Hollywood Hunter

The cause of the incident came from the script of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural".

On July 22, a gossip newspaper with low attention in Los Angeles suddenly broke out that the script of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural" was not written by Simon Westero himself. The actual screenwriter of the film was actually "Scream of Scream". Screenwriter Bruce Joy Robin.

Newspaper articles attacking Simon in a big way are actually stealing the creative achievements of others. Since Westeros is not the author of the screenplay of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural", the recent hotly talked about ‘Hecanseepeople’ are naturally nonsense.

Simon admitted that he did steal other people's creative achievements, but the original author of the script does not yet know where. The report of that newspaper completely violated the established facts of this time and space, and completely removed Simon and the script of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural", all of which were named Bruce Joy, who was just ghostwriting based on the outline of the story given by Simon. · Robin.

The box office of "Sixth Sense of Supernatural" was close to 120 million U.S. dollars in three weeks, and the films in the same period were all overwhelmed. Other Hollywood studios are waiting for some negative news in the film. As a result, the article in that newspaper suddenly became a fuse.

Under the impetus of some people, the media immediately began to hold on to this matter.

Bruce Joy Robin was naturally the first target of inquiry by the media.

Originally, as long as Bruce Joy Robin resolutely denies this matter, it will probably be resolved. However, Bruce Joey Robin did not do it the first time.

As for the reason, in the final analysis, it is for the benefit.

According to the current box office momentum, the total North American box office of "Sixth Sense of Supernatural" is generally predicted to be between 250 million and 300 million US dollars, and the global box office is likely to double to 600 million US dollars. The total global box office of 600 million US dollars means that the later income of the film's video tape and TV broadcast rights will be very large.

If Bruce Joy Robin had signed a contract with Daenerys Entertainment in accordance with the "Basic Agreement" of the Screenwriters Guild of America, only according to the "Basic Agreement"'s share clause, he would easily get millions of dollars in subsequent payments in the future. .

However, in the three-part contract signed by Bruce Joy Robin and Daenerys Entertainment, only his own original "Human Ghost Love Is Unexpected" is a contract signed in accordance with the WGA "Basic Agreement", and the other "Shock The first part of "Scream" and the two scripts of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural", he signed a long-term employment contract. As a full-time screenwriter of Daenerys Entertainment, he wrote the script for the company with a weekly salary of $2,000.

Bruce Joy Robin spent roughly 10 weeks on both the "Screaming Scream" and "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural", and each script was paid $20,000.

According to the contract signed by the two parties, as a full-time screenwriter, Bruce Joy Robin does not have the right to share. This is actually a common practice in Hollywood to circumvent the WGA "Basic Agreement" in order to save budgets. Hollywood studios generally have Own full-time screenwriters, these people usually create screenplays based on the creativity of studio executives or other aspects. Even members of the screenwriters’ union often cannot get the post-production share specified in the Basic Agreement.

Does WGA care about it?

Although WGA is a strong industry association with the most frequent strikes in Hollywood, as long as it is yours and no members lodge a complaint, it will basically not interfere.

In fact, not only WGA, but also the Hollywood Actors Guild and Directors Guild have similar phenomena.

Steven Spielberg has been publicly complained by actors about being very stingy in terms of remuneration. In order to reduce the remuneration of actors and the latter part of the same basic agreement of the Actors Guild, he often requires actors participating in his films to sign to avoid actors. The contractual contract of the basic agreement of the association.

However, Hollywood also has another common phenomenon.

As long as a film unexpectedly sells at the box office, it is destined to be followed by various disputes for profit, or uneven distribution of the interests of the producer and distributor, or someone who jumps out to accuse plagiarism and claim compensation, or profit. Related parties believe that the studio is hiding profits, and so on.

A series of phenomenal movies over the years, from "Jaws" and "Star Wars" in the 1970s to "High Aspirations" and "Rain Man" in recent years, none of them escaped this "curse".

For "Sixth Sense of Supernatural", even if the film sold 100 million US dollars in the box office in North America, Bruce Joy Robin may still be able to deal with it calmly. Because of the high-paying invitations of other studios, he did not accept the invitation to create the sequel, but he did not object to the original salary.

However, a super blockbuster with global box office potential hitting 600 million yuan makes it difficult for him to maintain a psychological balance.

This imbalance probably began to accumulate since the release of "Scream" last year.

Therefore, when the gossip newspaper article came to light, Bruce Joey Robin not only failed to publicly deny the request of Daenerys Entertainment at the first time, but on the other hand, he made a fuss with the media while requesting Daenerys Entertainment. , I hope that as the creator of the two movie scripts "Screaming" and "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural", I can get a certain amount of compensation from the huge profits of the film, and unceremoniously offer a one-time price of 5 million US dollars.

Simon was very angry about this.

It was another guy who was unwilling to abide by the contract and even took power.

Simon is a person who values ​​contracts very much. Just like last year’s "Pulp Fiction", Orion recovered at least US$100 million in net profit from the global box office of more than US$300 million, but he could only get a box office share of more than US$15 million. . However, since the original contract was like this, Simon did not regret it.

There is also the film contract that is owed to Disney. According to the original agreement, Simon only needs to pay a multi-million dollar liquidated damage to get rid of it. Compared to his hundreds of millions of dollars in net profit of a movie, this is completely worth it. But Simon did not intend to do that.

Although Simon adhered to the contract, Daenerys Entertainment encountered it time and time again.

Simon originally did not intend to compromise. Everyone's contracts were in black and white. Many details were still available for investigation. Even if they went to court, Daenerys Entertainment was not afraid.

However, under Amy's persuasion, in order to avoid this matter from affecting the box office situation of "Supernatural Sixth Sense", Simon reluctantly agreed to the proposal of private reconciliation. Bruce Joy Robin probably knows that if his request is put on the table, it will be difficult to get results that are beneficial to him. Daenerys Entertainment has bargained with the other party’s lawyers and quickly confirmed a $2 million settlement. Amount.

It's just that the tree wants to be quiet and the wind keeps going.

Daenerys Entertainment is about to reach a settlement with Bruce Joy Robin, and the American Screenwriters Guild, which is at odds with Daenerys Entertainment, suddenly jumped out and announced that it will openly investigate Daenerys Entertainment's signing with WGA members The violation of the agreement harms the interests of the members of the association.

In Hollywood, not to mention the bottom screenwriters, even the top gold screenwriters, often take on some private work, and spend a few weeks working as a "script doctor" for some projects, receiving a one-time generous payment, not participating in the signature, and not requiring a share Of course, there is no need to be responsible for the commercial success or failure of the film.

There are not a few who have completed the entire script directly without a signature. In the original time and space of Kim Carrey’s famous "Dumb and Agua", the real screenwriter is actually not the Ferrari brothers. The first draft of the script is from the screenwriter John Hugh of "Home Alone" The hand of Si.

It's always like this. If it's not true, everything will be fine. If it is true, it will be troublesome.

The two parties had too much grievances during the screenwriters' strike last year, and perhaps some other forces have promoted them. The American Screenwriters Guild is obviously very happy to be true to Daenerys Entertainment and forcibly requires Daenerys Entertainment to actively cooperate with the investigation, otherwise Daenerys Entertainment will be included in the union blacklist, and union members will be prohibited from continuing to cooperate for Daenerys Entertainment.

The serious consequences caused by the US Screenwriters’ Union last year’s strike are still vivid. The WGA's statement of threatening to ‘strike’ against Daenerys Entertainment naturally does not allow Simon to ignore it.

Once the worst happens, many of Daenerys Entertainment's ongoing projects may be shut down without preparation. This year’s TV season is coming. If some of the TV series cannot be delivered on time due to lack of screenwriters, it will not only have a serious impact on Daenerys Entertainment’s TV business, but also pay a large amount of liquidated damages to the TV network.

Since this matter was destined to no longer be quietly concealed, Daenerys Entertainment immediately abandoned its plan to reconcile with Bruce Joey Robin in private. In addition to cooperating with WGA's so-called investigation, it also announced the whole thing. The inside story of the matter was published in the media.

Whether it was "Screaming Scream" or "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural", Simon had personally completed a meticulous outline of the story. He also discussed more details of the script with Bruce Joy Robin in private. Bruce Joy Robin injected few personal thoughts into the two scripts, and his work was limited to expanding Simon's idea into a complete script of about two hours.

Not only the synopsis, but also the several meetings between Simon and Bruce Joey Robin, there are meeting records available.

All of this exposure, among them, the right and wrong, as long as a normal person can probably sort out one reason.

Santa Monica.

The time is Friday, July 28.

Simon was no longer busy with the latter part of "Batman" this morning, and came to his office at the company headquarters early in the morning.

When Amy walked in, Simon was looking at the box office data report for the past week.

Previously, on July 21st, North American theaters had only one low-cost comedy "UHF" by Orion Pictures released. It told a story that happened on a TV station. It was somewhat similar to the film by William Hurt and Fox two years ago. Holly Hunter starred in "Broadcast News", which has a double box office award.

However, "UHF" did not have the good luck of "Broadcast News". The screen size was 1,295 yuan, and the box office in the first week was only 3.52 million US dollars. It did not pose any threat to the still strong "Supernatural Sixth Sense". It might as well receive another $5.07 million in "Bodyguard" in the 8th week of the release.

On this week’s box office list, "Sixth Sense of Supernatural" was released in its fourth week. The box office decline finally started to expand, reaching 19%. It received another US$31.06 million in seven days and the cumulative box office was US$150.02 million. All data Still riding the dust.

Warner Bros.’s "Lethal Weapon 2" and Disney’s "Dear, I Made the Child Smaller" with full stamina took second and third places respectively.

"The 007 Killing License" released on July 14th, taking inflation into account, set a record low in North American box office since the emergence of this spy movie. The first week of the film was only 13.03 million U.S. dollars. This week, the box office was once again big. It fell 39% to only 7.83 million US dollars. The total box office of 20.86 million US dollars in two weeks was only half of the box office of the fourth week of the release of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural".

Although the 007 series has always accounted for the bulk of the box office overseas, and has not lost money so far, this sequel in North America is expected to only have a local box office figure of more than 30 million US dollars, which is far from reaching the expectations of the producers.

Simon remembers that due to the failure of this sequel and the entanglement of some copyright lawsuits, Yuan Shikong has maintained a stable 007 series for two or three years. After "007 of the Killing License", it was not until 1995 that another 007 series was released. In this new work, the time interval is as long as 6 years, and the actor has also been replaced by Pierce Brosnan.

Amy sat down opposite Simon, waited patiently for a moment, noticed that he raised his head, and then said: "WGA has just sent someone over to take away some of the files of "Screaming" and "Sixth Sense of Supernatural." Regarding the "Rain Man", MGM had already dispelled the idea of ​​formally filing a lawsuit. Just now they called from there and their attitude became stronger again. Perhaps this lawsuit is already inevitable."

Simon still asked Amy according to the box office report in his hand: "What do you think is going on this time?"

Amy shook his head: "It's hard to tell. Someone must be targeting us, but maybe it's not just a company. Those people should just take advantage of the trend. After all, this time we took the initiative to expose the flaw. Well, Michael Mei is completely messing around."

Simon picked up a pencil and looked at the box office report in front of him again. He was actually thinking about it just now. Moreover, his conclusion is roughly similar to Amy.