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574 The Threat of Extortion

The whole conversation lasted for less than ten minutes, and then it ended again.

"Lance, did you do it on purpose?" Cole Greed called Lance's cell phone after receiving Jerry's call and said helplessly, "Why do I think you have no intention of promoting this cooperation at all?"

Lance shrugged, "It should be said that Disney has not planned to cooperate with me from the beginning." Whether it is Robert or Michael, they have not planned to cooperate with him, just wanting to use him as a whetstone. Therefore, he did not think this cooperation could be achieved.

Cole was speechless for a moment. Faced with Lance's strength and willfulness, he was really helpless. Even if he didn't want to cooperate, there was no need to offend Disney. However, geniuses were always full of edges, so many artists were lunatics. He was jealous of Lance's talent, but he did not envy the pain that breeded it. God was always fair, right?

So, Cole shook his head and ignored the indifference in Lance's words, "What if Disney really wanted to work with you?"

"Welcome." Lance gave a brisk answer. No one could afford to pay for money, not to mention that Chaos Pictures is still in its original accumulation stage. "Millions of dollars, believe me, I can use it anytime and moment."

Cole was amused and crying, "I thought the City of Sin has made enough."

"Then if this cooperation is reached, you can't take a commission." Lance's counterattack made Cole unable to argue.

"City of Sin" achieved a box office victory and caused a sensation in North America. As the first work produced and released by Chaos Pictures alone, it is indeed eye-catching. But in fact, the profits that ended up in the pocket were far less than imagined. The distribution process before the initial stage consumed a lot of benefits, not only in North America, but also in overseas markets.

Chaos Pictures does not have any overseas distribution channels. It either cooperates with large distribution companies such as Paramount and Twentieth Century Fox, or authorizes local distribution companies by buying out. Chaos Pictures adopts a combination of the two. Large markets such as Britain, Germany, and Japan choose the former, mainly Paramount; small markets such as Africa and Eastern Europe choose the latter, once and for all. Therefore, in terms of overseas markets, Chaos Pictures has lost a large part of its benefits.

When Lance and Cole were talking, "City of Sin" was still being released. It is estimated that this work will win about 160 million US dollars in profits for Chaos Pictures. Of course, this is pre-tax income, which is enough to make "City of Sin" the most successful work since its establishment, directly giving Chaos Pictures the ability to shoot two or even three works at the same time; and the lost benefits also pave the way for the distribution department, and will gradually get on the right track and the prospects are bright.

But considering the investment required for the company's next development, 160 million will disappear in a blink of an eye, as if he had never made any money, and he was still so poor that he was jingling. This is always the case in the original accumulation stage.

"I'm just kidding." Cole immediately lost and raised his hand to surrender. He had just bought a villa not long ago, with a private swimming pool and a tennis court. The mortgage is a heavy burden. The interior decoration has not started yet, and it costs money everywhere. "But, do you know that three percent is impossible, right?"

"So how much do you think is appropriate?" Lance did not answer, but threw the topic back.

Cole thought silently for a while, "One percent."

Although Lance's four works are written by him and the scripts are outstanding, this is the first time he has written scripts for other projects. With others as directors, how much energy can the scripts exert? This is a new topic; not to mention, among the four works, only "acquired" is considered a real commercial script, and genre scripts have frameworks and particularities, such as five minutes needing a small climax, and twenty minutes needing a turning point. In this way, it is still unknown whether Lance's script can meet such requirements.

Therefore, a dividend of one percent is still very suitable for Lance.

Lance slightly withdrew his chin, "Then let's get two percent." Cole chuckled. Generally speaking, the agent is more ambitious and strives to increase the rewards of artists for his commission, but when they come to them, they are reversed, "Believe me, we can afford it, they can't."

Cole thought about it carefully, and then he understood, "Then let's do two percent!"

The Pirates of the Caribbean project was originally planned to start in April. Since they will shoot two sequels together, it will inevitably take more time and post-production will be more troublesome. In order to catch up with next year's summer schedule, there is not much time left for the crew now, and they must start the schedule as soon as possible; not to mention that the schedules of Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, and Orlando Bloom are becoming increasingly difficult to cooperate. If you don't take advantage of the time when the three protagonists have schedules and immediately start shooting, you don't know what accidents will happen next.

Therefore, in this contest, Disney could not afford it. Either they gave up Lance's script, or they made a quick decision and gave up some of their interests. This was not a difficult choice. Lance just grasped Disney's mentality, and Michael Esner's struggle to break the ball to death, and decided to blackmail.

Sure enough, as Lance expected, Disney could not afford to wait. The two-month delay caused Disney to lose more than $5 million in venue rental, early publicity, prop preparation and public relations activities. If it continues to delay, spending will continue to increase.

After Jerry returned, he reported the situation back. Michael was very calm. He waved his hand and made a decision and asked for further conversation with Lance. This cooperation was imperative; and Robert was completely shady. As Lance's recommended, he was now being beaten back, which was so frustrating.

However, Robert was a scheming hero. He restrained his emotions and took the initiative to find Lance to try to communicate. Lance refused twice in succession, and only met for the third time. The two talked for more than two hours, but Lance still did not get into the air and salt, so Robert had to return in disappointment.

Afterwards, Disney talked to Cole twice, and the two sides reached an agreement together. The two sequels of "Pirates of the Caribbean" will be paid for two percent dividends, using Lance's script to shoot the movie; but there are additional terms, and the other three screenwriters will modify the script next. If the modified part exceeds 30%, Lance's dividend ratio will be reduced to 1.5%.

Obviously, Robert still doesn't want to suffer easily, hoping that the three screenwriters can polish and modify the script and ultimately achieve the goal of limiting Lance. After all, the modification content is more than 30%, and this definition is too vague. It is estimated that Disney has to say the final decision. Especially considering that Lance will not join the crew, the lines and scene modifications are full of variables during the shooting process every day, and the possibility of achieving this additional clause is even higher.

This detail shows that Robert and Michael's different styles are both very particular, and Robert is very particular about the overall situation, and can always win more benefits for Disney within a local scope.

Regarding Disney's seriousness, Lance did not continue to get entangled this time, and nodded in agreement with a big stroke.

In this way, after a long journey, Lance did not become the director of the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean", but he successfully taught Robert and Jerry a lesson and got a piece of the pie from Disney. Considering the box office potential of the two sequels, the dividend income will definitely bring a surprise at that time, which will really disgusting your opponent while making profits.

Beautiful job!

However, after all, since the "Sin City" filming stage, in the past six months, Lance has been working hard and preparing for the two projects "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Return of Superman", but now both projects have failed. Such a long period of hard work has become useless, which directly leads to the current situation where Chaos Pictures has no project being prepared, which is indeed inconsistent with the scene that Hollywood is looking forward to.

From the perspective of Lance, I have worked in a row over the past three years, and my works have been almost one after another, and I have gained a breathing rest. This is naturally the best and very necessary; but from the perspective of the company, this is not a good thing. Whether it is the film department or the distribution department, it requires a steady stream of works to be invested in the cycle. Only in this way can I continue to expand the scale and go to the next level. The strategy of waiting in a conservative position cannot help.

Lance carefully sorted out his thoughts, but found that he had no new ideas for the time being, as if the creative bottleneck had arrived inexplicably. But deep down, Lance knew that this was actually related to the destruction of Diorama Film. After losing his goal, he was a little overjoyed for a while. Even if he played with Disney, he could not make Lance feel energetic.

So, Lance simply gave himself a vacation and came to Napa Valley near San Francisco for vacation. At the same time, he also found out the movie projects in his memory, trying to create conditions for Chaos Pictures' distribution department.

For the distribution department, the most important thing is to have the resources of the work and be excellent works that can be successful. Generally speaking, distributors will walk around and find suitable purchases. The Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival are currently the two largest long-term trading markets, and the Sundance Film Festival is also a gold rush destination.

But it is June, and all eyes are focused on the summer season in North America; and the distribution networks established by Diorama before have been almost destroyed, and Lance can't find any resources if he wants to use them. However, Lance is a better alternative: his memory.

As the advantage of being a human being in the third generation, it was revealed at this time. Lance knew the development trajectory of all future works. He also knew clearly which movies created box office miracles and which movies were powerful in the awards ceremony season. Although it was impossible to include all of these works under its jurisdiction, it could allow Chaos Pictures’ distribution department to achieve a higher starting point.

...
Chapter completed!
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