Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 720 Small production is worse than publishing it yourself

  Although he didn't have much hope in his heart, Ronald went to meet two old friends who were running a small studio.

  One is Roger Coleman, who formed his own film company after selling New World. It's still the old money-saving production method, and I'm shooting a new film.

   Roger Coleman is still the same, driving himself to the office early in the morning to keep track of the progress of each project. In his company, there is no concept called management, only he makes various decisions with experience and intuition.

   The other subordinates who were named production managers were not so much producers as Coleman's secretaries. They didn't have much decision-making power, they just uploaded and released, and went to the crew to help Coleman keep an eye on the crew not to overspend and time out, otherwise they would tell Coleman to come over and tear up the script scenes that couldn't be filmed.

   "Ronald, welcome to my office, I remember you came twice." Coleman asked the secretary to make Ronald a cheap coffee, and the two began to get to the point.

"I had a very controversial film project that none of the seven Hollywood studios had the guts to try. I saw Gail the other day and she said to me, why don't you go to Roger? He dared to film motorcycle gangsters in six or six years of filming the issue of black segregation in the South... There is no leftist progressive subject in Hollywood, so he would not dare to film."

   Ronald took two sips of coffee. His ability to distinguish coffee is not as good as black tea. Happy to drink cheap coffee too.

   Come up and give Roger Coleman a challenge and throw a bait to attract Coleman's attention. This is Ronald's pre-planned negotiation tactic, so that he won't be intimidated by the controversial plot of the Jewish girl.

  Roger Coleman has two characteristics. The first is that he likes left-wing progressive themes. He is naturally interested in films that challenge the conservative and decadent concepts of society. Second, he likes to save money, and he doesn't like big productions that cost 20 to 30 million yuan. He thinks Hollywood is a lot of waste.

"Of course, this is a small production. I calculated the cost of about 4.5 million to make. If you can give me a distribution contract, I can find people who are willing to invest. Personally, I think this film must be It's going to be a big sell."

  Roger Coleman put on his glasses and watched the script of "Dancing Hot" carefully.

   "Isn't this very controversial?" Coleman spent twenty minutes quickly flipping through the script and questioned Ronald.

  Colman didn't think Jewish girls couldn't fall in love with handsome dancing guys like other ethnic groups.

   "The story takes place in the 1960s when JFK was the chief commander. A girl from a middle-class Jewish family fell in love with a poor Irish boy who was a dancer at a resort. Was this deviant at the time?"

  Ronald was overjoyed, but he still deliberately reminded the Jewish girl heavily, then concentrated and watched how Coleman answered.

   "It's not controversial at all, I've never been afraid of that when making movies." Coleman waved his hand, as if to dispel Ronald's concerns.

   Then Coleman took off his glasses, sighed lightly, and said to Ronald, "If you had come up with this script three years ago, I would have gotten the distribution rights.

   But now. You'll have to wait, I won't be able to fully restore the rights to release movies in America until next year. "

   "What, you can't release movies in America right now?"

Roger Coleman explains his troubles, selling New World Pictures for $16 million a few years ago, and he and New World's new owners have some concessions in the sale contract terms.

  New World will help distribute films produced by Coleman on the condition of a 15% discount.

   But then New World didn't really fulfill this condition, and none of the films produced by Coleman's new company were released. So Roger Coleman sued the other party on the one hand, claimed damages, and asked the other party to return New World Pictures to him.

   On the other hand, Coleman had to reorganize the distribution department and began to distribute films himself.

And New World Pictures seized this loophole of Coleman and countersued Roger Coleman, saying that he violated the contract and that the film was not handed over to New World for distribution according to the contract, but re-distributed it by itself. Come and compete with New World for the distribution business, and demand Coleman to compensate New World Pictures for the loss.

  Beginning last year, two cases entered the scheduled trial. Now Coleman's new company, Concorde Pictures, has suspended production and distribution in case the other party gets caught.

"I'm optimistic about the outcome of the case. They said that at the end of 1984 and early 1985, I secretly bypassed the New World and released the movie myself. But I sold the New World to them at the time and left a favorable distribution. The only purpose of the terms is to no longer engage in the expensive and energy-intensive distribution business. I want to regain the feeling of being a director and a producer and focus on making movies.

  My lawyer and I came to the conclusion after discussion that they would either obediently compensate me for my losses and return it to the new world. Either reach an out-of-court settlement with me, and after paying me a sum of money, everyone can do their own business. "

   Ronald had only one word for Coleman in his heart. There is also a chance to get huge compensation if you don't make a movie.

   "Then your production and distribution business has been greatly hindered?" Ronald asked again. He knew that with the wealth that Coleman had accumulated over the decades of making movies, he could have quit the film industry long ago and went to enjoy life with his wife Julie and four children.

   Now he has to resume the distribution business, and the only reason for the conflict with the new world is that he likes to make movies.

   "Hey, who said it wasn't?" This was the most distressing thing for Coleman.

   "I could have made 15-25 films a year, showing in drive-ins and smaller theaters. Occasionally, one or two films would be loved by mainstream theaters and make it to the big screen. Now everything is shut down.

   Let me tell you, originally I had an agreement with Marvel, the comic company, to adapt 'Spider-Man'. Because of this case, the production rights also expired, so I had to give it back for free.

   How could I deliberately pick up the publishing business and compete with the New World? I wish I could get rid of all this baggage and concentrate on making movies by myself. "

   Coleman had an accident here, and Ronald had to go to see Minahan at Cannon.

  Minahan Golan has been very busy since he received $300 million in financing. He was finally caught in the office through his agent Richard, and Ronald hurriedly took the script to discuss it with him.

   "Quack, Ronald. Did you bring me some good news? We haven't seen each other for a long time. I'll show you the new movie we're making first."

  Meinahan was still very enthusiastic. He hugged Ronald and took him to the newly rented office on the first floor, an extra-large office he shared with his cousin Yoram.

   Ronald saw that he was still so enthusiastic about himself, but he let go of half of his heart. At least he won't have anything to do with himself because of the improved financial situation.

"Look, this is our series, 'America Ninja' part 2, part 3." Minahan pointed to two large posters on the wall, a white youth, helping the ninja's headband, wearing a ninja's Clothes, also holding a ninja sword, posing.

   "This is the third and fourth part of 'Vietnam Vanguard' with Chuck Norris. This is the third and fourth part of 'The Raptors' with Chuck Bronson."

  Cannon Now there have been several successes in this series of films, and Ronald knows that it is easy to make money as long as the quality is guaranteed.

   "I'm also upgrading now. Where could I have imagined two years ago, a movie with a budget of less than 10 million, I will not consider it."

   "Ten million?" Ronald turned his head to look at Minahan, is the cannon so powerful now? Every year, dozens of films with an investment of more than 10 million yuan are shot and released by themselves?

   "Ten million is still less. Let's take a look at these two series, the big productions that we produced and distributed by Warner Bros."

   "This is Stallone's second big production with us, 'Over the Top,' and we're going to put in a $30 million production budget."

   "Where are you saving this time? Which villains are you fighting?" Ronald was a little uncomfortable. Stallone was in the cannon, and it was indeed a big investment movie.

"Gaga, you guessed wrong. Stallone won't kill the villain again this time. I had a deep chat with him. We plan to transform. This is a family warmth film. He plays a divorced father who has not seen his son for a long time. With my son, driving a truck, going to the National Arm Wrestling Championship...the story of winning the championship and improving my relationship with my son.”

   "Wrist-wrestling?" Ronald touched the beard on his chin. Is this the plot that the idiot came up with? The audience spends three or four dollars to buy tickets, come in and watch you Stallone wrestle your wrist? "

   "How's it going? Pretty cool, I came up with the idea. I'll direct the movie myself, quack..."

   "It turns out that you came up with it..." Ronald held back his laughter, this Minahan's old problem has been committed again, always using the eyes of foreigners to evaluate the thoughts of American audiences.

   This kind of arm wrestling is indeed more popular among truck drivers. But why would the public be interested in such a plot?

  How to shoot the final battle? Is it that Stallone was beaten by you at first and was about to lose, and then he saw the beauty and his son, and he regained his strength, turning defeat into victory and winning the other side? so boring……

   "Maybe we can make a sequel." Ronald held back for a long time, and then he said something he thought was humorous.

   "Yes, yes, there is a sequel, so we have a third star." Minahan looked smug.

   "The sequel? The sequel has to upgrade the difficulty of the game. How to upgrade the arm wrestling? Could it be... Could it be two hands breaking?" Ronald held back very hard.

   "Quack, it seems you think it's good too." Minahan looked at Ronald wanting to laugh but didn't laugh, thinking that he and Stallone still had grudges and didn't want to see him become a bigger star.

"That's another blockbuster we've got. Great...I bought the rights to the 'Superman' franchise, the first Superman movie from Cannonball, and I'm getting Christopher Reeve back, and we're going $40 million investment."

   "Which villain will Superman fight this time?"

   "This time it's not a specific villain. We plan to let Superman find all the nuclear weapons in the world and send them to space for destruction."

"Um……"

   Ronald sensed a change in Minahan's mentality after receiving $300 million. He had lost the Coleman-esque spirit of making small productions, and he was indulging in big productions, blockbusters, and blockbuster sequels.

   He may have no interest at all for the small production of "Spicy Dance" that he wanted to shoot for less than 5 million.

   "Why didn't you release these two films yourself, and you asked Warner Bros.?"

"Hey, this is also because America's cinema market makes it inconvenient to arrange blockbusters. Warner Bros. doesn't have the ability to make blockbusters now, and can only rely on distribution channels to give other large-scale blockbusters. Their studios in Burbank were dispatched. Ramon and Universal took a lot of it. So they had to do a little production, and they had to go to a foreign country.”

   "We are in a hurry to get financing, and it is too late to book the schedule a year and a half in advance. When we recover the cost of these films next year, we can release them ourselves."

   "Who is Warner Bros. talking now? Is it still Robert Daly?" Ronald didn't deal much with Warner, so he took the opportunity to ask.

   "He doesn't care about the specific affairs. Daly has found a capable Jew, Terry Semel, and now he is mainly responsible for Warner's affairs. What, do you have anything to do with him?"

   "I'll just ask." Ronald heard that he was a Jew, so he didn't have the idea of ​​continuing to explore.

   "Ronald, you'd better come and work with me. Now that I have the conditions, I can give your project the green light to make a movie with a production budget of 15 million without any problem.

  What do you want to shoot? We've got Tom Cruise, and you guys will collaborate on an air combat movie? "

   "I don't have any other plans for now. The project I'm working on is a feature film. Signed a contract with MGM. As for Tom, you have to find his agent."

   Ronald shied away from Meinahan's invitation. He felt that the current Meinahan was very different from the one he remembered. He was super confident and even a little crazy.

   When the two were chatting, the staff kept asking him to sign and ask for work instructions. There is absolutely no super focus on a project when the two collaborated on "Breakdance".

   Besides, this kind of small production, even if it is released by Cannonball, will not be able to squeeze into the good schedule of mainstream theaters. Even Minahan's cannon now relies on Warner Bros. to get the real blockbuster.

   If possible, it would be better to let Daydream Pictures build a simple distribution department, like Roger Coleman, and try to release a movie at a low cost.

   "I just don't know, how much does it cost to make and distribute a movie by yourself?"

"Are you really not coming? I have a good new project here. It's the Spider-Man production rights I bought from Marvel. Are you interested?" Market your project.

   "Spiderman?" Ronald thought, didn't Marvel just take it back from Coleman?

"Yes, I bought the production rights for five years. If you want to be the director, we can start to find someone to write the script. In this way, Superman, Spiderman, and America's two most popular heroes belong to the cannon. ."

   "If I don't have a script, I'll forget it. I don't have the energy to make a new script right now. I'll talk about it when I'm done with the project at hand."

   Ronald didn't bother Minahan's precious time, nor did he take out the small production script of less than five million to shame, and shook hands with him to say goodbye.

   There is only one chapter today

   (end of this chapter)