After dinner, Simon took Janet and rushed back to Palisades.

In the Chevrolet SUV, Neil Bennett, who was the driver, drove the car very smoothly. Simon leaned against the window, thinking seriously about tonight's meeting with Mike Medowa.

Mike Medowa's reaction to Pulp Fiction was more negative than Simon expected, which worried him.

The reason why "Pulp Fiction" achieved such great fame was not only its quality, but also the Weinstein brothers' sparing no effort in public relations operations.

It can be seen from this year's 18 Oscar nominations that Orion's strength in award public relations is no less than that of Miramax later. But if Orion executives express disapproval of "Pulp Fiction", they want them to be like Wayne.

It is obviously unrealistic for the Stein brothers to try their best to win awards for this movie.

What's more, Simon's age is still the biggest variable limiting "Pulp Fiction" from receiving award recognition.

In any case, he is not yet 20 years old.

Speaking of which, Simon actually has no shortage of other options. But according to his previous contract with Orion, this second movie is not worthy of him coming up with some ideas.

In order to promote the release of "Run Lola Run", in the contract signed by Simon and Orion, his basic salary for director and screenwriter combined was only US$500,000.

Although Simon retains the power to renegotiate the sharing terms, in any case, this new film is unlikely to allow him to get too much profit. The next best result may be a sharing terms similar to "Death Comes".

But compared to "Death Is Here", Simon needs to put more energy into the film he directed.

Since he couldn't get enough revenue, Simon decided to choose a film that he was more interested in, and at the same time, it could consolidate the popularity of his stylized director.

The specific sharing contract for "Pulp Fiction" will naturally be discussed by Jonathan and Orion, but then, the negotiation for the sale of the distribution rights of "Lola Run" is also a chore that requires a lot of time.

also.

Whether it's "The Butterfly Effect," "The Last Day Out" or "Pulp Fiction" or "When Harry Met Sally," all of these projects still have a lot of work that needs to be pushed forward as quickly as possible.

Even taking into account the schedules of the three movies "Dead Man", "Pulp Fiction" and "When Harry Met Sally", Simon found that this year's end of the year and next year's Easter are obviously very suitable to at least insert

A movie goes in.

Time is money.

But Simon is either short of money or time.

and.

These are just things related to movies.

The U.S. stock market crashed in the second half of the year. Simon remembers the date very clearly, October 19, Black Monday. If you want to get enough profits from this financial turmoil, in addition to raising large amounts of funds in advance, you must do a lot more.

Preparation work also requires time and energy.

Simon frowned in deep thought all the way, and Janet leaned beside him quietly without interrupting.

Back at the Palisades mansion, it was already nine o'clock in the evening.

Simon entered the villa and saw the phone message reminder light in the living room flashing, so he walked over and pressed play.

Janet also followed closely.

The call is from Amy Pascale.

In her message, Amy expressed her concern about the outcome of Simon's meeting with Wells Fargo executives in the afternoon, and then talked about another thing: a vice president of Mattel contacted her today, hoping to discuss "Lola Run"

》Problems in the development of toy peripherals.

Mattel is one of the world's largest toy designers, manufacturers and sellers, and its flagship product is various types of Barbie dolls.

After hearing Amy's message, Simon immediately became energetic again.

Around.

A peripheral film that is almost certain to be the annual box office champion in North America.

This is definitely another huge gain.

Simon personally designed the wall clock, ring and other small props in "Lola Run" with this idea in mind. Since most of the props and even Lola's own image are original, according to the copyright law, creation is income.

The copyrights of these props and characters belong to Daenerys Films.

There are so many things going on these days, Simon simply doesn't have the energy to take care of them.

Now.

Someone else came to your door.

Naturally, you can’t miss it, and you need to plan it carefully.

After standing by the phone and doing some quick calculations, Simon turned around and was about to go to the study when he found Janet standing behind him. Because Simon suddenly turned around without warning, the woman was obviously startled and her eyes widened.

big.

Seeing Janet's appearance, Simon smiled apologetically, reached out to hold the woman's delicate face, kissed her, and said: "Baby, you go take a shower first, I have some things to do."

Throughout the whole day today, or in all the recent days, Janet has been thinking about something as she watched Simon being so busy that he couldn't even touch the ground.

at this time.

Seeing Simon walking hurriedly upstairs, Janet followed suit.

When she came to the bedroom, Janet took off her evening dress and took a bath absentmindedly. However, she did not wear the silk bathrobe she usually liked, but put on a slightly OL-style women's shirt and white

trousers.

After standing in front of the dressing mirror and looking at it, Janet came to Simon's study.

Different from the large study downstairs where I met with Wells Fargo Senior Vice President Paul Olson in the afternoon, this is another small study in the mansion, located next to the bedroom on the second floor, making it very private.

Janet rarely comes here on weekdays.

Because she always felt that many of Simon's secrets might be hidden in this study. Although she was very curious about everything about her boyfriend, he did not take the initiative to tell her, and Janet never deliberately explored it.

The study door is not closed.

Janet knocked on the door panel and walked in.

Simon was standing next to a wall with a white writing board in the study room, holding a water-based pen in one hand and a microphone in the other, talking to the other side.

A large list of nouns has accumulated on the writing board.

Original soundtrack, poster album, video games, character dolls, butterfly wall clock, T-shirts, rings, magazines, image licensing...

These are obviously developable peripheral options for "Lola Run".

Below the slightly scattered nouns, there are several names and some contact numbers.

Seeing that Simon was busy discussing with the person opposite, Janet just nodded towards her and made a casual movement. Then she walked to the bookshelf on the other side and scanned the entire row of folders casually.

Take down a blue folder and open it.

This is a stack of newspaper clippings.

Each page of the hand-bound 16-page draft paper has a tofu-sized piece of newspaper news attached to it.

The news on the first page comes from the Los Angeles Times, and the headline is ‘New World Pictures acquires Marvel Entertainment’.

I read the content curiously.

"New World Pictures officially reached an acquisition agreement with Marvel Entertainment on Thursday. A spokesperson claimed that the move is aimed at expanding the company's comic publishing and TV animation businesses."

"Marvel Entertainment is one of the largest comic book production companies in North America. The company's assets include Marvel Comics in New York, Marvel Comics and Marvel Productions in the United Kingdom, and animation studios in San Fernando Valley, California. It owns Spider-Man

, Hulk, X-Men and other popular superhero characters among comic fans."

"In 1985, Marvel Entertainment's annual revenue was US$72 million, with a profit of US$5.1 million."

"Previously, Marvel Entertainment Group's parent company Candace Industrial Holdings Group officially entered bankruptcy liquidation procedures. The two parties did not disclose the detailed terms of the transaction, but industry rumors indicate that Marvel Entertainment Group's selling price is roughly US$40 million to US$50 million.

between."

"The transaction is expected to be fully completed by the end of the year."

After knowing each other for more than half a year, Janet had never seen Simon reading comics, and she didn't know why the little man would be interested in such a piece of news.

I tilted my head and read the news carefully again, but still had no clue. Except for a string of handwritten dates of 'November 21, 1986' in the blank space of the page, there was nothing else.

So I had to turn back.

Most of the following pages are still just simple news with simple dates and few annotations.

After flipping through more than half of the page, another newspaper clipping caught Janet's attention.

This is the list of films nominated for the 59th Oscars announced in late December last year.

However, only a small piece of the clipping was retained. The nominations for the three Best Animated Short Films. A red oil-based pen drew a circle on one of the short films called "Naughty Jumping Lantern". Next to it was the usual '1986'.

"December 20, 2019" was marked with the word: Pixar.

Pixar.

Janet remembered this time that the animation in the opening sequence of "Run Lola Run" was made by this animation studio. It seemed to be a rare 3D animation studio.

Marvel comics, 3D animation.

Ah.

Is the little boy interested in cartoons?

Thinking in her mind, Janet turned over another page of newspaper clippings.
To be continued...