1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan and his friends chatted briefly with Catherine and then went to check in.

Bregman sat in Zhou Yan's room for half an hour and then stood up to say goodbye. After all, he was a very busy man, and it was not easy for him to come and pick up Zhou Yan in person.

Tomorrow is the celebration party for "The Sixth Sense", and as the producer of the film, he has a lot to do.

Originally, Bregman wanted to treat Zhou Yan to a meal, but Zhou Yan said that he had just eaten on the plane and was not hungry, so Bregman gave up.

Not long after Bregman left, Zhou Yan picked up the phone in the room and made a call.

"I'm Zhou Yan."

Hearing that it was Zhou Yan calling, Chris on the other end of the phone said happily, "You've arrived at the hotel? What's the room number?"

"1201." Zhou Yan reported his room number.

"Okay, Mr. Zhou, please wait for me."

After saying that, Chris hung up the phone.

After about two minutes, the doorbell of Zhou Yan's room rang.

Zhou Yan walked over and saw Chris standing outside through the peephole.

Opening the door, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "You came quite quickly."

"I'm just downstairs. You can just take the stairs up."

Knowing that Zhou Yan was coming to the United States today, Chris arrived a day in advance and checked into the hotel where Zhou Yan and his friends were staying. He has been waiting for Zhou Yan's call today.

"Please come in."

Inviting Chris to the room, Zhou Yan said with a smile, "There is no tea here to entertain you."

"You're welcome. Have you had lunch yet? Do you want us to go have lunch together? There's a restaurant nearby that serves pretty good steaks and it's not too far to walk there."

Zhou Yan waved his hand and said, "Let's eat steak next time. I had a meal on the plane and I'm not hungry at all now." Zhou Yan opened his bag and took out a script. "This is the English version of Shutter Island."

The translation of this script was completed just the day before yesterday. Since Zhou Yan was coming to Los Angeles, he brought it with him.

He also knew that Chris was in a hurry, so he didn't exchange pleasantries and directly handed the script to Chris.

Chris took the script and flipped through it with a smile. "Thank you, Mr. Zhou. I will take it to the company as soon as possible."

Zhou Yan immediately started to chase the guests away, "If you have nothing else to do, go quickly."

Although he was being escorted away, Chris was still quite happy because he didn't want to waste any more time here. He nodded and said, "Okay, I'll let you know as soon as I have any news."

"Well, you can come see me before tomorrow morning. After noon, we can make another appointment."

"clear."

After saying that, Chris stood up and said goodbye.

……

After leaving the hotel, Chris rushed to the company and handed the script to Terry Semel.

Terry Semel was dealing with other things, but when he heard that Zhou Yan's script had arrived, he put down the work at hand and concentrated on reading the script.

While he was reading the script, Chris was waiting by his side.

Chris believed that Terry Semel would be impressed by the script.

The result was just as Chris expected. After reading the script, Terry Semel burst into laughter and said, "Chris, you did a great job. This script is very good and worth our full efforts."

Chris smiled and said, "Should I go talk to Y directly, or should the company send someone else to do it?"

Terry Semel thought for a moment and said, "You should go talk to Y. After all, you two are more familiar with each other, and you are good at Chinese, so it will be convenient for communication. He will not stay in the United States for too long this time, so we need to make a quick decision."

"That's right. The key is that he has a lot of things to do. In addition to the celebration party for "The Sixth Sense", he also has to deal with the soundtrack work for "Titanic". I heard that Thompson has also arranged some other activities for him, so his schedule is relatively tight these days. Before coming, he also told me that I can go to him directly before noon tomorrow, and after noon, I have to make another appointment." Chris said.

"In that case, you should go back to him as soon as possible. Even if we can't finalize the specific details in a short period of time, we must discuss the general direction of cooperation. Otherwise, I'm worried that something will go wrong. He is here to attend the celebration party of "The Sixth Sense". No one knows whether Columbia will jump out halfway."

Chris nodded and asked, "Then my authority..."

"Under $1.8 million, you..." Terry Semel paused for a moment and continued, "Under $2 million, you can make the decision."

The main reason is that the cost of scripts has increased rapidly in the past two years. Some famous screenwriters sell a script for more than three million US dollars, or even four million US dollars.

For example, Shane Black wrote the script for the movie "Sex and the City" which will be released this year, and it was auctioned for a high price of four million US dollars.

Although Zhou Yan is not a well-known screenwriter, he is now quite famous in the film industry, and his scripts will definitely not be cheap.

Two million U.S. dollars, in Terry Semel's opinion, was considered quite sincere.

Chris also felt that two million dollars was already quite good, so he was quite confident in getting this permission, "Okay, I'll go talk to Y now."

"Oh, and," Terry Semel said again, "if possible, let's see if there's any hope of getting him to compose the music for this movie. His music is very popular right now."

"What about the negotiation rights for the soundtrack?" Chris asked.

"Go and test his attitude first. It would be best if you can finalize the script first."

"Okay, I understand." Chris didn't leave in a hurry. He asked again, "What if Zhou Yan asks about the film's budget, director, and casting?"

"Don't proactively tell him about these. If he asks, just tell him the budget is over 40 million US dollars. As for the director and casting, you should ask him what he thinks. Didn't he say last time that he had a favorite director?"

"It's because he mentioned it before that I wanted to confirm it."

"Whatever he has in mind, you should verbally agree to it first."

Chris nodded, "Got it."

……

It was just past five in the evening when Chris knocked on Zhou Yan's door again.

At this moment, Zhou Yan was writing music in his room. He had promised to write another song for Shizuka Kudo before, but it was not just a casual promise. He planned to write the song during this period of time, and maybe he could record it when Shizuka came to Yanjing in a while. Hearing the knock on the door, Zhou Yan put down his pen, got up and went to check. He was quite surprised to see Chris standing outside the door.

After opening the door, he asked in surprise, "Chris, how did you get here so quickly?"

"Our company is not far from here." Chris smiled, "and we are very eager to cooperate with you, so we came back without stopping."

Zhou Yan nodded, "From what you said, your company is interested in this script."

"Of course, the script of Shutter Island is excellent. The company has decided to buy the script. What do you think about the fee? The screenwriter's fee in Hollywood is generally around $500,000, and well-known screenwriters can expect to get more than $1 million. Our company values ​​you very much and will definitely give you a higher fee as appropriate."

Zhou Yan didn't know much about the screenwriter's fees in Hollywood, but he felt that the numbers Chris said were a bit off.

"Don't talk to me about the screenwriting fee. Go talk to Zhang Youan. Don't you two know each other?"

Chris was stunned for a moment. He had anticipated many possibilities on the way, but he didn't expect that Zhou Yan would not talk to him about the screenwriting fee at all.

This was a little confusing for him. When they wanted to buy "The Chorus" before, Xu Feng should have made the decision on his own, but Xu Feng insisted on asking Zhou Yan, and it was Zhou Yan who rejected it in the end.

Now when it comes to the screenwriter's fee, Zhou Yan can decide on his own, but he insists on talking to Zhang Youan.

Some screenwriters have agents and do like to have their agents help them negotiate business, but usually, the general direction is discussed by the screenwriters themselves, and they will only contact the agent when some details are involved.

After all, the cooperation model between screenwriters and agents is different from that between artists.

But when it came to Zhou Yan, everything was reversed.

Could this be a negotiation strategy of Zhou Yan and Xu Feng?

Chris didn't give up when he thought about it. He continued to argue, "How about you tell me your thoughts first, so that when I talk to Zhang Youan, it will be more efficient. I think even if Zhang Youan talks to me, he will definitely ask you what you think."

Zhou Yan shook his head. "No need. Zhang Youan has full authority over the screenwriter's fee. You don't need to ask me. It would be a waste of time if you talk to me now, because what I talk to you won't count. After all, I don't know much about the market in Hollywood. And Zhang Youan is in the United States now, so it would be convenient for you to contact him."

"Is that so?" Chris groaned. "Then I'll call him now and ask him to come over, and then the three of us can talk together?"

Zhou Yan shrugged his shoulders and said, "I have no problem with that, but you have to see if Zhang Youan has time."

Chris nodded and called Zhang Youan directly.

He was in frequent contact with Zhang Youan and knew Zhang Youan's contact information in the United States.

The call was connected quickly, and Chris quickly told Zhang Youan what happened.

Zhang Youan told Chris that he was still in New York, but would arrive in Los Angeles tomorrow morning. If they wanted to talk in person, they could wait until tomorrow morning.

Chris thought about it secretly and decided to wait until Zhang Youan came tomorrow morning before talking, so that the matter could be settled quickly.

After making an appointment to meet tomorrow morning, Chris hung up the phone, then turned to Zhou Yan and said, "Teacher Zhou, I have made an appointment with Zhang Youan to meet at your place tomorrow."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Well, just make an agreement. I don't have any requirements for the screenwriter's fee, but I will have some requirements in terms of copyright."

When Chris heard Zhou Yan talk about copyright requirements, his eyes lit up. No matter what, as long as they negotiated the conditions, it would be fine.

"Can you tell me what the copyright requirements are?"

"We can't discuss the details until Zhang Youan arrives, but I want to tell you in advance that I will adapt the script of Shutter Island into a novel, which will be published and sold in due course, so the copyright for this must be agreed upon."

When Chris heard that Zhou Yan was going to adapt "Shutter Island" into a novel and publish it, he was even happier because it was a good thing for them.

Although this novel may not necessarily become a hit, it will at least have some positive promotional effect on the movie.

It is best to have a complete set of configurations for the promotion and distribution of movies. Combining movies with novels is a very good way. This is also one of the reasons why so many film companies like to adapt novels into movies.

A movie that has an original novel has an innate advantage.

"Of course, no problem. If you agree, we can also discuss the film and television adaptation rights of the novel."

"Just tell Zhang Youan about this."

Chris nodded. "You said before that you had a favorite director. Can you tell me about him now?"

This time Zhou Yan did not keep the secret, but directly told Chris a name, "Martin Scorsese."

When he heard the name, Chris blinked, quite surprised, because he had actually thought of Martin Scorsese before.

After reading the script, Chris was thinking about which director would be suitable for this movie. Many names flashed through his mind, and Martin Scorsese was the one he thought was most suitable.

Zhou Yan wants to invite Martin Scorsese, which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

Martin Scorsese is indeed quite suitable for making this kind of movie, but the problem is that Martin Scorsese is not easy to invite. He is not the kind of director who can be hired by spending some money.

Among all Hollywood directors, Martin Scorsese's commercial purpose is relatively weak, he has his own persistence.

However, if the script can impress Martin Scorsese, things will become very easy.

The key question now is whether Martin Scorsese will be impressed by this script.

Although Chris thinks Martin Scorsese is suitable for this script, this is all his subjective opinion. As for what Martin Scorsese would think, he has no way of knowing for sure.

But in order to get Zhou Yan to hand over the script to them, Chris said confidently, "Since you want to work with Mr. Scorsese, we will definitely try our best to satisfy you. In fact, our company has a very close cooperation with Mr. Scorsese. You know, the film Goodfellas, which won him the Silver Lion Award, was made in cooperation with our company."

Of course Zhou Yan knew about "Goodfellas", and he also knew that the film won the Silver Lion Award, but he didn't know whether Scorsese had close cooperation with Warner.

It is normal for these well-known directors to have some cooperation with big Hollywood studios.

Zhou Yan also thought of many directors, but after much deliberation, he still felt that it would be better to let Martin Scorsese shoot the movie. After all, he was the one who shot the original version and the result was very good.

Scorsese is not a young director, and his current style is very mature. There shouldn't be any problems if he shoots the film.

As for the actors, although Leo performed well, there are many actors who can replace him, such as Kevin Costner who just starred in "The Sixth Sense" and Bruce Willis, one of the original candidates.

Both of these people have great acting skills and good box office appeal.

In addition to the two of them, Zhou Yan thinks Tom Hanks is also very good. The key is that Tom Hanks has a strong box office appeal and belongs to the first echelon. (End of this chapter)