Free The Winner Stands Alone by Paulo Coelho Page A

is. Hes the person who didnt come up with the idea, didnt work on the script, and didnt
     invest a cent.
    Javits is the intermediarythe distributor!
    He receives the producer in a tiny office (the big plane, the house with the swimming
     pool, the invitations to parties all over the world are purely for his enjoymentthe
     producer doesnt even merit a min- eral water). He takes the DVD home with him. He watches
     the first five minutes. If he likes it, he watches to the end, but this only happens with
     one out of every hundred new films hes given. Then he spends ten cents on a phone call and
     tells the producer to come back on a cer- tain date and at a certain time.
    Well sign, he says, as if he were doing the producer a big favor. Ill distribute the film.
    The producer tries to negotiate. He wants to know how many cinemas in how many countries
     and under what conditions. These, however, are pointless questions because he knows what
     the distribu- tor will say: That depends on the reactions we get at the prelaunch
     screenings. The product is shown to selected audiences from all social classes, people
     specially chosen by market research companies. The results are analyzed by professionals.
     If the results are positive, another ten cents gets spent on a phone call, and, the
     following day, Javits hands the producer three copies of yet another vast contract. The
     producer asks to be given time for his lawyer to read it. Javits says he has nothing
     against him doing that, but he needs to finalize that seasons program now and cant
     guarantee that by the time the producer gets back to him he wont have selected another
     film.
    The producer reads only the clause that tells him how much hes going to earn. Hes pleased
     with what he sees and so he signs. He doesnt want to miss this opportunity.
    Years have passed since he sat down with the writer to discuss making a film of his book
     and hes quite forgotten that he is now in exactly the same situation.
    Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, and there is nothing new under the sun, as Solomon said
     more than three thousand years ago.
    Javits watches the tent filling
    
    
     up with guests and again asks himself what hes doing there. He controls more than five
     hundred cinemas in the United States and has an exclusive contract with another five thousand
     around the world, where exhibitors are obliged to buy everything he offers them, even if
     the films dont always work out. They know that one box-office success more than makes up
     for the other five that fail to pull in the crowds. They rely on Javits, the independent
     megadistributor, the hero who managed to break the monopoly of the big studios and become
     a legend in the film world.
    No one has ever asked how he did this, but since he continues to give them one big success
     for every five failures (the average in the big studios is one blockbuster for every nine
     flops), it really doesnt matter.
    Javits, however, knows how he became so successful, which is why he never goes anywhere
     without his two friends, who are, at that moment, busily answering calls, arranging
     meetings and accept- ing invitations. They both have reasonably normal physiques, not like
     the burly bouncers on the door, but theyre worth a whole army. They trained in Israel and
     have served in Uganda, Argentina, and Panama. One fields phone calls and the other is
     constantly looking around, memorizing each person, each movement, each gesture. They
     alter- nate these tasks because, like simultaneous translators and air control- lers, they
     need to rest every fifteen minutes.
    What is he doing at this lunch? He could have stayed at the hotel, trying to get some
     sleep. Hes tired of being fawned over and praised, and of having to smile every minute and
     tell someone that its really not worth their while giving him their card because hell only
     lose it. When they insist, he asks them gently to speak to one