Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald didn't remember why this name was so familiar for a while. Several senior executives of Daydream continued to discuss business.

Daydream made a lot of money from "Dirty Dancing", but most of it was Ronald's property. Several young executives only took a fat check every time the dividends were credited because of Ronald's generosity.

Filming is a very high-risk investment. Several people also limited their goals to these three books. For such a large production, Daydream would be lucky to make one in a year. The company's business is still low-cost B-level movies and videotape business.

"We may be able to develop a new genre of film direction, a modern revival of gangster suspense films." Michelle Cannold made a suggestion to Ronald.

"This kind of movie does not require too much shooting cost, and it is also very convenient to select suitable plots from old movies for adaptation and reshoot. Warner Brothers made a lot of such movies in the 1930s and 1940s."

Ronald understood what he meant. The current videotapes are not the same as the shooting mode of theater movies. Due to the size of the TV, movies shot specifically for the videotape market often require the kind of classical story mode.

After the rise of television, not many studios are willing to make this kind of film. Who would go to the cinema to watch something when they can watch it on TV?

The rapid rise of the videotape market happened to give the old genre films a chance to revive. As Ronald talked, he felt that, to some extent, it was the distribution channels that determined the rise and fall of the genre.

What is needed now is to produce genre films in large quantities, quickly and at low cost. Quality is not the most important thing, but speed and stability are important.

The result of the discussion among several people is that while the screenwriters are still on strike, they will buy more old movies and foreign film copyrights, record them into videotapes and sell them. One is the romantic love film that women love to watch, and the other is the kung fu film, which is the investment direction determined by Daydream. Everyone began to work hard in these two directions.

JA's kung fu film is a very good target, because many of his movies' jokes and big action scenes can be understood without language, which is a good pastime for American audiences. As for the love story, they mainly look for the United States, Spain, and Italy. Latin Americans have special advantages in making such movies.

Ronald thought it was a good idea and made a note of it to call his friends in Hong Kong. They must be quite interested in selling the movie to Hollywood.

"Look, last year's theatrical movies had a batch of poor box office performance, but the video rental market was unexpectedly hot. I think the seven major studios will react one day. We have to seize the opportunity."

Cannold took out several boxes of videotapes he had prepared to verify the strategic direction they had discussed. "This is 'No Way Out' released by Orion. They received a four-star rating from Roger Ebert, but the box office was only over 30 million. Compared with the salaries of several big stars, the stars did not make back their investment.

But the videotapes produced by Orion and sold to HBO entered the top five of the video rental list. If we remove the stars, we can probably make it for less than five million, and the sales in the video market will not be much different."

"Michelle is right. I have seen this movie. It is actually a plagiarism of the plot of Paramount's 'Big Clock' in 1948. We only need to pay a small remake copyright fee to do a good job." David Simkins is worthy of being a script reviewer. He saw the prototype of the movie at a glance. This proves the resurgence of spy war, thriller, and gangster films.

"This type of film has actually been mainly produced by TV stations since the 1950s. However, due to the rating requirements of wireless TV, many ice creams in the plot have been cancelled. It happens that in the current videotape market, we can add those ice creams back." General Manager Eddie concluded.

"That's great. In the future, we can contact medium-sized studios such as Orion. We can also help them produce and distribute videotapes."

Ronald felt that he had found a new business direction and picked up the videotape box and watched it repeatedly. The heroine of this spy war is the crazy woman Sean Young who he auditioned. The male lead is Kevin Costner, a former carpenter who debuted with him.

He has always been in a state of being one step away from becoming a star. The western film "Silvarado Showdown" he shot before did not achieve box office success. Maybe it is more suitable for the videotape market.

"Huh..." Ronald remembered that he had met the writer named Michael Blake when he was drinking beer at Kevin Costner's house. He had no money at the time, and had not sold any scripts. He slept in the living room of Costner's house.

At that time, Costner asked him not to write scripts for the time being, but to write a movie to make a name for himself. Could it be this movie...

"I remember, give me the phone..." Ronald excitedly took the phone and called his agent Richard, "I want to call Kevin Costner, please help me contact him."

"Why, do you have a new project and want to cooperate with him?" Richard became interested. He and Niceta relied on Ronald for most of their business.

"He may know a best-selling author. I'll ask him about the copyright... Damn, Kevin has already bought it, right?"

"He happened to come to Los Angeles to promote his new baseball movie "Bull Durha". He will come to see you after meeting the media." After a while, Richard called Ronald back.

...

"Yes, that's the friend you saw at that time, who lived in my house." Kevin Costner was wearing a jacket, white socks and boat shoes, exactly like the powerful minor league baseball pitcher in the movie.

"Are you?" Ronald asked Costner, holding the wine glass.

"Yes, I bought the option. Originally, Michael wrote a movie script. Because no producer was willing to buy it, I encouraged him to write it first. Now it has entered the best-selling list, but no one bought it... I I had to buy the option to adapt it first.”

Kevin Costner tells the story of "Dances with Wolves". His old friend Michael Blake debuted at about the same time as him and played with him. By the time Kevin had appeared in "Night of the Comet" and was becoming a star, Michael still couldn't find anyone willing to buy his movie.

The best-selling performance shows that the problem is not Black's writing level, but that no one is willing to invest in such a classic western film now.

"I can consider investing. In fact, my creative director suggested that I consider it." Ronald made his intention clear.

"Of course, of course I would. Working with you is the happiest filming experience I've had in Hollywood. You don't know how troublesome it is to work with Sean Young. If she doesn't feel right, she will stop..." Costner I feel very grateful to Ronald. After all, it was the other person who gave me a chance to debut.

"But Michael has a condition, that is, he must film all the plots in the film, and cannot excerpt and adapt part of the plot. I have already promised him."

Kevin Costner was also very happy to see that Ronald was willing to invest. After all, if this script was to be fully filmed, it would definitely exceed the budget of 10 million.

"Shoot all of it?" Ronald confirmed. After all, he had flipped through this movie. The story in it was quite large, and even two and a half hours of shooting might not be able to accommodate it. This is the type of film that distributors least want to see.

"Yes, and for the Indian part, the dialogue must be in the language of the Indian tribe. I plan to go to the Indian reservation to shoot on location."

Ronald touched his chin, which sounded like a star's delusion. With Indian dialogues, who among the American audience will watch it? And he spoke as if he already had an overall plan for the movie.

"Who are you going to direct this movie?" Ronald asked him.

"Yours truly..." Kevin Costner pointed to his nose.

"Hmm... I don't know, Kevin. Maybe you could consider practicing with a small production. It's your first time as a director to challenge a movie like this..."

"I've thought about it a lot, Ronald. When I was making movies in the past few years, I paid close attention to the director's working methods. As you told me before, when making a movie, you first give the main lens, and then you shoot the over-the-shoulder shot. The camera was shot front and back, and some close-up reaction shots were added at the end.”

Seeing that Costner had fallen into passion, he began to talk about his design of certain shots. Ronald knew that it would be difficult to persuade the other party to give up this unrealistic fantasy this time.

"I didn't expect you to have such a big idea, courage and ambition. My company alone cannot handle the distribution of such a large-scale production. If you can find the seven major studios to give you the green light, I hope to purchase a filming Invest in share futures, so that after the overall plan is finalized, I can invest according to the share.”

Ronald thought about it and decided to use a small amount of money to lock in an investment amount first. No one at the Big Seven studios would be crazy enough to let Costner make his debut in an epic production like this. When the time comes, when he hits a wall, I will slowly convince him to give up his unrealistic fantasies.

"Dances with Wolves" is good. But good doesn't necessarily translate into a good movie. After all, movies and movies are two completely different carriers, and often the better-looking they are, the worse the adaptation is.

First-rate movies are often adapted from third-rate movies, retaining only the characters and story framework, so that they can be modified according to the filming rules without offending readers, who don't have many die-hard readers anyway.

As for at least more than 10 million, the budget would exceed 15 million including Costner's salary. Let this newbie who has never been a producer give it a try and see what kind of torture he has to endure.

Anyway, this kind of thing was either said to him by himself or by people from the seven major studios. If it comes from your own mouth, it will hurt your feelings. It is definitely not as good as if it comes from other people's mouth. When the time comes, you will be the one to persuade him.

…

For Dances with Wolves , we have to endure Costner’s delusions for a while. The results of the other two parts came out quickly.

"I'm sorry that I didn't understand the key behind it. The adaptation rights of Silence of the Lambs were sold before the publisher published it."

David Simkins came over to apologize to Ronald.

"What's going on?" Ronald was surprised. Selling the rights before publication was strictly a violation of a series of Writers Guild rules.

"That's right. When the author Thomas Harris sold the rights to the first 'Red Dragon' to De Laurentiis, he signed a special packaging contract. The sequel must also be produced by De Laurentiis. Filmed in a studio…”

Simkins recounted all the information he had heard from the author during his visit.

De Laurentiis, a native of Naples, included many deceptive clauses in the contract. For example, if the second film adaptation of the series is not shot by his company, he must be paid half a million US dollars in compensation.

When Thomas Harris heard that his film might be adapted for the screen, he signed the contract without thinking too much. At that time, the first Red Dragon might not be made, and it was a pleasant surprise that someone spent hundreds of thousands to buy the adaptation rights.

Who knew that the first film would be a big hit and very popular with readers. The adaptation of the second film was also very popular and was sought after by many producers. Hollywood is full of poor producers who want to become famous.

But after the box office failure of the first film, Laurentiis no longer wanted to make the second film. However, the contract was still valid. If the author Harris wanted to sell it to a producer who was truly capable of making it, he had to compensate De Laurentiis for 500,000 first.

Obviously, he didn't want to be a sucker. At this time, the famous acting actor, Gene Hackman, found him and was willing to pay 500,000 to buy the copyright.

When the author Harris saw that someone was willing to pay, of course he agreed.

But obviously there are no fools in Hollywood. Gene Hackman paid for it, and there were also several special clauses. That is, after the film project was established, first, he must play the senior official of the FBI.

Second, the actor who plays Hannibal must be confirmed by Hackman.

Third, Hackman wants to direct the film himself.

The author Harris thought this configuration was good and he didn't have to pay for it himself, so he agreed. Now Ronald's Daydream Company thought it had taken the lead and came to discuss the adaptation, and the terms that had been determined could not be changed.

Originally, it took a lot of money to shoot a movie, and it was not impossible for everyone to invest together and share the risk. But when Simkins found Hackman's agent, he was rejected outright.

Gene Hackman wanted to use this movie as a springboard for transformation into a director, so that everyone would know that he was not only an outstanding actor, but also a potential director. So he was quite wary of directors like Ronald who wanted to invest.

"This..." Ronald felt that his luck was really bad. How could an actor now think that he could transform into a director? It was really that easy, why were there not many directors who were transformed from actors.

Moreover, when an actor has a short schedule, he can rest after filming his part. The director also has to coordinate the filming of the entire film, deal with various emergencies, and finally shape the film in the editing room. Finally, he has to fight wits and courage with the producer to keep the edited version, and also work hard for publicity.

Wouldn't it be better for you to be a quiet star?

By the way, Gene Hackman is not a star, just an actor. Ronald understood a little.

There are many people who can be both stars and actors, but in fact there is still a huge gap between the two, that is, good looks.

Although Gene Hackman has good acting skills and the audience is familiar with him, he has played many famous blockbusters, such as the villain in Superman. But no audience will think he is a star and come up to ask him for an autograph.

Because he looks really average and has no characteristics. With his acting skills, he can play both good guys and bad guys. However, he has never been able to become a fixed role, so that the audience knows what kind of role he plays as soon as they see him.

Because of this, Hackman has no box office appeal. I think turning to a director may be a reaction to his frustration.

It really is a matter of trouble. Some big stars desperately want to expand their acting range, and actors with wide acting range envy stars for being able to do whatever they want. For this movie, if a star wants to act, why does he need to pay for it?

Ronald went to Niceta to find out and smooth things over, but found that Gene Hackman's attitude was quite tough, so he had to give up for the time being.

"What about Steel Magnolias?" Ronald thought of the third possible bidding script. This play is not a play, but a script written for Off-Broadway, which has been released Off-Broadway.

"Robert Haring, the playwright is open to film adaptation, but he also has conditions. He needs to interview all directors and producers who want to bid for the film script himself, and then decide who to sell it to after talking to all the bidders."

"This person is very arrogant." Ronald replied. It has been a long time since he was chosen by others.

"I also think he's a bit too much, but he treats everyone equally. I've heard that this story is adapted from his sister's true story. Her sister had diabetes and the doctor said she was not suitable for childbirth. But for her husband, she still gave birth to a boy.

】

After that, his sister's diabetes worsened due to childbirth, which led to kidney failure. His mother donated a kidney to her, but the transplant was not effective, and his sister died a few years later.

So this story is very important to him, and there is a reason why he is so cautious."

"Okay, then you contact him on my behalf, and I will find time to meet with him."

"When are you free? So I can talk to him."

"I'm not busy with the new film?" Ronald glanced at Simkins, "I have a friend who knows Gene Hackman, and I want to find him through my relationship to see if he can make an accommodation."

"I see, I'll contact the author of Steel Magnolias first."

Ronald nodded. Among the three scripts, he was more optimistic about the suspense thriller type of The Silence of the Lambs, which was in line with the trend of the videotape era. Westerns like Dances with Wolves and Southern female melodramas like Steel Magnolias need to be treated with more care and are prioritized later.

“By the way, the satire you mentioned, Forrest Gump, I find it very interesting. Who bought the adaptation rights in the end?”

Ronald thought of the Winston Groom movie that they discussed last time. The subject matter, plot, and the somewhat intellectually deficient temperament of the protagonist are all similar to the script "My Brother's Keeper" that he wrote when he first debuted.

Ronald was a little unwilling that the script was not made into a movie. So he wanted to know more about the adaptation of Forrest Gump.

"It was bought by Steve Tisch Jr. The son of the founder of Tisch College at New York University. His father is also the chairman of the New York Giants."

"Isn't that Michelle Cannold's former boss?" Ronald laughed. He had a conflict with Tisch Jr. for "Dirty Dancing" before, and now he has poached Cannold to Daydream. The industry has more or less guessed about the earning power of Dirty Dancing.

Now that "Forrest Gump" has been bought by him, it is impossible for him to cooperate with him, a proud rich second generation. He can only take a long-term view and see if there is a chance to buy it as a whole in the future.

Don't tell me, although this movie is written in the tone of Forrest Gump, it is full of typos and incorrect grammar. But it did not affect his reading at all. Ronald read with great interest. Last time he saw Forrest Gump, he became an astronaut and landed on the moon. He also participated in the table tennis delegation's visit to China because he was good at table tennis.