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Courteney said with a slight disapproval in her tone, "He's just a newly promoted vice president. A company like WMA has a lot of vice presidents."

Hearing what Courteney said, Simon just smiled.

Originally planning to drink something first, Simon came to the dance floor, seeing Courteney directly joining the dancing crowd, so he followed.

Courteney is clearly the very typical party girl, stepping onto the dance floor and immediately jazzed up.With an excited expression on her beautiful face, she raised her hands and her body began to sway with the music. A slender waist was looming in the dance, and she looked like a beautiful mermaid under the gorgeous lights.

Simon has always been a person who can adapt to the surrounding environment. Looking at the girl dancing heartily, he quickly let go of his body, and from time to time he can enjoy Courteney's provocative eyes that naturally fly over while dancing.

Beautiful girls are always easy to attract the attention of others, and beautiful girls who dance well and have a hot enough figure are even more eye-catching at this time.

Soon, a tall, thin white boy in a blue shirt came over and swayed beside Courteney, trying to interact with the girl, completely ignoring Simon's presence.It was obviously not the first time for Courteney to face this kind of scene, and she politely smiled at the young man, but she dodged a little to the side.

Seeing Courteney dodging, the young man did not give up and rubbed against her again.

Courtene had no choice but to dodge again, walked around, and glared at Simon who was laughing and watching.

Only then did Simon step forward, standing between the young man and Courteney, thinking that the other party would leave with interest.

However, just as he did this, someone slapped him hard on the shoulder. Before turning his head, Simon heard the boy's loud voice: "Hey, buddy, is this your girl?"

Feeling a merciless slap on the shoulder, Simon frowned, but he also planned to calm down, shaking his head and said to the boy, "No..."

Before he could say the second part of the sentence 'this is my friend', the boy shouted again: "Then don't block others like a mangy dog."

Simon narrowed his eyes when he heard this.Seeing that the other party wanted to push him away roughly after saying this, he raised his hand and punched the other party's face.

Since it was a public place and a guest, Simon didn't actually use his full strength and just wanted to teach the other party a little lesson.

However, the boy might have been drinking, or he was too 'weak'. Simon punched him down, and the boy staggered backwards, and fell to the ground in the crowd.

It was a hormonal dance floor. Seeing someone move their hands, the men and women around them didn't feel flustered at all. Not only did they quickly give way to an open space, but some people started yelling and booing.

The young man sitting on the ground touched his stinging cheekbones, felt the condescending mocking gazes of men and women around him, and suddenly became angry from embarrassment, jumped up and rushed towards Simon.

Simon didn't intend to fight with the other party. He reached out and grabbed the collar of the young man who was rushing towards him, straightened his arms to prevent the other party from bullying him, and persuaded: "Friend, you'd better calm down."

Even if the young man's height was shorter than Simon's, it was almost the same.

However, compared with the strong physique that Simon had built up in the hard days since he was a child, the opponent's thin body was completely powerless in front of Simon. At this time, Simon was holding him with one hand, so he couldn't calm down.Wanting to fight back, he grabbed Simon's collar, but found that his arms were not long enough. He wanted to kick Simon, but was also easily blocked.

Feeling the unceremonious laughter from the people around him, the young man's face flushed, and he was about to yell at him to get back some ground, when an angry voice came from his ear: "Who the hell made you fight here!"

Everyone looked for the source of the sound, and when they saw that it was Matthew Broderick, they immediately fell silent.

Following the commotion here, the music on the dance floor stopped quickly, and the security guards in the bar also appeared around.

Seeing the surroundings quiet down, Simon let go of the young man who was still waving and kicking like a monkey.

The distraught young man was let go by Simon, and originally wanted to fight, but when he noticed Matthew Broderick staring at him, he immediately stopped his movements, but pointed at Simon unceremoniously, and said, "Matthew, It was him, he moved first."

Having said that, the young man quickly walked towards Matthew Broderick, stood beside him familiarly, and stared at Simon with a bit of pretentiousness.

Although he knew that his friend was not a very quiet guy, but because of the one-sided situation in the field just now, and the fact that his friend's villain filed a complaint first, Matthew Broderick naturally regarded Simon as the one who caused the trouble people.

Glancing at Simon in disgust, Matthew Broderick turned to look at Christie Swanson who was about to hide himself, and said, "Christy, is this your friend?"

Christie Swanson stuttered a little, and said in a low voice, "Forget it...well, but I just met this afternoon. Well, he is Curt's friend."

Being watched by everyone around him, Matthew Broderick hesitated for a while, but still felt that he should be more generous, so he said to Simon: "Dude, how about this, you apologize to Mark, this time it's okay gone."

Simon glanced at the young man next to Matthew Broderick who was proudly waiting for his apology, smiled, shrugged and said, "I'd better go."

After saying that, Simon looked at Courteney beside him.

When Courteney saw Simon looking over, her eyes flickered, she opened her mouth, but said nothing.

Simon didn't say anything, turned around and walked out.

Matthew Broderick saw that he had shown enough generosity, but was dumped in the blink of an eye, and his face suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.He stared fiercely at Simon's figure until he disappeared, then suddenly turned to Courteney who was still standing there, and said mercilessly, "You go too, you are not welcome at my party from now on."

Courteney froze for a moment, and looked at Christie for help, but her friend just leaned against the boy beside her, without any intention of speaking for herself, so she had to turn around and squeeze out of the crowd in embarrassment.

Some regretted not going away with Simon just now, and this regret immediately turned into a faint anger.

Damn guy, can you die if you apologize?

Chapter 014 Alienation

Simon left the airship bar and stood on the side of the street looking at the neon lights flickering in the twilight. He didn't feel any loss about Courteney's choice just now.

It is very difficult for a simple girl without a little thought to get mixed up in the Vanity Fair of Hollywood.

Just after nightfall, the streets of Santa Monica are at their busiest time, so there is nothing wrong with walking back to the hotel where we are staying.

However, Simon soon discovered that his backpack was still in Courteney's car.

During this period of time, Simon was basically inseparable from the light gray rucksack, which contained the contract with WMA, several scripts, and the sketches of "Run Lola Run", which was almost all of Simon's possessions at this time.

These things are not worth much to outsiders, but if they are lost, they will be very troublesome.

Simon turned his head to look at the door of the bar again. There was still a long queue, and just as he was thinking about what to do, Courteney's figure also flashed out from the crowd at the door.

Looking at the depressed expression on the girl's face, Simon realized that she must have been driven out by him.

Courteney also saw Simon, but she just gave him an annoyed look and walked straight to the parking lot.

Simon could only keep up, followed Courteney to the parking lot, and then said to the girl who took out the key and opened the door: "I'm so sorry, Curt, I didn't expect this to happen."

"What's the use of telling me you're sorry?"

Courteney glanced at Simon, opened the car door silently, sat on the driver's seat, put her arms on the steering wheel and remained silent for a moment, but couldn't help kicking indiscriminately in the car.

Tonight was already planned. Matthew Broderick's friend was very interesting to Christie, and Christie planned to agree to it, and then took advantage of the opportunity to draw her into Matthew's circle.

Matthew Broderick was originally from an acting family, and the family has deep connections in Hollywood.

With the success of "Skipping School Genius" and "War Games" a few years ago, Matthew Broderick, who has accumulated two blockbuster films, has now become a popular niche in Hollywood. Tom Cruise before Top Gun was on par.

Being able to squeeze into Matthew's circle is even more helpful to his development in Hollywood than an excellent agent.

Now, it's all over.

Perhaps even Christie would have a grudge against her.

Simon didn't know Courteney's plans, even if he knew, he didn't regret the punch he just sent out.He is not a person who can't stand wronged, but he will never give up his dignity without a bottom line to compromise.

Looking at the angry girl in the carriage, Simon waited for a while before pointing to the co-pilot on the other side and said, "Curt, can you pass me my bag?"

Wanted to slam down the guy next to him with his backpack and drive away.

But when she calmed down, Courteney also realized that Simon caused the trouble in order to block the guy who harassed her, and she was only angry because of his attitude of not even lowering her head just a little bit.

So, after hesitating for a while, Courteney said to Simon angrily, "Get in the car, you want to walk back, it's so far away."

It was more than six kilometers from here to the hotel. Simon naturally didn't want to go back. Hearing Courteney's unforgiving but soft tone, he turned to the other side of the car with a smile, opened the door and got on the co-pilot, looking at the girl. Started the car and said, "Don't wait for Christie?"

Courteney turned the steering wheel and drove the car out of the parking lot. Remembering the situation just now, she shook her head and said, "She probably won't be going back tonight."

Simon hummed, and said again: "Then, let's find a restaurant for dinner first, and I'll treat you."

Simon hasn't eaten since the shift in the afternoon, and Courteney should be the same.

Hearing what Simon said, Courtene hesitated again, without looking at the boy beside her, she looked at the road ahead and said, "Simon, I have to declare one thing first, I don't plan to have a boyfriend in recent years, I'm I want to gain a firm foothold in Hollywood before thinking about this kind of thing.”

"I understand," Simon nodded, and made a little joke, "It just so happens that I can pick a cheaper restaurant later, or I'll just stay and wash the dishes."

Feeling Simon's relaxed tone, Courteney was inexplicably disappointed, but she still smiled and agreed as if nothing had happened: "If I knew it, I would have eaten dinner before talking about it. I really want to see the scene where you were detained to wash the dishes." .”

Having said that, Courteney is actually very aware of Simon's financial situation, so she chose a cheap fast food restaurant.

After a simple dinner, Simon just asked Courteney to drop him off near the convenience store where he worked, then sent the girl away, and walked a short distance back to the hotel by himself.

In the days that followed, although Courteney would still appear in the convenience store where Simon worked, the frequency was significantly less. Even Roger Griffin, the owner of the convenience store, felt the estrangement between the two.

In the occasional small talk, Courteney also complained a little that Christie had moved out of the apartment they shared, and she had to find a new roommate to share the rent.

As an inconspicuous little person, Simon's life was not affected by the bar incident last time, and he continued to work step by step, while waiting for news about the script of "Butterfly Effect" from WMA.

After another week, Simon bought a second-hand bicycle at a flea market near Venice Beach for $30, which not only solved the basic travel problems, but also paid for the planned trip. "Run Lola Run" has added an important prop.

Meanwhile, inside the WMA company.

After nearly a month of deliberation and coordination, Jonathan Friedman finally officially introduced the script of "The Butterfly Effect" together with the complete package project carefully planned by WMA to major Hollywood studios.

Since "Butterfly Effect" attracted the attention of the company's executives, including WMA president Norman Broca, this project was no longer delivered step by step to the studio's executives through the traditional selection channels, but through WMA's The internal contacts are directly handed over to the desks of executives above the vice president who have project decision-making power in major studios.

"Butterfly Effect" quickly attracted the attention of the executives of major studios by virtue of its wonderful story conception and perfect film script, coupled with WMA's spare no efforts in packaging and campaigning.

If it were any other time, such a movie script with a wonderful story, a low budget and in line with the hot selling elements in recent years, would have already started quoting, or even bidding with each other, after a week of spreading in Hollywood.

But this time, as WMA wanted to make "The Butterfly Effect" a package project, the reactions of Hollywood studios were mixed.

Chapter 015 Malice

The packaging model pioneered by CAA was first used to promote the TV programs in hand.

In the 70s, the newly established CAA was not only suppressed by its old club WMA, but also had very few artists under its banner.In order to find jobs for clients as soon as possible and avoid the disintegration of the newly established small company, CAA president Michael Ovitz and other talents found another way to gather all suitable artists under their banner through excellent scripts, and then sell them to major TV stations as a whole.

This packaging model, which broke the tradition of first selecting actors and then customizing scripts for them, was unexpectedly successful, and then gradually developed into film production.

In 1982, CAA's movie packaging project "My Fair Man" was a big hit at the box office and achieved No.2 in the North American box office rankings (No.1 was "ET"), completely making the packaging mechanism the core of CAA operating mode.

With the development and growth of CAA, there are more and more top stars under its umbrella, and this agency is also becoming more and more powerful in Hollywood.Not only do they ask for higher and higher remuneration for their stars, but they also bypass Hollywood’s regulations prohibiting brokerage companies from getting involved in the production field by taking commissions from the overall project budget, further pushing up the production costs of film and television programs.

As a result, major Hollywood film and television production companies have also become wary of this project operation model that continuously divides up their original power and interests.

As an established brokerage company that has been established for nearly a hundred years, WMA has realized the threat of CAA's new operating model a few years ago.However, due to the company's deep-rooted conservative style and the lack of coordination and cooperation among internal brokers, WMA did not follow up in time.

It wasn't until the death of two core executives in the first half of the year and the internal turmoil in the company that caused a large number of top stars to leave that WMA woke up like a dream.

Then, Simon's The Butterfly Effect, pushed by Jonathan Friedman, very coincidentally, became the first packaged project WMA presented to a Hollywood studio.

Although a large number of top stars have left in recent months, in fact, the overall scale of WMA is still far greater than that of CAA.

As the fastest-growing Hollywood talent agency in recent years, CAA still only has more than 50 agents under its umbrella, and the number of clients has just reached 600.In comparison, WMA, which has more than 180 agents, has more than 3000 artists.

The packaging mechanism of CAA has already made the studio feel threatened. If the largest talent agency company in Hollywood also turns to this project operation model, it is not difficult to imagine that major film companies will become more and more passive in film and television production in the future. .

Due to this concern, although "The Butterfly Effect" has won the favor of many studio executives, but a week later, it was supposed to be the time for the film company to respond, but the heads of several major studios did not give a clear answer. Reply.

It's already mid-July.

Paramount headquarters in downtown Hollywood on a Tuesday afternoon.

Due to the success of the two films "Top Gun" and "Skipping School Genius" released this summer, Paramount President Sidney Garnis has also seemed high-spirited recently, because the company is now completely swept away. In the past two years, Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and other executives have left the haze one after another.

Affected by the frequent resignations of the company's top executives, Paramount's best-performing film "The Witness" last year had a box office of only 6800 million U.S. dollars. Diller and other high-level executives forced out the stupid move, and predicted that Paramount would never recover.

Now that Paramount is recovering, and the grumpy Martin Davis has stopped staring at the executives like a mule recently, everyone's life will be much easier in the future.

Jonathan Friedman, who came to visit, was warmly welcomed into the office. Sidney Garnis and other secretaries brought coffee to the two, exchanged a few words, and then entered the topic: "Joe, in all fairness, Paramount is very We want the script of "The Butterfly Effect", but it is difficult for us to accept the overall plan offered by WMA."

This is not the first film company that Jonathan Friedman visited today. He just went to Warner Bros. Studios in the morning.Hearing almost similar remarks from Sidney Garnis and Warner Bros. President Ed Morley, Jonathan Friedman has already determined [-]% that several major Hollywood film companies have definitely connected "The Butterfly Effect" in advance.

However, on the surface, Jonathan Friedman still said calmly: "Sid, you should be able to see that this is a very good project, and WMA has also come up with the best creative lineup we can provide."

"No, I don't think so," Sidney Garnis shook his head and said, "Just like Brian De Palma, he has screwed up two big productions with an investment of over ten million in a row. It’s hard to trust him to direct this movie.”

Jonathan Friedman retorted: "Sid, Bryan's last two films did not do well at the box office, but they can't be regarded as screwed up. And, the responsibility for the film's box office failure is not entirely on him. Just like "" Black Street Lucky Star, MGM not only arranged this movie in the unpopular April schedule, but also only gave more than 300 screens. Even so, this movie still got a box office of 850 million US dollars, which is enough to prove that Bu Ryan's strength. And, "The Butterfly Effect" happens to be the type of movie that Brian is best at."

Sidney Garnis took a sip from his coffee cup and shrugged: "Well, even so, the $200 million director's salary offered by WMA is too high, and Paramount can only pay $100 million at most. Also, the screenwriter..."

With that said, Sidney Gannis put down his coffee cup, got up and took a document from his desk, sat back on the sofa in the reception area, handed the document to Jonathan and said, "Simon Westeros, right? This is obviously a newcomer without any qualifications. Therefore, we also cannot accept the script quotation of 20 US dollars, which is too high. The maximum is 10 US dollars, and there are two scripts. 8 US dollars for "Butterfly Effect", 2 US dollars As...well, this, the deposit for the option of "Death Comes". Heh, it took a lot of effort to find out the script of this screenwriter from the screenwriters union. In fact, there is still a script, but the quality is too bad. Can't be considered a story. As for "Reaper", although there is only an outline, but the idea is really good. Also, these are one-time buyout prices, Simon Westeros is not a union member, Paramount does not need to follow the The union's basic agreement gave him a share of the videotape and television rights."

Jonathan Friedman silently flipped through the documents in his hand, but he could feel some obvious malice in Sidney Garnis's conditions in his heart.

However, after Sidney Garnis finished speaking, Jonathan Friedman asked unwillingly: "So, Sid, what about the actor, what do you think of Matthew?"

With an inexplicable smile on his face, Sidney Garnis nodded almost without hesitation, and said: "The box office of "Skip the Genius" is so good, of course we are willing to continue to cooperate with Matthew. The $500 million The pay is a bit high, but Matthew is worth it."

Hearing what Sidney Garnis said, Jonathan Friedman finally confirmed that Paramount was clearly targeting himself, the initiator of WMA's first packaged project, and even wanted to use this small means to Stir the whole project off.

After all, both Brian De Palma and Simon Westeros are entertainers in his hands, and their combined salary is less than half of Matthew Broderick's.Paramount haggled over the salaries of the two of them, but decisively agreed to Matthew's offer of up to $500 million. This is obviously trying to stir up discord within WMA.

Chapter 016