Exploiting Hollywood 1980 Chapter 1023

  Chapter 1023 A movie is on the verge of bankruptcy

  All of Jean-Claude Van Damme's editing theories were learned from Walter Murch as a trainee, and his ability to do it himself was learned from two Chinese directors Corey and Tsui when he was filming "Boxer" in Xiangjiang.

   Whether the "biochemical man" can be brought back to life, and whether his and Longger's star journey can be smooth again depends on the results of this editing.

With the editing room that Ronald gave him for free, he wanted to add some insurance, so he contacted CoreyYeun, and TsuiHark, and asked them to come to Hollywood to guide his editing work, and when he needed to make up action shots , there are two Xiangjiang directors to help out.

  In the office, knowing that Jean-Claude Van Damme worked so hard, Ronald felt that he could help the actors who worked so hard. He also called the two of Xiangjiang and invited them to come over. Daydream will be responsible for the board and lodging in Los Angeles.

  The two quickly forgot about Xiangjiang and rushed to Los Angeles immediately. Seeing them coming in with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the office, Ronald asked his assistant to make tea for them.

   "Jean-Claude and I have known each other for a long time. He is not only a good action actor, but also very aggressive and wants to be a director. There are some problems in this movie, and I hope you can help him."

"Yes, Ronald. It's the saddest thing for an actor to see a movie he worked so hard on, but it can't be released because the producer withdrew his funds." Jean-Claude Van Damme is good at karate, and gets along with Corey Yeun That's right, it's not a problem to want to help him a little bit.

  After talking about the "biochemical man", Ronald called his assistant to make another pot of black tea, "Jean-Claude, please allow me some private space with the two Xiangjiang directors."

   After seeing the assistant close the door, Ronald took out two checks from the drawer. Corey's "Dragon and Phoenix Twin Swords" and Tsui Hark's "Peerless Two Heroes" both made small gains in the video tape market. Ronald generously gave them both some bonuses.

  Especially in "Dragon and Phoenix Twin Swords", Luo Fuluo is a Caucasian woman, coupled with the fierce action design of Xiangjiang martial arts director, which made many low-level audiences very happy to watch. The popularity of "Peerless Two Heroes" is even worse.

  Many viewers don't understand why Qiu Yunbo and Luo Fuluo are flying around in the sky. Is it a fantasy literature like Lord of the Rings? And that man with a lot of powder and gorgeous clothes (the **** of the East Factory in the plot), what is his identity? How could there be DragQueen in ancient China?

  However, this ancient fantasy travels through the "Peerless Two Heroes". In one place, it is more popular than "Dragon and Phoenix Swords", that is, the areas where the major Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans live. It seems that East Asians have their own national legends and stories, and they are more able to understand this style of action movies.

  The two directors were very happy. Corey Yeun likes modern action films. He decided to help Jean-Claude Van Damme with some post-shooting work. The two went to see the unedited film first.

  Tsui Hark's bonus was much less than Corey's, and he stayed to ask Ronald, "Luo Sheng, why are my films not popular in America? Is my film worse than Corey's?"

"From a personal appreciation point of view, I actually like your movies better." Ronald felt familiar when he saw the flying scenes of "The Peerless Two Heroes", but it was another more realistic action For the movie "Dragon and Phoenix", he felt that it was much worse than Jackie Chan's fighting scenes.

"This is actually a matter of viewing habits. The sales volume of video tapes in Chinatown is still yours. I hope you will make more films of this kind, so that the audience in America can gradually like films with Chinese cultural backgrounds. Just like the Dongying movie decades ago, which was broadcast late at night on many TV stations, it has cultivated a group of fans of Akira Kurosawa."

   Ronald has long-term plans. The various films in Xiangjiang and the mainland are completely different from Hollywood methodologies, and have their special cultural background blessings. In fact, the viewing experience is different from Hollywood commercial films. In America, there are a large number of Asian people. As long as they insist on releasing Chinese-language films and videotapes, their viewing needs can be met.

   And this trend of watching Chinese-language action movies and flying martial arts movies will slowly penetrate into the mainstream crowd. Anyway, for this type of film, there is not much language barrier, and the exciting action scenes are not available in Hollywood.

  As long as there is a certain audience base, they can continue to produce low-cost exploitation films and distribute Hong Kong old films. This kind of low-cost films can expand the audience as long as they can make a profit.

  The expansion of moviegoers, in turn, can support a higher production budget and enter a virtuous circle.

  Of course, this kind of production upgrade requires a masterpiece that can go out of the circle and enter the mainstream movie-watching crowd. Just like Akira Kurosawa's role in Dongying movies, after him, America has a place in Dongying movies.

   "That may require a Hong Kong movie that meets the tastes of American audiences..." Tsui Hark and Ronald had the same idea, and he immediately began to think about making another Hong Kong-style English film in Hollywood.

   "Hmm...", Ronald didn't say anything right away. This is to be considered as a Hollywood commercial project. I haven't dreamed of any Chinese-English movies, so the risk is not small. At this stage, Ronald prefers to use low cost to operate at a low level and cultivate the market.

   "It's very risky, unless it's a sequel to a movie, so you can try it... Hey, wait a minute..."

  Ronald remembered the story he thought about for the third part of "The Dragon King". Anyway, I don't want to shoot anymore, but TsuiHark's style suits my idea very well:

  Daniel and Master Miyagi dreamed of returning to the ancestor of Master Miyagi, the ancestor of family martial arts, who drifted to the South China Sea due to a shipwreck, learned Tang Shou from a Chinese master, and came back to start Ryukyu Karate.

   Isn't this style very suitable for your plan?

"You stay here for a few more days. I'll talk to Weintraub. If he's interested, you can go with us when the time comes." Ronald told TsuiHark his thoughts and let him start thinking plot and action.

   "Jerry, why are you so hard to find? Can't even I call you?"

   A few days later, Ronald called Weintraub, and someone finally answered. This old man didn't know what he was busy with. Ronald made several phone calls himself, but only the secretary answered him. It was impossible to ask Richard to send a message. Finally, he found his wife Jane Morgan's phone number and called him. Go to the house you always live in.

   "It's me, Susan, Jerry..." It was Weintraub's lover, Susan Akins, who answered the phone. The relationship between her and Mrs. Weintraub is very strange. Usually Weintraub and Susan live outside, and return to Jane Morgan on weekends and holidays. The two women do not avoid suspicion, and occasionally get along in the same house. .

   "What's wrong with him?" Ronald thought Weintraub had a physical problem.

   "He shuts himself up at home every day. It's useless to persuade Jane and I. Can you come? Now only you, the one who helped him achieve great success, can cheer him up."

   "What's wrong with Jerry? Is he depressed?" Ronald thought it was funny. How could such a tycoon who made his fortune by fooling Elvis Presley to hold concerts hide at home because of depression and not come out to meet people? Wouldn't it be debt avoidance? Thinking of this, Ronald retreated a bit.

   "No, he's just... can you come? Please..."

   "Give me the phone..." Jane Morgan was on the other end of the phone, taking the phone from Susan who couldn't make sense of her words.

"Ronald, come here, Jerry is a fragile man, he can't get hard because of a few projects, this Jew without eggs, come and talk to him, what is the real America? Spirit."

  Jane Morgan's voice was loud, and her speech was ugly, as if she was pointing at her husband's nose and cursing.

   "I'm not depressed, you woman, don't slander me in other people..." Weintraub hid in the upstairs bedroom, opened a door, and yelled at his wife.

"You Luther, I knew you couldn't do it. You haven't done a single thing with eggs except secretly **** your best friend's daughter. Ronald, he needs a Winner to teach him that men are the most important thing What quality is it, there must be eggs!"

"I have **** eggs..." Weintraub couldn't bear Morgan's taunt, and rushed out in his pajamas, "You're calling Ronald? Hurry up, ask him to come, maybe he's here I will be saved."

  Ronald came to Weintraub's mansion again the next morning, and dug an artificial river for swimming to the mansion at the entrance of the living room.

   Before entering the door, I saw a few people in suits and leather shoes sitting in the living room, drinking coffee. When he got closer, Ronald recognized with surprise that the tall man in the back was his regular lawyer, Mickey Kanter, nicknamed Gray-Eyed Mickey Mouse.

   "Mitch, what are you doing here?"

   "I can't tell you, lawyer-client confidentiality agreement..." Mitch Kanter patted his briefcase and winked at Ronald.

   "Oh, then, good morning...", Ronald didn't understand what happened to him, why he came to block the door early in the morning.

   "Let me introduce to you, this is William, the best bankruptcy lawyer in our law firm..." Mitch Kanter gently mentioned the word "bankruptcy" in his introduction, causing Ronald to raise his eyebrows.

   "I'll go talk to him first..." Ronald said goodbye to Lawyer Kanter first, and went upstairs to see Weintraub.

   "Jerry, what the **** are you doing? What the **** happened?" Ronald asked when he saw him. Only Susan was in the room, and his real wife, Jane Morgan, was nowhere to be seen.

   "Fuck, I'm **** careless." Seeing Ronald, Weintraub regained some of his former self-confidence.

  He told Ronald the reason why he fell into this big pit.

   It turned out that Weintraub founded Weintraub Films after being used by MGM's Kerkorian and mercilessly swept out.

   He was very resentful for not being the CEO of MGM. Since his success in the record industry, few people have looked down on him like this.

   In order to express his anger to Kerkorian, Weintraub did several big things when he came up.

   First, he lobbied the major studios, and tried his best to obtain financing based on the reputation of his two Longwei Boys with a box office of over 100 million. In the end, Columbia Pictures and a Canadian cinema group jointly guaranteed and injected capital for him, and he finally raised more than 460 million US dollars in loans on Wall Street.

  Second, he also signed a 20-year distribution agreement with Columbia Pictures. As long as the quality of the film is acceptable, Columbia will release his film. Therefore, he approached many Hollywood producers and negotiated projects everywhere. Weintraub has fully absorbed the experience of being successful with Ronald, and he is watching the news from all over the world that Susan organizes for him every day.

  What UFO kidnapped men for 20 years of research, and they will stay young forever after returning; the CIA abandoned the American prisoners of war in Vietnam and let them fend for themselves. Then find a screenwriter to write the script.

  He thinks these scripts will sell well, and has invested in six new directors in a row, all of which are big productions worth more than ten million dollars.

  Third, he also took over the Marvel Company and Mattel Toy Company that were spit out after Cannon Pictures' financial difficulties. Weintraub Films not only wants to auction blockbuster movies, but also engages in the entire industry chain.

  The toy company happens to be able to sell a variety of peripheral products. Its own vision is outstanding, and the scripts and directors it likes are sure to sell well. This way, they stock up peripheral toys in advance, so as not to run out of production capacity after the release and waste great opportunities.

   And comics have a huge fan base. As long as comics are adapted, people will come to support them. He only needs to come up with one or two comic stories every year, and comics are also a huge market opportunity for peripheral toys.

  With such a great plan, Weintraub thinks that within five years, he will be able to become a production company with the size of the top seven in Hollywood. At that time, I will come to buy MGM Pictures, which has been half-dead by Kerkorian... Let him also taste the feeling of being kicked out.

  By the way, at that time, the name of MGM will be taken back, so that his hotel can no longer use the MGM trademark, so as not to dirty such a good film company.

  However, the spread of the stalls was too large, and after the stock market crash, it became a big hole. All six film projects have faced withdrawals from investors. Weintraub had to make up the investment himself.

  Those scripts were repeatedly asked to be revised in order to be a hit. In the end, the screenwriters went on strike again, and all the investment in advance was frozen there. Up to now, none of the scripts have been finalized, let alone attracting stars to join and confirm the schedule.

   Just when Weintraub took advantage of the end of the screenwriters' strike, he finally finished the scripts of the two films and started preparing to start work...

   Bang... Another unexpected tragedy happened.

  Because of the contraction, Wall Street began to think about the 460 million loan. Wall Street's lawyers are very high-level, and they found loopholes in some of Weintraub's financial operations, and caught him not having a movie project approved for more than a year, announcing that he would stop lending.

  When the economy was bad, the most terrible thing, the loan draw, happened to Weintraub.

  So, Weintraub, who couldn't figure out why he was unlucky for a while, was depressed under the huge contrast, and didn't want to see people, especially his friends when he was successful, hiding at home and getting moldy.

   "Oh, God, are you really going to file for bankruptcy?" Ronald didn't expect such a thing.

  Since the establishment of Weintraub Films, a film has not been produced yet, so why is it going bankrupt?

  It is not difficult to understand if the movie you made fails at the box office and therefore goes bankrupt. The film industry has always been a high-risk industry, and there are many such things.

  But Weintraub failed without making a movie like this. Ronald didn't know if it was the first case in Hollywood.

  Maybe it was the two Longwei Boys that Ronald made for him, both of which earned more than 100 million box office. Weintraub had the illusion that he had a discerning eye, and movies were a high-return investment strategy for him. But ignore that high returns have always been accompanied by high risks.

   Or, Weintraub never imagined that the risk could happen to him.

   "Okay, do you want to make the third part of Longwei Boy?" Ronald proposed.

  Anyway, with the prestige of the first two films of Longwei Boy, it is not difficult to raise funds. Instead, I have to make some financial and legal preparations, and I can't let Weintraub Films become a producer, so as not to be dragged down. With this movie sequel alone, Ronald is still sure to make money.

  (end of this chapter)

Chapter end