Hollywood Road

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As director and screenwriter, Murphy naturally has two salaries, but the total investment of the film is 8 million US dollars, his salary cannot be too high, and in order to avoid excessive investment, Miramax will only pay his basic film salary for the time being , the director's salary is 900,000 US dollars, and the screenwriter is much lower, only 100,000 US dollars.

This is also a normal price in line with market rules. Miramax put part of Murphy's salary into the North American box office share for the sake of avoiding risks.

According to the agreement of the director's contract, if the North American box office of the film exceeds 10 million US dollars, Murphy can automatically receive a basic incentive of 100,000 US dollars, which is 1% of the North American box office.

Similar to the "Chain Saw" contract signed by James Wen and Lionsgate, this is a step-by-step reward agreement. For every $10 million increase in the film's North American box office, Murphy's dividend reward will also increase by 10%. One, that is to say, if the North American box office reaches 20 million US dollars, he can get a 2% commission as a reward.

But this agreement also has a supplementary clause, the reward will not exceed 5% of the North American box office.

In Hollywood, many Hollywood companies will use this strategy in order to avoid the risks brought about by excessive investment in the early stage and to stimulate the creative enthusiasm of the main creators.

In this way, the director and the project can be firmly tied together, and the more money the project sells, the more money it gets.

For now, this is the most common salary agreement in Hollywood.

As for his other role as a screenwriter, apart from the small dividend ratio rigidly stipulated by the screenwriters union, there is no similar agreement clause.

Looking at Hollywood as a whole, you can count on one hand the number of screenwriters who can get a production company to sign a real sharing agreement.

It’s good to say that independent small projects like this, most of Hollywood’s big production projects are the collaborative product of an entire screenwriting team, and creativity and risk are almost equal, and mainstream commercial masterpieces rarely use so-called genius ideas.

The producers on the project were brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, but it was Erica Steinberg who was in charge of the crew, who formed the film's production team.

In addition, since Miramax itself will only invest about 2 million US dollars, most of the production funds come from financing or pre-sales. The project introduced an insurance company as a guarantee for the completion of the film, which is also the money for those who are willing to pay for the film. One guarantee from the Lord.

Miramax will insure the project with an insurance company,

If the film cannot be completed on time, the insurance company will be responsible for compensation or find a new team to complete the project.

This is also the practice of Hollywood film production, and even an important part of Hollywood film financing.

Completion guarantees first appeared on Hollywood studios in the early 1950s, and are now very mature in operations around the world.

The main function is to guarantee that a film or TV production can be completed according to the predetermined time limit and budget of the script, and sent to the distributor. As a "film completion guarantee" agency, it must be very familiar with the film and television production process, and be able to ensure the quality of the script and fundraising. , the ability and quality of the main creative personnel of the film, the control ability of the producer, and the distribution revenue after the completion of the film, etc., conduct a comprehensive evaluation of each link, monitor the film production process, and timely supervise and control the financial situation.

On the shooting site of many Hollywood movies, people who are not on the production team can often be seen, holding various budget sheets, schedule sheets and production lists, communicating with the on-site producer for a while, and communicating with the art director for a while, not to say that this can be saved. , that is to say, we need to speed up the progress today.

Don't be surprised, these are the workers sent by the completion guarantee company to monitor the film's budget and schedule.

Similarly, as an insurance company, it will also send several representatives to the crew, which will limit the director Murphy to a certain extent, but this is not for a certain director, but Hollywood's mature system, even Steven Spielberg Directors at the level of Greg and James Cameron also work under this system.

Completion guarantee does not guarantee the profitability of a film. Its biggest role is to guarantee that a film can be completed within the budget.

Also, investments from financial institutions and private equity were cumbersome to deal with, but those were Miramax jobs and Murphy didn't need to be involved.

He just needs to be responsible to the crew.

As Murphy signed the director agreement, caa also settled the contracts of other people with Miramax. As Murphy's team, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill and Carey Mu Reagan will play an important role in it. Robert Downey Jr. has some troubles. First, his salary is relatively high, and second, Harvey Weinstein has doubts about his drug addiction.

However, after Robert Downey Jr. switched to CAA, after the coordination of Murphy and Bill Rossis, Harvey Weinstein finally nodded.

Corresponding to this is an extremely strict contract for Robert Downey Jr. Before the film is completed, Robert Downey Jr. can only get one-fifth of the salary, and he will get it after the film is completed One-fifth, and the final three-fifths will be paid after the film is released from North America.

There is also a memorandum clause in the contract, if Robert Downey Jr. breaks a drug scandal during this period, it will be deemed to automatically give up the remaining remuneration.

Despite Murphy's own observations, Robert Downey Jr. seems to have really kicked his addiction, but such a restrictive contract would be good for the project as a whole.

As for the behind-the-scenes staff, they were basically those who had worked with Murphy.

Assistant Director and Casting Director are Paul Wilson, Director of Photography Philip Lascher, Art Director Helena Espora, Gaffer David Robbie, Makeup Artist Jack Watson...

These people all signed contracts with the crew.

However, the prop master is no longer Baker Kleibert, and the other party is not a client of CAA. Bill Rosses re-recommended a middle-aged man named Jedi Hutson for Murphy. Kleibert, the ability and qualifications are even better.

The editor is no longer Jody Griffith. Although Murphy will participate in the post-production and editing, he has no final editing rights. The editor will come from Miramax.

In fact, the directors who have the final editing rights in Hollywood can be counted with one slap.

Not to mention him now, even today's directors at the level of Ridley Scott, David Fincher, and Quentin Tarantino also don't have the final editing rights.

With the operation of CAA, the whole process seems to be quite smooth, but there are always some unexpected difficulties.

In an office at Miramax in Burbank, Murphy, Bill Rossis, and Harvey Weinstein all frowned slightly. They are the three most important people in charge of this project, and they are actually in charge of various productions of the crew. Erica Steinberg, who works on the film, just had bad news from the San Fernando Valley.

"Eight hundred thousand dollars!"

This number seriously exceeded Murphy's expectations, "Are they crazy? How much does she get paid for a movie?"

"Remember, Jenna Jameson just changed her agency," Bill Rossis looked even worse, "William Morris signed a brokerage contract with her, ready to push her to the top of the industry position."

Harvey Weinstein gently tapped the armrest of the chair with his fingers, without saying a word.

Murphy nodded. From the news from Erica Steinberg, it is actually not difficult to analyze that someone analyzed the real purpose of inviting her to play for Jenna Jameson.

Neither Murphy, CAA, nor Miramax intended to bring Jenna Jameson into Hollywood, they just wanted to use her identity and popularity to create topics.

Perhaps Jenna Jameson still had fantasies before, but once she was reminded of her position and real value, she would naturally open her mouth and ask for a very high salary.

This was something Murphy hadn't thought of before. In his prediction, an invitation would be sent out, and those actresses in the San Fernando Valley would definitely post it eagerly. This is exactly how things started to develop, only when they After discovering your own value, you will not be foolishly used.

Just like Jenna Jameson, her new agent offered a salary of one million dollars, and after some back and forth, she stopped talking about $800,000.

In the words of the agent, if they cooperate, it will be beneficial to both parties. If they do not cooperate, Jenna Jameson will not lose. It is impossible for her to enter Hollywood and change her current identity.

Negotiations have stalled.

"Murphy, what do you think?"

While Harvey Weinstein is the real decision-maker, he's a veteran who pays attention to the way he works, "about the heroine."

In many cases, the idea is always good, but there are deviations in the realization. This matter has deviated from Murphy's expected track. He did not hesitate, "Since the other party is not resigned in terms of salary, let's replace it."

The remuneration for the other party's death was twice what he expected, even if it was cut down, it would exceed the budget, which would inevitably reduce other expenses.

Bill Rosses nodded too, and he didn't want to run a project of his own, using a client from William Morris as the heroine.

Harvey Weinstein seemed very generous, "Murphy, you are the director, and the heroine is still based on your opinion."

Nothing will always be smooth sailing. Murphy knew the simplest answer, and immediately gave up the previous plan in his heart. After thinking for a while, he said, "Let's hold an audition. It shouldn't be difficult to find a suitable actress."

"I think so," Bill Rossis echoed.

Harvey Weinstein also nodded, "Then hold an audition. Murphy, you are in charge."

"No problem." Murphy knew that his director's opinion would affect the final candidate, but it was Miramax who was the producer who made the final decision. (To be continued.)