Chapter 035

Time has come to the end of July unconsciously.

Today is Monday, July 28.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Simon arrived at Fox Studios in Beverly Hills Century City on time.

As the injury has not been completely recovered, Simon did not ride again today, but made an appointment for a taxi.

When he arrived at Fox Studios, Simon realized that he didn't have a pass. The guard looked at the young man who claimed to be coming to the film production meeting suspiciously. After a while, he agreed to make a phone call for him.

A few minutes later, the assistant of David giller, the producer of the butterfly effect, came to the gate and took Simon in.

Simon came to David giller's office with the assistant, and Brian De Palma had arrived early, which made Simon feel a little embarrassed. However, David giller and Brian De Palma did not care much and asked Simon about his recovery.

After a brief greeting, Peter Sanders, a vice president of fox pictures, and Vincent hill, another professional script analyst of fox pictures, arrived one after another. Today's meeting officially began.

In a small conference room in the executive building of Fox Studios, David giller, Brian De Palma and Simon, as well as two others, sat around the conference table. The secretary handed out copies of the script and a memo.

After seven years of polishing, the script of butterfly effect has been very perfect. Simon doesn't think there's much room for him to change the script he's going to get from the final movie.

However, when Simon opened the memo made by the script analyst Vincent hill, he felt that it was not so easy for him to get the remaining $60000.

Last Thursday, while Simon was still in hospital, he had received the first $140000 payment check in his contract with fox.

In this memo, from the title of the play to the end of the story, Vincent hill has put forward a very detailed evaluation and corresponding modification suggestions. Simon went through it and found that there were more than 50 annotations, almost equal to one amendment every two pages of the script.

As Simon puts down the memo, he looks up at the others, including Vincent hill. David giller and Peter Sanders are silent, but Brian De Palma frowns.

As a new screenwriter, Simon knows that he doesn't have much say in script revision. If he wants to get the remaining $60000, he can only honestly modify the script as required by the film company, or give up the right to let fox hire other writers.

With that in mind, Simon turned his attention back to the memo in front of him.

Even if he doesn't have much say, Simon is determined to keep the script as complete as possible.

A moment later, Brian De Palma spoke first, with obvious dissatisfaction, and directly asked fox Vice President Peter Sanders, "Peter, you want to make this film PG-13, right?"

Simon raised his head again when he heard Brian De Palma speak.

After carefully reading the memo in hand, Simon also found out Fox's intention.

In the first edition of the butterfly effect, there are too many adult tastes in the script, and the tone of the film tends to be gloomy, so it is easy to be rated r in the future. This means that young people under the age of 17 must be accompanied by adults to watch. In fact, it is equivalent to blocking a large part of the young audience from the cinema.

At this time, according to the suggestions in the memo, Simon realized that Fox obviously wanted to overturn most of the plots that might affect the film rating.

As the largest film market in the world, the United States has used a mature film rating system for a long time.

According to the regulations of the American Film Association (MPAA), cinema films in North America are divided into five levels: G level, PG level, PG-13 level, R level and NC-17 level. Among them, the G class is the most relaxed popular class, which means that all ages can watch. NC-17 belongs to the most stringent restriction level, and teenagers under the age of 17 are forbidden to watch. In addition, the closer to NC-17, the narrower the audience.

From a purely commercial point of view, fox's behavior is understandable.

If the film can be adjusted from R level to PG-13 level under the age of 13, then the market audience of the film will expand a lot in the future.

However, from the perspective of the butterfly effect itself, it seems very unwise for fox to do so.

"Brian, you know, the investment in this movie is 10 million dollars," Peter Sanders replied with an unchanging look when he heard Brian De Palma's question, "so we have to think about the commercial prospects of the movie."

But Brian De Palma shook his head and said, "in my opinion, the script for the butterfly effect is perfect. By doing so, you will only destroy the overall structure of the script. Moreover, since "the witch Carrie", the films I directed have always been R-rated. As long as it's a good movie, it will get enough commercial returns, so I don't think it's wrong. ""Since Simon can write a perfect script, he can also revise a more perfect script according to our requirements," Peter Sanders said in response to Brian De Palma, but turned to Simon and said with some familiarity: "so, Simon, do you have this confidence?"

Although Peter Sanders's tone is very kind, with the encouragement of elders, Simon is acutely aware of the impoliteness of the other party's words.

Even though he knew that he didn't have much say in this matter, Simon didn't intend to be a yes man.

Feeling Peter Sanders' insidious aim, Simon is no longer Objective: "Mr. Sanders, with all due respect, the butterfly effect itself is already a very close story script, just like a big net. If you touch any of the threads, you can get involved in the whole situation. If it is modified according to the requirements of this memorandum, the final result may be a completely different story. So if fox wants a PG-13 movie, maybe I can write a new script. "

Peter Sanders didn't expect Simon to be so sharp as soon as he spoke. He remembered that the young man had just broken five young men's legs last week. He subconsciously suppressed the refutation he wanted to blurt out. He picked his eyebrows and turned to David giller: "what do you mean, David?"

With a smile on his face, David giller raised his memo and said, "Peter, that's not how I communicated with Ronald last week. Speaking of ratings, the two summer films released by Fox, space station in early June, were PG rated, with a budget of 18 million US dollars, but only managed to earn 9 million US dollars at the box office. Last month's alien 2 was rated R, with a similar budget of 18.5 million US dollars. Just two weeks after its release, the box office has already reached 25 million US dollars. Therefore, I don't think there is any problem that butterfly effect will be rated r in the future. If you insist that today's meeting be conducted according to this memorandum, I can only choose to cancel the meeting and then go to talk with Ronald again