Morton Restaurant in Beverly Hills. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Roland Emmerich sat across from Columbia Pictures CEO Bill Michanik, dealing with the steak in front of him in some silence, trying to ignore the occasional glances of the guests around him, and even regretting why he chose this restaurant where Hollywood filmmakers gather today.

This is the second week of the release of "Godzilla", which has been wildly criticized by the media for a week, and the first-week box office data of the film in the morning was released, and Roland Emmerich did not feel any relief in his heart. In the afternoon, he drove secretly to some theaters in the Fernando Valley to take a look, compared to the hot attendance rate last Friday, it was only a week, and most of the theaters where "Godzilla" was screened seemed empty, and he didn't even dare to imagine how much the box office of the film would drop this week, sixty percent, seventy percent, or worse?

There is no doubt that "Godzilla" will be a very disastrous Waterloo in his career.

After years of accumulation, Roland Emmerich has a net worth of tens of millions of dollars, and even, with only the $20 million salary of "Godzilla" and the next box office share, even if he chooses to retire now, he can ensure that he has no worries about food and clothing for the rest of his life.

But in Hollywood, a vanity fair, whether a person is successful or not is far from being limited to the realm of money, most people pay more attention to career success and their own status and influence in Hollywood, and everyone wants to climb to a higher position.

As long as Hollywood stars are slightly popular, they basically have enough net worth to support their rich and even luxurious lives, but these people will still have all kinds of mental and physical problems under the pressure of ups and downs in their careers. Because for most Hollywood celebrities, the feeling of being suddenly abandoned by Hollywood, without the following of the spotlight, and without the attention of the public, this sense of loss is definitely more unacceptable than the sudden loss of all money.

Although Roland Emmerich knows that a single failure will never be a devastating blow to his career, it certainly means that in the next few years, unless he makes films of the same quality as "Alone Day" and "Heaven and Earth", he will never enjoy the kind of generous treatment before the release of "Godzilla", strong control over the production of the film, the industry's top $20 million director's salary, and so on.

If, before Godzilla, he didn't even have to show up here tonight to discuss the next contract with Bill Michanik, these were just things that needed to be his agent before.

If you could do it all over again.

The thought arose, and Roland Emmerich immediately shook his head self-deprecatingly. suddenly remembered that Firefly had just announced the director of "The Day After Tomorrow" some time ago, and this project should have belonged to him. Firefly may not offer a $20 million director's salary, but in the case of the two sides working together in "Heaven and Earth" and "Solo Day", Firefly can't be too stingy, he believes that through fixed remuneration and dividends, it is not difficult for him to get a total income of $30 million equivalent to "Solo Day".

The current "Godzilla" on the basis of a salary of 20 million, 15% of the box office share in North America may still be able to ensure that he gets 30 million US dollars, but due to the fiasco of "Godzilla" word-of-mouth and box office, his next film will definitely not be able to get such a generous remuneration, and the damage caused by "Godzilla" to his popularity is even more incalculable.

Compared with Roland Emmerich's faint self-pity, Bill Michanick's mood is more irritable.

The project "Godzilla" was pushed down by Sony Pictures from the top down, and it stands to reason that the responsibility for the failure of the project should not be blamed on him in any case.

However, it is clear that this kind of obvious and reasonable reasoning will not really happen to a Japanese group with a clear management class like Sony. If "Godzilla" is successful, everyone will naturally be happy, and everyone will have a celebration banquet together. But now that it has failed, Nobuyuki Idei, the chairman of the group, naturally has nothing to blame. The CEO of Sony America, his direct boss Howard Stringer will also not stand up and take responsibility, layer by layer, and this pot can only be carried by Bill Michanick, the most direct head of the film business.

Fortunately, Sony knows what is going on, and although he needs to take the blame, there will be no substantive punishment, which is the only thing that makes people feel better.

However, there is still another very tricky thing that has fallen on him, which is the contract between Sony Pictures and Roland Emmerich.

At the beginning, due to the confidence of the company's top management, Sony signed a three-part contract with Roland Emmerich at one time.

"Godzilla" has been declining at the box office all the way in the first week, and the next two sequels will definitely not be able to talk about.

However, Sony's contract with Roland Emmerich is unlikely to expire automatically.

During the signing of the contract, the two parties discussed a solution if the sequel could not be launched, and the result of the negotiation was that once the sequel to "Godzilla" could not be launched, Roland Emmerich had the right to direct two films from other projects under Sony Pictures.

Toho's Tokusatsu Godzilla series has been filmed 22 times in 40 years, and no one could have predicted that after introducing Godzilla to Hollywood, it would be difficult to continue with just one film. Therefore, no one took this ancillary clause to heart at the beginning.

But at the moment, "Godzilla" has a total investment of $220 million, and according to the current situation, it is a luxury for the film to recover 150 million in North America, not to mention the initial expectation of $300 million. Judging from the dismal box office performance in Japan, the overseas market is also not optimistic, and the project has been confirmed to bring huge losses to Sony Pictures. As the producer and director who directly caused the failure of the project, Sony's senior management had the heart to strangle Roland Emmerich to death, and naturally he was unwilling to fulfill that ancillary clause.

The drudgery of settling the contract problem naturally fell to Bill Michanick.

There is no director in Hollywood who has not suffered a failure, even Cameron, who has just created a box office miracle, and the original "Abyss" also gave Fox a toothache. But no one is sure that these directors will one day make a comeback and be in Hollywood for decades, and Bill Michanik naturally understands this, so he doesn't want to tear up with Roland Emmerich.

It wasn't until near the end of dinner that Bill Michanick, who had been brewing a lot of rhetoric, to get down to business: "Roland, I remember that there are at least five disaster movies in the Firefly series, and your "Heaven and Earth Collision" and "Solo Day" are both very good at the box office, Williams should want you to continue working with Firefly, right?" ”

Roland Emmerich listened to Bill Michanik's words about putting him on the throne, but his mood did not change in the slightest. Of course, Eric said that he was always welcome to go back, but Roland Emmerich also had his own self-esteem, he had given up his good relationship with Firefly for a high salary, and now that the project had failed, he naturally could not immediately put down his face and return to Firefly.

Roland Emmerich was well aware of Bill Michanick's purpose for asking him today, and he didn't actually force the ancillary clause and not let go. The two sides could not work together willingly, and the project he forcibly took over from Sony would certainly not work well, which would definitely affect the quality of the film. The project failed again, and the wealthy Sony only lost some money, but if he messed up two movies in a row, he estimated that he would really have to retire early.

Putting down the dishes, Roland Emmerich wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, looked up and said, "Bill, thank you for dinner, so you should just talk about Sony's thoughts." ”

Roland Emmerich's attitude relieved Bill Michanik and said: "That's right, Roland, we are currently preparing a project, a story about the American war alone, called "The Patriot", the director has not yet been decided, if you are interested, this film can be directed by you." ”

"I've never been exposed to war films," Roland Emmerich said, suddenly realizing something, and asking, "Is the lead actor in the movie decided?" ”

Bill Michanick didn't expect Roland Emmerich to react so quickly, paused, and confessed: "We are in contact, there are two suitable candidates, Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner. ”

The atmosphere between the two sides fell silent again.

Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner, both of whom are not only Hollywood A-list superstars, but also have both won Oscar nominations or awards for best director for war films such as "Braveheart" and "Dances with Wolves" respectively.

Regardless of which of these two people plays the leading role of "The Patriot", Roland Emmerich's control over the project as a director will be greatly weakened, and even, even without him as a director, the project will obviously go smoothly.

Roland Emmerich could feel that Sony had stuffed him into a genre that he was not good at at all as a director, more like a 'vase' that didn't have much impact on the whole film. This arrangement is simply an insult to his Hollywood café.

Taking a sip of the red wine on the table and calming his thoughts, Roland Emmerich asked, "What if we just terminate the contract?" ”

"$1 million," Bill Micchanik had apparently considered the possibility, but he was a little embarrassed to say the somewhat perfunctory amount of compensation, adding: "This is the maximum amount I can decide, and if you want that, I can talk to Howard, and maybe raise it a little more." ”

How much more can it be improved?

Roland Emmerich thought so, and his heart was a little tangled.

The solution given by Sony is already clear.

He came to be the director of "The Patriot", this film has Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner to back the scene, the quality of the film and the box office should be guaranteed, and the film is completed, and both parties can also take advantage of the situation to remove the ancillary terms. It is conceivable that if he accepts this director's job, the salary he can get will definitely not be too high, and the box office share of 20 million US dollars and the like must not even be thought of, even if it is not too easy to maintain his fixed director salary of 8 million US dollars before "Godzilla".

But if he wants to terminate the contract immediately, he can only get a symbolic compensation.

Moreover, after losing this contract, in the case of "Godzilla" just suffered a failure, in the next year or two, other Hollywood studios will definitely not cooperate with him easily, not because of his personal directing ability, but because the one-sided bad reviews of "Godzilla" are destined to have a very bad impact on the reputation of his next film. Sony's first solution was to use the influence of Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner to minimize that influence as much as possible.

Obviously, Sony must have preferred that he would automatically choose to terminate the contract, but at the same time it was unwilling to pay too much compensation, so it would come up with such a difficult solution.

Sony also expects that he will not take drastic measures such as litigation to solve this matter, after all, who will dare to cooperate with you after just messing up someone else's big production and suing someone else in turn.

Eventually, Roland Emmerich said, "Well, Bill, give me some time, and I'll think about it." ”

Roland Emmerich did not mention the termination of the contract again, and Bill Michanik knew that he had decided to accept the position of director of "The Patriot", but he couldn't put it down for a while and immediately agreed. Bill Michanik was not pressing, and he was able to get the matter done, and he was already very satisfied that there was no obvious unpleasantness between the two sides.

Neither of them was in the mood to continue chatting, and Bill Michanik was about to beckon the waiter to come over and settle the bill, when there was some commotion on the other side of the restaurant, and a man and two women came out of the booths not far away, causing the other guests to greet them warmly.

Roland Emmerich heard the movement behind him and turned his head to look at him, just in time to meet Eric's gaze.

There are only two weeks left before the release of "007: Casino Royale", and Eric can still be lazy in the early publicity work, but at this last moment, as a director, he must still participate in the promotion of the film appropriately. Today, I took the girl to dine with Amy Pascal, mainly to discuss this matter.

Politely responding to the greetings of the people around him, Eric was holding the girl and walking out with Amy Pascal, but he didn't expect to meet Roland Emmerich, and his footsteps couldn't help but pause.

Eric, who is definitely one of the last people Roland Emmerich wants to meet these days, is the last person he wants to meet.

It was the two films "Heaven and Earth Collision" and "Solo Day" with Firefly that pushed him to the ranks of super directors, and also prompted Sony to open that huge salary contract in order to win him over.

Roland Emmerich was a little reluctant to give up his cooperation with Firefly for the sake of Sony Pictures' generous remuneration, and at this time, the reputation and box office of "Godzilla" were bleak, and Roland Emmerich felt even more embarrassed in the face of Eric.

"Good evening, Eric," Roland Emmerich took the initiative to greet Eric first, although he felt uncomfortable, but he hesitated for a moment to get up or not.

"Evening and, Roland, oh, and Bill."

Eric can also see his current state of mind from Roland Emmerich's expression, there are many Hollywood insiders around him, if he deliberately stops at this time, then there will definitely be a new joke in Hollywood tomorrow. Not wanting to embarrass Roland Emmerich too much, Eric just nodded softly to the two of them, and the two passed by.

Roland Emmerich's reaction to Eric was both relaxed and a little choked, and he and Bill Michanik glanced at each other, and neither of them had the idea of paying the bill immediately, leaving at this time, in case they met again in the parking lot, they really didn't know what to say.

In the parking lot outside the restaurant, the girl was still hanging on Eric, and said to Amy Pascal with a smile: "Hehe, Amy, did you notice Roland's expression just now, it's so interesting." ”

Amy Pascal just smiled, not echoing the girl's words.

"Alright, don't gloat," Eric knocked on the door of the girl's head and said to Amy Pascal, "about E! Entertainment acquisition plan, you should talk about it as soon as possible, and it is best to be able to come up with results before the end of the month. ”

"Eric, Warner Cable saw that we were suddenly taking the initiative again with this deal, and it seems that there is no longer a rush to sell the shares. They might guess you're interested in e! ”

The twins drove the girl's Land Rover over, Eric didn't rush to get into the car, leaned on the side of the car door and said: "I recently read some information, Rainbow Media, a subsidiary of the basic cable company, also seems to be selling, you can contact them at the same time, the Bravo TV station in the hands of Rainbow Media is similar to the nature of e! ”

"I've noticed that, too," Amy Pascal nodded, "but the underlying cable company probably won't sell too many shares, and GE seems to be interested in Rainbow Media, which has been expanding its cable business over the years." ”

"The basic cable company definitely knows which side has more potential to work with, and if possible, we don't need to seek too many shares at once, we just need to get the right to operate. Moreover, your main focus should still be on e! entertainment, Rainbow Media as an alternative," After thinking about it, Eric smiled again: "However, I guess after the release of "Batman and Robin" next week, Warner should be willing to leave E as soon as possible!" The equity baggage of entertainment is over. Time Warner's losses this year continue to expand, and Terry Semel's CEO position may be replaced. ”

Amy Pascal immediately realized the meaning of Eric's words and confirmed, "Eric, aren't you optimistic about Batman and Robin?" ”

"I haven't seen the finished Batman & Robin, so I'm not too sure. However, if you pay a little attention, you should find that Warner has covered "Batman and Robin" too tightly, and so far, except for the trailer, there is very little substantive information related to the content of the film, and there are no public preview reviews. ”

Amy Pascal combed through the information in her head and found that this was indeed the case.

Warner's strict sealing of the content of the film before its release may be to maintain the mystery of the movie, but there is another possibility, that is, there is no confidence in the quality of the film, and there is a fear that the word-of-mouth will leak in advance, which will affect the box office of the movie in the first week. (To be continued.) )