The cause of the incident originated from the script of 'The Sixth Sense'.
On July 22nd, an obscure gossip newspaper in Los Angeles suddenly broke the news that the script for 'The Sixth Sense' was not written by Simon Westeros himself, and the real screenwriter of the film was actually Bruce Joel Rubin, the writer of 'scream'.
The newspaper article lashed out at Simon, claiming he had actually stolen someone else's creative work. Since Westeros was not the author of 'The Sixth Sense' script, the recent buzz surrounding phrases like 'he can see people' was naturally dismissed as nonsense.
Simon admitted to himself that he had indeed stolen someone else's creative work, but the original author of the script was currently nowhere to be found in this world. However, that newspaper report completely contradicted the established facts of this timeline, stripping Simon of any credit for 'The Sixth Sense' script and attributing it entirely to Bruce Joel Rubin, who had only ghostwritten it based on the story outline provided by Simon.
With 'The Sixth Sense' grossing nearly $120 million in three weeks and crushing all other films released during the same period, other Hollywood studios were desperate for some negative news about the film. Thus, that newspaper article immediately became a fuse.
Driven by certain parties, the media immediately began to cling to this matter and wouldn't let go.
Bruce Joel Rubin was naturally the first target of media inquiries.
Originally, this matter could have been dispelled if Bruce Joel Rubin had firmly denied it. However, Bruce Joel Rubin did not do so immediately.
As for the reason, it ultimately came down to profit.
Based on the current box office momentum, the North American total for 'The Sixth Sense' was generally predicted to be between $250 million and $300 million, and the global box office could very likely double that to reach $600 million. A global total of $600 million meant that subsequent revenues from home video and television rights would be enormous.
If Bruce Joel Rubin had signed a contract with Daenerys Entertainment according to the Writers Guild of America's 'Basic Agreement' back then, he would have easily received millions of dollars in backend income in the future based just on the profit-sharing terms of the 'Basic Agreement'.
However, of the three-film deal Bruce Joel Rubin signed with Daenerys Entertainment, only his original work 'Ghost' was signed under the WGA 'Basic Agreement'. For the other two scripts, the first 'Scream' and 'The Sixth Sense', he signed long-term employment contracts to create scripts as a full-time staff writer for the company, with a weekly salary of $2,000.
Bruce Joel Rubin spent roughly 10 weeks on each of the two scripts, 'Scream' and 'The Sixth Sense', receiving $20,000 for each.
According to the contract signed by both parties, as a full-time staff writer, Bruce Joel Rubin did not enjoy profit-sharing rights. This was actually a common practice in Hollywood to circumvent the WGA 'Basic Agreement' and save on budgets. Hollywood studios generally have their own staff writers who create scripts based on ideas from studio executives or other sources. Even if they are members of the Writers Guild, they often cannot obtain the backend profit-sharing stipulated in the 'Basic Agreement'.
Doesn't the WGA do anything about it?
Although the WGA is a powerful industry association that strikes most frequently in Hollywood, as long as both parties are willing and no member files a complaint, they generally do not intervene.
In fact, it wasn't just the WGA; similar phenomena were common in the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild.
Steven Spielberg had once been publicly complained about by actors for being very stingy with salaries. To compress actor pay and the backend profit-sharing also stipulated in the Actors Guild's basic agreement, he would often require actors appearing in his films to sign contracts that circumvented those agreements.
However, there was another common phenomenon in Hollywood.
As long as a film becomes an unexpected box office hit, it is destined to be followed by various disputes stirred up for profit, either unfair distribution among producers and distributors, or someone jumping out to accuse plagiarism and demand compensation, or interested parties believing the studio is hiding profits, and so on and so forth.
A series of phenomenal films over the years, from 'Jaws' and 'Star Wars' in the seventies to 'Top Gun' and 'Rain Man' in recent years, had all failed to escape this 'curse'.
For 'The Sixth Sense', even if the film had only grossed $100 million in North America, Bruce Joel Rubin might still have been able to handle it calmly. After the first 'Scream', he successfully rose to become an A-list screenwriter. Although he did not accept the invitation to write the sequel in favour of high-paying offers from other studios, he had not raised any objections to his original compensation.
However, a super blockbuster with global box office potential heading straight for $600 million made it very difficult for him to maintain his psychological balance.
This imbalance had likely been accumulating since the release of 'Scream' last year.
Thus, when that gossip newspaper article was exposed, Bruce Joel Rubin not only failed to immediately issue a public denial as requested by Daenerys Entertainment, but instead played both sides with the media while making demands to Daenerys Entertainment. He hoped that as the creator of the scripts for 'Scream' and 'The Sixth Sense', he could receive a certain amount of compensation from the films' massive profits, and he bluntly asked for a one-time payment of $5 million.
Simon was very angry about this.
Another guy who was unwilling to abide by a contract and even used his leverage to intimidate.
Simon was a person who valued contracts very much. Just like with last year's 'Pulp Fiction', Orion recovered at least $100 million in net profit from over $300 million in global box office, while he could only get over $15 million in box office profit-sharing. However, since the contract was as such, Simon never regretted it.
There was also that film commitment he owed to Disney. According to the original agreement, Simon could have gotten out of it by simply paying a few million dollars in liquidated damages. Compared to the scale of hundreds of millions in net profit from one of his films, it would have been completely worth it, but Simon had no intention of doing so.
Although Simon stood by his contracts, what Daenerys Entertainment encountered was one instance of backtracking after another.
Simon originally did not intend to compromise. Everyone's contracts were in black and white, and many details from back then were on record. Even if they went to court, Daenerys Entertainment had nothing to fear.
However, under Amy's persuasion and to avoid this matter affecting 'The Sixth Sense' while its box office situation was excellent, Simon reluctantly agreed to the proposal for a private settlement. Bruce Joel Rubin also likely realized that if his demands were brought into the open, it would be difficult to get a result favourable to him. After several rounds of bargaining between Daenerys Entertainment and the other party's lawyers, a settlement amount of $2 million was quickly confirmed.
However, the tree craves stillness, but the wind won't subside.
Just as Daenerys Entertainment was about to reach a settlement with Bruce Joel Rubin, the Writers Guild of America, which already had a poor relationship with Daenerys Entertainment, suddenly jumped out and announced a public investigation into Daenerys Entertainment's signing of irregular agreements with WGA members that harmed the interests of the association's members.
In Hollywood, not to mention low-level writers, even the top-tier golden screenwriters often take on side jobs, spending a few weeks as a 'script doctor' for certain projects. They receive a generous one-time payment, do not participate in credits, do not ask for profit-sharing, and of course, do not need to be responsible for the film's commercial success or failure.
It was also not uncommon for an entire script to be completed without credit. In the original timeline, the real screenwriter for Jim Carrey's famous 'Dumb and Dumber' was not the Farrelly Brothers; the first draft of the script actually came from the hand of 'Home Alone' writer John Hughes.
Things are always like this: if no one takes it seriously, everything is fine, but once it is taken seriously, it's trouble.
The grievances between the two sides from last year's writers' strike were too deep, and perhaps there was some push from other forces. The Writers Guild of America was clearly very happy to take this matter seriously with Daenerys Entertainment. They even forcibly demanded that Daenerys Entertainment actively cooperate with the investigation, otherwise they would place Daenerys Entertainment on the Guild's blacklist and prohibit Guild members from continuing to work with them.
The serious consequences caused by the WGA strike last year were still fresh in memory. A statement from the WGA threatening to specifically target Daenerys Entertainment with a 'strike' naturally could not be ignored by Simon.
If the worst-case scenario happened and they were unprepared, many ongoing projects at Daenerys Entertainment could come to a standstill. This year's fall television season was approaching. If some series from the television department could not be delivered on time due to a lack of writers, it would not only hit Daenerys Entertainment's television business hard but also require paying large sums in liquidated damages to the networks.
Since this matter was destined not to be quietly covered up, Daenerys Entertainment immediately abandoned the plan for a private settlement with Bruce Joel Rubin. While cooperating with the WGA's so-called investigation, they also openly publicized the inside story of the whole matter in the media.
Whether it was 'Scream' or 'The Sixth Sense', Simon had personally completed what could be called a detailed story outline back then and had also discussed more script details with Bruce Joel Rubin in private. Bruce Joel Rubin contributed very few personal ideas to the two scripts; his work was limited to expanding Simon's concepts into full scripts of about two hours.
It wasn't just the story outlines; meeting records were available for several meetings between Simon and Bruce Joel Rubin.
With all of this exposed, the rights and wrongs of the matter were something any normal person could probably figure out.
Santa Monica.
The time was Friday July 28th, 1989.
Simon was no longer busy with the post-production of 'Batman' this morning and arrived at his office at the company headquarters early.
When Amy walked in, Simon was looking through the box office data reports for the past week.
Previously, on July 21st, only one film was released in North American theatres: a low-budget comedy from Orion Pictures called 'UHF'. It told a story happening at a television station, somewhat similar to the Fox film from two years ago, 'Broadcast News', which starred William Hurt and Holly Hunter and was a success in both box office and awards.
However, 'UHF' did not have the good luck of 'Broadcast News'. It opened on 1,295 screens, but its first-week box office was only $3.52 million. it posed no threat to the still-strong 'The Sixth Sense' and was even inferior to 'The Bodyguard', which collected another $5.07 million in its 8th week of release.
On this week's box office charts, 'The Sixth Sense', entering its fourth week of release, finally saw its box office decline begin to widen, reaching 19%. It collected another $31.06 million in seven days, with a cumulative box office of $150.02 million. Its data in all aspects remained far ahead of the pack.
Warner Bros.' 'Lethal Weapon 2' and Disney's resilient 'Honey, I Shrunk The Kids' occupied the second and third positions, respectively.
Released on July 14th, '007: Licence to Kill' set a new North American box office low for the spy film series when adjusted for inflation. Its first week of opening only brought in $13.03 million, and this week's box office plummeted again by 39%, collecting only $7.83 million. The two-week cumulative box office of $20.86 million was only equivalent to half of the single-week box office of 'The Sixth Sense' in its fourth week.
Although the overseas market has always accounted for the bulk of the 007 series' box office and it has never lost money to date, the domestic box office for this sequel was expected to be only over $30 million in North America, a figure that fell far short of the producers' expectations.
Simon remembered that in the original timeline, due to the failure of this sequel and some copyright litigation entanglements, the 007 series, which had steadily maintained a sequel every two or three years, did not manage to release another new work until 1995 after 'Licence to Kill'. The interval was as long as 6 years, and the lead actor was replaced by Pierce Brosnan.
Amy sat down opposite Simon and waited patiently for a moment. Noticing him look up, she then said: "The WGA just sent someone over to take away some files regarding 'Scream' and 'The Sixth Sense'. Also, regarding the 'Rain Man' matter, MGM had originally dropped the idea of formally filing a lawsuit, but they just called, and their attitude has become forceful again. Perhaps this lawsuit is already inevitable".
Simon still had his hand on the box office report and asked Amy: "What do you think is going on this time?"
Amy shook her head: "It's hard to say. Someone is definitely targeting us, but perhaps it's not just one company; those people are probably just going with the flow. After all, we were the ones who proactively exposed a vulnerability this time. Well, MGM is just being completely unreasonable"
Simon picked up a pencil near his hand and looked back at the box office report in front of him. He had actually been thinking about this just now. Moreover, the conclusion he reached was roughly similar to Amy's.