Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 227 Different choices
Columbia gave Cao Yang 13% of the total box office and subsequent peripheral revenue, but it was not unconditional. They required Cao Yang to cooperate with Columbia's operations.

Specifically, it can be divided into two parts.

The first is the casting, mainly regarding the selection of the film’s protagonists.

The second is the choice of filming location.

With a total budget of 1.6 million US dollars, such a mega-production cannot be careless in the selection of the leading actor, and the first choice is a member of the Hollywood " million club".

Colombia has two alternatives in mind.

In Hollywood today, there is a private saying that any script will be sent to Leo first, and only those that Leo doesn't like will be given to others.

Although this statement is a bit exaggerated, it can also reflect from the side Leo's current popularity and status.

Colombia's two candidates are Leo and Depp.

Whether in Hollywood or around the world, Leo's popularity and influence are among the best among actors, and his collaboration with the now popular Cao Yang is the biggest gimmick.

Although Depp is less popular than Leo, he and Cao Yang are old partners. The two movies they collaborated on both won awards and sold well, and they also have very good reputations. Their collaboration again will first give people a reliable impression.

The reason why Columbia wanted Cao Yang to cooperate was that it wanted to rely on Cao Yang's fame and influence to achieve its goals.

What purpose?
You have to know that members of the Hollywood "20 million club" not only have a salary of more than 20 million US dollars, but more importantly, they all demand a share of the movie's box office.

No film company is willing to "cut flesh".

On the one hand, film companies want the popularity and box office competitiveness of members of the "20 million club."

On the one hand, all film companies are unwilling to give up even a tiny bit of box office revenue.

When dealing with a superstar, it is generally impossible not to split the box office revenue with him. It is unrealistic to give him even a few tenths of a percent less.

However, there are indeed some special cases in Hollywood, and that is directors.

To be more specific, he is a director of art films.

Don’t even think about commercial film directors. Even those in the top 10 are basically not included in this list.

When a superstar meets an art film director, as long as he thinks the film has potential, not necessarily in terms of winning awards, but as long as it can improve the film's quality, he will often not only not ask for a share of the box office, but will also reduce his own pay.

If they particularly like the script, there are many people who would perform for free, and some even pay for it.

Speaking of art films, since helping Depp win the Oscar for Best Actor again, Cao Yang's popularity in Hollywood, to be modest, is definitely no less than that of Martin Scorsese and Eastwood.

Just like when Cao Yang first came to Hollywood to shoot "Despicable Milk", the two male protagonists he first considered both stood him up, and he chose Eastwood without hesitation.

What if it happened now?

If Sean Penn and Tim Robbins receive invitations from Eastwood again, they will definitely politely say to Director Dongmu: "I'm sorry sir, I have already agreed to Director Cao Yang. I hope we will have the opportunity to work together again next time."

This is actually a remarkable achievement.

In the foreigners' territory, others have spent almost a lifetime to achieve the current achievements. How many years has Cao Yang only been here?

Columbia can be sure that as long as the news is released that Cao Yang has a new film plan, Leo and Depp will be interested.

As long as it is run well, it is very likely to get them to give up the box office commission.

If Cao Yang makes a purely literary film with a small investment, even if Leonardo DiCaprio joins, his salary will be halved, not to mention a share of the box office, or even just a symbolic amount.

After all, this is a big-investment project. Even if it is labeled as an art film, even if the actors are willing to give up their share of the box office revenue, their agencies will not agree, so they have to find a way to make it work.

What Cao Yang needs to cooperate with is not to say in front of the media that he must use so-and-so. It is best to maintain an ambiguous attitude, and Columbia will take care of the rest.

As for the choice of filming locations, Columbia also told Cao Yang clearly that in order to reduce production costs and lower risks, the filming locations can only be selected from a few places, and these places all have tax incentives.

Colombia gave Cao Yang a list of locations where he could shoot.

The first is Canada, where many provinces offer subsidies. For example, Quebec’s subsidy ratio can reach 36%-40%, and Montreal has one of the largest studio clusters in North America.

The second is Hungary in Europe. They directly give tax refunds, the proportion can even reach 30%, there is no annual budget cap, and there are additional benefits. The value-added tax is the lowest in the EU, only 5%, far lower than the normal 27%.

The third is New South Wales, Australia, which offers a 25% cashback on production expenses, and international projects can also receive an additional 10% federal subsidy.

Fourth is Ireland, where the subsidy ratio is 32% cash rebate, the maximum subsidy for a single project can be up to 2500 million, and the approval can be completed within 8 weeks.

Fifth, New Zealand has a tiered cashback mechanism for subsidies. For amounts between NZ$500 million and NZ$2000 million, there is a 30% cashback discount. As long as the amount exceeds NZ$2000 million, there is even a 40% cashback discount.

At the current exchange rate, 1 New Zealand dollar is equivalent to approximately 0.6 US dollars.

Moreover, if you cooperate with a local special effects company, you can get an additional 8% subsidy.

For example, the "Lord of the Rings" series, because the main filming location is New Zealand, also used a local special effects company (in fact, it was a special effects company set up locally by director Peter Jackson specifically for "The Lord of the Rings").

After adding the subsidies, the cash back reached 48%, so a total of more than 1.2 million New Zealand dollars was saved, which is more than 7000 million US dollars based on the exchange rate.

This list of Colombia is not groundless. These five places all have complete filming bases, and the local governments do not "default on their debts". They are all filming locations frequently chosen by Hollywood.

Columbia put a lot of thought into this matter. They were afraid that Cao Yang would have objections to the designated filming locations, so they gave him five to choose from at once.

Cao Yang had no objection to this. After all, the preferential subsidies from the local government were practical and he also received a share of the benefits.

In the following days, Cao Yang either wrote the script for "Inception" or went to Fox Searchlight to help edit "Juno", without caring about how Columbia handled the selection of the male lead.

The script of "Inception" was actually very easy to write. When Cao Yang was writing the novel, he based it on the movie, so it was very easy to adapt.

Since his contract with William Morris Endeavor Agency expired in 98, Leo did not renew the contract. Instead, he took his agency team and set up his own agency.

From 98 to 01, it's hard to describe the resources that Leo received through his personal agency. It's not that he couldn't get good resources, but his vision was indeed a bit problematic. He was even nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor.

If it were any other star, if they hadn't had any standout movies in three years, and almost all the movies they shot during that time had failed, their status would definitely have dropped.

But Leo's blood is too thick, so the impact of these on him is minimized.

Leo also realized the problem. Since 01, he has tried to contact Creative Artists Agency (CAA) for non-exclusive cooperation and to gradually transfer resources.

CAA was also very sincere in getting Leo.

It directly brought Leo Leo high-quality resources such as "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator", which helped Leo's career to a new level.

Although Leo is still working with CAA as a non-exclusive agent, in fact, he has no cooperation with any other agency except CAA.

Columbia did not contact Leo through CAA, but directly contacted his personal agency. There was nothing wrong with this, after all, Leo has not signed an exclusive agency contract with CAA.

Columbia wants to take advantage of this. They have had too many dealings with CAA and know that CAA is particularly difficult to deal with and is a well-known "big trouble" in Hollywood.

For Hollywood studios, if you were to choose the most hated agency, CAA would definitely be ranked first.

In Hollywood, the first person to secure an advance share of the total box office for directors and actors was Michael Ovitz, the founder of CAA, a guy that all the studios hate.

In Hollywood, it was Michael Ovitz who started the "package" service, making the various studios almost "supporting roles". Tom Rothman represented Columbia and served as one of the producers of "Inception". It was he who contacted Leo's personal studio.

Tom Rothman is sure that as long as he dares to contact CAA first, CAA will 100% produce a "package" service project centered around Leo that looks very tempting in the shortest time possible.

Staff, actors, funding, filming locations, etc., a series of nested "services".

Don’t think that this is the end of it. Leo’s share of the box office will not be reduced at all.

This is CAA.

Leo was very excited that Columbia wanted to invite him to star in Cao Yang's movie.

The manager of his personal studio is Rick Yorn, who was his agent at Endeavor Agency and also served as the agent of Martin Scorsese and Cameron Diaz, and followed him out of Endeavor.

"Rick, are you sure this is a movie directed by Cao Yang?" asked Leo.

Rick John collected a lot of information in a short period of time. He flipped through the information in his hand and nodded affirmatively.

"I'm sure it's right. This movie is adapted from a novel, and the novel is excerpted from Cao Yang's Fantastic Journey. Yes, the author is director Cao Yang. Who would have thought that he is also a best-selling author?"

Little Leo was a little surprised and said, "I've heard of this book, and I thought it was a name with the same pronunciation. Is he really the same person as Director Cao Yang?"

"Yes, that's right, it's the same person."

Rick John replied as he flipped through the information: "District 9 is also a novel in this collection. This is really unexpected. Many people have the same idea as you. They all thought that it was just the pronunciation of the name that was the same."

"Then what are you hesitating about? Why not just decide? Being able to work with Director Cao Yang is something many people dream of."

Leo looked at his partner and didn't understand why he asked Colombia to consider it.

Rick John was one of the people he trusted most, and he believed that Rick John would give him a reason.

"Leo, Colombia says Inception is an art film, I think you know what they mean."

Rick John spread his hands, shrugged his shoulders, smiled bitterly and said:

"In fact, according to the information I got from insiders, the budget of Inception is definitely more than 100 million US dollars. This is not an ordinary art film, so I think we can't treat it as an ordinary art film."

"Their offer is low?"

Leo frowned and asked, for a movie with such a large investment, if the salary is cut in half, it would be a bit insulting - I can take the initiative to reduce the salary if I like the script, but you can't do that when there is no shortage of funds.

"No, they made a tentative offer of $1800 million, but there is no box office profit."

Leo was silent. He is a smart man. It can be seen from this that his salary can still be negotiated, but it is probably difficult to get box office dividends.

This feels a bit like being neither up nor down, very contradictory.

He definitely wants to cooperate with Cao Yang, but there is no reason not to discuss dividends for a movie like this that has no shortage of funds and large investments. However, the other party said that this is an art film. Isn't it a bit excessive to talk about dividends for an art film?

But if such a big-budget movie is exempted from dividends, what about other movies? It is not so easy to make an exception.

If someone says that a movie with such a large investment is an art film, Leo and Rick Yorn will definitely spit in his face, bah, what are you pretending to be? When will art films have such a large investment?

But this is Cao Yang's movie. He has never made a purely commercial film so far. It is said to be an art film, and even if it is shot at the rhythm of a commercial film, it will definitely have connotations.

"Rick, have you read the novel Inception?"

Leo asked, he was a little undecided, but he was not yet an award-seeking maniac. Although he was eager for awards, he was not crazy yet and was still rational.

However, if the novel is good and it’s a collaboration with Cao Yang, it’s okay to make an exception this once, right?

"I flipped through it roughly, but I didn't quite understand it. There are so many settings about dreams and dreams within dreams, it seems very confusing. It's like... stream of consciousness?"

"Stream of consciousness? A dream within a dream? What is that?"

Leo started to frown. Why does it sound so unfriendly? Can anyone understand this after it is filmed?

"Then don't rush to reply to Columbia. Let me read the novel carefully several times before you tell me."

Unlike Leo, Depp received a notice from his agent saying that Cao Yang wanted to invite him to a movie and asked him what he thought.

Depp looked at his agent as if he were an idiot and said coldly, "Give me a reason."

"What?" The agent didn't quite follow Depp's train of thought.

"Is your head filled with shit? That's a movie directed by Cao Yang, why are you asking for my opinion? Hurry up and agree to it, shit!"

The agent cursed back silently in his heart, these fucking weirdos are so difficult to deal with, they don't even think before they speak. Of course we also want to work with Director Cao Yang again, the key is that the conditions were not negotiated well.

"John, it's not that we don't want to cooperate. You are now one of the top actors in Hollywood and have won the Oscar for Best Actor for two consecutive years. Your status is different now. As long as we talk about cooperation, we will definitely need box office dividends..."

The agent looked at Depp and explained, "The key is to see what Columbia means. They don't want to give you a share of the box office profits. This is unacceptable..."

"So what?"

Depp reiterated expressionlessly: "That's a movie directed by Cao Yang."

"I……"

I can't fucking communicate with you. You didn't want dividends before you won the Oscar for Best Actor, and you still don't want dividends after you won the Oscar for Best Actor again. Then didn't you get the Oscar for nothing?

"I heard that partners Martin Leszek and Jason Heyman moved to CAA, taking with them comedy star Will Ferrell and director Christopher Nolan."

Depp said this and walked away without looking back, looking extremely cool.

"Fuck you!"

The agent kicked the sofa in anger, then screamed and held his foot, gasping for breath, not knowing whether it was a foot pain or a headache.

Threat!

This is a blatant threat!
Will the company be afraid?

afraid!
Is there any way?

There is a foolish way.

Two partners, a star and a big director just ran away. If the company's "big brother" Depp leaves in anger again, will the company still be able to operate?
Wouldn't it become the biggest laughing stock in Hollywood? That's for sure.

Everyone says Depp is a weirdo and difficult to deal with. I have finally seen what he has done. He doesn't even give me, his company partner, any face at all.

Very angry!
There is no way yet!

Fuck you weirdos!

(End of this chapter)