Speaking of which, Viacom has a deep connection with Columbia Pictures. In the earliest days, in the golden age before the distant Paramount antitrust case, Columbia Pictures and Columbia Television belonged to the same company called Columbia.
Media Group of Companies.
Later, CBS operated independently and established a company called Columbia Television Sales Company to sell television programs produced by CBS to small local television stations. In the 1970s, the court ruled that CBS owned the television network and then wholesaled and sold television programs to other
The TV station formed a monopoly, so the sales company was separated and became the current Viacom.
In the 1980s, Viacom began to acquire its own television stations because the laws had changed under the relaxed policies of former President Ronald Sr., and the sale of TV series and owning its own television network were no longer considered monopolies.
By 1986, they already owned two important syndicated channels, MTV music television station and Showtime movie channel. At this time, Samuel Redstone, a second-generation family entrepreneur who ran a movie theater chain, acquired Viacom
shares in the company and became the controlling shareholder.
After Redstone took over Viacom, he also explored many new technologies, such as satellite TV, pay movie channels, etc. The most important thing is that they also opened video tapes and peripheral product sales for the Showtime movie channel.
business.
"Why is Viacom so interested in such a comic adaptation? This may be the reason..."
Ed Bastian, the president of the Daily News Group, received a call from Ronald. Among Ronald's colleagues, he was the only one who had the most experience in the business operations of movies and television.
There is actually a very troublesome thing about selling peripheral products of movies. Since the 1980s, movies have not been released for long enough, and they usually only stay in the cinema for a few months to half a year.
During this period, there was not enough design and manufacturing of peripheral products such as toys, clothes, etc.
If a movie becomes a hit, sales will rise to a very high level in a short period of time. Ordinary manufacturing plans will not have enough time to produce enough products.
What if you expand the scale of manufacturing and prepare for a truly popular product that is manufactured on a large scale? Then it is difficult to be sure that your movie will be a hit. By then, no one will care about the product you create, and it will have to be treated as garbage.
Therefore, although many companies are envious of Lucas for getting the ownership of Star Wars peripheral products and making huge profits, if you were the president of the seven major studios, you would not expand the peripheral products department on a large scale.
Movies adapted from comic books have this advantage. That is, as long as the movie is not too bad, there will naturally be a lot of comic fans who will pay for the peripheral products, and there is no need to worry about it becoming outdated soon after it is released.
Viacom, a comprehensive media company that has grown up from a sales company, will naturally not give up this opportunity. The conditions for their advance payment are the broadcast rights on the Showtime movie channel after Spider-Man is filmed, as well as various video tapes and
Peripheral products have priority rights to be sold through their sales channels.
"Can a TV broadcasting rights be worth so much?" Ronald discovered that the advance payment Columbia Pictures gave Minahan for the video sales was not as much as Viacom paid for the TV broadcasting rights.
The current video tape market is growing rapidly every year. The sales of video tapes of classic and old movies are increasing year by year (many families who buy new video recorders have to buy a dozen classic old movies). In addition, the labor unions in the past two years have
The strike reworked the remaining dividend ratio. Generally speaking, video tapes are now worth much more than TV broadcast rights.
Due to the new distribution agreement after the strike, many TV stations have to pay more money to the creators for new movies, and they are not limited to movies with a certain number of plays. The movies broadcast by TV stations also select old movies and movies that are not so good at the box office.
The trend of grade films.
Viacom did the opposite, and the money it paid was an advance payment. It signed the contract and allocated funds before Minahan even approved the project. It was really adventurous and very optimistic about Spider-Man.
"That's not entirely true. Viacom's new boss, Redstone, is a very ambitious man. He also wants to make his name through this movie..." Ed Bastian said
I also have some understanding of the characters in the TV industry.
"Okay, no matter how much it is, I'll go ask Cameron..."
…
"The project already has an advance payment, so I'm here to ask you to write a script for Spider-Man. As long as you can come up with something that satisfies Sony Columbia, I'll take care of it over there. They won't do it before they read your script."
Consider any other director..."
Ronald got the good news and immediately went to meet Spider-Man's big fan and good friend Cameron.
"What do you think this is?"
Cameron smiled, took out a bound text from the drawer, and handed it to Ronald.
"Good guy, have you already written it? No, this is not the number of pages of a movie script." Ronald knew the page number was wrong as soon as he started.
"This is a plot synopsis... It's not right, it's more detailed than a synopsis..." Ronald is also an experienced screenwriter and knows that movie scripts are usually one page per minute. A movie like Spider-Man with many special effects must be more than two hours long.
The thing I have in hand is only about sixty pages, but it is much thicker than the average plot summary.
"I call it a summary script..." Cameron smiled. He didn't know what the final result of this project would be, so he didn't spend any time on it. Instead, he wrote a summary of his thoughts about Spider-Man.
But his love for Spider-Man started when he was a child, and he couldn't stop writing it. He mixed some of the more classic plots in the comic together, and he couldn't stop it at once, and he wrote fifty-eight chapters.
Page.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Ronald read quickly. The protagonist is of course our good neighbor Spider-Man Peter Parker. The heroine was found relatively early, about the origin of Spider-Man.
The heroine of the period is Mary Jane. The villain is a man named Oak, who is a nuclear physics professor.
Because Dr. Oak's dream of building a small controllable nuclear fusion power generation device did not receive funding, he made a trial version using the technology at hand. The small controllable nuclear fusion device was also connected to several robots and installed on his
In the end, the whole person looked like a big spider, killing people because he was tempted by power and must get the budget to build a commercial version to benefit the world.
Ronald is not a comic book fan, and it is his first time to read many plot characters. He feels that Cameron's script is undoubtedly of a very high level.
"You're not going to hire Arnold to play this villain, are you?" On the last page, Ronald saw Cameron's hand-drawn sketch, which showed a muscular man with four robotic arms stretched out from behind him.
on his spine.
The villain Dr. Oak has been burned in many places on his body, revealing his electronic machinery. In pursuit of power, this man has turned himself into a half-human, half-machine monster.
"Hahaha, Ronald, let me tell you, you understand. I really want Schwarzenegger to play this villain."
"What do you think, Arnold? What's the schedule?" Seeing that Cameron was so well prepared, Ronald felt that this project was very promising and immediately began to inquire about the details.
"Schwarzenegger took the initiative to find me. Now he is in a heated relationship with a company called Carloco Pictures. They originally produced two movies in Stallone's First Blood series, but Stallone's current situation is not good.
Carloco would like to achieve a series of cooperation with Schwarzenegger."
Ronald nodded. He knew that Cameron and Schwarzenegger had a good relationship since they filmed The Terminator.
The current momentum of Carloco in Hollywood is very similar to that of Cannon in previous years. The First Blood series of movies has brought them super profits. In the past two years, they have been trying to move up from small producers.
, climbed to the position of a mid-level producer.
In addition to purchasing the studio of De Laurentiis, who was bankrupt and involved in the five major New York Mafia families in the past few years (which happened to be led by Rudy, who failed to run for mayor), they are still making attacks in various places, hoping to and
More action star collaborations.
Since Carloco is so eager to get Schwarzenegger on their ship, any conditions can be easily negotiated.
Ronald immediately contacted Minahan, and he got on the line with Mario Casal, the founder of Carloco. Carloco wanted to play big and prepared a production budget comparable to Batman
, hoping to enter the ranks of important Hollywood studios with this Spider-Man movie.
Even if it cannot topple the already failing MGM, it still needs to be similar to the current Orion. The minimum goal is to become a member of the MPAA classification committee and become a director.
Minahan Golan is a very bragging person. Without any foundation, he was able to obtain advances from many theater chains and cinema buyers in Europe with a few posters at the Cannes Film Festival.
money and began his journey to Hollywood.
Now I really have the rights to adapt Marvel's two most fan-based movies. When I met the people of Carloco who started making action movies, it was really like a duck to water. The blueprint they drew attracted Mario, the founder of Carloco.
·Cassar was stunned for a while.
"Quack, don't you know? Now Hollywood's most promising commercial film director to succeed Spielberg is Ronald. His first movie with a box office of over 100 million, 'Break Dance', was made by me."
We met that guy when we were attending a film festival in Montreal, Canada. As soon as I saw him, I knew he was a genius. Geniuses don’t need any restrictions, you just need to make them coffee and wait for them to perform.
His friend Cameron is also a genius, you already know this..."
"Yes, yes, Cameron is a genius..." Mario Casal nodded repeatedly. Although Minahan's finances are in a mess, when it comes to supporting artists, no one in Hollywood can compare.
.
Who could be so stupid as to give Godard of France a huge budget to make King Lear? He could also offer Zeffirelli of Italy a huge sum of money to make an opera film, but that's because he's afraid of having too much money.
However, he still expressed his agreement, "The key is to find real geniuses, not the kind of geniuses touted by the media..."
"You are absolutely right. If I had known you a few years earlier, I would not have been deceived by that bastard Yoram...cough...bah. You are absolutely right. I want to be truly recognized by the market.
A genius.
I was also stupid. At that time, I didn’t sign three, no, five film contracts with Ronald at once. I agreed to whatever conditions he asked for, and then I would be prosperous now, quack quack..."
"Yes, you are right. As soon as these geniuses are proven by the market, the shameless Seventh Group will come to snatch them away..."
Mario Casal feels that after the setback of being kicked out, Minahan seems to speak more objectively now. In the past, when I met him at the movie booking meeting in Las Vegas, I would only listen to what he said, but now I can still speak.
Listen carefully to yourself, it seems that it is true that setbacks make you grow.
When it comes to signing a few film contracts, Carloco will do the same with Cameron and Schwarzenegger. Minahan is an idiot. I can't make the mistakes he made. The only way to break into Hollywood and become an important player is
Being tied to talents like Ronald and Cameron, there is no wrong step.
"If all the conditions for this movie have been scripted, when are you going to start the project?" Mario Casal made up his mind. Minahan doesn't have much money now, and he wants to let Cameron know his strength through this project.
Then he pushed Minahan aside. His company would have to rely on this kind of talent to improve its quality.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Quack, what, actually, there is still one condition that is not met...that is, the change agreement between me and Marvel is about to expire, and it needs to be renewed.
, we also need to meet with Stan Lee, he has the veto power over changes in the movie, and we need to get his approval..."
"Well, that's it... Then we have to hurry up..." Mario Casal still prefers to let Minahan renew his contract. If it expires, Marvel may have to sell it to Seven, and he will also
Not necessarily a share.
However, there is definitely nothing wrong with Cameron's outline script.
…
The initial communication with Marvel was relatively smooth. Carloco Films is very strong and there was no objection from Marvel. The outline of the script was also praised by Stan Lee. He was very enthusiastic about the origin story of Spider-Man.
appreciate.
But, on the other hand, the negotiations for "Fantastic Four" are very difficult. There is no participation from a big director like Cameron, and there is no participation from a studio with deep pockets like Carlo Co. There is also Warner Bros. etc.
After taking over, Marvel's attitude towards the "Fantastic Four" is to drag...
Minahan went to Ronald's house again that day to report on the situation. His 21st Century Pictures, as the producer of "Spider-Man", must have taken advantage of the good times to return to the mainstream of Hollywood.
However, this opportunity was given to him by Ronald. The thing he values most is not yet clear.
"Ronald, Warner Bros. still hasn't contacted us. They are determined to let my adaptation rights expire..."
"They are expecting you to be unable to film the Fantastic Four in just a few months, right?" Ronald understood the causes and consequences in detail.
Warner Bros. has been in contact with Marvel, but they have never met Minahan. This kind of approach is to ensure that 21st Century Pictures has no background and can only watch the movie adaptation rights expire.
As long as Marvel doesn't renew your contract, we'll see you in court. How can an Israeli fight against Warner Brothers, a local snake with deep roots?
"I'm really sorry, I spend half my time running Fantastic Four things, but they are just a drag. I want to see their deputy director in charge of production, but I can't... these people are wearing handmade suits, but
If there were people like this in my company who don’t do any work and slack off in work, I would have fired them long ago.”
"What kind of sabotage? They are deliberately leaving you out..." Ronald said in his heart. He did not discuss this aspect with Minahan. After all, they mainly rely on Spider-Man to stand up. Now he can spend half the time busy with his own affairs.
, which is already very good.
"Don't apologize, I'll take care of this matter. Aren't they sure that you can't make the Fantastic Four in a few months? I'll show them what B-level movie speed is..."
"Huh?" Minahan Golan was greatly surprised. Although he is not slow in making movies, this kind of movie relies on special effects. Project establishment, script, special effects preparation, and shooting, it takes half a year, right? Then it takes another half a year to complete it.
The post-production special effects were done as quickly as possible.
Ronald himself also filmed "Ghost" and produced "Die Hard". He is a connoisseur, but why did he speak such a layman's language? What secret weapon does he have?
"Don't worry about this matter, I'll take care of it..." Ronald smiled and handed the coffee Diane made to Minahan.
"Okay, this is called coffee. When I was serving in the Israeli Air Force, this is what coffee tasted like..." Minahan sipped Nestle Instant, very happy.
Ronald turned around and saw Diane who had heard Minahan's words, waving to him with a smile, opening and closing her mouth as if saying "Coca-Cola"
"That's it, Minahan, let's go according to our plan. I have to go for a while, Coca-Cola has something to do with me."