Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Carrying the script of "Dirty Dancing" and the production display board, Ronald, his agent Niceta, and his assistant David Simkins went to Disney to meet with Katzenberg, the deputy director in charge of production.

Simkins first took out four display boards, then took out an aluminum alloy bracket to support the four display board racks. He took out the first display board and placed it on the bracket. He stepped back and saw the portraits of the two protagonists on it, with their bodies in the posture of Mambo dance.

Ronald and Katzenberg greeted and hugged, and the two talked about Eisner for a while.

Seeing that Simkins had already installed four display boards, Ronald took out the script and handed it to Katzenberg and a female executive he brought with him.

Katzenberg flipped through the synopsis of the script.

The female executive first saw the hand-painted Mambo dance posture of the male and female protagonists on the display board, pushed her glasses, and then looked down at the script.

"This is a dream in the hearts of all American teenage women..."

Ronald said a sentence that introduced the core of the entire "Dirty Dancing".

The time of the executives of the seven major studios is precious. If you can arouse their interest from the beginning, things will be easier in the future.

"The story takes place during the period when President Kennedy was in office. Young girls from middle-class families were mobilized to join the Peace Corps..."

Ronald followed the four display boards and began to introduce the selling points of the movie.

The more he spoke, the more things seemed wrong. The reactions of the two audience members were not as he expected.

Katzenberg frowned. He did not look at the display boards or Ronald. Instead, he held the script and began to struggle with the cover, turning the pages one by one, and then putting them down.

The female executive was concentrating on the portraits of the two protagonists dancing the mambo dance on the display board. Her eyes were focused, as if she was thinking of some memories of her youth. She did not pay attention to what Ronald was saying.

An experienced producer who sells his own film projects will stop and figure out the situation when encountering such a situation.

However, Ronald did not have much experience in production. He still introduced all the contents according to the prepared script.

"Ronald, have you ever thought about this? The target market of this movie may not be very wide. There are not many teenagers to begin with. This movie is also shot from a female perspective. I am afraid it will be difficult for me to arrange a schedule.

For the same movie, if it is aimed at male and female teenagers, the expected box office will be twice that of this movie, so we will definitely give priority to that movie."

"This..." Ronald was choked by Katzenberg's frankness, "But I am very confident in the quality of this movie."

"Of course, we are also very confident in you. Will you be the director?"

"I want to try the role of producer. This movie will first seek other directors to direct."

"Hi...cough..." Katzenberg turned a posture with difficulty, "We have great confidence in you, but if you are not the director, we have to look at this project from a business perspective, right?"

"Please go on..." Ronald gestured for Katzenberg to continue.

"For the same movie, we have to invest in the budget for publicity and promotion. The current cost of movie publicity and promotion is getting more and more expensive, and it is close to or exceeds the production cost of the movie.

If we have two choices at the same time, one movie for young men aged 16-21 who watch movies more frequently, and one movie for young women of the same age who watch movies less frequently each year, which one would you choose?"

"Well... then?" Ronald felt that what the other party said made sense, but his posture and body shape always made Ronald uncomfortable.

The actor's training made Ronald more sensitive to other people's body language than before.

Katzenberg seemed to have something to hide.

"If you are the director, then we will be very interested in considering the distribution. If you want to find another director to take charge, we will hope to invest in a movie with a better chance of being a hit before he proves himself.

In addition to this one, do you have any other scripts?"

"Other scripts?" Ronald turned around and saw his assistant David Simkins, who was hesitant to speak but eager to try.

"There is a script written by my assistant David. It is about the adventures of a nanny while taking care of a child. If you are interested, we can discuss it."

Ronald simply asked David to take out his own script and handed it to Katzenberg.

"Hmm..." Katzenberg took it and flipped through it.

He flipped faster and faster, and then handed it to the female executive next to him.

"If it is this movie, we will be very interested in distributing and investing. Have you decided who will direct it?"

"Are you so interested?"

"Yes, this is the script you are interested in. And its target audience is teenage males, which is the easiest part of moviegoers to find now. The plot is suitable, the director is not difficult, and there is no need for stars to star. It is very suitable for our Touchstone's idea of ​​small and medium-cost teenage real-life movies. I have no reason to object."

Katzenberg said with a smile.

"Uh... okay then." Ronald didn't know that this "Adventures of a Nanny" would be more in line with Touchstone's taste.

Since we are here, why not talk about the establishment of this movie project.

"Your positioning is very accurate, closely related to the daily life of teenagers, making it easy for them to integrate into the plot. Adventures also occur in ordinary life. To be honest, the script of your assistant is of good quality.

I believe that in your hands, this will be a high-quality youth movie. Do you have a suitable director now?"

The participants of this "Adventures of Babysitters" chatted smoothly, and Katzenberg simply asked Ronald if he had any director recommendations.

"The selection has not started yet, but I can ask." Ronald said honestly. Several of his friends at New York University do not have talents who are good at directing such movies.

Spike Lee is determined to make a black-themed movie. Kathryn Bigelow is interested in feminist movies, and she is not very interested in this kind of commercial film that purely satisfies the fantasies of teenagers. Of course, if the script and investment are ready, they may be willing to make commercial films first to become famous.

"If you don't have a confirmed candidate, I have a list here, which is a potential director candidate compiled by Disney in the past few years. We have been constantly supplementing it in recent years."

Katzenberg took out a piece of paper that was folded and opened repeatedly from his notebook and handed it to Ronald.

"Ha, I know this list." Ronald had known this list of Disney directors for a long time. They were all industry elites who had worked as screenwriters, editors, art directors, etc. If they were willing, they would most likely switch to become directors.

His teacher in editing, Walter Murch, was a new director discovered by Disney from this list.

"Well... I'm familiar with two of them here. Why not ask them to come and talk?"

Ronald found two familiar names on the list.

One was Cameron Crowe, the screenwriter of "Fast and Furious Richmond High School". The other was Chris Columbus, the screenwriter of several youth films produced by Spielberg.

"Then you contact them. If they are willing, we can talk about the project in detail." Katzenberg stood up and was about to end the meeting.

Ronald glanced at Niceta and saw him nod, so he agreed to the arrangement. The other party's time was precious, and he was very satisfied that he could achieve the image this time.

When they stood up to say goodbye, the last female executive shook hands with Ronald and said, "I like the script of Dirty Dancing very much. Please make it."

"I will."

Ronald frowned and walked out of the office.

David Simkins was very happy. He started dancing in the corridor and kept saying yes.

"Go call your wife, but it's not time to celebrate yet. Once the distribution contract is signed, you can open the champagne." Niceta congratulated Simkins.

After sending him away, Niceta came back and walked to the Mercedes-Benz with Ronald. The two opened the door and sat in the back seat.

"I feel like they have some opinions about 'Dirty Dancing' that they are not comfortable talking about, and they don't seem to want to invest in and distribute this movie."

"Why? I have some feelings too, but I can't tell what's wrong. Why do you think so?"

"Years of experience as an agent. Next time we meet other studios, we can test them this way."

"Do you really think so? Okay." Ronald listened to Niceta's reason for the guess, "I'm about to attend the premiere of Jim Cameron's new film. Then I can ask the distributor of Alien 2, the people from 20th Century Fox. They are not our main sales target, so it's a good opportunity to test them and see if your guess is correct."