Like A League of Their Own, the John Hughes project Home Alone would also be starting production soon.
Yesterday, Simon had been tied up with A League of Their Own, Ghost, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Today, he spent most of the daytime on the phone, discussing every detail of Home Alone with John Hughes in Chicago.
With Simon pushing from behind the scenes, the lead role in Home Alone was still set as the original choice, Macaulay Culkin.
Culkin happened to be signed with WMA. Although, thanks to Simon's butterfly effect, he had not appeared in John Hughes's Uncle Buck last year, the kid had already shown up in plenty of film and TV roles before, and he was also a child model signed with Ford Models.
Besides Culkin, the two bumbling burglars were also cast as their original versions: Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern.
Once the "original" lineup was confirmed, Simon did not need to worry much more.
Lately, that was basically his attitude toward a lot of the projects in his hands.
Daenerys Entertainment had grown more and more dazzling over the past two years, or rather, more and more blinding. Even if one or two of these projects failed, it would not matter much to Simon. If anything, it might be just right.
After a full day's work, Simon left Santa Monica at seven in the evening and headed straight for Coldwater Canyon in Beverly Hills.
Coldwater Canyon was part of Beverly Hills, right up against the western side of Trousdale Estates. The neighborhood wound upward from Coldwater Canyon Park near Sunset Boulevard at the foot of the hills, all the way to Mulholland Drive at the top, stretching more than five kilometers. On both sides of the canyon road, mansions packed close together, another celebrity enclave in Los Angeles.
By the time he reached Fox president Joe Roth's home, night had already fallen.
Roth's villa was a typical Los Angeles two-story, minimalist white house, sitting on roughly a quarter acre. Considering the location and everything else, it still counted as a mansion by LA standards.
James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger had arrived early, and there were plenty of other film people in the yard as well.
After greeting a few guests, Simon followed Roth and Cameron up to the sun deck on the second floor. There was, of course, no sun at the moment, but from the terrace you could faintly see a corner of Los Angeles glowing with city lights.
The three sat down beside the terrace chairs. Roth spoke first. "I've already talked with Jim a few times. Simon, Terminator 2 is set at a fifty-million budget, and Jim will still direct. But if the project goes over budget, Jim automatically forfeits his directing fee. This time, we'll also put stricter financial oversight in place to make sure production doesn't spiral out of control. Does that work for you?"
Simon did not answer right away. Instead, he looked at Cameron. "Jim, do you think you can do it?"
Cameron pulled a stiff little grin and nodded. "Shouldn't be a problem."
Simon offered no comment, turning back to Roth. "What's Arnold's fee?"
Roth paused. "Fifteen million." Seeing Simon's eyebrow lift, Roth hurried to explain. "Stallone's fee on Tango & Cash already hit fifteen million. Arnold refuses to take less than Stallone."
A fifty-million budget, with Schwarzenegger taking fifteen million. Cameron, even after the disaster of The Abyss, would still get his three-million guaranteed fee at minimum.
Add in the other key creatives, and there would be less than thirty million left for the actual production.
With Cameron's spending habits, finishing Terminator 2 on under thirty million would be a miracle.
A cold smile tugged at the corner of Simon's mouth. "I looked up the box office on Arnold's last few action movies this afternoon. Predator, he took three million and it made fifty-nine million. Commando, his fee was five million and it made thirty-eight million. Last year's Red Heat, his fee jumped to eight million, and the box office dropped to thirty-five million. Following that trend, if Terminator 2 pays fifteen million, the box office should be… what, fifteen million too?"
Roth said, "Simon, Arnold built huge popularity off the first Terminator. His fee can't be compared to other original projects."
Cameron chimed in. "Terminator 2 isn't the same as those movies. I'm confident it'll succeed."
"I'm very bullish on the project too," Simon said, looking at Cameron again. "But Daenerys Entertainment isn't Carolco. We're not going to hand out insane, sky-high salaries without any sense. Arnold's already in post on Total Recall. If my information is right, he only took a one-million base, yes? For Terminator 2, he has two options. One, the same structure as Total Recall, a low base with backend participation. Two, keep his fee at the Red Heat level, only eight million."
Roth and Cameron both fell silent.
Simon did not wait for them to respond. He continued immediately. "Compared to those last three action films, Total Recall spent sixty-five million even with Arnold practically giving up his fee. Carolco's odds of recouping aren't great. After that, I doubt any studio will be willing to gamble on Arnold again. Terminator 2 is the project most likely to restore his momentum. So those are the only two offers I'll make. Or we can wait for Total Recall, and by then, Arnold's fee might be even lower."
In Simon's memory, Total Recall would clear two hundred million worldwide.
Carolco would only scrape by with a hard-earned profit, but it would still count as a success.
Because Total Recall hit big, Schwarzenegger would regain a status comparable to Stallone in the action world.
But Simon was not about to say any of that.
And then it struck him, besides Total Recall, Arnold also had another fairly successful project in this period: Kindergarten Cop.
In his memory, that too was a global hit over two hundred million, similar to Arnold's unexpectedly successful comedy Twins from the end of the year before last.
Simon had not mentioned that film just now, because for most people, the success of Twins was an accident. Schwarzenegger could not turn into a comedy actor because of it. Action films were still his foundation.
With that thought, Simon made up his mind to snatch Kindergarten Cop first.
If necessary, he could even grab projects like True Lies and Eraser ahead of time.
With his advantage of foresight, sabotaging a Hollywood figure's career trajectory was, for Simon, very easy.
As for Terminator 2, Simon was not in any hurry at all.
And besides, although it had not been publicly announced yet, Daenerys Entertainment and Fox had already signed a partnership agreement, one of the ten-film plan projects. In other words, the initiative on this project was already firmly in Simon's hands.
After thinking for a moment, Roth asked, "Then I go talk to Arnold?"
Simon nodded. "I haven't had dinner. Joe, have someone bring me something, anything is fine."
"Of course."
Roth agreed, stood up, glanced at Cameron, and headed downstairs.
Cameron watched the young man in front of him, suddenly unsure whether he should excuse himself. He had already watched Batman several times. The groundbreaking details in it impressed him deeply, and he had originally wanted to have a real conversation with Simon about it.
But Westeros as a studio boss was, frankly, not very likable.
Simon studied Cameron's restless posture and suddenly said, "Jim, has anyone ever told you the story about Coppola and the elephants?"
Cameron looked confused.
Realizing Cameron had never heard it, Simon explained. "It's a story from when Coppola was shooting Apocalypse Now. During filming, Coppola wanted to bring in a few elephants for a scene. But that project was already massively over budget and behind schedule. Transporting elephants to set would cost a fortune, and it would delay production even more. The producer tried to stop Coppola, saying not everything can be perfect, you have to give something up. In the end, there were no elephants in Apocalypse Now, and it was still a huge success."
Cameron naturally assumed Simon was talking about last year's The Abyss. He could not find a rebuttal and could only nod awkwardly. "Simon, I understand what you mean."
"I've seen the first Terminator more than once," Simon went on. "Jim, if you could make something that perfect with six-point-four million back then, there's no reason you can't finish other films within a set budget now. Last year's The Abyss burned through $65.5M. I heard the pressure's been rough, but that's just psychological pressure. What you might not know is that a lot of people at Fox lost their jobs because of that project. They weren't fired because The Abyss underperformed. This business is risky by nature. They were fired because the budget went out of control. You need to understand, studio money doesn't fall from the sky either."
Cameron's expression flickered. After a moment, he finally said, "Simon, I'll be more careful from now on."
At that moment, a server brought up some food.
After the server left, Simon gestured at Cameron. When Cameron shook his head, Simon pulled the tray toward himself, picked up his utensils, and said, "I studied the effects plan for The Abyss. That CG alien tech should be usable for the liquid metal robot in Terminator 2, right?"
The effects for The Abyss had, in fact, been produced by Daenerys Effects Studio.
And whether it was The Abyss or the Terminator 2 in Simon's memory, the effects spending was not actually that high.
What made both projects so expensive was Cameron's perfectionism and his chronic delays.
Last year, The Abyss had a shoot that dragged on for five months. In the original timeline, Terminator 2 shot for six months. Compared to Hollywood's average three-month schedule, that was the real reason both budgets spiraled out of control.
From a fan's perspective, given Cameron's box office track record, any amount of money was justified.
But from a studio's perspective, unless you were Carolco, the sort of outfit that did not mind burning other people's money, working with Cameron was pure suffering.
When Simon brought up the effects tech from The Abyss, Cameron perked up and started talking with him.
A little over ten minutes later, Roth came back. After sitting down, he told Simon, "Ten million. Arnold's agent insists. He says Arnold is considering another film, and if we don't agree, this project gets pushed to next year before we talk again."
Simon hesitated briefly, then decided not to get stuck on it. "Then announce it tomorrow."
If they kept fighting over that extra two million, Simon knew Schwarzenegger really would drag the project out. Right now, the initiative was not in the studio's hands.
And although Simon had just acted pessimistic about Total Recall, he was the one person who knew the truth. Once summer hit and Schwarzenegger bounced back with Total Recall, signing him would become even harder.
Roth felt a real wave of relief and nodded quickly.
During this period, because Batmanhad exploded far beyond anyone's expectations, Fox had started taking this project Simon favored much more seriously.
Now that Terminator 2 was secured, Fox's flagship film for next year finally had a backbone.
After that, Simon looked at Cameron. "Jim, over the next few months, hire people and finish a complete storyboard script for the sequel. Once filming starts, I want you to know exactly what you want, not to develop hundreds of thousands of feet of useless footage."
In the original version of Terminator 2, Cameron developed more than a million feet of film, and less than one percent of it made the cut. That film stock was, in practical terms, a mountain of budget burned.
Simon would not allow that to happen a second time.
As long as Cameron's uncontrolled spending during production was strictly restrained, even if they still went over a bit, it would never balloon into the original budget level of over one hundred million.
Cameron, naturally, agreed readily.
The three talked a while longer. Cameron stood and left first. Roth followed Simon's absent gaze toward the yard below and tested the waters. "Simon, want to go down and mingle a bit?"
Down in the courtyard there were at least thirty people. And although many pretended to chat with one another, they were all closely watching what happened up on the terrace.
Simon had only done a quick round of greetings when he arrived. Everyone downstairs was hoping to talk to him more.
The success of Batman, and the sheer volume of resources Simon controlled, had already raised his status in Hollywood to a level even he might not fully grasp yet.
Batman: The Dark Knight, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, all those DC film universe projects would begin casting soon. All of Hollywood was watching. And beyond that, projects like Terminator 2 and The Fugitive, part of the ten-film plan, also meant a flood of opportunities.
Simon was not in the mood to hunt tonight, but he did not refuse Roth's invitation either. He nodded, stood up, and went downstairs with him to join the crowd.