Chapter 69: Reaching Consensus

"Sorry," Tony Gusman said to the people in the room, taking out his phone and checking it, "I have to take this call."

With that, he walked out of the hotel suite's living room and onto the balcony of a bedroom, pressing the answer button. "Hello, this is Tony Gusman from Fox Spotlight."

A unfamiliar voice came through the receiver, and after a few words, Tony Gusman furrowed his brow, briefly recalling, then glanced back at the living room before politely saying, "I'm sorry, Director Stanton, but I may not have the time recently. I have a project that needs my attention."

He remembered the young director and his interesting film, and had even exchanged contact information with him, intending to continue evaluating the film. But later on, he came across something more appealing during his screenings, and Fox Spotlight also placed a high priority on it, requiring immediate attention.

Politely declining the invitation from the other party, Tony Gusman exchanged a few courteous words and hung up the phone.

With a new project on the table, he lost interest in a new film like "Fruit Hard Candy." Sitting in the living room were high-level executives from Ark Entertainment, discussing Todd Field's new film, "Unexpected Edge."

Not to mention the film's lead actor, the well-known Tom Wilkinson; the two directors couldn't be compared. Murphy Stanton was relatively unknown, and Todd Field's last film, "Ghost Invasion," grossed $90 million in North America...

The choice between the two was clear to Tony Gusman.

He had already decided to abandon what he previously thought was promising, "Fruit Hard Candy," and focus on securing "Unexpected Edge."

At the airport during the Sundance Film Festival, a portly man arrived late. After getting off the plane, he instructed the driver to head straight to the hotel, where a group of Miramax professionals and buyers were waiting for him.

Forty minutes later, Harvey Weinstein, with a face full of flesh, sat in the hotel conference room, flipping through the film lists and materials submitted by numerous Miramax employees. They mostly consisted of projects that had gained quick popularity in the media and the industry, such as "Dark Lullaby" and "Death Delusion," but there were no unexpected surprises.

"Is this all?" he furrowed his brow, looking at the dozen or so employees below, his voice gradually rising, "How do you guys work? The festival has been going on for almost a week, and you're just focused on these? How many distribution companies are eyeing them? How much do we need to pay to acquire them?"

Although Miramax had been acquired by Disney, Harvey Weinstein's operating style was completely different from Disney's. He still pursued the route of low-budget independent filmmaking.

The conference room fell silent, indicating the level of authority this portly man held in the company.

"Do any of you have any overlooked projects?" Harvey Weinstein asked again.

Still, there was silence, as projects like "Blair Witch" were not encountered at every Sundance Film Festival.

Harvey Weinstein slammed the table hard, making a loud noise. It seemed to relieve his anger. Without looking at those people, he waved his hand casually. "Get out."

Everyone rushed to leave, except for Jones Butler.

Harvey Weinstein noticed her. "Do you have something?"

Jones Butler walked over and placed a document in front of Harvey Weinstein. "This is a film produced by a small company called Stanton Studios, recommended by CAA's Bill Rossi. I and Moore watched it and believe it has some market potential."

Hearing her words, Harvey Weinstein temporarily put down his work and looked through the materials. After a while, he looked up and said, "Did you give it priority?"

"Yes." Jones Butler stood to his right. "I estimate the production cost of the film to be around $200,000 to $300,000. I and the marketing department have assessed it and believe it can become a million-dollar project."

Harvey Weinstein still had some trust in Jones Butler and asked further, "Did you secure the project?"

"Not yet..." Jones Butler replied truthfully, "We just had initial negotiations, and there's a gap between our offer and their asking price."

After reviewing all the materials, Harvey Weinstein showed some interest, which was rare. "Give them a call, and I'll go see the film tomorrow."

Murphy never imagined that when he met Jones Butler again, she would bring Harvey Weinstein, the actual controller of Miramax. Not to mention himself, even Bill Ross, in front of someone like Harvey Weinstein, was insignificant.

And Harvey Weinstein didn't even regard them. Except for a polite greeting when they met, he hardly said a word, just patiently watching Murphy's "Hard Candy" once again in the conference room.

After the screening ended, Harvey Weinstein uttered his second sentence, directed at Jones Butler, with a not-so-loud voice, but Murphy could vaguely hear it.

"Continue negotiations."

Leaving this sentence behind, Harvey Weinstein left the conference room directly.

It's not hard to imagine that Harvey Weinstein, who has always been fond of independent films, coming to the Sundance Film Festival, would be very busy. Even if Murphy thought highly of himself, he knew that Harvey Weinstein wouldn't pay much attention to him or "Hard Candy."

According to his speculation, this portly man just came to take a look, out of responsibility to the company, and a deal

worth nearly a million dollars wouldn't be settled easily.

In this circle, every deal and every project is far from as casual as outsiders might imagine.

Subsequently, Murphy and Jones Butler began a tug-of-war negotiation. With a huge gap between $600,000 and $1.5 million, it was easy to see the difficulty of the negotiations. Fortunately, both Murphy and Jones Butler knew that in order to complete the transaction, they had to make some compromises with each other.

As for the unrealistic mainstream commercial film distribution contracts and profit-sharing agreements, Murphy didn't mention them again. The cooperation between the two parties would only proceed through buying out the rights, and his focus was mainly on trying to secure as much buyout funding as possible for Stanton Studios.

He couldn't keep making films like "Hard Candy" forever; otherwise, he would be stuck at the bottom of Hollywood. His next step also required more funding to realize his plans.

Like ninety percent of directors in Hollywood, Murphy's plan was to start with independent small productions, accumulate a certain amount of capital and resume, and gradually move towards mainstream films.

After three days and five rounds of negotiations, Murphy and Jones Butler finally reached a consensus.