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Carrying her briefcase, Nancy stepped out of the elevator, turned into the hallway, and came to Duke's door, where she gently pressed the doorbell.

The door opened, revealing the face of a blonde, and Nancy frowned, "Why you?" ”

"Hello, Nancy."

After saying hello to the agent, Naomi quickly moved out of the way of the door and let Nancy in, "You're here for Duke, right?" He's on the phone in the study, and I'm going to call him. ”

Looking at the back of the hurried away, the unhappiness on Nancy's face flashed, walked to the sofa and sat down, skillfully took a silver kettle, and poured herself a glass of water.

Hanging up Zack Schneider's phone, Duke walked into the living room, waved to Nancy casually, and placed the cordless phone on the base.

"So early?" He said to the female agent.

"There are important things."

Nancy didn't care about Duke, but looked at Naomi Watts who came out from behind, Naomi was not stupid, grabbed the bag hanging on the hanger, and said to Duke, "I have something to do, go first." ”

"Goodbye."

Since Nancy came to the door directly, there must be something important, and Duke didn't keep her and sent her out of the house.

"You're together?"

As soon as the door was closed, Duke heard a very happy voice from the female agent, "Duke, the last thing the agent likes to see is that his clients are together!" ”

"Things are not what you think."

Sitting on the couch across from Nancy, Duke made a gesture you understand, "It's just a game of play, don't worry." ”

Seeing that Duke didn't seem to be joking, Nancy nodded slightly, opened the briefcase, and said, "There's bad news, I contacted Twentieth Century Fox again yesterday, and they didn't mean to back down. ”

"There's good news." She handed over an invitation, "This morning, Warner Bros. officially sent a letter to open negotiations with us on 'Death Island'. ”

"Warner Bros?"

Even if he is as calm as Duke, when he hears the news, his spirits are lifted, and he finally ...... There is another film company that is paying attention.

"And I have the exact news." Nancy seemed very interested, "Warner's investment in "Batman Returns" needs time to be recouped, and it has invested heavily in projects such as "The Outlaw", which will be released next year or even the year after, and the current budget in hand is a little tight......"

"So there's a chance they'll accept my investment?" Duke immediately understood what Nancy meant.

"It's possible ......"

Without waiting for Duke to be happy, Nancy continued, "Even so, you can only get short-term benefits, and with your current capital, you don't have the strength to share the long-term benefits of the film." ”

"Box office, videotape and TV rights transfer split is sufficient." Duke didn't think about getting a long-term meal ticket either.

The two then discussed some things to look out for when approaching Warner, and Nancy Josephson was most enthusiastic about facilitating Duke's investment, for the simple reason that if it was successful, she would receive 5 percent of Duke's investment income in addition to Duke's 10 percent of his salary.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

The film industry itself is like gambling, there is only the greatest chance of success, there is no inevitable success, Duke must be betting that he can succeed, Nancy is also betting that he can succeed, although there is a risk, she may be busy and find that Duke has lost money on his investment, and she will not get anything, but what if the film can be as successful as "The Speed of Life and Death"? She'll get a good commission!

The next day, the trio of Duke, Nancy, and Sophia, as agreed by both parties, walked into the Burbank Warner Brothers building.

They were received by Warner Bros. Jeff Robinoff, who was in charge of the film production business.

"Duke, we're meeting again."

Sitting on either side of the long conference table, the balding Jewish said directly, "Recently, I've been wondering if "Life and Death" would belong to Warner if I had given you ten more minutes. ”

With a polite smile, Duke didn't say anything, because the answer was obvious, even if he gave two more hours at that time, the other party would not be impressed by his kind of newcomer.

The two sides quickly cut to the theme, this is the most common commercial film cooperation in Hollywood, the relationship is all false, Warner Bros. wants to cooperate with Duke because he can see the profit prospect from "Death Island", and Duke can sit here instead of hiding behind the scenes because Warner intends to accept investment.

It's like the collaboration between Life and Death and Twentieth Century Fox, where everyone takes what they need, and then on the basis of consensus, they minimize or set aside their differences.

This is only the first negotiation, it is still too early to reach an agreement, the negotiations are about to end, and when asked by Jeff Robinoff, Duke also truthfully answered the special requirements he needs once the film is established.

"There's a lot of servicemen, combat and military equipment involved in the film, and I need a professional military adviser, preferably with the support of the Pentagon."

"For the soundtrack, it would be better to have Hans Zimmer; Assistant directors, cinematographers, editors, and production managers, please give preference to the candidates I recommend; I hope my opinion will be the main one in the post-editing. ”

With an investment of this magnitude, Duke knew that he would not be able to get the final editing rights now, and he could only list such a one.

None of these parties will agree immediately, and they need to fight for them one by one in a tug-of-war negotiation.

Subsequently, Duke and his party left Warner, and the rest of the negotiations were handed over to his agent Nancy, a time-consuming and laborious process that is difficult to say whether it will work out in the end, so he did not give up the opportunity to continue to engage with other companies.

The negotiation must be negotiated one by one, from the amount of their respective contributions, the distribution of revenues, to the composition of the crew, Duke's rights and obligations, etc., and written into the final contract.

"Looks like I don't need to look for a new job."

After leaving the Warner Building and getting into Duke's Bentley, Sophia said to the driver's seat while wearing a seat belt, "Don't forget, now an assistant and assistant director, and in the future an assistant director and producer, you promised me, Duke." ”

The reason why she returned to Los Angeles from Europe was not to be someone else's assistant, but for her own film dream.

Duke also knew this, and after starting the car, he said, "We are all novices, we can explore together, grow together, and we can fight together for the ideas in our hearts." ”

"Our film concepts seem to be a bit different, right?" Sophia tilted her head to look at him, "I'm crazy about ruining a city...... No, it's crazy to ruin miè all over the world in the movie without interest. ”

This difference in philosophy cannot be bridged, Duke shrugged his shoulders and simply changed the subject, "Did you give the script to Nikolai?" Did he say anything? ”

"He took it." Sophia understood that Duke was talking about her cousin Cage, "It kind of funny." ”

"Just a little interesting?" Duke turned his head to look at her.

"It's not the type Nikolai likes." Sophia said of course, "He likes some more alternative roles, and he is not interested in action movies." ”

"In today's Hollywood, if you want to become a real superstar, you have to enter the mainstream film industry." Duke spun the wheel and the car turned on the road to West Hollywood, "Look at Depp, who has played so many well-received roles, but has always been in a position that is not up to par, even Keanu Reeves today." ”

"These words ......," said Sophia, "if you have the chance, you should say them to Nikolai yourself." ”

The actor is not in a hurry now, after all, the negotiations with Warner have not yet come to fruition.

Then, Duke began to wait patiently again, while continuing to refine the preparations he had been making, and together with Sophia, he hid in the Duke's studio in North Hollywood, drawing storyboard artwork and developing basic scripts; Talk to cinematographer John Schwartzman about how to capture shots that excite the audience; Discuss with Zack Schneider about the color of the picture when making zuò in the future.

Cinema is by no means a one-man masterpiece, and any successful director is surrounded by a team of outstanding abilities, and no director will be an exception.

Assembling a team with similar ideas and a relatively tacit understanding is something every director will do on the road to success, and Duke is no exception, in addition to these people, he also took the time to meet with Robin Grande and editor Mike Dawson a few times, who have no work for the time being, and are also very interested in working together again.

This is Hollywood, there is not much information to keep secret, Duke's contact with Warner Bros. was soon learned by Twentieth Century Fox, according to the grapevine that Duke got, they were extremely dissatisfied with this, and completely shelved the cooperation with Duke, but Duke did not initialize any agreement with them, and the money exchange had long been settled, and Fox could not get his sore foot for a while.

It's a normal business partnership with Twentieth Century Fox, it's also a normal business partnership with Warner Bros., and at least on the surface, no one else can say anything.

But Duke understands that the top brass of Twentieth Century Fox must be unhappy, and he may not jump out and bite him at any time, and he will never overestimate the moral standard of capital.

If the new film project goes well, Twentieth Century Fox will probably just sit on the sidelines because of Warner Bros., and if they get into trouble, they will definitely jump out and fall into the hole.

Duke will not be afraid, nor will he run away, any super director will not have a smooth road to success, Hollywood is a vanity fair that fights for money, power, fame and talent, not a pure world of goodness in vain.

Just halfway through August, after more than ten days of tug-of-war negotiations, Duke's side finally reached a consensus with Warner Bros. Pictures, and then initialed a cooperation agreement. (My novel "Made in Hollywood" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 100% lucky draw gift for everyone!) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner to "add friends", search for the official account "qdread" and follow, hurry up! )