Hollywood Hunter

CAA's first packaging model was originally designed to sell TV programs in its hands.

In the 1970s, the newly established CAA was not only suppressed by the old club WMA, but also its artists were pitiful.In order to find a job for customers as soon as possible and avoid the collapse of the newly established small company, CAA President Michael Ovitz and other talents have found a new way, gathered all the suitable artists under their excellent scripts, and then sold them to major TV stations as a whole.

This kind of packaging model that broke the tradition of first selecting actors and then customizing scripts for them unexpectedly succeeded, and then gradually developed into film production.

In 1982, CAA's film packaging project "Slim Man" sold at the box office and achieved good results in the second place in the North American box office rankings (the first place was "Alien ET"), completely making the packaging mechanism the core of CAA Operating model.

As CAA develops and grows, more and more top-level celebrities are under its control, and this brokerage company is also becoming stronger and stronger in Hollywood.Not only does it demand higher and higher remuneration for its stars, but it also evades Hollywood regulations that prohibit brokerage companies from getting involved in the field of production by disguising commissions from the overall project budget, further pushing up the production costs of film and television programs.

As a result, Hollywood's major film and television production companies began to become afraid of this project operation model that continued to divide their original power and interests.

As a veteran brokerage company established nearly 100 years ago, WMA has been aware of the threat of the new operating model of CAA in previous years.However, due to the company's deep-rooted conservative faction and the lack of coordination and cooperation mechanisms among internal brokers, WMA did not follow up in time.

It was not until the death of the two core executives in the first half of the year that a large number of top stars ran away from the company's internal turmoil.

Then, Simon's "Butterfly Effect", driven by Jonathan Friedman, coincidentally became the first packaging project launched by WMA to Hollywood studios.

Although a large number of top stars have run away in recent months, in fact, the overall scale of WMA still far exceeds that of CAA.

As the fastest-growing Hollywood talent agency in recent years, CAA still has only more than 50 brokers under its banner, and the number of clients has just reached 600.In comparison, WMA, which has more than 180 agents, has more than 3,000 entertainers.

CAA's packaging mechanism has already made the studio feel threatened. If Hollywood's largest talent agency also turns to this project operation mode, it is not difficult to imagine that major film companies will become more and more passive in film and television production in the future. .

Due to concerns in this regard, although the "Butterfly Effect" has been favored by many studio seniors, but a week has passed, it should be the time for the film company to reply, but the heads of several studios have not given a clear Reply.

It was already mid-July.

Paramount’s headquarters in downtown Hollywood is on Tuesday afternoon.

Due to the success of the two films "Zhuang Zhi Ling Yun" and "Teaching Genius" launched this summer, Paramount President Sidney Ganis has also been very popular recently because the company is now completely swept away. In the past two years, Barry Diller, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Kasenberg and other executives have been running away.

Affected by the frequent departures of company executives, Paramount’s best-performing film, “The Witness,” had a box office of only $68 million, and many media were laughing at Paramount’s parent company Gulf West Chairman Martin Davis’s Duller's stupid actions, such as the high-level executives, also predicted that Paramount would collapse from now on.

Now that Paramount has recovered, the grumpy Martin Davis has stopped staring at executives like a mule in recent times, and everyone will be much better off in the future.

Warmly welcomed Jonathan Friedman who came to visit, into the office,

This is not the first film company Jonathan Friedman visited today. He just visited Warner Studios this morning.Hearing almost similar remarks by Sidney Garnes and Warner Films President Ed Molly, Jonathan Friedman has 100% judged that several major Hollywood movie companies have absolutely cascaded the "Butterfly Effect" in advance.

However, on the surface, Jonathan Friedman said quietly: "West Germany, you should see that this is a very good project, and WMA has also come up with the best main lineup we can provide."

"No, I don't think so," Sidney Garnes shook his head. "Like Brian de Palma, he has messed up two big productions with over ten million investment in a row. Paramount is very It's hard to let him direct this movie with confidence."

Jonathan Friedman retorted: "West Germany, Brian's two recent movies are indeed not good enough at the box office, but they cannot be messed up. Moreover, the responsibility for the loss of the box office of the film is not all on him. "Black Street Fortune Stars", MGM not only arranged the movie in the unpopular April period, but also gave more than 300 screens. Even so, the movie still received a box office of $8.5 million, which is enough to prove that the cloth Ryan's strength. Moreover, "Butterfly Effect" happens to be Brian's best film genre."

Sidney Ganis took a sip from the coffee cup and shrugged: "Well, even then, the WMA's $2 million director's remuneration is too high, and Paramount can only pay up to $1 million. Also, that screenwriter..."

With that said, Sidney Garnis put down the coffee cup, got up and took a document from the desk, sat back on the reception area sofa, and handed the document to Jonathan: "Simon Westero, right?" This is obviously a newcomer without any qualifications. So, we also can’t accept a quote for a script of US$200,000, which is too high, up to US$100,000, and two scripts. US$80,000 for Butterfly Effect, US$20,000 As... well, this, the option deposit for "The Grim Reaper". Oh, it took a lot of work from the screenwriter to find the script of the scriptwriter. In fact, there is a script, but the quality is too bad, completely It’s not a story. As for “The Grim Reaper”, although there is only an outline, the idea is really good. In addition, these are one-time buyout prices. Simon Westero is not a union member. Paramount does not need to follow The union’s basic agreement gave him the right to share videotapes and television broadcasts."

Jonathan Friedman silently turned over the file in his hand, but he could feel some obvious maliciousness in these conditions of Sidney Garnis.

However, when Sidney Garnes's words fell, Jonathan Friedman asked unwillingly: "So, West Germany, the actor, what do you think of Matthew?"

Sidney Ganis, with an inexplicable smile on his face, nodded with little hesitation and said, "The box office of "The Genius" is so good, we are of course willing to continue to cooperate with Matthew. $5 million Although the pay is a bit high, Matthew is worth the price."

Listening to Sidney Garnes saying this, Jonathan Freedman is finally still sure that Paramount is clearly targeting the initiator of WMA’s first packaging project, and even wants to use this small means, The whole project is disturbed.

After all, Brian de Palma and Simon Westero are both entertainers in their hands, and their combined pay is less than half that of Matthew Broderick.Paramount has paid attention to the salary of the two of them, but decisively agreed to Matthew's offer of up to 5 million US dollars, which is obviously trying to provoke internal disagreements in WMA.