Hollywood Hunter

Chapter 21: Simplified version

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Glancing at this subordinate who had caused him a lot of trouble, Lou Weiss said: "Qiao, as for you, Brian De Palma is still the director, and will also serve as the producer of "The Butterfly Effect" Filmmaker. Fox offered a salary of US$2 million, as well as a 10% share of the North American box office profits."

Jonathan Friedman nodded.

If it weren't for the two previous relatively unsuccessful films, Brian De Palma's salary level should be around US$3 million.

Now that Fox is offering US$2 million plus a 10% share of North American box office profits, Jonathan Friedman has no dissatisfaction at all. What he wanted to get for his clients before was just a fixed salary of US$2 million. .

Of course, Jonathan Friedman also understands that the reason why Brian De Palma was able to get this relatively generous contract was mainly because of the exposure of a series of harsh agreements that triggered internal strife in the WMA in recent days.

Both Fox and WMA need to use 'facts' to refute relevant revelations in the media.

Thinking of this, Jonathan Friedman began to look forward to Fox's offer for Simon's script. However, he did not take the initiative to speak and waited patiently for Lou Weiss to continue.

After Lou Weiss finished talking about Brian De Palma, he looked at his memo again, raised his head and said: "As for the script, the price has been increased to US$200,000, and US$160,000 is the fee for the script of "The Butterfly Effect". $40,000 to reserve the right of first option on that writer’s next two scripts.”

After listening to this, Jonathan Friedman paused and asked: "Lou, is it still a buyout of the contract?"

Lou Weiss shook his head and said: "This is the basic remuneration, and the sharing terms follow industry practices."

Jonathan Friedman was relieved. If it was still a buyout agreement, even if Fox doubled the base price, he was not sure whether Simon would agree.

Now, just one more script has been added to the priority list, and Jonathan believes Simon will know exactly what choice to make.

Seeing that Jonathan had no objection, Lou Weiss continued: "Qiao, in addition to the arrangements of these three people, the original packaging plan has also been overturned. The new budget given by Fox is 10 million US dollars. According to this standard, you can re- Compile a list of the main characters and give it to me tomorrow, do you have any questions?"

Jonathan Friedman realized that Lou Weiss now just wants to sign a simplified package contract with Fox as soon as possible involving only the core creators. The current situation obviously does not allow WMA to have a second option. So he nodded again and said, "No problem."

After hearing Jonathan's answer, Lou Weiss closed the memo in front of him, waved his hand towards him, and said, "That's it, you can go get busy now."

Jonathan Friedman stood up and saw that the other three were sitting still. He knew that they would definitely have to discuss the revelations in recent days.

For internal leaks with such a bad impact, WMA will definitely pursue them to the end.

However, Jonathan did not think that the management would be able to produce any results from the investigation. The guy who broke the news to the media must be very aware of the serious consequences of doing such a thing. If he did not hide himself completely, he would definitely not take action easily.

After leaving the conference room, Jonathan Friedman walked slowly through the outer corridor, feeling the warm sunlight through the glass curtain wall in the morning, and suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of relaxation.

Discussions in the media about this incident at WMA are still continuing.

Jonathan Friedman knows very well that although he has temporarily crossed the current threshold, due to the impact of this incident, it is almost impossible for him to take a further step in the WMA in the future.

Even if Lou Weiss, who is 75 years old this year, retires from his position as chairman in the next few years and loses this layer of support, he is likely to be completely kicked out of the company by Norman Brocka.

However, after letting go of his long-standing desire to climb up without making any mistakes, Jonathan felt that all the frustration, resentment and other emotions that had accumulated in his heart for so many years had dissipated.

Jonathan also discovered that compared to many other people in this industry, he is actually very powerful.

Relying on the experience and connections accumulated over more than 20 years, even if he leaves the WMA, he can still live well, or even better.

Now, instead of having to juggle trade-offs, he can focus solely on his clients. Then, he believes that no matter what happens in the future, a large part of these people will follow him closely.

Unconsciously arriving at the door of his office, Jonathan Friedman paused. Suddenly he remembered the boy who prompted him to do all this, so he walked to the outside assistant and said: "Owen, help me find it." Simon’s contact address.”

Jonathan Friedman has a total of 37 clients under his name. Westerners really don’t have much creativity in naming, and more than one of these clients happens to be named Simon.

However, Owen Wright immediately understood what Jonathan meant, and skillfully pulled out an address book from a thick stack and handed it to his boss.

Jonathan Friedman took it and glanced at it for a few times, then handed it back to his assistant and said, "I'm going out for a while and I'll be back at noon."

Owen Wright nodded and watched Jonathan leave. He couldn't help but think that he should have more contact with the boy named Simon Westeros in the future.

After leaving the WMA headquarters office building, Jonathan Friedman drove directly to Griffin Supermarket in midtown Santa Monica.

In the new week, Simon resumed his morning shift.

The time is nine forty in the morning.

There were relatively few customers in the supermarket, and Simon was doing a routine inventory of the shelves he was responsible for. Courteney Cox, wearing a pink T-shirt and short hot pants, walked over casually.

Feeling the nice light scent of perfume coming from around him, Simon turned his head and smiled at Courteney. He saw the girl holding several things in her arms with her bare hands and said, "Are you always used to holding things like this when shopping?"

Seeing Simon taking the initiative to talk to her, Courteney opened her mouth, but still said with a bit of habitual rudeness: "Yeah, do you have any objections?"

Simon immediately shook his head and said: "No, if there are customers like you, the trolleys in our store can definitely be used for many more years."

"Oh, I'll use the trolley next time," Courtney said, picking a bottle of ketchup and still holding it in her arms. Seeing Simon turn his attention to the folder in his hand again, he hesitated for a moment, then He said nonchalantly: "The one in the newspaper these days, um, "The Butterfly Effect," was written by you?"

After all, they didn't have a deep relationship. Except for "Run Lola Run" that she accidentally saw, Courteney didn't know Simon's other scripts before, and she didn't have much interest in it.

Moreover, in the news these days, the whistleblower did not actually mention the personal information of the screenwriter of "The Butterfly Effect". The other party obviously had his own intention in doing so.

If the outside world knew that Simon was just an 18-year-old rookie who had just debuted, the argument in the article that Fox's buyout contract was too harsh would likely be questioned. After all, in this era when most ordinary people only earn US$10,000 or US$20,000 per year, many people are destined to think that a young man who has just turned 18 can earn US$100,000. What else is there to be dissatisfied about

Courteney actually found it hard to believe that the screenwriter of "The Butterfly Effect", which caused such a big stir in Hollywood, would be Simon, an ordinary boy who doesn't see anything special at all.

However, she happened to know that Jonathan Friedman only had Simon as the screenwriter.

Simon glanced at the girl with an inquiring expression, nodded with a smile, and replied casually: "Yes."

Although it was generally confirmed, Courteney's eyes widened when she heard Simon's answer and asked: "Really?"

This time, before Simon could respond, Roger Griffin's fat body leaned over from the other side of the shelf and said, "Simon, someone is looking for you."

Simon responded, made a mark on the folder, and walked out.

Courteney hesitated for a moment, then followed Simon with a bunch of things in her hands.

Just after turning out of the shelf, Simon saw the agent Jonathan Friedman standing at the exit of a cash register and nodding to him.

Courteney also quickly discovered the agent's figure, and the surprised expression that had not dissipated appeared on her face again.

You know, since signing the contract, she has never encountered a situation where the WMA gold medal agent came to look for her in person. In the beginning, she could only see Jonathan's assistant in most cases.

Simon walked through the checkout counter and came to Jonathan. The agent looked at Simon's supermarket work clothes, shook his hand with a gentle smile, patted Simon on the shoulder, and said: "I didn't expect you to be here, tell me earlier. , I can definitely help you find a better part-time job."

Simon joked: "It's not too late."

"Now, oh, no need now," Jonathan smiled and shook his head. Then he turned to Courteney, who was walking over. He also stretched out his hand to shake the girl's hand and said, "Kurt, I didn't expect you to be here too. You and Do you know Simon?”

Courteney clearly felt the difference in Jonathan's attitude towards her and Simon, but she nodded obediently and said, "Yes, I live nearby and often come here to buy things, and I happened to know Simon."

"Oh, what a coincidence," Jonathan responded, then turned to Simon again and said, "Simon, can you take a few hours off? Let's go out and chat."

"Okay," Simon nodded, turned his head and glanced, walked towards Roger Griffin who was poking his head in this direction, came to the supermarket owner, and said: "Roger, my agent has something to do with me temporarily. .”

In addition to being very stingy about salary, the middle-aged fat man seemed to be very talkative in other aspects. He once again looked at the elegant middle-aged man not far away, nodded readily and said: "No problem, come back before 12 o'clock, only you will be counted." Just two hours of absence is fine.”