Chapter 157 of the main text volume suddenly appeared in difficulty

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As a director and screenwriter, Murphy naturally has two salaries, but the total investment of the film is $8 million, and his salary cannot be too high, and in order to avoid excessive investment, Miramax will only pay his basic salary for the time being, the director's salary is $900,000, and the screenwriter is much lower, only $100,000.

This is also a normal price in line with the laws of the market, because of the consideration of risk aversion, Miramax pressed part of Murphy's salary into the North American box office share.

According to the terms of the director's contract, if the film grosses more than $10 million in North America, Murphy automatically receives a base incentive of $100,000, which is one percent of the North American box office.

Similar to James Win's "Saw Fight" contract with Lionsgate, this is a tiered reward agreement, and for every $10 million increase in the film's North American box office, Murphy's dividend reward will also increase by one percent, which means that if the North American box office reaches $20 million, he will receive a two-percent commission as a reward.

But there is a supplementary clause to the deal, and the rewards will not exceed five percent of the North American box office.

In Hollywood, in order to avoid the risk of excessive investment in the early stage, and to motivate the creative enthusiasm of the main creators, many Hollywood companies will use this strategy.

In this way, the director and the project can be firmly tied together, and the more money the project will get when it is sold.

For now, this is also the most common pay deal in Hollywood.

As for his other identity as a screenwriter, there is no similar agreement clause except for the small dividend ratio stipulated by the screenwriters union.

Looking at the whole of Hollywood, the screenwriters who can get the production company to sign a real share agreement can be counted on one hand.

It's okay to say that Hollywood's big-scale projects are mostly the result of the collaboration of a whole team of screenwriters, and creativity is almost equal to risk, and mainstream commercial masterpieces rarely use the creativity of so-called geniuses.

The producers of the project were brothers Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein, but it was Erica Steinberg who was in charge of the crew, who made up the film's production crew.

In addition, since Miramax itself will only invest about $2 million, and most of the production funds come from financing or pre-sales, the project has brought in an insurance company as a guarantee for the completion of the film, which is also a guarantee for those who are willing to pay for the film.

Miramax would insure the project with the insurance company, and if the film was not completed on time, the insurance company would pay compensation or find a new team to complete the project.

This is also an important part of Hollywood film production, and even Hollywood film financing.

The completion guarantee first appeared on Hollywood sets in the early 50s of the last century, and now the global operation is very mature.

As a "completion guarantee" agency, it must be very familiar with the film and television production process, and be able to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the quality of the script, fund raising, the ability of the film's main creators, the producer's ability to manipulate, and the distribution income after the completion of the film, monitor the film production process, and timely supervise and control the financial situation.

On the set of many Hollywood films, it is common to see people from the non-film crew, holding various budget sheets, schedules and production lists, communicating with the on-site producers for a while, and the art director for a while, either to save a little bit, or to speed up the schedule today.

Not surprisingly, these are the staff sent by the Completion Guarantee Company to oversee the film's budget and schedule.

In the same way, as an insurance company, it will send several representatives to the crew, which will limit Murphy as a director for a certain extent, but this is not for a single director, but for the mature system of Hollywood, even directors of the level of Steven Spielberg and James Cameron have to work under this system.

The completion guarantee does not guarantee the profitability of a film, the biggest role is to guarantee that a film can be completed within the budget.

Also, investments from financial institutions and private equity can be cumbersome to deal with, but these are Miramax's jobs, and Murphy doesn't need to be involved.

He just needs to be responsible for the crew.

With Murphy signing a directing deal, CAA has also secured other contracts with Miramax, and Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jonah Hill and Carey Mulligan as Murphy's team will all play important roles in it, and Robert Downey Jr. has some troubles, one is that he is relatively well paid, and the other is that Harvey Weinstein has doubts about his drug addiction.

However, after Robert Downey Jr. switched to the CAA, after the coordination of Murphy and Bill Rothes, Harvey Weinstein finally nodded.

Correspondingly, there is an extremely strict contract for Robert Downey Jr., before the film is completed, Robert Downey Jr. can only get one-fifth of the salary, and after the film is completed, he will get one-fifth, and the last three-fifths will be paid after the film is removed from North America.

There is also a memorandum clause in the contract that if Robert Downey Jr. breaks out in a drug scandal during this period, it will be deemed to be an automatic waiver of the remaining remuneration.

Despite Murphy's own observations, Robert Downey Jr. seems to have really kicked up his addiction, but such a restrictive contract is beneficial to the project as a whole.

In terms of the behind-the-scenes staff, they are basically those who have worked with Murphy.

The assistant director and casting director are Paul Wilson, director of photography Fili Raschel, art director Helena Espora, lighting designer David Robbie, makeup artist Jake Watson......

These people all have contracts with the crew.

However, the prop master is no longer Baker Klebert, and the other party is not a customer of CAA, and Bill Rothes re-recommends one for Murphy, a middle-aged man named Jardie Hutson, who has better abilities and qualifications than Baker Klebert.

The editor will no longer be Jody Griffiths, although Murphy will be involved in the post-production and editing throughout the process, but will not have the final editing rights, and the editor will come from Miramax.

In fact, directors in Hollywood who can have the final editing rights can be counted with a slap.

Not to mention him now, even today's directors of the level of Ridley Scott, David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino also do not have the final editing rights.

With the help of CAA, the whole process seems to be quite smooth, but there are always some unexpected difficulties.

In one of Burbank's Miramax offices, Murphy, Bill Rothes, and Harvey Weinstein, the three most important leaders of the project, were all slightly frowning, and Erica Steinberg, who was actually in charge of the various production aspects of the crew, had just received bad news from the San Fernando Valley side.

"$800,000!"

This number was beyond Murphy's expectations, "Are they crazy?" How much does she get paid for a ******? ”

"Remember, Jenna Jameson just changed agencies," Bill Rothes looked even worse, "William Morris signed her a brokerage contract, ready to propel her to the top of that industry." ”

Harvey Weinstein lightly clasped his fingers on the armrests of the chair without saying a word.

Murphy nodded, from the news from Erica Steinberg, it is not difficult to analyze that someone analyzed the real purpose of inviting her to star for Jenna Jameson.

Neither Murphy and CAA, nor Miramax, had any intention of bringing Jenna Jameson into Hollywood, but just wanted to use her identity and popularity to create a topic.

Maybe Jenna Jameson still had fantasies before, once she was reminded and found out her position and actual value, she would naturally open her mouth and ask for a very high salary.

This is something Murphy didn't expect before, in his prediction, an invitation was sent, and those actresses who were mixed in the San Fernando Valley would definitely be eager to post it, and the beginning of things to develop was indeed the same, but when they found out their value, they would not be stupidly used.

Just like Jenna Jameson, her new agent offered a million dollars in salary, and after a lot of tug-of-war, she didn't let go of the $800,000 anymore.

In the words of the agent, if you cooperate, it is beneficial to both parties, and if you don't cooperate, Jenna Jameson has no loss, and it is impossible for her to enter Hollywood and change her current identity.

Negotiations have reached a stalemate.

"Murphy, what do you think?"

While Harvey Weinstein is a true decision-maker, he's an old fritter who pays attention to the way things work, "about the heroine." ”

Many times, the idea is always good, but the realization is biased, this matter has gone out of the track of Murphy's expectations, he did not hesitate, "Since the other party does not let go in terms of salary, let's change people." ”

The other party's salary is twice as much as he expected, and even if he cuts it down a little more, it will exceed the budget, which will inevitably reduce the expenses in other aspects.

Bill Rothes also nodded, he also didn't want to run his own project and use a client from William Morris as the heroine.

Harvey Weinstein appears generous, "Murphy, you are the director, the heroine or your opinion." ”

Nothing will always be smooth sailing, Murphy knew this simplest truth, and immediately gave up the previous plan in his heart, and after a little thought, said, "Let's hold an audition, the right actress shouldn't be hard to find." ”

"I think so." Bill Rossis echoed.

Harvey Weinstein also nodded, "Then let's hold an audition." Murphy, you're in charge. ”

"No problem." Murphy knew that his opinion as a director would affect the final candidate, but in the end, it was Miramax who made the decision. (To be continued.) )