Next month Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 would hit theaters. As the actress playing the female lead April O'Neil, even though her role was little more than eye candy in a movie centered on the four turtles, Nicole Kidman had specifically taken a week off from the set of The Ring in faraway Melbourne, Australia, to return to Los Angeles ahead of the Academy Awards ceremony.
In this era the Oscars routinely drew more than forty million viewers, second only in popularity to the Super Bowl each year.
This year, with both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 and The Ring releasing as Daenerys Entertainment's flagship films, Nicole had to attend the Academy Awards whether for the sake of maintaining her personal popularity or promoting the movies.
Of course she was more than happy to make the trip.
Far too many men and women who had spent their entire lives scrambling around Hollywood never even managed to sit inside the Oscar auditorium.
She flew back to Los Angeles on March 25. While preparing for the awards, WMA had also lined up a whole string of other work commitments for her.
Daenerys Studios.
The date was March 27, Friday.
After attending a script audition at MGM's headquarters in Century City that morning and grabbing lunch, Nicole Kidman hurried over to Daenerys Studios in Malibu.
Poison Ivy's character design had been finalized last month. Since Nicole was back from Australia, Simon wanted to see how the role looked once she was actually in full makeup.
After North American box office crossed the two-hundred-million-dollar mark at the end of January, The Flash had continued its run over the past two months. Cumulative domestic earnings had reached two hundred and fifty-one million dollars by yesterday. The single-week gross from March 20 to March 26 had already dropped to one point seven eight million dollars, and the film was expected to exit theaters around Easter next month with a final domestic total somewhere near two hundred and fifty-five million dollars.
Overseas performance had been even stronger. Across all markets where it had opened, the three-plus months of release had already brought in three hundred and sixty-three million dollars. With continued international rollout, surpassing four hundred million overseas was only a matter of time.
A global total above six hundred and fifty million dollars might not match the two Batman films, but the result was still enough to make every other Hollywood studio green with envy.
With three consecutive DC Movie Universe entries delivering huge hits, the two companies naturally placed even greater emphasis on the follow-up slate.
According to the latest information gathered by the media, Daenerys and Warner Bros would soon officially announce the key creative hires for the DC Movie Universe's Superman and Cyborg projects. Batman: The Dark Knight Rises had already generated a flood of leaks and rumors.
Nicole Kidman herself knew a few details the outside world had not yet heard.
For example, her Poison Ivy contract was actually for three films.
Besides playing the villain in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, she would also join the upcoming Suicide Squad series.
Some guy had once talked about the role, saying that if Poison Ivy turned out impressive enough, her future popularity might rival Catwoman's.
Look at how Valeria Golino had been shining in Hollywood these past two years. If Poison Ivy could achieve the same, Nicole believed she could comfortably hold onto A-list status for the entire 1990s at least.
Thinking back to the beginning, she had clearly had such a strong start with Pulp Fiction. Yet because of some self-important little calculations in her mind, she had nearly missed out on the most solid support she had in Hollywood.
Fortunately, she had realized it in time.
However, every time she recalled that experience at the premiere of Batman, when that guy had made her drink two bottles of water one after another before rushing her to the hall to hold it in for over an hour, an indescribable strange emotion would swirl in her heart.
Poison Ivy's makeup took nearly four hours. By the time it was finished, the workday was almost over, yet Simon still had not appeared. They simply shot a set of official stills and a short video inside the soundstage.
It stayed that way until six o'clock in the evening, when Simon finally arrived together with Warner Bros CEO Terry Semel.
It was not only Nicole who had spent the entire afternoon working on Poison Ivy. All day long Simon and Semel had been locked in meetings with the DC Movie Universe team, once again reviewing and locking down the overall story framework for the franchise's future entries.
The DC Movie Universe team maintained a dedicated workspace inside Loft 3 on the second floor of Daenerys Studios.
In the first three films the crossover elements of the DC Movie Universe had mostly remained hidden inside post-credits scenes.
Starting with this summer's Wonder Woman, however, the entire DC Movie Universe would officially begin to interconnect, with the three Mother Boxes serving as the linking thread.
The first film, Wonder Woman, would still be set during World War I, yet the plot would differ greatly from the Gal Gadot version in Simon's memory.
British Air Force pilot Steve Trevor crashes on Paradise Island by chance, shattering the centuries-old peace of the reclusive Amazons.
Learning that the human world beyond the island is at war, and discovering that the intelligence Steve Trevor has gathered bears a striking resemblance to the Mother Box that once triggered a great war among the tribes in Amazon history, Queen Hippolyta decides to send her daughter Diana Prince away from Paradise Island with Steve Trevor in an attempt to recover the Mother Box and prevent an even greater catastrophe.
Diana ultimately defeats the God of War Ares, who had used the Mother Box to drive humans into killing one another, and brings the first Mother Box back to Paradise Island.
Recovering all three legendary Mother Boxes then becomes Diana Prince's ultimate mission.
Superman, scheduled for the 1993 summer slot, will introduce the second Mother Box.
Clark Kent's biological parents use the Mother Box's energy to send their newborn son away from the doomed planet Krypton. The second Mother Box travels to Earth along with him.
In the story setup, after the adult Clark Kent battles the pursuing General Zod, the Mother Box falls into human hands and triggers the plot of Cyborg, set for the end of 1993.
Football player Victor Stone's father, Silas Stone, happens to be a member of the Mother Box research team.
Victor is critically injured in a car accident and on the verge of death. To save his son, Silas Stone secretly activates the Mother Box's energy, transforming Victor into a half-human, half-machine cyborg.
Because he does not fully understand the Mother Box's function, the rescue process also accidentally creates the Cyborg series' villain Grid.
The story ends with Cyborg, having accepted his new state, defeating Grid. Yet the second Mother Box is stolen and ends up in the hands of Metropolis entrepreneur Lex Luthor, who has been closely following the Superman incident. That same Mother Box becomes a key thread for Batman v Superman.
At the same time, the loss of the Mother Box prompts the federal government to secretly assemble Suicide Squad in an effort to recover the missing artifact.
Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, planned for the 1994 summer slot, will feature the third Mother Box.
The Joker, empowered by the Mother Box, is ultimately defeated by Batman. Diana Prince, whose personal mission is to recover all three Mother Boxes, also appears in the film without revealing her true identity, quietly taking the third Mother Box with her at the end.
The Suicide Squad triggered by the loss of the second Mother Box is confirmed for the end of 1994. The story concludes with the team taking shape, yet the Mother Box Superman brought from his home planet remains unrecovered.
Next comes Batman v Superman, scheduled for 1995.
Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman join forces against Lex Luthor, who has used the Mother Box to transform himself into an alien monster.
The alien-monster concept is actually similar to Doomsday.
However, the "Death of Superman" event in the DC comics series has not yet occurred, and Doomsday has not been born. In the original timeline DC Comics would only launch that event at the end of this year.
Therefore, in the Batman v Superman story setup Lex Luthor attempts to use Mother Box technology and Kryptonian genes to turn himself into a cyborg even more powerful than Cyborg, only to become a monster resembling Doomsday instead.
Once the story of Batman v Superman ends, Wonder Woman finally recovers the last Mother Box, and all three are stored safely on the Amazons' Paradise Island.
Justice League is set for the 1996 summer slot.
Steppenwolf invades and seizes the three Mother Boxes guarded by the Amazons.
Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Catwoman, and other superheroes assemble to form the Justice League and confront Steppenwolf's army.
After Simon and Semel viewed Nicole's live-action Poison Ivy makeup and on-camera test, Semel quickly said goodbye and left.
Four hours of makeup meant removing it was no easy task either.
Inside a makeup room in Daenerys's special-effects department.
Once the test was approved, the makeup artists began wiping the coating off Nicole's body. Because the material was specially formulated, simply rinsing with water was ineffective. They first had to use a prepared cleanser to remove most of it.
Simon did not leave right away. He sat nearby watching the makeup artists help Nicole remove the makeup and casually asked about the filming progress on The Ring.
Because of the distance, the Australian set only sent dailies back to Los Angeles once a week.
Simon was not too familiar with the exact situation on location.
"You know, I worked with Philip once before on Crossing Horizons," Nicole said, tilting her neck slightly so the makeup artist could wipe the coating from her throat. She glanced sideways at the man beside her and continued, "He's a very serious director. For The Ring he's also completely clear on the effect this movie needs to achieve. I'll head back to Melbourne next week. At most two more weeks and we'll wrap." Then she added, "Simon, do you know about that movie The Edge of Heat I auditioned for at MGM this morning?"
Simon nodded. "Of course. It's Aaron Sorkin's new script. I was the one who had MGM contact you. The female lead suits you perfectly."
Aaron Sorkin had written last year's hit A Few Good Men. The project, a collaboration between Daenerys and MGM, had ended up with a forty-million-dollar budget thanks to the star power of Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, and Demi Moore. Yet the film had earned one hundred and seventeen million dollars in North America alone and had already surpassed two hundred million dollars worldwide. Overall it counted as a solid success.
Thanks to the success of A Few Good Men, Aaron Sorkin had joined the ranks of Hollywood's top screenwriters. His new script The Edge of Heat was once again partnering with MGM.
This time, however, Daenerys Entertainment was not involved. MGM was funding it solo.
When Nicole heard Simon say he had arranged it himself, she felt a flash of surprise and delight, then quickly realized something and asked, "This project doesn't seem to be a Daenerys-MGM co-production, does it?"
Without Daenerys Entertainment's involvement, the film's box-office prospects suddenly felt less assured.
Simon simply smiled. "That's right. But the script is still very good, and you definitely know MGM's current situation. Whether it's a co-production or solo funding makes no difference."
In his memory the female lead of The Edge of Heat was indeed Nicole Kidman.
Simon did not remember the exact box-office numbers, but he could confirm the market performance had not been bad.
Moreover, compared with A Few Good Men, The Edge of Heat was not planning a heavy star lineup. Its budget was only twenty million dollars. Even if it flopped, MGM could easily absorb the loss.
After putting the 007 series on hold, MGM's plan for the next few years was to carefully produce a batch of mid-to-low-budget commercial films. Simon would slip in a few "dark horses" as well. At the same time, MGM would begin trying its hand at distribution, taking projects from second- and third-tier Hollywood companies purely as a distributor.
Simon's ultimate goal was to slowly restore this once-mighty studio, which had suffered continuous turmoil and decline throughout the eighties, to its former vitality.
Only after two or three years, once the first-stage target was reached, would he move on to the next step for the company.
Hearing Simon speak this way, Nicole's eyes flickered slightly and she no longer hesitated.
She already had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, The Ring, and the Poison Ivy role under her belt. Even if The Edge of Heat failed, the impact on her would be minimal.
Besides, this was an arrangement personally made by Westeros.
She had already promised once that she would be obedient. Even if he no longer remembered, she had no intention of going against the man's wishes.
She shifted position again at the makeup artist's direction. From the corner of her eye she noticed the man checking his watch, so she thought for a moment and asked, "Do you want to grab dinner together later?"
Simon shook his head. "I already have plans. There's a cocktail party at Marvin Josephson's place. Want to come along?"
Nicole hesitated for only a second before nodding.
Although she was a WMA artist and showing up at the home of ICM founder Marvin Josephson felt a little awkward, if she was arriving with Westeros everything would be fine.
The two female makeup artists who had been quietly working around Nicole, both attractive and well-built, felt a twinge of envy when they heard the exchange. They had also dropped a few hints toward the big boss earlier, but he had given no response at all.
As for the conversation between the big boss and Nicole Kidman, they naturally pretended they had heard nothing.
First, there was no juicy gossip in it. The Ring, The Edge of Heat, and the like had nothing to do with small-time makeup artists like them. As for the big boss taking Nicole Kidman to a party, that was hardly scandalous.
Second, if they spread any of it around, they could forget about continuing to work at Daenerys Entertainment.
At twenty-five years old, Nicole was at the absolute peak of her beauty.
Janet was not in Los Angeles, and Simon had no other plans for the evening, so he naturally had no objection to tasting the Australian beauty again tonight.
Since Nicole had agreed, Simon patiently waited for her to finish removing the makeup. He even had someone bring over a formal dress suitable for the cocktail party. Only then did the two of them leave Daenerys Studios together under the cover of night.