Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 141 Sequel Option Clause
The autumn wind in October, wrapped in the dry and cold air from the northwest, swept through the city's tall buildings and streets, rolled up the leaves and stuck them on bus stops and old-style walls, and also swept them into the Internet cafes that were brightly lit all night long.

No one noticed anything different about that night until they sat on the plastic chairs in the Internet cafe and turned on the machine - the wallpaper poster of "Crazy Stone" came into view.

Although the poster is not as visually impressive as The Promise, it has its own unique flavor:
Several characters are holding jade in their hands with funny expressions, and the background is the bustling old streets of Yucheng. The title "Makes you laugh non-stop" is very eye-catching.

Simple, crude, but extremely effective - making people remember the name of the movie and the word "hilarious" is a victory.

Promotional posts have appeared on major forums such as Tianya, Mop, Tieba, and Sohu Community.

The short trailer was also released on major media outlets. The dialect dialogue coupled with the down-to-earth comedy plot made netizens laugh.

For a time, netizens were discussing the issue heatedly.

In the Tianya Entertainment section, the trending post "What's the story behind this 'Crazy Stone'? It's flooding internet cafes with posts!" is hundreds of stories high.

"I've never heard of 'Stone'. Aren't the Lunar New Year films 'The Promise' and 'A One Man's Journey'?"

"I know about The Promise. It was screened in my hometown of Chengdu a few days ago. I heard people say it's like a Hollywood blockbuster. It's amazing! I'm going to take my family to see it when it's released."

"Brother, don't be fooled! My sister works in the media in Chengdu. Brother Chen Kai is so stingy that he banned the media from doing any negative reports that day. I think it's 80% likely a dud!"

"If nothing else, this trailer for 'Stone' is quite funny, full of dialects, and down-to-earth!"

At this point, "Crazy Stone" also embarked on the journey of publicity and promotion. Ning Hao, Xing Aina, Huang Bo and others even went to a nearby Internet cafe to take a look before they felt relieved.

"Director Wu's suggestion is quite good. We can see our movie poster wallpaper as soon as we start filming. At least the promotional effect will be achieved."

Those words were so conspicuous that Xing Aina felt that the moment she watched the computer start up, she could clearly see the key information of the movie.

"My goodness, Haozi, what's wrong with Director Wu's brain? Not only did he make such a great movie, but he also designed such a great promotional plan."

Huang Bo exclaimed in amazement.

"Anyway, it's not something you can come up with." Ning Hao smiled, in a good mood, and patted Huang Bo on the shoulder: "Let's go get some midnight snack tonight, call them over, and have a drink together."

"Don't drink too late." Xing Aina rolled her eyes at Ning Hao.

"Don't worry, sister-in-law, we're watching." Huang Bo replied cheerfully, but Xing Ai glanced at Huang Bo suspiciously, "I'm worried because you're watching me."

"Forehead"

On the other side, on the other side of the ocean, at the San Bernardino Studios in Los Angeles, the filming of "Now You See Me" is in full swing.

The autumn sun in California is as scorching as summer, and the shadows of the palm trees sway in patches on the street.

Wu Chen sat in front of the monitor, holding the shooting schedule in his hand, watching and listening to the set adjustments.

Inside the set, Jason Blum came over breathlessly.

Seeing this, Wu Chen couldn't help but smile and asked him to sit down.

These days, Jason Blum has been running to Lionsgate a lot because of a plan to shoot Easter eggs, and Lionsgate Films has also become busy.

If "Now You See Me" is really going to have a sequel, then these days will be the key days for negotiating renewal.

It is currently in the middle and late stages of filming. The relationship between the main creatives is getting closer, and the success or failure of the first film is still unclear. This is the best time window to start negotiations on the intention to make a sequel, because the actors have not received a significant price increase due to the success of the first film, and their psychological expectations for contract renewal are relatively low.

If the contract is renewed after the movie is released, according to the convention of Hollywood blockbusters, if the first movie is a box office success, the salary for the second movie may double directly. If some individual actors take part in the film's success and ask for dividends, the loss will be even greater.

In addition, the crew also has highly technical teams such as photography and art teams. The replacement costs of these teams are also very high, and their renewal priority is not much lower than that of the actors.

"What's going on?" Wu Chen asked casually while sitting and watching the crew members joking around in groups of three or four.

"Lionsgate conducted a market analysis recently and is relatively optimistic about the film's prospects. If a sequel is planned, we will have to discuss the terms of the sequel option with the creative team in the near future."

Jason Blum discussed quietly with Wu Chen:

"Let's have a meeting first. Lionsgate will send someone to notify China Film. We also need to confirm the upper limit of the salary increase for the actors and behind-the-scenes team under the sequel option clause, as well as whether additional dividends will be included." "Okay, let me know when the time is set."

Wu Chen nodded slightly, then stood up and clapped his hands.

Immediately, the crew members returned to work.

The next day, early in the morning in China, Han Sanping had just sat down in his office when he received a call from Lionsgate. His face changed again and again, and he was shocked but couldn't contain his joy.

After hanging up the phone, he called his secretary and asked:

"Chengsheng, what are my plans around the 20th?"

"Mr. Han, during those days, China Film arranged for secret screenings of both The Promise and The Stone. They also summoned major domestic cinema chains to attend and finalize the schedule for subsequent releases. You also mentioned earlier that you wanted to personally discuss anti-piracy measures for domestic films with the cinema chain managers."

After Gao Chengsheng's reminder, Han Sanping finally remembered and frowned, asking, "Brother Chen Kai hasn't caused any trouble recently, has he?"

Gao Chengsheng smiled awkwardly, "Apart from Director Chen not allowing the media to publish negative reports during the Chengdu preview, nothing much has happened recently."

Han Sanping was speechless after hearing this, and then nodded slowly:

"Well, I'm going to North America in the next few days, and I'll leave the screening to Shi Dongming."

Gao Chengsheng was slightly stunned. Usually, Han Sanping personally took charge of matters related to "The Promise", not to mention that many theater chains came this time.

However, Han Sanping had no plans to come in person, which made him think more.

Obviously there are bigger things happening in North America than this.

There is no one else there except Wu Chen. Although there is new news about Jackie Chan's "Rush Hour 3", China Film Group cannot get involved.

Gao Chengsheng thought about it, but quickly responded, "Okay, I'll talk to President Dongming right away."

October 20, 2005, Lionsgate Headquarters, Los Angeles.

In the conference room, the curtains were half-drawn, and the sunlight was cut into fine golden threads and sprinkled on the conference table.

Jon Feltheimer and Michael Burns of Lionsgate sat on one side, and Wu Chen, Han Sanping and Jason Blum sat on the other.

Spread out in front of everyone was a draft contract framework of over twenty pages, with the cover reading: "Now You See Me" Sequel Option Clause:

The salaries of several leading actors with high bargaining power have been set with floating values. It depends on how the negotiation is done, and the increase is between 30-60%.

The behind-the-scenes team, which has almost no bargaining power, directly increases the price by 30%.

There is no box office dividend, but a publicity incentive mechanism is designed. The more actively you participate in film publicity, media promotion, trailer shooting, etc., the more you can get a certain box office bonus.

Michael Burns is very proud of this:
"We tried this promotional incentive mechanism on Saw II. Although the movie still has a week to go before it's released, you can see the effect. The actors promoted it very hard, and the media activity doubled."

"Of course, we also add a cap mechanism in the contract to prevent some individuals' bonuses from increasing too much," Jon Feltheimer nodded and added.

Han Sanping nodded repeatedly after watching it. It must be these capitalists. These tricks are one after another.

However, these are not the most critical ones. The purpose of finalizing some two-way selection rights with the actors in advance is just to save money on the sequel.

In his opinion, these are all trivial matters. The most important thing now is whether a sequel can be produced.

According to the 50 million production budget of the first "Now You See Me" film, even if the second film is now preparing to save money, the production cost will definitely not be less than 60 million US dollars, and is estimated to be between 60 million and 80 million US dollars.

This is truly a top-notch production costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Then, while everyone was discussing how to negotiate with the actors, Han Sanping quietly asked Wu Chen:
"Are you sure you can make a sequel?"

(End of this chapter)