Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Pia, the hostess of CBS, agreed to contact David Letterman. They had been colleagues in the early years of CBS Los Angeles. When Letterman was still a weather forecaster, he wrote a script for Pia.

Letterman was very easy to talk to after receiving the call from his old colleague. He agreed to meet with Ronald and the producer. He was at home with his family.

Producer Lin Sen and Ronald visited Letterman's home together.

Letterman has been famous for a long time. His house is not big, much smaller than the mansion of his teacher Johnny Carson, who is famous all over the country.

Letterman was still preparing for the show at home. He pushed the materials on the table in the living room aside and greeted Ronald and Lin Sen warmly.

"I was busy, and Pia called and said, you want me to make a cameo in the movie?"

"Yes, we want you to make a cameo as yourself, as the host to interview Spicoli, a character in the movie. He was invited to your morning show because he saved Brooke Shields."

"Late show, I will start to move to the evening time next month."

"Invite to your late show. You will ask him a few questions, and Spicoli will answer with that typical stupid thinking."

"This is very interesting. I also have some acting skills. You may not know that the Zack brothers first asked me to play in "Unprecedented Flying", but unfortunately my agent refused."

"That's why we want to meet you, Mr. Letterman."

"Is that all? I thought you would give me a big role." Letterman read two pages of the script and laughed.

"If your agent hadn't refused, we would have let you audition for a teacher role in advance."

"That's it, I still look like a teacher."

...

After chatting with David Letterman for a while, he happily agreed to the cameo.

"I didn't expect Letterman to be so easy to talk to, but his agent is too tough." Ronald said to the producer Lin Sen who came with him after he left.

"It's because he's so easy to talk to that he lets his agent screen all the opportunities. Letterman is essentially a naive person, and maybe that's why he can host a good talk show." Lin Sen replied.

Maybe he's right. Letterman has a naturally friendly and approachable personality. If he is allowed to handle all the business cooperation invitations by himself, he will probably agree to all the invitations, which will be a disaster.

Several big names who guest star have agreed, and Ronald began to ask his assistant to contact Sean Penn, who is now performing his stage play in Chicago. The three actors need to find a suitable shooting time and shoot the reshoots at one time.

Just when everything was ready, Ronald suddenly received a call from producer Lin Sen. Their reshoot plan was questioned by Ned Tanin, senior vice president of Universal Pictures, and he needed to go to Universal Productions tomorrow to discuss with Tanin and other senior executives.

"Why? I don't understand. This is just a small production. The total cost of reshooting is only $300,000. Why would this vice president Tanin suddenly come out to question us?"

"Don't be angry. This Tanin is a well-known nuisance. He has a bad reputation among directors and often interferes with projects set by other senior executives.

This movie has nothing to do with him, but as a senior vice president, he does have the power to raise questions about any project. We need to have a meeting with him and explain his doubts clearly. Mr. Simberg's people will speak for us."

Lin Sen rushed to Ronald's editing room and discussed with Ronald how to deal with Tanin's doubts.

"You have to be careful not to be scared by his initial doubts. Tanin is good at using super aggressiveness to scare the person he is talking to at the beginning..."

"Super aggressiveness

"It means that he will put some hats on you right away, accusing you of your film creativity, shooting techniques, editing processing, etc. As long as you refute based on the facts and can make sense. Tanin will not insist on opposing. He is used to using this method to scare away those scammers who pretend to be capable. "

"Who is he? ”

“He started out in the mailroom of MCA. He has never made a movie himself. He only attacks directors and then cuts out other people's clips to show his power.

Lucas cut several minutes of content from "American Graffiti" because he was troubled by him. After the movie sold well, he vowed not to cooperate with Tanin again, left Universal, and went to 20th Century Fox to cooperate on "Star Wars." ”

“So he is a troll.”

“Yes, when he rudely accuses you, you must stand up and fight back appropriately, so that he knows that you really understand how to make a movie. "

"We must fight back against his random accusations," Ronald made a mental note.

The next day in the conference room, Ronald really witnessed the super aggressiveness of the vice president, Tanin.

Tanin has a traditional Jewish look, with a hump-like bump in the middle of his big nose. Slightly curly hair, and eyebrows that disappear when they are halfway to the outer corner of the eye.

If you remove all the comfortable elements on the face of Cannon Pictures' boss Menahan Golan, such as big glasses, a kind smile, and a sincere face, and replace them with a bit of arrogance, that's the first impression that Tanin, who is also Jewish, gives people.

"I don't understand why you would give the green light to such a script, which is full of contempt and trampling on traditional American morality. Such a script should not be filmed by us at Universal."

While attacking Ronald's movie, Tanin glanced at the female vice president, who was a subordinate of Shinberg.

"Mr. Tanin, I don't know why you say that. This is a youth comedy..."

"Comedy? A real comedy should be like 'Melvin and Howard', suitable for all ages, and there are no shots that purely satisfy the audience's low tastes." Tanin did not forget to mention the Oscar-winning comedy movie he produced when attacking.

"But 'Fast and Furious' is a low-cost youth comedy. We lack marketing investment and need some shots to get the audience to the cinema..."

"Go to the cinema? You want more people to watch your 'movie'?" When Tanin talked about the word movie, he put his hands in front of his chest and raised two fingers each and hooked them twice. It means that the movie is put in double quotation marks, satirizing that Ronald's film is not a movie at all.

Ronald's anger was suddenly aroused by his action. Why is what I shot not a movie? The "Melvin and Howard" you greenlit was a box office failure. You got a few Oscar nominations and praise from critics through public relations. Does that mean you know how to make movies?

"Of course, I don't think there is any problem with this. When a director makes a movie, he certainly hopes that it will be a box office success. Even if it is a small production, I hope it can be a big hit at the box office, rather than just being satisfied with a box office of four or five million."

Ronald hit back. Tanin just mentioned that the "Melvin and Howard" he greenlit, although it won a few Oscars, only had a box office of more than four million.

This first scared Lin Sen, who was sitting next to him. He glanced at Ronald, wondering if the young man had misunderstood his meaning. He should fight back appropriately, not to retort and expose the other party's past.

"Mr. Tanin, Ronald means..."

"I know what he means!" Tanin looked a little angry, "You anti-Semite..."

Now even the female vice president next to him frowned. How did the anti-Semite label come about?

"How can my movie have anti-Semitic plots? My two heroines are Jewish actors." Ronald himself pays attention to such details. There are enough quotas for all races in "Fast Pace".

"Why not? Jennifer Jason Leigh and Phoebe Cates are both Jewish actors. You let them be naked in the movie and play two ignorant and superficial girls who are deceived by men of other races."

"I don't understand why filming beautiful Jewish girls is anti-Semitic? Does it mean that finding an ugly Jewish girl, or Jewish boys picking up beauties of other races, is supporting Jews?"

"I'm afraid that in this case, the reputation of Jews will be even worse?" Ronald had something else in his mind that he didn't say.

However, the female vice president next to him understood what he meant and smiled at him. Tanin's unreasonable and arrogant attitude made her, who was also a vice president, also hate it.

"You haven't made a movie, why should I believe you? Can you guarantee that your movie will be a hit? If so, why invest 300,000 to reshoot the scenes?" Tanin questioned from the perspective of the reshoot budget.

"Of course I can guarantee it." Ronald thought that the original film has been released for the 15th anniversary, how can it not be a hit? And the scenes he shot were better than the performance in his dream.

"Do you really believe him, Linsen? Will the reshoots costing $300,000 have any effect on the box office? If this investment cannot increase the box office by more than 900,000, we will be doing a loss-making business."

The female vice president under Sheinberg also raised doubts. Of course, she was actually giving Ronald and Linsen a chance to explain.

"Of course, Brooke Shields and David Letterman are both stars with great appeal. Their participation can attract more young audiences to the cinema. As long as they have seen the movie, word of mouth can make the movie a big hit. We don't have a marketing budget, and the reshoots are our best marketing."

"How can you prove that your movie will be popular? Will our reshoot investment be rewarded?" Tanin frowned and stared at Ronald. What he disliked most was the movie director who talked nonsense. But listening to Ronald, the young man, slowly speaking, it seemed that he did have his own ideas.

In this sluggish film market, only by finding a director who can really bring box office returns can one invest and bet. Otherwise, once the company's annual report is released, if the loss is too much, his position will not be able to be maintained.

Sinberg has Spielberg as a cash cow, and he is not like him. He must question every movie to ensure his right to speak. Anyway, if the movie is a hit, no one will raise his doubts. If it is not a hit, it means that he has foresight.

"I am confident in my movie!" Ronald nodded to the female vice president next to Tanin, "I hope that our reshoot budget can be approved as soon as possible. The two stars who agreed to guest star have tight schedules. Don't delay."

"Please let me make a call first, I will prove it to you." After Ronald finished speaking, he walked out of the meeting room, went to the front desk to get an extension and dialed a long-distance call to his personal accountant Lawrence Wang.

"Lawrence, this is Ronald. There is no time to talk more. Tell me, how much money can I use now?"

Lawrence did not hesitate and answered immediately: "Ronald, I assume you are in urgent need of cash now.

Your securities assets have not grown much, but the IBM, Coca-Cola, and Kodak stocks you bought have been in use for more than a year, so you only need to pay capital gains tax, not personal income tax. If you sell all of them, you will have a little over $350,000.

You will pay taxes on the sale next year, so the money you can use in the short term is this money plus the $100,000 in cash in your bank checking account. Leaving the tax to be paid in April this year, you can use about $350,000.

If you need more, then you should consider using your house as a mortgage to the bank.

"If I write a check for $300,000 now, will it bounce immediately?"

"No, it will bounce only when they go to cash it and Wells Fargo finds that your account is insufficient. You have about two days to balance your account. If you sell the stocks, I can transfer the cash to your checking account within two days, and it will not bounce."

"Okay, you are always waiting for my order. "

Ronald turned around and entered the conference room again, took out a checkbook from his pocket, took out a pen, signed a check for $300,000 on the first one, and handed it to Ned Tanin.

"This is my personal check. I can pay for the reshoot of $300,000. Universal will share the money with me according to the investment ratio. "

"No, I believe you. You are very confident in your movie. I like confident people. "Tanin said something unexpectedly, contrary to his doubts just now.

"Finally, the budget is coming, and we can arrange the reshoot." Lin Sen opened the car door and let Ronald get in.

"Why did Tanin agree in the end? I thought he would let me pay for it myself.

"Of course he agreed. If you pay for it yourself and the box office is a big hit, Universal will have to pay you dividends, and he will become a laughing stock in the industry. How can a capitalist be exploited by a director?"