It was dusk all around before I knew it, and the lights on both sides of the street were on.

Simon looked at the two women in front of him who were stunned and hesitant, and could only remind them in a relaxed tone that it was indeed time to go back. Malibu, which is far away in the western suburbs of Los Angeles, is still far away from Burbank. Finally, he suggested that Catherine should drive, and Jenny

Johnston driving in high heels is too dangerous.

Seeing that Simon was normal and showed no signs of illness, Catherine felt relieved, but she felt inexplicably reluctant to explore Simon's past.

Glancing at her friend beside her who was still rolling her eyes but finally stopped, Catherine felt a little funny again.

I've kept you up all day, and you've finally been cured.

A female hooligan pretending to be crazy meets a real lunatic from a mental hospital, ugh.

After stuffing her friend into the passenger seat, Catherine also got into the car. After hesitating for a moment, the woman told Simon, who was standing outside the window, to contact her if he had any difficulties before starting the car.

Turning the car around at an intersection not far away, Catherine finally nodded to the big boy on the side of the road, slowly stepped on the accelerator, and the burgundy Ford sedan gradually merged into the city traffic at dusk.

Watching the two women's cars drive away, Simon picked up the backpack on his shoulders and turned to leave.

Simon bought a map of Los Angeles city from a nearby store, sat down at an outdoor seat at a street fast food restaurant, ordered the cheapest dinner, and started to look at the map.

Because he inherited the memories of twelve other people, Simon discovered that not only those professional skills, but also about Hollywood, or the entire Los Angeles, from human geography to entertainment gossip, all kinds of information for decades, Simon was simply

It's all clear in my heart.

It seems that I still have the potential to be a paparazzi.

Thinking so amusingly, Simon easily found the location of the WMA headquarters on the map.

Camino Street is located not far from the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, the busiest streets in Beverly Hills. Nearby is Century City Park, where media companies gather, and the 20th Century Fox studio is located there.

, WMA’s rival C+ headquarters is also not far away.

After marking the location of the WMA headquarters, Simon found the address of the Writers Guild of America's headquarters and circled it as well.

The waiter brought the dinner, Simon filled his stomach, paid the bill and walked out of the restaurant.

Then I started to worry about how to leave Burbank.

In the 1980s, Los Angeles had neither buses nor subways. Taxis were also very few and needed to be booked by phone.

After wandering the streets for more than half an hour with a sense of luck, Simon finally failed to find a taxi willing to take him. Simon realized that he had underestimated the lack of public transportation in Los Angeles, and regretted not having the nerve to ask Catherine to give him a ride.

.

We had no choice but to stay in a hotel in Burbank.

Early the next morning, with the help of the hotel owner, Simon booked a taxi over the phone. After some bargaining with the driver who arrived, he finally paid $15 with a tip, and the driver took him to Santa Monica.

West Hollywood on the other side of the mountain.

Standing on the street of Melrose Avenue, although there is still a long way to go from the destination, in order to save money, I can only walk next time. Fortunately, Simon has a whole day. Follow the map and walk along

After walking south on the nearby north-south Fairfax Avenue that intersects Melrose Avenue for more than 20 minutes, we arrived outside the Writers Guild of America (WGA) building.

Naturally, Simon didn't come here to join the Writers Guild. He doesn't have such qualifications yet, but mainly to register the copyright of the script in his backpack.

According to federal copyright law, in theory, a creator automatically obtains copyright after completing a work. However, in reality, once a legal dispute occurs, whether to register the copyright becomes a very critical piece of evidence.

In the United States, there are many ways to register copyright, and there are even some private registration agencies.

The most authoritative of these is naturally the Copyright Office. However, due to the notoriously low work efficiency of U.S. government departments, when submitting registrations to the Copyright Office, creators may have to wait four to six months to obtain a copyright certificate, and the review process is as slow as

Outrageous.

Therefore, in Hollywood, registering copyright through the WGA has become the first choice for most screenwriters.

Prepare the materials and registration fee, and you can basically get the registration certificate on the same day.

Of course, there are also disadvantages to registering with the WGA, that is, it will only save the registered materials for the creator for five to ten years, and renewal is required when it expires. Registration with the Copyright Office is permanent, and you can get more complete protection in the event of legal disputes.

.

After some consideration, Simon chose to submit all two completed scripts for registration.

The registration fee for a single script was US$20, and the cost of two scripts plus material printing once again drained Simon's wallet. After leaving the WGA building, thinking of the afternoon meeting, Simon finished the script for "The Butterfly Effect"

I made a copy and then picked up a digital watch that cost less than 2 US dollars at a roadside stall.

After finishing all this, it was already past noon.

After simply buying a piece of food to fill his stomach, Simon re-checked his wallet. Yesterday's $198 had quickly dropped to less than $97.

A little helpless, but not too panicked.

The worst case scenario would be to live on the streets, and the possibility of starving to death is still very low. At worst, you could find a church to get some free food stamps.

The agreed time was four o'clock in the afternoon. To ensure nothing was missed, Simon arrived near the WMA headquarters half an hour in advance.

The WMA headquarters building on Camino Street is a very modern-looking glass-and-steel structure building. Although the floor is not high, it looks quite impressive compared with other mediocre commercial buildings around it. There is also a small small building in front of the building.

Plaza, these undoubtedly show WMA's outstanding status in Hollywood at this time.

Just before four o'clock, Simon entered the WMA headquarters five minutes early.

I explained my purpose to the company receptionist, who called me. After a while, a white young man who looked less than thirty years old came out. The young man was wearing a professional white shirt and black trousers. He was tall and thin.

Wearing gold-rimmed glasses, his dark brown hair is meticulously styled, and he looks elegant.

The two briefly introduced each other, and Simon knew that the other person's name was Owen Wright and that he was Jonathan Friedman's assistant, and then he followed the other person toward the interior of the building.

Walking through the spacious corridor next to the glass curtain wall, Simon found that the WMA employees around him were either walking in a hurry or frowning, and some had a slightly wary look in their eyes after noticing his unfamiliar face.

Simon was not too surprised by this situation.

According to the information he knew, the WMA was experiencing a very serious turmoil in recent months.

In the first half of this year, WMA Chairman and CEO Maurice Stoller and President Stan Kamen passed away one after another.

The job vacancies caused by the death of two core executives not only caused a power struggle within the company, but also brokerage companies such as C+ and ICM took advantage of the turmoil in WMA to unceremoniously start poaching employees.

Especially after the death of Stan Kamen, the top Hollywood agent's names include A-list stars such as Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, Barbra Streisand, Goldie Hawn, etc., all of whom have switched jobs to C+.

This incident directly damaged the vitality of WMA.

Simon followed Owen Wright to the outside of an office and waited in the lounge for a while. A middle-aged white man with slightly gray hair opened the door and walked in from outside.

The middle-aged man looks to be in his forties or fifties, wearing a gray suit. He is not too tall, about 1.7 meters tall, has a thin build, deep eye sockets, a broad nose, black hair, and a typical Jewish appearance.

In fact, Friedman apparently has a Jewish surname.

"Sorry, I just finished a meeting." Seeing Simon get up, Jonathan Friedman walked straight towards him, looked at Simon lightly with a gentle smile on his face, and stretched out his hand to him politely, saying:

"So, Simon Westeros?"

Simon nodded, shook hands with the other person, and said: "Hello, Mr. Friedman, nice to meet you."

Jonathan Friedman nodded in response, and then made a gesture of invitation.

The two walked into the office next to each other, and the middle-aged man said in a familiar tone: "This is the first time I heard the surname 'Westeros', so I remembered it immediately. Simon, this is your advantage.

In Hollywood, it's not easy to be remembered."

Simon just smiled and said nothing.

Jonathan Friedman motioned for Simon to sit down across from the desk. After he sat down, he relaxed his arms on the table, crossed his fingers casually and looked at the young man opposite.

Height is about 180CM, very standard.

He has an angular face and brown hair. He doesn't have the childishness of a teenage actor and is very photogenic.

Wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, he is simple and plain, but he has a calm confidence that surpasses his peers, which is very attractive to the opposite sex.

The potential embryo of a popular niche.

It has the potential to develop into a Tom Cruise type, and the recent box office hit "Top Gun" has really attracted too much attention.

However, this boy is a screenwriter.

Jonathan Friedman suddenly didn’t have much expectations anymore.

A good screenwriter needs experience. Jonathan Friedman doesn't think that a young man in his twenties can write any outstanding scripts. He even doubts whether this young man understands the formal Hollywood script format.

How to write.

In fact, Jonathan Friedman was not familiar with Catherine.

Apart from the occasional meeting at some Hollywood parties, the most recent interaction between the two was that one of Friedman's clients was vying for the leading role in Katherine's upcoming film.

It is for this reason that Jonathan Friedman only agreed to today's meeting after receiving a recommendation call from Catherine. This was a favor to the beautiful woman who had a certain say in the film's casting.

Jonathan Friedman's original plan was that if the person introduced by Catherine was good, he would casually recommend the person to WMA's literary agency department. After all, even the first-line screenwriters in Hollywood often bring more than 100% of their income to their agents.

It's not as good as a second-tier actor. He has no plan to personally represent a screenwriter. If it doesn't work, the favor is sufficient anyway, so there is nothing wrong with rejecting it directly.

But at this time, seeing Simon himself, Jonathan Friedman already had some thoughts of sending Simon away as soon as possible. He had just been promoted to vice president of WMA this month, and recently the company was in chaos again. At this time

But I am not in the mood to deal with a young man who is so ambitious.

Of course, Jonathan Friedman did not show this mentality. He has always believed that to be an excellent agent, it is necessary to maintain a humble attitude at all times.
Chapter completed!