Chapter 227 Different Choices
Colombia gave Cao Yang 13% of the total box office and subsequent peripheral revenue share, which is not without conditions. They require Cao Yang to cooperate with Colombia's operations.
Specifically, it can be divided into two parts.
One is the casting aspect, mainly the protagonist of the movie.
The second is the choice of the location of the scene.
The total budget is US$160 million. This super big production must not be careless when choosing the first male lead. The first choice is the member of the Hollywood "Twenty Million Club".
Colombia has two alternatives in mind.
In today's Hollywood, there is a private saying that any script will be delivered to Little Li Zi first. Only if Li Zi looks down on it will be the other person's turn.
Although this statement is a bit exaggerated, it can also indirectly reflect Li Zi's current popularity and status.
The two candidates for Colombia are Little Little Little Little Depp.
Little Little is among the best actors in Hollywood and the world, and working with Cao Yang, who is now popular is the biggest gimmick.
Although Depp is a little worse than Little Li Zi in terms of popularity, his success is that he and Cao Yang are old partners. Both of the films he has worked together have won awards and sold well, and his reputation is very good. If you work together again, you can give people a reliable impression.
The reason why Colombia wants Cao Yang to cooperate is that it wants to rely on Cao Yang's fame and influence to achieve its goal.
What purpose?
You should know that members of Hollywood's "Twenty Million Club" are not only paid more than 20 million US dollars, but more importantly, they all require the box office share of the movie.
No film company is willing to "cut its flesh".
On the one hand, the film company wants the popularity and box office resistance of members of the "20 million club".
On the one hand, all film companies are unwilling to give up even a slight box office share.
Faced with super stars, if you don’t divide the box office share, you can’t do it in general. It is unrealistic for you to give a few percent of the share.
However, there are indeed some special situations in Hollywood, that is, directors.
To be more specific, it is the director of the art film.
Don't think about commercial directors, even the top 10 are basically not listed here.
A super star meets an art film director, as long as he thinks the movie is a big deal, it is not necessarily an award-winning aspect. It is okay to improve his or her reputation. He often does not only do not need to share the box office, but also reduces his or her own pay.
If you even like scripts, there are many people who perform at zero pay, and even more so, some people who pay for money.
In the field of art films, since Depp won the Oscar winner again, Cao Yang's popularity in Hollywood, to be modest, is definitely no worse than Martin Scorsese and Eastwood.
Just like when Cao Yang first came to Hollywood to shoot "The Despicable Milk", the two male protagonists who were first valued, both gave him a pigeon and chose Eastwood without hesitation.
What if it is now?
Seanpan and Tim Robbins will definitely say politely to Director Dongmu when they receive the invitation from Eastwood: "Sorry, sir, I have agreed to Director Cao Yang and hope to cooperate again next time."
This is actually a very amazing achievement.
In the foreign territory, it took someone else almost a lifetime to achieve his current achievements. How many years has Cao Yang killed him?
Colombia can be sure that as long as news comes out, Cao Yang has a new movie plan, Little Little Zi and Depp will be interested.
As long as it is done well and they are asked to give up the box office commission, it is very likely to achieve it.
If Cao Yang made a pure literary film with small investment, even if Li Zi joined, let alone the box office share, the salary would be reduced by half, and even a symbolic gain.
Who made this a big investment project? Even in the name of literary and artistic movies, even if the actors are willing to give up the box office share, their agency will not be willing, so they have to find a way to operate it.
What Cao Yang needs to cooperate is not to say in front of the media that he must use someone else. It is best to maintain an ambiguous attitude, as other Colombia can operate.
As for the choice of the filming location, Colombia also clearly told Cao Yang that in order to reduce production costs and reduce risks, the filming location can only be selected in a few places, and these places have tax incentives.
Colombia gave Cao Yang a list where he could film.
First is Canada, where many provinces here have subsidies. For example, the subsidy ratio in Quebec can reach 36%-40%, and Montreal has one of the largest studio clusters in North America.
The second is Hungary in Europe. They directly give tax cashbacks, and the proportion can even reach 30%. There is no annual budget ceiling and there are surcharges. The value-added tax in the EU is the lowest, only 5%, far lower than the 27% under normal circumstances.
The third is New South Wales, Australia, where they have a 25% cashback on production spending, and international projects can also add a federal subsidy of 10%.
Fourth, Ireland, their subsidy ratio is 32% cash back, and the maximum subsidy limit for a single item can reach 25 million, and the approval will be completed within 8 weeks.
Fifth, New Zealand, their subsidy is a step-by-step cashback mechanism, with 5 million to 20 million NZD, with a 30% cashback discount. As long as it exceeds 20 million NZD, it can even give a 40% cashback discount.
At the current exchange rate, 1 New York dollar is approximately equal to USD 0.6.
And, if you cooperate with local special effects companies, you can add an additional 8% subsidy.
For example, the "Lord of the Rings" series, because the main filming location is New Zealand, it also uses a local special effects company (actually, it is a special effects company specially built by director Peter Jackson for "Lord of the Rings").
After the subsidy, the cashback reached 48%, so a total of more than 120 million dollars was saved. According to the exchange rate, it was more than 70 million US dollars.
This list of Colombia is not aimless. These five places have complete photography bases, and local governments do not "debate their debts". They are all filming places that Hollywood often chooses.
Colombia has struggled to do this. They are afraid that Cao Yang will have an objection to the designated filming location, so they gave him five at one time.
Cao Yang was not resistant to this. After all, the preferential subsidies from the shooting place were implemented, and he also had them.
In the following days, Cao Yang either wrote the script of "Inception" or went to Fox Searchlight to edit "Juno", regardless of how Colombia operated the male lead.
The script of "Inception" is actually very easy to write. When Cao Yang was writing novels, he wrote them based on movies, so it was very simple to adapt.
Since the expiration of the contract with William Morris Fenjin agency in 1998, Li Zi has not renewed the contract, but has taken his agency team to separate and set up a personal brokerage studio.
From 1998 to 2001, during which time, Li Zi received resources with her personal agency studio, it was hard to describe it. It was not that he could not receive good resources, but that his vision was indeed a bit problematic, and he was even nominated for the worst male star of the Golden Raspberry Award.
If it were other stars who had no outstanding movies in three years, they would almost lose all the movies they filmed during this period, and they would definitely lose their status.
But Li Zi's blood was too thick, and the impact on him was minimized.
Li Zi also realized the problem. Since 2001, she has tried to contact the innovative artist agency CAA to carry out non-exclusive cooperation and gradually transfer resources.
CAA is also very sincere in order to get Little Lizi.
Twined Li Zi directly to Li Zi's high-quality resources "The New York Gangster" and "The Aviator", taking Li Zi's career a step further.
Although Xiao Lizi is still cooperating with CAA's non-exclusive agents, in fact, except for CAA, he has no cooperation with any other brokerage companies.
Colombia did not contact Li Zi through CAA, but directly contacted his personal agency studio. It was not wrong to do so. After all, Li Zi has not signed an exclusive agency contract with CAA.
Colombia wants to take advantage of this. They have dealt with CAA too many times and know that CAA is particularly difficult to deal with and is a famous "big trouble" in Hollywood.
For Hollywood studios, CAA will definitely be the first to choose the most annoying agency.
In Hollywood, the first person to win the early total box office share for directors and actors was CAA founder Michael Orwitz, a guy who made various studios hate him.
In Hollywood, Michael Orwitz started "packaging" services again, making various studios almost "supporting roles". Tom Rossman represents Columbia and serves as one of the producers of Inception, which is Little Little Studio he contacts.
Tom Rossman is sure that as long as he dares to contact CAA first, CAA will produce a "packaged" service project that revolves around Little Plum and looks very tempting in the shortest time.
Staff, actors, funds, filming locations, etc., a series of nested "services".
Don't think that's the end. Little Lizi's box office share cannot be reduced at all.
This is CAA.
Little Lizi was very moved that Colombia wanted to invite him to star in Cao Yang's movie.
His personal studio manager is Rick Jon, who was his agent at Enjin Agency and also served as an agent of Martin Scorsese and Cameron Diaz, and he came out from Enjin with him. "Rick, are you sure it is a movie directed by Cao Yang?" Little Lizi asked.
Rick Jon collected a large amount of information in a short time. He flipped through the information in his hand and nodded affirmatively.
"It should be impossible to be wrong. This movie is adapted from the novel, and the novel is excerpted from "Cao Yang's Fantasy Journey". Yes, the author is director Cao Yang. I didn't expect that he is also a best-selling writer."
The most new ⊥Xiao⊥Speak⊥Book⊥⊥Bar⊥⊥⊥⊥!
Little Lizi said in surprise: "I have heard of this book, but I thought it was a name with the same pronunciation. It was really the same person as Director Cao Yang?"
"Yes, yes, it was the same person."
Rick Jon replied while flipping through the information: "The Ninth District is also an article in this collection of novels. This is really unexpected. Many people also have the same idea as you, and they all think it is just the name pronunciation."
"Then what else can hesitate? Don't you decide directly? Being able to work with Director Cao Yang is something that many people dream of."
Little Lizi looked at his partner and didn't understand why he wanted to ask Colombia for consideration.
Rick Jon is one of the people he trusts the most, and he believes Rick Jon will definitely give himself a reason.
"Leo, Colombia said "Inception" is an art film, and I think you can understand what they mean."
Rick Jon spread his hands, shrugged his shoulders, and said with a wry smile:
"In fact, according to the information I got from the inside, the budget for "Inception" is definitely more than 100 million US dollars. This is not an ordinary art film, so I think we cannot treat it as an ordinary art film."
"Their offer is very low?"
Li Zi frowned and asked, "If a movie with such a big investment is bargaining in half the price of the film, it would be a bit insulting - I can take the initiative to reduce the film pay while liking the script, but you can't do this without shortage of funds." "That's not. They tentatively offer $18 million, but there is no box office dividend." Little Lizi was silent. He is a smart person. It can be seen from this that there should be some discussion on the pay, but box office dividends are probably difficult.
This is a bit like it is not up or down, very contradictory.
He must have wanted to cooperate with Cao Yang, but there is no reason not to talk about dividends for this kind of movie that does not lack funds to invest, but the other party said that this is an art film. Is it a bit too much to talk about dividends for art films?
But if you make an exception and don’t talk about dividends for movies with such a big investment, what about other movies next? It is not that easy to break by making exceptions.
If someone else said that a movie with such a big investment was an art film, Little Little Zi and Rick Jon would definitely spit out his face, "Bah, what are you pretending to be?" When will art films have such a big investment?
But this is Cao Yang's movie. The other party has never made a pure commercial movie yet. It is said to be an art film. Even if it is made with the rhythm of a commercial movie, it will definitely have meaning.
"Rick, have you read the novel "Inception"?"
Little Lizi asked. He was a little confused, but he is not a prize-winning maniac. Although he is eager for awards, he is not yet crazy and is still rational.
However, if the novel is good, it is better to cooperate with Cao Yang again, even if it is an exception, right?
"I looked around roughly and didn't understand it. There are many settings about dreams and dreams in dreams, which look like... stream of consciousness?"
" Stream of consciousness? Dream in dreams? What is that?"
Little Lizi began to frown. Why does it sound so unfriendly? Can others understand this thing after taking pictures?
"Then don't rush to reply to Colombia. I'll read the novel a few times first."
In contrast to Little Lizi, Depp received a notice from his agent that Cao Yang had a movie and wanted to invite him and asked him what he had any ideas.
Depp looked at his agent like a fool, and said coldly, "Give me a reason."
"What?" The agent was a little unfollowed Depp's idea.
"Is your head filled with feces? It's a movie directed by Cao Yang. Why do you still ask me for my opinion? Please agree quickly, shit!"
The agent silently scolded him in his heart. These fucking weirdos are hard to deal with. They don't speak through the brain. Of course, we also want to work with Director Cao Yang again. The key is that the conditions are not agreed upon.
"John, it's not that we don't want to cooperate. You are now one of the top actors in Hollywood and have won the Oscars for successive years. Your identity is different. When it comes to cooperation, you will definitely be inseparable from box office dividends..."
The agent glanced at Depp and explained: "The key is to look at what Colombia means. If you don't want to give you box office dividends, it's unacceptable..."
"So what?"
Depp emphasized again with a blank expression: "That's a movie directed by Cao Yang."
"I..."
I can't communicate with you the fuck. You don't want to pay dividends before you win the Oscar winner. You don't want to pay dividends after you win the Oscar winner again. Then isn't this Oscar winner in vain? "I heard that the company partners Martin Lessek and Jason Heiman switched to CAA, taking away comedy star Will Farrell and director Christopher Nolan." Depp said this and left without looking back, looking extremely chic. "Fuck you!"
The agent kicked the sofa in anger, then hugged his feet and sniffed the air conditioner, not knowing whether it was a pain in his feet or a headache.
threaten!
This is a fucking blatant threat!
Will the company be afraid?
Scared!
Is there any way?
There is a hairy way.
Just just now, two partners, one star and one big director. If Depp, the company's "No. 1" will leave in anger, will the company still be able to open?
Will it become the biggest laughing stock in Hollywood? That's certain.
Everyone says Depp is a weirdo, it's hard to deal with. He has seen it all, but he doesn't give his partner face at all.
It's so angry!
There is no way!
Fuck the weirdo!
(This chapter ends)