Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Latest website: Ronald found Richard, and together with Niceta, they talked with several Daydream executives about the transfer of the film script.

Everyone is a little strange, why is Ronald so aggressive about this movie and seems determined to win?

"Rick (Nisita), you'll remember that my first screenplay, sold through Ovitz to Frank Price at Columbia at the time, I always wanted to make a movie with a Vietnam War plot (promise (Aunt Karen), but that script, looking at it now, is a bit outdated."

What Ronald was talking about was the script he wrote called "My Brother's Keeper", which was blackmailed by Ovitz and sold to Frank Price for $350,000. The script tells the story of a mentally retarded young man who was recruited by the Ministry of Defense and then sent to the most dangerous places with his comrades on the Vietnam battlefield. During an operation, he encountered an ambush and was about to be captured. In the end, the mentally retarded man caused an explosion while playing with a grenade, causing chaos. The comrades took advantage of the chaos and fled back to the US military position.

His comrades didn't believe he was dead, and finally his platoon leader went to his hometown, met his family, and helped the rest of his family out of their predicament. Everyone said that the platoon leader was their protector, but in the end the platoon leader frankly told the truth that the mentally retarded brother was their protector.

"This story is very good. Why don't you buy it from Colombia and continue filming it?" After hearing this, David Simkins felt that the script was very deep and suspenseful. Ronald's debut novel was very well written. Level.

"Ahem..." Michael Gray and Rick Niceta next to him coughed.

Their understanding of Hollywood is much deeper than that of Simkins, a script director.

In the past ten years, America's public base has undergone tremendous changes. The new Generation X, the generation born after the baby boomers, are not as rebellious and opposed to the Star-Spangled Banner as their parents were.

The big reason for this is that the US military has never fought another war with heavy casualties like the Vietnam War, and the new press law has been revised, and the media cannot report the details of the war without permission (at least it is not as convenient as before).

Another reason is that the past ten years have been a period of rapid economic development, continuous decline in unemployment rate, continued decline in inflation, and rising disposable income. Although the gap between rich and poor is widening, ordinary people can pay for public university tuition and living expenses by working at McDonald's for a summer, and people are no longer so cynical.

Therefore, after ten years, such a movie has already distanced itself from the mainstream public aesthetics, and it is still uncertain whether it will still be profitable.

David Simkins wiped his forehead with his hand and fell silent.

There is an unexplainable reason behind this, because Ronald's desire for the Oscar for Best Director, and those close to him know that it is not media gossip, but has a lot of truth.

There have been too many movies with the Vietnam War as the main storyline in recent years. Among the winners of the Best Director Award are The Deer Hunter, Platoon, and Tom Cruise's new film "Born Seven" released this year. "The Fourth of July", according to industry rumors, is also a movie that has a good chance of being nominated.

Although there are movies with similar plots, they did not do well at the box office, which is a statement that does not make much sense. However, it makes sense that movies with similar story backgrounds are less likely to win consecutive awards in a short period of time.

Because the award is not about box office, the judges will involuntarily compare it with films of the same theme in previous years, such as "Born on the Fourth of July" director Oliver Stone. The possibility of repeating miracles is unlikely. .

Forrest Gump, unlike My Brother's Keeper, was adapted from. The content spans a long time. When adapting it into a script, it will be very convenient to make some choices about the content.

"Hey, that was my debut film. It happened to be popular when Vietnam War movies were popular..." Ronald waved his hand and said to himself that it happened to be about Vietnam War movies at that time, and his agent placed an order to follow the trend. I don’t know if anyone will read this script now that it’s been filmed.

It's not like Forrest Gump. Those scenes in my dream are very shocking and must be masterpieces.

In the end, everyone agreed that David Simkins, who was in charge of the script transaction, would first have careful contact with Steve Tisch's production company. Let’s see what the other person’s attitude is.

In order to grab the script of "Dirty Dancing", Ronald got very unhappy with this little emperor. I wonder if this rich young man’s anger has subsided after several years?

…

"No, look at my mouth shape! I would rather not film this script, and the purchased adaptation rights will automatically expire, than transfer it to Ronald's company..."

Sure enough, according to the response from Tisch's production company, the boss's anger has certainly not subsided.

"Dirty Dancing" became a miracle of low-cost production. A small investment brought hundreds of millions in box office, and the original soundtrack also became a hit record, ranking first in sales. Not to mention, if you go to any Blockbuster video rental store now, you will see this movie on the rental list.

This is a very serious humiliation for the pretentious Steve Tisch. Every time his friends talked about it, they said he wasted a great opportunity.

For a rich kid, this is more upsetting than missing out on the money he earned from "Dirty Dancing."

"Actually, there is no need to say such harsh words. If he still works in Hollywood..." Ronald heard the news, dug his ears with his little finger, and said with a smile.

The contract for the adaptation of "Forrest Gump" was not entirely decided by Dishi alone. Just like the movie "Other People's Money," it was all because it was favored by Warner Bros. Pictures and had a distribution contract, so it was possible to get the project approved.

It is basically impossible to adapt such a best-selling movie into a movie without distribution contracts from the seven major studios.

If you want to make a good movie, the money invested in each part must be in the right proportion. You can't spend millions of dollars to buy the rights to adapt a movie, and then spend only a few million dollars to find some unknown actors to make a movie.

To match the cost of this script, it would have to be at least an average medium-production level investment of more than 15 million. As for a film invested in this way, Tisch, the production company alone, has no ability to distribute it nationwide.

Of course, it is also a way for him to advance the money himself to film it and then sell it to the distribution company. But if Dishi had the vision and decisiveness, Ronald would not have been able to steal "Dirty Dancing" back then.

For this movie, Ronald had to find a way to bypass this rich kid to get the right to film it. I have a good relationship with Columbia and Disney. A feasible way is to find a reliable vest company, and then reach an agreement with these seven major companies, and use normal business methods to get this from Tisch and Warner Brothers. Pry out the piece of meat.

Of course, with the new publishing company, Ronald's daydream can take off his vest and stand up openly to show his identity.

Even more difficult to deal with than Steve Tisch is Warner Bros. Not only "Forrest Gump", but also the distribution contract of "Other People's Money" is also in their hands. How to get these two scripts from industry veteran Robert Daly in a way that makes them not suspicious requires careful planning.

This matter needs to be considered in the long run, and Ronald made some arrangements. Daydream's production business has been on the right track recently, and Ronald no longer cares much about small productions under one million.

What really made him devote his energy to serious research was the production of a TV series that he had never tried before.

The writing room of "Working Girl" has already written detailed episode scripts. After Ronald looked at it carefully, he didn't like it very much.

Each episode of the script is filled with some very childish comedy plots. Compared with the more rigorous story structure and business war plot of the original film, it is really a sitcom with very little depth.

Ronald himself didn't understand TV dramas, and although he didn't like it, he couldn't say anything in the face of the so-called TV drama expert, Lawrence Connor's insistence.

Warren Buffy had a phone call with Ronald a few days ago and talked about his investment secrets. A very important one is to respect successful executives who have been tested by the market.

Lawrence Connor had written many TV series before, so Ronald thought about it and gave him the green light to proceed according to their ideas.

The original heroine, Nancy McKeon, declined the invitation to Daydream through her agent after reading some scripts. She was previously one of the main characters in a popular long-running TV series. It seems that she was dissatisfied with the newcomers in the TV series industry such as Daydream, and wanted a bigger drama role.

Ronald had no regrets about this, since he was not familiar with this person anyway. After asking Helen and confirming that she did not want to act in a TV series with a strong soap opera quality, Ronald chose an acquaintance from the auditioned actors to replace him.

Sandra Bullock was the waitress Ronald met in New York while filming the movie version of Working Girl. Later she also played a small role in the movie version and had the line "Yeah".

This gave her a certain understanding of the story and the performance of the heroine Melanie Griffiths, and may have a more intuitive understanding of the performance in the TV series version.

Of course, Sandra Bullock had previously made several films for Roger Corman's company that were directly put on the video tape market. This relationship was also an important reason for Ronald's nod to her.

Sandra Bullock is doing nothing at home, waiting every day for the TV movie she shoots for Universal Television Production Company to be broadcast on the TV network early. The most helpful line on her audition resume was playing "Tess' friend" in "Working Girl."

After learning that she might become the TV series version of Tess, she was overjoyed and called Ronald's agent several times to thank Ronald in person.

However, Richard was very experienced in dealing with this kind of thing, and after saying that he would convey her gratitude, he did not actually call Ronald.

Apart from being busy with work, Ronald has recently been enjoying family life with his wife at home. This stage usually lasts at least two years for great directors. Many directors have been obsessed with a muse for a while...

"What did Carly say?" At home, Ronald was discussing work with Jimmy Lehner, the company's music director.

"She readily agreed."

Carly Simon is the composer of Ronald's theme song for Working Girl, and the song "Let the River Flow" was not picked up by Carly Simon's record company and was not selected for her new album. But the "Working Girl" movie soundtrack sold more multi-platinum sales than the album did.

The single also reached the top ten on the adult lyrical charts. Winner of both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Original Song, Carly Simon is now back as a mainstream pop star.

At the awards night that year, Carly Simon, who couldn't find a renter, gave him a ride home. The record he decided to release on the spur of the moment was a big success. Carly Simon was very grateful to Ronald and accepted it as a normal TV drama episode. At the market price, the song was licensed to Ronald to be used as the theme song of the TV series.

"What does John Barry say?"

"He agreed, and the reward you gave was very generous..."

Ronald was asking about the soundtrack to Dances with Wolves . Filming for Kevin Costner is nearly complete. An important element of this kind of epic film is a matching soundtrack.

In this field, the first person who came to Hollywood's mind was, of course, John Williams, the composer of Star Wars.

But John Williams was asking for a lot of money, and he had Spielberg's new film to worry about. At Jimmy's suggestion, Ronald found the British composer John Barry, who was also very qualified.

His soundtrack for the 007 series is well-known in the industry, because "Howard the Duck" suffered a waterloo, and the asking price was lower than Williams.

More importantly, he once scored an Oscar for the best score for the film "Out of Africa", which also has an epic temperament and expresses natural and broad-mindedness. It can be said that he is very experienced.

"Does he agree to my request?" Ronald asked.

"Of course, although he thinks Peter is not old enough to be able to stand alone..."

Peter is the youngest son of Warren Buffy. He is the most talented of his three children, but he is obsessed with film scores and is quite an artist rather than an investor.

Ronald promised Warren some help. So this time, an additional condition for the high-priced invitation to John Barry is to involve Peter Buffy. If the conditions are right, he must also be given independent signature rights to several songs.

Seeing that Ronald had no counteroffer, John Barry readily agreed to this request. Ronald has good connections in Hollywood, and working with him will help future business. It is a small matter to support one's assistant by name in this way.

Seeing that everything in the company was being handled in an orderly manner, and every backlog of documents was signed with Ronald's name, Diane took the time to come over and ask Ronald to eat.

"Come here, dear..."

Just as the two were preparing to eat, the phone rang again. Diane picked up.

"It's me, Francis...Is Ronald here?"

"Ah, Mr. Coppola..." Diane had complicated feelings about this director who once tried to praise her but failed. Without him, I might have picked up the mermaid and become famous long ago. But without him, I might not have been able to meet Ronald, who was also on the crew.

"I'm Ronald, is there anything I can help with?" Ronald heard the anxiety in Coppola's tone.

"Let's talk to you. Is it possible to have an interview..."

"Um, now? I'm still having dinner with Diane..."

"Help, Ronald..."

"Okay, is it convenient for you to come to my house? I'll ask the driver to pick you up, okay..." Ronald put down the phone and looked at Diane's searching eyes.

"As if he was very anxious, I invited him to come home to chat..."

Seeing that Ronald didn't go out, Diane felt very happy and safe, and smiled and offered to help.

"Well...I'll prepare coffee for him then..."