Chapter 005

Simon took the script for the butterfly effect out of his backpack and handed it to Jonathan Friedman.

Jonathan Friedman didn't open it. He just glanced at the cover, put the script on the desk and continued to look at him with a smile.

In this case, Simon sorted out his thoughts and began to elaborate: "this is a suspense thriller of soft science fiction. From a very young age, people around Ivan often found that the child would make some very strange or even strange behaviors without any reason. However, after everything, he always claimed that he did not remember the situation at that time. The doctor classified Ivan's condition as intermittent amnesia and recommended him to write a diary for adjuvant treatment

Simon said this, noticed that Jonathan Friedman's expression had shown a bit of curiosity, and went on.

The general plot of butterfly effect is the story of a young man who has the ability to go back to the past by reading his diary. In order to make up for his regret, he tries to change his life time and time again.

However, every time the hero tries to change the past, when he returns to the age of 20, he finds that everything around him doesn't develop according to his imagination, or even gets worse.

The biggest feature of the butterfly effect is its rigorous plot, which is closely linked to each other. The whole story is like a well conceived network, and all the details can be found in other places.

Therefore, this film is a classic in the hearts of many fans of suspense thrillers.

In the original time and space, the production company of "Butterfly Effect" was new line film. Simon heard that there were many endings in the film editing process. However, what he finally chose is the darkest and the most powerful one. After trying again and again, the hero went back to his mother's womb in despair and strangled himself with the umbilical cord.

Then the whole story came to an abrupt end.

After Simon's brief introduction, Jonathan Friedman, who had no expectations for him, fell into silence.

"Back to the future," the first film of Robert zemigs, was just released last year and won the box office title of the year in 1985.

Therefore, Simon's play, which is similar to "back to the future", is far beyond Jonathan Friedman's expectation. He even thinks that this story is even better than "back to the future" in simple conception.

At least now, just such a novel script idea is enough to persuade him to recommend Simon to the literature agency of wma.

You know, Hollywood is also full of follow-up phenomenon. It is only because of the generally long production cycle of Hollywood movies that people do not feel that a movie is hot in the first half of the year and a lot of movies of the same type will be released in the second half of the year.

Therefore, when "back to the future" won the box office champion last year, Simon's idea, as long as it is combined with a relatively perfect script, can definitely arouse the strong interest of Hollywood film companies.

What's more, such a strangely conceived thriller happens to be the type of project Jonathan Friedman is looking for recently.

Now the key is, what is the quality of the script in hand?

After all, Hollywood never lacks creativity. What it lacks is a perfect story script that can be transformed into a wonderful film on the basis of relevant creativity.

Many Hollywood movies usually have to go through a long period of revision in the script creation stage. The main reason is that there are too many details between an operable script and the original story creation that need to be adjusted.

Thinking quickly in his mind, he looked down at the cover of the play in his hand. Jonathan Friedman subconsciously asked a question similar to Catherine's yesterday: "Simon, can you explain the meaning of" Butterfly Effect "first

Simon nodded and explained the theory of Professor Edward Lorenz at MIT again.

When Jonathan Friedman finished listening, he asked a question that surprised him: "so, did you go to MIT?"

"No," Simon shook his head, but immediately added, "I went to Stanford last year and got a full scholarship. I just dropped out early because of some changes."

Simon said that, and Jonathan Friedman's expression changed a little bit.

Although Stanford University does not belong to the Ivy League of the United States, in fact, the overall strength of this top university on the west coast of the United States has surpassed most members of the league, and has a significant place in the world university rankings.

Simon can enter Stanford University in the form of full scholarship, even if he has dropped out at this time, but this kind of qualification can definitely make Jonathan Friedman's evaluation of him several grades higher.

Simon also knew that he was actually conducting an interview.

Westerners don't pay attention to modesty. The better a person performs in an interview, the more successful he is.

Therefore, Simon didn't hesitate to take advantage of his qualifications.

Simon said, seeing Jonathan Friedman glancing at his watch, hesitated, and said at the right time, "Mr. Friedman, I made the outline of the first ten pages of the script. Maybe you can have a look first. It's more detailed than what I just told you."Jonathan Friedman nodded at the words and turned the script in front of him.

However, the content of the first page of the script once again made him stunned, but it was a copyright registration certificate of the American Writers Union.

Shaking his head and smiling a little, Jonathan Friedman flipped over, but completely changed his initial impression of Simon. The young man in front of him is obviously not one of those crazy young people who think they can make a great success when they bump into Hollywood.

Jonathan Friedman didn't feel too surprised to see the beautiful and neat handwriting in English though it was a copy. Of course, the heart of Simon's evaluation will inevitably rise again a lot.

Hollywood may have more copyright lawsuits every year than the movies it produces. It is also Simon's helpless move to directly paste WGA's copyright registration certificate on the title page. He will not be naive enough to think that a giant like wma can't make small moves to embezzle other people's scripts.

Now Simon can't stand such twists and turns, so he simply cuts off some possible disputes from the source.

In fact, as Jonathan Friedman thought, although he inherited the memory of the other 12 people, Simon is definitely not the kind of young man who thinks he can make a big splash in Hollywood.

From the beginning of the idea of rushing to Los Angeles, Simon has begun to make a very detailed planning.

Although he has a pretty good skin, Simon doesn't plan to be an actor. His first stage goal is to become a director, but without any qualifications and contacts, this is obviously unlikely in the short term.

So, starting from the screenwriter with a lower threshold is a very good choice.

According to some information in Simon's memory, the two major writers' unions on the East and west coasts of Hollywood register more than 60000 scripts every year, which seems to be a huge number. But in Hollywood, the total number of all cinema films, TV films and low-cost independent films with direct distribution of video tapes is over 600 every year.

The success rate of 1% is very high in Simon's opinion.

What's more, in the tens of thousands of plays that appear every year, mediocrity still accounts for the majority. But as a passer-by, Simon's plays are basically the best after the waves.

Moreover, in the initial selection of the script, Simon also carefully weighed various factors.

As a newcomer to Hollywood, if he wants to make sure that his script is favored by the film company as much as possible, he must first produce it at a low cost. Now if Simon takes out the script of Titanic, he will be directly thrown into the garbage can with a 99% probability. Secondly, the story must be novel enough to make people shine. Finally, it's better to cover the hot elements of some box office blockbusters in recent years.

"Butterfly Effect" is exactly in line with the above three: low cost, new ideas, through the elements to follow suit, last year's box office champion "back to the future".

In the office, as Jonathan Friedman read, there was a moment of silence.

When the knock came to mind, Jonathan Friedman found himself unconsciously reading the text of the play. The script text in the standard Hollywood format is also impeccable. The beautiful handwritten English not only has no sense of violation, but also gives people a more comfortable reading experience.

Immersed in reading and suddenly disturbed by others, Jonathan Friedman raised his head in displeasure and found his assistant Irving Wright standing by the door and gesturing to him.

Looking at his schedule, Jonathan Friedman said to his assistant, "if Courtney has nothing else to do, let her wait for a while. It's the same with the appointment in the back. I'll be late today. "

Irving Wright looked at Simon, who was sitting with his back to him, and nodded. As he was about to leave the office, Jonathan Friedman called out and said, "besides, make two cups of coffee."

When the door closes again, Jonathan Friedman smiles at Simon. He doesn't explain anything, but turns his attention back to the script in front of him.

Simon didn't mind. He glanced at the electronic watch on his wrist.

It's 4:13 now.

In other words, Jonathan Friedman should have reserved only 10 minutes for himself to meet. If he didn't perform well, he might have been dismissed now.

Simon didn't have any problem with this. He would have done the same for himself.

Politeness is a person's accomplishment, but work should be done according to the rules. He is still an unknown Hollywood rookie, only worth 10 minutes.

Owen Wright quickly brought in two cups of coffee. Simon took the cup, said thanks and continued to wait patiently for Jonathan Friedman to read the script.