Chapter 317 The Postman of the End of the World

"How much budget are you planning to invest in this movie?" Zhou Yan asked another question that he was more concerned about.

Chris blurted out, "At least fifty million dollars."

Terry Semel told him that it was at least 40 million U.S. dollars, and he directly increased the amount to at least 50 million U.S. dollars.

Zhou Yan nodded when he heard that it was at least 50 million US dollars. It would be good if he really had this budget.

In Zhou Yan's opinion, with a budget of US$30 to 40 million, this movie should be able to be made.

Of course, the higher the budget, the better.

Zhou Yan won't invest this time anyway, so the box office isn't that important, as long as the movie can be made well. Anyway, the risks and other risks will be borne by Warner, and he won't lose a dime.

In Hollywood, although screenwriters can get a share, usually they can only sign a profit share.

However, under Hollywood's accounting mechanism, profit sharing is too controllable. No matter how high the box office is, a movie may have zero profit or even a loss.

Therefore, screenwriters usually ask for more screenwriting fees. As for the 5% profit share, they are all illusory things, and screenwriters don't pay much attention to it.

After all, whether this thing exists or not depends purely on the conscience of the production company.

It is not very possible to expect these companies to take money out of their own pockets and share it with everyone.

Of course, there are also some screenwriters who are more capable and can negotiate with the production company for a share of the box office.

Compared with profit sharing, box office sharing is more reliable. No matter whether the movie makes money or not, as long as there is a box office, you can get the money.

However, even if the box office share is signed, the production company will generally only agree to a stepped box office share. Only when a certain box office is reached, the share will be activated.

After taking over the job of "Titanic", the contract between Zhou Yan and Fox had relevant content, but the name was not a share, but a bonus.

There are three tiers in total. As long as the global box office of "Titanic" exceeds US$500 million, Zhou Yan's studio can receive a bonus of US$500,000. If it exceeds US$1 billion, the bonus will be increased to US$1.5 million. More than 1.5 billion US dollars, and the bonus can reach 3 million US dollars.

Fox signed this contract without any psychological burden at all, especially the box office of 1.5 billion US dollars, which they themselves had never thought about at all.

"The leaders of your company are very courageous. They approved the budget so quickly."

Chris smiled and said, "It's because the company leaders pay more attention to you. What do you think about actors?"

"Kevin Costner, Tom Hanks, and Bruce Willis. I am more optimistic about these three actors for the male lead. As for the other actors, I don't have any ideas." Zhou Yan said.

Hearing the three names mentioned by Zhou Yan, Chris also nodded secretly. These three actors are indeed suitable for the male lead, and all three of them have good acting positions and have good box office appeal.

The key is that Zhou Yan named three names. This way, they have a much wider choice. It is not difficult to invite one of the three of them.

What Chris fears most is that Zhou Yan only wants one choice, and then they will be very passive. The schedules of these well-known actors are relatively full, and they may not be able to catch up.

"Mr. Zhou, don't worry, as long as the cooperation is confirmed, we will contact these three actors as soon as possible." Chris said.

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "No rush, let's confirm the director first. These candidates are just my ideas. It depends on what the director thinks. I don't want to interfere with the director's creation."

Not only did he not want to interfere with the director's creation, he also wanted to learn something from these well-known directors.

These famous directors all have some unique skills.

The directors Zhou Yan has worked with, whether they are Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Wang Junzheng, An Li, each have their own understanding of movies, and they all have different ways of making movies.

And every time he cooperated with them, Zhou Yan always thought of stealing some tips.

He can make such rapid progress because he has been working with excellent directors and excellent teams.

Looking back on the past few years, Zhou Yan has never worked with unknown directors along the way, from Hou Xiaoxian and Zhang Yimou to Chen Kaige and Wang Junzheng, to Zhang Jianya, Tsui Hark, Zhou Xingchi, and later with An Li, Brest, When working with Hollywood directors like Cameron, everyone is a leader in the industry.

The only one who is less famous is Olivier, but Olivier's level is not bad at all. After the success of "The Flying Piano Boy", his career in France is also booming.

Although Olivier doesn't make many movies now, his documentaries are very famous in France.

It would be difficult to find another dreamy leveling path like this.

Moreover, Zhou Yan is a director himself, and he understands the directors' thoughts very well. No successful director would want others to interfere too much in his creation.

A director who can accept constant interference in his own creation is destined to be unable to become a successful director.

Chris was of course very happy to hear what Zhou Yan said. Too much interference from the screenwriter will indeed affect the director's performance. If it is an ordinary director, that's it. If it is Scorsese, he is not a protagonist who will be dominated by others. .

Even in the industrialized system of Hollywood, Scorsese is not easily disturbed.

"Okay, I'll listen to you. The casting will be decided after the director is confirmed."

The two chatted for a while. Chris looked at the time and said with a smile, "It's getting late. I'll treat you to dinner. How about the steak restaurant I told you about at noon?"

"Okay, let's go try the steak you mentioned."

"I promise you..."

Chris was halfway through his words when the doorbell of the room rang.

Zhou Yan stood up and asked, "Who?"

Katherine's voice sounded outside, "Y, it's us."

Hearing that it was Katherine, Zhou Yan ran to open the door.

Katherine and Kevin Costner were standing outside the door. Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Kevin, Katherine, hello."

"Y, hello." Kevin smiled.

It was the first time Kevin Costner met Zhou Yan in person. When Zhou Yan went to Columbia before, he was not there, and the two did not meet.

"Hello, please come in."

When they entered the room, they saw Chris, and Catherine smiled, "You have guests here."

Zhou Yan introduced with a smile, "This is Chris, Chris, this is Catherine and Kevin."

Chris went over and shook hands with Catherine and the others enthusiastically, "You two performed so well in "The Sixth Sense". I am a fan of both of you, and I am very happy to see you."

Faced with the enthusiastic Chris, Kevin and Catherine were a little confused. They didn't understand where Chris came from and why he appeared in Zhou Yan's room.

However, Zhou Yan didn't introduce him in detail, and they didn't ask in detail.

After a few pleasantries, Zhou Yan asked, "Have you two eaten?"

"Not yet." Catherine smiled.

"That's great, Chris said there is a restaurant nearby that has delicious steaks, let's go together." Then Zhou Yan turned to Chris and asked, "Chris, do you mind if we go together?"

"Of course not." Chris said immediately.

Chris also wanted to invite Catherine and the others to dinner, but he couldn't take the initiative to bring it up, after all, today's dinner was mainly about Zhou Yan.

Now that Zhou Yan took the initiative to bring it up, there was no reason for him to refuse.

Catherine didn't say anything, Kevin Costner was one of the three candidates for the leading actor of "Shutter Island", and Chris certainly wanted to get in touch with him in advance, so that he could contact him when the role was confirmed later.

Besides, Kevin Costner had cooperated with Warner a lot.

…

The restaurant Chris mentioned was indeed not far away, and the four of them walked to it in about seven or eight minutes.

After ordering, when ordering, "To Alice" which was originally playing in the restaurant ended, and suddenly a familiar music sounded.

Apart from Zhou Yan, Catherine was the first to react, and she covered her mouth in surprise and said, "It's "Young and Beautiful"."

Hearing Catherine say that, Kevin and Chris also heard it.

Chris smiled and said, "This song is very popular now, and you can hear it everywhere."

"Young and Beautiful" is suitable for many occasions. Whether it is a song or a tune, it is very popular. Shopping malls and other places prefer to play songs sung by Mariah Carey, while restaurants with a little more upscale prefer to play pure music.

Some restaurants not only play it on the radio, but also have violinists or pianists playing this song live.

"And "Someone Like You", I often hear it too." Kevin said.

"Someone Like You" is much less popular than "Young and Beautiful", after all, it does not have the bonus of a popular song.

Speaking of "Someone Like You", Catherine remembered something, "I watched TV before and saw that many fans of Mariah Carey were calling for her to sing "Someone Like You". Some fans also made a banner and asked everyone to sign it, and many people signed it."

"Oh, is there such a thing?" Zhou Yan had never heard of it.

"Yes, it was after the Oscars. I haven't heard it recently." Katherine said.

Chris nodded: "Yes, it happened. It was mainly because Mariah said in an interview during the Oscars that she hoped to sing "Someone Like You", so her fans were very excited. Is it possible to write lyrics for this song and make it into a song?"

"Yes, it's possible, but I haven't thought about who will sing it for the time being."

In fact, Mariah Carey did mention this matter, but Zhou Yan didn't take it seriously at the time because she felt that Mariah Carey might not be particularly suitable for this song.

Catherine smiled and said, "I hope it can be confirmed soon, so that I can hear new songs earlier. I haven't heard any new songs recently."

Chris joked, "Maybe you can wait for "Titanic". This time Y will compose the music for them, and maybe they will release a few popular songs again."

"Well, when I heard that Y was going to compose the music for "Titanic", I was very much looking forward to the music of this movie. In fact, I think the music of "The Sixth Sense" is also very good, but it's just not suitable for listening alone at ordinary times."

Kevin smiled, "Indeed, the music of "The Sixth Sense" is a little darker, which is very good for movies, but not suitable for ordinary listening."

"Then you can wait for the soundtrack of "The Chorus". The music in this movie is very suitable for daily listening, and there are also human voices. The voices of those children are like the sound of nature, very beautiful."

"In fact, I have seen the movie, it is indeed very good." Catherine smiled.

Kevin was surprised, "Has "The Chorus" been released in the United States? Didn't it say that it will be released in a while?"

"I watched it in the UK. The movie was just released in the UK. I happened to be in London two days ago. The movie is very popular in the UK, and the attendance rate is very high."

Zhou Yan smiled. Catherine's words were purely compliments. The box office performance of "The Chorus" in the UK was quite average.

There were not many screenings in the first place, and the attendance rate could only be said to be okay. It is estimated that it will not be released for too long before it will be taken off the screen.

Of course, neither Tomson nor Zhou Yan had any expectations for the box office of "The Chorus" in the UK. They would be satisfied if it could have a box office of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"The movie performed very well in France." Chris said.

After all, they originally wanted to buy the rights to remake "The Chorus", so Chris paid more attention to the box office of this movie.

"I heard that there were more than one million viewers?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "Yes, it has indeed exceeded one million."

"That's great, "The Chorus" deserves to be seen by more people. It is really the best movie I have seen recently."

Facing Catherine's compliment, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Thank you for your support."

Then he changed the subject and said, "What work do you two have recently?"

"I am currently discussing a new movie, but it has not been finalized yet." Catherine said.

In fact, she is discussing many movies, but the most reliable one is "The Mask of Zorro" directed by Martin Campbell.

Kevin Costner smiled, "I am busy making my own movie."

"Is it "The Postman"?" Chris asked.

Kevin looked at Chris in surprise, "How do you know?"

"Because our company participated in the production."

Hearing this, Kevin narrowed his eyes, "You are... from Warner?"

"The Postman" was a collaboration between Kevin Costner's own company and Warner, so when Chris said that, he naturally guessed that Chris was from Warner.

Chris nodded and said, "Yes, I'm from Warner."

Kevin and Catherine were a little surprised. They didn't expect Chris to be from Warner.

It seems that Y must have made some moves again, so he contacted Warner's people.

But although they were a little surprised, the two didn't think much about it. Which company Zhou Yan cooperated with was not their concern.

When he heard Kevin talking about his new movie, Zhou Yan remembered that this guy was actually a director, and he was the kind of director who became famous in one battle.

"Dances with Wolves", Kevin's first film as a director and producer, was nominated for twelve Oscars and eventually won seven awards, including the Academy Award for Best Director.

The key is that this movie not only won many awards, but also performed very well at the box office, with a global box office of more than 400 million US dollars.

It is said that Zhou Yan's debut performance was very good, but compared with Kevin Costner, it was a small witch compared to a big witch.

Kevin only used one movie to reach the peak that countless directors could not reach in their lifetime.

The most annoying thing is that his second movie is also very strong.

After several years, he directed his second movie "Waterworld", which was also directed and acted by himself, and also caused a huge response. Although the awards and box office were not as many as "Dances with Wolves", the global box office was also more than 200 million US dollars.

The box office of the two movies is close to 700 million US dollars.

With only these two movies, Kevin Costner has made himself a first-line director.

Now he is preparing to shoot "The Last Postman", which is also his third directorial movie. Warner attaches great importance to it and has given it a high budget.

Zhou Yan suddenly remembered what An Li said before, that the director's third movie is very important, which determines whether a director's career can be strong and long-lasting.

Even though Kevin Costner's first two films achieved fantastic results, his third film is still very important. If it does not perform well, it will have a huge impact on his directorial career.

The Postman did not perform well. Perhaps the fact that Kevin Costner did not have any well-known works later was related to the poor performance of this film. (End of this chapter)