Simon didn't expect Barry Levinson to remain silent as he asked after taking back post-production power for 'Rain Man'.
What Simon didn't expect was that the very next day, The Hollywood Reporter quickly published a front-page story titled 'Barry Levinson Forced Out of 'Rain Man' Post-Production'. The article completely portrayed Barry Levinson as a victim, vividly describing Simon's arbitrary interference with the film's production from the filming stage of 'Rain Man' until Barry Levinson was forcefully removed from his own project by Simon yesterday.
As if pre-arranged, on the day the news broke, the two lead actors of 'Rain Man', Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, simultaneously gave interviews to CNN, criticizing Simon's disrespect for filmmakers.
Immediately after, the Directors Guild of America publicly released a statement on Friday, announcing that they would investigate whether Daenerys Entertainment had infringed upon directors' rights.
In just a few days, Daenerys Entertainment was quickly pushed into the centre of a public opinion storm.
Hollywood has always been producer-centric.
Whether it was the widely publicized incident in the early 1980s where 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' director Tobe Hooper was sidelined by producer Steven Spielberg on the 'Poltergeist' project, or the 'Justice League' director change fiasco many years later in Simon's memory, directors being removed from a film's production process is very common.
However, most ordinary people clearly aren't too concerned about these matters.
Under the sensationalized hype of the media, an ordinary occurrence in Hollywood quickly became a major event, almost a scandal.
New York.
Morton Street in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan.
Inside a nine-story red brick building not far from New York University, this is New World Entertainment's East Coast headquarters.
Of the nine floors of the red brick building, New World Entertainment occupies six. Half of the company's more than 110 employees, excluding Marvel, are here, with the other half in Los Angeles. Six floors of office space are more than enough for fifty-odd employees; New World Entertainment's current employee size is actually the result of several rounds of layoffs.
Because it focused on television production, New World Entertainment's East Coast originally had nearly a hundred employees, but nearly half have been laid off in the past six months. It's only because the office building's lease hasn't expired that they continue to occupy a large amount of empty space.
The date was August 2nd. After a month of financing and auditing, Simon officially signed the acquisition agreement with New World Entertainment chairman Larry Kopin at the company's East Coast headquarters. Executives from both companies, large and small, also gathered in New York for this reason.
After completing various signing and handover procedures in the morning, the main executives from both companies, primarily New World Entertainment, gathered in the largest conference room in the office building after lunch.
Simon intended to directly use these six floors of office space as Daenerys Entertainment's East Coast headquarters. Although he had already purchased several buildings with better conditions in the Upper East Side, according to the plan, the residents there would likely only begin to move out around 1990.
Although it was the longest day of summer, the lengthy meeting, which covered a series of topics including personnel adjustments, financial planning, and project discussions, continued until Manhattan's lights began to illuminate the city. Fortunately, everyone was in high spirits, having avoided company bankruptcy and job loss, and now following a new boss with a promising future.
After the meeting, Daenerys Entertainment also arranged a dinner at a nearby hotel, and everyone finally dispersed around ten o'clock at night.
Simon, however, couldn't relax. Instead, he returned to New World Entertainment headquarters with Amy Pascal, Robert Rehme, and Robert Iger, who had successfully left ABC to join Daenerys Entertainment.
Everyone sat down in a small conference room. Jennifer personally brewed and served coffee. Simon took the coffee from his female assistant, quietly thanked her, but his expression wasn't relaxed.
"Simon, if things continue to escalate like this, many Hollywood directors will definitely be hesitant to work with us. This is a very tricky problem", said Robert Rehme, the most senior person present. "We must clarify and fight back as soon as possible".
Unless absolutely necessary, after a full day of work, no one would naturally gather late at night.
What they were discussing at this moment was, of course, the sudden outburst of Barry Levinson's firing a few days ago. Simon had not let this incident affect Daenerys Entertainment's work pace, having methodically completed the acquisition of New World Entertainment, finally securing the company and, most importantly, Marvel Entertainment.
However, no matter what, Daenerys Entertainment would certainly still have to face this issue.
What Simon had been unable to understand these past few days was why Barry Levinson wanted to make this matter public, and even more, there was clearly the shadow of CAA behind it. Although he was a top-tier director, without the support of the entire CAA, Barry Levinson alone would never have been able to escalate the matter to this extent in just a few days.
Everyone, at the end of the day, was a businessman.
If there were demands, CAA could have contacted him directly, instead of tearing off the facade so openly. This, in fact, was not beneficial to either party. Although the media generally sided with Barry Levinson, Hollywood was not short of discerning people.
Which film company hasn't fired a few directors?
If people from your CAA are so delicate, making a big fuss over a small grievance, all parties will certainly be very cautious when choosing to cooperate.
However, these past few days, Simon had not received any news from CAA.
Habitually fiddling with a pencil in his hand, Simon glanced down and suddenly realized something: he always seemed to find a pencil within reach. He looked up in confusion, noticed Jennifer's figure, and then understood.
Unable to resist glancing a few more times at his female assistant's ponytail swaying with her movements, Simon quickly refocused his attention, nodded to Robert Rehme, who was already in the zone, and then looked at the others: "What do you all think?"
Amy silently shook her head.
Robert Iger had also been deep in thought, and hearing Simon's question, he said, "I always feel there's a sense of 'eagerness' in this recent matter".
Simon was puzzled: "Hmm?"
Robert Iger reorganized his thoughts again and said, "If my information is correct, you just fired Barry Levinson, and this matter erupted the very next day. It seems too deliberate and too impatient".
Robert Rehme said, "Bob, that's nothing. You should know how much power Ovitz has in Hollywood. He just needs to make a few phone calls".
"Indeed, but if it were me, I would definitely choose to communicate with Simon first, and only resort to these methods if an agreement couldn't be reached", Robert Iger said, looking at Simon. "But, Simon, Ovitz hasn't contacted you, has he?"
Simon nodded, looking at Amy.
"We tried to contact CAA, but they said Ovitz went to Japan".
"If CAA intended to reconcile this matter, that wouldn't be a problem", Iger shook his head and said. "The problem now is that CAA has no intention of reconciling. They seem to only want to embarrass us".
Amy said, "Although we are not as big as the Big Seven, CAA wouldn't be foolish enough to completely fall out with us. There must be something we don't know about".
Robert Rehme also said at this point, "Perhaps, is it possible that the Big Seven are pushing this from behind?"
Amy and Iger fell silent at the suggestion.
During this summer box office season, which was nearing its end, although Paramount Pictures successfully landed two films in the hundred million-dollar club through two swift and comprehensive saturation releases, Hollywood's spotlight during this period was almost entirely on Daenerys Entertainment.
In addition to 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Basic Instinct', Daenerys Entertainment also launched reality shows like 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'.
These days, the company also successfully sold another reality show, 'Big Brother', to Fox Television Network for a high price of $1 million per episode. Compared to 'Survivor', which only has a dozen episodes per season, 'Big Brother' is a standard 23 episodes per season.
Moreover, filmed in a closed environment entirely within one house, the production cost per episode of 'Big Brother' is almost on par with 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?', both around $300,000.
In addition, there is advertising insertion revenue. Due to the exemplary success of 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?', the in-program sponsorship fees received by 'Big Brother' are also enough to offset the production budget. Daenerys Entertainment essentially easily obtained a net profit of $23 million and also retained the right to renegotiate for the next season based on program ratings.
Calculating it, the three reality shows sold in these few months alone could bring Daenerys Entertainment approximately $200 million in pre-tax profit for their first season. Some of the Big Seven, like Columbia and MGM, whose performance hasn't been great in recent years, might not even reach $200 million in net profit for an entire year.
The saying that the tallest trees catch the most wind applies in any country and any industry. Daenerys Entertainment's performance was too dazzling, and competitors would certainly not remain indifferent.
However, in the conference room, Simon immediately ruled out the possibility of the Big Seven being involved.
While 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Basic Instinct' were very successful, the studios did receive a share of the profits. For example, with 'Pulp Fiction', expected to gross $150 million in North America alone, Daenerys Entertainment would only receive 10% of the box office share, and 5% of the domestic North American video sales share later on, with Orion taking the lion's share. 'Basic Instinct' also gave half of its profits to Fox. As for the other studios, they still had either existing relationships or hopes for such cooperative relationships with Daenerys Entertainment, and therefore had no motive to do something so detrimental to themselves and others.
Even among the four major television networks, except for CBS, which failed to secure 'Big Brother' and didn't care for 'The Real Housewives', thus gaining nothing, the other three also had no motive to do so, as they were all working to ensure the success of several reality shows.
Motive?
Motive!
Suddenly, Simon finally grasped the key to the matter.
Michael Ovitz was not a fool; on the contrary, he was very shrewd and realistic. Therefore, if there wasn't sufficient motive, he wouldn't have done this either.
The question now is.
What was the motive behind this whole thing?
Listening to Amy and the others' discussions, Simon re-examined the entire sequence of events and their causes and effects. Suddenly, he finally understood something.
"Okay, I probably know why Barry Levinson did this", Simon said, tapping the table lightly to interrupt their conversation. "It's getting late, everyone should go back and rest as soon as possible. Jenny, please arrange a flight for tomorrow morning, and also contact Ovitz. He should be back; I want to see him after I arrive in Los Angeles tomorrow".
Everyone was confused. Amy asked, "Simon, what exactly is going on?"
Simon stood up and said,
"Amy, do you remember all the trouble during the filming of 'Rain Man'? Neither Dustin Hoffman nor Tom Cruise, nor Barry Levinson, were very optimistic about this project".
Amy nodded.
Because of this, during the filming of 'Rain Man', the entire crew was almost in a playful mood. Everyone felt that the project was going to fail. Dustin Hoffman, in the second week of filming, due to his lack of optimism about the project's prospects, even yelled at the producer on set over trivial matters, saying, 'Go find Jack Nicholson, I don't want to film anymore.' He was finally persuaded to return with great difficulty. Later in the filming, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise even directly referred to their respective characters as 'two idiots in a car'.
Clearly, judging by Barry Levinson's actions during the post-production process, the director's mindset was the same.
Simon, sensing the curious gazes of the others, directly revealed, "This is, after all, a big production costing $25 million. Because Barry Levinson, Dustin Hoffman, and the others all believed this project would be a box office disaster, which would then affect their reputation and status, what would you do if you were them?"
Amy Pascal, Robert Rehme, and Robert Iger exchanged glances simultaneously, similar thoughts flashing through their minds.
However, none of the three spoke.
Clearly.
Shifting blame.
However, it's probably better not to react too quickly to such matters; few bosses would want to see employees who are quick to shift blame.
Simon looked at the expressions on their faces and knew they had understood.
Since Simon handed Barry Levinson the memo with his suggestions for 'Rain Man' a few days ago, rumours had been circulating in the industry about Barry Levinson accusing Simon of excessive interference with the project.
Subsequently, due to serious 'differences' with Simon regarding the film's creative direction, Barry Levinson naturally allowed himself to be fired by Simon. Then, the principal creators, none of whom wanted to bear the bad reputation of making a box office flop, naturally and decisively shifted the blame onto Simon.
Now that the matter had become a public scandal, even if 'Rain Man' bombs at the box office, the public will clearly only blame Simon, and the film's main creators have instantly become victims.