Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald found Richard, and together with Niceta, they talked with several Daydream executives about the transfer of the film script.

Everyone is a little strange, why is Ronald so aggressive about this movie and seems determined to win?

"Rick (Nisita), you will remember that my first screenplay was sold through Ovitz to Frank Price in Columbia at the time, and I always wanted to make a movie with a Vietnam War plot (promise (Aunt Karen), but that script is a bit outdated now.”

What Ronald was talking about was the script he wrote called "My Brother's Keeper", which was blackmailed by Ovitz and sold to Frank Price for $350,000. The script tells the story of a mentally retarded young man who was recruited by the Ministry of Defense and then sent to the most dangerous places with his comrades on the Vietnam battlefield. During an operation, he encountered an ambush and was about to be captured. In the end, the mentally retarded man caused an explosion while playing with a grenade, causing chaos. The comrades took advantage of the chaos and fled back to the US military position.

His comrades didn't believe he was dead, and finally his platoon leader went to his hometown, met his family, and helped the rest of his family out of their predicament. Everyone said that the platoon leader was their protector, but in the end the platoon leader frankly told the truth that the mentally retarded brother was their protector.

"This story is very good. Why don't you buy it from Colombia and continue filming it?" After hearing this, David Simkins felt that the script was very deep and suspenseful. Ronald's debut novel was very well written. Level.

"Ahem..." Michael Gray and Rick Niceta next to him coughed.

Their understanding of Hollywood is much deeper than that of Simkins, a script director.

In the past ten years, America's public base has undergone tremendous changes. The new Generation X, the generation born after the baby boomers, are not as rebellious and opposed to the Star-Spangled Banner as their parents were.

The big reason for this is that the US military has never fought another war with heavy casualties like the Vietnam War, and the new press law has been revised, and the media cannot report the details of the war without permission (at least it is not as convenient as before).

Another reason is that the past ten years have been a period of rapid economic development, continuous decline in unemployment rate, continued decline in inflation, and rising disposable income. Although the gap between rich and poor is widening, ordinary people can pay for public university tuition and living expenses by working at McDonald's for a summer, and people are no longer so cynical.

Therefore, after ten years, such a movie has already distanced itself from the mainstream public aesthetics, and it is still uncertain whether it will still be profitable.

David Simkins wiped his forehead with his hand and fell silent.

There is an unexplainable reason behind this, because Ronald's desire for the Oscar for Best Director, and those close to him know that it is not media gossip, but has a lot of truth.

There have been too many movies with the Vietnam War as the main storyline in recent years. Among the winners of the Best Director Award are The Deer Hunter, Platoon, and Tom Cruise's new film "Born Seven" released this year. "The Fourth of July", according to industry rumors, is also a movie that has a good chance of being nominated.

Although there are movies with similar plots, they did not do well at the box office, which is a statement that does not make much sense. However, in a short period of time, movies with similar story backgrounds are less likely to win consecutive awards, which makes sense.

Because the award is not about box office, the judges will involuntarily compare it with films of the same theme in previous years, such as "Born on the Fourth of July" director Oliver Stone. The possibility of repeating miracles is unlikely. .

Forrest Gump, unlike My Brother's Keeper, was adapted from. The content spans a long time. When adapting it into a script, it is very convenient to make some choices about the content.

"Hey, that was my debut film, and it happened to be popular when Vietnam War movies were popular..." Ronald waved his hand, thinking that it happened to be about Vietnam War movies at that time, and his agent placed an order to follow the trend. I don’t know if anyone will read this script now that it’s been filmed.

It's not like Forrest Gump. Those scenes in my dream are very shocking and must be masterpieces.

In the end, everyone agreed that David Simkins, who was in charge of the script transaction, would first have careful contact with Steve Tisch's production company. Let’s see what the other person’s attitude is.

In order to grab the script of "Dirty Dancing", Ronald had a lot of trouble with this little emperor. I wonder if this rich young man’s anger has subsided after several years?

…

"No, look at my mouth shape! I would rather not film this script, and the purchased adaptation rights will automatically expire, than transfer it to Ronald's company..."

Sure enough, according to the response from Tisch's production company, the boss's anger has certainly not subsided.

"Dirty Dancing" became a miracle of low-cost production. A small investment brought hundreds of millions in box office, and the original soundtrack also became a hit record, ranking first in sales. Not to mention, if you go to any Blockbuster video rental store now, you will see this movie on the rental list.

This is a very serious humiliation for the pretentious Steve Tisch. Every time his friends talked about it, they said he wasted a great opportunity.

For a rich kid, this is more upsetting than missing out on the money he earned from "Dirty Dancing."

"Actually, there's no need to say such harsh words. If he still wants to work in Hollywood..." Ronald heard the news, dug his ear with his little finger, and said with a smile.

The adaptation contract of "Forrest Gump" was not entirely decided by Dishi alone. Just like the movie "Other People's Money", it was only possible to establish the project after it was favored by Warner Bros. Pictures and had a distribution contract.

If such a best-seller wants to be adapted into a movie, it is basically impossible without the distribution contract of the seven major studios.

If you want to make a good movie, the money invested in each part must be in a proper proportion. You can't spend millions of dollars to buy the adaptation rights of a movie, and then spend only a few million to find some unknown actors to make a movie.

To match the cost of this script, you have to invest at least at the average medium-level production level, more than 15 million. And a movie with such an investment, relying only on Dishi's production company, has no ability to be distributed nationwide.

Of course, it is also a way for him to advance the money to shoot it and then sell it to the distribution company. But if Tisch had this vision and decisiveness, he would not have let Ronald snatch "Dirty Dancing" away.

For this movie, Ronald had to find a way to bypass this rich kid to obtain the right to shoot. He had a good relationship with Columbia and Disney. A feasible way was to find a reliable vest company, and then reach an agreement with these seven major companies, and use normal business means to pry this piece of meat out of the mouths of Tisch and Warner Bros.

Of course, after having a new distribution company, Ronald's Daydream can take off the vest and stand out openly to show his identity.

Compared with Steve Tisch, Warner Bros. is more difficult to deal with. Not only "Forrest Gump", but also the distribution contract of "Other People's Money" is in their hands. How to get these two scripts from industry veteran Robert Daley in a way that they will not be suspicious, it takes a good plan.

This matter needs to be considered in the long run, and Ronald made some arrangements. Daydream's recent production business is on the right track, and Ronald no longer cares about small productions below one million.

What really made him spend his energy and study seriously was the TV production that he had never tried before.

The writing room of "Working Girl" had already written a detailed script for each episode. After Ronald read it carefully, he didn't like it very much.

Each episode of the script was full of very childish comedy plots. Compared with the more rigorous story structure and business war plot of the original movie, it was really a situation comedy without much depth.

Ronald himself didn't understand TV series, and although he didn't like it, he couldn't say anything in the face of the so-called TV expert, Lawrence Connor's insistence.

Warren Buffett called Ronald a few days ago and talked about his investment secrets. An important one was to respect successful executives who had been tested by the market.

Lawrence Connor had worked on many TV scripts before, so Ronald wanted to come down, so he gave him the green light and let them proceed according to their ideas.

The original heroine Nancy McKeon declined the invitation of Daydream through her agent after reading some scripts. She was one of the main characters in a popular long-running TV series before. I think she looked down on new companies in the TV industry like Daydream and wanted a bigger role in a play.

Ronald had no regrets about this, because he was not familiar with this person anyway. After asking Helen and confirming that she did not want to play in a TV series with a strong soap opera temperament, Ronald chose an acquaintance from the audition actors to replace her.

Sandra Bullock was a restaurant waitress Ronald met in New York when he was filming the movie version of Working Girl. Later, she also played a small role in the movie version, with a line "Yeah".

This gave her a certain understanding of the story and the performance of the heroine Melanie Griffith, and she may have a more intuitive understanding of the performance of the TV version.

Of course, Sandra Bullock had previously filmed several movies for Roger Corman's company that were directly released to the videotape market. This relationship was also an important reason why Ronald nodded to her.

Sandra Bullock was doing nothing at home, waiting for the TV movies she filmed for Universal Television Production Company to be broadcast on the TV network early every day. The most helpful line on her audition resume was the one about playing "Tess's friend" in "Working Girl".

She was overjoyed to learn that she might become the TV version of Tess, and she called Ronald's agent several times to thank Ronald in person.

However, Richard was already experienced in dealing with such things, and after saying that he would convey her gratitude, he did not really call Ronald.

In addition to being busy with work, Ronald has recently been enjoying the fun of family life at home with his wife. This stage usually lasts at least two years for a big director. Many directors have the experience of being obsessed with a muse for a period of time...

"What did Carly say?" At home, Ronald was discussing work with Jimmy Reiner, the company's music director.

"She agreed very readily."

Carly Simon is the composer of the theme song of Ronald's Working Girls. The song "Let a River Flow" was not chosen by Carly Simon's record company and was not included in her new album. However, the soundtrack of the movie "Working Girls" sold more platinum sales than the album.

This single also made it to the top ten of the adult lyric chart. At the same time, she won the Golden Globe Award and the Oscar for Best Original Song. Carly Simon is now back to the ranks of mainstream pop stars.

At the awards ceremony that year, Carly Simon, who couldn't get a taxi, was given a ride home. The record she decided to release on the spur of the moment was a great success. Carly Simon was very grateful to Ronald. She charged a normal market price for a TV episode and authorized the song to Ronald as the theme song of the TV series.

"What did John Barry say?"

"He agreed, and the compensation you gave was very generous..."

Ronald was asking about the soundtrack of Dances with Wolves. Kevin Costner's filming is almost complete. An important element of this kind of epic film is to have a soundtrack that matches it.

In this field, the first person that comes to mind in Hollywood is, of course, John Williams, the composer of Star Wars.

But John Williams's asking price is very high, and he also has to worry about Spielberg's new film. At Jimmy's suggestion, Ronald found John Barry, a British composer who is also very experienced.

His composer for the 007 series is well-known in the industry, and because "Howard the Duck" suffered a Waterloo, his asking price is lower than Williams.

More importantly, he was once the Oscar-winning composer for the epic temperament and natural and broad film "Out of Africa". It can be said that he is very experienced.

"Does he agree with my request?" Ronald asked.

"Of course, although he thinks Peter is not yet at the point where he can stand on his own..."

Peter is Warren Buffett's youngest son. He is the most talented of his three children, but he is obsessed with film composers, and is more like an artist than an investor.

Ronald promised Warren that he would give him some help. So this time, an additional condition for inviting John Barry at a high price was to let Peter Buffet participate as well. If the conditions were right, he would also be given the independent signature rights for several songs.

John Barry readily agreed to this request because Ronald did not bargain. Ronald has a good network of contacts in Hollywood, and working with him will help future business. It is a small matter to promote an assistant by name.

Seeing that the company's affairs were handled in an orderly manner and the backlog of documents were signed by Ronald, Diane took the time to come and ask Ronald to have dinner.

"Come on, dear..."

Just as the two were about to have dinner, the phone rang again. Diane picked up the phone.

"It's me, Francis... Is Ronald there?"

"Ah, Mr. Coppola..." Diane had mixed feelings for this director who once wanted to support her but failed. Without him, she might have taken on Mermaid and become famous a long time ago. But without him, she might not have met Ronald who was in the same crew.

"I'm Ronald. Is there anything I can help you with?" Ronald could hear some anxiety in Coppola's tone.

"I want to talk to you. Is it possible to have a face-to-face meeting..."

"Uh, now? I'm still having dinner with Diane..."

"Help, Ronald..."

"Okay, is it convenient for you to come to my house? I'll ask the driver to pick you up, okay..." Ronald put down the phone and looked at Diane's inquiring eyes.

"It seems very anxious. I'll invite him to my house to talk..."

Seeing that Ronald didn't go out, Diane felt very happy and safe, and smiled and took the initiative to help.

"Well... I'll prepare coffee for him when the time comes..."