Chapter 231

Los Angeles.

With the sudden departure of danielis Entertainment's producer Ron McMillan, Hollywood's not so calm January has become more lively.

Knowing that he was fired for some "trivial" things, Ron McMillan almost immediately contacted Simon to make decisions for him. He felt that this was Amy and Janet's deliberate nonsense.

Confirming Simon's acquiescence, the angry Ron McMillan also tore his face and asked for $5 million in compensation. Danielis entertainment will not pay for it and is not afraid of Ron McMillan's threat to court.

Ron Macmillan's embezzlement of the money for the film project is well documented. Although the amount is small, it is enough for danilisi entertainment to dismiss the other party reasonably.

No matter what Hollywood insiders think about it, Ron McMillan will only end up as infamous as David Bergman in the eyes of the media and the public.

So, after a week of confrontation, Ron McMillan signed the resignation agreement without any compensation.

In exchange for another confidentiality agreement not to discuss the incident publicly, Ron McMillan also received a follow-up share of $2.6 million in several films he and danielis entertainment worked with in advance, so the two sides are not in debt.

With the deepening of the financial audit supervised by Janet, the company has laid off a number of employees who are not clean.

Although it inevitably caused some criticism, the whole danielis Entertainment Group also realized that its own company could not be as confused as the traditional Hollywood film company. Of course, because danilisi Entertainment's salary standard is significantly higher than that of her peers, few people choose to leave because of the company's strict financial system.

As for Ron Macmillan, although he signed a confidentiality agreement, there were complaints in the circle that he attacked Simon and Denise on some party occasions for being mean and ruthless.

However, because he did not publicly express these views in the media, Denise entertainment can not seriously care.

Now that he can connect his name with the top ten best-selling films in the annual list of "Lola Run", "death is coming" and "scream", although he knows that Simon westero is the behind the scenes leader of the three films, Ron McMillan's resignation immediately caused the whole Hollywood scramble.

After several offers, Universal Pictures finally signed a three film contract with Ron McMillan with a base salary of $3 million plus a 10% share of the project's net profit.

also universal studios provided Ron Macmillan with additional grants for private aircraft, personal entertainment, administrative assistants, and so on. He opened an office for Mcmillan production company, which was founded by Ron Macmillan just now.

before that, only a few of Spielberg's Berlin pictures were able to have offices in Universal Studios.

Danielis entertainment did not deliberately cover up the reason for Ron Macmillan's resignation, which is well known in the circle. Universal Pictures in Ron Macmillan salary contract on the basis of such a generous treatment, obviously with a bit of targeted meaning.

In fact, danielis entertainment faces more than one "target.".

"Rocket expert" and "Firebird strike", which Paramount Pictures is in a hot state of preparation, will not be mentioned. It is realized that "sex, lies and video" may be a black horse at the box office. The main investor of the film, MCA / Columbia family entertainment, together with the two parent companies, has finally won the distribution right of "sex, lies and video".

Close to the Sundance Film Festival, Colombia has also set up a special publicity team to promote the film.

After making $12.96 million at the box office in the fourth week, the box office of rain man fell again in the fifth week because the number of screens continued to increase to 1732. Although the reverse decline rate was only 2%, the box office revenue of $13.19 million made the total box office of rain man reach $72.38 million in North America.

What's more, five weeks in a row, and probably six weeks in a row, grossed more than $10 million a week. That's a lot more than all the other films that Denise entertainment produced last year.

Denise Entertainment's "scream" which had the best box office performance besides "Rain Man" at the end of last year's schedule only took four weeks to earn more than $10 million a week. Even "vulgar novel", which temporarily ranked the top in 1988, has only been at the box office for five weeks.

With the announcement of Oscar nominations at the end of January and the awarding of various trade union awards and Oscars in February and March, the box office potential of rain man has obviously exceeded that of vulgar novel.

Seeing the box office success of rain man, MGM, which gave up the screenplay and put on a hobbit, sold its Omni channel distribution rights in North America for a mere $5 million, could not sit still.New year's crown.

Even if the total cost of the project reaches US $40 million, the box office potential shown by rain man is only a combination of local and overseas box office revenue, and the profit may still exceed US $100 million, not to mention the follow-up video and television revenues.

This is a gold mine.

So he was cheated by Simon westero.

So they started to sue and claim for compensation. They actually hired a law firm to study the possible loopholes in several contracts between MGM and Denise.

Finally, with Fox, Warner and Disney in good relationship, almost all of the big seven in Hollywood were involved with danelis entertainment in this busy January.

If it's just simply involved, it's nothing. Even MGM, which wants to launch a lawsuit, is just trying to break it up.

Hollywood's best-selling films almost always cause all kinds of interest disputes, even in the original "Lola Run", the media once rumored that Simon and Janet turned against each other because of the uneven distribution of interests.

The most frustrating thing is that any project that danielis entertainment is looking at now will become the focus of the whole Hollywood.

Although Simon has a lot of foresight to hoard a large number of copyrights, but ultimately can not meet the demand of danilisi entertainment, the company can not put all the copyrights that are expected to sell on the development agenda, which requires other projects to fill the content shortage.

"Al, I know what you're thinking. Since "driving for Miss Daisy" is favored by danielis entertainment, with the current trend of Hollywood, other film companies will definitely offer higher prices for it. But are you sure they can do it? If you mess up, you'll get nothing but a slightly higher royalty. However, if you give it to danielis entertainment, once you succeed, you will not only earn both fame and fortune in this film, but also become the top screenwriter in Hollywood. In the future, all your scripts will become the target of Hollywood's pursuit, which is the most important thing. "

In a cafe on Broadway, New York.

Ella doichman talked to the balding middle-aged man in his fifties. After that, he took out a business card and said, "it has the contact information of my hotel. Al, if you want to give us the script, please call me tonight. After today, I can only say sorry. "

The middle-aged man opposite Ella doichman, Alfred URI, is a screenwriter, but mainly works on Broadway. Driving for Miss Daisy, a stage play written by URI two years ago, won high praise on Broadway and last year's Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Playing with the business card in his hand, Alfred URI looked shrewdly at doechman, who had already got up. He didn't get up with him, and with a certain sense of ambition, he said, "Ella, if I don't make this call, will you really give up driving for Miss Daisy?"? I think it's likely to be another "steel Magnolia."

Ella doichman just laughed and said, "URI, you are the third screenwriter I have an appointment with today. I have seven people to see next. You may all think that your script is the next steel magnolia, but unfortunately, there is only one steel Magnolia."

"All right, Ella," Alfred URI said, relaxing. "Why don't you sit down and talk again? Since you want to drive for Miss Daisy, please tell me how you plan to adapt the movie? What's more, don't you think the $100000 offer is too insincere for a Pulitzer Prize winning stage adaptation? "

But Ella doechman didn't sit down and explained, "Al, as I just said, 100000 dollars is just a prepayment. In the next three years, if daenerys entertainment makes this film, it will pay you another 200000 dollars, and you will also have the right of authorship and the share of the later period according to the basic agreement. Three years later, if Denise entertainment fails to make the film, you can choose to redeem the copyright. "

Alfred URI still didn't give up asking for more information, saying: "so, you don't plan to shoot this film in a short time, so I need to think it over carefully."

Instead of saying more, Ella doichman reached out to Alfred URI and said, "if you're willing to sign up, Al, we can spend a day talking about everything."

Finally, she shook hands with Alfred URI, and Ella doechman left the cafe without any nostalgia.

These days, in response to Hollywood's siege, danielis entertainment began to use this "ultimatum" strategy in script negotiations, which did not give the copyright owners too much time to think about. Once it gave up, it resolutely refused to take back the grass, and would not compete with the big seven.

In addition, the frequency of danilisi Entertainment's hand is very frequent, which makes the competitors unable to see the situation clearly, but also to a large extent solves the containment state faced by the company.

Of course, this strategy also has obvious disadvantages, for those writers who have become famous, this move does not have much effect. The writers who are willing to compromise are basically those who are eager for opportunities, and the company's recent goals are mainly these people.Generally speaking, Ella doechman doesn't know what's special about driving for Miss Daisy, let alone that it was the best film of the 62nd Academy Award in 1990.

After the box office sales of "steel Magnolia" just past the end of the year, Hollywood began to turn more attention to Broadway stage drama. After communicating with Simon, Ella doechman set aside a sum of money from her budget to purchase the right to adapt the literature and art suitable for the development of gaomen film industry.

Driving for Miss Daisy, as the winner of last year's Pulitzer Prize for drama, has naturally become Ella doechman's focus.

Simon, who was far away in Melbourne, saw the name of "driving for Miss Daisy" from the list listed by doechman, but he didn't give Ella doechman any special tips.

Simon also knows what's going on with Denise entertainment.

The company's response strategy is very effective, and he doesn't intend to make an exception in this film.

The history of Hollywood has changed a lot. Driving for Miss Daisy is in other people's hands. It's still possible that it will be as successful as it was in the original time and space. Moreover, as long as the copyright holder has a little foresight, he will know that it is in his interest to cooperate with danielis entertainment. If you are short-sighted, you may as well not cooperate.

After meeting Alfred URI, Ella doichman rushed to another meeting.

After a busy day, Ella doichman returned to her hotel in midtown in the evening, and the lobby manager had already reminded him of several phone calls. Three of the five screenwriters we have met today have called and agreed to sell the copyright, including Alfred URI of driving for Miss Daisy.

Back in the room, after answering the phone calls from several writers one by one, Ella doechman called Ireland on the other side of the ocean to ask about the shooting progress of my left foot.

This is the result of doichman's last flight to the UK.

"My left foot" is a biographical film starring Daniel Day Lewis. It tells the story of a disabled person who is paralyzed by polio and becomes an artist by relying on his only active left foot.

In the original space-time, "my left foot" is another remake of Miramax besides "sex, lies and videotape", and was nominated for best picture at the 1990 Oscar.

Now, both of these works have nothing to do with Miramax.

Although she didn't get sex, lies and videos, Ella doechman successfully got the film during her last trip to England because of her cooperation with Daniel Day Lewis in the room with a view when she was running new pictures.

However, when I found out about the film, Jim Sheridan, the director of my left foot, had finished the preparatory work and was about to start shooting.

Because Simon is very interested in this project, Ella doechman paid a total of 1.8 million dollars to buy out the copyright of the original three investors. The price is already very high, because the production cost of my left foot is only 600000 pounds, which is less than 1 million dollars.

The original three investors also wanted to wait for the price to sell. Ella doechman resolutely used the "ultimatum" to make the three companies compromise smoothly.

In the end, the news in Britain is not as good as that in Hollywood. It is a film that is not favored by almost all people, and it has not been officially filmed, so the effect of the film is unpredictable. Backhand will be able to earn double profits, several independent small film business did not insist.

It is in "my left foot" that we see the effect of "ultimatum" that Denise entertainment will adopt this strategy in the near future.