Los Angeles.

With the sudden departure of Daenerys Entertainment's producer Ron Macmillan, the not-so-calm January, Hollywood, seems even more lively.

When Ron Macmillan learned that he was fired for some "insignificant" matters, he almost immediately asked Simon to make decisions for him. He felt that Amy and Janet were doing things that were arbitrary.

Confirmed that this matter was approved by Simon, the angry Ron Macmillan completely broke up and asked for $5 million in resignation compensation. Daenerys Entertainment naturally would not pay the money, and was not afraid of Ron Macmillan's threat to court.

The evidence of Ron Macmillan's embezzlement of funds for the film project is conclusive. Although the amount is small, it is enough for Daenerys Entertainment to reasonably fire the other party.

If it really happens, no matter how Hollywood views this matter, in the eyes of the media and the public, Ron Macmillan will only end up as infamous as David Bergman back then.

So after a week of confrontation, Ron Macmillan signed the resignation agreement without any compensation.

As another confidentiality agreement exchange that does not publicly discuss the incident, Ron Macmillan also received a subsequent share of $2.6 million that he deserved in several films he collaborated with Daenerys Entertainment in advance, and both parties did not owe each other.

Within Daenerys Entertainment, as the financial audits supervised by Janet continue to deepen, the company has successively fired a group of employees who are not very clean.

Although it inevitably caused some criticism, the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group also realized that its company would never be as confusing and distracting as traditional Hollywood film companies. Of course, because the salary standards of Daenerys Entertainment were significantly higher than those of its peers, not many people chose to resign because the company's financial system was too strict.

As for Ron Macmillan, although he signed a confidentiality agreement, he was soon rumored in the circle about his stingy and ruthless attacks on Simon and Daenerys in some party occasions.

However, because he did not publicly express these views in the media, Daenerys Entertainment could not seriously consider it.

Since he can connect his name to the top ten big-time films of the annual list of "Rolla Run", "Death is Coming" and "Screaming", although he knows that the leaders behind the three films are Simon Westeros, Ron McMillan immediately caused a scramble for the entire Hollywood after resigning.

After several offers, Universal Pictures finally signed three film contracts with Ron Macmillan for a generous contract with a basic salary of $3 million plus a 10% net profit share.

In addition, Universal also specially provided Ron Macmillan with additional subsidies such as private jets, personal hospitality, administrative assistants, etc. at the company's vice president-level level, and opened an office for Ron Macmillan's newly established Macmillan Production Company at Universal Studios Burbank.

Before this, there were only a few companies including Spielberg's Amberlin Films, including Spielberg.

Daenerys Entertainment did not deliberately conceal the reason for Ron Macmillan's resignation, and the circle knew it well. Therefore, Universal Pictures also gave such generous treatment based on Ron Macmillan's salary contract, which was obviously of a targeted meaning.

In fact, Daenerys Entertainment faces more than this “targeting”.

Paramount Pictures is in a state of hot preparation, and will not talk about "Rocket Expert" and "Firebird Attack", realizing that "Sex, Lies and Video Cassette" may be a box office dark horse. The main investor of the film, MCA/Columbia Family Entertainment, has combined several times, and Columbia Pictures finally obtained the distribution rights of "Sex, Lies and Video Cassette".

As the Sundance Film Festival approaches, Colombia has also set up a special publicity and promotion team to start preheating and promoting the film.

After the fourth week of the box office earned $12.96 million, in the fifth week of release, as the number of screens continued to increase, reaching 1,732 yuan, the box office of "Rain Man" once again fell back. Although the counter-decline rate was only a very weak 2%, the box office of $13.19 million made the total box office of "Rain Man" quickly reach $72.38 million.

Moreover, for five consecutive weeks, it is likely that the box office will exceed $10 million for six consecutive weeks. This box office momentum has significantly surpassed all other movies produced by Daenerys Entertainment last year.

Daenerys Entertainment's best box office performance outside of "Rain Man" at the end of last year, "Scream", only had a weekly box office of more than $10 million. Even "Pulp Novel", which temporarily ranked first in 1988, only lasted for 10 million yuan per week for only five weeks.

As a hottest awards season, with the announcement of Oscar nominations at the end of January and the awards of various union awards and Oscars in February and March, the box office potential of "Rain Man" has obviously exceeded "Pulp Novel".

Seeing the popularity of "Rain Man", MGM, which gave up the film script and even joined "The Hobbit", later sold the omni-channel distribution rights of North America for just $5 million, could not sit still.

The championship is the year.

Even if the total cost of the project reaches US$40 million, the box office potential shown by "Rain Man" is only the local and overseas box office revenue. Combined, the profit may still exceed 100 million, not to mention the subsequent video tape and TV broadcast revenue.

This is simply a gold mine.

Just so he was cheated by Simon Westeros.

So he made a fuss to sue and claim compensation again, and he actually hired a law firm to start studying the possible loopholes in several contracts between MGM and Daenerys.

Finally, including Fox, Warner and Disney, which have always had a good relationship, this lively January, the seven Hollywood majors were almost all involved with Daenerys Entertainment.

If you just simply involve these things, it’s nothing, even if you want to file a lawsuit, you only need to deal with it by chance.

Almost all Hollywood films will cause disputes between big and small. Even in the original "Rolla Run", the media once rumored that Simon and Janet became enemies because of uneven distribution of interests.

The most helpless thing is that any project Daenerys Entertainment is now eyeing will become the focus of the whole Hollywood.

Although Simon had a presciently stockpiled a large number of copyrights, it could not meet the needs of Daenerys Entertainment in the end, and the company could not put all the copyrights that were expected to be sold on the development agenda, which required other projects to fill the content shortage.

"Al, I know what you are thinking. Since "Driving for Miss Daisy" is popular with Daenerys Entertainment, with the current trend of Hollywood, other film companies will definitely offer higher prices to compete for. But can you confirm that they can do it well? If you mess it up, you won't get anything except a slightly higher copyright fee. However, if you give it to Daenerys Entertainment, once you succeed, you can not only win both fame and fortune in this movie, but you will also become the top screenwriter in Hollywood. All your scripts will be the target of Hollywood's competition, and this is the most important thing."

Inside a cafe on Broadway Street, New York.

Ella Deutchman talked to the middle-aged man who was about fifty years old opposite. After saying this, he took out a business card and handed it over, saying, "There is the contact information of my hotel on it. Al, if you are willing to hand over the script to us, call me tonight. After today, I can only say regrets."

The middle-aged man opposite Ella Deutchman is named Alfred Uri, who is a screenwriter, but mainly creates stage plays on Broadway. A stage play "Driving for Miss Daisy" created by Uri two years ago won unanimous praise on Broadway and won last year's Pulitzer Award for Drama.

Playing with the business card in his hand, Alfred Uri looked at Deutschman who had already stood up with a savvy look, and did not get up together. He spoke with a bit of ambition to get his temptation, saying, "Aira, if I don't make this call, will you really give up "Driving for Miss Daisy"? I think it is likely to become another "Steel Magnolia".

Ella Deutchman just smiled and said, "Uri, you are the third screenwriter I met today. I have seven people to meet next. You may all think that the script in your hand is the next "Steel Magnolia", but unfortunately, there is only one "Steel Magnolia".

"Well, Ella," Alfred Uri said in a relaxed tone, "Why not sit down and chat? Since you want "Driving for Miss Daisy", you must tell me how you plan to adapt the movie, right? And, a $100,000 offer, don't you feel too insincere about adapting a stage drama that won the Pulitzer Drama Prize?"

Ella Deutchman did not sit down and explained: "All, I just said that $100,000 is just an advance payment. In the next three years, if Daenerys Entertainment invests in this movie, it will pay you another $200,000. You will also have the right to sign the screenwriter and the post-production share that you deserve according to the "Basic Agreement" of the Screenwriter's Union. Three years later, if Daenerys Entertainment fails to invest in this movie, you can choose to redeem the copyright."

Alfred Uri still did not give up on inquiring about more information and said: "So, you don't plan to invest in this movie in a short period of time. In this case, I need to think carefully."

Ella Deuichmann said nothing more, and reached out to Alfred Uri and said, "If you are willing to sign, Al, we can spend a day talking about everything carefully."

Finally, he shook hands with Alfred Uri, and Ella Deutchman left the cafe without any nostalgia.

These days, in order to cope with Hollywood's encirclement, Daenerys Entertainment began to use this "ultimatum" strategy in script negotiations that did not give copyright holders too much time. Once they gave up, they would resolutely stop going back and would not engage in a bidding war with the seven majors.

In addition, Daenerys Entertainment takes action very frequently, which makes competitors unable to see the situation clearly, which greatly resolves the encirclement situation faced by the company.

Of course, this strategy also has obvious disadvantages. This move does not work much for famous big-name screenwriters. Those who are willing to compromise are basically those screenwriters who are eager for opportunities but have not yet made their debut. The company's recent goals are mainly these people.

Speaking of which, Ella Deutchman didn't know what's special about "Driving for Miss Daisy", nor did he know that the movie was the best film of the 62nd Oscar in the original time and space.

After the stage drama changed, "Steel Magnolia" sold well at the box office at the end of the year just now, Hollywood began to turn more attention to Broadway stage dramas. After Ella Deutschman and Simon communicated, they set aside a sum of money from their budget that they could use to buy the right to adapt the stage drama that was suitable for Gaomen Pictures' development.

"Driving for Miss Daisy" was a Pulitzer Prize winner for last year, and naturally became the focus of Ella Deutschman.

Simon, who was far away in Melbourne, saw the name of "Driving for Miss Daisy" from the list listed by Deutschman, but did not give Ella Deutschman a special prompt.

Simon also knew the situation facing Daenerys Entertainment.

The company's response strategy is very effective and he does not intend to make an exception in this movie.

Hollywood's history has changed a lot. "Driving for Miss Daisy" is in the hands of others. It is still possible to achieve success like that in the original time and space. Moreover, as long as the copyright holder has a little vision, he knows that cooperation with Daenerys Entertainment is more in line with his own interests. If he is a short-sighted person, it's okay not to cooperate.

After meeting Alfred Uri, Ella Deutchman hurried to other meetings.

After a busy day, Ella Deutchman returned to the hotel where he stayed in Midtown in the evening, and the lobby manager reminded him to leave a few phone messages. Three of the five screenwriters who had already met today called the phone and agreed to sell the copyright, including Alfred Uri of "Driving for Miss Daisy".

Back in the room, after the phone calls of several screenwriters one by one, Ella Deutchman called the phone to Ireland across the ocean, and routinely asked about the filming progress of "My Left Foot".

This is the result of Doychman's last flight to the UK.

"My Left Foot" is a biopic starring Daniel Day Lewis. It tells the story of a disabled person who is paralyzed due to polio who relies on his only moving left foot to become an artist.

In the original time and space, "My Left Foot" is another Miramax turnaround work besides "Sex, Lies and Video Cases", and was nominated for Best Picture at the 1990 Oscar.

Now, both works are not destined to be with Miramax.

Although I failed to get "Sex, Lies and Video Tapes", because when I was running the new film company, I worked with Daniel Day Lewis on "The Room with Scenery", Ella Deutchman got the movie smoothly on his last trip to the UK.

However, when I discovered this movie, Jim Sheridan, the director of "My Left Foot", had completed the preliminary preparations and the film was about to start filming.

Because Simon is very fond of this project, Ella Deutchman bought out the copyrights of the original three investors for US$1.8 million. The price is already very high, because the production cost of "My Left Foot" is only 600,000 pounds, which is less than US$1 million.

The original three investors were also thinking about waiting for a price, but Ella Deutschman decisively used the "ultimatum" to successfully make the three companies compromise.

The news in the UK is not as good as Hollywood. It is a film that is almost not popular with everyone, and it has not officially started filming, and the effect of the film is unpredictable. You need to do almost nothing, and you can make nearly twice the profit with a backhand. Several independent small film manufacturers have not insisted on it.

It was precisely when I saw the effect of the 'ultimatum' in "My Left Foot" that Daenerys Entertainment has recently adopted this strategy frequently.
Chapter completed!