Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 719 Would you rather have this rather than dance?

   Twentieth Century Fox's small boss and CEO, Barry Diller, gave Ronald an evening to talk about the new film.

   As a top executive in Hollywood, he is neither married nor has a fixed girlfriend, and his reputation as a workaholic is widely spread in the industry.

   Ronald worked the elevator with Nisita to his administrative office.

   "Ronald," Barry Diller hugged him warmly, "I'm glad you remembered us."

  Twentieth Century Fox is now suffering financially. When oil tycoon Marvin Davis was chairman, the filmmaking business was a mess. The projects have suffered huge deficits.

   Since the commander took office, the price of oil has been falling all the way, and Marvin Davis' wealth has shrunk a lot in recent years.

  The new partner he introduced, the Australian Murdoch. Originally, there was an agreement with him, and the two would invest proportionally to acquire a cable TV network "Metropolis Media" and turn Fox into an entertainment group that integrates TV and movies.

   But when the acquisition agreement was finalized last year, Marvin Davis couldn’t even get the promised proportion of the capital.

   There was no other way, and Murdoch had to buy Malvern's remaining stake in Twentieth Century Fox. Direct holding of listed companies.

   This was especially embarrassing for Barry Diller. In the contract he negotiated with Marvin Davis, there was a clause for him to take a part of the equity and be a small boss.

   But Murdoch's acquisition messed up all plans. In particular, this Australian, who is of Irish and Scottish ancestry, has an unclear attitude towards Jews.

   Originally, Murdoch's foreign nationality could prevent him from taking full control of the media group, and Barry Diller still had time to introduce new investors.

   But unexpectedly, this Australian was exceptionally capable of action. He quickly got the American nationality and officially became the owner of Fox.

   More on TV because of Murdoch's interest. Barry Diller spends only a small amount of energy on the film production business, looking for some projects with low production costs but great box office potential.

  Ronald's project has become synonymous with Hollywood's small money and big profits. So he is also very willing to cooperate with him.

   Being able to come to Twentieth Century Fox to seek distribution, there must be some obvious shortcomings in this project, and none of his peers agreed. Fortunately, such a project will be his turn.

"I'm sorry, the target market for this project is too narrow. Our current film production department, the selection criteria for projects should be high-concept, mainly for male teenagers... If you have any other projects, I'm willing to listen to one. listen."

   Seeing Barry Diller is almost the same rhetoric, Ronald and Nisita looked at each other, they both knew, it seems that these Jewish executives do have some tacit understanding.

  Nisita is familiar with Italian directors and actors, and he has actually heard a lot of rumors. In fact, in the golden age of Hollywood, Jewish gangsters were much more brutal and controlled than Italian-born gangsters.

   Now, in the movies at that time, there were always only Italian gangsters. No one has ever seen any movie released by a major studio that tells the story of Jewish gangsters.

   "What if I continue to revise the script? For example, adapt the story to be more geared towards male teenagers?"

   Ronald started to test according to the method he thought of.

"For example, a Jewish male teenager fell in love with a woman who was a dance partner for a holiday guest while on vacation. I changed the identities of the male and female protagonists so that the male protagonist was the guest on vacation, and the female protagonist was the dancer. Girl, do you think there's any hope of getting a Fox distribution deal?"

   "Of course that's good," Barry Diller twisted and his voice began to rise.

  Suddenly, he saw Ronald's bright eyes looking at him, and hesitated again, "But this will cause your script to lose its original tension. Would you like to revise it and come talk to me again?"

   "That's right, I'll find someone to take over first, and I'll change it." Ronald leaned against the back of the sofa and made a few perfunctory remarks.

   "Do you have any more projects in hand now? As long as they are aimed at teenagers, especially male teenagers, I am very willing to consider them."

  Barry Diller didn't want to miss this opportunity, and tried to find some cooperation possibilities again.

   "Our Fox library, if there is a script you like...you can talk about it."

  Ronald looks calm on the outside, but he has already started to curse his mother inside. These Jews are really too fake, but it is a love story of a Jewish girl. Is it necessary to think about what ethnic girls are indecent, like the Hayes Code of the year?

   Angered, Ronald took out another script from his briefcase.

"I do have a script, which tells the story of an ancient Egyptian princess who traveled to modern times and became a model made of wood. Only in the dead of night at night will she become a real person and meet her sweetheart. ."

   If everything pushes down the market potential, then show you a bad movie and see what you say.

  Barry Diller took the script with great interest and flipped through the synopsis.

   He watched quickly, and after five minutes, he closed the script and took off his glasses.

"I think this script is very good. I will arrange for the production manager to contact your agent. We will make this film. If you can direct it yourself, it is best, but if you cannot direct it, you should also be the producer. As long as you promise this Conditions, 20th Century Fox is willing to sign a distribution contract.”

   "Are you optimistic about this?" Ronald took the script from the other party and looked at the cover, which indeed said "Brilliant".

   He couldn't believe it, he opened the script again, and quickly browsed the beginning and ending parts, it was indeed the story of the wooden beauty.

   "Would you rather make this movie? You don't want to make 'Dancing'?"

   Ronald confirms again with Barry Diller.

   "On the basis that you are a producer or director. Yes, I am more optimistic about the market potential of this film."

  Barry Diller took the script and snapped it on the cover. Then shook hands with Ronald, "That's all we have to say."

   In the car back with Nisita, Ronald hadn't recovered yet.

   "So they would rather make this piece of garbage? Not a movie that has both artistic and storytelling like 'Spicy Dance'? Obviously the potential of that movie is much stronger than the story of the wooden beauty."

   "I'm afraid you now come up with the script for 'Gone with the Wind', and any studio will also shoot it."

  Nisita looked at the depressed client and told what he thought was the truth.

In this highly uncertain market, if there is a type of film like Ronald, the director and the producer will be very optimistic about it, and it will be picked out by those on the film review committee for a week. The script, but also reliable.

   "There must be something wrong with this world." Ronald shook his head.

   "It's totally wrong to reject such a good script for such a small ethnic reason."

   "Is there any way for you, as you and Barry said, to change the ethnicity of the protagonist and try again?"

  Ronald thought for a while, "It's difficult. The screenwriter Eleanor is based on her own experience, and there are a lot of details in it. If you change an ethnicity, there will be problems, and the gears will not mesh together perfectly."

   "For example, the holiday center they went to travel was specially built for the Jewish people. If it was changed, then the conservative social atmosphere would be flawed.

   And, Jewish girls, why can't they be friends with Irish dance boys? Such an ethnic setting would have added a good dramatic background to the script. "

   "I'm just making an opinion, I'm on your side to support you. How about we go to a small publisher to try?"

  Nisita persuaded Ronald while thinking.

   "Small publisher, Minahan from Cannon that I know is also Jewish. And Mr. Coleman is also Jewish."

   "Mr. Coleman is very open-minded, he has made a lot of open-minded movies, and I don't think he can be treated like those Jewish executives.

   As for Menahan, he is from Israel, and he is not in the same circle as the Jewish people in our country. Maybe they think differently. "

   "Okay, I'm going to talk to them, it's really not good, I invest in the production and distribute it myself, I don't believe it anymore, without these distributors, I can't release the movie!

   In the previous movie "God is Crazy", the producers in South Africa, brothers and sisters, sold copies to local theaters state by state, and toured and showed them in America. Not only did they recoup their investment, they also made a big profit. "

  Ronald was mad at the hypocrisy of these Jews. He was in the mood of a complacent teenager. When he was ruthless, he said everything he published.

   "Don't worry, we still have a long-term plan."

  Nisita was a little frightened. He didn't want this client to give up a great career as a director and producer to do some distribution work.

  America's movie theaters, since the Paramount case, have not tied the monopoly vertically with the studio. If you have the heart, you can indeed negotiate with the cinema and release it yourself. There is no law against doing so.

   But the cost of circumventing the existing distribution system in this way is frighteningly high. As long as the Seventh Congress was held at the Las Vegas Film Fair a year ago, it could sign a one-time contract with all the major cinema chains in the country and set a schedule.

   Now, if you miss the trade fair, hire someone yourself, go to thousands of cinemas across the country, and talk to each other, it is very likely that you will lose all your pants.

   Although it is not necessarily a bad thing for a broker to have a client in debt. But Ronald's upward momentum is good now, and there's no need to gamble on a musical.

   (end of this chapter)