Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1360 Isn’t this a plagiarism of Kurosawa’s script?

"Why are they all Die Hard? I read all these scripts, and they are all adaptations of Die Hard. They are either Die Hard in the mall, Die Hard in the school, Die Hard in the hospital, or Die Hard on the train..."

Ronald was at home, rummaging through a box of action film scripts that David Simkins had brought him and that had been put in the production company's warehouse but had not been green-lit. But after watching a few of them, he was fed up with them.

"Boss, this is inevitable. This is the trend brought about by your success. Just like the early James Bond movies were a big hit, all the companies made 007 movies about various unknown spy organizations.
The Kings, Smart, Mission Impossible, that was all the stuff on American TV back then.”

"But it can't be all Die Hard, right? Where are those traditional action movies?" On the one hand, Ronald felt that he didn't want to follow the trend, but on the other hand, this type of movie had indeed reached a period of fatigue, and even Bruce Willis himself didn't want to make a third film.

"Boss, you told me this yourself. Audiences will get tired of a subject much later than creators. Look at the movie Ascension that was released last weekend. The box office shows that Die Hard on Battleship is still..."

"Oh, don't mention that, it's annoying me..."

The movie "Assassination" starring Steve Siegel was still released with newsreel clips of General George Sr. The lines directly attacking the General were deleted, but the entire editing still strongly implied that George Sr. was ignorant of the lives of ordinary sailors on the battleship.

This is particularly fatal given that George Sr. suffered a heavy defeat in the second televised debate and his approval rating plummeted.

Barbara was anxious and called Ronald to ask him if he had any solution, whether to sue Siegel directly or to take public counterattack to boost his support rate. Ronald had no choice but to bring Roger Ailes along, and taught Barbara a lesson on one of the most basic concepts of public relations - don't use attacking your opponent to deny your own mistakes when others are telling the truth.

Barbara got the right idea and showed the magnanimity of a president by not pursuing the matter. However, her youngest son Jeb was dissatisfied with the matter and asked consultants from his current campaign team to brainwash his mother.

Ronald immediately cut off all further contact with Barbara. When he answered the phone, he only mentioned that he would help the president and his wife to claim compensation from Siegel later and push Hollywood to regulate the use of images involving politicians. He said he didn't know anything about other campaign strategies. He also forbade Roger Ailes to say anything about the campaign.

Roger Ailes also knew what was right and what was wrong. Jeb was Barbara's favorite son and would not receive any complaints for his failure, but those who were involved now might be used as scapegoats... He also completely disappeared from Washington and New York and hid in Los Angeles to write his own program plan.

"Okay, no Die Hard... But, Ronald, the problem now is that no one watches traditional action movies anymore. The only ones that are still popular with the audience are Die Hard and other action movies that show that the protagonist is not a superhuman..."

David Simkins obviously put in some effort and gave some reasons, which means that Die Hard-style scripts are still popular now.

"Okay, keep picking, but don't give me those things that are so obviously imitating Die Hard. Find something original and exciting..." Ronald also understood that Hollywood is in a burst. It's not common to see that a good script is like "Back to the Future" at first glance. Instead, it often takes the director's secondary creation to become a good script.

……

"This is crazy. George Sr. has offended the military industry so much. I always thought they would let Perot run at the last minute and then call for support for George Sr. Who could have known that something like this would happen?"

A few days later, Roger Ailes came to visit. After watching the TV debate between the candidates for Vice President, he had completely given up hope for George Sr.'s re-election. Coupled with some of the things shown in the release of Hidden Dragon, Roger Ailes completely gave up the hope of making any achievements in the political arena and focused on developing the television industry.

"Why do you say that?" Ronald also watched the debate. Of the three candidates for vice president, George's deputy, Quayle, was still as silly as ever, while Al Gore of the Donkey Party performed the best. In fact, if George's victory in the Cold War hadn't made him afraid to challenge, he might have defeated the scandal-ridden governor of Arkansas in the primary election. He probably regrets it now. And Perot's deputy, the admiral, performed terribly.

However, the debate performance of the vice president has never had much impact on the general election, because under the American system, the vice president is just a spare tire... I don't know why Roger Ailes made such a judgment.

"Did you pay attention to what Admiral James Stockdale said?"

“Philosophical?” Ronald watched the debate, and Roger Ailes certainly wasn’t referring to the later moments when James Stockdale pretended not to understand questions and fiddled with his hearing aid to avoid answering.

What was impressive was that when everyone started giving their opening remarks, he asked himself three of philosophers' favorite questions: Who am I, where am I, and why am I here?

So much so that in what the media called the most intense presidential debate in 32 years, James Stockdale seemed to be just a bystander, watching Quayle and Gore on the edge of their seats, arguing with the host and the audience asking questions, and not saying anything meaningful.

Seeing Ronald's puzzled look, Roger Ailes gave a sly smile and explained to the political novice. This performance showed that James Stockdale had no interest in running for election, and Perot did not spend any energy on the campaign, but only used large donations from unknown sources to make various advertisements on TV.

Why do these two people continue to participate in this meaningless election instead of withdrawing from the election? Why do some people continue to make large donations to candidates who have no hope of winning?

In Roger Ailes's view, their campaign ads were also aimed at George Sr., and his comeback after the election had only one purpose, which was to try to divide George Sr.'s votes so that he could not get the support of all the marginal voters of the Elephant Party.

"This is like a script by Akira Kurosawa, huh? With just one observation of details, Oda Nobunaga knew that there was a big problem within Takeda Shingen." Ronald admired Roger Ailes's sharp thinking. Now that Lao Wang is no longer able to suppress internal conflicts, some people may hope that the Elephant Party will lose.

……

Roger Ailes's inference has new evidence. The special election for the Senate in California ended first and the results came out a few weeks earlier than the normal Senate and presidential elections. Dianne Feinstein, the female candidate of the Donald Trump Party, really defeated the Elephant Party candidate appointed by the previous senator and won this key seat.

Both the Donkey Party and women's groups organized victory parades, and Los Angeles was very lively for a while.

"Jim, this is a good movie. I'm fed up with all the Die Hard movies. You're the 007 of the new era..."

The road was blocked by the parade, so Ronald had to discuss things with Cameron at home. After the two made the decision to compete for the special effects personnel, Cameron also looked for good scripts everywhere.

Cameron first booked Schwarzenegger's next schedule and asked him to pay attention to the script. He didn't get the script, but Schwarzenegger's wife Mary Shriver recommended a Chinese movie to him.

The movie is called "La Totale!" and tells the story of Francois, a telecommunications employee, who was mocked by his friends for living a boring life on his 40th birthday. His wife Helena was also frustrated that her husband had to work overtime on his birthday to do boring work.

Helena later met Simon, a used car salesman who lived in a motorhome. Simon often pretended to be a spy to defraud women of their bodies and money.

Unexpectedly, Francois was the real spy. He was not working overtime on his birthday, but monitoring an international arms smuggler. When he found out that Helena was cheated by Simon, he thought she was cheating on him. He pretended that Simon was a terrorist and persuaded Helena to cooperate in the operation to capture Simon. In the end, he was kidnapped by the international arms smuggler he was actually monitoring during the operation. After confessing his true identity to his wife, they thwarted the terrorists' attempt to blow up the Paris Saint-Germain Stadium.

The whole movie was crude and a typical B-movie, but Ronald, after watching too many Die Hard movies, appreciated the idea very much.

Cameron also liked it, and after asking Ronald for his opinion, he planned to rewrite the script and rewrite the story according to the standards of an A-level movie. In general, the original comedy and story structure of the original movie were retained, but the scenes, explosions, actions, and stars were magnified.

"If you were to write a one-sentence synopsis, what would it be?" Cameron roughly calculated the scene he was going to shoot, and it was estimated that it would cost more than the Terminator sequel. Such a large scene could not be shot with just the money of two people, and investors had to be found.

When looking for investment, this one-sentence summary is more important. It is commonly known as the elevator sales in the industry. It means that when you only have a dozen seconds to sell to investors, you should say something that can arouse the other party's interest in learning more.

Cameron knew that Ronald was an expert in this field, so he wanted to ask him for advice.

"What kind of person would James Bond be if he had to be responsible to his wife when he returned home?" Ronald pondered for a moment and uttered his own golden words.

"That's great, but 007 movies are not popular now, wouldn't it be better to change it to John McClane?"

"Oh, please spare me. I'm about to throw up just hearing about Die Hard, McLean, and Yippee Ki-Yay. Anyway, even if you don't talk about the plot, people are interested in listening to you talk about your movie project for two hours. So, forget it, okay?"

Ronald really didn't like to follow the trend, especially for old movies like this. He just asked Cameron to come up with the script as soon as possible, and then he would gather his connections to hold a special project investment meeting to attract money from Wall Street.

……

“Ronald, I found a script that is not at all like Die Hard’s “Yippee Ki-Yay,” but has all the qualities of Die Hard.

"Can you please not mention the name of that movie? Okay, come here, let's talk."

A few days later, David Simkins suddenly found a good script that he thought was good. He thought Ronald would be satisfied with it, so he came to his house excitedly.

"This is also a film that absorbs the advantages of Tiger's Courage... that blockbuster action film that takes place in a confined space, but it is not about fighting a group of terrorist villains. When I read it for the first time, I read it all in one breath and never thought that it had any intrinsic connection with... that blockbuster action film..."

The script that David Simkins brought was called "Speed," written by a Canadian screenwriter, Graham Yost.

The script tells the story of a detective who discovers a time bomb on a bus that is set to explode if it goes below fifty miles per hour. In the end, he manages to drive around Dodger Stadium and with the help of his companions, he defuses the bomb and saves the lives of everyone on the bus.

"It's still a bit like Die Hard, but you've done your best." Ronald could certainly mention the name of this movie. He flipped through the pages from beginning to end and always felt that the movie had an indescribable sense of familiarity.

"Yeah, I said, this protagonist's personality is totally unlike McClane's. It's just a huge danger in a closed space that the protagonist needs to eliminate. And it's not some terrorist directly on the bus, but a bomb, and our protagonist is fighting the lowest speed."

David Simkins still appreciates this script very much. He thinks it is the best script he can find that is not like Die Hard, but has the advantage of Die Hard in capturing the audience's attention.

"You should talk more with this Graham Yost. I always feel that this script is very familiar. Don't worry about plagiarism."

To be cautious, Ronald told Simkins about his inexplicable sense of familiarity and asked him to verify it.

"Sure thing, I'll ask him where he got his inspiration from, like Working Girl..."

Simkins was referring to the scene in the movie "Working Girl" where Tess told the client how she came up with the idea to buy the radio station, and then the client asked Catherine, but she couldn't tell him, which confirmed whose idea it was.

This is a good way to determine originality. If you are not prepared, it is easy to be speechless and unable to give a reasonable reason when asked.

David Simkins summoned Graham Yost to Daydream's office and informed him of Ronald's interest, and as the latter was delighted, he suddenly asked a question.

"Graham, you're a genius. Ronald rarely expresses surprise at other people's plots. Tell me, how did you come up with this core plot of a bus that can't stop running at high speed?"

"Ha, it's my father. He told me that he had seen a movie called Runaway Train, starring Jon Voight. It said that the train couldn't stop because of a bomb. I thought, there are not many things people can do on the train, but if it's a bus, then the driver can do a lot to stop the bad guys..."

"Is that what he said?" After listening to Simkins' report, Ronald suddenly realized that there was something wrong with this screenwriter.

"That's what he said. I felt something was wrong, so I came to report it right away..."

"Bullshxt!" Ronald got angry and threw the script on the table. He knew the ins and outs of the movie Runaway Train very well because he was an eyewitness.

Director Konchalovsky filmed a script adapted from Kurosawa's original work. This guy changed the appearance of it, and then came up with an excuse saying that it was inspired by Runaway Train. It can be seen that he deliberately plagiarized.

"There is no bomb plot in Runaway Train. That was in the original script adapted from Runaway Train, written by Mr. Akira Kurosawa. This core plot was also used in the Shinkansen Explosion filmed in Japan. Tell this little liar that if he tells the truth, I can still give him a way out..."

(End of this chapter)