"He is my college classmate. Haven't you seen his graduation work? It's very good." Ronald looked at the name of the screenwriter that Samuel Goldwyn Jr. showed him and found that he was the one who studied at New York University.
When I was in school, one of the three directing students named Lee was Ang Lee.
The encounters between people are like rivers on the plains, dividing and reuniting. When he was filming a commercial, he was asked to work as an assistant director with the black director Spike Lee. After not seeing each other for a few years, he already had a production
film and distribution company, and Ang Lee is still looking for the opportunity to direct his first film.
"Really? He is your classmate? I have seen his graduation work, and I can make a movie just by watching it. When the filming of my new film Mystic Pizza started, I couldn't find anyone to change the script, so someone recommended it to me.
Thanks to him, he has a lot of insights into romantic comedies.
He submitted one of his scripts to me, and after the film is released, I will invest in his new film. I will use the original male and female protagonists of modern Cinderella, and I am very optimistic about him."
"You are really lucky, Samuel. I didn't know he was still in America. I thought he went back to his hometown. If I knew..." Ronald thought to himself, if he knew that Ang Lee had ideas, he would definitely
Prioritize investment.
Ang Lee's graduation film reflects his level. There has been no director's work in so many years. It's definitely not because he doesn't know how to film and can't find a production company willing to invest. The level of directing is like being pregnant. You will know who you are after seeing your works.
Whether you can make a film or not, you can't deceive anyone. I guess you still insist on your own directorial work, and you are not willing to make all kinds of movies.
Ronald and Godwin nodded goodbye and made a note on their notepad, asking those who daydream to pay attention to Ang Lee. If there are suitable projects in the future, they can also invest in it. Talents are rare.
After leaving the Producers Alliance, Ronald and Minahan found a place to chat for a while.
Minahan now has more free time, and Cannon no longer needs him to make the decision on many things. He only cares about the movie itself now.
Perhaps after understanding the lessons of success and failure in the past few years, Minahan is no longer obsessed with collecting all kinds of famous directors and stars who have passed. He focuses more on his favorite genre films——
Comic adaptation.
"I have now collected a large number of comic book movie adaptation rights. After Yoram knows that his current approach is not successful, I can make the movie I like." Minahan is now in a much better spirit, Ronald
It seems that he has somewhat regained his passion for movies.
"This is indeed suitable for you..." Ronald chuckled. Minahan really likes comic book adaptation movies. In the past two years, he has filmed Superman 4, Unicron He-Man, and other comic book adaptation movies.
In fact, when Minahan was a director himself, the films he made on other subjects also had an exaggerated, pretentious, and specious comic-like feel. Maybe if he really shot this style of film himself, it would suit his performance?
Think about it, at the Montreal Film Festival in Canada that year, the extremely disgusting movie "The Apple", if it had been a comic story, wouldn't the audience throw things on the stage?
"However, comic movies generally require a lot of special effects shots. I saw that the special effects in your fourth Superman movie didn't get much praise."
Ronald thought of the fifty-cent special effects in Minahan's movies. If you really wanted to make a movie based on a comic book, you would really have to invest money in special effects.
"That movie was a mistake. I released too many movies at that time, which diluted Cannon's investment in Superman movies. Now I have learned my lesson. EMI is strong, and after the merger with Cannon, as long as they realize that Hollywood needs
If you invest heavily, sooner or later you will abandon Yoram's path and return to the right path."
Minahan now criticizes his cousin Yoram's ideas a lot. He waved his hand and smiled, as if there was a big screen in front of him, and the Spider-Man, Captain America, and He-Man Part 2 he bought were playing on it.
Fantastic Four and other movies.
Then the audience cheered, stood up, applauded for a long time, and threw all kinds of flowers at him...
"We just have to make this kind of movie, and this kind of movie can make the audience like it...Ronald, let's work together again, shall we?"
"Uh..." Ronald felt that this Israeli was a little crazy. After his cousin Yoram seized power, he seemed to be unable to accept reality.
Until now, Hollywood comic book adaptation movies have always been the favorite of low-cost producers like Roger Corman. Those biubiubiu green laser special effects only cost a few bucks. Really big productions have successfully made a lot of money.
Only the first two parts of the Superman series.
The audience's tolerance for blockbusters and low-budget exploitation films is completely different. If you spend a dollar to go to a midnight theater to watch Roger Corman's science fiction film, you will know that the things in it are fake and terrible, and you will accept that.
Cheap costumes and makeup, focus on plot and a sense of ridiculousness.
But if you spend five dollars to see a science fiction movie produced by the seven major studios, you expect it to at least look real. This is why Superman spent so much money on flying special effects. Just a flying
The lens was shot over and over again for several weeks, and the cost of that lens alone was over a million dollars.
"I'm not very good at shooting special effects, you have to find someone who can." Ronald still shied away. Minahan's previous movies had caused too much psychological damage to him. The heroine of Ecstasy, Cassandra
Della Peterson, on what it was like filming Minahan's movie -
She heard that millions would be invested in special effects production, but it turned out that a total of two and a half yuan was invested.
"Hey, you don't know, I now have the adaptation rights from Marvel, Mattel, and several comic and toy companies. No one in Hollywood has more comic copyrights than me. Hollywood has not yet recognized this kind of movie.
I had already collected the potential before they even reacted.
Only people from Warner Bros. have some vision. They have planned a Batman movie, and it just so happens that we also make a Spider-Man to compete with them. You want to be a director, a producer, or an investor, it’s up to you. This is a good idea.
Chance, I didn't tell anyone...
By the way, who is the best at making special effects movies in Hollywood now? That friend of yours, the one who shot Terminator, can I invite him to shoot it?"
"Hoho, he is currently filming a science fiction film for 20th Century Fox. You wait until he finishes filming and ask him..."
Ronald saw that Minahan had come up with Cameron's idea of filming Spider-Man again. He knew that this guy definitely didn't have any plans, so he thought it would happen as soon as it came out. It would be better for him not to participate in the cannon project.
But has he really acquired so many comic book adaptation rights? This guy really has the courage to bet big. His success and failure all stem from his willingness to make big bets.
…
"The news you mentioned is true. Minahan has really purchased a large number of movie adaptation rights from several major comic companies and toy companies." Niceta reported to Ronald with the results of the research.
"Really bought so much? The price won't be cheap." Ronald counted the two major comic companies, plus the comic character copyrights owned by toy companies such as Mattel, Minahan spent a lot of money on it.
"It's not cheap. These are some of the best characters from big companies," Nicita agreed. "But not many people in Hollywood recognize the value of comic book adaptations. Only Warner Bros. has recently developed a Batman movie. Minahan is not a big company.
To win is to lose big.”
"This guy is always full of gambling when doing things." Ronald recalled the past when he spent tens of millions to make a desert racing movie for Brooke Shields. "When will Warner Bros.' Batman start filming?"
"It's also stuck due to the writers' strike. Their large-scale early auditions have been suspended." Niceta handed Ronald the information about the Batman movie.
"Forty million? Are they serious?" Ronald was shocked when he saw the budget figure.
"They have wanted to film it for a long time. They had the first version of the script ten years ago. At that time, they planned to have William Holden play Batman and David Niven play Robin."
"Were they too old at that time?" Ronald imagined it, and the temperament was very suitable. However, both old actors passed away in the early 1980s.
"Later, CAA learned about this project, so we began to recommend our ace actors, Bill Murray to play Batman, and black star Eddie Murphy to play Robin."
"This..." Ronald thought to himself that this combination is the classic Hollywood white hero with a black bad-mouthed partner. "Are they still acting now?"
"No, in the end Warner preferred the new version of the Dark Knight comic and found Tim Burton, the director of the now popular 'Beetlejuice'. Now Batman is confirmed to be played by Michael Keaton.
Large-scale auditions for actresses, looking for the sexiest female stars in Hollywood..."
"It's a strike again..." Ronald really felt that the Writers Guild strike was too difficult to handle. The seven major studios had no choice in dealing with this industry-wide mandatory union strike.
"Do you have any recommendations for Hollywood sex bombs? Or potential newcomers you like? I can work on it..." Niceta knew that this project would attract many of the sexiest and most beautiful actresses.
"Tell me?" The figure of Helen Slater flashed through Ronald's mind... No, Helen's temperament is not suitable for that kind of role...
"Hahaha... When the strike is over, I will update you on their audition progress..."
…
It has been more than a week since Ronald finished shooting Working Girl. He has not completely forgotten his thoughts during the shooting, and it is not suitable to enter the editing room now. He continues to take vacation in Los Angeles, and today he returns to the new office building of 20th Century Fox.
Most of the projects I participate in are related to Fox.
"Die Hard" was filmed on the building, the top floors were finally renovated, and employees moved in from the old building one after another.
Ronald, along with Joel Silver, chatted with people in the distribution department about the film's announcement.
After watching the sample, they were very confident in the movie, so they planned to move this Christmas story to the summer season, which is the period with the largest audience in America.
"Is it really that good? The plot of this movie takes place on Christmas, so wouldn't it be more suitable for the Christmas schedule?" Ronald asked Joel Silver.
“I’m very confident that the summer schedule this year is not very strong, with Robert Zemeckis’ animated film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Tom Cruise’s Cocktail, and Eddie Murphy’s Coming of America…
...Did you find something?" Silver smiled and gave Ronald the list of blockbusters expected to be released in the summer.
"Well...there are no action movies..." Ronald discovered the problem as soon as he flipped through it.
"Originally, that Australian guy's Crocodile Dundee 2 was a rival, but they decided to release it early at the end of May."
By various coincidences, this summer there are no movies starring big-name action stars. Schwarzenegger has transformed into action comedies and added a lot of comedy elements to the movies. He is no longer just posing with muscles to scare people.
Schwarzenegger feels that if he doesn't transform, American audiences will sooner or later become disgusted with his muscular acting style.
Stallone only has the third Rambo movie this year. This series of movies has changed from the first movie about the experiences of Vietnam War veterans and reflecting the social reality to the second movie about purely commercial films about fighting bad guys. I heard that the third sequel will follow the same path.
, there was no confidence that it would be released in the summer, so it was moved to May.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Stallone and Brigitte Nielsen finally divorced. This highly publicized divorce was chased by tabloids for a whole year, which seriously affected Stallone's energy.
I heard that the quality of Lambo III has seriously declined.
"God is really helping us..." Ronald agreed with Silver and asked them to see how to make a truly good action movie.
…
"Your set in South Carolina needs to go through a safety assessment. I have to see the report issued by the scientists."
When Ronald came out of the office, he heard a familiar voice. Turning his head, it turned out to be his old friend Gale Hurd.
"It won't be a problem, we'll just use the water tank there..." said James Cameron.
"Jim, this is Fox's request. They are very dissatisfied with the constant budget overruns. If you don't have an environmental safety assessment report, they will not allow you to set up scenes there."
"Okay, I'll take care of it."
"Ronald..." Gale turned around and saw Ronald, "I still have something to do, let's talk later." She picked up her notebook and exchanged greetings with Ronald before leaving.
Ronald looked back at Cameron, "You two?"
Cameron and Gale have many conflicts in movies, concepts, and life. The last time I saw him, they were divorcing, and they were flirting with Kathryn Bigelow, the female director Ronald hired. Today
Seeing that he and Gale seemed to have restored the tacit understanding between husband and wife.
Cameron shook his head and frowned, "She is a professional producer, and I only have a professional relationship with her now."
It can be seen that Cameron is also very uncomfortable. This kind of deep-seated contradiction in movie concepts is difficult to compromise, and he and Gale were brought together because of the movie.
Now that their personal relationship has broken down, and they have to take care of the production of big projects, they have to become business partners. Switching between the two attitudes makes Cameron very painful...
"Gail handles it better than me. I see her always being so professional. I can't do it..."
Ronald could only comfort his old friend, "This kind of thing is different for everyone, maybe Gale just doesn't show it..."
"No, you don't know her well enough. When she looks at me, she treats me like a partner."
Ronald touched his nose, haven't you already let go of your mood and started flirting with other women? It seems that the divorce of this kind of couple is difficult for the iron-willed Cameron to handle.
It's really scary to get married without meeting the right person. Ronald patted Cameron on the shoulder and said, "Let's go, I know a good Japanese barbecue restaurant. Let's go eat something..."