Hollywood Road

Leaving the Death Star Building where CAA is located, Murphy went to the California Medical School in the afternoon. After a brief inquiry, he went to the ward area on the third floor to find his friend. He just had an operation three days ago, and he really woke up yesterday. Come here, the visiting time given by the doctor is extremely limited.

As soon as he entered the ward, Murphy saw a tall woman with blond curly hair and a female director with long dark brown hair in the living room of the suite.

The former was of Germanic descent, the latter of distinct Italian descent.

Although they have not dealt with each other directly, Murphy still knows them. Uma Thurman is Germanic and Sofia Coppola, the daughter of Francis Coppola, is Italian.

"Hello, Miss Thurman. Hello, Miss Coppola."

Murphy greeted them politely. Since he was not familiar with them, he didn't say much. He just walked into the ward under their leadership.

"Is this the ex-girlfriend and the current girlfriend?"

Entering the ward and seeing the famous ruffian lying on the bed, Murphy couldn't help thinking of this.

"Hi, Murphy."

The patient on the hospital bed saw him coming in, and raised his hand to beckon him. Murphy walked to the side, pulled a chair, and sat down to look at this strange-looking ruffian director.

"What happened?" Murphy frowned, and asked Quentin Tarantino, who was hanging from a broken leg, "Why did you get hurt so badly?"

The person lying on the hospital bed is the famous Quentin Tarantino.

Although Murphy is no longer working with the Weinstein brothers, he has always been in touch with Quentin, because they have a lot of common views on film language, and their relationship is quite good.

"Don't mention it..." Quentin Tarantino shook his head, "This time I played it off, I almost lost my life."

He briefly talked about it, and Murphy figured it out. Under the introduction of Harrison Ford, this guy joined a flying club and successfully obtained a pilot's license. This time, it happened when he took off in a small plane. In an accident, the plane skidded off the runway, resulting in a comminuted fracture of his right thigh.

"It's unlucky." The guy lay down and cursed several words starting with "F". "The famous Quentin, his leg was broken by a small plane, he will be ridiculed."

Murphy comforted, "It will be fine soon."

"It will take a year!" Quentin Tarantino raised a finger. "It will take at least a year for me to return to normal. If I want to work, it will take even more time."

No one wants this kind of accident to happen to him, but if it happens, he can only recuperate quietly.

Hearing that it took such a long time to recover from the injury, Murphy didn't know how to comfort Quentin Tarantino. After all, he was not the kind of person who would comfort others.

Of course, the ruffian Quentin doesn't need other people's sympathy and comfort.

"I can't afford to take such a long time." Quentin Tarantino looked at Murphy thoughtfully, "I signed film contracts with Weinstein Pictures and 20th Century Fox. To be unlucky..."

Murphy smiled. Given the relationship between Quentin Tarantino and the Weinstein brothers, it would be an exaggeration to say that the bad luck was too much, and at best it was just troublesome.

Quentin Tarantino specifically mentioned this matter in front of himself, and Murphy guessed that Quentin wanted to borrow the good relationship between him and Twentieth Century Fox to eliminate the pressure from Twentieth Century Fox as much as possible.

This ruffian director is in such a miserable situation now, Murphy doesn't mind helping him.

But what Murphy didn't expect was that Quentin Tarantino was talking about something else entirely.

"I heard that you have no work plan recently and are taking a break?"

Seeing Murphy nod, Quentin Tarantino said, "The project I signed with Weinstein Films and Twentieth Century Fox has completed the script outline..."

"Stop, Quentin!" Murphy understood what he meant, raised his hand to interrupt him,

Asked, "You don't want me to fulfill this director contract for you, do you?"

"It's not a substitute!" Quentin Tarantino emphasized, "I recommended you to be the director of this project. All the income related to the director will belong to you. Apart from the script, this project has nothing to do with me."

Murphy frowned slightly, and asked suspiciously, "What kind of director contract did you sign?"

"I asked for the highest investment I have ever made in film." Quentin Tarantino was also a little helpless, "Correspondingly, there are many restrictions on me in the contract. In the contract signed with Twentieth Century Fox, if If I can't finish the project on time, I'm afraid I will pay a large liquidated damages."

Murphy nodded slightly.

After all, Hollywood is still a business circle. The more you ask, the more you need to pay, which can make Quentin Tarantino feel a headache. Presumably the liquidated damages will not be a small amount.

"Twentieth Century Fox wanted me to persuade Robert Rodriguez to take on the project."

After a pause, after Sofia Coppola brought water, Quentin drank it, and said, "But Robert is preparing for "Machete Killing", and the schedule and time are not suitable. I saw you just now, and I think you are The most suitable candidate to take over."

Although the relationship between the two is good, it is impossible for Murphy to agree immediately.

Quentin Tarantino continued, "Based on your relationship with 20th Century Fox, they probably won't have any objections. Our two styles are relatively similar. I can rest assured that I will hand over the project to you."

"Hey..." Murphy made a joke on purpose, "What you said seems to be confessing your last words."

The guy on the hospital bed didn't smile, but said seriously, "If you don't help me, I really have to confess my last words."

It's rare to see the ruffian Quentin so serious, Murphy thought for a while and said, "You must let me know what kind of project this is?"

"A story about World War II and Hitler." Quentin Tarantino said quickly when he saw that Murphy's attitude was loose. I honor this contract."

WWII and Hitler? Murphy looked at Quentin, still thinking about it.

Quentin Tarantino managed to catch a suitable candidate, and he would not let it go easily, "If you don't help me, I can only tell you my last words."

"Let me think about it."

This kind of thing involves all aspects, and of course Murphy can't just agree here.

But Quentin Tarantino did not give up, and then asked his agent to find Murphy and Bill Rossis, and sent a script outline with a frame.

The main line of the story is not much different from what Murphy remembers, but it only has a few hundred words. If it wants to become a qualified script, it needs to continue to be compiled.

After thinking about it for a few days, Murphy agreed, and Bill Rossis, along with Quentin Tarantino's agent, started negotiations with 20th Century Fox and Weinstein Films. Murphy has worked with him before, and he has enough confidence in him. Coupled with the relationship between Murphy and Quentin and the two companies, the three parties successfully reached an agreement.

In this project, Quentin Tarantino will not participate in other aspects of the production except for the screenwriting and providing the outline of the story. Murphy will be solely responsible for the project. Sith continues negotiations with both companies.

However, there was a problem with the financing of the project, and it was not this project that caused the problem in the industry. Hollywood seemed to have suddenly encountered a crisis.

Murphy also knew something about this crisis.

For more than a month, Hollywood has experienced frequent turmoil. On the one hand, the economic crisis has emerged and has affected the film and television industry. As a traditional force, major film studios continue to shrink their front lines.

On the other hand, a series of incidents have also occurred in the field of investment and financing of film production. Behind these seemingly isolated cases are the emergence and accumulation of new capital and forces in the industry, as well as the evolution of the Hollywood industrial structure.

Although the continuous growth of the box office in recent years has stabilized the position of the film industry to a large extent, on the other hand, the traditional business structure and business model of the film and television industry are gradually being broken. DVD has been regarded as a sunset industry, and even the introduction of Blu-ray products failed to restore the decline of the audio-visual industry.

In addition, the impact of new media has made existing businesses such as TV broadcasting also face transformation.

The old order and pattern are gradually changing.

First of all, the major film studios at the top of the food chain have chosen to streamline their operations and shrink their front lines, even Disney, which has bucked the market the most. Due to the many large transactions and huge expenditures in the past two years, Disney is currently also significantly reducing operating costs and investment in its various companies.

Under such circumstances, the status of independent companies that once undertook literary and foreign-language film business for major studios has rapidly increased. For example, Disney pinned its future hopes on Pixar, and its once proud Mira Mike Sri Lanka company has become tasteless.

In mid-September of this year, Cooke Dick and Michael Eisner, who had been in power for many years at Disney, stepped down; in October, there were also high-level changes at Universal, and the two masters both left; MGM, which was deeply mired, left again. On the verge of bankruptcy, its debt had soared from $2 billion to $3.7 billion.

All of these have seriously affected the stability of the industry. In addition, trade unions in various industries are planning to strike, which has broken the fragile business balance of Hollywood. Fortunately, some projects such as temporary shortage of funds and other problems have been cut directly. Only the lost video makes people who have worked hard for it want to cry without tears.

The project that Murphy took over from Quentin was also hit. Fortunately, 20th Century Fox had full confidence in him and promised to immediately follow up on this project as long as the funds and financial situation improved slightly.