Exploiting Hollywood 1980

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Ronald and his agent, Nisita, came to Universal Pictures to sign a director contract.

Universal Studios was originally the studio of Universal Studios, and the location base built. It is now an amusement park. Ronald also went on a date here with Mara, an encore student at Van Nuys High when he was filming "High School of Rock."

Revisiting the old places, Ronald has become the director of a theatrical feature film, and the student girl with a good figure has no idea where she has gone. Are you still hanging out in the film industry, or are you still married and become a housewife?

Ronald cleared these nostalgic emotions from his head, and today was a landmark day in his life. It should be looking to the future, not looking back to the past.

The director and contract had been reviewed by CAA and Ronald's personal attorney, and the terms were set after a few back and forth.

Ronald signed a contract to hire a director. Universal hired him to film "Fast-Paced Richmond High School" because he was a rookie and didn't get the kind of deals that established directors enjoy.

Just like Amy Hecklin, who lost in the "fast-paced" director competition, signed a directorial contract because of the president's appreciation. It was only agreed that Heklin would make a film for Universal, and there was no restriction on the specific script. It was up to her to negotiate with Universal.

If the first film does well at the box office, it can also automatically renew the contract for the other two films. Ronald was indeed a little envious after hearing about it. Why is Heklin also the first film work, can get such good conditions?

Ronald's contract terms are stricter. Since the tragedy of "Heaven's Gate", Michael Cimino alone bankrupted one of the eight major United Arts companies and was acquired by MGM, major studios have been stricter on the contract terms of directors.

Ronald had to abide by an agreement to finish shooting within seven weeks of filming, and Universal's producers had the power to fire him if the schedule fell significantly behind schedule. He also has the right to fire him if his daily dailies fail the producer's review and are asked to reshoot.

Of course, judging from the level of Ronald's studies at "Roger Coleman Film University", this possibility is close to zero.

Those who have the power to fire people are the two producers who signed with him today, Art Linson and Irving Azoff.

Among the two, Art Linson started out as a producer. Before the Oscars, he was the producer of the movie "Mevin and Howard", which defeated Ronald's "Famous" and won the best original script. .

But Lin Sen was unwilling to be a producer. His life dream was to be a director. For this reason, he gave up continuing to make other popular movies. He took up the director and directed a Bill Murray comedy film "Freak Reporter". .

The blockbuster was a box-office flop and was slammed by film critics. He had to get back on his career track as a producer, overseeing several smaller productions for Universal.

Another producer, Irving Azov, has little interest in being a filmmaker. He is an executive at MCA Records Group and the manager of the popular band Eagles.

But he belongs to the Simberg faction in the MCA group, so he was sent to balance the power of the crew. Moreover, youth films require a lot of rock music for the soundtrack, and it is most convenient for him to handle the copyright matters. So Azov also came to be the producer.

A low-cost youth comedy with a budget of 3 million should be played.

"Ronald V. Lee", Ronald signed his signature on the dotted line at the bottom of the contract. This means that he has officially become a "fast-paced" director.

"Congratulations." The two producers stood up and shook hands with him.

"Our time is limited. We will be there when the show starts, and we will not have time to be on the crew every day after that. At that time, there will be an executive producer designated by Universal to represent us on the set."

"When can I see him?" Ronald asked, wanting to speak to the executive producer (Line Producer) sooner,

reach consensus.

"Soon, she will step in during the casting phase, and you can meet in a few days."

Ronald and his agent Nisita walked out of the office. The two were on their way to the parking lot. Ronald sighed, "For me, this is the first big opportunity in my life. Small production. I thought Tom Mount, and Mr. Simberg, would have at least one signing."

"Don't think so, Ronald. You will one day sign with them. I am very optimistic about you." Nisita is now more and more satisfied with this unintentional signing. Not only through him to catch the line of Simberg, but also with Spielberg.

"Actually, it's not that Mr. Simberg doesn't pay attention to you. He was involved in something today. Columbia has proposed new terms for the transfer of Spielberg's ET."

The original ET script was not completely abandoned by Columbia, but was put into the warehouse of the Turnaround Deal.

The script, which was put into the distribution agreement, indicated that Columbia had no intention of producing the film in the near future. But other studios would have to get permission from Colombia to buy the rights to the script from here.

Originally, Nisita came forward and negotiated an agreement with Columbia to buy ET scripts for $1 million, but President Frank Price, for some reason, rejected the price and insisted on asking for a higher price.

Ovitz quickly followed up the second round of negotiations. Price refused to lower the price anyway. Instead, because of Ovitz's intervention, he raised the price and proposed to add 10% of the final net profit of ET Films as part of the Colombia transfer agreement. condition.

Ovitz didn't know for a moment whether Price was deliberately embarrassing Simberg, or whether he sensed something was wrong, and had no choice but to start a tough negotiation. Simberg also took care of it himself.

"At the end, it's about 5% of the net profit. We were surprised by Frank Price, the president of Columbia. He didn't just read the script." Nisita joked. "I don't know why Price discovered the potential of ET."

In the evening, Ronald found Cameron and Gail, and the three celebrated Ronald in the restaurant together. He was the first to realize his dream and become a film director.

"What else could be the reason, but Price saw a few Jews together and suspected that they were conspiring to steal the script that could be sold." Cameron heard Ronald talk about ET. blurted out.

"Don't say that, I remember Gale seems to be Jewish." Ronald sighed softly.

"My father is Jewish, but my mother is Catholic, and I was basically raised in Catholic customs." Gale replied regardless of this.

"Remember Jenny from 'High School of Rock'? I remember her surname is Rosenberg. After filming High School of Rock, she seems to have a good future." Ronald remembered an acquaintance, and Jenny had a high starting point since her debut.

"Yes, in this industry, Jewish people have a huge network of connections, and they do take advantage of it." Gale does not deny the status of Jews in the film and television industry.

"Congratulations to Ronald for realizing his dream first." Gale and Cameron toasted, and the three drank.

"Simberg, Spielberg, Ovitz, they're all Jewish. Frank Price is of pure Anglo-Saxon descent, and his ancestry goes back to the passengers of the Mayflower.

So seeing all three of them Jewish in this project. It's normal for Price to be suspicious. If he insists on keeping ET's script, Spielberg may not start the project immediately, but let him go to Universal and leave a 5% net profit sharing agreement, so that he can make money no matter what.

It seems that Frank Price is still very old-fashioned. "

After listening to Ronald talk about the whole thing, Gale used the family wisdom of the Jewish investor's daughter to analyze the ins and outs of the incident to the two men. "

"Rosenberg, Simberg, Spielberg, Jewish names are all distinctive," Ronald said.

"Yes, many of the Jewish people in America are actually descendants of Slavs from Eastern Europe, who immigrated before and after World War II. Of course, there are also people who changed their names to Osa. For example, my ancestor's original name was Hurwitz, Immigrated to America and later changed to Hurd.

Wits is also a common Jewish surname ending, and Horowitz, for example, is changed to Holtz. Heckelwitz changed his name to Hecklen. "

Ronald's heart moved, it seems that Amy Hecklein is also Jewish. After these men occupied high positions in the studio, they promoted Jewish directors and actors aggressively. As long as you are Jewish, you can get better opportunities or move forward faster than your peers.

"Ding ding ding..." James Cameron tapped the glass with a metal spoon, "I also have news to announce. I got the position of special effects supervisor, and I will start shooting immediately."

"Congratulations!" Ronald returned his thoughts, raised his glass and gestured to Cameron with Gale.

"What movie is it?"

"It's the sequel to 'Piranha' directed by Joe Dante. The budget for this project is $500,000, and no TV station is willing to buy the TV rights, no publisher is willing to pay upfront, and Roger Coleman is not willing to invest.

It happened that an Italian producer, Ovidio Assonitis, came in. He wanted to enter the American film market and invested the money. My special effects work on Clash of the Stars caught his attention.

I've just signed a contract and I'm going to Jamaica to do a location reconnaissance right away.

The script is very interesting, and there are shots of piranhas jumping out of the water and attacking humans. It is much more difficult than the piranha's practice of copying the 'Great White Shark' to hide the danger underwater, but it also has more visual impact. "

Cameron also took a big step forward in his career.

"What about you, Gail, do you have any good news too?" Ronald looked at Gail with a wide smile, guessing that her career was progressing well.

"Yes, Roger made me an executive producer (Line Producer) for a few movies, and I'll gain some experience and be a producer myself."

"congratulate."

Gale, who had been working as a production assistant on the set, is now an executive producer. In the film industry, to become a producer, one must start as a production assistant, then an executive producer, who is responsible for the day-to-day management of the studio, and then it is the producer's turn.

But in any case, the word "person" is added after the production, and the power and title are significantly different, marking the beginning of the career of a full-fledged producer.

The ideal trio who talked about the ideal on the set of "High School of Rock" at that time have initially realized their ideal. In less than three years, a lot has happened, but they are all moving forward slowly but surely.

Ronald mentioned the ideal things to talk about on the set, and the three toasted together to congratulate each other.