It took Ryan five days to wrap up negotiations with James Wong, and the two parties officially signed the director employment agreement.
James Wong would direct The Purge for a fee of $300,000, with no share of the backend profits.
That part had already been settled and didn't take much time. What actually ate up the days were the smaller details.
For example, the crew had to provide a dedicated car service for the director during production. The director had to have a private office or lounge at the studio, and a corresponding trailer for outdoor shoots. Under equal conditions, the crew had to give priority to behind-the-scenes staff recommended by the director. The director had first pick of equipment within the crew's budget.
Ryan and Edward went back and forth on these points for two days alone, eventually marking seventeen clauses in the contract.
That wasn't an exaggeration. In the broader Hollywood environment, what James Wong and Edward were asking for wasn't excessive at all. For first and second-tier directors, similar clauses could run forty, fifty, or even a hundred items deep.
Some demanding directors had specific requirements written in for food, drinking water, and even the bedsheets and duvet covers at hotels.
Ryan had worked as a small producer in his previous life and wasn't too precious about minor details like these, as long as they stayed reasonable. What he actually cared about was where the real decision-making power sat within the crew.
He went three rounds with Edward over that, and while he made the right concessions in the right places, he kept the final say in his own hands.
For instance, James Wong had the right to suggest actors, but the final decision rested with the producer. The director could participate in post-production, but final editing rights still belonged to the producer. The producer couldn't interfere with the director's normal filming process, but held a veto over any of the director's shots.
That was Hollywood's producer-centered system. Unless you reached the level of James Cameron or Steven Spielberg, directors were always working under the producer's authority.
At the same time, the two parties signed a second contract.
Starlight Entertainment acquired all script rights to Final Destination from James Wong and Glen Morgan for $5,000, including sequel rights and merchandising rights.
James Wong and Glen Morgan were both Writers Guild members. At that point, the guild's minimum buyout price for a script ranged from $4,500 to $50,000, with the range tied directly to the size of the project's budget.
After the 2008 writers' strike, the minimum buyout price would climb to $30,000 to $90,000.
Among the three pillars of any crew, writers, actors, and directors, writers had always been and continued to be the least fortunate of the group.
The guilds that had gone up against the Producers Guild in Hollywood weren't limited to the Writers Guild alone, but whenever actors or directors moved toward a strike, the Producers Guild would quickly negotiate a resolution with them. The Writers Guild, by contrast, always seemed to turn strike talk into an actual strike.
In 1988, the Writers Guild's major strike led to a new twenty-year agreement with the Producers Guild. Twenty years later, the writers wanted to push for more, got turned down flat, and had to strike again.
The second contract also stipulated that James Wong would personally direct Final Destination and serve as a co-producer, while Glen Morgan, in addition to his screenwriting credit, would serve as an executive producer.
Nobody was a fool. James Wong and Glen Morgan agreed to sell the script at a low price because they wanted more say in how Final Destination actually got made.
For other projects, Ryan might have done everything he could to limit James Wong's authority. But for this one, he handed James Wong considerably more power than he had on The Purge.
In practice, as long as he held onto the final editing rights and the veto, James Wong wouldn't be able to flip the table on him.
Ryan wasn't going to ease up on oversight just because James Wong was a Chinese director, and he certainly wasn't going to hand over money and authority without controls in place. What would be the point of that?
Business was business.
The contract set a minimum budget for Final Destination of no less than $6 million, with prep to begin after The Purge was released.
There was no other way. Ryan didn't have the money right now. Based on James Wong's early projections, a contained film like The Purge would take three to four months from prep to the end of principal photography, possibly less.
He couldn't touch the money sitting in the stock market.
So his attention turned back toward Abu Dhabi.
As long as The Purge could be released without problems and the Arab characters in it were portrayed in a positive light, the decision-makers in Abu Dhabi would likely be very pleased.
Their good friend of the UAE people could then make a trip to Abu Dhabi to see old acquaintances.
Good friends, after all, should get together from time to time to catch up and reminisce.
But going back to ask for more funding before The Purge was even out would be premature. Just like the first visit, he always had to show up with something convincing in hand.
Even after locking in the director, Ryan didn't ease up. There was a lot of work ahead, and he couldn't let his studies slip either.
He bought another stack of books and went back to the USC School of Cinematic Arts to talk through some production questions with his old mentor, Professor Johnson.
Professor Johnson was close to sixty and had spent many years working in Hollywood before moving to teach at USC. A significant number of the industry's behind-the-scenes professionals had been his students at one point or another.
Ryan had not only picked up that network, which the original Anderson had let go to waste, but had been careful to maintain it.
Starlight Entertainment needed people.
Fortunately, he wasn't doing this alone anymore. He had help now.
After another round of hiring, Starlight Entertainment had grown to ten employees, all with at least three years of industry experience. Every one of them would be joining the crew.
Everyone's salaries and expenses were folded into the film's budget, of course.
Mary handled the finances, and keeping a clean set of accounts was the top priority.
Robert locked down the outdoor location, a house in a suburban area north of the San Fernando Valley. The property was regularly used by companies in the Valley to shoot all kinds of productions, and both the interior and exterior had been well maintained. Robert Lee arranged the rental for the third week of May, when the crew would shoot the outdoor scenes.
George and his team negotiated a small soundstage at Warner Bros. Studios, leased from mid-April through mid-July.
With a director and locations in place, hiring the rest of the crew could move forward in earnest. Ryan gave James appropriate respect and, when the salaries were in the same range, generally went with his recommended candidates.
James had been working in Hollywood for over a decade, had put in long stretches on three different television series, and had built up solid relationships with a lot of professionals along the way.
Having familiar faces working together made filming run more smoothly.
Since he was making The Purge, Ryan naturally wanted it to be a good film.
Inside the Warner Bros. soundstage, Ryan walked out alongside James.
"I've already scouted the outdoor location and the conditions are solid," James said. "I'm working through the shooting plan now. I'll have the full plan submitted by Friday at the latest."
Ryan nodded. "Alright."
James asked, "Have you looked at the storyboard sketches?"
"I have," Ryan said. "Set it up the way you see it."
Most of the early prep work had been handed off to James at this point.
Ryan saw clearly that even without any feature film credits, James's practical instincts on set were well ahead of his own. And the producer was there to watch the big picture, not to burn energy on individual line items.
As they neared the soundstage door, Ryan asked, "Have you settled on the camera equipment? If so, give the list to Mary directly and she'll handle the negotiations."
James Wong said, "I'll get her the full list tomorrow."
The two stepped outside and immediately heard a low rumble coming from the large soundstage next door. It was loud enough to carry clearly through the wall.
"Which crew is working next door?" James asked, frowning.
"A TV series called Roswell," Ryan said. He had already looked into it. "They've been shooting action scenes lately. Don't worry, I checked and they'll be done with the action work by early May and moving to outdoor locations after that, so it won't be an issue for us."
He thought for a moment and added, "Once you've got the plan finalized, we'll start casting."
After a few more words with James Wong, Ryan headed toward the parking lot. He had just reached his car when his phone rang. It was Carmen Kass calling.