A cafe in Los Angeles.

Lehman sat opposite Barry Meyer, and Barry Meyer's assistant sat at the table next to him.

This cafe focuses on hand-made fresh grinding. It seems that Barry Meyer is still a regular visitor here. When he came, the boss greeted him with a smile.

Lehman sat opposite him, not anxious.

He didn't know what it meant to invite him.

After ordering the coffee, Barry Mayer smiled and said, "Congratulations, Lyman. "Million Dollar Baby" won the Palme d'Or, and his reputation was made. I believe he can also win at the Oscars."

"It's thanks to Warner's PR," Lehman said politely.

In terms of its status in the film industry, Barry Meyer naturally surpassed Lehmann several levels.

However, in terms of production alone, Lyman's Firefly Pictures is not bad either. It has money to operate projects and has a good relationship with Paramount. If you leave Warner, you don't have to worry about distribution, and Warner won't be able to affect him.

So, in this regard, Barry Meyer has a greater demand for him.

"Million Dollar Baby" is their first collaboration, and it is just a literary work, and it has a big explosion, even better than Barry Mayer's expectations at the beginning.

In this way, the plan in his heart inevitably became popular.

He also found that Lehman is indeed a good director, has a strong idea, and has great business and artistic grasp.

After the two chatted, Barry Meyer finally expressed his thoughts.

"I'm going to run a project recently and I want to ask you to continue as a director."

“What project?”

"Batman."

Barry Meyer said softly.

Lehmann was surprised by the side.

He had thought it was a matter of cooperation, but he had never thought it would be Batman.

......

Since the new millennium, Hollywood's film industry has become increasingly popular.

The maturity and improvement of the business system not only led to different market rises and breakthroughs, and successively appeared in the top ten final list of the year, and each of them could exceed 100 million.

Before this, there were not no movies that had a high box office, but most of them could have a high-quality movie every year, which was completely inferior to the current blooming of flowers.

For Warner, under such an era background, holding all the adaptation rights of DC Comics naturally want to develop into a huge profit chain.

They did the same, Superman, Batman, and the two former trump cards have brought Warner much money, from animation to movies, from toys to surroundings. DC hides a gold mine.

But later, they played themselves and Superman and Batman were both in a deadlock. There was a big problem and they had to be refrigerated and preserved their value.

Then in 2002, "Spider-Man" broke out.

It is not only the first work in North American film history that exceeded 100 million in three days, but also has a cumulative box office of 400 million in North America, which has brought enough dividends to Columbia.

Subsequently, the success of X-Men and "Blade Warrior" also announced the strong return of another giant, Marvel Comics, the comic adaptation.

Seeing that comic-adapted movies have become a topic that cannot be slapped in the market, Warner was successfully stimulated.

You should know that in the 1980s and 1990s, it was the era of ruling DC. Marvel, one hand, was not enough to fight DC.

But the disastrous defeat of "Batman and Robin" also kept reminding Warner, making them hesitate.

Barry Mayer, otherwise, he is very skilled.

If not, he wouldn't have been able to sit in his current position.

It was also him who convinced the board of directors to restart the DC comic modification project in one fell swoop.

This time, to be on the safe side, they chose Batman.

Because only Batman has enough charm to compete with the increasingly powerful little Spider and retake the flag-raising person of the comic adaptation.

Their ambitions.

It also made Lehmann feel excited.

Of course, what he was excited about was not directing such a project. In fact, Firefly Pictures does not lack projects.

He is still satisfied with this as a director.

However, what he was thinking at this moment was what he could get from such a cooperation. If he also wanted his own Firefly Pictures to participate.

Yes, such a large project will be a good bridge. In addition to further deepening the cooperative relationship between the two, it can also become the cornerstone of the further development of its own company.

And, who said he must have promised to be the director?

Lehman listened and smiled, "What do you mean?"

Barry Mayer obviously planned for a long time, but he was confident. "You are here to direct, and the funding budget is about 200 million yuan. If the actors are sure to match it, you can also mention it. We will give you a basic salary of 15 million yuan, plus three percent of the North American box office and five percent of the offline income, how about it?"

It sounds good, but Lehman wants more.

"Let's change the way of cooperation."

"What?"

"What Warner wants is the success of the project. I think you can entrust the production part to Firefly Pictures. We will shoot, you will release and subsequent secondary copyright development, and we will not take any of the copyrights."

Commissioned shooting is a common way of cooperation in the industry.

However, such cooperation is mostly due to the fact that the parent company and subsidiary, or the two film companies have their own difficulties, so they get together.

For example, Disney and Miramax Disney used to not involve the production of live-action images at all, but this aspect is indispensable. So they acquired Miramax and handed over to Miramax for any related live-action business, and then distributed it using Disney channels.

But later, Harvey broke up with Disney.

Then there is the cooperation between Twentieth Century Fox and Searchlight Films.

Searchlight is also a sub-brand of Fox, specializing in making comedy and low-cost genres. Fox is specializing in medium or first-line productions, which is considered to be a clear division of labor.

But Warner and Firefly Pictures didn't seem to have a good relationship.

Barry Mayer frowned, thinking that Lehmann relied on Warner to ask for him, so the Lions spoke up.

Don't like it, "But why do we do this?"

Lehman smiled, "You hand over the project to us, and don't care about the rest. After that, this work will be handed over to Warner for distribution. What do you think?"

"Do you don't want funds?" Barry Meyer said in surprise. He originally thought that Lehman wanted to go from a simple employment relationship to an investor and producer to get more benefits, but he didn't expect that he took the initiative to take risks. He is a great person.

Why do you say so?

Although Warner agreed to Batman's project, the management and the board of directors still had many doubts, fearing that one would accidentally fail again.

If you fail, you will not only lose money, but also cause the company's financial report data to be ugly and will not give investors confidence, but also concerns the image of Batman, they can't put Bruce Wayne on the shelf again and wait for more than ten years before they can release it again.

By then, the comics market will be eaten up by Marvel.

Then, it was Barry Mayer who underwent pressure to promote Warner's project establishment.

The funds themselves are also short of funds, and they also plan to introduce a batch of external shooting funds.

In his previous life, it was precisely because of this that Legend Pictures intervened in Warner's production department and signed a five-year cooperation contract in one fell swoop. They provided funds, and Warner was responsible for the production and distribution, and then gave the money to Legend Pictures in accordance with the signed cooperation terms.

Otherwise, a pure investment bank like Legend Pictures, which does not even have a production department, would not be able to take up Warner's ship.

However, in this life, Lehman wants to do this "Legend Film".

He has money and ability to produce, so why can't he take on this opportunity?

Barry Mayer is still thinking that if he doesn't have to take the production risk and the copyright is still in the hands of Warner, he will basically make a stable fortune.

So he said, "You provide funds, but how do you divide project cooperation?"

"I promised that the shooting budget is not less than 150 million yuan, and the promotion and distribution will be undertaken by your company. We will inform Warner in advance of the detailed shooting plan. In addition, in terms of production, Warner can directly participate in the project, accounting for 30% without paying money. Accordingly, Warner cannot have more requirements for the remaining investment share."

What does it mean?

In other words, Warner directly intervenes in the producers with the ownership of the Batman project, accounting for 30 shares, which means they did nothing. Even if they invested no less than 45 million yuan in the filming, at that time, in addition to the distribution share, Warner can also participate in the division of interests in production after the movie is released.

It can be said that Lehman took the initiative to give in order to get this project and couldn't give in. It was such a harsh condition for Legend Pictures to cooperate with them in his previous life, otherwise Warner's senior executives would not agree to the entry of the outsider.

Fortunately, Firefly Pictures still has production capabilities, and is not as fierce as Legend Pictures.

Barry Meyer nodded and admired Lehman's sensibility.

With such prerequisites, he is willing to talk to the board of directors.

"What else?"

"We don't want any offline income, but Warner only has 30% of the money spent on advertising sponsorship and selling movies."

Still giving in to profits.

Logically speaking, the producer has the right to intervene in copyright operation.

But if you think that a trump card like Batman would never let go, Warner would take the initiative to throw this part to Warner and take the opportunity to get the extra project bonus.

You know, once a signature like Batman is released, there is definitely no shortage of advertising sponsorship, and this part of the money can also alleviate the pressure on production funds.

"Advertising sponsorship must be approved by Warner," Barry Mayer said.

"no problem."

"Okay, I want to ask, are you fighting for so much initiative to better shoot?"
Chapter completed!