"William Smith will meet with two 'Tom's, suspected of discussing new film matters", this is the headline on the front page of the "Hollywood Information" on the second day, accompanied by a picture of Eric, Cruise and Hanks side by side A photo of walking out of Firefly HQ.
In the photo, Eric looks like a high school student in a gray tracksuit, which fits his age. Cruise was wearing a black casual jacket, which was unbuttoned, revealing the white T-shirt inside. Only Hanks was wearing a black suit and tie seriously, looking like an office worker. Because they talked about the script all morning, the two superstars relaxed their vigilance when they left without wearing sunglasses, so the expressions of the three were quite clear, talking and laughing with each other and walking towards the door. This shot happened to be shot by a lucky The paparazzi caught it.
"At about eight o'clock yesterday morning, two superstars, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks, were found entering the headquarters of Firefly Films, the emerging director Eric Williams. The reporter of this newspaper quickly arrived at the relevant location after receiving the news. , After waiting for up to four hours, Eric Williams, two superstars Cruise and Hanks, walked out of the Firefly headquarters surrounded by the crowd, as you can see from the expressions of the three in the photo*, The meeting was quite pleasant.
Although the three did not accept the reporter's interview, but left in a hurry by car respectively. However, according to some clues provided by people familiar with the matter, this meeting is related to the new film that Eric Williams is preparing.
Eric Williams, the wonder boy who burst into Hollywood, has continued to rocket through the sky since his debut as an actor and writer last year on "Seventeen Back," directing his first low-budget comedy The movie "Home Alone" directly sent it to the 100 million box office club.
When many people attributed the teenager's achievements to the favor of the goddess of luck, only four months later, Williams' second romantic comedy "Pretty Woman" was released again, with a box office of nearly 30 million US dollars in the first week. It fully proved the strength of this young director.
In the first film "Home Alone", Eric Williams created an amazing box office miracle using only a group of TV actors and the little boy next door. Although Pacino has won many Oscar nominations, he has been out of action for four years, and his box office appeal is close to nothing. Julia Roberts only played a small role in a low-cost comedy. Eric But they were sent to the ranks of Hollywood A-level actors at the same time.
But this time, the young director directly chose two A-list male stars who are popular in Hollywood. We have no doubt that his next film will create another box office miracle.
However, although the appearance of the three people chatting happily in the photo gives the appearance that this cooperation is a matter of course, we have to mention that Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks currently belong to CAA at the same time As we all know, Eric Williams offended CAA's senior executives because of the acquisition of the brokerage company of a well-known Hollywood golden agent at the beginning of the year. , During the casting of "Pretty Woman", it also blocked the cooperation between its artists Richard Gere and Eric Williams. For this reason, Richard Gere was not hesitated to make up for a big MGM-United Artists movie.
In this case, we cannot imagine that the cooperation between Eric Williams and the two Toms will be full of twists and turns. Of course, Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks are also strong enough to ignore CAA's obstruction. After all, both of them are now Hollywood A-level superstars. Even if they lose CAA's support, their careers will not suffer too much. Influence.
Moreover, judging from the impact of Eric Williams' previous two works, his new work is likely to bring the careers of the two superstars to a new level.
I believe that in Hollywood, no actor can resist this kind of temptation, but I don't know if the senior executive of CAA still has enough courage to block this cooperation again.
The last incident caused Mr. Richard Gere to lose the opportunity to step into the ranks of A-level actors again. Judging from the results of the recent film critics' screening of "Dragon Killing" starring him, the prospect of this movie is not good. Being optimistic, the possibility of a box office explosion is very small, which is not enough to 'compensate' Mr. Richard Gere's 'loss' for giving up the leading role in "Pretty Woman". Therefore, let us wait and see how Cruise and Hanks will choose, and how CAA's top management will deal with Williams' invitation. "
Eric smiled wryly and threw the newspaper on the table, really wanting to blow up the editor who wrote the manuscript. In the previous situation, Michael Ovitz would only increase the salary quotations of the two superstars to express his dissatisfaction, but he would not forcefully obstruct the cooperation between the two parties like last time.
After all, the rise of uta is now unstoppable. If Michael Ovitz makes any small moves, not only will the gains outweigh the losses, but if it spreads out, it will be considered narrow-minded. The more narrow-minded a person is, the more he fears and hates accusations of other people in this regard.
When the contract is signed in the future, the cast is announced, and some media are hinted at, no matter what infighting will be in private, but in the hearts of the public, the two sides will shake hands and settle their differences. Image is good.
But now that the tabloids have teased him, if this cooperation is successfully achieved, the title of 'the most powerful man in Hollywood' that Michael Ovitz just won will become a joke.
Sure enough, the day after the "Hollywood Information" published the article, Eric received a disturbing news.
"It's really too much. The 6 million US dollars remuneration offer is reasonable, but the other party even asked for a 20% North American profit share after the film is released. I have been in Hollywood for so many years, and I have never heard of it. Which actor would put forward such an unreasonable condition. Eric, do you have to use Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks? Other agencies do not have top actors, it is really not possible, you play a role yourself It’s okay, self-directed, self-acted, this gimmick will have more influence.” After talking with Cruise and Hanks’ agent, Jeffrey rushed into Eric with a look of despair. office, so complained.
Although he had expected it in his heart, Eric was taken aback by the conditions put forward by the two people. The "bad trend" of Hollywood stars asking for profit sharing began with Tom Cruise, and later, the model of remuneration plus profit sharing gradually became a popular charging model, and the sharing ratio is generally 10% to 20% between.
The so-called profit sharing is completely different from the film's box office share. Specifically, it means that the producer gets the box office share that he deserves, subtracts the part of the gross profit from the production cost, and multiplies it by the share ratio requested by the actors. Actors can get a share of profits. Moreover, the profit share is also divided into two types: the global box office share and the North American box office share.
Although the agents of Cruise and Hanks have not lost their minds enough to propose global profit sharing, the 20% North American share is not so easy to get even after many years. The one who can get the highest ratio is either the kind that can’t be done without it, such as Johnny Depp in "Pirates of the Caribbean" in Parallel Space, or he can completely give up the film salary and use gambling in exchange for the highest percentage.
But now, this charging method has just appeared. Tom Cruise also "whimsically" proposed this charging model when filming "Rain Man" last year, because of Cruise's strong box office appeal, coupled with The production cost of "Rain Man" was not high. After consideration, the film crew felt that as long as Cruise joined the film, the film would be easy to make a profit, so they agreed to Cruise's unreasonable request. It was agreed under the condition of reducing the salary, and the profit sharing ratio was only 10%.