Hollywood Hunter - Chapter 4 Turbulent William Morris

Unknowingly, it was already twilight, and the lights on both sides of the street were on.

Simon looked at the dumbfounded and hesitant two women before him, and had to remind them with a relaxed tone that they really should go back. Malibu, in the western suburbs of Los Angeles, was still far away from Burbank. Finally, it is suggested that Catherine should drive. Janet Johnston is too dangerous to drive on high heels.

Seeing that everything in Simon was normal and there was no sign of illness, Catherine was relieved, but inexplicably she did not want to explore Simon's past.

Catherine felt a little funny again when she glanced at her friend who was still turning her eyes but finally stopped.

Let you not be serious all day, and finally be cured.

The female hooligan pretending to be crazy met a real madman from the mental hospital, tusk.

Tucked her friend into the co-pilot, Catherine also got into the car, hesitated, the woman still told Simon, who was standing outside the car window, to contact her if she had any difficulties before starting the car.

Turning the front of the car at the intersection not far away, Catherine finally nodded to the big boy on the side of the road, slowly stepped on the accelerator, and the burgundy Ford sedan gradually merged into the twilight city traffic.

Watching the two women's cars go away, Simon lifted the backpack on his shoulders and turned to leave.

I bought a map of downtown Los Angeles from a nearby store. Simon sat down on an outdoor seat in a street fast food restaurant, ordered the cheapest dinner, and started looking at the map.

Because he inherited the memories of twelve other people, Simon discovered that it is not just those professional skills. For Hollywood, or the entire Los Angeles, from human geography to entertainment gossip, all kinds of information for decades, Simon is simply It's all clear.

It seems that I still have the potential to be a paparazzi.

Thinking so entertainingly, Simon easily found the location of WMA's headquarters on the map.

Camino Street is located not far from the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, the most prosperous Beverly Hills. Nearby is Century City Park where media companies gather, where the 20th Century Fox Studios is located. , WMA’s rival C+ headquarters is also not far away.

After marking the WMA headquarters location, Simon found the headquarters address of the American Screenwriters Guild, and circled it casually.

The waiter brought the dinner, Simon filled his stomach, and walked out of the restaurant after checking out.

Then began to worry about how to leave Burbank.

In the 1980s, there were no buses or subways in Los Angeles. Taxis were also pitifully scarce, and they needed to be booked by phone.

Wandering on the street with a fluke for more than half an hour, after he failed to meet a taxi willing to take him, Simon realized that he still underestimated the lack of public transportation in Los Angeles, and regretted not being cheeky for Catherine to send him a ride. .

There was no alternative but to stay in a hotel in Burbank.

Early the next morning, with the help of the hotel owner, Simon booked a taxi by phone. After bargaining with the driver who came, and finally paid 15 dollars with the tip, the driver sent him to West Hollywood on the other side of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Standing on the side of Melrose Avenue, although there is still a lot of distance to the destination, in order to save money, it can only be used next. Fortunately, Simon has a whole day. Following the directions of the map, walked south to Fairfax Avenue along the nearby north-south intersection with Melrose Avenue for more than 20 minutes, and then came outside the WGA building.

Simon came here naturally not to join the screenwriters union. He does not have this qualification yet, mainly to register the copyright of the script in the backpack.

According to the federal copyright law, in theory, creators automatically obtain copyright after completing their work. But in reality, once a legal dispute occurs, whether to register a copyright becomes a very critical piece of evidence.

In the United States, there are many ways to register copyright, and there are even some private registration agencies.

The most authoritative of these is naturally the Copyright Bureau, but due to the ultra-low work efficiency of the United States government agencies, the creators may have to wait four to six months to get the copyright certificate, and the review process is slow. Outrageous.

Therefore, in Hollywood, registering copyright through WGA has become the first choice for most screenwriters.

Prepare the materials and registration fee, and basically you can get the registration certificate on the same day.

Of course, there are disadvantages to registering with WGA, that is, it will only save the registered materials for the creator for five to ten years, and renewal is required when they expire. However, the copyright office registration is permanent, and even more complete protection can be obtained in the event of legal disputes.

After some consideration, Simon chose to submit all the two scripts he had completed for registration.

The registration fee for a single script is $20, and the cost of two scripts plus the printing of materials has once again dried up Simon's wallet. Leaving the WGA building, thinking of the meeting in the afternoon, Simon made a copy of the "Butterfly Effect" script, and then picked an electronic watch from a roadside stand for less than $2.

After all this, it is past noon.

Simply buying a piece of food to fill his stomach, Simon rechecked his wallet. Yesterday's 198 dollars had fallen rapidly to less than 97 dollars.

Some helpless, but not too panic.

The worst is just living on the street. The possibility of starving to death is still very low. It's a big deal to find a church to get some free food stamps.

The agreed time is four o'clock in the afternoon. In order to ensure nothing is wrong, Simon came to the WMA headquarters half an hour in advance.

The WMA headquarters building on Camino Street is a modern-looking glass-steel structure building. Although the floor is not high, it is quite magnificent compared with other mediocre commercial buildings around it. There is a small building in front of the building. The square, these undoubtedly show WMA's outstanding position in Hollywood at this time.

Near four o'clock, Simon stepped into WMA headquarters five minutes early.

Explained his intention to the receptionist of the company, and the other party called. After a while, a white youth who looked less than thirty years old came out. The young man was dressed in a professional white shirt and black trousers. He was tall and thin, with gold-rimmed glasses, and dark brown. A gentle look.

The two briefly introduced that Simon knew that the other party's name was Owen Wright, who was Jonathan Friedman's assistant, and then followed the opposite direction to the inside of the building.

Shuttle in the spacious corridor close to the glass curtain wall, Simon found that the surrounding WMA employees were either hurriedly walking or frowning, and some people showed some alertness in their eyes after noticing his strange face.

For this situation, Simon did not feel too surprised.

According to the information he knows, WMA is experiencing a very serious turmoil in recent months.

In the first half of this year, WMA Chairman and CEO Maurice Stoller and President Stan Carmen passed away one after another.

The job vacancies caused by the deaths of the two core executives not only caused power struggles within the company, but brokerage companies such as C+ and ICM unceremoniously began to wield their hoes to dig at the foot of the wall during the turmoil of WMA.

Especially after the death of Stan Carmen, the first-line superstars such as Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, Barbra Streisand, Gotti Han and others under the name of this Hollywood gold agent all moved to C+. This incident directly hurt WMA's vitality.

Simon followed Owen Wright to the outside of an office and waited for a while in the lounge when a middle-aged white man with slightly gray hair pushed the door in from the outside.

The middle-aged man looks about forty or fifty years old. He is wearing a gray suit. He is not too tall. He is about seven feet tall. He is thin, with deep eye sockets, wide nose and black hair. He has a typical Jewish appearance.

In fact, Friedman is clearly a Jewish surname.

"Sorry, just ended a meeting." Seeing Simon getting up, Jonathan Friedman walked straight to him, staring at Simon lightly, with a gentle smile on his face, politely reaching out his hand to him, and said: "So, Simon Westero?"

Simon nodded, shook hands with the other party, and said, "Hello, Mr. Friedman, it's nice to meet you."

Jonathan Friedman nodded in response, and then made a please gesture.

The two walked into the next office together, and the middle-aged man still said familiarly: "This is the first time I heard the surname'Westero', so I immediately remembered it. Simon, this is your advantage. Hollywood, it’s not easy to be remembered."

Simon just smiled and didn't talk.

Jonathan Friedman motioned to Simon to sit down opposite the desk. After he took a seat, he relaxed his arms on the desk, crossing ten counts at will to the opposite young man.

The height is about 180cm, which is very standard.

The face is sharp and angular, brown hair, without the childishness of a young actor, very photogenic.

Black T-shirt, jeans, simple and plain clothes, but with a calm and self-confidence that surpasses peers, it is very attractive to the opposite sex.

The potential embryo of popular niche.

There is a kind of potential to develop into the Tom Cruise genre, and the recent box-office "Top Ambition" has really attracted too much attention.

However, this boy is a screenwriter.

Jonathan Friedman suddenly didn't expect much.

A good screenwriter requires experience, and Jonathan Friedman doesn't think a young man in his twenties can write an excellent screenplay. He even doubted whether the young man understood how to write a formal Hollywood script format.

In fact, Jonathan Friedman is not familiar with Catherine.

In addition to occasionally meeting at some Hollywood parties, the most recent encounter between the two is only one of Friedman's clients who is fighting for the actor in Catherine's upcoming film.

It is for this reason that Jonathan Friedman agreed to today's meeting after receiving a call from Catherine's recommendation, which is a good favor for the beautiful woman who has a certain right to speak in the film's casting.

Jonathan Friedman's original plan was that if the person Catherine introduced was not bad, he would recommend him to WMA's literary agency. After all, even if it is a Hollywood first-line screenwriter, the income to the agent is often not as good as that of a second-line actor, and he has no plan to act as a screenwriter in person. If it doesn't work, the favor is enough anyway, and there is nothing wrong with directly rejecting it.

But at this time, seeing Simon himself, Jonathan Friedman already had some thoughts of sending Simon away as soon as possible. He has just been promoted to WMA vice president this month. Recently, there has been a mess within the company. At this time, he is not in the mood to perfuse a very lofty young man.

Of course, Jonathan Friedman did not express this thought. He has always believed that to be an excellent agent, it is inevitable to maintain a humble attitude at all times.

After a brief evaluation in his heart, Jonathan Friedman still had a gentle tone, with a little encouragement and expectation, and said: "So, Simon, let me talk about your script first?"