1990: Starting from Baojia Street

"How much budget are you going to invest in this movie?" Zhou Yan asked another question that he was more concerned about.

Chris blurted out, "At least fifty million dollars."

Terry Semel told him that it would be at least 40 million US dollars, so he immediately increased the bid to at least 50 million US dollars.

Hearing that it would be at least 50 million US dollars, Zhou Yan nodded. It would be great if he could really have this budget.

In Zhou Yan's opinion, this movie should be able to be made with 30 to 40 million US dollars.

Of course, the higher the budget, the better.

Anyway, Zhou Yan will not invest this time, so the box office is not that important. As long as the movie can be made well, it will be fine. Anyway, the risks will be borne by Warner, and he will not lose a penny.

In Hollywood, although screenwriters can get a share of the profits, usually they can only sign a profit share.

However, under Hollywood's accounting mechanism, profit sharing is too manipulable. No matter how high the box office of a movie is, it is possible to make zero profit or even a loss.

Therefore, screenwriters will generally ask for a little more screenwriter fee. As for the 5% profit share, it is all illusory and screenwriters don’t take it too seriously.

After all, whether this thing exists or not depends purely on the conscience of the production company.

And expecting these companies to take money out of their own pockets and share it with everyone is not very likely.

Of course, some screenwriters are more capable and can negotiate box office revenue sharing with production companies.

Compared with profit sharing, box office sharing is more reliable. No matter whether the movie makes money or not, as long as there is box office, you can get a share of the money.

However, even if a box office sharing agreement is signed, production companies will generally only agree to a tiered box office sharing plan, and the sharing will only be activated when a certain box office is reached.

When Zhou Yan took on the job of "Titanic", there was relevant content in the contract between him and Fox, but it was not nominally a share of the profits, but a bonus.

There are three periods in total. As long as the global box office of "Titanic" exceeds 500 million US dollars, Zhou Yan's studio can get a bonus of 500,000 US dollars. If it exceeds 1 billion US dollars, the bonus will be increased to 1.5 million US dollars. If it exceeds 1.5 billion US dollars, the bonus can reach 3 million US dollars.

Fox signed this contract without any psychological burden, especially the box office of 1.5 billion US dollars, which they had never thought about at all.

"The leaders of your company are quite courageous. They approved the budget so quickly."

Chris smiled and said, "It's because the company leaders value you more. What do you think about the actors?"

"Kevin Costner, Tom Hanks, and Bruce Willis, I am more optimistic about the three actors who can play the male lead. As for the other actors, I don't have any idea." Zhou Yan said.

Hearing the three names Zhou Yan mentioned, Chris nodded secretly. These three actors are indeed suitable for the male leading roles, and all three of them have good status and box office appeal.

The key is that Zhou Yan mentioned three names. This way, they have a lot more room for choice, and it is not difficult to invite one of them.

What Chris fears most is that Zhou Yan only has one choice, then they will be very passive. The schedules of these well-known actors are full and they may not be able to make it.

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhou. As long as the cooperation is confirmed, we will contact these three actors as soon as possible." Chris said.

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "No hurry, let's decide on the director first. These candidates are just my ideas, it depends on what the director thinks, and I don't really want to interfere with the director's creation."

Not only did he not want to interfere with the director's creation, he also wanted to learn something from these famous directors.

These well-known directors all have some unique skills.

The directors Zhou Yan has worked with, whether it is Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Wang Junzheng, or An Li, each of them has his own understanding of movies and different ways of making movies.

And every time he worked with them, Zhou Yan always thought about learning something from them.

The reason why he can improve so quickly is that he has been working with excellent directors and excellent teams.

Looking back over the past few years, Zhou Yan has never worked with any unknown directors, from Hou Xiaoxian, Zhang Yimou to Chen Kaige, Wang Junzheng, Zhang Jianya, Tsui Hark, and Stephen Chow. Later, he worked with Hollywood directors such as Ann Lee, Brest, and Cameron. Each of them is a leader in the industry.

The only one who is less famous is Olivier, but Olivier’s level is not bad at all. After the great success of "Flying Piano Boy", his career in France is also booming.

Although Olivier doesn't make many movies now, the documentaries he made are very famous in France.

It's probably hard to find a second leveling path as dreamy as this one.

Moreover, Zhou Yan himself is a director, and he understands directors' ideas too well. No successful director would want others to interfere too much in his or her creation.

A director who can accept that his creations are constantly interfered with is destined to never become a successful director.

Chris was of course very happy to hear Zhou Yan say this. If the screenwriter interferes too much, it will indeed affect the director's performance. If it is an ordinary director, it would be fine, but if it is Scorsese, he is not someone who will be dominated by others.

Even in Hollywood's industrialized system, Scorsese is not easily disturbed.

"Okay, I'll do as you say. We'll talk about casting once the director decides."

The two chatted for a while. Chris looked at the time and said with a smile, "It's getting late. I'll treat you to dinner. How about the steak restaurant I told you about at noon?"

"Okay, let's go try that steak you mentioned."

"I promise you will..."

Chris was halfway through his words when the doorbell rang.

Zhou Yan stood up and asked, "Who?"

Catherine's voice sounded outside, "Y, it's us."

Hearing that it was Catherine, Zhou Yan ran to open the door.

Catherine and Kevin Costner were standing outside the door. Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Kevin, Catherine, hello."

"Hello, Y." Kevin said with a smile.

It was the first time that Kevin Costner met Zhou Yan in person. He was not there when Zhou Yan went to Columbia Pictures before, so the two had never met.

"Hello, please come in."

When they entered the house, they saw Chris, and Catherine smiled and said, "You have guests here."

Zhou Yan introduced with a smile, "This is Chris, Chris, these are Katherine and Kevin."

Chris went over and shook hands with Catherine and the others enthusiastically. "You two did so well in The Sixth Sense. I'm a huge fan of both of you. I'm very happy to see you."

Faced with the enthusiastic Chris, Kevin and Catherine were a little confused. They didn't understand who Chris was and why he appeared in Zhou Yan's room.

However, Zhou Yan did not give any detailed introduction, and they did not ask in detail.

After a few pleasantries, Zhou Yan asked, "Have you two eaten?"

"Not yet," Katherine smiled.

"That's great. Chris said there's a restaurant nearby that serves delicious steaks. Let's go there together." Zhou Yan then turned to Chris and asked, "Chris, do you mind if we go together?"

"Of course I don't mind." Chris said immediately.

Chris also wanted to invite Catherine and the others to dinner together, but he didn't want to bring it up on his own initiative, after all, tonight's dinner was mainly about Zhou Yan.

Now that Zhou Yan has taken the initiative to bring it up, there is no reason for him to refuse.

I won't talk about Katherine, Kevin Costner is one of the three candidates for the leading actor of "Shutter Island", so Chris certainly wants to get in touch with him in advance so that he can contact him later when the role is confirmed. Besides, Kevin Costner has cooperated with Warner a lot.

……

The restaurant Chris mentioned was indeed not far away, and the four of them arrived in about seven or eight minutes on foot.

After placing the order, when I was ordering, the song "Für Alice" that was originally playing in the restaurant ended, and suddenly a familiar music sounded.

Apart from Zhou Yan, Catherine was the first to react. She covered her mouth and said in surprise, "It's 'Young and Beautiful'."

After hearing what Catherine said, Kevin and Chris also heard it.

Chris laughed and said, “This song is very popular now and can be heard everywhere.”

"Young and Beautiful" is suitable for many occasions. Both the tune and the song are very popular. Places like shopping malls prefer to play songs sung by Mariah Carey, while slightly more upscale restaurants prefer to play instrumental music.

Some restaurants not only play the song on the radio, but even have violin or pianist perform the song live.

“And ‘Someone Like You’, I hear it often too,” Kevin said.

The popularity of "Someone Like You" is much lower than that of "Young and Beautiful", after all, it does not have the bonus of a pop song.

Speaking of "Someone Like You", Katherine recalled something. "I saw on TV before that many of Mariah Carey's fans were calling for her to sing "Someone Like You". Some fans even made a banner and asked everyone to sign it, and many people signed it."

"Oh, is there such a thing?" Zhou Yan had never heard of this.

"Yes, it was around the time after the Oscars. I haven't heard it recently," said Catherine.

Chris nodded. "Yes, it happened. It was mainly because during the Oscars, Mariah said in an interview that she hoped to sing Someone Like You, so her fans were very excited. Is it possible that this song could be made into a song?"

"Well, it's possible, but I haven't thought of who will sing it yet."

In fact, Mariah Carey did mention this matter, but Zhou Yan didn't take it seriously at the time because she felt that Mariah Carey might not be particularly suitable for this song.

Catherine smiled and said, "I hope it can be confirmed soon, so that I can listen to new songs earlier. I haven't heard any new songs recently."

Chris joked, "Maybe you can wait for Titanic. This time Y will compose the music for them, and maybe they'll have some hot songs."

"Well, when I heard that Y was going to compose the soundtrack for Titanic, I was really looking forward to the soundtrack for this movie. In fact, I think the soundtrack for The Sixth Sense is also very good, but it's just not suitable for listening to alone on a normal day."

Kevin laughed and said, "Indeed, the music of The Sixth Sense is a bit darker. It's great for movies, but not suitable for daily listening."

"Then you can wait for the soundtrack of The Chorus. The music in this movie is very suitable for daily listening. It also has vocals. The voices of those children are like heavenly music, very beautiful."

"Actually, I've already seen the movie. It's really good." Catherine said with a smile.

Kevin was surprised and asked, "Has The Chorus already been released in the U.S.? Didn't they say it would be released in a while?"

"I watched it in the UK. The movie had just been released in the UK, and I happened to be in London two days ago. The movie is very popular in the UK, and the attendance rate is very high."

Zhou Yan smiled. Catherine's words were purely a compliment. The box office performance of The Chorus in the UK was quite average.

There are not many screenings to begin with, so the attendance rate is just okay. It is estimated that the film will not be shown for too long before being taken off the screen.

Of course, neither Tang Chen nor Zhou Yan had any expectations for the box office of "The Chorus" in the UK. They would be satisfied with a box office of several hundred thousand pounds.

“The film did very well in France,” Chris said.

After all, they originally wanted to buy the remake rights of "The Chorus", so Chris was more concerned about the box office of this movie.

"I heard that too. I heard that the number of moviegoers was over one million?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "Yes, it is indeed more than one million."

"It's great. The Chorus deserves to be seen by more people. It's really the best movie I've seen recently."

In response to Catherine's compliment, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Thank you for your support."

Then he changed the subject, "What are you two working on lately?"

"I'm currently in talks for a new movie, but it hasn't been finalized yet," said Catherine.

In fact, she is in talks for quite a few movies, but the most reliable one is "The Mask of Zorro" directed by Martin Campbell.

Kevin Costner laughed, "I'm busy making my own movie."

"Is it The Postman?" Chris asked.

Kevin looked at Chris in surprise, "How did you know?"

“Because our company participated in the production.”

Hearing this, Kevin narrowed his eyes, "Are you... from Warner?"

"The Postman" was a collaboration between Kevin Costner's own company and Warner, so when Chris said that, he naturally guessed that Chris was from Warner.

Chris nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm from Warner."

Kevin and Catherine were both a little surprised. They didn't expect Chris to be from Warner.

It seems that Y must be making some moves again, so he contacted the people from Warner.

However, although they were a little surprised, neither of them thought much about it. It was not their concern which company Zhou Yan cooperated with.

When Zhou Yan heard Kevin talking about his new movie, he remembered that this guy was actually a director, and the kind of director who became famous overnight.

Kevin's first film as a director and producer, Dances with Wolves, was nominated for twelve Oscars and ultimately won seven awards, including the Academy Award for Best Director.

The key point is that this movie not only won numerous awards, but also performed very well at the box office, with a global box office of over 400 million US dollars.

It is said that Zhou Yan's debut performance was very good, but compared with Kevin Costner, it is nothing.

Kevin reached a peak that countless directors could never reach in their entire lives with just one movie.

The most infuriating thing is that his second film was equally strong.

Several years later, he directed his second film "Waterworld", in which he also directed and starred, and it also caused a huge response. Although it did not win as many awards and box office as "Dances with Wolves", it also had a global box office of more than 200 million US dollars.

The box office of the two films is close to 700 million US dollars.

With just these two films, Kevin Costner has established himself as a top director.

He is currently preparing to shoot "The Postman", which is also his third directorial film. Warner attaches great importance to it and has given it a high budget.

Zhou Yan suddenly remembered what An Li said before, that a director’s third film is very important, which determines whether a director’s career can be strong and long-lasting.

Even though Kevin Costner's first two films achieved fantastic results, his third film is still very important. If it does not perform well, it will have a huge impact on his directorial career.

The performance of "The Postman" was not good. Perhaps the fact that Kevin Costner did not have many well-known works later was related to the poor performance of this movie. (End of this chapter)