Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Pia, the female host of CBS, agreed to contact David Letterman. They had been colleagues in the early years of CBS Los Angeles. When Letterman was still a weather forecaster, he wrote a scene for Pia.

Letterman, who received a call from an old colleague, was very talkative and agreed to meet with Ronald and the producer, who was at home with his family.

Producer Lin Sen and Ronald visited Letterman's home together.

Letterman's house was much smaller than the nationally famous mansion of his teacher Johnny Carson.

Letterman is still at home preparing for the show. He pulled aside the information on the table in the living room and greeted Ronald and Linsen warmly.

"I'm a little busy. I heard Pia call and say, do you want me to guest star in a movie?"

"Yes, we would like to ask you to guest star as yourself as the host interviewing Spicoli, a character in the movie. He was invited to your morning show because he saved Brooke Shields."

"The Late Show, I'll be moving to the evening slot next month."

"Invited to your Late Show. You'd ask him a few questions, and Spicoli would answer with his typical douchebag mentality."

"It's very interesting. I also have some acting skills. You may not know that Brother Zac asked me to star in 'All the Time', but unfortunately my agent rejected it."

"That's why we wanted to meet you, Mr. Letterman."

"Is that all? I thought you would give me a big role." Letterman read two pages of the script and laughed.

"If your agent hadn't refused, we would have let you audition for the role of a teacher in advance."

"That's it, it's still very similar to me playing a teacher."

…

After chatting with David Letterman for a while, he happily agreed to guest star.

"I didn't expect that Letterman himself was so easy to talk to, but his agent was too tough." Ronald said to the producer Lin Sen who came with him after going out.

"It's because he's so talkative that his agent is responsible for screening all opportunities. Letterman is essentially a naive person. Maybe it's because of this that he can host the talk show well." Lin Sen replied.

Maybe he's right,

Letterman has a naturally friendly and approachable personality. If he were allowed to handle all business cooperation invitations by himself, he would probably agree to all the invitations, which would be a disaster.

Several big-name guest stars had already agreed, and Ronald began asking his assistants to contact Sean Penn, who was now in Chicago acting in his stage play. The three actors needed to find a suitable shooting time and shoot the reshoots in one go.

Just when everything was ready, Ronald suddenly received a call from producer Lin Sen. Their reshoot plan was questioned by Universal Pictures Senior Vice President Ned Tanin. He was needed to go tomorrow. Universal Production held a meeting with Tanin and other senior executives to discuss.

"Why? I don't understand. This is just a small production, and the total cost of reshoots is only 300,000 US dollars. Why would this vice president Taning suddenly come out to question us?"

"Don't be angry, this Tanin is a well-known nuisance. He has a bad reputation among directors and often interferes in projects set by other senior executives.

He had nothing to do with the movie, but as a senior vice president, he did have the power to ask questions about any project. We need to have a meeting with him to explain his doubts clearly, and Mr. Sheinberg's people will speak for us. "

Lin Sen rushed to Ronald's editing room and discussed with Ronald how to deal with Tanin's doubts.

"You have to be careful not to be frightened by his initial doubts. Tanin is good at frightening the person he is talking to with his super aggressiveness at the beginning..."

"Super aggressive

"When they come up, they will slap some labels on you and criticize your film creativity, shooting techniques, editing, etc. As long as you refute based on the facts and be able to speak out reasonable truths, Tanin will not insist on objecting. He is used to using this technique to scare away liars who pretend to be his own abilities."

"Who is he?"

"I started out in the mailroom of MCA. I have never produced a movie. I only show my power by attacking the director and then pointlessly cutting out some other people's clips.

Lucas cut out several minutes of "American Graciousness" because he was making things difficult for him. After the movie became a hit, he vowed not to work with Tanin anymore, left Universal, and went to 20th Century Fox to collaborate on "Star Wars." "

"Turns out he was a troll."

"Yes, you must stand up when he rudely accuses you and fight back appropriately, so that he knows that you really understand how to make a movie."

"To respond to his accusations," Ronald made a mental note.

In the conference room the next day, Ronald saw the super aggressiveness of Vice President Taning.

Tanin has a traditional Jewish appearance, with a hump-like protrusion in the middle of his big nose. The slightly curly hair and eyebrows disappeared when they were halfway to the outer corners of the eyes. The two small eyes below stared at Ronald with a fierce look on his face.

If you remove all the comfortable elements on the face of Cannon Pictures boss Minahan Golan, such as big glasses, a kind smile, and a sincere face, and replace them with three points of arrogance and rudeness, he is also a Jew. Tanin’s first impression.

"I don't understand why you would give the green light to such a script, which is full of contempt and trampling on traditional American morals. This kind of script should not be filmed by us at Universal."

As Tanin attacked Ronald's film, he glanced next to Sheinberg's subordinate, a female vice president.

"Mr. Taning, I don't know why you said that. This is originally a youth comedy..."

"Comedy? A real comedy should be like 'Melvin and Howard', which is suitable for all ages, and there is no such scene that purely satisfies the audience's vulgar taste." When Tanin attacked, he did not forget to mention the Oscar-winning film he produced. Award-winning comedy film.

"But 'Fast Tempo' is a low-budget youth comedy. We lack marketing investment and need some shots to get the audience into the cinema..."

"Walking into the cinema? Do you want more people to watch your 'movie'?" When Tanin mentioned the word movie, he put his hands in front of his chest and raised two fingers on each side twice. He put double quotation marks around the movie, mocking Ronald for not making a movie at all.

Ronald's anger was suddenly aroused by his actions. Why is it that what I am shooting is not a movie? The movie you greenlit "Melvin and Howard" failed miserably at the box office, and you relied on public relations to get a few Oscar nominations and praise from film critics. Do you think you know how to make movies?

"Of course, I don't think there is any problem with this. When a director makes a movie, of course he hopes that it will do well at the box office. Even if it is a small production, I hope that it can be a big hit at the box office, rather than just being satisfied with four to five million box office. ”

Ronald shot back. Tanning just mentioned that Melvin and Howard, which he greenlit, won a few Oscars but only had a box office of just over 4 million.

These words first frightened Lin Sen, who was sitting next to him. He glanced at Ronald to see if the young man had misunderstood what he meant. He responded appropriately, instead of retorting like this and exposing the opponent's background.

"Mr. Tanin, what Ronald means is..."

"I know what he means!" Tanin looked a little angry, "You anti-Semite..."

Now even the female vice president next to me frowned. Where did the label of anti-Semite come from?

"How can there be anti-Semitic plots in my movie? My two heroines are Jewish actors." Ronald himself pays great attention to such details, and the quotas for all races in "Fast Pace" are sufficient.

"Why not? Jennifer Jason Leigh and Phoebe Cates are both actors of Jewish descent. You let them appear naked in the movie and play two ignorant and superficial girls who were deceived by men of other races."

"I don't understand why photographing a beautiful Jewish girl is anti-Semitic? Does it mean that if you find an ugly Jewish girl or a Jewish boy picks up beauties of other races, you support the Jews?"

"I'm afraid if this is the case, the reputation of the Jews will be even worse, right?" There was something in Ronald's mind that he had not yet said.

But the female vice president next to him understood what he meant and smiled at him. Taning's unreasonable and arrogant attitude made her, who is also the vice president, very annoying.

"You have never made a movie, why should I trust you? Can you guarantee that your movie will be a hit? In that case, why do you need to invest 300,000 yuan in re-shooting shots?" Tan Ning also looked at the re-shooting budget. question.

"Of course I can guarantee that." Ronald thought to himself that the original film has a 15th anniversary edition, how can it not be a hit? And the few scenes I shot were better than the performances in my dreams.

"Do you really believe him? Lin Sen? Will the 300,000 US dollars of reshoots have any impact on the movie box office? If this investment cannot increase the movie box office of more than 900,000 yuan, we will be in a loss-making business. "

The female vice president under Sheinberg also raised questions. Of course, she was actually giving Ronald and Lin Sen a chance to explain.

"Of course, Brooke Shields and David Letterman are both celebrities with great appeal. Their participation in the show can attract more young audiences to go to the cinema. As long as they have watched the movie, word of mouth can spread The movie was a hit. We had no marketing budget, and these reshoots were our best marketing."

"How can you prove that your movie will be popular? Our investment in reshoots will definitely pay off?" Tanin frowned and stared at Ronald. What he disliked most was movie directors who talked nonsense. But listening to Ronald, a young man, speaking slowly, it seemed that he did have his own set of ideas.

In this era of sluggish film market, investment can only be made if you find a director who can really bring box office returns. Otherwise, if the company's annual report comes out and the losses increase, he will not be able to keep his position.

Shenberg has Spielberg as a cash cow, but unlike him, he has to question every movie to ensure his right to speak. Anyway, if the movie is a hit, then no one will raise their doubts. If it is not a hit, then it is prescient.

"I'm confident in my movie!" Ronald nodded to the female vice president next to Tanin. "I hope our reshoot budget can be approved early. The two stars who promised to guest star have tight schedules. Don’t delay.”

"Please let me make a call first and I will prove it to you." After Ronald said, he walked out of the conference room, went to the front desk to get an extension and made a long-distance call to his personal accountant, Lawrence Wang.

"Lawrence, this is Ronald. I don't have time to say more. Tell me, how much money can I use now?"

Lawrence didn’t hesitate and answered immediately: “Ronald, I assume you are in urgent need of cash right now.

Your securities assets have not increased significantly, but if you buy IBM, Coca-Cola, and Kodak stocks for more than one year, you only need to pay capital gains tax, not personal income tax. If all were sold, the price would be just over $357,800.

Your tax on the sale will be paid next year, so the money you can use in the short term is this money plus the $100,000 in cash in your bank checking account. Leaving aside the taxes you need to pay this April, you'll have roughly $350,000 available.

If you need more, then consider using your house as a mortgage to get a bank loan. "

"If I wrote a check for $300,000 right now, would it bounce immediately?"

"No, it will only bounce if Wells Fargo finds out that your account does not have enough money when they go to cash it. You have about two days to balance the account. If you sell the stock, I can have the cash transferred in within two days. Your checking account won’t bounce.”

"Okay, you can wait for my orders at any time."

Ronald entered the conference room again, took out a checkbook from his pocket, took out a pen, signed a check for three hundred thousand dollars on the first one, and handed it to Ned Tanin.

"This is my personal check. I can pay the reshooting fee of US$300,000. Universal will split the account with me based on the investment ratio."

"No, I believe you. You are very confident in your movie. I like people who are confident." Taning unexpectedly said something in response to his doubts.

"Finally we have the budget, we can arrange reshoots." Lin Sen opened the car door and let Ronald get in the car.

"Why did Tanin finally agree? I thought he would let me pay for it myself.

"Of course he agrees. If you spend your own money and it sells well at the box office and Universal has to pay you dividends, he will become a laughing stock in the industry. How can any capitalist be exploited by a director?"

7017k

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