Morton's in Beverly Hills.
Roland Emmerich sat across from Columbia Pictures CEO Bill Michanik, dealing with the steak in front of him in silence, trying his best to ignore the eyes of the guests around him from time to time, he even regretted why he chose this restaurant today Dining at restaurants where Hollywood filmmakers gather.
This is already the second week of the release of "Godzilla", and it has been wildly criticized by the media for a week. The box office data of the first week of the film was released in the morning, and Roland Emmerich did not feel relieved at all. In the afternoon, he secretly drove to some theaters in Fernando Valley to have a look. Compared to last Friday's relatively strong attendance rate, most of the theaters showing "Godzilla" were empty in just one week. I can't even imagine how much the film's box office will drop this week, 60%, 70%, or worse
There is no doubt that "Godzilla" will be a very disastrous Waterloo in his career.
After years of accumulation, Roland Emmerich already has a net worth of tens of millions of dollars. Even if he chooses to retire now, he can Guaranteed to live comfortably for a lifetime.
But in Hollywood, a vanity fair, whether a person is successful is far from being limited to money. Most people pay more attention to career success and their own status and influence in Hollywood. Everyone wants to climb to a higher level. Location.
As long as Hollywood stars are a little bit popular, they basically have enough net worth to support their affluent and even luxurious life, but these people will still have various mental and physical problems under the pressure of ups and downs in their careers. Because for most Hollywood celebrities, being suddenly abandoned by Hollywood, without the attention of the spotlight and the attention of the public, this sense of loss is definitely more unacceptable than the sudden loss of all their money.
Although Roland Emmerich knew that just one failure would definitely not be able to cause a devastating blow to his career, but it would definitely mean that in the next few years, unless he made another production similar to "Independence Day" and "Heaven and Earth" Otherwise, it is absolutely impossible for him to enjoy the rich treatment before the release of "Godzilla", the strong control over the production of the film, the industry's top director's salary of 20 million US dollars, etc. .
Even, if before "Godzilla", he would not have to appear here in person tonight to discuss the follow-up contract issues with Bill Michanik, which used to only require his agent to come forward.
If you can do it all over again.
When this thought came up, Roland Emmerich immediately shook his head mockingly.
I suddenly remembered that Firefly had just announced the director of "The Day After Tomorrow" some time ago, and this project should have belonged to him. Firefly may not offer a director's remuneration of 20 million US dollars, but under the circumstances that the two parties have cooperated continuously in "Clash of Heaven and Earth" and "Independence Day", Firefly can't be too stingy. He believes that through fixed salary and dividends, he can get It is not difficult to reach a total income of 30 million US dollars comparable to "Independence Day".
On the basis of the current "Godzilla" 20 million film salary, the 15% box office share in North America may still be able to guarantee him 30 million US dollars, but due to the disastrous failure of "Godzilla" both in word of mouth and at the box office, his next step The film will never get such a generous salary again, and the damage "Godzilla" has done to his popularity is incalculable.
Compared to Roland Emmerich's faint self-pity, Bill Michanik's mood is more irritable.
The "Godzilla" project was originally pushed down by Sony Pictures from top to bottom. Logically speaking, the failure of the project should not be blamed on him anyway.
However, this obvious and reasonable inference obviously will not really happen to Sony, a Japanese group with a distinct management class. If "Godzilla" succeeds, everyone will be happy, and everyone will have a celebration banquet together. But now that it has failed, the chairman of the group, Nobuyuki Idei, is naturally not at fault. Howard Stringer, the CEO of Sony’s US branch, and his direct boss will also not stand up and take responsibility. The blame can only be borne by Bill Michanik, the most direct head of the film business. .
Fortunately, everyone in Sony knew what was going on. Although he needed to take the blame, there would be no real punishment. This was the only thing that made people feel better.
However, there is still another very difficult thing that has fallen on him right now, which is the contract between Sony Pictures and Roland Emmerich.
At the beginning, due to the high confidence of the company's top management, Sony signed a trilogy contract with Roland Emmerich at one time.
The box office of "Godzilla" has been falling all the way for a week, and the next two sequels are definitely out of the question.
However, the contract between Sony and Roland Emmerich cannot be automatically invalidated.
During the signing process of the contract, the two parties discussed the solution if the sequel could not be started. The result of the negotiation was that if the sequel of "Godzilla" could not be started, Roland Emmerich had the right to choose from other projects under Sony Pictures. Choose two to direct.
Toho’s Tokusho Godzilla series has filmed 22 films in forty years. No one could have expected that after Godzilla was introduced to Hollywood, it would be difficult to continue with just one film. Therefore, no one took this subsidiary clause to heart at the beginning.
But right now, "Godzilla" has a total investment of 220 million U.S. dollars. According to the current situation, it is an extravagant hope that the film can recover 150 million U.S. dollars in North America, let alone the original expectation of 300 million U.S. dollars. Judging from the dismal box office performance in Japan, the overseas market is also not optimistic. This project has been determined to bring huge losses to Sony Pictures. As the producer and director who directly led to the failure of the project, Sony's executives wanted to strangle Roland Emmerich to death, so they were naturally unwilling to fulfill the subsidiary terms.
The drudgery of resolving this contract issue naturally fell to Bill Michanik.
There is no director in Hollywood who has not encountered failure. Even Cameron, who has just created a miracle at the box office, made Fox lose his toothache with the original "Abyss". But no one is sure when these directors will make a comeback. After decades of being in Hollywood, Bill Michanik naturally understands this truth, so he doesn't want to tear himself apart with Roland Emmerich.
It wasn't until the end of the dinner that Bill Michanik, who had repeatedly brewed some rhetoric, talked about the topic: "Roland, I remember that there are at least five disaster film series of Firefly, and you directed "Clash of Heaven and Earth" and "Independence Day" The box office has been very good, Williams should really want you to continue working with Firefly?"
Roland Emmerich heard Bill Michanik put him in the main position in his words, but his mood did not change at all. Of course Eric said that he is welcome to go back anytime, but Roland Emmerich also has his own self-esteem. He gave up the good cooperative relationship with Firefly for the high salary. Now that the project has failed, he naturally cannot immediately Put your face down and go back to the fireflies.
Roland Emmerich was very clear about the purpose of Bill Michanik's appointment with him today, and he didn't mean to forcefully hold on to the subsidiary clause and not let go. The two sides cannot cooperate willingly, and the project he forcibly took over from Sony will certainly not work freely. This state will only affect the quality of the movie. The project failed again, and the wealthy Sony only lost some money, but if it screwed up two movies in a row, he probably had to retire early.
Putting down the tableware, Roland Emmerich wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, raised his head and said, "Bill, thank you for your dinner, so you should just talk about Sony's thoughts."
Roland Emmerich's attitude made Bill Michanic heave a sigh of relief, and said: "That's right, Roland, we are currently preparing a project, a story about the American War of Independence, called "Patriot", the director Candidates have not been confirmed, if you are interested, this movie can be directed by you."
"I've never been exposed to war-themed movies," Roland Emmerich said, suddenly realizing something, and asked keenly, "Has the protagonist of the movie been decided?"
Bill Michanik didn't expect Roland Emmerich to react so quickly, he paused, and said frankly: "We are in contact, and there are two suitable candidates, Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner .”
The atmosphere between the two parties fell into silence again.
Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner, these two are not only A-class superstars in Hollywood, but they have also won awards for war films such as "Braveheart" and "Dances with Wolves". Oscar nominations or awards for Best Director.
Regardless of whether any of these two people act as the leading actor in "The Patriot", Roland Emmerich's control over the project as the director will be greatly weakened, and even without him as the director, the project will obviously go on smoothly.
Roland Emmerich can feel that Sony stuffed him into such a type of film that he is not good at as a director, it is more like letting him serve as a 'vase' that will not have much impact on the entire film. This arrangement was an insult to his position in Hollywood.
Taking a sip of the red wine on the table and calming down, Roland Emmerich asked, "Then, what if we terminate the contract directly?"
"1 million dollars," Bill Michanik had obviously considered this possibility, but he couldn't hold back when he mentioned the somewhat perfunctory compensation amount, and added: "This is something I can decide That's the maximum amount, and I can talk to Howard and maybe raise it a little bit more if you want that."
How much can it be improved
Thinking of this, Roland Emmerich felt a little tangled in his heart.
The solution given by Sony is already very clear.
He came to serve as the director of "The Patriot". This film has Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner to support the film. The quality and box office of the film should be guaranteed. The subsidiary clauses are peeled off. It is conceivable that if he accepts this job as a director, the salary he can get will definitely not be too high. 20 million US dollars, box office share, etc. must be out of the question, even if it is to maintain him before "Godzilla". It is not easy to get a fixed director's salary of 8 million US dollars.
But if he wants to terminate the contract immediately, he can only get a symbolic compensation.
Moreover, after losing this contract, when "Godzilla" just suffered a failure, other Hollywood film companies will certainly not easily cooperate with him in the next one or two years. This is not because of his personal directing ability. The problem, but the one-sided negative reviews for "Godzilla" will definitely have a very bad impact on the box office appeal of his next film. The first solution given by Sony is actually to use the influence of Mel Gibson or Kevin Costner to reduce this influence as much as possible.
Obviously, Sony definitely hopes that he can automatically choose to terminate the contract, but at the same time he is unwilling to pay too much compensation, so he came up with such a difficult solution.
Sony also expected that he would not take drastic measures such as lawsuits to resolve this matter. After all, he just screwed up a big production of others and turned to sue others. After that, who would dare to cooperate with you again.
Finally, Roland Emmerich said: "Bill, give me some time, let me think about it."
Roland Emmerich didn't mention the termination of the contract again, and Bill Michanik knew that he had decided to accept the position of director of "The Patriot", but he couldn't let go of his airs for a while and immediately agreed. Bill Michanik didn't urge him either. He was very satisfied that he could get this matter over without any obvious unhappiness between the two parties.
Neither of them was interested in chatting any more. Bill Michanik was about to beckon the waiter to come over to check out. There was some commotion on the other side of the restaurant. A man and two women came out of a booth not far away, causing Warm greetings from other guests.
When Roland Emmerich heard the movement behind him, he also turned his head and looked over, just in time to meet Eric's gaze.
There are only two weeks left before the release of "Casino Royale 007". Eric can be lazy in the early promotion work, but at this last moment, as a director, he must still participate in the promotion of the film properly. Taking the girl to have dinner with Amy Pascal today is mainly to discuss this matter.
Responding politely to the greetings from the people around him, Eric was walking out with Amy Pascal with the girl on his arm. He didn't expect to meet Roland Emmerich, so he couldn't help but pause.
In recent days, Eric should definitely be regarded as one of the people Roland Emmerich least wants to meet.
It was the two films "Clash of Heaven and Earth" and "Independence Day" that he cooperated with Firefly that pushed him to the ranks of super directors, and also prompted Sony to offer that huge salary contract in order to win him over.
Back then, Roland Emmerich was a little bit sorry for giving up the cooperation with Firefly because of the generous rewards from Sony Pictures. At this time, the word-of-mouth and box office of "Godzilla" were bleak. Facing Eric, Roland Emmerich Qi felt even more embarrassed.
"Good evening, Eric," Roland Emmerich took the initiative to greet Eric even though he felt uncomfortable, but he hesitated for a while, wondering whether he should get up or not.
"Evening, Roland, oh, and Bill."
Eric can also see his current state of mind from Roland Emmerich's expression. There are many Hollywood insiders around him. If he deliberately stops at this time, there will definitely be new jokes in Hollywood tomorrow. Not wanting to embarrass Roland Emmerich too much, Eric just nodded softly to the two of them, and they passed by.
Roland Emmerich's reaction to Eric was both relaxed and a bit blocked. He exchanged glances with Bill Michanik, and neither of them had any intention of paying the bill immediately. They left at this time, in case they parked again When I met him on the spot, I really didn't know what to say.
In the parking lot outside the restaurant, the girl was still hanging on Eric, and said to Amy Pascal with a smile, "Hehe, Amy, did you notice Roland's expression just now? It's really interesting."
Amy Pascal just smiled and didn't agree with the girl's words.
"Okay, don't gloat," Eric knocked on the girl's door, and then said to Amy Pascal: "About E! Entertainment's acquisition plan, let's talk about it as soon as possible, preferably at the end of the month Get the results before."
"Eric, Warner Cable didn't seem to be in a hurry to sell the shares when we suddenly took the initiative in this deal. They probably guessed that you're interested in E! Entertainment."
The twins drove the girl's Land Rover over, and Eric didn't rush into the car, leaning against the side of the car door and said, "I read some information recently, and it seems that Rainbow Media, a subsidiary of the basic cable company, also intends to sell it. You can buy it with them at the same time." Let’s get in touch, the Bravo TV station held by Rainbow Media is similar in nature to E! Entertainment.”
"I've noticed this too," Amy Pascal nodded, and said, "However, basic cable companies shouldn't sell too many shares, and General Electric is also interested in Rainbow Media, which has been expanding over the years. own cable TV business.”
"Basic cable companies must know which side has more potential to cooperate with. If possible, we don't need to seek too many shares at one time. We only need to get the right to operate. Moreover, your main focus should be on E ! For entertainment, Rainbow Media is an alternative.” After thinking for a while, Eric said again: “However, I guess after the release of “Batman and Robin” next week, Warner should be very willing to abandon E! Entertainment as soon as possible. If Time Warner’s losses continue to expand this year, Terry Semel’s CEO position may be replaced.”
Amy Pascal immediately realized the meaning of Eric's words, and asked: "Eric, don't you like "Batman and Robin"?"
"I haven't seen the finished film of "Batman and Robin", so I'm not sure. However, if you pay attention, you should find that Warner has covered "Batman and Robin" too tightly. So far, apart from the trailer, there is very little substantive information related to the content of the film, and there are no public test screening reviews."
Amy Pascal sorted out the information in her mind and found that this was indeed the case.
Warners tightly sealed the content of the film before it was released, perhaps to maintain the mystery of the film, but there is another possibility, that is, they have no confidence in the quality of the film, and they are worried that word-of-mouth leaks in advance will affect the box office of the film. . (To be continued.)