Chapter 99: What He Wanted Was a Work of Art
Chapter 99: What He Wanted Was a Work of Art
Seeing that Jeffrey truly was furious and was still complaining nonstop, Eric could only stand up and pour him a glass of water. After Jeffrey drank it down in one breath, Eric advised, “All right, Jeffrey. Haven’t you realized? This is only CAA wanting to stall for time first.”
“Stall for time? Why would they stall for time?” Jeffrey clearly still had not calmed down. He poured himself another glass of water and gulped it down before asking directly.
Eric spread his hands. “Because of face. A while ago, Premiere magazine created a ‘Hollywood Power List,’ and Michael Ovitz ranked first. Even heads of film giants like Barry Diller and Michael Eisner could only rank behind him. If not long after receiving that title, two stars under him worked with someone he previously tried to blacklist, wouldn’t that slap the face of this ‘most powerful man in Hollywood’?”
Jeffrey sighed in relief. “That’s good. I thought they really wanted profit participation. That’s too absurd.”
“That part actually isn’t absurd,” Eric struck him down directly. “Jeffrey, you may slowly have to accept the reality that stars will take profit participation in addition to salary. Cruise tried this model in his last film, Rain Man, and gained a huge advantage from it. Other Hollywood stars are definitely going to imitate him.”
“Forty percent of gross profit participation between the two of them? Do they want to earn more than us? We’d only have the remaining sixty percent, and we still have to pay all kinds of other costs.”
Eric had actually thought of this problem too. He felt this might be an opportunity. In the future, he was destined to join the side of Hollywood film producers, which meant that for his own interests, he would definitely have to stand opposite the actors.
Cruise’s Rain Man was only an experiment that gave actors a new salary model. The negotiation for Running Out of Time might become a future reference point for many top Hollywood stars demanding participation. So no matter what, the participation percentage had to be pushed as low as possible.
If he could control this percentage between five and ten percent, then once that became a standard, the expenses saved in the future would add up to an astronomical figure. Although Eric did not know whether this could succeed, he had to try.
“Jeffrey, don’t rush this. Just negotiate with them slowly. Twenty percent is out of the question. The six-million-dollar salary also has to be pushed down. They want participation and still don’t want to lower their salary? Where in the world is there such a good thing right now?”
Jeffrey was still unwilling. “Eric, why not bypass Cruise and Hanks’s agents and talk to the two of them alone? Didn’t you all have a pleasant conversation that day?”
Eric smiled and pulled out yesterday’s copy of Hollywood Information Daily, waving it in front of Jeffrey. “Both of them are CAA clients. Privately bypassing their agents to negotiate, are you sure this little tabloid won’t claim I’m deliberately trying to dig into CAA’s corner and provoke Michael Ovitz?”
Jeffrey did not refute him, but pressed, “Eric, tell me what exactly you’re thinking. This is the first time I’ve encountered something like this. I can drag out the negotiation, but as the boss, you’re the one who makes the final decision, so you’d better give me a bottom-line figure. That way, I’ll have a sense of proportion during negotiation.”
Eric rubbed his chin and considered for a moment. “Bite down hard on the industry custom that Hollywood actors don’t take participation. Force them to lower their salaries if they want participation. I heard Cruise only got a participation contract in Rain Man because he voluntarily lowered his salary. As for the bottom line, with Cruise and Hanks’s current fame, keep the salary under five million dollars. Control the participation ratio between five and ten percent. It absolutely cannot exceed ten percent.”
“All right. Now I know what to aim for.” Jeffrey noted Eric’s words.
Noticing that Jeffrey still looked gloomy, Eric patted his shoulder comfortingly and smiled. “All right, Jeffrey. Stop worrying over this. Although this new salary model will indeed make us lose part of our profits, we can make it back elsewhere. And that portion of profit doesn’t need to be shared with the actors. We can even use the actors’ names to demand a higher price.”
“You mean… product placement?”
“Bingo!” Eric snapped his fingers. “Running Out of Time is still a contemporary film. This kind of film is very suitable for product placement. I saw in the newspaper that because of the placement in Pretty Woman, Lamborghini’s sports car sales this year will be more than triple previous years. The new Diablo hasn’t even officially launched yet, but it has already received hundreds of orders.”
“That really is a good idea.” Jeffrey finally showed a faint smile. He subconsciously started looking for the script, wanting to see which ads could be inserted into Running Out of Time. Eric directly pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Jeffrey. “Don’t look. I already prepared it.”
Jeffrey took it and swept his eyes over the long list. His mouth opened slightly.
Mobile phones, walkie-talkies, sports cars, boxed biscuits, sunglasses, cameras, necklaces, comic magazines…
“Eric, isn’t this a little too… exaggerated?”
Compared to the Explosive Bay of his previous life, Eric felt he was already quite principled. At least he was not spending two hundred million dollars to create a three-hour special-effects advertisement. He was only cleverly using the plot to insert product placements, not changing the plot for the sake of ads.
“Jeffrey, these are just things I wrote down casually when they came to mind. The film will feature many shots of walkie-talkies and mobile phones, so the mobile phone and walkie-talkie placement can be packaged to a single communications equipment company, such as Motorola. I heard Motorola is about to release a compact mobile phone, only the size of a palm. With Lamborghini as the precedent and Cruise and Hanks joining as the two stars, I believe Motorola will very readily pay several million dollars in advertising fees. If their offer is too low, then go to their old rival, Ericsson. As for the sports car, contact Lamborghini again. I imagine they won’t refuse.”
Jeffrey pointed at the list and asked, “Then what’s with the boxed biscuits?”
Eric explained, “Haven’t you read the script? In the film, Andy sets up bombs several times, but they’re always fake. These bombs are made from packaging boxes. The film will not only show close-ups of the boxes, but also have related dialogue, so this counts as an important product placement too. As for sunglasses and cameras, they’re all used in the film, so you can also pull in sponsorship for them. Even a mosquito is still meat.”
“Eric, aren’t you worried inserting too many ads will disgust the audience?”
“No,” Eric said confidently. “Not a single one of these placements is forced, so the audience won’t feel any discomfort. Of course, because there are quite a lot of placements this time, we need to communicate with the sponsors in advance. It can’t be like Lamborghini last time, where before the film even released, they directly leaked the sponsorship.”
Jeffrey sensed something wrong and asked, “If the product placement isn’t highlighted and you won’t let them publicize it, if I were the sponsor, I definitely wouldn’t pay.”
“It’s not that they can’t publicize it,” Eric said patiently. “I’m saying they can’t publicize it before the movie releases. Otherwise, even if I didn’t deliberately place it, audiences will assume it was deliberate. That kind of preconceived idea will subconsciously make them dislike the film. But after the film releases and the reputation is settled, then stirring up the ads won’t just create a promotional effect. It can also attract audiences curious about the ad scenes back into the theater, thereby increasing the box office.”
Jeffrey gave him a meaningful smile. “Eric, I feel like I’m sitting in front of a merchant of Venice.”
“Is that sarcasm?”
“Yes, but I added a lot of praise and admiration into it.” Jeffrey laughed loudly.
“Oh, Lord Jeffrey, you are truly generous.” Eric answered in a stage-play tone, then laughed too.
After the joke, Eric looked at his watch and said, “I happen to have an appointment, so…”
Before Eric could say it, Jeffrey quickly answered, “Leave it to me, right?”
“Smart. I didn’t expect you to start answering in advance.”
Eric laughed again.
Jeffrey did not understand the joke in Eric’s words and did not laugh along. He curled his lip and asked curiously, “An appointment? With a woman?”
“A man. A very famous architect in the industry, Frank Gehry. I saw the Malibu mansion he designed for Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, so I plan to ask him to give me some advice too.”
“About that rocky beach you wasted five million dollars buying?”
“How is it wasted?” Eric retorted. “Once I successfully build my Malibu 10880, someone would buy it for fifty million dollars.”
“Do whatever you want. To be honest, your willful behavior makes me breathe a sigh of relief, because you’ve finally done something a boy your age would do. Otherwise, I always subconsciously treat you like someone my own age. Eric, why do you always call that place Malibu 10880?”
Eric blinked. “That’s a secret.”
“Tell me. I promise I won’t tell anyone else.”
Jeffrey leaned over curiously.
“If it’s a secret, then of course I can’t tell anyone other than myself. You count as ‘others’ too.” Eric naturally could not explain it to Jeffrey, so he directly left the office.
Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch covered eleven square kilometers, and including all its buildings, it cost only 19.5 million dollars. By comparison, the Malibu plot was only about one hectare, yet it cost five million dollars, so it was indeed an outrageous price. Even so, that was only after his private lawyer spent an additional “public relations fee” to lobby for it, because that place counted as a small park and normally could not be sold.
“Mr. Williams, although the design drawing of this building you drew is very imaginative, there are too many unreasonable parts. The construction difficulty is quite high, especially since it has to be built on the edge of a cliff,” Frank Gehry evaluated Eric’s drawing with his professional eye.
At this moment, the two stood together on Malibu Point. Frank Gehry’s assistant accompanied them as well. Eric had not come alone either. Virginia happened to be at home, so Eric called her over to temporarily play the role of secretary.
This place already belonged to Eric as private land, and he had obtained a building permit. He could do whatever he wanted with this plot. As long as he did not disturb the residents enough to provoke public outrage, no one would interfere.
“Mr. Gehry, you’re saying the construction difficulty is very high, which means it can be built?”
Frank Gehry nodded. “But it would cost a considerable amount of money. I think it’s completely unnecessary. If you insist on building this mansion here according to your design drawing, I suggest shifting the mansion at least ten meters north. That would not only greatly reduce the construction difficulty, but also save more than thirty percent of the construction costs. In addition, all the pipelines and wiring would be easier to lay.”
Eric roughly measured the distance with his eyes. After shifting it ten meters, a very scenery-ruining stretch of rocky ground would appear outside the glass window. Could that still be considered an ocean-view mansion facing the sea with spring blossoms?
He shook his head. Eric rejected Frank’s suggestion. “Mr. Gehry, if I insist, approximately how much would it cost?”
“I can’t give you a specific number for now, because I don’t have concrete survey data yet. If you insist on building it according to the style in your design drawings, we’ll still need to carry out many tests on the geological condition of the cliffside to determine whether it can bear the weight of the building. If it can’t, it will need reinforcement, and that will be even more complicated. However, I believe five million is definitely unavoidable.”
“Only five million dollars?” Eric raised his eyebrows. Buying the land itself had cost five million.
“Mr. Williams, as far as I know, the most expensive mansion in Malibu right now is only around that price.”
“Sorry, Mr. Gehry. I don’t know much about these things. I’d like to ask somewhat presumptuously, if I paid ten million, or even twenty million, what kind of effect could be achieved?”
In this era, even Microsoft’s Bill Gates would not necessarily be able to casually take out ten or twenty million in cash. After all, his net worth was mostly reflected in stock prices. But the film industry was different. As long as the box office was a major hit, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars could be recovered in a relatively short period of time.
Frank Gehry looked at the young man before him in surprise. After thinking for a moment, he still said, “In that case, I would build you a work of art, Mr. Williams. Are you certain?”
“I’m certain, Mr. Gehry. What I want is a work of art,” Eric answered without the slightest hesitation.