Hollywood Hunter

Entering the weekend, the ratings of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" have dropped, but after a full week of trial episodes, the average viewership of this program for seven days still reached 15.6 million, making it the highest-rated TV program in this summer.

However, in the face of Daenerys's insistence on a $2 million quotation that far exceeds the production cost per period, ABC still expressed strong dissatisfaction. After several negotiations to no avail, the negotiating team led by ABC President Daniel Burke simply returned to New York, seemingly intending to stalemate with Daenerys Pictures.

Daenerys Films performed more calmly and began to negotiate cooperation with several other TV networks in an orderly manner.

On the other side, after the Producers Union issued an order to block production companies that signed a contract with the screenwriters’ union in advance, WGA filed an antitrust lawsuit in the Federal Court on the following Monday against the Producers Union’s actions, demanding to stop the producers. The alliance is suspected of monopolistic behavior.

Whether it is within the entertainment industry or the onlookers of the media, it is clear that the WGA lawsuit can be won. But at the same time, everyone is also aware that the Producers Alliance will never be able to honor the judgment honestly in the future. Those production companies that signed contracts with WGA in advance cannot avoid the fate of being put on shoes.

In addition, after more than three months of strikes, there are signs of instability within WGA.

There was no income for a whole quarter, and some screenwriters who could not hold on financially also began to ask WGA to relax the strike regulations.

On June 27th, 16 screenwriters union members jointly submitted a proposal, proposing a provisional ordinance that screenwriters can sign contracts with production companies during the strike but not perform them temporarily. Able to sign a contract with the production company, the screenwriter will also be able to get a part of the down payment to maintain life. As for the temporary non-performance of the contract, this is completely a secret. The relevant proposal was unsurprisingly rejected by the WGA.

However, signs of instability within WGA have also been exposed to the public.

Many media have begun to predict that if the situation continues, the strike organized by the American Screenwriters Union may cause disastrous consequences. The most serious one is that a large number of unsustainable screenwriters announce their withdrawal from the union, and WGA will face disintegration. This is not without precedent. In the history of the United States, strikes organized by the textile industry, the automobile industry, or the newspaper industry have experienced failures and the disintegration of trade unions because of the refusal to compromise.

However, this is the first time in Hollywood.

Things have developed to this point, and the producer alliance has also begun to grow stronger. After the new contract proposal was voted down by the WGA, the producer alliance proposed that the next negotiation will take place in August. Prior to this, representatives of the Producers Union will not have any contact with WGA.

The issuance of such an announcement almost destined that the strike in 1988 will become the longest general strike in Hollywood history.

WGA's situation is bleak, but Daenerys Pictures seems to be in a good mood. Not only is it exposed by the media that it is expected to earn hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from the quarterly "Who Will Be a Millionaire", but it also continues to provide television networks with so-called ‘reality shows’ that are enough to destroy the jobs of screenwriters.

As a result, the screenwriters who were in the most anxious state quickly pointed the finger at Daenerys Pictures.

In the last few days of June, many people showed up outside the headquarters of Daenerys Films in Santa Monica to express their dissatisfaction with Daenerys Films, and they were immediately exposed and reported by the media.

While cautiously dealing with this situation, Daenerys's internal work has not been affected much.

The contract for the hero and heroine of "Batman" was finalized in the last week of June.

Adam Baldwin, who will play Bruce Wayne, has signed a 15-year five-term contract with Daenerys Pictures.

Among the core pay terms, Adam Baldwin's first film pay is 300,000 US dollars.

This is a high number for a small actor who has only played supporting roles in some film and television dramas. However, considering the difficulty of shooting "Batman", Simon generously gave this pay, Dannily Silk Pictures will also bear Adam Baldwin's physical training and other expenses for the next six months.

But after the first episode, Adam Baldwin’s pay will increase by a base of up to $3 million. Simply put, Adam Baldwin will be able to get up to $3 million in salary from the second sequel, $6 million for the third sequel, $9 million for the fourth sequel, and $12 million for the fifth sequel.

There is no sharing clause.

At the moment, except for stars who have unexpectedly obtained tens of millions of dollars in remuneration by sharing, Hollywood has not yet seen a situation where the basic salary can reach tens of millions of dollars. Therefore, neither WMA nor Adam Baldwin himself has any opinion on this contract.

Simon knows that in the next few years, as the European market and the video tape market continue to expand, the remuneration of Hollywood stars will also increase rapidly.

Even if it is calculated according to the global box office of the first "Batman" in the original time and space, Adam Baldwin will certainly not be satisfied with the sequel and only get 3 million US dollars in pay.

However, dissatisfaction returned to dissatisfaction, but Simon was not worried that Adam Baldwin would repeat.

Not only the 15-year contract period and pre-agreed payment terms, but also many other restrictive clauses.

For example, in order to avoid genre conflicts between other films that Adam Baldwin received during the contract period and "Batman", Adam Baldwin needs to obtain approval from Daenerys Films if he wants to get any other film contracts. This means that if Daenerys Pictures does not nod, Adam Baldwin will not be able to play a role other than Batman during the next 15-year contract.

In addition, if Adam Baldwin wants to terminate the contract early, it is not impossible, but he must compensate Daenerys Pictures for three times all income during the contract period and the three years following the termination of the contract. This expensive breach of contract is enough to completely break Adam Baldwin back to his original form.

As for Valerie Galino, who plays Catwoman, Daenerys Pictures has signed three film contracts with it.

Considering that Scarlett Johansson's "Black Widow" in the original time and space Marvel Cinematic Universe can get a top salary of 20 million dollars second only to Robert Downey Jr., even more than all other heroes, Daenerys The film industry also signed a precautionary clause with Valerie Galino.

Although she is the youngest best actress at the Venice Film Festival, European actresses have always been low-value in Hollywood, with good quality and low prices. This is actually a very important reason why Simon chose each other.

Valerie Galino's first song was finally determined to be 200,000 US dollars, which is slightly lower than Biadan Baldwin. For the next two film deals, Daenerys Films has given a base pay increase of 2.5 million US dollars, the second is up to 2.5 million US dollars, and the third is up to 5 million US dollars.

Simon does not intend to make Valerie Galino play the first heroine in all of the trilogy.

If the actress shows enough color in the first song, Simon plans to take out one of the three film contracts she signed to make a solo movie "Catwoman".

of course.

All these plans depend on the market performance of the first part of "Batman".

The casting of "Batman" is something that Hollywood has been paying close attention to, and it is unlikely to want to hide the news. Although Daenerys Films issued the order, the details of Adam Baldwin and Valerie Galino were exposed by the media before the contract was completely finalized.

Adam Baldwin's role as Batman is unequivocal.

Then, like every Batman casting in the original time and space, it is inevitable that many comics fans jumped out to express that they were not busy with Adam Baldwin’s election. Daenerys Pictures received a lot of relevant information almost every day. letter.

Valerie Galino's casting was also inevitably criticized.

Daenerys Films did not intend to pay attention to these discussions. Since it has been exposed, the company has also generously held a public media conference. After the two protagonists briefly appeared in front of the media, Simon sent the two to Australia. , On the one hand, to avoid the limelight, on the other hand, to familiarize yourself with the future shooting location in advance.

That's right.

The first "Batman" will be filmed in Australia.

In the comic setting, the prototype of Gotham City is more inclined to Chicago. However, the original author of "Batman" created a virtual city mainly to express a kind of "Gotham" that can become any one in the world. The concept of the city.

Simon also tended to shoot in Chicago initially.

However, considering the shooting date of "Batman", this obviously doesn't work.

The filming of "Batman" is expected to start early next year. At that time, Chicago was the coldest winter time. Not only did the temperature easily reach minus ten or twenty degrees, but also might encounter continuous blizzards. In this case, the crew wanted It has become very difficult to open trade unions.

In comparison, it will happen to be summer in the southern hemisphere.

Simon chose between Sydney and Melbourne, and finally under the influence of Janet, the filming location was confirmed in Melbourne. Janet’s home is in Melbourne, and the pattern of rivers in Melbourne’s urban area is somewhat similar to that of Gotham City.

Most importantly, as the foundation of the Johnston family, choosing to shoot in Melbourne, the "Batman" crew can also get the greatest degree of administrative support.

Making movies also requires contacts, which no one can deny.

of course.

At that time, for several months of shooting, Simon will inevitably have a very in-depth contact with the Johnston family.

In such a turbulent and busy situation, June 1988 went quietly.

July 1st happened to be another Friday.

From June 3 to June 30, "Pulp Fiction" was released for exactly four weeks.

Following the US$27.53 million in the first week and US$23.38 million in the following week, "Pulp Fiction" received another US$17.3 million and US$15.03 million at the box office in the third and fourth weeks of its release. As a result, the cumulative box office of "Pulp Fiction" reached 83.26 million U.S. dollars throughout June and four weeks. There is only a gap of less than 20 million US dollars from the box office breaking 100 million.

Taking into account the box office curve trend of this film, no one would doubt that "Pulp Fiction" will successfully achieve a box office of 100 million in the next two weeks, and complete another relay with "Instinct", which was released on July 15.

In the half month since the preview, although various events have been happening in Hollywood, under the joint guidance of Fox and Daenerys Pictures, the media enthusiasm for "Instinct" has continued. The two companies Various news are constantly released to maintain the topicality of this movie.

During the release of "Pulp Fiction", on June 24, Disney's "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" was also released as scheduled.

The combined animation and real-life movie that cost a huge amount of US$70 million ended up at a box office of US$21.56 million in the first week, although compared to the previous box office of "Crocodile Dundee 2", "Rambo 3" and "Pulp Fiction". The start is not very good, but "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" has aroused unanimous praise from the media and the audience, and it is expected to come out with a very beautiful long-term data.

Sandra Bullock's second film "A Fish Named Wanda", in which Sandra Bullock has dropped her remuneration with a share clause, is also released on July 1. Due to Sandra's participation, the publisher MGM paid full attention to the film. Not only did it invest a lot of publicity resources, it also gave 1,129 yuan of opening silver.

During the trial screening before the opening of the painting, "A Fish Named Wanda" also received universal acclaim from the media. Now we only need to look forward to the next box office performance of the film.

In addition to all these things, Daenerys Pictures invested 25 million US dollars in the production of "Rain Man" also smoothly completed at the end of June. The two male protagonists of various tossings finally did not delay the filming cycle beyond July. .

However, after the filming was completed, the budget of 25 million US dollars was only less than 3 million US dollars.

Speaking of it, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise each took away $6 million in salary, and director Barry Levinson also received $3 million. This is because Daenerys Pictures last year "Good Morning Vietnam" has signed a directorial contract with him before.

Last year's "Good Morning Vietnam" not only popularized the actor Robin Williams, but also made director Barry Levinson successfully rank among the top ranks. If it is to sign a contract after the release of "Good Morning Vietnam", Daenerys Pictures is likely to have to pay a salary equivalent to the two male protagonists, or offer a share clause.

But in any case, with the remaining $3 million in post-production costs, the film’s budget is bound to be tight. Fortunately, "Rain Man" is not a special effects movie. The post-production work is mainly relatively simple editing and soundtrack. Although it may eventually overspend, it will not be too much.

Of course, in Simon's view, as an anti-traditional road movie, editing and soundtracking are two important things for "Rain Man" to achieve the same success as the original time and space.