Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"I'm sorry, Ronald. I feel like I did something stupid and made you suffer this insult. I'm tired of these idiots..."

Kevin Costner took the imagery that Ronald participated in and went to discuss the new partner with the distributor Warner Bros. Who knew that their president Terry Temel personally ordered to reject this cooperation.

He gave a choice between two conditions. Either Kevin Costner rejected Ronald's cooperation, and the rest of the things were in accordance with the originally agreed terms. Or he accepted Ronald's money and took the project of the movie "Bodyguard" from Warner at the market price.

In short, it was either Warner Bros. or Ronald's Daydream. You can choose one of the two.

When talking, Terry Temel's words were not so naked. According to the contract provisions of the previous project, he pointed out that Warner had a veto over the new investor. They felt that Daydream could neither be distributed overseas nor add value to the project in terms of creative content. If they wanted to invest, they could only share the second round of investment quota with external capital.

And this condition was undoubtedly an insult to Ronald, who was in the circle. A producer with a good investment vision can only enjoy the investment terms of an outsider, which is equivalent to saying that we don't welcome you in this project, you can't add any value, this project depends on two stars, Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, and nothing else matters, so don't stick your spoon in to drink the soup.

"Nah, this has nothing to do with you, this is directed at me. Mr. Temer and I have some disputes over the script..." Ronald certainly understands that the two helmsmen of Warner, Terry Temer and Robert Daley, as Jews, may have more reasons in this matter.

They just don't want outsiders to come in and gradually occupy the right to speak in Hollywood. Ronald repeatedly asked them to buy the filming rights of the novel "Forrest Gump", but was rejected. There were also some verbal conflicts in the middle, which increased the situation that both sides disliked each other.

"So what should we do next?"

"Of course I'll listen to you. If you're willing to buy the movie, I'm willing to pay half of the money. Whitney is also willing to invest part of the money, but you have to get the distributor..."

"Hey, which company is Whitney signed with?" Ronald thought to himself. Warner Pictures didn't seem to understand the potential of this movie. As the producer of the two most successful movie soundtracks in history, "Dirty Dancing" and "More Dirty Dancing", he knew that it didn't matter if the movie lost money, and he could make it back from the record.

"Her? I don't know, maybe CAA?" Kevin Costner was stunned by the question.

"Stupid, I'm asking about her record company. Forget it, I'll ask him directly, and then we can form a project together."

...

"Most of Whitney's business matters are handled by me..."

Ronald quickly found out that Whitney Houston signed with Arista Records, which belongs to the parent company of Columbia Records.

Don't you think this is a coincidence? Ronald quickly found Whitney Houston and discussed with her about buying the project and transferring it to Columbia Pictures for distribution. After all, they are all subsidiaries of Sony, so can his face still be useful?

However, Whitney Houston was a little unwell, and the main affairs were negotiated by a female assistant named Robin Crawford.

This Robin Crawford actually looks a bit like Whitney Houston. They are both thin types that are rare among black women. And they are very tall. It seems that the two are very close, and it is obviously not an ordinary assistant relationship.

"OK, this is what Kevin and I think, what do you and Whitney think?" Ronald didn't understand the relationship between the two, so he tried it out.

"I think Whitney is the core of this movie, isn't it? She has to sing and act..." Robin Crawford actually opened her mouth, as if she could be the master of Whitney Houston.

"Robin..." Whitney Houston covered her mouth and came out to stop Robin. She smiled apologetically at Ronald, but she knew Ronald's position in the industry.

"I trust Kevin very much, and I also trust the person he trusts the most, Ronald. This is my first time acting in a movie, and I will listen to your terms..."

"Okay, these are my terms, you can ask your lawyer and agent to take a look and see if they are fair. If you think it's okay, we can decide on them, and then go to Columbia Records and Columbia Pictures to promote this project."

"Oh, that's very generous, I agree." Whitney Houston is not a fool, she also actively controls her own business activities, so she can see that this time she is taking advantage of it, and can cooperate with two Hollywood bigwigs on relatively fair terms, which is also due to her status in the music industry. At least in the conditions given by Ronald, the soundtrack of the movie is very important...

Ronald achieved his goal and left. The commercial potential of this project is still very large.

"Whitney, this is totally unfair. Your status as a singer..."

"Shut Up, Robin. This is my first time making a movie, and Madonna has already made three or four. Now Madonna can only be the third or fourth female lead in Ronald's movies, and I can already be the first female lead. This is the best condition... Don't disrespect Ronald or Kevin in this way in the future. Oh, and Bobby..."

Whitney Houston scolded her female companion and assistant, then called her boyfriend Bobby Brown and asked him to come see her.

The sales promotion at Columbia Pictures went very smoothly. CEO Guber personally met Ronald. After reading the script and terms, he immediately agreed and said that he would use the best time slot at the end of the year for Ronald.

He was under a lot of pressure in Sony Columbia Pictures. The two old guys at TriStar Pictures put a lot of pressure on him. Now Ronald came to talk with the script project and the leading star, so he had to take any conditions.

Even if the movie loses money, if you can show goodwill to Ronald, you won't be afraid of problems in cooperating with him in the future. Anyway, all the big studios now want to cooperate with him directly, but they all want others to explore the way first to see which is better, his cooperation model for filming, and CAA's Ovitz's packaging model, and which can bring more profits and better assessment indicators to themselves.

The production of "Bodyguard" went very smoothly. After paying the cost of buying the project from Warner Bros. in advance, Bannon's Wall Street fund soon entered the second round of investment list. They didn't understand Hollywood. Ronald and Kevin Costner joined hands, and with Whitney Houston, no one wanted to miss the second "Dances with Wolves". The subscription for investment quotas was so enthusiastic that they had to open a few more places.

There was a problem with the negotiations with Columbia Records. Because the production and release of Whitney Houston's own new album was already on schedule, Arista, a subsidiary of Columbia, was very reluctant to cooperate with such an unexpected event. They all wanted to ban Whit Houston from making movies. Wouldn't it be better to leave more time for her music career?

In the end, it was President Tommy Mottula who solved the problem for Ronald.

Tommy Mottula knew the sales of Ronald's "Dirty Dancing" album. Although the old guys in the record industry didn't like this kind of "evil way" very much, sales were sales. Mottula didn't care about these things at all. It could increase his performance and would also be good for his position in the Sony American system in the future.

After Ronald called him for help, Tommy Mottula put pressure on Arista, a subsidiary of the company. If a singer can obtain the status of a movie star, it will be a great boost to the sales of records. In the past, Barbra Streisand and Doris Day had successful experiences.

A temporary trouble in exchange for long-term profits may not be a matter for Alistair and his people, but Motura's status and vision are very clear.

In the end, the two sides reached a compromise. None of the good songs that Alistair had stockpiled for Whitney Houston could be used for the original soundtrack of "The Bodyguard", and the producers had to find them themselves.

But the most important thing is that Whitney Houston can spare time to sing the theme song for The Bodyguard and some new songs as movie interludes.

Ronald, who always believes in letting professionals do things, let Whitney Houston's team handle the search for the interlude of "The Bodyguard".

Ronald himself also has some things to do, such as the filming of "Pink League" in New York and the filming of "City Heroes" in Los Angeles. Professional crews can usually solve the problem, but there are some things that need to be coordinated from a high-level level, such as the Yankees making it difficult to rent a baseball field, and the LAPD making it difficult to close some roads in Los Angeles. Ronald had to come forward to coordinate such things.

Fortunately, he has a relatively deep political relationship. The New York State Senator personally called to inquire about it, and the California Senate candidate formally raised the issue of facilitating film shooting at a campaign rally. After the filming was delayed, it was still solved.

Ronald did not get a good solution for another matter.

Paula Wagner is shuttling back and forth between the seven major studios, trying to find a fixed long-term distributor for CW Films.

But these executives seem to have the same plan, which is to wait and see, and don't want to be the first to eat crabs.

Ovitz launched an offensive against the Jewish executives in the seven major studios, trying his best to prevent Tom Cruise from signing a long-term distribution contract with them.

It is not uncommon for directors and independent producers to sign distribution contracts for multiple films with major studios. Even many retired executives of major studios, their own small production companies will also get five or so guaranteed distribution contracts from the original studio as part of their retirement agreements.

These are actually not enough threats to CAA, or Ovitz's business model, but when the production company of a popular star gets such a contract, it is a visible threat.

If Tom Cruise really did it, then can all stars do the same in the future? Then what is the need for CAA as a monopoly agency? Their package agreements can no longer threaten the seven major studios or the stars themselves.

There are actually precedents for people who were stars before and signed such multi-film distribution contracts (for example, three big-budget movies in the next five years).

That was in the early days of CAA, when Columbia Pictures was still under the rule of Frank Price. At that time, it was in urgent need of star signings to boost stock prices. It had signed such a contract with Jane Fonda's production company.

But that was a chaotic period when United Artists had just fallen, Paramount was acquired by Gulf Western, and it was still fighting with Disney.

After going through the difficult period of declining domestic box office, Spielberg's ET brought the total box office back up, and the seven major studios were unwilling to sign such agreements again.

Moreover, Jane Fonda gradually faded out of the film industry and married media tycoon Ted Turner. Only in the aerobics videos released every year on the market, her figure can still appease the thirst of movie fans.

The studios are unwilling to sign distribution contracts with stars, but are willing to sign with producers. In fact, the reason is very simple.

Because stars are the guarantee of film project financing. And producers cannot rely on face recognition to obtain bank loans and capital investment.

In the current situation where modern media monopolizes the information channels of everyone in the world, fans and audiences only like to read celebrity gossip and news. No one wants to read the news of a director, a producer, or a supporting role.

This also leads to the fact that only stars in the world can get a certain number of audiences to go to the cinema in advance to watch the movies they shot. Producers and directors do not have this magic.

When studios sign distribution contracts with producers and directors, they still have a lot of initiative in negotiations.

If they are not optimistic about your project, they can cut the budget or even suspend the project. The distribution contract only guarantees the number of films to be distributed, but does not guarantee the distribution of the few scripts.

But stars are different. Because they have natural audience appeal, these people themselves have strong bargaining chips.

But to be honest, compared with producers and directors, stars have a lot of differences in overall control and vision of the project. So if a star can get investment by relying on influence, but does not have a good vision, it is likely that there will be a very high failure rate.

This is a fatal problem for the senior executives of these large studios. Losing money is not a big deal, but if it leads to the loss of their positions, it will be difficult to deal with.

Moreover, compared with producers and directors, the right of stars to speak on such projects also makes studio executives feel uncomfortable. Who will have more say at that time is not certain.

Just like Ronald's recent "Bodyguard" project, once Warner says no, if the star is confident in it, he can leave with the project. Those executives who usually look down on the stars to gain a little self-esteem do not want to see this happen.

Therefore, Columbia Pictures, which is closest to Tom Cruise, only offered a distribution contract for one movie, and they also wanted to negotiate for each script, and refused to sign a long-term contract.

Although everything is difficult at the beginning, there are not many studios in Hollywood that can sign such a contract. Although it is called the Big Seven, MGM has basically stopped its production business under the governance of the Las Vegas tycoon.

And Disney's size is not enough for the big productions that stars like Tom Cruise want to shoot.

Ronald didn't have any good solution for this, and Wagner and Cruise didn't take the initiative to ask for help. It might not be a good thing for him to rush to help at this time. The key point now is to find a newly appointed president like Frank Price of Columbia, and take the opportunity to sign a contract that breaks the convention.

At this time, a headhunting company poached Ronald's daydream.