Chapter 44: A settlement of ten million dollars?
"Chainsaw Mania", also released by Lionsgate in the original world, so Zhou Shaoming believes it will satisfy his wishes and agrees to release this movie.
Tobin went all out to help Zhou Shaoming, and before the editing was completed, he contacted Lionsgate through his connections in the film industry and recommended this movie that claims to change horror movies from big killings or just playing psychological fear.
Lionsgate showed great interest in the film, extending an olive branch to Zhou Shaoming, inviting them to complete the final production and submit it to Lionsgate for review at the earliest opportunity, after which they would decide whether or not to release the movie.
"This is Jon Filthauter, the manager of the Lion's Gate distribution department. This is Tom Odenberg, the manager of the purchasing department. And this friendly-looking guy is Michael Parsons, the production manager. He's an old friend of mine for over a decade!" Tobin introduced the three people standing in front of Zhou Shaoming with a faint smile on his face.
"Hello, Mr. Smith, Tobin highly recommended your film to us, I've heard so much about it that my ears are almost numb! Now we finally get to see it!" said Michael, the production manager with a friendly smile, extending his hand.
Zhou Shaoming hastily shook hands with Michael and nodded: "Thank you all for giving me this opportunity, I believe my movie can shock the whole of America and create a new pattern for American horror movies!"
"Oh, you're not old, but your confidence is full! Young people!" The distribution manager, Joe, also smiled, with an appreciative gaze at Zhou Shaoming, and then said: "The screening room is ready, hurry up and show me this movie, I'm really getting impatient!"
Everyone burst out laughing and went into the screening room, where "Saw" was playing.
Zhou Shaoming's mind was focused on the faces of these three people in front of him, and he was so restless that he didn't even look at the movie screen, but instead tensely watched their reactions.
As the plot deepens, the expressions on the faces of the three managers who have the right to decide whether to acquire and distribute any film become increasingly serious, from being relaxed at first to becoming more and more solemn, which makes Zhou Shaoming slightly relieved.
They should think my movie is pretty good!
Zhou Shaoming looked at him nervously, seeing Tom lean back in his chair and slowly straighten up, his body involuntarily leaning forward, with a look of surprise on his face that he couldn't control.
Although Lion's Gate is a small company, these three are all seasoned veterans of the film industry, but they each had more serious expressions than the last, one more tense-looking than the other, apparently deeply moved by "Saw", their entire spirit invested in the movie.
They stared intently, initially whispering to each other, but later only staring at the screen, losing interest in chatting, and occasionally exclaiming in surprise, especially at those eerie death traps that made all three of them look shocked.
That Christina jumped into the needle pit, actually made Zhou Shaoming notice, Michael's back neck crawled up a layer of dense and dense goose bumps!
He unexpectedly lost control of his tense emotions, grasping the armrests of his seat in fear, and at this rate, it's really worrying that he might not be able to bear escaping from the screening room!
The movie company manager who was watching the film was so scared that he ran out of the screening room.
One scene after another, the plot is closely linked, and the three of them occasionally drank coffee at first, but later they directly stood up and didn't even have time to sit down!
At the end of the movie, the corpse of Jian Sui, who had been lying on the screen all along, slowly got up. This scene made Joe so excited that he patted the back of his chair, and even brought the coffee cup next to him to the ground, without caring about the poor vessel shattering into pieces on the marble floor, let out a strange cry, and it was actually Zhou Shaoming who was startled!
"Cool! It's absolutely awesome! The idea alone is worth the ticket price!" John said somewhat incoherently, then awkwardly wiped his sweat.
"It's really great, a breakthrough horror movie! How did they come up with those death traps that can scare people to wake up from sleep? It's unbelievable!" Tom, who also stood up, was about to make the decision immediately, but thinking that he should give some face to the other two, turned his head and asked: "What do you guys think?"
"Michael didn't say a word, he finally controlled himself and didn't scare away, nor did he care about the coffee that Joe had spilled all over him: "A perfect movie! The performances of several actors in my heart can be scored above 95%! Genius creativity, plus acting skills that are so exquisite that most Hollywood actors would be jealous, this is an extremely attractive movie. I really didn't expect Smith Zhou to find such excellent actors! They can completely increase their salary by 100% for the next movie based on their performance in this play! It's great! I really don't know what to say!"
"Thank you for your praise, then... can you agree to release this film?" Zhou Shaoming also stood up, revealing a tense expression, staring blankly at the three people in front of him.
"Why not?" Jon burst out laughing, having already made up his mind to beat any film company to the punch and acquire Saw. He extended his hand to Zhou Shaoming: "Let's shake on it, young director! We should discuss the details of the sequel! Lionsgate agrees to distribute!"
Zhou Shaoming's heart, which had been suspended in mid-air, suddenly dropped down, and a sense of fulfillment, joy, and accomplishment burst forth like the shockwave from a successfully detonated nuclear bomb, instantly surging through his entire body!
"Thank you! Zhou Shaoming exclaimed excitedly, shook hands with him, and then gave Tobin a big hug.
Tobin laughed loudly and said: "Easy does it, my dear director, I'm not Christina, you're going to break my old bones!"
The negotiating room of Lion's Gate Films, Zhou Shaoming, Tobin and three heavyweight managers sat face to face, starting to discuss the share and promotion method of this film.
"Alright, we all agree that this 'Saw' is extremely excellent. I believe you can get a high price from any movie company in the US with this film. So Lionsgate doesn't hide or conceal anything. On behalf of Lionsgate Films, I offer our greatest sincerity, investing $10 million to buy the rights to this play. What do you think?" After a brief discussion among the three, Tom picked up his coffee and slowly took a sip, then looked at Zhou Shaoming.
Ten million dollars?
If I take away the money that was donated to me, and also take away the 23 million dollars in filming costs, then I can make almost 7 million dollars. Then after splitting the profits proportionally, I can get 5 million dollars!
My god! 50 million US dollars, at the exchange rate at that time, about 1:8 for USD to RMB, it's 400 million RMB!
Zhou Shaoming's heart seemed to be grasped by someone, tightly, without any air leaking out.
Struggling to calm down his extremely excited mood, Zhou Shaoming was no longer the original naive young man. In just a few short months, too many things had happened one after another, causing him to mature very quickly in his thinking.
His face didn't show too much emotional fluctuation, he just slightly shook his head "I believe this movie can bring in a lot of box office revenue for Lionsgate and myself, so I don't want to use the buyout method. I want to do it fairly based on the total box office revenue."
Come on, the original "Saw" had a box office of $55 million in North America and over $100 million worldwide. How could it be sold for just $1 million? Although Lionsgate showed great sincerity, this is business, and you should naturally fight for the benefits that can be obtained.
The Chinese-American director of the original "Saw", James Wan, ultimately chose a box office revenue-sharing model as well.
In addition to improving "Saw", Zhou invited the two Oscar-winning actors, Robert and Jeremy, to join the cast. With this, Zhou was absolutely confident that the new version of "Saw" would be a huge success at the box office, not just globally, but even reaching 200 or 300 million, he firmly believed in his movie to the point of being obsessive.
He boldly proposed a revenue-sharing payment model to Tom.
"A share?" Tom laughed, the young director in front of him had a big appetite and guts, actually giving up $10 million that he could get his hands on immediately to ask for a share of the total box office that looked like it wouldn't even reach 8 figures.
He really is bold enough.
