Rebirth of the Tech Madman

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In 1980, Tang Huan relied on the huge amount of dollars that EA had obtained from the booming North American game console market, and won the joint venture that was abandoned by the insurance giant Pan Am because of the huge loss of the movie Heaven's Gate and was on the verge of bankruptcy. The United States has stepped into the gate of Hollywood.

After all, United Artists belongs to the smallest of the eight traditional Hollywood companies. Even if it changed hands again, it did not cause much sensation. It is more fortunate that it was lucky and was picked by an upstart, so it does not have to go bankrupt for the time being.

However, people in the circle quickly paid real attention to United Artists. This company is not only the toys and decorations of Tang Huan, who has rapidly risen to become a billionaire, but it can also make money in the deep waters of Hollywood.

Through the timely injection of sufficient funds to alleviate financial difficulties, as well as key support for signature series of films such as 007 and Rocky, United Artists recovered in only one year.

In the new year, United Artists, which has films such as Conan the Barbarian, e.t. Aliens, and Golden Pond, has begun to make a lot of money in business.

You know, the management of United Artists is basically the same group of people, nothing more than a change of boss.

It can be seen from this that Lianmei's reckless performance at least shows one point, that is, Tang Huan has an astonishing leadership charm, otherwise, he would not be able to know people, and he would have been interlaced like a pit across the mountain. If you are dead, how can you talk about gaining a foothold and developing in Hollywood.

Even so, due to the limited scale of United Artists, Tang Huan's status in Hollywood was still not high, until Kirk Kerkorian sold the dying MGM to Kuwait Investment Bureau and Tang Huan. The Silicon Valley nouveau riche's territory in Hollywood has only begun to expand.

Of course, most people think that MGM, which has been hollowed out, is just a fake, and everyone is a big burden. It may take ten or eight years to recuperate the body. It is estimated that Tang Huan picks up junk and picks up addiction.

But the result is that after MGM has been reorganized quickly and resolutely, and has operated a few films such as Flowers in the Spring that are prone to controversy and even rated as R-rated, it has actually begun to recover its vitality. The roar of the lion was much louder.

This business performance not only allowed Tang Huan to further win the trust of the Kuwait Investment Bureau, but also made himself barely a Hollywood tycoon.

Next, Tang Huan, who already had the halo of the richest man in the United States on his head, became even bigger. In a contest with Rupert Murdoch, he spent a lot of money to acquire 200 million dollars from his collaborator Marvin Davis. Century Fox.

Since then, Tang Huan has owned three of the eight traditional Hollywood companies, plus satellite companies such as Orion, and influenced Columbia Pictures through the complex investment relationship of Coca-Cola. Leaving behind him, he became the undisputed No. 1 Hollywood tycoon.

Tang Huan seems to have too many titles and auras - doctor of computer science, it industry expert, writer, richest man in the United States, leader of Silicon Valley, Hollywood tycoon... a bit dizzying, so his realm began to return to basics.

For example, after becoming recognized as the number one tycoon in Hollywood, Tang Huan did not sit in the luxurious office on the highest floor of Fox Plaza. A veteran Hollywood tycoon like Darryl Zanuck asked his subordinates to choose beautiful actresses , as a four o'clock girl, sent over for his own enjoyment, to show authority.

He's more about letting hand-picked executives do it.

Facts have once again proved how strong Tang Huan's leadership is. Without having to personally charge forward, his subordinates can go against the trend in the continued downturn of Hollywood. In just a few years, he has created a modernized entertainment kingdom. .

No doubt other companies are feeling the pinch.

Originally, it was nothing. After all, it is obvious to all that the market has been bearish in recent years. In order to avoid the huge risk of ups and downs hanging on a tree in the movie,

Everyone tried every means to extend the tentacles of the business horizontally to other fields, and they didn't bother to fight over a few mouthfuls of porridge.

But when Disney wanted to return to the traditional business of cartoons, it was given a head-on blow by works such as American Rat Story and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Now is the era of computer animation.

Disney used his own unpleasant experience to test how powerful the Tang Entertainment Kingdom is, and it also showed that Tang Huan's strategy of delegating power to his subordinates was very successful.

The No. 1 Hollywood tycoon, on the contrary, has another notable performance of being close to Hollywood: for so many years, he has never attended any awards ceremony in Hollywood, even when he and Deng Lijun co-starred in Hu Hua Qing Qing.

All of these are in stark contrast to Tang Huan's apparent use of his influence to support a movie this year and his decision to attend the 60th Academy Awards Ceremony, which is very topical and has attracted the attention of various media Hearing the news, he moved, and couldn't wait for the day when the Academy Awards ceremony started, so he launched a painstaking pursuit and interception.

In the end, the reporters finally got the opportunity to interview at the forum stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Lakers, and watched the game of their NBA team, the Golden State Warriors, through Mr. Richest Man.

This group of guys found a pretty good cover for their apparently abnormally enthusiastic pursuit, so the question at the beginning was quite serious, Don, what do you think of this Hollywood screenwriter strike?

This general strike was launched by the Writers Guild of America against the main representative of American television and film studios - the Union of Film and Television Producers. It has been going on for almost a month since March 7, 1988, but Still no signs of easing up.

The reason why the parties broke up is naturally the failure to coordinate the distribution of benefits, which is mainly reflected in the sharing mechanism.

As far as the United States is concerned, in this huge market that spans several time zones, it is impossible for any program to be broadcast on movie theaters and TV stations at the same time; Unpopular programs also have a chance to turn around.

Factors such as these, how much real economic benefits a program will generate, even those in the industry, will have a feeling of seeing the flowers in the fog. Various organizations, including the Screen Actors Union, have negotiated interests with producers as early as the beginning of television, while the progress of the Screenwriters Association has been relatively slow.

For screenwriters, the most ideal ecological game rules are: their stories are exciting enough to attract producers to buy them, and then screenwriters can take the opportunity to raise the price and get a good contract, which includes the first draft and two No matter whether the modified version is finally adopted or not, this original work can earn considerable income, so that it is worthy of my intellectual effort.

But in the Hollywood world dominated by producers, this model is definitely out of shape. Often, out of 10 scripts that are adopted, only 1 can be made into a show, and the rest are put in the script warehouse to sleep. As for the income generated by various subsequent adaptations and video tape releases, very few screenwriters can profit from it.

In addition, it cannot be ignored that Hollywood, which has a bad market, has always attached great importance to cost control in recent years, and screenwriters often become victims.

The unsatisfactory status of the industry also makes the creative rights of screenwriters unsatisfactory.

The content of the negotiations between the Screenwriters Guild of America and the Union of Film and Television Producers mainly revolved around these three aspects, but until the deadline of February 29, 1988, there was no progress, including Paramount and the three major TV networks. The big companies gave a strict rejection, and finally 96% of the members authorized the Writers Guild of America to go on strike.

Obviously, the screenwriters quit, and the impact is so great that even this year's Oscar Awards Ceremony has been affected. The Writers Guild of America disagrees with the screenwriters writing lines for them, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can only make multiple preparations ,in case.

As far as Tang Huan was concerned, he was born from a grassroots background, but just because he sat on the position of the richest man, his buttocks were not so crooked that he ignored the realistic requirements of the people below. That was not his character, so his attitude was relatively neutral, and even a little sympathetic.

However, compared to the IT field, Tang Huan in Hollywood can be said to quietly understand the detailed rules of the game while operating. He has always respected the opinions of industry consultants. Otherwise, no matter how rich he is, he will be killed. experience is there.

Naturally, Tang Huancai would not confront the entire vested interest group in Hollywood—and it's not wrong to do so! Don't exploit too frantically on weekdays, you will have everything.

Therefore, in the face of the reporter's question, Tang Huan just said formulaically: I hope that all parties will return to the negotiating table and negotiate patiently to resolve differences.

Fortunately, the other party's original intention was to gossip, not to make things difficult for Tang Huan with this thorny question, and soon revealed his real purpose, Tang, this year's Oscars, Mulan and The Last Emperor are leading the nominations, you Who do you think will be the biggest winner?

Tang Huan couldn't wait to change the subject quickly, even if he was gossiped, so he put on a high-spirited look and said, Both of these films are excellent, but you must also know that I invested in Mulan, haha ...

Obviously, the No. 1 Hollywood tycoon has already stated his attitude. He supports his own Mulan.

However, the reason is not the superficial relationship between who is close and who is distant.

Tang Huan's dislike of The Last Emperor first stems from the various preferential treatment he received, such as directly driving into the Forbidden City to film scenes.

The richest man felt sour about this. He didn't even enjoy such treatment. Instead, he specially built several movie theaters to meet the shooting needs in this area.

Perhaps, the investment of nearly 24 million U.S. dollars in The Last Emperor may be considered luxurious to some people, but Tang Huan's blockbuster with Chinese elements is not a big production.

In addition, in Tang Huan's view, whether or not Western-led biographical films of Eastern characters can truly understand and reflect Chinese history is still uncertain. To be more realistic, how much fame and fortune can the Chinese really get from it? Even if The Last Emperor won awards such as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, etc., does it have anything to do with the Chinese? It's not a novelty game for Westerners. If you are sincere, then give it the best actor!

The release arrangement of The Last Emperor in the United States is that it premiered in New York on November 18, 1987; it premiered in Los Angeles on November 19, 1987, thus ensuring the qualification to participate in the Oscar Awards; by 1987 It will be released nationwide on December 18.

The box office performance of this movie can only be said to be extraordinary-in the first twelve weeks of its full release, it failed to enter the top ten of the weekend box office rankings. Seventh position.

Although American audiences are curious and fresh about The Last Emperor, they still feel that the movie is boring and far from being comparable to Mulan. Little sensation.

As for the award competition, Tang Huan has unabashedly instructed his subordinates to go to public relations, and even released the words of encouragement to raise soldiers for a thousand days and use them for a while. Having the protagonist and other awards in the bag is a phased achievement.

Naturally, this anecdote in the circle cannot be concealed from the media with great powers. After a knowing smile, the reporters asked trickily, Tang, does your investment include brigittelin?

Brigitte has been popular in Asia for more than ten years, and the role of Mulan is very handy. She has won many awards in Asia, and American audiences also recognize it very much. Tang Huan raised his eyebrows, and after listing the facts seriously, he asked He said, I'm not wrong, am I?

The reporter, who was still counting on getting news from the top Hollywood tycoon, dared to be really disobedient. After laughing with him, he tentatively confirmed: Your attitude is to support Mulan?

This is just a statement I made based on my personal preferences. Tang Huan laughed again, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences must have its own judging principles.

Come on, as long as you admit it yourself, we won't have to worry about not having enough weighty news to hype—the reporters are not to mention how satisfied they are, and they are checking their records with great care, fearing that accidents will happen and the chickens will fly away.

Of course Tang Huan understood how these guys in front of him would exaggerate after they returned, but he didn't care.

You must know that now is the weakest stage in Hollywood as a whole, and The Last Emperor also makes Chinese-themed movies less obtrusive in Hollywood. It can be said that the opportunity is fleeting, and this time I have won it!