Chapter 324: Copyright Problems with the Terminator Sequel
The script of "Fantastic Four" is based on the plot of Stan Lee's comics, which of course tells the story of four astronauts who were exposed to radiation in space and became superpowers, and then defeated the evil Doctor Doom.
The script had to be written quickly. Roger Corman found Craig Neves, the screenwriter of last year's movie "Happy Together" starring Helen Slater, to write the script.
It's fast, although the quality is very average, and it smells like Disney's inferior cartoons.
We also had to find a director quickly, and Oli Sasso, a director who made TV movies for Disney, was chosen. He was also a photographer himself, so he did the work of two people for one salary.
The actors were quickly found, and they were all ambitious and talented actors from B-level movies and TV series. In addition, Roger Corman had a wealth of special effects and makeup resources, and most of the special effects were done through
Costumes, props, and makeup are all available.
Including the effect of the stone man, it was done using a leather suit. The actors were asked to put a lot of fake muscles on their bodies and wear a leather suit with painted stones. It was just a little harder to perform.
The only thing that needed Ronald's help was the computer post-production special effects artist to do two key space radiations to mutate the protagonists, and the final scene where Doctor Doom exploded. Ronald put the three teams that did the special effects for "Ghost" into
Two engineers were assigned to help, and the project started running with great fanfare.
…
"Jim, you're here..."
Ronald, who was coordinating the deployment of special effects personnel and resources on the phone, saw Cameron and his new wife Kathryn Bigelow coming to visit at home. He quickly hung up the phone with a few words.
Several people chatted about the progress of Spider-Man. When Ronald saw Bigelow going to chat with Diane, he immediately pulled Cameron and lowered his voice to talk about more private things.
"The outline script of Spider-Man has been submitted by Minahan to Columbia. If they approve it, we can start financing. In addition to the advances from Columbia and Viacom, I have a lot of Wall Street money that I want to invest.
About half of the budget is no longer a problem.
In addition, I will invest some as the first round of financing. If you are interested, you can also invest some?"
"I don't have much money now, and my divorce from Gale... took away a lot of my salary for filming the Alien sequel and The Abyss. I also hold half of the copyright of The Terminator. When I was making a movie as a director, I also used a
The US dollars were given to Gale. Now the most valuable thing to me is this 25% copyright, but the producer Heimdall has already owed me a lot of dividends."
Cameron touched his nose. Now he has no worries about food and drink, but there is not much wealth left from the three movies. He is really worried about the risks when he invests in Spider-Man.
"It doesn't matter, I'll keep the investment amount for you. Then you can sell it to subsequent rounds of investors and make a fortune and leave. You can use your remuneration to invest in projects to offset the investment amount, or you can use Heimdall's terminator.
You can also get a copyright mortgage loan. In short, we will pay the first round of dividends after the box office is obtained, so we won't treat you badly..." Ronald knew that now everyone is making movies based on comic books, and they are all aiming at Jack Nicholson, who became rich overnight.
At this point in time, letting the main creators see the big pie is a necessary condition for making high-quality movies.
"Thanks, brother..." Cameron was also grateful for this and patted Ronald on the shoulder. He was an old friend and there was no need to be polite.
"What are you talking about?" Bigelow and Diane came over.
"Let's talk about going to the Golden Globe Awards and attending the Sundance Film Festival with you." Ronald changed the topic knowingly. It was not that he was afraid of talking about Cameron's ex-wife in front of Bigelow.
But in general, it is better for everyone to keep such financial matters as personal privacy. Who knows how the couple arranged their finances?
"Ha, I was just talking to Diane about which dress would look better during pregnancy."
Kathryn Bigelow's new movie "Blue Steel" has been edited with the help of Cameron. Because the lead star of the movie is actually the heroine Jamie Lee Curtis, and the male lead has nothing to do with it.
fame. So the distributor MGM took the independent film festival route and sent it to this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
In this film festival led by Robert Redford, last year there was a phenomenal independent film "Sex, Lies, Videotape", which swept the Palme d'Or in Cannes, as well as various film critics associations, writers' unions, and other Oscar outposts.
Awards.
Therefore, major companies began to pay attention to this independent film festival in Utah. This kind of award-winning in turn aroused the curiosity of the audience, and obtained the film schedule of many theaters, making this small production with a shooting budget of over one million,
It earned close to 40 million at the box office.
This is Bigelow's first time filming a mainstream commercial film worth tens of millions. If it succeeds at the box office, it will be officially accepted by Hollywood. Ronald was very happy when he saw her, and the ambition and excitement hidden behind the smile almost spilled out.
.
"It's a very conservative design, but Diane seems to think it's okay..." Ronald smiled and pointed to the cloakroom next to him, asking them to see the dress specially prepared by Diane, a floor-length black dress, elegant.
To be elegant, you can also wear flat shoes to make Diane more comfortable.
"Did you spend a lot of money on this?" Cameron trailed behind and asked Ronald quietly.
"Yes, it took me a lot of effort to achieve a balanced result... ugh"
People in Hollywood say, choose the Oscars and buy the Golden Globes. This so-called award selected by the Foreign Correspondents Association can be manipulated secretly in many places.
But here's Ronald's trouble. There are too many stars in "Steel Magnolias" that Diane is starring in, and Ronald can't have the final say alone. For example, Sally Field was signed up for the drama heroine category.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Julia Roberts, who also has a lot of roles, has been adjusted to the nomination for Best Supporting Actress. This makes Diane Lane's qualifications for the selection
That's the problem. It's rare for a movie to get two Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globe Awards.
The nominations for leading actors and actresses in the Golden Autumn Awards are actually divided into two major categories: drama and comedy or musical. Another film "When Harry Met Sally" directed by Ronald was nominated for comedy or musical.
Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Film, both nominated.
But there is only one spot for Best Supporting Actress because there are not many stars. Diane's role is less than that of Julia Roberts, so it is difficult to apply for Diane and replace Julia Roberts. Especially since the latter has received great reviews
Home in sought after condition.
Teague asked Diane to apply for Best Actress, which would make people even more suspicious. It might turn into a scandal like the rich man buying the award for his girlfriend a few years ago, and then the gain would outweigh the loss.
Fortunately, there was a mini-TV series before Diane, "Lonesome Dove". In it, she played a kind-hearted prostitute Lorraine, accompanying Robert Duvall's Gus, and Tommy Lee Jones's
Woodrow, the story of the last cattle drive north to Kansas.
The miniseries did well in the ratings, with a 28% rating and a total of 44 million viewers. What's more, Diane's performance received praise from critics.
For last year's Primetime Emmy Award nomination, Diane was still busy with her marriage to Ronald, so there was not enough public relations to help her win. This opportunity was given to another outstanding actress in Lone Dove.
Anjelica Huston.
At this year's Golden Globe Awards, Ronald directly designated Diane to be nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries. His public relations consultant Michael Gray launched a large number of parties and celebrity meetings in Los Angeles to "bribe"
"After getting enough members of the Foreign Correspondents Association, plus the help of Richard, Niceta, Paula and others, we spent a lot of money to make Diane happy.
Generally speaking, the difference between the Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards for TV series is smaller than that between the Oscars and the Golden Globe Awards. Therefore, if the crew has two heroines who both perform well, the general treatment is that one of them will go to the Emmy Awards.
American awards, one goes to the Golden Globe.
Just like Diane's biggest competitor this year, the heroine of the TV series was changed based on the most famous case of American women's rights, "Roe v. Wade".
Just like Diane and Anjelica Huston signed up for the Emmy and Golden Globe awards respectively, this TV series with a very advantageous subject matter, Holly Hunter, who played the pregnant client, won the most Primetime Emmy Award.
Best Miniseries Actress.
Amy Madigan plays the role of a female lawyer who goes to the Supreme Court to argue and finally wins the case. She is the one who applied for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries.
…
Diane felt in her heart what Ronald had done for her, and happily chatted with her good friend Laura Dern about going to the Golden Autumn Awards Gala. She also invited her father, Bert, to come from New York to attend her first
An awards night for a possible important award.
She won the Best Young Artist and Most Promising Actress Award for two consecutive years for "Love at the Sunset Bridge" and "Love is Deeper". Later, "The Naughty Boy" and "Betta" also won consecutive awards.
Nominees for this award are famous rising stars in Hollywood.
But after being delayed by Coppola, he only received double nominations for the Golden Raspberry Award once for "Streets of Rage" and "The Cotton Club". Since then, he has not been nominated for any awards.
So the prospect of being nominated and possibly winning made her extremely happy.
Ronald waved to Laura Dern, the actress who played the girl in the punk band with Diane back then. He still had a messy matter here, so he didn't want to talk to her anymore.
"Jim, I assure you, I tried my best on this matter. I don't know why the summary script was rejected by Columbia. The reasons I heard are not very convincing. I'm afraid it is other reasons."
Ronald was on the phone with Cameron. He was accompanying Bigelow to the Sundance Film Festival. But there was news from Columbia Pictures that neither of them expected.
The more than 80-page outline script written by Cameron was rejected and rejected within two days after it was submitted to Columbia.
Ronald was originally very optimistic about Cameron's script. Jim's script may not have much breakthrough, but it has always been excellent in terms of balancing characters, plot, and commercial value.
This Spider-Man script is no exception. The grievances and hatreds are very interesting. When Peter Parker becomes Spider-Man, his main enemy is his college teacher Dr. Oak, and the heroine is his high school classmate Mary Jane, whom he has a crush on. There are various clues.
It is very fully developed, and it is a wonderful commercial film script no matter how you look at it.
Ronald also felt that, not to mention that the script itself was very good, even if it was not good, he could still get a green channel based on his good relationship with Sony, right?
Who knew that Columbia Pictures would call it back, and the reason was very depressing. Jon Peters, the vice president responsible for greenlighting the project, directly pointed out at the script discussion meeting that the script was similar to the storyline of Spider-Man comics.
, no innovation.
Guber is currently being sued by Warner Bros., his former co-distributor of the private company. He should be in a state of distress, but he is good at fighting for power. The new company must be careful about the quality of the first batch of films produced, and all release rights are withheld.
into a so-called production meeting.
Jon Peters and CEO Peter Guber were partners before, and the two had a good relationship that could wear a pair of trousers. Ronald's insider at Columbia Pictures, Frank Price, was weak and had one vote.
Two votes, outnumbered and defeated.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Because of such a small matter, it was difficult for Ronald to go to Dahe Sang to intervene directly. When Sony acquired it, he also expressed his position to the commander-in-chief and the congressmen, and hired
White American managers and Japanese people do not interfere in Colombia's production business.
"I don't blame you, but with this difficulty, it seems that it will be difficult to make progress in the short term. I had planned to focus on Spider-Man work this year..." Cameron is an old brother after all, and he has nothing to do with this matter.
Blame Ronald.
"What a pity. Otherwise, you could make a sequel to Terminator? I remember that you still hadn't finished filming half of the plot back then, because of the technical limitations and insufficient budget at that time. Now from what you did in 'The Abyss'
Those computer-generated special effects shots should be ready for filming, right?"
"Hi...Ronald. We can talk about our friendship directly. I have wanted to film it for a long time, but half of the production rights belong to Heimdall and a quarter to Gale.
Heimdall also has financial problems and has no money to make such a big production. As for Gale, as long as she is willing to join forces with me to make the request, there is still a chance, but..."
Gale Heard became the producer of Cameron's last movie "The Abyss". However, the relationship between the two broke down. It was very painful for both of them to remain objective on professional issues without a relationship. It is unlikely to happen again.
Serves as a producer on Cameron's films.
Gale didn't want to take advantage of Cameron by giving up 25% of the production rights of such a potentially successful work.
"The problem on Heimdall's side is actually not big. Lawyer Lindsay Dole is still in Los Angeles. She and lawyer Mitch Kanter have also talked about this kind of production rights. As long as a company is willing to pay, it can be sued.
ways to deal with it.”
"Oh, how to sue?" Cameron was indeed very interested.
"Didn't you say they owe you dividends..."
"That's it?" Cameron listened to Ronald's plan and was surprised by its simplicity.
"This is Heimdall's weakness. Our goal is not to share dividends. As long as you can jointly sue with Schwarzenegger, the only bargaining chip they can use to settle out of court is the Terminator copyright. As long as there is a company willing to take this
The person taking over…”
The two agreed, and Cameron and Schwarzenegger jointly entrusted Mickey Kanter to sue Heimdall for the various dividends and balance payments he owed.
"Now there are only 25% of Gale's side..." Cameron still felt uncomfortable thinking about the painful time when his ex-wife divorced him, and he didn't want to communicate with Gale anymore.
"Let me talk to her..." Ronald offered, and Gale was also a good friend of hers. It would be a pity if a sequel to such a wonderful movie as The Terminator could not be made because of her being stuck here.