Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Spielberg has very high expectations for "Empire of the Sun". This place has just opened its doors to filmmakers from all over the world. He and Bertolucci are the first two Western directors to come here to shoot on location.

Hollywood sometimes pays attention to popularity. In the past two years, everyone has vaguely felt that movies with the scenery here as the background will be the next hot spot.

Not only do American people line up to travel and appreciate the scenery of the ancient country, but Oscar judges also want to come here to make movies. Those who try it first are most likely to become the favorites for various Oscar awards.

"Empire of the Sun" and "The Last Emperor" are both epic films. From one character, we can see the changes of the times.

The Oscars are awarded by voting. Now Hollywood is pursuing foreign customs. The best-selling "Crocodile Dundee" has also deepened this love for foreign customs. This year, two movies were shot in the ancient East, which fits the enthusiasm of American audiences to take a glimpse of the scenery.

Spielberg, who has always been good at grasping popular trends, really wants to get the Best Director Golden Man that he has dreamed of for a long time with this movie. Last time, the Oscar judges deliberately did not nominate him for the director award for "The Color Purple", which caused Spielberg to be interviewed on TV to criticize him. Now everyone feels a little guilty about him, and maybe his dream will come true.

Spielberg also told Ronald that this was his first time to shoot a story about a child saying goodbye to innocence and growing up. He abandoned his previous best method of shooting the innocent emotions of children, just to break the routine and seek a breakthrough for himself.

Seeing that Spielberg was so dedicated to the film, Ronald said goodbye to the crew and stopped disturbing him.

After the visit, Ronald invited his partner Lao Yan to have a meal. He has been researching some new inventions recently, but there are no results. His son Xiao Yan, after accompanying Spielberg this time, has accumulated some qualifications and can go to America to start his study abroad career next year.

"I'll leave my son to you, Xiao Luo. Son, when you get there, you have to listen to your brother Luo. He can beat you on my behalf, you know?" After drinking some rice wine, Lao Yan officially entrusted his son to Ronald.

"This is the end of my life. You have to strive for excellence and work hard there." Old Yan poured a glass of wine for his son and drank with him.

"I think you have a chance to go to America. Now you are working, I can invite you to visit there. When you retire, you can also go there to travel and settle down." Ronald saw that the atmosphere was a bit sad, and persuaded Old Yan again.

"Yes, with Director Luo taking care of you there, Xiao Yan is also working hard, Old Yan, you will enjoy your life in the future." Director Huang was also invited to dinner by Ronald. The few of them are Ronald's best friends here.

"I will take the videotape of your movie "Ghost Love" to Hollywood to see if anyone is willing to introduce it. After all, this is a Chinese movie, and it tells a story about opera that American audiences are very unfamiliar with. Perhaps the best result is that it will be screened on a small scale in some Chinatown theaters."

"I understand. I'm very happy to have the opportunity."

Ronald talked to Director Huang about her further studies in Hollywood. Now they need to send an invitation letter from the foreign party and then get approval from the leader before they can go abroad.

Ronald is going to send the videotape of this movie to Gail to see if their Hollywood Women Practitioners Club is interested in inviting the female director who shot this outstanding female movie to come over for communication.

Finally, Ronald went to the lightning lamp factory in Minhang to see that the long arc halogen lamps exported have good quality stability. In addition, the city government attaches great importance to it, and it is close to the countryside. There are sufficient supporting non-staple food and light industrial products, and the workers are very motivated.

Ronald finally took the workshop director and other cadres to take a group photo in the factory director's office under the award certificate of "Export and Foreign Exchange Model Unit" on the wall.

…

"Hello, Mr. Li, the plane is about to land." The middle-aged flight attendant in the business class woke Ronald up. It was another long flight. He returned to Los Angeles with the good wolfberries and tea that Director Xu helped buy.

Little Bud drove to the airport to borrow his car, and along the way, his agent Richard took the time to report on what happened during his absence.

"Paramount's news is that the box office of Top Gun can continue, and the company has decided to speed up the release of the videotape.

Pepsi thinks that the commercial you shot for their Diet Pepsi is very effective, and wants to know if you can reshoot the Top Gun commercial yourself and put it in the videotape. They are willing to pay a high price."

"I don't have time, I'm about to start the production of "Moonlight". Besides, are they dissatisfied with the commercial shot by Kathryn Bigelow?" Ronald asked.

"No, they are quite satisfied. It's just that Michael J. Fox starred in the commercial, and they also wanted to let Tom Cruise shoot one."

"Have you talked to Paula?"

"She is not very willing. Tom Cruise now tries to find famous directors and excellent scripts when choosing a role, and doesn't want to be stereotyped in the role of a fighter pilot."

"Then pass," Ronald replied.

"Mr. Weintraub didn't return my call at MGM. There are rumors in the industry that he and his boss Kerkorian have some conflicts, and it seems that Kerkorian did not fulfill the stock options he promised."

"Ah? It won't affect the preparation of my movie, right?"

"No, I have contacted Mr. Kerkorian's secretary. She said that Mr. Kerkorian also attaches great importance to MGM's first film when it resumes production, and she also wants to meet you."

"There's no rush. You need to find Weintraub first and I'll have a chat with him."

After dealing with the accumulated matters, Ronald thought of the breakdancing thing again and said to Richard, "Please help me contact Minahan from Cannon. I have something to discuss with him."

…

Minahan Golan's body has gained some weight, and his belly protrudes a lot more than when he last saw him.

"Ronald, quack quack. You're here just in time. I'm about to go to the screening room to watch copies of two movies. Come along and we'll talk while watching."

"Of course, I'm here to talk to you about break dancing." Ronald knew that Minahan was now the president of a large company, and his work was not as busy as before.

"Break dance? What, are you willing to make a third part? I'll invest in it!"

Minahan jumped up more than a foot and happily patted Ronald on the back, "As long as we cooperate, we will definitely make a big-selling movie."

"No, I went to the other side of the Pacific and they decided to introduce 'break dancing', so I came to you. Can you give them a low price then?"

"No problem. This movie has basically been sold all over the world. It's a good thing that we can enter emerging markets that are difficult for Hollywood to enter in a few years."

Minahan has a good instinct for the international market. His movies always do well at the box office in Britain, where there is also a Cannon fan club. Any new movie with cannons should be watched.

"This is the new movie we asked Stallone to shoot. Yoram, Yoram, Ronald is here. Let's watch it together, projectionist, projectionist starts."

Minahan's voice was still loud, his head turned rapidly left and right, and he greeted everyone present loudly.

There was also a person from the production crew, who probably brought the edited copy to the court today. They stood up respectfully and said hello to him.

"Everyone sit down, everyone sit down. Let's watch Stallone's new movie 'Over the Top' first, and then I'll watch yours."

The Cannon logo flashed across the screen and the credits to "Over the Top" began to appear.

The film was directed by Minahan Golan, written by Stallone himself, and starred in it. The main story is about a divorced truck driver father named Lincoln. After his ex-wife fell ill and was hospitalized, he drove his truck with his son to various bars to participate in arm-wrestling competitions. He eventually won the national arm-wrestling competition and improved his relationship with his son. .

As soon as Ronald saw the names of director and screenwriter in the title sequence, he felt a sense of disaster coming to his face.

Sure enough, the movie parodies the storyline of "Rocky" and changes the boxing match into a bizarre arm-wrestling contest. Changed the emotional process of his girlfriend to improving the relationship with his estranged son.

Different storylines, but using the same structure, the film has a very comedic feel.

Ronald had a hard time not laughing at the arm-wrestling in various weird bars.

In the end, when the scene where Stallone arm-wrestled with a big guy who was two heads taller than him, and when he was about to lose, he turned defeat into victory by looking at his son with magical power, Ronald couldn't help but break the move, poof. He burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, isn't this ending very good? I specially invited the Italian Giorgio Morodel to compose the music. After he composed the soundtrack for your 'Top Gun', the price more than tripled."

"Haha... yes, this soundtrack is really good. If I close my eyes and imagine the battle on the screen, I will feel excited." Ronald really had nothing to praise, so he could only praise the soundtrack. stand up.

He didn't say that if he opened his eyes, he would definitely laugh again.

Minahan Golan continued to praise himself, and his cousin Yoram pointed to his watch to remind him that time was tight.

Minahan waved his hand behind him, indicating that he should start putting down the movie.

"Who is that? Don't you have a document you want me to sign? Hurry up and bring it." Minahan called the waiting assistant to come up, took the document, and started signing.

The name that appeared on the screen was "Alan Quartermaine and the Lost City of Gold," and Ronald recognized the actor as Richard Chamberlain, the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" knockoff co-starring Sharon Stone. The sequel to "King Solomon's Treasures."

"This copycat is very uncreative. Even the naming rules are copied." Ronald rubbed his chin and thought, this Minahan is really thorough in his work.

Starting from the second film of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones played by Harrison Ford has been included in the title of the film, forming a protagonist + adventure treasure method. Minahan This is total plagiarism.

As soon as the movie started, Ronald couldn't sit still, and this sequel was so hard that his eyes almost closed in embarrassment.

All the scenes have no special effects, they are just makeshift. Let the protagonist Richard Chamberlain play casually and use a revolver to fight against dozens of enemies with machine guns. Only when the enemies are stupid can he win.

It’s unknown how much money Minahan invested in the film and how much was embezzled.

Is Minahan filming too many films now to handle it? If he had watched the crew during the time when he and he were cooperating in break dancing, there would be no way he would have ended up like this.

The performance of the heroine Sharon Stone was also extremely exaggerated. Ronald felt that even if Helen Slater, whose acting skills were ten times worse, played the plot of the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus at the elementary school drama festival, she could not act like this.

"Ah... Bah..."

Ronald heard in the corner that an actress hated the heroine's acting skills just like him.

Having the same feeling, Ronald smiled at her.

After enduring more than an hour of bad movies, Ronald stood up and wanted to leave first. Watching another movie like this would make his stomach hurt.

Minahan stood up and called the director over, "What the hell are you shooting? Didn't I say that these queens should be ugly, ugly, how did you make them look so beautiful? They are all beauties."

The director was speechless, not knowing what Minahan was talking about.

"The movie I shot is called 'Invaders from Mars'. I'm the queen of a group of Zerg, not 'Invaders of the Playboy Villa'. How come the leading female villain is so beautiful? What are you shooting?"

...

"Hello, Director Ronald. I'm the number one female villain in the movie, Cassandra Peterson."

Ronald was confused as to why Minahan said the movie was called "Invaders from Mars". The actress who just disliked the leading actress's acting skills like him jumped up quickly from her seat and blocked Ronald's way to talk to him.

"Hello, it's you. Your makeup in the movie and the stunts done by the doubles are very beautiful." Ronald perfunctorily said and was about to leave.

"I was a dancer. The special effects of the movie only cost two dollars and thirty-five cents. I was the only stuntman. I jumped into the green lake myself."

Cassandra Peterson was unwilling to miss the opportunity. She talked about the reasons for the good and bad performances of her performance like a machine gun.

It turns out that in addition to the unknown where the crew's money went and Cassandra having to shoot many dangerous scenes herself, the heroine Sharon Stone is also a nuisance. In the plot where they were caught by cannibals and were going to be cooked in a big pot, this blonde even urinated in the prop pot.

She came out and proudly announced it to everyone, but in the end no one was willing to rearrange the smelly and disgusting big black pot. The last edited shot was the only one, and the whole performance was extremely bad.

"I thought she was a smart actor, how could this happen?" Ronald couldn't help but wonder if the heroine was mentally abnormal and a deep well ice.

"Her IQ is actually not low, she is a smart person, but she tells everyone in the crew every day that she is smart."

Ronald felt that this actress was not easy. Facing such a heroine in the movie, the opponent's role was qualified, and she was also desperate to shoot dangerous stunts herself.

He took out a business card with only the office phone number and handed it to her. "Cassandra Peterson, right? Call this number and tell them that I gave you the business card. If there is a suitable role in the future, I will notify you to audition."

"Oh, thank you...thank you..."

Cassandra Peterson has big breasts and fair skin, but she actually looks sweet without heavy makeup, not the kind of glamorous villain in the movie. She was very happy to get the business card and kept thanking Ronald.

"Ronald, aren't you going to watch the next one with me? It's a story about American ninjas." Minahan came to keep him.

"I really have to go," Ronald hurriedly refused.

"Okay, I know you are busy, I will arrange the breakdancing. In addition, call me when you are free and we can talk about cooperation, ok?"

Minahan was so busy that someone came to ask him for an autograph. The next crew member, led by the director, also walked to a row and sat down with him to wait for the sample film.

Minahan was still scolding the unfortunate director, "How many times have I told you that the queen and the maids should be ugly."

"Minahan probably got the name of our movie wrong. He thought he was watching the movie Invaders from Mars, not The Lost City of Gold."

Cassandra Peterson whispered in Ronald's ear.

Ronald looked at her in surprise, "How many movies has Cannon made this year?"

"I don't know, thirty? Thirty-five?"

Ronald looked at Minahan, who even got the name of the movie wrong, and felt a little bad. Is it really that difficult to manage a film studio? This Israeli tough guy was almost demented by the torture.

...

The next day, Ronald returned to the office and heard good news.

After his "Dirty Dancing" was submitted for review for the second time, after deleting ten seconds of nudity, PAA was very polite and re-rated it to PG-13.

Michelle Cannold, the distribution business manager, was ecstatic and had a deeper understanding of Ronald's unfathomable connections.

"We plan to promote it state by state. Since we missed the Las Vegas Film Expo where the theaters came to us, we will take the initiative to go to the theaters in every state and every small town to promote it.

The quality of Dirty Dancing is very good. I believe those theater managers will be impressed by the wonderful plot and seductive dance, and we got PG-13."

Michelle Cannold is full of energy.

"Then I'll trouble you. When I'm not around, if you have any questions, please go to Eddie. If you have any difficulties, we can discuss them together. After all, this is the first movie led by Daydream."

After all, the distribution business is an unfamiliar field, and the two leading managers don't have much experience. Everything has to be done by trial and error. Ronald is still very satisfied with the launch of the distribution work at the end of the year. Before Christmas, perhaps several states in the Deep South can be scanned to see the situation and make adjustments.

Another day passed, and Ronald adjusted the time difference. Weintraub, who had been missing for a long time, took the initiative to call Ronald to his home to talk in detail.

"Ronald, come on, long time no see, how is your business in Xujiahui? How is Spielberg's new film?"

Weintraub was still sitting on his long leather sofa, smiling and greeting Ronald.

A beautiful woman in a bikini walked past the door.

Ronald raised his eyebrows, looked at the beautiful woman, and asked Weintraub with his eyes.

"My wife Jane went to Washington, DC, and the deputy commander's wife Barbara wanted her to go and have a party. I just happened to be in Los Angeles because I had something to do."

Ronald thought that it was no wonder that Weintraub was not afraid of a $1 million fine, because his wife was on a business trip.

"Everything is going well over there, and I couldn't get in touch with you the other day."

"Hey... I went to Las Vegas."

Weintraub sighed, took out a bottle of brandy, and poured it for Ronald and himself.

"Kerkorian, that old bastard..."

It turned out that Wintertraub was fooled by Kerkorian, the real boss of MGM, the big boss of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, and an expert in using chickens and eggs. He did not get the real CEO position, and Kerkorian appointed another person as co-CEO, under the pretext of ensuring that the business of both MGM and United Artists could proceed normally.

And Kerkorian had promised Wintertraub stock options and promised him to be the second largest shareholder and the plan of the small boss, but because of the new tax law, there were some legal "technical problems" and it was about to fall through.

Weintraub reorganized the top management of MGM for Kerkorian and integrated the teams of the two original companies. After basically completing these dirty and tiring tasks, he was kicked out by Kerkorian. Now he only got the CEO position of the empty shell United Artists.

"So you just swallow this breath?" Ronald asked.

"What should we do? All his operations are technically legal. I also underestimated the difficulty of his operation in Las Vegas. This is not an easy person to deal with.

Fortunately, we Jews have a good tradition. We don't get entangled in past grievances. If we suffer a loss, we will remember this lesson and start over."

Weintraub was a singer's agent, and he was still quite wary of casino tycoons like Kerkorian.

He didn't get the authority he wanted, so he had to take a large salary and bonus, resigned in anger, and opened a small company "Weintraub Productions" by himself.

Fortunately, when he was in MGM, he was not idle. He relied on the platform of MGM to connect with the largest joint cinema chain in Canada, Sinneblake Cinemas.

Weintraub joined forces with them and found their old partner Columbia Pictures, and signed a 20-year distribution contract with them.

All works produced by "Weintraub Productions" are distributed by Columbia.

Ronald was a little worried about his new film after hearing the news. Now that Weintraub is gone, will MGM's cooperation be in trouble?

As if seeing Ronald's worry, Weintraub said to him, "Don't worry about your new film "Moonlight Temptation", I will still be there until the end of February next year...

I have also agreed with Kerkorian that he will invest resources in the distribution of your new film. You are now one of the most profitable directors in Hollywood, and this is the first film after MGM resumed its production business. He is a person who knows the importance of things."

"Honey", the bikini beauty waved to Weintraub outside the door, but her eyes were always looking at Ronald, and she also took the time to throw a wink.

"It's a center-seam model in the new issue of Playboy, recommended by Hugh Hefner. Do you want to try it?" Weintraub poked the man who fell on the case.

Ronald waved his hand to show that he was not interested.

"Haha, you don't have to worry about these things. I invited you here today because I want to continue to cooperate with you. When I go to my own production company, I will be in charge of the overall work, and Susan will help me with daily work. Let's cooperate again, how about it?"

"Let's talk about it after I finish the movie I'm working on." Ronald shirked.

"I know you have a small production company yourself. What's the point of playing with those small productions? This time I got a real big investment from Sinneblake Cinemas and Columbia. What kind of movie do you want to make, who do you want to find, I can satisfy you.

How about it? Consider it?"

"Oh? You got a big investment?" Ronald felt that this sentence was very familiar, and someone had said this before.

"I will only tell you one person, don't spread it before February next year. It's still in the confidentiality stage. It's a big investment that will shock Hollywood." Weintraub lowered his voice and bowed his head slightly, as if to avoid the bikini beauty to hear.

"How much?" Ronald couldn't help but bowed his head forward, and their heads were almost touching.

"Four hundred and fifty million."

...

"Four hundred and fifty million..." Ronald was half lying on the back seat of Little Bud's car, still a little unsettled.

Why do these Wall Street people seem to not take money seriously?

Disney's Eisner got 300 million, Cannon got 400 million, and now Weintraub got 450 million. I'm worried about not getting money for a small production, so how are these people better than me? Why do they seem to take hundreds of millions of dollars casually?

This matter is not easy to talk about with others, so Ronald made a special trip to New York to meet his childhood friend Douglas Hansen.

Both of them were stunned by the big money of Wall Street and talked for a long time in Douglas's mansion.

"I have carefully read the information disclosed by these two companies. It is obvious that Wall Street has no idea what kind of movies can make money.

Now the money supply is loose, the Federal Reserve has maintained low interest rates for several years, and slightly raised interest rates last year, and the economic response is also stable. It is the golden age of very good liquidity.

So they can easily raise 400 to 500 million yuan, whether it is from the junk bond market for Cannon, or from private equity funds to the rich for Disney's Eisner, including this time Winterraub took a 20-year long-term issuance contract, mortgaged plus private investors' investment.

They are whiter than us The only strong point of Daydream Pictures is that it has its own distribution channels.

The fools on Wall Street can only use formulas to make profits. Because their movies are selling well, they have unique vision and strong distribution channels. Why are their movies selling well? It is precisely because of their unique vision and strong distribution channels.

I have read many analysis reports from researchers, which are all garbage of circular reasoning.

As long as our Dirty Dancing can be successful, I think Wall Street's money will definitely come to us on its own initiative. "

"Yes, you still have to have your own distribution channels to be respected by others." Ronald also thinks it makes sense. Doing business is not about making movies. There cannot be any special shortcomings in the production, purchase, distribution, marketing and other links of movies, so that capital will favor them.

After determining the future direction of the company, Douglas Jr. treated Ronald to steak. His chef is of Italian descent, but the steak he made today is Irish-style, very tender and juicy, which made Ronald very happy.

"How long will you stay this time? Are you going back to Los Angeles soon? Are you going to start preparing for the new film?" Douglas Jr. also ate very quickly. Both of them had practiced wrestling and were carnivores.

"I will stay here for a while. The new film needs a good casting. They are all Italians from Brooklyn, New York. I plan to go to the casting studio where I worked in the past and ask them to help with the casting.

This movie is very dependent on acting skills and the fit between the role and the actor. Those Hollywood casting directors are not suitable. I need to fit in personality more than appearance. I also need group auditions to determine the chemical reaction. These are the strengths of the casting studio.

In fact, it would be best if the owner of the casting studio, Julia Taylor, could choose. She has a sharp eye and specializes in casting for director Woody Allen. Unfortunately, she only works with Woody Allen, so I can only ask her subordinates for help."

"By the way, have you been a photographer for them and taken audition photos?" Douglas Jr. recalled the past.

"Yes, now I work with them in a different capacity. These female casting directors are really good at choosing actors."