"Eric Williams secret meeting with Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks, to negotiate the new film deal." This was the headlines on the front page of the "Hollywood Reporter" the second day after their meeting, accompanied by a picture of Eric, Cruise and Hanks side by side walking out of Firefly office building.
In the picture, Eric was wearing a gray sports suit, he looked just like a high school student, Tom Cruise was wearing a black casual jacket not b.u.t.toned up, revealing the white T-shirt below. Only Tom Hanks was properly dressed in a black suit and tie, looking like an office worker.
Because they talked about the script all morning, the two superstars relaxed their vigilance when they left, they didn't wear their sungla.s.ses, so the faces of the three of them were quite clear, they were talking to each other and walking towards the door, the shot was captured by a lucky paparazzi.
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"Around eight a.m. yesterday morning, it was found that Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks the two superstars have visited director Eric Williams's firefly film company office. Our reporter received the news and quickly arrived at the location, after four hours of waiting, Eric Williams and Cruise and Hanks finally walked out from the building, from the photo the facial expressions of the three, we can deduce that the meeting was quite enjoyable.
Although the three did not accept the reporter interview, instead, they left in a hurry. But according to some clues from an insider, the meeting is related to a new film Eric Williams is preparing.
Since the actor and screenwriter debuted in the film 《17 Again》 last year, Eric Williams suddenly broke into the Hollywood director's circle, by directing the first low-cost comedy Film 《Home Alone》 to reach the 100 million box office club.
When a lot of people attributed the teenager's success to luck, only four months later, Eric Williams second romantic comedy film 《Pretty Woman》 was released again, the first week box office was close to $30 million, completely Proving the young director's strength.
In the first movie 《Home Alone》, Eric Williams took a group of TV actors and the little boy that lived next door to him, and created a stunning box office miracle, as for the second film that starred, Al Pacino who won a few Oscar nominations, but he has been in the shadow for four years, and had close to zero box office appeal. And Julia Roberts who only played a small role in low budget comedy, but Eric took the two people and sent them to the top ranks of Hollywood.
And this time, the young director chose two Hollywood A-level actors, we have no doubt that the lower film will once again create a box office miracle.
However, Although the three people appear very happy in the photo, and give a positive appearance to this cooperation, but we have to mention that Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks now belong to CAA the brokerage firm. And it is well-known that, Eric Williams early acquisition of a well-known brokerage company, has angered the high levels at CAA, during 《Pretty woman》 casting, CAA has also blocked its artist Richard Gere from cooperating with Eric Williams, and did not hesitate to compensate Richard Gere by giving him a MGM - United States big production film.
In this case, we can imagine, Eric Williams's cooperation with the two Tom will be full with twists and turns. Of course, Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks has enough strength to ignore CAA's Ban on Firefly-film. After all, the two are now Hollywood A-level superstars, even if they lost the support of CAA, their careers will not suffer too much.
Moreover, from the influence of Eric Williams's first two works, his new work is likely to bring the career of the two stars to a new high.
I believe that in Hollywood, no actor can resist such temptation, but I do not know if CAA's seniors have not enough courage, to once again, strongly resist this cooperation.
The last incident led Mr. Richard Gere to lose the chance to break into ranks of A-level actors, and according to the recent critics preview of the film 《Road House》, the prospect of the film isn't very promising, there is little chance of a box office miracle. This film is clearly not enough of a compensation for Mr. Richard Gere loss of 《Pretty woman》. So what would Cruise and Hanks choose?, and how would CAA handle Williams's invitation? Let's wait and see."
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Eric smiled and threw the newspaper on the table, he really wanted to blow up the editor who wrote this ma.n.u.script. Before, Michael Ovitz only increased the two superstars paycheck to express his dissatisfaction, but now it won't be the same as last time, he was sure he will try to obstruct the cooperation between the two sides.
After all, now the rise of UTA has been unstoppable, and with what Michael Ovitz did before, not only the loss outweighed the gain, their feud spread out to the public. Michael Ovitz can be considered a narrow-minded person, and the more narrow-minded people are, the more fearful and hateful they will be against others.
If in the future they successfully signed the contracts, even if their was infighting in private, but in the public mind, the two sides shook hands, even if they still have a strong animosity, this will be good for the public image of both Eric and the CAA.
But now after such a provocative tabloid article, if this cooperation was successful, the t.i.tle of 'Hollywood's most powerful figure' Michael Ovitz got will turn into a joke.
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Sure enough, the next day after 'The Hollywood Reporter' published the article, Eric received the bad news.
"That's really too much, The price of US $6 million fee is pa.s.sable, but they also want twenty percent of North America bow office profits after the movie is released. Everyone who worked in Hollywood for a few years, have never heard of any actor who will put forward such presumptuous conditions. Eric, do you have to use Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks? They should know that other brokerage firms also have top of the line actors. Or you can play a role in the film, and self-direct." Jeffrey after talking to Cruise and Hanks's agent, come back to Eric office, and started complaining.
Although Eric has expected such thing to happen, but he was shocked by the conditions put forward by the two agents. Hollywood stars asking for a share of the profits, The bad habit started with Tom Cruise. Later, the fee plus profit sharing model has gradually become a popular mode of charging in his past life, in proportion usually between 10% and 20%.
The so-called profit sharing, of the box office is divided into two concepts, Specifically, the producer gets his share of the box office, That's part of the profit minus the production cost, minus the proportions required by the actors, that's what the actors can get. What's more, the profit sharing is divided into two categories, the global box office and the North American box office.
Although Cruise and Hanks's agents haven't lost their heads and proposed the global profit sharing, but even after many years, it was not so easy for an actor to get such conditions. And to get such a high percentage the actor will have to give up something in exchange. For example, in his past life Johnny Depp in 《Pirates of the Caribbean》, completely abandon his paycheck, in exchange for getting a higher proportion of the profits.
But now this model of charging has only just begun, When Tom Cruise shot his last movie 《Rain Man》, he put forward this whimsical payment model, and because of Tom Cruise strong box office appeal, and the cost of production of 《Rain Man》 isn't high, the producer thought that as long Cruise joins them, the film can easily make profit. So he agreed to Cruise's demand, but Cruise also had to lower his fee. What's more, the profit sharing ratio was only 10 percent.