Chapter 189

If you want to get the right of adaptation, it's not only Murphy who persuades Frank Miller, but also bill rosis who gets in touch with Frank Miller's agent and lobbies from the side of Frank Miller's comic editor.

In addition, Murphy's new project was also submitted to the top of CAA by bill rosis. Just like all successful directors in succession, the project was supported by CAA with little effort.

CAA is also in contact with Miramax and Black Horse Comics. As long as Frank Miller nods, he intends to promote this cooperation.

After meeting Frank Miller for the first time, Murphy talked with him again. This time, Murphy brought a planning book to further prove to Frank Miller that he can turn the soul, beauty and black-and-white phantom of the original book into a movie.

The multi pronged approach, especially Murphy's persuasive short film, prompted Frank Miller to gradually change his original stubborn idea. A week after Murphy met him, Bill rosis got good news from Frank Miller's agent population. Frank Miller agreed in principle that Murphy would adapt the city of sin into a film.

This is absolutely exciting news for Murphy, but it doesn't mean that he can easily get the right to adapt comic books.

Frank Miller's nod and agreement is a prerequisite for the transfer of copyright, but part of the copyright of the cartoon is in the hands of black horse cartoon. If you want to get the copyright, you have to negotiate with black horse cartoon, and the negotiation also needs to involve another party, that is, the company that can invest in Murphy's new project.

The price of the adaptation right of this cartoon is certainly high, and the production cost. According to Murphy's estimation, the production cost is less than 30 million US dollars, and it is impossible to complete the film. Neither he nor Stanton studio have so much money, and their qualifications are too shallow to raise funds, and they are bound to disperse his energy as a director.

Another thing, Murphy remembers that the film was highly rated, and the box office seemed not bad, but he didn't know exactly how much.

In any way, it is most appropriate to invest in a film company. Otherwise, the financing and pre-sale alone will make him a director who has no time to prepare the film.

Miramax, who has just successfully cooperated, is the most suitable partner.

But if you want to impress people like Miramax and Harvey Weinstein, you can't just talk about it. You have to take action.

CAA is still in contact with Miramax, and Murphy agrees that Bill rosis will continue to operate the project in the form of one-stop packaging service.

He himself hid in Stanton studio and began to work out a plan for the project.

During this period, Murphy and Harvey Weinstein made several phone calls. They were veteran and experts in the film industry. They knew that it would cost a lot of money to realize such a strange style comic adaptation, and they were most concerned about the budget.

Hollywood's film companies are far less comfortable than what they see and imagine. Like all commercial companies, they also want to exchange the minimum investment for the maximum profit.

Murphy's planning book for Franco Miller promises that every picture in the future film can correspond to the original picture in the cartoon. The film wants to use black and white like the cartoon, which is not as simple as creating a "nostalgic style", but there are some more complex and subtle treatments.

This requires huge and complex special effects technology.

Just like the short film he shot before, it's not easy to restore a simple black-and-white image with a film lens, but with a lot of other effects, it's almost impossible to restore the comic style with a conventional lens, and the latest digital camera is a necessary choice.

In reality, it is impossible to achieve the visual and light effects in Frank Miller's works. When shooting, the actors must stand in the background of the green screen, use the most advanced high-definition camera to view the scene, and then let the special effects Department add the computer-generated cartoon patterns to the background.

All this will push up the budget of the film.

To get Miramax to invest, to buy the movie rights of sin city from Black Horse Comics and Frank Miller, and to shoot them in his own hands, Murphy needs to come up with a convincing plan to make a recognized movie budget.

For the former, his planning book has been very specific and needs only a little improvement, but the latter is more important.

In Hollywood, there is also a saying that a director's film making is better than his budget. Although this is a bit exaggerated, a director who has a script and an excellent plan and budget will undoubtedly add a lot of persuasion to the film company.

If a director goes to a film company with only one script to brag about his projects, 200% of them will be sent out directly.

Murphy knows that Harvey Weinstein must know that this project can't work without tens of millions of dollars. Investing millions of dollars and tens of millions of dollars are absolutely two concepts. The former can make Miramax suffer some losses at most, and the latter can break their bones and muscles. Maybe the capital chain will break.

Miramax's attitude in contact with CAA is relatively cautious, which is also a normal reaction of a company.This time, the scale of investment is larger. Miramax is more cautious. Murphy also needs to come up with a convincing plan. At the same time, it also needs stronger professional ability.

Under the coordination of bill rosis, CAA found two temporary assistant producers for Murphy to help him complete the project.

Just like star actors, a successful director has the support of a whole team.

Of all the plans, a film budget that allows Miramax to see where the money invested in the future is likely to go is crucial.

Anyone who wants others to invest in you must tell the investors where the money will be spent and whether it is worth it.

This is the simplest truth.

Moreover, film budget is the basis and important reference for film investment, and also the premise of film management and market-oriented operation. High quality film budget is the guarantee for the smooth progress of film shooting, production and distribution, as well as the guarantee for the interests of investors.

It includes film script fee, film props cost, film shooting cost, film participants' salary, film post production cost, film marketing cost, and other additional costs.

It took nearly ten days for Murphy to complete the budget with the help of two professionals.

His production budget for sin city is divided into four categories.

The first is online expenses, which mainly include the expenses for obtaining script copyright or writing scripts, the salaries of production departments and directors, as well as the salaries and extra rewards of actors; these expenses are also collectively referred to as "creative element" expenses.

This part is very flexible. In addition to James Franco, Seth Logan, Jonah hill, Robert Downey Jr. and Sienna Miller, other actors need to wait for the project to be approved before they are recruited. The salary of the main creative team can not be determined, and the range may be large.

For example, if you want to find Bruce Willis, you may have to pay $5 million to $10 million more than ordinary actors.

The second is offline expenses, which are mainly used for technical expenses, which is also the cost of every film.

In the budget of sin city, offline expenses include the salary paid to the staff, the cost of using rental equipment, the cost of scenery, props, clothing, makeup, transportation, food, sound effects and editing, etc.

The third is the recurrent expenses, which include other expenses such as rent, water, electricity and gas. Murphy specially planned 10% of the total online and offline budget as the recurrent expenses, which can cope with some matters that are easy to be ignored but will seriously affect the overall production progress.

The last one is the buffer and emergency funds. If the project is finally completed, it will be the first time that he will direct the production with an investment of tens of millions of dollars. Although he has enough confidence, Murphy knows that he lacks experience in this field, and there will be unexpected situations when shooting. This money may save the whole project at the critical moment.

Although this is a budget with an uncertain future, Murphy still takes it seriously, because if the budget is approved, Miramax will make the final budget on this basis. What he ignores may turn into a big hole for himself in the end.

In addition to that, Murphy lists a number of factors that will affect the budget.

First of all, the weather. A small number of scenes in the film will be shot outdoors. Climate and seasonal factors need to be taken into account. Sudden climate change may lead to the postponement or cancellation of the shooting plan, which will more or less affect the expenditure details of all aspects.

On the other hand, it's children. Nancy had to use underage actors when she was a child, and children are known as uncontrollable shooting elements.

Most children are difficult to keep their attention for a long time. They may lose interest in shooting or become impatient in a short period of time, which will slow down the overall production progress and lead to additional cost and budget increase.

Similar to the saying on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, to prepare for a movie, we must not move our troops and food first. A reasonable budget must be an important guarantee for the shooting, production and distribution of a movie.

After completing all these, Murphy immediately asked the CAA to submit it to Miramax. He himself frequently contacted Harvey Weinstein by telephone. After the formal contact between CAA and Miramax, Miramax was also evaluating the risks and benefits of the project. After receiving Murphy's plan and budget, he immediately pushed it into the audit process among.

Murphy waited patiently for the unexpected good news. Miramax was sure to invest in the project.

In this way, Murphy, CAA and Miramax can sit down and start formal negotiations with Black Horse Comics on copyright. It's not finished yet.