Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Spielberg's expectations for "Empire of the Sun" were very high. The door has just been opened to filmmakers from all over the world. He and Bertolucci were the first two Western directors who came in to shoot on the spot.

  Hollywood sometimes pays attention to fashion. In the past two years, everyone has vaguely felt that movies with the scenery here as the background will be the next hot spot.

   Not only the American people are queuing up to travel and enjoy the scenery of the ancient country, but also the Oscar judges also want to come here to make a movie. Those who try it first are most likely to become the favorites of various Oscar awards.

   "Empire of the Sun", and "The Last Emperor", both are epic movies, seeing the transformation of the great era from one character.

   And the Oscars are awarded by voting. Now Hollywood is pursuing foreign styles. The best-selling "Crocodile Dundee" has also deepened the love for foreign styles. This year, two films were shot in the old East, which also matched the enthusiasm of American audiences for a glimpse of the scenery.

   Spielberg, who has always been good at grasping popular trends, really wanted to get the best director statuette that he had dreamed of for a long time with this movie. Last time "Purple", the Oscar judges deliberately did not give him a director award nomination, which made Spielberg specifically criticize in a TV interview. Now everyone feels a little guilty about him, maybe his dream will come true.

   Spielberg also told Ronald that this was the first time he had filmed a story of a child saying goodbye to innocence and growing into an adult. He abandoned what he used to be best at, the method of photographing the pure feelings of children, just to break the routine and seek breakthroughs for himself.

   Seeing that Spielberg was so dedicated to the movie, Ronald also bid farewell to the crew and stopped disturbing.

After the    visit, Ronald invited his partner Lao Yan to have a meal. He was recently researching some new inventions, but to no avail. His son Xiaoyan, after accompanying Spielberg this time, has accumulated some qualifications and can go to America to start his study abroad career next year.

"I'll leave this son to you, Xiao Luo. Son, when you get there, you have to listen to your brother Luo. Do you know that he can beat you on my behalf?" After drinking some yellow wine, Lao Yan officially entrusted his son to Ronald.

   "That's all I have in my life. You have to live up to your expectations. You have to work hard when you go there." Lao Yan poured a glass of wine for his son and had a toast with him.

"I think Lao Yan, you also have the opportunity to go to America. Now that you are working, I can invite you to visit there. When you retire, you can also travel there, or you can live there." Ronald Seeing that the atmosphere was a little sad, he advised Lao Yan again.

   "Yes, Director Luo is there to take care of him, Xiao Yan is also working hard, Lao Yan, you will enjoy happiness in the future." Director Huang was also invited to dinner by Ronald. A few of them, even if they are Ronald's good friends here.

"Your film 'Human Ghost Love', a specially made video tape, I will take it to Hollywood to see if anyone is willing to introduce it. After all, this is a Chinese movie, and it is about operas that American audiences are very unfamiliar with. Maybe The best result is a small-scale release in some Chinatown theaters.”…

   "I understand, I'd be happy to have the chance."

  Ronald chatted with Director Huang about her going to Hollywood to study. Now that they go abroad, they still need an invitation letter from the foreign party, and then the leader approves it.

  Ronald is going to show Gale the videotape of this film to see if their Hollywood Female Practitioners Club is interested in sending an invitation to the female director who made this excellent female film to communicate with him.

  Finally, Ronald went to the lightning lamp factory in Minhang to have a look. The long-arc halogen lamps exported are of good quality and stability. In addition, the listed government attaches great importance to it, and it is close to the countryside. All kinds of supporting non-staple food and light industrial products are sufficient, and the enthusiasm of the workers is very good.

   Ronald finally took the workshop director and other cadres and took a group photo together in the factory director's office under the certificate of "Export Pacesetter Unit for Earning Foreign Exchange" on the wall.

  …

   "Hello, Mr. Li, the plane is about to descend." The middle-aged stewardess in the business class woke up Ronald. After another long flight, he returned to Los Angeles with the high-quality wolfberry and tea that Director Xu helped to buy.

   Little Bud drove his car to the airport to borrow him, and along the way, his agent Richard hurriedly reported on his departure.

   "The news from Paramount's side, Top Gun's box office can continue, the company decided to speed up the release of the videotape.

  Pepsi thinks the ad you did for their Diet Pepsi worked really well and wondered if you could remake the Top Gun ad yourself and put it on videotape. They are willing to pay big money. "

   "I'm running out of time, and I'm about to get into the production of 'Moonlight Sultry'. Besides the Katherine Bigelow commercials, aren't they satisfied?" Ronald asked.

   "No, they're quite satisfied. It's just that Michael J. Fox appeared in the commercial, and they thought about getting Tom Cruise to do one too."

   "Did you talk to Paula?"

   "She is reluctant. Tom Cruise now tries to find a director and an excellent script when he chooses a movie. He doesn't want to be stereotyped on a role like a fighter pilot."

   "Pass then", Ronald replied.

   "Mr. Weintraub didn't return my call at MGM. There are rumors in the industry that he and the boss Kerkorian had some conflicts. It seems that Kerkorian did not honor the stock options he promised."

   "Ah? It won't affect the preparation of my movie, will it?"

   "No, I contacted Mr. Kerkorian's secretary, and she said that Mr. Kerkorian also attached great importance to MGM's resumption of production on the first film, and would like to meet you."

   "There's no rush. You find Weintraub first, and I'll talk to him."

   After dealing with the accumulation, Ronald thought of the breakdancing again, and said to Richard, "You help me contact Minahan from Cannon, I have something to discuss with him."

  …

  Minahan Golan's body became a little fatter, and his belly protruded a lot from the last time I saw him.

   "Ronald, quack. You're here just in time. I'm going to the screening hall to see copies of two movies. Come on, let's watch and talk."

   "Of course, I'm here to talk to you about breakdancing." Ronald knew that Minahan was now the president of a large company, and his work was not as busy as before. …

   "Break dance? Why, are you willing to make the third film? I'll invest!"

  Meinahan jumped up more than a foot and patted Ronald's back happily, "As long as we work together, we will definitely be able to make a blockbuster movie."

   "No, I went to the other side of the Pacific Ocean, and they decided to introduce 'break dancing', so I came to you, can you give them a low price?"

   "No problem, this movie has basically been sold all over the world. It's a good thing that we can enter the emerging market that Hollywood is difficult to get into in a few years."

  Meinahan's intuition for the international market is still pretty good, and his films always do well at the box office in Britain, where there's a Cannonball fan club. All the new films that are cannon fodder should be watched.

   "This is the new film we asked Stallone to shoot, Yoram, Yoram, Ronald here. Let's watch it together, projectionist, projectionist starts."

  Meinahan's voice was still very loud, his head turned left and right quickly, and he greeted everyone present loudly.

   There was also a member of the crew, who probably sent the edited copy to the court today, and stood up respectfully to say hello to him.

   "All sit down, all sit down, let's watch Stallone's new film "Flying Over the Top" first, and then I'll watch yours."

The   cannon logo flashed across the screen, and the subtitles for "Flying Over the Peak" began to appear.

   This film was directed by Minahan Golan himself, written by Stallone himself, and starred. The main story is about a divorced truck driver father, Lincoln. After his ex-wife fell ill and was hospitalized, he took his son to drive the truck all the way to bars around the world to participate in arm wrestling competitions, and finally won the national arm wrestling competition and improved his relationship with his son. .

   As soon as Ronald saw the names of the titles of director and screenwriter, he felt a sense of disaster.

   Sure enough, the movie parodied the storyline of "Rocky" and changed the boxing match into a bizarre arm wrestling match. Changed his girlfriend's emotional process to improving his relationship with his estranged son.

  Different storylines, but applying the same structure, the filming has a very comedic feel.

  It took a lot of effort for Ronald to stop laughing when he wasn't arm-wrestling in all kinds of weird bars.

In the end, Stallone broke his arm with a big man two heads taller than him. When he was about to lose, he looked at his son and gave birth to the scene where he turned defeat into victory with supernatural power. Ronald couldn't help but break his skills. Pfft Chi burst out laughing.

   "Hahaha, isn't this a very good ending? I specially invited the Italian-born George Moroder to compose the music. After he composed the soundtrack for your 'Top Gun', the price has more than tripled."

"Haha... Yes, this soundtrack is really good. If I close my eyes and imagine the battle on the screen, my blood will boil." Ronald really had nothing to praise, so he stared at the soundtrack and praised .

   He didn't say that, if he opened his eyes, he would have laughed again.

  Minahan Golan continued to praise himself, his cousin Yoram pointed to his watch, reminding him that he was pressed for time. …

  Meinahan waved his hand behind him, indicating to start putting down one.

   "Who, don't you have a document for me to sign? Hurry up and bring it." Minahan called the waiting assistant to come up, and as soon as he took the document, he started to sign.

The name that appeared on the screen was "Alan Quarterman and the Lost City of Gold," and Ronald recognized the corner as Richard Chamberlain, the "Indiana Jones" knockoff that co-starred with Sharon Stone. A sequel to King Solomon's Treasure.

   "This copycat is very uninspired, and even the naming rules are copied." Ronald touched his chin and thought, this Minahan is really thorough.

  Indiana Jones has put Indiana Jones played by Harrison Ford into the title since the second part, forming the method of the protagonist's adventure treasure. Minahan this is full plagiarism.

   As soon as the movie opened, Ronald couldn't sit still, and the sequel was shot so embarrassingly that his eyes were closed.

   All the scenes have no special effects, just make up for it. Let the protagonist Richard Chamberlain play casually, and use a revolver to fight dozens of enemies with machine guns, that is, the enemies are stupid, in order to win.

  I don’t know how much Meinahan put into the film and how much money was embezzled.

   Is Minahan filming too much now that he can't handle it? If he had watched the crew by himself during the period when he was breaking dance with him, it would have been impossible for him to be like this.

The heroine Sharon Stone's performance was also very exaggerated. Ronald felt that even a Helen Slater, who was ten times worse at acting, would not be able to play the story of the Virgin Mary giving birth to **** at the elementary school drama festival. so.

   "Hey... uh..."

   Ronald heard that in the corner, an actress, like himself, hated the heroine's acting skills very much.

   had the same feeling, Ronald and her looked at each other and smiled.

   After finally enduring more than an hour of bad movies, Ronald stood up to go first. Watching a movie like this again makes my stomach hurt.

  Meinahan stood up and called the director, "What are you filming? Didn't I say, these queens are ugly and ugly, why do you make them so beautiful, they are all beauties."

   The director was speechless, not knowing what Minahan was talking about.

   "The movie I made is called 'Mars Invaders'. It's the queen of a group of Zerg, not 'Playboy Villa Invaders'. Why is the villain's No. 1 so beautiful, what are you filming?"

  …

   "Director Ronald, hello, I'm the film's No. 1 female villain, Cassandra Peterson"

Ronald was wondering why Minahan would call this movie "Mars Invaders". The actress who just disliked the heroine's acting skills just like herself, quickly bounced from her seat and blocked Ronald's way. To chat with him.

   "Hello, it's really you. Your makeup in the movie and the stunts performed by the stand-ins are very beautiful." Ronald perfunctory and was about to leave.

   "I came from a dancer background. The special effects at the end of this movie only cost two dollars and thirty-five cents. I have to be a stuntman by myself. I jumped into the green lake myself."…

  Cassandra Peterson was not willing to miss the opportunity, and like a machine gun, he told the reasons for the good and bad points of his performance.

  It turned out that in addition to the money of the crew who did not know where it went, Cassandra had to shoot a lot of dangerous scenes by herself, and the heroine Sharon Stone was also a nuisance. In the episode of being caught by cannibals to cook them in a cauldron, the blonde still urinates in the prop cauldron.

   came out and proudly preached to everyone. In the end, no one was willing to rearrange that disgusting black pot. The last edited scene was the only one, and the whole performance was extremely bad.

   "I thought she was a smart actress, how could this be?" Ronald couldn't help but wonder if the heroine was out of her mind, and she was a deep jerk.

   "Her IQ is actually not low and she is a smart person, but in the crew, she tells everyone about her smartness every day."

  Ronald felt that it was not easy for this actress. In the movie, facing such a heroine, the opponent's scene was also qualified, and it was hard to end up doing dangerous stunts by himself.

   He took out a business card with only his office phone number and handed it to her. "Is that Cassandra Peterson? You make this call and tell them it's the card I gave you, and you'll be called to audition for a suitable role in the future."

   "Oh, thank you...thank you..."

Cassandra Peterson has **** and fair skin, but she actually looks sweeter when she doesn't wear heavy makeup, not the coquettish villain in the movie. She was very happy when she got the business card and kept asking Luo Thanks Nader.

   "Ronald, aren't you going to watch the next one with me? It's an American ninja story." Minahan came over to hold him back.

  "I really have to go", Ronald quickly shied away.

   "Okay, I know you're busy, I'll make arrangements for breakdancing. Also, if you're free, give me a call and let's talk about cooperation, OK?"

  Minahan was too busy, and someone came to him to sign. The next crew members, led by the director, also approached a row, sat down with him and waited to watch the demo.

  Meinahan is still training the unfortunate director, "How many times have I said that the queen and the maids are uglier."

   "Menahan probably got our movie title wrong. He thought he was watching the Martian Invaders movie, not the Lost City of Gold."

   Cassandra Peterson whispered in Ronald's ear.

  Ronald glanced at her in surprise, "How many movies have you made this year with Cannonball?"

   "I don't know, thirty? Thirty-five?"

   Ronald was in a bad mood when he looked at Meinahan who even got the title of the movie wrong. Is it really that hard to manage a movie studio? This Israeli iron man was tortured to the point of becoming demented.

  …

   The next day, when Ronald returned to his office, he heard good news.

  My own "Spicy Dance" was submitted for review for the second time. After ten seconds of naked scenes were deleted, MPAA politely re-rated it to PG-13.

   Michelle Cannold, the distribution business manager, was overjoyed and had a deeper understanding of Ronald's unfathomable connections. …

   "We plan to market the past state by state. Since we missed the Las Vegas Film Fair where the theaters came to us, we did not take the initiative to go to the movie theaters in every state and every town to sell.

  The quality of the hot dance is very good, I believe that those theater managers will be overwhelmed by the wonderful plot and sultry dance, and we still got PG-13."

  Michelle Cannold is full of energy.

   "Then I will work hard for you. When I'm not here, you can find Eddie if you have any problems. We will discuss any difficulties. After all, this is the first leading film of Daydream."

   After all, the distribution business is an unfamiliar field, and the two leading managers do not have much experience, so everything has to be explored. Ronald is satisfied that the release will start at the end of the year, and before Christmas, maybe a few deep south states can be swept to see the situation and make adjustments.

   After another day, Ronald adjusted the time difference. Weintraub, who had been missing for a long time, took the initiative to call and ask Ronald to go to his house to talk in detail.

   "Come on, Ronald, long time no see. How's your business in Xujiahui? How's Spielberg's new film?"

   Weintraub, still sitting on his long leather sofa, greeted Ronald with a smile.

   A beautiful woman in a bikini walked past the door.

   Ronald raised his eyebrows, looked at the beauty, and asked Weintraub with his eyes.

   "My wife Jane has gone to Washington, D.C., and Barbara, the Deputy Commander's wife, wants her to get together. I just happened to be staying in Los Angeles."

  Ronald thought this was no wonder, Weintraub was not afraid of a fine of 1 million, it turned out that his wife was on a business trip.

   "The situation over there is good. I couldn't get in touch with you a few days ago."

   "Hey... I went to Las Vegas."

   Weintraub sighed, took out a bottle of brandy, and poured it over Ronald and himself.

   "This old **** Kerkorian..."

   It turned out that Weintraub was swayed by Kerkorian, the real owner of MGM, the big boss of the MGM Hotel in Las Vegas, and the connoisseur of chicken-and-egg. He did not get the real CEO position, and Kerkorian appointed another person as co-CEO, under the pretense of ensuring that the business of the two labels MGM and United Artists can be carried out normally.

   And it turned out that Kerkorian agreed to Weintraub's stock options, promising that he would become a second shareholder and the plan of a small boss. Because of the new tax law, there were some legal "technical problems", and it was about to fail.

  Weintraub reorganized MGM’s senior management for Kerkorian, and integrated the teams of the two original companies. After he basically finished the swearing and tiring work, Kerkorian kicked him away again. Now it is equivalent to only getting a shell of the CEO position of Lianmei.

   "So you just swallowed that?" Ronald asked.

   "What about that? All his operations are technically legal. I also underestimated the difficulty of his business in Las Vegas. This is not a good person to deal with.

   Fortunately, we Jews have a little tradition. We don’t dwell on past grievances. If we suffer from losses, we should write down this lesson and start over. "

   Weintraub is a singer's agent, and he still has a lot of fear of a casino tycoon like Kerkorian. …

   He didn't get the authority he wanted, so he had to take a large salary and bonus, resigned in anger, and opened a small company "Weintraub Productions".

   Fortunately, when he was at MGM, he was not idle. He relied on the platform of MGM to catch up with the largest combined cinema chain in Canada, the Sinneblake Cinemas.

   Weintraub joined them, found an old partner Columbia Pictures, and signed a 20-year distribution contract with them.

   All works produced by Weintraub Productions are distributed by Columbia.

   Ronald heard the news and was a little worried about his new film. Weintraub is gone, will there be a problem with MGM's cooperation?

   As if seeing Ronald's worries, Weintraub said to him, "Don't worry about your new movie 'Moonlight', not to mention that I will be there to bring it to the end of February next year...

   Me and Kerkorian also agreed that he would put resources into your new release. You're one of the most profitable directors in Hollywood right now, and this is MGM's first movie since it got back into production, and he's a guy who knows what matters. "

   "Honey", the bikini beauty was outside the door, waving at Weintraub, but her eyes were always on Ronald, and she took the time to wink.

   "It's a mid-seam model for the new issue of Playboy, recommended by Hugh Hefner. Would you like to try it?" Weintraub poked the case.

  Ronald waved his hand, expressing disinterest.

"Haha, you don't have to worry about this. I invited you to come today because I want to continue to work with you. I will be at the helm of my own production company, and Susan will help me with the daily work. Let's work together again, how about you? ?"

   "Let's talk when I finish filming the movie I'm in." Ronald shied away.

"I know you have a small production company yourself, what's the point of playing those small productions, and this time I got really big investment from Sunny Black Cinemas and Columbia. What movie are you making, who are you looking for, I can satisfy you.

How about it? think about it? "

   "Oh? You got a big investment?" Ronald thought this sentence was familiar, and someone had said it before.

"I'll tell you only one person, don't spread the word until February next year. It's still a secret phase, and it's a big investment that shakes Hollywood." Weintraub lowered his voice and lowered his head slightly, as if to avoid being heard by the bikini beauties .

   "How much?" Ronald couldn't help but bowed his head forward, and the heads of the two were almost pressed together.

   "Forty-five million."

  …

   "Four hundred and fifty million..." Ronald was half lying on the back seat of Little Bud's car, still a little uneasy in his heart.

   These Wall Street people, why don't they seem to take money as money?

   Disney's Eisner got 300 million, Cannon got 400 million, and now Weintraub got 450 million. Make a small production by yourself, and worry about not being able to get money, where are these people better than yourself? How come it seems that hundreds of millions of dollars are taken casually.

  It's not easy to talk to others about this. Ronald made a special trip to New York to meet and meet Douglas Hansen Jr.

   Both were stunned by Wall Street's grandeur and chatted for a long time in the little Douglas mansion. …

   "I have carefully read the information disclosed by these two businesses, and it is obvious that Wall Street has no clue as to what kind of movies can make money.

   And now that money is loose, the Federal Reserve has maintained low interest rates for several years, and last year raised interest rates slightly, and the economic response is also very stable. It is the golden age of very good liquidity.

That's why they can easily raise four or five billion dollars, whether it's a cannon from the junk bond market, or a private equity fund raised from the rich to Disney's Eisner, including this time Weintraub held the 20-year long-term issuance contracts, mortgages plus investment from private investors.

   They are better than our daydream film industry, the only place is that they have their own distribution channels.

   The idiots on Wall Street, they only use formulas to set the reason for profit. Because their movies are selling well, they have a unique vision and a strong distribution channel. Why do their movies sell so well? It is precisely because of the unique vision and strong distribution channels.

  I have read a lot of researcher's analysis reports, and they are all garbage of these circular arguments.

   As long as our hot dance can be successful, I think the money from Wall Street will definitely come to us. "

   "Yes, you still have to have a distribution channel to be looked up to by others." Ronald also felt that it was reasonable. Doing business is not about making movies. There can be no special short editions in the production, purchase, distribution, marketing, etc. of movies, so that capital will favor them.

   Determined the future direction of the company. Little Douglas served Ronald to eat steak. His chef is Italian, but the steak made today is Irish, very tender and juicy, and Ronald was very happy to eat.

   "How long will you be here this time? Are you going back to Los Angeles soon? Is the preparation for the new movie going to start?" Little Douglas also ate fast. Both of them had practiced wrestling, and they were both carnivores.

   "I will stay here for a while. The new film needs good casting. They are all Italians in Brooklyn, New York. I am going to go to the casting studio where I worked that year and ask them to help with casting.

  This movie is very good at acting and the fit of the characters and actors, and those casting directors in Hollywood are not suitable. I need to be more compatible in personality, not in appearance. I also need to audition collectively to determine the chemistry. These are the strengths of casting studios.

   In fact, the best choice is Julia Taylor, the owner of the casting studio. She is very eye-catching and specially casts for director Woody Allen. It's a pity she only works with Woody Allen, I can only ask her subordinates for help. "

   "By the way, have you been a photographer for them, taking audition photos?" Little Douglas recalled the past.

   "Yeah, now working with them in a different identity, these female generals who are casting roles are indeed a bit level."