"Who?" Matthew asked.
Compared to the director, the producer was undoubtedly more crucial, and the search for the right candidate had recently beco a headache for him.
Helen answered directly. "You know her. The forr president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, Nina Jacobson."
Matthew recognized the na. "I rember her. She was an executive producer on the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' series."
Nina had weathered a few serious setbacks early in her career, but instead of being discouraged, she had grown stronger, eventually rising to beco the president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group.
Matthew thought for a mont, then asked, "Helen, wasn't Nina removed from her position at Disney?"
"She was forced out of Disney in 2006 by Michael Eisner right before he retired, due to a disagreent." Helen was clearly well-inford on the matter.
"After that, she went on to produce a teen franchise that grossed nearly $320 million worldwide on a combined budget of $55 million."
Helen added, "Nina is also a proponent of the feminist movent and has rare experience producing successful films centered on teen idols."
"That's good." Matthew made his decision. "You contact Nina Jacobson, and if she's open to it, I'll talk to her."
***
That afternoon, Helen got in touch with Nina, who agreed to a eting. By that evening, Matthew and Helen were sitting down with her.
The only issue was that Nina Jacobson was in the process of founding her own production company and was hoping to invest in "The Hunger Gas."
With David Ellison on board, Matthew wasn't short on funding, and since the production budget for the first "Hunger Gas" film was relatively small, he didn't want to bring in other investors.
The two parties had a disagreent on this point, but that was to be expected; after all, everyone had different interests. Even though Matthew hadn't offered her an investnt opportunity, she didn't break off contact, which ant they could continue the conversation.
Negotiation itself is a process of resolving differences and reaching a compromise.
The next day, Matthew asked Patty Jenkins to et him at the Angel Acting Agency and introduced her to Susan Collins.
Compared to the talks with Nina Jacobson, things went smoothly with Patty Jenkins. Patty's status and accomplishnts within the industry were far less significant than Nina's, and she hadn't directed a film in several years, so her demands were modest.
After a few more conversations, Patty's agent joined the negotiations. While the specific salary and other terms would need to be finalized with the producer before they could be discussed in detail, Patty Jenkins had already committed to directing and writing "The Hunger Gas."
Toward the end of December, Matthew and Helen reached an agreent with Nina Jacobson. She agreed to drop her investnt proposal and temporarily halt preparations for her production company, joining "The Hunger Gas" project purely as a producer, reporting directly to Matthew.
For her work, Studio 13 would pay her a salary of $4 million.
It wasn't the highest producer salary in Hollywood, but it was the highest ever for a female producer.
To hire soone of Nina's caliber, you certainly had to be willing to pay what it takes.
Studio 13 and Nina Jacobson officially signed the contract. Nina beca responsible for assembling the crew. So far, the three key mbers were in place: herself, director and screenwriter Patty Jenkins, and the original author and screenwriter Susan Collins.
The next step was to recruit for the various behind-the-scenes departnts, such as props, production design, and so on.
The actors, on the other hand, could be cast last.
Actors, especially the leads, were often the last ones to be brought on board. Matthew was in no hurry to start casting; the entire project was still in the early planning stages. Forget about auditions—it would be a long ti before even pre-production began.
Just as Matthew was busy with "The Hunger Gas," an invitation arrived from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They had officially approved more than sixty new mbers, including him.
In other words, he was now qualified to vote in the Academy Awards.
However, the nomination ballots and lists of Oscar contenders wouldn't be mailed out by the Academy until December 30th.
In the anti, he received a call from Taylor Swift. She seed quite keen on becoming his music teacher and reminded him not to forget about his lessons.
Matthew was too swamped with work at the mont, so he could only politely decline and postpone the conversation.
Taylor then sent him a special letter detailing a proposed lesson schedule.
"Is this country singer really that eager to be a teacher?"
Matthew muttered to himself as he looked over the music schedule. If Taylor Swift was just going to teach him how to sing, he'd have to think twice about whether to continue with the lessons.
As the end of December approached, Matthew temporarily set aside the matter of teacher and student. Before he was due on the set of "Inception," he called a eting with David Ellison, Nina Jacobson, Patty Jenkins, and Susan Collins to align on the production concept and future style of the film, and to finalize its production budget.
With David Ellison's backing, and after several discussions with Nina Jacobson and Patty Jenkins, he carved out a budget of $80 million for "The Hunger Gas."
In modern Hollywood, an $80 million budget was considered rely a mid-range comrcial film.
But compared to "Twilight," it was a big-budget teen movie.
"Twilight" had been in theaters for just five weeks, and the buzz was already fading fast. Still, by its fifth weekend in North Arica, its dostic box office had successfully crossed the $200 million mark, with a cumulative total of $222.38 million.
However, its daily dostic gross had since fallen below half a million dollars, its market potential nearly spent. The final North Arican box office ca to just over $210 million.
Compared to the film's $40 million budget, this was already a massive success.
Moreover, the film perford well overseas, grossing more than $400 million worldwide.
Hollywood recognized "Twilight" as a huge comrcial success. The novels in the series had even surged to the top of the New York Tis bestseller list, holding the number one spot for five consecutive weeks.
As for rchandise and other ancillary products, sales were also very encouraging. Studio 13 didn't have the capacity to manufacture and sell rchandise itself, so in this area, they focused on expanding ancillary revenue through licensing.
To date, "Twilight" had sold a total of nine rchandise licenses, covering related toys, gas, graphic T-shirts, accessories, and more, generating a total inco of $29.8 million.
Several more licensing deals were still under negotiation. The revenue from rchandise licenses in North Arica and Europe alone had nearly offset the entire $40 million investnt.
Once you factored in the DVD and TV rights, the ancillary revenue stream itself would beco profitable.
Of course, both Matthew and David Ellison understood perfectly well that all of this was built on the foundation of "Twilight's" box office success.
It was safe to say that without the box office numbers, this astounding ancillary inco would never have materialized.
Matthew also t with Sean Daniel and Sofia Coppola. Pre-production on "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" had begun, following the sa accelerated schedule as the first film, with a premiere date set for before Thanksgiving of the following year.
Aside from the inevitable salary increases for the cast and crew, the scale of production would not be expanded, nor would the filming costs increase. The production budget was therefore capped at $55 million.
At this point, one could say Matthew was being rather frugal.
However, for a typical teen film like this, expanding the scale of production made little sense. Not many viewers were rushing to buy tickets for grand spectacle; that simply wasn't the appeal of the "Twilight" series.
Matthew had high hopes for the film. Based on the performance of the first installnt, he predicted that "New Moon," provided the marketing and distribution were handled well, had a strong chance of grossing $100 million in its opening weekend in North Arica.
For him, this series was a genuine treasure trove.
Perhaps by the ti the entire "Twilight" series was released, his fortune would have doubled.
With all his business taken care of, Matthew arrived on the set of "Inception."
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