Santa Monica Airport.
Amy, returning from visiting the set of 'Brenda Starr' in San Francisco, stepped off the company's Falcon business jet with her assistant, Vanessa. The driver was already waiting beside the runway.
The two women got into the car, and the driver started the engine, heading towards Burbank, where a meeting was waiting for Amy.
Sitting in the back seat, Amy was about to review some documents during the journey when she heard a faint sound from the car radio in the front. She looked up. The driver noticed Amy's movement and reached out to turn off the radio, but Amy stopped him, signalling him to turn up the volume.
"Michael, do you mean that 'Dead Poets Society' only winning the Best Director award was a complete inside job?"
"Exactly. It's incredibly unfair to Barry Levinson, the director of 'Rain Man'. He created a great film but couldn't get the recognition he deserved. Besides, I've never heard of a film only winning a Best Director award. It's a joke".
"Alright, Michael, please don't get agitated. Have you seen Mike Nichols' 'The Graduate'?"
"Of course, I really like that movie".
"I regret to inform you that 'The Graduate' also only won a Best Director award that year".
"Oh, really?"
"Really".
"But, at least, Simon Westeros' Best Original Score award is also problematic. He might be a good composer, but compared to John Williams and others, he's completely unqualified to receive the Oscar for Best Original Score. This is clearly a result of Daenerys Entertainment's PR efforts".
"Hmm, thank you for your call, Michael. This is Voice of Los Angeles, and I'm your good friend, John Maclaren. Today's topic is 'What happened to this year's Oscars?' Let's take the next listener's call".
"Hi, Matthew, good afternoon".
"Hello, madam, what's your name?"
"Andy," the female voice on the other end of the phone said without waiting for the host to continue asking, "First of all, I want to say, Matthew, that guy just now was a completely biased idiot".
"Please don't attack others, Andy, but you can express your own views."
"Everyone can see that at this year's Oscars, Daenerys Entertainment was the one who was treated unfairly. This film company produced so many excellent films last year: 'When Harry Met Sally', 'Pulp Fiction', 'Rain Man', 'Dead Poets Society', 'Steel Magnolias'. Oh, I really loved 'Steel Magnolias', I watched it five times, and my mother cried too. And 'When Harry Met Sally', Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan are simply a perfect match. However, the Oscars only gave Daenerys Entertainment 11 nominations this time, almost half of Warner's 19 nominations, but Warner's films really didn't interest me at all".
"Warner, huh? Well, Sigourney Weaver's 'Gorillas in the Mist' was pretty good".
"Haha, see, Matthew, you have to recall when you talk about that, but you can definitely list a long string of Daenerys Entertainment's films without even thinking".
"Perhaps, but that's mainly due to the theme of this program. I have to remain neutral, Andy, you can continue. What's your opinion on Michael's earlier comments about Barry Levinson and Westeros' Best Original Score?"
"I'll say it again, he's an idiot", Andy ignored Matthew's earlier reminder about 'civil discourse' and insisted on that assessment before continuing, "Anyone who followed the 'Rain Man' gossip knows that Barry Levinson withdrew from the project during the post-production phase. Not only that, he publicly accused Daenerys Entertainment of interfering with 'Rain Man's post-production in interviews and declared that the project had nothing to do with him.
Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise also publicly sided with Levinson at the time, simultaneously distancing themselves from 'Rain Man.' Now that the film is successful, they're trying to take credit. It's disgusting. Dustin Hoffman's speech at the Oscars was a clown show; he was contradicting himself. The finished 'Rain Man' we saw on the big screen had nothing to do with Levinson and them. It was Simon Westeros who led the post-production, and he personally completed the score. Without Westeros, this film wouldn't exist, so he absolutely deserves the Best Original Score award, and even more".
"..."
Amy listened intently to the radio talk show throughout the journey.
The various listener calls on the show basically covered the controversies and discussions in the media surrounding the 61st Academy Awards during this period.
Today was April 7th, Friday.
For the past week or so, media opinion had not cooled down at all despite the dust settling on the Oscars. The war of words between Daenerys Entertainment and CAA continued. However, the performances of the two listeners on the radio show, one being utterly unreasonable and the other arguing with reason, were enough to prove that Daenerys Entertainment held a clear advantage in this public opinion battle.
Although Dustin Hoffman's 'heartfelt' acceptance speech in front of 43 million Oscar live viewers moved many people, the statements made by the main creators of 'Rain Man' distancing themselves from the project during the post-production phase could not be erased.
With little prompting, many media outlets were able to unearth numerous contradictions in Dustin Hoffman's two statements based on publicly available news materials.
With Daenerys Entertainment's subtle guidance, media opinion quickly shifted in their favour.
Even the sole Best Director nomination for 'Dead Poets Society' was considered well-deserved under Daenerys Entertainment's portrayal.
'Dead Poets Society' originally had the strength to receive multiple nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay. The fact that it ultimately received only two nominations was not due to a lack of strength from 'Dead Poets Society', but rather a result of deliberate suppression by the Oscars.
After all, even a mediocre film like 'Working Girl' received a string of nominations, which clearly demonstrated the extreme unfairness of the Oscars.
'Dead Poets Society' finally winning Best Director was considered a form of compensation for the film. As for Simon's Best Original Score award, the company successfully swayed public opinion by emphasizing his crucial role in the post-production of 'Rain Man'.
Although the company once again invested two million dollars in this public relations offensive, the returns were even more substantial.
During Oscar week, from March 24th to March 30th, 'Rain Man', which had originally fallen to just over four million dollars in weekly box office, rebounded. In its 15th week of release, the box office reversed its decline by 18%, earning an additional $5.11 million, bringing its cumulative box office to $138 million.
This was not the end; with the announcement of the Oscar results and the subsequent significant increase in buzz, in the past week from March 31st to April 6th, 'Rain Man's weekly box office once again rebounded sharply, with a reverse decline of 42%, earning an additional $7.25 million, pushing its cumulative box office past $145 million.
Following this box office trend, 'Rain Man' would only need at most three more weeks to surpass 'Pulp Fiction's $156 million box office figure and claim the title of 1988 North American box office champion.
Although the box office for 'Dead Poets Society' did not rebound as significantly as 'Rain Man', it successfully surpassed 'Crocodile Dundee II', becoming the tenth highest-grossing film of 1988.
Daenerys Entertainment thus successfully occupied seven positions in the top ten box office list of 1988. Although three of these films, 'When Harry Met Sally', 'Pulp Fiction', and 'Basic Instinct', were released under the distribution labels of other studios, such a feat would be difficult to break in the short term.
In addition, with the increasing success of 'Rain Man', MGM finally found some ambiguous loopholes in their original contract after the Oscars. Citing inconsistencies in the profit-sharing clauses regarding film soundtracks and merchandise in several contracts, they demanded $100 million in compensation from Daenerys Entertainment, and once again claimed to reclaim the copyright for 'The Hobbit'.
A compensation of 100 million dollars was clearly impossible.
Everyone knew that MGM was only trying to carve out a piece of the 'Rain Man' pie.
While making an exorbitant demand, MGM's legal team had already hinted that both parties could settle privately.
After evaluating this lawsuit, Daenerys Entertainment's legal department confirmed that the probability of MGM winning was extremely low. Amy decisively abandoned the tendency to settle, knowing how Simon would handle such matters. She did not bother Simon this time but responded to MGM with a strong stance, stating that they were ready to respond to the lawsuit at any time.
There are always too many people in this world who bully the weak and fear the strong.
Although responding to the lawsuit meant incurring a substantial legal fee, taking a strong stance this time would allow Daenerys Entertainment to avoid many unnecessary troubles in future operations. Moreover, given MGM's current declining state, they would definitely not be willing to spend tens of millions of dollars on a lawsuit with an extremely low success rate. The scale of this lawsuit would not escalate too much.
Amy arrived at the Burbank headquarters, where Robert Rehme and other distribution department executives were already waiting for her.
As April began, the summer blockbusters were gradually approaching. The main topic of this meeting was Daenerys Entertainment's promotional and distribution strategy for this year's summer releases, 'The Bodyguard' and 'The Sixth Sense'. The post-production of both films would only be completely finished after Simon returned from Melbourne to personally review them, but the initial promotional offensive could already begin.
Everyone sat down in the conference room, and the administrative secretary distributed the meeting materials. Robert Rehme asked Amy, "How is the filming progress of 'Brenda Starr'?"
Amy nodded: "It's going very smoothly. Daryl's performance is indeed much better than Brooke Shields', and I'm still very much looking forward to the film's future results".
The comic book adaptation project 'Brenda Starr' inherited from New World Entertainment, began filming in mid-last month.
Simon didn't approve of Brooke Shields' acting skills or box office appeal, so the company ultimately cast Daryl Hannah as the female lead. This Hollywood actress, who had given excellent performances in films such as 'Blade Runner', 'Splash', and 'Wall Street', perfectly matched the image of Brenda Starr, the female lead of 'Brenda Starr'. The project's script was also re-polished, and the budget was $15 million.
Daenerys Entertainment originally intended to bear the investment alone, but the other two investors who had signed letters of intent during the New World Entertainment era firmly refused to withdraw. The final negotiation result was that each of the three parties would bear $5 million, and Daenerys Entertainment, as the distributor, would take a 15% distribution commission.
The filming period for 'Brenda Starr' is two months, and post-production is also two months. It is expected to be completed by mid-July, and the initial release date is set for early October. Although this slot is somewhat niche, it is an inevitable result of a production company's growth and expansion.
Daenerys Entertainment has already confirmed a total of 15 films for release this year, starting with 'Blue Steel' at the beginning of the year. It's impossible for all films to be clustered in the summer and year-end slots.
Of course, if the finished product of 'Brenda Starr' is outstanding enough, the company will also make appropriate adjustments to the release schedule.
Melbourne.
Because Simon was in Australia filming 'Batman', the series of ripples caused by the Oscars also spread here.
Most people are always very easily swayed by subjective impressions to confirm their stance.
As the son-in-law of an Australian, Simon consecutively won two major awards, Best Editing and Best Original Score, outside of his primary profession as a director. He immediately became the most interesting topic of conversation for Australian media and the public. Discussions about how many Oscar statuettes Simon would ultimately win also became a hot topic in the local Australian media during this period.
As for Simon, neither the glory nor the controversy had much impact on his work.
It was Jennifer, seeing the controversy sparked by Simon winning the Best Original Score award, who once thought of releasing another videotape called 'Blizzard', but Simon stopped her. Every Oscar ceremony is not without controversy, and many of Simon's actions are also like that. If he had to provide evidence to prove himself every time there was a controversy, he would definitely be exhausted to death.
As the aftermath of the Oscars gradually faded, the filming of 'Batman' was also nearing its end.
In fact, the originally planned 13 weeks of filming should have been completed before April 7th. However, Simon's coma in February caused a halt in filming, affecting the film's progress. For such a large-scale production, some other situations were also unavoidable, so the filming period was extended until late April.
Fortunately, the release date for 'Batman' is in December at the end of the year. Although the filming period was delayed, there is still more than half a year of ample time to complete post-production.
Thus, on April 19th, in a large studio built in an abandoned factory in the western suburbs of Melbourne, it was afternoon.
As the final scene in the Batcave concluded, Simon carefully checked the recently shot footage and announced loudly to all the crew members present: "'Batman', that's a wrap".
Three months of hard work finally came to an end. Hearing Simon say this, accompanied by applause from around, Adam Baldwin and others, who had clearly planned this beforehand, gathered around, lifted Simon, and threw him into the pool inside the Batcave.
Simon was suddenly grabbed by everyone. Although he could have struggled free, he didn't. He only 'struggled' to get up after falling into the water, laughing and shouting a few threats. After a lively moment, the crew began to clean up the set, and a grand wrap party was scheduled for the evening.