The sky was already dark and the temperature dropped. In the small yard in front of Stanton's studio, there was a table in the center. Murphy, James Franco, Seth Rogan and Jonahill sat around and said something loudly. After Carey Mulligan came over with a fruit plate, his voice dropped rapidly.

From that night, they gradually formed a small group.

"If I become a star in the future,"

Speaking of the news from Bill Rossis, the fat man Jonahill was very angry, "I will definitely not cooperate with a garbage company like Lionsgate Pictures."

An empty beer glass fell heavily on the table, making a bang, Seth Rogan, a handsome guy who looked very honest, had a fat face that turned red, "I'm the one."

Just after breaking into this circle, they are not lacking in motivation at all.

Carey Mulligan stood up, picked up his wine glass, took a big sip, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and said proudly, "And I am."

She wished she could kick all the senior executives of Lionsgate Pictures to explode

Hearing these words, James Franco grabbed a grape and threw it into his mouth. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly found Seth Rogan, Jonahill and Carey Mulligan were staring at him.

He nodded to the other two, picked up the wine glass and said loudly, "How can this kind of thing not be counted as me?"

"Thank you" Murphy picked up the wine glass and signaled to several people one by one, "Thank you for your support."

He raised his head and drank the remaining wine in the cup, and the other four people toasted one after another.

After experiencing life in prison, Murphy was hard-hearted enough. He was still a little moved when he heard these words. The feeling of someone supporting him and fighting side by side was much better than fighting alone.

Even if they are beyond words, they can't actually exert any power.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, he was a lonely person. When he came here, he went to a place where there was no light. Now that he had a girlfriend and a few friends with similar interests, his life was undoubtedly changing step by step in a good direction.

Although there are countless difficulties ahead of Lionsgate and Miramax, Murphy believes that he will definitely go on, all the way to the director's road. "To make an assumption, Lionsgate is determined to produce a similar film, but it will take more than twenty days for such a film to be prepared to complete. If we can enter theaters during this period, even if they are released immediately, they will become imitators."

James Franko understood what Murphy meant and nodded, "Imitators are always inferior to their previous work, regardless of reputation or box office."

"Bingo" Murphy snapped his fingers, "As long as it can be released in front of Lionsgate Pictures, the impact of this incident on us will become infinitely small. If Lionsgate Pictures really produces a film with similar themes, their risk will at least double if we just released it."

For companies like Lionsgate that specialize in horror films, the risk of doubling may not be very high, and this is probably why they dare to discuss this project.

This is Murphy's own idea. Since Lionsgate has discussed it between senior management, it means that the project has the possibility of becoming a reality.

As he said, the best way to avoid being influenced by Lionsgate Pictures is to push the chainsaw into theaters as soon as possible.

Of course, he and Bill Rossis were not completely sure what Lionsgate really was going to do, but these things must be prepared for them.

The reality is that he will not be given too long to wait, and Murphy has also accelerated the pace of negotiations. On Miramax, he left behind a quotation of $15 million and a two-piece contract, and the negotiations are in a deadlock again.

However, in order to retreat, he kept asking Bill Roses to continue contacting Miramax.

Several companies such as DreamWorks and Morris Entertainment have been eliminated due to their disagreement, or have been kicked out by Murphy.

The only thing that has made some progress is the Fox searchlight.

Perhaps it was the company's business strategy or perhaps it was affected by the excessive performance in the first quarter. They bet on a lot of attention to the film they estimated that the North American market size could reach the level of tens of millions of dollars.

As the owner of Stanton Studio and the copyright owner of the film, Murphy held five rounds of negotiations with Godinclyde of Fox Searchlight. Just like the first negotiation process, Godinclyde's style is relatively gentle and always has a spring breeze smile, but when it comes to interests, he never gives in.

Such negotiations are destined to be difficult and there is no hope of progress, Murphy even wants to accept the price offered by Miramax.

However, thinking of Harvey Weinstein's face and Miramax's style, he still regarded the other party as an alternative. Even if Miramax has heard news again, he said that the horror movie is about to be launched.

The biggest difference between Murphy and Fox Searchlight is undoubtedly that in the issuance fee, he knocked down at 0.1% at the negotiations with Godingclyde, and he also wanted to classify all the fees incurred during promotion and distribution as much as possible into this 30% commission.

Like some companies, if the issuance commission is calculated separately and the promotional and distribution expenses have to be deducted from the box office, he might as well sign a sell-off contract with Miramax.

The site fees, transportation fees, labor fees, and insurance fees seem inconspicuous but actually cost a lot of money, are all tug-of-war points of negotiation.

As time approached the end of June, after several rounds of extremely difficult negotiations, and the news of Lionsgate's intention being changed to the script came, Murphy finally reached an agreement with Fox Searchlight.

In terms of the most fiercely contested commission for North American distribution, Murphy almost wretched his mouth, and from 30% to 25%, which means that if Saw gets $10 million in North America, Fox Searchlight can be charged $2.5 million.

This condition seems quite harsh, but it is actually good. What Murphy did the most is that not only is the cost of the promotion and distribution channel of Fox searchlights calculated in this 25%, but also some complicated small expenses such as warehousing fees, transportation fees, labor fees, public relations fees and insurance fees.

Stanton Studio doesn't have to bear much, the biggest thing is the cost of making copies. Murphy has less than 100,000 US dollars in his hand and cannot afford the funds. According to the supplementary agreement between the two parties, Fox Searchlight will advance payment first and then deduct it separately from the box office share.

The money for making copies does not seem to attract much attention, but the actual cost is extremely high.

A video like Chainsaw, even if Murphy compressed to about ninety minutes, the production cost of a copy is not expensive.

A regular film that is about 4.5 minutes long is about $150, and it costs at least $3,000 for ninety minutes. 100 copies are $300,000.

Even if large-scale printing is much cheaper, no issuing company will bear such a fee casually.

For union filing projects like Chainsaw, a fee must be paid to several union organizations, which will naturally be borne by Stanton Studio.

There is also copyright. For example, half of the copyright required by Fox Searchlight is certainly impossible. Both parties have made certain concessions. Stanton Studio retains 70% of the copyright, and the remaining 30% belongs to the publisher Fox Searchlight. In other words, except for box office revenue, the income from other peripheral copyrights will be divided according to this proportion.

Originally, Murphy would rather make some concessions in distribution than keep the entire copyright of the film, but Fox Searchlight is not stupid, and it is a practice to obtain a certain copyright in the cooperation between Hollywood distribution companies and small production companies.

This is the best condition that Murphy can win in negotiations with all issuing companies.

All conditions were negotiated. Under the notarization of the union, Murphy officially signed an issuance contract with Fox Searchlights on behalf of Stanton Studio. Fox Searchlights had already made market estimates and planned to push chainsaws into the theater market as soon as possible.

For commercial companies, time costs are also costs.

This period of time, the hottest summer season in North America every year has not yet ended. However, after early July, those mainstream productions with huge investments have basically passed the hottest premiere period. Second-tier productions that think they can get a share of the pie will be entered into theaters to share the leftovers of the summer season.

Fox Searchlight intends to push chainsaw into theaters in mid-July, and has previously launched a two-week promotional period. For a film with such a small production, such a long publicity time is already very rare.

They formulated a publicity plan and publicity budget for this purpose, and also passed it to Murphy. It is hard to say whether it is true or not.

This plan will definitely have moisture, but even if there is such an investment scale, it will be limited. When Murphy saw the figures on the publicity budget, he really wanted to call Fox searchlight and just cut it to death. It will be continued.
Chapter completed!