Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The third part of "The Kid" has been officially approved. The new project company established by Weintraub is called "The Kid" Pictures, which provides the film's production rights (the right to shoot a sequel). Ronald's Daydream participated in the investment and provided the scriptwriting rights for the characters (Ronald writes the script, even if he is not the scriptwriter for the sequel, he must be the first screenwriter).

Such a combination has excited many film investors in Hollywood, where good scripts are currently in short supply. Although it was not directed by Ronald himself, it was a genuine sequel to two movies that grossed over 100 million yuan, attracting many investors to place bets.

On Ronald's side, it was his old friend Bannon who took the lead and received the first batch of three million US dollars of investment quota released (the first batch of investments is also the first batch to be divided after the box office settlement).

Weintraub contacted the original publisher Columbia and also invested $3 million. The remaining investment amount was packaged and divided into several shares and then sold to Wall Street.

Pat Johnson, the action director of the first two films, and Daryl Vidal also return. Director of photography James Crebe and art director William Cassidy both agreed to come back and continue the adventure of Daniel and Mr. Miyagi.

To make the project a success, Weintraub threw a big party and entertained everyone. He also took this opportunity to announce to Hollywood that Weintraub is not bankrupt yet! As long as I have the Longwei Boy series in my hands, Weintraub will have no problem! Look, this is not alive again.

At the party, Ronald and the leading actors hugged one by one and chatted for a few words. Everyone has been having a hard time in the past few years, and there has been little progress in their acting careers. This return is also with the intention of re-appearing in front of the audience through the old series, reminding everyone that we are not out of date yet.

Of course, at the party, Ronald also introduced the new director Tsui Hark to everyone. Some clips from Xiangjiang action movies were playing on the TV, which shocked the action actors in the previous films.

TsuiHark hired some martial arts instructors from Xiangjiang to take charge of the flying scenes. Coupled with the costumes responsible for part of the plot in China, this movie, which is about to officially start filming and is scheduled to be released next summer, can also be a blockbuster co-produced by China and the United States.

"I have equipped you with many senior professionals, including the directors of photography from the first two films, and a capable first assistant director. You can rely on their professional abilities in matters such as photography and crew scheduling. But those Ami For the creative parts that the audience has not seen before, you still have to rely on your own imagination.

None of these people have ever filmed a scene of flying into the sky and escaping from the earth. They don’t know how far you can achieve it. As long as you know what you want, just insist on following your requirements. If you have any questions, just call me. "

Ronald explained some creative principles to TsuiHark, and then introduced him to the leading actors and the main crew.

"This is the director of photography, James Claybey..." Ronald introduced the director of photography of the first two films. He set the tone for the images of Long Wei Boy in the first two films. The third film should also follow this image tone. , this is what Ronald is most concerned about, because many Hong Kong movies do not pay attention to this aspect. Different batches, different models, and even different brands of film are used in a movie. When a shot is switched, the tones are completely turned upside down. It’s very schizophrenic for the audience.

"Cough...cough" James Crebe coughed violently.

"What's wrong with you? Do you have the flu?" Ronald patted him on the back twice.

"It's okay, maybe I drank too much during this period. Ahem..." Crebe said it was okay, but he still couldn't stop coughing and his face was a little pale. I apologized for going to the bathroom later.

"It's back to the good old days again..." Weintraub came over with a champagne glass. He escaped from death this time and had hope of turning around again. I felt a lot of emotion at the time.

"By the way, Jerry, are you familiar with Frank Sinatra, right?" Ronald happened to have something to do with him.

"I'm quite familiar with him. I persuaded him to arrange his concert tour. He is a weirdo. At the concert broadcast live on NBC in New York, he came in a helicopter and sang live. After singing the last song, he left in the helicopter. No delay at all." Weintraub was very happy when talking about his proud work. now

God allowed him to taste the feeling of being a successful person again.

"I have an interlude in my movie that uses his song. Can you tell me about it? I went to his agent, who was very difficult to deal with. He asked for a million dollars." Ronald fell in love with a Sinatra song. The song "It Had To Be You" is very suitable for the storyline of "When Harry Met Sally".

But to use this old song as the theme song, Frank Sinatra, a famous singer, must be found to have the singing rights. Whether a big star is willing to give you the copyright is more a matter of his own displeasure. It would be much better if someone acquainted could communicate directly with Sinatra, bypassing the agent.

"Do you want it to be used in the movie? I can make a call." Weintraub agreed immediately. "Do you want the song to be used as an interlude, or do you want Sinatra's sung version?"

"If you can, please help me ask the price..." Ronald knew that the singing versions of singers were very expensive.

Soon, Frank Sinatra's reply came. You can pay a friendly price for using the song copyright, which is only $50,000, but if you ask him to sing a version, you still have to pay $1 million.

Ronald certainly couldn't bear to part with Frank Sinatra's unique voice, which seemed to be telling the story in a straightforward manner, but had the ability to infect American audiences...

So, Ronald decisively rejected Sinatra's offer. He asked Jimmy Rainer, the music director of Daydream, to choose among jazz musicians, and finally found a jazz pianist and singer who had just turned 20, Harry Connick Jr.

It's also interesting to say that this person's voice is exactly the same as Sinatra's when he was young. Ronald decided to let him record a version of "It had to be you", anyway, the audience couldn't hear it if they didn't pay attention to the end credits.

Harry Connick Jr. not only has a good voice, but also a good piano level. Ronald simply let him sing all the jazz songs in the movie. Jimmy Rainer also found a small brass band and recorded several pure music versions of "It had to be you" with different rhythms and emotions. He only paid 20,000 US dollars in total, which can be said to be good value for money.

…

"Can you help me find a weather expert and ask when will the heavy snow in New York that will create a Christmas atmosphere this year be most likely?" Ronald's movie still has some snow scenes to be reshot, so he assigned Richard a task, and it would be best if he could give a reminder a week in advance so that he could have enough time to recall the leading actors and the technical team.

"Experts say that it is unlikely to be accurately predicted a week in advance, and at most three days in advance..."

"Okay, I know this myself from watching the weather forecast on TV," Ronald called Aunt Karen again.

"Does it snow in New York? Staten Island usually snows in early to mid-November, which is about the time when the president votes. If it's Manhattan, it's later, in late November." Aunt Karen knows more than the experts.

"I still have to reshoot some scenes at that time, and then I'll go to Staten Island to see you. Bye, love you..."

Ronald arranged everything, and then lay alone on the custom-made big bed and watched TV. Diane went to New York to see Donna again. Helen was still filming in British Columbia, Canada. Kim Basinger and Annette Bening both went to mainland Europe to film. Suddenly, I was alone without anyone to accompany me.

How about calling Richard? Look for the two familiar models.

As soon as this idea came to Ronald, he couldn't control himself. Just when his hand was about to touch the phone, the election news of candidate Dukakis suddenly popped up on the TV.

"Woo woo woo..." A very unique engine noise came. It was not as crisp as a traditional gasoline engine, nor as roaring as a diesel engine, but more like a high-frequency buzzing noise emitted by an electronic device.

"Huh?" Ronald was surprised to see that Dukakis was wearing a helmet with his name on it, sitting in a new General Dynamics M1 Abrams tank, with his head sticking out with difficulty, and waving to the audience.

The camera flashed by, and Ronald was left with only one impression, that is, Dukakis's helmet was very big, and he wore it like Charles Schulz's classic cartoon character Snoopy.

The camera cut to the live speech. Dukakis was in a tank factory in Michigan, talking to employees of the arms industry: after he became the president, he would increase investment in traditional weapons (traditional is relative to nuclear weapons).

This speech was very opportunistic, appealing to his voters' fear of nuclear war, and at the same time boosting support for veterans and the military-industrial complex. It hedged against the rise in support for George Sr., who adopted a new campaign strategy.

"Hey, Doug, did you watch the TV news about Dukakis?" Ronald quickly called Douglas Jr.

"What? I didn't watch it..."

"Watch NBC..."

"What does this mean? Why would Dukakis please the military industry? Or weapons targeting the Army and Marines." Douglas watched the news for a while and became puzzled. If the TV screen was turned off and everyone only listened to the sound, anyone would guess that it was George Sr. who said this, right?

"Don't you think this is an opportunity for a knockout?" As a filmmaker, Ronald clearly saw the comedic potential of the scene where Dukakis was in the tank. A politician who has never supported strengthening the arms budget, like a fool, wore a helmet and rode in a tank, and waved to the audience along the way...

"Damn, you are so right, I will go find George right away." Doug also reacted, "We will call you when the time comes."

"Hey, Ronald, can you tell me what you said to Doug again?" Half an hour later, George was awakened from his sleep and became excited by what Douglas said.

But he felt a little dizzy after listening to Doug's many reasons. It was clearer to listen to Ronald.

"This is a very simple thing, George. The people of the Donkey Party will not like their people sitting in a tank and then publicly speaking about allocating funds to the military industry.

The people of the Elephant Party will not like the funny appearance of a Donkey Party politician sitting in a tank. It is a defilement of their beloved big toy. This time, Dukakis is like putting himself on a silver plate and handing himself to your father." Ronald used two simple metaphors to make things clear.

Dukakis may have become flustered because George Sr.'s approval rating was approaching. He knew that George Sr. was now playing the military industry and veterans card, so he also wanted to play this card to reduce George Sr.'s momentum to catch up.

"Damn, you're right, this is an opportunity to KO Dukakis." George Jr. has a good intuition about the perceptions of ordinary people. Just like when he was at Yale, he was in opposition to the style headed by Oliver Stone in his class. People who want to please both sides are often disliked by both sides.

"What should we do, Ronald?"

"You should immediately give Roger Ailes the footage of Dukakis sitting in the tank. He knows what to do."

Ronald put down the phone and just laughed. For someone like George Jr., even when the dinner was served on the table, he still had to ask others how to get the knife and fork to eat.

He looked at the time and it was already very late. It was too late to ask Richard to contact the models now. He had to turn up the volume on the remote control. Fortunately, ABC was now playing a new version of an old TV series that was urgently filmed in Brisbane, Australia, to replace the old TV series that was not filmed in time due to the screenwriters' strike...

The opening theme of "The Countdown" came from the TV. Ronald felt that he was still attracted by this theme music and couldn't wait to watch it.

"This is really a million-dollar opening theme..." Ronald continued to watch it. To be honest, the rhythm of the filming was a bit old-fashioned and not as good as expected. But the opening theme made people want to watch it. This kind of old TV series has a signature opening theme that makes people come from other places to watch TV. I don't know why there is no such a theme in TV series now.

...

Although George Jr. is already very slow, there are still people who are worse at eating than George Jr....

At the emergency meeting jointly held by George Jr. and Roger Ailes that night, the two of them talked about the video of Dukowski sitting on the tank that Ronald saw and the strategy he taught.

Unexpectedly, his younger brother Jeb was the first to object.

"We shouldn't use such unethical means to attack our competitors. Otherwise, our voters will have a bad impression of us. While lowering the opponent's support rate, our support rate is also declining."

I don't know if he really thinks so, or just doesn't want his brother to be in the spotlight, Jeb's reason is quite stupid.

"This is the era of television media. People don't care about logic or facts. They only care whether their ideas are recognized by others. A strategy, whether it is in line with facts or not, as long as it is effective, we must use it." Roger Ailes couldn't help it and refuted Jeb in person.

"But what makes you say that your strategy will definitely succeed?" Jeb was unconvinced. The other campaign manager sitting behind him also had a gloomy face. This strategy was not his idea...

"I asked several people who have seen this clip, and they all told me that when Dukakis waved to the people on the M1 tank,

the people at the scene would think this strategy was ridiculous. As long as we can make it broadcast on major TV stations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the whole country will think it is a ridiculous thing. Then he is finished."

Roger Ailes explained. This clip was only broadcast for ten seconds on the news column and was never replayed again. Their campaign office contacted the three major wireless TV stations, various cable stations, and even local TV stations in Michigan. The responses they received were either that the tapes were lost or that they had to ask other TV stations to buy the footage.

In short, we may have broadcast the news, but we don’t have a backup tape (for you to use to attack Dukakis).

"If we didn’t see that footage, how can we just rely on your one-sided statement..."

"Jeb, I heard about that footage from Ronald. He told me it was a good opportunity. He is a big Hollywood director and he won’t make a mistake..."

"Humph... Everyone knows that most Hollywood people are on the Donkey Party side, just like the TV stations..."

What Jeb said was not wrong. The TV station’s director and editor, like Ronald, obviously saw this fatal flaw. The TV station is full of progressive elements who lean towards the Donkey Party. They will not send the program tapes to the campaign office of George Sr. of the Elephant Party.

"You..." George Jr. was so angry that he wanted to go over and bully his brother.

"That's enough. I believe Ronald's judgment, but Jeb also has a point. Without the right footage, we can't invest a huge amount of money to tell a rumor. There must be footage of Dukakis in the tank..." Barbara stopped her two sons from attacking each other. "What are you going to do?" Roger Ailes asked George Jr. He made up his mind that if George Jr. was not firm enough, he would fly to Illinois overnight to meet with George Sr., who was holding a campaign rally there to win the support of the military aircraft manufacturers of the Air Force and the Navy. "Damn it, I don't believe that no one has a live video or recorded the news footage." George Jr. was angry, "Everyone, I mean everyone..." He clapped his hands twice and mobilized all the election volunteers on his side, "Everyone go call me, call your family, friends, high school classmates,... ask them if they have this video of Dukakis in the tank. I don't care what method you use or how you get it, I just want that damn videotape. Whoever can bring the video of Snoopy in the tank, I will pay a bonus out of my own pocket."

As he spoke, Little George took out all the cash in his wallet, threw it on the table, and spread it out in a fan shape, which contained a small amount of a thousand dollars. "This is the best opportunity for our team so far. For us, The concept we worked on together for my father's campaign, we had to get the tapes available."

"Quick, quick, take action..." Little George began to applaud, encouraging everyone, "Go and make a call... Can our ideas be successful and can we stop Dukakis's Massachusetts donkey party (in many conservative circles)? In the eyes of Pai, this word is derogatory, describing those who are particularly "radical" and progressive.

Donkey Party) to enter the White House, it depends on you. "