Simon took out the script for "The Butterfly Effect" from his backpack and handed it to Jonathan Friedland.
Jonathan Friedland didn't open it. He just glanced at the cover, placed the script on the table, and continued to smile at him.
Since that was the case, Simon organized his thoughts and began to elaborate: "This is a science fiction thriller centred around Evan. From a very young age, people around Evan often found that the child would inexplicably do some very strange, even eerie, things.
However, Evan always claimed afterwards that he had no memory of what had happened.
Doctors classified Evan's condition as intermittent amnesia and recommended he use journaling as an auxiliary treatment."
As Simon spoke, he noticed a hint of curiosity in Jonathan Friedland's expression, so he continued to talk.
-The general plot idea of "The Butterfly Effect" is the story of a young man with the ability to travel back in time, taking control of his younger self, by reading his diary, he repeatedly travels through time to try and change various traumatic events in his life in order to make up for past regrets.
However, each time the male protagonist tried to change the past, when he returned to the twenty-year-old timeline, he found that everything around him had not developed as he had imagined, and had even become worse.
The greatest feature of "The Butterfly Effect" is its tightly interwoven and astonishingly rigorous plot.
The entire story is like a meticulously conceived large net, where all details can find corresponding nodes elsewhere.
Therefore, this film is considered a classic by many suspense thriller enthusiasts.
In the original timeline, "The Butterfly Effect" was produced by New Line Cinema.
Simon heard that the film had many different endings during the editing process.
However, he ultimately chose the darkest and most impactful one, where the male protagonist, after repeated attempts and failures, desperately returns to his mother's womb and strangles himself with the umbilical cord.
Then the entire story abruptly ends.-
After Simon finished his brief summary, Jonathan Friedland, who had not held much expectation for him, fell silent.
Robert Zemeckis's "Back to the Future" had just been released last year and became the 1985 box office champion.
Therefore, Simon's script, which also contained time-travel elements much like "Back to the Future", far exceeded Jonathan Friedland's expectations.
He even felt that, in terms of pure conceptualization, this story was even better than "Back to the Future."
At least for now, such a unique script concept alone was enough to convince him to recommend Simon to WMA's literary agency department.
It's important to note that Hollywood is also filled with a lot of bandwagon phenomena; it's just that due to the generally longer production cycles of Hollywood films, people don't feel the sense of a cluster, where if a film is hot in the first half of the year, a bunch of similar films are released in the second half.
Therefore, with "Back to the Future" winning last year's box office championship, Simon's idea, if paired with a relatively complete script, would definitely arouse strong interest from Hollywood film companies.
Furthermore, such a uniquely conceived thriller was precisely the type of project Jonathan Friedland had been looking for recently.
The key now was, what was the quality of the script he held?
After all, Hollywood never lacked creativity; what it lacked was a complete story script that could be transformed into an excellent film based on relevant creativity.
Many Hollywood films often undergo years of extensive revisions during the scriptwriting stage, mainly because there are too many details that need to be refined and adjusted between a workable script and the initial story concept.
As he quickly pondered, he looked down at the script cover in his hand, and Jonathan Friedland subconsciously asked a question similar to what Kathryn had asked yesterday: "Simon, can you first explain the meaning of 'The Butterfly Effect'?"
Simon nodded and once again explained Professor Edward Lorenz's theory from MIT.
After listening, Jonathan Friedland asked a question that somewhat surprised him: "So, you attended MIT?"
"No," Simon shook his head, but immediately added, "I entered Stanford last year and received a full scholarship, but I dropped out early due to some unforeseen circumstances."
When Simon said this, Jonathan Friedland's expression clearly changed a bit.
Although Stanford University is not part of the American Ivy League, this top institution on the West Coast of the United States actually surpasses most Ivy League members in overall strength and holds a significant place in world university rankings.
The fact that Simon was able to enter Stanford University with a full scholarship, even if he had dropped out, definitely raised Jonathan Friedland's evaluation of him by several notches.
Simon also understood in his heart that he was essentially undergoing an interview at this moment.
Westerners don't emphasize modesty; the better one performs during an interview, the higher their chances of success.
Therefore, Simon didn't hesitate to use any qualifications he could at this moment.
After Simon finished speaking, he saw Jonathan Friedland glance at his watch, his expression somewhat hesitant, so he spoke up at the right moment: "Mr. Friedland, the first ten pages of the script are my story outline.
Perhaps you could take a look; it's more detailed than my explanation just now."
Jonathan Friedland nodded upon hearing this, no longer conflicted, and promptly opened the script in front of him.
However, the content of the first page made him pause again; it was a copyright registration certificate from the Writers Guild of America.
Shaking his head slightly and smiling, Jonathan Friedland casually turned the page, but his initial perception of Simon had completely changed.
The young man opposite him was clearly not one of those hot-headed greenhorns who thought they could strike it rich by simply barging into Hollywood.
Subsequently, seeing the beautiful and neat English handwriting, even though it was a photocopy, Jonathan Friedland was no longer too surprised.
Of course, his evaluation of Simon in his heart inevitably rose quite a bit again.
Hollywood's annual copyright disputes might even outnumber the films it produces.
Directly attaching the WGA copyright registration certificate to the title page was also Simon's last resort.
He wasn't naive enough to hope that an industry giant like WMA was above pulling a fast one and appropriating someone else's script.
Simon couldn't afford such a setback right now, so he simply nipped any potential disputes in the bud.
In fact, just as Jonathan Friedland thought, since he had inherited the memories of twelve other people, Simon was by no means a naive young man who thought he could make a splash just by entering Hollywood.
From the moment he first conceived the idea of coming to Los Angeles to make a name for himself, Simon had already begun very detailed planning.
Although he had a decent appearance, Simon didn't intend to pursue an acting career.
His first-stage goal was to become a director, but without any qualifications or connections, that was clearly not possible in the short term.
Therefore, starting as a screenwriter, with its slightly lower barrier to entry, was an excellent choice.
According to some information in Simon's memory, the two major screenwriters' guilds on the East and West Coasts of Hollywood register over sixty thousand scripts annually.
This appears to be a very large number.
However, the total number of all theatrical films, television films, and low-budget independent films that are actually produced in Hollywood each year still exceeds 600 without a problem.
A 1% success rate, in Simon's opinion, was already very high.
Moreover, among the tens of thousands of scripts that appear each year, the mediocre ones still make up the majority.
But as someone with knowledge of the future, the scripts Simon could offer were basically all carefully selected masterpieces.
Furthermore, in the initial process of selecting scripts, Simon also carefully weighed various factors.
As a newcomer to Hollywood, to maximize the chances of his script being picked up by a film company, it first had to be a low-budget production.
If Simon were to bring out the script for "Titanic" now, there would be a 99% chance it would be thrown directly into the trash.
Secondly, the story had to be novel enough to be eye-catching.
Finally, the script's concept should ideally cover popular elements from some of the big box office hits of recent years.
'The Butterfly Effect' perfectly met all three of these criteria: low budget, novel concept, and time-travel elements following last year's box office champion, 'Back to the Future'.
Inside the office, as Jonathan Friedland read, silence fell for a moment.
When a knock on the door sounded, Jonathan Friedland realized he had unconsciously started reading the main body of the script.
The main text of the script, in standard Hollywood format, also appeared impeccable.
The beautiful handwritten English not only had no sense of incongruity but also created a more comfortable reading experience.
Suddenly interrupted while immersed in reading, Jonathan Friedland looked up with some displeasure, realizing what was happening when he saw his assistant, Owen Wright, standing by the door making a gesture towards him.
Looking at his schedule, Jonathan Friedland said to his assistant, "If Courtney doesn't have anything else, have her wait a bit. Push my later appointments back too; I'll be working late today."
Owen Wright, hearing this, looked somewhat surprised at Simon, who was sitting with his back to him, nodded, and was about to leave the office when Jonathan Friedland called him back and instructed, "Also, make two cups of coffee."
Once the door closed again, Jonathan Friedland smiled at Simon, didn't explain anything, and simply redirected his attention to the script in front of him.
Simon didn't mind either, casually glancing at the digital watch on his wrist.
The time was 4:13.
In other words, Jonathan Friedland had originally only reserved 10 minutes for their meeting, and if Simon hadn't performed satisfactorily, he might have already been sent away by now.
Simon harboured no resentment about this fact; he probably would have done the same himself.
Politeness is a worthy trait to have, but work still has to follow the rules.
He was still an unknown Hollywood rookie, so he was naturally only worth 10 minutes.
Owen Wright quickly brought in two cups of coffee.
Simon took a coffee cup, thanked him, and continued to patiently wait for Jonathan Friedland to read the script.