"Simon, since you don't feel the story just now, what about this one: Danny is a majestic policeman on the outside, but since he was a child, he has been like a mouse that saw a cat in front of his harsh and violent mother. One day while on duty , Danny met his favorite girl Theresa, and the two soon fell in love. However, Danny was worried that his mother would be dissatisfied with Theresa, and he was cautious in all interactions with his girlfriend, so he made a fuss A series of jokes.”
Inside the office.
John Hughes proposed several story ideas to Simon in succession, but Simon never expressed his stance.
After John Hughes finished introducing another idea, the two discussed a few words. Simon pretended to be unintentional and said: "John, I think the box office performance of "Uncle Buck" should be very good, so you have thought about making a more pure movie." Some children’s movies?”
John Hughes, as if thinking of some terrible scene, shook his head and said: "Simon, children's films have always been a forbidden area in Hollywood. I realized this very deeply during the filming of "Uncle Buck". Those children Guys gave me a hard time and sometimes I wanted to switch. So, I really don’t want to go through that again.”
"Uncle Buck" tells the story of the Russell couple who have to temporarily leave their three children to the care of their bachelor brother Buck Russell due to some family changes.
According to the original agreement, John Hughes was solely responsible for "Uncle Buck". Simon did not pay too much attention to the production process, and he did not expect that there would be such entanglements.
It’s no secret that children and animals are two of the most difficult elements to deal with in Hollywood movies.
Simon heard John Hughes say this, and he roughly understood why he never had the idea of "Home Alone" again.
John Hughes must have had a great time working with the three young actors in "Uncle Buck", especially Macaulay Culkin, who left a deep impression on him, which led to the subsequent "Home Alone" Birth. However, in the new version of "Uncle Buck", the three young actors are no longer the original actors, and they caused a lot of trouble to John Hughes during the filming process. In such a bad mood, it was naturally difficult for the filmmaker to conceive of another children's film.
After confirming that "Home Alone" had been completely rejected, Simon stopped beating around the bush and said: "Actually, it was an idea for a children's film that I came up with after watching the samples of "Uncle Buck." John, I think this project is very suitable for your style. Moreover, several of the ideas you just introduced also gave me some other inspirations, like the story about a young man and woman who encountered two thieves during a vigil at a convenience store. So, how about making another children's film, if you If you don’t want to be the director, you can let someone else take charge. The salary package you get in this project can be based on "Uncle Buck". However, this time Daenerys Entertainment also needs to participate in the project decision-making, especially the casting. "
In the "Uncle Buck" contract that the two parties originally negotiated, John Hughes received a salary package of US$5 million in basic salary plus 10% of the North American box office share in his triple capacity as screenwriter, director and producer.
John Hughes was a very shrewd man.
It was Simon Westeros's idea that was inspired by his film. Looking at the box office performance of Simon Westeros films in recent years, the North American box office of the recent "The Sixth Sense" alone has reached US$300 million.
What's more, you can also refer to the base salary of "Uncle Buck" of US$5 million plus 10% of the North American box office share. John Hughes is not one of those directors with strong personalities. He knows very well that he is just a film businessman, so he can't think of any rejection at all. reasons.
"So, Simon, can you tell us your idea in more detail?"
Seeing that John Hughes agreed without any hesitation, Simon also began to elaborate on the general plot of "Home Alone".
As for returning the project to John Hughes and maintaining the $5 million base salary plus a 10% North American box office share plan, Simon has no regrets.
John Hughes as the main creator can ensure that the new version of "Home Alone" is as "authentic" as possible. Moreover, if the new version of "Home Alone" can achieve the amazing box office results of more than 280 million US dollars in North America alone like the original version, John Hughes is fully qualified to receive a salary of 30 million US dollars.
Speaking of which, this decision was also influenced by Simon's recent change in perspective.
The principle is actually similar to the recent 10 foreign cooperation film plans. If we blindly pursue maximizing profits, all the profits will fall into the pockets of Daenerys Entertainment, and Hollywood filmmakers will not have much incentive to cooperate with Daenerys again. Entertainment collaboration.
The two discussed it for about an hour, and the meeting ended.
John Hughes then decided to stay in Los Angeles for another week in order to continue communicating with Simon and write the outline of the "Home Alone" story first.
After the weekend, after some detailed negotiations, Daenerys Entertainment and Fox Pictures jointly held a press conference to announce the project of "Sleeping with the Enemy," the first of the 10-film plan.
"Sleeping with the Enemy" is an original novel of the same name written by a female writer named Nancy Price in 1987. After the novel was released, its fame and sales were not great. Fox Film's script department sold 150,000 After acquiring the adaptation rights at a low price of US$1.00, it has been put on hold.
After the project was announced, the original novel "Sleeping with the Enemy", which was originally unknown, immediately attracted a lot of media attention. The sales of the novel suddenly increased so much that the publisher had to urgently print more copies.
Then, Wednesday, August 16th.
Daenerys Entertainment and Disney Company jointly held another press conference to announce the second part of the 10-film plan. The new project is called "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle". This is a thriller that is also very classic in Simon's memory. The film tells the story of a housewife who disguises herself as a nanny to seek revenge on the family that caused her family's tragedy after her husband committed suicide and suffered a miscarriage.
Similar to "Sleeping with the Enemy", "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle" is also poorly known, and it was also written by a female screenwriter named Amanda Silver.
The difference is that "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" does not have an original novel, but an original script.
Coupled with the confidentiality measures deliberately adopted by Daenerys Entertainment and Disney, this time the media can only roughly guess the content of the story of "The Hand that Rocks the Cradle" based on some scattered information.
The reason why the two scripts are not well-known is actually not accidental.
Those copyrights that are very famous and highly valued by various film companies will generally not be shared with Daenerys Entertainment, just like Simon will not use the quietly approved "Home Alone" to jointly invest with other studios Same. Most of the projects that can be sent to Simon are projects that are not well-known or whose prospects are difficult to determine.
The following Friday, August 18th.
Daenerys Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures held their third press conference to announce the third film in the 10-film plan. This is also another 'blockbuster' that Simon expected, called "The Fugitive" .
The story is adapted from a TV series owned by Warner Bros., telling the story of a surgeon who tries his best to clear himself after his wife is murdered and he is framed.
In the original time and space, "The Fugitive" starred Harrison Ford, with a global box office of more than 360 million US dollars. However, compared to next year's schedule for the first two projects, Simon also explained to Warner from the beginning that this project would start filming next year, with the earliest schedule scheduled for the summer of 1991.
Because, according to Simon's plan, the 1990 schedule was too crowded.
It was confirmed that "Home Alone" was the box-office blockbuster in Simon's memory in 1990. Daenerys Entertainment accounted for five of them, namely "Pretty Woman", "The Last Day", "Dances with Wolves", "Home Alone" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Among the established plans of Daenerys Entertainment, "Pretty Woman" will be released during Valentine's Day in February next year, "The Last Days" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" will be released in the summer of next year, and "With Wolf" "Dance" and "Home Alone" are scheduled for the end of next year.
If "The Fugitive" starts production now, because it is a big-budget movie, unlike "Sleeping with the Enemy" that can be quickly prepared and started shooting, the schedule can only be arranged at the end of next year, which will have to be compared with "With the Wolf" "Dance" and "Home Alone", two films with box office potential of 200 million, have collided with each other.
In my memory, the North American box office of "The Fugitive" exceeded US$180 million, which can be regarded as reaching the 200 million level. If three box-office blockbusters are squeezed in at the end of the year, the result will only be losses for all three. Simon confirmed that the year-end schedule of this era cannot accommodate three local movies with a box office of 200 million.
What's more, there are definitely more than just these three movies in the corresponding schedule, so the competition will only become more intense.
Warner understands Simon's decision, but still hopes to announce the news immediately, because this will be good news for Warner and can boost the stock price.
After Paramount suddenly intervened in June to disrupt the stock exchange merger agreement that Time Inc. and Warner Bros. were almost negotiating, the original plan has now been cancelled. As long as Paramount can win its lawsuit to block the merger of Time and Warner, the two parties will still need to renegotiate the merger plan.
Time Inc. has also proposed a new 50/50 cash and stock merger plan, but the specific price has not been completely finalized.
Now, if Warner's stock price rises by one cent, Time Inc. will have to pay one more cent.
This is indeed the case. After the news was announced, Warner Bros.'s stock rose significantly by 2.1% before closing in the afternoon.
At the same time that the third film cooperation plan between Daenerys Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures was announced, the box office data for the new week from August 11 to August 17, the end of the North American summer season, was also officially released.
"Uncle Buck", written and directed by John Hughes himself, opened on 2,021 screens and grossed US$16.94 million at the box office in its first week, ranking first.
Although "Uncle Buck" has a retail price of about US$8,000, although it has not reached the best-selling level, it is still in line with expectations. Starting with a box office close to US$17 million, the total North American box office should be between US$50 million and US$70 million. Daenerys Entertainment's original prediction was comparable, and it is also in line with the previous box office level of Hughes movies.
Including the US$5 million base salary that John Hughes originally took, the production budget of the film is only US$15 million. Although Hughes will have to pay another US$5 million to US$7 million in box office share, Daenerys Entertainment is in The box office is also enough to make a profit.
"The Sixth Sense", also produced by Daenerys Entertainment, still ranked second on the charts in its seventh week of release, earning another US$16.71 million.
At the same time, the North American box office total of this phenomenal horror movie officially exceeded the US$200 million mark, reaching US$211.06 million.
Although "Home", a family comedy starring Steve Martin from Universal Pictures, had a slow start and never won a weekly box office title, the box office curve is going very well, with a drop of only 22% this week. The film entered its fourth week and grossed another US$11.66 million, and the film's cumulative box office had unknowingly reached US$47.32 million.
New Line Cinema's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" opened this week on 1,902 screens, with a box office of $11.1 million in its first week, narrowly behind "Home Sweet Home" and ranking fourth on the list.
James Cameron's "The Abyss" dropped 39% in its second week of release, taking in only US$10.69 million, with a total box office of US$28.22 million in two weeks, ranking fifth. There is no hope that the film will make a return, and Fox Pictures executives continue to be worried.
In addition to the top five on the list, many other popular summer films have entered the final stage.
The North American box office of "The Sixth Sense" has exceeded US$200 million, and is clearly expected to hit the US$300 million mark, drawing much attention to the three film projects announced by Daenerys Entertainment and three Hollywood partners.
In fact, Simon has confirmed more than these three projects, such as "Terminator 2", which Fox has begun contacting the rights holder, and a project from Columbia Pictures. Columbia subsidiary TriStar Pictures decisively gave up on Matthew Broderick some time ago, and Simon is not indifferent.
However, Sony's acquisition negotiations for Colombia have not yet been completely finalized. Compared with the merger between Time and Warner, since all aspects have begun to be concluded, Columbia, which has suffered from sluggish performance in recent years, has no other competitors to compete with Sony. This acquisition is almost a certainty. Sony has now begun to take over all aspects of Columbia Pictures operations, and the decision to abandon Matthew Broderick was a takeover pressured by the Japanese.
After Daenerys Entertainment communicated Simon's chosen project to Colombia, Sony's negotiation team hoped that Daenerys Entertainment would postpone the announcement of the results so that the project Simon favored could be a 'good start' for Sony after it won Colombia. Dan Nelis Entertainment naturally doesn’t mind cooperating.
While various film companies began to invest energy in various projects, many Hollywood talent agencies also began to pamper them.
Except, of course, CAA.
Since the discord between Daenerys Entertainment over "Rain Man" in the second half of last year, this year, many key projects produced by Daenerys Entertainment have had no CAA stars as the main creators. The two summer projects, "The Bodyguard" starring Kevin Costner is an artist under ICM, and the heroine Whitney Houston's film contract is signed by WMA in the industry. As for "The Sixth Sense", all the main and supporting actors, including Robert De Niro, are clients of WMA.
This situation was originally nothing.
There is no shortage of film deals for CAA's stars.
However, with the announcement of Daenerys Entertainment’s 10 foreign cooperation film plans, everyone at CAA is feeling very obvious pressure.