Capítulo 115: Chapter 115: Overexertion
As July rolled in, half of the summer box office season of 1987 had already slipped by unnoticed.
Apart from "Beverly Hills Cop II", no other domestic blockbuster seemed poised to breach the hundred-million-dollar mark at the box office this summer.
Led by Jack Nicholson, "The Witches of Eastwick" and Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Predator", along with Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd in "Dragnet", were some of the films expected to gross fifty to sixty million dollars in North America. These movies barely turned a profit and certainly didn't meet the high expectations of major film studios.
Among them, Matthew Broderick's new film "Project X", released on June 5th by Fox Studios on 1,022 screens, garnered a modest opening weekend of $4.57 million, accumulating just over $12 million in total for June. Given its $15 million production cost, Fox Studios managed to avoid losses through post-release operations, but the film failed to justify its prime release slot and promotional resources.
Simon Westeros had noticed "Project X" even before its release, but by now, he harbored little sentiment about it.
The past conflicts with Broderick were resolved, and as long as Broderick steered clear of him, Simon planned to avoid any future interactions with the actor.
On another front, the S&P 500 index breached the 290-point threshold on July 2nd. After a month and a half of silence, Simon began issuing trading orders to Noah Scott, aiming to gradually liquidate and then rebuild the holdings in the Westeros company account, which initially comprised 4,500 contracts.
In an era without the 'daily no-debt settlement system' for futures trading, there were significant advantages for speculators, though it also had its drawbacks. Simon couldn't directly reinvest the profits from the original 4,500 contracts; increasing his position required a complete sell-off first.
Simon had hoped to execute this transaction within the S&P 500 index range of 290 to 295 points. However, after a volatile June, the delivery month for stock index futures, the index's upward trend accelerated significantly.
Westeros's account, initially established at an average index level of 272 points in mid-May, completed its liquidation around an average of 295 points.
With an average gain of 23 points per contract, each generated a profit of approximately $11,500.
After settlements, the 4,500 long contracts in the Westeros account, minus transaction fees, yielded a profit of $50.65 million in one month, increasing Simon's capital to $125 million.
Following the transaction, Westeros's long position expanded to 6,800 contracts, maintaining a risky 80% holding ratio.
Fortunately, from July 2nd to 10th, as the second trading setup concluded, the S&P 500 index closed at 298 points on July 10th, marking a significant paper profit in just a few days.
Simon realized he might no longer need the loan from Wells Fargo Bank. Indeed, unless absolutely necessary, he had no intention of using it.
Violating the loan agreement was secondary; the primary concern was that tapping into the loan could expose Simon's operations in the futures market.
Compared to the over 80,000 futures contracts traded daily at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Westeros's holdings of several thousand contracts would not significantly impact the market.
However, if it were discovered that a young man who had just made a cinematic fortune in Hollywood was also playing this game and had quietly made a substantial sum, the reflexivity theory famously proposed by George Soros would suggest that Simon's activities could significantly disrupt the stock index futures market, potentially altering the market trends he remembered.
Meanwhile, during the final week of their shooting schedule, the "Final Destination" crew returned from New York to Los Angeles, completing the film's opening airplane crash scene at the Fox Studios. The film wrapped up smoothly on July 9th.
Over the next few days, Simon and Wes Craven finalized the detailed post-production plan for "Final Destination", and on July 13th, "Pulp Fiction" officially commenced shooting.
Inside a bar on Venice Beach.
On the third day of shooting, the crew filmed the scene where mob boss Marsellus Wallace persuades Butch Coolidge to throw a fight.
In the final film, this scene would feature background music, but at the moment, the bar's atmosphere was unusually quiet.
The crew members were neatly organized around the actors playing Marsellus Wallace and Butch Coolidge, with only the voice of the actor playing Marsellus, Ving Rhames, filling the space.
"When all this is over, you'll find that you're the one who has the last laugh. Butch, you're strong now, but unfortunately, you won't be strong for much longer..."
As it was a fixed camera shot, Simon didn't need to monitor the
camera composition through a screen but instead watched Robert De Niro's performance, which lacked dialogue, comparing it mentally with the original performance by Bruce Willis.
Among a generation of action stars like Stallone and Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis was arguably the best actor.
However, in the original "Pulp Fiction", watching old Butch sit and listen to the mob boss's lecture, most viewers couldn't help but think repeatedly, "That's Bruce Willis, that's Bruce Willis, that's Bruce Willis..."
At this moment.
Simon, watching De Niro's portrayal of Butch, slumped in his seat with his lips pursed, suppressing rage and resentment while showing deference to the mob boss, felt a different connection. This was Butch Coolidge, a fading professional boxer still possessing some skill but never quite making it big.
In "Pulp Fiction", the character Butch Coolidge had just as much potential as Vincent and Jules. However, due to insufficient acting skills or lack of effort, this role was mostly played as Bruce Willis just being himself.
This might also explain why the media and audience rave about characters like Vincent, Mia, and Jules, but rarely discuss a significant boxer character.
In contrast, Robert De Niro, known for his dedication, had impressed Simon with his months of preparation for the role.
Though not shown in the ring in the film, to look the part of a professional boxer, De Niro had undergone two months of physical training and gained weight.
For his current scene, De Niro had not only discussed with Simon the character's psychological transitions and expression methods in detail but had also asked Ving Rhames to record his dialogue for repeated review.
Now, in just the first scene De Niro filmed after the start of production, Simon was convinced that his portrayal of Butch Coolidge would leave an impression on the audience just as profound as those of Vincent and Jules.
Three minutes later, when De Niro and Rhames completed their first performance, Simon signaled for a break and gathered the two actors by the monitor.
The image assistance system of the 1980s was still in its infancy, with monitors no bigger than six inches across, yet renting this equipment was nearly as costly as renting a camera.
Unlike during "Run Lola Run", where Simon had foregone the use of this equipment to save on budget, he didn't need to be frugal this time.
The three huddled around the small monitor, comparable in size to later large smartphones, to review the playback. After a moment, Simon paused the footage, freezing it on a small detail of De Niro twitching his mouth, then turned to De Niro and asked, "Bob, what do you think?"
De Niro pondered for a moment, then chuckled and replied, "Overexertion."
Simon nodded, "As a small-time guy, Butch is really wary of Marsellus. His prolonged silence has already shown his internal resistance, but he can't afford to show his dissatisfaction too openly. So, you need to tone it down a bit."
De Niro didn't say much, simply stating, "Simon, I need a moment to gather."
Simon waited for De Niro to return to his seat before turning to Ving Rhames, playing Marsellus Wallace.
Like Samuel L. Jackson, who played Jules, Rhames was also an original actor.
Moreover, Rhames shared some similarities with Jackson in other respects.
This African-American actor, a trained professional from New York State University and the 'Harvard of music', Juilliard School, held a Bachelor of Fine Arts. He had Broadway experience and had played minor roles in Hollywood.
From both Samuel L. Jackson and Ving Rhames, it was evident that Hollywood still harbored deep-seated racial biases. In Hollywood, many African-American actors often held higher educational qualifications, in contrast to the lower thresholds for white actors achieving the American dream.
Due to his formal training, Rhames's performance in the three-minute scene, though he was off-camera, demonstrated his profound mastery of dialogue, impressing Simon.
After chatting briefly with Rhames, who played a mob boss but was quite gentle in reality, Simon found himself having a very positive view of the actor. Finally, he extended his hand, "Ving, your command of dialogue is excellent. I'm sure we'll have the opportunity to work together again."
Rhames firmly shook Simon's hand, smiling, "Of course, I'm looking forward to it."
With that, De Niro indicated he was ready to resume shooting, and Simon instructed everyone to prepare again.
Today's main task was to shoot several scenes in the bar involving Butch, Marsellus, Vincent, and Jules. After an hour of reshooting Marsellus convincing Butch to throw the fight, Simon finally approved the takes.
John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, already in makeup, swiftly began filming other scenes.
The crew worked busily until five in the afternoon, when the day officially ended
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