Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Why did Dances with Wolves get this nickname?" Ronald was in a bad mood.

Hollywood is most afraid of being nicknamed. Sometimes, a thing that is not important at first may become a nickname that will follow you for the rest of your life.

Look at Michael Cimino, who made "Heaven's Gate". His career has been blamed for bringing down the United Artists Pictures founded by Chaplin. How can anyone dare to ask him to shoot a big-budget movie in the future?

I can only make a living by working as a script doctor for people, or by making low-cost movies for tycoon investors who want to make a splash in Hollywood. Even if you have the title of Oscar for Best Director to protect you, it is of no use.

Now, by coincidence, Orion is really facing a financial crisis. If his "Valmont" fails to make a comeback, financial crisis will happen next year.

If "Dances with Wolves" is really labeled as Kevin Gate, it might coincide with the Orion crisis in terms of time. Instead of scrutinizing which directors' films drained Orion's money, people would find a scapegoat to blame.

And “Kev’s Gate”, which is homophonic with “Heaven’s Gate”, doesn’t fit in perfectly?

Both were big investments, and both were the last films before something went wrong for a studio that had long supported artists. Isn't this a coincidence? By then this nickname will definitely spread like wildfire.

Ronald was a little irritated. This kind of thing must not happen in "Dances with Wolves", otherwise it would definitely ruin the reputation of Daydream Pictures.

"We have to go to Kevin's place and hang out with the two crews of Silence of the Lambs..." Ronald finally reached a consensus with Mike Medavoy to make more preparations to prevent such a once-in-a-decade servant. The street fell on its own head.

Rumors must spread the fastest, and the most important thing now is to go to the set to calm people's minds.

Diane was reluctant to leave, but Ronald went to deal with serious matters. She helped pack the suitcase and stuffed black tea and thermos cups inside. Ronald got on the plane with Diane's warmth in his arms.

…

"Let's take a look at the progress of the filming..." Ronald and Mike Medavoy appeared together in a nature reserve in South Dakota. After arriving at the crew, they discovered that they were filming the migration of bison herds and the Sioux Indians. Shot of man hunting.

"Ah, you are here. Are you going to see Kevin? Or should you wait for him at the base camp first?" Rachel Talalay was waiting for Ronald and Ronald at the crew's camp.

"Where are they? What progress did they make today?" Ronald picked up the shooting schedule on the table and looked at it.

"Hua Hua Hua..." Ronald flipped through the schedule and found only one page of today's shooting schedule. "Where are the others? Is this schedule incomplete?"

"Are they all here?" Rachel Talalay came over and took the schedule handed over by Ronald and turned it over, "That's right, it's the complete schedule..."

"Are you sure?" Ronald looked at Rachel Talalay with a look of disbelief. She was specially sent by himself to keep an eye on the filming progress of the crew. This is the work performance you gave. ?

Ronald clenched his fingers into a fist and then released them. He quickly took out the thermos cup filled with black tea and took a sip, "Keep calm!"

But Mike Medavoy, who took over the progress chart and browsed it next to him, was not so calm. He was nearly 50 years old and had high blood pressure. He was suddenly stimulated and his vision went dark and he sat on a chair.

"Are you okay?" Ronald looked at Mike Medavoy's pale face and stepped forward to ask.

"I always get airsick when flying, and sometimes the onset is delayed..." Medavoy knew that he must not reveal anything at this time, so he quickly explained. Then he took out a small box from his chest pocket, poured a pill out of it, and swallowed it raw.

The main culprit that caused the two of them to be excited was the shooting schedule. On today's schedule, surprisingly, there was only one shooting schedule.

Mike Medavoy also had a producer on set, also female, who went to the set with Costner. Talalay was waiting for Ronald's arrival in the camp.

Medavoy took the pills and felt better. He asked Talalay to pour him a glass of hot water to dissolve the nutritional supplements he took every day. He took this opportunity to close the door with Ronald. Come and talk.

"Michael Cimino got the female producer in Heaven's Gate back then..."

Halfway through his words, Ronald already understood what he meant. I also experienced the Heaven's Gate scandal back then. Michael Cimino sleeps with the heroine Isabelle Huppert and the female producer every morning. When they wake up in the morning, the three of them get themselves high first, and then go to the scene to decide. Shooting?

Because the producer was obsessed with him, the whole crew went off the rails. He could film a close-up shot of a supporting character cracking a whip for three days. In unnecessary links, time and film are wasted, which is also a waste of money.

He also complained that the streets of the small town where the props were set were too narrow, so he demolished all the wooden houses in the set and rebuilt them, which cost the crew a lot of money.

At that time, he was also a new executive of United Artists. In order to achieve results, he lacked production experience. Another executive wanted to resign, so he didn't care much about this matter.

The two chatted for a while and felt that they were too similar. This nickname "Kevin's Gate" does not seem to be groundless.

"We have to go to the shooting site to see the real situation first..." Mike McDavoy thanked Talalay, and took out a plastic bag, tore it open, dissolved the powder inside with hot water, and took it, "This is a special nutrient I asked someone to make, which is very good for my body."

"I guess this shot must be quite difficult, right? Otherwise, why only shoot one shot a day?" Ronald also calmed down, he still believed in Talalay.

"Bison herds are different from ordinary cattle herds. Once they start running, it is difficult to stop. Often, professional bison wranglers have to run more than ten miles before they can slowly drive them back."

"Oh, that's right. It sounds like it's harder to shoot than shooting a train." Ronald heard this and felt that it was understandable, although one shot a day was still a bit outrageous. But it's not like Cimino's lawlessness.

"Costner is a new director. He has a good artistic taste, so he has higher requirements. This shot of the bison herd running will probably be shot this week, and the speed will be increased next time."

The three of them sat in a pickup truck and headed into the wilderness of the nature reserve where the crew was located. Talalay explained to them the reason for the slow shooting.

It's not that Talalay is not in a hurry and doesn't want to speed up the progress, but some shots of this movie are really difficult to shoot.

Roger Corman is the best at shooting train scenes. Martin Scorsese's first feature film "Boxcar Bertha" was directed by Corman. He made full preparations before shooting, and then concentrated on shooting all the car-riding shots in a week.

Like the bison herd, the train also moves together and has to go a long way. It is a difficult subject to shoot at most one or two shots in a morning.

After all, the train is still a predictable object. After receiving the signal, the train driver can brake immediately and reverse the chapter. But there are hundreds of bison herds, and there is no fixed head cow to listen to the command. Once they start running, they have to wait until they are willing to stop before they can drive back. And they can't run too fast.

This group of bison was released by a wealthy man in order to revive the natural ecological group of American bison. This species has actually been declared extinct in the wild. If the shooting is too impatient, the bison herd will lose weight quickly and may even die if they run too much.

This wealthy man certainly doesn't want the crew to overuse them, so he has to take care of the precious wild animals and take his time.

"Ronald, you're just in time..." Kevin Costner had just finished shooting today. As the sun was setting, a herd of bison were jogging on the ground. The professional cattle herders behind them were nervously surrounding them, fearing that they would accidentally arouse their brute force.

"I heard that the shooting was difficult?"

"Yes, we can only shoot one shot a day for such a shot. It's very troublesome. Fortunately, we will finish this shot soon..." Costner was riding on a horse. He rode a bareback horse like an Indian today and was very skilled in controlling it.

As for Costner, he was very clear about this movie and took all the shots himself. Ronald looked at the situation of the crew. Costner could be said to be very strict. This was related to the fact that he did not use a double and rode this risky bareback horse himself.

Many people at the scene were old partners who shot westerns with him. They all admired Costner's ruthlessness. Westerns are not love movies about love. The director and leading actor who can ride a bareback horse and lead by example, these people are quite convinced.

Ronald and he went around the crew and found that they didn't mess around like Michael Cimino. The execution and morale of the entire crew showed that Costner had done a lot of work.

Moreover, the western genre has gradually come to an end. After Costner debuted, he shot several westerns and sports films in succession, all of which were large-scale movies. He learned a lot of scheduling skills from watching those directors work. Moreover, Costner is generous and has accumulated a lot of connections in the crew. It can be said that half of the remaining western talents may have been concentrated in the crew of Dances with Wolves.

Apart from anything else, this kind of scene where multiple riders chase buffalo together is not something that ordinary people can handle.

After watching the scene, Ronald and Mike McDavoy watched the sample film again in the evening. Although the progress of shooting was slow, the pictures were very good. Kevin Costner has enough taste for what is good, but how to shoot these tasteful pictures, he needs more time and film to slowly polish.

...

Who would have thought that Ronald and Mike Medavoy, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, would be annoyed by Costner's words at night.

"The crew's filming can last until next week, and we still need a sum of money to complete this masterpiece."

"No, why do you want money again?" Talalay was also caught off guard by this sudden attack, "I've seen the budget sheet, there won't be any big problems after the filming."

"Hey, you know, I'm also for the art of film." Costner's meaning is very clear, what I said is all fake. In this sparsely populated South Dakota nature reserve, in addition to the crew members, there are some real Indians invited to act as extras.

This is not Hollywood, there are staff from various institutions, and a producer can really exercise her power. But here, most of the crew are Costner's people, and those Indians also have a good impression of the plot of the movie, and no one will tell Talalay the truth.

She is here, a little deceived and doesn't know it.

Kevin Costner's trick has also been used by many people in Hollywood. It is to coax and deceive, start shooting first. According to their own quality requirements, it is obvious that the current budget cannot be completed, but shoot first.

When the money is used up, ask the producer for more. Anyway, the quality of the film in this part is very good, you can't stop shooting, right? In that case, the initial investment will be wasted. If you want to finish shooting and recover the cost after the release, you have to grit your teeth and make additional investments. You would rather dilute your investment shares and finish the movie.

Of course, there are also some directors who get too far in the end, and the quality of the finished film is not very good, or it is not recognized by the producer, and finally they have to shoot randomly to make up the length of the release.

Mike McDavoy is particularly aware of this situation. He is well-known for dealing with these artists at United Artists and Orion, and knows that most of the artists are also gangsters. He has long expected Costner's method.

Just like Ronald, Mike McDavoy asked the question, "How much do you want?" He has a hidden reserve budget of 3 million to 5 million.

"I still need 10 million..."

"Hey..." Ronald laughed, which was a big laugh.

He looked at Costner seriously and pointed at his mouth, "Look at my mouth shape, Kevin...

No...way...!"

"Hey, don't be like this, Ronald, you saw my sample film and you liked it too, right? You can't let such a masterpiece not meet the audience. Westerns in history, starting from John Ford, have been the most important genre in Hollywood, but there are few positive descriptions of Indian tribes. In those westerns, Indians are either scalped villains or robbers who rob women...

This is the first movie that objectively and positively describes Indians. You can't do this to him..."

"You can't do this to me, Kevin. I gave you a lot of privileges to make your dream come true. This is your first time as a director, so I gave you the privilege of sequential shooting. I also let you use Indian language as the language of the film. I came to South Dakota to shoot the migration of buffalo and the hunting of Indian tribes. I gave you so much trust, and this is how you repay me?

Ten million, ten million, I can shoot three westerns!"

Ronald became more and more angry, and pointed at Costner's chest and tapped him several times with his hand. Then he walked forward step by step, forcing Costner to retreat.

At this time, the negotiation relied on a gangster temperament to see who could scare whom.

"Don't do this, don't do this, let's talk it over... Let's sit down and talk slowly..." Mike McDavoy and Talalay came up and pretended to pull the two apart.

Costner was forced to his sofa, and was at a disadvantage in terms of momentum.

"I can pay part of it out of my own pocket..." He stated his bottom line.

"How much more can you pay?" Ronald laughed. Costner didn't have any particularly profitable works. In order to make this movie, he invested his three million US dollars in salary as an investment share. He also found a European distribution channel through Michael Douglas's relationship, and then used the distribution income of this movie in Europe as collateral to borrow money from Credit Lyonnais. In addition, Ronald and Orion each contributed a part to make up the funds for the filming.

"I can also use the advance payment as an investment..."

"You can pull it, how much is that?" Ronald smiled and patted Costner on the shoulder. This guy doesn't have much money now, and he was suppressed by his own momentum when talking about money.

"I'll discuss with Mr. Mike McDavoy and we can stop filming."

"Ronald!" Costner was shocked. You really don't want to forget it?

"Unless you find new investment, and you have to pay the price..."

Asked Costner to go out first, and the two quickly exchanged opinions. Because the project company of this film has been established, Mike McDavoy is happy to see Ronald increase his investment share.

But Kevin's Gate's reputation must also be considered. It can't repeat the situation of being stared at and criticized in the media after the additional investment of "Heaven's Gate".

Finally, the two discussed a way for Ronald to find a distributor in East Asia, package the box office revenue here, and then turn it into an advance payment from the distributor, and put it into the crew as an additional budget.

However, this matter was not told to anyone except Costner and other core personnel. When promoting it to the outside world, it still insisted on the production cost of 18 million. Anyway, this part of the money can also be counted as overseas advance payment, and a different item can be used when the financial expenditure is listed.

After the two discussed it, Ronald made a few more calls to Sony's office in New York and finally finalized the arrangement for the additional investment.

"Come in..." Costner was let into the room again.

"We can give you additional investment..."

"Yes!"

"Don't be too happy too soon, we have conditions..."

"Please tell me..."

"The additional part must be supervised by Ms. Talalay, and all expenses need her signature..."

Ronald and Mike Medavoy have discussed the supervision measures. In short, the situation of being deceived like this before cannot happen again.

"Thank you, thank you!" Kevin Costner was a little worried that the filming would really stop.

"In addition..." Ronald glanced at Costner, and the other party immediately stopped celebrating, then looked at Ronald, eagerly waiting for his conditions.

"This is the last one. If you can't finish it on time and on budget, we will not only deduct all your salary, but also deduct your money according to the delayed time and budget."

"Okay, I promise..." Costner really wanted to make this movie with all his heart, and he agreed to this harsh condition.

"Don't let us down, Kevin." Ronald used all the measures that United Artists used to deal with Michael Cimino. Costner could get a dividend if the quality and quantity were guaranteed. If he still couldn't make it well, he deserved to lose money.

"I won't..." Costner's back was covered with sweat, and he left the office and went to the Western movie brothers.

"How is it?" Everyone came up to ask.

"Why are you still here? Get started!"

"Oh oh..." The staff knew what was going on, and immediately dispersed to prepare for the filming.