Chapter 75： Negotiate the conditions

Lehman dragged his suitcase and walked into a hotel. After checking in, he came to the door of another room.

"Ding dong, ding dong..." He gently pressed the doorbell.

After a while, the door opened, and the face of the agent Johnson Brandon appeared in front of him. He said with a smile, "Hello, Mr. Lyman."

After simply saying hello to his client, Johnson hurriedly moved away from the door and let Lyman come in.

The two sat on the sofa, and Johnson-Blanton brewed a cup of coffee with discernment.

"How's the situation?" Lyman asked.

Just yesterday, Johnson-Blanton called and said that the negotiations had made significant progress, and he left from Cannes to Paris.

Johnson-Blanton heard the words, took out a contract-style document from the drawer beside the desk, handed it to Lehman, and said, "This is the condition after re-negotiation yesterday, you can take a look first."

Lyman took it and read it in detail.

"The investment share of 6 million US dollars, and you can enjoy the income brought by the film in the same proportion. This is the condition that Europa Pictures released yesterday. What do you think?" Johnson-Blanton smiled. asked.

He feels that his efforts in the past two weeks have not been in vain, and he has achieved great results. At least it can be regarded as the preliminary completion of the client's idea.

"You did a good job, Johnson." Lyman praised from the bottom of his heart.

"One more thing, you have to pay attention. Although Europa Films agreed to bring funds into the group, this part does not involve the income of the film after three years of painting."

"I understand." Lyman nodded, indicating he understood. He actually didn't think about owning the copyright income of the film for a long time.

Because according to the general operation of the film, if he shoots the film, the copyright of this part is in the hands of the production company, that is, Europa Films, how can it be shared with the film three years later? income.

Afterwards, the two discussed some cooperation conditions to beware of when approaching Europa Films.

Johnson-Blanton is very enthusiastic and even passionate about this performance. After all, in front of Franklin, no one can be stable all the time.

Seeing that the cooperation is about to be reached, he will immediately get a 10% share of the salary from Lehmann. In addition, he can also get 1% of the investment income of Mann Studio, which is not enough for him. Don't care.

After intensive discussions for most of the afternoon, Lyman returned to his room.

On the second day, Lyman, Johnson-Blanton, and an entrusted lawyer arrived at Europa Pictures' headquarters building ahead of schedule according to the agreed time and place of the meeting.

It was the executive director of Europa Films who was in charge of receiving them, director Luc Besson.

"Lyman, we meet again." He smiled and extended his right hand to show kindness.

His move undoubtedly gave Lehman a great deal of face.

"Mr. Luc Besson, I'm very happy to meet you." Lehmann was equally polite and polite.

The two exchanged a few words with each other, and then walked into a conference room one after the other.

As everyone was seated, Luc Besson stopped going around in circles, took the script and project plan report submitted by Lehmann earlier, and said with a smile: "We Europa Pictures are very interested in this new project, and would like to talk to you. Keep working together."

Lehmann said modestly: "This is my honor, and I am very happy to cooperate with Europa Pictures."

"Then, let's talk about the conditions."

The two sides have had many interviews before, and the corresponding quotations and conditions are also very clear, and they quickly cut into the theme of this meeting - that is, to really give a detailed agreement for cooperation.

Time passed from noon to around 4 pm. Under the witness of the lawyers of both parties, Lehmann officially signed the project cooperation agreement for "Fury".

In duplicate, they all signed their names, and Lehmann exchanged contracts.

"It's a pleasure to work with."

"Happy cooperation!"

The two shook hands again as a gesture of friendship.

In this way, Lehman finally got what he wanted.

Since then, the producers and distributors of the "Fury" project are Europa Films. They will provide most of the film's production budget through financing, and the $6 million of which will be provided by Mann Studio. Responsible, of course, the copyright of the film is still 100% in the hands of Europa Pictures. There is nothing to say about this.

Then, there is the issue of his personal filming salary. As the director of the film, he can get 2.7 million US dollars, as well as 500,000 dollars for the screenwriter (most of which belong to Ryan), a total of 3.2 million US dollars, which will be paid in two installments, one before the film starts. , that is, you can get 1 million by signing a contract. The latter part can only be obtained after the post-production of the film is completed.

This is also a normal value and payment method that conforms to the laws of the market, and part of the reason is to avoid risks.

If he didn't take a share of the investment, he would be worth a little more, but Lehmann wouldn't do that at all.

Being a boss is better than working all the time. You always have to take the first step.

Also as Lehman requested, as long as the crew's personnel issues are not out of the ordinary, Europa Pictures will respect his opinion.

Therefore, the behind-the-scenes staff are basically the people who have worked with Lehman and are relatively familiar with him. The photography director, art director, scenery, lighting, makeup, etc. are all selected from the shooting team of "Three Silly Bollywood". In addition, he also brought Thomas, George and Ryan. came in.

Correspondingly, they are the cameraman and the producer. As for Ryan, he has three jobs: drama management, coordinator, and a named producer.

He has always wanted Ryan to embark on the path of a producer, but he doesn't have much relevant experience yet, and he has been learning from George.

There is no doubt about the personal abilities of these people, and the team members are all old acquaintances of Europa Pictures, and producer George is no exception, and they are all trusted. Europa Pictures happily agreed.

In addition, although the signing work went well, there is one more point that I have to mention.

That is, according to Luc Besson, Paramount Pictures will also be involved in this project.

They will be responsible for part of the shooting funds and arrange the promotion of the film in North America.

Luc Besson didn't say the exact amount. Although Lehmann didn't understand how Paramount Pictures got involved, he didn't ask too much.

Anyway, he can guarantee his own income. He doesn't care about the rest.

In addition, in order to ensure that the film can be successfully completed and released, the third-party guarantee work of the Allianz Fire Insurance Foundation was hired.

Frankly speaking, Lehmann doesn't like the introduction of third-party guarantee work, because at that time, when shooting, many things need to be reviewed by the other party before he can carry out the shooting.

This is undoubtedly a great inconvenience.

But there is no way, this is a special request of Paramount Pictures. As one of the film's investors, he has this demand to be satisfied.

This is also the most common film production system in Hollywood. He has encountered it when he was filming before, but they were all contracted by small, local insurance companies, and they would not interfere too much at all. .

The Allianz Fire Insurance Foundation is the largest insurance company in the world, and it also has deep ties with Hollywood.

They also developed a very complex and perfect shooting review system for this purpose, which is specially responsible for the smooth completion of the film. The same is true, they are very familiar with the operation process of a film, and they can also monitor the shooting process of each scene of the film, so as to supervise and control the financial situation in a timely manner.

It is conceivable that this system is definitely not comfortable for directors, but it provides great protection for investors like Paramount Pictures.

This is also the key to the emergence of the third-party insurance system.

After all, why do those investors who have invested a huge amount of money believe that the film will be released? If the filming of the film fails halfway or the budget funds are not enough, wouldn't their investment be lost?

With the responsibility of a third-party insurance company, it is different.

Even if the project cannot be completed by then, the third-party guarantee company that undertakes the business must find a way to complete the project or pay for the corresponding losses.

Hollywood's film industry can become so big and strong, and it is precisely the guardianship under such an industry system that helps various investors to enter the market.

In the end, it was all related shooting procedures and the deployment of locations.

These matters are very troublesome to deal with, but fortunately there is still Europa Pictures to assist, so Lehman only needs to give his opinion.

For example, the shooting of the location, the battles involved in the film and the military equipment support of World War II, professional tank consultants and experts, and the several tanks that appeared in the film, all of which need to be prepared in advance.

The choice of location is simple, and because Australia has tax rebates for filming, all the shooting scenes related to it were filmed there.

This part of the money saved is undoubtedly convenient for budget control during shooting.

Knowing the knowledge of tanks and designing battles, the selection of World War II experts is also very simple. A professor of the history department of the University of Paris accepted the appointment of Europa Films and became a military consultant for the film "Fury".

The trouble is the support of the tanks and World War II military equipment in the film.

If it was all modeled, it would undoubtedly be too rigid and fake. Naturally, this was not the scope of Lehmann's consideration.

Then we have to start with the government...

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