Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Early the next morning, Ronald opened the large refrigerator in the kitchen of the temporary apartment where McGillis and Foster lived together.

This is a double-door refrigerator produced by GE. It has the two trademarks of GE on it. Ronald recognized that Aunt Karen had such a machine at home, and it was filled with baked cookies and various ingredients.

This is a brand that has been with American families for decades. From the beginning of gas-driven models to the current use of electricity, it has always been a good helper for American housewives. Before entering politics, the current leader hosted programs for GE to promote these new electrical appliance lifestyles.

"Why is there no meat in the refrigerator?" Ronald rummaged for a long time. The usual bacon, sausages, and steaks were all gone. There were only some chicken breasts among a lot of vegetables, eggs, and juice.

"Whatever..." Ronald took a few tomatoes, washed them and cut them into pieces, then added a few lettuce leaves, pickles, scrambled a few eggs, and bread that popped out of the toaster. Put several slices of bread together, then use a high-end knife to cut off the four sides of the bread, and then cut it in half along the diagonal line.

Finally adding fresh OJ juice, Ronald carried the tray into the bedroom.

"Oh, I didn't expect you to be a great chef." Jodie Foster came up and took a slice of sandwich and bit into it happily.

"He's really good at making breakfast." McGillis also took a piece and put it in his mouth.

"I wish you a good appetite and a happy meal." Ronald took a sip of orange juice, picked up the edge of the bread he had just cut, and bit into it.

"Hmm..." Jodie Foster's eyes lit up. This sandwich contains red tomatoes, green lettuce and cucumbers, yellow scrambled eggs, and some mustard sauce. Not only does it look pleasing to the eye, but it also tastes good. It also goes well together. A rare vegetarian breakfast, Ronald made it very appetizing.

"I didn't expect the breakfast you made to be so delicious. You really know how to do everything." Foster happily took another big bite and looked at Ronald with shining eyes.

"When I was in high school on Staten Island, New York, my aunt had to work several jobs to earn money. She would come home late at night, and I would cook breakfast every day for a long time."

As Ronald said, he smiled and used his hands to help her wipe away the traces of sauce at the corners of her mouth.

"Ronald, have you been to Canada for filming? How was the filming there? This time we will also shoot the entire film in Canada. There are fewer and fewer crew members staying in Hollywood."

McGillis came from behind;

She put her arm around Foster's shoulders. She, who was a bit bigger than Foster, sat with the petite Foster, as if demarcating their own territory. Foster held her hand with his backhand, and the two of them were very close. A bit like a good sister.

"This is the first time I'm filming alone. The original crew and my mother will accompany me. It's still Canada..." Jodie Foster rarely showed a trace of a young woman who needs protection.

"The security there is very good, so you don't have to worry about staying in a hotel. The language and customs are also very similar to America. As long as you stay in the crew's hotel and don't run around, it will feel almost the same as here." Ronald also said, "The nanny The story of the dirty trash can, a prop from "Adventures", was taken away by the cleaning workers early in the morning.

"Hahaha..." Jodie Foster burst out laughing. This is obviously not the reaction a top Yale student should have.

"Good, keep it up." Ronald understood that Judy had slowly begun to assume the role of a waitress who had not graduated from high school.

"Really? Do you think it's okay for me to use this method? I did have a mother who helped me take care of everything on the set. The heroine was alone. Her mother ran away from home and found a new boyfriend. After hearing that her daughter After being violated, he was still indifferent and just wanted his daughter not to ruin his life..."

The highly educated female star is indeed ahead of other actresses that Ronald worked with in terms of depth of thinking. In the acting industry, there are many people who rely on intuition to perform. For someone like Foster who has both intuition and understanding of acting theory, he will be better able to convey the director's intention to the character when working with the director.

"Keep it up, Kelly would love a co-star like you.

of. "

Ronald kissed the two beauties goodbye gently. He also wanted to go to MGM to talk about the next marketing arrangements for his movie "Moonlight". In order to win the award, he needed MGM's marketing plan to cooperate.

…

MGM/United Arts is a listed company. After Weintraub failed to get the CEO position and left angrily to start his own independent production company, the company has been in continuous turmoil, and the stock price has also been abnormally high in the bull market. fell.

So much so that no one from the distribution department took the initiative to negotiate with Ronald except for the scheduled release time.

Fortunately, Weintraub's secretary and lover, the red-haired Susan Akins, admired Ronald very much. Much of her knowledge about film production was gained from observing Ronald at close range on the crews of two "Dragon Boys" films.

After Ronald couldn't find the head of the distribution department of MGM and had no choice but to ask her for help, even though she was already the vice president of Weintraub Production Company, she still went out of her way to accompany Ronald. I went to my old company, MGM, and approached the distribution department to discuss the distribution plan for "Moonlight".

"Of course, we at MGM/United Arts will highlight the works directed by Ronald." A senior manager whom Ronald had met before treated Ronald and Escorted by Susan Akins.

"Why are you like this? This is not how you were taught when Mr. Weintraub was here." Susan Akins was full of admiration for Jerry Weintraub. His business philosophy was abandoned in Columbia. It was obvious that Susan was clearly furious.

"Moonlight is the first film produced by MGM/United Arts after it resumed its production business. It was decided by Mr. Weintraub himself at that time. Ronald will bring opportunities for revival to the company. You guys This is equivalent to abandoning everything Jerry has done for this place, everything..."

The senior manager was a little embarrassed by Susan's remarks. After all, he was a confidant promoted by Weintraub at the time. After Weintraub was kicked out of MGM by boss Kerkorian, he did not leave with Weintraub, but stayed at MGM/United Arts as a senior manager.

He was always a little unsure when facing the confidants of his former boss.

"Miss Akins, Director Ronald, I am not trying to deal with you. Mr. Weintraub is the person who can lead the company back to its peak, but after he left, the boss Kerkorian sold the company last year. to Turner Television.

And Ted Turner, because he couldn't afford the remaining money, sold the company back to Kerkorian this year. Over the past year, we internally have done nothing but sell, spin off, merge, and sell back to the original owner. He didn't do anything, he just stopped where he was. "

"ha……"

Ronald asked him about the situation, and then asked Susan about some details that he didn't know. It turned out that so many funny things had happened at MGM in the past year.

Ted Turner is the owner of the first cable television network (CUU) to launch 24-hour live news. He owns many media companies. Another well-known company to the public is the Turner Television Network named after him. Operates cable television networks in affluent areas on the east and west coasts.

He used Wall Street bond financing and spent US$1.5 billion to buy MGM's production and distribution network. More importantly, he bought a huge film library.

This library includes the rights to all films produced by MGM before 1986, as well as all film rights owned by United Artists, and all film rights owned by RKO before its bankruptcy.

In addition, there are the copyrights of Warner Bros. movies before 1950 owned by MGM, and the copyrights of the most famous "Popeye" in Paramount's cartoon business unit.

Ted Turner has high hopes. After he got the original film library, he immediately colorized the old movies and broadcast them on his Turner Television Network. Last October, the first post-color movie to be released on Turner Network was the legendary MGM production "Gone with the Wind," starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.

It is a pity that the audience is not interested in seeing classic movies on TV

The color version, which sounds very gimmicky, doesn't interest me at all.

Turner failed to achieve the ratings and subscriber growth expected. On the contrary, his approach of destroying the precious original black and white copy of the movie also caused great dissatisfaction among major Hollywood unions and film critics.

The famous Chicago film critic Roger Ebert was furious and humiliated Ted Turner in a newspaper with the headline "The Saddest Day in the History of American Movies."

"Whether it's Gone with the Wind or Casablanca, no one can escape Turner's clutches! No classic can escape his vulgar, computer-colored graffiti!"

Senior managers at MGM spoke painfully to Ronald and Susan about the reputational damage this move had caused to MGM.

Even more outrageous things are yet to come. Since the broadcast of colorized classic movies did not bring enough income to Ted Turner, his installment payment for the acquisition of MGM was based on the advertising brought by the broadcast of old movies. Bonds collateralized by revenue and new subscriber revenue.

Soon, at the beginning of this year, the second acquisition payment failed to enter the account of MGM’s original owner, Kerkorian, as scheduled.

As a last resort, Turner sold the United Artists label acquired by MGM back to Kerkorian for 480 million. Immediately afterwards, the production department of MGM was sold back to United Artists for 300 million.

Then the printing plant and some properties in Hollywood and Burbank were sold to raise funds. In the end, Turner was playing a strong game with Kerkorian, buying and selling various assets under MGM/United Arts. In the end, it was equivalent to Turner buying Hollywood Gold for less than 600 million. The film libraries of the three major studios of the era: MGM, RKO, and Warner Bros.

MGM's production and distribution departments are at a loss in this child's play buying and selling game.

"So do you belong to United Artists or MGM now?" Ronald listened. This is actually quite miserable. Fortunately, Weintraub escaped from the clutches of the casino owner Kerkorian first. If you keep struggling, you don’t know what will happen.

"I don't know. Technically, I belong to MGM, but the company's listing code on Wall Street has changed from MGM to UA." The senior manager spread his hands.

The trading game between the two big guys still left a lot of tailpipes. The film libraries of these three companies were finally sold to MGM through extremely complicated contracts after the antitrust case in Congress and the massive impact of television on Hollywood.

Therefore, how much of the film library acquired by Turner actually belongs to the Turner Television Network is still a matter of great legal controversy. Their lawyers are engaged in an offensive and defensive battle. Both sides are digging out various clauses from the piles of old papers, and then burying them in other unimportant documents and submitting them to the court. Try to present it as strong evidence against yourself after the trial.

"So, MGM can't give me more support for "Moonlight"? "Ronald spread his hands and asked the senior manager.

"MGM will still support normal distribution and marketing." The other party shook his head helplessly.

"That means there is no additional support? For example, awards or something." Ronald clicked his tongue. It seemed that he had to rely on himself and talk to them about the change in the proportion of the share in the later period. If you invest resources yourself, do you have to get a bigger share?

"Ronald", Susan pulled Ronald's sleeve, "I know a very good film marketing talent. He used to do the marketing plans for Spielberg's ET and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. If you want, I can talk to him. Now he just started his own business and established his own company. If you are interested..."

"Very good, of course I want to meet him." Ronald was a little overjoyed when he heard that he was the marketing and distribution director of ET, which set a box office record. Susan was next to Weintraub, and she was more interested in such professional talents than herself. Familiar.

"You mean Michael Gray?" the senior manager asked.

"Yes, that's him. If you don't invest, we can do it ourselves." Susan Akins wanted to facilitate this matter, and Weintraub also needed to have a good relationship with Ronald. Directors of such blockbuster commercial films must be closely guarded. If nothing else, Long Wei Xiao

Zi’s series…

"Of course he is good, and now that he has just opened his own company, he can have business..." The senior manager also recognized this talent.

Ronald stood up and said goodbye to him, "I hope you can cooperate with some of the film's distribution matters."

"I will do it. This is a matter of duty."

The senior manager knew that he was in the wrong and carefully escorted the two of them out of the office. These two were now very powerful men. He had to show his kindness to them and use the company's resources as much as possible within the scope of his authority. "people" above.

No one knows the situation at MGM now, and Kerkorian may continue to sell the company so that if the new owner continues to lay off employees, he will have a place to go.

"To meet the requirements of the Oscars, we only need to meet the requirements for release in December. Generally speaking, movies nominated for important Oscar awards will have a wave of box office growth at the beginning of next year. At that time, we will increase Distribution intensity. When the awards come in April, if it can win one of the five most important awards, there will be a wave of box office growth.

For this kind of movie, we usually do this and don’t invest in all distribution channels at the beginning. "

The senior manager walked and talked, trying his best to make himself noticed by the other party.

"Is it like this year's "Field Platoon"? Ronald mentioned the distribution strategy of Orion Pictures, which released "Platoon" at the beginning of this year, which received 7 Oscar nominations and won Best Picture and Best Director.

"It's like this year's field platoon."

Several people talked while walking, and Ronald was quite satisfied with the manager's attitude. The three of them walked to the elevator. The elevator door opened with a ding...

What I saw filing out were two rows of elite-looking people wearing exquisite handmade suits and meticulously combed hair.

From the Italian tailoring of their handmade woolen suits and their tanned orange skin, Ronald recognized the temperament of Hollywood entertainment lawyers, who were both professional and in the entertainment industry.

The two rows of people were clearly distinguishable. Ronald looked at the senior manager behind him and made a "lawyer" lip sync.

The other party nodded and confirmed that it was the team of lawyers hired by Kerkorian and Ted Turner to fight the film copyright lawsuit.

Ronald purposely stood a step further away to prevent the two rows of tense lawyers from raising their heads and staring at the ceiling. The "elites" whose egos were even bigger than his own would step on his feet.

Two rows of people moved toward the large conference room ahead.

Ronald chuckled and was about to walk into the elevator and go down.

"Is this Ronald? Ronald Lee? The greatest musical director of our time?" A greasy, old voice came from the end of the two rows, calling Ronald.

"It's me, are you?" Ronald saw an old man with silver hair, a big nose, and two suspicious sausage mouths that were the product of plastic surgery.

"Kirk, Kirk Kerkorian. I really like your musicals, they are very golden age style."

At first glance, the old man was not someone to be trifled with. Although he smiled, there was a depth behind his smile like Marlon Brando in the movie "The Godfather".

"My dearest friend, Mr. Kerkorian." Ronald stretched out his hand and shook hands with the boss of the MGM casino and production company.

"Susan, Susan, you are here too...it can't be you and Ronald who said bad things about me." Kerkorian smiled and stepped forward to hug Susan Akins.

"I have something to do with Ronald. Can you give us some private space?" Kerkorian asked Susan politely, but his attitude did not give the other party the option to refuse.

"You must be here for your new movie, right? I heard it's a good movie, but it's a pity that it's not a musical, but a movie about Italians. You know I don't like Italians..."

After Kerkorian arrived in the office and sat down, he raised his hand and asked Ronald to sit on the sofa on the right.

"Why? Do you have any grudges with them?" Ronald didn't expect the other party to say this when he came up.

"Hey, I know people outside call me a gangster, pulling

Burying people alive in the Vegas desert and stuff like that. In fact, this is all legitimate business..." Kerkorian smiled.

Ronald didn't know whether to believe what he said. Maybe he had indeed tempered his temper in recent years.

"I just don't like the exaggerated style of Italians. It's okay to be an artist, but it's very bad as a business collaborator or opponent. I'm from Armenia, and we take business commitments very seriously."

"Hahaha... Then you should watch my "Moonlight". The heroine Cher is also of Armenian origin, although she plays an Italian..."

"I will, kid, I will..." Kerkorian put his fingers on the coffee table and started tapping rhythmically.

After a while, neither of them spoke.

"Is this the movie you want to talk to me about? I actually intend to do some distribution and marketing work myself. We just need to re-sign the contract..." Ronald couldn't hold it in anymore and asked the first question.

"No, No, Ronald, what I want to talk to you about is not a movie, but a much bigger picture. So big that in Hollywood, there are only a few people who can understand me, and you are one of them."

"Me?" Ronald said to himself, I don't understand the casino business, and besides, I don't know how to do your deception.

"I wonder how big your picture is?" Ronald discovered that one of Kerkorian's characteristics was that he did not speak first, but put pressure on the other person to speak first.

"That's $25 billion!"

"Ha..." Ronald suspected that he heard wrongly.

"Per year!

In the next ten years, the annual market potential is 25 billion. "

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