After Simon and Semel's lunch, Daenerys Pictures and Warner Bros. quickly began negotiations on specific cooperation matters for "Batman."

Although money cannot ensure the success of a movie, a high budget is obviously easier to produce an excellent movie. Now that Simon has spent 50 million US dollars with an ignorant and fearless upstart temperament, Warner has also made up his mind.

Let Daenerys Pictures test the waters first.

After finishing "Batman", Simon happily accepted the looks of some people looking at fat sheep, and continued to accelerate other things in the plan as a fat sheep.

On the other hand, the Saturday after Simon and Semel agreed on "Batman", the 45th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards ceremony was held at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, and Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" showed no sign of success.

Unsurprisingly, it became the biggest winner of this year's Golden Globe Awards. "Run Lola Run" failed in all five nominations.

Regarding the encounter of "Run Lola Run" at the Golden Globe Awards, the media's reaction ranged from questioning, ridicule, regret, and gloating. However, Simon quickly put the matter aside. The nomination for the Writers Guild of America Award was ignored.

He no longer has high expectations for the Golden Globe Award, and he won't have much regret in the face of this result.

Although "La Run" has the joint efforts of Warner and Orion, in terms of human resources and public relations strength, "La Run" cannot be compared with Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun". Spielberg also did the same this time

Returned empty-handed.

However, the nominations for the 60th Academy Awards, announced immediately after the Golden Globe Awards, once again allowed Simon to see the conservative side of Hollywood.

Many people originally thought that even if "Run Lola Run" failed to win, it would definitely get several heavyweight nominations. However, the result was that "Run Lola Run" only received an insignificant nomination for Best Editing, and nothing else.

After analysis, everyone believes that this is mainly due to Simon's current complicated identity.

If Simon was just a young director who had just emerged in Hollywood, and "Run Lola Run" achieved such dazzling results, the Oscars would never mind supporting the underachievers.

But now, in addition to being a director, Simon is also a super-rich man with a net worth of more than one billion U.S. dollars. The judges may feel that since Simon Westeros has made a huge amount of money in just over a year, he is not suitable to continue his career.

Give him credit immediately.

In any case, no matter what the mentality is, "Run Lola Run" only received a technical nomination for best editing.

Of course, the nominee for this award is still Simon.

In early February, while cooperation negotiations for "Batman" were still continuing, Westeros Company quietly signed another $20 million contract with the British Tolkien Heritage Foundation.

Although the price paid was twice that of the "Lord of the Rings" copyright, Simon actually got more.

In addition to successfully winning "The Silmarillion", Westeros Company also re-signed licensing contracts for several Tolkien works with the Tolkien Heritage Foundation at a cost of US$20 million.

In the 1969 contract, the copyright holder was required to pay the Tolkien Legacy Foundation a 7.5% share of the net profits.

Now, the Westeros Company has paid a one-time payment of 20 million US dollars, and the original sharing clauses of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" have been cancelled. The contract of "The Silmarillion" also does not contain a sharing clause, and Simon will own these three movies.

The copyright of the work lasts until the end of the statutory copyright protection period.

In addition, the new contract also expands the scope of products that Westeros companies can develop and avoids possible disputes in the future.

In Simon's memory, because the 1969 contract did not clearly cover digital game development rights, the Tolkien Heritage Foundation claimed Time Warner's illegal production of the "Lord of the Rings" series of online games for US$80 million. Although the lawsuit between the two parties was private

Reconciliation, but the amount of compensation involved is definitely not something that can be settled with US$20 million.

The administrators of the Tolkien Heritage Foundation may not lack long-term vision, but after Simon increased the copyright transaction price of about US$1 million dozens of times, money has exerted its powerful power.

Perhaps both parties felt that they had taken advantage of the deal. Neither the Tolkien Heritage Foundation nor the Westeros Company publicly disclosed the matter. As for the future, no matter what the outcome, each has already

Buy and leave.

To be fair, Simon himself cannot 100% guarantee that the Tolkien Middle-earth series will achieve the same success as the original time and space, but his chances of winning are definitely much greater.

Negotiations between Daenerys Pictures and Warner Bros. lasted for a month from mid-January to mid-February, and the detailed cooperation plan for "Batman" was finally finalized.

The five-year licensing plan remains unchanged. Daenerys Pictures paid US$2 million for the copyright of "Batman". Compared with the US$200,000 of "Spider-Man", it once again became a fat sheep. The two parties agreed that the first film

The film is invested by Daenerys Pictures, and Warner Bros. Pictures obtains the global distribution rights of the film. If the first film is successful, Warner has up to 50% of the investment rights in the sequel. However, after the sequel project is approved, Warner must

Decide whether to participate in the investment within one month. If it exceeds the time limit, it will be deemed to be automatically abandoned.

Warner's position was very firm when it came to film distribution. Daenerys Pictures ultimately only got the opportunity to renegotiate the distribution commission for the sequel, but did not get the right to independent distribution.

In terms of peripheral products, due to the success of the "Star Wars" series of peripherals, this part of the revenue has become the focus of the two parties' tug-of-war.

The final contract took more than ten pages of ink to confirm various details such as the origin of peripheral products from real people and comics, as well as the first and sequels. The condition negotiated by the two parties was that DC Comics, a subsidiary of Warner Bros., could obtain the live-action "Batman" at one time in the future.

10% of the net profit share of movie-related peripheral products, and the remaining income is determined by the investment shares of both parties.

All in all, this is another cooperation plan that is very unfavorable to Daenerys Pictures like "Rain Man" some time ago.

but.

Winning the copyright to "Batman" is an absolute victory for Simon. Now that he has the copyright, he has no intention of letting it go. As long as he holds on to the copyright of "Batman", he will have the initiative in many things in the future.

It is destined to be on your side.

In order to be more "proactive", one week after Daenerys Pictures officially signed the contract with Warner Bros., Simon once again spent money to buy the copyright of "Superman" from British producer Alexander Salkind.

After acquiring "Superman" and "Batman" and gathering Tolkien's Middle-Earth series, Simon's operation to collect copyrights has also initially come to an end.

Unconsciously in the busyness, time came to the end of February, and a very special day also arrived.

February 22nd.

Simon's 20th birthday.

In a mansion halfway up the hillside of Beverly Hills, this is Sandra Bullock's new home.

After impulsively kissing a guy one night, she had to change her place of residence in the face of the subsequent frantic pursuit of the paparazzi. Too many things had happened in the past six months. After Simon and Janet got back together, and some guilty consciences,

Sandra found herself inevitably estranged from Simon.

but.

Today is his 20th birthday party. For such a legitimate reason, I must go.

It's just that it always feels a little weird.

Thinking about my 20th birthday, I was still in college and had no idea what my future would be like.

His 20th.

well.

Standing so high, no one can touch it, and there is no fear of falling.

Hum hum.

It's already five o'clock in the afternoon.

After putting on a carefully prepared aqua blue evening gown, I just came out of the cloakroom when the doorbell rang and I made an appointment with the makeup artist to come to my door. She arrived just in time.

Assistant Gina ran to open the door, and Sandra held up her skirt and carefully sat down on the sofa in the living room. The TV in the living room had just been turned on, and then she noticed that the CNN host and two other guests were talking about Simon

, the screen behind the few people actually showed the live broadcast outside that guy's Palisades mansion.

Is this too exaggerated?

It was just a birthday party, but CNN was invited and broadcast live.

but.

Considering what he has done from the summer of two years ago to now, CNN's current reaction does not seem too extreme.

Picking up the remote control and turning up the TV volume, Gina brought the makeup artist in. She motioned for the makeup artist to help her with makeup in the living room, but her eyes were fixed on the TV screen, listening to the host and the interview with interest.

Discussion between two guests.

"Yes, Jim, Simon Westeros also reminds me of Howard Hughes, but he is more legendary than Hughes. The first movie produced by Westeros won the North American box office number one, and the global box office was 4

100 million US dollars, which is completely a miracle compared to his age. What is even more amazing is his operation in the stock index futures market last year. In five months, Westeros was completely close to the S&P 500.

He is buying and selling when the index rises and falls, as if he can completely predict the rise and fall of the index."

Another female guest wearing glasses said: "But, Daniel, I think Simon Westeros has completely lost control after the stock market crash last year. Especially in the recent period, his various capital operations have been almost useless.

Zhang Fa got angry with Motorola and sold all the other party's stocks. He tried to acquire New World Entertainment, but after being frustrated, he quickly gave up. As well as Daenerys Pictures, Westeros is completely spending money indiscriminately. We

It is said that the young rich man has already planned eight movies. If you count the recent "Batman" and "Superman", this is ten. I specially collected a film list. According to public information, these movies are basically

There aren’t many good looks, but the budgets are generally higher than the average in Hollywood. Just like that movie “Rain Man,” have you heard about it?”

The male guest named Daniel just nodded and said: "I heard that a movie starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise was said to have been rejected by all major Hollywood film companies, and Daniel

Lis Pictures also seems to have signed a very unequal contract with MGM-United Artists. However, I always feel that Westeros should have other considerations. Who would think that a 20-year-old can earn more than ten dollars?

The young man with a billion-dollar fortune is a fool. Then, don’t doubt it, he himself is the fool.”

"Hey, Daniel, are you talking about me?" the female guest retorted with a smile, "But I do think Simon Westeros' behavior during this period is completely wanton. If this continues, maybe

In a few years, his net worth will shrink significantly."

"This is just your speculation, Katie. When Howard Hughes produced "Hell's Angels," everyone thought he might go bankrupt, but the result was that "Hell's Angels" grossed 8 million U.S. dollars at the box office, 800 in 1930.

Ten thousand US dollars is definitely higher than the box office of "Star Wars" or "ET". Moreover, I think Simon Westeros's personal assets should be mainly concentrated in those technology stocks. Reduce holdings of Motorola

After the stock, based on recent stock prices, Simon Westeros's assets alone are worth more than $1.3 billion."

"There should be more," the host sitting next to him said at this time: "According to the news we have received, after the failure of the acquisition of New World Entertainment, Westeros has recently been absorbing the stocks of some technology companies. For example, Silicon Graphics, it is said that

Simon Westero paid a special visit to the San Francisco-based graphics workstation manufacturer last month. According to the latest filing data, Westero's stake in Silicon Graphics has reached 11%. Oracle also holds shares

The proportion is 9%. Subsequently, the shareholding proportions of several companies such as Microsoft and Intel have increased from the original 5% to more than 7%. Calculated, Simon Westero has at least half of the money he received after cashing out Motorola shares.

Funds have been invested in the stocks of these companies. Many investment institutions on Wall Street have recently begun to follow suit again, once again significantly boosting the technology stock sector. Now, the value of Simon Westero's stock assets should be close to US$1.6 billion.
To be continued...