Life in a quiet village in Xianshan

Just as Gu Siwei was about to rush to Lucasfilm excitedly (George Lucas established his own film company in 1971, the name was Lucasfilm).

The place was not far away. Also in San Francisco, Gu Siwei took Guan Youpeng and the new general manager of Legend Film Company, who was the former deputy manager of the film company, a white man named Dave McCollum.

Why is he the deputy manager? It must be because the manager has quit. What else could be the reason? Gu Siwei didn't stay here. If he doesn't quit, someone else will take over. So the deputy manager was promoted to a full-time job and became the new manager of Legend Film Company.

Gu Siwei accepted all the original employees who wanted to stay, and did not keep those who did not want to stay. Almost all the employees were here, but some people in the middle management were gone. Overall, the company could still maintain normal operations.

Dave McCollum is a white man, in his forties. He is not tall, about 1.75 meters, but he is very heavy, almost 200 pounds. He is a fat man, not only fat but also a little bald.

However, Gu Siwei is not here for the beauty pageant. It doesn't matter whether he is fat or bald. As long as he does a good job and satisfies Gu Siwei, then this Dave McCollum will be the general manager of Legend Film Company.

Gu Siwei's principles for finding a manager are two: obedient and easy to use!

I don’t know if Dave is like this, but it will take him a while to conclude that it is not.

With two people, three people in a car, and Dave driving, we came to Lucasfilm together. Because the current Lucas has not yet risen to prominence, and is not the Lucas who made "Star Wars" yet, so whatever Lucasfilm says at this moment, let's leave it that way.

Lucas is already waiting for Gu Siwei and his team at the company.

It was not only Lucas, but also people from Universal who were waiting for Gu Siwei. With new investors coming in, how could the people from Universal not come?

Everyone sat down and started discussing investment.

"If we can spend another 400,000 US dollars on post-production, it would be perfect."

The person who spoke was called Coppola. It was a pity that Gu Siwei didn’t know who this person was. Judging from the time when he was born, it would be good to know Lucas and so on. As for Coppola who filmed The Godfather La, Gu Siwei had never even heard of his name, so he was defined as an ordinary director by Gu Siwei upon meeting him.

It’s not that he hasn’t seen The Godfather, it’s that he doesn’t know that The Godfather was filmed by Coppola, it’s that simple.

"no problem".

Gu Siwei first set his tone. Since he wanted to hold on to the big tree of Lucas, four hundred thousand dollars was nothing, even if this movie he knew was a hit, and there was "Star Wars", right? ?

However, Gu Siwei thought about it for a moment and felt that with the methods of such a great director, he might not know how many 400,000 US dollars would be waiting for him later. The movie is not just made, it has to be publicized and distributed. This is where the money is spent. place.

So Gu Siwei thought for a while and suggested: "How about I bring in another company to invest for 400,000 US dollars?"

As soon as Lucas heard that 400,000 yuan was available, he didn't care how many companies came in to invest money. As long as there was money, it was a good thing.

"No problem!" Lucas said simply.

As for Universal, would they care about a movie with an investment of only $600,000 and a new director? To be honest, in the parlance of later generations, I make hundreds of thousands of dollars a minute around the world. You want me to send people to watch a new director and invest 600,000 US dollars in a movie?

If Coppola's "The Godfather" hadn't earned $300 million at the box office, Coppola's role as the film's producer would have made Universal feel that even if it invested $600,000, it wouldn't lose much.

Maybe Universal still thinks that if this film loses money, that would be better, because it can let Coppola lose a favor to Universal. In this case, with Coppola's current popularity, I don't know how much money he can make back by making a blockbuster film. Six hundred thousand.

Who is Gu Siwei going to pull?

Naturally, he invited Old Friends Film Company to come in.

Although Old Friends Film Company has his shares, he is not his biological son. DreamWorks and Legendary Film Company are his biological sons, and Old Friends Film Company is at best a godson.

The most important thing is that Gu Siwei doesn't know whether this film is profitable or loss-making. Thinking about the name "American Gracious Painting", it doesn't seem like he is a money maker. Lucas, who makes science fiction, is really uncomfortable making something like this. Can it make money?

At this moment, I don’t know if it’s because I’m not thinking clearly or if I just had a sudden idea, I decided to invite my old friend, the movie guy, to come in.

If you make money, it's good. You own shares anyway. If you lose money, then you lose money together. It just so happens that you lose less.

A new company has joined, and the contract cannot be negotiated today. Although Gu Siwei is the president of Laoyou Film Company, his shares are not guaranteed.

But overall, this meeting was quite friendly. Anyway, for Lucas, this was a good thing, because Gu Siwei guaranteed that if the company did not invest, he would also invest the 400,000 US dollars.

In other words, the film "American Graffiti" is no longer an investment of US$600,000, but an investment of US$1 million.

For Lucas, who has too many movie ideas, life can finally be a little more relaxed. Ideas that could not be realized before can now be realized.

After leaving Lucasfilm, Gu Siwei returned to the hotel and felt that it was almost time. It was time for the boy to get up, so he hung up the phone to Yu Wei.

Yu Wei was sitting at the dining table at home, eating bread, drinking milk, and reading the newspaper. He felt a little strange when he received a call from Gu Sibowei.

You know, Gu Siwei almost never calls him.

“Invest in American movies?”

When Yu Wei heard Gu Siwei's thoughts, he was immediately confused.

"Why do you suddenly want to be cast in an American movie? Being in Hollywood is a technical job."

Yu Wei now defines himself as a filmmaker. As a filmmaker, Hollywood is the place of dreams. Even in his dreams, Yu Wei wants to go to Hollywood to be famous.

But Yu Wei is also realistic. He deeply understands that one aspect of Hollywood is the scenery of standing under the spotlight, and the other is the scenery of lying in the coffin board and coming back for a big funeral.

Of these two kinds of scenery, he has heard that the latter is the most common. Many Asian filmmakers want to enter Hollywood, but few of them are making money yet.

"When you woke up this morning, you told me that you wanted to cast a new director?"

Yu Wei felt that Gu Siwei might be here to make fun of him.

Gu Siwei didn't bother to talk to him anymore: "I asked my old friend to offer one hundred thousand US dollars. Do you have the courage to take a gamble?"

"Don't provoke me, you're investing 100,000 yuan now, and you won't have to pay for it when the movie is ready, released, and promoted? When we get there, our eyes will be blank. When they pay the bill, I will give you a poster of 500,000 yuan." U.S. dollars, do you want to pay for this or not?

I said, you don’t know the strength of our old friends now. We are struggling to support Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong. What are you going to do by provoking those idiots in Hollywood?" Yu Wei said.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, I have acquired an American film company, now called Legendary Pictures, which will be responsible for this investment. They are very good at cost control," Gu Siweihe Yu Wei explained.

"Then what else is there to say? I won't object to my old friend's investment this time!"

"Well, why did it change so quickly?" Gu Siwei smiled.

Yu Wei said: "You can buy a film company just to invest in a movie. What can't you invest in, my old friend? The key is that you are always more lucky than others. You are so confident now. If I don't invest, it will be wrong." How silly!"

Well!

Gu Siwei really didn't expect Yu Wei to think so.

"Is it just one hundred thousand? Can it be more?" Yu Wei asked again.

Gu Siwei was speechless: "One hundred thousand is too little? Otherwise, I have decided to invest a total of four hundred thousand. How about you come to three hundred thousand?"

"Then forget it, just one hundred thousand."

Yu Wei actually wanted to know how much Gu Siwei invested. If Gu Siwei invested too much, he would add a little more. Now the total is only 400,000. He thought it would be safer to invest less money.

As for how much he could earn, Yu Wei really didn't dare to think about it. He just thought that it would be nice to make a little profit when he didn't lose money.

In this case, why did Yu Wei vote again? It's not because it's Hollywood. As a filmmaker, if you go for a swim there, even if you drown half to death, when you come back, everyone will tell you that I have been to Hollywood. people.

loss?

No one will lose if he goes, I am going to gain experience.

In short, if Yu Wei is not stupid and throws money in to get some coins, how could he not go? If he throws money with a blind eye, Lao Yu will really have to calm down.

But now that Gu Siwei has bought a film company in the United States, he still has no hesitation.

So after Lao Yu finished talking to Gu Siwei on the phone, he didn't even eat and threw the newspaper on the table in front of him.

"Lao Yan, my name is Lao Yan, I am going to Hollywood this time!"

Good guy, what Yu Wei said was murderous, and he had the majesty of killing a general with thousands of troops.

After buying the nearest plane, Yu Wei showed up at the San Francisco Airport with people from Old Friends Film Company. Naturally, Lao Gu was the one who picked me up, and there was nothing to be polite about. We all went to Lucasfilm together.

On the way, Gu Siwei and Yu Wei briefly introduced the content of the movie and the current stage of the movie.

Yu Wei heard that Coppola was the producer, and his eyes instantly lit up.

"I...the money invested was worth it."

Um? !

Gu Siwei looked at Yu Wei.

Yu Wei said: "Coppola! Coppola!"

Seeing that Gu Siwei was still confused, Yu Wei said: ""The Godfather"!"

"Holy shit! I was just telling you how you look so pretty, it turns out it's him!"

Only then did Gu Siwei realize that the guy he saw last time was this great god. At first I thought it was just like that, but now I think about it, he is indeed a very heroic person.

Gu Siwei felt that it was a pity that he did not catch the Godfather train and let Coppola escape, otherwise he would have to profit from the Godfather's box office.

I regretted it a bit, but thinking about "Star Wars" and "Titanic", Gu Siwei felt better again.