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In the days that followed, Duke had more communication with Zack Schneider, who also took advantage of his off-duty time to bring out some of the commercials and landscape clips he had filmed, as well as the work diaries he had done while working on several advertising teams, and Duke had a certain recognition of him.

After accompanying his mother to a dinner hosted by the Lauder Group, Duke returned to Los Angeles, where he first registered with the Writers Guild and filed the script in his hand, and then negotiated with Nancy Josephson, and after a long period of deliberation and careful consideration, it was not until June that he signed his name on the ICM brokerage contract.

At the same time, the second script he completed was also handed over to Nancy to deal with, and that's what the agent did.

"Speed of Life and Death" also came to the eighth week of its release in North America, in the fierce summer file, the potential of the film was almost exhausted, the single-day box office had already fallen below 300,000 US dollars, and the number of theaters screened had also shrunk to less than 400, and most of them were remote theaters, mainstream commercial theaters had more choices in the summer file, and in the seventh week of the film's single-week box office decline, it was basically all down.

However, the film's North American box office has reached $124.78 million!

This is the second film to break 100 million at the North American box office this year in addition to "Instinct", and more importantly, after half of 1992, "Speed of Life and Death" has temporarily become the highest-grossing film in North America this year!

"It's been a while!"

As the controller of CAA, Michael Ovitz coldly glanced at the people sitting on both sides of the conference table, "Our work has made a big mistake, not only did we let a movie like "Life and Death" that could have become a classic case of CAA's packaging service slip out of our hands, but we also encountered a failure on "Alien 3"! ”

His fury burned directly at Lovett, who was sitting at the back of the conference table, "Why did Duke Rosenberg sign Nancy Josephson instead of you?" Do you know what a 100 million box office club director means to CAA? ”

"Also, that idiot of yours, Rick Solomon, don't give him any more important roles!" Michael Ovitz seemed even more angry, "Look at his funny performance on Alien 3, it's like a circus clown!" ”

Lovett shrank his head and didn't dare say a word.

During this time, Lovett has felt that his position in the company has quietly changed, in the past he was the most dazzling of the company's newcomers, and even known for his precise vision, and now he ...... He felt like he could be sent back to the mailroom at any moment.

Thinking of this, Lovett regretted a little, regretting that he did not use the resources in his hands and the resources available to CAA to snipe "Life and Death".

However, this is also to think about it, Lovett is well aware that the company will not risk tearing up its face with Fox to move the work produced by Lucasfilm, which side of CAA or George Lucas or the Star Wars series is more important to Fox, this is a question that does not need to be answered at all.

Originally, Lovett also wanted to try to become one of Mel Gibson's co-managing agents, but now it seems that there is little hope.

Michael Ovitz on the other side of "Martin ......" spoke again, "Is the theater still refusing to extend the screening period of "Alien 3"? ”

"Yes."

As the project director of "Alien 3", Martin Bob's tone was filled with irrepressible loss, "Four weeks after the film was released, the North American box office was less than $35 million, and Emperor Cinemas and AMG Cinemas have already given Fox an ultimatum, and the film can stay in their theaters for two weeks at most." ”

CAA's packaging strategy has not failed without failures, but in a series like "Alien", which has a very high word-of-mouth response and audience base, it has encountered such a failure, which will inevitably affect their further promotion of the packaging business.

It was also during this time that Twentieth Century Fox ushered in a new round of personnel changes, with the super sale of "Life and Death" and the reboot of the Star Wars series by George Lucas, Townsend Rothman sat in the position of CEO of Twentieth Century Fox after a fierce internal competition.

In Townsend Rothman's newly renovated office, Duke's new manager, Nancy Rosenberg, was making an impassioned speech.

"Townsend, do you think the script isn't good enough? Or is Duke's score on "Life and Death" unconvincing? ”

Sitting in the chair in front of the desk, Nancy leaned forward, showing a slight sense of oppression, "The final North American box office of "Life and Death" is likely to be $130 million, which can definitely rank in the top ten or even the top five this year!" And Duke's new script completely continues the thrilling, hot, exciting, and even more profound idea of "Speed of Life and Death", which is the genre that Duke is best at, and "Speed of Life and Death" also proves this, there is no reason why it will not succeed! ”

Looking at the script on his desk, Townsend Rothman admitted that it was indeed better than the script of "Life and Death", but a good script may not become a blockbuster movie, not to mention that according to Duke's post-script estimates, the cost of this film is much higher than that of "Life and Death".

In the face of tens or even millions of dollars in investment, any company will be cautious.

"Nancy ......"

After thinking about it for a while, Townsend Rothman said, "I'm very optimistic about this script myself, but you know, Twentieth Century Fox has a strict project review, and I will do my best to push the script into the review stage, and you and Duke will have to wait for the final result." ”

Hearing this, Nancy leaned forward and leaned back in the chair, in fact, this was the result she wanted.

As a senior agent, of course she knows that it is not a simple matter for any film to be approved in a film company, and the larger the company, the stricter the review, and it is normal for a script written by a well-known Hollywood screenwriter to be sent to the six major or second-tier production companies, and it is normal to not get the review results for a few months.

The reason why she said so much to Tom Rothman is nothing more than to get the other party to speed up the process and enter the substantive negotiation stage.

Of course, Duke and Nancy weren't going to hang themselves from a tree at Fox.

Leaving the Fox Building, in just one week, Nancy used her own and ICM's doors to make appointments with the heads of Paramount, Touchstone, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. and other companies to meet, and sent the script into the hands of these giants, and with "Life and Death" as the base, Duke's new work will not pile up on the desk waiting for mold, even if it is not taken seriously.

Although there are many people who are interested, none of the companies give promises lightly, and no company will make a decision without risk assessment, preliminary market research and other measures, not to mention that the prevailing project review system in Hollywood does not allow it, even if the CEO makes a promise, it is not of much use.

Because of the complex composition of Hollywood companies, whether it is a big six company or a few second-tier companies, the CEO may not have to make too much effort to veto a script, but he does not have the power to decide on the project of the film alone.

The most typical is Warner Bros., they have an eight-member project review committee, and the script or project that can enter the review stage must be cross-reviewed by seven of them, and after obtaining a majority of votes, it will be reviewed by an eighth person, and if it can still be passed at this time, it will be submitted to the company's senior management, and a decision will be made after discussion.

If there is a CEO or other high-level executive, jump out of the review committee and make a decision alone, the board of directors of the group company or film company can immediately initiate the accountability system and ask him to leave.

Even if it is an independent film, if you want to set up a separate project, its cumbersome process will not be much better than that of commercial films.

Of course, this process will inevitably be greatly scaled back if there are investors willing to take the lion's share of the investment in a project that is already favored by some in the studio, such as Duke's mother, Leah Rosenberg, in "Life and Death."

Even so, Mrs. Leah first signed a $2 million guaranteed share with Lucasfilm, regardless of the success of "Life and Death", Lucasfilm will not lose money, so that "Life and Death" can be established.

People who knew about Mrs. Leah's investment, such as Anne Spielberg, laughed at her for being dizzy, but now no one says that anymore, especially when Duke hears rumors that after his mother returned to Los Angeles from New York, she met Anne Spielberg at parties several times, and the other party not only took a detour, but also left early.

Fortunately, the only people who knew about this little dispute were Duke and the three of them, and neither he nor his mother liked to talk much, otherwise Anne Spielberg would definitely lose face in the circle.

Time slowly turned to late June, "Alien 3" did not improve at the box office, only six weeks after its release, it was forced to be removed by the North American theater alliance, and finally only got more than 45 million US dollars at the North American box office, and even the production cost was not recovered, the impact of this film not only caused losses to Twentieth Century Fox, but also made them temporarily shelve another CAA packaging project "Interview with the Vampire".

"The Speed of Life and Death", which was released four weeks earlier than "Alien 3", stayed in theaters for a week more, and the film's North American box office will exceed the $130 million mark, and finally stayed at $130.02 million.

With the release of the film, under the strong request of Lucasfilm, the production, investment, distribution and other aspects of "Life and Death" are ready to carve up their own piece of cake.

According to the relevant regulations in North America, if a film is screened for a long time, after 28 days of release, the theater will pay the distributor the first share, and the subsequent share will change with the agreement and release time.

However, when the money will be paid to the producers and other investors is unknown.

Especially for those individual producers, the distributor does not call it a delay for half a year or a year, even if it is the six most reputable companies, there are endless cases of defaulting on debts and delaying payments, and there are countless cases that have reached the Delaware Commercial Court of Chancery.

In other words, never overestimate the ethics of a Hollywood company.

That's why Duke is looking for a production company or a well-known producer, just as Twentieth Century Fox would never lose tens of millions of dollars for a small dollar.