章 252: Chapter 252: Mocking Celebrities
In the "Deadpool" crew, Murphy took on three roles: director, screenwriter, and producer. Being the director was his main job, screenwriting was a natural addition since he provided the script, and being a producer was essential to ensuring he had as much say as possible within the crew.
Hollywood has a mature industry system, and holding an actual position in the crew comes with a corresponding salary.
The total salary for the screenwriter was $300,000. Since Murphy had Robert Downey Jr. participate in writing Deadpool's quippy dialogue and Seth Rogen help design humorous scenes, although they wouldn't be credited under the screenwriters' section, they would share the $300,000 screenwriting fee.
As a producer, Murphy was more of a figurehead but still received a $100,000 fee.
His main compensation was still reflected in his primary job as a director. Since it was previously determined that the director's salary would consist of a lower base salary plus a later box office bonus, Murphy's base salary was only $3 million. This would be settled in three installments: at the start of filming, at the end of shooting, and after the film's North American release. This aspect wasn't the focus of negotiations. Bill Roscis and 20th Century Fox's tug-of-war was about the percentage of the box office bonus and whether it would involve global box office receipts.
As everyone knows, since the new century, Hollywood stars and top directors' box office bonuses have not been limited to North America but have expanded to global box office receipts, especially in the next few years, where some superstars can receive box office bonuses of up to $50 million from globally successful films.
However, Murphy was far from being able to compete with those super A-list stars and top directors and couldn't get such a high percentage of bonuses.
Bill Roscis's idea was to try to base Murphy's box office bonus on the global box office receipts of the film, even if it meant slightly lowering the bonus percentage. In most cases, a 1% bonus of a blockbuster's North American box office is not as good as a 0.5% bonus of the global box office.
But 20th Century Fox was not foolish and insisted on limiting the bonus to North America, leading to almost a week of negotiations before reaching an agreement.
In the end, Murphy signed a tiered bonus agreement.
The agreement took the film's $60 million production cost as a base point. If "Deadpool's" future North American box office reached the $60 million cost line, he would get 1% of the North American box office as a reward. Once it rose to $100 million, this percentage would increase to 1.5%, to 2% at $150 million, to 2.5% at $200 million, and to 3% at $250 million.
There was also a note clause that once the film's North American box office broke the $300 million mark, Murphy would receive 5% of the total North American box office as a bonus.
This was just an incentive clause; from Bill Roscis to Cara Fes to 20th Century Fox, nobody believed that an R-rated film's North American box office could exceed the $300 million mark.
Currently, the box office record for an R-rated film in North America was just over $280 million, created by "The Matrix Reloaded" this summer.
In terms of post-release rights, Murphy would receive 2% of the North American rights income. Hollywood film companies rarely make concessions in post-release rights distribution, as a film over time generates far more than just the revenue numbers seen on the surface.
These were Murphy's personal compensations, unrelated to Stanton Studios' $15 million investment.
In today's Hollywood, a top director receiving a $20 million salary is nothing extraordinary, as long as the film's box office and subsequent income are guaranteed. Even some second-tier directors' single-film income can exceed the $10 million level. From this perspective, Murphy was already close to becoming a second-tier director in Hollywood.
Struggling in the independent film circle wasn't about earning a reputation as some kind of art director for him but accumulating capital for his shift towards mainstream commercial cinema. After accumulating experience through four films, not only did he successfully break into the mainstream commercial film circle with the "Deadpool" project, but he also had the leverage to negotiate personal treatment with 20th Century Fox.
His journey was marked by exceptionally steady steps. He was neither conservative nor aggressive, with clear goals and high spirits.
After the contract was negotiated, 20th Century Fox also brought another piece of news: they had secured tax incentives from New South Wales, Australia, for "Deadpool." The film had to be shot in New South Wales, with studio scenes in the Fox studios near Sydney, and location scouting was needed for outdoor scenes.
Murphy sent Paul Wilson out for preliminary scouting.
Having collaborated with Murphy multiple times and assisted in Stanton Studios with scripts and project proposals, Paul was the perfect choice.
20th Century Fox managing to secure special tax incentives from the Australian government for a $60 million investment film, saving millions in investment, also showcased the strong foundation of one of Hollywood's Big Six. This was in stark contrast to Murphy's experience with Miramax during "Sin City," where the Weinstein brothers roamed the world seeking tax incentives to no avail.
Those brothers were not having an easy time lately.
"Their conflict with Michael Eisner has become public," Bill Roscis said, sitting by the pool in Murphy's backyard under the night sky. "Luckily, we didn't continue working with Miramax; otherwise, we would have encountered a lot of trouble."
Murphy leaned back in a white chair, picked up his beer mug to signal to those gathered around the large round table, and took a sip, saying, "It's better we stay out of that quagmire."
Robert Downey Jr. shrugged, "You may not have jumped into a quagmire, but you've been swept into another whirlpool."
Everyone's eyes were open; they could naturally see the open rivalry between Cara Fes and Dave Scora.
"With his personality, how could Cara Fes sit idly by?" James Franco stretched lazily. "This time, I can relax and watch you guys put on a good show."
He and Jonah Hill had taken a comedy role and would not appear in the "Deadpool" crew.
"Why not help Cara?" asked Gal Gadot, walking over in loose sportswear with a large fruit platter in hand, placing it on the table, sitting next to Murphy, and inviting, "Everyone, have some fruit."
She passed a slice of watermelon to Murphy, "Eat some fruit, you shouldn't drink on an empty stomach."
Hearing Gal Gadot's seemingly complaining but actually caring words, everyone laughed.
"Murphy, I'm really envious of you," Jonah Hill blurted out what was on his mind. "Gal is beautiful and gentle, unlike that..."
Before he could finish, Seth Rogen stuffed a banana into his mouth, "Eat a banana."
Gal Gadot had some understanding of Murphy's past and didn't mind much, just smiling generously.
"Okay, you guys stop messing around," Murphy timely shifted to the evening's main topic. "I didn't invite you over just for drinks. As I mentioned before, I need help filling in the script's dialogue and humorous scenes, especially Deadpool's snarky comments about celebrities. The project is about to enter the completion guarantee program, and we must finalize the script's final draft as soon as possible."
The script's scenes and plot were essentially set, only missing Deadpool's dialogue.
Murphy had Robert Downey Jr. write some based on his own characteristics, but it wasn't enough. He believed in the collective wisdom, especially of his small team of four, all of whom were skilled at humor.
"I'll start. Besides the dialogue already written, I've come up with a good idea," Robert Downey Jr. was the first to speak. "When Wade finally takes off his mask in front of Vanessa, I think we should stick a photo of Leo... Leonardo DiCaprio on his face. Um... Wade's house could also have a poster of me and Leo walking hand in hand."
He gestured as if making a phone call, "I've already talked to Leo about it."
Hearing this, Murphy couldn't help but imagine the film featuring this poster with the music—seas may dry, rocks may crumble, heavens may fall, and earth may split, but we hold hands, hold hands, hold hands, hold hands...
Just as he was about to note it down, Gal Gadot had already grabbed a pen and notebook, recording Robert Downey Jr.'s idea, even specifically marking that Leonardo DiCaprio had agreed.
"We could also make fun of George Bush," Seth Rogen adjusted his glasses, saying, "The climax scene you set in the power plant reminds me of a quote by Bush about the California electricity crisis, where the root problem was not having enough power plants, then not having enough electricity to power the power plants. We could tweak it a bit."
"Did he really say something that illogical?" Gal Gadot asked curiously.
Robert Downey Jr. shrugged, "Our president has said too many unreliable things."
"Hmm... got it, we can also include a parody of his speech on counter-terrorism," he recalled and said. "Tweaking it a bit, we can have Wade say, 'My enemies are always cunning and innovative. But I'm not inferior to them. Their leaders keep coming up with new ways to harm the country, and so will I!'"
The group then discussed a series of jokes, not sparing even Master Yoda and Luke Skywalker. Murphy, going with the flow, decided to include mocking the Skywalker limb-loss trope, and even during Wade Wilson and Vanessa's lovemaking scene, they would use the famous pose of Master Yoda riding on Luke Skywalker's back...
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