Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 493 I want to get a share

  Meinahan and Yoram contacted their colleagues in Los Angeles overnight and found a script about breakdance in the constantly circulating script library of various Hollywood studios.

   This is a follow-up work after the big sale of "Lightning Dance". It mainly describes a female dancer who wants to enter Broadway to perform musicals, but has not been successful. She met a group of black and Latino break dancers on the streets of New York, and absorbed various elements of the new dance and put it into her own dance.

   At the next audition for a Broadway classic, she conquered staid directors and producers with this trendy and eye-pleasing dance and landed the lead actress.

   The two quickly contacted Ronald, but everyone, including Ronald's agent, didn't know where he went.

   Ronald has returned home to Staten Island. He went to visit Faxiao, Douglas Hansen Jr.

   "You want to remodel your aunt's old house?" Little Douglas happened to have an excuse to get out of the big party at home, and took Ronald to the hair country restaurant on the south side of the island for dinner.

"Yes, this is my mother's hometown after all. I want to build a house here, so that my aunt can also have a place to live in the future, she didn't say it, but I can see that she still likes the neighbors and community here. "

"Well, the problem is no. I can help you with that. But the earliest low-rent housing was built for laborers, and the neighbors of the shotgun house are very close. If your aunt bought someone else's house and remodeled it, she might There are ugly rumors.

   Besides, she is also a little rich now and can move to a better neighborhood. My family has a piece of land not far from your old house, and I can assign it to you if you need it. "

   "Then it's settled." Hansen is the largest landowner at the southern end of the island, and he nodded his new home plan.

   "Actually, our Staten Island has always been a base for the film industry, but after the late 1970s, it gradually declined." Little Douglas began to sigh after talking about his business. If Staten Island also has a regular cast, he can also socialize with those actresses as a producer.

   "I don't know that."

   "Hey, you didn't go to school here at that time. I even went to see the filming of 'The Godfather' when I was a kid."

   "Did the Godfather film the scene here?" Ronald said it was the first time he heard it.

   "Yes, the house where the godfather started his daughter's wedding is in the middle of Staten Island. There is also the place on the north side of the island facing the Statue of Liberty, where several big stars used to live."

   "Paul Newman?" Ronald heard his aunt say.

   "Well, and Martin Sheen also bought a house there."

   Unexpectedly, Emilio Estevez and his younger brother Charlie Sheen were also born in Staten Island.

   "But after they became famous, they all moved away."

   After the two of them finished their meal, they simply took the train and went to the northern end of the island to find Paul Newman's former residence near the pier.

  "Woo..." With a whistle, the yellow ferry boats that the commuters on Stanton Island commute to every day began to dock again.

  The two stopped and looked at the ferry, which they used to come here to see the scenery when they were in high school, waiting for the ferry to take them to Manhattan Island to compete in wrestling matches with other high schools.

   "Hi, is that Ronald?"

   Yoram on the boat suddenly patted Minahan on the shoulder, "Ronald! Ronald!" The two fat men started waving their hands and calling Ronald's name loudly.

   They finally found the phone number of Ronald's apartment through a relationship, and asked Aunt Karen to ask if he was going back to Staten Island to visit friends, and immediately took the only transportation that directly connects to Manhattan on Staten Island.

   "Why are you here?" Ronald watched in amazement as the two Israeli brothers were sweating and trotting off the boat in winter.

   "We came to you, please come and make a movie."

   "It's good to make a movie, I can invest", Douglas Jr. interjected from the side.

  …

   "What do you think? This theme is also your favorite. Can this script sell well?" Minahan stared at Ronald.

  Ronald was in the mansion of Little Douglas, reading the script silently. He was thinking in his mind that several fragments of his dream were inconsistent with this script in many ways. Apart from the fact that the main character is a female jazz dancer working with two master breakdancers, the story has little resemblance.

   Finally, Ronald finished the script and closed the cover. Minahan and Yoram became nervous, waiting for Ronald's sentencing.

   "Well, can I ask you a question first? Why didn't you have any interest in the breakdancing theme I recommended to you before, but this time you came to me so proactively?" This is what Ronald was most puzzled about.

   "Oh, it's my daughter," Minahan began to make up nonsense, "My daughter called me and she said that the streets of Los Angeles are full of people who dance this way, so I thought of you."

   "Anthracene? Any other reason?" Ronald didn't believe this bullshit, he didn't want to shoot this breakdance for Minahan.

Little Douglas is by his side, as well as the agent Eddie in New York, and CAA is paying more and more attention to him. As long as he waits for the release of "Longwei Kid" and then revises the script, he will soon be able to attract investors and distributors. , own a large proportion of the investment, not happy?

   "Alas, there is another reason."

  Mina is rarely able to hide from Ronald, who is experienced in the industry, so he had to tell the truth, "Orion Pictures has also invested in a movie with a similar theme. I asked you to finish it before them and release it before them."

   "Orion is also filming?" Ronald was surprised, "You got the outline of the story?"

   Could it be that the movie I dreamed of was invested by Orion?

   But it's not quite right. Orion is famous for investing in art films. How can he make the low-budget Roger Coleman-style low-cost exploitation film in his dreams?

   "Hi...I asked about it through a friend."

   "That's right, what ethnicity, liberation, blacks and Latinos trapped in the streets, acceptance of them by the white mainstream society, this is what Orion likes."

   "I actually have some ideas for a breakdance movie. I can rewrite your script. How do you want to collaborate?"

  Ronald felt that if he wanted to make this film himself, and then take the opportunity to go to China on the other side of the Pacific to follow the trail, he must cooperate with Minahan. Now that the project has been established, it is bound to fail to catch up with the distribution channel from scratch. It is better to cooperate with Minahan's Cannon. They have a good European distribution capability. Let's see if MGM is willing to release in North America.

   "We want to fight fast and find skilled hands in the market. That's why we came to you in the first place. We only consider others if you don't want to."

   Ronald waved, he didn't like this kind of clumsy tout.

   "Hey, that's what we thought, I'll give you $200,000 as a director. Then I'll give you 5% of the profit." Minahan offered a condition.

   "Of course, if your friend Mr. Hansen is interested, we can also open some investment quotas for you." Yoram looked at Doug next to him and added quickly.

   "I can shoot, but I want 20% of the share, and then my friend will take 20% of the investment share."

"Seven percent, we can't give any more. The budget is about a million dollars. If you are willing to convert the director's salary, we can give this amount at most." The two brothers Rio Ram are better business negotiator.

   "Why did you give my directorial work, um..." Ronald began to calculate their estimated total North American box office.

"Twenty million dollars? My friend Ronald doesn't have a lower box office score. That's another subject he's good at. He should get 15 percent." Douglas Jr., who came from a business family, took over negotiation.

   "Eight percent"

   "Twelve percent minimum"

   "Ten percent?"

"Can?"

   The two negotiated the share ratio and looked at Ronald.

   "I don't need the director's pay, but I want you to share a share of the copies sold overseas." Ronald proposed a new condition.

   "One percent?" Minahan agreed bitterly.

   "Deal!" Ronald is very happy, overseas distribution has always been a ban for studios, and his intention to share is to understand this piece of fat.

   "When I'm free, I'll go to the European and British film markets with you."

   "That's fine, I originally wanted you to go see works from other countries and help me choose." Minahan was very painful to let outsiders get involved in overseas distribution, but he didn't care about getting Ronald to agree. Anyway, he is a director, and artists are unwilling to control this kind of commercial behavior.

   "Then we can sign the contract after the lawyer comes to review the contract."

   "Then make a call," Minahan said to Ronald.

   "Today is New Year's Day, so don't be in such a hurry?" Ronald didn't want Miss Dole to express his dissatisfaction with himself.

   "We only have three weeks left"

   "What?" Ronald was taken aback. "How long did you say?"

   "Three weeks, two weeks of shooting, plus one week of editing, we'll get the first cut version to sell to the North American theaters."

   "No, there's only two weeks of filming, and the script hasn't been finished yet? Then you'd better hire another genius?" Ronald thought, what a joke.

"Don't do this, Ronald. I can give you another two hundred thousand director's salary, other conditions remain the same. It is not impossible for you, I know your filming efficiency, if it is within Israel Gave Desert, I made up my mind at that time, ask you to take charge of the guide tube, and MGM refused to release my 'Sahara' now."

  Minahan was in a hurry and said his biggest difficulties.

   "Is that so?" Ronald thought for a while, and the scales began to move to the other side again. Aunt's new house still needs money to buy land for construction, and besides, he also looks like he is shooting breakdance, and go to Huaguo to see it.

   "Then I'll make a few calls to see if I can find suitable personnel and places. Let's see?"

   (end of this chapter)