be more than the film it produces. It is also because of helplessness that Simon directly put the copyright certificate on the title page. He wouldn't be naive enough to think that an industry giant like WMA would gobble up someone else's script.

Now Simon cannot withstand such twists and turns, so he simply cut off the possibility of dispute from the source.

As Jonathan Friedman thought, because he inherited the memories of twelve other people, Simon is definitely not the kind of naive person who thinks that the giants in Hollywood are clean.

From the moment he thought of coming to Los Angeles, Simon has begun to carry out very detailed planning.

Despite having a fairly good face, Simon did not intend to take the actor's path. His first stage goal was to become a director, but without any qualifications and connections, this is unlikely to happen in the short term.

So he chose to start from a slightly lower position as a screenwriter.

According to some information in Simon's memory, the number of registered scripts in the two major screenwriter unions on the east and west coasts of America exceeds 60,000 each year, this seems to be a very large number. But in all more than 600.

The success rate of 1% seems to Simon is already very high.

What's more, among the tens of thousands of scripts that appear every year, The mediocre still accounted for the majority after all. But as a traverser, the scripts that Simon can come up with are fine works.

Moreover, during the initial process of selecting the script, Simon carefully weighed various factors.

As a newcomer to Hollywood, if you want to ensure that your script will be sought after by film companies, first, it must be a low-cost production, if Simon now takes out the "Titanic" script, then there is a 99% chance it will be thrown directly into the trash can. Second, the story must be novel enough or at least have some bright spots.

Finally, the script idea must cover the popular elements of some box office blockbusters in recent years.

"The Butterfly Effect" is exactly in line with the above three: low cost, new ideas, have elements of "Back to the Future" the box office champion of last year.

Suddenly a knock from the door come, Jonathan Friedman found that he had unconsciously begun reading the script, the text of the script in the standard Hollywood format appears impeccable, the beautiful handwritten English not only does not have any sense of violation. Instead, it creates a more comfortable reading experience.

Jonathan looked up uncomfortably only to find his assistant standing by the door making a gesture to him, only then did he react.

Looking at his schedule, Jonathan told the assistant: "If Courteney had nothing else, let her wait for a while. The same is true for other appointments, and I will get off work late today."

Hearing what his boss said, Owen, nodded and looked at Simon who was sitting with his back to himself. When he was about to leave Jonathan said: "Also, bring two cups of coffee."

When the door is closed again, Jonathan smiled at Simon. and turned his attention back to the script in front of him.

Simon who was feeling bored casually glanced at his electronic watch.

The time is now 4:13.

In other words, Jonathan should have reserved only 10 minutes for him, if he did not perform well, then he may have been sent away.

For this, Simon didn't have any bad feelings in his heart, if he was in the other party's place, then he will probably do the same thing.

Jonathan still has to follow the rules, he is still an obscure Hollywood rookie, and naturally, he only deserves 10 minutes of his time

The assistant quickly brought the two cups of coffee, Simon took the coffee cup and thanked him, and continued to wait patiently for Jonathan Friedman to finish reading.