Hollywood Hunter

"Mike, of course we really want to work with Barry, but his new script is really lacking in selling points. Moreover, we cannot accept the $25 million budget."

"I understand your thoughts, West Germany, Paramount must also look forward to getting one or two projects from those 10 films of Daenerys Entertainment, but because you used unglamorous means from Simon Westeros He took "Rocket Expert" and "Firebird Attack" in his hand. Do you think he still has the possibility of cooperating with you?"

"Mike, it is precisely because we know our situation that we have this meeting between you and me today. I guess other studios are reluctant to discuss this project with you anymore, right?"

"..."

Paramount Studios Hollywood.

Paramount Pictures President Sidney Garnis and Michael Ovitz are discussing Barry Levinson’s new screenplay "Avalon". Avalon is the bliss of European myths and legends. Land', the story tells the story of the struggles of the Klitzynski family of Eastern European immigrants who immigrated to the United States at the beginning of this century.

The project of "Rain Man", although Dustin Hoffman still got his second Oscar figurine, it was considered to have saved some face, but in fact, Barry Levinson and other creators were quite embarrassed.

Barry Levinson has been focusing on writing his new script "Avalon" in the first half of the year, hoping to make a shame with this project. At the beginning of July, Levinson finally finished the script of "Avalon". Several Hollywood studios also expressed interest in "Avalon", and all parties began to negotiate.

However, with Daenerys Entertainment's sudden announcement of plans for 10 foreign collaboration films, things started to take a turn for the worse.

Disney, Columbia, and Warner Bros., who were originally interested in "Avalon", have firmly expressed their rejection, and only Paramount has not said anything.

These days, Michael Ovitz secretly regretted more than once why he did not stop Barry Levinson and others from trying to shirk responsibility. Now, the entire CAA has been included in the blacklist of Daenerys Entertainment.

After a moment of silence, Michael Ovitz said: "West Germany, let's be frank and talk about Paramount's terms?"

"Barry's new script should be aimed at hitting the Oscars, and the box office potential is not big. Therefore, Paramount can only give a budget of 12 million U.S. dollars, of which 2 million U.S. dollars is Barry's salary. Of course, we can add another net 10% profit sharing clause."

Michael Ovitz was a little angry: "West Germany, $2 million, do you think this is possible?"

After his debut in the 1970s, Barry Levinson was promoted to a top-line screenwriter and became a director. Even if not counted as "Rain Man", "Good Morning Vietnam" and other blockbuster films are enough to make him one of the first-line directors with a $5 million salary Ranks.

What's more, no one can completely deny Barry Levinson's contribution to "Rain Man".

Right now, after two consecutive "Good Morning Vietnam" and "Rain Man", Paramount is only willing to offer $2 million for a new film written and directed by Barry Levinson. This is simply an insult.

Sidney Garnis ignored Michael Ovitz’s mocking question, raised his wrist and looked at his watch, and said, “I have a meeting soon, Mike, you can go back and think about it first, and call when you decide. I."

Leaving Paramount Studios in a gloomy mood, Michael Ovitz was thinking about how to talk about this with his clients along the way.

Paramount was obviously taking advantage of the fire, but Barry Levinson didn't have much choice.

or.

Let Barry put down the project for the time being and start making a better-looking commercial film.

This idea was immediately dismissed by Ovitz.

Matthew Broderick, who had had trouble with Simon Westeros at the time, has been completely abandoned. Now, although Daenerys Entertainment has not released anything publicly, Hollywood dares to take risks and continue to cooperate with Barry Levinson There are not many film companies at all.

Even within CAA, many stars are now deliberately avoiding Barry Levinson.

Back to the CAA headquarters in Century City, just sitting behind the desk, a company agent Richard Lovett came to report that Kurt Russell and Gotti Han were planning to leave CAA.

Michael Ovitz could not help frowning.

This is another more serious problem facing CAA.

After Jonathan Friedman became the president of WMA, he was ambitious to take back the customers who were lost from WMA. Kurt Russell and Gotty Han were both first-line stars that CAA took advantage of when the former president of WMA Stan Carmen died three years ago. This time it was obviously a counterattack from WMA.

Picking up the microphone on the desktop and making a few calls, Michael Ovitz quickly reached out to Kurt Russell. However, the invitation to make an appointment for dinner was directly rejected. Although Kurt Russell was very polite, he said that the couple's lawyer would be responsible for follow-up matters.

There is obviously no room for any change in this matter.

Moreover, the Russells are no longer the first wave of stars to leave recently. Michael Ovitz is very clear that not only WMA, but other talent agencies in Hollywood are brandishing hoes against CAA recently.

Michael Ovitz once ambitiously wanted to hollow out the ‘essence’ of all other talent agency companies in Hollywood, relying on CAA’s unique packaging mechanism to fight for more and more lucrative remunerations for the stars, which was originally very smooth. However, after Simon Westero appeared, in the last two years, Michael Ovitz found that everything went wrong. He once wanted to attract many customers under CAA, such as Robert De Niro and Kevin Coster. Na, Brian de Palma, etc., all failed.

Now, as Daenerys Entertainment gains momentum, CAA has even begun to be poached in reverse.

CAA's packaging strategy has not been outdated, but has become more popular, but Ovitz also understands why this happens.

In the final analysis, it is still Hollywood's resource competition.

In the past few years, because of the successful launch of a large number of box-office packaged projects such as "Skinny Man" and "Out of Africa", CAA has no problems in Hollywood. Not only has it successfully recruited a large number of first-line stars to join, but also projects involving CAA can also obtain resource tilt from the studio in various aspects such as schedules and screens.

However, the rise of Daenerys Entertainment made CAA quickly lose these advantages.

Because many non-CAA customers who rely on Daenerys Entertainment’s series of blockbuster films have increased their popularity, they have attracted more attention from Hollywood studios, and have more blockbuster films’ popularity as a base, Robert De Niro, Kevin Coase Stars like Turner and Sandra Bullock can also ask for higher quality resources from the studio.

In contrast, the commercial performance of its stars is obviously not as good as Daenerys Entertainment's movies, and CAA has gradually fallen into a disadvantage in this regard.

Now, once Daenerys Entertainment’s 10 film plans are completely excluded from the participation of CAA stars, this gap will undoubtedly be even wider. After all, these 10 movies will definitely account for the best schedule, the most generous announcement and the most generous number of screens in the next two years.

At the same time, no one would doubt that there will be another group of celebrities whose positions will be greatly improved.

Some of the first-tier stars of CAA are likely to be squeezed into the second-tier in a year or two.

Michael Ovitz couldn't help but think of the recent Sony acquisition of Columbia. As the matchmaker of this merger, Sony had previously revealed his intention to be the head of Sony's entertainment business. Now that the merger and acquisition case is basically settled, Sony no longer mentions it.

Talent agency companies do not have any fixed assets and are destined to be difficult to grow.

Seeing that Simon Westero, Michael Eisner, Barry Diller and others have gained fame and fortune in the production industry, Ovitz certainly has similar ideas.

In the end, it was because of Simon Westeros.

After weighing and thinking for a long time, Michael Ovitz picked up the phone again and dialed a number skillfully without consulting the address book.

The call is connected, but Westeros is not in the company.

Michael Ovitz chatted a few words with the other side, and the other side only said that they would relay it, but did not intend to transfer the call for him.

Putting down the microphone, Ovitz was considering what to do with the matter, and the fax machine in his office rang.

Pulling out a page from the fax machine, there are only four names on it: Barry Levinson, Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Meg Ryan.

There is also a handwritten ‘W’ logo in the lower right corner of the page.

W, Westeros.

After a little stunned, Ovitz immediately understood that Simon Westeros meant that CAA must draw a clear line with these four people before the entanglement between the two parties can be resolved.

Simon Westeros apparently completely ignored Matthew Broderick, who had been transferred to CAA and has now been completely abolished.

To draw a clear line is definitely to terminate the contract with these four people.

just.

Can CAA do this?

Not to mention that these four are the top first-line celebrities in Hollywood. If they terminate their contract with these four celebrities in order to protect themselves, what will other customers under CAA think?

However, after a brief anger, Ovitz suddenly realized that perhaps other customers of the company didn't mind him doing this, and might even expect him to do it.

After all, as Barry Levinson left CAA, other large talent agencies will obviously not accept it easily. Small agency companies probably dare not provoke Daenerys Entertainment. They can only do it alone.

Hollywood stars do it alone.

Jack Nicholson has been drifting away from several major talent agency companies over the years, and he is still alive and well. Before joining WMA, Robert De Niro has been working alone.

However, if the four people who were originally suppressed by Daenerys Entertainment went it alone and lost the resource and network support of a large talent agency such as CAA, and various Hollywood studios did not dare to cooperate with them easily, the result would be nothing more than It can be described as an uncertain future.

People are selfish.

The fall of these four first-line film stars actually means opportunities for others.

and.

Michael Ovitz also has to admit that this is undoubtedly the most beneficial approach to CAA.

However, Ovitz has difficulty persuading himself to give in to Simon Westeros.

In a bad mood, the outside assistant knocked on the door. Ovitz looked up and saw a client of CAA's screenwriter appear at the door.

This is Joe Ezette Hass. Because of the success of films such as "Lightning Dance" and "Edge of the Blood Web", Ezette Hass is currently one of CAA's most valuable screenwriters, and he has the highest sales for several previous scripts. The price is as high as $1.25 million.

Thinking that this was a meeting decided in the afternoon, Ovitz temporarily put away his anger, smiled and got up, greeted him, shook hands with Ezet Hass, and said, "Joe, come in and sit down."

Joe Ezethas' expression was somewhat unnatural, and sat down in the reception area with Ovitz. After a few chats, and took a sip of the coffee that the secretary had just brought in, Ezette Haas said, "Mike, it's like this. My original agent, Guy McElwyin, do you remember? ?"

Ovitz nodded and said, "Didn't he go to Colombia to be a producer? It's been a long time since he saw him."

"You know," Ezethas continued: "Sony is about to acquire Colombia. Guy found that he was not too suitable to be a producer. He wanted to return to the agency industry."

Ovitz recalled Guy McElwyin’s information and nodded readily and said: “Guy is still very capable in this regard. In this case, let him come back directly. We take the time to make an appointment. talk."

"No, it's not like that," Ezettehas shook his head, his face a little more embarrassed, and said: "Guy has determined that he will go to ICM. This time, actually, you know, I and Guy's The relationship is very good, and I want to continue to let him be my agent."

Ovitz narrowed his expression: "Joe, do you want to leave CAA?"

Joe Ezethas nodded and said, "Yes, Mike, I hope you can understand."

Today's series of events have made Michael Ovitz's mood to the extreme. Hearing that the customer that CAA has spared no effort to support over the years is about to leave, his bad mood suddenly broke a certain threshold. He shook his head without hesitation and said coldly: "Joe, I won't let you go."

Joe Ezettehas did not expect Ovitz to have such a blunt and firm tone. He was stunned and said, "Mike, I can pay the penalty."

"No," Ovitz shook his head again and said, "Joe, you are CAA's most precious asset. I will not agree with you to leave."

Joe Ezeterhas dissatisfied: "I am not an asset of CAA, I am a person."

"Well, you are a person. In any case, you can't leave. At least, you don't want to leave CAA one step before the end of your contract."

"Mike, I just heard that Kurt Russell and Gotti Han have left. Why are you embarrassing me?"

"Why, Joe, do you know how much resources CAA has invested in you over the years? Do you know how much I have spent on you. In short, you want to terminate the contract early, which is impossible."

Feeling Ovitz's unreasonable and determined tone, Joe Ezethas also became angry.

The voices of the two could not help getting louder and louder, and it quickly turned into a quarrel, and Ovitz's roar spread to the corridor.

"...Don't forget, CAA gave you $1.25 million worth...Without CAA, you are nothing...Don't even think about it. I will bombard you with lawsuits and make you unable to move. Get close to the typewriter and make you completely abolished... If I let you eat shit, you have to eat shit... Do you see those people outside? You want to escape, CAA infantry fighters will find you from anywhere, and then Smash your head...I don't care what the outside world thinks, all those guys want is to write a script for Robert Redford..."

The quarrel between the two became more and more intense, and it was not until the several assistants of Ovitz felt that something was wrong and rushed into the office.

However, the matter did not end there.

The next day, Joe Ezethas published the details of the meeting in the "Hollywood Reporter" in the form of an open letter, accusing Ovitz of threatening him with tyrannical acts.

Michael Ovitz’s image in Hollywood has always been low-key, mysterious and omnipotent. In recent years, he has been in awe of Ovitz, whether he is a high-level Hollywood studio or a first-line star. Once Joe Ezettehas's open letter was released, there was an uproar in the media both within Hollywood and outside.

The personal image that Michael Ovitz carefully created over the years collapsed for a while, and Daenerys Entertainment's deliberate or unintentional suppression made CAA's situation even worse.

PS: Real events, even Ovitz's swear words are true, the stalk of "CAA Infantry Warrior" has been circulating in Hollywood for many years. Joe Ezettehas is the screenwriter of Instinct.