Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"There are several movies here that follow the trend of mature themes and have good patriotic connotations. I think we can pick these movies to shoot."

Early the next morning, Ronald came to work at Daydream, and David Simkins, the script supervisor, gave him several movie scripts that he thought were in line with recent public opinion trends.

A film called "Kickboxer" tells the story of two American kickboxing brothers (a type of fighting developed during the Bruce Lee era). The elder brother went to Thailand for a boxing match, but the Muay Thai boxer ignored the surrender signal of throwing a towel. Beaten to death in the ring.

The younger brother found a reclusive Muay Thai fighter and after receiving special training, he developed a unique technique. Came to Thailand, killed the villain in a life-and-death battle, successfully took revenge, and won the championship in the fighting competition.

This film has many similarities to Jean-Claude Van Damme's previous film, "The King of Fighters." With a stroke of his pen, Ronald changed the final fighting competition to a kickboxing competition where the protagonist represented America and faced off against the villain's Muay Thai on behalf of Thailand.

The national flags of various countries were also hung on the final field. When the protagonist's brother was defeated, the Star-Spangled Banner was thrown down as an insult. After the younger brother won, the Star-Spangled Banner was placed as the champion.

"That's the secret to a hit..." David Simkins wrote down the adaptation of the plot dictated by Ronald with a smile. The best thing about his boss is that he can sense the taste of the people.

"Who do you want to star in?" Michelle Cannold looked at the script and shook his head and laughed. This kind of silly script is more likely to be loved by the audience at this special moment. If it is released at another time, it will definitely be criticized as a retarded move. piece.

"Why don't you ask Jean-Claude Van Damme? His movie Cyborg is about to be released." Ronald saw a lot of karate kicks in the script and thought of this Japanese star.

The second script is called "Showdown in Little Tokyo", which tells the story of two Los Angeles LAPD police detectives who bravely broke into a Japanese settlement called Little Tokyo, broke into Yakuza, and rescued those who were trapped by them. Controlled beauty.

The script depicts Little Tokyo as invincible, and the people here still abide by the Japanese Yakuza code. It is a dark world ruled by Yakuza, and even the ordinary LAPD dare not enter to enforce the law.

So how should we show the charm of the Stars and Stripes? Ronald thought for a while and added a more retarded plot. The speakers here are mainly Japanese Americans who were left over from World War II and were imprisoned in the camps and their descendants.

They were very dissatisfied with America and secretly raised plaster flags in Little Tokyo. Two LAPD detectives, one white and one Japanese, bravely broke in. With a gun, nunchucks and Japanese knives, they beat Yakuza until he screamed, and then rescued the beautiful woman who was controlled and kidnapped by them. , threw the plaster flag on the ground and raised the Stars and Stripes, letting these Japanese people in a lawless land know that America could defeat them once and defeat them a second time.

"Hey, this script...", David Simkins was about to laugh out loud. This was purely violence for the sake of violence, and the plot was forced to stick to the honor of the Stars and Stripes. But forget it, now people just want to see this kind of story about the Star-Spangled Banner being invincible.

"Let Lundgren play this?" Simkins asked.

"Well, he can... find a Chinese action actor to play the Japanese police detective. Their action scenes are more beautiful." Ronald touched his chin. The reputation of Japanese people in America is still very bad. Let's take a look at their bad reputation and become a villain.

The third suitable script is called Black Belt Hero (Best of The Best). It tells the story of the members of the Korean team in the Taekwondo World Championships. They all received strict training from childhood and enjoyed comprehensive financial support from the country. Humanity's fighting machine.

The American team is made up of professional enthusiasts from all walks of life. Under the guidance of a coach who values ​​freedom and individuality, team members with full personalities such as blue-collar workers from automobile factories, boxing gym coaches, and street fighters were gathered together. After intensive training, they finally went to Korea.

In the end, America and Korea met in the final, and both sides had a lot of injuries. The last Korean player to represent America was able to KO his opponent and win the game, but he gave up punches in order to prevent his opponent from being fatally injured.

In the end, the Korean team won, but their players were moved by this great sentiment of giving priority to sportsmanship and voluntarily gave up the gold medal and hung the gold medal around the neck of the American team.

"Well, add a gold medal ceremony and a ceremony of raising the stars and stripes." Ronald saw all kinds of irony and metaphors in this script. For example, the Korean team is actually not amateur players, but professional players trained by the state. Another example is that here in America, all athletes are amateurs, and professional athletes are not allowed to participate, etc. This is obviously making fun of the Olympics.

There are also Korean people who are assimilated by America's spirit, actively move closer, etc... It is also a metaphor for the real-life national relationship between Korea and America.

Ronald will increase the popularity and add a gold medal and national flag scene. Anyway, the Olympic Games held in Korea last year have not completely passed the fever. By then, the film can be sold to Korea to test the market.

There was no suitable candidate for this movie. The action actors Ronald worked with had either a karate background or a martial arts background in Hong Kong. None of them had practiced taekwondo. Ronald thought of his old partner, Daryl Vidal, the stuntman in The Dragon King. Ask him to recommend some Taekwondo experts.

"In short, it's a principle, shoot fast, shoot as fast as Roger Corman." Ronald no longer cares too much about the details of these small productions, and just asks Daydream's executives to speed up the production progress. , I don’t know how long this heat will burn in America. We should try our best to seize this opportunity and pick up as many leaks as we can during the summer season and the following off-season.

The most important thing, of course, is to produce the video tape quickly. The vast central and western regions and the Deep South region are the areas with the most passionate opposition to the Supreme Court's decision. Let them find illusory comfort in movie and video tapes while they feel lost.

"Will you go to the premiere of Cyborg?" Michelle Cannold, who was in charge of distribution, asked Ronald to arrange it.

"I will go to a premiere in Los Angeles, where I will chat with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lundgren about the new film, and I will not go to the rest. My own new film When Harry Met Sally will be released soon, which I I’ll go to a few more premieres.”

Ronald is now like a family man. He wants to go back to be with Diane after spending four hours in the office every day.

"Okay, let's arrange it like this." Michelle Cannold directed the staff of the distribution and marketing departments, including Claudia Wells, to start preparations.

"Does the new film have any particularly strong competitors?" Ronald asked Michael Gray, the consultant in charge of marketing.

"This year's summer season opens with a lot of sequel movies, including Lethal Weapon Part 2, Ghostbusters Part 2, and Star Trek Part 5... 007's latest License to Kill..."

Michael Gray showed Ronald the marketing plan for the new film. These sequel movies are all movies that do not require much investment in marketing. The same goes for the third installment of The Kid, co-produced by Daydream and Weintraub Films, which will open in the second month of the summer season. , avoid these sequel movies.

"When Harry Met Sally" directed by Ronald himself has a different audience than action movies and sequel movies. Michael Gray is expected to be slightly older than the usual movie audience, college students or working young men and women, who are more interested in this kind of subject matter.

The good thing about this type of movie is that if the audience recognizes it, word of mouth will spread spontaneously, allowing audiences who rarely go to the cinema to watch it.

The disadvantage is the same. Teenagers who usually go to summer movies automatically may not understand this kind of love story with an older hero and heroine.

Moreover, these target audiences may not necessarily be on TV channels such as TV stations that are easier to target. It's not easy to find them even with trailer ads.

Michael Gray, taking inspiration from last year's and Millennium's Oscar campaign, gave Ronald a word-of-mouth marketing plan for summer copies.

When "When Harry Met Sally" was first released, it was limited to no more than 50 theaters. After the word-of-mouth and film review articles came out in the first weekend, the scale of the release was slowly expanded in the second week. .

The goal is to open 500 theaters in the second weekend. If the word-of-mouth and movie reviews are as good as in the third weekend, it will be expanded to 1,500 theaters.

The advantage of screening the film from a young age to a large one is that it can maintain a relatively high reputation and film score. In addition, a small-scale release can easily increase the average box office performance of a single theater, which will make it easier to convince movie theaters to allocate more screens to When Harry Met Sally.

"That's it. If you have anything to do, ask my assistant to call me..." Ronald finished explaining the business and hurried back. His assistant, the fat girl Ricky Lake, pouted. This boss is now enjoying family life. First.

…

"I tried to make a mushroom soup, do you want to try it? Wang taught me..." Diane began to try her cooking skills again at home.

"Well, not bad." Ronald took a sip and put it down. Then he called the nanny in Chinese, "Wang Ma, do you have anything else that is simpler? Make me something to eat." There is another problem with the preparation of this mushroom soup. There are too many condiments.

"Well, I'll try it again tomorrow..." Diane took a sip and started to feel disgusted, "By the way, little Douglas is calling to see you."

"Hello, Doug, this is Ronald..." Ronald quickly called back to Douglas.

"Little George called and asked if we could make some movies or TV series related to patriotism and love for the Star-Spangled Banner. The commander-in-chief is officially siding with both houses of Congress."

"Okay, I was setting up in the morning, now it's here?"

"Mr. Eighty percent." Douglas Jr. smiled.

Since George Sr. became the commander-in-chief, he has done several things that made the political circles see through this person's background.

Unlike the previous commander-in-chief who could overcome difficulties and use his communication talents to call on voters to write letters to their respective representatives and senators, and promote bills that were originally impossible to pass in both houses, George Sr. was completely a speculator.

What he is best at doing is not to take a position on an issue, and then after taking a good look at everyone's position, he then chooses a position that 80% of the members agree with, and then mobilizes all resources to let the media focus on it. This location is reported.

Finally, when the spotlight and camera lens turned around, the commander still struggled to stand in the middle of the first row and be the one with the brightest smile in the photo.

"Hey, I really didn't know he was such a person." Ronald shook his head. During the election campaign, old George didn't stand firm, so why is he swaying in the wind now...

However, he does not have the charm and favor among the people like his predecessor. He cannot be a non-stick commander like his predecessor, so it is understandable to be cautious. Ronald immediately told Douglas Jr. the titles and synopses of the three films he was about to shoot and asked him to pass them on.

"By the way, how's that business?" Ronald asked again about the FBI's pursuit of the wiretapping case. The suspect died in the Beverly Police Department, and the FBI was disgraced, but Detective Claire returned. , but he hinted that he would continue to investigate.

The phone lines were not confidential, and Ronald had learned his lesson and used code names.

"Our friend (Little George) said that the current trend in the financial department (FBI) and consumer (CIA) department is very detrimental to the market in the Middle East (Jews). The big boss (big boss) just took the opportunity to rectify it. We Need to wait for now.”

"Really? When the big client didn't renew the contract (the suspect died), did it really mean that an insider leaked trade secrets?"

"They did a great job and left no evidence. The internal audit department (FBI and CIA's internal investigation) is investigating." Little Doug talked about the intelligence disclosed to him by Little George.

There are many Jewish agents within the FBI and CIA, but none of them are like those real moles who deliver intelligence and technological intelligence to Israel.

Generally speaking, these Jewish agents are loyal to America and have lived in this country for several generations. How many of them would commit such a serious crime for the sake of the so-called Jewish motherland?

Their complaints and anger are actually due to a very strong pressure. Within the two organizations, they were suspected by people from other ethnic groups, and within them, they also hated the real moles extremely.

In the current patriotic upsurge, the reason why these people have a difficult life and have no chance of promotion is that they were harmed by those moles, which made the loyalty of the entire ethnic group doubtful.

"Will you come to New York soon?" Douglas Jr. finally asked.

"I'm still going to the premiere of When Harry Met Sally..."

"Haha, it seems you really enjoy married life."

…

"Ronald, it seems you are really enjoying your married life."

At the premiere of the new film Cyborg, the two leading actors Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lundgren took Ronald to take pictures in front of the theater. Both of them had been Ronald's bodyguards. Now they were wearing costumes from the movie, surrounded Ronald on the left and right, and assumed a muscular bodyguard posture.

"Hi..." Ronald felt that this was not a good way to publicize, so he rolled up his sleeves and imitated the two muscle action stars, trying his best to bulge his biceps.

"Cyborg" is a movie originally invested by Minahan Gran's Cannon. It was originally a wasteland science fiction style. However, after the filming was completed, Cannon's financial situation was tight and there was no money for post-production special effects.

Jean-Claude Van Damme himself did not want the film to be locked in a warehouse, so he approached Ronald to discuss taking over the distribution. In the end, he bought the film himself, edited it himself, and finally completed the film.

"Wow wow wow..." After watching the movie, Ronald applauded with others. Jean-Claude Van Damme created a small miracle, turning a bad movie that had no money for special effects into a completely different movie.

He re-edited some of the wonderful action scenes between himself and Lundgren, and flexibly used the techniques he learned from Hong Kong action film directors to vividly edit a science fiction film into an action film.

No special effects shots? Just use action close-ups to make it happen.

Not enough time for action close-ups? Then slow down and repeat. A fighting shot is played at normal speed, then slow motion, and finally interspersed with other people's reaction shots, and then the most beautiful second of the action shot is put at the end.

In short, just take off and kick the villain in the head, and repeat it three times in slow motion.

The audience had never seen such a wonderful fighting scene, and they were so excited that after the premiere, they gathered around the two leading actors and asked them to recreate the slow-motion flying kick.

The two action actors who really couldn't create the three-time slow-motion effect on the spot had no choice but to use muscle poses to fool them.

Even so, the audience was also very happy, surrounding the male protagonists and not letting them go, wanting to go up and touch their muscles.

"It actually had a box office of close to five million in the first weekend?" Ronald got the box office statistics and thought happily. It seems that American audiences like this Xiangjiang-style editing method very much. It has been created in more than 800 theaters. With such a good box office, it actually ranked fifth in the box office list. Cyborg is expected to create a small box office miracle...