"The cause of last night's accident was likely a loose screw on the front wheel. I've already fired the mechanic responsible for maintaining the Batpod, and the prop team will inspect all Batmobiles and Batpods today".
In the hotel restaurant, while eating breakfast together, Joe Silver, the producer of 'Batman', reported to Simon the cause of the Batpod accident last night.
Although the accident didn't result in serious consequences, the direct detachment of the Batpod's front wheel last night was clearly abnormal, and Simon had no intention of letting it go unaddressed.
Simon nodded and then asked, "What about the media?"
If news of such an accident got out, it would inevitably cause some trouble.
Simon wasn't worried about the local Australian media, as both the Murdoch and Fairfax media families there were investors in Cersei Capital.
However, media outside Australia was beyond Simon's sphere of influence.
"Paparazzi took some blurry photos from a distance. I've communicated with Los Angeles and arranged some interview opportunities to get the negatives back", Joe Silver said.
"Additionally, media outlets called to inquire, but they've all been fended off. This afternoon, I'll arrange for Miss Golino to make a public appearance, which should completely eliminate outside speculation".
Filming, especially for a large-scale production like this, is essentially a continuous process of encountering and solving problems; it's rarely smooth sailing.
Therefore, since the start of 'Batman', Simon had increasingly realized the benefits of choosing Melbourne as the filming location.
Australia's relatively relaxed filming environment compared to North America, as well as the powerful influence of the Johnston family, had provided him with too many conveniences during this period.
After breakfast, Joe Silver left to attend to the crew's matters, and Simon returned to his hotel suite to begin his day's work.
Today was Tuesday, March 21st, and it was still Monday in Los Angeles.
Over the past weekend, another new film from Daenerys Entertainment's Highgate Film, 'Some Girls', was released.
This film, starring Jennifer Connelly from 'Once Upon a Time in America', was positioned as a teen sex comedy, opening on 617 screens.
It grossed $3.25 million in its opening three-day weekend, with an estimated first-week box office of around $5 million and a projected North American total between $15 million and $20 million.
Following 'Metropolitan', and considering 'Some Girls' production budget of $3 million and a similar $3 million for promotion and distribution, this performance was clearly excellent.
Simon gave Ira Deutchman another point.
However, after the New Year, the consecutive 'Blue Steel', 'Metropolitan', and 'Some Girls' all had "mediocre results," and some media outlets recently began to suggest that Daenerys Entertainment was becoming mediocre.
Although discerning individuals could see that these three films were not Daenerys Entertainment's main focus, Simon was very happy for more people in Hollywood to hold such a mindset.
Daenerys Entertainment's box office performance last year had put too much pressure on too many people, and if it couldn't be buffered, it was hard to say what might happen.
After these three films, and before the summer blockbusters, Daenerys Entertainment would continue to release 'Hellraiser 2', a leftover from the original New World Entertainment, and 'Heathers', starring Winona Ryder.
Neither of these two films had much commercial appeal, which would be enough for Hollywood to take a good breather.
In his study, Simon discussed recent company matters with Amy on speakerphone while reading various documents from Los Angeles.
After the main business was largely covered, Amy brought up Meg Ryan's compensation plan to get out of her option contract.
Simon said, "$2.5 million it is then. That's a good number. Don't ask me about these things again in the future".
CAA had initially offered an exorbitant $5 million salary, citing 'The Princess Bride' as a female-led film and Meg Ryan's soaring popularity after 'When Harry Met Sally'.
The two parties fell out, and Daenerys Entertainment also demanded $5 million in compensation from Meg Ryan.
This possibility was inherently low.
Although she had become a top-tier actress, Meg Ryan's salary for starring in a typical commercial film was probably only two to three million dollars.
If tax factors were considered, this figure would obviously be even lower.
$2.5 million dollars was already enough to drain the remaining earnings from Meg Ryan's next two films.
Moreover, the other party had, as expected, joined 'The Rocketeer'.
The 'The Rocketeer' in memory, relative to its high production and marketing budget, had only a mediocre box office performance.
With Tom Cruise and Meg Ryan starring this time, it was hard to say what its future box office prospects would be.
However, Simon was absolutely not optimistic about Meg Ryan's prospects in this film.
With the continuous success of films like 'Top Gun' and 'Rain Man', Tom Cruise was currently at the peak.
This Hollywood A-list male star was also beginning to display his habitual desire to turn all films he starred in into "Tom Cruise films".
In films starring Cruise, unless it was a big name like Dustin Hoffman, other actors rarely had much room to shine.
In memory, Universal, influenced by the Marvel Cinematic Universe, ambitiously wanted to create a "Universal Dark Universe", but one 'The Mummy' directly shattered most of Universal's ambitions.
Because of a brilliant script where the Mummy princess and the male lead shared the spotlight as hero and villain, under Cruise's insistent additions and re-additions to his own role, the 'Mummy movie' was literally transformed into another "Tom Cruise movie".
This is talent.
Moreover, this approach actually maximized Cruise's own interests.
As for the commercial success or failure of the film, if success came at the cost of supporting actors overshadowing him, the lead, then failure was preferable.
'The Rocketeer', which was scheduled to begin filming next month, would likely suffer the same fate, in Simon's opinion.
With the popularity gained from 'When Harry Met Sally', Meg Ryan might receive a decent salary, but her chances of finding her sense of presence in this film were slim.
It was almost noon. After Simon finished talking with Amy, he casually closed Nancy Brill's latest film data database development proposal.
Looking at Jennifer, who quietly stepped forward to help him tidy his desk, he remembered something and asked, "This Sunday is Easter. Are you planning to go back to America to spend it with your family?"
Jennifer looked up at Simon, shook her head, and said, "It's too far. I've already called Mom and Dad, so I won't be going back".
After the female assistant finished speaking, her eyes still sparkled as she looked at Simon.
Simon tried his best to resist the urge to rub his nose, sighing inwardly that his once innocent and shy female assistant was now becoming a bit scheming.
This was difficult.
As a very important Western holiday, Easter was also a time for family reunions. Simon would definitely be accompanying Janette back to the Johnston family mansion on Sunday.
Although his relationship with Jennifer had already received Janette's tacit approval, and the other members of the Johnston family turned a blind eye to it, if he brought his female assistant along, it would cause quite a stir.
It would be a provocation.
Considering Raymond Johnston's prideful personality, being kicked out would be the lightest punishment.
"Then, um, how about we have dinner together on Saturday night?"
Hearing Simon say this, Jennifer finally averted her gaze and continued tidying the desk, saying, "Everyone has already decided to go to New Zealand for the weekend".
"Oh, how come I didn't know?"
"Can you come along?"
"I'll think about it".
Jennifer gave Simon a side-eye, organized the documents, and left the study without saying goodbye.
As the female assistant's figure disappeared, Simon finally had no reservations, raised his hand to rub his nose, and stood up with a wry smile to leave the suite.
The driver was already waiting downstairs.
Simon was heading to the Johnston Holdings headquarters building to have lunch with Janette, who was in charge of Cersei Capital there.
Then he would spend an hour understanding Cersei Capital's transaction information, and in the afternoon, he would return to begin a new day's work on 'Batman'.
The headquarters building of Johnston Holdings was located on Elizabeth Street, on the north bank of the Yarra River in the city centre.
It was a 22-story, conservatively styled, light brown building.
Although not too tall, the entire building was owned by the Johnston family.
The car drove into the building's underground parking lot. After Simon got out, he walked towards the elevator.
The driver did not go upstairs with him but would pick him up again after 1:30 PM.
Entering the executive elevator, Simon pressed the button for the 22nd floor, standing in the centre of the elevator, feeling the slow ascent.
However, the indicator light flashed to the 8th floor and then suddenly stopped.
When the elevator doors opened, Simon saw Veronica Johnston standing outside, wearing a black office suit, her blonde hair tied up, holding a stack of documents.
The woman originally had a cool, unapproachable aura, but the moment she saw Simon, it instantly melted into panic.
The atmosphere was a bit stagnant.
After a moment of silent confrontation, Simon voluntarily stepped aside. Veronica, noticing Simon's movement, walked mechanically into the elevator as if receiving an order.
The elevator doors closed automatically, and a familiar faint fragrance wafted in.
Simon looked at the elevator continuing to ascend to the 22nd floor, without asking Veronica which floor she was going to.
The woman also clearly forgot about it.
When the elevator doors reopened, Veronica realized she had arrived at the top floor.
She quickly glanced at Simon, waiting for him to leave first before she would go down.
Simon, however, didn't move and asked, "It's almost lunchtime. Would you like to join us?"
Veronica was stunned for a moment and stammered, "I, um".
Hearing Veronica's response, Simon didn't say more and walked straight out of the elevator.
Veronica hesitated for a moment but still followed him out, secretly composing herself to avoid Janette noticing any flaws later.
Inside Cersei Capital's office.
When Simon entered, Janette was clearly in a fit of anger on the phone, and the few staff members around looked terrified.
Seeing Simon, Janette smiled at him, then continued to scold a few words into the phone without reservation before hanging up.
She walked over, about to hug Simon, but then noticed Veronica, who had entered with him.
She immediately forgot about Simon, bypassed the man, and rushed towards her aunt: "Iceberg, why are you here? Oh, let me warm you up first".
Simon watched the woman hugging Veronica and rubbing against her in a spoiled manner, and a few black lines involuntarily appeared on his forehead.
Veronica gently pushed Janette away and said in a faint voice, "I met Simon in the elevator, and I thought we could all have lunch together".
"Hmm, of course we should eat together", Janette said, not suspecting anything, as she linked her arm through her aunt's.
"Simon scared you last time, didn't he? This time, let him apologize to you. Oh, let's eat out".
Veronica glanced at Simon.
Previously, they had always eaten directly in the building's restaurant, but Simon was also worried that someone might notice something amiss, so he nodded and said, "Let's eat out".
As he said this, Janette leaned over and linked her arm with Simon's, and the three of them walked out together.
Entering the same elevator again, Simon finally found a topic and asked, "What happened just now?"
"Norwell, that idiot from Fund No. 3. I told him to close out that short put option combination on bank stocks first thing this morning. He cleverly delayed for an hour, and the profit shrunk by 6.5 million. Hmph, if it happens again, I'll fire him".
Recently, rumours of the Bank of Japan raising interest rates had been intensifying, and the Japanese stock market had been volatile as a result.
Many investors believed that a Bank of Japan interest rate hike would be a turning point for the already frenzied Japanese stock market.
Various transactions surrounding the Japanese financial market had become more active recently, and bank stocks, which were more directly affected by interest rate hikes, fluctuated more frequently.
Simon's style when he initially managed Cersei Capital leaned towards conservatism, and the trading frequency was very low compared to many hedge funds.
The trading teams of the five sub-funds sometimes wouldn't even make a single trade all day.
After Janette took over, the little bit of madness in her bones completely emerged.
Cersei Capital directly transformed into a high-frequency trading hedge fund, and Janette also loved to use risky, super-high leverage.
The woman even reduced the size of the Nikkei 225 index futures long position that Simon had established to $5 billion, to free up more funds to operate other financial products.
Investors participating in Cersei Capital only saw a fund's net asset value report once a week.
Because of the continuous increase in profit figures, they were very confident in Janette's operations.
If those people knew Janette's specific operating methods, they would definitely be restless.
It's worth noting that the woman lost $36 million in just two hours during a foreign exchange hedge at the beginning of the month, but this loss was quickly recovered during the afternoon trading session.
The most recent statistics showed that Cersei Capital's net asset value had risen to $1.85 billion, with a profit of $280 million.
Compared to the initial principal of $1.57 billion, the profit margin reached 17.8%, a figure that already exceeded the annual return rate of many hedge funds.
As long as this profitable situation could continue, Simon believed that Cersei Capital would surely more than double before the Japanese stock market turned.
The three left the Johnston Holdings headquarters and found a decent restaurant nearby.
The atmosphere at lunch, thanks to Janette's efforts, didn't feel too awkward.
Because of Veronica's cold personality, her 'as always' indifferent reaction at the dinner table didn't reveal any flaws.
To avoid troubling Simon, Janette disliked discussing Cersei Capital's operations too much.
They only exchanged a few words about daily trifles, and their interaction carried a strange kind of harmony.