Although Boss Jia really wanted to see how the sales of Warcraft were doing, time didn't allow for it. It was already May and there were only 20 days left until the wedding. He heard that Zhu Qiushui was already losing money. If Boss Jia didn't go back now, he would be severely beaten.
But before he went back, Boss Jia went to Forks to check on the progress of the Titanic.
When he saw Boss Jia, the producer of the Titanic, Jon Landau, looked at Boss Jia with a bitter face. People who didn't know would think that he owed him tens of millions.
"What? The filming funds are almost empty! "After hearing Jon Landau's complaints, Boss Jia exclaimed.
"Yes …" Jon Landau smiled even more bitterly, "That truck driver is really a spendthrift. Out of our 135 million USD, only 35 million was used to hire celebrities. The remaining 100 million was used to invest in special effects and set prop construction."
"We thought 100 million was enough, but now that truck driver wants to build a real Titanic. Our 100 million USD was used to build the ship, and it's still not enough. Can you believe it?"
"What's even more ridiculous is that this guy actually wants to sink this fake Titanic to the bottom of the sea to complete the final shipwreck job!"
"Oh my god! That's scary! "Boss Jia cooperated and made a horrified expression.
"But the good thing is that he only said it once. It's just a cute idea. He knows that it's impossible. In the end, he only decided to build half of the ship's hull for exterior shots of the Titanic. Just half of the hull alone costs 60 million USD. That's crazy!" Jon Landau kept complaining.
In history, when Cameron filmed the Titanic, he did build half of the Titanic in order to achieve a realistic effect.
The reason why it was said to be half was because this half of the Titanic was actually built on land, and in fact, it was only about one-third of it, including the left half of the bow and part of the middle part of the hull. The half of the stern was not built in the end because the budget could not keep up.
But the director cleverly used the camera angle to hide the last half of the hull and added some special effects to make the audience feel like the entire ship was there.
But even so, the cost of this part of the hull reached an astonishing 60 million USD.
"Mr. Jia, we were all cheated by that truck driver, did you know that? In the end, he handed me a cost estimate of 175 million USD, which is 40 million USD more than the previous estimate. I've had enough!! " As an excellent producer, Jon Landau could complain like this. It was obvious how much of a pain he was in the early stages of the filming.
"In fact, it's 235 million USD!" Boss Jia's's's's heart muttered.
In history, the cost of the Titanic's filming, there were three changes.
The first time, which was when the filming started, the budget cost was as high as 135 million USD.
When the filming started, there was a new offer of 175 million USD.
In the end, 21st Century Fox accepted this new offer and added another 40 million USD to the investment.
But this was not the final offer. In the end, it was slightly higher. You could go to other offers later. In 1995, halfway through the filming of the movie, the 175 million USD production budget had been used up. Hence, Cameron threw out a brand new offer of 235 million USD, and an additional 60 million USD of investment.
Then, 20th Century Fox went completely crazy.
At that time, 20th Century Fox was in an extremely difficult and tight financial situation. They could not afford another 60 million USD investment. In the end, they could only use the North American distribution rights as the price to rope in Paramount and let Paramount invest 60 million USD to finally complete the filming of the movie.
Jon Landau complained to Boss Jia about this. His intention was obvious. He wanted Boss Jia to bear the 40 million USD cost.
"In principle, there's no problem!" Boss Jia nodded and said, "However, there are some issues regarding the cost. Can we hold a meeting to discuss it? We can't just spend as much as Cameron wants. We have to cut down on the cost as well!"
"I know that too." Jon Landau nodded. "But in fact, Cameron didn't cheat us of much money. I had a professional team review the budget he gave me. This is money that we really need to spend. We can't save money. Cameron has already helped us save money where it can be saved! "
"This is the final offer!" Jon Landau said sincerely.
"Show me the cost accounting list!" Boss Jia said faintly. The secretary behind him immediately took out the detailed cost accounting list.
As the big investor of the Titanic, the cost accounting list was of course sent to Daqian immediately. The team of Daqian Entertainment also reviewed the cost accounting list. The final conclusion was the same as Jon Landau's. According to Cameron's shooting method and requirements, it was indeed difficult to cut the 175 million USD cost.
Boss Jia already knew about this. But he still took the entire list and looked it over several times. Finally, he said, "Mr. Jon, I've looked at this list carefully. The main costs can actually be divided into four parts!"
"The first part is the construction of the Titanic's hull. This is the biggest part. The cost is 60 million USD!"
"The second part is the cost of all props other than the construction of the Titanic's hull. It's about 30 million USD!"
"Then there's the remuneration of the actors. It's 35 million USD!"
"Finally, there's the budget for the special effects. It's 50 million USD!"
"You can roughly divide it like this!" Boss Jia said.
"That's right!" Jon Landau nodded.
"Then let's look at the costs one by one. First of all, the remuneration of the actors. Is there any limit that can be reduced?" Boss Jia tapped on the list and asked.
"It's very difficult!" Jon Landau shook his head. "In order to reduce the remuneration of the actors, we've tried our best to use new actors!"
"But the female lead is Nicole Kidman. Her remuneration alone is as high as 10 million USD!" Boss Jia frowned.
Because the first discussion did not decide on the actors, Boss Jia did not know that the final female lead was actually Nicole Kidman, and not Kate Winslet as he remembered.
At that time, Kate Winslet was just a small actress who had starred in two movies. Her remuneration was estimated to be less than half a million USD. But now, for some reason, Nicole Kidman was on the list of actors.
"Mr. Jia, this is the only big star among all the actors!" Jon Landau frowned and said, "A Hollywood blockbuster needs at least a big star. Otherwise, our movie can't be promoted at all!"
"That's a Hollywood blockbuster, not a Hollywood miracle movie!" Boss Jia smiled. "I don't know if Mr. Jon has noticed, but the movies that can be called miracle movies in history have never used any big stars."
"This …" Jon Landau did not say anything.
"How about this, I think we'll let Director Cameron make the decision. If he thinks that Nicole Kidman is the most suitable actress, then I'm willing to trust Director Cameron."
"On the other hand, if Director Cameron has his eyes on another actress, let's not stop him. We'll follow Director Cameron's wishes!" Boss Jia said.
"Okay …" Jon Landau nodded. "Actually, Cameron has told me more than once that he has his eyes on a small actress named Kate Winslet. Her remuneration is cheap, only 300,000 USD. But she's not famous at all. The company was worried that it would affect the box office, so they didn't agree. A few days ago, they were arguing with Cameron about this issue."
"Since Mr. Jia said so, then we'll respect Cameron's wishes and listen to him!"
"That's a very wise decision!" Boss Jia laughed heartily. Then, he drew a horizontal bar on the cost of the actor's salary. From the previous cost of 35 million, it was suddenly reduced to 25 million. This way, he would save 10 million USD in costs all at once!
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