The Best Entertainment Era

Matt made $5 million for his last 'The Talented Prairie'!

In the office, Howard, an agent from William Morris, said quite seriously: The Talented Prairie has a budget of 40 million U.S. dollars, and the box office in North America is as high as 87 million U.S. dollars! The film is very successful! Mr. Anderson, you offered 4 million U.S. dollars in remuneration , does not conform to Hollywood conventions!

Ronan retorted: Mr. Matt Damon has never proven himself in commercial films in the past. He is acting in a new type of film, and he is facing a new audience group. In the past, he was biased towards literary films. Not much reference value!

Howard emphasized: Isn't The Talented Prairie a commercial film? Isn't Saving Private Ryan a commercial film?

Ronan knew very well that Matt Damon earned $5 million for his last movie, and The Talented Prairie was a success at the box office, so $4 million was definitely not enough.

But Howard not only wants a salary of 7 million U.S. dollars, but also a post-production share, which naturally needs to be discussed.

After Matt Damon came to the crew to audition, it took three days just to negotiate the salary. In just three days, Ronan talked with Howard four times.

This kind of negotiation is very necessary. The stars are all confident people. If they ask for a salary, the third-tier stars dare to ask for more than 10 million US dollars.

The salary negotiation with Matt Damon also involves the following two sequels. Once The Bourne is successful, there will definitely be sequels later. what should we do?

Like a movie starring Tom Cruise, where one person takes a third of the profits?

Ronan also tried to sign a trilogy director contract with Matt Damon at one time, but Matt Damon is a second-tier star, and he is still a popular one, which is completely different from Paul Greengrass. Howard doesn't even talk about it.

After talking for three days, the two sides finally reached an agreement on the salary. Matt Damon's salary for starring in The Bourne is 6 million US dollars, which does not involve any post-production share.

However, Matt Damon had some doubts about the first collaboration with Sandsea Entertainment, and he asked for a third-party payment for the film.

This is the payment method that many star actors often use when they cooperate with small companies or independent film producers, and Ronan is undoubtedly an independent producer in the division of Hollywood.

The so-called third-party payment means that the star requires the producer to deposit the full remuneration in a large bank in the United States, and then pay the remuneration to the actors successively according to the contract signed by both parties.

This payment method can help actors effectively avoid risks and provide better protection, because it ensures that producers are able to pay.

Although this will increase the cost of Shahai Entertainment somewhat, Ronan considered the financing and filming later, so he agreed to Matt Damon's request.

Sand Sea Entertainment opened a special account in the Bank of America, borrowed 6 million US dollars from Relativity Entertainment, and then deposited it, and this fee was included in the cost of the film.

Ronan agreed to such a request, and of course there are corresponding conditions, requiring Matt Damon to join the crew of The Bourne after this year's Oscars ceremony, and participate in action training before filming.

If you want to shoot effectively, training is a must.

There is not much disagreement between the two sides on this point, and Mada Damon also agreed.

After negotiating the most critical points such as remuneration, Ronan handed over all the remaining fragmentary issues such as schedule, medical insurance benefits, signatures, nudity and changing facilities to an associate producer.

He then contacted Bob from the Firefighters Fund and submitted a series of prepared materials to the insurance company.

The joining of star actors is also conducive to the application for a third-party completion guarantee.

Moreover, all the films planned by Shahai Entertainment in the past three years have been filmed, which is also a favorable condition.

On the second day after the film crew signed a formal contract with Matt Damon, a team of professionals from the Fireman Fund, including underwriters, claim adjusters and loss prevention representatives, began to settle in the film crew for review. If the two parties sign a formal third-party The film completion guarantee contract, this group will also leave a few elite personnel to stay on the crew.

Don't expect to be able to fool these people with some small tricks, the insurance company hires all senior practitioners who have worked in the production company.

When the film insurance company decides to underwrite the film, it will start its own risk prevention system. First, it will understand the physical condition of the important director and star actors, and arrange periodic inspections during the filming period. Celebrities with hobbies or poor physical condition are given special supervision.

For example, during the filming of Sex Book Tycoon in 1996, because the heroine Courtney Love had a drug history, the Fireman's Fund required Courtney Love to undergo a drug test every week, otherwise the insurance would not be provided.

The preliminary preparations were sufficient, Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass were in good health, The Bourne passed the review of the Fireman Fund, and the two parties signed a third-party completion guarantee in addition to the general insurance contract. contract.

Since Bourne Shadow is an action movie, there are many action shots. According to Hollywood practice, the third-party completion guarantee insurance amount is 4% of the budget, which is 2 million US dollars. If the later budget increases, the insurance cost will also increase. increase accordingly.

The biggest effect of this film completion guarantee is that in case of problems with the producer and crew, the insurance company can take over the crew to ensure that the film can be completed.

If it cannot be completed, a total of 60 million US dollars will be paid to all investors.

The biggest use of this insurance contract is to give confidence to potential investors, thereby attracting investment for the crew.

Completion guarantee is a very important system in Hollywood film production. When many investment funds invest in film projects or banks provide loans for film projects, they will definitely require these projects to obtain a completion guarantee.

Of course, this can also ensure that those who invest in the crew cannot withdraw their funds casually.

The completion guarantor will establish a third-party account for the crew, and all investors need to inject the promised investment into this account according to the deadline. Within the validity period, no one can withdraw the money without the signature of the completion guarantor.

In The Bourne, Ronan is not going to play tricks in the budget. With the huge reputation and influence of the Allianz Group and its Firefighters Fund in the insurance industry, the confidence of potential investors will be strengthened, so that they can rest assured that the bold Invest in this project of Shahai Entertainment.

With the guarantee from the insurance company and the consecutive successful film projects of Sand Sea Entertainment and Relativity Entertainment, Ronan didn't need to be cheated like he was on his first trip to Abu Dhabi.

It is no exaggeration to say that the completion guarantee is the key to Hollywood's external financing.

Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages.

The insurance company will fully intervene in the work of the crew, such as analyzing every shot in the script in advance to see if there are potential risks. Once the shooting starts, it will also send a sharp-eyed loss prevention representative to the shooting scene to ensure that the shooting is done in a safe manner. If a scene is found to be a threat to the lead actor, the loss prevention representative will prevent the lead actor from participating in the show, etc.

There is nothing in this world that only takes benefits without paying.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the large-scale Hollywood production crew spends money like water. There may be various frauds in the production costs announced by major companies, but the real cost will not vary much.

The third-party film completion guarantee fee and other general insurance costs of The Bourne crew have already spent nearly 2.5 million US dollars. The crew still has a large number of personnel and equipment that are not in place. The total insurance cost is expected to be about 3 million US dollars.

Insurance must be purchased, and the directors' union and the actors' union have strict regulations. With the development of Shahai Entertainment to the present, with the investment scale of The Bourne Shadow, if you don't register with the union, there will be a long line of troublemakers behind.

Moreover, there is no harm in buying insurance for the film industry. The probability of accidents on film sets is too high.

With the third-party insurance contract and the joining of star actors like Matt Damon, Ronan also increased his confidence in financing, and various preparations were accelerated.

The company's materials, related film materials, and certificates from various associations, all prepared a lot, and packed three large suitcases.

A little less than the first trip to Abu Dhabi.

Because of this targeted goal, Robert made contact with the Falch Foundation and the Mountain Foundation in Mumbai, India. The former did not express it for the time being, but the latter had a strong interest in investing in Hollywood big-budget films.

Just be interested.

During this trip to India, Ronan formed a small team. Mary will stay in Los Angeles to handle a series of financial tasks, and temporarily launched a financing team. García Rodriguez from the 1990s, along with three general staff who are good at outreach.

One of them, Connie, a graduate of the University of California Business School, temporarily served as Ronan's assistant.

There are also two bodyguards.

After the preparatory work was completed, Ronan held two more internal meetings, focusing on the internal structure of the two foundations, as well as the information of the relevant responsible persons passed by Robert, so that they could be targeted after arriving in Mumbai.

Ronan has never been to India. In his previous life, it was called a country of cheating. Another impression is that the status of women is particularly low, and there are endless incidents of violence and health...

But now the actual survey data show that although some Indians are not as rich as the Arab oil tycoons, they are also waving checks and buying around the world.

Perhaps, countries with soaring national power will go through such a stage.

In mid-February 2000, Ronan embarked on a trip to India with his investment promotion team.

The Ah San plan has officially entered the implementation stage.