Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"The Twilight Zone", Vic Morrow's last film, was released, earning $6 million in the first weekend.

Vic Morrow's ex-wife and two daughters declined to comment on John Landis's participation in the premiere.

Los Angeles prosecutors said that the film director should also be responsible for his actions and would prosecute Landis for second-degree murder and manslaughter in accordance with the law.

The newspapers were all about reports on the film that had a fatal accident.

Ronald's friend, Jennifer Jason Lee's father's last film, "The Twilight Zone Movie", was finally released nationwide. Director John Landis, who was facing a criminal case, also attended the premiere of the film.

Landis may have been forced to attend the premiere out of helplessness, knowing that the on-site reporters would ask many difficult questions, just to promote his film.

Criminal defense requires a lot of money to hire a famous lawyer. The subsequent civil compensation case also requires the preparation of a sky-high compensation. . Landis gritted his teeth and hoped that The Twilight Zone would sell well, so that someone would ask him to make a movie, make money to pay off his debts, and avoid bankruptcy.

In the first weekend, more than 1,200 theaters earned 6.6 million at the box office. The unsatisfactory figures may have disappointed Landis.

"Night of the Comet" is still firmly at the twelfth place on the box office list, and it still earns Atlantic about one million dollars a week.

A few places above is "Flashdance", which is even more stubborn than his own movie. This movie returned to the top ten of the box office this week, nailed at the ninth place, and the cumulative box office has exceeded 51 million.

The reason for the box office rebound is that "Flashdance" is also involved in a lawsuit.

Before selling the script to Paramount, Tom Hedley, the original story creator of the movie, gave the prototype of the movie, Maureen Marder, a female welder/stripper in Toronto, Canada, a buyout fee of 2,300 US dollars for adaptation.

Now the North American box office of the movie has exceeded 50 million, and the audience has been very supportive. It seems that it can continue to be shown for more than ten weeks. The prototype of the story, Maureen Marder, sued Paramount at the instigation of the lawyer, hoping to get more adaptation fees.

"Flashdance", which looked like a bad movie at that time, has now become one of the most popular cash cows of the year.

Paramount has very strong evidence to refute the plaintiff's claim.

The contract for Maureen Mulder to sell the adaptation rights was very strict, and when the contract was signed, Maureen Mulder also had a lawyer present, so their chances of winning were very high.

However, the cunning president Eisner still let the other party sue, signaled his lawyer to show weakness, and let the media report the lawsuit extensively, which actually had a miraculous effect, and the box office rebounded again.

Ronald put down the newspaper. Movies have been the most important entertainment throne in the lives of American people for many years. Nowadays, movies must rely heavily on marketing to convince batches of audiences who did not go to the cinema to go to the cinema for your movie.

"Please give me a cup of coffee." Ronald said to the flight attendant.

The business class service was satisfactory. Saab paid for Ronald to take a United Airlines flight to New York. The plane stayed here temporarily and was about to fly to Arlanda Airport in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.

"First time going abroad?" Ronald asked Richard next to him.

"Yeah, thank you for upgrading my seat." Richard could only sit in the economy class at the back, but Ronald upgraded his seat. Otherwise, after a long flight to Sweden, Richard was in a bad mood and could not help him deal with daily chores.

"Small things," Ronald put on his eye mask and began to fall asleep.

The plane arrived at Arlanda Airport in Stockholm. The two of them waited for the lady who came to the United States for negotiations last time in the arrival hall of Terminal 4.

"Here, Ronald." She took Ronald's small bag attentively, got on the Saab 9000 luxury car used by VIPs, and the group went to the Stockholm Grand Hotel to check in.

In the summer in Northern Europe, the daytime is very long, more than sixteen hours. The Grand Hotel is in the city center and is a very impressive old monument. Saab booked a room for Ronald facing the Nord River in the center of Stockholm. When he opened the window, he saw the two bridges on the Nord River and various old buildings.

"You take a rest first. When you get over the jet lag, we will go to the air force base to see Saab's fighter jets and site scouting." Saab's marketing manager made very thoughtful arrangements.

"If it's convenient, I can go now." Ronald has a very good advantage. He can sleep very well on the plane. Regardless of the noise and turbulence, he often closes his eyes when he gets on the plane, and when he opens his eyes again, he has arrived.

"Is that so? Well, I'll contact the base." The female manager was of course very happy with Ronald's dedication.

Let Richard stay in the hotel to catch up on sleep. Ronald took a car through the old city of Stockholm and came to Balkaby Airport in the northern suburbs.

This is the earliest airport in Stockholm. It has been used by the Air Force until it was opened to civil aviation ten years ago. However, on the other side of the airport, the Swedish Air Force training base is still maintained.

The car passed several guards, and Ronald got a pass, hung it around his neck, and the car drove into the air force base.

Ronald got off the car, and the first thing he saw was two huge hangars. On the door of the hangar, there were large letters of Saab.

This is where the Saab 37 Viggen jet fighter is parked.

"Viggen means thunderbolt in Swedish. In Norse mythology, it is the thunderbolt struck by Thor with his hammer." The female manager introduced Ronald.

"When can I see him training in the sky?"

The female manager found the senior manager of Saab who came with her. After he confirmed with the personnel of the Air Force and Saab, there would be a routine training half an hour later.

The iron door of the hangar was slowly opened a crack. A fully armed Swedish Air Force pilot, wearing sunglasses and a white scarf around his neck, nodded and greeted them and walked into the hangar. He climbed up the cockpit carefully through a steel escalator.

Ronald was allowed to stand next to the hangar and watch the fighter leaving the hangar.

As the door of the hangar opened wider and wider, the sun shone in from the gate and hit the cockpit of the fighter.

A ray of sunlight shone through the glass of the cockpit and shone on the pilot's mask.

Ronald's heart moved. This was a very good scene design. He quickly used shorthand symbols that no one present could understand to outline the scene in his mind.

The fighter pilot closed the canopy, and some ground staff pulled the block of the aircraft, and the aircraft slowly moved forward. The airspeed tube in front of the fighter first poked out the door of the hangar like a needle.

The huge machine glowed with gray light, which made Ronald feel great awe for this modern killing weapon. Looking at the belly of the aircraft

Modern warfare has evolved to the point where you can shoot down enemy aircraft by pressing a button. Instead of using machine guns to fight each other like in old movies in the past.

When the fighter drove out of the hangar, the speed was very slow. But this very slow progress left a deep impression on Ronald. This killing machine, before soaring into the sky, also lurked on the ground and moved slowly like a turtle.

The plane slowly moved to the runway. Ronald and the manager of Saab came to the side of the runway to watch the takeoff.

The nozzle of a single turbojet engine at the tail of the aircraft was opened. A ball of orange-red flames spurted out of the nozzle of the engine.

Today, the pilots will perform short takeoff and landing training. The flame suddenly increased in size, and the length of the spray suddenly increased. The pilot pulled the brakes, and the nose of the plane suddenly paused, and then slowly moved forward.

The noise of the engine suddenly increased several times, and a huge roar came. Ronald found that his eardrums began to be oppressed, and he had to speak very loudly to barely hear.

The female manager brought two earmuffs and gave one to Ronald.

After wearing it, the noise was reduced a lot. Ronald stopped talking, took out a notebook and a ballpoint pen, and began to write down some of his feelings in the notebook.

With a "boom...", the fighter suddenly seemed to be pushed by someone and began to accelerate sharply. The short-distance takeoff subject made Ronald, who was watching from a close distance, thrilling.

The plane first raised its head, and then the front landing gear slowly lifted up, just keeping the head-up posture. After a second, the fighter struggled again, completely got rid of the shackles of gravity, and slowly took off.

Then the pilot pulled the nose of the plane hard again, made a maneuver, flew rapidly to the sky, and soon disappeared.

Ronald felt the echo of the sound waves coming, the echo of the engine, and the hot air blown by the nozzle, as if it was bounced back by the outer wall.

This very slow movement, the appearance of being in place and ready, and the rapid soaring into the sky after takeoff gave Ronald a very strong sense of contrast.

"I... have... an idea," Ronald said to the manager of Saab.

"What did you say?" The manager took off his earmuffs and asked him.

Ronald also took off his earmuffs in a hurry, "I said, I have a new idea. I know how to show the surging power of Saab."

"What is it?"

"I think that the most powerful moment for ordinary people to feel a jet fighter is not when launching missiles in the sky. It's the moment of takeoff or landing. In this way, I can show the surging power of Saab fighters and Saab cars in parallel, and then let them meet on the runway."

Ronald gestured and said to the female manager.

"It sounds good," the female manager felt that Ronald's new idea seemed to be more exciting.

The two walked back to the hangar and prepared to get in the car to go back to the hotel.

"What's in that hangar?" Ronald looked at another hangar not far away, which was separated from here by a barbed wire fence.

"That's a confidential project," the female manager replied with a smile, "I don't know what it is."

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