Exploiting Hollywood 1980

After Nicholson indicated to the studio that he was interested in "Batman" again, Warner Bros. was overjoyed and asked Nicholson what conditions he needed.

He obtained two important pieces of information from his conversation with Ronald, that video tapes are very profitable and Sean Young is a crazy bitch, so he made two conditions:

1. It is okay to use box office share instead of paying remuneration, but the sales part of the video tape must be added.

2Replaced Sean Young, who plays the heroine Vicki Vale.

After Warner held an internal meeting to calculate the pros and cons, he agreed to the first condition, but was embarrassed by the second condition. Because after Sean Young heard about the change of roles, he single-handedly broke into Warner's office and threatened that if she was not allowed to play the leading role, he would make public all the men she had slept with in order to get the role.

The most troubled of these people is independent producer Jon Peters. This is the person who gave Sean Young the promise. Exposing this relationship will have a great impact on his "reputation". He worked his way up the career ladder as Barbra Streisand's hairstylist, and his specialty was dealing with actresses.

At Peters's insistence, the role was not changed in the end. After Ronald learned the news, he had to put it aside temporarily and wait for the opportunity to compensate Basinger for the protagonist of a similar-scale production in the future.

But Kim Basinger is not depressed by this matter. She is investing in the ranch with the dividends earned from "9 and a Half Weeks to Love You." The tape sales of this pornographic film are second only to "Dirty Dancing". Basinger also received dividends and recently made the most money in his life.

However, compared with winners in life like Ronald and Basinger, most people in Hollywood still have a hard time. The sequelae of the writers' strike for more than half a year appear to be more serious than Ronald and most Hollywood practitioners expected.

This can be seen from the number of script submissions and co-production invitations that Daydream has received recently. Many people in Hollywood now know that Ronald's daydream is super cash-rich, and they all want to try their luck.

"Why do you want me to invest in Minahan's movie? I saw the introduction to this project, and all of them are actors I've never heard of. He doesn't even have this little money?"

Ronald saw that among the many scripts, there was actually a project from Minahan Gran's new company, 21st Century Pictures. He took a look at it out of curiosity. It turned out to be a musical, obviously imitating "break dancing". ”, and “Dirty Dancing.”

After Minahan was kicked out of the Cannon by his cousin Yoram, it seemed that he still wanted to repeat the old path that Ronald had helped him achieve his initial success, rely on musicals to achieve another box office miracle, and also wanted to make a comeback in Hollywood.

"Should I ask him to come and talk?" asked David Simkins, who was responsible for selecting the scripts.

"Do you like this script?" Ronald asked for professional judgment first, not wanting his relationship with Minahan to affect his subordinates. You cannot judge the prospects of all movies by yourself. If your subordinates always look at their own direction, they will be punished by the market soon.

"Tsk, actually I'm not too optimistic about it. The script lacks romance, and the songs chosen are also in strange taste. Middle Eastern-style music is not popular in America."

"Hahaha, you will be like this from now on. Just say what you have to say. I'll call Minahan." Ronald picked up the phone and said, "Minahan, what is that thing you sent..."

"Quack, I really caught your attention." Minahan Grant's real purpose was not to really ask Ronald to co-invest in such a low-cost movie, but to have a chat with Ronald. He has to stay at the Cannon for the time specified in the contract before he will officially leave. Now he wants to talk to Ronald about future cooperation.

"Why, Richard didn't transfer your call to me?" In Cannon's big office, Ronald frowned. As a producer and director, what he hates most is when agents take matters into their own hands and promote projects for clients based on their own ideas. Many stars in Hollywood have lost many opportunities because of this.

"No, according to what he conveyed to you, you will definitely not come over to talk about the project with me. Only a completely unreasonable movie script can get you to come over, Gaga... This is the Arak I brought from Israel.

"Well, it tastes good." Ronald tasted it. This is a fragrant distilled liquor that is very comfortable to drink when mixed with water and ice.

"What I really wanted to do was the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man...the projects I brought out of Cannon...I particularly liked the fire and lightning special effects in Lucas's new movie, and we happened to be shooting the Fantastic Four..." Minahan looked at Ronald. Only if a movie with such a large investment could find someone like Ronald to endorse it would it have a chance to attract investment and stars.

"Hey, let me tell you, the computing power of current computer CPUs is not enough to produce good special effects. Unless... you can get the time of the engineering team of Industrial Light and Magic." Ronald felt that it was not possible as soon as he heard this , the only company in Hollywood that can produce this kind of special effects is Industrial Light and Magic. Until now, the most capable computer graphics engineers have only worked on Lucas's own and Spielberg's projects.

"Is there no one else who can do it?" Minahan knew less about computer special effects than Ronald. He asked several start-ups, and one of them swore that it could be done.

"Believe me, have you ever heard of Moore's Law for CPUs?" When Ronald heard this, he knew there was a problem. "I'm afraid we have to wait two to three years before we get feasible results."

"If the technology is feasible, would you be interested in filming the Fantastic Four with me? This story is really good..."

"We can pay attention..." Ronald thought of Cameron's team. He is a director who can make breakthroughs. If he really breaks through the technical limitations and makes something good in "The Abyss", it will be great. It’s not that you can’t try.

"Quack, it's settled. I will remind you..." Minahan is not in a hurry anyway. He can only legitimately start making movies after he officially leaves the Cannon. "Actually, my musical script is not useless, right? ..." He thought again of the success that breakdancing had brought him.

"Seriously, you need to find a better screenwriter and a hit song... Bang..." Ronald was chatting when suddenly there were several loud noises outside the door, which sounded like wood. It's like being hacked.

"Yoram, you liars... where is Minahan? Let Minahan come out. How did he promise us at that time?"

Ronald thought the two voices outside were familiar and was about to take a look. Minahan reacted faster than him, and jumped up without noticing the influence of his fat figure. He quickly opened the door of the office and stuck his head out, "Jean Claude, Duff, I'm here. "

It was two action men who had been Ronald's bodyguards, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren. Both wore simple and neat clothing, loose pants, and stiff boots. There were a few broken pieces of wood on the ground and several broken chair legs.

Next to him, Yoram and his secretary were too frightened to speak. It seems that Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lundgren gave them a live demonstration of what a black belt in karate is. One used his legs and the other used his fists to actually break several wooden chairs made of plywood.

"Ah, Ronald... you're here too. That's great. You can give us a review." When the two action stars saw that Ronald was there, they immediately seemed to have a savior. In the cannon, there is no one who can do anything. No.

"Come in and tell me what's going on..." Ronald glanced at Yoram who was silent next to him, thinking that the intimidation of this on-site demolition was quite strong, otherwise this gold medal salesman wouldn't have said no. Speak up.

"Minahan, you promised us to make Cyborg into a special effects blockbuster like Superman and Unicron He-Man. How come you don't even have the money for special effects in the end?"

"Quack, you also know that I am no longer the chairman of Cannon. Yoram has the final say of Cannon now." Minahan said this name, turned around and spit on the ground, "Drink... Bah..."

"But you promised us, what's going on now? We all believed in Cannon's trick, and even the remuneration was confiscated. We said we would invest in special effects and wait for the movie to be released before we get the dividends..." Longgren was the most blunt, punching Hit the table.

"Stop it. This is the original wooden table in the chairman's office. I moved it here specially. You can't break it." Minahan put his hands behind his head. "I have already said that Yoram is unreliable. Yes, he even lied to me, my cousin, who introduced him to the industry. Needless to say how many lies he told you."

"What should we do? It was you who promised that we could use this to become first-line action stars..." Jean-Claude Van Damme was more rational. He stopped Longgren who was about to have a seizure. Isn't there Ronald? If he says something...so he can't act too stupid.

Ronald was amused when he heard it. This movie claimed to have invested more than 20 million in filming, but now there is no budget for special effects. It’s not that we don’t have enough money to do poorly, it’s that if we don’t have any money, we won’t have any money at all.

The filming of the entire movie has been completed, but there is no money for post-production special effects. If any of you have the ability, please edit it and release it. Of course, the production rights still belong to Cannon, and they will have to share the money after it is released.

Of course he would not take over such a movie. But watching the two action actors being fooled around, they had to spend several months filming without getting the money, and they had to go to the door to pick up boards to ask for wages. After all, he had been a bodyguard for himself for a few weeks, so this was too pitiful.

"If you have samples, let's take a look first." Ronald asked them to take a copy and take a look.

"I'm going to get the screening room ready." Minahan was very interested in things that could make Yoram frustrated. Using the screening room was probably his last authority in the cannon.

"Tsk, I'm afraid no one can cut a special effects movie, and even if you ask Walter Murch to cut a complete movie." Ronald only watched the movie for more than ten minutes, and he knew this movie. It's over.

In all action scene shooting, special effects interfaces are reserved, waiting for some special effects worth two and thirty-eight dollars to be added later. But a cannon that can't be bought for even this little money is tantamount to giving up. It is impossible for the audience to watch Jean-Claude Van Damme strike out with a knife, Lundgren screaming in the distance and fall to the ground, and then imagine in their own minds that the laser emitted from the knife cut the opponent down.

"Is there nothing we can do?" When Long Geer heard what Ronald said, his dream was completely shattered. He sighed and sat on the chair without speaking. Action movies have begun to decline in Hollywood, and now there are no more special effects action movies.

"What do you mean, you can't make a special effects movie?" Jean-Claude Van Damme listened more carefully. He heard Ronald's implication that special effects movies can't be made. If the script is changed, it can be cut into an ordinary movie. What about action movies?

It's just that the background is still in the future apocalypse. If you remove those special effects shots that are originally worth two yuan and thirty-eight cents, it becomes... just like the setting of the Australian "Mad Max" series of movies?

If Superman and Himman can't add action, how about Mad Max and martial arts?

"Huh?" All three people looked at Ronald. Is this what he meant?

"I don't know how to do this. You can find someone to edit it yourself. If you need an editing machine, I can lend it to you." Ronald knew that the property rights of the film were very controversial. How could Cannon do this? Is it considered a producer? I'm afraid it will take a series of court trials to reach a conclusion, and I won't be stupid enough to get involved.

But, it doesn't matter if Lunchand-Gevinton and Lundgren are there. Anyway, Jean-Claude Van Damme received basic editing training from Murchi, and after hanging out with Corey Yeun and Tsui Hark in Hong Kong for so long, he must have learned some editing techniques for action movies.

"I understand, thank you, Ronald." Jean-Claude Van Damme really understood the point, and took Long Geer to make trouble with Yoram again.

"What? What do you understand?" Long Geer wanted to be a star and didn't understand much about editing. However, he knew that two strong men were more intimidating than one strong man, so he went out to support the scene.

"Does Ronald want to invest? Our Cannon has always cooperated very well with him. He can inject capital and then occupy 30% of the shares..." Yoram showed his true colors as a Jewish profiteer and heard that Jean-Claude Van Damme wanted to re-cut the film. News, he quickly pressed the calculator.

I'll quote a high price first and negotiate slowly. I'm not in a hurry anyway, so I'll give him 50% in the end. It's not non-negotiable.

"Stop dreaming. You cannons have breached the contract. You should transfer the film copy and production rights to me and Duff for free..." Jean-Claude Van Damme made Yoram give up his idea.

"You're right, hehehe..." Long Geer clenched his fists beside him.

"He agreed...the property rights of the entire movie will be transferred to me and Duff. If it is released, they can get 30% of the dividends."

Jean-Claude Van Damme quickly negotiated the deal, and without Ronald's acquisition, the film would have been worthless trash. In the future, Jean-Claude Van Damme will be able to attract investment to complete the special effects because of his ability.

"Is it about the editing machine?" Jean-Claude Van Damme had no money to rent an editing room.

"Go and tell the daydream people, I will let them give you one, and you can pay for it after it is released. It's just an old-fashioned editing machine, you have to get used to it."

"It doesn't matter, what I used with Corey Yeun and Tsui Hark in Xiangjiang is the old style..."