Hollywood Road

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

This is also a normal price that conforms to market laws. Because of risk aversion considerations, Miramax has pressed part of Murphy's salary into the North American box office share.

According to the director’s contract, if the film’s North American box office exceeds US$10 million, Murphy will automatically receive a basic incentive of US$100,000, which is one percent of the North American box office.

Similar to the "Chainsaw Cry" contract signed by James Wynn and Lionsgate, this is a tiered award agreement. For every $10 million increase in the film's North American box office, Murphy's bonus will also increase by a percentage. One, that is to say, if the North American box office reaches 20 million US dollars, he can get a 2% rake as a reward.

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

In Hollywood, in order to avoid the risk of excessive investment in the early stage, and to motivate the creative enthusiasm of the main creative staff, many Hollywood companies will use this strategy.

In this way, the director and the project can be firmly tied together, and the more money you can get when the project sells out.

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

As for his other screenwriter status, there is no similar agreement except for the small dividend ratio set by the screenwriters union.

Looking at the entire Hollywood, the screenwriters who can make the production company sign the real sharing agreement can be counted with one hand.

For such independent small projects, it's good to say that Hollywood's big production projects are mostly the collaborative products of an entire screenwriting team, and creativity and risk are almost equal, and mainstream commercial masterpieces rarely use so-called genius creativity.

The producers of the project are the brothers Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein, but Erica Steinberg is responsible for the work of the crew, and they form the film's production team.

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

Miramax will insure the project in the 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.

Film completion guarantees first appeared on Hollywood studios in the early 1950s, and they are now very mature worldwide.

The main function is to guarantee the production of a film or TV, which can be completed according to the predetermined time limit and budget of the script, and sent to the distributor. As a "finish guarantee" agency, it must be very familiar with the film and television production process, and be able to raise the quality of the script , The ability and quality of the film's main creators, the control ability of the producer, and the distribution income after the completion of the film are evaluated in an all-round way, the film production process is monitored, and the financial status is timely supervised and controlled.

In the shooting scenes of many Hollywood movies, I often see people who are not on the production team, holding various budget sheets, schedules and production lists, and communicating with the on-site producers for a while, and the art director for a while, not to say that this can save a bit. , Which means that the progress must be accelerated today.

Don't be surprised, these are the staff sent by the completion guarantee company to monitor the budget and progress of the film.

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

The film completion guarantee does not guarantee the profitability of a film. The biggest function is to guarantee that a film can be completed within the budget.

In addition, the investment from financial institutions and private equity is also very troublesome to deal with, but these are Miramax's work, Murphy does not need to be involved.

He just needs to be responsible for the crew.

With Murphy’s signing of the director’s agreement, CAA also secured other contracts with Miramax, including Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill and Carrie Mu under Murphy’s team. Reagan will play an important role in it. Robert Downey Jr. has some troubles. One is that his pay is relatively high, and the other is that Harvey Weinstein has doubts about his drug addiction.

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

Correspondingly, it is an extremely strict contract that restricts Robert Downey Jr., before the film is completed, Robert Downey Jr. can only get one-fifth of the pay, and he will get it again after the film is completed. One-fifth, and the last three-fifths have to wait for the film to be downloaded from North America before being paid.

There is also a memorandum clause in the contract. If Robert Downey Jr. breaks out a drug scandal during this period, he will be deemed to have automatically given up the remaining compensation.

Despite Murphy’s own observations that Robert Downey Jr. seems to have really quit drug addiction, such a restriction contract is not harmful to the entire project.

The staff behind the scenes are basically those who have worked with Murphy.

The assistant director and casting director are Paul Wilson, photography director Philip Raschel, art director Helena Espola, lighting designer David Robbie, makeup artist Jack Watson...

These people have signed a contract with the crew.

However, the prop designer is no longer Baker Klebert, and the other party is not a CAA customer. Bill Rossis recommends another for Murphy, a middle-aged man named Jeddy Hartson, who is better than Baker- Klebert, ability and qualifications should be even better.

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

In fact, all Hollywood directors who have the final editing rights can count them with one slap.

Not to mention him now, even today's directors like Ridley Scott, David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino have no final editing rights.

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

In an office of Miramax in Burbank, Murphy, Bill Rossis, and Harvey Weinstein all frowned slightly. They are the three most important persons in charge of the project, and they are actually responsible for the various systems of the crew. Erica Steinberg, who works on the film side, just got bad news from the San Fernando Valley side.

"A salary of eight hundred thousand dollars!"

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

"Remember, Jenna Jameson just changed the brokerage company," Bill Rossis looked even more ugly. "William Morris signed a brokerage contract with her, ready to push her to the top of the industry. Position."

Harvey Weinstein pressed his fingers on the arm of the chair lightly, without saying a word.

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

Neither Murphy, CAA nor Miramax had the intention of bringing Jenna Jameson into Hollywood, but just wanted to use her identity and popularity to create topics.

Maybe Jenna Jameson had a fantasy before. Once she was reminded and discovered her position and actual 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 was sent. Those actresses who were mixed in the San Fernando Valley would definitely not wait to post it. Things started to develop like this, just as they After discovering their own value, they will not be used stupidly.

Just like Jenna Jameson, her new agent offered a one-million-dollar salary, and after some seesaws, she didn't let go of the 800,000 dollars.

In the words of that agent, cooperation is beneficial to both parties. Without cooperation, Jenna Jameson will not lose. It is impossible for her to enter Hollywood and change her current identity.

The negotiations have reached a stalemate.

"Murphy, what do you think?"

Although Harvey Weinstein is the real decision maker, he is an old fritters and pays attention to the way he works, "About the heroine."

In many cases, the idea is always good, but there is a deviation in the realization. This matter has deviated from Murphy's predictive track. He did not hesitate, "Since the other party is not letting go in terms of remuneration, let's change."

The pay for the other party's death was twice as much as he expected. Even if he cut a little further, it would exceed the budget, which would inevitably reduce other expenses.

Bill Rossis also nodded. He also didn't want to use a client from William Morris as the heroine in his own project.

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

Everything will not go smoothly. Murphy knew the simplest truth, and immediately gave up the previous plan in his heart. After a little thought, he said, "Hold an audition. It shouldn't be difficult to find a suitable actress."

"I think it can." 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 the final decision was Miramax as the producer.