Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Although he didn't have high hopes, Ronald went to meet two old friends who were running a small studio.

One is Roger Corman, who formed his own film company after selling New World. It's still the same old way of saving money, and I'm shooting new movies.

Roger Coleman is still the same. He drives to the office early in the morning and personally monitors the progress of each project. In his company, there is no concept of management. He is the only one who makes various decisions using experience and intuition.

The other subordinates who went by the name of production managers were more like Coleman's secretaries than producers. They didn't have much decision-making power. They just uploaded and distributed the scripts, and went to the set to help Coleman keep an eye on the crew to ensure they didn't go over budget or overtime. Otherwise, they would notify Coleman to come over and tear up scenes from the script that couldn't be filmed.

"Ronald, welcome to my office. I remember you came twice." Coleman asked his secretary to make Ronald a cup of cheap coffee, and the two got down to business.

"I had a very controversial film project that none of the seven major Hollywood studios had the guts to try. I met Gail that day and she said to me, why don't you go to Roger? He dared to do it in the 1962s. When it came to filming the black apartheid issue in the South, he dared to film motorcycle gangs in 1966... ​​There are no left-wing progressive themes in Hollywood, so he didn't dare to film them."

Ronald took two sips of coffee. His ability to distinguish coffee is not as good as black tea. Enjoy the cheap coffee.

Come up and give Roger Coleman a challenge first, throw out a bait to attract Coleman's attention. This was a negotiation strategy that Ronald had planned in advance so that he would not be intimidated by the controversial plot of setting up a Jewish girl.

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

"Of course, this is a small production. I calculated that the production cost is about 4.5 million. If you can give me a distribution contract, I can find people willing to invest. I personally feel that this movie must be It’s going to be a big seller.”

Roger Corman put on his glasses, took the script of "Dirty Dancing" and read it carefully.

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

Coleman did not think that Jewish girls could not fall in love with handsome dancing guys like other ethnic groups.

"The story happened in the 1960s when jfk was the commander-in-chief.

A girl from a middle-class Jewish family fell in love with a poor Irish boy who was a backup dancer at the resort. This was considered deviant at the time, right? "

Ronald was overjoyed, but he still pointed out the words "Jewish girl" deliberately and heavily, and then concentrated to see how Coleman would answer.

"This is not controversial at all. I have never been afraid of this when making movies." Coleman waved his hand as if to dispel Ronald's concerns.

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

But now? You'll have to wait. It will probably be next year before I fully resume the rights to distribute movies in America. "

"What, you can't release your movie in America now?"

Roger Corman explained the troubles he encountered. He sold New World Pictures for $16 million a few years ago. He left some concessions in the sale contract with New World's new owners. terms.

New World will help distribute films produced by Corman at a 15% preferential share.

But then New World did not really fulfill this condition, and none of the films produced by Coleman's new company were distributed. So Roger Corman sued the other party for damages and asked the other party to return New World Pictures to him.

On the other hand, Corman had no choice but to reorganize the distribution department and start distributing movies himself.

New World Pictures, however, seized on Corman's loophole and countersued Roger Corman, saying that he violated the contract and that instead of handing over the film to New World for distribution in accordance with the contract, he became the distributor himself. Come to compete with New World for distribution business and demand that Coleman compensate New World Pictures for its losses.

Since last year, two cases have been scheduled for trial. Now Coleman's new company, Concordia Pictures, has suspended production and distribution operations to prevent others from taking advantage.

"I'm very optimistic about the outcome of the case. They said that at the end of 1984 or the beginning of 1985, I secretly bypassed New World and distributed the movie myself. But I sold New World to them at that time and left a preferential distribution The only purpose of the clause is that I no longer want to engage in the high-cost and energy-consuming distribution business. I want to regain the feeling of being a director and producer and focus on making movies.

My lawyer and I discussed it and came to the conclusion that they could either compensate me for my losses and hand over the New World. Either you can reach an out-of-court settlement with me and pay me a sum of money, and then everyone can go about their own business. "

Ronald had only one word of admiration for Coleman. There is still a chance to get huge compensation even if you don’t make a movie.

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

Now he has to resume the distribution business, so the only reason why he has conflicts with New World is that he likes to make movies.

"Hey, who says it's not?" This was the most distressing thing for Coleman.

"I could have produced 15-25 movies a year and screened them in drive-in theaters and small theaters. Occasionally, one or two movies would win the favor of mainstream theaters and enter large-scale screening channels. Now everything has stopped.

Let me tell you, I originally 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. "

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

Minahan Golan has been very busy since he received US$300 million in financing. After finally catching him in the office through his agent Richard, Ronald quickly took the script to discuss with him.

"Quack, quack, Ronald. Did you bring me any good news? We haven't seen each other for a long time. Let me show you the new movie we are going to make."

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

Ronald was half relieved when he saw that he was still so enthusiastic about him. At least he won't have anything to do with himself because of the improvement in his financial situation.

"Look, this is our series product, the second and third part of 'American Ninja'." Minahan pointed to two large posters on the wall. A white young man was wearing a ninja headband and wearing a ninja hat. clothes, and posing while holding a ninja sword.

“This is the third and fourth installment of ‘The Wild One’ with Chuck Norris. This is the third and fourth installment of ‘The Wild One’ with Chuck Bronson.”

Cannon has already had several successful movies in this series, and Ronald knows that it is easy to make money as long as the quality of such movies can be guaranteed.

"I've upgraded now. I wouldn't have considered a movie with a budget of less than 10 million two years ago."

"Ten million?" Ronald turned his head and looked at Minahan. Is the cannon so powerful now? Shoot dozens of movies every year with an investment of more than 10 million and then distribute them yourself?

"Ten million is still a small amount. Look at these two series, big productions produced by us and distributed by Warner Bros."

"This is the second major production that Stallone has collaborated with us on, 'Over the Top', and we are prepared to invest a production budget of US$30 million."

"What place are you saving this time? Which bad guys are you fighting?" Ronald felt a little uncomfortable. Stallone was in Cannon, and it was true that every film was a big-investment movie.

"Gaga, you guessed wrong. Stallone will not kill bad guys again this time. I had a deep talk with him and we plan to transform. This is a family film. He plays a divorced father who has not seen his son for a long time. She took her son with her, drove a truck, and went to participate in the National Arm Wrestling Competition... In the end, she not only won the championship, but also improved her relationship with her son. "

"Arm wrestling?" Ronald touched the beard on his chin. Is this a plot thought up by that idiot? The audience spends three or four dollars to buy a ticket to watch Stallone arm-wrestle with you? "

"How about it? It's a good idea, I came up with it. I will personally direct this movie, quack quack..."

"So it was you who came up with it..." Ronald held back his laughter. Minahan's old habit has returned, always evaluating the American audience's thoughts through foreign eyes.

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

How to shoot the final battle? Is it that Stallone was about to lose when you pulled him over at first, but then he saw the beautiful woman and his son, and gained strength, turned defeat into victory, and defeated the other party? so boring……

"Maybe we can make a sequel." Ronald held it in for a long time before he said something he thought was humorous.

"Yes, yes, we can also make a sequel, so we have a third star." Minahan looked proud.

"Sequel? The sequel is about upgrading the difficulty of the game. How to upgrade the arm wrestling? Could it be...is it a two-hand wrestling?" Ronald held it back very hard.

"Gah ga ga, it seems you think it's good too." Minahan looked at the way Ronald wanted to laugh but didn't, thinking that he and Stallone still had a grudge and didn't want to see him become a bigger star.

"That's another big movie we're preparing for. It's awesome... I bought the rights to the 'Superman' movie series, the first Superman movie produced by Cannon, and we're going to get Christopher Reeve back to star. Invest $40 million.”

"Which bad guy will Superman fight this time?"

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

"Um……"

Ronald felt the change in Minahan's mentality after receiving $300 million. He no longer had the Corman-like spirit of making small productions, and is now obsessed with big productions, blockbusters, and sequels to blockbusters.

He might not be interested at all in the small production of "Dirty Dancing" that he wanted to cast for less than 5 million.

"Why don't you distribute these two movies yourself, instead of asking Warner Brothers?"

"Hey, this is also because America's theater market is inconvenient to schedule blockbusters. Warner Bros. currently does not have the ability to produce blockbusters, so it can only rely on distribution channels to provide large blockbusters to others. Their studio in Burbank has been assigned Ramon and Universal took a big chunk of it. It left them with small productions and filming in foreign countries."

"We were in a hurry to get financing and didn't have time to book the schedule a year and a half in advance. When we recover the cost of these movies next year, we can distribute them ourselves."

"Who is Warner Bros. talking to now? Is it still Robert Daley?" Ronald didn't have much dealings with Warners, so he took the opportunity to inquire.

"He no longer cares about specific affairs. Daley has found a capable Jew, Terry Semel. Now he is mainly responsible for Warner's affairs. What, do you have anything to do with him?"

"I'm just asking." When Ronald heard that it was a Jew, he had no idea of ​​continuing to explore.

"Ronald, you'd better come and cooperate with me. Now that you have the conditions, I can give your project the green light. There is no problem in making a movie with a production budget of 15 million.

What do you want to photograph? Let’s bring in Tom Cruise. Will you collaborate on another air combat movie? "

"I have no other plans for the time being. The project at hand is a feature film. I have signed a contract with MGM. As for Tom, you still have to find his agent."

Ronald declined Minahan's invitation. He felt that Minahan now was very different from what he remembered. He was super confident and even a little crazy.

While the two were chatting, staff members kept asking him to sign and ask for work instructions. There is no such thing as Minahan's super focus on one project when the two collaborated on "Break Dance".

Besides, this kind of small production, even if it is released by Cannon, will not be able to squeeze into the good schedule of mainstream theaters. Even Minahan's Cannon now has to rely on Warner Bros. to deliver real blockbusters.

If possible, it would be better to let Daydream Pictures establish a simple distribution department, just like Roger Corman, and try to distribute a movie at a low cost.

"I just don't know how much it would cost to produce and distribute a movie by myself?"

"Are you really not coming? I have a new good project here. It's the Spider-Man production rights I bought from Marvel. Are you interested?" Mina rarely saw Ronald being thoughtful and silent, and started again Promote your own projects.

"Spider-Man?" Ronald thought to himself, didn't Marvel just take back Coleman?

"Yes, I bought the production rights within five years. If you are willing to be the director, we can start looking for someone to write the script. In this way, Superman, Spider-Man, and America's two most popular heroes will all belong to Cannon .”

"If there is no script, I'd better forget it. I don't have the energy to come up with a new script now. I'll wait until I finish the project at hand."

Ronald did not interrupt Minahan's precious time, nor did he embarrass Minahan with a small production script worth less than five million, and shook hands with him goodbye.

－－－－－－Digression－－－－－

There is only one chapter today

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