Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Ring, ring, ring..." Ronald rang the doorbell.

"Hi, Ronnie." Jim Cameron opened the door and hugged his friend warmly.

"Hi, Jim, hi, Gail." Ronald saw Gail behind him and greeted her quickly, "Did you move in with Jim?"

"Ha, actually I moved in with Gail." Jim explained.

Ever since Gail Hurd took care of Cameron for a while in Italy, the two fell in love after returning to Los Angeles.

Because Cameron and his wife still need a lot of time to handle the divorce procedures, the two are still living together as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Cameron didn't have much money, so Gail rented a new apartment and the two have lived here for several months.

Ronald handed over the red wine he bought as a belated gift. Under Gail's guidance, he visited the two's little nest.

It has to be said that Gail is a career-oriented woman, and her home is a bit messy, but Cameron is also a casual person, and the two look quite compatible.

"Are you still writing with pen and paper?" Ronald saw a table in the corner of the bedroom, with a lot of handwritten scripts on it, and a lot of words written and scratched on it.

"Do you mind if I take a look?"

"Of course, this is the story with robots as the protagonists that I saw in Rome, Italy."

Jim handed over a typewritten draft of the script and motioned Ronald to take a look.

The script was not thick, only about 40 or 50 pages. Ronald flipped it open and saw that it was not a standard Hollywood script format, but a literary script, without indoor and outdoor markings for shooting. There were no markings for shots, just a story.

"Thank you." Ronald took the coffee brought by Gale and simply sat down to flip through the script. Several people are close friends, so there is no need to care about clichés.

The story is about the future human beings being ruled by the computer "Skynet", and the human resistance army has been fighting Skynet and its subordinate robots. In order to completely eliminate the resistance army, Skynet sent two robots to return to the present with a time machine, trying to find the mother of the resistance leader and eliminate him before he was born.

The human resistance also sent two soldiers back with the time machine. One died during the transmission process. Then he dealt with two robots sent by Skynet. One was a liquid metal robot that could mimic humans, and the other was a soldier responsible for killing people.

In the end, the human soldier made the mother of the future leader pregnant, and he died in the duel with the two robots.

"Oh, this script has a good imagination." Ronald turned to the last page, which showed the portraits of two humanoid robots. One was strong and powerful, holding a shotgun; the other had a handsome appearance and could change into other people's appearance to confuse the other party.

This story looks a bit like a Spielberg script. I'm afraid that many plots will have to wait until they are actually filmed before we can see whether they are good or bad.

The core of the story is still an imaginative exploitation film. If Coleman were to shoot it, it would be done with a budget of about 500,000.

"To be honest, brother." Cameron saw that Ronald was a little insincere.

"I don't know. This kind of movie will depend on the level of special effects. The lower limit can be Corman's movies, and the upper limit can be Spielberg or Lucas's movies. But if you are the director, I will be optimistic about it."

As soon as he said this, Ronald felt something was wrong. It seemed that the plots of the movies directed by these two great directors, Steven and George, were actually similar to Corman's exploitation movies, but they invested more in special effects and shooting, and shot better.

"Hahaha, Roger used to say that Lucas just used more money to make his movies." Gail has heard similar statements.

"So you got the investment?"

"No, we are still promoting this idea to major studios so that Jim can direct it."

"It's really not easy. I just wrote a science fiction movie, and it was rejected by many studios."

"Oh, science fiction, can I see it?" Cameron became interested.

Ronald took out his script and handed it to Jim.

"Does Jim still use pen and paper to create?" Ronald asked Gail.

"Yes, he felt that the typewriter restricted the creative process of writing and revising, so sometimes I helped him type."

"I'll give you a computer, which I used before, and it also has WordStar software and a printer, which is very convenient for writing scripts."

"Of course, you are a rich man now." Cameron joked while reading the script.

Ronald shook his head, "I made some money and improved my life, but that little money is still far from making a movie."

"You want to invest your own money to make a movie?" Gail was surprised to hear this. No one in Hollywood did this. Even Roger Corman used the pre-sale money from the theater to make a movie.

"I don't want to invest my own money to make a movie, but I can't find anyone willing to invest, so I had to contact Mr. Corman. He was only willing to invest 500,000. I calculated that it was not enough, so I could only consider investing a little myself."

Ronald told Gail about his problem. Accompanied by the agent of CAA, he found several large studios, but did not get a positive response.

Gail laughed and looked at Ronald, "You didn't find a producer, did your agent accompany you to promote the script?"

"Yes, how did you know?" Ronald replied.

"Then it's not surprising that you got this reaction.

For such an independent production project, the most important thing is to find a producer, so that his interests will be consistent with yours and he will try his best to promote the project instead of considering his own interests."

"What do you mean?" Ronald seemed to feel that he had touched a little bit of the truth.

"Your agent is from CAA, right? Their agent only wants to stuff the project with actors from other agencies.

The top executives of the studio want to take no risks and rely on the original successful formula to replicate success. They would rather make less money and just add one more successful movie to their credit book.

Their interests are not aligned with those of the director, and neither of them has the artist in mind. "

"It's true, I fired my old agent, and now the project is handed over to Gail and she is the film producer." Cameron interjected while watching "Night of the Comet".

"Oh?" Ronald looked at Cameron and then at Gale Hurd, thinking that this is indeed the case.

New movies are always risky, and no one knows whether they will make money. How can one fight without a partner standing in a trench?

So Ronald asked,

"How do you and Jim work together? Can I also ask you to be a producer? How about you also read my script, are you interested?"

"My energy and time are now devoted to the Terminator project. If you want to hire me, you still have to wait in line." Gale replied. She was actually new to the industry and did not have enough resources and connections to promote Cameron. The script occupies her main energy.

Gale looked at Ronald and still didn't understand, "You don't know how lucky you are, Ronald. You made a blockbuster movie right after your debut.

Jim's current situation is very embarrassing. Big studios are unwilling to invest in science fiction films. Some people in small studios want to plagiarize his ideas, or buy his scripts and find people to film them themselves. "

"Hey, I understand..." Ronald recalled how his fast-paced script was almost snatched away, "Then what can you do to protect Jim's interests?"

"Jim wanted to be the director, so I signed a contract with him, and he sold me the script for 'Terminator' for one dollar, and I stipulated in the contract that only Jim could be the director. "

Ronald knew already. The two were boyfriend and girlfriend. Cameron had not yet finalized the divorce, so they could not share the property rights of the movie as husband and wife.

Gale is willing to take over the role of producer, but she needs a guarantee to prevent Cameron from burning bridges after getting the filming funds, so she will buy the rights to the film and serve as the film's producer.

Cameron was also afraid that after Gale got the investment, he would kick him out and replace him with a famous director, so he included a clause in the transfer contract, on the condition that Cameron must be the director and cannot be replaced by someone else.

In this way, the two people have formed a close combination of interests. If they want to make a movie and make a lot of money, they can only succeed if they work closely together. If one person breaks the contract, it will cause big problems and the movie will not be made.

As expected of an American couple, their interests must be protected. It seems that Gale’s father is also Jewish...

"Your script is very interesting. It puts zombie elements in the apocalyptic background of science fiction. It can be regarded as a fusion of science fiction and zombie films."

Cameron spoke favorably of Ronald's script.

"I am now trying to reduce the budget. Some scenes must be deleted. If you are free, you can help me see if I can make some special effects scenes and makeup with a low budget."

Ronald made his request, and if Cameron wanted to, he could pay some fees. Jim and Gale were busy selling the script. They must have had no income for months, and they might still be eating up their past savings.

"You know, this is also our problem. I have met several producers who are doubtful about the investment in the movie. Why don't you help Jim see if you can eliminate some scenes from the script structure? After all, you have already I have made a movie, but Jim’s Piranha II doesn’t really count..."

"I won't admit directing that bad movie." Cameron muttered.

The post-production of "Piranha II" has been completed. According to the requirements of the Directors Guild, Cameron must watch it once. When he comes back, he will remove his name from the subtitles.

"Okay, then let's swap and read each other's scripts. Then we'll see if there are any ways to reduce the shooting budget."

Gale drafted two contracts. Ronald and Jim agreed to read each other's scripts, then criticize each other from an objective standpoint, and write a report on how to reduce the budget of the other party's film shooting without affecting the final screen effect.