Dominating Hollywood: Starting with Scarlett

Chapter 141 Script Contest
Tang De once again reached a contract extension agreement with CAA.

However, both parties believe that this agreement is worth it. From Edinson's point of view, he believes that Tang De's so-called investment in movies will only come to nothing in the end.

With so many people investing in movies every year, only a handful of money can be earned. Even large companies have to bear considerable pressure to lose money.

Not to mention Tang De personally, even if he is rich, how much, how many millions of dollars does he have?

Can such a small-investment movie be released in theaters? Can you get excess returns?
Edinson doesn't think Don can replicate the wonders of Blair Witch, even if he's the Oscar-winning Don the same year.

He guessed that Tang De just wanted to make some niche art films, go to top film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, and Venice to win a few more awards, and then, after becoming famous in the field of directing, direct films for other big companies.

Just like what he did in the MV field, this is also the promotion path of many Hollywood directors.

Therefore, Edinson does not think that his contract will cost CAA much money. At most, it will be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It is not difficult to recover these expenses from subsequent film projects that Tang De is responsible for.

The two parties later added a lot of details. For example, in a movie with a budget of more than 10 million, Tang De must occupy more than 50% of the investment before it will take effect.

A slender hand stretched out from behind the scenes to grab the line of words. Caiden walked out of it and talked to the audience about the rules of the competition with a smile.

A stage with a red curtain appeared on the screen, and then the camera quickly zoomed in, the red curtain pulled, and a line of words popped out.

Otherwise, Tang De would be able to successfully snag CAA's profits by spending one million US dollars on his own and finding ten investors with US$900,000.

"It's ready." Jimmy quickly came to the table, turned on the computer, and played for Tang De the commercial he asked Greta to shoot.

After all, the higher the cost of the movie, the bigger the loss will be for CAA, and the more budget Tang De will have left.

"How cool, Jimmy." Tang De narrowed his eyes and couldn't bear to look at her: "I didn't expect you to like wearing pink."

Lilina, who was standing aside, packing her clothes, lowered her head.

After several people finished eating, Tang De returned to the company.

Tang De watched the entire film with an appreciative expression, and then nodded: "Okay, Greta did a good job. Let's put it out."

"Okay, Jimmy, I don't care how many times it is. Don't mess around during working hours in the future, and remember to lock the door." Tang De waved his hand and quickly ignored the topic: "Are the ads I want ready?"

The rules are simple, as long as it is a complete script with all the copyrights, it can be submitted, regardless of whether it is professional or not.

"Norton Eyes Script Contest!"

"Oh! Don! You're back!" Seeing the door being opened, Jimmy stood up in a hurry, but the next second his pants fell to the ground, revealing his pink Hello Kitty underwear.

The option agreement means that the producer has the first right to purchase the script from the screenwriter. Within a certain period of time, such as one year, the screenwriter cannot sell it to other people first, but must sell it to the producer first. Unless the producer doesn't want it and the agreement is void, it can be sold to someone else.

After finishing talking about the rules of the competition, she raised her pointer again and talked about the awards of the competition.

"Okay, but can you really find a good script through this?" Jimmy doesn't really believe that this method can find a good script, because guys who come here for a bonus of up to 10,000 US dollars, what good ideas can they be expected to come up with?
Although there are indeed some niche works that make the cut every year, they are basically selected from major film festivals.

"You go out first." After Jimmy sent Lilina out, he turned to Tang De and explained: "This is the first time..."

"Don't get me wrong!" Jimmy awkwardly lifted up his pants: "I didn't choose this."

Even if they think the script is good, major producers are more likely to sign an option agreement rather than directly purchase the entire copyright.

"Jimmy, is the advertisement I want ready?" Tang De didn't knock on the door, but pushed directly to Jimmy's office, only to find that this guy was holding Lilina and gnawing there.

Hollywood studios are more likely to select rough films at public screenings at film festivals than from scripts.

There are a lot of agreements in Hollywood. There are a total of 25 contract agreements related to film production and distribution. Negotiating agreements is also one of the means for various agents to survive.

Although Tang De doesn't understand this very well, Karl does. He has now been arranged by Edinson to become Tang De's exclusive agent.

In other words, the few starlets he signed before will be transferred to other people.

Karl didn't know whether he should cry or laugh, but based on his experience working with Tang De during this time, he believed that the company would definitely not be able to take advantage of Tang De.

Hearing Jimmy's question, Tang De stretched out a finger: "Jimmy, never doubt the miracles produced by Hollywood. There are many scripts that are not bad, but they just have no chance to be seen."

"But I'm afraid I'll be poisoned by all kinds of bad scripts before I see this script." Jimmy joked, and he also learned a lot of new vocabulary from Tang De.

"You're right, so we need to find a few people who have an aesthetic appreciation for the script to help me."

"Who?"

"Who else can it be?" Tang De looked at the advertisement on the computer...

"Are you saying that I will be a judge?" In the studio, Greta looked surprised. How could she, an ordinary advertising director, become a judge of the competition?

"That's right, Greta, Tang De and I both think you can do it." Jimmy nodded with certainty.

In addition to her, there is Jose, an old acquaintance, and agents Carl and Jimmy. As for Tang De, he will only read the scripts that have been reviewed by several people and the list of all participating scripts.

"Okay, to be honest, it's quite interesting." Greta is also very curious about this responsibility. She has always wanted to shoot a movie by herself, but she still has no clue about the script. Maybe she can get enlightened through other competition scripts. .

It’s just that this idea was completely eliminated from my mind a week after the advertisement was launched.

"What the fxxk?!" Jose looked at the script in front of him and cursed. Carl and Greta sitting next to him also had melancholy expressions on their faces.

A few of them are sitting in the hall of Angel Declaration. Norton Pictures only has a name for the time being and does not need an entity.

So Angel Declaration and Norton Pictures were arranged by Tang De.

And Jimmy and the others had been reading the scripts for three days. When the producers and screenwriters saw this opportunity, they mailed all the backlog of inventory. In just half a day, the scripts were piled three high on the table. Like a hill.

It's like all the scripts in Hollywood are gathered here, and Jimmy can't imagine how many scripts he will face if he waits for a while.

But the large quantity is only a small problem. The bigger problem is that the quality is too poor!

The scripts submitted are often extremely confusing, or there are more than a dozen characters appearing at the beginning, making everyone look like a headless fly. Either his character is broken, he sometimes swears and sometimes acts like a gentleman, like a schizophrenic.

There are also some whose writing is as immature as that of elementary school students. They can even write complete words incorrectly and often use wrong adjectives.

Some good writing styles do not describe the plot at all, but always emphasize the inner drama of the characters. Things that can be clearly described in just a few words take several pages to describe.

But the most troublesome thing is the plot. For example, in a script called "The Murderer", Jimmy thought it was good in the middle stage, but in the later stage the plot became bizarre.

The protagonist in this script is a retired killer. When he was supposed to live his life in peace, he suddenly encountered some fugitives. They broke into his home, killed his dog and cat, and humiliated him in every possible way.

So he fought back angrily and went to great lengths to hunt them down.

Just when he entered the enemy's lair, he was suddenly discovered by the enemy's boss and caught. Then the protagonist had one hand and one foot cut off by the fugitives, turning him into a disabled person.

But the protagonist never gave up chasing the murderer, and finally found an opportunity to kill the fugitive with his extraordinary perseverance and outstanding ability. However, this guy actually chose to forgive in the end!
The reason for mercy was that the fugitive fed the dog a sausage on the roadside!

"FXXK! FXXK! FXXK!" Jimmy held his head and shouted when he saw this, and almost tore up the script in anger.

The fugitive is the guy who cut off his hands and feet, just because he fed the dog a sausage, he said he would forgive him! This damn Jesus was not such a holy mother when he came to earth, right?

If that writer were in front of Jimmy, he swore he would pull out a gun and put it to his temple to force him to change the script.

It was precisely because of this frustration that he directly approved the script, intending to add some trouble to the leisurely Tang De.

And none of the remaining scripts are particularly good. Basically, 50% of the scripts are pornographic. The male protagonists are like Teddy in heat, either having sex or on the way to do it.

Just looking at the explicit words above is awe-inspiring.

The remaining fifty percent are political and horror scripts.

Such a bold script made Jimmy confused. He felt that Tang De's decision this time must have been wrong. He could only say that he hoped that when the final awards were given, a shit-feeding film like "The Chaser" would not also win the award. That’s it.

When the time came at night, Jimmy threw the script on the ground unable to do anything, and then asked the others: "Is there anything else that's okay?"

"It's a pity... I don't have any here." Jose spread his hands, looking like he was tortured by these bad scripts.

Karl shrugged and picked up his tea cup: "I feel like I have wasted a few days and did nothing. This is really the most terrifying thing."

"Yeah, but it's even scarier to think that we have to waste a few more days." Jimmy finished singing in harmony with him, then turned to look at Greta.

Now I can only hope that this talented woman can choose a few suitable scripts.

It's a pity. Greta rubbed her eyes and shook her head: "They are all average, no ups and downs."

She chose the scripts based on their names, and the scripts she found were basically written by female screenwriters. They were indeed not as outrageous as the male screenwriters, but the plot was still quite advanced.

A story about three men spending a whole day in bed, a story about two men pursuing a woman at the same time, and finally two men falling in love with each other.

Although homosexual issues have become commonplace nowadays, the bold and explicit descriptions in the script still make people blush.

It's just that these scripts obviously did not meet Tang De's requirements.

Although there was still a week before the deadline for the script contest, several people who had read so many bad scripts felt that this script contest would definitely end in failure.

It's still too difficult to dig out gold from this mountain of shit.

But just when several people were about to stop what they were doing, the wind chime at the door suddenly rang, and a white man carrying a briefcase walked in from outside.

"Hello, is this the Norton Eye?"

(End of this chapter)