Hunting in Hollywood

After the weekend, the time moved into the last week of June.

Before this, "Wonder Woman" had officially started shooting in the UK on June 17, the previous Monday.

This time, Australia was not chosen as the shooting location, mainly because the origin story still follows the backdrop of World War I from Simon Westeros's memory of the Gal Gadot version, and Australia does not have similar scenery to wartime London and Paradise Island of the Amazons.

Therefore, the film was mainly shot in two European countries, the UK and Italy.

With a series of film projects initiated and commenced over the recent months, the 1992 major project slate of Daenerys Entertainment had basically been set.

In 1992, Daenerys Entertainment independently produced and distributed four key projects: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2" for the Easter schedule, "Wonder Woman" for the summer, "Home Alone 2" for Thanksgiving, and "Jurassic Park" for Christmas.

Additionally, the external collaboration film slate had been finalized with three films: "The Last of the Mohicans" in collaboration with Warner Bros, "The Peach Transaction" with Paramount, and "Killing Time" with MGM.

All seven films were blockbusters from Simon's memory.

After clarifying some patterns of Daenerys's productions, these seven projects became the focus of attention for everyone in Hollywood.

"Thank you for coming today, Sam, and Renata."

"No problem, Simon, this is what I should do."

"I'm honored to work with you, Steven."

At Daenerys Studios in Malibu.

The final audition for the lead roles of "Jurassic Park" had just concluded.

After recent screenings, Simon and Spielberg had finalized Sam Neill and Renata Russell as the actors for Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist, and Dr. Ellie Sattler, a paleobotanist, respectively.

The original "Jurassic Park" felt more like an ensemble cast, although Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler had more prominent roles.

Simon did not plan to make many changes to the original plot of "Jurassic Park."

However, he intended to rectify some mistakes made in the original series.

Most importantly, maintaining continuity throughout the series.

The "Jurassic Park" trilogy of the '90s, besides the first installment, which grossed over $900 million worldwide, the sequels each performed progressively worse at the box office.

In Simon's view, apart from the plot heavily mimicking the first and lacking innovation, the most significant reason was the lack of continuity in the story.

"Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World" saw all major characters from the first film exit, with only the dinosaur element carrying over, which substantially reduced the sequel's North American box office by half compared to the first.

Years later, the reboot "Jurassic World" didn't repeat these mistakes.

The lead actors, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, continued to participate after the first film's global box office explosion of $1.6 billion, and despite the sequel's mediocre reception, it still captured over $1.3 billion worldwide thanks to the coherent storyline.

Thus, from the start, Simon had determined at least two recurring characters.

They were none other than the scientist couple played by Sam Neill and Renata Russell, whom Daenerys Entertainment would directly sign to a trilogy deal.

Among them, Sam Neill was the original actor, needless to say.

Renata Russell, however, replaced the original Laura Dern.

Aside from personal reasons, Simon felt Renata, both in terms of age and demeanor, was more suited to the role of a paleobotanist than Laura Dern.

Laura Dern in the original film looked to be in her thirties, well-matched with Sam Neill, but in reality, the actress, who appeared older, was only 25 this year.

Memory served that Laura Dern got the role mainly because she had received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress the year before the film started shooting.

Steven Spielberg prefers not to work with very high-profile actors, and Laura Dern, with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, was just right in terms of popularity and acting skills.

This time, "Jurassic Park" was scheduled a year earlier, and the film "Passionate Rose," which got Laura Dern the Best Supporting Actress nomination, had not yet been released. Conveniently, Renata Russell, thanks to Simon's connections last year in "Goodfellas," had received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress this year.

Simon was indifferent towards Laura Dern, and Renata Russell was a perfect fit, so there was no need to fuss further.

After the audition, Sam Neill and Renata Russell left first, and Simon discussed other supporting actors with Spielberg and visited Daenerys's special effects to review the motion capture technology developed specifically for "Jurassic Park."

The velociraptors in the film would be shot using

 motion capture technology to make the visuals more vivid and life-like, rather than just pure CG animation.

Also, the early maturity of motion capture technology could be applied to many other films from Daenerys Entertainment.

Busy until noon, Simon had lunch with Spielberg and personally escorted him to the parking lot. Just as they were about to part, Spielberg seemed to suddenly remember something and said, "There's one more thing, Simon."

Seeing Spielberg's expression, Simon roughly guessed and smiled, signaling him to continue.

Spielberg also smiled and said, "About that 'The Last of the Mohicans' you're preparing, I have a goddaughter who hopes to try for the role of the younger sister among the two kidnapped sisters."

"Your goddaughter, Steven, is she the little girl from 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial', Drew Barrymore?"

Spielberg shook his head and said, "No, another one, named Gwyneth Paltrow. I've known her father for a long time, we worked together at Universal back in the day. She's 19 this year, just had a cameo in my 'Captain Hook'."

So, with such a godfather, what else can anyone say?

Simon sighed internally but did not hesitate, quickly agreeing, "No problem, I'll arrange it."

Michael Mann had been working on the script for "The Last of the Mohicans" during this time, and Simon had already seen the draft; the sisters' roles were not very substantial.

Moreover, if one could land an Oscar-winning actress, Gwyneth Paltrow certainly wouldn't lack talent. Although she was a goddaughter, the other party must understand that Spielberg's favor was not infinite and likely would not be as presumptuous as those 'goddaughters' Simon remembered who relied on their background.

Simon's rapid rise overshadowed the likes of Spielberg and other first-generation directors.

If it were said there were no misgivings, that would be impossible.

Originally, with Spielberg's status in Hollywood, such a minor role might just need a phone call. The reason for discussing it face-to-face with Simon was because all major creative positions for Daenerys Entertainment's key projects required Simon's approval.

Seeing Simon agree so readily, Spielberg's subconscious reservations about this young man diminished a lot.

The two continued chatting beside the car for a while before Spielberg drove away.

After sending Spielberg off, Simon had just turned around when his female assistant approached with a folder.

"America Online just sent over the latest revised prospectus. If you have no objections, it will be submitted to the SEC tomorrow, starting the IPO roadshow on July 1, and officially listing on July 12."

Following the procedure for listing on the U.S. stock market, America Online's prospectus had already been submitted two months ago, with only some minor clause adjustments made this time.

Simon took the folder from his assistant while walking and opened it to the marked revision areas.

After recent adjustments, America Online's total share capital was roughly set at 150 million shares, with Westeros Company holding 112.9 million shares, a slightly more than 75% stake. The remaining about 25% of the shares belonged to early-stage investing companies and America Online's management.

Additionally, this IPO would adjust the company to a dual-class stock structure.

The original 150 million shares were Class A shares, while the newly issued 22.5 million shares were Class B shares.

The voting rights of Class B shares were only one-tenth of those of Class A shares.

After issuing new shares equivalent to 15% of the total capital, Westeros Company's voting rights would actually decrease by less than 1%, still reaching 74.1%.

Thus, unless Simon voluntarily gave up, almost no one could wrest control of America Online from Westeros Company, even if the original shareholders who also owned some Class A shares couldn't.

The main adjustment in Simon's revised document was the IPO pricing range for America Online.

Morgan Stanley, responsible for the IPO's underwriting, had initially valued America Online's IPO at $2.5 billion two months ago. Due to the continuous explosion in America Online users and market anticipation for its IPO, the initial valuation had been continuously raised.

This revision submitted a pricing range of $19 to $21 per share.

At the highest new share price of $21, the valuation made for America Online was $3.15 billion.

Given America Online's user growth rate, the total number of users was expected to reach 3.5 million by the end of the first half of 1990, with the potential to surpass 7 million for the year.

At an average monthly payment of $30 per user, reaching 3.5 million users would allow America Online's monthly revenue to exceed $100 million, not including additional user growth in the second half of the year. Thus, Simon actually felt that the $3.15 billion valuation was still low.

However, he did not plan to raise the

 issue price further.

Leaving extra stock price growth potential to the market would benefit America Online and the entire internet industry.

It's known that Cisco's IPO was also in preparation.

Cisco targeted the entire U.S. ISP business, riding the internet boom and Westeros system's monopoly on World Wide Web technology, and this company's growth over the past year had been even more rapid. However, as a hardware manufacturer, Cisco's performance was not as visually striking as America Online's monthly user number growth.

Simon scheduled Cisco's listing after America Online's for this reason.

If America Online could achieve a strong debut, the capital market would definitely pursue Cisco with equal fervor.

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