"Is the shooting a big scene this time?"

Sitting in the rest of the studio, Charlize Theron looked at the melee in the set in the distance, turned to look at Matthew, and said, "You have made so many films, and finally turned back to the theme of military action."

Matthew had no show yet, so he sat next to her and said, "This is an action science fiction theme."

Charlize Theron nodded slightly and asked, "I heard you are going to work with Christopher Nolan?"

"Yes." Matthew looked at her and asked back, "Are you interested?"

"Not interested, "The Burning Plains" made me exhausted." Charlize Theron sighed, "I plan to take a break."

Matthew asked curiously, "Is the film finished?"

Charlize Theron showed a wry smile on his face, "The filming has been completed, but there is a problem with the post-production funding. This small company's independent film is too unreliable."

"The post-production of this kind of film doesn't require much money, it will get better soon." Matthew first comforted Charlize Theron, and then asked, "I remember the one who played with you was a young actress named Jennifer Lawrence, the girl we met who deliberately wrestled last time."

"Are you interested in her?" Charlize Theron asked with his eyebrows raised.

Matthew waved his hand quickly, "You're thinking too much." He explained simply, "I may have a drama here and I need an excellent young actress."

Speaking of which, "The Hunger Games" is also considered the masterpiece of my cousin, right?

"Jennifer Lawrence..." Charlize Theron thought for a while and said, "She has great acting talent, but she has a lot of thoughts. She likes to deliberately act stupid, and pretends to be stupid at a young age."

She pondered again and said, "It's pretty good in general."

Matthew nodded slightly, asked a few more questions, and then changed the subject. Jennifer Lawrence could be one of the backup candidates in the future.

Of course, Katniss is not necessarily her. If he can succeed in changing the protagonist's "Twilight" and he will have the confidence to replace him in the future.

However, the premise is that he can get the copyright of the Hunger Games movie from Susan Collins.

The negotiations between Helen Hermann and Susan Collins have been held for five rounds, and the differences between the two sides are gradually decreasing. Before the sixth round of negotiations, Matthew met and Susan Collins and chatted, promising that if the copyright is obtained, he would invest no less than $50 million in the future to adapt and produce the movie.

Most novelists expect to see their works appear on the big screen, and Susan Collins is no exception, and the other conditions offered by Matthew are quite good.

During the sixth round of negotiations, the two sides reached an agreement and then signed a formal authorization agreement.

The most core part of this agreement is undoubtedly the copyright fee. Studio 13 will pay Susan Collins $6 million at one time, and Susan Collins will have 5% of the movie's North American box office profit as a share in the future.

Not to mention the North American box office profit sharing, the copyright fee of $6 million alone is three times higher than Matthew's earliest projection.

But at that time he didn't know that Susan Collins was actually an insider.

With such a high cost, Studio 13 also successfully obtained the priority right to buy the next two sequels of "The Hunger Games".

As Matthew thought, The Hunger Games is not a separate novel, and in Susan Collins' planning, it would be a trilogy series.

Even Susan Collins has set the names of the last two novels, called "The Burning Girl" and "The Mocking Bird".

“Happy cooperation!”

In the reception room of Angel Brokerage, Matthew exchanged contracts with Susan Collins and shook hands, "Happy cooperation!"

At this time, the sword and sword shadows in the negotiations had long disappeared without a trace, with only a harmonious atmosphere.

Susan Collins is a mature middle-aged woman who speaks very politely, "Matthew, it is my honor to have this book valued by you."

Matthew responded politely, "I read this novel, and it's very attractive in terms of the setting and the direction of the story." For some reason, he thought of Battle Royale and asked, "Ms. Collins, can you take the liberty to ask the source of your inspiration for your creation?"

Movies will definitely be questioned in the future. If Susan Collins does not have a suitable statement, they will have to find someone to draft in advance, and both sides must unify their opinions in this regard.

As for imitation or plagiarism, it definitely does not exist.

"This story is derived from the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur. I read this story when I was eight years old, and since then, it has taken root in my heart."

Perhaps I didn't expect Matthew to have this question. Susan Collins thought for a while and said, "In that story, there is a place called Crete. Every year, people send seven boys and girls to the Minotaur. In my novel, I don't want to write a same mythical story, so I arranged the story in the future destruction of America and created the Hunger Games from the perspective and values ​​of contemporary people. Katnis in the story is Theseus, and the Minotaur has been upgraded to the government and the invisible system and pressure. In the story itself, this is the simplest story of the ancient Roman gladiator, plus modern content."

Matthew nodded and said naturally, "Ms. Collins, our collaboration in the movie has begun now. The creative origin of the novel has always been a good publicity point. You are a veteran TV screenwriter and you must understand the importance of this aspect, so I won't say much."

"Don't worry, Matthew," Susan Collins promised, "I will cooperate with your publicity."

As the original author, of course, she hopes that the movies adapted from her works can be widely disseminated, and the larger the scope, the better.

It's still early to adapt the movie. Matthew and Susan Collins talked about some ideas about future movies, and then sent Susan Collins and his group out of the Angel Agency.

When he returned to Helen Herman's office, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although there were many twists and turns in the middle, he finally obtained the copyright of the "Hunger Games" series.

In the past two years, the copyright of novels has become more and more expensive, and the copyright transfer of millions of dollars can only be said to be of medium level. Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and "The Angels and the Devil" have sold tens of millions of dollars in movie rights transfer fees.

Perhaps it won't take long to spend a company in Hollywood paying hundreds of millions of dollars in film copyright fees for a popular novel or other work.

This is not impossible in this era of films where original creations decline, adaptations and sequels are rampant.

When Helen Herman returned to the office, Matthew talked to her for a while about the future adaptation of "The Hunger Games".

The adaptation of "The Hunger Games" will have to wait until the early planning starts next year, and will be released in 2010 or 2011, and may even be pushed back.

The main reason is the funding problem of Studio No. 13.

As an empty shell studio, Studio 13 is not well funded, and Matthew is not able to invest in too many medium-scale film production projects at the same time.

His investment in "Iron Man" has begun to recover, and the expected profit is high enough, but this profit will be invested in "Iron Man 2" in the next step.

The new work is underway in early planning and is expected to be in the early preparations by the end of the year, including director Jon Favreau, male and female protagonists Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, and Scarlett Johnson, all of which are back.

As a sequel to a big-selling movie, the pay of these cast members is certainly not as low as the first one.

Therefore, the production budget of "Iron Man 2" is as high as $200 million.

Matthew has a 40% investment amount in it, which is $80 million.

It is not necessarily said that he had to invest $80 million, which is the upper limit of investment, but Matthew remembers Iron Man's core position in the entire Avengers, and also knows the popularity he has caused, and investment will definitely be the highest limit.

In this way, all the funds recovered by "Iron Man" are thrown into investment in Marvel superhero movies.

Also, "Captain America" ​​has also been put on the agenda by Marvel Studios and will start planning soon, which is also the goal of Matthew's planned investment.

Moreover, when he was on the phone with Kevin Feige, he heard the other party mention an interesting idea. Marvel Studios plans to make Wolverine and Magneto come to play a guest appearance in "The X-Men" (because the story was during World War II, and Wolverine was a soldier during World War II, while Magneto was a prisoner of war). However, the copyrights of Wolverine and Magneto's movies and TV are both in the hands of Twentieth Century Fox, and they need to negotiate with Twentieth Century Fox and reach an agreement to achieve it.

Matthew knew that this was not easy to achieve. Marvel Comics sold copyrights for many popular series such as Spider-Man and X-Men due to survival problems, in exchange for funds to maintain the survival of the company. However, it is easy to get the copyright out, and it is too difficult to get it back.

Perhaps they will think of Marvel Studios after Sony Columbia Pictures can't play the Spider-Man series and Twentieth Century Fox has also messed up the X-Men and Fantastic Four one after another.

Investment in Marvel superhero movies will occupy a large amount of Matthew's working capital. "The Hunger Games" can only be postponed for the time being, and of course it will not be postponed indefinitely. After all, the contract between the two parties clearly stipulates that if Studio Thirteen does not adapt the movie within ten years, the relevant copyright will automatically return to Susan Collins.

This is the same as Marvel Comics' licenses on Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four.
Chapter completed!