The Best Entertainment Era

Like all industrial strikes, Hollywood screenwriters hope to fight for more benefits and rights, but the strike is only a means, not an end.

A strike means that a large number of union screenwriters will be unemployed for a long time without a source of income.

Therefore, after the Producers Union broke up the trade union alliance by means of division and disintegration, the Screenwriters Union also attacked everywhere, wanting to fight for more rights for itself in a similar way.

Even animation studios have been lobbied by them.

Some time ago, a vice-chairman of the screenwriters union approached Pixar Studios.

Standing in front of the premiere theater, John Lasseter looked at the huge poster of the mouse not far away, and said to Ronan: I hope the screenwriters of Pixar Studios can participate in the upcoming strike.

This is the North American premiere of Ratatouille. Affected by the recent trend, the premiere was somewhat deserted, especially because of the small number of guests.

Ronan asked: What do you think about it?

John Lasseter replied: The employees of Pixar Studios currently have no members of the screenwriters' union. Since we have enjoyed the rights and interests of the screenwriters' union, we naturally have no obligation to maintain the screenwriters' union.

He then asked: Is this strike inevitable?

The time has entered November, and the Producers Alliance has already done what needs to be negotiated and compromised, but the conditions between the two parties are still as far apart as heaven and earth. Ronan understands this very well, and said directly: This screenwriter big A strike is inevitable.

John Lasseter asked again: The script work of Pixar Studios has been completed ahead of time under your instructions, and it will basically not be impacted.

It's business as usual, we won't be affected too much, Ronan said.

Under his control, Relativity Entertainment has already made sufficient preparations, and the projects and scripts that are underway and will be promoted next year are all finalized.

Moreover, scripts purchased from outside sources not produced by Relativity Entertainment were authorized when the contract was signed. In the absence of the screenwriter, Relativity Entertainment has the right to modify the script.

This is also a common situation. After the film company buys the copyright of the script, it often makes major changes.

The most typical, National Superman Hancock starring Will Smith and Charlize Theron, was originally a romance script, which was later changed into a sci-fi action film by Sony Columbia.

Entering the VIP room of the theater, Jessica Felton, who was chatting with Ed Kammel's wife, came over.

I've heard them say it's been a few days? Jessica Felton asked.

Ronan nodded lightly: Although the Screenwriters Union has not yet issued a final notice, there is a high probability that the strike will be formally launched next Monday.

After all, Jessica Felton is a pure producer. Although she rejected the lobbying of the screenwriters union, she somewhat sympathized with screenwriters. After all, sympathizing with the weak is a common situation.

She whispered: The two sides can no longer give in each other.

Ronan shook his head slowly but firmly: We can basically reach an agreement on other aspects, but DVD and new media revenue...the differences are too great. The Screenwriters Union also knows that 15% is absolutely impossible. That negotiation, they got it down to five percent, but that's still unacceptable to us.

Take Transformers as an example. Currently, DVDs are selling well all over the world. There are a total of two signed screenwriters. According to the new requirements of the screenwriters union, these two screenwriters can already get a share of nearly 5 million US dollars.

This has not yet calculated new media income such as online video-on-demand.

Based on the general situation of Hollywood and the film and television industry,

How can this be?

Jessica Felton asked curiously: The bottom line of the league... She then realized that the question was inappropriate: When I didn't ask.

Ronan didn't answer either. In fact, the executives of these large and medium-sized companies have already reached a tacit agreement to try their best to reduce the sharing ratio required by the screenwriters union to less than 1.5%, and also limit the scope of the producer's income. Inside.

It is natural for negotiations to break down.

It is impossible for the Producers Union to make too many concessions, because within the 20-year period of the big framework agreement, coordination and consultation with various trade union organizations will be held every three years, and certain adjustments will be made according to the specific conditions of the previous three years. .

These unions that are not mascots are really too troublesome for the management.

The management does not want to make concessions, and the labor side thinks that they should get more, and even thinks that the importance is higher than that of the actors. The huge differences cannot be reconciled.

In Ronan's view, the strike is not entirely a bad thing. It may make some members of the Screenwriters Union calm down and clear their heads.

A fact that cannot be ignored is that the average income of the screenwriters union is very high, because there are many well-known screenwriters who are well paid, but most of them do not have high incomes. In addition to the general overdraft spending habits of Americans, once the strike lasts for a long time, the first thing to do is to support them. It's definitely not the major Hollywood companies that can't live.

At that time, the Screenwriters Union may face a bottom-up backlash and have to consider the conditions of the Producers Union.

The Producers Union dared to put forward such a condition, causing the negotiations between the two parties to break down, and watching the screenwriters union launch a strike, of course they have a certain amount of confidence.

As for the actors' union and the directors' union, they will definitely support the screenwriters' union both mentally and verbally, whether they want to make money physically or how to make money.

Of course, it is not ruled out that some directors and actors will really stand with the screenwriters union.

After all, this is Hollywood, the largest concentration of liberals in the United States.

But Ronan has already made preparations in advance, and the film and series projects under Relativity Entertainment will not be greatly affected.

Jessica Felton didn't ask Ronan about the writers' union anymore, and dragged him into the theater together.

The third animated feature film of Pixar Studios after becoming a subsidiary of Relativity Entertainment officially entered North American theaters.

Even the most insignificant person has the right to dream, even if he is just a mouse living in the gutter.

This film breaks people's conventional thinking. The mouse Xiaomi is the core character of the film. He hopes to end his life of picking up garbage and become a chef in a top restaurant in Paris, making the most delicious dishes with his own hands.

From toys that come to life (Toy Story), to monsters that are frightened by a little girl who roams into their world (Monsters, Inc.), and then become a tiny fish lost in the middle of the ocean (Finding Nemo), a family of superheroes trying to live a normal life (The Incredibles), and a young racing car racing Route 66 (Cars).

Pixar, which represents the world's top animation technology, consistently presents unique stories full of emotion and visual stimulation one after another.

The technology demonstrated by Pixar Studios is still at the open level for this industry.

The complexity of Ratatouille is no longer comparable to that of Toy Story more than ten years ago.

The toys back then were mostly in various regular shapes, and the material was just plastic, but the various foods in Ratatouille already had various soft and hard materials with different textures. Computer animation was used to animate these It is self-evident to make things feel edible, and the difficulty is self-evident.

The word-of-mouth of this film is very good, but the subject matter and theme are somewhat cold, and the market response is not much better than the previous animated feature films.

Three days after the opening weekend in North America, Ratatouille took in a box office of 51.17 million US dollars in 4211 theaters.

This is also the worst box office opening of the animated feature films produced by Pixar Studios since entering the new world.

Art is always elegant and belongs to a small number of people.

After the success of many animated feature films, Pixar Studios was inevitably somewhat artistic in the praise of the critics. Even though it has always adhered to the original concept, it was more or less influenced by high art in the creation process.

Nowadays, there is an undeniable point in the world's film market. Once you pursue elegant film art, you will always gradually stay away from the market.

In some ways, this is not a bad thing, and Pixar Studios will also examine its own problems.

The ability and brains of this group of hookers should not be underestimated.

On the day when Ratatouille's North American box office data was released for the first week, a general strike swept Hollywood.

In order to fight against the Producers Union, the two major screenwriter unions in the United States called on their members to strike at the same time. On November 5, nearly 12,000 screenwriters gathered in the Hollywood area and started a strike parade along the Walk of Fame and Hollywood Boulevard.

This massive strike parade immediately attracted the attention of the whole United States.

The last collective strike by the screenwriters union was in 1988. It lasted 22 weeks and caused more than $500 million in losses to the entire industry. This strike will inevitably bring more pain because the entertainment industry has now grown into a giant. Beast, according to the statistics of many Wall Street institutions, the entertainment industry can account for about 10% of the US economy including the surrounding chains.

From the perspective of the overall future strategy, the Hollywood manufacturers with the six major companies as the main body will not compromise easily.

A batch of film and television dramas inevitably became temporary victims.

On the day the strike started, all talk shows had to shut down immediately because there were no writers.

In the next few days, some film and television projects that lacked sufficient preparation had to be suspended.

Twenty-Four Hours announced the cancellation of this season, becoming the first unlucky TV series; the sequel Angels and Demons of The Da Vinci Code invested by Tom Hanks was postponed because the script could not be completed on time, and became the second. A bad movie.

Then, the screenwriter of 007: Quantum of Solace launched the crew, and the project was temporarily suspended to join the ranks.

DreamWorks was also affected, and Spielberg and Peter Jackson's highlight play The Adventures of Tintin was temporarily put on hold...

Even so, the Producers Union showed a tough attitude.

Because of the intervention and matchmaking between the Washington authorities and the labor association, the Producers Union did not make any concessions even if they sat back at the negotiating table, and the strike continued.

The ongoing strike, which didn't affect Relativity Entertainment too much, allowed Thor to hit theaters as planned.