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The most authoritative of these is naturally the Copyright Office, but due to the well-known ultra-low work efficiency of the US government departments, the creator may have to wait four to six months to obtain the copyright certificate when submitting registration to the Copyright Office, and the review process is slow. Outrageous.

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

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

Of course, there are also disadvantages to registering with WGA, that is, it will only save the registration materials for creators for five to ten years, and renewal fees will be required upon expiration.However, the registration with the Copyright Office is permanent, and more complete protection can be obtained in the event of legal disputes.

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

The registration fee for a single script is $20, and the cost of printing two scripts plus materials once again dried up a lot of Simon's wallet.Leaving the WGA building, thinking about the meeting in the afternoon, Simon made a copy of the script of "Butterfly Effect", and then picked out an electronic watch with a price of less than 2 dollars at a roadside stall.

After all this work, it was past noon.

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

A little helpless, but not too flustered.

The worst thing is to live on the street, and the possibility of starving to death is still very low. At worst, find a church to grab some free food coupons.

The agreed time was four o'clock in the afternoon. In order to make sure nothing went wrong, Simon came to the WMA headquarters half an hour earlier.

The WMA headquarters building on Camino Street is a very modern-looking glass-steel structure building. Although the floor is not high, it looks quite impressive compared with other mediocre commercial buildings around it. There is a small building in front of the building. These squares undoubtedly show the preeminent status of WMA in Hollywood at this time.

Near four o'clock, Simon stepped into the WMA headquarters 5 minutes early.

I explained my purpose of coming to the front desk receptionist of the company, and the other party called.A moment later, a white young man who looked less than 30 years old came out to greet him. The young man was wearing a professional white shirt and black trousers. A gentle look.

The two briefly introduced that Simon knew that the other party's name was Owen Wright, who was Jonathan Friedman's assistant, and then followed the other party to the interior of the building.

Walking through the spacious corridor close to the glass curtain wall, Simon noticed that the surrounding WMA employees were either hurrying or frowning, and some people showed a little vigilance in their eyes after noticing his strange face.

For this situation, Simon was not too surprised.

According to the information he knows, the WMA has been going through 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 vacancies caused by the deaths of the two core executives not only caused power struggles within the company, but brokerage companies such as CAA and ICM even took advantage of the turmoil in WMA, and unceremoniously began to wield their hoes to poach the wall.

Especially after the death of Stan Kamen, the first-line stars such as Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, Barbra Streisand, Goldie Hawn, etc. under the name of this Hollywood gold agent all jumped to CAA, This change directly hurt the vitality of WMA.

Simon followed Owen Wright to an office and waited in the lounge for a while, when a middle-aged white man with slightly gray hair pushed the door and walked in.

The middle-aged man looks about 50 to 1.7 years old, wearing a gray suit, not too tall, in his early [-] meters, thin body, deep eye sockets, wide nose bridge, black hair, typical Jewish appearance.

In fact, Friedman is apparently a Jewish surname.

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

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

Jonathan Friedman nodded in response, then made a please gesture.

The two walked into the next office together, and the middle-aged man said familiarly: "This is the first time I heard the surname 'Westero', so I remembered it immediately. Simon, this is your advantage. Hollywood, it's not easy being remembered."

Simon just smiled and didn't speak.

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

The height is about 180CM, which is very standard.

Angular face, brown hair, without the childishness of teenage actors, very photogenic.

Black T-shirt, jeans, simple and plain clothes, but with a calm and self-confidence that surpasses his peers, which is very attractive to the opposite sex.

The potential embryo of a popular niche.

There's potential to be a Tom Cruise type of thing, and the recent box-office hit Top Gun is getting a lot of attention.

However, the boy is a screenwriter.

Jonathan Friedman immediately didn't have much expectation.

A good screenwriter needs experience. Jonathan Friedman doesn't think that a young man in his 20s can write any outstanding scripts.He even doubted whether the young man understood how to write in the formal Hollywood script format.

In fact, Jonathan Friedman is not familiar with Catherine.

Apart from occasional encounters at some Hollywood parties, the most recent intersection between the two is that one of Friedman's clients is vying for the leading actor in Catherine's upcoming film.

It is for this reason that Jonathan Friedman agreed to today's meeting after receiving Catherine's recommendation call, which is a favor for the beautiful woman who has a certain say in the casting of the film.

Jonathan Friedman's original plan was that if the person introduced by Catherine was not bad, he would recommend him to the literary agency department of WMA.After all, even a first-line screenwriter in Hollywood often does not bring as much income to his agent as a second-line actor. He has no plan to represent a screenwriter himself.If not, anyway, the favor is enough, and there is nothing wrong with directly refusing.

But at this time, seeing Simon himself, Jonathan Friedman already had the idea of ​​sending Simon away as soon as possible.He was just promoted to vice president of WMA this month, and the company has been in a mess recently, so he is not in the mood to deal with a young man who is ambitious.

Of course, Jonathan Friedman did not show this kind of thinking.He has always believed that in order to be an excellent agent, it is inevitable to maintain a humble attitude at all times.

After a brief evaluation in his heart, Jonathan Friedman's tone was still gentle, with some encouragement and expectation, he said: "So, Simon, let's talk about your script first?"

Chapter 005 is only worth 10 minutes

Simon took out the script of "The Butterfly Effect" from his backpack and handed it to Jonathan Friedman.

Jonathan Friedman didn't open it, just glanced at the cover, pressed the script on the table and continued to look at him with a smile on his face.

That being the case, Simon sorted out his thoughts and began to elaborate: "This is a suspenseful thriller with a soft science fiction nature. From a very young age, people around Ivan often found that this child would do some very strange things for no reason. Strange and even weird behavior. However, Ivan always claimed afterwards that he did not remember the situation at all. The doctor classified Ivan's illness as intermittent amnesia and recommended him to use diary writing as an auxiliary treatment. "

When Simon said this, he noticed that Jonathan Friedman had shown a bit of curiosity on his expression, so he continued.

The general plot idea of ​​"The Butterfly Effect" is a story about a young man who has the ability to go back to the past by reading diaries.

It's just that every time the hero tries to change the past, when he returns to the time when he was 20 years old, he finds that everything around him has not developed as he imagined, or even worsened.

The biggest feature of "Butterfly Effect" is its rigorous and interlocking plot that makes people overwhelmed. The whole story is like a well-conceived network, and all the details can find mutual echoing nodes in other places.

Therefore, this film is regarded as a classic in the hearts of many suspense thriller lovers.

In the original time and space, the production company of "Butterfly Effect" was New Line Films, and Simon heard that the film had many endings during the editing process.However, he chose the darkest and most impactful one in the end. After repeated attempts but unsatisfactory results, the hero returned to his mother's womb in despair and strangled himself to death with his own umbilical cord.

Then the whole story came to an abrupt end.

After Simon finished his brief description, Jonathan Friedman, who had no expectations of him, fell silent.

The first film of Robert Zemeckis' "Back to the Future" was released just last year and won the 1985 annual box office championship.

Therefore, Simon's script, which has elements of traveling through time and space similar to "Back to the Future", is far beyond Jonathan Friedman's expectations. He even feels that this story is even better than "Back to the Future" in terms of pure conception. But also excellent.

At least for now, just such a very novel script idea is enough to convince him to recommend Simon to WMA's literary agency department.

You must know that Hollywood is also full of a lot of follow-up phenomena. It is only because of the generally long production cycle of Hollywood movies that people don't feel a certain sense of a bunch of movies of the same type being released in the second half of the year.

Therefore, when "Back to the Future" won the box office title last year, Simon's idea, as long as it is matched with a relatively perfect script, will definitely arouse the strong interest of Hollywood film companies.

In addition, such a strangely conceived thriller happens to be the type of project that Jonathan Friedman is looking for recently.

The key now is, what is the quality of the script in hand?

After all, Hollywood has never lacked creativity. What is lacking is a perfect story script that can be transformed into a wonderful movie based on relevant creativity.

Many Hollywood movies usually go through several years of lengthy revisions during the script creation stage. The main reason is that there are too many details that need to be adjusted between an operable script and the original story idea.

Thinking quickly in his mind, he lowered his head and glanced at the cover of the script in his hand. Jonathan Friedman subconsciously asked a question similar to Catherine's yesterday: "Simon, can you explain the meaning of 'Butterfly Effect' first?"

Simon nodded, and once again explained the theory of Professor Edward Lorenz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After listening, Jonathan Friedman asked a question that surprised him: "So, you went to MIT?"

"No," Simon shook his head, but immediately added: "I entered Stanford last year and received a full scholarship, but I dropped out early due to some accidents."

When Simon said that, Jonathan Friedman's expression obviously changed a little bit.

Although Stanford University does not belong to the Ivy League schools in the United States, in fact, the overall strength of this top university on the west coast of the United States has surpassed most of the members of the alliance schools, and it has its own significant place in the world university rankings.

Simon was able to enter Stanford University on a full scholarship, even though he had dropped out at this time, but this qualification can definitely improve Jonathan Friedman's evaluation of him by several grades.

Simon also knew in his heart that he was actually conducting an interview now.

Westerners don't pay attention to modesty. The better a person performs during the interview, the more success rate can be increased.

Therefore, Simon did not hesitate to use his seniority at this time.

After Simon finished speaking, he saw Jonathan Friedman glance at his watch with a hesitant expression, and said in a timely manner: "Mr. Friedman, the first ten pages of the script are the outline of the story I made. Maybe you can read it first. It's a little more detailed than what I just said."

Jonathan Friedman nodded upon hearing the words, no longer entangled, and readily opened the script in front of him.

However, the content on the first page of the script made him stunned again, but it was a copyright registration certificate from the Writers Guild of America.

Slightly shaking his head and smiling, Jonathan Friedman turned over casually, but completely changed his initial impression of Simon in his heart.The young man on the opposite side is obviously not one of those hot-headed young people who thought they could make it big when they bumped into Hollywood.

Later, Jonathan Friedman was not too surprised when he saw the beautiful and neat English handwriting even though it was a photocopy.Of course, the evaluation of Simon in his heart inevitably improved a lot again.

Hollywood may have more copyright disputes and lawsuits than the movies it produces every year. It is also a helpless move for Simon to directly paste the WGA copyright registration certificate on the title page.He wouldn't be naive enough to think that an industry giant like WMA couldn't make small moves to steal other people's scripts.

The current Simon can't stand this kind of twists and turns, so he simply cut off some possible disputes from the source.

In fact, as Jonathan Friedman thought, although he inherited the memories of twelve other people, Simon is definitely not the kind of young man who thinks he can make a big splash when he steps into Hollywood.

From the initial idea of ​​coming to Los Angeles for a fight, Simon has already started to make very detailed planning.

Although he has a fairly good skin, Simon has no plans to follow the path of an actor.His goal in the first stage is to become a director, but without any qualifications and connections, this is obviously unlikely in the short term.

Then, starting with a screenwriter with a slightly lower threshold is a very good choice.

According to some information in Simon's memory, the two major screenwriters' unions on the east and west coasts of Hollywood register more than 600 scripts each year, which seems to be a very large number.But in Hollywood as a whole, the total number of all theatrical movies, TV movies and direct-to-video low-cost independent movies added up every year, it is still no problem to exceed [-].

A 1% success rate is already very high in Simon's opinion.

What's more, among the tens of thousands of scripts that appear every year, mediocrity still accounts for the majority.But as a time traveler, the scripts that Simon can come up with are basically the best after the big waves wash the sand.

Moreover, in the process of initially selecting the script, Simon also carefully weighed various factors.

As a newcomer to Hollywood, if he wants to ensure that his script is taken by the film company as much as possible, it must first be produced at a low cost. If Simon presents the script of "Titanic" now, there is a 99% chance that it will be accepted. People throw it straight into the trash.Second, the story must be novel enough to catch people's eyes.Finally, the script idea is best to cover the popular elements of some box office blockbusters in recent years.

"The Butterfly Effect" just fully meets the above three requirements: low cost, new ideas, time-traveling elements and following last year's box office champion "Back to the Future".

In the office, as Jonathan Friedman read, the surroundings were quiet for a while.

When the knock on the door came to mind, Jonathan Friedman found himself reading the text of the script unconsciously.The text of the script in the standard Hollywood format is also impeccable. The beautiful handwritten English not only does not have any sense of disobedience, but also makes people have a more comfortable reading experience.

Suddenly interrupted while immersed in reading, Jonathan Friedman raised his head in displeasure, only to realize that his assistant Owen Wright was standing by the door and gestured towards him.

Looking at his schedule, Jonathan Friedman said to his assistant: "If Courteney has nothing else to do, let her wait for a while. The same goes for subsequent appointments. I will leave work later today."

Hearing this, Owen Wright glanced at Simon who was sitting with his back to him in surprise, nodded and was about to leave the office when Jonathan Friedman stopped him again and ordered, "Also, make two cups of coffee and come in .”

After the door closed again, Jonathan Friedman smiled at Simon without explaining anything, but turned his attention to the script in front of him again.

Simon didn't mind either, and casually glanced at the electronic watch on his wrist.

The current time is 4:13.

In other words, Jonathan Friedman should have reserved only 10 minutes of meeting time for himself. If his performance is not satisfactory, he may have been sent away now.

Regarding this point, Simon didn't have any grudges in his heart, and it would probably be the same for himself.

Politeness is a person's self-cultivation, but the work still has to follow the rules.He's still an unknown Hollywood rookie, naturally only worth 10 minutes.

Owen Wright quickly came in with two cups of coffee. Simon took the coffee cup, thanked him, and continued to wait patiently for Jonathan Friedman to read the script.

Chapter 006 I am very curious about your age

After more than 20 minutes, after reading about half of the script, Jonathan Friedman forcibly stopped the idea of ​​continuing to read.With other jobs today, it's not a good time to read scripts.

And, although only halfway through, Jonathan Friedman has already determined that The Butterfly Effect's script is definitely as good as its story ideas.If it can be shot, this will definitely become a very classic film.

Of course, with Jonathan Friedman's professional vision, the shortcomings of this script are also very obvious.

First of all, the name 'butterfly effect' seems too niche.Most ordinary people still can't understand this professional theoretical term that was only proposed in the 70s, which will undoubtedly hinder many people's interest in the film.However, just after Simon explained the meaning of the Butterfly Effect, Jonathan Friedman couldn't find another more appropriate name for a while, so this point can only be put on hold temporarily.

Secondly, the overall style of the story is too dark.Especially at the end of the story, the hero returns to the mother's body and strangles himself with the umbilical cord. Thinking about it carefully, it even makes people feel creepy.

However, the whole script just fit the work style of my client.

In the process of reading just now, Jonathan Friedman was actually still thinking about certain ideas with one mind and two minds.

Due to the internal turmoil of the WMA company, a large number of customers have left, and Jonathan Friedman has also been affected.

The well-known Hollywood director Brian De Palma, who has directed films such as "Carrie" and "Scarface" under his name, was recently invited to move to CAA. According to the information he received, CAA has even prepared a project as a gift.

The reason why Brian De Palma did not leave as quickly and neatly as Al Pacino, Barbra Streisand and others is mainly due to the friendship cultivated over the years of cooperation.