The series of disputes between Minahan and Cannon can be traced back to the time when he and Yoram spent money lavishly.
At that time, they used Wall Street bond tycoon Milken to raise more than 400 million US dollars in junk bonds. However, both of them spent money very quickly. Among them, Minahan spent a lot of money on comic book adaptations, such as Superman 4
, and He-Man, the Unicron. But Yoram didn’t know anything about production, so his way of spending money was to buy theater chains, and he acquired Starlight Cinemas in Britain.
When the bullets ran out, the two's strategies changed from assisting each other to disrupting each other. Minahan's Superman IV failed due to lack of budget, and Yoram did not have enough money to acquire Ichijoin, a subsidiary of EMI.
Wire.
From then on, there was a rift between the two, and Cannon faced bankruptcy. At this time, Yoram's business talent played a more important role than Minahan's production talent. He attracted EMI, who wanted to enter Hollywood.
The company facilitated a merger and acquisition plan, so EMI injected capital into Cannon, temporarily solving the financial problem.
However, the interest on junk bonds was very high, and the new "cannon-EMI" did not dare to delegate power to Minahan to make large-scale productions. The company's income was still not enough to fill the big hole. When the stock market crashed, Wall Street financing channels were gone.
, Cannon faced the biggest crisis and almost went bankrupt.
At the critical moment when the SEC launched an investigation into the falsification of financial statements of Cannon listed companies, Yoram found an Italian banker, Giancarlo Parretti. With a huge amount of funds from Lyon Bank, he launched an investigation
Acquisition of cannon.
One of his conditions was to kick Minahan out of the Cannon and become the Cannon's talker himself.
"I anticipated Cannon's financial crisis in advance, so several of my confirmed new film projects all used 21st Century Pictures, which Cannon has signed a 20-part distribution agreement with, so..."
Minahan told the truth. He looked at Ronald, expecting the other person's reaction.
"This guy still had a plan for his cousin. It seems that he had already planned to run away. It was just Giancarlo Parretti's unexpected acquisition that disrupted his plan."
"What about the exit terms you mentioned?" Ronald asked again without comment.
"That's a supplementary clause that Yoram and I signed when the cannon was in crisis. If anyone else wants to buy our cannon, both of us must agree before it can be fulfilled. If one party doesn't agree, then they can withdraw.
Cannon, transfers the shares to another party.
If you are dissatisfied with the share price transferred by the other party, you can also automatically initiate a counter-takeover and acquire the other party's equity at the same price. This clause is automatically effective."
"I don't understand. It seems that you have arranged it very well." Ronald was puzzled. This kind of clause must have been designed by a lawyer. All conditions have been taken into account. If it is executed according to this clause, it should not happen.
What's the problem? Why hasn't Minahan figured out the conditions for his elimination yet?
However, Ronald was still a little embarrassed when he thought that back then, the two brothers were so good that they could imitate each other's handwriting signatures on each other's checks, and now they had to be so defensive.
"It's not that bastard Yoram..." Minahan turned around, "Ah... Bah..." spitted on the ground again, "That bastard forged my signature on the withdrawal contract, damn it
This Judas, this Milik, this Tobias..."
Minahan named several traitorous villains in Jewish scriptures in one breath and cursed them angrily.
"Stop throwing up, this is my office..." Ronald frowned. Minahan's behavior actually had some of the habits of his Russian-Jewish ancestors. When he said the name of a bad guy who betrayed him, he had to go to
Spitting on the ground means cursing.
"I sympathize with you, Minahan. But in order to acquire 21st Century Pictures, I have formed a team of lawyers, accountants, and my company's management to cooperate. I can't give up just because of your words. These people's
The fees are very expensive.”
"I know, Ronald, I can make a concession. You just need to let me pick a few movies that I have production rights for in the 21st century and let me take them away. I can talk about the rest. You know my character. If I can't continue to produce
movie, my soul will disappear.
This is an artist's request for approval from an artist, Ronald... I never thought that I would be in this situation today, and it's all Minahan's fault... ah... bah..."
Ronald stretched out his hand to stop Minahan, who was still spitting, "Let me think about it. Give me the list of movies you want... I will also have a meeting with the team to discuss..."
…
"Is Minahan deliberately playing tricks? If we acquire 21st Century, Cannon can prepare a severance package for Minahan. If he doesn't take away the movie project, he can get more cash. According to
The average return on the movies he produces is more cost-effective."
In the acquisition team, PricewaterhouseCoopers' accountant Ed Bastian took the production list, looked over it over and over, and then compared it with Cannon's list of films released over the years in the bankruptcy filing materials received by the court. He always felt that there was something in it.
question.
"No, when all Hollywood companies lay off their executives, they would rather give various preferential terms than cash. In this industry, ten people have projects and only one is rich." Lawyer Mickey Kan
Te has experienced many such drafting of terms for severing senior executives, and he understands it very well.
"But this Italian 'financier', Giancarlo Parretti, undoubtedly brought a high credit line from Crédit Lyonnais, which can be used just for this acquisition of the cannon.
Just 200 million US dollars." Ed Bastian still doesn't understand the logic of the entertainment industry.
"What does financier mean?" Ronald asked private lawyer Lindsay Doerr who was sitting next to him. He was a professional M&A team. There were many things that he didn't understand, and he still needed lawyer Lindsay to answer his questions.
"This means financier in English, but this title in Italian does not mean that the person has qualifications in the financial industry. It just means that he has corresponding financial knowledge or has made money through the financial industry.
Called financier, or in Italian, finanziere..."
Ronald groaned and sat upright. He looked at the two professionals who were still discussing and said, "There is no need to doubt Minahan's purpose. I know this person. In order to make a movie, he once put a baby's
When his daughter was placed in a cradle as an extra, and her daughter might fall off the props, his first reaction was to let the camera continue instead of catching her."
"Pfft...", everyone laughed.
"All this man's passion is for making movies. If there is no movie to make, even if he is given twice the money, he will not agree."
"So, most of the list of film projects he gave is true?" Lawyer Mickey Kanter turned back to look at Ronald. This is where Hollywood people have a tricky eye and where artists gather together.
Nothing can be measured in money.
"I think it's in line with his usual taste..." Ronald picked up the pencil and checked out the names of several movies on the list.
"Spider-Man, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Phantom of the Opera, and the rights to adapt seven or eight of Edgar Allan Poe's horror novels..."
Everyone felt that it was impossible for Minahan to list all the film projects he wanted to bring to the new company. There must be some random people in this list to mislead daydreams.
But Ronald knows Minahan's taste very well. This is either a comic book adaptation or an opera or musical adaptation. Horror films are the genre that Cannon focused on at the beginning. The credibility of this list should be very high.
.
"You need to understand the copyright issues for these movies. I remember that Roger Corman sold the rights to New Century Pictures, which was acquired by Marvel, and owns the rights to the Fantastic Four and Captain America." Mickey Kan
I saw the problem.
In fact, the production rights of a movie are often complicated. Due to the difficulty of financing, it often goes through several production companies, and the contract is also full of clauses that non-professional lawyers cannot distinguish.
"Yes, I still remember that when Roger Corman was still a director, he made several horror films adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's novels. Let's also find out if we can remake these films.
"Ronald added that although the copyright of Edgar Allan Poe's novels has long expired, the film adaptations also enjoy the copyright. If these scripts are adapted and remade on Corman's films, then you have to ask him to buy the remakes.
that power."
This M&A team has many efficient members. Under the leadership of lawyer Kanter and PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Bastian, audits and background investigations began immediately.
Ronald called Roger Corman to ask him out, and invited him to eat at a new and popular creative restaurant and talk about movies.
"I'm glad you asked me first, Ronald." Coleman looked a little better. He found a new video tape market and made more than a dozen low-budget movies in succession. He was hit by the stock market crash.
The impact has begun to slowly improve.
"I don't think it's necessary to turn filmmaking into a slit-throat war like the Seven. Most of the films we make are medium- and low-cost movies, just to entertain the public. We are not making big productions like the Seven. We have to fight for less than seven
of top male stars, and roughly double the number of top female stars.
Besides, we are all oriented to the video tape market, and no one stipulates that you can only watch one video tape on the weekend."
Ronald took a sip of the juice, which smelled of a mixture of carrots and tomatoes. Although it was a product of green agriculture, it was surprisingly delicious.
"Yes, I have always felt that spending 30 to 40 million US dollars to make a movie is not necessary in most cases. There are places where America needs more money, such as improving education in public schools and providing medical insurance to the people at the bottom..."
Ronald smiled and agreed. Few people would have thought that Coleman, who has always made violent, horror, science fiction, and erotic B-level movies, is actually a leftist who pursues social justice at heart.
"The films of Edgar Allen Poe were the best-selling among my directorial works, and they were also the first color films I directed. But I didn't like them very much. Maybe it was because of the big distributor AIP at the time.
It pushed me too much to keep shooting Allen Poe and wanted to finish all his novels, so I was a bit rebellious.
If I had continued filming along this path, I might have been able to make big productions for the eight major studios."
Roger Corman began to reminisce about the past, "Allan Poe's novels have long been in the public domain, and anyone can make them. If you ask me, I'm very happy. In this way, I do have plans to remake the movie that year. If
If you want to take pictures too, you can tell me in advance. There are many novels written by Edgar Allan Poe, so we don’t want to crash."
"If you are willing to come back as a director, we can actually cooperate again and invest in filming together." Ronald feels that movies, especially movies adapted from famous writers, still need to control the rhythm. If both companies are filming
The same theme will undoubtedly drag down the box office.
It would be better if we all join forces, so that the quality of the shooting will be better. The movie is for viewing, and there is no situation where you buy a movie ticket and I can’t watch it. If we all work together to shoot, it is entirely possible that the overall box office will be better than if the two movies were shot separately.
It is many times higher, one plus one is greater than two.
"Then it's settled..." Roger Coleman stretched out his hand to shake Ronald's hand. The two of them could still maintain this gentlemanly demeanor that meant what they said.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The investigation work of the M&A team was carried out very quickly, and the results were placed on Ronald's desk three days later.
As a result and subtlety, neither Minahan Golan nor New Century Pictures has the complete filming rights to "Spider-Man", "Captain America", and "Fantastic Four". Or to put it another way, both of them can film
.
Marvel's comic adaptation rights were sold to Cannon Pictures for a five-year period. At that time, Marvel hoped that Cannon could produce Marvel comic characters like DC's "Superman IV". In this way, the company
You can also acquire toy companies and make a lot of money from derivative toy products.
But unexpectedly, Cannon's filming of "Superman IV" was so bad that his dream of selling the movie rights and making money from toys was shattered before it even got off the ground.
At this time, another stock market crash occurred, and many stock prices that had been propped up in the market through mergers and acquisitions and capital operations fell miserably. Marvel's situation was even worse. Their income largely relied on original comic books and collectible cards.
With support, the bubble of these collectibles has shrunk severely before.
At this time, the company that acquired Marvel was New World Pictures, which was sold by Roger Corman. Therefore, New World naturally had the rights to adapt these comics.
The production rights have changed hands several times. It may take a legal team to study carefully for a week to get the exact answer. Whoever gets the investment first will make the film.
That's who it is.
If the box office is good, you can also initiate a lawsuit afterwards to demand compensation.
Therefore, if we deduct the legal details, the rights to shoot this film will belong to Cannon in the next five years, and will be given to Minahan with his termination agreement. But after five years, it will be with the production agreement.
If it fails, it will automatically return to the new world.
However, New World is now unable to protect itself, and it has to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Then the production rights will fall into the hands of who knows who. Maybe the next owner who takes over will take it seriously if they are interested. If they are not interested, then they will
Sleeping in the warehouse with a bunch of contracts.
So the key to this issue is whether Minahan can raise enough funds to start this project within five years (actually less than five years).
"It's very dangerous, I don't think he can get enough money."
"But what if we get the money? If we let go of such a big project, will it become a joke? Just like Price who let the ET alien go."
Inside Daydream, general manager Eddie, and publishing manager Michelle Cannold also had a dispute.
Finally, they all looked at Ronald. Since his debut, Ronald has never made a mistake in judging the box office prospects of a project.
"Have you ever thought that even if he got the money, he might not be able to shoot it."
"Huh?" Both of them were stunned.
"A movie adapted from a comic book requires a lot of special effects, and there is only one company in Hollywood that can do this."
Ronald knows better than them what the selling points of this type of movie are. Whether it’s traditional special effects props, makeup, or the latest computer technology, only George Lew can run such a large-scale, large-scale special effects movie.
Industrial Light & Magic was founded by Cass to film Star Wars.
And now the sequel to "Back to the Future" has begun. Industrial Light and Magic's production capabilities can only satisfy one major production at the same time.
In this way, at least for the next year and a half, Industrial Light and Magic's production lines will have to make way for this movie. When Back to the Future is finished filming, we don't know where the future has changed. Who will acquire New World Pictures?
Not necessarily.
Spending millions of dollars now to buy a very uncertain future. When Ronald said this, everyone felt that it was not worthwhile, at least it was too early.
"Your friend Cameron, how are his special effects skills? Can you help?" Cannold was still reluctant.
"He is his own studio, and it can only meet his own needs. Once he is finished filming The Abyss, we will see how it turns out. And whether the movie adapted from the comic book can be said to be loved by the market
, we can’t say for sure until we see the box office performance of Batman, which is about to be filmed.”
Ronald decided to be more conservative. Since the Superman series hit the streets, a series of comic book adaptations have continued to fail at the box office. No one knows whether this type of movie has lost the favor of the audience, or whether it is because of the recent few movies.
Too bad.
Ronald had never dreamed of a finished movie, so after some calculations, it was better to be conservative.
"However, we can get the rights to these movies." Ronald pointed to the names of several other film projects on Minahan's film list.
These are some very distinctive horror films, the first of which is called "George Romero's Night of the Living Dead", which is the orthodox sequel to George Romero's classic film "Dawn of the Dead"
.
After "Dawn of the Dead" became a hit, the original director made a series of sequels, all titled "Return of the Living Dead", but the box office performance was always poor. George Romero, the original screenwriter, also had his contract expired.
Later, he got the sequel rights back. He cooperated with Cannon to prepare a genuine sequel.
Ronald is preparing to acquire the production rights for this film, as well as the distribution rights for 21st Century Pictures' old Chinese-language kung fu films.
…
"Ah ha, I know your name, Ronald. Ronald Lee Dino (De Laurentiis) said a lot of bad things about you to me. But I don't believe a word of it. I firmly believe
Anyone who can make movies like Top Gun is a real man! Not a sissy like Dino."
Giancarlo Parretti, the new owner of Cannon, was very enthusiastic when he saw Ronald. He belittled Ronald's enemy, the Naples boss Dino De Laurentiis. In his north
From a man's point of view, men in southern Italy are either gangsters or liars, and the movie needs to be run by us industrialists, artists, and 'financiers'.
"Nice to meet you." Ronald shook hands with him. This Giancarlo Parretti was holding a little female star signed by Cannonball, looking like a playboy. Before he took over the company, he started to flirt with the company's people.
Beauty.
"It seems that this man is far more interested in enjoying the Hollywood lifestyle than actually being the owner of a Hollywood production company." Ronald thought to himself.
There is nothing wrong with this. If these wealthy people from other parts of the world had not continued to invest in Hollywood, I am afraid that the production volume of Hollywood would have dropped by more than one-third.
To outsiders, Hollywood is always a golden sign. Many people invest money just to have sex with female stars. It seems that their social status will be greatly improved by having a celebrity girlfriend.
Everyone gets what they need.
"Minahan, I told you earlier that we should clear up the property rights and still cooperate, right?" Giancarlo Parretti greeted Minahan again, who also came to sign the contract.
"Hey..." The Jew twisted his thick neck and said nothing.
After a lot of work by the team, the three parties finally reached a mutual agreement. Minahan still got the comic book and opera adaptation he most wanted to make, a large cash compensation, and a five-year distribution contract with Cannon Pictures.
Every year, 21st Century Pictures, which will soon belong to him, allows Cannon to release five films unconditionally, and the remaining ones are subject to separate negotiations.
With much less money, Ronald obtained the production rights to a bunch of old action films from the 21st Century film library and some low-budget horror films in the shooting plan.
The cannons run by Giancarlo Parretti and Yoram saved some money and solved the property rights issue as soon as possible.
The three of them quickly signed the contract, and Yoram also came over. As the new CEO, he also had to sign part of the agreement.
"Minahan..." Yoram came over and greeted his cousin. Business is business, and forcing him out of business is a last resort.
"Ah...poof..." Minahan ignored him and spat on the ground.
"Cheers..." Fortunately, Giancarlo Parretti opened the celebratory bottle of Grande Champagne, which solved the embarrassment between the two of them.
"Cheers..." Ronald also raised his glass.
This time, I spent very little money to achieve the effect. It is a moderate victory.
However, the funds originally prepared for the merger and acquisition, and the money used to reorganize the company after the merger, now have no place to spend. He has to discuss money matters with private accountant Lawrence.
"Well, why don't you buy as much Coca-Cola for me as you want?"