Back to 80: My literary life

Chapter 244 This beautiful knife is easy to earn.

"Brother Zhang, I'm going to meet someone." Fang Minghua said hello and left the room to the conference room. What surprised Fang Minghua was that it was not just Spielberg and his assistant, but two more people.

Spielberg was having a heated conversation with one of the middle-aged men with short hair.

Seeing Fang Minghua come in, the short-haired middle-aged man stood up immediately. Mr. Spielberg introduced Fang Minghua with a smile:

"Mr. Fang, this is Mr. John Lasseter, the head of Industrial Light and Magic, a subsidiary of Lucasfilm."

"Hello, Mr. Fang." John took the initiative to shake hands.

"Hello."

Fang Minghua was a little surprised.

The name of Industrial Light & Magic may sound a bit unfamiliar to domestic movie fans. In fact, it has a more familiar name: Pixar Animation Studios, but the name was changed after the company sold it to Steve Jobs.

Many movies with the name "Toy Story" and "Finding Nemo" are produced by this company. Including this "Wall-E"!

Sure enough, John came here for the novel "Wall-E" and said he wanted to buy the rights to adapt it and make it into an animated film.

Fang Minghua will leave the United States and return to China in three months. It will be inconvenient to contact and negotiate later, and it will be even more troublesome if there are disagreements during the execution of the contract.

The other thing is to tie the quoted movie budget together. According to convention, the purchase price will be about 2.5% of the final movie budget.

In the United States, many directors, writers and agents like the latter approach - the more you invest in the budget, the more I make.

To be honest, Fang Minghua didn't plan to write a sequel, so he didn't say anything about the latter.

"Mr. Spielberg, you are here early. You can talk to Mr. Fang first, and I will go out for a walk." John stood up like a gentleman and left with his assistant.

"Mr. Spielberg, I'm sorry for the long wait." Fang Minghua apologized.

It is estimated that Spielberg also thought of this, so he adopted a one-time payment method.

Spielberg didn't say much and went straight to the point: "Mr. Fang, I just explained my purpose of coming. What do you think?"

The copyright fee was purchased for US$30.

30 US dollars, then the movie budget is about 2000 million US dollars.

"This is the draft contract, please take a look at it."

The content was very long, and Fang Minghua read it carefully. The key point was that Spielberg would purchase the rights to adapt the novel "Catastrophe of the Sun", including movies and television. and certain ancillary rights, including, but not limited to, rights to remakes, sequels, television series, and merchandising and bundling.

After all, this was in the mid-1980s, unlike later blockbusters with budgets in the hundreds of millions.

It's a standard contract.

There are generally two methods. One is to pay a fixed one-time fee, as Spielberg did.

Fang Minghua also responded simply and neatly: I agree, but I want to know the specific details of your copyright purchase. "

After Spielberg got the novel, he found someone to adapt the script and raise funds. As for filming, it was the Year of the Monkey and the Moon of the Horse.

"OK!" Spielberg snapped his fingers, and his assistant immediately took out a stack of information from the briefcase he was carrying and handed it to Fang Minghua.

Very sincere for the price.

But for Fang Minghua, this method is troublesome.

The price is still relatively high. Before Fang Minghua came to this era, he had read some articles on the Internet about purchasing the rights to adapt novels in the United States.

just

Why don't you give me a portion of the movie's profits? !

The United States is different from China. When purchasing film and television adaptation rights, you generally have to pay a certain percentage of the film's profits to the author. This is a common practice!

This price is generally 5-10% of the total net profit after the movie is released.

shit

I don't understand bullying. No wonder they paid a relatively high one-time adaptation fee.

Luckily I’ve seen it!

After reading the contract, Fang Minghua smiled and said, "Mr. Spielberg, are some of the practices in your contract not in line with your American practices?" "Where?" Spielberg pretended not to understand: "Mr. Fang, The price of 30 US dollars for the adaptation of a novel is very high even in the United States, not to mention in China, which shows that I am very sincere!"

"30 is not low, but you are still missing some, right? Where did 10% of the movie's total net profit go?"

Spielberg blushed immediately after hearing this and defended: "But this is not in line with your Chinese practices."

"But now in America."

After Fang Minghua finished speaking, he stood up and his tone became a little cold.

"Mr. Spielberg, although I also want to reach this agreement with you, because I think you can do a good job, but the prerequisite is that you are sincere! If not, I'm sorry. Goodbye!" After saying this, Fang Minghua turned around and left.

After hearing this, Spielberg glared at his assistant.

It was your bad idea!

The bully is from China and doesn’t understand anything.

I'll settle the score with you when I get back!

He hurriedly said to Fang Minghua’s back:

"Mr. Fang, please wait a moment. First of all, I apologize. Due to my personal negligence, I forgot this.

How much do you want? "

After hearing this, Fang Minghua turned around and said.

"10%!"

"NO, 5%"

After some bargaining between the two, 7% of the film's total net profit was finally paid to Fang Minghua.

"Mr. Spielberg, I still need to find a lawyer to help me look at this contract. I will give you an answer tomorrow at the latest." Fang Minghua expressed his opinion again.

This guy has dug a hole for himself, what if there is another hole in the contract?

Spielberg had no choice but to agree.

After talking to Spielberg, Fang Minghua then talked to John.

Industrial Light and Magic was full of sincerity and directly offered a one-time purchase of the adaptation rights for US$28, and also gave away 8% of the total net profit.

Of course, the contract still needs to be reviewed by a lawyer.

There are not many other places in the United States, but there are many lawyers and thieves. Under Lisa's enthusiastic guidance, Fang Minghua quickly found a well-known lawyer in the city.

The lawyer, Robert, graduated from the University of Iowa Law School and looked gentle.

After careful review by the other party, they believed that there was nothing wrong with this contract.

"Congratulations, Mr. Minghua, you will be the youngest millionaire I have ever met." The other party did not forget to compliment him.

is it?

It's probably not a compliment. The two contracts have already earned 58 yuan. In the future, the net profit of the two films will not be divided into 42 yuan, right?

So in addition to paying the lawyer's fee of US$100, Fang Minghua also tipped the other party an additional US$10.

Of course, I didn’t forget to treat Miss Lisa, who was helping me, to dinner - spaghetti.

Since there was no problem, Fang Minghua didn't want to delay Spielberg and John, so he signed the contract with the other party that night, and US$58 was directly transferred into Fang Minghua's newly opened account.

Of course, according to US law, Fang Minghua has to pay 25% personal tax.

Hmm. I just came to the United States, received an award, and made two businesses. It feels good.

How about striking while the iron is hot and writing some science fiction or something.

This beautiful knife is easy to earn.

(End of this chapter)