DOS Ch-74

Barry Meyer could sense a headache coming from a mile away. Sometimes he was baffled by the sheer stupidity that some members of Warner’s board of directors showed. Every once in a while, a studio would stumble upon a goldmine of a film that changed their profitability immensely. It was disheartening to know that some people were too stupid to realize that.

“You have to tell them that the amount we are paying them is too much,” Sherry Peters, one of the most vocal members of the board, said firmly. “We can’t afford to pay them this much.”

“What other choice do we have?” Barry said for the umpteenth time. “Why would anyone agree to take a lower salary, especially when they already have a favorable contract?”

“There must be something,” said Anthony Wasserman, Sherry’s most vocal supporter.

“I’m open to your suggestions, Anthony,” Barry resisted the urge to flip him the bird.

“It’s your job!” Anthony shouted, stunning everyone else to silence. “You would be nothing but an overpaid clerk if you can’t even get a 13-year-old child to lower his fees for his next film. Everyone in the industry is laughing at us for paying such an exorbitant salary to Troy. Why did you even agree to give him a percentage of the box office when you knew that the film would be a hit?”

When it seemed like Anthony had calmed down a little, Barry said calmly, “You agreed to it. All of you agreed to it at the moment.” He turned around to look each of the 12 present board members in the eye before saying, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you agree to pay a 20% salary to Tom Cruise for [Magnolia]? And that was in addition to the $20m he was already charging. What happened there? The film flopped badly and we lost even the $20m that we paid him upfront. I was against his hiring from the start, but guess who vetoed me.” Here Barry turned sharply towards Anthony, who was looking anywhere but at him.

Sensing that the childish man would not say anything else anytime soon, Barry continued, “That said, I agree that this cannot go on. So here’s what I propose. Troy earned 2% of the film revenue for the first film, which came out to be $22.6m. Let’s not get into home video sales for now. Next, he earned a 5% cut for the second movie, which came out to be $50m. With the way his contract is phrased, for the third film, we’ll have to pay him at least a 7.5% cut, and a 10% cut from the fourth film onwards. Assuming that the third film earns a similar amount of money as the second, he would earn $75m. And a hundred million from then on for each film that makes a billion. What I propose is amending his contract and offering him $50m each for every Potter movie we make.”

The board took in all the information that he had already provided them in folders placed in front of them. Some were keenly going through the numbers while some were not very happy with the proposal.

“$50m is too big an amount,” Sherry said. “Can’t we lower it down to twenty-five or thirty, maybe?”

Barry resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he said, “You are saying this based on the assumption that Troy and Steve will even accept this deal. That is a big if and would take all my negotiating power to make it work. If this was an ensemble film with multiple leads, then I could have done something to lower his salary, but with each book that Jo Rowling releases, it’s painfully clear that Harry Potter is the protagonist through and through. Most importantly, we cannot forget that Troy has a very dedicated fan base, so we can’t even replace him. He does bring in the revenue equivalent to a top star as well. His five films to date have an average collection exceeding $700m. All his films have exceeded $100m in the US at least, a record held previously by Tom Cruise. If we lowball him too much, Steve Kloves would take the film series and go to Paramount or, heaven forbid, Disney. Would you want that, Sherry? Anthony?”

The two executives were silent and didn’t reply to the question aimed at them.

“But Steve Kloves is already earning a 10% cut of his own,” Danny Thompson, the youngest board member, said for the first time. “The counter deal you are offering to Troy isn’t a bad one either. The revenue from the first film to the second one has decreased by around 10%. It is very costly to market the film, and it’s possible that the third or fourth film may not even be profitable for us if we keep paying them this much money. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if we all earn money together?”

“I agree,” Barry said. “But Steve Kloves has the advantage here. Not us. I’ll try my best to get him to lower Troy’s salary if we’re all in consensus.”

After receiving assent from all the board members, the useless meeting ended. Barry knew that Steve or Troy would never agree to a lower salary. No one in their right mind would. Yet, he had to placate the board that he was trying something. Most of the sensible people there knew that nothing would come out of the meeting with Steve. And even a toddler could see through their useless tactics like delaying the production of the third film only to have some bargaining power over Steve and Troy.

(Break)

Steve walked into the meeting room confidently and shook Barry’s hand.

“How’re you, Barry?” he greeted politely before taking the seat offered by the CEO.

Barry sighed in slight frustration, “Could be a lot better, to be honest. And a lot of my stress comes from you. The board is being a nightmare for me, and I’m obligated to show you the terms for Troy’s future salary.” With that, Barry slid a slim folder across the coffee table they were sitting at. “Read the terms at your leisure and shoot me an email whenever you’ve made up your mind. Now, let’s talk some real business. You said you had some ideas for the upcoming film production?”

Steve skeptically looked down at the folder that Barry had handed him and asked, “What about this? This offer from your company can change my plans for the film.”

“It won’t,” Barry reassured Steve. “Don’t worry about it. When you read it later, you’ll understand. Come on, tell me your plan.”

Steve wasn’t sold on that, but he didn’t argue any further and decided to tell Barry his plan to make [Prisoner of Azkaban] and [Goblet of Fire] back to back. Barry, to give him credit, was a patient listener who was yet to contradict Steve’s words or interrupt in between. Yet, he kept humming and nodding at the right places to let Steve know that he was listening carefully.

When Steve was done, Barry gave him a terse nod, “Done. I’ll approve the production of the two films. Have you decided on a director yet?”

Steve was surprised. “Are you sure? Don’t you have to talk to your directors first?”

“That’s my problem,” Barry smiled thinly. “I trust your judgment, Steve. You saw something in [Harry Potter] that no one else did. Similarly, you saw something in [Billy Elliot] and have already recouped most of your investment in the West End in three months. You have a vision for this industry that people rarely have. So believe me when I say this, I trust your judgment. I’m sure you must have thought about it carefully before suggesting it to me. Now, what about the director? Have you decided on whom to get?”

Steve felt a little nervous that Barry viewed him so highly. All his major business decisions in the last few years had been influenced by Troy either directly or indirectly, so it felt a little bad taking all the credit for it.

“I have,” he said after a few moments. “Alfonso Cuaron. Of everyone you recommended, I liked his filming style the best. I have talked to him about the film, and he has agreed to shoot parts 3 and 4 back to back, but he has a request to allow him sufficient time for post-production to give us the best film. I don’t have a problem with that.”

Steve didn’t tell Barry that Alfonso was Troy’s choice, but that was the biggest reason for him to select the Mexican over Mike Newell, one of his favorite directors of all time.

“Neither do I,” Barry agreed easily. “I want the best films to come out of Warner under my care. I’ll happily wait a few extra months for them if the quality can be increased that way. We all saw what Peter Jackson did with [Lord of the Rings].”

That was true. Warner Bros was having some of the best years recently, thanks to [Harry Potter] and [Lord of the Rings]. While [LOTR] was produced by New Line Cinema, it was an independent subsidiary of Warner.

“How are you settling in NYC?” Barry asked conversationally, changing the topic away from their business. “Is Broadway back to before 9/11?”

“We’re settling fine, but Broadway is not so good,” Steve grimaced. “Unfortunately, I had booked the theater for three months before the attacks happened. And now we’re stuck with it. New York’s tourism is at an all-time low. People are scared to come here, despite reassurances from government agencies. This is the worst time to begin any new show here.”

“I’m sure it will do fine,” Barry reassured, but it didn’t assuage Steve’s worries.

(Break)

After performing on the West End for so long, Broadway wasn’t that different for me. The only noticeable change here was that I had to tweak my speech a little to dial down the Northern British accent to a more universal one. While I wanted to maintain the original accent [Billy Elliot] was conceived in, the creative team sat down and concluded that it was better to have a general accent so that Americans would accept it more easily. The ten preview shows we held were received positively enough by the audience that we planned to go forth with using a general accent in the normal shows as well.

It didn’t take me long to get engrossed in the production. My schedule was quite the same, with Sunday evenings and Mondays free, and I had to perform eight shows a week. I felt a little bad that my whole family had to move to New York for my career ambitions. It didn’t help that it hadn’t been even half a year since 9/11 happened. The city had changed drastically after that date. The property prices fell sharply in the New York area, a fact that my father used to purchase a lavish penthouse duplex in Lower Manhattan—the place we were staying at for the moment. I also convinced Dad to invest long-term in some stocks that reached their lowest points after the attacks, but that’s a story for some other time.

A loud bark broke me out of my reverie as my new loyal dog rubbed his fur against my leg. I bent down and scooped him in my arms.

“Hey Loki,” I rubbed his head right between his ears, just as he likes. He closed his bright blue eyes in bliss and let out a moan. I melted right then and there seeing him act like a kitten in my hands. Suddenly, I looked up and saw that Loki and I weren’t alone in the living room as I had expected. Evan was standing in a corner of the room, trying to hide himself from us. All the while, Dad’s video camera was in his hands, and he was recording me.

“What are you doing, Evan?” I asked him, a little bit of irritation leaking out in my voice. “Are you trying to become a paparazzi?”

“You saw me, huh?” he said sheepishly as he walked towards me, still holding the camera. “I talked to Steve the other day, and he asked me if I wanted a dog of my own as well so I wouldn’t feel alone when you have Loki.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked in confusion.

“I said no,” he replied. “I don’t want a dog. Instead, I asked him to help me be a filmmaker as a gift.”

I sat there surprised for a good few moments. It was only the barking of Loki that made me realize that I had stopped stroking his fur, and my hand must be putting a lot of weight on his tiny head. I removed my hand from him and dropped him to the floor before turning to my adoptive brother.

“Why?” I asked him. “I mean, you never told me this before. I thought you wanted to be a painter or something.”

“I did,” he agreed. “I still do. It’s just that… I like movies. Steve told me a few days ago that today if you want to be a good filmmaker, you don’t need to go to a film school. Rather, you can go to a good art or design school to help you learn color and shot composition. Then I remembered when you told me how you asked him for acting lessons, so I thought I could ask him for directing lessons as well. He gave me this camcorder and said that I need to use it to show him that I can take some good videos. Based on that, he’ll decide how to proceed with my education.”

“So you decided to film me without my permission?”

Evan shook his head and presented me with the camcorder. “See for yourself.”

I gingerly took the camera from him and played the last video that he had recorded from the beginning. In the video, it was quite evident that the cameraman was trying to stay hidden while following the object of his desire: Loki on the terrace adjoining our apartment. I saw Loki eating his meal, drinking water, then running around in circles chasing his tail, before running inside the apartment proper and approaching me. The video showed me thinking about something before petting my dog and then finally noticing Evan.

“See?” he said smugly. “Just because you’re a big film star doesn’t mean every person out there wants to take just your photo. Loki is a bigger star for me. Aren’t you, boy?” He bent down while addressing Loki, who barked happily at receiving the attention and ran a circle around Evan before sitting beside him.

I felt a little guilty for assuming the worst about Evan, but it made sense in a way. Although he never outright said it, he implied that his parents had tried to influence him to become a lawyer, just like them. But he always wanted to become an artist. Now that he lives with a family of artists, he would naturally gravitate towards the art that the majority of them are practicing.

The only part about this situation that I didn’t like was that he never once told me that he wanted to try filmmaking.

But now that I know about it, I can’t remain passive any longer. I nodded to myself with determination before turning to Evan. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll help you become a director.”

Evan’s eyes widened marginally as he asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“We’ll help each other,” I said confidently. “Just like Dad and I used to practice acting. We’ll take a scene from a film that we both love. You’ll direct and shoot the scene, while I’ll act. You have to tell me how to do it and where I fumbled. What do you say?”

Evan’s grin was so bright it could light up a Christmas tree. “Let’s do it!”