Hollywood Domination Chapter 215: Two phone calls
After the shooting, "Michael Clayton" has entered the most common editing, production, preview, and award process of art films. It will take about 4 months to post-production, complete editing, and then send to The major film festivals go to the publicity. Of course, holding multiple rounds of previews and inviting film critics to watch is also a part of the process. Time Warner has already scheduled a year-end release date for it, and the file is set at On the second weekend of January 2007, a few rounds of small-scale screenings will be arranged in Los Angeles before that. This is considered a side-kick, avoiding the highly competitive Christmas schedule, and avoiding the somewhat gloomy and depressing atmosphere of this film. The joyful family holiday also allows "Michael Clayton" to concentrate its publicity campaign in December and January, the most important months of the awards period, occupying newspaper pages and attracting the attention of the judges.
This is a schedule that was set very early. Generally speaking, when a film is formed in the crew, the schedule and promotional strategy will be determined when the filming starts. It is such an award-winning film, the whole process is very important. It will be held in film festivals in September to gain popularity and praise. Of course, promotional activities with various colors will come one after another. If Jenny was not filming at the time, she must cooperate. Almost from the beginning of the year, she has to decide on the project for the award, so her "Monroe" must not be able to catch up with the release in 2007. After all, it is already early February, and the script has not been filmed yet, and the director has not been decided, let alone the schedule. As well as commercial affairs as high as her mountain, Jenny's plan is to screen them at the end of 2008, so that there will be Olympic works for two consecutive years, paired with commercial works, this rhythm is more appropriate.
In this way, the production time is still very wide. She has more than half a year to find suitable actors and directors. After crossing, you can enjoy leisure for the first time...
It's strange.
Not to mention that between "Pirate" and "Avatar", she has not yet had a suitable commercial film connection. It seems that she should fill in a commercial film in 2007, and the work in this area is full of holes. After returning to Los Angeles, Jenny first accompanied Chris to participate in a series of public relations activities non-stop, and contributed to the promotion of his new film in 2006. Chris did not get any nominations for solo performance this year, but this film The film was successfully nominated for Best Picture, and its large-scale release is imminent. Chris has also dedicated himself to taking on many promotional activities, participating in radio shows, talk shows and cover shoots every day-in this case, he can find time to The studio took her back to Los Angeles, so it can't be said that she was insincere.
Of course, followed by the upcoming Oscars, this is another battle of dresses and jewelry that makes Claudia and Julian quite nervous. Too much attention, Judy has finally entered the happy period after Jenny's success and fame: in public relations, there is no need to take on the heavy responsibility of the top in a new way. Now Jenny is already at the stage of talking about her works, and now after moving to Malibu, The number of paparazzi photos has decreased sharply. She only needs to maintain her relationship with the media, send out newsletters regularly, and contact the paparazzi to take street photos from time to time to maintain her exposure.
——This is also the strategy of many big stars after they are promoted. After all, they have been on the cusp of the storm all year round. Overexposure is not a good thing. Furthermore, after Jenny's stalker incident, the entire team is more cautious. After all, this is the United States where everyone can hold a gun. It is really because of overexposure that the location of Jenny was exposed. Who knows that the stalker who has not been arrested so far will do it Something crazy happened.
So, after the media frenzy in which Jenny and Chris confirmed their relationship has passed, Judy is now in a happy state where she is receiving a generous salary every month, but her life is getting less and less. After all, when Jenny was not so popular, the monthly PR fee was actually out of proportion to Judy's hard work. After entering the bonus period now, Judy puts more energy on the newcomers who have emerged in the past few years accordingly, mobilizing public relations resources, and even relying on the personal connections established by Jenny to help them rise to the top—this is The unique ecological chain of the entertainment industry, while the stars are fighting openly and secretly, stepping on each other, in fact, the entire ecosystem still **** blood from the seniors and feeds back the hungry juniors.
Of course, at Jenny's current height, she doesn't have the mentality of stepping down or tabooing other female stars. Even when she started to take the initiative to grab the show, following the shows of 30- and 40-generation female stars, those peers who are still targeting the roles of 20-generation characters are not a threat to her, let alone those who can only take over roles in their own age group. The girl movie star of the play. It can be said that in Hollywood now, as long as it is a suitable film for her, Jenny’s competitiveness is the first. If she says she wants to act, then even if the director and producer say no bizarrely, the company will replace them. In exchange for Jenny's joining. If the company supported the director and producer, there is no doubt that this project will definitely become a big laughing stock in Hollywood.
Unless... this company is not considered an orthodox Hollywood film and television company, unless their thinking is simply unique, and they don't care so much about Jenny's status...
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Whether it is cold winter or midsummer, the weather in the tropical Maldives is almost always so good. Although there will be a heavy rainfall from time to time, it shows the unpredictable nature of tropical weather. For couples who enjoy the world of two on the natural island, this is the perfect holiday destination.
Suddenly, a heavy rain fell on a seemingly inconspicuous island in the Maldives island group. In this private resort with an area of only a few acres and currently only receiving two guests, several workers The personnel are slowly sailing the yacht to the shore, braving the heavy rain to deliver the fresh supplies of the day, and under the shade of green ferns, in the small building deep in the jungle, the two guests have just finished their afternoon nap and are still waking up. Listen to the rain beating on the roof from the spacious king bed.
"hmm...don't make noise, don't make noise." Jenny pushed Chris down with a smile, jokingly said, "Don't just take your nap until tomorrow, Chris, it's time to wake up."
Chris turned over and continued to maintain the prone position roguely, "But I'm still jet-lagged, honey, it's night for me now."
"You've been jet lagged for five days." Jenny said angrily and amusedly, "This excuse is really time-sensitive, trust me."
She wanted to sit up, but was pushed into the mattress by Chris again. With the vibration of the mattress and the slightly laughing cry, several pillows fell to the ground. Become romantic and charming again——
"Ring--ring--" Even in such a paradise, there are always disturbing disturbers. The harsh phone rings suddenly, and quickly destroys the atmosphere, almost immediately, Jenny He jumped up from the mattress with all his strength, thumped close to the satellite phone beside the bed, ignored Chris's muttering complaints, and picked up the receiver.
"Hello? Cesare?" Her voice had returned to her absolute professionalism and calmness, and she almost couldn't wait to ask, "What happened? Did Marvel reply?"
Yes, the project that made her pay so much attention during the vacation, in 2007, if "Avatar" is not counted, apart from Marvel's "Iron Man", there is no other home...
Although the affairs are busy, after the 2007 Oscars ended, I congratulated Leonardo ("The Departed" won the Oscar for Best Picture) and handed the best actress trophy to Helen Mirren. , Jenny found that she was actually caught in a short period of vacuum: the publicity of "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" has not yet started, but the publicity work of "Unlucky Eros" and "Old Friends with Money" has been completed, and the rest is nothing more than Some work on collecting money, checking accounts, and distributing money. The script of "Monroe" is still being written. She keeps in touch with the screenwriter on a regular basis. It is enough to check the completed manuscript through email. The rest of the cast and director have to wait for the script After finalizing the draft, we will talk about it, and because Dameng has already planned to invest the existing funds in "Monroe", so although "Unlucky Cupid" and "Old Friends with Money" have withdrawn part of the funds, there is no need to start new projects for the time being.
So, after setting aside a few days to check the daily operation of Dameng (since she is involved in several projects, the possibility of something tricky is very small), Jenny finds that she has nothing to do temporarily In addition, she was indeed tired after being busy day and night for nearly half a year, so she gladly accepted Chris's gracious invitation during the rest period, and went to Chris's favorite Maldives with him. Last few days off. ——This rania island can only accommodate up to 12 guests, and only one wave of guests can be received at a time. Chris will come to live for a few days almost every year, but he usually brings a few friends and girlfriends with him in the past. Cesare He and his assistant Jack are usually on the list, but this year it is a pure two-person world, and no one else comes to bother.
As for Cesare, his life is more difficult. Although the most difficult and busy time has passed, and now he does not have so much work in the dream - the reason why he was so busy last year was mainly because he just started his business. Each department is improving and progressing through exploration. When "Unlucky Cupid" came to the publicity, Cesare had to lead the publicity again. In addition to being familiar with the process and learning experience, he also had to observe the team and select a suitable department head. Instead of taking it for granted to recruit someone with a high salary, let him immediately manage the department. After such a release, the team has initially formed, and after the verification of "Old Friends Are Rich", it is running well. Of course, his invisible CEO You can get out, stop worrying about such trivial matters as 'poster printing and distribution budget', and start to really perform your duties: maintain the daily operation of the company, and decide on the operational projects for a period of time in the future.
Although the company is temporarily out of money and has no projects, Cesare still can't get away and go on vacation. This is because "Iron Man", which Dameng started talking about last year, has finally entered At the end of the negotiation, as Jenny's manager and Dameng's invisible CEO, it is impossible for him to leave Hollywood now. Instead, he often flies to the Marvel headquarters in New York for meetings...
Yes, although I have been paying attention to this project all the time, but I really received the wind, knowing that Marvel started to start, it was already when Jenny left Hollywood and started filming "Michael Clayton". Jenny can only be Give Cesare full authority to operate the project - this is the project she handpicked, but Cesare is as optimistic as she is, and he also intends to invest in capital. After getting Jenny's "intuition" endorsement, he is even more daring I just want to co-develop with Marvel, so it is most suitable for him to do it.
Although it has been prepared for a long time, the capital injection process will not be so smooth if you don't bring 'Jennifer Jefferson' to star in this golden signboard, but even so, Jenny is still confused by Marvel's repeated style It's very annoying. If it wasn't for "Iron Man" is the best time to enter the Marvel Universe, she would have directly instructed Cesare to give up eight hundred years ago. Anyway, with the thick legs of "Avatar", Jenny also Don't worry about your own box office and the company's profits at all.
"It may not be possible to reach an agreement in the end." Cesare didn't seem to realize what he just interrupted, he said flatly, "Marvel still can't accept our sharing terms, plus the news that we intend to enter the game After the leak, there are quite a few actors who are interested in robbing the role with a low price, so now Marvel has proposed two plans, the first is to enter the game with 5 million US dollars plus 10% of the North American box office, and the second is 3 million US dollars in salary, We bring capital into the game, the amount is 20 million, we don’t intervene in the issuance, the settlement priority is second to Marvel, and the omni-channel share is 15%. If we can’t accept it, and there are major changes... the negotiation can only end here.”
5 million, 3 million... This is a very unfamiliar number to Jenny. Even for "Michael Clayton", she also brought money into the game, and the subject matter is slightly less popular, and the commercial flavor is not so strong For the project, she received a salary of 5 million yuan, not to mention how many years ago the condition of 5/10 in North America was the condition of the first article, but such conditions were all after difficult negotiations. It was made a little bit, for which Jenny had to put on her own 'body' to play the role of Pepper, the heroine of "Steel 1". You must know that at the very beginning, the big dream was only her own investment. For another film Jenny is actually not interested in the vase female characters in superhero movies...
Withdrawing her troubled thoughts, Jenny let out a sigh of relief and said helplessly, "Although it is still a little far from our bottom line...but...what do you think? Of course the first one will not be considered. If it is the second For one, let them go to Gwyneth, but for the second, if Marvel can increase our settlement priority and ensure our copyright, investment rights and voice in the follow-up series , it is not impossible to consider..."
Her tone was a bit resentful, because the conditions reached in the end were far from Dameng's original intention. At first, Dameng wanted to spend 70 million to 100 million to buy half of the copyright of the "Iron Man" movie series , co-developed with Marvel, but in the end it was reduced to the point where she had to act in order to bring 20 million into the game, and it might be yellowed at any time-if it wasn’t for Marvel’s flirting with Paramount, it wouldn’t be disrespectful to Disney. , how could Dameng be so passive and weak?
Yes, Marvel, which eventually went to Disney in later generations, is actually cultivating a relationship with Paramount, just like its old rival DC found Warner. Since the 21st century, Marvel, which has repeatedly encountered bankruptcy crises, is also I made up my mind not to retail copyrights and make wedding dresses for others, but to fully commit myself to the hands of big media groups, to make the Marvel cake bigger, and to play strategic industries from comics to movies-TV dramas-theme parks Chain, and their desperate "Iron Man" and "Invincible Hulk" are to prove the profitability of superhero movies, and only in this way can Marvel sell itself at a good price. After all, "Spider-Man 3" and "X-Men 3" both ended with bad reviews, and "Superman Returns" was sold as underwear, only Nolan's "Batman Begins" was not bad. , but the box office was only tepid in 2007. Superhero movies seem to have fallen into a fog and trough. Will the market still like superhero movies in the short term? Now even Time Warner, which was once full of confidence, dare not draw conclusions. Even Paramount has to see how the market reacts to Marvel's "Iron Man" before drawing conclusions.
Will "Iron Man" succeed? Before Dameng showed his interest, the market's reaction was actually quite indifferent, because almost all the first-line actresses of the Marvel family were sold out. The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spiderman were all children of other people. The Avengers Alliance, which Xia and Marvel are planning to withdraw from, is more like a second-tier starlet in terms of popularity. Compared with "Iron Man", the market is more optimistic about "The Incredible Hulk". After all, although the "Hulk" in 2003 was also miserable, it is more because the director's style does not conform to the comic hero movie. The popularity in China has always been in the first echelon, the popularity is quite stable, and the national recognition is also very high——Although Edward Norton is also eccentric, he can't support the wall no matter what. Robert Downey Jr., who lost his career, is much better. With him as the leading role, it is hard to say whether "Iron Man" can be finished. The last time Downey changed his mind, the American dramas he filmed were all very popular. He re-addicted halfway through. , went to rehab again, the entire crew was hit hard, and the TV station executives were furious because of this, many people still remember it vividly.
However, Marvel's Kevin Feige has a stubborn personality. He has determined that Downey is suitable for the role, and he decided to believe that he can fully recover this time. If he is given another chance, then no matter how many people say bad things about him, he does not intend to go back on his word— ——This kind of tough personality ushered in the turning point of Marvel's fate for him. The explosion of "Iron Man" ushered in the prosperity of the Avengers, ushered in the booming gold-absorbing machine Marvel Universe in 2014, but also This kind of tough and confident character made him not very fond of Jenny's aura from the very beginning, and he had no interest in investing in Dameng.
——What about the actress? Pepper is just a supporting role with few roles. It is not worth spending more than 5 million yuan. Gwyneth Paltrow is also the queen of the actress. 5 million yuan can invite her. Jennifer Jefferson wants to play? It is very welcome, but we can pay up to 5 million yuan, and there is no need to talk about more than one yuan.
As for Dameng's investment...buy 50% of the copyright of the series? Absolutely don't consider it, Marvel has suffered enough losses from selling copyrights, and now the return of several leading characters is still in the foreseeable future, no matter what percentage, he will be anxious with you when you mention buying copyrights, besides, Marvel doesn't There is a lack of investors, and this time the movie is made with the help of a lot of connections from Paramount. The acquisition of the two companies is almost at the close of the door. Could it be that Paramount can't get the tens of millions? Marvel doesn’t need to consider sharing risks and guaranteeing cash flow. It’s a company that is going to be sold anyway. All they need is a good box office for “Iron Man” and they can sell Marvel for a good price. In fact, if Paramount hadn't been very interested in Jenny and signaled Kevin to have a deep talk with Dameng to see if they could ask Jenny to join the role of Pepper, in the beginning when there was only money and no one else, Kevin wouldn't If you reject Dameng's investment proposal, there will be no room for follow-up negotiation.
Even with the addition of the box office bomb Jenny, Dameng will not have much advantage in this project. After all, the initiative is all in the hands of Marvel. How can you gain an advantage? I can only sit back and watch Marvel use the news of "Jennifer Jefferson intends to join" to hook up female stars who are going on and on, making their own advantages more obvious. ——Whether it’s Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, the new generation like Rachel McAdams, or Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman After hearing that Jennifer Jefferson is interested in playing Pepper and that Marvel thinks it's too expensive, such Mesozoic film queens all expressed their intention to play the role, and lowered their quotations to Marvel, hoping to choose such a role. A big leak. Now these actresses are completely superstitious about her picky eye. How could they be willing to miss this rare opportunity?
Under the circumstances that the requirements themselves are not high, with these well-known actresses covering the bottom line, how could Marvel not have enough confidence? And they, who have always been stingy, are only willing to pay up to 500,000 US dollars for the lead actor Downey, and they also have to add high punitive clauses. They also chose cheap directors like Jon Favreau. It is impossible to put a large salary and favorable terms on the less important Pepper candidate. The negotiations between the two sides were completely incompatible from the beginning, and they collapsed several times in the middle, all because of Jenny's strong determination to oppose Paramount. Her strong interest forced her to continue talking. Don't look at the current result, it is simply a humiliation to Jenny and Dameng, but maybe Kevin Feige is also full of anger and grievances, and feels that he has made a lot of sacrifices. After all, in his opinion, "Iron Man" doesn't need Jenny at all. If it wasn't for the strong insistence of the future big boss, he would have chosen Gwyneth Paltrow, who took the initiative to lower the price to 3 million.
"This is already the best result the two parties can reach." Cesare also said with approval, "20 million US dollars, 15% copyright of the film series, and of course the follow-up investment rights, the same settlement priority , I think this is also the preset condition of Marvel, and the settlement priority is just a teaser they deliberately set aside for bargaining."
Jenny is already very familiar with these little tricks in the negotiation. Marvel put the settlement priority on the table to bargain. The question is, and Dameng has been emphasizing the copyright of the "movie series", so why not hope that Marvel will take it lightly, because this copyright does not include the bulk of the profits of comic characters-peripheral sales, and pay less attention to this point? The intrigues of both parties are all to expand the interests of their own companies, including the reason why Jenny did not participate in the negotiations, but went to the Maldives for vacation. In fact, they are all trying to weaken the importance that Dream attaches to this project, so that Marvel will not be so aggressive when bargaining. Emboldened.
"Okay, if they can agree to this condition, then I will go back and sign the contract immediately." Jenny said to the other end of the phone, while waving her hand to stop Chris's protest, "Let me know if there is anything else Is it, Cesare?"
Because there are obviously no mobile phone base stations on this small island and its surroundings, so mobile phones are useless. The hotel provides satellite phones and Internet services, and only Cesare knows the phone number, and others can only be contacted by email. , so Cesare also took on the task of conveying the message to many people who would rather not write e-mail.
"It's nothing." Cesare said, "We will continue the negotiation in two hours and keep in touch."
The time difference between Maldives and Los Angeles is close to 12 hours. It is now 6 o'clock in the morning in Los Angeles. Cesare must have specially calculated the time before he got up this morning to convey the results of yesterday's negotiations.
"Keep in touch." After Jenny hung up the phone, she turned over and laid flat on the bed, closed her eyes and pondered for a while, then snorted angrily, and said to herself, "One day, I'm going to make a superhero movie... just me as the heroine, and let the men get the **** out of the way."
Although she is not a feminist, after Dameng was so angry with Marvel, Jenny became depressed because of this: If it wasn't because there was only one Black Widow in the entire comic film circle who was not a vase, she would Why do you have to enter the game from "Iron Man"? And even if it is a difficult female hit black widow, it can only be played between series, and it has not had its own solo movie for a long time. The meaning should be regarded as reaching the pinnacle. If it weren't for the fact that Little Pepper is really a vase, and whoever plays it is almost the same, Marvel would not treat her and Dameng with such an attitude.
"Are you really determined to make Iron Man?" Chris asked with interest, but quickly frowned again, "Wait, don't change the subject—you're going back tomorrow? Without discussing it with me?"
Chris has never been in favor of Jenny's enthusiasm for 'cg movies', but he supports her to challenge some small-scale films like "Michael Clayton". Jenny privately speculates that part of the reason is big projects, especially For cg projects, the shooting cycle is very long. But Jenny just said what was in her heart, and it was indeed for the purpose of changing the subject a little bit. She laughed guiltyly, turned over and fell into Chris's arms, and said comfortingly, "It's just to sign something, you know It's not convenient for Chesa to come forward to sign, if you don't want to go back with me, you can wait for me here, I promise to fly back to you as soon as I finish signing..."
Chris's pretentiously depressed expression was gradually softened by the beauty trick. He put his arms around Jenny's waist, and said in a tone, "If you want to make up for me, this sentence may not be enough--"
In the second half of the sentence, he simply used actions to express 'how to do enough'. Jenny frowned and glanced at the sky outside the window-she prefers to keep a regular schedule, but considering that tomorrow she Maybe I'm going back to my country——
"Ring ring, ring ring——" When light laughter and panting became the main theme again, the sharp ringing of the phone ruthlessly broke the romantic and warm atmosphere again, and it ignored Chris's frustrated curse ("Oh, *, I’ll fire you tomorrow, Cesare!"), insisting on ringing non-stop, and Jenny could only helplessly try to get rid of Chris’s obstruction, and crawled to the bedside to answer the phone.
"Yep." She said briefly, hoping that Cesare would not pick up any clues from her erratic breathing-this is certainly not a shameful thing, but it is somewhat unprofessional.
"Check your email, right now." Cesare didn't notice her strange behavior at all, even when he reported the 'bad news' just now, his tone didn't fluctuate, but now he showed a trace of depression Excited, as soon as the phone was connected, he ordered in an unquestionable tone, "Turn on the computer immediately-if I think correctly, "Iron Man" is not important at all-Jefferson, maybe you I won’t believe it, but I just received a call from Fox, and it’s absolutely true that the process of "Avatar" has undergone a great change, and the situation may become favorable to us..."