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

On July 22, a low-profile gossip newspaper in Los Angeles suddenly broke out that the script of "The Sixth Sense" was not written by Simon Westeros himself, and the real screenwriter was actually Bruce Joy Robin, the screenwriter of "Scream".

Since Westeros is not the author of the script for The Sixth Sense, the recent buzz about 'He can see people' is nonsense.

Simon admits that he did steal other people's creative work, but the original author of the script is still unknown, but the newspaper report completely violates the established facts of this time and space, and completely picks Simon and the script of "The Sixth Sense", all of which are crowned with Bruce Joy Robin, who is only ghostwritten based on Simon's story outline.

"The Sixth Sense" grossed nearly $120 million in three weeks, while other films were overwhelmed at the same time, and other Hollywood studios were hoping for some negative press for the film. As a result, the newspaper article suddenly became a fuse. At the behest of some people, the media immediately grasped the matter.

Bruce Joy Robin was naturally the first target of the media's inquiry.

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

As for the reason, it comes down to profit.

Based on current box office momentum, the North American box office for "The Sixth Sense" is generally predicted to be between $250 million and $300 million, with the global box office likely to double. The total global box office potential of $600 million means that the film's post-production revenue, such as videotapes and television rights, will be huge.

If Bruce Joy Robin had signed a contract with Daenerys Entertainment under the Writers Guild of America's "Foundation Agreement", he would have easily received millions of dollars in the future just under the sharing terms of the "Foundation Agreement".

However, of the three film contracts signed by Bruce Joy Robin with Daenerys Entertainment, only his original "Ghost Love" was signed in accordance with GA's "Basic Agreement", and the other two scripts of "Scream" and "The Sixth Sense", he signed long-term employment contracts, as a full-time screenwriter for Daenerys Entertainment to write scripts for the company, with a weekly salary of $2,000.

Bruce Joy Robin spent roughly 10 weeks on both the screenplays for "Scream" and "The Sixth Sense," and was paid $20,000 for each script.

According to the contract signed by the two parties, as a full-time screenwriter, Bruce Joy Robin does not have the right to share, which is actually a common practice in Hollywood in order to circumvent the GA "Foundation Agreement" in order to save budget, Hollywood studios generally have their own full-time screenwriters, these people usually create scripts based on studio executives or other creative ideas, but even members of the Writers Guild often do not receive the post-production share stipulated in the "Foundation Agreement".

Doesn't GA care?

Although GA is the industry association with the most frequent strikes in Hollywood, as long as you are willing and no member has filed a complaint, it basically will not intervene.

In fact, not only GA, but also the Hollywood Actors Guild and the Directors Guild have a common similar phenomenon.

Steven Spielberg has been publicly complained by actors that he is very stingy in terms of salary, and in order to compress the actors' salaries and the later share also stipulated in the basic agreement of the Screen Actors Guild, the actors who participate in his films are often required to sign a contract to circumvent the basic agreement of the Actors Guild.

It's just that Hollywood also has another common phenomenon.

As long as a film unexpectedly sells at the box office, it is bound to be followed by all kinds of disputes for profit, or the uneven distribution of interests between the producers and distributors, or the accusations of plagiarism and demand for compensation, or the stakeholders believe that the studio is hiding profits, and so on.

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, have not escaped this 'curse'.

For "The Sixth Sense", even if this film only sells $100 million at the North American box office, Bruce Joy Robin may not feel unbalanced, but a blockbuster with a global box office potential of 600 million makes it difficult for him to maintain psychological balance.

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

So, when the gossip newspaper article was exposed, Bruce Joy Robin not only did not deny it at the first time as required by Daenerys Entertainment, but instead negotiated with the media and asked Daenerys Entertainment to get the remuneration he deserved as the creator of the two films "Scream" and "The Sixth Sense", with an offer of $5 million.

Simon was furious about this.

Another person who is unwilling to abide by the original contract and even coerces him.

Simon is a very contract-oriented person, just like last year's "Vulgar", Orion recouped at least $100 million from the global box office of more than $300 million, but he only got a share of more than $15 million. Since the original contract was like this, Simon has never regretted it. There is also the film contract owed to Disney, according to the original agreement, Simon only needs to pay a multi-million liquidated damages to get rid of, compared to the net profit of hundreds of millions of dollars for his film, it is completely worth it, but Simon has no intention of doing it.

But now, again and again.

Simon didn't intend to compromise, everyone's contract was written in black and white, and many details of the original were also documented, even if it went to court, Daenerys Entertainment was not afraid at all.

However, under Amy's persuasion, in order to avoid the twists and turns of "The Sixth Sense", which is in good shape, he reluctantly agreed to the proposal of a private settlement. Bruce Joy Robin probably knew that it would be difficult to gain any advantage if his claim was put on the table, and Daenerys Entertainment haggled with the opposing party's lawyer several times and quickly confirmed the $2 million settlement.

It's just that the trees want to be quiet and the wind doesn't stop.

Daenerys Entertainment was about to sign a settlement agreement with Bruce Joy Robin, when the American Writers Guild, which was already on a bad relationship with Daenerys Entertainment, suddenly jumped out and announced that it would publicly investigate Daenerys Entertainment and GA members for signing illegal agreements that harmed the interests of association members.

In Hollywood, not to mention the low-level screenwriters, even the top gold medal screenwriters, often take on some private jobs, busy for a few weeks to be a 'script doctor' for some projects, charge a one-time generous remuneration, do not participate in the signature, do not ask for a share, and of course, do not need to be responsible for the commercial success or failure of the film.

There are not a few who directly completed the entire script without signature, Jim Carrey's famous "Dumb and Dumb", the real screenwriter is actually not the Ferrari brothers, the first draft script is from the screenwriter of "Home Alone" John Hughes.

However, it's always like this, if you don't take it seriously, everything will be fine, and if you don't take it seriously, it's trouble.

The two sides had too deep grievances in last year's screenwriters' strike, and perhaps some other forces pushed it, and the Writers Guild of America was obviously very happy to compare this matter with Daenerys Entertainment, and also forcibly asked Daenerys Entertainment to take the initiative to cooperate with the investigation, otherwise Daenerys Entertainment would be blacklisted and union members would be prohibited from continuing to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.

The serious consequences of last year's general strike by the Writers Guild of America are still vividly remembered, and GA's statement threatening to strike against Daenerys Entertainment alone naturally does not allow Simon to ignore it.

Once the worst happens, unprepared, many of Daenerys Entertainment's ongoing projects may come to a standstill, and if some episodes in the TV sector cannot be delivered on time due to a lack of screenwriters, it will not only have a serious impact on Daenerys Entertainment's TV business, but also pay a large amount of liquidated damages to the TV network.

Since this matter is destined to no longer be quietly hidden, Daenerys Entertainment immediately gave up its plan to sign a settlement agreement with Bruce Joy Robin, and cooperated with GA's so-called investigation, and loudly announced the inside story of the whole matter to the media.

Whether it's "Scream" or "The Sixth Sense," Simon has completed a detailed outline of the story, and has privately discussed more details of the script with Bruce Joy Robin, who has injected very little personal thought into the two scripts, and his work has been limited to expanding Simon's idea into a full script of about two hours.

Not only the outline of the story, but also several meetings between Simon and Bruce Joy Robin, all of which have minutes of the meeting.

All of this is exposed, and the rights and wrongs of it are probably figured out by a normal person.

Santa Monica.

It's Friday, July 28th.

Simon was not busy with the late stages of "Batman" this morning, and went to his office at the company's 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 21, only one of Orion Pictures' low-budget comedy "UHF" was released in North American theaters, which tells a story that happened on a television station, somewhat similar to Fox's "Radio News" starring William Hurt and Holly Hunter two years ago.

It's just that "UHF" does not have the good luck of "Broadcast News", with a screen size of 1,295 yuan, but the box office in the first week was only $3.52 million, which did not pose any threat to the still strong "Supernatural Sixth Sense", and even the second-week box office of "007: Murder License" was far inferior.

This week's box office list, "The Sixth Sense", which entered the fourth week of its release, finally began to expand at the box office, reaching 19%, collecting another $31.06 million in seven days, and the cumulative box office reached $150.02 million, which is still unbeatable.

Warner Bros.'s Lethal Weapon 2 and Disney's energetic Honey, I Made My Child Small occupied the second and third spots, respectively.

"007's Murder License", which was released on July 14, set a new low at the box office since the emergence of this spy war film considering inflation, with only $13.03 million in the first week of filming, and the box office fell 39% again this week, collecting only $7.83 million, and the box office of $20.86 million in two weeks is only half of the box office in the fourth week of the release of "The Sixth Sense".

Although the box office of the 007 series has always been overseas, and it has not lost money so far, this sequel is expected to only have a domestic box office of more than $30 million in North America, which is still difficult to satisfy the producers.

Simon remembers that because of the failure of this sequel in the original time and space, as well as the entanglement of some copyright lawsuits, the 007 series, which has been stable for two or three years with a sequel, was not able to launch another new work until 1995 after "007's Murder License", with a time interval of up to 6 years, and the actor was replaced by Pierce Brosnan.

Amy sat down across from Simon, waited patiently for a moment, noticed her boss looking up, and then said, "GA just sent a representative to pick up the documents related to Scream and The Sixth Sense. There is also the matter of "Rain Man", MGM originally still dismissed the idea of formally filing a lawsuit, but just called over there, and his attitude became strong 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, there must be someone targeting us, but maybe it's not just a company, those people should just be following the trend." After all, this time it was we who took the initiative to expose the flaws. Well, MGM is completely messing around. ”

Simon picked up the pencil next to him and looked back at the box office report in front of him, he had actually been thinking about it just now, and he came to a conclusion similar to Amy.