Hollywood Road

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"Director's credit right?" Murphy asked puzzledly, "Even if Frank Miller is signed, no one will think that he has actually directed this film, especially the media and companies in the industry. Is there any?"

"These won't affect you." Bill Rossis fully agreed with Murphy's words, but then brought up an aspect that Murphy didn't think about at all, "Don't forget, you are a member of the directors' union!"

"Uh..." Murphy was even more confused, "Does this have anything to do with me being a member of the Directors' Union?"

Bill Rosses nodded and said, "It has a lot to do with it."

Seeing that Murphy didn't know anything about it, he explained slowly, "The directors' union has a rule that two people's names cannot be signed in the director's column at the same time for a work directed by a director of the union!"

Murphy suddenly realized, "So that's the case."

Frowning and thinking for a while, he said again, "This is indeed a trouble."

Murphy didn't know much about the many regulations of the directors' union. He only knew that the directors' union could protect many of his legal rights, but he didn't know that there were many restrictions.

If you follow Frank Miller's request, it will undoubtedly be contrary to the regulations of the directors' union, but if you refuse Frank Miller, this negotiation may fall apart.

Murphy had no choice but to look to Bill Rossis, who undoubtedly had much more knowledge and experience than himself.

"Is there no way to have the best of both worlds, Bill?" he asked.

Bill Rosses thought for a while before saying, "It's not that there are some things. In fact, there are some things that the directors' union only has regulations, but they don't care about them. They often turn a blind eye to them."

Murphy nodded lightly. What Bill Ross said was not unreasonable. Even in North America, sometimes the rules are dead, but the people who enforce them are alive.

"Regulations such as director's signature, title format, and directors' union are very unpopular, and no one usually notices them." If it weren't for Bill Rosses' reminder, Murphy would never have thought of these, "especially George Lucas At the beginning, because Star Wars credits did not comply with the regulations, after quitting the directors' union, the union not only revised the credits regulations, but also stopped deliberately reviewing these remote regulations, and usually turned a blind eye."

Murphy understood what Bill Rossis meant, "You mean we don't have to care about the rules of the directors' union.

"

"It's not that I don't care about it," Bill Rosses said again, "We don't want to make any noise or promote it, and the directors' union has no need to pursue it."

This probably means that the people do not raise officials and do not investigate.

"Will this cause trouble?" Murphy didn't care about Frank Miller's signature director, "Will it affect the shooting in the future."

Bill Rosses thought about it, and said confidently, "You have the support of CAA, so what is there to worry about?"

He obviously has strong confidence in the brokerage company behind him, which is also the commonality of every CAA broker.

From being interns in the mail room, they have been taught too much about the power of CAA.

Murphy thought for a while, he was just an inconspicuous director, and this was not a first-line Hollywood production, so the possibility of being targeted by the directors' union was still very low. , Caa and Miramax standing behind him are not vegetarians either.

"Bill," Murphy added, "you communicate with Miramax and Harvey Weinstein."

Bill Rosses nodded, "Leave these to me, don't worry."

After Frank Miller was dealt with again, the negotiations between the two parties continued. Although the negotiation process was still very difficult, there were breakthroughs, especially the existence of Frank Miller, which was definitely the key to this negotiation.

Because of the original agreement signed with Dark Horse Comics, without Frank Miller's nod, DC Comics could not sell the copyrights of Frank Miller's creations such as "Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta" and "Sin City".

As we all know, manga itself can generate limited revenue.

After arduous negotiations in number theory, coupled with caa's mediation and coordination, Miramax finally reached an adaptation agreement with Dark Horse Comics.

In this agreement, Miramax needs to pay Dark Horse Comics a basic adaptation copyright fee of US$6 million in three installments. After the film officially enters the market, it will pay Dark Horse Comics a 15% annual profit share in the year of its premiere. , 10% of the annual profit share is paid in the second year, and this ratio is reduced to 5% in the third year, and subsequent payments are made according to this ratio.

How much of it is the personal dividend of Frank Miller, the original author, is a matter between him and Dark Horse Comics.

At the same time, under the insistence of Frank Miller, the memorandum clause of the agreement also has regulations on the director. In the agreement, Murphy must be the director of the project, and the producer must obtain the consent of Frank Miller if he wants to change the director.

From start to finish, Frank Miller kept the film adaptation from deviating from the comic book style.

After the adaptation rights are settled, it is CAA's turn to negotiate with Miramax, the most important of which is the salary of the production staff behind a series of packaged services.

Because "Planet Terror" has brought a lot of money to Miramax, the global box office of the film has exceeded 55 million US dollars by the end of September. Like all Hollywood film companies, Miramax also believes in success The buyer can continue the successful business principles, fully agree with the plan in Murphy's plan, and continue to use Robert Downey Jr., James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill in front of the scene, just Misgivings about Sienna Miller, but small issues that can be resolved through negotiation.

Behind the scenes, Philip Lascher, Paul Wilson, Helena Espora, David Robbie and Jack Watson had no objections.

They also know the importance of a mature and tacit production team to make a film.

So, once again, Miramax tapped Erica Steinberg as a producer on the project.

However, not everything will go so smoothly.

In the salary negotiations between Bill Rossis and Erica Steinberg on the salary of Murphy and others, they encountered some troubles.

According to Murphy's budget and Miramax's estimate, it is impossible for the production investment of this project to be less than 30 million U.S. dollars. Even for a film company of Miramax's level, such a large investment can be felt pressure.

In particular, they invested heavily in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill", but the film has been delayed due to various relationships, and it has not yet been released. The entire company's capital chain is already somewhat tight.

Even if part of the production funds can be solved through financing and pre-sales, Miramax still needs to invest a certain amount of start-up funds. They will inevitably reduce the initial investment to reduce investment risks and financial pressure.

Therefore, Miramax did not want to pay the director Murphy and other actors an exorbitant base salary.

Murphy, in particular, has two consecutive films with a global box office of more than 50 million U.S. dollars, which is already enough for Bill Rossis to ask Miramax for a director's remuneration of 5 million U.S. dollars.

Such remuneration will undoubtedly further increase the production cost of the film. For Miramax, which has a tight capital chain, this is a very undesirable situation. They need to reduce the pressure and share the risk with the production team.

In Hollywood, the best way is to push this part of the cost into the post-production share, the film is not profitable, and the creative team can't get much remuneration.

Miramax only offered a basic remuneration of 2 million US dollars, and Murphy had no objection to this, but told Bill Rossis to try his best to fight for the later share.

After two rounds of negotiations, the two sides quickly reached an agreement.

Murphy can receive a basic remuneration of one million dollars in two installments before filming starts and after all productions are completed. If the North American box office of "Sin City" in the future exceeds the established production cost line of 35 million , he can get a basic reward of 1.5 million U.S. dollars. If the North American box office reaches 50 million U.S. dollars, he can get a share reward of 3 million U.S. dollars. 80 million U.S. dollars is 4.5 million U.S. dollars. $100 million is $6 million.

This is just a part of the sharing agreement. Under the negotiation of Bill Rossis, Murphy will also participate in the peripheral dividends of the film for the first time.

According to the agreement signed by the two parties, in addition to the ratio stipulated by the labor union, Murphy can also receive 1% of the North American TV and video copyright income of "Sin City" as compensation.

This ratio does not seem to be high. For example, if the first round of TV broadcasting rights of the film is sold for several million dollars, he can only get tens of thousands of dollars, but this is a long-term meal ticket, and the film will not only be broadcast on TV for one round. , dvd counts both rental and sales, that is to say, as long as the film still exists, it may bring him income.

To exaggerate, even if one day he goes bankrupt and has no money, it won't even be a problem for him to eat.

As for the overseas box office that Hollywood films are increasingly relying on, Murphy is not yet eligible to participate in the share.

Indeed, in order to reduce financial pressure and risk, many production crews will sign sharing agreements with even lesser-known actors and directors, but the agreement party lacks qualifications and wants to get a high proportion of sharing.

Murphy knew very well that his ever-climbing Hollywood road was accomplished step by step, and he was not dreamed up by delusions.

After these negotiations were settled, the crew was formally established. Frank Miller also came to Los Angeles from New York to join the crew. What, without Murphy nodding in agreement, there is no way to do it.

Of course, Murphy's film is based on the comic style, and there is no ideological conflict between the two parties.

Moreover, Frank Miller is not the kind of publicity person. The more important thing for this position is to supervise, not to create conflicts.

In contrast, it was Harvey Weinstein's request for an actor that made Murphy even more embarrassed and opposed. (To be continued.)