Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Minahan's series of disputes with Cannon all trace back to the time when he and Yoram spent money lavishly.

At that time, they used Milken, the Wall Street bond tycoon, to raise more than $400 million in junk bonds. But both of them spent money very quickly. Among them, Minahan has invested heavily in comic book adaptation movies, such as Superman Part 4 and Unicron He-Man. And Yoram didn't know anything about production. His way of spending money was to buy theater chains, and he acquired Starlight Cinemas in Britain.

When the bullets ran out, the two men's strategies changed from assisting each other to disrupting each other. Minahan's Incredibles failed because of a lack of budget, and Yoram didn't have enough money to buy a theater chain owned by EMI.

From then on, there was a rift between the two, and Cannon faced bankruptcy. At this time, Yoram's business talent played a more important role than Minahan's production talent. He attracted EMI, a company that wanted to enter Hollywood, and brokered a merger and acquisition plan. In this way, EMI injected capital into Cannon and temporarily solved the financial problem.

However, the interest on junk bonds was very high, and the new "Cannon-EMI" did not dare to give Minahan the power to make large-scale productions. The company's income was still not enough to fill the big hole. When the stock market crashed, there were no more financing channels on Wall Street. Cannon faced the biggest crisis and almost went bankrupt.

At the critical moment when the SEC launched an investigation into the financial statement fraud of Cannon listed companies, Yoram found an Italian banker, Giancarlo Parretti. With a huge amount of money from Lyon Bank, he initiated the acquisition of cannons.

One of his conditions was to kick Minahan out of the Cannon and become the Cannon's talker himself.

"I anticipated Cannon's financial crisis in advance, so several of my confirmed new film projects all used 21st Century Pictures, which Cannon has signed a 20-part distribution agreement with, so..."

Minahan told the truth and looked at Ronald, anticipating his reaction.

"This guy has a plan for his cousin. It seems that he has already planned to run away. It's just Giancarlo Parretti's unexpected acquisition that disrupted his plan."

"What about the exit terms you mentioned?" Ronald asked again without comment.

"That's a supplementary clause that Yoram and I signed when the cannon was in crisis. If anyone else wants to acquire our cannon, both of us must agree before it can be fulfilled. If one party doesn't agree, then they can withdraw. Cannon, transfers the shares to another party.

If you are dissatisfied with the share price transferred by the other party, you can also automatically initiate a counter-takeover and acquire the other party's equity at the same price. This provision is automatically effective. "

"I do not understand,

It seems that you have arranged everything well. "Ronald was puzzled. This kind of clause must have been designed by a lawyer. All conditions have been taken into account. If it is implemented according to this clause, there should not be any problems. Why hasn't Minahan figured it out yet? What about the conditions?

However, Ronald was still a little embarrassed when he thought that back then, the two brothers were so good that they could imitate each other's handwriting signatures on each other's checks, but now they had to be so defensive.

"It's not that bastard Yoram..." Minahan turned around, "Ah... bah..." spitting on the ground again, "That bastard forged my signature on the withdrawal contract, damn it This Judas, this Milik, this Tobias..."

Minahan named several treacherous villains in Jewish scriptures in one breath and cursed angrily.

"Stop throwing up, this is my office..." Ronald frowned. Minahan's behavior actually had some of the habits of his Russian-Jewish ancestors. When he said the name of a bad guy who betrayed him, he had to go to Spitting on the ground signifies a curse.

"I sympathize with you, Minahan. But in order to acquire 21st Century Pictures, I have formed a team of lawyers, accountants, and my company's management. I can't give up just because of your words. These people's The fees are very expensive.”

"I know, Ronald, I can give in. You just need to let me pick a few movies that I have production rights for in the 21st century and let me take them away. I can talk about the rest. You know my character. If I can't continue to produce movie, my soul will disappear.

This is an artist's request for approval from an artist, Ronald...I didn't expect to end up in this situation today, and it's all Minahan's fault...ah...bah..."

Ronald stretched out his hand to stop Minahan, who was still spitting, "Let me think about it. Give me the list of movies you want... I will also have a meeting with the team to discuss..."

…

"Is Minahan deliberately playing tricks? If we acquire 21st Century, Cannon can pay Minahan a severance package for the acquisition fee. If he doesn't take away the movie project, he can get more cash. According to The average return on the movies he produces is more cost-effective."

】

In the acquisition team, PricewaterhouseCoopers' accountant Ed Bastian took the production list, looked over it over and over, and then compared it with Cannon's list of films released over the years in the bankruptcy filing materials received by the court. He always felt that there was something in it. question.

"No, when all Hollywood companies lay off their executives, they would rather give various preferential terms than cash. In this industry, there are ten people with projects, and only one is rich." Lawyer Mickey ·Kante has experienced many such terms for severing executives, and he understands it very well.

"But this Italian 'financier', Giancarlo Parretti, undoubtedly brought a high credit line from Credit Lyonnais, which can be used just for this acquisition of the cannon. That’s $200 million.” Ed Bastian still doesn’t quite understand the logic of the entertainment industry.

"What does financier mean?" Ronald asked private lawyer Lindsay Doerr who was sitting next to him. He was a professional M\u0026A team. There were many things that he didn't understand, and he still needed lawyer Lindsay to answer his questions.

"This means financier in English, but this title in Italian does not mean that the person has qualifications in the financial industry. It just means that he has corresponding financial knowledge or has made money through the financial industry. Called financier, or in Italian, finanziere..."

Ronald groaned and sat upright. He looked at the two professionals who were still discussing and said, "Don't doubt Minahan's purpose. I know this person. In order to make a movie, he once put his infant daughter in a cradle as an extra. My daughter may have to After falling from the prop, his first reaction was to let the cameras continue rather than catch his daughter."

"Pfft..." Everyone laughed.

"All this man's passion is for making movies. If there is no movie to make, even if you give him twice the money, he will not agree."

"So, most of the list of film projects he gave is true?" Lawyer Mickey Kanter turned back to Ronald. This is where Hollywood people have a discerning eye, a place where artists gather together, and everything cannot be measured by money.

"I think it's in line with his usual taste..." Ronald picked up the pencil and checked out the names of several movies on the list.

"Spider-Man, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Phantom of the Opera, and the rights to seven or eight of Poe's horrific adaptations..."

Everyone felt that it was impossible for Minahan to list all the film projects he wanted to bring to the new company. There must be some random people in this list to mislead daydreams.

But Ronald knows Minahan's taste very well. This is either a comic book adaptation or a movie adaptation of an opera or musical. Horror movies were the genre that Cannon focused on when it first started. The credibility of this list should be very high.

"You need to understand the copyright issues for these movies. I remember that Roger Corman sold and New Century Pictures acquired the rights to Marvel, which owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and Captain America." Mickey Kan Te saw the problem.

The power of film production is actually often complicated. Due to the difficulty of financing, we often go through several production companies, and the contracts are full of clauses that non-professional lawyers cannot distinguish.

"Yes, I still remember that when Roger Corman was still a director, he made several horror films adapted from Edgar Allan Poe. Let's also find out if we can remake these films." Ronald added that although Edgar Allan Poe's copyright has long expired, film adaptations also enjoy copyright. If these scripts are adapted and remade on Corman's films, then you have to ask him to buy the rights to reshoot them. "

This M\u0026A team has many efficient members. Under the leadership of lawyer Kanter and PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Bastian, audits and background investigations began immediately.

Ronald called Roger Corman to ask him out, and invited him to eat at a new and popular creative restaurant and talk about movies.

"I'm glad you asked me first, Ronald." Coleman looked a little better. He found a new video tape market and made a dozen low-budget movies in a row. He was hit by the stock market crash. The impact has begun to slowly improve.

"I don't think it's necessary to turn filmmaking into a slit-throat battle like the Seventh. Most of the movies we make are medium- and low-cost movies, just to entertain the public. We are not making big productions like the Seventh. We have to fight for less than seven of top male stars, and roughly double the number of top female stars.

Besides, we are all oriented to the video tape market, and no one stipulates that you can only watch one video tape on the weekend. "

Ronald took a sip of the juice, which smelled of a mixture of carrots and tomatoes. Although it was a product of green agriculture, it was surprisingly delicious.

"Yes, I have always felt that spending 30 to 40 million US dollars to make a movie is not necessary in most cases. There are places where America needs more money, such as improving education in public schools and providing medical insurance to the people at the bottom..."

Ronald smiled and agreed. Few people would have thought that Coleman, who has always made B-level movies of violence, horror, science fiction, and erotica, is actually a leftist who pursues social justice at heart.

"The films of Edgar Allen Poe were the best-selling among my directorial works, and they were also the first color films I directed. But I didn't like them very much. Maybe it was because of the big distributor AIP at the time. There was too much pressure on me to keep shooting Poe, and I wanted to finish shooting all of him, so I was a little bit rebellious.

If I had followed this path, maybe I would have been able to make big-budget projects for the eight major studios. "

Roger Corman began to reminisce about the past, "Allen Poe's film has long been in the public domain and anyone can shoot it. If you ask me, I'm very happy. In this way, I do have plans to remake the film of that year. If you If you want to take pictures too, you can say hello to me in advance. There are a lot of Edgar Allan Poes, so we don’t want to crash."

"If you are willing to come back as a director, we can actually work together again and invest in filming together." Ronald feels that movies, especially movies adapted from famous writers, still need to control the rhythm. If both companies are filming The same theme will undoubtedly drag down the box office.

It would be better if we all join forces, so that the quality of filming will be better. Movies are for viewing. There is no situation where you buy a movie ticket and I can’t watch it. If we all work together to shoot, it is entirely possible that the overall box office will be many times higher than if the two companies shoot separately. One plus one is greater than two.

"Then it's settled..." Roger Coleman stretched out his hand to shake Ronald's hand. The two of them could still maintain this gentlemanly demeanor that meant what they said.

The M\u0026A team's investigation was carried out quickly, and the results were on Ronald's desk three days later.

As a result and subtlety, neither Minahan Golan nor New Century Pictures has the full filming rights to "Spider-Man," "Captain America," and "The Fantastic Four." Or to put it another way, both of them can shoot.

Marvel's comic book adaptation rights were sold to Cannon Pictures for a five-year period. At that time, Marvel hoped that Cannon could produce Marvel comic characters like DC's "Superman IV". In this way, the company can also acquire toy companies and make a lot of money from derivative toy products.

But unexpectedly, Cannon's filming of "Superman IV" was so bad that the dream of selling the movie rights and making money on toys was shattered before it even got off the ground.

At this time, another stock market crash occurred, and many stock prices that had been propped up in the market through mergers and acquisitions and capital operations fell miserably. Marvel is even worse. Their income relies heavily on the support of original comic books and collectible cards. The bubble of these collectibles has shrunk severely before.

At this time, it was New World Pictures sold by Roger Corman that acquired Marvel. Therefore, New World naturally owns the copyright to adapt these comics.

The production rights have changed hands several times, and it may take a legal team a week of careful research to get the exact answer to who it belongs to. Hollywood's method of dealing with these disputes is very simple. Whoever gets the investment first will own the film.

If the box office is good, you can also initiate a lawsuit afterwards to demand compensation.

Therefore, if we deduct the legal details, the filming rights for this film will belong to Cannon in the next five years, and will also be given to Minahan with his termination agreement. But after five years, as the production agreement expires, it will automatically return to the new world.

However, New World is now unable to protect itself, and it has to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Then the production rights will fall into the hands of who knows who. Maybe the next owner who takes over will pay attention to it if they are interested. If they are not interested, then it will Sleeping in a warehouse with a bunch of contracts.

So the key to this issue is whether Minahan can raise enough funds to start this project within five years (actually less than five years).

"It's dangerous, I don't think he's going to get enough money."

"But what if we get the money? If we let go of such a big project, will it become a joke? Just like Price, who let et Alien go."

Within Daydream, general manager Eddie and publishing manager Michelle Cannold were also at loggerheads.

Finally, they all looked at Ronald. Since his debut, Ronald has never made a mistake in judging the box office prospects of a project.

"Have you ever thought that even if he got the money, he might not be able to shoot it."

"Huh?" Both of them were stunned.

"This kind of comic book adaptation film requires a lot of special effects, and there is only one company in Hollywood that can do this."

Ronald knew better than they did what the selling points of this type of movie were. Whether it is traditional special effects props, makeup, or the latest computer technology, the only one in Hollywood that can operate such a large-scale, wide-scale special effects movie is Industrial Light and Magic, which was founded by George Lucas to shoot Star Wars.

And now the sequel to "Back to the Future" has begun. Industrial Light and Magic's production capabilities can only satisfy one major production at the same time.

In this way, at least for the next year and a half, Industrial Light and Magic's production lines will have to make way for this movie. By the time Back to the Future is finished filming, I don’t know where the future has changed. It is not certain who will acquire New World Pictures.

Spending millions of dollars now buys a very uncertain future. When Ronald said this, everyone felt that it was not worthwhile, at least it was too early.

"Your friend Cameron, how are his special effects skills? Can you help?" Cannold was still reluctant.

"He is his own studio, and it can only meet his needs. After he finishes filming the abyss, we will see the effect. And whether the movie adapted from the comic book can be said to be loved by the market , we can’t say for sure until we see the box office performance of Batman, which is about to be filmed.”

Ronald decided to be more conservative. Since the Superman series hit the streets, a series of comic book movie adaptations have continued to be box office flops. No one knows whether this type of movie has lost the favor of the audience, or because the recent ones were so poorly made.

Ronald had never dreamed of a finished movie, so after some calculations, it was better to be conservative.

"However, we can get the rights to these movies." Ronald pointed to the names of several other film projects on Minahan's film list.

These are some very distinctive horror films, headed by one called "George Romero's Night of the Living Dead", which is the orthodox sequel to George Romero's classic film "Dawn of the Dead" .

After "Dawn of the Dead" became a hit, the original director made a series of sequels, all titled "Return of the Living Dead," but they have been underwhelming at the box office. George Romero, the original screenwriter, also took back the sequel rights after his contract expired. He teamed up with Cannon to prepare the original sequel.

Ronald is preparing to acquire the production rights for this film, as well as the distribution rights for those ancient Chinese kung fu films from 21st Century Pictures.

…

"Ah ha, I know your name, Ronald. Ronald Lee. Dino (De Laurentiis) said a lot of bad things about you to me. But I don't believe a word of it. I believe it. Anyone who can make movies like Top Gun is a real man! Not a sissy like Dino."

Giancarlo Parretti, the new owner of Cannon, was enthusiastic when he saw Ronald. He belittled Ronald's enemy, the Napoli boss Dino De Laurentiis. From the perspective of a northerner like him, men in southern Italy are either gangsters or liars, and the movie needs to be run by us industrialists, artists, and ‘financiers’.

"Nice to meet you." Ronald shook hands with him. This Giancarlo Parretti looks like a playboy with his arms around a little female star signed by Cannonball. Before he took over the company, he started to pick up the beauties in the company.

"It seems that this man is far more interested in enjoying the Hollywood lifestyle than actually being the owner of a Hollywood production company." Ronald thought to himself.

There is nothing wrong with this. If these wealthy people from other parts of the world had not continued to invest in Hollywood, I am afraid that the production volume of Hollywood would have dropped by more than one-third.

To outsiders, Hollywood is always a golden brand. Many people invest in it just to hang out with female stars. It seems that their social status will be greatly improved by having a celebrity girlfriend.

Everyone gets what they need.

"Minahan, I told you earlier that we should clear up the property rights and still cooperate, right?" Giancarlo Parretti greeted Minahan who also came to sign the contract.

"Hey..." The Jew twisted his thick neck and said nothing.

After a lot of work by the team, the three parties finally reached a common agreement. Minahan still got the comic book he wanted to make the most, a movie adaptation of the opera, a large cash compensation, and a five-year distribution contract with Cannon Pictures. Every year, 21st Century Pictures, which is about to belong to him, can let Cannon release five films unconditionally, and the rest will be negotiated separately.

Ronald used much less money to get a bunch of old action movies in the 21st century film library. As well as the production rights to some low-budget horror films in the filming plan.

The cannons run by Giancarlo Parretti and Yoram saved some money and also solved the property rights issue as soon as possible.

The three of them quickly signed the contract, and Yoram also came over. As the new CEO, he also had to sign part of the agreement.

"Minahan..." Yoram came over and greeted his cousin. Business is business, and forcing him out is a last resort.

"Ah...poof..." Minahan ignored him and spat on the ground.

"Cheers..." Fortunately, Giancarlo Parretti opened a bottle of champagne for celebration, which solved the embarrassment between the two of them.

"Cheers..." Ronald also raised his glass.

This time it was achieved with very little money. It's a moderate victory.

However, the funds originally prepared for mergers and acquisitions and the money used to reorganize the company after the merger and acquisitions now have no place to spend. He has to discuss money matters with his personal accountant Lawrence again.

"Well, why don't you buy as much Coca-Cola as you can for me?"