Ronan doesn't know exactly how the three companies fought for Roland Emmerich's new project, but Twentieth Century Fox ended up being the big winner.

Because of the existence of competitors, Twentieth Century Fox offered Roland Emmerich favorable terms, and "10,000 Years Before History" was signed with a production budget of up to $150 million, entering the ranks of Hollywood's top productions.

Warner Bros. eventually opted out of the face of Twentieth Century Fox's favorable conditions and huge investment due to certain concerns.

Sony Columbia Pictures is more like a soy sauce player, because all the energy is focused on the "Spider-Man" series, it doesn't matter if such a project can get the best, and it doesn't matter if it doesn't get it.

In addition, there are uncertain rumors on the Twentieth Century Fox side that Fox Productions is interested in the adaptation of "Exodus", seems to be discussing the possibility of adapting the film, and plans to let Ridley Scott, who is working with Fox on "Heavenly Dynasty", be the director.

These news, all of which are unconfirmed, can be passed out, indicating that Twentieth Century Fox does have intentions in this regard.

Intentions become movies, and no one knows how much time it will take.

However, the cooperation intention between Shahai Entertainment and James Cameron, after nearly half a year of negotiations, finally came to fruition.

On the first Monday of December, Relativity Entertainment and James Cameron jointly held a press conference in the main hall of the Relativity Building to officially announce the signing of the cooperation.

At the press conference, Ronan signed the contract with James Cameron on behalf of Relativity Entertainment.

After the signing ceremony, Relativity Entertainment announced that the total budget of the new project officially named "Avatar" will be as high as 500 million US dollars!

This figure almost stunned all the media reporters at the scene, and the press conference scene exploded directly.

In the subsequent interview, James Cameron is indeed a great director who is well versed in the laws of Hollywood propaganda, and he has no baggage when he throws away the material: "Back in the eighties, the prototype of this project appeared in my dream, and in 1995 I drew the first sketch of the project. ”

As he spoke, the truck driver took out a drawing of a strange looking giant tree and dandelion seeds, which looked like a flying angel and a small umbrella.

James Cameron continues Hollywood directors' usual "I had an idea many years ago" routine: "In 1995, I wrote the first version of the script and drew the first sketch of the storyboard, but I realized that I wanted to build a whole new world, a world that had never existed on Earth before, how could I make it happen?"

Hundreds of media reporters, including Ronan, in the main hall of the Relativity Building, are listening carefully to what the great director has to say.

Most of the people here are veterans of the entertainment media industry for many years, and although many of them realize that this is because of the nonsense required for publicity, they remember it very carefully, for fear of missing a word.

Who called the man James Cameron?

Don't talk nonsense, it's big news that he's daydreaming and talking about dreams here!

James Cameron is a tech freak and a typical commercial director, who has gone through the super reversal of "Titanic" from low to high, and knows the importance of publicity.

The signing ceremony means the beginning of the project, and the name "Avatar" should be remembered more often.

James Cameron also gushed when he said: "Filming "Titanic" In the process, I realized how to create the world of my dreams, it requires top-notch cinematography and CGI production, and I have been preparing for new projects for the past few years, and I don't want to repeat myself, in the last century I wanted to make a new CGI film, and at that time it was very difficult, and everyone told me that it was impossible, and I waited for so many years to finally have the opportunity to make a film with a truly new CGI technology. ”

James Cameron said a lot without the reporter asking, and the reporter then turned the fire on Ronan's side.

A reporter from the Los Angeles Times was the first to ask, "Mr. Anderson, what prompted you to work with director Cameron and decide to invest a huge amount of $500 million in making a movie?"

Of course, Ronan will not tell him that the so-called total budget of $500 million is not the production budget, but the total investment, including various expenditures such as publicity and distribution.

It's all about propaganda needs.

The marketing and promotion of the movie, except for the movie itself, seems to have nothing to promote, but the movie itself can contain all aspects.

"Since the 1997 "Titanic" became a global hit, the next film directed by James Cameron has made fans almost eagerly wait, including me. ”

As a qualified filmmaker, you must be able to talk nonsense when needed, and Ronan is no exception: "By chance, I saw Director Cameron's design for "Avatar", which ...... It's a miracle. ”

Ronan said it exaggeratedly, and the expression on his face was very real: "This is a science fiction movie, I think it is something that most fans will like, science fiction movies want to show things that we can't touch now, "Avatar" is still a kind of prophecy, it will make you reflect on everything we are doing now, what will happen in the future? This is one of the original intentions of my investment in "Avatar". ”

The $500 million figure was so exciting that the next journalist's target was James Cameron.

"Director Cameron, will there be a lot of pressure on the cost of $500 million?" The blonde reporter's question was very sharp: "Your last film "Titanic" was a huge box office success, and this one will cost more, will it surpass "Titanic"?"

James Cameron's pressure is not as great as imagined, after all, the total cost of "Titanic" is actually very high.

"The success of "Titanic" is indeed a satisfying thing, and the box office is indeed very good. James Cameron didn't talk nonsense: "I don't think "Avatar" can break the box office record of "Titanic", and I didn't make this movie to break anything, not to mention that I don't think any movie will exceed this record in the next few years." ”

He glanced at Ronan: "As long as Avatar can make investors make money, I'm very happy." ”

Ronan answered at the right time: "I have a lot of confidence in this film, James Cameron's artistic charm is recognized all over the world, I don't think anyone will doubt his commercial value for the film, this film involves all aspects of the complex, investment and box office are only part of it." ”

He laughed: "To be honest, I can't wait for this film to be released." ”

There was laughter in the hall.

The press conference ended successfully, and in the afternoon of the same day, the Internet was the starting point, and the news about the film appeared overwhelmingly on the new and old entertainment media.

James Cameron's new work, this one alone, is attractive enough.

Ronan Anderson's investment, with a budget of $500 million, adds up to shake the nation with ease.

The related news even spread overseas in only half a day, a "Terminator 2", a "Titanic", so that James Cameron has many fans, and there are really too many people looking forward to his new film.

The industry is also eye-catching, on the one hand, because the investment is extraordinary, and on the other hand, James Cameron's new films, which often mean the maturity of new technologies.

Twentieth Century Fox, which collaborated with James Cameron on "Titanic", is very calm, because Twentieth Century Fox has experienced firsthand that if he wants to enjoy the dividends brought by James Cameron, he must first suffer much more trouble.

Besides, investing $500 million in a film is insane.

There are also many people waiting to see Ronan's jokes, and no producer can continue to succeed, and even Jerry Bruckheimer, who has been successful for two decades since the early eighties, has suffered a Waterloo like "King Arthur" this year.

If "Avatar" fails, will the rapid development momentum of Relativity Entertainment be maintained, will it be weakened?

Aren't Hollywood's medium-sized development companies all on this path?

In this cooperation, Relativity Entertainment has attracted the attention of all Hollywood.

Although Ronan and James Cameron agreed to work together early on, the negotiations between the two sides were quite difficult, especially when it came to profit sharing.

According to the contract, Shahai Entertainment will first pay James Cameron a $8 million script rights buyout fee and a $2 million project start-up bonus.

This part is not included in James Cameron's remuneration for the crew, but is paid separately by Shahai Entertainment.

James Cameron joined the crew as a writer, director and producer, with a base salary of $20 million for the director alone.

The writers and producers are paid a total of $10 million.

In other words, James Cameron's total base salary on the crew is $30 million.

Compared with Spielberg's salary in first-line big productions, James Cameron's base salary is not high, but it corresponds to a higher post-production.

This is also the key to the tug-of-war between Shahai Entertainment and James Cameron's agency team in negotiations.

No one is stupid, James Cameron is the best of the best, and his agent team is also the top level in Hollywood, so he naturally understands that the focus of real income comes from the later share.

In the end, the three positions of writer, director and producer were combined, James Cameron and his production team enjoyed a 20% share of the film's total North American box office, and James Cameron personally owned a 10% profit share of the four major peripheral products, including TV and DVD.

If you want to hire top directors, especially James Cameron, the remuneration needs to be calculated in units of 100 million.

(According to the Internet, James Cameron's total pre-tax income on "Avatar" is as high as $350 million.) ）