America gains both fame and fortune

Chapter 263 Losing Terribly

With the arrival of director Danny Boyle, the project officially entered the preparation stage. After going through routine procedures, Warner Bros. also gave the green light to continue to participate in the investment and serve as the distributor of the film.

The Neverending Studios was quickly formed, with investment coming primarily from Sofia and Vincent's Beast House Entertainment, Grey Pictures, Pacific Pictures, and Davis Film Studios.

The disclosed cost is $3600 million.

In the third weekend of November, "Wanted" lost the top spot in the North American box office, and the top spot was taken by the new Harry Potter film.

Martin also attended the premiere of the film and took a photo with JK Rowling, who had not yet been expelled from Kazakhstan.

As for the famous three ungrateful wolves, they are still little kids now.

This weekend, Wanted grossed another $1455 million in North America, bringing its total North American box office to $1.41 million.

It has also appeared in more countries and regions overseas, and its global box office has exceeded US$2.5 million.

With this powerful business power, Thomas conducted several rounds of negotiations with the Never-Ending crew on behalf of Martin and finalized Martin's salary.

Martin's salary was divided into two parts, with the crew paying him $500 million in advance.

Celebrities maintain a high quality of life and their expenses are quite high.

And Martin also needs a certain amount of funds to continue to buy Apple's scattered shares in the market.

In this regard, he intends to hold the shares for a long time.

The remaining $300 million plus Martin's early investment in "Limitless" will be counted as a total investment of $600 million by Davis Studio, included in the production cost of "Limitless", and will enjoy the actual right to investment returns.

In the office of Davis Studio, Martin carefully read the draft contract, even including the insurance clauses and additional terms.

The latter mainly refers to the various services provided to Martin by the crew during the filming, such as Bruce having to serve as the crew's prop master, shooting outside of California, requiring five-star luxury suites and business class tickets, the type and grade of cars provided, etc.

This time, a clause was added that the crew would have to bear the expenses of two bodyguards.

After Martin looked through the contract, he asked Thomas, "I thought I was going to get $1000 million."

Thomas knew Martin would have such questions and was prepared, explaining, "If Wanted was a movie like The Hills Have Eyes, where the male lead carried the film alone, I could get you $1000 million this time, but it's not."

Martin asked, "Because Julie and I carried this movie together?"

Thomas nodded. "Yes, Wanted is a movie you and Julie made. The appeal of the heroine is also crucial. The two of you supported this movie and shared the profits of the movie. It's not like The Hills Have Eyes, which belongs entirely to you alone."

He simply gave an example: "Will Smith was paid $500 million for Independence Day. Although the film was a huge success, he was still paid $500 million for Men in Black afterwards, because the biggest selling point of Independence Day was the special effects and the group performance, so the roles were heavily shared."

Martin nodded, this was normal.

Thomas added: "Men in Black was also a huge success, but Smith's salary for his next film only increased by $200 million because Tommy Lee Jones was also a key actor in Men in Black."

Martin knows Will Smith to some extent, and asked: "So, Public Enemies is the key to Smith's salary skyrocketing?"

"The previous films were also very important, allowing Will Smith to complete his initial accumulation." Thomas said: "Public Enemies really made Will Smith's salary exceed 10 million. The box office of this film was far lower than that of Independence Day and Men in Black, but it was a film that Smith carried alone. Other actors such as Johnny Waters and Gene Hackman were completely helping Smith."

Martin understands that the meanings of single-player and dual-player are completely different.

No one can ignore Jolie's important role in the success of "Wanted".

Thomas added: "If Limitless makes over 1200 million dollars at the North American box office again, I can ask for a minimum of million dollars or even more for your next commercial film, and even a share of the profits in the later stages."

This involves a more complicated calculation method, such as an agreement between the leading actor and the film company on the split of the film's net profits and the split after the income and expenditure are balanced.

The latter is a contractual agreement between the two parties. For example, after a film reaches a box office of $2 million in North America, the leading actor will have the right to share in the subsequent box office or profits.

There are so many things to play with.

Fortunately, according to Martin's development model, he will definitely participate in the film projects in which he stars as one of the producers in the future.

The script of "Limitless" is still being adapted, and the main characters have been basically determined. Eddie, played by Martin, is naturally the absolute protagonist, and the second most important role is the heroine.

In addition, an old actor is required to play the Wall Street tycoon.

Martin called Nicholson. Compared with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, who were known as the four great actors of the same era, the old bastard was more rigorous in selecting films. Since he had no shortage of money, he did not want to ruin his acting reputation that he had built up over decades for a few million dollars.

Just post a recruitment notice for ordinary role actors. What Los Angeles lacks the least is actors.

As for the heroines, both Louise and Boyle tended to choose famous female stars.

The biggest advantage is that female celebrities can easily hype up topics and engage in publicity and marketing.

Newcomers can't compare to this.

Martin plays the protagonist, who looks older than his actual age.

For the female lead, the most suitable age is around 30.

The role settings have been basically finalized, and the crew's related recruitment notices have been sent to the internal platforms of the Actors Guild and WMA.

…………Century City, the Death Star Building which was recently completed.

Aniston's agent Steve was busy in his independent office when he suddenly received a call from a friend at WMA who wanted to switch to CAA.

"Hey, didn't you ask me to pay attention to Martin Davis and his new project?" The person on the other end said quickly, "The company's internal platform just announced that Martin's new project "Limitless" is recruiting actors, including a female lead, who must be a famous actress."

Steve kept it in mind and said, "Thank you for your call. I'll buy you a coffee sometime."

After hanging up the phone, he thought for a moment, dialed Aniston's number, and explained the situation in detail.

In a small villa in the Coty community, Aniston said on the phone: "I know, let me think about it."

After hanging up the phone, Aniston cast her eyes towards the coffee table in front of her, on which was placed a newspaper - "American Rumor", a typical gossip newspaper.

Normally, Aniston wouldn't care about the above reports.

But today is different.

Right on the front page, she stood opposite Julie's image, and the title directly used the two of them.

"Angelina Jolie beats Jennifer Aniston once again!"

Earlier in the article, two movies in which the two played the leading roles, "Wanted" and "The Pursuit", were compared.

The comparison of numbers is shocking: US$1.41 million and US$2181 million.

The former belongs to Julie, the latter to her.

Comparisons beyond the box office are even more extreme.

"In May, Aniston lost to Jolie in the marriage battle. Now, in the box office battle of the two starring movies, Aniston is still losing miserably!"

"Can we draw the following conclusion from this: Aniston is far inferior to Jolie in terms of personal charm, acting skills and appeal?"

Aniston has a lot of capital and doesn't really care about temporary gains and losses, but she is frequently compared with Jolie, which makes her very annoyed.

It would be fine if Jolie stole the limelight, but Aniston became increasingly unable to tolerate the fact that she stole her husband and showed off.

What means should be used to fight back?
Aniston had thought about it before, so it was not difficult to make a decision. She just sat in silence for a few minutes and called her agent back: "Steve, submit my information to the crew of "Limitless" and tell them that I am interested in playing the leading role."

Steve warned in advance: "The pay may not be high, after all, your latest movie didn't do well at the box office."

Aniston certainly wouldn't do such a stupid thing as working for nothing: "No less than $500 million."

Steve said, "I'm going to Warner Studios right now to meet Louise Mayer at Pacific Pictures."

Aniston said directly: "Get this role as soon as possible."

Steve hung up the phone, immediately left CAA, rushed to Burbank, submitted Aniston's information to the crew of Limitless, and met with producer Louise Mayer.

…………

The Weinstein Company, Los Angeles.

Brad Pitt, the newest member of the Foot Gang, was specially invited by Harvey Weinstein to meet him.

"I'm going to promote a project." Harvey actually takes good care of the actors who lean towards him, so he has a large number of supporters in the circle: "The film is a biographical drama, and the male lead is very suitable for you."

When Brad Pitt heard this, he immediately thought of the Oscars. He is arguably the biggest Oscar promoter in the past decade.

He has not given up on Oscar yet, and asked, "Whose biography?"

Harvey took a large fairy tale book and handed it to Pete: "Have you read it? It's about this."

Pete discovered that the book in his hand was called Peter Rabbit and asked, "A biopic about Miss Potter? She's a woman."

When Harvey got the project, he had some ideas, especially the publicity and hype of Martin and Julie before the release of Wanted, which gave him a bold idea.

"I said, you will be the male lead," said Harvey.

Pete immediately asked, "Who are you going to find as the heroine?"

Harvey mentioned an expected name: "How about Jennifer Aniston? She's Miss Porter, you're the hero, and you're in the same movie together."

If this happens, public opinion will definitely explode!

Pete thought for a moment and said, "I have no problem with that. Can you invite Jane?"

Harvey thought this plan was promising: "We should give it a try." He looked at Pete: "You can also help persuade him."

After being kicked out by Jolie, Pitt realized Aniston's good points and nodded in response: "I'll give it a try."

(End of this chapter)