To do this, you will need to have signed up for a private league and selected the option of "Commishoner assigns" under transactions.

Ok. Much like acquisitions at a real studio, this manner of picking up 'free agents' comes down to a bidding situation. Here's how it works:

Each studio is given an acquisition budget of $10 million to be spent AFTER the draft.

At any time during the week, any studio may notify their league manager (commissioner) of a film they wish to nominate-usually via email-that nobody owns. Once a week, on a pre-determined day (we suggest Tuesday), the Commissioner will announce any nominations from the prior week to all studios (and all pertinent information regarding the movie), and open it up for bidding for a one week period (with all bids needing to be received by the Commissioner by the following Monday at midnight).

During the week, studios interested in bidding on the nominated film, send a private email to the commissioner announcing how much of their acquisition budget (from $1 million to $10 million) they wish to bid on the film. Commissioners are on their honor not to open those emails or to send an email to themselves of their intended bid, if they so choose.

On the following Tuesday, the Commissioner announces the highest bid, and gives the Nominating Studio the opportunity to Top the bid, by paying $1 million more than the highest bidder (so long as they have enough left in their acquisition budget).

If the Nominating Studio wishes to Top, the film goes on their slate, provided they drop a film to ensure they never have more than six films on their slate at once.

If the Nominating Studio elects NOT to top, the film goes to the highest bidder. If more than one studio bid the same amount, the Commissioner will determine the highest bid to go to the first email he/she receives (courtesy of the email time stamp).

If you utilize this advanced option AND you play an auction version of the game (where every film has an auction price), consider this additional wrinkle:

The dropping of a film nets 1/4 the purchase price for acquisition money. This nuance allows for the retention of one-quarter the worth of any film purchased during the draft that a studio decides to drop. In other words, if during your draft auction you spend $20 million to purchase a film, and you decide to drop the film from your slate, you will receive 1/4 of the purchase price, or $5 million for your acquisition budget. As far as rounding up goes, if the purchase price is not exactly divisible by 4, then if there is a remainder of $1 million or $2 million, you round down; if there is a remainder of $3 million you round up.

In other words, if you purchase a film for $7 million, you receive $2 million in acquisition money, because 7 divided by 4 equals 1 with a remainder of 3. If you only spent $6 million on the film, then you only receive $1 million in acquisition money because 4 divides into 6 one time, with a remainder of 2. The caveat to this is if you decide to drop multiple films at one time, you can add the total of their purchase price to try to accrue an extra $1 million in acquisition money.

For example: If you choose to drop two films, one purchased for $5 million, and another purchased for $2 million, you add their combined purchase price ($7 million) and this nets you $2 million in acquisition money. However, if you would have dropped the films individually, the film purchased for $5 million would net you $1 million in acquisition money ($5 million divided by 4 equals 1 with a remainder of 1); and the film purchased for $2 million would net 0 acquisition dollars as you must spend at least $3 million to receive $1 million back.

While all of this takes a moment to get used to it, it best replicates what it's like to run a Hollywood studio, where decisions of what movies to pick up on the open market (at Film Festivals) is all part of the job. Good luck!

The person hiding behind the Howard Roark moniker is an industry veteran who will refrain from listing his credits and accomplishments as it would negate the use of the Howard Roark moniker. Just accept that he thinks he knows more than you. In the words of Kazunori Nozawa: Trust me! Email him at howard@fantasymoguls.com