Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald looked at the figure and weight of the other person, and estimated that if he really jumped, he would not be able to hold him back, and he might even have to be taken down with him.

Looking at the crowd downstairs, Ronald asked tentatively, "Minahan, why are you doing this? Can you talk to me?"

"Who are you?"

Minahan Golan looked back and said without interest, "You don't understand the pain of artists. My movie failed and was hated by the audience, just like Van Gogh's paintings were not understood by people at the time."

As he spoke, Golan began to cry.

Ronald stood on the balcony of his room, looking at the 50-year-old fat man across from him crying very sadly. He thought to himself, didn't he jump off the building to lose money on investment in the movie? Crying over artistic failure?

But even if you can't tell whether this kind of movie is good enough, his artistic ability is really hard to describe.

"My name is Ronald. I helped you move the film yesterday. You also gave me two movie tickets. I also went to see your movie. It's not that bad."

Minahan Golan wiped away tears with his fat hands, "You don't need to comfort me. I was humiliated by the audience at the scene. This is a nightmare."

"Well, I'm actually a film worker. This is my badge. Look. I'm a buyer for New World Company. I promise that the movie is not that bad."

Ronald waved his badge at the other party.

"Really? Then will you buy the publishing rights of America?" Minahan looked back.

I'm not stupid, Ronald thought to himself, "No, my company is famous for introducing art films, this kind of commercial films are not within the scope of my company's introduction."

Afraid that the other party would not believe him, Ronald added, "My boss Roger Corman is a famous film distributor in America. He has introduced Japan's Akira Kurosawa and Sweden's Ingmar Bergman." His distribution channels are all cinemas showing art films.”

"You work for Mr. Roger Corman?" Minahan Golan looked back at Ronald again, "Okay, I believe you are really discerning. What do you think is good about my movies?" ?”

"I think the names you gave the male and female protagonists, Alfie and Bibi, are good." Ronald began to pick out the only good qualities of the movie.

“The line ‘Sell first, then make’ is also very interesting.”

"You really have a vision. I changed it all. It was not in the original script."

"Yeah, yeah, it's rare to hear lines with such business philosophy in movies."

"Then tell me, why don't audiences like my movies?" Minahan Golan looked outside again.

At this time, the door to the room he was in was opened, and his cousin Yoram and hotel employees rushed in.

"Minahan, have you forgotten our dream? We came to Hollywood from Tel Aviv to win the Oscar. This time the movie is not good, we have another time, don't be discouraged."

"I haven't forgotten, you are right, Yoram." Minahan Golan finally came down from the railing. The two fat men hugged each other and cried bitterly, saying a lot in a language that Ronald could not understand. talk. Ronald probably spoke the Israeli language, his voice was relatively high-pitched, and he sounded like he was speaking normally and quarreling.

"What, who can sign the check for me?" The theater manager looked at the two of them eagerly and compensated for the repair costs of the screen.

"I'll sign it for you. How much does it cost?" The fat man Yoram took out the checkbook, signed the number required by the manager, and finally signed Minahan Golan's name and handed it to the other party.

"This is signed in Minahan's name." The manager took the check and looked at it, and found that the signature was wrong.

"That's right, both of us brothers can sign checks in each other's names. Just take it and the bank will cash it." The fat man Minahan said to the manager.

The theater manager hesitated and accepted the check.

The organizing committee staff who came with him said to Minahan Golan, "The film festival organizing committee believes that this film is not suitable to participate in the Audience Choice Awards. We would like to seek your opinion."

Minahan waved his hand to indicate that he would not participate in the audience award selection.

Someone from the organizing committee also comforted him, "Mr. Golan, as Yoram said, the success or failure of a movie does not affect the evaluation of the main creative staff. Remember to collect the copies."

Seeing that Minahan's mood had basically returned to normal, everyone said a few words of comfort and left one after another.

Minahan Golan pulled Ronald who came over to watch the excitement and refused to let him go. He introduced to his cousin, "Yoram, this is Ronald. He works for Mr. Roger Coleman in America." ”

Ronald said hello to the fat boy Yoram, and the two exchanged business cards. The little fat man's full name is Yoram Globus (yoraglob), and he is the son of uncle Minahan Golan (nahegon).

The two had just finished post-production at the West Berlin studio and excitedly came to participate in the Montreal Film Festival, hoping to gain a reputation and then enter the American market. Unexpectedly, they were hit in the head during the screening.

Minahan came out of the bathroom after washing his face. The fat man had returned to normal and started chatting with his cousin Yoram.

In front of Ronald, the two began to discuss the issue again in English with a strong accent. Coupled with the colorful body language and the increasingly high volume, it seemed that there was a quarrel.

But Ronald didn't understand a word of it.

After finally waiting for the two of them to stop, Ronald awkwardly said goodbye, but was grabbed by Minahan.

"Ronald, Yoram and I were just discussing where to treat you to dinner. Do you have any suggestions?"

Half an hour later, the three of them sat in Schwartz Smoked Meat Restaurant and started chatting.

"So how did you get to know Mr. Roger Corman?" Ronald knew that the two were descendants of Polish Jews who immigrated to Israel. After asking them if they had any dietary restrictions, he brought them here.

"It was because I was Mr. Corman's assistant on the set that I fell in love with the film industry and founded a film company in Israel." Minahan Golan said, "Is Mr. Corman really unable to distribute our films?"

"You know Mr. Corman's style, Minahan." Ronald laughed.

"Hahaha, yes." Minahan Golan laughed himself.

"We really have high expectations for this movie. Last year we acquired an American film company called Cannon Pictures, just to enter the American market. You know, it's difficult for foreign films to enter the United States, and once they are released in American theaters, the markets of other English-speaking countries will also open up to us."

"Oh? So your goal is to release it in the United States?" Ronald heard the hidden meaning. Did Golan want to persuade overseas theaters and TV stations to buy their movies through the release? "

"No, that's not the case." Golan denied.

"Cannon Pictures, which we acquired, actually has a certain distribution capacity in the United States. Our dream is to get a real Oscar, such as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress, and Best Screenplay. Rather than a comforting Best Foreign Language Film."

It turns out that he is a person with dreams.

"Yes, in fact, Operation Thunderbolt, which we produced and released in 1978, has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar." Little Fatty Yoram added.

"Have you seen it? "Seeing Ronald shaking his head, the fat man Minahan told him the plot.

Operation Thunderbolt is based on the real event of the Israeli special forces raiding the Emped Airport in Uganda in 1976 to rescue the hostages on the plane.

The hostages were rescued safely throughout the operation, and only the captain of the special forces, Netanyahu, was killed by a stray bullet on the Israeli side.

It was the first time that Ronald heard about this rescue operation. If there were such special forces in America, the hostages in Persia would not have been rescued until now.

"We have distributed it in the UK, the UK, Germany, and Spain. It was only released in America last year. We realized that it would be impossible to get a large-scale release with the strength of Cannon Pictures. The main release slots of American theaters have been booked by the eight major studios a year in advance. So we hope to make a name for ourselves at the film festival, and then negotiate with the eight major studios for distribution. "

Minahan Golan talked about his plan, "What a pity..." He sighed helplessly.

"I guess the cost of shooting your movie is not low? "Ronald asked tentatively. He wanted to learn more about the film distribution market and the methods of filming financing to prepare for his own filming in the future.

"Yes, we found tax rebates in West Berlin and received $8 million in investment from companies there, plus $2 million from our own Cannon Pictures, a total of 10 million..."

Minahan Golan was not worried that Ronald would steal his unique secrets, so he told him about the preferential policies for filming provided by the West German government. In order to encourage cultural undertakings and compete with East Germany. In addition to establishing the West Berlin Film Festival, the West German government also encouraged companies to invest in the film industry.

All companies that invest in the film industry can can obtain a substantial tax exemption from the government. However, this tax exemption is only given after the film is released, and the time span in between must be solved by a bank bridge loan.

And Minahan Golan's unique competitive advantage is their good cooperative relationship with Svenburg's Bank in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, which can get a low-interest bridge loan.

Although the bank was recently exposed by the media for money laundering by the underworld, their relationship with the Credit Lyonnais Bank, which recently acquired the bank, is also very good. It is considered a major customer with a certain social influence, and it has not affected their future financing business.

"So that's the case, thank you for telling me this." Ronald thanked the two brothers.

"I heard that you are also a screenwriter and writer?" Minahan Golan and Yoram Globus looked at each other, "I wonder what works you have written that have been made into movies?"

"The recently released Famous Four Seas has my signature."

"I have seen that movie, it was released by MGM. "

Minahan further probed, "Although you are young, you know the American film market very well, and you are also an artist. Do you have any suggestions for us to enter the American film distribution market?"

"Suggestions?" Ronald was stunned. What suggestions could he give? He only operated the midnight screening of Rock High School and made some money and the opportunity to participate in the film festival.

But he thought about it and said, "I heard that United Artists and MGM have encountered some operating difficulties recently, and their film production business has been suspended. You might as well try to talk to them first. You don't have any movies to release, so you should be very eager for other companies' movies."

"That's it. I knew you were a perceptive young man, Ronald." Minahan and Yoram were very happy. They were still outsiders to Hollywood, and they were not well-informed about some rumors in the industry.

"I want to know how you got the opening film position?" Ronald also asked the two, "It's hard to get the opening film of this A-level film festival, right?"

Minahan smiled, "Don't be fooled by the meaning of A-level. It only means that this film festival has an awards process. And the Montreal Film Festival is newly established and faces a lot of competition.

If a film participates in the selection of an A-level film festival, it cannot participate in the selection of another film festival. It can only participate in the screening."

"So that's it," Ronald nodded, thinking of the participating films in the film festival promotional materials. Sure enough, there were many English films participating. I also saw a Japanese film and an Italian film. Sure enough, the A-level film festival is not that easy to handle.

"So these are all screening films, not participating in the competition, right?" Ronald picked up a film festival brochure and asked Minahan for advice.

"Of course, Hitchcock just passed away, and there is a tribute screening of his films here." Yoram pointed to a row of movie titles written in French.

After the three finished their dinner, Minahan Golan called the waiter to indicate that the bill should be paid.

"By the way, why are you cousins, but your last names are different?" Ronald suddenly remembered that the two brothers had the last name Golan and Globus, and cousins ​​should have the same last name, "Is it a stage name?"

"No, I changed my last name to Golan." Minahan paid for the meal and left a few banknotes as a tip.

"I was a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force and participated in the 48-year war, so I changed my last name from Globus to Golan and used the Golan Heights as my last name."