Hollywood Hunter

Los Angeles.

With the sudden departure of Ron Macmillan, a producer under Daenerys Entertainment, Hollywood's not-so-quiet January seems even more lively.

Knowing that he was fired for some ‘trivial’ things, Ron Macmillan almost immediately contacted Simon to take charge of himself. He felt that this was Amy and Janet’s arrogant nonsense.

After confirming that this incident was approved by Simon, the angry Ron Macmillan also completely tore his face and asked for 5 million US dollars in resignation compensation. Daenerys Entertainment will naturally not pay the money, and is not afraid of Ron Macmillan's threat to court.

Ron Macmillan’s embezzlement of film project funds is fully evidenced. Although the number is not large, it is enough for Daenerys Entertainment to dismiss the other party reasonably and reasonably.

It really makes a lot of noise. No matter how Hollywood views this matter internally, in the eyes of the media and the public, Ron Macmillan will only end up as notorious as David Bergman.

So, after a week of confrontation, Ron Macmillan still signed the resignation agreement without any compensation.

In exchange for another non-disclosure agreement for not discussing the incident publicly, Ron Macmillan also received in advance a follow-up share of $2.6 million that he deserved in several films he collaborated with Daenerys Entertainment. , The two sides owe nothing to each other so far.

Within Daenerys Entertainment, as the financial audits personally supervised by Janet continued to deepen, the company successively fired a number of employees with unclean hands and feet.

Although inevitably aroused some criticism, but the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group also realized that its own company is absolutely impossible to be as confused and sloppy as traditional Hollywood studios. Of course, because Daenerys Entertainment's salary standard is significantly higher than that of its peers, not many people choose to leave because the company's financial system is too strict.

As for Ron Macmillan, even though he signed a non-disclosure agreement, complaints about him attacking Simon and Daenerys Entertainment for being stingy and ruthless in some party scenes quickly spread.

However, because he did not publicly express these views in the media, Daenerys Entertainment couldn't take it seriously.

Now that I can associate my name with the top ten best-selling works of the three annual lists of "Lola Run", "Reaper is Coming" and "Screaming", although I know that the behind-the-scenes masters of the three films are all It was Simon Westeros, and Ron Macmillan immediately caused the entire Hollywood scramble after his departure.

After several quotations, Universal Pictures finally signed a three-part contract with Ron Macmillan with a generous contract of US$3 million in basic salary plus 10% of the project’s net profit.

In addition, Universal also specially provided Ron Macmillan with additional subsidies such as the company's vice president-level private jet, personal hospitality, administrative assistant, etc., and specially established Ron Macmillan at Universal Studios in Burbank. Macmillan Productions opened an office.

Prior to this, only a few companies such as Spielberg's Ann Berlin Pictures could have offices in Universal Studios.

Daenerys Entertainment did not deliberately conceal the reason for Ron Macmillan's resignation, and the circle knows this well. Therefore, Universal Pictures also gave such a generous treatment on the basis of Ron Macmillan's salary contract, which obviously has a somewhat targeted meaning.

In fact, Daenerys Entertainment faces more than this one.

Paramount Pictures is in a state of fiery preparations for "Rocket Expert" and "Firebird Attack", let alone, realizing that "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" may be a dark horse at the box office. The main investor of the film is MCA/Columbia. The two parent companies of Home Entertainment combined several times, and Columbia Pictures finally got the distribution rights of "Sex, Lies, and Videotapes."

Near the Sundance Film Festival, Colombia also set up a special publicity team to start pre-publication for the film.

After the box office received $12.96 million in the fourth week, in the fifth week of the show, as the number of screens continued to increase, reaching 1,732 yuan, the box office of "Rain Man" once again experienced a reversal. Although the reversal was only a very small 2%, the box office of 13.19 million US dollars made the "Rain Man" North American box office quickly reached 72.38 million US dollars.

Moreover, for five consecutive weeks, it is very likely that the box office will exceed $10 million in a single week for six consecutive weeks. This box office stamina has clearly surpassed all other movies produced by Daenerys Entertainment last year.

At the end of last year, Daenerys Entertainment's "Scream", which performed the best at the box office outside of "Rain Man", had only four weeks of box office sales of more than $10 million. Even the "Pulp Fiction", which temporarily ranked first in 1988, only lasted five weeks at the box office of tens of millions in a single week.

As a hot spot in the awards season, with the announcement of the Oscar nominations at the end of January and the presentation of various union awards and Oscars in February and March, the box office potential of "Rain Man" has clearly exceeded that of "Pulp Fiction."

Seeing the popularity of "Rain Man" at the box office, MGM, who gave up the script and put up a "The Hobbit", and later sold the North American omni-channel distribution rights for a mere US$5 million. Up.

Year crown.

Even if the total cost of the project reaches 40 million US dollars, the box office potential shown by "Rain Man" is only the local and overseas box office revenue. Combined, the profit may still exceed 100 million, not to mention the follow-up video tape and TV broadcast income. .

This is simply a gold mine.

Just like this was deceived by Simon Westero.

So there was noisy to sue and claim compensation, and actually hired a law firm to start studying the possible loopholes in several contracts between MGM and Daenerys.

Finally, including Fox, Warner and Disney, which have been in good relations, almost all of the seven major Hollywood players are involved with Daenerys Entertainment in this lively January.

If it's just these involvements, it doesn't matter, even if it is MGM who wants to initiate a lawsuit, it only needs to see tricks.

Hollywood's big-selling films will almost always cause various disputes of interest. Even in the original "Lola Run", the media once rumored that Simon and Janet had become enemies because of the uneven distribution of benefits.

The most frustrating thing is that any project Daenerys Entertainment is currently looking at will become the focus of Hollywood.

Although Simon had a foresight to hoard a large amount of copyrights, it was unable to meet the needs of Daenerys Entertainment. The company could not put all the copyrights that are expected to sell well on the development agenda. This requires other projects to fill the content. shortage.

"Al, I know what you are thinking. Since "Driving for Miss Daisy" has been picked up by Daenerys Entertainment, with the current trend of Hollywood, other film companies will certainly offer higher prices to compete. But you can Confirm that they can do a good job? In case it messes up, you won’t get anything except a slightly higher copyright fee. But, if you give it to Daenerys Entertainment, once it succeeds, you will not only be able to play in this movie With both fame and fortune, you will become the top screenwriter in Hollywood, and all your future scripts will become the object of Hollywood's competition. This is the most important thing."

Inside a coffee shop on Broadway, New York.

Ella Deutschman talked to the somewhat bald middle-aged man in his fifties opposite. After he finished speaking, he took out a business card and handed it over, saying: "The contact information of the hotel where I stayed is on it. Al, if you are willing to give us the script, give me a call tonight. After today, I can only say regret."

The middle-aged man opposite Ella Deutschman is named Alfred Uri, a screenwriter, but he mainly writes stage plays on Broadway. A stage play "Drive for Miss Daisy" created by Uli two years ago was acclaimed on Broadway and won last year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Playing with the business card in his hand, Alfred Uri looked wisely at Deutschman, who had already gotten up. He did not get up with him, and his tone was a little bit tentative. He said, "Ira, if I don’t hit this Phone, will you really give up "Driving for Miss Daisy"? I think it might become another "Steel Magnolia"."

Ella Deutschman just smiled and said, "Uri, you are the third screenwriter I met today. I have seven people to see next. You may all think that the script in your hand is the next. "Steel Magnolia", but unfortunately there is only one "Steel Magnolia"."

"Well, Ella," Alfred Uri said in a relaxed tone, "Why don't you sit down and talk? Since you want "Drive for Miss Daisy", you always have to introduce you to me How do you plan to adapt this movie? And, with the $100,000 offer, don’t you think it’s too insincere for the right to adapt a Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play?"

Ella Deutschman did not sit down and explained: "Al, as I just said, $100,000 is just an advance payment. In the next three years, Daenerys Entertainment will pay you again if you vote for this movie. For $200,000, you will also enjoy the authorship of the screenwriters and the subsequent share due to the screenwriters’ union’s "Basic Agreement." After three years, if Daenerys Entertainment fails to shoot the movie, you can choose to redeem the copyright."

Alfred Uri still didn't give up inquiring about more news, and said: "So, you don't plan to make this movie in a short time. If this is the case, I need to think about it carefully."

Ella Deutschman did not say much, and reached out directly to Alfred Uri, saying: "If you are willing to sign, Al, we can spend a day talking about everything carefully."

Finally shook hands with Alfred Uri, and Ella Deutschman left the coffee shop without nostalgia.

These days, in order to cope with the containment of Hollywood, Daenerys Entertainment has begun to use this kind of'ultimatum' strategy in script negotiations that does not give the copyright owner too much time to consider, and once it is given up, it will resolutely stop eating back and more. There will be no bidding wars with the Big Seven.

In addition, Daenerys Entertainment’s frequency of shots is so frequent that competitors can’t see the situation clearly, and it has largely resolved the company’s state of containment.

Of course, this strategy also has obvious disadvantages. For the big-name screenwriters that have become famous, this strategy has little effect. Those who are willing to compromise are basically screenwriters who are eager for opportunities and have not yet made their mark, and the company's recent goals are mainly these people.

Speaking of it, Ira Deutschman didn't know the special features of "Driving for Miss Daisy", and it was even less clear that this movie was the best film of the 62nd Oscar in 1990 in original time and space.

After the "Steel Magnolia", which was changed in the stage play, went viral at the box office at the end of the year just past, Hollywood began to turn more attention to the Broadway stage play. After Ira Docman communicated with Simon, he started from the budget he could use A certain amount of money was set aside specifically to buy the right to adapt to the stage play for the art and art developed by Gaomen Pictures.

As the winner of last year's Pulitzer Prize for Drama, "Driving for Miss Daisy" naturally became Ella Deutschman's target.

Simon, who was far away in Melbourne, saw the name "Driving for Miss Daisy" from the list listed by Deutschman, but he did not give Ella Deutschman a special reminder.

Simon also knows the situation Daenerys Entertainment is facing.

The response strategy adopted by the company is very effective, and he does not intend to make an exception in this movie.

The history of Hollywood has changed a lot. "Driving for Miss Daisy" has fallen into the hands of others. It may be possible to achieve the same success in the original time and space. Moreover, as long as the copyright holder has a bit of foresight, he knows that cooperation with Daenerys Entertainment is more in his own interests. If you are short-sighted, it doesn't matter if you don't cooperate.

After meeting Alfred Uri, Ella Deutschman hurried to other meetings.

After a busy day, Ella Deutschman returned to the hotel where she was staying in Midtown in the evening, and the lobby manager reminded him that he had several phone messages. Of the five screenwriters I have met today, three of them called and agreed to sell the copyright, including Alfred Uri of "Drive for Miss Daisy."

Back in the room, after several phone calls from the screenwriters, Ella Deutschman called again to Ireland on the other side of the ocean, and routinely asked about the progress of the filming of "My Left Foot".

This is the result of Deutschman’s last flight to the UK.

"My Left Foot" is a biopic starring Daniel Day Lewis. It tells the story of a disabled man who was paralyzed from polio and relied on his only movable left foot to become an artist.

In original time and space, "My Left Foot" is another Miramax's turnaround work besides "Sex, Lies and Videotape", and was nominated for Best Picture at the 1990 Oscar.

Now, neither of these two works have anything to do with Miramax.

Although I didn’t get "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", because when I ran Xinying, I worked with Daniel Day Lewis on "A Room with a View". Ira Docman's last time in the UK The trip went smoothly and got this movie.

However, when the film was discovered, Jim Sheridan, the director of "My Left Foot", had already completed the preliminary preparations, and the film was about to start shooting.

Because Simon was very fond of this project, Ella Deutschman bought out the copyrights of the original three investors with a total of 1.8 million US dollars. This price is already high, because the production cost of "My Left Foot" is only 600,000 pounds, which is less than 1 million US dollars.

The original three investors also wanted to wait for the price, and Ella Deutschman decisively used the ‘ultimatum’ to smoothly compromise the three companies.

The news in the UK is not well informed by Hollywood. It is a film that is hardly appreciated by everyone, and the filming has not yet officially started. The effect of the film is unpredictable. You don't have to do almost anything, and you can make nearly double the profit with a backhand. Several small independent filmmakers are not too persistent.

It is precisely in the "My Left Foot" that saw the effect of the ‘ultimatum’ that Daenerys Entertainment will frequently adopt this strategy recently.