Made in Hollywood

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Carrying a briefcase, Nancy got out of the elevator, turned into the corridor, came to Duke's door, and gently rang the doorbell.

The door opened, revealing the face of a blonde, and Nancy frowned, "Why are you?"

"Hello, Nancy."

Saying hello to the agent, Naomi quickly moved to open the door and let Nancy in, "Are you here to find Duke? He's calling from the study, I'll call him."

Seeing the hurried back, the unhappiness on Nancy's face was fleeting, walked to the sofa and sat down, skillfully took a silver pot, and poured herself a glass of water.

Hanging up Zach Schneider's phone, Duke walked into the living room, beckoned to Nancy at random, and placed the cordless phone on the base.

"So early?" he said to the female agent.

"There are important things."

Nancy didn’t care about Duke, but looked at Naomi Watts who came out from behind. Naomi was not stupid, grabbed the bag hanging on the hanger, and said to Duke, “I have something else, first ∮⊥, gone."

"Goodbye."

Since Nancy came directly to the door, there must be something important, and Duke didn't want to stay, and sent her out of the house.

"You guys got together?"

As soon as the door was closed, Duke heard an unhappy voice from the female agent, "Duke, what the agent doesn't like to see is that his clients get together!"

"Things are not what you think."

Sitting on the sofa opposite Nancy, Duke made a gesture that you understand, "This is just a playful game, don't worry."

Seeing that Duke didn't seem to be joking, Nancy nodded slightly, opened the briefcase, and said, "There is bad news. Yesterday I contacted Twentieth Century Fox again. They didn't mean to back down."

"There is another good news." She handed over an invitation letter. "This morning, Warner Bros. officially sent a letter, wanting to start negotiations with us on "Cruising to Death Island"."

"Warner Bros?"

Even if he was as calm as Duke, when he heard the news, his spirits were refreshed, and finally...the film company paid attention to it again.

"And I have the exact news." Nancy seemed extremely caring. "Warner's investment in "Batman Returns" takes time to return, and he has invested heavily in projects such as "Death of the Dead" that will be released next year or even the next year. Capital, the current budget is a bit tight..."

"In other words, they might accept my investment?" Duke immediately understood what Nancy meant.

"possible……"

Before Duke was happy, Nancy went on to say, "Even so, you can only get short-term income. With your current capital, you don't have the strength to share the long-term income of the film."

"Box office, video tape and TV copyright transfers are enough." Duke did not think about getting long-term meal tickets.

Afterwards, the two discussed some things to pay attention to when contacting Warner. Nancy Josephson expressed the greatest enthusiasm for Duke’s investment. The reason is simple. Once it succeeds, Duke’s salary will be excluded. In addition to a ten-percent rake, she can also get five percent of Duke's investment income.

There is no free lunch in the world.

The film industry itself is like gambling. There is only the greatest chance of success. There is no inevitable success. To a certain extent, Duke is betting that he can succeed. Nancy is also betting that he can succeed. Although there are risks, she may find out after a busy schedule. Duke's investment is at a loss and he can't get anything, but what if the film can be as successful as "Life and Death"? She will get a generous commission!

The next day, the trio of Duke, Nancy and Sofia walked into the Burbank Warner Bros. building as agreed by both parties.

They were received by Jeff Robinoff, who is in charge of the film production business of Warner Bros.

"Duke, we meet again."

Sitting on both sides of the long conference table, the bald Jewish descent said directly, "I have been thinking these days, if I gave you ten more minutes, would "Speed ​​of Life and Death" now belong to Warner."

With a polite smile, Duke didn't say anything, because the answer was obvious. Even if it was given two more hours, the other party would not be impressed by his newcomers.

The two sides quickly cut into the theme. This is the most common commercial film cooperation in Hollywood. The friendship and relationship are all false. Warner Bros. wants to cooperate with Duke because it can be seen from the "Break into Death Island" Profit prospects, and Duke can sit here instead of hiding behind the scenes because Warner intends to accept investment.

Just like the collaboration between "Life and Death" and Twentieth Century Fox, everyone takes what they need, and then on the basis of reaching consensus, minimize or put aside differences between them.

This is only the first negotiation, and it is still too early to reach an agreement. The negotiation is about to end. When Jeff Robinoff asked, Duke also truthfully answered the special requirements he needs once the project is established.

"There are a lot of soldiers, combat and military equipment involved in the film. I need professional military advisers, and I better get the support of the Pentagon."

"For the soundtrack, it is best to invite Hans Zimmer; Associate director, photographer, editor and production manager, please give priority to the candidates I recommend; I hope that I can give priority to my opinion when editing later."

With such an investment, Duke knew that he could not get the final editing rights, so he could only list one such item.

None of these opponents will immediately agree, and they need to fight one by one in a see-saw negotiation.

Afterwards, Duke and his party left Warner, and the rest of the negotiations were handed over to agent Nancy. This is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, and it is difficult to say whether it will be successful in the end, so he did not give up on continuing to contact other companies. opportunity.

Negotiations must be negotiated one by one from their respective capital contributions, income distribution, crew composition, Duke's various rights and obligations, and so on, and written into the final contract.

"It seems I don't need to find another job."

After getting out of the Warner Building and getting in Duke’s Bentley, Sophia said to the driver while wearing a seat belt, “Don’t forget, now I’m an assistant and assistant director, and I’ll be an assistant director and producer in the future. You promised me Yes, Duke."

Why did she come back to Los Angeles from Europe, not specifically to be someone else's assistant, but for her own movie dream.

Duke also knew this. After starting the car, he said, "We are all newbies, we can explore and grow together, or we can fight together for the ideas in our hearts."

"Our film concepts seem to be a bit different, right?" Sophia tilted her head and looked at him, "I am not interested in madly destroying a city... No, it is madly destroying the world in movies."

This difference in philosophy cannot be bridged. Duke shrugged and simply changed the subject, "Did you hand over the script to Nikolai? Does he have any indication?"

"He accepted it." Sophia understood that Duke was talking about his cousin Cage. "It feels interesting."

"Just interesting?" Duke turned to look at her.

"This is not the type that Nikolai likes." Sophia said of course. "He likes some more offbeat characters and he is not interested in action movies."

"Today's Hollywood, if you want to become a real superstar, you have to enter the mainstream movie circle." Duke turned the steering wheel, the car turned on the road to West Hollywood, "Look at Depp, starred in so many well received praise However, the role of Keanu Reeves has always been inferior, even today’s Keanu Reeves can’t match.”

"These words..." Sophia snorted, "If you have a chance, you should tell Nikolai yourself."

The actors are not in a hurry, after all, the negotiations with Warner have not yet come to fruition.

Subsequently, Duke began to wait patiently, while continuing to perfect the preparations he had been doing. Together with Sophia, he hid in the Duke’s studio in North Hollywood, drew the artwork for the shots, and developed the basic script; with the photographer John Schwarzman discussed how to take shots that excite the audience; and Zach Schneider discussed the color of the picture in the future production.

Movies are by no means a masterpiece of one person. Any successful director is surrounded by a team of outstanding capabilities. No director is an exception.

Assembling a team with a philosophy similar to that of himself, with cooperation and a tacit understanding, is something that every director will do on the road to success, and Duke is no exception. Apart from these people, he also takes time to interact with Robin Grand and the editor. Mike Dawson has met several times, and they, who are temporarily out of work, are very interested in working together again.

This is Hollywood. There is not much information that can be kept secret. The contact between Duke and Warner Bros. was quickly learned by Twentieth Century Fox. According to the gossip obtained by Duke, they were extremely dissatisfied with this and completely shelved their relationship with Duke. However, Duke has not initialed any agreement with them, the money exchanges have been settled long ago, and Fox can't get his painful foot for a while.

It is normal business cooperation with Twentieth Century Fox, and it is also normal business cooperation with Warner Bros., at least on the surface, no one else can tell.

But Duke understands that the high-levels of Fox in the 20th century must be unhappy, and he may never overestimate the moral standards of capital.

If the new film project goes well, 20th Century Fox will be obstructed by Warner Bros. They may just watch. If they encounter trouble, they will definitely jump out and fall into trouble.

Duke will not be afraid, nor will he escape. When any super director is on his way to success, he will not have a smooth journey. Hollywood is a vanity fair that fights with money, power, fame and talent, not pure goodness. world.

In the past half of August, after more than ten days of see-saw negotiations, Duke finally reached a consensus with Warner Bros. Pictures, and then initialed a cooperation agreement. Duke finally looked forward to it. It was the second time to officially pick up the guide tube. (My novel "Hollywood Production" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there will also be a 100% lucky draw gift for everyone! Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign at the top right "add friend", search Pay attention to the official account "qdread", hurry up!)