Only five days later, Jimmy received Yu Dong's new script.
"Human potential is indeed unlimited."
The script was better than he imagined, and it was written very carefully. Even the use of some shots was considered by the director.
If it weren't for Yu Dong, Jimmy would definitely not believe that this was a temporary script.
After reading the script, Jimmy rubbed his hands and called Ron Howard, telling him that the script had been written and giving him time to go to Deep Space Company to read the script.
After Howard answered the phone, he was stunned for more than ten seconds.
It only took a few days and it was already written?
Normally, when a screenwriter is hired to create a script, he will first provide a script outline of about ten pages, but what Jimmy just told him was a complete script, not a script outline.
Could it be that Jimmy fooled him, or that YU just happened to have a similar script and took it out directly?
Jimmy wouldn't think that no matter what kind of script it was, he would be willing to pay four million dollars.
But it was useless no matter how much he thought about it, he still had to see what the script was like.
…
When Howard arrived in deep space, Jimmy had just had a phone call with Bezos and talked about some things about the Amazon website.
At this Deep Space Annual Meeting, Deep Space Company plans to give back a benefit to readers through the Amazon website, by selecting some readers and giving them free books.
In addition to giving away free books, Deep Space also played a new trick this time, combining the Flash Printing Company they co-founded with Ingram and Amazon.com to customize private books for some readers.
Readers can extract some words from the books signed by Deep Space to form a personalized book of their own. The total number of words does not exceed 10,000, and the number of words excerpted from a single book cannot exceed 100.
If you don’t want this kind of book, you can also customize a personalized greeting card.
The reason why Jimmy did this was, on the one hand, to promote the company's books, and on the other hand, to promote Flash Printing Company.
After they discussed cooperation with Ingram, the company began to be established. However, the establishment of this company was not easy. Products could not be produced immediately. They needed to establish a factory of sufficient scale first, and then they could start taking orders online.
.
Nowadays, the company's software and hardware are all in place, so Shenkong teamed up with Amazon to hold this event and directly brought the flash printing business to users.
In fact, in this event, although Deep Space Company is claiming it is free, the fees have been collected from Flash Printing Company and Amazon. The bulk of it is the millions of promotion fees given by Flash Printing.
After talking about this event, Jimmy couldn't help but sigh. The company spent so much effort to unite the other two companies to hold such an event, and the money it earned was not as much as a script written by Yu Dongwutian.
Of course, whether he can get this money depends on Ron Howard.
Jimmy looked at Howard who was invited in by his assistant, smiled and greeted him, "Hello, Mr. Howard."
Howard shook hands with Jimmy and said straight to the point: "Mr. James, can I read the script first?"
"Of course, I invite you here just to read the script."
The script had been prepared a long time ago, and Jimmy handed Howard a copy.
"Thanks."
Howard took the script and read it carefully.
He was reading the script, but Jimmy was watching him.
Ron Howard is about the same age as Jimmy, less than forty, but Howard looks like he is in his early fifties. His skin is a little wrinkled, his eyebrows are light, and a large piece of hair on the top of his head is already hollow.
According to Jimmy's investigation of Howard, this guy's family background was average, and the movie he later filmed was "Apollo 13" with the best results.
It is really incomprehensible that such a director can spend four million US dollars to buy a script.
Jimmy would not be surprised at all if what he wanted was a script adapted from "Old Book". After all, the film and television adaptation rights of "Old Book" could be sold for this price. If he bought it back, he would have to find a screenwriter to adapt it and pay an additional screenwriting fee.
But what Howard wants is a new script, which is a bit of a gamble. After all, no one can guarantee that YU's script will definitely make money. The investment of four million US dollars is indeed a bit high.
…
The script is not particularly long, but Howard read it for nearly three hours before finishing it. In the meantime, Jimmy stopped waiting and went to do other things.
When Jimmy returned to the office from outside, he saw Howard holding the script in a daze, so he smiled and said, "Mr. Howard, have you finished reading the script?"
When Howard saw Jimmy coming back, he hurriedly asked: "Is this really written by YU?"
"Of course." Jimmy asked doubtfully, "Is there any problem?"
"No, no." Howard shook his head and explained: "I just didn't expect that he could write such a script in such a short time. Although from the overall plot point of view, the story is not complicated, and even the rhythm is a bit
It’s slow, but you can see the screenwriter’s exquisite thoughts in the handling of some small details, and... YU even helped me arrange a lot of lens use.”
"Ahem..." Jimmy smiled and said, "Mr. Howard, it's too early to say this. I haven't sold this script to you yet."
"Didn't we already have an agreement?"
"We have only reached a preliminary agreement. You said you are willing to pay at least four million US dollars to buy YU's script, and that's it. The current situation is that you don't have to want it, and we don't have to sell it," Jimmy said with a smile, "Of course.
, I’m not trying to reject you, Mr. Howard, I’m just reminding you that things have just begun and we still have many things to talk about.”
Howard nodded, "Okay, then tell me your requirements."
"You've seen the script, it's very good. If our company didn't have too many plans at hand right now, I would have stayed and filmed it myself. Even if it wasn't written by YU, such a good script could still sell for two to three million..."
"Mr. James, what script can sell for two to three million dollars..."
Jimmy shamelessly pointed at the script in Howard's hand: "That's it."
Ron Howard bit his lip. This Jimmy was just bragging. For Hollywood scripts, over one million is a high price. Over two million is a sky-high price. Over three million is possible, but he has never heard of it...
If he buys this script, it will directly set a record for Hollywood screenwriting fees.
Howard regretted a little. He shouldn't have quoted more than four million directly at that time. He should have quoted two million first and then slowly negotiated with Jimmy. But what he didn't know was that if he had quoted two million at the beginning, Jimmy might
They will ignore him.
Since it was said to be over four million before, the price does have to be raised more or less.
After thinking about it, Howard said: "I don't have much money on hand, at most 4.3 million, how about that?"
Jimmy carefully observed Howard's expression and asked, "Can this manuscript be finalized? Does it still need to be revised?"
"No, I'm very satisfied."
Jimmy nodded: "Since there is no need to change, then it will be 4.3 million. Another thing, there will be two conditions written in the contract."
"Well, please tell me."
"First, the movie must be produced within five years, otherwise we have the right to withdraw the script. Second, the cost of the film must not be less than 20 million, otherwise we have the right to withdraw the script and claim compensation from you."
"Does the cost of 20 million include screenwriting fees?"
"certainly."
Chapter completed!