Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1060 Must be tied to Dances with Wolves

"Today is the home game of the Seattle Mariners. Their rookie this year, Ken Griffey, is very capable. In his debut, he hit another beautiful straight ball double..."

Kevin Costner specially invited Ronald to his private house to talk about the investment of "Dances with Wolves".Instead of flirting and selling movies like everyone else, he entertained Ronald like an old friend.

His wife, Cindy, brought them a barbecue and light beer, and Ronald and he enjoyed a midweek house party and baseball game, like ordinary white American friends.

"Is he good?" Ronald looked at the black rookie on TV and asked Costner.He was a layman to the game of baseball, and he did not understand the complicated rules of the game like the average white man.

"Needless to say, I think he has the hope of breaking Babe Ruth's home run record..." Kevin Costner is a baseball fan and has already made a baseball-themed movie "Million Dollar Arm". up.

"This kid's dad is a major league player. He was the baseball player of the year in 0.478 in high school. He hit .17 RBI in two seasons and hit a total of [-] home runs..."

Like a true baseball fan, Costner knows all about this year's star rookie stats.

"So he's great, right?" Ronald didn't understand how great the high school baseball stats were.

"Hey, didn't you play baseball with your dad when you were a kid? That's the top finish of a high school player over the years, and he played part-time in high school and got a college football bonus."

"My dad died early, and he didn't play much baseball catch with me..." Ronald smiled. This white sport is indeed passed down from father to son. Billy Crystal, the leading actor in the last movie, is also a great fan.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Kevin expressed his apology in surprise. He didn't expect to come to such a result. He originally invited Ronald to show his closeness, but this messed up.

"Oh, Ronald, I didn't expect you to be so unlucky. Kevin is just too obsessed with baseball, he didn't mean any harm." Costner's wife, Cindy, came to the rescue. She hugged Ronald and pinched him. Order french fries, call out my three kids with Kevin, and say hello to Ronald.Finally let the atmosphere re-harmony.

Ronald didn't care, he held their young son on his lap and teased...

"Oooooohhhhhhhhhhh!"

When it came time for Ken Griffey to come in and swing, the strong black guy hit a home run with one hit and flew high off the field.Opposing outfielders were no match.

The two clinked glasses and drank a large lager to celebrate, and Ronald got up to go to the bathroom.

"What condition does he want to make?" Ronald thought in the bathroom.A novice director just wants to make an epic film, which is actually very risky.Ronald himself felt that there must be a problem.

A director is like a cook. He has a recipe (script) to cook, and this dish requires the cooperation of many people to make.But no one has made this dish before, and how to make it well depends entirely on the director's personal imagination.

How much seasoning to put, how long to bake, and how to prepare and match the ingredients are all guided by the director's imagination of the final film.Just waiting for a good result...

This kind of process requires a lot of experience and talent, and Costner... well, no one knows how strong his director talent is, anyway, he has no experience at all.

"Ronald, I know you have concerns about me making this movie, but today I just want to prove that I can do well..."

Kevin Costner took advantage of the intermission to lobby Ronald.

"How do you prove it? This is a big production, with a production budget of more than 2000 million..." Ronald picked out a French fries and chewed.Costner's wife is a high school sweetheart, the two are childhood sweethearts, and the taste of cooking is quite good.

"Look, Ken Griffey is also a rookie, today is his first home game in Seattle, and he can hit a home run..."

"Hey, Kevin. We're not talking baseball, we're talking movies, and you gotta do better than that..."

"Although it looks different on the surface, it's actually the same. I'm also looking for other directors to join me. I'm sure I'm very happy if you are willing to direct..."

"Sorry, I'm working on another Orion movie..." Ronald had no experience with Westerns, and he couldn't even ride a horse.

"So, you have to believe in my talent, just like the Seattle Mariners believed in Ken Griffey, let a rookie play a strong bat..."

"Wait a minute..." Ronald gestured for Costner to pause, and he saw a line of subtitles under the TV, now it's big news.

"The DEA uncovered a transnational drug trafficking syndicate and arrested dozens of suspects in Xiangjiang, America, and Mexico..."

Ronald called up the picture-in-picture of the news station (a new feature of Dongying TV), and in the picture of the breaking news, many Chinese-looking people were handcuffed by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"According to a DEA spokesperson, this criminal group called Fourteen K is based in Xiangjiang. In the past few years, they have trafficked more than 10 billion dollars worth of illegal drugs and poisoned hundreds of thousands of American teenagers. ...

They will be prosecuted with felonies... It is reported that the operation will continue until the legislative goals required by the Grand Command and Congress are achieved. "

"This Fourteen K is actually Xiangjiang's criminal group, they are really daring..." Ronald was thinking...

The baseball game was over, and Costner had a detailed chat with Ronald about his thoughts.

He expected the film to fully reflect the real Indian tribe's lifestyle, clothing, customs, and even language.

Yes, Costner didn't want to shoot the scenes of the Indian tribe in English, he actually wanted to shoot the entire scene in the language of the Sioux.

This made Ronald a little worried. American audiences have a habit of watching movies without subtitles, which has been formed for more than ten years.Not to mention Sioux, a language that few people understand, even French and Spanish, which are commonly taught in American high schools, are not liked by the audience.

All in all, Costner's ambitions are about what any filmmaker would dread.

But on the other hand, epic films have epic film shooting methods, which are different from general genre films.The originator of this type of film is "Lawrence of Arabia", which was filmed in the desert for nearly a year, and finally presented on the screen is a spectacle that the audience has never seen before (the camel cavalry charge in the desert!).

Also like last year's Oscar winner "The Last Emperor", it also focused on the grandeur of the Forbidden City and the life of the mysterious last emperor in the East.Those lamas, the dragon bed, and the grand enthronement ceremony are all the elements that first attracted the audience to watch.

In short, this kind of thing is a big risk move.A good shot is unique and wonderful, but a lot of money is thrown into the water if the shot is indiscriminate.A negative example is the "Heaven's Gate" that led to the bankruptcy of United Artists. The director thought it was a big scene, a group of bumpkins rollerblading and dancing, and the audience didn't like to watch it at all.

"I have to think carefully, Kevin..." Although he has a dream background, Ronald is not sure that this tens of millions of investment can make money, although he will not lose money, or lose a little less, in exchange for a reputation of supporting art films , Raiders Oscar does not seem to be completely losing money.

"By the way," Ronald recalled dreaming about the scene of hunting bison in "Dances with Wolves". "Do you want to shoot the scene of hunting bison?"

"Of course I want to shoot! You support me, Ronald. I knew you understood me. Now that the American bison is endangered, only in some southern states, there are still people raising them on ranches. I am going to shoot these The lens is not fake, it must capture the original, handed down from generation to generation, the shocking lens of thousands of bison galloping across the plains, and then hunted by Indian tribes..."

"Um, I'm not that... Forget it, let me think about it..." Ronald saw that Costner's eyes lit up. It seemed that he was really passionate and wanted to shoot.

In fact, it is not uncommon for directors to sell their debut films, and Costner has made many westerns, so he has a better understanding of the scheduling of horse riding scenes, at least better than himself.

Ronald returned to the company and saw Tsui Hark in the office at a glance.During this period of time, he is making final revisions to Longwei Boy 3 based on the feedback from the preview screening.

"Hey, it seems that Hong Kong's film investment will change a lot..." Tsui Hark happened to be watching the detailed report on the arrest of Fourteen K by the Narcotics Agency on the TV news.

"How?" Ronald didn't understand.What does the end of a gangster have to do with movies.

"You don't know, because Xiangjiang's film market is booming in recent years, many... such as Fourteen K are also investing in movies, and the stars' remuneration is raised very high..."

"Hey, isn't this a good thing? These people will only raise the salary of the stars, and then make a lot of shoddy follow-up films..." Ronald thought to himself, here in Hollywood, there is also a stupid young Minahan Golan.Similarly, his source of funds, a certain export-import bank in the Netherlands, does not feel clean.

Movies are an industry that gray funds like very much. Here, gray or even black dollars can be legally turned into green.

The so-called Xiangjiang film market is booming. Now it seems that I don’t know how many people behind it are for this.

"Yeah, the market is back to normal, and there may be people who are willing to invest in me..." Tsui Hark has a lot of things he doesn't like and is not used to in Hollywood, and he began to miss the working atmosphere and methods in Xiangjiang.

……

After a detailed investigation by the production department of Daydream, it was concluded that the filming budget of "Dances with Wolves" must be controlled below 2000 million US dollars, and then Kevin Costner must invest a part of it himself.

This decision is easy to understand, because if he only took a salary, it would be easy to spend too much money.He must invest part of it himself, and then get the money according to the box office performance of the movie, so that he can share the risk.Ronald and Orion will not be taken advantage of.

In addition, rationally framing scenes in Mexico and other places can also greatly reduce film wages and shooting costs, because there are no labor unions there, and the wages of group performers and technicians can also be squeezed to a minimum.

……

"Kevin, Cindy...please sit down," it was Ronald's turn to invite Costner to watch a baseball game.

What they saw was another Seattle Mariners game, the local Angels in Los Angeles, playing against the highly anticipated Seattle Mariners at home.

Because it was the home game, Ronald took Diane and the Costners to the box to watch.Costner also makes an appearance on the balcony, cheering on the baseball team.He is the protagonist who plays the million-dollar arm, and many baseball fans are very fond of him.

"Oh, who's that Angels pitcher? I think he's a bit weird..." Diane knew more about baseball than Ronald, and she noticed that the home team's starting pitcher had a weird hand with the glove.

"Let's applaud rookie pitcher Jim Abbott..."

The announcer at the scene also called out the pitcher's name loudly. The pitcher put the baseball in the glove, and then took off his baseball cap to question everyone.

Then he lifted the baseball in the glove with difficulty, took out the baseball with his left hand, and weighed it a few times.

"Oh my god, he doesn't have a right hand..." Diane and Ronald were shocked. How could a major league pitcher be disabled without a right hand?

"Jim Abbott, he was the pitcher for the performance baseball national team at the Olympic Games in Seoul last year. He was the main pitcher in the final and won us a gold medal..." Costner, who came back from the balcony, said to Ronald explained.

Really inspirational!
Ronald applauded with the audience. It is not easy for such a person to reach the height of his career.

"Oh, another RBI, Abbott received a serious challenge today..."

During the game, this guy, like the protagonist in a Hollywood inspirational movie, was not going well, and was hit and scored consecutively by his opponent.

"Oh, it's been a rough day for Abbott..." The opposing batter hit another high-flying two-run hit.The Angels have fallen behind 0:7.

"Come on, Angels..." In the box, Diane was encouraging the home team.

"It seems that talent does not necessarily bring victory, Kevin. It also requires some luck and the cooperation of teammates..." Ronald also said with a pun, taking advantage of the situation on the field.The rest of the Angels team made a lot of mistakes today.

Just like the work of a movie director, it may be the mistakes of other people in the team that caused the director to fail to shoot the ideal image.

"Well, it happened at this time, right?" Seeing that Ronald was also talking about baseball, Costner couldn't refute for a while.

"In order to reduce the probability of this kind of thing happening, we have to have some institutional arrangements, otherwise I think both me and Orion will have doubts about this movie..."

Ronald half-discussed, half-threateningly told Costner what he thought.If the other party doesn't agree to his conditions, then the abandoned project of Orion, not many medium-sized studios in Hollywood will agree to the project.

Even if Orion dare not shoot, then this movie must have an unbearable risk.

Ronald offered a few ideas:
First, the film must introduce foreign distributors and use the advance payment of distribution income to reduce risks. At this point, Ronald is considering introducing the relationship of Michael Douglas, and Frans Ave, director of film investment at Lyon Credit Bank Man.

Second, Kevin Costner must include his salary as an investment in the film's investment quota.That is to say, if the movie fails at the box office, he will get nothing but hundreds of thousands of dollars in advance payment.

The best way to get a star to devote himself to making a movie is to tie him up with a sharing contract.

Of course, if the box office is successful, he will also get a large amount of income that ordinary stars can't imagine.But that's no loss for Ronald and Orion.

Third, the final domestic release and videotape release must be guaranteed by Kevin Costner as the main star, and then to attract investment, he must be closely tied to the film project at the press conference, so that More people will have confidence in this epic film.Like the attitude of Ronald and "Silence of the Lambs" being bound together for financing.

"I have to think about it too..."

Costner has no objection to other conditions, but he is still a little worried about the method of not receiving remuneration and receiving dividends.Do you want to make this movie so much?I have to go back and discuss it with my wife.

……

"Ronnie...it's Doug Jr." Back in the hotel, Diane listened to the phone recording, which contained a message from Douglas. She picked up the phone and dialed it, handing it to Ronald.

"Doug...it's my cousin..." Donna answered the phone over there...

"Doug..." Ronald picked up the phone and said to him angrily.This kid secretly dated his cousin and kept it from him, which made him very upset.

"Hi, Ronald."

It seems that the two are still getting along well. After Donna grew up and worked, her aversion to Douglas, a successful man from her hometown, has decreased a lot.He is no longer as naive as he was in college, and compared to the investment world, those men with poor character in Hollywood, Douglas is much more pleasing to the eye.

"looking for me?"

"In this way, George Jr. would like to ask you to shoot an advertisement for his father. Have you seen the news about the work of the DEA recently? Our chief wants the public to know whose credit it is..."

"Good guy, are you preparing for re-election so soon?"

Ronald couldn't help being speechless. In a place like America, the first priority of politicians is to please the people.

(End of this chapter)