Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 720 Small production is worse than publishing it yourself

Although he didn't hold out much hope in his heart, Ronald went to meet two old friends who run a small studio.

One is Roger Coleman, who, after selling New World, formed his own film company.It's still the old money-saving production method, and I'm shooting a new film.

Roger Corman is still the same. He drives to the office early in the morning and personally monitors the progress of each project.In his company, there is no concept called management. He is the only one who makes various decisions with experience and intuition.

The subordinates of the other nominal production managers were not so much producers as Coleman's secretaries.They don't have too much decision-making power, they just upload and issue, and go to the crew to help Coleman keep an eye on the crew not to overspend or time out, otherwise they will notify Coleman to come and tear up the script scenes that cannot be filmed.

"Ronald, welcome to my office. I remember you have been here twice." Coleman asked the secretary to make a cup of cheap coffee for Ronald, and the two began to get down to business.

"I had a very controversial film project that none of the seven major Hollywood studios had the guts to try. I met Gail the other day and she said to me, why don't you go to Roger? He did it in the '[-]s. He dared to shoot motorcycle gangsters in [-] when he was shooting black racial segregation in the South... There is no left-wing progressive theme in Hollywood, so he dared not shoot."

Ronald took two sips of coffee.His ability to distinguish coffee is not as good as black tea.Cheap coffee is also a pleasure to drink.

Come up and give Roger Coleman a challenge, throw a bait and get Coleman's attention.This was a negotiating strategy that Ronald had thought up in advance, so that he would not be intimidated by the controversial plot of designing a Jewish girl.

Roger Coleman has two characteristics. The first is that he likes left-wing progressive themes. He is naturally interested in movies that challenge the conservative and decadent concepts of society.Second, he likes to save money, and he doesn't like big productions that cost 3000 to [-] million yuan. He feels that Hollywood filming is a lot of waste.

"Of course, this is a small production. I calculated that the cost of production is about 450 million. If you can give me a distribution contract, I can find people who are willing to invest. I personally think that this movie will definitely sell well of."

Roger Corman put on his glasses, took the script of "Dirty Dancing" and looked at it carefully.

"Isn't this very controversial?" Coleman spent 10 minutes quickly flipping through the script and asked Ronald.

Coleman didn't think that Jewish girls couldn't fall in love with handsome dancing guys like other ethnicities.

"The story happened in the 60s when JFK was the leader. A girl from a middle-class Jewish family fell in love with a poor Irish boy who was a backup dancer in a resort. Was this deviant at the time?"

Ronald was overjoyed, but he still deliberately reminded the word Jewish girl, and then concentrated on watching Coleman's answer.

"It's not controversial at all. I've never been afraid of this when making movies." Coleman waved his hand, as if to dispel Ronald's concerns.

Then Coleman took off his glasses, sighed softly, and said to Ronald, "If you had come up with this script three years ago, I would have definitely obtained the distribution rights.

But now.You'll have to wait, I probably won't be able to fully restore the right to distribute movies in America until next year. "

"What, you can't distribute movies in America now?"

Roger Coleman explained the troubles he was having, selling New World Pictures for $600 million a few years ago, leaving some favorable terms in his sale contract with New World's new owners .

Shinsegae will help distribute the films produced by Coleman with a 15% discount.

However, New World did not really fulfill this condition after that, and none of the films produced by Coleman's new company were released.So on the one hand, Roger Coleman sued the other party for damages, and asked the other party to return New World Pictures to him.

On the other hand, Coleman had to reorganize the distribution department and began to distribute films himself.

However, New World Pictures seized this loophole of Coleman and countersued Roger Coleman, saying that he violated the contract and that the film was not distributed to New World for distribution according to the contract. Came over to compete with New World for the distribution business and asked Coleman to compensate New World Pictures for its losses.

Since last year, two cases have been scheduled for trial.Now Coleman's new company, Concord Pictures, has put production and distribution on hold in case it gets caught.

"I'm optimistic about the outcome of the case. They said that I sneaked around New World at the end of [-] and early [-] and distributed the film myself. But I sold New World to them and left a favorable distribution The only purpose of the clause is to not want to engage in the high-cost and labor-intensive distribution business anymore. I want to regain the feeling of being a director and producer, and focus on making movies.

My lawyer and I discussed it and concluded that they would either just pay me for my damages and return the New World.Either reach an out-of-court settlement with me, and after paying me a sum of money, everyone will do their own business. "

Ronald only had one word for Coleman in his mind.Even if you don't make a movie, you have the opportunity to get huge compensation.

"Then your production and distribution business has not been greatly hindered?" Ronald asked one more question.He knew that with Coleman's wealth accumulated over the decades of making films, he could have quit the film industry long ago and enjoyed life with his wife Julie and four children.

The only reason why he has to resume the distribution business now, so that he has conflicts with Shinsekai, is that he likes to make movies.

"Hey, who said otherwise?" This is the most painful thing for Coleman.

“I could have produced 15-25 films a year, showing them in drive-ins and small theaters. Every once in a while, a film or two would get a major theatrical hit and go into the big box. Everything’s shut down now.

Let me tell you, I originally had an agreement with Marvel, that is, the comic company, to adapt 'Spider-Man'. Because of this case, the production rights also expired, so I had to return it for free.

How could I deliberately pick up the publishing business again to compete with New World?I can't wait to get rid of all these burdens and concentrate on making movies by myself. "

Coleman had an accident here, and Ronald had to meet Minahan of the Cannon.

Minahan Golan has been very busy since he received [-] million US dollars in financing.After finally catching him in the office through his agent Richard, Ronald hurried to discuss with him with the script.

"Quack quack, Ronald. Did you bring me any good news? We haven't seen each other for a long time. Let me show you the new movie we are going to make first."

Minahan was still very enthusiastic. With Ronald in his arms, he led him to the newly rented office on the first floor, an extra-large office shared by his cousin Yoram.

Seeing that he was still very enthusiastic about him, Ronald was half relieved.At least he won't have anything to do with himself because of the improvement of his financial situation.

"Look, this is our series, 'America Ninja' Part [-], Part [-]." Minahan pointed to two large posters on the wall, a white youth, helping a ninja headband, wearing a ninja clothes, and also holding a ninja sword, posing.

"It's the third and fourth part of 'Vietnam' with Chuck Norris. It's the third and fourth part of 'Men of the Raptors' with Chuck Bronson."

Cannon has already had several successes in this series of movies. Ronald knows that as long as the quality of this kind of movie can be guaranteed, it is easy to make money.

"I've also upgraded now. I didn't think about it two years ago. I don't think about movies with a budget of less than 1000 million."

"1000 million?" Ronald turned his head to look at Minahan. Is the cannon so powerful now?Shoot dozens of films with an investment of more than 1000 million yuan every year, and then distribute them yourself?

"1000 million is still a little less. Let's take a look at these two series, which we produced and released by Warner Bros."

"This is the second big project that Stallone and we have worked together, 'Over the Top', and we're going to put in a $3000 million production budget."

"Which places are we going to save this time? Which villains are we going to fight?" Ronald felt a little uncomfortable. Stallone is here with Cannon, and every film is indeed a big-investment movie.

"Quack, you guessed wrong. Stallone won't kill bad guys this time, I've had a deep chat with him, we're going to switch, this is a family romance movie. He plays a divorced father who hasn't seen his son for a long time, with I took my son, drove a truck, and went to participate in the National Arm Wrestling Competition... In the end, I won the championship and the relationship with my son improved.”

"Wrist-wrestling?" Ronald stroked the beard on his chin. Is this the plot that the idiot came up with?Audiences pay three or four dollars for tickets, and come in to watch Stallone wrestle your wrists? "

"How about it? It's very good, it's an idea I came up with. I will direct this movie myself, quack quack..."

"So you came up with it..." Ronald held back a laugh, Minahan's old habit of always evaluating the thoughts of American audiences with the eyes of foreigners.

This kind of arm wrestling is indeed more popular among truck drivers.But why would the public be interested in such a plot?
How to shoot the final battle?It means that Stallone was beaten by you at the beginning and was about to lose, and then he saw the beauty and his son, regained his strength, turned defeat into victory and won the opponent again?so boring……

"Maybe we can make a sequel." Ronald held back for a long time, and choked out something he thought was humorous.

"Yes, yes, we can also make a sequel, so that we will have the No.3 head star." Minahan looked proud.

"Sequel? The sequel is to increase the difficulty of the game. How do you upgrade by arm wrestling? Could it be... Is it two arm wrestling?" Ronald held back very hard.

"Quack quack, it seems you think it's good too." Minahan looked at Ronald's look of wanting to laugh but didn't, thinking that he and Stallone had a grudge, and he didn't want to see him become a bigger star.

"That's another blockbuster we're working on. It's amazing... I bought the rights to the 'Superman' franchise, the first Superman movie out of Cannonball, and it's going to bring Christopher Reeve back, and we're going to Invest $4000 million."

"Which villain will Superman fight this time?"

"This time it's not a specific villain. We plan to let Superman find all the nuclear weapons in the world, and then send them to space for destruction."

"Um……"

Ronald felt Minahan's mentality change after getting [-] million dollars.The original Coleman-style spirit of shooting small productions in him is gone, and he is now indulging in big productions, blockbusters, and sequels of blockbusters.

He might not be interested in a small production like "Dirty Dancing" that I wanted to cast with less than 500 million yuan.

"Why don't you distribute these two films yourself, but ask Warner Brothers?"

"Hey, this is also because of the inconvenient scheduling of blockbuster films in the theater market in America. Warner Bros. has no ability to produce blockbuster films now, so they can only rely on distribution channels to distribute large blockbuster films to others. Their studios in Burbank are all assigned Ramon and Universal took a big chunk of it. It made them do small productions and go abroad to shoot."

"We were in a hurry to get financing, and we didn't have time to book the schedule a year and a half in advance. When we recover the cost of these films next year, we can distribute them ourselves."

"Who is Warner Bros. speaking now? Is it still Robert Daly?" Ronald didn't have much dealings with Warner, so he took the opportunity to inquire.

"He doesn't care about the specific affairs. Daly found a capable Jew, Terry Semel, and now he is mainly in charge of Warner's affairs. Why, do you have anything to do with him?"

"I'll just ask." When Ronald heard that he was a Jew, he had no intention of further inquiry.

"Ronald, why don't you come and work with me. Now that I have the conditions, I can give the green light to your project and shoot a movie with a production budget of 500 million without any problem.

What do you want to shoot?We got Tom Cruise, and you guys collaborate on an air combat movie? "

"I don't have any other plans for the time being. The project at hand is a feature film. I signed a contract with MGM. As for Tom, you still have to find his agent."

Ronald rejected Minahan's invitation. He felt that the current Minahan was very different from what he remembered. He was super confident and even a little crazy.

While the two were chatting, staff kept asking him to sign and ask for work instructions.There is no such thing as Minahan's super focus on a project when the two collaborated on "Breakdancing".

Besides, even if this kind of small production is released by Cannonball, it will not be able to squeeze into the good schedule of mainstream theaters.Even Minahan's Cannon now depends on Warner Bros. to get the real blockbuster.

If possible, let Daydream Films establish a simple distribution department, just like Roger Corman did, and try to distribute a movie at a low cost.

"I just don't know, how much does it cost to produce and distribute a movie by myself?"

"Are you really not coming? I have a good new project here. I bought the production rights of Spider-Man from Marvel. Are you interested?" Promote your project.

"Spider-Man?" Ronald thought, didn't Marvel just take it back from Coleman?
"Yes, I bought the production rights for five years. If you are willing to be the director, we can start to find someone to write the script. In this way, Superman, Spiderman, and the two most popular heroes in America belong to Cannon .”

"If there is no script, I'll forget it. I don't have the energy to start a new script right now. Let's talk about it after I finish the project at hand."

Ronald didn't bother Minahan's precious time anymore, nor did he take out the small production script of less than 500 million to be ashamed, and shook hands with him to say goodbye.

　only one chapter today

　
(End of this chapter)