Unknowingly, the time has come to the end of July.

Today is July 28th, Monday.

At nine o'clock in the morning, Simon arrived at the Fox Studios in Century City, Beverly Hills on time.

Since the injury on his body has not fully recovered, Simon did not ride again today, but made an appointment for a rental.

When he arrived at Fox Studios, Simon realized that he did not have a pass. The doorman looked at the young man who claimed to be here to attend a film production meeting with suspicion, and it took him a while before he agreed to make a call for him.

A few minutes later, the assistant of "The Butterfly Effect" producer David Giller rushed to the door and took Simon inside.

Simon followed the assistant to David Giller's office. Brian De Palma had arrived early, which made Simon feel a little embarrassed. However, David Giller and Brian De Palma

Erma didn't care much, and asked with concern how Simon was recovering from his injury.

After a brief exchange of greetings, Peter Sanders, a vice president of Fox Pictures, and Vincent Hill, another professional script analyst from Fox, also arrived one after another, and today's meeting officially began.

In a small conference room in the executive building of Fox Studios, the three film creators David Giller, Brian De Palma and Simon and two other people were sitting around the conference table. The secretary handed over a copy of the script and

A memo was circulated.

The script of "The Butterfly Effect" has been polished for 7 years and has been very perfect. Simon doesn't feel that there is much that can be modified according to the script he produced according to the final theatrical version of the film.

However, when Simon opened the memo written by the script analyst named Vincent Hill, he felt that he wanted to get the remaining balance of $60,000, which was obviously not the case.

Not that easy.

Last Thursday, while Simon was still in the hospital, he received the first check of $140,000 in his contract with Fox.

On the memo in front of him, from the title of the script to the final story ending, Vincent Hill made a very detailed evaluation and corresponding modification suggestions. Simon looked through it roughly and found that there were more than 50 annotations, almost

This is equivalent to one revision suggestion every two pages of the script.

Putting down the memo in his hand, Simon looked up at the other people. Except for Vincent Hill, the other three were also reading the memo. David Giller and Peter Sanders had calm expressions.

Ryan De Palma frowned slightly.

As a newly debuted screenwriter, Simon knew very well that he did not have much say in script revision. If he wanted to get the remaining balance of US$60,000, he could only modify the script honestly according to the requirements of the film company, or

, give up that power and let Fox hire other writers.

Thinking this, Simon turned his attention again to the memo in front of him.

Even though he didn't have much say, Simon was determined to maintain the integrity of the script as much as possible.

After a while, Brian De Palma spoke first, with obvious dissatisfaction in his tone, and directly asked Fox Vice President Peter Sanders: "Peter, you want to make this movie PG-

Level 13, right?"

Hearing Brian De Palma speak, Simon raised his head again.

After carefully reading the memo in his hand, Simon also discovered Fox's intention.

Because the script of the first version of "The Butterfly Effect" contains too many strong adult elements and the tone of the film is also darker, it will easily be rated R in the future. This means that teenagers under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult to watch.

In fact, it is equivalent to blocking a large part of the young audience from the theater.

At this point, based on the suggestions in the memo in hand, Simon realized that Fox clearly wanted to overturn most of the plots that might affect the film's rating.

As the largest film market in the world, the United States has implemented a mature film rating system very early.

According to the regulations of the Motion Picture Association of America (MP+), North American theater movies are divided into five grades: G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17. Among them, G is the loosest popular grade.

It means that all ages can watch. NC-17 is the most restrictive level, and teenagers under the age of 17 are prohibited from watching. The other three ratings, the closer to NC-17, the narrower the audience.

From a purely business perspective, Fox’s behavior is actually understandable.

If the film can be adjusted from an R rating to a PG-13 rating that only requires parental supervision for those under 13 years of age, then the market audience for the film will be much expanded in the future.

However, from the perspective of the story of "The Butterfly Effect", it seems very unwise for Fox to do this.

"Brian, you have to know that the investment for this movie is 10 million U.S. dollars," Peter Sanders replied calmly after hearing Brian De Palma's question: "So, we have to do it for

Consider the film’s commercial prospects.”

Brian De Palma shook his head and said: "In my opinion, the script of "The Butterfly Effect" is already quite perfect. If you do this, it will only destroy the overall structure of the script. And, starting from "Carrie"

, the films I direct have always been R-rated. As long as it is a good film, it will get sufficient commercial returns, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with this.”

"Since Simon can write a perfect script, he can also rework a more perfect script according to our requirements," Peter Sanders responded to Brian De Palma, but he followed the trend.

Turning to Simon, he said with a certain familiarity: "So, Simon, do you have the confidence?"

Although Peter Sanders' tone was very gentle and full of elder-like encouragement, Simon clearly felt that the other person's words were somewhat aimed at him.

Even though he understood that he did not have much say in this matter, Simon did not intend to be a yes man. Feeling the vague targeting of the other party, Simon said a little unkindly: "Mr. Sanders, with all due respect, "Butterfly"

"Effect" itself is already a very tight story script that is interlocked, like a big net, and pulling any one of the threads may affect the overall situation. If you modify it according to the requirements of this memorandum, it is very likely that you will get the final result.

It's a completely different story. So, if Fox wants a PG-13 movie, maybe I can rewrite the script."

Peter Sanders didn't expect that Simon would be so sharp when he opened his mouth. Thinking of the fact that this young man had just broken the leg bones of five young people last week, he subconsciously suppressed the refutation he wanted to blurt out, raised his eyebrows, and turned to

David Giller: "David, what do you mean?"

David Giller showed something like a smile on his face, raised the memo in his hand, and said: "Peter, the result of my communication with Ronald last week was not like this. Speaking of ratings, Fox's summer schedule

The two movies released in early June, "Space Station", rated PG, with a budget of US$18 million, only received a measly US$9 million at the box office. Last month's "Alien 2", rated R, had a similar box office of 18.5 million US dollars.

With a US dollar budget, it has only been released for two weeks, and the box office has already reached US$25 million. Therefore, I don't think there is any problem with "The Butterfly Effect" being rated R in the future. If you insist that today's meeting be conducted in accordance with this memo, I will only
Chapter completed!