hunt hollywood

At the end of the matter, Janet called from Melbourne and curiously asked if Simon was a psychic.If so, the woman's grandmother originally planned to leave her a string of necklaces as a dowry, but after the old man passed away, she couldn't find it, and she wanted to ask Simon to 'ask' where it was put.

Simon angrily suggested to the woman to tear down the Johnston mansion and look through it, and she would definitely find it.

After a few days of turmoil, some other theories about Simon began to emerge. Fortunately, this is not the Middle Ages, otherwise, Simon felt that he might have been tied to the stake and burned to death.In order to prevent public opinion from getting out of control, Daenerys Entertainment's media department and Simon's private public relations team began to put out the fire.

On the other hand, this incident, as Simon expected, once again stimulated the box office of "The Sixth Sense".

Because of some arguments that Cole is Simon Westeros' childhood "self-portrait", many viewers who were still unmoved by this movie despite the discussions around them have recently begun to buy tickets to enter the theater.

最终，7月14日到7月20日一周，《灵异第六感》的票房跌幅只有微不足道的2.7%，上映第3周，再次进账3825万美元，累计票房迅速达到1亿1886万美元。这部现象级恐怖片不但同样完成了三周破亿的创举，还在同期数据上一举超越了《夺宝奇兵3》三周零两天时间累计的1亿1065万美元票房数字。

In addition, in the 7th week of its release, "Bodyguard" also successfully broke through the 1 million yuan mark, with a cumulative box office of 425 million US dollars in seven weeks.

Daenerys Entertainment created two North American box-office films that exceeded [-] million in one fell swoop after the "quiet" in the first half of the year.

The overall number of movie viewers in North America has basically not changed much in recent years. Daenerys Entertainment's strong box office harvest will inevitably suppress other studios, so some things have also happened.

Chapter 277

The cause of the incident originated from the script of "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality".

On July 7, a low-profile gossip newspaper in Los Angeles suddenly broke out that the script of "The Sixth Sense" was not written by Simon Westero himself, and the real screenwriter of the film was actually the scriptwriter of "Scream". Screenwriter Bruce Joy Robin.

Newspaper articles attacking Simon is actually stealing other people's creative achievements. Since Westeros is not the author of the script of "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", the recently heated arguments such as 'He can see people' are naturally nonsense.

Simon admitted that he did steal other people's creative achievements, but the original author of the script is still unknown.However, the newspaper’s report completely violated the established facts of this time and space. It completely excerpted Simon and the script of "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", and all crowned it with Bruce Joy, who was only ghostwritten based on the outline of the story given by Simon. On Robin.

The box office of "The Sixth Sense" was close to 1.2 million U.S. dollars in three weeks. During the same period, the film was overwhelmed. Other Hollywood studios are eager for some negative news about the film.So, that newspaper article suddenly became a fuse.

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

Bruce Joy Robin was naturally the first target of inquiries from the media.

Originally, as long as Bruce Joy Robin firmly denied this matter, it would probably be resolved.It's just that Bruce Joy Robin didn't do it the first time.

As for the reason, in the final analysis, it is still for profit.

According to the current box office momentum, the total North American box office of "The Sixth Sense" is generally predicted to be between 2.5 million and 3 million US dollars, and the global box office is likely to double to 6 million US dollars. The total global box office of 6 million US dollars means that the post-production income such as video tapes and TV broadcasting rights of the film will be huge.

If Bruce Joy Robin signed a contract with Daenerys Entertainment in accordance with the "Basic Agreement" of the American Writers Guild, only according to the sharing terms of the "Basic Agreement", he can easily obtain millions of dollars in follow-up income in the future .

However, among the three film contracts that Bruce Joy Robin signed with Daenerys Entertainment, only his own original "Ghost Love" was signed in accordance with the WGA "Basic Agreement". For the first two scripts of The Scream and The Sixth Sense, he signed a long-term employment contract. As a full-time screenwriter for Daenerys Entertainment, he wrote scripts for the company, with a weekly salary of 2000 US dollars.

Bruce Joy Robin spent roughly 10 weeks on both the scripts of "Scream" and "The Sixth Sense", and was paid $2 for each script.

Compared with Bruce Joy Robin's personal qualifications at the time, this salary is not shabby.

Moreover, after the success of "Scream" at the box office, Bruce Joy Robin was successfully promoted to Hollywood's first-line screenwriter, although there were some rumors that the script idea of ​​"Scream" came from Simon. Screenwriters who have been working for decades may not necessarily be able to encounter opportunities even if they post backwards.

According to the contract signed by the two parties, as a full-time screenwriter, Bruce Joy Robin does not enjoy the right to share. This is actually a common practice in Hollywood in order to circumvent the WGA "Basic Agreement" in order to save budget. Hollywood studios generally have Their own full-time screenwriters, these people usually create scripts based on the ideas of studio executives or other parties. Even members of the screenwriters union often cannot obtain the post-production share stipulated in the "Basic Agreement".

Then, here comes the problem.

Doesn't the WGA ignore such behavior that violates the "Basic Agreement" of the American Screenwriters Guild?

The answer is really no matter.

Although the WGA is a powerful trade union with the most frequent strikes in Hollywood, as long as it is what you want and no members file a complaint, basically they will not intervene.

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

Steven Spielberg has been publicly complained by actors that he is very stingy in terms of pay. In order to compress the actors' pay and the later share that is also stipulated in the basic agreement of the actors' union, he often asks the actors who participate in his movies to sign to circumvent the actors. Contractual deed of union basis agreement.

However, Hollywood also has another common phenomenon.

As long as a film unexpectedly sells well at the box office, it is bound to be followed by various disputes for interests, or the uneven distribution of interests among producers and distributors, or someone jumping out to accuse plagiarism and claim compensation, or profit Related parties think studios are hiding profits, blah blah, all sorts.

A series of phenomenal movies over the years, from "Jaws" and "Star Wars" in the 70s to "Top Gun" and "Rain Man" in recent years, all failed to escape this "curse".

For "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", even if the film sells [-] million US dollars at the box office in North America, Bruce Joy Robin may still be able to treat it calmly. After the first part of "Scream", he was successfully promoted to the top screenwriter, although He did not accept the creation invitation of the sequel because of the high salary invitation of other studios, but he did not dispute the original salary.

However, a super blockbuster with a global box office potential of 6 million makes it difficult for him to maintain his psychological balance.

This imbalance has probably been accumulating since the release of "Scream" last year.

Therefore, when the gossip newspaper article was exposed, Bruce Joy Robin not only did not immediately deny it publicly as requested by Daenerys Entertainment, but instead made a request to Daenerys Entertainment while dealing with the media. , I hope that as the creator of the two film scripts of "Scream" and "The Sixth Sense", I can get some compensation from the huge profits of the film, and unceremoniously offered a sky-high price of 500 million U.S. dollars .

Simon was very angry about this.

Another guy who is unwilling to abide by the contract and even threatens with power.

Simon is a person who values ​​contracts very much. Just like last year's "Pulp Fiction", Orion has recovered at least US$3 million in net profits from a global box office of more than US$1 million, but he can only get more than US$1500 million in box office revenue. .However, since the original contract was like this, Simon has not regretted it.

There is also the film contract owed to Disney. According to the original agreement, Simon only needs to pay a liquidated damages of several million dollars to get rid of it.Compared to the size of his net profit of hundreds of millions of dollars for a movie, this is completely worth it, but Simon has no intention of doing so.

Although Simon sticks to the contract, what Daenerys Entertainment encounters is repeated reneging again and again.

Simon originally didn't intend to compromise. Everyone's contract was written in black and white, and many details of the original case were available for investigation. Even if it went to court, Daenerys Entertainment was not afraid at all.

However, under Amy's persuasion, in order to avoid this incident from affecting "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", which is doing well at the box office, Simon still reluctantly agreed to the proposal of a private settlement.Bruce Joy Robin probably also knows that if his request is put on the table, it will be difficult to get a favorable result for him. Daenerys Entertainment negotiated with the other party's lawyer several times, and soon confirmed a settlement of 200 million US dollars amount.

It's just that the tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn't stop.

Daenerys Entertainment was about to reach a settlement with Bruce Joy Robin, and the American Screenwriters Guild, which was at odds with Daenerys Entertainment, suddenly jumped out and announced that it would publicly investigate Daenerys Entertainment and WGA members. Acts that violate the agreement and damage the interests of trade union members.

In Hollywood, not to mention the low-level screenwriters, even the top gold medal 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 remuneration, not participating in the signature, and not asking for 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 people who complete the entire script directly without signing. The original screenwriter of Jim Carrey's famous "Dumb and Dumber" is actually not the Ferrari Brothers. The first draft script comes from "Home Alone" screenwriter John Hugh Hand of Adams.

Things are always like this. If you don’t take it seriously, it’s okay, but if you take it seriously, it’s troublesome.

The two sides had too much grievances in last year's screenwriters' strike, and perhaps there were some other forces to promote it. The American Screenwriters Guild is obviously very happy to get serious about this matter with Daenerys Entertainment, and also forced Daenerys Entertainment to actively cooperate with the investigation, otherwise Daenerys Entertainment will be included in the union blacklist, and union members are prohibited from continuing to cooperate for Daenerys Entertainment.

The serious consequences of the American Writers Guild's strike last year are still vivid in my mind. The WGA's statement of threatening to "strike" against Daenerys Entertainment naturally does not allow Simon to ignore it.

Should the worst happen, many of Daenerys Entertainment's ongoing projects could come to a standstill without any preparation.This year's TV autumn season is coming, if some episodes of the TV department cannot be delivered on time due to the lack of scriptwriters, it will not only have a serious impact on Daenerys Entertainment's TV business, but also pay the TV network a large amount of liquidated damages.

Since this matter is destined to no longer be concealed quietly, Daenerys Entertainment also immediately abandoned the plan of private reconciliation with Bruce Joy Robin, and cooperated with the WGA's so-called investigation, and made a big noise about the whole matter. The inside story of the matter was published in the media.

Whether it's "Scream" or "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", Simon has personally completed a detailed story outline, and discussed more script details with Bruce Joy Robin in private, Bruce Joy Robin injected very little of his own ideas into the two scripts, and his work was limited to expanding Simon's idea into a full screenplay of around two hours.

Not only the outline of the story, but also several meetings between Simon and Bruce Joy Robin, there are meeting minutes to check.

All these exposures, including the right and wrong, as long as a normal person can probably figure out why.

Santa Monica.

The time is October 7th, Friday.

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

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

Previously, on July 7, only one low-cost comedy "UHF" by Orion Films was released in North American theaters. It told a story that happened on a TV station. Holly Hunter stars in "Broadcast News," a double hit at the box office.

However, "UHF" did not have the good luck of "Broadcast News". The opening screen size was 1295 yuan, but the box office in the first week was only 352 million US dollars. It's not as good as "Bodyguard", which received another $8 million in its eighth week of release.

On this week's box office list, "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality", which has entered its fourth week of release, has finally begun to decline at the box office, reaching 19%. It collected another US$3106 million in seven days, with a cumulative box office of US$1 million. Still riding the dust.

Warner Bros.' "Lethal Weapon 2" and Disney's powerful "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" occupy No.2 and No.3 positions, respectively.

"7 License to Kill" released on July 14, taking inflation into account, set a record low in the North American box office since the birth of this classic spy war film series. It plummeted again by 007%, and only received 1303 million US dollars. The cumulative box office of 39 million US dollars in two weeks is only half of the box office of "The Sixth Sense" in the fourth week of its release.

Although the box office of the 007 series has always been dominated by overseas countries, and it has not lost money so far, this sequel is expected to only have a domestic box office figure of more than 3000 million US dollars in North America, which is far from meeting the expectations of the producer.

Simon remembered that because of the failure of this sequel and the entanglement of some copyright lawsuits, the 007 series of the original space-time has remained stable for two or three years. After "007 License to Kill", another sequel was not released until 1995. This is a new work, in which the time interval is as long as 6 years, and the actor is also replaced by Pierce Brosnan.

Amy sat down opposite Simon, waited patiently for a moment, noticed that he raised his head, and then said: "WGA just sent someone over to take away some documents of "Scream" and "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality". And Regarding the matter of "Rain Man", MGM had originally given up the idea of ​​formally filing a lawsuit, but just now when they called from there, their attitude became stronger again, maybe this lawsuit is inevitable."

Simon still pressed the box office report in his hand and asked Amy, "What do you think is going on this time?"

Amy shook her head: "It's hard to say, someone must be targeting us, but maybe it's not just any company, those people should just follow the trend. After all, this time we took the initiative to show our flaws. Well, Mi Gao May is just messing around."

Simon picked up a pencil in his hand and looked at the box office report in front of him again. He was actually thinking about this just now.Moreover, he came to roughly similar conclusions as Amy.

Chapter 278 10 Movies (Revised)

In today's Hollywood, the seven mainstream film companies are no longer the era of big studios that are still controlled by the founders, and the competition between each of them is fierce for market share.

The seven major studios are basically already listed companies or part of listed companies.The heads of the seven major studios may have different powers, but they are all professional managers who manage the business for shareholders.

Under such a situation, if Simon is just a young director who has just made a few blockbuster films in Hollywood, when he seriously threatens the interests of other studios, he may encounter merciless suppression.

However, the current situation is that Simon's identity is not limited to the director.

Before the whole of Hollywood reacted, he had established Daenerys Entertainment, an entertainment company whose strength was close to the size of traditional major studios.Moreover, Simon himself quickly accumulated billions of dollars of wealth through various means.

In a society like the United States where capital is king, Simon's personal wealth of billions of dollars represents a powerful strength, even if this strength is not as deep-rooted as those old money families that have accumulated for decades, and it is definitely not the property of a major Hollywood film company. Professional managers' can easily provoke shakers.

Those people may do some small tricks in private, wanting to make them gamble their career future to fight against Daenerys Entertainment, the possibility is very low.

As for joining forces to suppress Daenerys Entertainment, a latecomer, it is difficult to gather people's hearts. The three monks have no water to drink, let alone seven, seven 'monks' who also have different ideas and compete for a well with each other.

Inside the offices at the Santa Monica headquarters.

Simon understood all of this, but he did not take the ongoing WGA investigation lightly.

Just like the vigorous anti-sexual assault movement in Hollywood many years later.

Many people were just watching with relish as a melon-eating crowd watching the fate of a fat man who had been rampant in Hollywood for decades, but they didn't expect that a hurricane of destruction would sweep over everyone in the blink of an eye.

Things are unpredictable.

While it is clear that the threat in the WGA statement to ban union members from working with Daenerys Entertainment is unlikely to actually materialize, this worst-case outcome could well be unexpected if Simon takes it lightly and allows Hollywood rivals to take their chances. come true.

At that time, Daenerys Entertainment, whose foothold in Hollywood is not very stable after all, will definitely suffer heavy losses, and even trigger a more serious chain reaction.

Therefore, Simon decided without hesitation to nip this potential crisis in the bud as soon as possible.

After making up his mind, Simon put down the pencil he was playing with, and said to Amy: "I suddenly remembered that after last year's "Flying Beyond Childhood" and "Batman", the company has not signed any cooperation projects with other film companies, and now it is It's time to move on."

Amy remembered that Simon said about this plan last year. He planned to cooperate with other Hollywood studios to dispel competitors' fear of the rise of Daenerys Entertainment.It's just that, since the end of last year, everyone has been busy in the dark until now, and there is no extra energy to take care of this matter.

After a little consideration, Simon continued, "Amy, please release the news as soon as possible. Daenerys Entertainment will cooperate with 10 movies in the next two years."

Amy showed surprise on her expression, and asked, "The cooperation mode of "Flying Beyond Childhood"?"

"Of course, and this time there is no need for a copyright tie-in like "Wonder Woman". As long as the project is finalized, the two parties will each invest 50% and share the copyright and revenue. Daenerys Entertainment leads the production, and the other party is responsible for the distribution of various channels. Well, this time the issuance commission rate is stuck, limited to 10%.”

Amy said: "8% is actually okay."

Simon shook his head with a smile, and said: "There is no need to be so harsh. The key is that Daenerys Entertainment's accounting team will follow up the project from production to distribution at all stages."

Amy thought for a while, and said: "We can set up independent financial accounts for each project that are jointly supervised by both partners, so as to avoid the phenomenon of underreporting and arrears of the company's due income."

"You discuss these details yourself, I only look at the results."

Amy agreed, but still asked: "What about the script, Simon, do you want to use the copyright we hoarded ourselves?"

"Of course not. The studio that wants to cooperate with us will offer the script, and I will personally select it. Also, remember to sign the relevant copyright agreement in advance to avoid their regrets."

"I think this kind of situation is unlikely to happen," Amy smiled, and was about to get up to get busy with this matter. She noticed that Simon was leaning on the leather chair a little tiredly, and couldn't help saying: "Simon, after the news is released, You're probably going to be the most powerful person in Hollywood."

The consecutive successes of "Bodyguard" and "The Sixth Sense" prove that Daenerys entertainment is still magical.

Now, the company suddenly released the news that it will cooperate with the outside world on 10 films, which will definitely make the whole Hollywood boil.After all, Daenerys Entertainment's previous slate of films with Orion, Fox, and MGM have all hit the box office, proving that Westeros isn't just keeping the best projects for himself.

10 movies, perhaps because of the increase in the number, the commercial performance can no longer be so good, but as long as half of them can reach the top ten levels of the annual box office list, it is also very attractive to the studio.If a blockbuster project such as "The Sixth Sense of Spirituality" can appear, a studio can survive for a year with just 50% of its revenue.

Simon smiled, but he thought of the Hollywood power list of "Premiere" magazine in the original time and space.

The memory of "Premier" magazine's Hollywood power list will not announce the first list until next year.

To the surprise of many people, in the first list of the original time and space, Michael Ovitz, the president of C, ranked first.

In fact, this can once again prove Simon's idea just now. The power and influence of the current helm of major Hollywood studios are not as great as ordinary people imagined.If it was the golden age of Hollywood decades ago, No. 1 on such a list would be either Jack Warner of Warner Bros., Louis Meyer of MGM, or Darryl Zach of Fox. Nook, there's no way it's going to fall on a talent agent.

After a few words of advice, after Amy left, Simon leaned back in the leather chair.

It is another busy week that is coming to an end, and I will discuss the fine-cut plan of the film with the main creative team of "Flying Beyond Childhood", so I can only take a short break.

Inexplicably, I want to fly to Australia suddenly again, let go of everything, and get tired of Janet for two days.

but.

Think about it or stop tossing the Japanese stock market.

After a while, Jennifer opened the door and came in, indicating that the main creative team of "Flying Beyond Childhood" had arrived, and Simon stood up.

At the same time, the news that Daenerys Entertainment is about to cooperate with other Hollywood filmmakers in 10 films in the next two years spread throughout Hollywood in just one morning, as if it had grown wings.