~： One hundred and four - signing

After the assistant director was chosen, Wayne breathed a sigh of relief, and now he is waiting for news from Warner Bros.

From the end of July to mid-August, he was preparing simple sub-shots, communicating with Zach Snyder on the phone, and discussing issues about camera positions and shooting techniques.

Warner Bros. finally passed the risk assessment and gave the green light to the project review, informing Jimmy that he could start negotiations on director compensation at any time.

Although Wayne waited anxiously, he knew that the investment of a large amount of money, even for such a giant company, had to go through all the necessary procedures.

If, as legend has it, the CEO of a Hollywood production company could easily decide on a movie project with an investment of tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, then it would not be so troublesome.

But legends are legends after all. Any mature production company has its own inspection system and power constraints, and every investment will be very cautious.

"I'm going to make a high price with Warner Bros. regarding your director's treatment!" Jimmy said that he was very confident in the business he was good at, and Wayne was also qualified to negotiate the price with them.

"With your commercial achievements, you can basically get the rights of a first-line director, including the final editing rights."

"I'll leave it to you, you know my bottom line!" I leave professional things to professional people. Wayne has no opinion on these. Jimmy and his interests are tied together, and he will definitely try his best to get rid of the previous company. Take a bite of meat.

And he is no longer the rookie director who holds the film and can't find a distributor. If Warner Bros. breaks through his bottom line, he is not incapable of resisting.

In terms of business performance, he already has the capital to negotiate with major companies.

"Ok, leave it to me!"

The two discussed the film for a while, and Jimmy left Wayne's house in a hurry, went back to organize the information, and prepared to start negotiations with Warner Bros. as soon as possible.

After a long period of screening, "Get Out" has basically dropped from the global stage. There are only a few remote theaters in North America that Warner has greeted, and there are still one or two screenings a day.

The film's overseas screenings have all ended, and the global box office has accumulated more than 310 million US dollars, which has made the major media collectively carnival.

The North American box office has accumulated a total of more than 165 million US dollars. Although this number is still growing tenaciously, it will not increase to the level of one million US dollars in the end. It can be said that this is the final number.

In the media coverage, Wayne has quietly entered the upper echelons of Hollywood.

After Jimmy and Warner Bros. had two tentative contacts, the two sides slowly negotiated many conditions. In the final analysis, everything was in vain, and only interests could allow the two sides to compromise.

"Get Out" has been released globally one after another, giving Warner Bros. great confidence and relaxing the negotiation standards on some unnecessary conditions.

The time entered September, and after two weeks of wrangling, Warner Bros. and Jimmy finally reached an agreement and negotiated a contract with the director.

The investment cost of the film "Joker" is 60 million US dollars, which is wholly-owned by Warner Bros. At the same time, Warner Bros. will serve as the film's North American distributor and global distributor.

The reason why he went through such a long period of wrangling is because Jimmy called out a sky-high salary for the director.

The first time he negotiated the director's remuneration, he called out the 20+20 top commercial director's treatment, which almost scared Thomas Mendes, who negotiated on behalf of Warner, to his back.

20+20, which represents the director's base salary of 20 million US dollars, plus 20% of the global box office share, the price Jimmy shouted is really scary, but he also knew that the other party would not agree.

Are you negotiating, asking for a price, sitting on the ground to pay back!

His job is to strive for more profits for his clients.

During the trial of both parties, a consensus was gradually reached. Wayne was no longer a rookie director, and he couldn't afford to spend millions more, and finally negotiated a sharing contract again.

Wayne can get 10% of the total North American box office after the film is released, as a post-director share. Of course, the premise is that the North American box office of the "Joker" project must exceed the production cost by three times, which is $180,000.

The box office share is fixed, and there is no incentive to fluctuate.

As the project sponsor, screenwriter, director, and second producer of the film, he has a basic salary of $10 million, which will be paid in three installments, before the film starts, after the production is completed, and when the film is released.

In fact, Jimmy also wanted to bite a piece of meat off the edge of the film, but he was obviously a little whimsical. After feeling the firm attitude of the other party, he immediately dismissed the idea.

The red line of a movie company is the peripheral products. If you want to pass this part of the income and cross this red line, you must be the top commercial director and superstar in Hollywood, otherwise you don’t have to think about it.

The income in this area is different from the one-shot deal such as basic remuneration and box office share, and the profit guarantee of these film companies. Peripheral income is generally not a lot in the short term, but it can be there for many years.

As long as the film is still in the production company's copyright library and brings revenue to the production company, the director who enjoys this share will receive a steady stream of revenue, which can even be passed on to future generations...

The current contract may still be a bit far from those top directors, but this is already the top director contract in this circle.

For the smooth operation of the crew, Warner Bros. once again sent Wayne's old friend, John Gray, as the representative and producer of the production company, and two assistant directors, mainly responsible for assisting the director and producer in the preparatory work.

One of the assistant directors is a casting director, who will help Wayne and John conduct the first round of auditions and screen out those unqualified actors.

In mid-September, Wayne and his party walked into the large conference room of the Warner Building, where a press conference about the new project would be held. This is a film with an investment of tens of millions. From the signing of the contract, it has already entered the publicity and distribution process!

Wayne will never compromise on the promotional work required by the production company. He comes from decades later, and he knows too much about the help of promotional marketing for the film, not to mention his interests are involved.

Normally, Hollywood has a general process for press conferences. The media and production companies are going through the motions and follow the procedures. Wayne smiled and signed the contract with Kevin Tesuhara under the flash, then exchanged holdings for the media to take pictures.

In fact, the real contract was signed before, and the above clauses could not be shown to the media. Now it is just a fake to fool people.

After the photo was taken, the press conference came to the last part, that is, the reporter asked questions. The staff of Warner Bros., the first to point to their own media, the female reporter of the news department of HBO TV network, stood up and asked questions.

"Director Greenberg, is this film still the same as your first two films is a horror thriller? Can you talk about the general theme?"

After hearing her question, Wayne turned the microphone to his side, shook his head and said, "No, this film is very different from the previous works, this is not a pure thriller. If it is not To distinguish, this should be considered a crime drama.

As for the theme, the name of this film is "Joker", yes, it is from the clown Arthur in DC comics, the theme is how Arthur became the clown later, of course, the story takes place in Gotham. I will portray a real Gotham for the audience, a metropolis that blends chaos and order. "

"Wayne, doesn't this look like New York in reality?" Bella Grant, an old acquaintance from the Los Angeles Times, who wrote the details of "Get Out", stood up and asked him.

"Of course!" Wayne directly admitted the other party's guess. "If you say what modern Gotham is, 90 percent of people will think of New York. But it's different. It's like an emotionally amplified version of New York, and everyone who lives in it will be different!"

After thinking about it, she continued: "This film will be filmed in New York, and strive to restore a real Gotham to the audience."

No matter if he can do it or not, his words have already been said anyway, and the effect of the propaganda will be produced.

In fact, Wayne knows that it is impossible to shoot all the real scenes, and he must use props to set the scene and CGI synthesis. As long as the preliminary preparations begin, he will immediately contact Industrial Light and Magic. In this regard, no one can compare to "Star Wars" and "Star Wars". They are more professional in Raiders of the Lost Ark!

There are not too many lenses needed in this regard, so it does not account for too much budget.