hollywood entertainment mogul

Bang bang bang~

At the Los Angeles Shooting Training Center, Duca held a competition pistol in both hands and fired 10 shots at a 50-meter target in the distance. It took 750 seconds to finish the bullets.

This is a 50-meter pistol slow fire 60-round training event.

After finishing one round, Duca put away the pistol, inserted it into the holster, and took a sip of pure water.

Coach Matthew Foster and assistant Lewis began counting targets and scoring.

Because his marksmanship is relatively accurate, nine out of ten shots hit the ten rings in the middle. In this project, the 10-ring area is also subdivided into 10 ring values, with the highest score being 10.9 rings. Each calculation

It takes several minutes to calculate the points.

"Matthew, how many rings are there in this round?"

Duca put down the water glass and asked.

"Haha, this round is not bad, 100.2 rings. Counting the first five rounds, I got a total of 582.6 rings this time, which is 4.3 points higher than the champion of this event in last year's World Championships, and 5.7 points higher than the champion of this event in the 1988 Olympics.

, only 2.2 points lower than the world record. As long as you don’t perform abnormally in this Shooting World Cup, there is no problem in winning the championship.”

Matthew Foster laughed.

"582 rings? I have taken five tests these days, and my scores have all fluctuated between 581 and 583 rings. It seems that I still need more practice to break this world record."

"Why are you so anxious? You are only twenty-five years old. For shooters, the golden period is between the ages of thirty and forty. The physical and mental qualities are more stable. You can shoot so well now and your level will improve in the future.

Once you go up there, it’s easy to break the record.”

Matthew Foster laughed.

Duca nodded, holding the gun and continuing to practice the other two events: rapid firing of 60 rounds with a 25-meter handgun, and rapid firing of 60 rounds with a 25-meter standard pistol.

The results in these two events are good. Because it is a rapid fire, sometimes when the hand feels good, he can hit more than 600 rings, and the average score is around 596 rings. If he performs normally, he can win the championship or even break the record.

After two weeks of intensive training, he was going to compete. Before leaving, he still needed to make arrangements for the company.

First of all, Jasmine and Fat Tom were in charge of the bar, so he didn't need to worry too much.

At LV Pictures, filming of "Basic Instinct" is about to be completed, and post-production will be done next. The post-production of "Unruly Sky" has also been completed, and is preparing to participate in the Toronto Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, and "Love in My Heart"

It is scheduled to be released in September.

These things were managed by Monica, with the help of Walter Meaney's production and executive director Rod Steiger, and there were no problems.

The remaining Andromeda Agency, the single "Yellow" has been on the shelves for more than four months. The current total sales volume is 150,000 copies. It has also been released in English-speaking regions such as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and Australia. This

Partly handled by BMG, more than 300,000 copies have been sold, and it has also appeared on pop music charts in various countries.

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With the popularity of this song, Shania has emerged in North America and is one of the most popular new singers.

In addition, Shania's first album of the same name has also been produced. BMG plans to launch it in mid-August. It is currently in the promotion stage. Shania is also busy playing songs on various radio stations and filming the MV for the lead single.

These matters are mainly handled by people from BMG and Ms. Nancy Josephson, and he is not needed as the security director for the time being.

On August 16, Duca, coach Matthew Foster, and assistant Louis came to Munich, an important city in southern Germany, to participate in the competition.

The Shooting World Cup started in 1952 and is held every four years. Together with the Olympic shooting events and the Shooting World Championship, it is known as the three major international events of modern shooting sports.

Each competition attracts more than 300 contestants from more than 40 countries, including China, the United States, the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, etc., all of which are major winners in the past.

This year, a total of 387 shooters from 42 countries participated. Only those athletes who have been selected at various sites and whose results meet the standards can be qualified to participate.

There are 14 shooting competitions in total, including rifles, pistols, air rifles, flying saucers, etc.

The competition is divided into two rounds, the first round of qualifying and the second round of finals. The competition lasts for five days, starting at 2:30 pm every day.

The format of the competition is similar to last time, except that the contestants are stronger. For example, in the men's 10-meter air pistol, there is Xu Qiangwang from China, who was the shooting champion of this event in the last Olympic Games.

Fortunately, Duca did not apply for the air rifle event, so he did not have to compete with Xu Gun King for the gold medal.

On August 18, the first qualifying round began at the Munich Shooting Center, with nine events on the first day.

Duca has two items, namely rapid fire of 60 rounds with a 25-meter handgun and 60 rounds of rapid fire with a 25-meter standard pistol; at 2:30 the next day, there is a slow fire of 60 rounds with a 50-meter pistol.

In the qualifying stage, Duka performed normally and won the first place in the three qualifying events. He also fired 60 rounds of 25-meter freehand pistol rapidly, scoring a good score of 594.2 rings, successfully breaking the existing world record.

After the results came out, it caused a sensation at the competition site and in the media, but the sensation was not big because the shooting competition is a niche sport and did not receive much attention.

On the fourth day of the competition, Duka participated in the finals of two events, the 25-meter standard pistol rapid fire and the 25-meter free hand pistol rapid fire, competing with the top eight athletes in the same event.

In the end, with his outstanding performance, he won first place in both competitions, but unfortunately he failed to break the record.

On the last day of the competition, he continued to participate in the 50-meter pistol slow fire 60-round competition.

In this event, there were no strong opponents. He successfully won the championship again with a score of 583.4 rings. He was only one point away from the world record.

But with three gold medals and a new record in this competition, he successfully topped the gold medal list.

After his victory, the news that he won three gold medals and a world record was widely reported by European and American media, calling him the new "gun king" in the pistol event.

"Honey, you're so cool!"

Monica saw three gold medals hanging on his body and looked up and down and said.

"Want to try it? It's quite heavy."

Duca took off a gold medal and asked.

"Can I?"

"Of course, you take care of me in my daily life so that I can train with peace of mind. Half of my gold medals are yours."

Duka smiled and hung the gold medal around her neck.

"Haha, how's it going?"

Monica straightened the gold medal, spread her hands and smiled.

"It's great. Let's go and take pictures together."

Dukara led her to the interview area and accepted interviews with European media reporters. She mainly talked about her feelings about winning the award, daily training, her experience as an athlete, and the help of coach Matthew Foster, etc.

After the game, coach Matthew Foster led the team back to the United States. Duca and Monica took a flight to Venice to stay for a while and attend the following Venice Film Festival.

"Would you like to visit my house?"

On the plane to Italy, Monica leaned on his shoulder and asked with a smile.

"Okay, but will your father beat me? Blame me for kidnapping you?"

Duca chuckled.

"Maybe, but don't worry. I told him that you just participated in the Shooting World Cup and won three shooting championships. You were called the American Gun King by the media. I think he shouldn't dare to provoke you casually."

Monica covered her mouth and laughed.

"Sounds good, I decided to try it."

After arriving in Venice, Duca followed Monica to her hometown, Perugia, a city in central Italy.

Monica's father is a partner in a transportation company, and her family status belongs to the middle class. Mr. Bellucci is a heavy drinker. When he was young, he was a peripheral member of the Mafia and had a very tough temper.

The first time Duka drank with him, one drink each, it was like a duel, and in the end both of them drank and fell down.

Fortunately, Monica's mother was a very gentle lady and made him a lot of delicious food while she was at home, which almost made him want to open the door upside down.

——

After spending more than ten days at Monica's house, eating all the delicious food around, seeing all the scenery, and taking a lot of interesting photos, on September 7, the two came to Lido Island in Venice to participate in the film festival.

On September 3, the 48th Venice Film Festival was held on the Lido Island in Venice, Italy.

The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. It is held in Venice, Italy from August to September every year. It is also known as the three major international film festivals together with the Berlin Film Festival in Germany and the Cannes Film Festival in France.

Different from other film festivals, the Venice Film Festival places more emphasis on the "artistic nature" of films, believing that films serve serious art, and takes the artistic quality of films as the criterion for judging awards.

During each film festival, the organizer will screen hundreds of excellent films invited to participate in the film festival in the Lido Film Festival exhibition hall, divided into seven sections including the main competition unit, the horizon unit, the future lion unit, and the non-competition screening.

After the selection and voting of the nine jury members, the film with the most votes won the award.

A total of 14 films entered the main competition this year, including the Soviet film "The Spirit of Mongolia", the Portuguese film "The Divine Comedy", the Chinese film "Raise the Red Lantern", the American film "Unruly Sky", etc.

In the end, "The Spirit of Mongolia" won the Golden Lion Award, the highest award at this film festival. This film is about the loss of the Mongolian spirit. It is also a metaphor for the disintegration of the Soviet Union and has strong political implications.

Three films that won the Silver Lion Award for Best Picture were "Raise the Red Lantern", "The Fisher King" and "I Can Never Hear the Guitar Anymore".

The best screenplay award went to "Mississippi" starring Denzel Washington.

The Best Actress Award went to "Edward II" actress Tilda Swinton, who is best known for her role as the Ancient One in "Doctor Strange."

And River Phoenix won the Best Actor at this film festival for his superb performance in "Unruly Sky". The 21-year-old Venice Best Actor is the youngest actor to win the Venice Best Actor.

After receiving the trophy, Ruifan was sought after by many media.

"Unruly Sky" has also been praised by many filmmakers, who believe that it is a classic gay-themed movie and the best in ten years.

During the film festival, "Unruly Skies" received a good reputation after its release. Many people approached directors Duca and Sant, hoping to obtain the screening rights of the film.

After the awards ceremony, more people wanted to buy the film. Duca and Sant contacted a number of European film dealers, and finally sold the European film screening rights for 4.2 million, and the DVD distribution rights were also sold to him.

The package was sold to the publisher for 1 million.

At the same time, many film companies in North America came to the door to obtain the film screening rights and video tape copyrights, including Miramax film companies.

In the end, he chose Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment Distribution Company, which offered the highest price.

Columbia Distribution Company proposed two terms. The first was a share of 45% of the North American box office and a 10% share of DVDs. The other condition was a package sale of film screening rights and video tape rights, TV screenings, original sound albums, etc., totaling 7.6 million.

Dollar.

Duca chose the second one. Although it is possible to get more money by participating in the share, the release cycle of art films is longer than that of commercial films, which can be as short as two or three months, as long as two or three years, and even has a second round of screenings.

, the same is true for DVD, the release cycle is relatively long, often taking several years.

For independent production companies, sufficient cash flow is more important. Only with money can they shoot new projects. Some production companies choose to share the profits, hoping to encounter hit movies, but the company is too small and not strong.

When the company goes bankrupt, some of the shares have not yet been recovered.

Duca plans to wait until the company is able to participate in the issuance work in the future before choosing this sharing model. At that time, the company will be stronger and more resistant to risks, and there will be no need to rush to recover funds. It will be more profitable to choose sharing.

In addition to Europe and North America, film producers from Asia and South America also came to buy the rights. Duca and the production team were busy for more than half a month and went through more than 20 negotiations before selling all the rights.

In the end, all screening rights and surrounding copyrights were sold for a total of US$15.8 million.

This money is not only his personal income, but also the investment of director Sant and producer Loli Parker.

When they joined the crew, the two gave up their director and producer remuneration and chose to participate in the share after the fact. The two of them took a total of 15% of the share, nearly 2.4 million US dollars.

The movie was a hit, and Duca also gave out 400,000 US dollars to reward the working team, with River 200,000, Keanu 100,000, and the remaining 100,000 being divided among the production team and other supervisory members of the crew.

He and the company ultimately earned nearly 13 million, invested 2.4 million, and earned 13 million. The profit was nearly 6 times that of "Reservoir Dogs."

"Duka, I find that you are becoming more and more like a businessman."

Keanu looked at him and said.

"Why do you say that?"

Duca looked at the income statement and smiled.

"More than 80% of our motivation for making movies is because of film art, and a small part is to make money for food. But you guys make movies entirely to make money. Look at the way you were counting money just now, it's very vulgar!"

Keanu complained.

Duca smiled softly, "I won't deny what you said. I'm not an actor, director or professional filmmaker. My purpose of investing in Hollywood is to make money and make more money. If I don't make money, why should I invest in making movies?

In addition, you just collected my check, which is equivalent to holding my job. Don't call me vulgar at this time. If I don't invest money in your movie, why are you dedicating yourself to art? I created it for you.

Opportunity, understand?"

Keanu curled his lips, "I just don't want you to be blinded by money and become a black-hearted capitalist who only knows how to make money. You and I and River Winona have known each other for so long, why don't you learn from us? It's a bit

The style of an artist?”

"..."

Duca looked up at him, stretched out his hand and said, "Give me the check, and I can consider becoming an artist."

"No, this is what you gave me, my hard-earned money."

Keanu said, holding his pocket.

"Haha~, for you to repay an artist like this, I despise you."

Duca curled his lips and said.

The Venice Film Festival is over, and Duca and Monica leave to return to the United States.