Entertainment 1998

Chapter 437 Chapter 436, Tug of War with Lionsgate
【Songnan Hotel】

A small restaurant next to the Yunjian Granary in Songjiang. It is said that the old people in Songjiang like to call it "Songnan Hotel", not because it is big and luxurious, on the contrary, this hotel is so simple and shabby that it is terribly simple.

After Jiang Feng finished his shower and went downstairs, Wang Jinghua asked the driver to drive the car here.

This is a small local restaurant converted from the first or second floor of a residential building in an old neighborhood. It is mixed in with a row of convenience stores and hardware stores and looks particularly plain. It would be difficult for the sign to have such a heavy sense of the times if it had not been weathered by wind and rain for more than 10 years.

The storefront is very small, but it has two floors. The first floor is the lobby, and the second floor has various small private rooms. The stairs leading upstairs are very narrow and steep, the carpet is a bit dirty, and the decoration is in a very old-fashioned style.

Although the environment is simple, it is very popular here. When Jiang Feng, Wang Jing, Hua and Li Xing arrived here, it was dinner time and the restaurant on the first floor was already full.

So, the three of them found a small room by the window on the second floor and sat down.

Since this restaurant does not have a menu, customers need to tell the number of people they want to eat, and the restaurant owner will arrange the meals freely. Jiang Feng has never been here before, so even if he wants to treat them, he doesn't know the standard amount of money for three people.

Fortunately, there was Wang Jinghua. She took out 300 yuan and handed it to the waiter, said it contained 6 bottles of beer, and started to talk about business with Jiang Feng.

"Jiang Feng..."

"Ok?"

"Your assistant director Dawei, along with your photographer Liu Jie and makeup artist Mark, arrived in Los Angeles three days ago. After arriving, they began working with the staff of Lionsgate.

Selecting actors and scouting filming locations for the crew, but Lionsgate CEO Jon Fillmore kept calling me to complain, saying that it was because they never told their colleagues at Lionsgate what they were going to shoot.
It was only when colleagues from Lionsgate asked him urgently that Dawei finally said two words: "Seeing ghosts!"

Seeing ghosts…

Hearing these two words, Jiang Feng was stunned. He did not give the English script to Dawei, but only the Chinese script. He did not expect that this guy's English level was not bad. At least the translation using these two words should be much better than the American version of "Seeing the Ghost" in his previous life.

In the past, the American version of "Seeing a Ghost" was called "The Eye", which literally means eye, but it does not fully express the connotation of the movie.

As I was thinking about it, the restaurant had already started serving the food.

The first two dishes the waiter brought were boiled pork belly and salt and pepper pork ribs. Being extremely hungry, Jiang Feng didn't hesitate to pick up the chopsticks and let Wang Jinghua and Li Xing take their place before he started eating the boiled pork belly.

The boiled pork belly is very tender and fresh, and it tastes really good when dipped in the homemade soy sauce of this restaurant.
The salt and pepper pork ribs are fried thoroughly and smell super fragrant, especially the small pieces on the edges that taste like lard. In the local dialect of Shanghai, it is called extremely sweet.

Jiang Feng was enjoying the delicious food. Wang Jinghua poured him a glass of beer and then started talking again.

"Jiang Feng, can't you tell me what the story of this movie you want to shoot, "Seeing Ghosts" is?"

"no!"

Jiang Feng refused very straightforwardly.

"Sister Hua, it's not that I can't tell you, but I'm afraid you will tell Jon Felmer."

"why?"

Wang Jinghua didn't mean to blame Jiang Feng, because the reason she asked him was that she planned to relay the message to Jon Felmey. Recently, she really couldn't stand this foreigner calling her every day.

You have to know that there is a time difference between China and the United States. When it is daytime for them, it is midnight here. Therefore, when Jon Felme called me, I was sleeping soundly, but I had to answer the call.

"Because the budget for the movie 'Seeing the Ghost' is not enough, 200 million US dollars is more than enough to shoot in China, but it is a bit less if it is shot in the United States. Even the backbone of the filming team, who were brought over from here, probably cost 500 to 600 million US dollars.

If you tell the story truthfully, Jon Fillmore, an industry insider, can estimate the real investment amount of this film with a little calculation. "

“Oh…” Wang Jinghua understood what he said.

"Well, I understand what you mean, Brother Feng. But if we don't make the total budget clear in advance, and they say the crew has run out of money halfway through filming, will Lionsgate still make additional investments?" The person who asked this question was Li Xing, and it seemed that she had now entered the role of producer.

When Jiang Feng heard this question, he laughed.

"Sister Xing, Hollywood is different from the mainland. The mainland values ​​personal connections and status. For example, director Kai Ge lost all his money on the film The Emperor and the Assassin last year, but he is still able to get investment now.

But in Hollywood, strength is king!

As long as you can make money for the capitalists, it doesn't matter how many times you increase the investment. For example, James Cameron almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox in order to shoot "Titanic". The investment in the movie was increased again and again. It was originally thought that 8000 million US dollars could be completed, but in the end the budget was directly increased to 2 million US dollars. The reason was that James Cameron could make money for the film company.

But if I lose once, I probably won’t be able to get my investment back again.”

"Okay, I get it now."

Li Xing smiled and stuck out his tongue, feeling a little embarrassed.

It turned out that the reason why Jiang Feng was planning to plot against Hollywood Lionsgate was because the two movies he had previously shot made a lot of money for the film company.

These are common sense things that the producer should know, but he didn't know them.

At this time, another 4 dishes came up.

Stir-fried pork liver, braised hairtail, stir-fried large intestine with vegetables and deep-fried pork tenderloin.

Jiang Feng first ate the braised hairtail fish. The braised hairtail fish was a little small, but it was fresh. The thick sauce with a little vinegar made the hairtail fish more delicious...

Naturally, everyone likes to eat delicious food, so during the meal, none of the three people spoke, they just ate and drank.

It didn't take too long, about 20 minutes. When Wang Jinghua felt that she had almost finished eating, she touched her stomach with her hand, drank another glass of beer, then took out two contracts from her bag and pushed them in front of Jiang Feng.

"This is the contract sent by Jon Fillmore, CEO of Lionsgate. One is in English and the other is in Chinese. I asked someone to translate it and also asked a lawyer to look at it. They are exactly the same and there is no flaw.

For you, the most important issue is income distribution.

Regarding this point, I have emphasized it for you. Just like our cooperation with China Film Group, you are the scriptwriter, director, and actor, and your income is 1/4 of the net profit of the film. "

Jiang Feng originally wanted to take a look at the contract, but after hearing what Wang Jinghua said, he lost interest in even looking at the contract. So he pulled out a napkin, wiped his mouth, and said, "Sister Hua, we can't sign this contract!"

"Ah, why?" Wang Jinghua was surprised.

When she came, she was quite proud that she had spent a lot of effort to help Jiang Feng get such good treatment, which was the same treatment given to him by China Film. This kid would definitely jump for excitement after seeing the contract.

But what no one expected was that Jiang Feng would directly choose to refuse.

"Sister Hua, you think too simply about those grandsons in Hollywood, do you believe it?
Even if I spend 500 million dollars to make a movie, and the box office after it is released is 5 million dollars, but the Hollywood film company can still produce a financial report showing that the movie lost money? "

"Ah, how is it possible?" Wang Jinghua looked incredulous.

“Of course it’s possible.

If you don't believe me, go check it out. David Prowse, the actor who played Darth Vader, has not yet received the salary he should have received for the 1983 movie "Return of the Jedi".

The reason is that this movie, which had a budget of $320 million and a box office of $4.75 million, claimed that it did not make any money and had no money to pay the actors’ salaries.”

At this point, Jiang Feng took a breath and said, "Sister Hua, tell me about Jon Felemey. I don't want much. Regarding the movie "Seeing the Ghost", my filming team and I only want 15% of the total box office!"

(End of this chapter)