Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Today is the home game of the Seattle Mariners. Their rookie this year, Ken Griffey, is very powerful. In his last debut, he hit another beautiful straight-line double..."

Kevin Costner specially invited Ronald to his private residence to discuss the investment in "Dances with Wolves". He didn't try to make friends and sell movies like other people, but treated Ronald like an old friend.

His wife, Cindy, brought them barbecue and lager, and Ronald and he enjoyed a midweek house party and a baseball game like normal white American friends.

"Is he good?" Ronald looked at the black rookie on TV and asked Costner. He is a layman to the game of baseball and does not understand this complicated game like ordinary white people.

"Needless to say, I think he has hope of breaking Babe Ruth's home run record..." Kevin Costner is a baseball fan and has already filmed a baseball-themed movie "Millions of Gold Arms" .

"This kid's dad is a major league player. He was the Baseball Player of the Year in 1987 in high school. He hit 0.8 RBI in two seasons and hit 17 home runs in total..."

Like a true baseball fan, Costner knows the statistics of this year's star rookies by heart.

"So he's great, right?" Ronald didn't understand how great high school baseball statistics represented.

"Hey, didn't you play baseball with your dad when you were a kid? This is the top score for a high school player in so many years, and he also played part-time on the football team in high school and also won a football bonus from the college."

"My dad died young and didn't play much baseball with me..." Ronald smiled. This white sport is indeed passed down from father to son. The actor in the previous movie, Billy Crystal, was also a great player. fan.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Kevin apologized in surprise. He didn't expect such a result. He originally invited Ronald here to show his closeness, but it was messed up.

"Oh, Ronald, I didn't expect you to be so unlucky. Kevin was just too obsessed with baseball. He didn't mean any harm." Costner's wife Cindy came to the rescue. She hugged Ronald and pinched him. Order French fries, call out the three children she and Kevin had, and say hello to Ronald. Finally the atmosphere was harmonious again.

Ronald didn't pay attention. He held their little son and played with it on his knees...

"Oooh...home run!"

When Ken Griffey came on to swing the bat, this strong black guy hit a home run in one hit and flew high to the outside. The opposing outfielder was out of reach.

The two clinked glasses and drank a large glass of light beer to celebrate, and Ronald got up to go to the bathroom.

"What conditions does he want to put forward?" Ronald thought in the bathroom. It is actually very risky for a novice director to want to make an epic film. Ronald himself felt that there must be something wrong.

A director is like a cook. He has a recipe (script) to cook, and this dish requires the cooperation of many people to make it. But no one has made this dish before, so everyone’s idea of ​​how to make it depends entirely on the director’s personal imagination.

How much seasoning to add, how long to bake, and how to prepare and mix the ingredients are all guided by the director's imagination of the final film. Just have to look forward to a good result...

This kind of process requires a lot of experience and talent, and Costner...well, no one knows how strong his directorial talent is. Anyway, he has no experience at all.

"Ronald, I know you are worried about me making this movie, but today I just want to prove that I can do it well..."

Kevin Costner took advantage of the break to lobby Ronald.

"How to prove it? This is a big production, with a production budget of more than 20 million..." Ronald picked out a French fries and chewed it. Costner's wife is a high school sweetheart, they are childhood sweethearts, and their cooking taste is quite good.

"Look, Ken Griffey is also a rookie. Today is his first home game in Seattle, and he can hit a home run..."

"Hey, Kevin. We're not talking about baseball, we're talking about movies. You have to do better than this..."

"Although they are different on the surface, they are actually the same. I am also looking for other directors to join me. I will be very happy if you are willing to direct..."

"Sorry, I'm working on another Orion movie..." Ronald had no experience making Westerns at all, and he couldn't even ride a horse.

"So, you have to believe in my talent, just like the Seattle Mariners believed in Ken Griffey and let a rookie hit a strong bat..."

"Wait a minute..." Ronald gestured to Costner to pause. He saw a line of subtitles under the TV, "Now is the big news."

"DEA uncovered a transnational drug trafficking syndicate and arrested dozens of suspects in Hong Kong, America, and Mexico..."

Ronald called up the picture-in-picture of the news station (a new feature of Japanese TV). In the breaking news picture, many Chinese-looking people were handcuffed by Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

"According to a DEA spokesperson, this criminal group named Fourteen K is based in Hong Kong. In the past few years, they have trafficked more than 1 billion US dollars worth of illegal drugs and poisoned hundreds of thousands of American teenagers. …

They will be charged with felonies... It is understood that the operation will continue until the legislative goals required by the Grand Commander and Congress are achieved. "

"This Fourteen K is actually a criminal group in Hong Kong. They are really bold...", Ronald thought to himself...

The baseball game was over, and Costner also talked to Ronald in detail about his ideas.

He hoped that this movie would fully reflect the real Indian tribe's lifestyle, clothing, customs, and even language.

Yes, Costner didn't want to shoot the Indian tribe scenes in English. He actually wanted to use the Sioux language to shoot the whole process.

This made Ronald a little worried. American audiences have formed the habit of watching movies without subtitles for more than ten years. Not to mention the Sioux language, which few people understand, even French and Spanish, which are generally taught in American high schools, are not popular with the audience.

In short, the content that Costner ambitiously wants to shoot is the content that any producer will be terrified of.

But on the other hand, epic films have epic filming methods, which are different from general genre films. The originator of this type of film is "Lawrence of Arabia", which was filmed in the desert for nearly a year, and what was finally presented on the screen was a spectacle that the audience had never seen before (camel cavalry charging in the desert!).

Just like last year's Oscar winner "The Last Emperor", the main theme is the grandeur of the Forbidden City and the life of the last emperor of the East. Those lamas, dragon beds, and grand coronation ceremonies are all elements that initially attracted the audience to watch.

In short, this kind of thing is a big risk. If it is well shot, it is unique and wonderful, but if it is badly shot, it is a lot of money thrown into the water. The negative example is "Heaven's Gate" that led to the bankruptcy of United Artists. The director thought that the big scene, a group of country bumpkins roller skating and dancing, was not liked by the audience at all.

"I have to think about it carefully, Kevin..." Although there is a dream as a basis, Ronald is not sure that this kind of investment of tens of millions can make money, although in fact it is not a loss, or a little loss, in exchange for a reputation of supporting art films, it does not seem to be a complete loss to attack the Oscars.

"Oh, right," Ronald thought of the scene of hunting American buffalo in "Dances with Wolves" that he dreamed of at that time, "Will you shoot the scene of hunting American buffalo?"

"Of course I want to shoot it! You support me, right, Ronald? I know you understand me. American buffalo are now on the verge of extinction. Only in some southern states, people still raise them on ranches. I plan to shoot these scenes for real, not fake, and must shoot the primitive, soul-stirring scenes of thousands of buffaloes running across the plains, and then the hunting of Indian tribes, which has been passed down from generation to generation..."

"Uh, I'm not that... Forget it, let me think about it..." Ronald's eyes lit up when he saw Costner. It seems that he is really passionate and wants to shoot it.

In fact, there are people who have made big hits with their debut works as directors, and Costner has shot many westerns and has an understanding of the scheduling of horse riding scenes, at least he is better at shooting than himself.

Ronald returned to the company and saw Tsui Hark in the office at a glance. During this period, he was making the final revisions to The Karate Kid 3 based on the feedback from the preview.

"Hey, it seems that there will be a big change in Hong Kong's film investment..." Tsui Hark was also watching the detailed report on the arrest of Fourteen K by the Narcotics Enforcement Administration on TV news.

"What do you mean?" Ronald didn't understand. What does the end of a gang have to do with movies.

"You don't know, because the Hong Kong film market has been booming in recent years, many... such as Fourteen K, are also investing in movies, raising the salaries of stars very high..."

"Hey, isn't this a good thing? These people will only raise the salaries of stars, and then make a lot of shoddy follow-up films..." Ronald thought to himself, we also have a fool in Hollywood, Minahan Golan. Similarly, his source of funds, a certain Dutch export-import bank, doesn't seem to be very clean.

The film industry is a very favorite industry of gray funds, where gray and even black US dollars can be legally turned into green.

The so-called booming Hong Kong film market, now it seems that I don't know how much of it is for this.

"Yes, the market is back to normal, maybe someone will be willing to invest there..." Tsui Hark has many things he doesn't like and is not used to in Hollywood, and he began to miss the working atmosphere and methods in Hong Kong.

...

After a detailed investigation by the production department of Daydream, it was concluded that the shooting budget of "Dances with Wolves" must be controlled below 20 million US dollars, and Kevin Costner must invest part of it himself.

This decision is easy to understand, because if he only takes a salary, it is easy to spend money excessively. He must invest part of it himself, and then get the money according to the box office performance of the movie, so that the risk can be shared. Ronald and Orion will not be the biggest sucker.

In addition, the reasonable shooting in Mexico and other places can also greatly reduce the salary and shooting costs, because there are no unions there, and the wages of extras and technicians can be squeezed to the minimum.

...

"Kevin, Cindy... please sit down", this time it was Ronald's turn to invite Costner to watch a baseball game.

They were watching another Seattle Mariners game, where the Los Angeles Angels were playing at home against the heavily favored Seattle Mariners.

Because it was the home game, Ronald took Diane and the Costners to the box to watch. Costner would also show up on the balcony to cheer for the baseball team. He was the protagonist of the million-dollar golden arm, and many baseball fans loved him very much.

"Oh, who is the pitcher of the Angels? I think he's a little weird..." Diane knew more about baseball than Ronald. She found that the starting pitcher of the home team had a weird hand with the glove.

"Let's applaud the rookie pitcher Jim Abbott..."

The announcer on the scene also called out the pitcher's name loudly. The pitcher put the baseball in the glove, then took off his baseball cap and questioned everyone.

Then he raised the baseball in the glove with difficulty, took out the baseball with his left hand, and weighed it a few times.

"Oh my God, he doesn't have a right hand..." Diane and Ronald were shocked. How could a pitcher in the major leagues be a disabled person without a right hand?

"Jim Abbott, he was a pitcher for the national baseball team in the exhibition event at the Seoul Olympics last year. He was the main pitcher in the final and won us a gold medal..." Costner, who came back from the balcony, explained to Ronald.

Really inspiring!

Ronald applauded with the audience. It was not easy for such a person to reach the height of a professional.

"Oh, another RBI. Abbott was seriously challenged today..."

During the game, this protagonist who looked like a Hollywood inspirational movie was very unlucky. He was hit and scored by the opponent continuously.

"Oh, today is a very unlucky day for Abbott..." The opponent's batter hit another high-flying two-run hit. The Angels were already 0:7 behind.

"Come on, Angels..." In the box, Diane was cheering for the home team.

"It seems that talent does not necessarily bring victory, Kevin. It also requires some luck and the cooperation of teammates..." Ronald also said with a pun on the situation on the field. Today, other players of the Angels also made many mistakes.

Just like the work of a film director, it may be the mistakes of other people in the team that prevent the director from shooting the ideal image.

"Well, it happened at this time, right?" Costner saw Ronald also talking about baseball, and he couldn't refute it for a while.

"In order to reduce the probability of this happening, we have to have some institutional arrangements, otherwise I think both I and Orion will have doubts about this movie..."

Ronald told Costner his ideas half in a discussion and half in a threat. If the other party does not agree to his conditions, then there will not be many medium-sized studios in Hollywood that will agree to set up the project of Orion that was abandoned.

If even Orion dares not shoot, then this movie must have unbearable risks.

Ronald put forward several ideas:

First, this movie must introduce foreign distributors and use the advance payment of distribution income to reduce risks. Ronald is considering introducing Michael Douglas's relationship, Frans Afman, the director of film investment at Credit Lyon.

Second, Kevin Costner must include his salary as an investment in the investment amount of the movie. That is to say, if the movie fails at the box office, he will get nothing except a few hundred thousand dollars in advance.

The best way to get a star to devote all his energy to making a movie is to tie him up with a profit-sharing contract.

Of course, if the box office is successful, he will also get a large amount of income that ordinary stars dare not think of. But this is no loss for Ronald and Orion.

Third, the final domestic distribution and videotape distribution must be guaranteed by Kevin Costner as the main star, and then to attract investment. He must be closely tied to the film project at the press conference, so that more people will have confidence in this epic film. Just like Ronald's attitude of tying it to "The Silence of the Lambs" for financing.

"I have to think about it too..."

Costner had no objection to the other conditions, but he was still a little worried about the method of not receiving a salary and taking a profit. Did he really want to make this movie? He had to go back and discuss it with his wife.

...

"Ronnie... It's Doug Jr." Back at the hotel, Diane listened to the phone recording, which contained Douglas's message. She picked up the phone and dialed it, handing it to Ronald.

"Doug... is my cousin..." Donna answered the phone...

"Doug..." Ronald picked up the phone and said to him unhappily. This guy secretly dated his cousin and kept it a secret from him, which made him very upset.

"Hi, Ronald."

It seems that the two of them get along well. After Donna grew up and started working, she was less disgusted with successful men from the same hometown like Douglas. He is no longer as naive as he was in college, and compared to those men with bad personalities in the investment world and Hollywood, Douglas is much more pleasing to the eye.

"What do you want from me?"

"Look, George wants you to shoot a promotional advertisement for his father. Have you seen the news about the recent work of the DEA? Our president wants the public to know who is responsible for this..."

"Good guy, you are preparing for re-election so soon?"

Ronald couldn't help but be amazed. In a place like America, the first priority of politicians is to please the public.