Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"He is my college classmate. Haven't you seen his graduation work? It's very good." Ronald looked at the name of the screenwriter that Samuel Goldwyn Jr. showed him and found that he was the one who studied at New York University. When I was in school, one of the three directing students named Lee was Ang Lee.

The encounters between people are like rivers on the plains, dividing and reuniting. When I was filming a commercial, I asked him to work as an assistant director with the black director Spike Lee. After not seeing each other for a few years, I already had a producer. and distribution company, while AngLee is still looking for directing opportunities for his first film.

"Really? He is your classmate? I have seen his graduation work, and I can make a movie just by watching it. When the filming of my new film Modern Cinderella (Myst Pizza) started, I couldn't find anyone to change the script, so someone recommended it to me. He, he has a lot of insights into romantic comedies.

He submitted one of his scripts to me, and after the film is released, I will invest in his new film. Just use the original male and female protagonists of modern Cinderella, and I am very optimistic about him. "

"You are really lucky, Samuel. I didn't know he was still in America. I thought he went back to his hometown. If I knew..." Ronald thought to himself that if he knew that AngLee had ideas, he would definitely give priority to it. Consider investing.

AngLee's graduation film reflects his level very well. There has been no director's work in so many years. It's definitely not because he doesn't know how to film and can't find a production company willing to invest. The level of directing is like being pregnant. After seeing your work, I will know whether you can shoot or not. You can't deceive people. I guess I still insist on my own directorial work, and I am not willing to make all kinds of movies.

Ronald and Godwin nodded goodbye and made a note on their notepad, asking those who daydream to pay attention to AngLee. If there are suitable projects in the future, they can also invest in it. Talents are rare.

After leaving the Producers Alliance, Ronald and Minahan found a place to chat for a while.

Minahan now has more free time, and Cannon no longer needs him to make the decision on many things. He only cares about the movie itself now.

Perhaps after understanding the lessons of success and failure in the past few years, Minahan is no longer obsessed with collecting all kinds of famous directors and stars who have passed. He focuses more on his favorite genre films—— Comic adaptation.

"I have now collected the movie adaptation rights for a large number of comic books. After Yoram knows that his current approach is not successful, I can make the movies I like." Minahan is now in much better spirits, Ronald It seems that he has regained his passion for movies.

"This is indeed suitable for you..." Ronald chuckled. Minahan really likes comic book adaptation movies. In the past two years, he has filmed Superman 4, Unicron He-Man, and other comic book adaptation movies.

In fact, when Minahan himself was a director, the films he made on other subjects also had an exaggerated, pretentious, and specious caricature-like feel. Maybe if he really shoots a movie of this style himself, it would suit his performance?

Think about it, at the Montreal Film Festival in Canada that year, the extremely disgusting movie "The Apple", if it was a comic story, wouldn't the audience throw things on the stage?

"But comic book movies generally require a lot of special effects shots. I saw that the special effects in your fourth Superman movie didn't get much praise."

Ronald thought of the fifty-cent special effects in Minahan's movies. If he really wanted to make a movie based on a comic book, he would really have to invest money in special effects.

"That movie was a mistake. I released too many movies at that time, which diluted Cannon's investment in Superman movies. Now I have learned a lesson. EMI is strong. After merging with Cannon, as long as they realize that it is good to We need a lot of investment, and sooner or later we will abandon Yoram’s path and return to the right path.”

Minahan now criticizes his cousin Yoram's ideas a lot. He waved his hand and smiled, as if there was a big screen in front of him, and the Spider-Man, Captain America, and He-Man Part 2 he bought were playing on it. Fantastic Four and other movies.

Then the audience cheered, stood up, applauded for a long time, and threw all kinds of flowers at him...

"We just want

Only by making such a movie can the audience like it... Ronald, shall we work together again? "

"Uh..." Ronald felt that this Israeli was a bit crazy. After his cousin Yoram seized power, he was a bit unable to accept reality.

Until now, Hollywood comic book adaptations have been the favorite of low-budget producers like Roger Corman. Those biubiubiu green laser special effects don’t cost much. Only the first two films in the Superman series were truly successful in making big money with big productions.

There is a completely different level of tolerance for blockbusters and low-budget exploitation films. When you pay a dollar to go to a midnight theater to watch a Roger Corman science fiction film, you know that the stuff in it is horribly fake, and you accept the cheap costumes and make-up, focusing on the plot and a sense of ridiculousness.

But if you pay five dollars to see a science fiction movie from the seven major studios, you expect it to at least look real. This is why Superman spent so much money on flying special effects. Just one flight shot was shot over and over again for weeks, and that shot alone would have cost over a million dollars.

"I'm not very good at shooting special effects. You have to find someone who can." Ronald still shied away. Minahan's previous films had caused too much psychological damage to him. Cassandra Peterson, the heroine of Ecstasy, talked about the feeling of filming a movie for Minahan——

She heard that millions would be invested in special effects production, but it turned out that a total of two and a half yuan was invested.

"Hey, you don't know, I have obtained the adaptation rights from Marvel, Mattel, and several comic and toy companies. No one in Hollywood has more comic copyrights than me. I don't know anyone in Hollywood yet. I had already collected the potential of this kind of movie before they even realized it.

Only the people at Warner Bros. had some vision. They had planned a Batman movie, and it just so happened that we also made a Spider-Man to compete with them. You want to be a director, a producer, or an investor, it's up to you. This is a good opportunity. I haven't told anyone...

By the way, who is the best at making special effects movies in Hollywood right now? That friend of yours, the one who filmed The Terminator, can I invite him to film it? "

"Hoho, he is currently filming a science fiction film for 20th Century Fox. You can ask him after he finishes filming..."

[In view of the general environment,

Ronald saw that Minahan had come up with Cameron's idea of ​​filming Spider-Man again. I know that this guy definitely has no plan, and it comes up as soon as he thinks of it. It would be better for me not to participate in the cannon project.

But did he really get so many comic book adaptation rights? This guy really has the guts to bet big, and his success and failure all stem from his willingness to make big bets.

…

"The news you mentioned is true. Minahan has really purchased a large number of movie adaptation rights from several major comic companies and toy companies." Niceta reported to Ronald with the results of the research.

"Really bought so much? The price won't be cheap, right?" Ronald counted the two major comic companies, plus the comic character copyrights owned by toy companies such as Mattel, Minahan spent a lot of money on it.

"It's not cheap. These are some of the best characters from big companies," Niceta agreed. "But not many people in Hollywood recognize the value of comic book movie adaptations. Only Warner Bros. has recently developed a Batman movie. Minahan It’s either a big win or a big loss.”

"This guy is always full of gambling in everything he does." Ronald recalled the past when he spent tens of millions to make a desert racing movie for Brooke Shields. "When will Warner Bros.' Batman start filming?"

"It's also stuck now because of the writers' strike, and their early large-scale auditions have been suspended." Niceta handed Ronald the information about the Batman movie.

"Forty million? Are they serious?" Ronald was shocked when he saw the budget figure.

"They have wanted to film it for a long time. There was an original script ten years ago. At that time, they planned to have William Holden play Batman and David Niven play Robin."

"They were too old at that time, weren't they?" Rona

De imagined it, and the temperament was very suitable, but both old actors passed away in the early 1980s.

"Later, we at CAA learned about this project, so we began to recommend our ace actors, Bill Murray to play Batman, and black star Eddie Murphy to play Robin."

"This..." Ronald thought to himself that this combination is the classic Hollywood white hero with a black bad-mouthed partner. "Are they still acting now?"

"No, in the end Warner preferred the new version of the Dark Knight comic and found Tim Burton, the director of the currently popular "Beetlejue". Now Batman is confirmed to be played by Michael Keaton. A large-scale audition for actresses, looking for the sexiest female stars in Hollywood..."

"It's another strike..." Ronald really felt that the Writers Guild strike was too difficult to handle. The seven major studios had no choice in dealing with this industry-wide mandatory union strike.

"Do you have any recommendations for Hollywood sex bombs? Or potential newcomers you like? I can work on it..." Niceta knew that this project would attract many of the sexiest and most beautiful actresses.

"Tell me?" The figure of Helen Slater flashed through Ronald's mind... No, Helen's temperament is not suitable for that kind of role...

"Hahaha... When the strike is over, I will update you on their audition progress..."

…

It's been more than a week since Ronald finished filming Working Girl, and he still hasn't completely forgotten his thoughts during filming, so it's not suitable to enter the editing room now. He continued his vacation in Los Angeles and returned to the new office building of 20th Century Fox on this day. Most of the projects he participated in over the past year were related to Fox.

"Die Hard" was filmed on the building. The top floors have finally been renovated, and employees have moved in from the old building one after another.

Ronald, along with Joel Silver, chatted with people in the distribution department about the film's announcement.

After watching the sample, they were very confident in the movie, so they planned to move this Christmas story to the summer season, which is the period with the largest audience in America.

"Is it really that good? The plot of this movie takes place on Christmas Day, so wouldn't it be more suitable for the Christmas period?" Ronald asked Joel Silver.

"I'm very confident that this year's summer schedule is not very strong. There are Robert Zemeckis's animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Tom Cruise's Cocktails, and Eddie Murphy's Coming of America... ...Did you find something?" Silver smiled and gave Ronald the list of blockbusters expected to be released in the summer.

"Well...there are no action movies..." Ronald discovered the problem as soon as he flipped through it.

"Originally, the old Australian Crocodile Dundee 2 was a rival, but they decided to release it early at the end of May."

By various coincidences, there are no movies starring big-name action stars this summer. Schwarzenegger transformed into an action comedy and added many comedy elements to the movie. It is no longer just about posing with muscles to scare people.

Schwarzenegger feels that if he doesn't transform, American audiences will sooner or later become disgusted with his muscular acting style.

Stallone only has the third installment of Rambo this year. This series of movies has changed from the first installment, which dealt with the experiences of Vietnam War veterans and reflected social reality, to the second installment, a purely commercial film about fighting bad guys. I heard that the third sequel will also follow this path. , was not confident that it would be released in the summer, so it was moved to May.

Stallone and Bridget Nielsen finally divorced. This highly publicized divorce was chased by tabloids for a whole year, which seriously affected Stallone's energy. It is said that the quality of Rambo III has seriously declined.

"God is really helping us..." Ronald agreed with Silver and asked them to see how to make a truly good action movie.

…

"Your set in South Carolina needs to go through a safety assessment. I have to see the report issued by the scientists."

When Ronald came out of the office, he heard a familiar voice. When he turned his head, it turned out to be his old friend Gale Hurd.

"It won't be a problem, we just use the water tank there..." It was Zhan who spoke

James Cameron.

"Jim, this is Fox's request. They are very dissatisfied with the budget overruns. If you don't have an environmental safety assessment report, they will not allow you to set up scenes there."

"Okay, I'll take care of it."

"Ronald..." Gale turned around and saw Ronald. "I still have something to do. Let's talk later." She picked up her notebook and exchanged greetings with Ronald before leaving.

Ronald looked back at Cameron, "You two?"

Cameron and Gale have many conflicts in movies, concepts, and life. The last time I saw him, they were divorcing, and they were flirting with Kathryn Bigelow, the female director Ronald hired. Today Seeing that he and Gale seemed to have restored the tacit understanding between husband and wife.

Cameron shook his head and frowned, "She is a professional producer, and I only have a professional relationship with her now."

It can be seen that Cameron is also very uncomfortable. This kind of deep-seated contradiction in film concepts is difficult to compromise, and he and Gale were united because of the film.

Now that their personal relationship has broken down, and they have to take care of the production of big projects, they have to become business partners. Switching between the two attitudes makes Cameron very painful...

"Gail handles it better than me. I see her always being so professional. I can't do it..."

Ronald could only comfort his old friend, "This kind of thing is different for everyone. Maybe Gale just doesn't show it..."

"No, you don't know her well enough. When she looks at me, she treats me like a partner."

Ronald touched his nose, haven't you already let go of your mood and started flirting with other women? It seems that this kind of divorce is difficult for the iron-willed Cameron to handle.

It's really scary to get married without meeting the right person. Ronald patted Cameron on the shoulder and said, "Come on, I know a good Japanese barbecue restaurant. Let's go eat something..."