Chapter 85

"Lola Run" is a blessing in disguise. In many people's eyes, it is almost the North American box office champion in 1987.

However.

Simon, however, found that he was more and more inclined to be a poor man.

During this period of time, renting a mansion, hiring pat Kingsley, signing Amy Pascal, maintaining danielis film, and even dealing with the public opinion storm all cost a lot of money.

Now, not to mention Simon's own pocket, even Janet's purse is gone. More than $50000 saved by shooting "Lola Run" has been consumed in all kinds of expenses.

On the other hand, although it is expected to have tens of millions of dollars in revenue, the North American box office share of "Lola Run" can only be settled after the film is released, and the distribution rights of other channels still in hand do not know when they will be realized.

So.

Simon still has a lot of bills on him.

The rent of the luxury house, Kingsley's Commission and Amy's basic salary are all owed. Even Amy's money to hire an assistant for her is out of her own pocket for the time being, and the woman has a lot to blame Simon for it.

Now, it's urgent for Simon to get a sum of money as soon as possible.

In fact, Simon told Janet last month to take the release contract of "Lola Run" between Denise pictures and Orion to the bank for mortgage evaluation.

However, compared with the $100000 loan he borrowed from Wells Fargo under the "Butterfly Effect" script contract, Simon applied for tens of millions of dollars this time, so it is impossible to achieve it overnight.

It took a full month just to review all aspects of the materials in the early stage. Then Simon encountered this storm of public opinion. Considering the risks, several banks simply refused Simon's loan application.

In the end, it was Wells Fargo that stayed.

Los Angeles.

Inside the cliff mansion in palisade.

After evaluation, Wells Fargo finally offered a loan line of only $20 million, which was $10 million lower than Simon's expected contract share.

However, it is obvious that $20 million is not a small amount.

Due to the huge amount of loans, Wells Fargo sent a senior vice president named Paul Olsen to personally conduct the most critical customer visit process in loan review with Simon and Janet.

Paul Olsen is about forty years old, with brown hair, square face and a gentle appearance. Although he is a very talkative person in private, he immediately becomes meticulous and even a bit old-fashioned when he officially starts to work.

At this point.

In the study of the mansion, three people are sitting on the sofa in the reception area.

Paul Olson, holding a folder in his hand, asked all the questions in the routine list word by word. As soon as the conversation turned, he looked closely at Simon and Janet and said again, "Mr. westrow, Miss Johnston, I must ask you to confirm again that the loan you applied for is for personal consumption only and will never be used for illegal operations such as film investment , right? "

The third time.

Simon murmured in his heart, but nodded without hesitation and said, "yes."

Janet echoed the response.

"Well, again, Mr. westlow and miss Johnston, we'll keep track of their loan flows on a regular basis. Wells Fargo has the right to withdraw the loan in advance once it is found that the two people have used the loan to invest in movies and other illegal activities. What's more, their credit records will also be seriously affected. "

Simon and Janet both nodded mechanically with stiff smiles on their faces.

"In that case," Paul Olsen finally closed the folder in his hand, gave a smile, got up and said, "I'm glad to meet you. I hope we can work together happily."

Simon and Janet finally relaxed and got up to shake hands with Paul Olsen.

Seeing Paul Olsen off, Simon goes back to the living room of the villa and lies down on the sofa. Janet comes to Simon with a look of exhaustion and her soft body is all over him.

Simon put his arms around the woman's waist, looked at the ceiling and sighed, "I've got the money at last."

Janet replied feebly, "yes."

Simon withdraws the money in advance, and his ultimate goal is to invest in stock index futures in the second half of the year, but this kind of thing can't be said.

People with a little common sense know that banks will not provide loans to borrowers with such intentions, even if they have collateral.

However, for a loan application of up to 20 million US dollars, there must always be a legitimate loan demand.

After some consultation, they filled in "personal consumption" in the loan demand column of their original application, and the repayment period was one year.

Many Hollywood stars often apply for huge loans from banks for the purpose of consumption.Because personal consumption is usually to buy luxury houses, cars and other physical objects, even if the borrower is unable to repay the loan for some reason, the bank can also recover this part of the assets to make up for the loss. Therefore, this is a very legitimate reason for borrowing.

However, Simon's and Simon's applications have been questioned by Wells Fargo.

The main reason is that the amount is too large.

Even if Simon and Janet are very spendthrift, 20 million dollars is definitely not a small sum of money that can be easily spent.

They even made up an excuse to buy a private plane, but still failed to make Wells Fargo fully accept it.

Private airplanes can be purchased by stages. When the rich buy private airplanes, they usually choose to buy them by stages, which also doesn't cost so much money.

Given Simon's identity, it's easy for Wells Fargo to think that he's more likely to want to use the money to invest in movies.

The risk of film investment is no less than that of stock and futures.

Normally, banks will not approve this type of loan.

Of course, it's not absolute. After Orion was founded, Mike medova and others directly obtained a $200 million credit line from a bank in New York.

However, although "Lola Run" box office boom, but because only one box office success of the film, Simon obviously can not enjoy Orion's original treatment.

So there was Paul Olson's process of repeatedly reminding or warning Simon.

If Wells Fargo knew Simon's real intention, it might not even have today's conversation.

What's more, in the future, it will be a big trouble to be found out carelessly in the process of operation.

Anyway.

I can't manage that much for the time being.

In fact, the loan is like this. It is the ability to borrow. There are not many people who are completely honest after they get the money.

Otherwise, banks would not have so many bad debts.

He relaxed and took a deep breath. Thinking that the money would not be available until next week at the earliest, Simon was still worried. He held Janet's arm tightly and said, "honey, there's still no money now. How about we save a little and eat only two meals a day?"

Janet rubbed her face against Simon's chest and said, "I'm afraid I'm hungry. Have three meals. You can have one."

Simon nodded, "well, I understand."

"What?"

"You can count one meal, so there are two."

"Well, I'll call Kate, too."

"Well?"

"She counted one meal, so it would be three more."

"Good federal girlfriend, come on, I'll kiss you."

"Bah, little bastard."

After a few laughs, they are quiet again.

Simon began to sort out all kinds of recent events again. The most amazing thing in his heart was where the ABC video came from.

Looking back on the day, Simon still can't remember who recorded the video.

In addition, he made several phone calls and went to ABC headquarters to inquire during his stay in New York. Similarly, he didn't get an answer. ABC's response was that the video provider asked to keep the source secret, and I don't know why.

Today is Tuesday, March 24.

The storm dissipated.

Yesterday, Simon finally signed a contract with Fox on "death is coming".

Fox's budget for the film will also arrive next week, and it is not a one-time payment. With a total budget of 8 million US dollars, the first one is only 500000 US dollars, which is used for the work of casting and landscape selection in the early stage of the project.

In addition, Orion pictures has begun to talk about Simon's next film, and needs to start recently.

These two projects are well-established,

the last movie in Simon's plan, Nora Efron's when Harry meets Sally, is still in the air.

In fact, Simon hasn't completely won the play.

Although due to the failure of the last "heartfire" and the rather different story structure of "when Harry meets Sally", no film company is interested in this play for the time being. But during the initial contact, Nora Efron said that if danielis pictures wanted to buy the script, it would have to come up with a feasible production plan.

Obviously, Nora Efron is worried that danelis pictures is just a shell, and has no production ability at all, but wants to hoard her own scripts.

In fact, it's very common for Hollywood to hoard scripts. Film companies often buy exclusive rights to scripts for several years. If the project is put into production during the contract period, the writer's follow-up remuneration will be paid. If the project still does not start after the expiration, the script copyright will automatically return to the writer.

The box office of when Harry meets Sally is even the most box office guaranteed of Simon's three films in his initial plan. His original consideration was that if he could not find an investor, he would simply invest in the film himself.But now.

If you want the film to be released next summer, then the project must start immediately.

Therefore, all the problems return to a starting point.

Money!

Nothing can be done without money.

Moreover, it is estimated that the investment for when Harry meets Sally may be the highest of the three films in the plan, even up to $15 million.

To be fair, Simon really doesn't want to invest in the film himself.

Although the expected income of "Lola Run" is quite a lot, he hopes to put the money into other goals with greater value-added potential.

After thinking for a long time, Simon patted Janet and said, "get up, wait for dinner with medova. Are you going?"

Janet gave a little, uh, a nod.

Now that the North American box office potential of "Lola Run" has been determined, other distribution channels of the film have to be put on the agenda. Now that the North American cinema distribution contract was signed with Orion, Orion naturally enjoyed the priority of the remaining distribution rights of the film through various channels.

Simon's plan is to sell off all other issuance rights at one time, so that he can get a sum of money as soon as possible for the operation of stock index futures and other investments in the second half of the year.

However, with the box office scale of "Lola Run" in North America, the film's overseas distribution rights, video distribution rights and subsequent television broadcasting rights, the profit scale is at least twice that of the box office in North America.

Simon doesn't know about the share agreements signed by Orion with other cinemas, but even if the average share is only 5 / 5, the total share expected from "Lola Run" to Orion and Denise pictures will reach 100 million US dollars.

This $100 million is almost a net profit relative to the negligible production and publicity investment.

With this reference, the profit scale of the remaining distribution channels is at least about $200 million.

According to the North American box office profit distribution rules, "Lola Run" other channels of distribution, Simon may be able to shout out 60 million U.S. dollars.

Even if it's a huge sum of money for the big seven, Orion film can't afford it.

Therefore, for the remaining distribution channels, Simon wants to complete the selling out operation in a short time, or can only sell them separately.

However, due to contractual restrictions, Simon must obtain the consent of Orion before doing so.