Chereads / Hollywood Hunting / Chapter 4 - Chapter 004 - Turbulent William Morris

Chapter 4 - Chapter 004 - Turbulent William Morris

Unconsciously, it was already dusk, and the lights on both sides of the street lit up.

Simon looked at the two dumbfounded women in front of him, and remind them that they should go back, Malibu, is far west of Los Angeles, far from Burbank. Finally, he suggested that Kathryn should drive, driving with high heels is too dangerous.

Seeing that everything in Simon is normal, there is no sign of illness. Kathryn was relieved, and Inexplicably, she didn't want to explore Simon's past.

Looking at Janet next to her, who was still stunned by Simon's answer, Kathryn felt a little funny again.

Finally, someone could shut her up.

The female gangster pretending to be mad meets a real lunatic coming out of the mental hospital, hehe.

Putting Janet into the co-pilot, Kathryn also got in the car, hesitating, she told Simon, who was standing outside the window, if he had any difficulties, he could contact her, then she started the car and drove away.

Turning around at the intersection not far away, Kathryn give a final nod to the boy on the roadside, then she slowly stepped on the accelerator,

Giving a last Look at the two women, Simon raised the backpack on his shoulder and turned to leave.

After buying a map of downtown Los Angeles from a nearby store, Simon sat down at an open-air fast food restaurant, ordered the cheapest dinner available, and began to read the map.

Because he inherited the memories of twelve other people, Simon found that not only have their professional skills, but also decades of All kinds of information, Simon found that he know Hollywood like the back of his hand.

It seems that he still has the potential to be a paparazzi.

Thinking so amusingly, Simon easily found the location of WMA's headquarters on the map. Camino Street happens to be just a short distance from the intersection of Beverly Hills and the most bustling Welsh Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard.

Nearby is Century City Park where media companies gather, where the 20th Century Fox Studios is located. At the same time, WMA's rival CAA headquarters is also not far away.

Marked the location of WMA headquarters, Simon also found the headquarters address of the Writers Guild of America.

Filling his stomach, Simon walked out of the restaurant after checking out.

Then he began to worry about how to leave Burbank.

In the 1980s, Los Angeles had neither bus nor subways, taxis were equally scarce, and required a telephone reservation.

After wandering around the street for more than half an hour with no luck in finding a taxi, Simon realized that he still underestimated the lack of public transportation in Los Angeles.

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

Early the next morning, Simon phone booked a taxi, with the help of the hotel owner, After bargaining with the driver who arrived, he finally paid $15 with a tip before the driver sent him to West Hollywood on the other side of Santa Monica Mountain.

Although there is still some distance from his destination, to save money, Simon chooses to get off at Melrose Avenue. Fortunately, he still had a lot of time. Following the directions on the map, Simon walked along the nearby north-south intersection of Melrose Avenue and Fairfax Avenue for more than 20 minutes, He came outside the WGA building.

Simon rushed here not to join the writers' union. He does not have such qualifications yet, he mainly came here for copyright registration.

According to federal copyright law, in theory, the creator automatically obtains the copyright after completing the work. But in reality, once a legal dispute occurs, the registered copyright become key evidence.

In the United States, there are many ways to register a copyright, there are even some privately-run registration agencies.

The most authoritative of these is the U.S. Copyright Office, but due to the extremely low work efficiency of the US government departments, if you submit a registration to the Copyright Office, it may take four to six months for the creator to get the copyright certificate, the review progress is slow. It's horrifying.

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

All you have to do is to prepare the materials and registration fees, and you can get the registration certificate on the same day.

Of course, there are disadvantages to registering with WGA, that is, they will only save the registered materials for creators for five to ten years, renewal is required upon expiration. The registration of the Copyright Office is permanent, in the event of legal disputes, you can obtain better protection.

After some consideration, Simon still chose to register his two completed scripts.

The registration fee for a single script is $20, the two scripts plus the cost of printing once again dried up Simon's wallet. Leaving the WGA building he thought of the meeting in the afternoon, so he made a copy of the "The Butterfly Effect" script, and brought a $2 electronic watch from a roadside stall.

After all these things have been done, it was past noon.

Buying a simple launch to fill his stomach, Simon rechecked his wallet, yesterday's $198 has quickly dropped to less than $97.

He felt a little helpless, but not panic.

The most serious thing is nothing more than living on the street, the possibility of starvation is still very low, it's a big deal to find a church for some free food stamps.

The appointment time is four o'clock in the afternoon, so to ensure that he will arrive on time, Simon arrived near the WMA headquarters half an hour early.

The WMA headquarters building on Camino Street is a very modern glass-reinforced steel building, Although the building is not high, compared with other commercial buildings in the surroundings, it is quite impressive. There is also a small square in front of the building, these undoubtedly show WMA's preeminent status in Hollywood at this time.

Near four o'clock, Simon stepped into the WMA headquarters five minutes ahead of schedule.

Explaining his intention to the receptionist, Simon was told to wait, after a phone call, a white young man who looked less than thirty years old greeted him. The young man was wearing a professional white shirt and black trousers, tall and thin, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with a head full of hair, giving him a gentle look.

He introduced himself as Owen Wright, Jonathan Friedman's assistant, and asked him to follow him.

Walking through the spacious corridor next to the glass curtain wall, Simon found that the surrounding WMA employees were either hurriedly walking or frowning, when they noticed his strange face they showed a little vigilance in their eyes.

For this situation, Simon did not feel too surprised.

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

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

The vacancies caused by the death of the two core senior executives not only caused a power struggle within the company, but also the brokerage companies such as CAA and ICM took advantage of the turmoil of WMA, and unceremoniously began to dig away WMA agents and artists.

Especially after the death of Stan Carmen, the first-tier superstars such as Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, Barbra Streisand, Goldie Hawn and other top stars, all switched to CAA, this change directly hurts WMA's vitality.

Simon followed Owen Wright to an office. Waiting for a moment in the lounge, a middle-aged white man with slightly grey hair pushed the door from the outside and walked in.

The middle-aged man looked to be around 40 to 50 years old, Not too tall, with deep eye sockets, a wide nose bridge, a typical Jewish appearance.

Friedman is a Jewish surname.

Seeing Simon get up, Jonathan Friedman came straight to him, and reached out to shake his hand while saying: "So, you are Simon Westeros?"

Simon nodded and" shook his hand: Hello, Mr Friedman, nice to meet you."

Jonathan Friedman nodded in response and made a gesture for Simon to follow him to his office.

"This is the first time I heard the surname "Westeros", so I immediately remember it. Simon, this is your advantage, In Hollywood, it's not easy to be remembered."

Simon just smiled and didn't talk.

After they sat down at the desk, Jonathan took a deep look at the young man opposite him.

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

The face is sharp and angular.

Brown hair.

There is no childishness of young actors.

Very photogenic.

Black T-shirts, jeans, dressed simple and plain.

But there is a calm and self-confidence beyond his peers.

Very attractive to the opposite sex.

There is potential to develop towards the Tom Cruise type, the box office of "Top Gun" has attracted too much attention recently.

However, this boy is a screenwriter.

Jonathan Friedman suddenly didn't have any expectations.

A good screenwriter needs experience, and Jonathan Friedman doesn't think that a young man in his twenties can write a great script. He even wondered if this young man understood how to write a formal Hollywood script.

Actually, Jonathan Friedman and Kathryn Bigelow are not very familiar.

Apart from occasionally meeting at some Hollywood parties, the recent intersection of the two is only because he has a customer who is fighting for the lead role in Kathryn's upcoming film.

It is for this reason, Jonathan agreed to today's meeting after receiving the call from Kathryn, it can be regarded as a favour to the beautiful woman who has the right to speak in the film's casting.

Jonathan Friedman's original intention was that If the person introduced by Kathryn is not bad, he'll readily recommend the other party to WMA's literary agency. After all, even if it is a Hollywood top screenwriter, the income brought to the agent is often not as good as a second-line actor, he didn't plan to act as a screenwriter agent himself. If the writing of Simon is bad, then there is nothing wrong with refusing directly.

But at this time, seeing Simon himself, Jonathan already started thinking of sending Simon away as soon as possible. He has just been promoted to vice president of WMA this month, and with all the mess in the company, he has no mood to take care of this ambitious young man.

Of course, Jonathan Friedman did not show what he was thinking on his face, He always believed that to be an excellent agent, it is inevitable to maintain a humble attitude at all times.

After the brief internal assessment, Jonathan said with a gentle tone: "So, Simon, let's talk about your script first?"