Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1381 Multimedia CD
"Thanks, David. I really appreciate your help..."

"Don't worry about it, Ronald. Hey, if you're interested in movie star collections, there are many wealthy people in the former alliance who are interested. We can cooperate..."

"Of course, we exchanged information. Those people don't understand anyway. They get excited when they hear that it's Hollywood star stuff. Maybe they have only seen those classic Hollywood movies and only know those stars."

"Hahaha, you're really humorous, but I like your attitude. Just like you said, sharing what we have..."

Ronald put down the phone. The auction of Audrey Hepburn's belongings was actually handled by her family and partner. These people did not respect Hepburn's privacy very much, but handed them all to the auction house. The jewelry that Gregory Peck had given to Hepburn before was expected to fetch a high price because they had filmed "Roman Holiday" together, so they were unwilling to withdraw the auction and sell it to Ronald privately.

Ronald had to use his relationship with David Geffen, who was very popular with old stars in Hollywood and European film circles because of his art collection. With his intervention, Christie's Auction House persuaded Hepburn's partner to remove the jewelry that Gregory Peck had previously given her and sold it to Ronald at a price higher than the expected auction price.

Gregory Peck was very satisfied with the jewelry Ronald brought to his door. He used his many years of position as a union and college leader to call many surviving old stars, publicizing Ronald's attitude of respecting the elderly and asking them to cheer for Ronald's movies. He also said that if there were any problems that could not be solved in the future, they could try looking for Ronald and he would definitely help if he could.

Ronald took this opportunity to discuss the copyrights of classic movies with many old stars. The copyrights of most of these movies were in the hands of the eight major film studios in America at that time. Of course, after decades of evolution, many copyrights have been transferred and acquired to other studios.

For example, RKO, which was once a major studio and was acquired by aviation tycoon Hughes, has produced classic films such as "Citizen Kane", "King Kong" and "The African Queen". The home entertainment rights of his film library (the rights to produce videotapes) were acquired by Jane Fonda's husband Ted Turner.

However, the home entertainment rights of most movies are still scattered in the hands of major studios, and there is no image of packaged sales. However, these stars have good relationships with retired senior executives of many studios after all. If they appeal, it is not difficult to let Ronald's company handle the videotape distribution under the same conditions.

With this unexpected surprise, Ronald also had good luck in another merger and acquisition business.

The standard collection company that he asked Michel Cannold to find, which was the first in the American market to adopt the envelope-cut transfer format with black borders on the top and bottom and retaining the original frame and editing, was experiencing a crisis of trust.

The label's parent company, Voyager, was co-founded by three founders, Jon Turrell, Bill Baker, and Ari Stein. The fourth shareholder, Robert Stein, was a technology expert who convinced the three founders to use LaserDisc to distribute these classic films.

This initiative was a great success because the DVD media can accommodate better clarity and more behind-the-scenes materials. Robert Stein also used this feature to expand the use of DVDs and produced many educational DVDs suitable for students, such as baseball, hummingbirds, foreign history, artists, musicians, etc.

As a result, the company moved from Hollywood, close to the film studios, to New York, closer to television stations and the Ministry of Education in Washington, DC.

Although the sales of this part were also very good, it was still far from the original intention of the three founders to re-release some classic movies. Coupled with some power struggles, problems arose among the four people. Before Ronald contacted them, they were discussing the company's future development strategy and whether it could be divided into two companies.

Originally, both parties were interested in parting ways, but rebuilding an expensive assembly line made everyone unwilling to do so. Now a wealthy man from Hollywood came with a checkbook to discuss the acquisition, which cleared away many obstacles.

The condition that Ronald negotiated with them was to buy out the shares of Robert Stein, who wanted to shift his main business to educational DVDs, and make him independent from the company. Then he would invest some money to build a new DVD production line and become the major shareholder of Navigator.

The obstacle in the negotiation was the number of shares and the asking price. This was a private company, not listed, so whether to sell or not and how much to sell were actually decided by the shareholders.

Robert Stein was easier to talk to. He had always wanted to start his own business. Ronald negotiated with him for $25 million to buy out 15% of his shares, and he agreed. But the remaining three shareholders did not want Ronald to become the controlling shareholder, so they only agreed to give up 20% of their shares, and each of them would retain %, so that they could unite and resist Ronald's will. They said that the three of them were experts in film history, and only the films they agreed on could be included in the "Criterion Collection" and re-released as classics.

Ronald, of course, refused to do so. With such constraints, it was impossible for his "Standard Collection" to become a source of his influence in Hollywood. He only agreed to at least 60% of the shares, or directly increase the money to buy them out.

The three founders used as their argument in the negotiations that they had negotiated the home entertainment rights to many classic movies in the past. Without this, the Standard Collection would not have become a well-known brand in its own fan circle.

And those old stars did their own public relations and asked Ronald to help them make the best conversion version of their masterpieces, so that they could once again meet the audience in their original form and be passed down forever.

This instantly gave Ronald the upper hand in the negotiation with Navigator. Anyway, his dozens of DVDs were no longer important. Rather than staying in the company and being treated as a subordinate by Ronald, it was better to take the money and leave. The three founders all agreed to sell their shares to Ronald at a premium of 6 million each, and then hold a symbolic portion of the shares. They would also retain a share of the dozens of movies that had been released in the past and the future reprints.

On the other hand, Robert Stein, who originally wanted to take the money and run away, came back to Ronald after learning about this and decided to keep his educational DVDs in the company and not ask for the five million. He only wanted to have a share in the new company equal to the five million, and to contribute to the new Navigator Company as a technical expert. He was the one who did the hard work among the founders, and now that the big boss had invested money, it didn't matter who he worked for.
That day, Robert Stein came to Los Angeles and personally presented his business plan to the new boss Ronald.

"Robert, you are also a shareholder of the company. You can let your subordinates do these things." Ronald also found it a little funny to see Robert Stein busying around on his computer at home, connecting all kinds of cables to a new device. This guy is a complete technical expert who wants to do everything himself. He has accepted him as a small shareholder of the new Navigator and is ready to give him 15% of the shares and a reward of one million US dollars, so that he can continue to work as the general manager here with peace of mind and maintain the stability of the team.

"No, Ronald, I love doing this. Besides, I also want you to see how convenient it is for anyone to enjoy this advanced education method. Anyone can finish it in ten minutes by reading the instructions. Ding Ding..."

Robert Stein turned around and showed Ronald a white box and two small white plastic speakers that he had just connected.

"What is this?" Ronald felt very familiar with it. This white box looked like a Sony CD player, but it was bigger and more angular. Ronald also recognized the connected cables as an audio cable and a data cable connected to the computer.

"Please turn on your computer..."

Ronald turned on the computer, and Robert Stein fiddled with it for a long time, with blue screens and restarts, far longer than ten minutes. But he finally got it done.

A CD-like disc was put into the white box. There was a crackling noise. Stein double-clicked an icon on the Windows desktop of the computer, and a screen popped up.

"Who is this person?" Ronald saw a person wearing medieval clothes with a pattern of five-line music on his head and a line of small words next to it, "Trout Quintet, Franz Schubert"

Ronald picked up the mouse and clicked it, and a person's commentary was added to explain the background of this quintet. Clicking the directory icon of the movement below, the music appeared and played on the speaker.

"Hey, Dad..."

The trout quintet had a beautiful melody and rhythmic piano and string music, which pleased Ronald's eldest son, Roger, who was running around in the corridor and tilted his head to come in.

Ronald held Roger in his arms and let him click the mouse to play. He didn't need to learn anything. He figured out the connection between the buttons and the music on his own and had a lot of fun.

"Roger, your father is at work, don't disturb him?" Diane ran in and wanted to take Roger away, making him twist and turn in his mother's arms.

"Diane, Roger is working for me, isn't he, Roger?"

"Dad, work, Roger..."

The child is very playful and after fiddling with it for a few times, he picked up the mouse and started clicking buttons randomly.

"Robert, I think your demonstration is very successful. It is an educational tool that a child will fall in love with without any training. It can be sold very well in the market without going through the public relations education system." Ronald turned around and shook hands with the somewhat nervous Robert Stein. The demonstration was very successful, so he handed him the contract.

"Show it to your lawyer. If you're willing, I'll have my assistant send you a check tomorrow..."

"It's a pleasure to work with you..." Robert Stein let out a long sigh and shook hands with little Roger. If the kid hadn't come to play, Ronald probably wouldn't have agreed to his sales pitch so easily.

"How is it? Do you have any new strategic plans?" Since Stein also expressed that he was very satisfied with the conditions, Ronald took the opportunity to talk to him about the next business plan.

"I think the cooperation with Janus Films is the most important part of the film business. Multimedia CD, I call that thing multimedia CD, because it has text, sound, and film... We need a big distributor to cooperate with."

"OK, tell me first, what is the matter with Janus Films?"

"Janus was the largest distributor of European films in America. They were responsible for distributing most of the films by international masters such as Kurosawa, Antonioni, Eisenstein, Ingmar Bergman, Fellini, Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, and Truffaut in America, so they own the American copyrights of these works."

"Really? I thought Kurosawa himself and Roger Corman's New World Pictures owned part of the copyrights of Bergman and Kurosawa." Ronald really didn't understand the copyrights of these foreign films. The contracts here might be even more complicated than Hollywood's copyrights.

"It's true. Mr. Kurosawa himself and Mr. Coleman's New World only released some of the works of several directors after they became famous. As for their most famous and representative works that made their names, they were originally introduced and released by Janus Company."

Lindsay Doll, Ronald's personal attorney, has now taken over Mickey Kent's portion of the business, is delving into Hollywood copyright law, and is also hiring more people to fill out Ronald's legal team.

Her children were also playing at Ronald's house, and they were lying on the table with little Roger, playing those multimedia CDs, having a lot of fun. In particular, there was a demonstration CD with an insect theme, and the two children were screaming and having a lot of fun watching it.

"So that's how it is. Then there's no need to talk about cooperation. Let Ed Bastian contact Janus and acquire him directly."

Ronald looked through Janus' copyright list, many of which were masterpieces of famous directors praised by several major directors. Such a library is a great start to promote the re-release of classic movies on home media.

These movies are must-sees for veteran movie fans and students of film schools. In this way, the so-called "standard collection" has become worthy of its name. Anyway, a person who is just starting to become a movie fan can fully satisfy their need to become a "movie fan" by getting a set of this "standard collection".

In fact, many directors and actors in the industry have not seen these classic movies. Ronald and his team started with the international classics that were easier to get, and then relied on their fame to convince the Hollywood studios to hand over the classic re-release business to them, which was much smoother.

"Why are you spending money so quickly lately?" Lindsay Doll had already seen the checks for tens of millions signed by Ronald and found that her employer seemed to be spending money very quickly recently.

"I can't help it. Art sales are not included in the tax reduction. I can only spend money on a whim. Besides, this is a good business. There is no need for me to save money. Four silk-screened pieces of garbage in exchange for the copyrights of so many artworks, aren't I making a fortune?"

"Hahaha..." Lindsay Doll also found it funny when she heard Ronald disparage Andy Warhol's artwork. She didn't know that when Ronald spent money to buy the four-panel pop art of Marilyn Monroe, he felt heartbroken and suffered a loss for several years.

After the small gathering at home, Ronald went to Cameron's residence. His latest new script had been revised and was waiting for Ronald to read.

"Linda, oh my, this little guy is so cute..."

"Her name is Josephine..."

Linda Hamilton greeted Ronald while holding a little girl, who was her and Cameron's newborn daughter.

Linda Hamilton moved into Cameron's home after filming Terminator 2. But today Linda was dressed very simply, without makeup, and her eyes were red, as if she had just cried. She chatted with Ronald for a few words, then went back to her room and didn't know what she was doing. Josephine also stayed with the nanny.

"Are you two okay?" Ronald saw that Cameron had shaved his beard, but his hair was a mess like a chicken coop.

"Children really make us very confused..." Although Cameron has been married for the third time, this is the first time he has a child.

"Don't you really need to take Linda to see a doctor?" Ronald felt that Linda Hamilton was a little sick.

"Do you think it's necessary? Really?" Cameron didn't believe it at first. Ronald told him that it depends on the person. Diane was very stable before and after giving birth, but Helen had a bad experience. Pregnancy and childbirth are very torturous, especially for actresses. Ronald not only equipped a full set of team, but also found excuses to go to New York to accompany Helen every now and then.

"I'll go see the doctor you recommend, but I have more troublesome things to worry about now."

"what?"

"The heroine..."

Cameron handed over a script. This was his next movie. It happened that Spielberg's post-production work on Dinosaur was gradually reducing the staff, so his movie could be taken over so that he would not have to find high-level special effects personnel.

"Linda?" Ronald thought to himself, isn't your girlfriend just right?
"She's not in good shape right now. Besides, would you let Diane film this kind of scene?"

"Uh..." Ronald saw the scene that Cameron was referring to, where she did a striptease in front of her husband (scheduled to star Schwarzenegger)?

"Sigourney?" Sigourney Weaver is Cameron's long-term collaborator and has also had connections with Ronald. She is an actor who is fully capable of playing this complex role.

"Linda said I..."

"Uh, okay." It's hard to deal with when actresses become jealous, especially since Linda Hamilton herself has done similar things with Cameron.

20th Century Fox will be the domestic distributor of the film, and Cameron's own company has also invested a large portion of the money. As a long-term supporter of Cameron, Ronald also received a portion of the investment share.

The heroine of this play is not just a vase, she has important roles to play, but she also has to be as beautiful as a vase.

"I'll ask someone to think of someone suitable..." Ronald knew this was the key to box office success, so he agreed to help recommend someone. If there were nude scenes like this, his girlfriends couldn't recommend anyone.