Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Latest website: Speaking of which, Viacom also has a deep relationship with Columbia Pictures. In the earliest days, in the golden age before the Paramount antitrust case, Columbia Pictures and Columbia Television were still part of the same company called Columbia Media Group.

Later, CBS operated independently and established a company called Columbia TV Series Sales Company to sell TV programs produced by CBS to small local TV stations. In the 1970s, the court ruled that CBS, which owned the television network, then wholesaled and sold television programs to other television stations, constituting a monopoly. Therefore, the sales company was separated and became Viacom.

In the 1980s, Viacom began to acquire its own TV stations again, because the law changed under the relaxation of the former President Ronald Sr., and the sale of TV series and owning its own TV network were no longer considered monopolies.

By 1986, they already owned two important syndicated channels, Music Station and Showtime Movie Channel. At this time, Samuel Redstone, a second-generation family entrepreneur who runs a movie theater chain, acquired shares in Viacom and became the controlling shareholder.

After Redstone took over Viacom, he also explored many new technologies, such as satellite TV, pay movie channels, etc. Most importantly, they also opened video tapes and peripheral product sales for the Showtime movie channel. business.

"Why Viacom is so interested in such a comic adaptation, maybe this is the reason..."

Ed Bastian, president of the Daily News Corporation, received Ronald's inquiry call. Among Ronald's colleagues, he is the only one who has the most experience in the business operations of film and television.

There is actually a very troublesome part in selling movie peripheral products. That is, starting from the 1980s, movies were not released for long enough, and they usually only stayed in the cinema for a few months to half a year.

During this period, there was not enough design and manufacturing of peripheral toys, clothes and other peripheral products.

If a movie becomes a hit, sales will go up to very high levels in a short period of time. Ordinary manufacturing plans simply do not have enough time to manufacture enough products.

What if you scale up manufacturing and prepare for a hot hit product that is truly mass-produced? Then it’s hard to be sure that your movie will be a hit. At that time, no one will care about the products created, and they will have to be treated as garbage.

Therefore, although many companies are envious of Lucas for getting the ownership of Star Wars peripheral products and making huge profits, if you were the president of the seven major studios, you would not expand the peripheral products department on a large scale.

Movies adapted from comic books have this advantage. That is, as long as the movie is not too bad, there will naturally be a lot of comic fans who will pay for the peripheral products, and there is no need to worry about it becoming outdated soon after it is released.

Viacom, a comprehensive media company that grew up as a sales company, will naturally not give up this opportunity. The condition of their advance payment is that after Spider-Man is filmed, they will have the right to play it on the Showtime movie channel, as well as the priority rights to sell various video tapes and peripheral products through their sales channels.

"Can a TV broadcasting rights be worth so much?" Ronald discovered that the advance payment Columbia Pictures gave Minahan for the video sales was not as much as Viacom paid for the TV broadcasting rights.

The current video tape market is growing rapidly every year. The sales of video tapes of classic and old movies are increasing year by year (many families who buy new video recorders have to buy a dozen classic and old movies). In addition, the labor unions in the past two years have The strike reworked the remaining dividend ratio, and now generally speaking, video tapes are worth much more than TV broadcast rights.

Due to the new distribution agreement after the strike, many TV stations have to pay more to the creators for new movies, and they are not limited to movies with a certain number of views. The movies broadcast by TV stations also tend to select old movies and B-level movies that did not do well at the box office.

Viacom did the opposite, and the money it paid was an advance payment. It signed the contract and allocated funds before Minahan even started the project. It was really adventurous and very optimistic about Spider-Man.

"That's not entirely true. Viacom's new boss, Redstone, is a very ambitious man. He also wants to make his name through this movie..." Ed Bastian said I also have some understanding of the characters in the TV industry.

"Okay, no matter how much, I'll go ask Cameron..."

…

"The project already has an advance, so I'm here to ask you to write a script for Spider-Man. As long as you can come up with something that satisfies Sony Columbia, I'll take care of it over there. They won't do it before they read your script." Consider any other director..."

Ronald got the good news and immediately went to meet Spider-Man's big fan and good friend Cameron.

"What do you think this is?"

Cameron smiled, took out a bound text from the drawer, and handed it to Ronald.

"Good guy, have you already written it? No, this is not the number of pages of a movie script." Ronald knew the page number was wrong as soon as he got started.

"This is a plot synopsis...it's not right, it's more detailed than a synopsis..." Ronald is also an experienced screenwriter and knows that movie scripts are usually one page per minute. A movie like Spider-Man with a lot of special effects must be more than two hours long. The thing I have in hand is only about sixty pages, but it is much thicker than the average plot summary.

"I call it a summary script..." Cameron smiled. He didn't know what the final result of this project would be, so he didn't spend any time on it. Instead, he wrote a summary of his thoughts about Spider-Man.

But his love for Spider-Man started when he was a child, and he couldn't stop writing it. I mixed some of the more classic plots in the comic together, and I couldn't hold it in anymore, so I wrote fifty-eight pages.

Ronald read quickly, and the main character was, of course, our good neighbor Spider-Man, Peter Parker. The heroine is Mary Jane, a relatively early heroine from the time when Spider-Man originated. The main villain is a man named Oak, a nuclear physics professor.

Dr. Oak did not receive funding because his dream of building a small controllable nuclear fusion power generation device, so he made a trial version using the technology at hand. The small controllable nuclear fusion device was also connected to several manipulators and installed on his body. In the end, he looked like a big spider. He was tempted by power and killed people because he must get the budget to build a commercial version to benefit the world. .

Ronald is not a comic book fan, and it is his first time to read many plot characters. He feels that Cameron's script is undoubtedly of a very high level.

"You're not going to hire Arnold to play this villain, are you?" On the last page, Ronald saw Cameron's hand-drawn sketch, which showed a muscular man with four robotic arms stretched out from behind him. on his spine.

The villain Dr. Oak had multiple burns on his body, revealing his electronic machinery. In pursuit of power, this man has turned himself into a half-human, half-machine monster.

"Hahaha, Ronald, let me tell you you understand. I do want Schwarzenegger to play the villain."

"What do you think, Arnold? What's the schedule?" Seeing that Cameron was so well prepared, Ronald felt that this project was very promising and immediately began to inquire about the details.

"Schwarzenegger took the initiative to find me. Now he is in a heated relationship with a company called Carloco Films. They originally produced two movies in Stallone's First Blood series, but Stallone's current situation is not good. Carloco would love to do a series of collaborations with Schwarzenegger."

Ronald nodded. He knew that Cameron and Schwarzenegger had a good relationship since filming The Terminator.

And Carloco's current momentum in Hollywood is very similar to Cannon in previous years. The First Blood series of movies has brought them super profits. In the past two years, they have been trying to move up from a small producer to a mid-level producer.

In addition to purchasing the studio of De Laurentiis, who was bankrupt and involved in the five major New York Mafia families in the past few years (which happened to be led by Rudy, who failed to run for mayor), they are still making attacks in various places, hoping to More action star collaborations.

Since Carloco is so eager to get Schwarzenegger on their ship, any conditions can be easily negotiated.

Ronald immediately contacted Minahan, who put him on the line with Carloco’s founder, Mario Casal. Carloco wants to play big, and has prepared a production budget that is comparable to Batman. He hopes to use this Spider-Man movie to enter the ranks of important Hollywood studios.

Even if it cannot topple the already failing MGM, it still needs to be similar to the current Orion. The minimum goal is to become a member of the MPAA classification committee and become a director.

Minahan Golan is a very bragging person. Without any foundation, he was able to get advances from many theater chains and cinema buyers in Europe with a few posters at the Cannes Film Festival. money and began his journey to Hollywood.

Now I really have the rights to adapt Marvel's two most fan-based movies. When I met the people of Carloco who started making action movies, it was really like a duck to water. The blueprint drawn made Mario, the founder of Carloco ·Cassar was stunned for a moment.

"Quack, you don't know, right? Now Hollywood's most promising commercial film director to succeed Spielberg is Ronald. His first movie with a box office of over 100 million, 'Break Dance,' was made by me."

That guy, we met when we were attending a film festival in Montreal, Canada. As soon as I met him, I knew he was a genius. Geniuses don't need any restraints. You just need to make coffee for them and wait for them to perform.

His friend Cameron is also a genius, you already know this..."

"Yes, yes, Cameron is a genius..." Mario Casal nodded repeatedly. Although Minahan is in a mess financially, when it comes to supporting artists, no one in Hollywood can compare. .

Who could be so stupid as to give Godard a huge budget to film King Lear? They could also offer Zeffirelli of Italy a large price to make an opera film, but that was for fear of too much money.

However, he still agreed, "The key is to find real geniuses, not the kind of geniuses touted by the media..."

"You are absolutely right. If I had known you a few years earlier, I would not have been deceived by that bastard Yoram...cough...bah. You are absolutely right. I want to be truly recognized by the market. A genius.

I was stupid too. I didn't sign a three-, no, five-film deal with Ronald at once. I will agree to whatever conditions he wants, then I will be prosperous now, quack quack..."

"Yes, you are right. As soon as these geniuses are proven by the market, the shameless Seventh Group will come to snatch them away..."

Mario Casal feels that after the setback of being kicked out, Minahan seems to be speaking more objectively now. In the past, when I met him at a movie booking meeting in Las Vegas, I would only listen to what he said. Now I can still listen to myself carefully. It seems that the saying that setbacks make people grow is true.

When it comes to signing several film contracts, Carolco also has to do the same with Cameron and Schwarzenegger. Minahan, this idiot, made the same mistake that I can't make. To break into Hollywood and become an important player, you can only be tied to a genius like Ronald and Cameron. There is no mistake in that.

"If all the conditions for this movie have been scripted, when are you going to start the project?" Mario Casal made up his mind. Minahan doesn't have much money now, and he wants to let Cameron know his strength through this project. Then pushed Minahan aside. My own company needs to rely on this kind of talent to improve its quality.

"Quack, what, actually there is one condition that is not met...that is, the change agreement between me and Marvel is about to expire and needs to be renewed. We also have to meet with Stan Lee, who has vetoed the changes in the movie. Quan, we need to get his approval..."

"Well, that's it... Then we have to hurry up..." Mario Casal still prefers to let Minahan renew his contract. If it expires, Marvel may have to sell it to Seven, and he will also Not necessarily a share.

However, there is definitely nothing wrong with Cameron's outline script.

…

The initial communication with Marvel was relatively smooth. Carloco Pictures is very strong and Marvel had no objections. The outline script was also praised by Stan Lee. He admired the story of Spider-Man's origin very much.

But, on the other hand, negotiations for the "Fantastic Four" were very difficult. Without the participation of a big director like Cameron, or the participation of a studio with deep pockets like Carlo Co, and there is still Warner Bros. waiting to take over, Marvel's attitude towards "Fantastic Four" is to drag on. …

Minahan went to Ronald's house again that day to report on the situation. My own 21st Century Pictures, as the producer of "Spider-Man", must have taken advantage of the good times to return to the mainstream vision of Hollywood.

However, this opportunity was given to him by Ronald. The thing that matters most to him has not been revealed yet.

"Ronald, Warner Bros. still hasn't contacted us. They are determined to let my adaptation rights expire..."

"They are expecting you to be unable to film the Fantastic Four in just a few months, right?" Ronald understood the causes and consequences in detail.

Warner Bros. has been in contact with Marvel, but they have never met with Minahan. This kind of approach is to confirm that 21st Century Pictures has no background and can only watch the movie adaptation rights expire.

As long as Marvel doesn't renew your contract, we'll see you in court. How can an Israeli fight against Warner Brothers, a local snake with deep roots?

"I'm really sorry. I spend half my time running Fantastic Four stuff, but they are just a drag. I want to see their deputy director in charge of production, but I can't... these people are wearing handmade suits, but If there were people like this in my company who don’t do any work and are slackers, I would have fired them long ago.”

"What kind of sabotage? They are deliberately leaving you out..." Ronald said in his heart. He did not discuss this aspect with Minahan. After all, people mainly rely on Spider-Man to stand up, so now I can have half the time to do my own thing, which is already very good.

"Don't apologize, I'll take care of this matter. Aren't they sure that you can't make the Fantastic Four in a few months? I'll show them what B-level movie speed is..."

"Huh?" Minahan Golan was greatly surprised. Although he is not slow in making movies, this kind of movie relies on special effects. Project establishment, script, special effects preparation, and shooting must take half a year, right? Then it takes another half a year to come up with the post-production special effects, which is already the fastest speed.

Ronald himself also filmed "Ghost" and produced "Die Hard". He is an expert. How come he has said such a layman's language? What secret weapon does he have?

"Don't worry about this, I'll take care of it..." Ronald smiled and handed the coffee Diane made to Minahan.

"Okay, this is called coffee. When I was serving in the Israeli Air Force, this is what coffee tasted like..." Minahan sipped Nestle Instant, very happy.

Ronald turned around and saw Diane who had heard Minahan's words, waving to him with a smile, opening and closing her mouth as if saying "Coca-Cola"

"That's it, Minahan, just follow our plan. I have to go, Coca-Cola has something to do with me."