บท 82: Blair Witch
"Is that done?"
Three days later, when he officially received the preparation plan for the film project "Happy Death," Richard still couldn't believe it. "Jodie Foster, this woman, really has a knack for this."
"Yes," Christian echoed.
Although Jodie Foster took over the draft script of "Happy Death Day" on the day of the "Wrong Turn" celebration party, Christian did not expect the progress to be this fast. "Newline and Orion are also in the game."
While reading the plan, Christian calculated, "Orion invested 1.6 million, Judy Foster's "Egg" company invested 1 million, and New Line Company invested 1.8 million. Then, the total price of your share in the "Wrong Turn" project was converted into 400,000, which will be thrown into the new movie together."
"Our share is only 400,000?" Photographer Addison Yang was dissatisfied. "The Newline must have deliberately lowered it. I think, given the current box office, it should be $600,000!"
As of now, the North American box office of "Wrong Turn" has reached close to 60 million U.S. dollars. Although the strong challenge of "Forrest Gump" is on the horizon, it's expected to increase by as much as 20 million.
This is why Addison Young feels that the Newline company has reduced their share. By the way, after the lobbying of the Old Gun, the Cinematographer Addison Young happily joined Christian's studio, which is still in preparation, ready to cooperate with their film division plan.
"I've missed James Cameron, I don't want to miss a chance with Christian Booth" Mr. Cinematographer's words made Christian blush a bit, but having a good teammate join was a positive development.
"Don't you understand, Addison? The finance staff is all-powerful at this time" Old Gun had a mocking look. "As the box office of "Wrong Turn" increases, you'll see that the announced production costs will gradually increase. Originally, the production budget was just a little over 10 million U.S. dollars, but it's now close to 13 million. Guess what the added cost is?"
Old Gun counted them one by one with his fingers. "Desks, green plants, and toilet paper—are these guys working in an office building when we're shooting on location? What's even more ridiculous is this" He pointed to his lower body. "More than a thousand condoms. I don't know, I thought we were going to Amsterdam. In the beginning, there were fewer than six women in the crew, and within a few weeks, more than a thousand condoms had been consumed"
"Don't be angry," Christian waved her hand. "This is a common practice for those companies. After all, cost-sharing is based on profit. If the costs are higher on the books, you'll naturally get a smaller share."
"Yes," Old Gun and Addison Yang sighed together. "However, some of these costs can be recouped by checking the cost report. But, Christian"
Richard frowned as he looked at the preparation plan for "Happy Death Day."
"The total production budget is only 4.8 million U.S. dollars. Isn't that a bit small? The cost of "Wrong Turn" even if the promotional cost is eliminated, is probably around 5 million, right?"
"It's not much. The pure production cost of "Wrong Turn" is not much different from this budget, not too much," Christian scratched his head, but he was confident in his response. "If we use it carefully, it should be enough to make a good movie."
"Well, you're the director, you have the final say," Addison Young said.
"However, with such a small budget, I'm afraid we can't afford to hire any famous actors, right?" Addison continued.
"I've considered this point," Christian paused before continuing. "I would like to use Jodie Foster's connections to invite some well-known actors for guest appearances. What do you think?"
The so-called "friendly guest appearance" doesn't mean it's free, but the price is not based on the normal remuneration. Therefore, if we invite suitable actors for a friendly guest appearance, it will indeed offer good value for money.
The old gun also agreed with this, but he had his doubts.
"Will Foster be willing to help with this?"
"It might work," Christian replied cautiously. "After all, she is the second producer of this movie."
"Second? Who is the first producer?"
"...Anthony Westwood."
"It's Tony again?" The old gun exclaimed. "Didn't he say he was going to retire?"
"Don't retreat again" Christian said gloomily. "According to him, he was inspired by "Wrong Turn" and hopes to dedicate his entire life to the film industry. To this end, he even drafted a will."
"A will?"
"Once he suddenly dies during filming, he allows the film party to use his name to promote the film."
"Does he want to follow Alan McElroy?" Old Gun was briefly dumbfounded.
"I think, with this will, maybe one day he'll be bought and killed by the head of his company - what great promotional material"
"When you put it that way, I'm genuinely worried about his safety" Christian made a rather dark joke. Seeing that the other two did not respond, he coughed and continued, "Actually, it makes sense for Tony to be the producer of the "Happy Death Day" project. In the current investment plan, Newline is contributing the most money, so the producer should be one of their people. Tony has worked with us before..."
"That does make sense," Old Gun grumbled. "Speaking of, Christian, how's your script preparation for the second edition? With a production budget of about 4.8 million, it's estimated that the pre-production meeting will take a while. If you can't produce the complete script, it's going to be difficult for me as a casting director to find someone to audition."
"Don't worry. I won't make you wait too long" Christian appeared confident, but Old Gun wasn't entirely convinced. He knew that the script's difficulty this time was far greater than that of "Wrong Turn". After all, 80% of the challenge in an infinite loop-type movie lies in the cleverness of the script.
And...
"You seem to have been studying the script you received from the USC students for the past two days. Is it that interesting?" Old Gun reminded Christian that the most important task at the moment should be completing the script for "Happy Death Day" nothing else.
But Christian didn't seem to grasp the Old Gun's point. He raised her hand and handed him a script.
"Take a look It might not be intriguing, but if we can film it quickly, maybe it can echo our success with "Wrong Turn" and perform well at the box office again."
"That's clever?" The old gun accepted the script skeptically, only to discover that the title was unexpectedly...
"Blair Witch Project"
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