In the new week, as TV series this fall will generally not be broadcast until October, several reality shows from Daenerys Entertainment continue to dominate the ratings.

The three episodes of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" are a complete G-level reality show of all ages, from the elderly to the children. The highest number of viewers in the second episode of "Survivor" on Monday and 8 o'clock directly hit a high of 25.65 million, almost locking in the ratings of this autumn episode. The only regret of this TV show is that it only has 13 episodes. The ratings of "Big Brother" and "Beverly Wife" that are squeezed into Wednesday episodes have also increased steadily due to lack of competitors.

Finally, CBS previously attempted to put aside the game level-breaking reality show produced by Daenerys Entertainment alone, which also started airing this week, and achieved a good result of an average viewership of 13.6 million viewers in the first episode. Although it is not outstanding, this made the other three TV networks that generally maintain a conservative attitude towards reality shows regret it.

It is obvious that major TV networks will definitely invest their own exclusive reality show in the next few years. Once there are hits in this, Daenerys Entertainment will definitely not be able to maintain its current initiative and profits.

However, Simon is not too worried about this. In my memory, reality shows have been developing for more than 20 years, and there are only a few that have truly reached the phenomenon level. The ratings of the two once popular reality shows, "Who Will Be a Millionaire" and "Survivor", far away from "Big Brother" and "Beverly Wife", are enough to prove that it is definitely not that easy to create a hit.

After careful revisions over two days on weekends and subsequent weekdays, Daenerys Entertainment resubmitted a revised version of "Scream" to the MPAA's rating committee.

It was already the end of September. The company originally hoped that the movie would be released on the Halloween schedule on October 28, and it had invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the early publicity. However, due to the delay caused by the re-rating, Daenerys Entertainment has not yet signed a formal screening contract with major theaters in North America. Seeing this situation, Simon secretly began to make other preparations.

Santa Monica.

It was already Wednesday, September 28th.

Simon stood in front of the demonstration board and was personally introducing the script overview of the two animated films, Toy Story and The Lion King. At the conference table, in addition to several senior executives of Daenerys Special Effects, including Mark Sylves, there are also two former Pixar executives, Ed Cartermore and John Lasseter, who had just joined the company.

After the call with Jobs on the plane to Australia, James Rebled and Amy Pascal have been cooperating with the integration and acquisition of Pixar in the past month, and it is now completely finalized.

Daenerys Entertainment finally paid $20 million to buy all Pixar's software and hardware departments. Jobs and Pixar's former shareholders gave up their equity. Daenerys Entertainment acquired all ownership of software series such as Randerman, completely making up for the previous shortcomings of Daenerys Special Effects in the technical rendering process.

After completing the acquisition, Simon's first request was to relocate Pixar to Los Angeles as a whole.

Most executives and employees such as Ed Cartermore and John Lasseter agreed, but some people inevitably refused. Alvereign Smith, another technical backbone of Pixar, withdrew from the company. After Simon tried to stay, he let the other party leave. 3D animated film is an important layout for Daenerys Entertainment in the next few years. In order to control it directly as much as possible, he does not intend to keep Pixar in San Francisco like in the original time and space.

Simon originally planned to change Pixar to Daenerys Animation Company directly, but Ed Cartermore, John Lasseter and others all hoped to retain Pixar's name, which didn't matter, so Simon agreed.

The main purpose of this meeting was to discuss the details of porting Pixar software such as Randerman to the professional graphics workstation of Silicon Graphics Company and the plans for two 3D animated movies.

Pixar's original positioning was also a professional graphics workstation, but it cannot be compared with silicon graphics in technology. It only has the advantages of software such as Randerman. In order to integrate Pixar software and Daenerys Special Effects as much as possible to improve efficiency, Simon plans to give up the development of Pixar computers, and Pixar can also focus on software and animation business in the future.

Pixar Computer has not launched a complete finished product, and there is no profit at all, otherwise it would not have been a drag on Jobs. Therefore, Ed Cartermore and others did not oppose Simon's proposal to cancel hardware research and development.

However, after listening to Simon's introduction to the scripts of Toy Story and The Lion King, Ed Cartermoor said: "Simon, with our current technology, it is not difficult to implement the Toy Story plan, but if Lion King wants to vividly show the details of animal movements and hair, the current technology is not yet at this level."

"This is your business," Simon looked at Ed Cartermore, glanced at the others in the conference room and said, "I don't know much about technology, but I understand that the hardware technology now is enough to support you in completing these things. The hardware platform is like a brush. What you have to do is develop software that can achieve special effects, which is equivalent to a brush. In the end, we don't lack animators, so I just look forward to seeing the results I want."

Mark Sylves also said at this time: "Simon, it will take a long time."

Simon turned to Mark and said, "Don't use the description of 'long time'. It's too general. How long do you need to tell me?"

After hearing this, Mark Sylves whispered a few words with Ed Cartermore, and looked up again and said: "It will take at least two years to develop the technology needed for "The Lion King" and complete the effect test, according to the current R&D teams of Daenerys Special Effects and Pixar, and this is still with abundant funds."

"No problem," Simon nodded cheerfully. In two years, it was far below his expectations: "You can recruit some more people appropriately, but be careful of moderation. It is not a good thing for a company to have too large initial development stage. I can guarantee your funds, and then, you will give me the results I want." Simon said, and turned to John Lasseter and said, "John, do you have any problems here?"

The story script of "Toy Story" is the result of Simon's discussion with Lasseter over the past month. When he heard Simon's problem, John Lasseter, who was already confident, said: "I need three years."

It is well known that the 3D animation production cycle is long. Pixar was able to launch an animated film in two years on average in the original time and space, but it was actually the result of several teams working simultaneously. Animated films generally take three or four years or even longer from the script stage to the film. This cannot be promoted by increasing the number of animators. The scale of the animation film crew is too large and will definitely seriously affect the quality of the film.

"So that's the case, today's meeting ends," Simon announced the end of the meeting and told Mark Sylves again: "How is the Batman Cloak Special Effects here? Let's see what the effect is."

When drawing the concept picture of "Batman", Simon discovered that the Batman's cloak in the film was a very troublesome issue. When Bruce Wayne was flying over the eaves and walking around the walls, if the real cloak was completely used, the effect would definitely be terrible. Simon then considered the possibility of the CG cloak and handed it over to Daenerys Special Effects to investigate and attack.

Mark Sylves said confidently: "We just completed a CG shot of Batman's cloak unfolding when he fell from a high altitude. Although it only took 3 seconds, the effect was absolutely amazing. Today I was going to let you see it."

Everyone was talking and getting up, and was about to see the sample of Mark Sylves's words. Simon's female assistant Jennifer answered a call and came over to him whispered to him: "Ms. Pascal's call, she said, the R-level review of "Scream" has been rejected again."

Simon stopped and signaled Mark Sylves and others to take it first, saying, "Are those materials ready?"

Jennifer nodded.

Simon said: "So that's the case, help me have an appointment with MPAA Chairman Jack Valenti, and I'll talk to him tonight or at noon tomorrow."

Overall, the Film Association of America (MPAA) is a trade association organization. It was established in 1922 to represent Hollywood film companies in lobbying for government film-related bills, promoting film and television copyright protection, and formulating film and television content guidelines.

For a long time, MPAA member companies have not been static.

During its founding stage, MPAA members were composed of eight major Hollywood film companies. In the past few years, with the rapid rise of a number of second-tier film companies in Hollywood, several companies such as Orion Pictures and DeLaurentis Entertainment have also joined the MPAA one after another. After several companies such as DeLaurentis Entertainment went bankrupt, they have withdrawn one after another in the past two years. At present, the main members of MPAA are the Traditional Seven and Orion.

In 1966, the MPAA hired Jack Valenti, an assistant to former US President Lyndon Johnson, as chairman of the association. This strong-willed politician stayed in this position for 22 years and will continue. Jack Valenti's greatest contribution after taking office was to abolish the infamous "Hays Code" and re-establish a "voluntary film rating system". Of course, things have developed to the present day, and it is basically difficult for those films that "involuntary" ratings to enter the theater and video markets.

Simon met Jack Valenti, who was 67 years old in Burbank the next day at noon. The headquarters of MPAA is located near the junction of the 101 Expressway and Ventura Avenue, not far from the headquarters of several major studios in Burbank.

The agreed time was 12 noon, Simon arrived fifteen minutes early, and Jack Valenti stepped into the restaurant on the timeline.

"Simon, I've always been looking forward to meeting you. The miracles you have created over the past two years are simply amazing."

Simon shook hands with the serious but very talkative old man in front of him, politely invited the other party to sit down, and said, "Thank you, Jack, I admire everything you have done for Hollywood over the years."

The two of them sat down and ordered two simple lunches.

When the waiter left, Jack Valenti noticed that there was an open folder in front of Simon. Although he knew the young man's intention to invite him, he couldn't help but curiously said, "Simon, what were you just looking at?"

"North America's box office data report in recent weeks," Simon handed over the folder directly, saying: "Starting from September 9 and the summer season ended, from September 9 to September 15, the total box office in North America fell to $29.88 million. From September 16 to September 22, the total box office in a week was $25.67 million. Although the data for the latest week will be released tomorrow, according to the previous weekend box office situation, the total box office in a week from September 23 to September 29 should be only $27 million. In comparison, last year, the only weekly box office in North America fell below $30 million last year."

When Jack Valenti heard Simon say, he glanced at the report on the folder and sighed: "The impact of strike on the industry is too great."

Simon nodded in agreement and said, "I roughly checked the release list for October. If Daenerys Entertainment's "Scream" cannot be released on time on October 28, the entire October schedule will only have 5 films with a scale of more than 500 screens. In the same period last year, this number was 9, which was reduced by almost half."

Jack Valenti did not expect Simon to turn the topic to "Scream", and after careful consideration, he said: "Simon, the rating committee is very strict and fair. Your video should really need to be changed."

"Really?" Simon asked back, raised his hand and pointed to the document in front of Jack Valenti, and said, "Jack, there are two memorandums under the report. One is the modification opinions given by the rating committee to Instinct. It is accurate to cut a certain shot for 2 seconds. However, the modification opinions obtained by Scream are very general, and they just roughly require us to modify some of the film even for more than ten minutes. Is this fair?

Jack Valenti just noticed that there were other documents under the box office report handed over by Simon. At this time, he opened his eyes and closed it again, with a wry smile on his face, and said, "Simon, you must understand that it is useless to find me, and the control of this matter is not in my hands."

Since 1966, Jack Valenti has served as the MPAA chairman for 22 years. He does have a high prestige in the industry, but in the final analysis, he is only an employee of the major Hollywood film company. If it weren't for his actions over the years, Jack Valenti wouldn't have been able to continue to stay in this position.

Therefore, it is obvious that Jack Valenti cannot change the wishes of traditional big film companies to suppress Daenerys Entertainment, a latecomer.

"Of course I understand," Simon nodded, saying, "Jack, I just need you to help me with the message."

Jack Valenti made a gesture to say something.

Simon looked at the document in front of Jack Valenti again and said: "The North American box office has fallen below $30 million for three consecutive weeks. I believe that the same will be true in the future. The box office will shrink throughout the year-end period. This is caused by the previous Hollywood screenwriter strike. Jack, why do you think the screenwriter should strike?"
Chapter completed!