The conversation lasted less than ten minutes before it ended again. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

"Lance, did you mean to?" After receiving Jerry's call, Cole Gred dialed Lance's cell phone and said helplessly, "Why do I think you didn't plan to promote this collaboration at all?" ”

Lance shrugged, "It should be said that from the beginning, Disney didn't intend to work with me. "Neither Robert nor Michael, they had any intention of working with him, they just wanted to use him as a whetstone. Therefore, he did not think that this cooperation could be reached.

Cole was speechless for a while, in the face of Lance's strength and willfulness, he was really helpless, even if he didn't want to cooperate, there was no need to offend Disney. However, genius is always full of edges and corners, so many artists are madmen, he is jealous of Lance's talent, but not envious of the pain that breeds it, God is always fair, isn't he?

So, Cole shook his head, ignoring the nonchalance in Lance's words, "What if Disney really really wants to work with you?" ”

"Welcome." Lance replied briskly in the affirmative, no one would be able to afford money, not to mention that Chaos Pictures was still in the primitive accumulation stage. "Millions of dollars, trust me, I can use them anytime, anywhere."

Cole couldn't help but laugh, "I thought Sin City had made enough money. ”

"Then if this cooperation is reached, you can not take a commission." Lance's retaliation left Cole powerless to argue.

"Sin City" was a box office success and a sensation in North America, and as the first work produced and released independently by Chaos Pictures, it is indeed eye-catching. But in fact, the profits that ended up in the pocket were far less than expected, and the pre-start-up distribution process consumed a lot of profits, not only in North America, but also in overseas markets.

Chaos Pictures does not have any overseas distribution channels, either working with large distribution companies such as Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, or licensing to local distribution companies through buyouts. Chaos Pictures has adopted a combination of the two, and large markets such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan choose the former, mainly Paramount; Small markets such as Africa and Eastern Europe, choose the latter, once and for all. Therefore, in terms of overseas markets, Chaos Pictures has lost a large part of its interests.

When Lance and Cole talked, "Sin City" was still in theaters, and it was estimated that this work would earn Chaos Pictures about $160 million in profits, of course, this is pre-tax income, which is enough to make "Sin City" the most successful work since the establishment of Chaos Pictures, which directly gives Chaos Pictures the ability to shoot two or even three works at the same time; Moreover, the lost benefits have also paved the way for the issuance department, which will gradually get back on track and have a bright future.

But considering the investment required for the company's next development, the 160 million will disappear in a blink of an eye, as if it had never made any money at all, and it is still very poor. This is always the case with the primitive accumulation phase.

"I'm just kidding." Cole was immediately defeated and raised his hand to show his surrender, he had just bought a villa not long ago, with a private pool and a tennis court, the mortgage was a heavy burden, and the interior renovation had not yet begun, and it cost money everywhere. "But you know three percent is impossible, right?"

"So how much do you think is appropriate?" Lance didn't answer, but threw the topic back.

Cole thought in silence for a moment, "One hundredth." ”

Although all four of Lance's current works have been written by him, and the script has performed well, this is the first time he has written a script for another project, and it is a new question of how much energy the script can exert with someone else as a director; What's more, only "The Day After Tomorrow" among Lance's current four works is a real commercial script, and genre film scripts have a framework, for example, five minutes need to have a small high/tide, twenty minutes need to have a twist, and so on, whether Lance's script can meet such a requirement is still unknown.

Therefore, the dividend of one percent is still very suitable for Reims.

Lance tucked his chin slightly, "Then two percent." Cole chuckled, generally speaking, agents are more ambitious, and strive to increase the remuneration of artists for their own commission, but when it comes to them, it is reversed, "Believe me, we can afford to wait, they can't afford to wait." ”

Cole thought about it carefully, and then he understood, "Then two percent!" ”

The "Pirates of the Caribbean" project was originally planned to start shooting in April, because they will shoot two sequels together, which will inevitably consume more time, and post-production will be more troublesome, in order to catch up with next year's summer schedule, there is not much time left for the crew, and they must start shooting as soon as possible; What's more, the schedules of Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, and Orlando Bloom are becoming more and more difficult to match, and if you don't take advantage of the time when the three main characters have schedules now, they will immediately start filming, and I don't know what accidents will happen next.

So, in this contest, Disney can't afford to consume. Either they will abandon Lance's script, or they will make a decision and give up some of their interests, which is not a difficult choice. Lance grasped this mentality of Disney, as well as Michael Eisner's struggle, and decided to extort a lot of money.

Sure enough, as Lance expected, Disney couldn't afford to wait. The two-month delay has caused Disney to lose more than $5 million in venue rental, pre-publicity, props preparation and public relations activities, and if it continues to delay, the expenditure will continue to increase.

When Jerry returned, he fed back the situation. Michael was very calm, and with a wave of his hand, he made a decision, asking for further conversation with Lance, and this cooperation was imperative; And Robert has a completely black face, as the recommender of Lance, but now he has been beaten upside down, and he is so embarrassed.

However, Robert is a man with a lot of money, he restrained his emotions and took the initiative to try to communicate with Lance, Lance refused twice, and only met the third time, and the two talked for more than two hours, but Lance still didn't enter, and Robert could only return in defeat.

After that, Disney talked to Cole twice, and the two sides reached an agreement together. The two sequels to "Pirates of the Caribbean" will be paid 2% of the dividends and will be filmed using Reims's script; But there is an additional clause, and the other three writers will make changes to the script, and if the changes exceed 30%, Lance's dividend will be reduced to 1.5%.

Obviously, Robert still doesn't want to suffer easily, and hopes that the three screenwriters can polish and revise the script, and finally achieve the goal of restricting Lance. After all, the modification content is more than 30%, this definition is really too vague, and it is estimated that Disney still has to say, especially considering that Lance will not be on the crew, and the modification of lines and scenes during the daily filming process is full of many variables, and the possibility of reaching this additional clause is higher.

This detail can be seen that Robert and Michael's different styles, Robert in the overall situation, and always be able to win more benefits for Disney on a local scale.

Regarding Disney's truthfulness, Lance did not continue to dwell on it this time, and nodded in agreement with a stroke of the pen.

In this way, after going around in a big circle, Lance still did not become the director of the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean" after all, but he succeeded in teaching Robert and Jerry a lesson, and took a slice of the pie from Disney, considering the box office potential of the two sequels, the income from the dividends at that time will definitely bring a surprise, truly disgusting the opponent and making a profit at the same time.

Well done!

However, having said that, from the filming stage of "Sin City", Lance has been working hard and preparing for the two projects of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Superman Returns" for most of the past half a year, but now both projects have failed, and such a long time of hard work has become useless, which has directly led to the situation that no project is currently being prepared by Chaos Pictures, which is really inconsistent with the scene that Hollywood faintly expects.

From Reims's point of view, the last three years of continuous work, almost one work after another, to get a period of respite and recuperation, is naturally very good and necessary; But from a company's point of view, this is not a good thing, both the film department and the distribution department need a steady stream of works into the cycle, only in this way can we continue to expand the scale and go to the next level, and a conservative strategy of waiting in place will not help.

Lance carefully sorted out his thoughts, but found that he did not have any new ideas for the time being, as if the creative bottleneck had inexplicably arrived. But deep down, Lance knew that in fact, this had something to do with the fall of Diorama Pictures, and after losing his goal, he was a little unhappy for a while, even if he played Disney, he couldn't make Lance lift his spirits.

So, Lance simply gave himself a vacation and went to Napa Valley near San Francisco for a vacation, while still digging through the movie projects in his memory, trying to create conditions for Chaos Pictures' distribution department to open up the situation.

The most important thing for the distribution department is to have the resources of the work, and it is a great work that can be successful. Distributors tend to walk around looking for the right buyers, with the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival being the two largest marketplaces for finished films, as well as the Sundance Film Festival.

But now it's June, and all eyes are on the summer season in North America; Moreover, almost all the distributor networks established by Diora Pictures in the past have been destroyed, and Lance can't find the resources to use them now. However, Lance has a better alternative: his memory.

The advantages of being a third man are evident at this point, Lance knows the trajectory of all future works, and he also knows exactly which independent films have created box office miracles and which independent films are making a big splash during awards season, although it is impossible to include all these works, but it can give Chaos Pictures' distribution department a higher starting point. (To be continued.) )