Hollywood Hunter

Jonathan Friedman watched Matthew Broderick go away impolitely, frowning slightly, motioning Simon into his office and asking, "Simon, do you know Matthew?"

Simon did not conceal, and briefly explained a few things about the airship bar last time.

"Oh, this is a trivial matter," Jonathan smiled casually, and sat down behind his desk, saying: "Take the time to make an appointment with Matthew, have a meal together, and shake hands. It's okay between you young people, shouldn't There is no unsolvable contradiction."

Simon nodded, and he didn't take the last thing too seriously.Feeling that Jonathan was obviously distracted when he spoke today, and his expression looked tired, he asked, "Joe, haven't you taken a break recently?"

"Nothing, just a little busy these days."

Listening to the concerned tone of the young man opposite, Jonathan hesitating through several documents on the desktop hesitated, and suddenly he didn't want to take out the draft contract.

So hesitant, Jonathan handed a blue folder to Simon after all, and made up his mind to compensate the boy as much as possible, and said gently: "Simon, the script matter has come to an end. However, the studio side I checked your information in advance at WGA, and I know you are a newcomer, so the asking price is not too high. Moreover, they want another script from you. I also saw the outline of the story at Paramount yesterday. It’s wonderful. . In this way, you first look at the contract."

Simon felt that Jonathan's words had obvious reservations, and he probably foreseen something, but he still opened the contract in his hand and read it carefully.

Looking at Simon who read the contract carefully, Jonathan actually wanted to hide.

He knew that Simon was definitely not the kind of rookie who would cheer if he could sell the script in his hand.So I really don't want to face the boy's reaction after reading the contract.

God seemed to hear Jonathan's heart, the office door was suddenly knocked on, and Owen Wright probed in, saying: "Mr. Friedman, Mr. Broca came."

The assistant's voice had just dropped, and Norman Broca, who was standing outside the door, just glanced at Simon and beckoned to Jonathan: "Joe, will you come out? I have something to talk to you."

Although he didn't want to have any exchanges with Norman Broca at all these days, Jonathan was even more embarrassed to face Simon at this time.If you stood up casually and introduced to the opposite Simon who also stood up with herself: "Simon, this is our WMA president, Mr. Norman Broca. Please continue to look at the contract, I will talk to Norman a few words. come back."

Simon looked forward to the old man who didn't mean to come in. He was wearing a black suit, gray hair, a little short, and a standard Jewish big nose.

Nodding to the other party, Simon waited for Jonathan to leave the office before sitting down again, focusing on the contract in front of him again.

Then, as the reading deepened, Simon's brows grew tighter.

To be fair, Simon didn't care much about the basic $100,000 manuscript payment involved in this contract.

As a newcomer, such an offer is actually very good.

100,000 US dollars, probably enough to complete "Rola Run".

However, this is a complete buyout contract.

80,000 US dollars to buy out the entire copyright of "Butterfly Effect", and 20,000 US dollars as a deposit to buy "The Death Is Coming" for the first three years.Moreover, as long as Fox intends to vote for "The Grim Reaper" in the next three years, and renegotiate the price, it will still be a full copyright buyout contract.

Probably turned over the contract in his hand, Simon even did not believe, how could Jonathan give himself such a harsh agreement.

In Hollywood, screenwriting is also a very unstable profession.Even WGA’s union members are basically unemployed for most of the year,

Therefore, in order to win more rights and interests, Hollywood screenwriters are also the group with the most frequent strikes in the industry.

After decades of confrontation with the studio, the screenwriter union gradually reached a "Basic Agreement" with the Hollywood Producers Union to protect Hollywood film and television screenwriters' basic treatment, minimum wage, medical insurance, and pension plans. And other rights.

For film writers, the most important clauses involved in the "Basic Agreement" are not the minimum script remuneration specified in them, but a share agreement that can bring long-term income to screenwriters.

According to the latest version of the "Basic Agreement" signed by the writers' union and the producers' union in 1985, in addition to the two minimum basic manuscripts stipulated according to the cost of film production, film writers can also follow the video and TV broadcasting rights of the film. Get a corresponding share of income.

Among them, the share of video tapes is 0.3% of sales revenue within 1 million boxes, and 0.36% of sales revenue after 1 million boxes.

In addition, the revenue distribution of TV broadcasting rights is divided into different proportions according to different platform types such as public TV networks, basic cable stations, pay cable stations, pay-per-view on demand stations and even overseas TV stations. Overall, the agreement income brought to the screenwriter is not at all Subdivide the videotape.

Since the 1980s, with the outbreak of the videotape market and the continuous development of television networks, the income of Hollywood movies in these two areas has continued to increase, and has now reached the level of one-third of the revenue of the cinema.

Therefore, for a movie with a global box office of only $30 million, its video tape revenue may reach this number.

According to the average selling price of home video tapes of about US$30, the sales revenue of US$30 million is exactly equivalent to the sales of 1 million video cassettes.According to this figure, the screenwriter can get a share of about 90,000 US dollars from the sales revenue of these 1 million video cassettes.

Subsequent revenue sharing of TV broadcasting rights will basically be equivalent to the video sales share.

The total of the two items is almost $200,000.

This is far higher than the average transaction price of Hollywood scripts in the 1980s, and it is usually several times that the screenwriter and the film company have reached a basic manuscript payment.

Moreover, the sales share of these two aspects is still a long-term continuous income, which means that even if the film writer can not find a job at all in the next few years, the sales share obtained every once in a while can also guarantee his life.

Simon has full confidence in the "Butterfly Effect" and "The Grim Reaper" which was picked up by the studio in advance.

According to the usual consumption habits of mass movie fans, as a very classic horror movie, these two films will likely perform better in the video tape market in the future than the theater stage, and the sales will even exceed 1 million boxes.

Therefore, if a share agreement can be obtained and the TV broadcasting rights income of the same size will be counted, Simon will definitely receive hundreds of thousands of dollars of follow-up income from these two scripts in the future, which is far from the basic 80,000 dollars at this time. Manuscripts are comparable.

Simon is not a WGA member, this is not wrong.

In fact, Simon has no plan to join WGA next, so he cannot enjoy the protection of WGA's perfect "Basic Agreement".

However, in Hollywood, where the film industry system is already quite complete, the screenwriter's split clause is actually already an industry practice.

As long as the screenwriter can find a reliable agent, or even if he knows a little, the partner is a regular Hollywood film company.So, both parties can basically sign the terms of the sharing agreement.

But now, a vice-president of Hollywood's largest talent agency, has only'fought' for himself to get a buyout agreement that completely treats him as a fool.

At a certain moment, Simon really had the urge to jump up and throw the contract in his hand on the agent's face.

However, thinking of some details in Jonathan's expression, Simon calmed down and looked at the office door, waiting patiently for the agent to return.

At the same time, Norman Broca’s office, since yesterday afternoon, has been at ease until now Jonathan Friedman hears the request of his head boss, can no longer help raising his voice, waving his arms and saying: "Don't like it? Just because he didn't like it, he will kick Simon out? This is unreasonable. Norman, do you know how embarrassing I was when I just handed the contract to the child? I am a WMA vice president, I gave my client a stupid agreement that even a third-rate agency broker wouldn’t necessarily be able to come up with. Now, you still let me tell him that he was kicked out and will never have this movie again. No matter what, you let me say how to export?"

Norman Broca looked at Jonathan, who was about to lose his normal posture. He concealed the disdain in his heart, and his tone became harsher, saying: "Joe, you know, you are now the vice president of WMA. As the management, you It must be considered for the benefit of the entire company. What’s more, it’s just a little kid who doesn’t understand anything. If you can’t handle this kind of thing, where can you afford your current position?”

It must be considered for your benefit!

This thought flashed through Jonathan's mind. Hearing the threat of his position in Norman Broca's words, the tone was slightly calmer, but he still argued: "Simon is already reading the contract. "Butterfly Effect" The total remuneration for the original manuscript was only US$80,000, the initial manuscript remuneration of US$50,000, the revision fee required by the studio of US$20,000, and the follow-up retouching fee of US$10,000. These terms are all clear. Even if he agrees to withdraw , How is this money calculated? Do I just go back and tell him that there is only $50,000 left?"

"Of course, there is only 50,000 US dollars left. How many people can earn 50,000 US dollars at the age of 18 in the entire Federation, and what is he not satisfied with."

When Norman Broca saw Jonathan's attitude softened, he strengthened.

Before introducing the script to the studio last week, Norman Broca originally hoped to revise the script to increase the number of plays of Matthew Broderick, but was rejected by Jonathan because the script was perfect enough.

Now, taking advantage of Matthew’s dislike of Simon’s opportunity to kick the opponent out of the game, he just happened to let his cronies writers do it.