As Mel Gibson's agent, Ed Limatto was very disappointed but helpless to see that the midnight box office of his employer's first self-directed and self-starred "The Man Without a Face" was only more than $300,000. Although the cost of this film is less than five million dollars, this is only the production cost without counting Mel Gibson's personal value, for the Hollywood superstars who already have two super hit series, "Mad Max" and "Lethal Weapon", Mel Gibson's salary at this time is already around $15 million.

Although I think Mel Gibson should concentrate on his career as an actor, when it comes to Mel Gibson's current coffee level, the influence of the actor as an agent is already very low, let alone controlled. Ed Limatto could only hope that the cash cow in his hand would not continue to 'do not do his job', but early this morning, seeing the news on the entertainment section of the newspaper and receiving a series of calls from major film companies, Ed Limato's depression caused by the box office failure of "The Man Without a Face" was suddenly swept away.

Hanging up a phone call from Paramount's top management again, Ed Limatto went to the door of Mel Gibson's luxury suite and hurriedly rang the doorbell.

As soon as the door opened, Ed Limatto couldn't wait to enter Mel Gibson's suite, ignoring the figure of a girl who was hiding in the bedroom in a bit of a panic, raised the newspaper in his hand and asked, "Mel, did Eric Williams' personal assistant find you yesterday?"

Mel Gibson frowned at the agent's abrupt intrusion, took the newspaper from the agent's hand and glanced at it. Scolded: "These damn paparazzi. I can even hear what I'm saying in the café. ”

Ed Limatto was about to speak. The phone rang this time, and he made an apologetic gesture to Mel Gibson, walked to the balcony of the suite, and pressed the connect button.

Returning to the living room a moment later, Ed Limatto said with a little frown, "Mel, guess who called?"

Mel Gibson leaned back on the sofa in the living room, reading the newspaper that Ed Limatto had just brought with him, and when he heard Ed Limatto's excited tone, he said disapprovingly: "God?"

Ed Limatto choked. But he had to take the initiative to explain: "It's Michael Eisner, CEO of Universal Pictures, and just now, I received continuous inquiries from Warner, Paramount, and Fox, all of which were from president-level executives, hehe, these guys haven't been so polite to us for a long time." ”

Mel Gibson was not stupid either, and raised the newspaper in his hand: "About this?"

"yes, Mel, now that Hollywood almost knows that Eric Williams has taken a fancy to Braveheart, haven't you received a call?"

Mel Gibson shook his head. glanced at the bedroom with the door open, the Spring Festival was worth a thousand gold. How could he let the mess disturb him.

Ed Limatto made a clear expression, no longer dwelling on these things, and asked, "Mel, what did Eric Williams' personal assistant talk to you about yesterday?"

Mel Gibson raised the newspaper in his hand again: "Haven't you read Braveheart, the joint venture company formed by Firefly and MGM is interested in investing in this project, and yesterday Alan Fiessman came in person, and we talked about my thoughts on this movie." ”

Ed Limatto said, "What about the fireflies, what kind of conditions do they offer?"

Mel Gibson shook his head and glanced at the newspaper in his hand again, at this time he no longer had the anger of seeing the candid photo, and realized why his agent was so excited, and said: "I was talking about it most of yesterday, Alan Fiessman brought a document back when he left." Mel Gibson said, got up and went back to the bedroom, quickly walked out and handed the agent information about Braveheart: "That's it." ”

Ed Limatto has long seen the material of "Braveheart", and some time ago he lobbied several major film companies with Mel Gibson. So he just picked it up and flipped through it casually, then looked up again and said, "Mel, this is a great opportunity for you, but first, you have to talk to Eric Williams in person." ”

"My personal thoughts are all in these materials, and I don't think there's anything left to talk about," Mel Gibson said, pointing to the newspaper that was thrown on the coffee table, "and, although the fact that it was secretly filmed is very disgusting, I think that since Eric Williams is optimistic about this project, several film companies should no longer refuse to invest, and I can use it to gain a greater say." As much as I admired the abilities of Eric Williams' little guy, I didn't really want to work with Fireflies, because then I wouldn't have had much control. ”

"Mel, this is a movie with a budget of at least $50 million," Ed Limatto said with a solemn face: "If you mess up, then you will definitely not be able to move an inch in Hollywood in the next few years, think about the "Cut Throat Island" two years ago, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, before he filmed "The Last Action Hero", his salary was $15 million, but because of the box office failure of "The Last Action Hero", he only took 3 million in the new film of Firefly Pictures, which is not as good as some second-tier actors. ”

Mel Gibson was silent for a moment, and then said, "Then what did you mean ......?"

Ed Limatto noticed the loosening of Mel Gibson's expression and said: "Eric Williams has never missed a film in which he has been involved so far, so you talk to Eric Williams personally to set out his specific ideas for this film, and then we will talk about the conditions, so that even if we can't get along with Firefly in the end, we can cooperate with other film companies to ensure that nothing goes wrong." ”

"Ed, what do you think Eric Williams would do if he finally found out that he had been tricked?"

Ed Limatto looked familiar with the world and said, "Mel, what I just said is only a possibility. If Eric Williams is really bullish on this project. I think he would have agreed to our terms. Even if the two sides don't come to an agreement in the end. And you use some of his ideas in the future production, I don't think it's a big deal, you are now an A-level superstar, as long as the interests of both parties are the same in the future, you will definitely continue to cooperate. ”

Mel Gibson thought for a moment and nodded: "Then you contact the meeting time, and we will go back to Los Angeles together." ”

……

About the same moment, Los Malibu. Eric was depressed as he read today's newspaper, and Drew sat across from Eric, with a few gloating laughs from time to time: "Eric, there's a good show to watch now, you promised someone else last night." ”

Eric thought of Sophie, and also regretted that he was too eager, remembering that although "Braveheart" won a lot at the Oscars, the box office was not too good, so Eric would definitely not go to great lengths to fight for this project. If Mel Gibson sits on the ground because of the competition of several major film companies, the price will rise. Eric would have just abandoned the project.

Reflecting on this small mistake in his heart, Eric quickly began to think about countermeasures.

After a while. Eric looked up, "Drew, help me get a pen?"

Little Nizi, who was sipping milk from a glass like a cat, lay in her chair and didn't move, and shouted outside the restaurant, "Natasha, bring a pen." ”

Moments later, one of the Russian twins appeared in the dining room with a sharpened pencil and handed it to Eric accurately.

Eric took it and thanked him, watching the Russian girl who didn't know if it was her sister or her sister taking away the empty cutlery next to her, and said to Xiao Nizi, "You're really getting lazy and lazy." ”

Drew was not ashamed: "I was lazy, and you found out too late now." ”

Eric shook his head with a smile, looked down at something in the blank space of the newspaper, and continued, "By the way, what's going on with TG?"

Drew pouted dissatisfiedly, "It's only been so many days since you remembered it, I thought you had forgotten about our small company." ”

Eric ignored Drew's small complaints.

Drew had no choice but to continue: ""Detective Plane Head 2 has been filmed, "Vampire Slayer Buffy" has also been filmed for more than half of it, and there are still a few movies, which will be transferred to Fox's production department at that time, and Liz will go to Twentieth Century Fox as vice president, this matter has been decided. ”

Eric remembered Murdoch's offer for TG a few months ago and asked, "What was the final offer?"

Drew blinked, "Don't you know?"

"Huh?" said Eric, looking up in a slightly uncomfortable feeling.

Drew also sensed something: "Liz said that you negotiated with her old man, Fox bought TG for $120 million, redeemed the distribution rights of Fireflies for $80 million, and gave Fireflies the overseas distribution rights of TG's films. ”

"That's what I said at the time, and although the price was reasonable, I didn't say yes. ”

Drew was stunned for a moment, and suddenly put down the milk cup in his hand: "Liz, this guy actually lied to me, I'm going to settle accounts with her, this matter is not played!" Xiao Nizi said, the whole person ran out before Eric could open his mouth to stop him, and the hall remembered a call of 'Natasha', and soon fell silent.

Eric looked at the instantly empty restaurant, shook his head with a smile, although he didn't agree, but he didn't object, Eric didn't think Elizabeth's straight nature would deceive Drew, it is estimated that Murdoch's old fox played some word games, and even his daughter got into it.

It's lively now, I've seen a pit father, and it's really rare to see a pit daughter.

……

"Eric, I'm so sorry, I didn't expect this to happen," Eric said as soon as he arrived at the office when Alan appeared in front of him, holding a copy of today's Seattle Times.

"It's okay, it's just an accident, and it's mostly because I didn't think it through. ”

The two walked into the office together, and Allen said, "Mel Gibson's agent just called me, and Mel Gibson wants to talk to you personally." ”

"Talk to me personally?" Eric repeated the phrase, then smiled knowingly, and asked, "And how do you reply to them?"

"I didn't give them an exact answer," Allen said, "but Mel Gibson was already at the Seattle airport when we called, and he would be in Los Angeles in four hours, Eric, do you want to meet him?"

"Do you think they've seen today's paper?" said Eric, instead of replying.

Alan nodded: "That's for sure, and, I think, maybe a few other major studios are already reaching out to Mel Gibson about it." ”

"Then why do you think they are in such a hurry to see me?"

Alan thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "I don't quite understand this, but it shouldn't be a bad thing." ”

Eric smiled, picked up a sticky note from the side, quickly wrote a string of words, handed it to Allen, and said, "There's no need for a meeting, you can follow the above conditions and let the production department talk to them." In addition, if the management of DreamWorks decides and then transfers the negotiation of this project to DreamWorks, I will put the bottom line of our project on the note. ”

Alan looked at the note, nodded, and walked out of Eric's office.

……

"What, that you refused?" Mel Gibson, standing in the lobby of Los Angeles International Airport, heard the words of his agent, Ed Limatto, after hanging up the phone, with a tone of surprise and anger that had been ignored.

Ed Limatto nodded, his face was a little unpleasant, and said, "I think, maybe the fireflies thought that today's news in the newspaper was deliberately released by us, you know, this kind of thing happens often." ”

If it was really revealed by himself in advance, Mel Gibson didn't feel anything, but this matter was obviously not done by himself, but he was wronged, where could the arrogant Mel Gibson stand this kind of anger, and said: "Then forget it, didn't you just say that Michael Eisner, CEO of Universal Pictures, also called, maybe we can make an appointment with him to talk." ”

"I think it's better not to do that," said Ed Limato, "although Eric Williams refused to see you just now, the specific terms of cooperation have been given. ”

Mel Gibson looked a little more relaxed and asked, "What conditions?"

Ed Limatto replied: "Firefly wants you to direct and lead the actor at the same time, and you will be paid $15 million, plus a portion of the director-producer dividend, and they promise that the investment in the film will not be less than $60 million." (To be continued......)