Chapter 349 Would you rather have this than a hot dance?
Barry Diller, the junior boss and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox, gave Ronald one night to discuss the new film.
As a top executive in Hollywood, he is neither married nor has a regular girlfriend. His reputation as a workaholic is widely spread in the industry.
Ronald and Niceta made the elevator together to his executive office.
"Ronald," Barry Diller hugged him warmly, "I'm glad you thought of us."
Twentieth Century Fox is now suffering from considerable financial difficulties. When the oil tycoon Marvin Davis was chairman, the film shooting business was messed up. The projects all suffered huge losses.
Since the President took office, oil prices have been falling, and Marvin Davis' wealth has shrunk a lot in recent years.
The new partner he introduced, the Australian Rupert Murdoch, originally had an agreement with him. The two of them had to contribute proportionately to acquire a cable TV network "Metropolitan Media" and turn Fox into a TV and film network.
Entertainment Group.
But when the acquisition agreement was finalized last year, Marvin Davis couldn't even come up with the promised proportion of capital.
With no other choice, Murdoch had no choice but to acquire Malvern's remaining shares in 20th Century Fox and directly control the listed company.
This is particularly embarrassing for Barry Diller. The contract he negotiated with Marvin Davis included a clause for him to obtain a part of the equity and become a small owner.
But Murdoch's acquisition messed up all plans. Especially this Australian, who is of Irish and Scottish descent, has an unclear attitude towards Jews.
Originally, Murdoch's foreign nationality could still prevent him from taking full control of the media group, and Barry Diller still had time to introduce new investors.
But unexpectedly, this Australian had extremely good mobility. He quickly obtained American citizenship and officially became the owner of Fox.
Due to Murdoch's interest, more in television. Barry Diller spent only a small amount of energy on the film production business here, looking for projects with low production costs but high box office potential.
Ronald's project has become synonymous with Hollywood spending a small amount of money to make big profits. So he is also willing to cooperate with him.
To be able to come to 20th Century Fox to seek distribution, this project must have some obvious shortcomings, and his colleagues did not agree. But fortunately, such a project will be his turn.
"I'm sorry that the target market of this project is too narrow. Our current film production department's selection criteria for projects must be high-concept and mainly for male teenagers... If you have any other projects, I am willing to hear about them.
listen."
When they met Barry Diller, he said almost the same thing. Ronald and Niceta looked at each other, and they knew it. It seemed that these Jewish executives did have some tacit understanding.
Niceta is familiar with Italian directors and actors, and he has actually heard a lot of rumors. In fact, during the golden age of Hollywood, Jewish gangs were much more ferocious and had more control over stars than Italian gangs.
And now I think that in the movies at that time, there were always only Italian gangsters, and no one had ever seen a movie released by a major studio that told the story of Jewish gangsters.
"What if I continue to revise the script? For example, adapt the story to be more oriented to male teenagers?"
Ronald followed the plan he had planned and began to test.
"For example, a Jewish male teenager fell in love with a woman who was a dance partner for the guests on vacation. I switched the identities of the male and female protagonists and made the male protagonist a guest on vacation and the female protagonist a backup dancer.
Girl, do you think there’s any chance of getting a distribution contract from Fox?”
"Of course that's good." Barry Diller twisted his body and his voice began to rise.
Suddenly, he saw Ronald's bright eyes looking at him, and hesitated again, "But this will cause your script to lose its original tension. Do you want to revise it and come to talk to me again?"
"That's true. I'll find someone to take over first and change things." Ronald leaned back on the sofa and said a few perfunctory words.
"Do you have any more projects in hand now? As long as they are aimed at teenagers, especially male teenagers, I am very willing to consider them."
Barry Diller didn't want to miss this opportunity and tried to find some cooperation possibilities again.
"If there is a script you like in our Fox film library... we can discuss it."
Ronald looks calm on the outside, but is already cursing in his heart. These Jews are really fake. It is just a love story of a Jewish girl. It is necessary to make it like the Hays Code of the year, considering what ethnic group girls are indecent.
?
Feeling angry, Ronald took out another script from his briefcase.
"I actually have a script here. It tells the story of an ancient Egyptian princess who traveled to modern times and became a clothing model made of wood. Only in the dead of night will she become a real person and meet her sweetheart.
.”
If everything pushes down the market potential, let me show you a bad movie and see what you say.
Barry Diller took the script with great interest and read the synopsis.
He read quickly. After five minutes, he closed the script and took off his glasses.
"I think this script is very good. I will arrange for the production manager to contact your agent. We will make this film. It would be best if you can direct it yourself. If you cannot direct, you must also serve as a producer. As long as you agree to this
If the conditions are met, Twentieth Century Fox is willing to sign a distribution contract."
"Do you like this one?" Ronald took the script from the other person's hand and looked at the cover. It did say "Exuberant" on it.
He couldn't believe it, so he opened the script again and quickly glanced at the beginning and end. It was indeed the story of the wooden beauty.
"Would you rather do this movie than 'Dirty Dancing'?"
Ronald checked in again with Barry Diller.
"Based on your role as a producer or director. Yes, I am more optimistic about the market potential of this movie."
Barry Diller took the script and slapped it on the cover. Then he shook hands with Ronald and said, "That's it."
In the car going back with Niceta, Ronald had not yet come to his senses.
"So they would rather make this piece of trash? Rather than make a movie like 'Dirty Dancing' that is both artistic and story-telling? It's obvious that the potential of that movie is much stronger than the story of that wooden beauty."
"I'm afraid if you take out the script of 'Gone with the Wind' now, any studio will put it into production."
Niceta looked at the depressed client and told what he thought was the truth.
In this highly uncertain market, if there are people like Ronald who are good at selling whatever type of film he makes, whether as a director or a producer, then he will be better than those on the film review committee who hold a week-long meeting to make the selection.
The script needs to be more reliable.
"There must be something wrong with this world." Ronald shook his head.
"It is completely wrong to deny such a good script because of such a small ethnic reason."
"Is there any way you can really change the protagonist's ethnicity as you and Barry said, and then try it again?"
Ronald thought for a while, "It's difficult. The screenwriter Eleanor adapted it based on her own experience, and there are a lot of details in it. If you change one ethnic group, there will be problems, and the gears will no longer fit together perfectly."
"For example, the resort center they went to was specially built for Jewish people. If it were changed, the conservative social atmosphere would be broken.
Moreover, why can’t a Jewish girl get along well with an Irish backup dancer boy? Such an ethnic setting would have added a very good dramatic background to the script.”
"I'm just making an opinion. I'm on your side and supporting you. How about we go to a small publisher and try it?"
Niceta thought while trying to persuade Ronald.
"Small publisher, Minahan from the Cannon I know is also a Jew. And Mr. Coleman is also a Jew."
"Mr. Coleman is very liberal. He has made many popular movies. I don't think he can be regarded as one of those Jewish executives.
As for Minahan, he is from Israel and is not from the same circle as the Jews in our country. Maybe they think differently."
"Okay, I'll go talk to them, but it really doesn't work. I invest in production and distribute by myself, but I don't believe it. Without relying on these distributors, the movie can't be distributed!
The brother and sister who produced the previous film 'God Is Crazy' sold copies to local theaters in one state after another and toured America for screenings. Not only did they recoup their investment, they also made a huge profit."
Ronald was infuriated by the hypocrisy of these Jewish people. He was in the state of a complacent young man, so he became ruthless and said everything he wanted to say.
"There's no rush, we'll take a long-term approach."
Niceta was a little frightened. He didn't want this client to give up his great career as a director and producer to do some distribution work.
American movie theaters, since the Paramount case, are no longer vertically tied and monopolized with studios. If you really want to, you can negotiate with each theater and distribute it yourself. There is no law prohibiting you from doing this.
However, the cost of bypassing the existing distribution system is prohibitively high. As long as the Big Seven signed contracts with all major theater chains in the country at the Las Vegas Film Expo a year ago,
And set a schedule.
If you miss the trade show now and hire your own people to negotiate with thousands of theaters across the country, you will very likely lose your pants.
Although for an agent, it is not necessarily a bad thing for a client to be in debt. But Ronald's upward momentum is very good now, and there is no need to risk everything for a musical.