Glancing at the subordinate who had caused him a lot of trouble, Lou Weiss said, "Jon, as for your side, Brian De Palma is still the director, and he will also serve as the producer of 'The Butterfly Effect'. Fox is offering him a salary of 2 million US dollars, plus 10% of the North American box office profits",
Jonathan Friedman nodded.
If it hadn't been for the two relatively unsuccessful films before, Brian De Palma's salary level should have been around $3 million.
Now that Fox offered $2 million plus 10% of the North American box office profit share, Jonathan Friedman had no complaints at all; what he had previously wanted to secure for his client was merely a fixed salary of 2 million US dollars.
Of course, Jonathan Friedman also understood that Brian De Palma was able to get this relatively generous contract mainly because a series of harsh contract details that caused internal strife within WMA had been exposed in recent days.
Both Fox and WMA needed to use 'facts' to refute the relevant revelations exposed in the media.
Thinking of this, Jonathan Friedman began to look forward to Fox's offer for Simon's script. However, he did not speak up, patiently waiting for Lou Weiss to continue.
After Lou Weiss finished talking about Brian De Palma, he re-examined his memo and looked up, saying, "Regarding the script, the price has been raised to $200,000, with $160,000 as the script fee for 'The Butterfly Effect', and $40,000 to reserve priority selection rights for the screenwriter's next two scripts".
Jonathan Friedman paused after hearing this, then asked, "Lou, is it still a buyout contract?"
Lou Weiss shook his head and said, "This is the basic remuneration; the sharing terms will follow industry practice".
Jonathan Friedman finally relaxed. If it were still a buyout agreement, even if Fox doubled the base price, he wasn't sure if Simon would agree.
Now, with just the addition of a priority selection right for one script, Jonathan believed Simon would definitely know the right choice to make.
Seeing that Jonathan had no objections, Lou Weiss continued, "Joe, besides the arrangements for these three people, the original package deal has also been completely overturned. Fox's new budget is 10 million US dollars. According to this standard, you need to re-organize a list of main characters and submit it to me tomorrow. Any problems?"
Jonathan Friedman realized that Lou Weiss now only wanted to quickly sign a simplified package contract with Fox that only involved the core creative team, and the current situation clearly did not allow WMA any other option. So he nodded again and said "No problem".
Hearing Jonathan's answer, Lou Weiss closed the memo in front of him, waved his hand at him, and said, "That's it then, you can go and get busy now".
Jonathan Friedman stood up. Seeing that the other three were still sitting, he knew that they would definitely discuss the recent revelations.
Such a malicious internal leak would certainly be investigated thoroughly by WMA.
However, Jonathan didn't believe the management would find any results. The person who leaked to the media must have been very clear about the serious consequences of doing such a thing, and would certainly have acted without completely covering their traces.
Leaving the conference room, Jonathan Friedman walked lightly through the outer corridor, feeling the warm morning sunlight filtering through the glass curtain wall, and suddenly felt a sense of relaxation he hadn't experienced in a long time.
Discussions in the media about the WMA incident were still ongoing.
Jonathan Friedman knew very well that although he had temporarily overcome the current hurdle, due to the impact of this incident, it would be almost impossible for him to advance further in WMA in the future.
In fact, once Lou Weiss, who was already 75 years old this year, retired from the chairman position in the next few years, losing that support, he might be completely kicked out of the company by Norman Brokaw.
However, letting go of the long-held ambition to climb up, which he had pursued cautiously for so many years, Jonathan felt that the accumulated emotions of despondency and resentment in his heart had all dissipated.
Jonathan also found that, compared to many others in this industry, he was actually very powerful.
Relying on more than twenty years of accumulated experience and connections, even if he left WMA, he could still live very well, or perhaps even better.
Now, no longer having to constantly consider various trade-offs and compromises, he only needed to wholeheartedly be responsible for his clients. Then, he believed that no matter what happened in the future, a large part of these people would closely follow him.
Unconsciously, he arrived outside his office door. Jonathan Friedman paused, suddenly remembering the boy who had prompted him to do all this, so he walked over to his assistant outside and said, "Owen, help me find Simon's contact address".
Jonathan Friedman had a total of 37 clients, and people didn't have tend to have much creativity in naming their children, so there happened to be more than one client named Simon among them.
However, Owen Wright immediately understood Jonathan's meaning and skilfully pulled out a card from a thick stack of contacts and handed it to his boss.
Jonathan Friedman took it, glanced at it, and then handed it back to his assistant, saying, "I'm going out for a bit, I'll be back around noon"
Owen Wright nodded, watched Jonathan leave, and couldn't help but think, it seems I should interact more with that boy Simon Westeros in the future.
Leaving the WMA headquarters office building, Jonathan Friedman drove directly to a 7-Eleven convenience store in downtown Santa Monica.
It was a new week, and Simon was back working the morning shift.
The time was 9:40 AM.
It was a time when customer traffic was relatively low at the convenience store. Simon was conducting a routine inventory of the shelves he was responsible for, when Courteney Cox, wearing a pink T-shirt and hot pants, strolled over casually.
Sensing the faint, pleasant scent of perfume from beside him, Simon turned to Courteney and smiled, seeing the girl holding several items in her arms with her bare hands, and said "Do you always carry things like that when you shop?"
Seeing Simon initiate conversation, Courteney finally spoke, but still with a hint of habitual bluntness, saying, "Yeah, got a problem with that?"
Simon immediately shook his head and said, "No, if all customers were like you, the shopping carts in our store would definitely last many more years".
"Heh, next time I'll use a shopping cart," Courteney said, picking out a bottle of ketchup and still holding it in her arms. Seeing Simon's attention return to the folder in his hand, she hesitated for a moment, then casually said, "That thing in the newspapers these past few days, um, 'The Butterfly Effect', did you write it?"
After all, they didn't have a very deep relationship, and apart from the occasional glimpse of "Run Lola Run," Courteney hadn't known about Simon's other scripts before. She hadn't been very interested in the matter anyway.
Moreover, in the news these days, the leaker hadn't actually mentioned the personal information of the screenwriter of "The Butterfly Effect," and it was clear that the other party had their own intentions in doing so.
If the outside world knew that Simon was just an 18-year-old rookie who had just debuted, the argument in the articles about Fox's buyout contract being too harsh might also be questioned. After all, in an era where most ordinary people's annual income was only one or two tens of thousands of dollars, many people would inevitably think, what's there to be dissatisfied with when a young man can earn $100,000 at just 18 years old?
Courteney actually found it hard to believe that the screenwriter of 'The Butterfly Effect', which had caused such a big stir in Hollywood, would be Simon, this ordinary boy who seemed unremarkable in everyday life.
However, she happened to know that Jonathan Friedman only had one screenwriter client named Simon.
Simon glanced at the girl's inquiring expression, smiled, and nodded, casually replying, "Yep".
Although she had already suspected, Courteney's eyes widened when she heard Simon's confirmation, and she pressed, "Really?"
This time, before Simon could respond, Roger Griffin's plump body leaned out from the other side of the shelf and said, "Simon, someone's looking for you".
Simon acknowledged, made a mark on his folder, and then walked out.
Courteney hesitated for a moment, then followed behind Simon, holding a pile of things.
As soon as he turned out from behind the shelves, Simon saw his agent, Jonathan Friedman, standing at the by the cash register, nodding at him.
Courteney also quickly spotted the agent, and the surprised expression that hadn't yet faded from her face reappeared.
It was worth noting that since signing, she had never encountered a situation where one of WMA's senior agents personally came to find her. Most of the time, she could only see Jonathan's assistant.
Simon walked past the cash register to Jonathan. The agent looked at Simon's store clerk uniform, smiled warmly, shook his hand, and then patted Simon's shoulder, saying, "I didn't expect you to be here. If you had told me earlier, I could have found you a better part-time job".
Simon joked, "It's not too late now".
"Now, heh, well you don't need it now," Jonathan said with a smile, shaking his head. Then he turned to Courteney, who had walked over, and also extended his hand to shake hers, saying, "Court, I didn't expect you to be here too. Do you and Simon know each other?"
Courteney clearly felt the difference in Jonathan's attitude towards her and Simon, but she nodded obediently and said, "Yes, I live nearby and often come to buy things, and that's how I met Simon".
"Oh, what a coincidence," Jonathan replied, then turned back to Simon and said, "Simon, can you take a few hours off? Let's go out and talk".
"Okay" Simon nodded, glanced around, and walked towards Roger Griffin, who was peeking over. Coming up to the convenience store owner, he said, "Roger, my agent has something urgent for me".
Aside from being very stingy with salaries, the chubby middle-aged man was quite accommodating in other aspects. He took another look at the elegant middle-aged man nearby and readily nodded, saying, "No problem, come back before 12 o'clock, and I'll only count it as two hours of absence".