Simplified version

Glancing at this subordinate who caused him a lot of trouble, Lou Weis said: "Joe, as for your side, Brian de Palma is still the director and will also be the producer of "Butterfly Effect." Filmmaker. Fox gave a remuneration of US$2 million and a 10% share of North American box office profits."

Jonathan Friedman nodded.

If it were not for the two previously failed films, Brian de Palma's salary level should be around $3 million.

Now that Fox is offering US$2 million plus a 10% share of North American box office profits, Jonathan Friedman has no dissatisfaction at all. What he wanted to win for his clients before was just a fixed salary of US$2 million. .

Of course, Jonathan Friedman also understands that the reason why Brian de Palma was able to get this relatively generous contract was mainly because the series of harsh agreements that triggered WMA infighting was exposed in recent days.

Both Fox and WMA need to use 'facts' to refute relevant news in the media.

Thinking of this, Jonathan Friedman began to look forward to Fox's offer for Simon's script. However, he did not take the initiative to speak, patiently waiting for Lou Weis to continue.

After talking about Brian de Palma, Lou Weis glanced at his memo again, and looked up: "Regarding the script, the price has been increased to 200,000 US dollars, and 160,000 US dollars will be paid for the script of "Butterfly Effect". US$40,000 is reserved for the screenwriter's priority for the next two scripts."

After listening to Jonathan Friedman, he paused and asked, "Lu, is it still a buyout?"

Lu Weis shook his head and said: "This is the basic remuneration, and the sharing clause follows industry practices."

Jonathan Friedman was relieved. If it is still a buyout agreement, even if Fox doubles the base price, he is not sure whether Simon will agree.

Now, just adding a priority to the script, Jonathan believes that Simon must know what choice to make.

Seeing that Jonathan had no objection, Lou Weis continued: "Joe, apart from the arrangements of these three people, the original package plan has also been overturned. Fox gave a new budget of 10 million U.S. dollars. According to this standard, you re Compile a list of the main characters and give it to me tomorrow. Are there any questions?"

Jonathan Friedman realized that Lu Weis now only wants to sign a simplified packaging contract with Fox as soon as possible, which only involves the core creators. The current situation obviously does not allow WMA to have a second option. So nodded again: "No problem."

Hearing Jonathan's answer, Lou Weis closed the memo in front of him, waved his hand to him, and said, "That's it, you can go to work now."

Jonathan Friedman stood up and saw that the other three were sitting still, and he knew that they would definitely have to discuss the news in recent days.

For such a bad internal leak, WMA must be investigated to the end.

However, Jonathan does not think that the management can investigate the results. The guy who broke the news to the media must be very aware of the serious consequences of doing this kind of thing. If he does not completely hide himself, he will definitely not take it easily.

Leaving the meeting room, Jonathan Friedman walked slowly through the outer corridor, feeling the warm sunlight through the glass curtain wall in the morning, suddenly there was an unprecedented relaxation.

The discussion in the media about this incident of WMA continues.

Jonathan Friedman knows very well that although he has temporarily passed the current threshold, he is affected by this incident and it is almost impossible for him to go further in WMA in the future.

Even if Lu Weis, who is 75 years old this year, retires from the position of chairman in the next few years and loses this level of dependence, he is likely to be completely kicked out of the company by Norman Broca.

However, after letting go of the thought that he had been careful not to make mistakes and wanted to climb up for a long time, Jonathan felt that the depression and resentment that had accumulated in his heart for so many years had all disappeared.

Jonathan even discovered that compared to many other people in this industry, he is actually very strong.

Relying on the experience and contacts accumulated over the past two decades, even after leaving WMA, he can still live well, or even better.

Now, he no longer has to always consider various trade-offs and compromises, he only needs to be single-minded and responsible for his customers. Then, he believes that no matter what happens in the future, a large part of these people will closely follow him.

Before he knew it, Jonathan Friedman paused, and suddenly remembered the boy who prompted him to do all this. So he walked to the outside assistant and said, "Owen, help me find it. Simon's contact address."

There are 37 clients under Jonathan Friedman's name. Westerners really don't have much creativity in naming them, and more than one of these clients is named Simon.

However, Owen Wright immediately understood what Jonathan meant, and skillfully pulled out a sheet from the thick stack of address books and handed it to his boss.

Jonathan Friedman took it and scanned it a few times before handing it back to the assistant, saying: "I'll go out for a while and be back at noon."

Irving Lai nodded and watched Jonathan leave, and couldn't help thinking that he should have more contact with the boy named Simon Westero in the future.

Leaving the WMA headquarters office building, Jonathan Friedman drove directly to the address of a 7-11 convenience store in Midtown Santa Monica.

In the new week, Simon changed his morning shift again.

The time is 9:40 in the morning.

Convenience stores are at a time when there is relatively little passenger flow. Simon is doing a routine inventory of the shelves he is responsible for. Courteney Cox, wearing a pink T-shirt and short hot pants, walks over and walks indifferently.

Feeling the good smell of Eau de Toilette around him, Simon turned his head and smiled at Courteney, watching the girl hold a few things in her arms with her bare hands, and said: "Are you always so used to holding things when you buy?"

Seeing that Simon took the initiative to talk to herself, Courteney said, but still with a bit of habitual impoliteness, she said: "Yes, do you have an opinion?"

Simon immediately shook his head and said, "No, if you are all customers, the trolleys in our store can definitely be used for many more years."

"Oh, next time I'll use a cart," Courteney said, picking a bottle of ketchup, still holding it in his arms, watching Simon once again turn his attention to the folder in his hand, hesitated. If nothing happened: "The one in the newspaper in recent days, um, "Butterfly Effect", you wrote it?"

After all, there was no deep relationship. Except for "Lola Run" that I saw by chance, Courteney didn't know about Simon's other scripts before, and she didn't have much interest in this matter.

Moreover, in the news of these days, the whistleblower did not actually mention the personal information of the screenwriter of the "Butterfly Effect", and the other party obviously has its own intention to do so.

If the outside world knows that Simon is just an 18-year-old rookie who just made his debut, the argument in the article that Fox's buyout contract is too harsh may also be questioned. After all, in this era when most ordinary people have only ten to twenty thousand dollars in annual salary, many people are destined to think that a young man can earn 100,000 dollars just after he turns 18. What else is not satisfied?

Courteney is actually hard to believe that the screenwriter of "Butterfly Effect" that caused such a big storm in Hollywood will be Simon, who usually can't see any special ordinary boys.

However, she happened to know that Simon Friedman was the only screenwriter under Jonathan Friedman's name.

Simon glanced at the looking girl, smiled and nodded, and replied casually: "Yes."

Although it was roughly certain, Courteney widened her eyes when she heard Simon's answer and asked: "Really?"

This time, before Simon could respond, Roger Griffin's fat body approached from the other side of the shelf and said, "Simon, someone is looking for it."

Simon answered, made a mark on the folder, and walked out.

Courteney hesitated, and followed Simon with a bunch of things.

As soon as he turned out of the shelf, Simon saw his agent Jonathan Friedman standing at the exit of the cash register and nodding to him.

Courteney also quickly spotted the agent's figure, and the surprised expression that had not dissipated on her face floated again.

You know, since signing the contract, she has never encountered the WMA ace agent who came to find herself in person. At the beginning, she could only see Jonathan's assistant in most cases.

Simon walked through the checkout counter and came to Jonathan. The agent looked at Simon's clerk's outfit, shook his hand with a gentle smile, and patted Simon on the shoulder again, saying: "I didn't expect you to be here. Tell me earlier. , I can help you find a better part-time job."

Simon joked: "It's not too late."

"Now, huh, no more now," Jonathan smiled and shook his head. Then he turned to Courteney, who was walking over. He also stretched out his hand and shook the girl and said: "Curt, I didn't expect you to be here, you and Know Simon?"

Courteney clearly felt the difference in Jonathan's attitude towards him and Simon, but nodded obediently, and said: "Yes, I live nearby and often come to buy things, so I just met Simon."

"Oh, this is a coincidence," Jonathan replied, turning to Simon again, and said: "Simon, can you ask for a few hours off? Let's go out and talk."

"Okay," Simon nodded, turned his head and glanced, and walked to Roger Griffin, who was poking his head here. He came to the convenience store owner and said: "Roger, my agent is looking for some thing."

In addition to being very stingy on salary, the middle-aged fat man appeared to be very talkative in other aspects. He once again took a look at the elegant middle-aged man not far away, and nodded readily: "No problem, come back before 12 o'clock, just you Just two hours of absenteeism."