Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Barry Diller, the junior boss and CEO of 20th Century Fox, gave Ronald an evening to talk about the new film.

As a top Hollywood executive, he is neither married nor has a stable girlfriend, and his reputation as a workaholic is widely known in the industry.

Ronald and Niceta took the elevator to his executive office together.

"Ronald," Barry Diller hugged him warmly, "I'm glad you thought of us."

20th Century Fox is now suffering from considerable financial difficulties. When oil tycoon Marvin Davis was chairman, the film shooting business was a mess. The projects all suffered huge losses.

Since the president took office, oil prices have been falling, and Marvin Davis's wealth has shrunk a lot in the past few years.

He introduced a new partner, Australian Murdoch. Originally, there was an agreement with him that the two would invest in proportion to acquire a cable TV network "Metropolitan Media" and turn Fox into an entertainment group integrating television and movies.

But when the acquisition agreement was finalized last year, Marvin Davis couldn't even come up with the agreed proportion of investment.

There was no other way, so Murdoch had to buy out Marvin's remaining shares in 20th Century Fox. He directly controlled the listed company.

This made Barry Diller particularly embarrassed. In the contract he had agreed with Marvin Davis, there was a clause for him to acquire a portion of the shares and become a small boss.

But Murdoch's acquisition messed up all the plans. Especially this Australian with Irish and Scottish ancestry, his attitude towards Jews was unclear.

Originally, Murdoch's foreign nationality could have prevented him from taking full control of the media group, and Barry Diller still had time to introduce new investors.

But unexpectedly, this Australian had an exceptional ability to act, and he quickly obtained American nationality and officially became the owner of Fox.

Because Murdoch's interest was more on television. Barry Diller only spent a little energy on the business of film production to find some projects with low production costs but great box office potential.

Ronald's project has become a synonym for Hollywood spending little money to make big profits. So he was also willing to cooperate with him.

Being able to come to 20th Century Fox to seek distribution, this project must have some obvious shortcomings, and his peers did not agree. But fortunately, this project will be his turn.

"I'm sorry, the target market of this project is too narrow. Our current film production department's selection criteria for projects must be high-concept and mainly for male teenagers... If you have any other projects, I'm willing to listen."

Seeing that Barry Diller also said the same thing, Ronald and Niceta looked at each other, and they knew what was going on. It seems that these Jewish executives do have some tacit understanding.

Niceta is familiar with Italian directors and actors, and he has actually heard a lot of rumors. In fact, in the golden age of Hollywood, the brutality of Jewish gangs and their control over celebrities were much more powerful than those of Italian gangs.

And now it reflects that in the movies at that time, there were only Italian gangs, and no one has ever seen any theater movies released by major studios that tell stories about Jewish gangs.

"What if I continue to modify the script? For example, adapt this story to be more targeted at male teenagers?"

Ronald began to test it according to the way he thought.

"For example, a Jewish male teenager falls in love with a woman who dances with a guest on vacation. I swap the roles of the male and female protagonists, making the male protagonist a guest on vacation and the female protagonist a dancer. Do you think this will help Fox get a distribution contract?"

"That's great," Barry Diller twisted his body and his voice became louder.

Suddenly, he saw Ronald's bright eyes looking at him, and hesitated for a moment, "But this will cause your script to lose its original tension. Do you want to revise it and then come to talk to me?"

"That's right, I'll find someone to take over first and revise it." Ronald leaned back on the sofa and said a few perfunctory words.

"Do you have more projects now? As long as it is for teenagers, especially attractive to male teenagers, I am very willing to consider it."

Barry Diller didn't want to miss this opportunity and tried to find some possibilities for cooperation.

"If there is a script you like in our Fox film library... we can talk."

Ronald looked calm on the outside, but he had already started cursing in his heart. These Jews are really too fake. It's just a love story of a Jewish girl. Is it necessary to make it like the Hays Code back then, considering what ethnic girls are immoral?

Feeling angry, Ronald took out another script from his briefcase.

"I have a script here, which tells the story of an ancient Egyptian princess who traveled to the modern era and became a wooden fashion model. Only in the dead of night will she become a real person and meet her lover."

If you push everything down to market potential, then show me a bad movie and see what you say.

Barry Diller took the script with interest and read the synopsis.

He read it very quickly. After five minutes, he closed the script and took off his glasses.

"I think this script is very good. I will arrange for the production manager to contact your agent. We will shoot this one. It would be best if you can direct it yourself. If you can't direct it, you have to be the producer. As long as you agree to this condition, 20th Century Fox is willing to sign a distribution contract."

"Do you think this one is good?" Ronald took the script from the other party and looked at the cover. It did say "smart and vivacious".

He couldn't believe it, so he opened the script again and quickly browsed the beginning and the end. It was indeed the story of the wooden beauty.

"Would you rather invest in this movie? Or "Dirty Dancing"? "

Ronald confirmed with Barry Diller again.

"On the basis of you being the producer or director. Yes, I am more optimistic about the market potential of this movie."

Barry Diller took the script and slapped it on the cover. Then he shook hands with Ronald, "We've settled it."

On the way back with Niceta, Ronald hadn't come back to his senses.

"So they would rather make this rubbish than a movie like 'Dirty Dancing' that has both artistic and storytelling qualities? Obviously, the potential of that movie is much stronger than the story of that wooden beauty."

"I'm afraid that if you take out the script of 'Gone with the Wind' now, any studio will invest in it."

Nicita looked at the depressed client and told him what he thought was the truth.

In this market with strong uncertainty, someone like Ronald who can make any type of film and sell well as a director and producer is more reliable than the scripts selected by those people on the film review committee after a week of meetings.

"There must be something wrong with this world." Ronald shook his head.

"It's totally wrong to deny such a good script because of such a small ethnic reason."

"Do you have any way to really change the ethnicity of the protagonist as you and Barry said, and then try again?"

Ronald thought for a while, "It's difficult. The screenwriter Eleanor adapted it based on her own experience, and there are a lot of details in it. If you change one ethnicity, there will be problems, and the gears will not mesh perfectly together."

"For example, the holiday center they went to travel was built specifically for Jews. If it is changed, then the conservative social atmosphere will have flaws.

Besides, why can't a Jewish girl be good friends with an Irish dancing boy? Such an ethnic setting originally added a good dramatic background to the script."

"I'm just making a suggestion. I stand on your side and support you. Why don't we try with a small distributor?"

Nicita persuaded Ronald while thinking.

"Small distributor, I know Cannon's Minahan is also Jewish. And Mr. Coleman is also Jewish."

"Mr. Coleman is very open-minded. He has produced many trend-setting films. I don't think he can be regarded as those Jewish executives.

As for Minahan, he is from Israel. He is not in the same circle as the Jews in our country. Maybe they think differently."

"Okay, I'll go and talk to them. If it doesn't work, I will invest in production and distribute it myself. I don't believe that I can't distribute movies without these distributors!

The previous "God Must Be Crazy", the South African producer brother and sister sold copies to local theaters in one state after another, and toured in America. Not only did they recover their investment, but they also made a lot of money."

Ronald was angry at the hypocrisy of these Jews. He was in the state of a complacent young man. He said everything he said about his distribution.

"Don't worry, we should take a long-term view."

Nicita was a little scared. He didn't want this client to give up his great career as a director and producer to do some distribution work.

Since the Paramount case, movie theaters in America have not been vertically tied to the monopoly of the studios. If you are willing, you can negotiate with the theaters one by one and distribute the films yourself. There is no law prohibiting you from doing so.

However, the cost of bypassing the existing distribution system is frighteningly high. The Big Seven could have signed a contract with all the major theaters in the country and set the release date at the Las Vegas Film Fair a year ago.

If you miss the fair now and hire someone to negotiate with thousands of theaters across the country one by one, you will probably lose your pants.

Although it is not necessarily a bad thing for an agent if a client is in debt. But Ronald is on a good upward trend now, so there is no need to gamble everything on a musical.