Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald looked at the figure and weight of the other person, and estimated that if he really jumped, he would not be able to hold him back, and he might even have to be taken down with him.

Looking at the crowd downstairs, Ronald asked tentatively, "Minahan, why are you doing this? Can you talk to me?"

"Who are you?"

Minahan Golan looked back and said without interest, "You don't understand the pain of artists. My movie failed and was hated by the audience, just like Van Gogh's paintings were not understood by people at the time."

As he spoke, Golan started to cry.

Ronald stood on the balcony of his room, looking at the 50-year-old fat man across from him crying very sadly. He thought to himself, didn't he jump off the building to lose money on investment in the movie? Crying over artistic failure?

But even if you can't judge whether this kind of movie will hit the street, his artistic ability is really hard to describe.

"My name is Ronald. I helped you move the film yesterday. You also gave me two movie tickets. I also went to see your movie. It's not that bad."

Minahan Golan wiped away tears with his fat hands, "You don't need to comfort me. I was humiliated by the audience at the scene. This is a nightmare."

"Well, I'm actually a film worker. This is my badge. Look. I'm a buyer for New World Company. I promise that the movie is not that bad."

Ronald waved his badge at the other party.

"Really? Then will you buy the publishing rights of America?" Minahan looked back.

I'm not stupid, Ronald thought to himself, "No, my company is famous for introducing art films, this kind of commercial films are not within the scope of my company's introduction."

Afraid that the other party would not believe him, Ronald added, "My boss Roger Corman is a famous film distributor in America. He has introduced Japan's Akira Kurosawa and Sweden's Ingmar Bergman." For his works, his distribution channels are all cinemas showing art films."

"You work for Mr. Roger Corman?" Minahan Golan looked back at Ronald again, "Okay, I believe you are really discerning. What do you think is good about my movies?" ?”

"I think the names you gave the male and female protagonists, Alfie and Bibi, are good." Ronald began to pick out the only good qualities of the movie.

“The line ‘Sell first, then make’ is also very interesting.

"

"You really have a vision. I changed it all. It was not in the original script."

"Yeah, yeah, it's rare to hear lines with such business philosophy in movies."

"Then tell me, why don't audiences like my movies?" Minahan Golan looked outside again.

At this time, the door to the room where he was was opened, and his cousin Yoram and hotel employees rushed in.

"Minahan, have you forgotten our dream? We came to Hollywood from Tel Aviv to win the Oscar. This time the movie is not good, we have another time, don't be discouraged."

"I haven't forgotten, you are right, Yoram." Minahan Golan finally came down from the railing. The two fat men hugged each other and cried bitterly, saying a lot in a language that Ronald could not understand. talk. Ronald probably spoke the Israeli language, his voice was relatively high-pitched, and he sounded like he was speaking normally and quarreling.

"What, who can sign the check for me?" The theater manager looked at the two of them eagerly and compensated for the repair costs of the screen.

"I'll sign it for you. How much does it cost?" The fat man Yoram took out the checkbook, signed the number required by the manager, and finally signed Minahan Golan's name and handed it to the other party.

"This is signed in Minahan's name." The manager took the check and looked at it, and found that the signature was wrong.

"That's right, both of us brothers can sign checks in each other's names. Just take it and the bank will cash it." The fat man Minahan said to the manager.

The theater manager hesitated and accepted the check.

The organizing committee staff who came with him said to Minahan Golan, "The film festival organizing committee believes that this film is not suitable to participate in the Audience Choice Awards. We would like to seek your opinion."

Minahan waved his hand to indicate that he would not participate in the audience award selection.

Someone from the organizing committee also comforted him, "Mr. Golan, as Yoram said, the success or failure of a movie does not affect the evaluation of the main creative staff. Remember to collect the copies."

Seeing that Minahan's mood had basically returned to normal, everyone said a few words of comfort and left one after another.

Minahan Golan pulled Ronald who came over to watch the excitement and refused to let him go. He introduced to his cousin, "Yoram, this is Ronald. He works for Mr. Roger Coleman in America." .”

Ronald said hello to the fat boy Yoram, and the two exchanged business cards. The little fat man's full name is Yoram Globus, and he is the son of Uncle Menahem.

The two had just finished post-production at the West Berlin studio and excitedly came to participate in the Montreal Film Festival, hoping to gain a reputation and then enter the American market. Unexpectedly, they were hit in the head during the screening.

Minahan came out of the bathroom after washing his face. The fat man had returned to normal and started chatting with his cousin Yoram.

In front of Ronald, the two began to discuss the issue again in English with a strong accent. Coupled with the colorful body language and the increasingly high volume, it seemed that there was a quarrel.

But Ronald didn't understand a word of it.

After finally waiting for the two of them to stop, Ronald awkwardly said goodbye, but was grabbed by Minahan.

"Ronald, Yoram and I were just discussing where to treat you to dinner. Do you have any suggestions?"

Half an hour later, the three of them sat in Schwarz Smoked Meat Restaurant and started chatting.

"So how did you meet Mr. Roger Coleman?" Ronald knew that both of them were descendants of Polish Jews who immigrated to Israel. He asked them if they had any dietary restrictions and then brought them here.

"It was because I was Mr. Corman's studio assistant that I fell in love with the film industry, so I returned to Israel and founded a film company." Minahan Golan said, "Is it true that Mr. Corman can't distribute our movies?"

"You know Mr. Coleman's style, Minahan." Ronald smiled.

"Hahaha, yes." Minahan Golan laughed himself.

"We really have high expectations for this movie. Last year we acquired an American film company called Cannon Pictures, just to enter the American market. You know, foreign-produced movies have to enter America. It’s difficult, but once it’s released in theaters in America, other English-speaking markets will open up for us.”

"Oh? So your goal is to only show it in America?" Ronald heard the implication. Did Golan want to convince overseas theaters and TV stations to buy their movie through the show? "

"No, that's not the case." Golan denied.

"The Cannon Pictures we acquired actually has certain distribution capabilities in America. Our dream is to win real Oscars, such as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actor, and Best Screenplay. Rather than The best foreign-language film of comfort."

It turned out to be a person with a dream.

"Yes, in fact Thunderbolt, which we produced and released in 1978, has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film." added Yoram.

"Have you seen it?" Seeing Ronald shaking his head, the fat man Minahan told him the plot.

Operation Thunderbolt is based on the true events of 1976 when Israeli special forces raided Embed Airport in Uganda to rescue hostages on board a plane.

All the hostages were safely rescued throughout the operation. Only Netanyahu, the captain of the Israeli special forces, was hit by a stray bullet and died.

This was the first time Ronald heard about this rescue operation. If only America had such special forces, the hostages in Persia would not have been rescued until now.

"We have distributed in the UK, China, Germany, and Spain. America was only released last year. We realized that with the strength of Cannon Pictures, it is impossible to obtain a large-scale release. America's theaters mainly release space The film’s slots have been booked a year in advance by the eight major studios. So we hope to get a name at the film festival and then negotiate with the eight major studios for distribution.”

Minahan Golan told him his plan, "What a pity..." He sighed helplessly.

"Is your film estimated to be very expensive to shoot?" Ronald asked tentatively. He wanted to know more about the film distribution market and the methods of filming financing to prepare for his own filmmaking in the future.

"Yes, we found a tax rebate in West Berlin and received US$8 million from companies there, plus US$2 million from our own Cannon Pictures, for a total of 10 million..."

Minahan Golan was not worried about Ronald secretly learning his own secrets, and told him about the preferential policies for filming movies provided by the West German government. In order to encourage cultural undertakings, compete with East Germany. In addition to establishing the West Berlin Film Festival, the West German government also encouraged companies to invest in film.

All companies that invest in the film industry can obtain substantial tax exemptions from the government. However, this tax exemption is only given after the film is released, and the intervening time span must be solved by a bank bridge loan.

The unique competitive advantage of Minahan Golan is that they have a good cooperative relationship with Slavenburg Bank of Rotterdam in the Netherlands (’s Bank), and can obtain low-interest bridge loans.

Although this bank has recently been exposed by the media as a gangster money laundering scandal, they have a very good relationship with Credit Lyonnais, which recently acquired the bank. They are considered a major customer with certain social influence, and it has not affected their future financing business.

"That's it. Thank you for telling me this." Ronald thanked the two brothers.

"I heard that you are also a screenwriter?" Minahan Golan and Yoram Globus looked at each other, "I wonder if you have written any works that have been made into movies?"

"The recently released movie that is famous all over the world has my signature."

"I saw that movie, it was released by MGM."

Minahan further probed, "Although you are very young, you know the American film market very well and you are also an artist. Do you have any suggestions for us to enter the American film distribution market?"

"Suggestions?" Ronald was stunned. What suggestions could he give? I only managed a midnight screening of Rock and Roll High School, and I earned some money and the opportunity to participate in a film festival.

However, he changed his mind and said, "I heard that United Artists and MGM have encountered some operating difficulties recently, and their film production business has been suspended. You might as well try to talk to them first. I don't have a movie to release, right? There must be quite a thirst for movies from other companies.”

"That's it. I knew you were an insightful young man, Ronald." Minahan and Yoram were very happy. They were still outsiders to Hollywood, and they were not well-informed about some industry rumors.

"I kind of want to know how you got the opening film slot?" Ronald also asked the two for advice, "Isn't it difficult to get the opening film of this kind of A-level film festival?"

Minahan smiled, "Don't be fooled by the A-level meaning. He only said that this film festival has an awards component. Moreover, the Montreal Film Festival is newly established and faces a lot of competition.

A film that participates in the selection of one A-level film festival cannot participate in the selection of another film festival. Participation is only possible through screening. "

"So that's it." Ronald nodded, remembering the participating films in the film festival's promotional materials. Sure enough, there were many English films participating. I also saw a Japanese movie and an Italian movie. As expected, A-level film festivals are not that easy to organize.

"So these are screening films and not competing, right?" Ronald picked up a film festival flyer and asked Minahan for advice.

"Of course, Hitchcock just passed away, and there is a tribute screening of his movies here." Yoram said, pointing to a row of movie names written in French.

After the three of them finished their dinner, Minahan Golan called the waiter to pay the bill.

"By the way, why are you cousins ​​but have different last names?" Ronald suddenly remembered that one of the two brothers was named Golan and the other was Globus. Cousins ​​should have the same last name. "Is it a stage name? ?”

"No, I changed my last name to Golan." Minahan paid for the meal and left a few banknotes as a tip.

"I was a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force and participated in the 1948 war, so I changed Globus's last name to Golan and used the Golan Heights as my own last name."

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . :