Chapter 244: A science fiction film was edited into an action film
"There are several movies here that follow the trend of mature themes and have very good patriotic connotations. I think we can choose these movies to shoot."
Early the next morning, Ronald came to work at Daydream, and David Simkins, the script supervisor, gave him several movie scripts that he thought were in line with recent public opinion trends.
A film called "Kickboxer" tells the story of two American kickboxing brothers (a type of fighting developed during the Bruce Lee era). The elder brother went to Thailand for a boxing match, but the Muay Thai boxer ignored the signal of throwing a towel and surrendering.
Beaten to death in the ring.
The younger brother found a reclusive Muay Thai fighter, and after receiving special training, he developed a unique technique. He came to Thailand, killed the villain in a life-and-death battle, successfully took revenge, and won the championship in the fighting competition.
This movie has many similarities with Jean-Claude Van Damme's previous movie "Fighting". With a stroke of his pen, Ronald changed the final fighting competition to a kickboxing competition in which the protagonist represents America.
The villain represents Muay Thai in Thailand.
The national flags of various countries were also hung in the finals. When the protagonist's brother was defeated, the Stars and Stripes were thrown down as an insult. After the younger brother won, the Stars and Stripes were hung as the champion.
"That's the secret to a hit..." David Simkins wrote down the adaptation of the plot dictated by Ronald with a smile. The best thing about his boss is that he can sense the taste of the people.
"Who do you want to star in?" Michelle Cannold looked at the script and shook his head and laughed. This kind of silly script is more likely to be loved by the audience at this special moment. If it is released at another time, it will definitely be criticized as a retarded move.
piece.
"Why don't you ask Jean-Claude Van Damme, his movie Cyborg is about to be released." Ronald saw a lot of karate kicks in the script and thought of this Japanese star.
The second script is called "Showdown in Little Tokyo", which tells the story of two Los Angeles LAPD detectives who bravely break into a Japanese settlement called Little Tokyo, break out of the Yakuza, and rescue the people who were killed by them.
Controlled beauty.
The script depicts Little Tokyo as invincible, and the people here still abide by the Japanese Yakuza code. It is a dark world ruled by Yakuza, and even the ordinary LAPD dare not enter to enforce the law.
So how should we show the charm of the Stars and Stripes? Ronald thought for a while and added a more mentally retarded plot. The speakers here are mainly Japanese Americans who were left over from World War II and were imprisoned in the camps and their descendants.
They were very dissatisfied with America and secretly raised plaster flags in Little Tokyo. Two LAPD detectives, one white and one Japanese, bravely broke in. With a gun of blood, nunchuks and Japanese knives, they
The beating made Yakuza howl, and after rescuing the beautiful woman who was controlled and kidnapped by them, he threw the plaster flag on the ground and raised the Stars and Stripes, letting these Japanese people in a lawless land know that America can defeat them once.
Able to defeat them a second time.
"Hey, this script...", David Simkins was about to laugh out loud. This is purely violence for the sake of violence, and the plot is forced to honor the Stars and Stripes. But forget it, now the people want to see this
A joke about the invincibility of the Star-Spangled Banner.
"Let Lundgren play this?" Simkins asked.
"Well, he can... find a Chinese action actor to play the Japanese police detective. Their action scenes are more beautiful." Ronald touched his chin. The reputation of Japanese people in America is still very bad, so he borrowed it again.
Let's take a look at their bad reputation and become a villain.
The third suitable script is called Best of The Best. It tells the story of the members of the Korean team in the Taekwondo World Championships. They all received strict training from childhood and enjoyed comprehensive financial support from the country.
Humanity's fighting machine.
The American team is made up of professional enthusiasts from all walks of life. Under the guidance of a coach who values freedom and individuality, it brings together blue-collar workers from car factories, boxing gym coaches, street fighters and other people with full personalities.
The participating team members went through intensive training and finally went to Korea.
In the end, America and Korea met in the final, and both sides suffered a large number of injuries. In the end, the Korean player who represented America in the competition was able to KO the opponent and win the game, in order to prevent his opponent from being fatally injured.
, gave up the supplementary punch.
In the end, the Korean team won, but their players were moved by this great sentiment of giving priority to sportsmanship and voluntarily gave up the gold medal and hung it around the neck of the American team.
"Well, add a gold medal ceremony and a ceremony of raising the stars and stripes." Ronald saw all kinds of ironies and metaphors in this script. For example, the Korean team is not actually amateur players, but professional players trained by the country. And
For example, here in America, all athletes are amateurs, and professional athletes are not allowed to participate, etc. This is obviously making fun of the Olympics.
There are also Korean people who are assimilated by America's spirit, actively move closer to each other, etc... It is also a metaphor for the real-life national relationship between Korea and America.
Ronald will increase the popularity and add a gold medal and national flag scene. Anyway, the Olympic Games held in Korea last year have not completely passed the fever. By then, the film can be sold to Korea to test the market.
There was no suitable candidate for this movie. The action actors Ronald worked with had either a karate background or a martial arts background in Hong Kong. None of them had practiced taekwondo. Ronald thought of his old partner, Long Wei Xiaoli
Stuntman Darryl Vidal asked him to recommend some Taekwondo experts.
"In short, it's just a principle: shoot fast, shoot as fast as Roger Corman." Ronald no longer cares too much about the details of these small productions, and just asks Daydream's executives to speed up the production progress.
, I don’t know how long this heat will last in America. We should seize this opportunity as much as possible, and pick up as many leaks as we can during the summer season and the following off-season.
The most important thing, of course, is to quickly release the video. The vast central and western regions and the Deep South region are the areas with the most passionate opposition to the Supreme Court's decision. Let them find the illusion in the movie video while they are feeling lost.
of comfort.
"Will you go to the premiere of Cyborg?" Michelle Cannold, who was in charge of distribution, asked Ronald to arrange it.
"I'm just going to a premiere in Los Angeles, where I can chat with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lundgren about their new film, and I won't go to the rest. My own new film When Harry Met Sally will be released soon, which I
I will go to a few more premieres.”
Ronald is now like a family man. He wants to go back to be with Diane after spending four hours in the office every day.
"Okay, let's arrange it like this." Michelle Cannold directed the staff of the distribution and marketing departments, including Claudia Wells, to start preparations.
"Does the new film have any particularly strong competitors?" Ronald asked Michael Gray, the consultant in charge of marketing.
"This year's summer season opens with a lot of sequel movies, including Lethal Weapon Part 2, Ghostbusters Part 2, and Star Trek Part 5... 007's latest License to Kill..."
Michael Gray showed Ronald the marketing plan for the new film. These sequel films are all films that do not require much investment in marketing. Daydream and Weintraub Films co-produced the third part of The Dragon King.
The same goes for it, it will start filming in the second month of the summer season to avoid these sequel movies.
"When Harry Met Sally" directed by Ronald himself has a different audience than action movies and sequel movies. Michael Gray expects it to be slightly older than the usual movie audiences, college students or
Working young men and women are more interested in this kind of subject matter.
The good thing about this type of movie is that if the audience recognizes it, word of mouth will spread spontaneously, allowing audiences who rarely go to the cinema to watch it.
The disadvantage is the same. Teenagers who usually go to summer movies automatically may not understand this kind of love story with older male and female protagonists.
Moreover, these target audiences may not necessarily be on TV channels such as MTV, which are easier to target. To find them, it is not easy to place trailer ads.
Michael Gray, taking inspiration from last year's and Millennium's Oscar-winning approach, gave Ronald a word-of-mouth marketing plan for summer copies.
When "When Harry Met Sally" was first released, it was limited to no more than 50 theaters. Waiting for word-of-mouth and film review articles to come out in the first weekend, it will slowly expand the scale of the show in the second week.
.
The goal is to open 500 theaters in the second weekend. If the word-of-mouth and movie reviews are as good as in the third weekend, it will be expanded to 1,500 theaters.
The advantage of such a small-to-large screening is that it can maintain a relatively high reputation and movie rating. In addition, small-scale screenings can easily increase the average box office performance of a single theater, which makes it easier to convince movie theaters to allocate money to When Harry Met
More screens for Sally.
"That's it, if you have anything to do, ask my assistant to call me..." Ronald finished explaining the business and hurried back. His assistant, the fat girl Ricky Lake, pouted. This boss is now enjoying family life.
First.
…
"I tried to make a mushroom soup, do you want to try it? Wang taught me..." Diane began to try her cooking skills again at home.
"Hmm, not bad." Ronald took a sip and put it down. Then he called the nanny in Chinese, "Wang Ma, do you have anything else simple? Make me something to eat." There was another problem with the preparation of this mushroom soup.
There are too many condiments.
"Well, I'll try it again tomorrow..." Diane took a sip and started to feel disgusted, "By the way, little Douglas is calling to see you."
"Hello, Doug, this is Ronald..." Ronald quickly called back to little Douglas.
"Little George called and asked us if we could make some movies or TV series related to patriotism and love for the Star-Spangled Banner. The commander-in-chief is officially siding with both houses of Congress."
"Okay, I was decorating this morning, is this coming?"
"Mr. Eighty percent." Little Douglas smiled.
After George Sr. became the commander-in-chief, he did several things that made the political circles see through this person's background.
Unlike the previous commander-in-chief who could overcome difficulties and use his communication talents to call on voters to write letters to their respective representatives and senators, and promote bills that were originally impossible to pass in both houses, George Sr. was completely a speculator.
What he is best at doing is not to take a position on an issue, and then after taking a good look at everyone's position, he then chooses a position that 80% of the members agree with, and then mobilizes all resources to let the media focus on it.
This location is reported.
Finally, when the spotlight and camera lens turned around, the commander still struggled to stand in the middle of the first row and be the one with the brightest smile in the photo.
"Hey, I really didn't know he was such a person." Ronald shook his head. During the election campaign, old George didn't stand firm, so why is he swaying in the wind now...
However, he does not have the charm and goodwill among the people like his predecessor, and he cannot be a non-stick commander like his predecessor, so it is understandable to be cautious. Ronald immediately put the titles and synopses of the three movies he was about to shoot.
Little Douglas said it and asked him to convey it.
"By the way, how's that business?" Ronald asked again about the FBI's pursuit of the wiretapping case. The suspect died in the Beverly Police Department, and the FBI was disgraced, but Detective Claire returned.
, but he hinted that he would continue to investigate.
The phone line was not a secret line, and Ronald had learned his lesson and used code names.
"Our friend (Little George) said that the current trend in the financial department (FBI) and consumer (CIA) department is very detrimental to the market in the Middle East (Jews). The big boss (big boss) just took the opportunity to rectify it. We
Need to wait for a while."
"Really? When the big client didn't renew the contract (the suspect died), did it really mean that an insider leaked trade secrets?"
"They did a great job and left no evidence. The internal audit department (FBI and CIA's internal investigation) is investigating." Little Doug talked about the intelligence disclosed to him by Little George.
There are many Jewish agents within the FBI and CIA, but none of them are like those real moles who deliver intelligence and technological intelligence to Israel.
Generally speaking, these Jewish agents are loyal to America and have lived in this country for several generations. How many of them would commit such a serious crime for the sake of the so-called Jewish motherland?
Their complaints and anger are actually due to a very strong pressure. Within the two organizations, they are suspected by people of other ethnic groups, and internally, they also hate the real moles extremely.
In the current patriotic upsurge, the reason why these people have a difficult life and have no chance of promotion is that they were harmed by those moles, which made the loyalty of the entire ethnic group doubtful.
"Will you be coming to New York soon?" Douglas Jr. finally asked.
"I'm still going to the premiere of When Harry Met Sally..."
"Haha, it seems that you really enjoy married life."
…
"Ronald, it seems you are really enjoying your married life."
At the premiere of the new film Cyborg, the two male protagonists Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lundgren took Ronald to take pictures in front of the theater. Both of them had served as Ronald's bodyguards and were wearing the clothes in the movie.
costume, surrounded by Ronald on the left and right, and assumed a muscular bodyguard pose.
"Hi..." Ronald felt that this was not a good way to publicize, so he rolled up his sleeves and imitated the two muscle action stars, trying his best to bulge his biceps.
"Cyborg" is a movie originally invested by Minahan Gran's Cannon. It was originally a wasteland science fiction style, but after the filming was completed, Cannon's financial situation was tight and there was no money for post-production special effects.
Jean-Claude Van Damme himself did not want the film to be locked in a warehouse, so he approached Ronald to discuss taking over the distribution. Finally, he bought the film himself, edited it himself, and finally completed the film.
"Wow, wow, wow...", Ronald and others applauded after watching the movie. Jean-Claude Van Damme created a small miracle, turning a bad movie that had no money for special effects into a complete
A completely different movie.
He re-edited some of the wonderful action scenes between himself and Lundgren, and flexibly used the techniques he learned from Hong Kong action film directors to vividly edit a science fiction film into an action film.
No special effects shots? Just use action close-ups.
Isn’t the action close-up long enough? Then slow it down and repeat it. A fighting shot is repeated at normal speed, then slow motion, and finally interspersed with other people’s reaction shots, and then the best second of the action shot.
And then put the ending.
In short, just take off and kick the villain in the head, and repeat it three times in slow motion.
The audience had never seen such a wonderful fighting scene, and they were so excited that after the premiere, they gathered around the two leading actors and asked them to recreate the slow-motion flying kick.
It was really impossible for the two action actors to achieve the slow-motion effect three times on the spot, so they had to use muscle poses to fool them.
Even so, the audience was also very happy, surrounding the male protagonists and not letting them go, wanting to go up and touch their muscles.
"It actually had a box office of close to five million in the first weekend?" Ronald got the box office statistics and thought happily. It seems that American audiences like this Xiangjiang-style editing method very much. It has been created in more than 800 theaters.
With such a good box office, it actually ranked fifth in the box office list. Cyborg is expected to create a small box office miracle...