Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 971 Take what you need
The series of disputes between Minahan and Cannon all go back to the time when he and Yoram spent money lavishly.

At that time, they passed Milken, a Wall Street bond tycoon, and used junk bonds to raise more than [-] million US dollars.But both of them spend money very fast.Among them, Minahan invested heavily in comic book adaptation movies, such as the fourth part of Superman, and Heman the universe king.And Yoram didn't know how to make films, so he spent money by buying theaters, including the Starlight Cinemas in Britain.

When the bullets ran out, the strategy of the two changed from helping each other to tearing each other down.Minahan's Superman [-] failed due to insufficient budget, and Yoram did not have enough money to acquire a theater chain owned by EMI.

Since then, there has been a rift between the two, and Cannon is facing bankruptcy.At this time, Yoram's commercial talent played a more important role than Minahan's filmmaking talent.He brought in Hair Country EMI, which wanted to enter Hollywood, and facilitated a merger and acquisition plan. In this way, EMI invested in Cannon, temporarily solving the funding problem.

However, the interest on junk bonds is very high, and the new "Cannon EMI" dare not give Minahan the power to shoot big productions, and the company's income is still not enough to fill the big hole.When the stock market crashed, there were no financing channels on Wall Street, and Cannon was facing the biggest crisis and almost went bankrupt.

At the critical moment when the SEC launched an investigation into the falsification of financial statements of the Cannonball listed company, Yoram recruited an Italian banker, Giancarlo Paretti.He initiated the acquisition of Cannon with a huge amount of funds from the Lyon Bank of China.

And one of his conditions is to kick Minahan out of the cannon and be the talker of the cannon himself.

"I predicted Cannon's financial crisis in advance, so several of my confirmed new film projects used 21st Century Films, which signed a [-]-part distribution agreement with Cannon, so..."

Minahan told the truth, he looked at Ronald, expecting his reaction.

"This guy has kept a hand on his cousin. It seems that he has already planned to run away. It's just Giancarlo Paretti's unexpected acquisition that disrupted his plan."

"Then you said the terms of withdrawal?" Ronald asked again, noncommittal.

"That was a supplementary clause that Yoram and I signed when the cannon was in crisis. If someone else wants to buy our cannon, both of us must agree to fulfill it. If one party does not agree, then you can withdraw Cannon, transfer the shares to another party.

If you are dissatisfied with the stock price transferred by the other party, you can also automatically initiate an anti-acquisition to acquire the equity in the other party's hands at the same price.This provision is automatic. "

"I don't understand. It seems that you all arranged it very well." Ronald was puzzled. This kind of clause must have been designed by a lawyer, taking all the conditions into consideration. If it is implemented according to this clause, it shouldn't happen. what is the problem.Why hasn't Minahan settled the conditions for his exit?

But when he thought back then, the two brothers were good enough to imitate each other's handwriting and signature on each other's checks, and now they had to be so defensive, Ronald still felt a little embarrassed.

"It's not that bastard Yoram..." Minahan turned around, "Ah... bah..." Another mouthful of phlegm spit on the ground, "That bastard forged my signature on the withdrawal contract, damn it This Judas, this Milik, this Tobias..."

Minahan uttered the names of several traitorous villains in the Jewish classics in one breath, and cursed angrily.

"Don't throw up, this is my office..." Ronald frowned. Minahan's behavior actually has some habits of his Russian Jewish ancestors. When he said the name of a villain who betrayed him, he would go to the office. To spit on the ground means to curse.

"I sympathize with you, Minahan. However, in order to acquire 21st Century Pictures, I have formed a team of lawyers, accountants, and the management team of my company. I can't give up just because of your words. very expensive."

"I know, Ronald, I can give in. You just need to let me pick a few movies that have production rights in the 21st century and let me take them away. I can talk about the rest. You know my character. If you can't continue to make movies, My soul would be gone.

This is an artist's begging for an artist, Ronald...I didn't expect to end up in a situation like today, and it's all due to Minahan...Ah...Bah..."

Ronald reached out to stop Minahan who was about to spit, "Let me think about it, you give me the list of movies you want...I have to have a meeting with the team to discuss..."

……

"Could Minahan be playing tricks on purpose? If we acquire the 21st Century, the acquisition fee prepared by Cannon, we can give Minahan severance pay. If he doesn't take away the movie project, he can get more cash. According to his system The average rate of return of a film, it is more cost-effective to take the money."

In the acquisition team, PwC accountant Ed Bastian took the production list, looked it over and over again, and compared it with the list of Cannonball's released movies over the years in the bankruptcy application documents received by the court. He always felt that there was something in it. question.

"No, when all Hollywood companies dismiss executives, they would rather give various preferential terms than cash. In this industry, ten people have projects, and only one has money." Attorney Mitch Kan Te has experienced a lot of drafting of the terms of dismissing executives, so he understands it very well.

"But this Italian 'financier', Giancarlo Paretti, undoubtedly brought a high credit line from Crédit Lyonnais, which can be used just for the acquisition of the cannon. Just $[-] million." Ed Bastian still didn't quite understand the logic of the entertainment industry.

"What does financier mean?" Ronald asked Lindsay Dole, a private lawyer sitting next to him, a professional M&A team. There were many things he didn't understand, and he needed lawyer Lindsay to explain.

"It means a financier in English, but this appellation in Italian does not mean that this person has the qualifications to work in the financial industry, but that he has the corresponding financial knowledge, or has made money through the financial industry, and he can be recognized as a financier." called financier, or in Italian, finanziere..."

Ronald snorted and sat up straight.He looked at the two professionals who were still discussing, and said, "Don't doubt Minahan's intentions. I know this person. In order to make a movie, he once put his baby daughter in the cradle as a group performer. The daughter may have to ask for help." Falling off the prop, his first instinct was to let the camera go, not to catch his daughter."

"Puchi...", everyone laughed.

"All the passion of this person is to make movies. Without movies, even if you give him twice the money, he will not agree."

"So, most of the list of film projects he gave is true?" Lawyer Mitch Kanter turned to look at Ronald.This is where Hollywood people have a tricky vision, where artists gather together, and everything cannot be measured by money.

"I think it fits with his usual taste..." Ronald picked up a pencil and ticked off the names of several movies on the list.

"Spider-Man, Captain America, Fantastic Four, Phantom of the Opera, and the right to adapt seven or eight Edgar Allan Poe horror novels..."

Everyone felt that it was impossible for Minahan to list all the film projects that he wanted to bring to the new company. There must be some fake names in this list to mislead daydreams.

However, Ronald knew Minahan's taste very well. This was either a movie based on comics, or a movie based on an opera or a musical.Horror movies are the genre that Cannon focused on at the beginning.The credibility of this list should be high.

"You have to understand the issue of copyright for these few films. I remember that Roger Coleman sold it and New Century Pictures bought Marvel, which owns the copyrights of Fantastic Four and Captain America." Mitch Kan Te saw the problem.

In fact, the power of film production is often intricate.Because of the difficulty of financing, it often goes through several production companies before and after, and the contract is also full of clauses that are not clear to non-professional lawyers.

"Yes, I still remember that when Roger Coleman was still a director, he made several horror films based on Edgar Allan Poe's novels. I also want to know whether we can remake these films. Ronald added that although the copyright of Edgar Allan Poe's novels has long expired, the film adaptations also enjoy the copyright. If these scripts are actually adapted and remade from Coleman's films, then you have to ask him to buy the remakes that power. "

The M&A team has a lot of quick-witted team members. Under the leadership of lawyer Kantor and PwC partner Bastian, the audit and background investigation started immediately.

Ronald called and asked Roger Coleman to come out and invite him to dinner at the newly popular creative restaurant, and chat about movies by the way.

"I'm glad you asked me in advance, Ronald." Coleman looked a little better. He found a new market for video tapes. The influence also began to improve slowly.

"I don't think it is necessary to turn filmmaking into a cut-throat war like the Seventh. Most of the movies we make are medium and low-cost movies, just to entertain the public. They are not big productions made by the Seventh. We must compete for less than Seventh. top male stars and roughly double the number of top female stars.

Besides, we are all oriented to the video tape market, and no one stipulates that we can only watch one video tape on weekends. "

Ronald took a sip of the juice, which smelled like a mixture of carrots and tomatoes. Although it was a product of green agriculture, it was unexpectedly delicious.

"Yes, I have always felt that it is not necessary to spend 4000 to [-] million dollars to make a movie in most cases. There are places where more money is needed in America, such as improving the education of public schools and providing medical insurance for the people at the bottom..."

Ronald smiled and agreed. Few people would have imagined that Coleman, who has always made violent, horror, sci-fi, and pornographic B-movies, is actually a leftist who pursues social justice in his heart.

"Those films of Edgar Allen Poe were the best-selling films I directed, and they were also the first batch of color films I directed. But I didn't like them very much in my heart, maybe the big distributor AIP at the time Too much urging me to continue to shoot Allen Poe, wanting to finish his novels, so I am a bit rebellious.

If I had followed this path, maybe I would have been able to make big productions for the eight major studios. "

Roger Coleman began to recall the past, "Ellen Poe's novels have already entered the public edition, and anyone can shoot them. If you ask me, I am very happy. In this way, I do have plans to remake the films of that year. If You also want to shoot, you can say hello to me in advance, there are many novels by Edgar Allan Poe, let's not crash."

"If you are willing to come out and direct again, we can actually cooperate again and invest in the filming together." Ronald thinks that movies, especially movies adapted by famous writers, still need to control the rhythm. The same theme will undoubtedly drag down the box office.

It’s better if everyone joins a joint stock company, so that the quality of the shooting will be better. Movies are for appreciation, and there is no such thing as you buying a movie ticket, and I can’t watch it.If everyone cooperates in filming, it is entirely possible that the overall box office will be many times higher than that of the two filming separately. One plus one is greater than two.

"Then it's settled..." Roger Coleman stretched out his hand and shook Ronald. Between the two of them, this kind of gentlemanly demeanor can still be maintained.

The investigation work of the merger and acquisition team was carried out very quickly, and the results were placed on Ronald's desk three days later.

As a result and subtlety, Minahan Golan and New Century Pictures, neither party has the full filming rights of "Spider-Man", "Captain America", and "Fantastic Four".Or to put it another way, both of them can shoot.

The adaptation rights of these comics by Marvel were sold to Cannon Pictures for a period of five years.At that time, Marvel hoped that Cannon could shoot Marvel comic characters like DC's "Superman IV".In this way, the company can also acquire toy companies and make a fortune in derivative toy products.

But unexpectedly, the "Superman IV" filmed by Cannon was very bad. The dream of selling film copyrights and earning money from toys was shattered before it even started.

At this time, there was another stock market crash, and many stock prices that had been supported by mergers and acquisitions and capital operations in the market fell miserably.And Marvel is even worse. Their income largely relies on the support of original comic books and collectible cards. The bubble of these collectibles has shrunk severely before.

At this time, it was New World Pictures sold by Roger Coleman that bought Marvel.Therefore, New World also naturally has the copyright to adapt these comics.

It may take a week of careful research by a legal team to get a definite answer on who the production rights have changed hands several times before and after.The way Hollywood handles these disputes is very simple. Whoever gets the investment first will get the film.

If the box office is good, you can also sue for compensation after the fact.

Therefore, if the legal details are deducted, the filming rights of this film belong to Cannon in the next five years, and will be given to him along with Minahan's dismissal agreement.But five years later, with the expiration of the production agreement, they will automatically return to the new world.

But New World is in trouble now, and it is also looking for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, so it is not known who will own the production rights. Maybe the next company that takes over will pay attention if they are interested. A pile of contracts sleeps in the warehouse together.

So the key to this question is whether Minahan can operate enough funds to start this project within five years (in fact, it has been less than five years).

"It's dangerous and I don't think he can get enough money."

"But what if we get the money? If we let go of such a big project, will it be a joke? It's like Price who let go of the ET aliens."

Inside Daydream, general manager Eddie, and distribution manager Michele Cannold were also feuding.

In the end, they all looked at Ronald. Since his debut, Ronald has not made a mistake in judging the box office prospects of the project.

"Have you ever thought that even if he got the money, he might not be able to make the film."

"Huh?" Both of them were taken aback.

"This kind of comic book adaptation requires a lot of special effects, and there is only one company in Hollywood that can do this."

Ronald knew more about the selling points of this type of movie than they did.Whether it is traditional special effects props, makeup, or the latest computer technology, only the Industrial Light and Magic created by George Lucas for Star Wars is the only Hollywood that can operate such large-scale and large-scale special effects movies.

And now a sequel to "Back to the Future" has begun.Industrial Light & Magic's production capacity can only satisfy one major production at the same time.

In this way, at least in the next year and a half, the production line of Industrial Light and Magic will make way for this movie.After the filming of Back to the Future, I don't know where the future has changed.It is not certain who will acquire New World Pictures.

Spend millions of dollars now and buy a very uncertain future.When Ronald said this, everyone felt that it was not worthwhile, at least it was too early.

"Your friend Cameron, how is his special effects? Can you help?" Kannold was still not reconciled.

"It's his own studio, which can only meet his own needs. After the Abyss (The Abyss) he is shooting now is finished, we will see the effect. And whether the comic-adapted movie can be said to be loved by the market , we can't say for sure, let's see the box office of Batman, which will be filmed soon."

Ronald decided to be conservative. Since the Superman series hit the street, a series of comic book adaptation movies have continued to be poor at the box office.Everyone doesn't know whether this type of movie has lost the love of the audience, or because the last few films have been made too badly.

Ronald had never dreamed of making a movie, so after some calculations, it was better to be conservative.

"However, we can win the copyright of these films." Ronald pointed to the names of several other film projects on Minahan's film list.

These are some very distinctive horror films, the first one is called "George Romero's Night of the Living Dead", which is the orthodox sequel to George Romero's classic film "Dawn of the Dead" .

After "Dawn of the Living Dead" became popular, the original director made a series of sequels under the name "Return of the Living Dead", but the box office has not been good.George Romero, the original screenwriter, also got back the rights to the sequel after the contract expired.He teamed up with Cannon to film a sequel to the original.

Ronald is going to win the production rights of this film, as well as the distribution rights of 21st Century Pictures' old Chinese kung fu movies.

……

"Aha, I know your name, Ronald. Ronald Lee. Dino (De Laurentiis) said a lot of bad things about you to me. But I don't believe a word. I firmly believe A man who can make a movie like Top Gun is a real man! Not a sissy like Dino"

Giancarlo Paretti, the Cannon's new boss, was enthusiastic when he saw Ronald.He belittled Ronald's enemy, the Napoli boss Dino De Laurentiis.In his northern man's view, men in southern Italy are either gangsters or liars, and the film still needs us industrialists, artists, and 'financiers' to operate.

"Nice to meet you." Ronald shook hands with him.This Giancarlo Paretti with his arm around a Cannonball starlet starlet looks like a dandy.Before taking over the company, he started dating the company's beauties.

"It seems that this person is more interested in enjoying the Hollywood lifestyle than actually being the owner of a Hollywood production company." Ronald thought to himself.

There is nothing wrong with this. If it weren't for the rich people in other parts of the world to continue to invest in Hollywood, I am afraid that Hollywood's production volume will drop by more than one-third.

To outsiders, Hollywood will always be a golden signboard. Many people invest in it just to have a couple with a female celebrity. It seems that their social status will be improved a lot because of having a celebrity girlfriend.

Everyone takes what they need.

"Minahan, as I said earlier, let's clarify the property rights, should we still cooperate?" Giancarlo Paretti greeted Minahan who also came to sign the contract.

"Hey..." The Jew twisted his thick neck, but didn't answer.

After a lot of work by the team, the three parties finally reached a common agreement.Minahan still got his favorite comic book, a film adaptation of an opera, a large cash compensation, and a five-year distribution deal with Cannon Pictures.Each year, his soon-to-be-owned 21st Century Pictures, can let Cannon release five films unconditionally, with the rest subject to negotiation.

With much less money, Ronald got a bunch of early Xiangjiang old action movies in the film library of the 21st century.And the production rights of some low-budget horror films in the shooting plan.

Cannon, run by Giancarlo Paretti and Yoram, saved some money in exchange for the quick resolution of the property rights issue.

The three quickly signed the contract, and Yoram also came over. As the new CEO, he also signed part of the agreement.

"Minahan..." Yoram came over and greeted his cousin.Business is business, and it was imperative to force him out.

"Ah... puff..." Minahan ignored him and spat on the ground.

"Cheers..." Fortunately, Giancarlo Paretti opened the celebratory Champagne, which solved the embarrassment of the two.

"Cheers..." Ronald also raised his glass.

This time it was achieved with very little money.It was a modest victory.

However, there is no place to spend the original M&A funds and the money used to reorganize the company after the M&A.He had to discuss money again with Lawrence, his personal accountant.

"Well, why don't you help me buy Coca-Cola, buy as much as you can."

(End of this chapter)