Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Hey, it was only a waste of two days. The actual interview time was only a few minutes. In the end, Her Majesty the Queen's security chief asked her for questioning for a long time."

On ABC TV's international entertainment news, Aunt Karen was so excited to see Ronald, Minahan, and Jeremy Thomas being received by Her Majesty the Queen of Britain that they were together, and after calculating the time difference, The call was placed to Ronald's hotel room in London.

Ronald, who was eating a large portion of fish and chips, started chatting with his aunt. This delicacy invented in the slums of London's East End is, to put it bluntly, fish wrapped in batter and fried, then dipped in various sauces and served with chips.

Common people's delicacies all have this characteristic. They are high in calories, high in carbohydrates, deep-fried, and have a strong taste. It makes Ronald eat very enthusiastically. It reminds him of the breakfast pancakes with fried dough sticks that he had eaten in Xujiahui. It's the same way. number.

"Then the queen didn't talk to you about her life experience? Her royal friend is your grandmother, is she a best friend? So after calculation, are you a relative of his grandchildren? Will she give you a title or something? ?”

"No. We are actually very distantly related. The Spencer family separated from the royal family eight generations ago. Even if we are related, we are called the eighth cousin's eldest grandson three generations apart.

third

reoved), basically it doesn't matter.

However, the two princesses and I can be regarded as distant cousins ​​within three generations.

Co). Well, but...but Mr. Wang doesn’t seem to like me very much, so I promised Buckingham Palace not to make this relationship public. "

Ronald took a bite of the still hot fried fish and said, "Don't talk about it. I brought two cashmere scarves for you and Donna. I heard that Earl Spencer started his career in wool weaving. There are still people in the family who are engaged in the old business, so they specially gave me a few. "

"Well, look out for yourself in Britain, I heard the people there are bad."

After telling his aunt about his messy distant relationship with the royal family, Ronald hung up the phone. This kind of ancestry can be traced back to seven or eight generations. In fact, most British people can be connected with a certain noble in history. Before living conditions improved significantly in modern times, many poor people would not be able to leave any descendants.

"Ding dong..."

"coming"

Ronald finished the remaining fried fish in three bites, wiped his hands, stood up and opened the door.

"Ronald, hey hey. It's me."

A fat man with a thick neck who looked like a manual worker from the East End of London was laughing at the door.

"Jeremy, please come in."

It turned out to be independent filmmaker Jeremy Thomas. Ronald was happy to have someone come to visit, but he was also a little surprised, why was he here?

"I'm glad to see a British man visiting me. I really want you to come and chat with me. The rest of my crew have gone back first." Ronald took out a bottle of whiskey from the wine cabinet and gave it to Jerry Pour the rice.

"I went to watch your 'Top Gun' last night. It is indeed a commercial film with superb skills. There are many things I don't understand, so I took the liberty to find it. As a producer who has been making films outside Hollywood for a long time , a little unfamiliar with the new trends in Hollywood.

Why does your movie seem to be edited at a faster pace than others? "

"You may not watch MTV very often, but the new generation of young people like to watch music videos, where a complete story must be presented within three minutes, so the pace must be fast and a large amount of space must be left for the story... "

Ronald never refuses communication between colleagues. You never know who you will hear one or two brilliant ideas from, which will be used in subsequent movies.

Besides, he also wanted to know more about the filming of "The Last Emperor" in the Forbidden City, and he himself wanted to make a movie with the theme of his motherland.

"The Last Emperor is based on the autobiography written by the child emperor who ascended to power at the age of three when he was old. They were very cooperative and even hired his younger brother and the people who were managing him in prison at the time to serve as consultants for the film.

After Director Bertolucci finished writing the script, he repeatedly confirmed every detail, costume, and scenery in the script with them, striving to restore the last emperor of that ancient and mysterious empire. "

"I've never filmed a period drama like this before. From what you can tell, it's very difficult."

"Yes, the investment in period dramas is very large. In addition to the Forbidden City being kindly opened to filming, the casting was also very difficult. I finally persuaded Peter O'Toole to play the role of the emperor Johnston, and the male and female protagonists were Chinese actors.

Bertolucci discovered that although East Asians all look similar, there are subtle but obvious differences in temperament among Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The audience can tell at a glance whether it is authentic or not. "

"Of course," Ronald thought to himself. Even the producer who raised $25 million didn't know much about culture. Originally, the temperaments of ordinary people in the three East Asian countries were very different.

"This movie will definitely cost a lot of money, but I just want to capture the afterglow of this two-thousand-year-old empire and make it an epic masterpiece. It is really very expensive to do things seriously. Thousands of extras have to be paid every day, and they also have to pay wages." They have to be equipped with appropriate clothing, armor, weapons, and then hundreds of costumes, makeup and hairstylists, all of which have to be flown in from Europe or Hollywood."

"Hmm?" Ronald thought, it seems not quite right. He has been to Xujiahui Film Studio, the Ministry of Culture there has given a policy of fully supporting the export of culture to the world, everything can be coordinated. Besides, the labor cost there is very cheap, how can it be as exaggerated as Jeremy said?

"So 25 million US dollars is not enough. I can't reveal a little bit in front of my colleagues at the reception ceremony that day, otherwise they will completely mess things up.

I have to maintain the image of no problem with funds in public, people just like to invest in successful movies."

"Matthew effect? ​​I understand. Do you still need money? Isn't 25 million enough?" Ronald asked.

"Of course it's not enough. A small part of my financing came from Heimdl Productions (the producer of Terminator), and the rest was obtained bit by bit through my hard work. And this movie has not yet found a distributor.

So in addition to the production costs, I have to prepare a reserve fund in case there are problems with the filming there. I also have to prepare myself for distribution in America, even if it is screened in one state after another.

For such an epic movie, Hollywood distributors are very timid, a bunch of bastard cowards without balls.

I am very confident that this "The Last Emperor" can be compared with David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia", both in terms of awards and box office."

"How much do you need?" Ronald wanted to know more details. He really wanted to invest in this movie. There are too few Hollywood movies that promote Chinese history and culture. There is nothing wrong with having such an opportunity to let the audience know more about Chinese history.

"It's about 10 million short. Can you invest?" Jeremy Thomas was overjoyed. There are not many sponsors who are so easy to talk to.

"Ten million? I don't have that much money. I'm just a director. The big money in Hollywood is made by producers and film companies."

Ronald retracted his hand that was about to reach for his wallet to get the checkbook.

Jeremy Thomas was a man with no boundaries. He started with ten million, and he denied it publicly before. Now he asked for a huge sum, which made him really untrustworthy.

"No?" Jeremy Thomas was a little frustrated. "In fact, ten million includes two million in reserve and eight million in distribution budget. It's okay to get it with only two million. But there must be other people around you who are willing to invest in your vision."

"Ronald, art is great. There is a very bad trend in Hollywood now, which is to only shoot those genre movies that have been proven by the market. Some movies obviously have both artistic achievement potential and box office potential, but those studio executives who don't understand movies at all just don't give the green light. It's for this reason that I turned to an independent producer.

"I agree, but I really don't have money. ”

Ronald actually quite agrees with Jeremy’s statement. Movies rely on the interest of stars, and studios will feel at ease to invest in them. This inevitably leads to a dislike for groundbreaking genre films. In order to minimize risks, stars also focus on movie scripts that fit their image.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as Ronald is willing to lead the investment, many people in Hollywood will follow. I know they all believe in your vision.

I know that you are interested in Chinese culture. People don’t know the greatness of Chinese culture, and that Confucius wrote a great work comparable to the Bible a thousand years before we entered London.

This is a great history. Together with Bertolucci, I want to slowly open the curtain of this ancient and mysterious country and show it to everyone in the world. "

Jeremy Thomas then went on to talk about Ronald's support for Asian culture.

He knew that Ronald had criticized the movie "Year of the Dragon" that insulted the Chinese, supported the protests against injustice faced by the Chinese, and filmed the mysterious Japanese mentor, Master Miyagi.

Many people think that the Japanese are really amazing when they look at the magic of Japanese companies. They are not as resistant to those who have taken their jobs as in the past. After all, their products are indeed inexpensive and of good quality.

"Let me think about it carefully. ”

Ronald felt that what he said made sense. The success of a movie can sometimes arouse the change of the status of an ethnic group. It would be a pity if an epic film like "The Last Emperor" could not be made perfect because of a lack of money.

However, some of Jeremy Thomas's style... Although understanding your customers is a basic requirement for sales, Ronald always felt uncomfortable because he studied himself so thoroughly and even asked him about supporting Chinese people.

"Of course, of course... But you are a benchmark. As long as you can support, even if it is hundreds of thousands of dollars, I can raise more money in Hollywood, so that Bertolucci can fully play his role.

"Well, let me think about it. My financial affairs, especially film investment, must be discussed with my agent and accountant."

Ten million is fine, hundreds of thousands are fine, why does this sound so unreliable?

"This is the phone number of my assistant in Hollywood. Contact me as soon as possible. As long as you can invest, I think someone from the seven major studios will be willing to consider distributing this film in America."