Simon Westeros

Businessman

**Simon Westeros** is the protagonist of the novel "**狩猎好莱坞**."

## Background

### Pre-Transmigration

Simon was an orphan who spent most of his childhood in an orphanage since he stubbornly refused foster homes due to his former parents treating him inhumanely. As a result, he became very self-sufficient and did everything himself. Due to his hard working personality, he excelled in school and even received a full scholarship to Stanford University. In the year 1985, he began his first term of college but a few weeks later, he suddenly suffered from a schizophrenic attack which led to him being hospitalized at the Watsonville Mental Health and Wellness Center in Santa Cruz for over eight months.

### Post-Transmigration

In reality, the event that was confused for a schizophrenic attack was caused due to the egos of 12 different people suddenly entering his mind and taking over it. Among the egos, one became dominant while the rest fell into dormancy, including the original Simon's ego. The now-dominant ego belonged to a young film director from China who had been on a plane with filmmakers from Hollywood. Due to inexplicable reasons, the plane crashed and all 12 filmmakers in the plane died but their egos survived and somehow entered the mind of young Simon. Having retained the memories and talents of the 11 filmmakers that died with him, Simon now became fluent in numerous languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Hebrew and Italian, in addition to his mother tongue, Chinese. He also obtained talents in every field of filmography thanks to the music directors, cinematographers, directors and producers whose memories remained within his mind.

During the eight months he spent at the wellness center, he organized all the events in his mind and accepted his new reality. Rather, he was excited by his new reality. He decided to start his career in Hollywood as a writer, since the threshold of entry for writers was very low, and wrote the scripts for two films: *The Butterfly Effect* and *Final Destination.* He also spent over $200 to get his last name officially changed to **Westeros**, becoming Simon Westeros.

## Personality

Due to his own ego being mixed with the egos of 12 different people, he seldom displays an odd behavior. Most of the time, however, his ego remains dominant and in control. Thanks to the having the memories of 12 other egos, he became very wise as he has essentially lived 12 different lives. As a result, he is quite indifferent to almost everyone and everything.

## Appearance

He is a young man with handsome good looks and dark-brown hair. Despite his young age, he displays a maturity beyond his years which sets him apart from others his age.

## History

### **Ch. 1-10**

* Simon took a bus to Los Angeles where he met a young Kathryn Bigelow and befriended her.
* She introduced Simon to her slightly spoilt and childish friend, Janet Johnston.
* She also got him an appointment with a Vice-President of Willam Morris Agency (W.M.A.) named Jonathan Friedman.

* Next day, Simon officially registered his two scripts with the Writer's Guild of America West.
* Next, he went to W.M.A's office where he met Owen Wright, Jonathan Friedman's assistant, who took him to his boss's office.
* During their meeting, he managed to convince Jonathan Friedman to sign him as his client, or rather, his only screenwriter client.
* Later, he ran into another one of Jonathan Friedman's clients, Courteney Cox, the actress who played Monica Gellar on the hit sitcom *Friends*.
* Soon after he left, Courteney Cox gave him a ride to downtown Santa Monica where many motels were located.

* Simon obtained lodging at a motel owned by an old hispanic man named Diego Salcedo.
* He also got a job at a small supermarket owned by a middle-aged named Roger Griffin and his life finally stabilized.
* A few days later, Simon went Venice Beach to play guitar to earn some money in tips and alter his destitute state.

* Simon began singing and playing the song *Rocket Man* by Elton John et al and earned over $150 in tips by sunset.
* While he was leaving, he saw Kathryn Bigelow and Janet Johnston, the latter of whom unsuccessfully attempted to prank him by hiding his money.
* Kathryn and he began talking and ignored Janet who offered Simon $100 to play a song.
* Simon played *Flight of the Bumblebee* on his guitar, earning him the applause of all the people nearby.
* That evening, he took Kathryn and Janet to dinner before returning to the motel with more than $100.
* Over the next two weeks, Simon learnt that Jonathan Friedman planned to turn *The Butterfly Effect* into a packaged project like Creative Artists Agency (C.A.A.) and invite his client Brian De Palma to direct the film.

* Simon began making preparations for his directorial-debut film *Run Lola Run*.
* He invited Courteney Cox to play the titular protagonist but she rejected him.

### **Ch. 11-20**

* Next day, he ran into Courteney Cox and her roommate Kristy Swanson while out searching for locations to shoot his film.
* Kristy Swanson invited Simon to join them at Matthew Broderick's party in celebration of his hit film *Ferris Bueller's Day Off*.
* Simon joined them to the club where Kristy briefly introduced the two of them to Matthew Broderick.
* The two went to the dance floor but got into a misunderstanding with a friend of Matthew Broderick which got them kicked out.
* Afterwards, Courteney's visits to the 7/11 where Simon worked became less frequent.

* A few days later, Simon received a call from Jonathan Friedman that 20th Century Fox was interested in *The Butterfly Effect*.
* After he arrived at his agent's office, Jonathan showed him the contract sent by Fox before leaving to talk with Norman Brokaw.
* Simon was surprised to see the that contract was a buyout, unlike the common industry practice called the "basic agreement" through which the screenwriter would get almost thrice the amount of the buyout payment in long-term payments over the course of the next two-three years.
* Afterwards, Jonathan informed him about all the troubles related to the script of *The Butterfly Effect* from the major studios putting up roadblocks to the severe infighting within W.M.A. over the project.
* After considering the matter for a few minutes, Simon informed his agent that he would reject the contract.
* Even when Jonathan informed him about the severe trouble that would follow, he insisted on his decision.
* Before leaving, he also informed Jonathan that he planned to terminate their contract.
* The next morning, Simon received a visit from Owen Wright who informed him that Jonathan Friedman had personally cancelled *The Butterfly Effect*.
* Two days later, he saw an article in *The Hollywood Reporter* about the infighting within W.M.A. caused by *The Butterfly Effect*.
* The following day, *Daily Variety* also broke the news with the focus on the disparity between the contracts given to Norman Brokaw's client, Matthew Broderick, and Jonathan Friedman's clients, Brian De Palma and Simon Westeros.
* Soon, many daily newspapers and media outlets, including the *Los Angeles Times*, also began to follow up on the topic giving it nation-wide coverage.

### **Ch. 21-30**

* A few days later, Simon was visited by Jonathan Friedman and the two went to a cafe to talk.
* There, Simon saw the new contract given by Fox who were now paying him $160,000 for the script of *The Butterfly Effect* and $40,000 for a purchase priority on his other script *Final Destination*, along with the basic agreement sharing.
* After perusing the contract, Simon didn't find any faults in the contract and accepted it.
* A few days later, Simon saw an article in the *Los Angeles Times* by a reporter named Peter Butler about the concept of butterfly effect.
* The article also mentioned Simon himself and focused on his unique last name "Westeros."
* Simon went to see Jonathan Friedman looked through the list of his agent's clients while waiting.
* Among the more than 30 male and female actors, the only ones he had heard of were Robert Duvall, Billy Crystal, Courteney Cox and Sandra Bullock.
* After seeing Sandra Bullock's image, Simon realized that she would be very suitable to play Lola in *Run Lola Run* so he asked Owen Wright about her.
* He learned that Jonathan had signed with her only a few weeks ago on the recommendations of famous acting coach Sanford Meisner, whom she had learned from, and Robert Duvall, Jonathan's biggest customer and a former student of Meisner.
* After Jonathan invited him inside, Simon showed him the article written by Peter Butler and revealed the past details of his mental illness.
* He also informed Jonathan that he planned to return to Watsonville to retrieve his medical records before they fell in the hands of the media.
* Jonathan Friedman lent him a car and $20,000, in case he needed it.
* Next morning, he met Dr. Henry Chapman and informed him that he wished to retrieve his medical records.
* Dr. Henry Chapman took $500 from Simon which he paid to the employee in-charge of the archives so that if anyone came asking for Simon's records, he would just tell them that the files had been misplaced.
* After getting his records, Simon bid farewell to Dr. Henry Chapman and drove back to Los Angeles.
* After an hour of travel, he pulled over and burned his records by the side of the road.
* The following afternoon, Simon called Sandra Bullock about casting her in his film.
* Thanks to Jonathan Friedman's matchmaking, the two decided to meet next Sunday to the discuss the role.
* After a morning of drama, Simon took her to a coffee shop where he explained all the details of the film and her character to her.
* As she had graduated with an acting major and had taken acting classes from Sanford Meisner, Simon wasn't worried about her acting.
* However, as she was a complete newcomer, he only offered her $5,000 as pay. As expected, she easily agreed.
* A week later, Simon arrived at W.M.A's office for the signing ceremony with Fox.
* Jonathan Friedman introduced him to his clients, Matt Dillon and Elisabeth Shue, who were the film's male and female lead, respectively.
* Simon also met David Giler, the film's main producer appointed by Fox, and Leonard Goldberg, President of Fox.

### **Ch. 31-40**

* That night, Simon left work past 11 AM when his shift ended.
* He was riding his bike towards his motel when suddenly someone struck him from behind, causing him to fall down his bike.
* Simon's body suddenly went into self-defense mode and he subconsciously began fighting back.
* Soon, his five assailants were on the ground, with each having a broken leg, and one even missing a lot of teeth.
* However, he also fell unconscious due to his injuries.

* Next morning, Simon woke up and found Janet sitting next to him, eating breakfast.
* He learnt from her about what had happened last night since he had sort of blacked out.
* By noon, Kathryn arrived from Janet's studio where she had gone to sleep in the morning after watching over Simon all night.
* Later, Janet's lawyer, George Norman, and his niece-cum-intern, Jennifer Rebledd, arrived.
* Soon, the lawyer of the five young men that assaulted Simon, appeared and asked that he settle.
* To confirm his suspicions, Simon asked for $500,000 to settle the case.
* Derek Wheeler left and returned with a cheque of $500,000 within an hour.
* After looking at the cheque, Simon asked Kathryn to find a charity to donate the $500,000.
* He wasn't interested in the money and had only asked for it to confirm his suspicions about Matthew Broderick being the mastermind.
* Seeing that he planned to further continue violence, Kathryn made him promise to end this matter.
* A few days later, Simon arrived at Fox's office for *The Butterfly Effect*'s production meeting after being discharged from the hospital.
* At the meeting, Peter Sanders, a Vice-President of Fox, attempted to subtly seize control of the film's production.
* His plans, however, were thwarted by Brian De Palma and David Giler, who were actually in-charge of the production and reported directly to Leonard Goldberg.
* Past noon, the production meeting ended in favor of having lunch.
* While having lunch, Simon showed Brian De Palma and David Giler his production plans and image designs for *Run Lola Run*.
* The two highly praised him due to the film's uniqueness and creativity.
* Brian De Palma even offered to act as an executive producer for the film while David Giler offered to help introduce some investors to Simon, both of which he gladly accepted.
* A few days later, David Giler informed him that Mike Medavoy, the President of Orion, was interested in investing in his film.
* The following day, Simon went to a party at Brian De Palma's house, along with Janet, where he talked to Mike Medavoy.