I’m in Hollywood

      Looking at the angry man in front of him, Eric had to get up, and pour him a gla.s.s of water, after waiting for Jeffrey to finish drinking, he said: " All right, Jeffrey, can"t you see it, this is just a ploy so CAA don"t lose face. If they keep insisting on twenty percent of the profits, then there"s no need to keep talking about cooperation. But if you calm down and think about it, you"ll find that CAA just want to drag on for a period of time?"

"Why do they want to delay the time?" Jeffrey obviously did not calm down, he poured himself another gla.s.s of water and asked.

"Because they want to save face, some time ago, the "Premiere Magazine" produced a list of Hollywood power rankings, Michael Ovitz came first, Even Barry Diller and Michael Eisner at the helm of these film giants can only be ranked behind him. If you have just won this t.i.tle, and the two stars under your hand, started cooperating with the man you previously put a ban on, wouldn"t you loose face as the most powerful man in Hollywood."

Jeffrey sighed in relief: "That"s fine, I thought the other side really wanted to split the profits, this is too messy."

Eric said solemnly: "Jeffrey, Maybe you should start accepting the stars paychecks slowly raising, in addition to them getting a big part of the profits. Because after Tom Cruise tried this model in the movie 《Rain Man》 and succeeded, other Hollywood stars are likely to follow suit."

"Two people, getting 40% of the gross profit. Do they want to make more money than we do? We will only have 60% remaining, and we have to pay other expenses."

In fact, Eric also thought of this problem, he felt that perhaps this may be an opportunity, to help his own interests, he was destined to join the Hollywood film producers Union in the future, so he must stand on the opposite side of the actors.

Tom Cruise 《Rain Man》 is just an attempt to give the actors a new fee charging mode, 《Running Out of Time》 negotiations is likely to become the reference for many top Hollywood stars in the future. So, the lower their percentage of profits, the better.

If he can control this ratio between 5% and 10%, then once it becomes a standard, the acc.u.mulated expenses that will be saved in the future, would be an astronomical figure. Although Eric did not know whether this would succeed or not, he would have to give it a try.

"Jeffrey, don"t worry about this matter, just talk to them slowly, don"t let them think they can get 20%, and try to reduce the $6 million paycheck, and tell them if they want a cut of the profits they will have to reduce their fee, they can"t eat their cake and have it, too."

Jeffrey was still not willing to reconcile: "Eric, why not bypa.s.s the brokers, and talk to Cruise and Hanks"s alone, didn"t you have a good time with them that day?"

Eric smiled and pulled out "Hollywood Reporter" newspaper, and shook it in front of Jeffrey, and said: "They are CAA"s artists, I don"t have a particularly good friendship with them now, they can promise to star in 《Running Out of Time》, but they won"t make Michael Ovitz loose face. Besides, they won"t object to CAA"s efforts to get them more benefits, right?"

Instead of refuting, Jeffrey asked: "Eric, tell me exactly what you think I should do. It"s the first time I"ve ever encountered this kind of thing, I can"t drag things indefinitely, but as the boss, you"re the one who will have to make the fin

al decision. So you"d better give me a baseline data reference, so when I start negotiating with them, I will have a sense of propriety."

Eric thought for a moment and said: "I heard that in 《Rain Man》 Tom Cruise in order to get the contract, he had to take the initiative to reduce his fee. As for the bottom line, as long as Cruise and Hanks fee doesn"t exceed $5 million, and their cut of the profits is between 5% and 10%, then I"ll accept. Remember absolutely no more than 10%."

"All right. I"ll keep that in mind." Jeffrey noted down what Eric said.

Noticing that Jeffrey was still depressed, Eric patted him on the shoulder and said: "Well, Jeffrey, don"t worry about it anymore. Although, because of this new fee model, we lose part of our profit, but we can get it back from somewhere else, And that part of the profit doesn"t have to be split up with the actors, We can even charge more under the banner of the actor.

"You mean? ... ... Implanted ads?"

"Bingo!" Eric snapped his fingers: "《Running Out of Time》 This kind of film is very suitable for implanting ads. I saw it in the newspaper, Lamborghini because of the Ad implanted in 《Pretty Woman》, this year"s sports car sales has increased three times more than in previous years,
The new Lamborghini Countach sports car is not even on the market yet, and already hundreds of orders have been received."

"This is really a good idea" Jeffrey finally showed a smile, and subconsciously looked at the script, wanting to find in which place they can implant the Ads, Eric pulled out a piece of paper and gave it to Geoffrey: "Stop searching. I already found the places."

After Jeffrey took the paper and looked at the long list, his mouth slightly opened.

Mobile phone, walkie talkie, sport car, boxed cookies, sungla.s.ses, camera, necklaces, comic magazine ...

"Eric, isn"t this, a bit exaggerated?"

Eric felt that he still has integrity compared to the directors from his previous life, at least he isn"t spending $200 million on a three-hour Ad, he just used the plot cleverly to put in the Ads, Instead of changing the story for advertising.

"Jeffrey, in fact, I just wrote them down when I thought of them. There will be a lot of walkie-talkies and mobile phones in the movie, So mobile phones and walkie-talkie ads can be packaged to a communication"s equipment company, Motorola, for example, I heard that Motorola is about to introduce a new small mobile phone, Only palm sized. I believe with the previous example of Lamborghini, plus Cruise and Hanks the two superstars, Motorola will easily pay millions of dollars as advertising fees. If their price is too low, then find their old rival, Ericsson. As for the sports car, keep in touch with Lamborghini, presumably the other side will not refuse."

Jeffrey pointed to the list and asked: "What about the boxed cookies?"

Eric explained: "Didn"t you read the script? In the movie, Andy planted several bombs, they were all fake, these bombs were made in boxes, not only will there be close-ups of the box in the film, there will also be related lines, so it"s also a very important placement Ad. As for the sungla.s.ses and cameras, they are all used in the movie, so you can also pull some small sponsorship fees."

Eric, aren"t you worried that inserting too much advertising will cause resentment from the audience?"

"No," Eric said confidently! "None of these ads are deliberate, so the audience won"t feel any discomfort. Of course, because there are a lot of implanted Ads this time, good communication with the sponsors is required, not like the last time with Lamborghini, before the film is released, we don"t want the sponsors to reveal themselves."

Jeffrey noticed something wrong, puzzled he asked: "The placement of the Ad is not prominent, and they shouldn"t publicize it, if I"m a sponsor, I"m sure I won"t pay for it."

"It"s not that they shouldn"t announce it." Said Eric patiently: "I meant, before the movie release, they can"t promote it, otherwise, even if I did not deliberately implant the Ads, the audience will regard it as deliberate, this preconceived idea will subconsciously cause the audience to be disgusted with the film. But as soon as the film is released, after word of mouth is out, we can then hype up the ads, wish will not only play the effect of free publicity, but also attract the audience who are curious about the implanted advertising scenes in the movie and went back into the cinema again, thus increasing the movie box office."

Jeffrey revealed a meaningful smile, and said: "Eric, I feel like I"m sitting in front of a merchant of Venice."

"Is that sarcasm?"

"Yes, but I added a lot of praise and admiration emotions in the inside." Jeffrey laughed.

"Oh, Lord Jeffrey, how very generous of you." Eric answered with an English accent and laughed.

After the joke, Eric looked at his watch and said: "I have another appointment, so ... ..."

Jeffrey did not wait for Eric to speak out and quickly replied: "You are telling me to go, right?"

"Smart, never thought that you would figure it out yourself."

Jeffrey thought of something for a moment, and asked: "is it a date with a woman?"

"A man, a very famous architectural designer, his name is Frank Gehry, I saw that he designed a mansion in Malibu for Oracle chairman Larry Allison, so I"m going to ask him to help me."

"Are you talking about that piece of rocky land by the beach you spent $5 million to buy?"

"Why, do you think I spent too much money?" Eric retorted: "Wait until I have successfully built my Malibu 10880. people will try to buy it even if I ask for 50 million dollars."

"To tell you the truth, your willful practice kinda makes me feel relieved, because you"re finally starting to act like boys you age should, otherwise, I will subconsciously start seeing you like one of my peers. Eric, why do you always call that place Malibu 10880?"

Eric blinked, and said: "it"s a secret"

"Tell me, I promise not to tell other people." Jeffrey curiously looked at Eric.

"Since it"s a secret, you can"t tell anyone other than myself, you"re also "other people"." Eric of course could not explain to Jeffrey, so he quickly left the office.

... ...

Michael Jackson"s famed Neverland Ranch had an area of 11 square kilometers, with various buildings, It only cost him $19.5 million. By comparison, his piece of land is only about 0.06 square kilometers, which is equivalent to 60000 square meters, and he had to spend $5 million to get it, that"s a very big difference in price. That"s because of lobbying and his private lawyer additional "public relations fee", because the land was a public small park and was not available for sale.

"Mr. Williams, the drawings of the building you sketched, although very imaginative, but there are too many irrational places, and the construction is rather difficult, especially to build on the edge of the cliff." Frank Gehry give his professional eye evaluation of Eric"s drawings.

The two of them were standing together in the Malibu sharp corner, accompanied by Frank Gehry"s a.s.sistant, Eric too wasn"t alone, Virginia happened to be at home, so he called her to act as a guest secretary.

This place had already become a private territory belonging to Eric, and he has also obtained a building permit. he can do whatever he wants in this land, as long as he doesn"t disturb or anger his neighbors, no one will come to manage him.

"Mr. Gehry, you mean that the construction is too difficult, that doesn"t mean you can"t build it?"

Frank Gehry nodded: "But it will cost a lot of money, I don"t think it"s necessary. If you must build the mansion here, then I will suggest moving the mansion north by at least ten meters, This will not only greatly reduce the difficulty of the construction, It can also save more than thirty percent of the construction cost. In addition, various pipeline lines will be more easily erected."

Eric eye shifted to the place Frank Gehry pointed at, if they built the mansion their a very unpleasant rocky area will block his sea view.

Shaking his head, Eric refused Frank"s advice: "Mr. Gehry, if I insist, how much will it cost?"

"I can"t give you a specific figure for the moment, because I don"t have the survey data yet, If you insist on building according to your own design, we will need lot of geological surveys to be done to test the ground, To determine if the weight of the building can be sustained on the edge of the cliff, If not, we will need to reinforce the ground, that would make things more complicated and more expensive. But I think five million is certainly unavoidable."

"Only $5 million?" Eric was skeptical, to buy this piece of land he spent $5 million.

"Mr. Williams, as far as I know, you can by the most expensive house in Malibu at that price."

"Sorry, Mr. Gehry, I don"t know much about these things. I would like to take the liberty to ask, If I use $10 million, or even $20 million, What kind of building can be built?"

In this era, even Microsoft"s president Bill Gates, can"t come out with $20 million in cash, after all, most of Bill Gates money is in stocks. But the movie industry is different, as long as the box office is good, you can get tens of millions of dollars or even hundreds of millions of dollars of funds in a relatively short period of time.

Frank Gehry looked at the boy in front of him with surprised eyes, he thought for a while then said: "In that case, I"ll build a piece of art for you ... ... Mr Williams, are you sure?"

"I"m sure, Mr. Gehry, what I want is a piece of art." Eric replied without hesitation.