Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Barry Diller, the junior boss and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox, gave Ronald one night to talk about the new film.

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

Ronald and Niceta made the elevator together to his executive office.

"Ronald," Barry Diller said, hugging him warmly, "I'm glad you thought of us."

Twentieth Century Fox is now suffering from considerable financial difficulties. When oil tycoon Marvin Davis was chairman, the film shooting business was in chaos. The projects all suffered huge deficits.

Since the commander-in-chief took office, oil prices have been falling, and Marvin Davis' wealth has shrunk a lot in recent years.

He introduced a new partner, Australian Rupert Murdoch. There was originally an agreement with him that the two of them would contribute proportionately to acquire a cable TV network "Metropolitan Media" and turn Fox into an entertainment group integrating television and movies.

But when the acquisition agreement was finalized last year, Marvin Davis couldn't even come up with the promised proportion of capital.

With no other choice, Murdoch had no choice but to acquire Malvern's remaining shares in 20th Century Fox. Directly controls listed companies.

This is particularly embarrassing for Barry Diller. The contract he negotiated with Marvin Davis included a clause for him to obtain a part of the equity and become a small owner.

But Murdoch's acquisition messed up all plans. In particular, this Australian, who is of Irish and Scottish descent, 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 had extremely good mobility. He quickly obtained the American nationality and officially became the owner of Fox.

More on television because of Murdoch's interest. Barry Diller spent only a small amount of energy on the film production business here, looking for projects with low production costs but high box office potential.

Ronald's project has become synonymous with Hollywood spending a little money to make big profits. So he is also willing to cooperate with him.

To be able to come to 20th Century Fox to seek distribution, there must be some obvious shortcomings in this project that his peers did not agree with. But fortunately, this kind of project will be his turn.

"I'm sorry that the target market of this project is too narrow. Our current film production department's selection criteria for projects must be high-concept and mainly targeted at male teenagers... If you have any other projects, I am willing to hear about them. listen."

When they met Barry Diller, he made almost the same statement. Ronald and Niceta looked at each other, and they knew what they were doing. It seemed that these Jewish executives did have some tacit understanding.

Niceta is familiar with Italian directors and actors, and he has actually heard a lot of rumors. In fact, during the golden age of Hollywood, Jewish gangsters were much more ferocious and controlled stars than Italian gangsters.

And now I think that in the movies at that time, there were always only Italian gangsters. No one had ever seen any theatrical movies released by major studios that told the story of Jewish gangsters.

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

Ronald followed the plan he had planned and began to test.

"For example, a Jewish male teenager fell in love with a woman who was a dance partner for vacation guests. I switched the identities of the male and female protagonists and made the male protagonist a guest on vacation and the female protagonist a backup dancer. Girl, do you think there’s any chance of getting a distribution contract from Fox?”

"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. Do you want to come and talk to me after revising it?"

"That's true. I will find someone to take over first and change things." Ronald leaned back on the sofa and said a few perfunctory words.

"Do you have any more projects in hand now? As long as they are attractive to 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 possibility of cooperation again.

"If there is a script you like in our Fox film library... we can discuss it."

Ronald looked calm on the outside, but he was already cursing inside. These Jews are really too fake. It is just a love story of a Jewish girl. Is it necessary to make it like the Hays Code of the past, which considered the indecency of girls of any ethnic group?

Feeling angry, Ronald took out another script from his briefcase.

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

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

Barry Diller took over the script with great interest and read the synopsis.

He read quickly. 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. It would be best if you can direct it yourself. If you cannot direct, you must also serve as a producer. As long as you agree to this If the conditions are met, 20th Century Fox is willing to sign a distribution contract."

"Do you like this one?" Ronald took the script from the other person's hand and looked at the cover. It did say "exuberant" on it.

He couldn't believe it, so he opened the script again and quickly glanced at the beginning and end. It was indeed the story of the wooden beauty.

"Would you rather do this movie than 'Dirty Dancing'?"

Ronald checked in with Barry Diller again.

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

Barry Diller took the script and slapped it on the cover. Then he shook hands with Ronald and said, "That's it."

In the car going back with Niceta, Ronald had not yet come to his senses.

"So they would rather make this piece of trash? Rather than make a movie that is both artistic and story-telling like 'Dirty Dancing'? It's obvious that the potential of that movie is much stronger than the story of that wooden beauty."

"I'm afraid if you take out the script of 'Gone with the Wind' right now, any studio will put it into production."

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

In this highly uncertain market, if there are people like Ronald who are good at selling whatever type of film he makes, whether as a director or a producer, then he will be better than those on the film review committee who hold a week-long meeting to make the selection. The script must be reliable.

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

"It is completely wrong to deny such a good script because of such a small ethnic reason."

"Is there any way you can really change the protagonist's ethnicity as you and Barry said, and then try it again?"

Ronald thought for a while, "It's difficult. The screenwriter Eleanor adapted it based on her own experience, and there are a lot of details in it. If you change one ethnic group, there will be problems, and the gears will no longer mesh together perfectly."

"For example, the resort center they went to was specially built for Jewish people. If it were changed, the conservative social atmosphere would be broken.

Moreover, why can’t a Jewish girl be good with an Irish backup dancer boy? This ethnic setting originally added a good dramatic background to the script. "

"I'm just making an opinion. I'm on your side and supporting you. How about we try a small publisher?"

Niceta thought as she tried to persuade Ronald.

"Small publisher, Minahan from the Cannon I know is also a Jew. And Mr. Coleman is also a Jew."

"Mr. Coleman is very liberal and has made many popular films. I don't think he can be regarded as one of those Jewish executives.

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

"Okay, I'll talk to them, but it doesn't work. I invest in production and distribute by myself, but I don't believe it. Without relying on these distributors, the movie can't be distributed!

The brother and sister who produced the previous film "God Is Crazy" in South Africa sold copies to local theaters state by state and toured the United States for screenings. Not only did they recoup their investment, they also made a huge profit. "

Ronald was infuriated by the hypocrisy of these Jews. He was in the state of a complacent young man, and he said everything he wanted to say.

"Don't worry, we'll take a long-term approach."

Niceta was a little frightened. He didn't want this client to give up his great career as a director and producer to engage in distribution work.

American movie theaters, since the Paramount case, are no longer vertically tied and monopolized with studios. If you are serious about it, you can indeed negotiate with each theater and distribute it yourself. There is no law against doing this.

However, the cost of bypassing the existing distribution system is prohibitively high. As long as the seven major movie theaters were held in Las Vegas a year ago, they could sign contracts with all major theater chains in the country at once and set a schedule.

If you miss the trade show now and hire your own people to negotiate with thousands of theaters across the country, you will very likely lose your pants.

Although for brokers, having clients in debt is not necessarily a bad thing. But Ronald's upward momentum is very good now, and there is no need to risk everything for a musical.

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