"I've had several phone calls with John Hughes about Uncle Buck. He's very interested in working with us. However, the compensation package he's asking for is a six million dollar base salary plus ten percent of the North American box office."
Inside the conference room.
Simon noticed the smile on Amy's face as she introduced the proposal and said, "If he were willing to take a one dollar base salary plus box office and home video revenue sharing, I might agree on the spot."
John Hughes was, after all, the screenwriter and producer of Home Alone in the original timeline.
Ever since Ferris Bueller's Day Off two years ago, Simon had been keeping a close eye on him.
This Hollywood filmmaker who had created a standardized Hughes formula usually built his films around a rebellious lead with a bear like personality stirring up trouble in every possible way. Kevin using recorded audio to scare off the two dimwitted burglars in Home Alone was practically identical to Ferris faking illness with electronic voice tricks to skip school.
After Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Hughes's films over the past two years had performed fairly average at the box office. If Uncle Buck had not come along, Simon would not have been particularly interested in collaborating with him. It just so happened that Simon remembered Hughes getting the inspiration for Home Alone during the production of Uncle Buck.
Hearing Simon's teasing, Amy explained, "In his previous films, Hughes asked for ten percent of total all channel profits on top of his base salary. He probably lacks confidence in our distribution strength, so he's copying the model you used with Fox and Orion and asking for box office participation instead. In fact, the total compensation would be about the same either way. Taking a cut directly from box office just lets him see returns a few years earlier than the profit sharing model."
Although his films followed a fairly repetitive formula, John Hughes's movies rarely lost money. On top of that, he personally wrote every project and served as producer, sometimes even directing himself. Asking for ten percent of total all channel profits was not unreasonable.
Simon flipped through the materials on Hughes's previous works.
In the two years since Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Hughes had written four scripts in total. Two grossed over forty million dollars, and two only made a little over ten million. A perfect split between hits and misses, and even that counted as a strong track record in Hollywood.
As for Uncle Buck, the preliminary budget was fifteen million dollars, with Hughes personally taking on the roles of writer, director, and producer.
Simon did not know how the film would perform at the box office. Optimistically speaking, if it made forty million dollars in North America, with a fifteen million dollar production cost and Hughes taking ten million for himself, plus marketing expenses, Daenerys Entertainment would definitely lose several million at the box office and could only rely on home video and television rights to break even.
Since the real objective was Home Alone, Simon made a quick decision and said, "Six million is too high. Five million at most. The fifteen million dollar budget must be strictly capped. Any overruns will be deducted from Hughes's share. Also, Daenerys Entertainment needs a right of first refusal under the same contract terms for one of Hughes's future scripts. Amy, negotiate with him based on this framework."
Truth be told, Simon actually hoped the Home Alone script would get butterfly effected out of existence.
That possibility was quite high. Unlike writers who might stew on an idea for years, John Hughes was a textbook assembly line writer. He produced two scripts every year, then moved straight into production and release. At that factory like pace, a single change of thought could mean a great script never came to be.
If the Home Alone script vanished, everything afterward would become much simpler.
There was no shortage of filmmakers in Hollywood copying the Hughes formula. Even the Weinstein brothers had done it before. If Simon later cooked up a Hughes style script himself, it would not seem out of place at all. He could even claim it was inspired by Uncle Buck.
"Alright then, I'll take some time in the next few days to fly to Chicago and meet Hughes in person. Locking down this project shouldn't be a problem," Amy said as she noted everything down in her memo book. She checked the time and realized it was already close to six. They had long passed office hours. She closed the notebook and asked about earlier in the day, "How did things go with Semel at lunch?"
Simon briefly summarized the cooperation terms he had agreed on with Semel and reminded her, "While I'm in Australia, get the detailed contract drafted with Warner as soon as possible."
Amy reopened her notebook to jot that down and asked, "So, among the projects for the Warner collaboration, which one are you planning to choose?"
"Amy Heckerling's Look Who's Talking."
Amy's pen paused. "Simon, I think The Sixth Sense would be better. It's a script credited under your own name, and the concept is excellent. Breaking a hundred million at the box office shouldn't be a problem. As for Look Who's Talking, the story is indeed very fun, but if it fails to break a hundred million, we'll have to compensate Warner with another film."
The original version of The Sixth Sense had grossed over two hundred ninety million dollars in North America and nearly seven hundred million worldwide. Bringing that project to Warner, even if the new version shrank to five hundred million globally, was still something Simon could not bear to part with.
Between The Bodyguard and Look Who's Talking, Simon chose the latter mainly because a locally flavored comedy like Look Who's Talking had far less overseas box office potential compared to The Bodyguard.
Simon did not explain much to Amy and made his decision. "I don't want to hand my own script to someone else again. It's Look Who's Talking. Since we're working with Warner, we can raise the budget a bit and invite a few bigger name leads. I'm very confident in this project."
Amy could only nod and continue writing. Then she asked, "Simon, when I discussed The Bodyguard script with Costner last Friday, he asked about Dances with Wolves. We acquired a lot of rights earlier this year. When are you planning to do those?"
"They're all projects I'm very optimistic about. Let's wait another year or two until the company is more solid. I don't want to mess up any of them," Simon said, closing the folder in front of him. "Also, you mentioned flying to Chicago just now?"
Amy explained, "John Hughes lives in Chicago. Most of his films are shot there too. He doesn't like Los Angeles."
"In that case," Simon said as he lightly tapped the table with his fingers, "let's add another corporate jet. Iger flies back and forth between the East and West Coasts every week for the television business. You and Ray also travel frequently, and there are other executives, plus James's side. One plane definitely isn't enough."
Amy looked up. "Lease or buy?"
Simon smiled. "Lease. I don't want to add that many little planes. Honestly, I don't even want that Gulfstream anymore."