Twentieth Century Fox executives were obviously not satisfied with the negotiations, and the new CEO, Tom Rothman, glanced at everyone and spoke slowly.

"With a budget of 35 million US dollars, half of the investment ratio, and relatively equal returns, plus the actor's final decision and the film's final editing right, such conditions can only be opened by that woman. ”

"What do you think about this?"

"Cooperation, or refusal?"

In fact, he himself is very optimistic about the script "Truman's World" written by Ryan, and the reason why he did not hide it is that in addition to the harsh conditions proposed by Helen, the investment of up to $35 million in the film is the key to it.

No matter what Ryan achieves, it can't change the fact that he is just a rookie director or a horror director, and he has made two films, one of which is operated by propaganda, and the other is a horror film.

Far from being qualified to lead a film with a budget of up to $35 million.

Of course, if the budget can be compressed to less than $10 million, he can take this risk and agree, but the investment of up to $35 million is too much.

He prefers Ryan's next work to be a low-budget horror film rather than a creative feature film with a budget of up to $35 million.

Such a script is by no means something that a rookie director can shoot, and if one is not done well, it will be made into a useless literary film.

That's right, in Tom Rothman's eyes, literary films are almost useless.

Camelot Singer hesitated for a moment and said: "This script is completely different from Ryan's previous script style, full of creative, humanistic, social life and other portrayals, in a sense, it is a very good script." ”

"But with his age and experience, if he wants to make such a film, I doubt that he has the ability. ”

"The most important point......" he said with a hint of firmness in his eyes, "The conditions put forward by his agent are too harsh, and if they are all agreed, then it will threaten the permission of the producer." ”

If the director is the soul of a film, then the producer is the investor and the representative of the crew.

"Of course, if the conditions can be relaxed a little bit, and the budget is controlled within 10 million US dollars, you can still consider it. ”

"However, my opinion is that it is better to buy the script, even if it is for a reasonable price. ”

His meaning is very clear, he wants to bypass Ryan and buy the script directly.

"Okay, do as you say, and if he still doesn't agree, then refuse this cooperation. ”

"Camelot, remember not to make any small moves, after all, the next "Chainsaw" still needs to continue to cooperate. Tom Rothman's tone was a little stern.

For the estimation of "Saw 2", professionals in Twentieth Century Fox gave the commercial value of A+.

The North American box office may surpass the first installment, surpassing $60 million, while the film has only $4 million invested.

As you can imagine, the "Saw Horror" series is a big treasure, and Tom Rothman, as the CEO of Twentieth Century Fox, not only wants to continue to cooperate with this series, but even wants to occupy a larger proportion of investment.

So he didn't want to have a conflict with Ryan because of a cooperation.

At present, Twentieth Century Fox has only signed a "Chainsaw" cooperation with the other party, and whether they can continue to cooperate in the future depends on Ryan's intentions.

At the same time, Ryan left Monica Bellucci's apartment and came to Star Brokerage, and just after meeting Helen, he couldn't help but ask, "How did it turn out!"

Without waiting for Helen to reply, he continued: "Let me guess that Twentieth Century Fox would not have agreed to such harsh conditions. ”

It's a very obvious thing, Twentieth Century Fox can easily agree to it, that's hell.

"Congratulations, you guessed it right. ”

"There are no rewards, though. ”

Helen glanced at Ryan a little helplessly, and then said very seriously: "The investment of up to 35 million US dollars, and half of the income of the film, plus a few conditions you put forward, Twentieth Century Fox obviously will not agree." ”

"We're going to have a negotiation that could break down. ”

Ryan didn't worry too much, and said: "Don't stop negotiating with Twentieth Century Fox, and at the same time contact with other film companies, you can always find a suitable investor." ”

"I really can't, I can continue to invest in myself. ”

The investment of up to $35 million may be scary, but as long as the second "Chainsaw" is successful, he may not be able to come up with $35 million.

However, in this case, there will be another problem, that is, choosing a publishing company.

It doesn't take to think that Twentieth Century Fox will inevitably set a harsh distribution condition, and even the newly established Fox Searchlight Pictures will be influenced by Twentieth Century Fox.

"As a word of caution, it's best not to invest on your own. ”

Sofia Coppola looked at Ryan and said in a reminding tone: "Someone must not forget that there is also a special effects studio that has just been bought, and it needs at least about $30 million in follow-up funds by the end of next year, not counting the studio's daily operating expenses." ”

"By the way, it seems that someone's expenses have risen sharply recently, and he often goes in and out of various luxury stores, and the specific bills, I don't need to tell me!"

Ryan rolled his eyes when he listened, someone was naturally talking about him, as for the luxury stores, almost all of them were he went with Monica Bellucci and bought some expensive gifts.

For the partner around him, even if it is just a transaction, Ryan will be very generous and not stingy with money at all.

"I need to remind you too. ”

Helen interjected from the side and said, "Once the cooperation with Twentieth Century Fox is broken, then you must prepare in advance, even for the worst. ”

"Even if "Saw 2" is a box office hit, as the film's distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, there are still many ways to pay off. ”

"It takes a year or two to delay a very common thing for the publishing company. ”

"So like Sophia said, you'd better not have the intention of continuing to invest on your own. ”

Ryan suddenly turned into a bitter melon face, and they were right, once the cooperation broke down, Twentieth Century Fox was likely to pay the bill.

Of course, this is only a possibility, after all, twentieth century Fox is generally not the case for insiders and people with good interests.

But as Helen said, you have to prepare early.

This is not what worries him the most, the funds can continue to find the bank to solve, as long as "Saw 2" is a box office hit, the bank will rush to the door.

On the contrary, what worries him the most is that Blue Sky Studio has changed due to lack of funds.

"Well, I'll pay attention. ”

Ryan could only prepare for the worst, saying, "It's really not good, there are other studios, such as Touchstone." ”

Speaking of this, he changed his voice and said: "While discussing the investment in "Truman's World", you can test whether Twentieth Century Fox is willing to sell the X-Men copyright by the way. ”

"It's better to buy the X-Men rights. ”

The words are full of plans for the exchange of interests.

Marvel Comics has long been selling the rights to various superhero characters, including the perpetual rights to the X-Men that Twentieth Century Fox just bought, and can expand any X-Men comic book character, as well as the rights to all the characters in the Daredevil universe.

This isn't the first superhero character rights sold by Marvel Comics, and it's not the last.

Back in 1985, the Spider-Man rights were sold to Cannon Pictures.

arrived, in 1989, Cannon Pictures was not doing well and was acquired by the French company EMI Pictures, and Menahem Golan, the chairman of Cannon Pictures, went to Twentieth Century Fox with the rights to Spider-Man.

At Twentieth Century Fox, Golan sold the script adaptation of Spider-Man to Columbia Pictures, preparing for James Cameron to shoot it, and Arnold Schwarzenegger will play Doctor Octopus.

It can be said that the copyright of Spider-Man is a mess now.

In 1990, Universal Pictures bought the rights to the superhero characters of Iron Man, Hulk and Namor.

In 1986, Constantine Pictures bought the rights to the Fantastic Four superhero characters.

In addition to this, there are also some scattered superhero character copyrights that have been sold by Marvel Comics.

During this period of time, Helen has been sorting out the whereabouts of these copyrights, and it is definitely not an easy task to buy the copyrights of most of the superhero characters in Marvel Comics if she wants to run from house to house.

"You can try. Helen paused and said, "I still hope you'll think about it, is it worth it?"

"X-Men rights may have value as an investment, but Twentieth Century Fox may not agree to sell them, and even if they do, they will put forward very harsh conditions!"

"At the same time, I would like to remind you again that most of the superhero character copyrights left by Marvel Comics are second- or third-tier superhero characters, and there is almost no value at all. ”

As a Hollywood veteran, Helen naturally understands the essence of the copyright of Marvel Comics, but the copyright of these most well-known superhero characters has long been sold, so she said these words.

"As long as Marvel Comics agrees to sell, even if it is a second- or third-tier superhero character copyright, I have to buy it, preferably a perpetual copyright, and I don't want trouble in the future. Ryan would rather be the boss of the wrongs and buy the rights to these superhero characters.

It's a big deal, as a long-term investment plan, anyway, within six or seven years, you can't start Marvel Dafa at all.

"If you wish, I'll try to get in touch with Marvel Comics and the companies that own the rights to superhero characters. Since Ryan insisted, Helen could only agree.

At least buying the rights to these amazing comic superheroes is better than investing in a special effects studio.