Chapter 124 (1/2)
Jonathan and Amy have been working on this project for the last week since Simon came up with the script for instinct.
In 1992, the original ”instinct” won more than 350 million US dollars in the world box office with a production cost of 49 million US dollars. The success of this film mainly depends on the strong controversy caused by the theme of the film and the super large scale of nearly NC-17 level. The shot of Sharon Stone's legs up and down still impresses many audiences many years later.
Even the box office success of ”instinct” led the trend of making thrillers and erotic films with snake and scorpion women as gimmicks throughout the 1990s.
The original director of instinct is Paul van Hoven, a Dutch director who has directed films such as ”total memory” and ”Star Wars”. However, Simon passed on the story directly to Brian De Palma after completing the script outline.
Compared with Paul van Hoven, Brian De Palma, who has a preference for peeping, is obviously more suitable for directing the film.
Although Simon made it clear in his communication with Bryan De Palma that this film, like the butterfly effect, will not have a good media reputation in the future and may cause great controversy, Bryan De Palma quickly nodded his head and agreed.
Simon is still inclined to Michael Douglas.
Michael Douglas happens to be a customer of wma, and the unexpected success of ”fatal temptation” has helped the middle-aged male star, who came from a movie family, to further his career. After several contacts, the other side also agreed to take part in the show soon.
After the two creators are settled, Jonathan and Amy officially start the negotiation with Fox pictures. Now that he has accumulated enough capital and the business prospect of instinct is very secure, Simon decided to participate in the investment this time.
Simon initially hoped to be able to invest in the film entirely by Denise pictures, and then hand it over to Fox for distribution, while ending the contract for the first three scripts.
However, after the success of ”Lola Run”, ”Butterfly Effect” and ”death is coming”, although Simon's story still deviates from the mainstream, with the participation of Simon, De Palma and Douglas, fox is naturally reluctant to let go.
After a week's negotiation, Fox and Denise film have formally agreed on a production plan.
After ”Butterfly Effect” and ”fatal temptation”, Brian De Palma's and Michael Douglas's film prices have risen to $6 million. Simon's script is still priced symbolically at $1, and the film's budget is initially set at $20 million.
With a production budget of US $20 million, fox pictures and Denise pictures will each bear us $10 million. Denise pictures will be solely responsible for the production of the film. Fox will ensure the release and directly determine the schedule for July 15 next year. The number of guaranteed screens will increase to 1500.
Benefit distribution.
After several tugs of war, it is finally determined that all channel income of the film will be settled according to the investment proportion of 50%. In short, the publicity budget invested by Fox will no longer be used as the film investment cost to participate in the distribution of benefits, which also makes Denise pictures avoid the area with the most moisture in the ”Hollywood ledger”.
Hollywood movies usually cost about half of their production costs.
Instinct's production budget is $20 million, and the theoretical publicity budget will reach $10 million. According to the proportion of investment, the company shares with Denise pictures. It seems that Fox pictures has suffered a big loss, but it is not.
On the project of ”death is coming”, danielis pictures did not invest any money, and the expected revenue will reach $10 million.
This time, if he doesn't participate in the investment, Simon can at least get a share of the ”instinct” project, which is equivalent to that of ”death is coming”. Now, Denise pictures has given up this part of the extra revenue. At the same time, fox pictures has also given up the due revenue of the publicity budget. The investment of both sides is still equal.
What's more, a series of terms in the contract that specify how long TV trailers need to be broadcast can also ensure that Fox invests enough publicity resources.
Fox Studios.
It's Tuesday, November 10.
In a conference room of the executive building of the movie city, Ronald Goldberg, Amy Pascal, Jonathan Friedman, and other executives, stars and agents of fox pictures, Denise pictures and wma formally signed several investment and actor participation contracts related to the instinct project.
However, Simon was not present today.
After the official press conference, at the dinner arranged by Fox pictures, although Simon's phone call had been received in advance, Ronald Goldberg still went to Amy Pascal to inquire about Simon's recent developments.
From the middle of last month, many people around Simon found that he was obviously absent-minded during this period. Norman Broca, President of Orion film, couldn't help complaining about the slow progress of vulgar novel. It has been more than a month since the film was finished, and the rough cutting of the film hasn't been completed.Amy Pascal heard Ronald Goldberg's inquiry and recalled Simon's recent vacillation. She could only shake her head, but on the surface, she still wanted to speak for her boss and said, ”Ronald, you know, Simon has been busy for a whole year since last year. Now it's OK to relax a little.”
Ronald Goldberg, however, didn't believe Amy's excuse. He hesitated with his red wine in his pocket, lowered his voice a little, and said, ”Amy, tell me the truth, did Simon put the money he made from” Lola Run ”into the stock market, and then lost it?”
Amy immediately thought of Simon not coming to the company for a week after the North American stock market crash last month.
During this period, although the North American stock market has stabilized, the Dow Jones index is still hovering around 2000 points, far lower than the peak of 2700 points in August. Simon has been earning more than $100 million in the past six months by virtue of ”Lola Run”. When the stock market was still booming at the beginning, it is hard to guarantee that he would not want to make another profit.
”Well, Ronald, I really don't know,” Amy added, shaking her head for the first time, even though she had already speculated. ”But, Ronald, you can rest assured that in any case, it won't affect Denise's investment in instinct.”
Ronald Goldberg went on asking questions. He couldn't find anything from Amy and had to turn away.
Amy Pascal watched Ronald Goldberg walk away with a frown. I can't help thinking of Simon's discussion with himself about investing in instinct some time ago.
Although she didn't think it was a good choice to invest her money in movies, Amy thought Simon would use the money he made from ”Lola Run” to participate in the investment. Simon's decision deviates from Amy's prediction. He hopes Amy will take the contract of ”death is coming” to the bank for mortgage and use the loan to invest in ”instinct”.
A large part of the money for Hollywood film production comes from bank loans.
In the initial financing process of when Harry meets Sally, danilisi film did not have enough information to obtain production funds from the bank. Now, Simon has succeeded in three films in a row, and ”instinct” is a script written by Simon himself. It's not too difficult to get a loan from the bank.
However, after the end of October, Simon rushed to New York again yesterday morning without any explanation, and even missed today's signing ceremony. This series of clues connect a little. It's obvious that my little boss and his girlfriend may have lost a lot of money in the stock market crash.
More than $100 million. I don't know how much I lost.
Thinking about the tragedy of the stock market crash on October 19, Amy couldn't help shaking her head. After all, she was still a young man.
It's just that.
I don't know if the little boss will encounter such a Waterloo in the film next.
You know, the income of ”death is coming” should be 5% of her income. As for instinct, or most of the films that Hollywood makes use of loans to make, usually they should apply to the bank for loans with the pre-sale contract of the film. However, Fox and Simon do not agree with the pre-sale, but the film production funds must be mortgaged. Danielle films can only use the income contract of ”death is coming” as a chip.