Chapter 313 Do you want to invest in the last emperor?
"Hey, it was just a waste of two days. The actual interview time was only a few minutes. In the end, Her Majesty the Queen's security chief asked her for questioning for a long time."
On ABC TV's international entertainment news, Aunt Karen was so excited to see Ronald, Minahan and Jeremy Thomas, two fat men, being received by Her Majesty the Queen of Britain that she calculated the time difference.
The call was placed to Ronald's hotel room in London.
Ronald, who was eating a large portion of fish and chips, started chatting with his aunt. This delicacy invented in the slums of East London, to put it bluntly, is fish wrapped in batter and fried, then dipped in various sauces
Served with fries.
Common people's delicacies all have this characteristic. They are high in calories, high in carbohydrates, deep-fried, and have a strong flavor. It made Ronald eat very enthusiastically. It reminded him of the breakfast pancakes with fried dough sticks that he had eaten in Xujiahui. It was the same way.
number.
"Then the queen didn't talk to you about her life experience? Her royal friend is your grandmother, is she a best friend? So after calculation, are you a relative of his grandchildren? Will she give you a title or something?
?”
"No. We are actually very distantly related. The Spencer family separated from the royal family eight generations ago. Even if we are related, we are called eight third cousins separated by three generations. Basically,
It just doesn't matter.
But the two princesses and I can be regarded as third cousins (third cousins) within three generations. Well, but...but the prince doesn’t seem to like me very much, so I promised Buckingham Palace not to make this relationship public."
Ronald took a bite of the still hot fried fish and said, "Don't talk about it. I brought two cashmere scarves for you and Donna. I heard that Earl Spencer started his career in wool weaving.
There are still people in the family who are engaged in the old trade, so they specially gave me a few."
"Well, take care of yourself in Britain. I heard the people there are very bad."
After talking to his aunt about the messy distant relations with the royal family, Ronald hung up the phone. This kind of ancestry can be traced back to seven or eight generations. In fact, most British people can be connected with a certain noble in history. Under the great living conditions
Before modern times, many poor people could not leave any descendants.
"Ding dong..."
"coming"
Ronald finished the remaining fried fish in three bites, wiped his hands, stood up and opened the door.
"Ronald, hey hey. It's me."
A fat man with a thick neck who looked like a manual worker from the East End of London was laughing at the door.
"Jeremy, please come in."
It turned out to be independent producer Jeremy Thomas. Ronald was happy to have someone come to visit, but he was also a little strange, why was he here?
"I'm glad to see a British man come to visit. I really want you to come and chat with me. The rest of my crew have gone back first." Ronald took out a bottle of whiskey from the wine cabinet and gave it to Jerry.
Pour in the rice.
"I went to watch your 'Top Gun' last night. It is indeed a commercial film with superb skills. There are many things I don't understand, so I took the liberty to find it. As a producer who has been making films outside Hollywood for a long time
, I am a little unfamiliar with the new trends in Hollywood.
Why does your movie seem to be edited faster than others?"
"You may not watch MTV very often, but the new generation of young people all like to watch music videos, where a complete story must be presented within three minutes, so the pace must be fast and a large amount of space must be left for the story...
"
Ronald never refuses communication between colleagues. You don’t know who you will hear one or two brilliant ideas from, which will be used in subsequent movies.
Besides, he also wanted to know more about the filming of "The Last Emperor" in the Forbidden City, and he himself wanted to make a movie with the theme of his motherland.
"The Last Emperor is based on the autobiography written by the child emperor who ascended to power at the age of three when he was old. They were very cooperative and even hired his younger brother and the people who were managing him in prison at the time to serve as consultants for the film.
After Director Bertolucci finished writing the script, he repeatedly confirmed every detail, costume and set in the script with them, striving to restore the last emperor of that ancient and mysterious empire."
"I've never filmed a period drama like this before. From what you can tell, it's very difficult."
"Yes, the investment in period dramas is very large. In addition to the Forbidden City being kindly opened to filming, the casting was also very difficult. I finally persuaded Peter O'Toole to play the role of the imperial master Johnston, and the male and female protagonists were chosen to be Chinese actors.
Bertolucci found that although East Asians all look similar, there are subtle but obvious differences in temperament among Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. The audience can tell at a glance whether they are authentic."
"Of course," Ronald thought to himself, even this producer who raised 25 million US dollars didn't know much about culture. Ordinary people in the three East Asian countries have very different temperaments.
"This movie will definitely cost a lot of money, but I just want to shoot the afterglow of this two-thousand-year-old empire, an epic masterpiece. To do it seriously, it is really very expensive. Thousands of extras have to be paid every day, and there are also
They have to be equipped with appropriate clothing, armor, weapons, and then hundreds of costumes, makeup and hairstylists, all of which have to be flown in from Europe or Hollywood."
"Huh?" Ronald thought to himself, something doesn't seem right. He has been to Xujiahui Film Factory. The Ministry of Culture there has a policy of fully supporting the export of culture to the world, and everything can be matched. Besides, the policies there are
Labor costs are very cheap, how can they be as exaggerated as Jeremy said?
"So 25 million US dollars is completely insufficient. I couldn't reveal anything in front of my colleagues at the reception ceremony that day, otherwise they would completely ruin the matter.
I have to maintain the public image that I have no problem with funding and that people just like to invest in successful movies."
"Matthew effect? I understand. Do you still need money? Isn't 25 million enough?" Ronald asked.
"Of course it's not enough. A small half of my financing came from Heimdall Productions (the producer of Terminator), and the rest I worked hard to find little by little. And this movie has not yet found a distributor.
So in addition to the production costs, I also need to prepare a reserve fund in case there are problems with the filming there. I also need to be prepared to distribute it in America, even if it is screened in one state after another.
For a movie of this epic nature, Hollywood distributors are very timid, a bunch of eggless bastards and cowards.
I am very confident that 'The Last Emperor' can rival David Lean's 'Lawrence of Arabia' in terms of awards and box office."
"How far are you short?" Ronald wanted to know more details. He really wanted to invest in this movie. There are too few movies in Hollywood to promote Chinese history and culture. There is nothing wrong with having such an opportunity to let the audience know more about Chinese history.
good.
"There's about 10 million left, can you invest?" Jeremy Thomas was overjoyed. There are very few investors who are so easy to negotiate with.
"Ten million? I don't have that much money. I'm just a director. It's the producers and film companies who make the big money in Hollywood."
Ronald retracted his hand that was about to reach into his wallet for his checkbook.
Jeremy Thomas is a man who speaks without limits. He speaks for ten million dollars. He denied it in public before, and now he speaks like a lion. He really can't be trusted.
"No?" Jeremy Thomas felt a little frustrated. "In fact, ten million includes a reserve of two million and a distribution budget of eight million. You can get it with only two million. But there must be others around you.
People are willing to invest in your vision."
"Ronald, art is great. There is a very bad trend in Hollywood now, which is to only make films that have been proven by the market. Some films clearly have the potential for artistic achievement and box office potential, but those who don't understand it at all
The senior management of the film studio refused to give the green light. It was for this reason that I became an independent producer.
"I agree, but I really have no money."
Ronald actually quite agrees with Jeremy's statement. Movies rely on the interest of stars so that studios can confidently invest in them. This inevitably leads to a dislike of groundbreaking genre films. In order to minimize risks, stars
It also focuses on movie scripts that fit the image of the star.
"It doesn't matter, as long as Ronald you are willing to take the lead in investing, many people in Hollywood will follow. I know they all believe in your vision.
I know that you are interested in Chinese culture. People don’t know the greatness of Chinese culture, and that Confucius wrote great works comparable to the Bible thousands of years before we entered London.
This is a great history, and together with Bertolucci, I will slowly open the curtain of this ancient and mysterious country and show it to everyone in the world."
Jeremy Thomas went on to talk a lot about Ronald's support of Asian culture.
He knew that Ronald had criticized the movie "Year of the Dragon" that insulted Chinese Americans, supported the protests against injustice suffered by Chinese Americans, and filmed the mysterious mentor of Japanese Americans, Master Miyagi.
When many people look at the magic of Japanese companies, they also think that Japanese people are really powerful. They are not as resistant as they were in the past to those who took away their own jobs. After all, their products are indeed of high quality and low price.
"Let me think about it carefully."
Ronald thinks what he said makes sense. The success of a movie can sometimes evoke a change in the status of an ethnic group. If an epic movie like "The Last Emperor" cannot be made perfectly because of a small amount of money, then that's it.
What a pity.
But some of Jeremy Thomas's ways... Although understanding your customers is a basic requirement for sales, but having studied yourself so thoroughly that he even asked about supporting Chinese Americans always made Ronald a little uncomfortable.
.
"Of course, of course...but you are a benchmark. As long as you can support it, even if it is hundreds of thousands of dollars, I can raise more money in Hollywood, so that Bertolucci can give full play to his role.
"Well, let me think about it. My financial affairs, especially film investment, need to be discussed with my agent and accountant."
Ten million is fine, hundreds of thousands is fine, why does this sound so unreliable?
"This is the phone number of my assistant in Hollywood. Contact me as soon as possible. As long as you can invest, I think someone from the seven major studios will be willing to consider releasing this film in America."