The time has come to the end of July before we know it.
Today is Monday, July 28th.
At nine o'clock in the morning, Simon arrived at the Fox Studios in Century City, Beverly Hills on time.
Since the injury on his body has not fully recovered, Simon did not ride again today, but made an appointment for a rental.
When he arrived at Fox Studios, Simon realized that he did not have a pass. The doorman looked at the young man who claimed to be attending a film production meeting with suspicion, and it took him a while before he agreed to make a call for him.
A few minutes later, the assistant of "Butterfly Effect" producer David Giller rushed to the door and took Simon inside.
Simon followed the assistant to David Giller's office. Brian De Palma had arrived early, which made Simon feel a little embarrassed. However, David Giller and Brian De Palma didn't care much, and asked with concern how Simon was recovering from his injury.
After a brief exchange of greetings, Peter Sanders, a vice president of Fox Pictures, and Vincent Hill, another professional script analyst under Fox, also arrived one after another, and today's meeting officially began.
In a small conference room in the executive building of Fox Studios, the three film creators David Giller, Brian De Palma and Simon and two other people were sitting around the conference table. The secretary handed over a copy of the script and A memo was circulated.
The script of "The Butterfly Effect" has been polished for 7 years and has been very perfect. Simon didn't feel like there was much room for revision in the script he produced based on the final theatrical version of the film.
However, when Simon opened the memo written by the script analyst named Vincent Hill, he felt that it seemed that he wanted to get the remaining balance of $60,000. Not that easy.
Last Thursday, while Simon was still in the hospital, he received the first $140,000 check from his contract with Fox.
On the memo in front of me, from the title of the script to the final story ending, Vincent Hill made a very detailed evaluation and corresponding modification suggestions. Simon flipped through it roughly and found that there were more than 50 annotations, which was almost equivalent to one revision opinion every two pages of the script.
Putting down the memo in his hand, Simon raised his head and glanced at the other people. Except for Vincent Hill, the other three were also reading the memo. David Giller and Peter Sanders had calm expressions. Ryan De Palma frowned slightly.
As a fledgling screenwriter, Simon knew that he did not have much say in script revisions. If he wants to get the remaining balance of US$60,000, he can only modify the script honestly according to the film company's requirements, or give up this power and let Fox hire other screenwriters.
Thinking this, Simon returned his attention to the memo in front of him.
Even without much say, Simon was determined to maintain the integrity of the script as much as possible.
After a while, Brian De Palma spoke first, with obvious dissatisfaction in his tone, and directly asked Fox Vice President Peter Sanders: "Peter, you want to make this movie PG- Level 13, right?”
Simon raised his head again when he heard Brian De Palma speak.
After carefully reading the memo in his hand, Simon also discovered Fox's intentions.
Because the script of the first version of "The Butterfly Effect" contained too many strong adult elements, and the tone of the film also tended to be dark, it could easily be rated R in the future. This means that teenagers under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult before they can watch it, which actually means that a large part of the teenage audience is blocked from the theater.
At this point, based on the suggestions in the memo, Simon realized that Fox clearly wanted to overturn most of the plot points that might affect the film's rating.
As the world's largest film market, the United States has implemented a mature film rating system very early.
According to the regulations of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), North American theater movies are divided into five grades: G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17. Among them, the G rating is the loosest public rating, which means that all ages can watch it. The NC-17 rating is the most restrictive rating, and teenagers under the age of 17 are prohibited from watching. For the other three ratings, the closer to NC-17, the narrower the audience.
From a purely business perspective, Fox’s behavior is actually understandable.
If the film can be adjusted from an R rating to a PG-13 rating that only requires parental supervision for those under 13 years old, then the market audience for the film will be much expanded in the future.
However, from the perspective of the "Butterfly Effect" story itself, it seems very unwise for Fox to do this.
"Brian, you have to know that the investment for this movie is 10 million U.S. dollars," Peter Sanders replied calmly after hearing Brian De Palma's question: "So, we have to do it for Considering the film’s commercial prospects.”
Brian De Palma shook his head and said: "In my opinion, the script of "The Butterfly Effect" is already quite perfect. If you do this, it will only destroy the overall structure of the script. And, starting from "Carrie" , the films I direct have always been R-rated. As long as it is a good film, it will get sufficient commercial returns, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with this.”
"Since Simon can write a perfect script, he can also rework a more perfect script according to our requirements," Peter Sanders responded to Brian De Palma, but he followed the trend. Turning to Simon, he said quite familiarly: "So, Simon, do you have the confidence?"
Although Peter Sanders' tone was very kind and full of elder-like encouragement, Simon keenly felt the rudeness towards him in the other person's words.
Even though he understood that he didn't have much say in the matter, Simon had no intention of being a yes man.
Sensing Peter Sanders's vague targeting, Simon said no longer politely: "Mr. Sanders, with all due respect, "The Butterfly Effect" itself is already a very tight story script that is interlocked, just like It’s a big net, and pulling any thread in it may affect the whole situation. If you modify it according to the requirements of this memo, you may end up with a completely different story. So, if Fox wants a PG- For a 13-rated film, maybe I can rewrite the script."
Peter Sanders didn't expect that Simon would be so sharp when he opened his mouth. Thinking of the fact that this young man had just broken the leg bones of five young people last week, he subconsciously suppressed the refutation he wanted to blurt out, raised his eyebrows, and turned to David Giller: "David, what do you mean?"
David Giller showed something like a smile on his face, raised the memo in his hand, and said: "Peter, the result of my communication with Ronald last week was not like this. Speaking of ratings, Fox's summer schedule The two movies released in early June, "Space Station", rated PG, with a budget of US$18 million, only managed to gross US$9 million at the box office. Last month's "Alien 2", rated R, had a similar US$18.5 million. The budget has only been released for two weeks, and the box office has already reached 25 million US dollars. Therefore, I don't think there is any problem with "The Butterfly Effect" being rated R in the future. If you insist that today's meeting be conducted in accordance with this memo, I can only Choose to cancel the meeting and go talk to Ronald again.”