Hollywood Road

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The military uniforms and weapons of World War II, Hitler’s shape, Kodak’s 35mm film, and the corresponding photographic equipment... These preparations were all in place. Helena Espola also rushed to Paris early to arrange the over there. In the studio, Murphy took Philip Raschel and Gail Gadot and flew to Paris three times to inspect the shooting site.

In the past few years, the ability of the entire team has long been honed, with tacit cooperation and proficient skills, and the entire preparatory work is proceeding in an orderly manner.

But some accidents still affected the normal operation of the crew.

This month, Hollywood screenwriters went on strike completely, and many crews had to shut down, but Murphy's script has been finalized, and preparations for the crew of "Inglourious Basterds" continue.

Of course, it is impossible to say that the screenwriter's strike has no impact at all, and the crew is somewhat unstable.

Fortunately, the key members of all departments are old people who have followed Murphy for many years, and they are not too affected by the situation in Hollywood for the time being.

However, several screenwriters hired by Stanton Studios naturally joined the ranks of the strike. The union provided them with protection, and in turn, they had to fight for the union's own rights.

There was more than one union with the intention to strike, but the directors’ union and the two major actors’ unions quickly reached an agreement with the producer union, but the demands of the screenwriters’ union could not be met.

In fact, this also confirms one thing from the side. The status of screenwriters in the film industry is really not high. The conditions put forward by the screenwriters union are far lower than the directors' union and the actors' union, and they are still rejected by the producer union without hesitation. , Just like the screenwriters are not worth the price...

Under the industrialized assembly line system of Hollywood, the importance of screenwriters has been compressed to a very low level. Looking at the several strikes in Hollywood in the last two decades, the screenwriting strikes in 1988 and this year were the most popular.

To resolve this kind of thing, the two sides can only sit at the negotiating table, but the differences between them are really big.

The strike quickly spread to all of Hollywood, with 12,000 screenwriters participating successively, and many others took to Hollywood Boulevard in protest.

The last collective strike by the screenwriters’ union was in 1988. It lasted for 22 weeks and caused more than $500 million in losses to the entire industry. This strike will inevitably bring more pain, because the entertainment industry has now grown into one. Behemoth, even if it does not count the peripheral industries, can create tens of billions of dollars in output value every year.

If you count the surrounding industries, it can account for almost 8% of the total economy of the United States. The latest statistics obtained by Murphy show that the total salary of practitioners in the Hollywood film and television industry exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars last year!

This shows the immenseness of this industry and the tremendous value it can generate.

Although the screenwriters’ union is violent, considering the overall strategy of the future, the Hollywood manufacturers with the six major companies as the main body will not easily compromise at all. In this regard, they appear to be united enough.

Let alone the Big Six companies, even a third-line production company like Stanton Studios, even if the screenwriters involved in the "Inglourious Basterds" project go on strike, Murphy will not easily make concessions on benefits.

It's okay to give some sweetness, but the head that makes huge concessions cannot be opened, and once opened, it can't be held back.

Capital has always been born for the pursuit of profit, even a tiny capitalist like Murphy is no exception.

As a result, a number of film and television dramas inevitably become temporary victims.

From the day the strike began, all talk shows were immediately suspended, and then "24 Hours" announced the cancellation of this season's broadcast and became the first unlucky TV series. The shooting of the sequel "The Da Vinci Code" "Angels and Demons" was postponed and became The first hapless movie, "007: Quantum Crisis", was temporarily suspended. Joining this ranks, DreamWorks' main drama "The Adventures of Tintin" was also temporarily shelved...

Negotiations are necessary. As the owner of Stanton Studios, Murphy temporarily put aside the preparations at hand, handed over the crew to Kara Fess, and formed a negotiating team with representatives of other production companies to work with the screenwriters’ union. negotiation.

In this regard, the interests of all Hollywood production companies are the same.

Although the screenwriters' strike is in full swing, the negotiating team has shown a tough attitude. Even if they sit back at the negotiating table, they will not give in easily and the strike continues.

Murphy spends most of the time watching. With the weight of Stanton's studio, he doesn't have much say, and he doesn't need to be in the head. This kind of thing is enough to follow the trend.

Entering 2008, Hollywood has not had the slightest joyful New Year atmosphere, and the shadow of strikes is hanging over North America.

The Golden Globe Awards ceremony was forced to cancel and changed to a press conference.

Everyone is beginning to worry about the Oscars ceremony next month. If the Oscars are also cancelled, it will not only be a loss of money, but also the face of Hollywood...

Even Wall Street issued a warning that if the strike lasts for five months, the economic loss will be as high as 30 billion U.S. dollars.

The strike cannot continue. This is the consensus of everyone. Although the $30 billion figure is pure Wall Street bullshit, the strike will last too long and it will definitely affect the interests of all Hollywood companies and practitioners.

Negotiations between the two sides continue. In addition to preparing for "Shameless Bastard", Murphy also participated in the most important negotiation between the Producers Union and the Screenwriters Union in late January.

Of course, Murphy, like the boss of many small Hollywood companies, spends most of his time watching this negotiation.

The producer alliance is based on News Corporation President Peter Scherney, Disney CEO Robert Iger, and Producer Alliance Chairman Nick Conte, with the chairman of the Screenwriters Association Willon, the executive director of the West Coast Screenwriters Association David Yang, and The head of the association's coordination committee, John Bowman, confronted directly.

The strike revealed the dawn of an end.

Unlike Hollywood's major production companies, which are not hurriedly and eagerly negotiated, the film industry is most worried about the suspension of the Oscars. This is Hollywood's largest decorative facade, and no one wants to see the shutdown happen.

For this reason, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cancelled the nominees luncheon and directly changed it to a press conference to announce the nominations list.

In the past, many media have created momentum for "Man of Steel", advocating that this superhero movie should be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture or Best Director. However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has always been stubborn. Discrimination in science fiction films has not only formed in recent years.

In the newly announced naming of the 80th Oscarty, "Man of Steel" won five nominations including best photography, best visual effects, best art direction, best sound effects and best sound effects editing.

There are many nominations, but all nominations are from technical awards, and none of the heavyweight awards are shortlisted.

After the announcement of the nomination list, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was very worried that the Oscars ceremony would be suspended due to the screenwriter’s strike. They prepared for this with both hands. If the strike continues at that time, the Academy will launch an emergency party.

In addition, the college also sent a special person to intervene in the negotiation, urging the two parties to reach an agreement as soon as possible.

The Washington authorities are also making efforts. The fragile economic situation of the United States absolutely cannot withstand the torture of a long strike. Hollywood has been tied to Wall Street a few years ago. There has been an accident in Hollywood. It is not only the entertainment industry. There will be problems, and will even exacerbate the turmoil on Wall Street.

Except for the first two times, people from the screenwriters' union have never come to Murphy again. Everyone knows that he is the owner of Stanton Studios. It is actually very easy to judge which side of the **** will sit on in this kind of incident.

As the strike time is getting longer and longer, the impact on Hollywood and its surrounding industries is getting greater and greater. Even in the "Inglourious Basterds" crew that has been relatively stable before, there is panic, and Murphy simply prepared for it. The crew in China took a week off and waited until the strike was over before returning to work.

To end this strike, both parties can only make a certain degree of concessions, and there is no other way to go.

Murphy knows this, and the screenwriters’ union and producer league also know this.

For any industry to operate normally, both employers and employees must abide by the "rules of the game" that recognizes each other's fairness. The tens of billions of dollars in profits in the entire entertainment industry every year are given to the screenwriters, which seems to be justified.

But capital is inherently profit-seeking, and moving the cake of commercial groups is undoubtedly digging meat from capitalists.

The main point of disagreement between the two parties is that the producers require payment of part of the remuneration after recovering the costs of movies and TV shows; while the screenwriters demand that the treatment of screenwriters in movies, TV series and reality shows be increased, and the producers must pay the screenwriters The share of dvd is as high as 3%. In addition, the share of revenue from downloading programs on demand on the Internet will also be increased from zero to 4.5%.

This condition is absolutely unacceptable by the production company and the producer alliance, and it is tantamount to grabbing the interests of investors like Murphy.

Entering mid-February, the producer alliance and the screenwriters association's see-saw negotiations finally reached a preliminary agreement. The major Hollywood production companies made certain concessions. The screenwriters association and the producer alliance signed a three-year temporary contract. .

The contract not only increased the screenwriter’s basic salary, but also earned the screenwriter a 1.5% revenue share from DVDs and a 3% revenue share from online on-demand. This not only includes works from now on, but past works can also be drawn from it. A certain percentage.

The screenwriters’ strike was temporarily over, and the screenwriters’ union sent an email to each member, calling on everyone to resume work immediately.

"The strike is over. Tomorrow, the screenwriters will return to their respective positions and everything will return to normal."

Murphy's crew also returned to normal. After auditioning to determine the actors such as Michael Fassbender, Christopher Waltz and Margot Robbie, he flew the entire crew to Paris and moved to a suburban one. The set is ready to start shooting.