Chapter 335: Out-of-Court Settlement

Miramax owes Murphy mainly the last box office of "Sin City" and other director's shares, and a small part of the post-production dividends of "Planet of Terror", with a total amount of about four million dollars. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

For Murphy in the past, four million dollars was a considerable amount, but after receiving a high salary and income share one after another, this share is nothing, but he will not give it up easily, this is the right and income he deserves, and he also wants to show his determination to the outside world.

He will not be a director and investor who will swallow it in his stomach when he suffers a loss.

Hollywood itself is a business circle, and businessmen are very profitable, and if they are not pursued this time, there will definitely be other companies following suit.

Like himself, Murphy would never overestimate the moral bottom line of Hollywood practitioners.

With Walt Disney completely controlling Miramax, Murphy issued a recovery letter in the name of Stanton Studios, but it was a stone into the sea, and it didn't even stir up a wave, and Miramax's new management didn't seem to want to deal with him as a salary chaser at all.

Bill Rothes, also in the name of Murphy's agent, called and got the answer to keep waiting.

Like all those who are owed wages, you can never expect the conscience of capital to find out, and if you don't act proactively, you may be waiting forever, and you won't be able to wait for good results.

Therefore, Murphy did not hesitate to let his accountant David list the relevant details, attach them to the lawyer's letter from lawyer Robert, and send them to Miramax's executives.

It may be that Miramax doesn't want to deal with a director who is of no value to him, or it may be that he has too much debt and is not worried, or it may be that he really didn't sort out Miramax's mess, and this recovery letter totaling $5 million with principal and interest has once again not been answered.

If there is no response from the normal way, there is only one way.

Of course, this solution is not to find someone to kill Michael Eisner, nor to threaten Miramax's management with some shady means, and it has not yet reached this point, Murphy is also a person with status and status, and the risk and reward of doing so are completely disproportionate.

After consulting with Bill Rothes and Robert, Murphy chose the most normal means - the law!

This is the most common way in Hollywood to recover pay, and Peter Jackson is said to be suing New Line Pictures for the $15 million he deserves in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Many Hollywood companies have a bad reputation in this regard, and it is not only Peter Jackson who is suing New Line Pictures, but also the cast and Tolkien rights management agency, who all accuse New Line Pictures of concealing large sums of money from the box office of the Lord of the Rings trilogy in order to avoid paying more of the cut, and the actual box office receipts of these three films are much higher than the publicly available box office figures.

Robert also represented Murphy in a lawsuit against Miramax and Walt Disney, the company's de facto manager, in the Delaware Commercial Court of Equity, whether it was Stanton Studios, Miramax, or Walt Disney, all of which were actually registered in Delaware.

Then, Murphy learned from the Delaware Commercial Court that it wasn't just him who was suing Walt Disney, but also Disney's many shareholders.

Disney's shareholders took the management led by Michael Eisner to court, and the reason was that when Michael Owitz left the position of Disney CEO, the board of directors controlled by Michael Owitz paid Michael Ovitz nearly $200 million in liquidated damages in installments without the approval of normal procedures.

In the days that followed, Murphy learned more about it, and Walt Disney's shareholders sued management, not just for liquidated damages, but for Michael Eisner.

To put it simply, there is a powerful force within Disney that is dissatisfied with Michael Eisner's domineering style and what he has done in recent years and wants to replace it.

Now that even the parent company, Walt Disney, has begun civil unrest, Miramax may really not have a clue, Murphy feels that there is such a possibility, Miramax and Walt Disney may not really want to owe wages, and civil unrest will seriously delay their work efficiency.

But in the end, Murphy would not withdraw the lawsuit, and there was no reason to take back the arrows he shot, and Miramax did owe his share and did not pay.

However, Walt Disney, which is in an eventful time, especially the management led by Michael Eisner, does not want to add to the trouble of Stanton Studios, and the lawsuit filed by Robert on behalf of Murphy also seems to remind them that most of their energy is focused on infighting.

Miramax's management contacted Murphy through Bill Rothes, hoping that the two parties could reach an out-of-court settlement, and after soliciting various opinions, Murphy began to contact Miramax, and if an out-of-court settlement could be reached, he did not want to fight a long and boring lawsuit.

This kind of lawsuit may drag on for half a year or even longer, and it will take a lot of time and energy.

In addition, the high cost of litigation is also an important reason why Murphy considered an out-of-court settlement.

Even though there has never been a losing case in all of Robert's Hollywood lawsuits, Murphy prioritizes out-of-court settlements.

Robert's Hollywood record is well known to him, but this is not particularly unusual, because many Hollywood lawsuits mostly end in out-of-court settlements, and the results are mostly confidential, which has created a group of lawyers who have never lost a career in Hollywood.

Indeed, from the beginning of accepting Murphy's employment, Robert was conscientious and a very professional lawyer, but he worked for the American law firm Meiss LLP, which was rated as the top law firm in the United States by The American Lawyer, and his control over its lawyers was quite strong, and if they had other ideas and dragged the case down, it would only be the lawyers on both sides of the litigation who would ultimately benefit, and even the final representation fee was not only the $5 million that Murphy requested.

This is not an exaggeration at all.

However, entertainment lawyers are also an integral part of Hollywood's mature industry, and the services they provide are indeed convenient for employers like Murphy.

With Bill Rothes busy with the awards season, Murphy commissioned Grace to work with Robert to negotiate an out-of-court settlement with Miramax's agent.

Murphy did not want to drag out this boring lawsuit, and the new management of Miramax, who was eager to go back and help his master in his struggle for power, did not want to be distracted, and the negotiations between the two sides went exceptionally well, reaching an agreement in only three days, and then a formal settlement agreement was signed under the supervision of representatives of the Delaware Commercial Court of Chancery.

As the core part of the out-of-court settlement agreement, it is the director's share owed by Miramax to Murphy, and the two parties finally reached an agreement on $4.5 million, in addition to the $4.5 million, in order to avoid future trouble, Miramax also bought out Murphy's post-dividend rights on "Planet Terror" and "Sin City" at a price of $500,000.

Because the offline share ratio stipulated in the director's contract signed at the beginning was very low, Murphy also happily signed the out-of-court settlement agreement.

Since then, apart from the union-mandated share, Murphy has basically no financial relationship with the films "Planet of Terror" and "Sin City".

In fact, after Murphy paid Robert, the lawyer, 10 percent of the representation fee, he ended up receiving a share from Miramax that was about the same as the original amount plus normal interest.

Such an out-of-court settlement not only avoids high litigation agency fees, but also does not involve Murphy's experience too much, otherwise the hearing and court appearances again and again will be annoying.

Again, this is an important reason why many Hollywood lawsuits choose to settle out of court.

Murphy didn't want to be distracted by the lawsuit, partly to prepare for the awards season and to begin filming for a series of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones."

It won't be easier than shooting any big-budget movie.

Having reached a co-production agreement with Twentieth Century Fox's film and television production division, and confirming that the series would be broadcast on Fox Cable, Murphy did not plan to shoot a pilot episode first and then decide whether to continue filming like a typical American drama, but instead shot ten episodes of the first season at once.

The two parties also reached an agreement on investment and copyright, with each holding 50% of the investment, and the purchase of the rights of Stanton Studios will be directly converted into the investment of Stanton Studios, and the production cost of the first season is tentatively scheduled to be $60 million.

In addition, Murphy also talked with David Ellison a few times, and the agents of both sides also began negotiations, and he learned at this time that David Ellison could control far less money than rumored, about forty or fifty million dollars.

It wasn't until the success of the investment in "Gone Girl" that David Ellison got the real right to use the foundation under his name from Larry Ellison, and he did have an enviable amount of money in his hands.

That's enough money for him to invest in a non-mega production two or three times, and all of them fail, and still get up.

Things are sometimes so unfair, and it is also the initial stage, some people will fall into hell if they take the wrong step, and some people will have a lot of opportunities even if they fall into the trap one after another.

Stanton Studios has once again accepted a loan from David Ellison's foundation for a total of $15 million, essentially solving the problem of funding Murphy's investment in the production of A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones.

As in the past, David Ellison still needs to prove himself to the outside world with success, and Murphy also likes this kind of interest-only loan, where both sides take what they need.

But after David Ellison's funding was secured, Murphy ran into trouble and fired the writer who assisted George Martin. (To be continued.) )