Simon's last song left for Madonna, "Bad Romance," had helped the queen create yet another album that sold over ten million copies in North America.
Whenever she got the chance, Madonna would try to coax another song out of Simon.
As one of the top singers of this era, she had immediately recognized the value of "Paradise" the moment she heard it. Although the song did not suit her style, handed to the right singer it was more than enough to serve as the lead single for a hot-selling album.
After learning that Simon himself would be writing all the theme songs for the Victoria's Secret show, Madonna immediately clung to the man and begged to hear the rest.
Simon could not shake her off and finally let her have her way.
Of course, listening was one thing. Even though a couple of the tracks suited her style perfectly, Simon still insisted that good water should not flow into someone else's field.
As rehearsals for the Victoria's Secret show continued, word about the songs inevitably leaked.
When the media inquired, Daenerys Entertainment simply refused to confirm or deny anything.
According to the pre-arranged plan, the months-long early preparation phase of the show would steadily release all kinds of juicy tidbits: who had joined the Victoria's Secret Angels team, who had become a spokesmodel, which designer had created the signature angel wings, information about the runway background music, possible guest performers, ticket details for the show, and so on.
Through this continuous stream of exposure, Victoria's Secret's brand awareness would climb to a whole new level even before the show officially opened.
This was the fundamental goal of the entire marketing campaign.
July 31, the last day of July, another Friday.
The summer season had entered its second half. Two films debuted in North American theaters this week: Paramount Pictures' live-action and animation hybrid Cool World and Fox's vampire horror film Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Paramount's Cool World told the story of the male protagonist's series of ridiculous attempts to stop the real world from merging with the cartoon world. The film was clearly riding the wave of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
What Simon paid more attention to was Fox's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
This vampire movie written by Joss Whedon was the origin of the later television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Joss Whedon was also one of the key directors of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the original timeline, having directed two Avengers films.
Although he had taken note of Whedon, Simon was only temporarily treating him as potential reserve talent for Daenerys Entertainment.
Entering August, the summer season had essentially wrapped up.
Wonder Woman was undoubtedly the undisputed box office champion of the summer.
As of July 30, in its ninth week of release, Wonder Woman once again earned 11.53 million dollars. Two months after opening, its cumulative North American box office had reached 333.69 million dollars.
Considering the film's recent weekly drop curve and its still-healthy single-week base of ten million dollars, this superhero movie should be able to earn at least another thirty million dollars or so in the coming weeks. Its final North American total was expected to land between 360 million and 370 million dollars.
After Wonder Woman came Mel Gibson's Lethal Weapon 3. In the most recent week, Lethal Weapon 3's North American box office had already surpassed 140 million dollars and was nearing the end of its run.
Further down the list, Disney's Aladdin had gradually begun to draw industry attention.
This 2D animated film had not opened strongly, yet it possessed remarkable staying power and an exceptionally sturdy box office curve.
From its June 19 opening to July 30, after six weeks of release, Aladdin's cumulative box office had quietly reached 128 million dollars. Although the gap with Wonder Woman was large, its summer performance ranked only behind Lethal Weapon 3 and showed strong potential to overtake it in the weeks ahead.
Disney's other live-action comedy Sister Act had become the studio's second film of the summer to cross the hundred-million-dollar mark domestically.
When the numbers were tallied, Disney, with two domestic hundred-million-dollar films, had also enjoyed a bountiful summer second only to Daenerys Entertainment.
Daenerys Entertainment's co-productions Indecent Proposal, A Time to Kill, and The Last of the Mohicans had also performed well, but honestly all three hovered right around the hundred-million threshold and had not met Simon's expectations. Moreover, besides their own quality, a large part of their box office success came from occupying too many summer slots.
Of course, for the partner studios, simply touching the hundred-million mark was already a solid success.
Although DC Cinematic Universe blockbusters kept creating miracles, in the early nineties a North American film that could reach the hundred-million-dollar mark was actually not that common.
This summer, aside from the three co-productions that were still screening and had yet to reach their targets, only four films had truly crossed the hundred-million line so far: Wonder Woman, Lethal Weapon 3, Aladdin, and Sister Act.
Other titles such as Columbia's Far and Away, Fox's Alien 3, Paramount's Patriot Games, and Disney's Honey, I Blew Up the Kid all had respectable budgets but were stuck around the fifty-million-dollar range, far from the hundred-million mark.
In early August Simon flew to Australia once again.
Another superhero film under the DC Cinematic Universe banner, Cyborg, began principal photography on August 3.
Cyborg's scheduled release was at the end of next year, so there was no real need for such urgency. Warner Bros. nevertheless insisted on starting now to leave ample time for post-production and marketing.
On the other hand, Simon understood Warner's thinking perfectly.
Superman was still shooting. Cyborg's production schedule overlapped with Superman's by two months. By heading to Australia during this period to supervise Superman, Simon would find it impossible to ignore Cyborg entirely.
Warner had calculated Simon's sense of responsibility exactly right.
During the week he spent in Australia, Simon split his time roughly evenly between Superman and Cyborg.
Janet had come along as usual to visit the little one and, of course, to keep an eye on her man.
By the time they returned to Los Angeles on August 10, the opening weekend box office for the last summer film Simon cared about, Unforgiven, had already been released.
Clint Eastwood's old-school western had given Warner Bros. a pleasant surprise right from the start. Its three-day opening weekend earned 15.01 million dollars, already exceeding the film's 14 million dollar production budget.
Moreover, given the film's excellent word of mouth and the relatively mild competition in the late summer season, Unforgiven was poised to enjoy a very strong long run.
In Simon's memories, Unforgiven had still been the biggest winner at next year's Oscars, taking home Best Picture, Best Director, and several other major awards.
Of course, this year the Oscars had already been conceded to Warner Bros. Daenerys Entertainment had no intention of lying low again next year.
Barbara Streisand's controversial win for The Prince of Tides had also used up some of Warner's award luck. Next year the Academy voters would likely steer slightly clear of Warner titles in the voting process.
This was the kind of gain that came with an inevitable loss.
Back in Los Angeles, David Fincher delivered his budget proposal for Seven to Simon.
As a director who had only just completed his first feature film under heavy constraints, Simon knew full well that this proposal, which included casting recommendations, had probably been shaped behind the scenes by Fincher's agency. He did not bother digging deeper.
The final production budget David Fincher had set for Seven came in at thirty million dollars.
Simon could be certain this figure reflected Fincher's own wishes.
If it had been left to Fincher's agency ICM, they would have preferred to keep the budget for this crime thriller around twenty million dollars.
Thirty million dollars already qualified as an A-list production level.
Given the usual box office ceiling for crime thrillers, Hollywood studios generally avoided taking such risks.
Besides Morgan Freeman, whom Simon had already decided on as one of the two male leads, the other actor David Fincher recommended was named River Phoenix.
River Phoenix might be somewhat unfamiliar to many Hollywood fans years later, but in the early nineties he was a very bright new star on the rise.
A few years earlier, when Phoenix had appeared in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Harrison Ford, worried the young actor might steal his thunder, had imposed a series of restrictive conditions: no imitating his performance style, no public discussion of film secrets, and even during the promotional tour for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, River Phoenix's appearances had been pitifully few.
Yet none of that could suppress the brilliance of this new talent who had already earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the age of nineteen.
Born in 1970, the twenty-two-year-old River Phoenix had already starred in a large number of critically or commercially successful films since his debut. Simon knew that if the timeline remained unchanged, this rising Hollywood star would suddenly fall in 1993.
The reason was all too common in Hollywood: drug overdose.
Besides Phoenix's own talent, the other reason David Fincher had recommended him was that River Phoenix was also an ICM client.
In the original timeline, Phoenix had collapsed outside the Viper Room, the club owned by Johnny Depp. That had not been a coincidence, since Depp was also signed with ICM; they moved in the same circles.
In addition, after co-starring in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho the previous year, River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves had become good friends.
Hollywood was small.
Since Simon had no intention of using the original Brad Pitt, River Phoenix was indeed a suitable choice.
Twenty-two years old was exactly the right age for a young, green police officer.
Moreover, the price ICM quoted was very reasonable.
Two and a half million dollars.
Given River Phoenix's current popularity, that figure was actually on the low side for a lead role in a mainstream commercial film.
ICM clearly hoped that River Phoenix could have a starring vehicle that became a hit, rather than just supporting roles like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, niche critically acclaimed films like My Own Private Idaho, or ensemble pieces like Stand by Me.
Fortunately, projects personally overseen by Simon almost always delivered strong box office results.
Once he crossed that threshold and grew a little older, River Phoenix would have the potential to carry commercial blockbusters on his own.
Simon rarely paid attention to the private lives of Hollywood stars, but since he had now agreed to let River Phoenix star in Seven, he had to make sure the young actor would not cause problems.
At the very least, not during production.
Once the film was finished, whatever happened afterward would be his own business.
Everyone had to take responsibility for their own actions.
Therefore, after the basic agreement was roughly settled, Simon personally stipulated that River Phoenix must abstain from all drugs during filming. Daenerys Entertainment would conduct regular drug tests. Any violation would require the young actor to pay substantial compensation.
In Hollywood it was not uncommon for big-name stars to shuttle back and forth between rehab centers and film sets during production.
As long as the star was big enough, studios usually accommodated them.
River Phoenix's status, however, had clearly not reached that level.
Moreover, the instruction had come directly from Simon, so ICM had no choice but to take it seriously.
River Phoenix could of course choose to walk away, but refusing a promising project because he could not quit drugs would spread quickly. After that, the young actor would find it extremely difficult to land any good roles again, let alone any Daenerys Entertainment productions.
Therefore, ICM president Jeff Berg personally assured Simon that a dedicated handler would keep Phoenix under close watch during filming to ensure the artist caused no trouble on Seven.
Daenerys Studios.
Today was already August 19, a Wednesday.
After finishing the production meeting for Seven and listening to the producer of Forrest Gump report on the latest casting results from the past few days, it was already past six in the evening.
Tom Hanks was still shooting Sleepless in Seattle, yet preparations for Forrest Gump had already begun.
For a large-scale film with many roles, casting was extremely important.
Simon had personally designated only one part himself: Jenny, still played by the original Robin Wright.
Robin Wright was already a member of the DC Cinematic Universe.
However, although she was the girlfriend of Barry Allen the Flash, playing a supporting role with limited screen time in Forrest Gump would not feel too out of place.
Simon's decision was mainly driven by his desire for the film to stay faithful to the original.
It was already past six when he left work and headed home.
Janet had returned from the East Coast that afternoon. When Simon arrived at the Dume Point estate, she had just finished arranging dinner and was curled up on the sofa beside the glass wall of the shell villa, basking in the sunset and casually flipping through a magazine.
He handed his jacket to the Indian girl Alia who came to greet him, then walked over and sat beside Janet. He pulled her close, kissed her, and asked, "What are you reading now?"
"Forbes."
Janet casually showed him the magazine, then snuggled closer against him and said, "Yesterday in New York, Steve Forbes called me. He hoped we could provide some information. Forbes is releasing its new annual list of America's 400 richest people next month."
Simon asked, "How did you respond?"
Janet smiled and shook her head. "I simply ignored him, of course."
When it came to all kinds of wealth rankings, Simon had established a firm rule back when he first rose to prominence a few years earlier: the media could compile whatever lists they wanted, but the Westeros system would issue no comments and provide no data support.
Without "official" endorsement, even Forbes numbers would inevitably face media skepticism.
This was exactly the effect Simon wanted.
Still, hearing Janet mention it suddenly reminded him of something.
Another year had passed in the blink of an eye. The Westeros system had expanded so rapidly that he honestly did not know exactly how deep his own pockets had become. Naturally, he could not help feeling curious.
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