Chapter 5 - Only Worth Ten Minutes

Simon pulled out the script of The Butterfly Effect from his backpack and handed it to Jonathan Friedman.

Jonathan Friedman just glanced at the cover and put the script on the table before he smiled and waited for Simon to explain the script.

Simon sorted his thoughts and began to explain, "This is a suspense thriller with a few soft sci-fi elements. From a very young age, the people around Evan have often found that he would occasionally display very strange or even downright weird behavior. However, when asked about it afterwards, Evan always claimed that he did not remember doing such things at all. His doctor classified Evan's condition as transient global amnesia and recommended him to treat his illness by keeping a diary and writing in it daily."

Simon stated and noted that Jonathan Friedman was already showing hints of interest, so he continued.

"The main plot of The Butterfly Effect revolves around a young man who has the ability to travel back to the past by reading his diary. In order to make up for his regrets, he travels through time again and again to change his life. However, each time he does this, he returns back to the present only to find that things have not improved as he had hoped and had, instead, worsened."

"The most interesting factor of The Butterfly Effect lies in its rigorous and intertwined plot that's like a spider's web which eventually leads the protagonist to commit suicide."

As a result, this film will be regarded as a classic in the hearts of many fans of suspense thrillers.

- - -

During his previous life, the production company of The Butterfly Effect was New Line Cinema. Simon had heard that during the editing process the film had various different endings. However, the producer eventually chose the darkest and most impactful ending in which the protagonist returned to his mother's womb in despair after failing to 

change the future again and again and strangled himself with her umbilical cord. Then, the film came to an abrupt end.

- - -

After Simon finished his explanation, Jonathan Friedman, who initially had no expectations of him, fell silent.

Back to the Future directed by Robert Zemeckis was released last year and won the 1985 box office championship with a global box office of $388.8 million.

Therefore, Simon’s script, which had elements of time travel similar to Back to the Future, was far beyond Jonathan Friedman's expectations. He even felt that The Butterfly Effect was even better than Back to the Future in terms of pure creativity and concept.

Such a novel script idea alone was enough for to recommend Simon to WMA's screenwriter brokerage department.

Hollywood was filled with the phenomenon of copying successful films. As a result, the audience usually found that within just a few months of the release of a hit film many films with similar plots would be released. 

Therefore, thanks to Back to the Future winning last year's box office championship, as long as Simon's idea was matched with a decent script, it could definitely arouse a strong interest among the studios.

In addition, such a unique thriller concept happened to match the type of film that Jonathan Friedman had recently been looking for his client.

Now the question remained: was the quality of Simon's script even half as good as its concept?

After all, Hollywood has never lacked creativity. What it has lacked are good scripts that can be transformed into wonderful films.

Many films in Hollywood usually have to undergo several year long revisions during the script creation process. The reason behind that was due to most scripts having too many details that needed to be trimmed down before the original idea turned into an operable script.

While thinking so in his mind, Jonathan Friedman looked down at the title of the script in his hands and subconsciously asked the same question as Kathryn, "Simon, can you explain the meaning of the 'butterfly effect' first?"

Simon nodded and explained the theory hypothesized by Professor Edward Lorenz of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After hearing Simon's explanation, Jonathan Friedman was surprised and asked, "You studied at M.I.T?"

"No," Simon shook his head, but immediately added, "I was admitted to Stanford last year on a full scholarship, but I dropped out early due to some complications."

Hearing Simon's words, Jonathan Friedman's expression was filled with shock.

Although Stanford University was not part of the distinguished Ivy League, the overall level of this prestigious university located in California was actually the same as upper tier Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale and University of Pennsylvania. As a result, Stanford was consistently rated among one of the world's top universities.

Simon obtained admission to Stanford University, and that too on a full scholarship. Even if he dropped out for personal reasons, that achievement alone was enough for Jonathan Friedman's evaluation of him to rise several grades higher.

Simon knew in his heart that he was actually giving an interview right now.

Westerners tended to not pay too much attention to modesty, especially during interviews. The better a person performed during an interview, the higher their chances of obtaining the job.

Therefore, Simon did not hesitate to mention all of his previous achievements in front of Jonathan Friedman.

After Simon finished speaking, seeing Jonathan Friedman glance at his watch, he was a bit hesitant, but still said, "Mr. Friedman, the first ten pages of my script contain the outline. It is a lot more detailed than my explanation, so maybe you can take a look at it."

Jonathan Friedman nodded and opened the script in front of him.

However, the content on the first page of the script once again left him stunned since it was a copyright registration certificate from WGA-West.

Shaking his head slightly and smiling, Jonathan Friedman flipped to the next page, but his original impression of Simon had completely changed. The young man sitting across him was clearly not a hopeless optimist who came to Hollywood believing that he would easily rise to the top.

---

Each year, Hollywood entertained more copyright disputes than the number of films produced. Leaving WGA's copyright registration certificate on the first page of the script was actually a decision made by Simon out of helplessness. He was not naive enough to believe that industry giants such as WMA wouldn't partake in petty acts such as stealing other people's scripts.

The current Simon was unable to withstand such twists and turns, so he simply cut off the possibility of such disputes from the start.

In fact, like Jonathan Friedman believed, even though he had inherited the memories of a dozen other people, Simon was definitely not a hopeless optimist who believed that he would easily rise to the top of Hollywood.

From the time he decided to come to Los Angeles, Simon had already made a very detailed plan.

Although he was quite handsome, Simon had no plans to take the path of being an actor. His first goal was to become a director, but without any qualifications or contacts, that was obviously unlikely in the short term.

As a result, he chose to start his career as a screenwriter which had the lowest threshold of entry.

According to the information in Simon's memory, at least 60,000 scripts were registered each year between WGA-East and WGA-West. However, throughout Hollywood, the total number of cinema films, TV films, and direct-to-video independent films released each year only amounted to about 600.

In fact, the 1% success rate was already quite high in Simon's opinion.

What's more, among the tens of thousands of scripts that appeared each year, the mediocre ones accounted for the majority. However, thanks to his knowledge of the future, Simon can come up with the best among them.

In fact, Simon had decided to start with The Butterfly Effect after carefully weighing in various factors.

As a newcomer to Hollywood, to ensure that his script was produced by a film company, first of all, the script needed be low cost. If Simon had written the script of Titanic, there was a 99% chance that it would be thrown directly into the trash.

Second, the script's idea needed to be novel enough to attract the audience's attention and curiosity.

Finally, the idea script should contain popular elements from blockbusters of the past few years.

The Butterfly Effect was completely in line with the aforementioned three requirements: low cost, novel ideas, time travel elements similar to last year's box office champion Back to the Future.

---

Jonathan Friedman's office was completely quiet as he perused through Simon's script.

The text on the script written in the standard Hollywood format looked impeccable. The beautiful handwritten English fonts created an enjoyable reading experience. Suddenly, a knock on the door broke Jonathan Friedman's concentration. 

Being interrupted while immersed in reading, Jonathan Friedman raised his head in displeasure and found his assistant Owen Wright standing by the door making a gesture to him before he understood his meaning.

After looking at his schedule, Jonathan Friedman said to his assistant, "If Courteney is free, let her wait a while. The same goes for my other appointments. I am busy."

When Owen Wright heard this, he looked at Simon, who was sitting with his back towards to him, and nodded. Just as he was about to leave the office, Jonathan Friedman called to him and said, "Also, bring two cups of coffee."

After the door closed, Jonathan Friedman smiled at Simon and turned his attention back to the script in front of him.

Simon didn't mind and casually glanced at the digital watch on his wrist.

The time was 4:13 pm.

In other words, Jonathan Friedman had only reserved 10 minutes for him. If Simon had not been able to impress him, he may have been sent away by now.

Even after realizing this, Simon didn't feel offended. In fact, if he had been in Jonathan Friedman's situation, he would have done the same.

Politeness was a virtue, but one sometimes needed to be cold during work. He was currently just an unknown youngster so it was only natural that he was worth just 10 minutes for a WMA Vice-President.

Owen Wright soon entered with two cups of coffee. Simon took a cup, thanked him, and continued to wait patiently for Jonathan Friedman to finish reading the script.