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Many people know that these five youths are Matthew Broderick's best friends.In connection with the recent series of events, it is not difficult for everyone to deduce the truth of some facts.

When Jonathan Friedman came to visit Simon in the hospital, he even chatted with him about it.

It is said that Norman Broca also issued a not-so-formal gag order, but it was completely unable to prevent the spread of various speculations.At the same time, the manager's words also subtly persuaded Simon not to pursue it any further.

Now that the decision has been made, Simon will naturally not regret it.

Although the doctor hoped that Simon could be observed in the hospital for at least a week, however, since he was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday night, Simon only stayed until the weekend and was discharged from the hospital.

In the new week, there is also the first production meeting of "The Butterfly Effect", and it is also related to the revision of the script. On the day when David Giller visited him, Simon said that he did not need to specially adjust the time for him, and he would be on time when the time came turn up.

Chapter 035 Rating Questions

Before you know it, the time has come to the end of July.

Today is Monday, June 7th.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Simon arrived on time at Fox Studios in Century City, Beverly Hills.

Since the injury on his body has not fully recovered, Simon did not ride a bike today, but made an appointment for a rental.

When he arrived at Fox Studios, Simon realized that he did not have a pass. The guard looked suspiciously at the young man who claimed to be attending a film production meeting, and after a while agreed to make a phone call for him.

A few minutes later, the assistant of "Butterfly Effect" producer David Giller came to the gate and brought Simon in.

Simon followed the assistant to David Giller's office, and Brian De Palma had arrived early, which made Simon feel a little embarrassed.However, David Giller and Brian De Palma didn't care too much, and asked with concern about Simon's recovery from his injury.

After a short greeting, Peter Saunders, a vice president of Fox Films, and Vincent Hill, another professional script analyst under Fox, also arrived one after another, and today's meeting officially started.

In a small conference room in the administration building of Fox Studios, David Giller, Brian De Palma, Simon and two other film creators sat around the conference table. A memo was distributed.

The previous "Butterfly Effect" script has been polished for 7 years and has been perfected.Simon didn't feel that there was much room for modification in the script he produced according to the final theater version of the film.

However, when Simon opened the memo made by the script analyst named Vincent Hill present, he felt that he wanted to get the remaining balance of 6 U.S. dollars. It's not that easy.

Last Thursday, while Simon was still in the hospital, he received the first paycheck of $14 from his contract with Fox.

In the memo in front of me, from the title of the script to the final ending of the story, Vincent Hill has put forward a very detailed evaluation and corresponding revision suggestions.Simon roughly flipped through it and found that there were more than 50 annotations, almost equivalent to a revision every two pages of the script.

Putting down the memo in his hand, Simon looked up at the other people. Except for Vincent Hill, the other three were also reading the memo. David Giller and Peter Sanders kept their expressions on their faces. Ryan De Palma frowned slightly.

As a screenwriter who has just debuted, Simon is very clear that he does not have much say in script revisions.If he wants to get the subsequent final payment of 6 US dollars, he can only honestly modify the script according to the requirements of the film company, or give up this power and let Fox hire other screenwriters.

Thinking of this, Simon turned his attention back to the memo in front of him.

Even without much say, Simon made up his mind to maintain the integrity of the script as much as possible.

A moment later, Brian De Palma spoke first, with obvious dissatisfaction in his tone, and asked Fox Vice President Peter Sanders directly: "Peter, you want to make this film PG 13?" level, right?"

Hearing Brian De Palma speak, Simon raised his head again.

After carefully reading the memo in his hand, Simon also discovered Fox's intentions.

In the first version of the "Butterfly Effect" script, because there are too many heavy-tasting adult elements, the tone of the film is also gloomy, and it will easily be rated as R in the future.This means that teenagers under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult to watch, which in fact means that a large part of the teenage audience is blocked from the theater.

At this point, based on the recommendations in the memo in his hand, Simon realized that Fox clearly wanted to overturn most of the plots that might affect the movie's rating.

As the world's largest film market, the United States has long adopted a mature film rating system.

According to the regulations of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), cinema films in North America are divided into five grades: G, PG, PG 13, R and NC 17.Among them, the G level is the most relaxed public level, which means that all ages can watch it. NC 17 is the most restrictive category, and teenagers under 17 are prohibited from watching it.For the other three classifications, the closer to NC 17, the narrower the audience.

From a purely commercial point of view, Fox's behavior is actually understandable.

If the film can be adjusted from the R rating to the PG 13 rating that requires parents to watch it under the age of 13, then the market audience of the film will be greatly expanded in the future.

However, from the perspective of the "Butterfly Effect" story itself, it seems very unwise for Fox to do so.

"Brian, you have to know that the investment for this movie is 1000 million dollars," Peter Saunders replied without changing his expression when he heard Brian De Palma's questioning: "So, we have to do it for you." The commercial prospects of the film are considered."

Brian De Palma shook his head and said: "In my opinion, the script of "Butterfly Effect" is quite perfect. If you do this, it will only destroy the overall structure of the script. Moreover, starting from "The Witch Carrie" , the films I direct have always been R-rated. As long as it is a good film, it will get enough commercial returns, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with it.”

"Since Simon can write a perfect script, he can also rework a more perfect script according to our requirements," Peter Saunders responded to Brian De Palma, but he followed the trend Turning to Simon, he said quite familiarly, "So, Simon, do you have the confidence?"

Although Peter Sanders' tone was very gentle, with elder-like encouragement, Simon clearly felt that the other party's words were somewhat aimed at him.

Even though he knew that he didn't have much say in this matter, Simon didn't intend to be a respondent. Feeling the other party's faint targeting, Simon was a little rude and said: "Mr. Sanders, with all due respect, "Butterfly "Effect" itself is already a very strict story script that is interlocking, like a big net, and any thread in it may affect the overall situation. If you modify it according to the requirements of this memorandum, the final result is likely to be It's a whole other story. So, if Fox wants a PG 13 movie, maybe I can rewrite the script."

Peter Saunders didn't expect Simon to speak so sharply when he opened his mouth. Remembering that the young man had just broken five young leg bones last week, he subconsciously suppressed the rebuttal he wanted to blurt out, raised his eyebrows, and turned to David Giller: "David, what do you mean?"

David Giller had a half-smile expression on his face, raised the memo in his hand, and said, "Peter, the result of my communication with Ronald last week was not like this. Speaking of grading, Fox this summer The two films that were released, "Space Station" in early June, PG-rated, with a budget of 6 million US dollars, only got a poor box office of 1800 million US dollars in the end. Last month's "Alien 900", R-rated, similar 2 million US dollar budget, it has only been released for two weeks, and the box office has reached 1850 million US dollars, so I don't see any problem with "The Butterfly Effect" being rated R in the future. If you insist on proceeding with today's meeting according to this memo, I only Could choose to cancel today's meeting and go back and talk to Ronald."

Chapter 036 Missing a Zero

Looking at the situation in front of him, Simon wondered why the first production meeting of "Butterfly Effect" fell into such an embarrassing situation of tit-for-tat.

However, considering the attitudes of David Giller and Brian De Palma, Simon is not too worried about the progress of the matter. These two Hollywood big shots who also have the right to speak obviously have the same feelings as himself. position.

After confirming this, Simon felt relieved, and couldn't help but secretly began to analyze the situation in front of him.

Hollywood also has a very complex power structure.But under normal circumstances, it is actually very simple to determine the authority of a person in Hollywood. You only need to look at his affiliation, that is, to which class in Hollywood this person is responsible.

From what David Giller said just now, Simon realized that the other party should be directly responsible to Ronald Goldberg, the president of Fox Films, and not under the control of Peter Sanders, the vice president of Fox in front of him. Can be described as equal.

Even, from the imposing manner when the two communicated, Simon also noticed that David Giller clearly had the upper hand.

Since he was going to cooperate on the "Butterfly Effect" project, Simon naturally did some homework in advance.

David Giller, who is in his 50s this year, is the producer of Fox's "Alien 2", which Simon knows very well.Then, combined with the deliberate comparison in David Giller's words just now, Simon realized that Peter Sanders is likely to be related to Fox's "Space Station" project that failed at the box office this summer.

With a budget of 1800 million US dollars and the highest quality schedule in early June, the box office was only in the early 6 million, which is not an ordinary fall.

Things turned out as Simon expected.

Following David Giller's last words, Peter Sanders' complexion suddenly became a little ugly, and the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, before he said: "David, I did this only for the company's 1000 million yuan. Investing in dollars is responsible and has no intention of targeting anyone."

David Giller felt that Peter Sanders' momentum had softened, and he stopped chasing after him, saying: "Of course, this is your responsibility. However, Peter, all you need to ensure is that the movie investment is used It's my job and Brian's job to put it in the right place, rather than dictate what the film is about."

Peter Saunders felt the strength of David Giller's tone that could not be bargained, hesitated for a moment, then shrugged: "Well, I hope you don't mess up this movie."

The seizure of power failed.

Simon secretly made such a conclusion in his heart, glanced at Peter Sanders again, and realized at the same time that this is a guy who is very good at bullying the weak and fearing the wind.

Peter Sanders' attempt to seize the creative leadership of "The Butterfly Effect" was blocked by David Giller, and the ensuing meeting was obviously much more normal.

However, even so, David Giller and Brian De Palma still made a lot of comments on the script revision.

David Giller's opinions mainly focused on the title of the movie and the ending of the story, which is similar to the content of the memo just now.

As a producer who needs to consider the future commercial prospects of the film, David Giller also hopes that the film will have a more popular name.At the same time, David also hopes that Simon can rewrite a more gentle ending, instead of ending with the hero strangling himself in the womb.

This definitely harkens back to the original ending.

Brian De Palma's opinion is that he hopes to compress the protagonist's childhood scenes to less than 20 minutes, so as to avoid this part of the foreshadowing being too lengthy.

Compared with the initial memo, which was almost random, the opinions of the two people at this time were very professional. Although Simon could not fully agree with it, he also responded very seriously.

The three main creators were discussing as if no one was there, but Peter Saunders, who was left alone, did not leave, and still stayed in the conference room, occasionally interjecting a few words.So it was not until lunch time that Peter Sanders got up to leave, and said that he had other work in the afternoon and would not rush over again.

In the internal restaurant of Fox Studios, after several contacts, David Giller and Brian De Palma both had a good impression of Simon, a promising young man. After ordering lunch, David Giller offered to Revealed to Simon some not-so-secret insider information.

It turned out that "Space Station", which failed disastrously at the box office in the summer, was exactly the project that Peter Sanders matched. Fox not only gave the film a high-standard production budget of 1800 million US dollars, but also the best film schedule. Goldberg also named the executive producer himself.

All of this is because of the heroine of "Space Station", named Kate Capshaw, Steven Spielberg's fiancée.

Hearing this, Simon immediately understood what Fox was doing.

In the original time and space, it is no exaggeration to say that in the last 30 years of the twentieth century, Hollywood was almost dominated by Spielberg.

With the great success of "Jaws", "ET", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "Jurassic Park" and other films, Spielberg is completely the existence of Hollywood stars.Although Spielberg belongs to the direct line directors of Warner, Universal, and Paramount, any other company other than these three is also doing everything possible to try to build a relationship with Spielberg.

In addition to the "Space Station" just now, Simon also recently saw on the "Hollywood Reporter" that Disney has just approved an animation and live-action movie in cooperation with Spielberg's Amberlin Pictures, called "Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

In order to become a member of the 'Spielberg camp', Disney's budget for the film was as high as 4500 million US dollars.You know, in the 80s, the budget cost of big-budget Hollywood movies was generally controlled within 2000 million US dollars.Only films related to Spielberg can easily break through this heavy budget limit, and even double the average budget cost several times.

In the restaurant, noticing the faint envy and fascination on Simon's face, the two middle-aged people, both in their 50s and [-]s, smiled at each other.

Every year, countless young people in Hollywood dream of becoming the second Spielberg, but very few of them can achieve something in the end.

But the young man in front of him, who has just entered Hollywood for less than two months, has attracted the attention of many people, coupled with the undoubted talent shown by Simon, David Giller and Brian De Palma They all realize that Simon will definitely be able to make a name for himself in Hollywood in the future.

Therefore, the two Hollywood celebrities who have reached middle age and achieved success at this time, don't mind giving this young man a hand in the slightest.

David Giller inspired Simon's ambition a little, and Brian De Palma, who was also sitting opposite Simon, also asked: "Simon, I heard from Jonathan that you plan to make an experimental film. Tell me? Maybe David and I can give you some advice."

Simon didn't realize that the two middle-aged people in front of him were supporting each other intentionally or unintentionally. Even if he knew, he would only be grateful for the other party's kindness.Having spent more than ten years in a similar circle in his previous life, Simon knows the importance of connections in this circle.

"Actually, I wanted to talk about this in the morning meeting," Simon heard Brian De Palma's question, and took out the script and footage of "Run Lola Run" from the backpack on the chair next to him The drafts were handed over to David Giller and Brian De Palma, saying: "David, and Brian, I don't think we need to change the movie title of "Butterfly Effect". In this incident, due to many media reports, many people have actually noticed the term 'butterfly effect'. Moreover, the experimental film I plan to make called "Run Lola Run" can also be explained very vividly. The concept of 'Butterfly Effect'. At that time, if Fox can provide some media resources to support, through this movie, the concept of 'Butterfly Effect' will be spread more widely. In the end, even if some people do not understand the meaning of this term, As long as the overall popularity of the film is activated, this set of vocabulary can also become a suspense that attracts the audience into the theater."

Although he was aware of Simon's intention to use Fox to help promote his film, however, Simon's remarks on film marketing with unique personal insights still made David Giller, who had just opened the script of "Run Lola Run", nod slightly .Next to David Giller, Brian De Palma was attracted by Simon's highly professional shot drawing.

Seeing that both of them were interested, Simon naturally shifted the topic to "Run Lola Run", and continued: "About "Run Lola Run", this is an experimental film with a parallel three-part structure. The story is very simple , Lola’s boyfriend Manny accidentally lost $10. In order to prevent her boyfriend from being killed by her boss, Lola must raise $20 within 10 minutes and rush to the place where Manny is. However, I want to use the video game According to the video game's rewind setting, Lola made three different attempts in the same scene in order to raise $10 and rush to her boyfriend. The results of these three attempts were different. At the same time, every time Laura runs, it also has a very subtle impact on the lives of some people she meets on the road, and these impacts continue to magnify, eventually leading to completely different life directions for these people, this is the butterfly effect."

The script of "Run Lola Run" is not long. Listening to Simon's commentary, David Giller has quickly read the plot where Lola ran into a woman pushing a stroller at the first intersection.Brian De Palma was attracted by Simon's shot drawing, and he did not ignore Simon's explanation. At this time, he raised his head and asked, "Simon, how do you plan to express this 'butterfly effect'?"

"Photo montage," Simon replied bluntly: "Every time Laura meets a clue character, she can insert a quick photo montage to show the subsequent life direction of these people."

Hearing Simon's explanation, Brian De Palma thought for a moment, his face gradually revealed an expression of appreciation, he couldn't help but raised his hand and tapped lightly on the table, saying: "It's an amazing idea."

Although he had already seen this form of expression in the script in advance, David Giller still nodded in agreement at this time, and praised without hesitation: "It's very good."

Both David Giller and Brian De Palma have been immersed in Hollywood for decades. The longer they spend together, the more they realize how difficult it is to innovate in this circle. .

As Simon continued to explain, the two even faintly felt that Simon's movie, if done well, would definitely become a learning object for many Hollywood filmmakers in the future.

The waiter in the restaurant had already brought the lunch, but the three of them had no intention of eating.

After chatting carefully for more than half an hour, David Giller said: "So, Simon, you mean, you plan to use your "Butterfly Effect" remuneration to complete this movie?"

Simon nodded, "Yes."

David Giller thought for a while, and said: "Your contract remuneration is a total of 20 U.S. dollars. After deducting the broker's commission and withholding tax, there is only 15 U.S. dollars left at most. If it is shot with a 16MM camera, maybe Enough, but it's such a waste of your script, why not make it a standard 35mm film?"

Simon paused, and said, "David, I originally planned to shoot on 35MM film."

David Giller also paused this time, and said: "You mean, $15, shot on 35MM film? Simon, you have to understand that although it seems to be just two shooting modes with different specifications, 16MM film and 35MM film 15MM movies, but they are definitely two completely different production specifications. Your movie also involves a lot of outdoor scenes, without a complete professional crew support, it is very difficult to implement the shooting. Therefore, [-] US dollars, There was simply no way this movie could be done."

Hearing David Giller, a well-known Hollywood producer with decades of production experience, say this, Simon finally confirmed a certain doubt that had been lingering in his heart for a while.

The original version of "Run Lola Run", the production level in all aspects, whether it is the picture, soundtrack, lighting, scenery and even editing, there is no sign of too many low-cost movies.Simon had always thought that this might be due to the genius of director Tom Tykwer.The production cost of the film industry has always been very flexible.

Also, Simon didn't know much about the prevailing norms of German film production.

The 35 Deutsche marks in memory, converted into US dollars, is about 18.Converted into RMB, that is almost 150 million. 150 million RMB, in 1998, was definitely more than enough to make a movie.

However, with the in-depth progress of the preparations for "Run Lola Run" in person these days, Simon also increasingly felt that the funds he had to complete the film seemed a bit stretched, and Simon even began to subconsciously simplify the shooting specifications of some scenes.

Now, with David Giller's point, Simon finally confirmed that he probably misremembered the budget of "Run Lola Run".

Perhaps, in the original time and space, the production cost of "Run Lola Run" was not 35 Deutsche Marks at all, and I should be, missing a zero!

Chapter 037 Cooperation Program

Simon was not distressed or depressed by the sudden confirmation of a fact he had suspected all this time.

In any case, "Run Lola Run" is indeed a very suitable movie for him to show his strength.Even, if I hadn't misremembered the production budget, I might have missed this movie.

Now, since he has gained a firm foothold in Hollywood in less than two months, Simon has enough confidence to continue to push this project forward, nothing more than adding some extra twists and turns.

After more than ten years of experience in the entertainment industry in his previous life, the biggest impression left by Simon is that no big celebrity in this industry has a smooth road to fame.

Now, as a human being in two lives, Simon does not lack the heart to face setbacks.

After making up his mind, Simon looked at David Giller, who was opposite him, and said, "So, David, according to the official 35MM film film specifications, how much budget do you think this film will need?"

David Giller thought for a while, and said: "According to the shooting concept you just described, it should cost at least 50 US dollars. A more detailed budget needs to be counted according to a more specific shooting plan. However, this is not a problem .Simon, the question now is, do you have any previous experience making films? Even student films? By the way, Brian and I don’t even know what college you graduated from?”

Until now, not many people in Hollywood know that Simon is only 18 years old this year.

At the beginning, Jonathan Friedman only occasionally mentioned it to WMA President Norman Broca. Because of a series of events later, Norman Broca disliked Simon very much, but he did not publicize this matter everywhere.

At this time, due to Simon's outstanding talent, David Giler subconsciously felt that Simon was probably in his 20s, and instinctively regarded Simon as a promising high-achieving student who had just graduated from a university.

Hearing David Giller's question, Simon realized something, but he was honest: "David, I studied computer science at Stanford for a while and then dropped out. I have no experience in this field. However, I I also didn’t have any screenwriting experience before.”

"Directors and screenwriters are not the same," David Giller shook his head, and said, "Speaking of which, if you can come up with some personal qualifications that are enough to convince investors, such as a student film, I might be able to help you. To this investment. Unfortunately, you did not. Simon, although this is only a small sum of money, I also need to be responsible for my network."