Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Hey, two days were wasted. The real audience was only a few minutes. In the end, Her Majesty's head of security asked her for a long time."

On ABC TV's International Entertainment News, seeing Ronald and Minahan, Jeremy Thomas, two fat men together, being received by Her Majesty the Queen of Britain, Aunt Karen was so excited, after calculating the jet lag, Called Ronald's hotel room in London.

Ronald, who was eating a large serving of fish and chips, chatted with his aunt. Invented in the slums of London's East End, this delicacy is literally battered and deep-fried fish, then dipped in various sauces and served with fries.

Civilian cuisine has such characteristics, high-calorie, high-carb, deep-fried, and strong flavor, but it made Ronald eat very vigorously, which reminded him of the breakfast bread with fried dough sticks that he had eaten in Xujiahui, and it was the same way number.

"Then didn't the queen talk to you about her life? Her friend Wang is your grandmother, is she a best friend? So after all, are you a relative of his grandchildren? Will she grant you a title or something? ?"

"No. We are actually very distant. The Spencer family was separated from the royal family eight generations ago. Even if we climbed up the relationship, we would be called the eighth third removed grandson (eight third removed) after three generations. Basically, it doesn't matter. .

However, the two princesses and I can be regarded as distant cousins ​​within three generations (Third). Well, but... but the husband doesn't seem to like me very much, so I promised Buckingham Palace that I would not make this relationship public. "

Ronald took a bite of the still-hot fried fish, "Don't talk about this, I brought you and Donna two cashmere scarves. I heard that the title of Earl Spencer was originally a wool spinning business. There are still people in the family who are engaged in the old business, and they specially gave me a few."

"Well, watch out for yourself in Britain, I heard the people there are bad."

After talking to his aunt about the messy distant relationship with the royal family, Ronald hung up the phone. This kind of ancestors went to seven or eight generations. In fact, most Britons can be associated with a certain historical noble. Before the modern age where living conditions have greatly improved, many poor people will not be able to leave offspring.

"Ding dong..."

"coming"

Ronald ate the remaining three bites of fried fish, wiped his hands, and stood up to open the door.

"Ronald, hehe. It's me."

A fat man with a thick neck and looks like a manual worker in East London sneered at the door.

"Jeremy, please come in."

It turned out to be independent producer Jeremy Thomas. Ronald was happy to be visited, but it was a little strange, how did he come?

"It's nice to see a Briton visiting. I really wish you could come and chat with me. The rest of my crew went back first." Ronald took out a bottle of whiskey from the wine cabinet and gave it to Jerry Rice is poured.

"I specifically watched your 'Top Gun' last night. It is indeed a highly skilled commercial film. I have a lot of things I don't understand, so I took the liberty of looking for it. As a producer, I have been making movies outside of Hollywood for a long time. , is a little unfamiliar with the new trends in Hollywood.

Why do your movies seem to be edited faster than others? "

"You may not be in the stands,

The new generation of young people likes to watch MVs, where a complete story needs to be presented within three minutes, so the pace must be fast, and the story must be left largely blank..."

Ronald never refuses to communicate with his peers. I don't know who you can hear from one or two brilliant ideas, which will be used in later movies.

Besides, he also wants to know more about the shooting of "The Last Emperor" in the Forbidden City, and he also wants to make a movie with the theme of his homeland.

"The last emperor was adapted from the autobiography written by the three-year-old child emperor when he got old. They cooperated very well and hired his younger brother and the person who managed him in the prison at that time as a film consultant.

After director Bertolucci wrote the script, he repeatedly confirmed every detail, every costume and setting in the script with them, trying to restore the last emperor of that ancient and mysterious empire. "

"I haven't made a period drama like this before. It's not easy to hear from you."

"Yeah, the investment in period dramas is very large. In addition to the kindly opening of the Forbidden City filming there, the casting is also very difficult. I finally persuaded Peter O'Toole to play the emperor Johnston, and the male and female protagonists were Chinese actors.

Bertolucci found that although East Asians all look alike, there are subtle but distinct differences in temperament between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The audience will know at a glance whether it is authentic or not. "

"Sure," thought Ronald, even the producer who raised $25 million doesn't know much about culture. Originally, ordinary people in the three East Asian countries had very different temperaments.

"This movie is absolutely expensive, but I just want to shoot the afterglow of this two thousand-year-old empire, an epic masterpiece. It is really very expensive to do things seriously. Every day, thousands of group performances have to be paid and paid. To give them the right outfits, armor, weapons, then hundreds of costumes, make-up and hair stylists, all of which have to be flown in from Europe or Hollywood."

"Huh?" Ronald thought, it didn't seem quite right. I have been to the Xujiahui Film Factory myself, and the policy given by the Ministry of Culture over there is to fully support the export of culture to the world, and everything can be coordinated. Besides, the labor cost there is very cheap, how can it be as exaggerated as Jeremy said?

"So $25 million is totally not enough. I couldn't reveal a little bit in front of my peers at the reception that day, otherwise they would totally screw things up.

I want to maintain an image in public that the money is okay, people just like to invest in films that have been successful. "

"The Matthew effect? ​​I understand. Do you still need money? Isn't 25 million enough?" Ronald asked.

"Of course it's not enough. Half of my financing came from Heimdell Productions (the Terminator's producer), and the rest I worked hard to find little by little. And the film has not yet found a distributor.

So in addition to the production costs, I also have to prepare a reserve in case there is a problem with the shooting there. Also prepare yourself for a release in America, even if it goes state by state.

For a movie of this epic nature, Hollywood distributors are timid, a bunch of eggless jerk cowards.

I'm very confident that this 'The Last Emperor' can be compared to David Lean's 'Lawrence of Arabia', both in terms of awards and box office. "

"How far are you?" Ronald wanted to know more about the details. He really wanted to invest in this film. There are too few movies in Hollywood that promote the history and culture of Chinese Americans. There is nothing wrong with having such an opportunity to let the audience know more about the history of Chinese Americans. it is good.

"About 10 million, can you invest?" Jeremy Thomas was overjoyed. There are very few funders who are so easy to talk to.

"Ten million? I don't have that much money, I'm just a director, and it's producers and studios who make big money in Hollywood."

Ronald retracted his hand from reaching for his purse for the checkbook.

Jeremy Thomas speaks without bounds, and his mouth is 10 million. He has denied it in public before, but now he speaks loudly, which makes him really untrustworthy.

"Isn't it?" Jeremy Thomas was a little frustrated. "In fact, 10 million includes a reserve of 2 million and a release budget of 8 million. You can get as long as 2 million. But there must be other people around you. People, willing to invest in your vision."

"Ronald, art is great. There is a very bad trend in Hollywood right now, that is, it only makes movies that have been proven by the market. Some movies have both artistic achievement potential and box office potential, but those who don't understand it at all. The film studio executives just didn't give the green light, and that's why I became an independent producer.

"I agree, but I really don't have any money."

Ronald actually quite agrees with Jeremy's statement that a movie depends on the interest of the stars before the studio can make it with confidence. This inevitably leads to a dislike of breakout genre films, and stars, in order to minimize risk, also focus on screenplays that fit the star's image.

"It doesn't matter, as long as you lead the investment, Ronald, a lot of people in Hollywood will follow. I know they all trust your vision.

I know that you are interested in Chinese culture. People don't know the greatness of Chinese culture, and that Confucius wrote great works comparable to the Bible a thousand years before we entered London.

This is a great history. Together with Bertolucci, I will slowly open the curtain of this ancient and mysterious country and show it to everyone in the world. "

Jeremy Thomas went on to talk a lot about Ronald's support for Asian culture.

He knew that Ronald had criticized the film "Year of the Dragon" that insulted the Chinese, supported the unfair protest of the Chinese, and filmed the mysterious mentor of the Japanese, Master Miyagi.

When many people look at the magic of Dongying companies, they also think that Dongying people are really powerful. Not as opposed to these people who took their jobs as in the past. After all, their products are really good and cheap.

"You let me think about it carefully."

Ronald felt he had a point. The success of a film can sometimes evoke a change in the status of an ethnic group. It would be a pity if an epic film like "The Last Emperor" could not be made to be perfect because of a little money.

But some of Jeremy Thomas's style... Although knowing your customers is the basic requirement of sales, but he has researched himself so thoroughly that he has even found out about supporting Chinese Americans, which always makes Ronald a little uncomfortable. .

"Of course, of course... but you are a benchmark, as long as you can support me, even if it is a few hundred thousand dollars, I can raise more money in Hollywood, so that Bertolucci can fully play.

"Well, let me think about it. My financial affairs, especially movie investments, need to be discussed with my agent and accountant."

Ten million is fine, hundreds of thousands are fine, why does this sound so unreliable?

"This is the phone number of my assistant in Hollywood. Contact me as soon as possible. As long as you can invest, I think there must be some people in the seven studios who are willing to consider releasing this film in America."