Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 507 Someone doesn't like this episode

   "The next one is Rosalyn Sumners", Ronald is resting at home to watch TV, he has been separated from the normal life of America for too long, watch TV, and synchronize with everyone.

   ABC is broadcasting the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and women's figure skating is the highest-rated show. The previous American players all played averagely. Rosalyn Sumners is said to be very good. She went up to a triple hook jump, which was very difficult.

   The TV show suddenly went black and then cut to the ABC studio.

  Breaking news.

  A host was talking about the news just received, "Moscow TV started broadcasting a repeat of the Leningrad Ballet's version of 'Swan Lake' a few hours ago, which usually implies something big has happened in the league.

   Just thirty-five minutes ago, the embassy of the hair country announced that the general secretary Yuri passed away yesterday.

   Soon after, TASS authorized the release. Comrade Yuri, who had just been the general secretary for fifteen months, passed away unfortunately. His health has been in poor health for a long time, and his kidney problem is not a secret.

  The entire league will hold four days of mourning, followed by a state funeral on Red Square. It was the league's second state funeral in two years. It is believed that the coalition government intends to invite the heads of Western countries to attend the funeral...

   "Another general secretary?" Ronald still remembers the funeral of the former secretary general who had to be carried by many people in 1982. The current general is really lucky.

  "Beep..." The phone rang, "Hello, I'm Weintraub, answering Ronald."

  Ronald picked up the phone, and the opposite was straight away, "Have you heard?"

   "Ah..., you are watching TV too? I don't know who will take over as the top leader of the alliance this time."

   "What a mess, I'm talking about the news from Colombia. They gave suggestions for revisions to cut the duration, didn't your agent tell you the news?"

   "No?" Ronald was stunned for a while, "Where are you, I'll go right now."

   Ronald heard that there was a problem with "Longwei Kid", he immediately grabbed his clothes and ran out.

"The feedback is that Columbia thinks that the current movie is not suitable for a feature film close to two hours. I hope you can cut it to ninety to one hundred minutes." Weintraub saw Ronald walking into his mansion, Straight forward opinions.

   "The reason?" Ronald was a little anxious, so he didn't beat around the bush.

   "After the Supreme Court's decision, the theater chain prefers movies with shorter durations. They are afraid that the videotape will steal the box office in a few weeks, so they hope to have one more show every day."

   "Haha", Ronald grinned, if he hadn't been the co-producer of "Lightning Dance", he would have been tricked by them.

   "Why, don't you believe it?" Weintraub saw the subtext under Ronald's expression, "What do you think?"

"I was a co-producer on 'Blitzkrieg' and knew what they were about. They came out just in time for the Supreme Court decision, so there was a lot of concern. But the box office has been a hit, and producer Don Simpson also The release of the videotape was deliberately advanced.

   In other words, the videotape was released while "Blitz Dance" was still in theaters. Guess how much impact it will have on the box office? "

   "Half?" Weintraub made a guess.

   "One more guess", Ronald shook his head.

   "Thirty percent down?"

   "Less?" Weintraub was surprised. "Is it only a ten percent drop?"

   "No, the box office went up without any changes in theaters, back to the numbers that were released in the first week." Ronald said the counterintuitive conclusion.

"Don Simpson has a guess, the audience who watched the tapes wanted to watch it again on the big screen, so it actually drove the box office growth. Of course, this trend requires a good movie, or a phenomenal movie. That's it. The kind that you lose if you don't go to the cinema."

  "Well", Weintraub fell into contemplation. Obviously, the videotape did not have such a big impact on the box office, and he didn't need to delay the release of the videotape for a long time.

   But what Columbia said is not unreasonable. The 90-minute duration can indeed make the cinema more lined up, which will greatly promote the box office of the first weekend.

"Columbia and I contacted a vice president who said that if you feel inconvenient, you can delete the scene where Master Miyagi gets drunk and recalls his 442 Infantry Regiment, so when you are looking for a few scenes, just The time requirement can be met.”

   "That's not right," Ronald firmly opposed this opinion, which would undermine the integrity of his film's story.

   "This drunken scene can be said to be the moment when Miyagi and Daniel really got close to each other's hearts. It is a 'truth moment, which cannot be deleted.'"

   "The moment of truth?"

  "Let me put it this way", Ronald changed his point of view, "The surface theme of the whole film is the process of a child conquering himself. But the actual theme is a child in a single parent family reconciling with himself.

   A person will face difficulties in the process of growing up. A child with a father can gain courage from his father. But Daniel lacks fatherly love, so he lacks in how to muster the courage. At first, when he was beaten, he could only escape. After being trained by Miyagi, he learned to be persistent, brave, and to fight for victory even when his leg was injured. "

   "Go on," Weintraub nodded as he said yes.

   "Master Miyagi just happened to be missing a son, and his Ryukyu Karate, which is rigid and soft, is a stunt passed down from father to son.

   If this part is missing, there is no way to explain why the two are so committed. Miyagi will break the rules and teach Daniel the trick.

   If you really want to do this, the story line of the whole film and the emotional line of the audience will be broken. I think it will at least make the whole film lose its color by more than 20%. "

   "You're right, I'll ask someone to find out if Mr. Vice President has other reasons?" Weintraub put down his worries and regained confidence in the movie.

   The next day, Weintraub told Ronald about the results of his inquiries.

   It turned out that there were some people in the upper class in Colombia who hated the Eastern Ying people very much, and they didn't want this kind of smearing of America in the movie.

   So I hope to delete the scene where the Japanese were driven into concentration camps during World War II, and young people were dispatched to fight in Europe. In particular, the film also severely criticized the hypocrisy of the American government. The family members of the soldiers could not find a doctor because of the dystocia, and the mother and son died unfortunately.

   But this is not a reason to speak out. So these white executives began to use the length of time as a reason to pressure Ronald and Weintraub to submit and delete that episode.

   "Why do they do this?" Ronald felt innocent.

   "In fact, in addition to racial discrimination, this is also a reality." Weintraub has been doing business with Dongying people all year round, and he knows this very well.

   "Now Dongying Manufacturing has seized the consumer goods market in America, from TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, to the new product video recorders they invented, and recently their cars have become more affordable than our brand.

   Do you know the Chen Guoren case? "

   Ronald nodded. He also donated a lot of money.

"It was a young man of Chinese descent who was beaten to death by a white man with a baseball bat in the street just because he was regarded as a Dongying person. There were no legal consequences. In our country, the hatred of the Dongying people has always existed, and there are a large number of central The blue collars of the region are not comfortable with them."

   "Then us?" Ronald was worried about Weintraub's hatred for Japan and was reluctant to exaggerate.

"We? We're business as usual!" Weintraub said dismissively. "I've rarely been treated like this with conspiracy. Maybe my Hollywood 'friends' don't know me very well. Let them know what I am today. people."

  Ronald relaxes in his heart. With his toughness, his movies can be guaranteed not to be poisoned.

   "But you also have to mobilize your resources. This time we have to push back hard, and use every resource that can be used."

  "I can try", Ronald remembered the only Japanese Senator in America that he had contacted, Senior Senator Daniel Inoue of Hawaii.

   Ronald picked up the phone and dialed the senior senator's office in Hawaii.

"Mr. Inoue's office? I'm Ronald Lee. I'm a film director. I once asked Mr. Senator about the 442nd Infantry Regiment..." Assistant to the MP's office.

   "Is there any letter I want to see?" Daniel Inoue came to the office in the morning the next day to check the letters sent to him every day, which the assistant thought was worth replying.

"Here is a letter from film director Ronald Lee. His film about the veterans of the 442nd Infantry Regiment was finished, but he was resisted by the top of the film company to let him delete the 442nd Infantry Regiment. , so he came to ask for your help."

   "The 442nd Infantry Regiment", Senator Inoue opened the bottom drawer with his remaining hand, and touched the box where his medal was placed.

   He did not dare to act rashly and say good things for the Japanese. To put it nicely, he knew he was just a senate mascot.

  In America, anti-Japanese sentiment is now running high, and the commander has launched round after round of car wars against Japan, trying to kill the car companies in Dongying. Those car manufacturers of the same ethnicity want to sell cars in America, but they don't want to sell their cars in East Ying.

  Especially in the industrial base centered on Detroit, the automobile industry city in the central region, the hatred of the Japanese is blatant. If you blatantly support the expansion of the Eastern culture, you will find yourself uncomfortable.

  Compared to speaking up for the Japanese, it is more conducive to the life of Hawaiian Japanese to maintain a presence in the Senate as a mascot.

   However, Inoue is not willing to give up such a good opportunity to let the American public know about this period of Japanese history.

   He picked up the phone and dialed the office of Deputy Commander George, "I'm Senator Inoue, yes, I want to talk to George."

A few days later, Deputy Commander George, before going to Moscow to attend Yuri's state funeral, delivered a speech at a cultural event held in Los Angeles. In his speech, he stated that the Japanese were also a member of America, and they fought bravely for the country in World War II. , and those **** elements in the East Ying country are different.

   At the same time, a signed letter reply was also sent to Ronald.

   In this letter, Inoue stated that the 442nd Infantry Regiment is a clear proof of Japanese patriotism. Telling this history not only did not touch America in the dark, but also a symbol of racial unity. This shows that America is a place where all races can be free.

   Ronald smiled and handed the letter to Weintraub. With the endorsement of the senator and the speech of the deputy commander, Columbia's top management must have no excuses.

   "Your strategy works." Weintraub called Ronald back a day later.

  Columbia finally agreed to the total duration of 126 minutes for "Longwei Kid", which was sent to MPAA as the final copy.

   (end of this chapter)