It was noon.
At an Italian restaurant near Santa Monica Beach, Terry Semel had already arrived when Simon got there, sitting at a table and flipping through a newspaper. Seeing Simon, Terry Semel stood up and shook his hand, and the two sat down together.
Simon took the menu from the tall waitress beside him, whose eyes were full of enthusiasm. He opened it and casually asked Semel across from him, "Is there any news today?"
Because he had been too busy lately, Simon found it difficult to spare much time for news.
Terry Semel also opened his menu and said with a smile, "Both presidential candidates spoke simultaneously in interviews, stating that once elected, they would implement stricter regulatory measures for the financial derivatives market to prevent another 'Westeros incident'".
Simon quickly ordered lunch, handed the menu to the waitress, and said, "That has nothing to do with me. If they do that, they'll only offend their Wall Street benefactors".
Terry Semel raised his eyes from the menu to look at Simon, probing subtly, "You're not going to tell me that you'll never get involved in the futures market again, are you?"
Simon was noncommittal to Semel's question, saying, "Stricter regulatory measures will only affect those who want to earn huge profits through unconventional means like insider speculation. Among the top ten on the Forbes list, not a single person made it onto the list through those means, and neither did I".
Terry Semel couldn't help but recall some rumours circulating in their circle. The Southern District of New York Court and several other regulatory agencies had, in fact, never completely given up their covert investigations into Simon. However, to this day, no adverse news about Simon had emerged.
As time passed, those investigations were destined to fizzle out.
After ordering and dismissing the waitress, who had been glancing at Simon, Terry Semel said, "Simon, we recently acquired Lorimar. You must know about this, right?"
Simon nodded, roughly understanding why Semel would bring this up.
Lorimar Productions, founded in the 1960s, was the largest television production studio of its era. The company rose in the 1970s, reached its peak a few years ago, and then rapidly declined with last year's stock market crash and this year's writers' strike.
A few months ago, Simon and Amy had even visited the MGM Studios in Culver City that Lorimar wanted to sell.
When Simon heard the news of Warner's acquisition of Lorimar earlier in the month, he realized that this was likely the foundation for Warner Television's continuous production of hit American dramas like 'Friends' and 'ER' in the 1990s. Before this, Warner's television business was not particularly outstanding.
Seeing Simon nod, Terry Semel continued, "I heard you were interested in the MGM Studios in Culver City. We happen to be planning to sell that property. Do you still want it now? I promise the price will be very reasonable".
Warner Bros. owned a very large filming base in Burbank and obviously didn't need a second studio.
However, Simon didn't hesitate and shook his head, saying, "Terry, that studio is too dilapidated. Instead of buying it and undertaking large-scale renovations, I'd rather choose a new plot of land and build from scratch. That would actually be cheaper".
Terry Semel said, "But, Simon, unless it's the suburbs, you'll be hard-pressed to find a 50-acre plot of land in downtown Los Angeles".
Simon said indifferently, "The suburbs are fine. When these studios were first built, they were all in the countryside. It's just that the city kept developing and encircled them in the urban area".
Terry Semel had thought he could confidently push the MGM Studios onto Simon, but seeing his lack of interest, he had to give up and said, "Well, Simon, regarding what we discussed last time, you've already acquired Marvel Entertainment and control a large number of superhero copyrights like Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men. I'm very curious, why are you still interested in DC's superheroes? Without a compelling reason, it will be difficult for Warner to hand over Wonder Woman to you again".
"Marvel's superhero movies are too difficult to film. For example, Spider-Man, with current technology, it's hard for us to achieve Peter Parker's scenes of scaling buildings between metropolises", Simon replied without much thought. "In comparison, the cinematic potential of DC's superheroes is very high. As for my purpose, Terry, it's obvious. I want to accumulate more copyrights. Hollywood film companies all do this; there's nothing to hide. Before me, Cannon Films simultaneously bought the filming rights for Marvel's hottest Spider-Man and DC's Superman. Of course, both of these superhero copyrights are now in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment".
"You're different from them", Terry Semel shook his head and said, "I remember at the Oscar after-party earlier this year, you told me you planned to link Superman and Batman, uh, 'Batman v Superman,' that's what you said, right? Now you want Wonder Woman too".
"Terry, I don't want to waste time on these meaningless words. Can you just directly state Warner's conditions?"
Terry Semel also stopped beating around the bush and said, "Simon, Warner can give you both 'The Bourne Identity' and 'Wonder Woman'. We are willing to completely let go of 'The Bourne Identity', but for 'Wonder Woman', Warner must retain 50% of the investment rights. However, unlike 'Superman' and 'Batman', Daenerys Entertainment can be solely responsible for the distribution of 'Wonder Woman'. In exchange, Daenerys and Warner need to collaborate on a project that breaks a hundred million at the box office, using the profit-sharing model of 'Basic Instinct'. If the domestic box office of this project we collaborate on doesn't break a hundred million, the contract will automatically extend for another project until this goal is achieved".
Simon pondered the conditions Terry Semel offered in his mind and quickly said, "In that case, I can't give the distribution rights to Warner. It's very difficult to make a movie achieve over a hundred million at the North American box office, but it's too easy to make it not reach that point".
"I understand, of course", Terry Semel said with a smile on his face, "So, if you insist, the distribution rights can belong to Daenerys Entertainment".
Simon suddenly realized that Daenerys Entertainment would be at a significant disadvantage by doing this.
In the profit-sharing model of 'Basic Instinct' back then, the two companies not only equally shared production costs, but Daenerys Pictures provided the script copyright for 'Basic Instinct' and invested efforts in its production, while Fox was responsible for the film's promotion and distribution. Their investments in all aspects were basically equivalent.
Now, if Daenerys retained the distribution rights, it would mean that Warner would only invest half of the film's production budget and then completely wash its hands, waiting to share half of the profits, while Daenerys Entertainment would be responsible for the entire process of production, promotion, and distribution.
This was obviously impossible.
After weighing it for a moment, Simon added, "Daenerys Entertainment retains the distribution rights, and Warner must also bear an additional half of the promotion and distribution budget".
Terry Semel nodded readily and said, "No problem".
The two merely set the general framework for cooperation, and the specific plan would certainly require detailed negotiation to align with both parties' interests. Therefore, Simon no longer hesitated, extended his hand to Semel, and said, "Deal".