Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Kevin Costner was very excited to restore his original idea (even though he didn't know what it would look like), but he didn't have time to stare at the edit himself. So he asked Ronald for help.

Ronald firmly refused. Not to mention that he was not free, even Walter Murch, who was familiar with him, could not edit the extended version of the film for him. This is not a factor of time or money, but in the opinion of Ronald and Murch, this "Dances with Wolves" has passed the test of the market, and the audience is very satisfied with the current version.

And even if it needs to be modified, it should be in the direction of reducing the duration, not increasing the content. However, the ears of the new Best Director Oscar will not listen to these opinions.

Costner still asked Ronald to find someone he trusted to watch the new version of the edit. After all, Ronald also had a high share of overseas profits from this movie.

When it comes to business, Ronald agrees. Anyway, the video tape can contain the first and second episodes, and a longer video will not affect the audience's viewing experience.

When it came time to daydream about who to watch as an editor, Ronald happened to see the fat white guy he saw last time, Joss Whedon.

"Hey Joss, how's your script going?"

"I have already submitted it to Director Simkins." Fatty smiled a little shyly.

"I ask you again, don't you still want to direct it yourself?"

"I still want to learn more about the filmmaking process. I'm afraid that my script will be ruined."

"Oh? That's a great idea. I happen to be working on editing the extended version of Dances with Wolves. Are you interested in learning? You can learn about editing..."

"Ah, is there such a good thing?" Fatty Joss Whedon rubbed his hands and agreed excitedly.

"If you don't direct, we will assign you, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, to other directors. You make your own decision and tell our production department director, Mr. Cannold, then. Do your best!"

After Joss Whedon revised the script for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" several times, it met the requirements of the production department. After Ronald read it, he thought it was very good. However, this does not seem to be the same story as the one I dreamed about, but just a few characters.

But maybe that's a good thing. Because only successful movies can be made into a series of movies or adapted into a TV series. Regardless, the movie is bound to be a box office success.

However, the director of Daydream is still on hiatus. "Firebird" directed by Emile Adolino is doing very well at the box office and is expected to reach around 70 million. Continuing with such middling productions would be a bit detrimental to his career.

Ronald doesn't want him to continue wasting time in this kind of movie, and is helping him run new projects. Ang Lee and others were also busy working on their own movies, and there was no suitable candidate. Ronald had to hire an outsider and asked Roger Corman to find a suitable candidate.

……

"I don't have time to deal with it, so let editor Neil Travers handle it. He is the best editor at the Oscar, and I think there is nothing wrong with his decision."

Ronald found Kevin Costner in Oliver Stone's office. Talk to him about overseas distribution of "Dances with Wolves." Oliver Stone was on a long phone call, and the two happened to talk about the extended version first.

Kevin is also really busy. After filming "Dances with Wolves" last year, he also took on a role in "Robin Hood" to earn money to support his family. Dances with Wolves emptied all his savings, but fortunately the results were satisfactory.

"Robin Hood" is a purely commercial production, starring Costner, Alan Rickman, Morgan Freeman and other acting stars. The main purpose is to use star power to attract audiences to the cinema to watch a standard Hollywood commercial production.

But the production company won the big prize. After all, before the Oscar, they had no idea that Costner would win so many awards. Now it is equivalent to hiring 15 million stars with a salary of 5 million, which is a huge profit no matter what.

But Costner has pursuits after all, and he hasn't won an Oscar yet. So now I am having a fierce fight with Oliver Sturt, and I hope that the next movie they collaborate on can impact the best actor.

"Oliver..."

Finally, the call to Oliver Stone was finished...

"Ah, Ronald, you're here...please take a seat wherever you like."

Oliver Stone didn't look good. His new film "JFK" tells the story of Lee Oswald, the murderer who quickly confessed his crime after JFK was killed and was soon killed again. His murderer, Jack Ruby, claimed to be a supporter of JFK, but he also Sick and died in prison...

Three years later, a prosecutor, Jim Garrison, rediscovered the strangeness of JFK's shooting and speculated on the official miscarriage of justice that year...

Such subject matter, of course, is as controversial as his other masterpieces. But this time it was different from usual. Both the FBI and CIA contacted him directly and told him that some plots were not allowed to be filmed.

"What? Can they do this? Where is the First Amendment?" Ronald frowned upon hearing this. This was the principle established by the Miracle Case back then.

In fact, at the beginning, Hollywood movies were not regarded as the same media form as newspapers and radio stations, but were judged as a commercial product. Therefore, he does not enjoy the protection of the First Amendment. Later, the MPAA was established to conduct content censorship, which is also known as the Hays Code.

By 1952, a distributor that introduced the European film "Wonder" was banned because of the film's controversial content. He successfully challenged the previous bill, thereby establishing the principle that movies also enjoyed First Amendment protection.

This is the fundamental reason why Hollywood can still exist despite the shrinkage of the film market after the 1950s. More pillows and pistols appeared in movies, continuing a thirty-year boom in the film industry. Now that someone is trying to intervene, why shouldn't this make people unhappy?

"They said that this is a requirement of the Archives Confidentiality Act. Many of my research results do not meet the conditions for declassification, so if I take pictures of the real reason why JFK was assassinated, I am afraid that I will also get the same fate as JFK... …”

"Huh? Do you know the reason why JFK was assassinated? The FBI and CIA want to prohibit you from filming it?" Ronald immediately figured out Stone's hint.

"Yes, if you want to know, I can tell you, but you will also accept their supervision."

"Forget it, I don't want Ronald Lee's name to appear in the FBI's filing cabinet." Ronald heard from the older generation of insiders that when Hollywood was arresting unpatriotic people, Those who are included in the gray list will generally leave surveillance files with the FBI. If they show any signs of colluding with foreign enemies, the scandals in the files will be exposed.

Therefore, Ronald weighed it and decided that freedom was more important than his curiosity to know the truth about JFK's assassination. Anyway, even if Stone didn’t say it, he could probably guess it...

"Are you Ronald Lee?" Standing next to Oliver Stone, a female assistant shouted out in surprise when she heard what Ronald said.

"I just, why, don't I look the same?" Ronald thought that she looked like a Chinese, but he couldn't confirm it and didn't ask rashly. "Ah, yes, my name is Yang Yanzi, and I am a fan of yours. The movie "Push Hand" that started filming in New York two months ago has been spread throughout our Chinese circles. Many old people have been telling each other that Chinese stories have not been told for many years. movie.”

"Ah, hahaha, Ang Lee is a good director, and the actors he found are also very good."

"Yeah, especially the one who plays the daughter-in-law. She's so beautiful. It adds to the prestige of the Chinese..."

"a ha ha ha……"

This Yang Yanzi is very enthusiastic, knows how to chat, and is very able to make the person he talks to happy. When Oliver Stone saw the two of them chatting so happily, he jokingly said, "Janet, are you going to leave me and not fall in love with this handsome guy?"

"Just go, I'm willing to work for him. After so many years, this is the first successful person in Hollywood who is willing to invest in filming stories about Chinese Americans. Unlike you, the stories you film every time are Vietnamese stories."

"Are you a Chinese born in America?" Ronald thought this person was quite interesting, so he switched to Chinese and said.

"I'm from New York, graduated from Brown University, and got an MBA from Columbia. But my Mandarin is not very good, but my Cantonese is okay."

"Then let's speak English..."

Ronald chatted with her about her role in Stone's project, and the more he talked, the more he liked her. It just so happened that his assistant, the fat girl Rich Lake, had changed careers and became a TV host. Just in need of a capable assistant.

It just so happens that this person can help great directors like Oliver Stone as a production assistant, and he has strong work ability. What's more important is that she is both Chinese and New Yorker, with a clean background.

Despite Oliver Stone's joking protests, Ronald immediately decided to hire this capable woman.

"This is my current work schedule. Please help me organize my schedule."

Ronald took her back to the office, handed her his work information, and asked Yang Yanzi to sort out a work schedule.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Yang Yanzi had arranged everything in an orderly manner. Moreover, this top business student's abilities obviously don't stop there.

"Ronald, I have an idea. You have made a lot of good investments in Chinese-language films recently. Director Huang's 'Hi, Frank', Ang Lee's promoter, and you also asked Director Wu to do a collection of classic films.

Now that New York happens to have gathered all Chinese practitioners from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and three places, why not convene them to hold a meeting and establish the Hollywood Discourse and Film Practitioners Association? I have seen business reports that Chinese-language films, especially martial arts films and gun fight films in Hong Kong, have very good profits in the video tape market and in some Chinese and black areas. If these resources can be integrated, it will be beneficial to the daytime market. Dream business has a strong supplementary effect. "

"What supplement?" Ronald asked.

"In the past few years, Daydream, starting with Dirty Dancing, has become Hollywood's leading medium-sized independent producer. But its biggest weakness is that it does not have its own key market.

The distribution market in America has been monopolized by monopoly production companies. Therefore, small and medium-sized studios have seized the lifeblood of them. If the annual production volume is too large, they will be afraid of hindering distribution, and if the annual production volume is too small, there will be insufficient production and support. Can’t afford its own publicity channels.

So, this is an opportunity. Let Daydream open up a small but stable enough market in the Chinese film market, which Daydream will monopolize. In this way, based on this, we can advance, attack, retreat or defend. In the future production business, we will have much more room for maneuver. "

"Very well, you write a report to me."

A few days later, Yang Yanzi's report was handed into Ronald's hands. At the same time, she did not delay the assistant's work.

The biggest problem foreign language films encounter in the American market is the language barrier. Because American audiences are notoriously arrogant and unwilling to learn foreign languages ​​or read subtitles.

The main reason why Nordic films had a place in America before the 1970s was because Swedish films at that time were famous for their direct nudity scenes.

But after the video tape market boomed, this advantage disappeared. The import volume of foreign films dropped significantly in the 1980s.

However, during the same period, the number of imported video tapes produced by Xiangjiang increased very rapidly. This is because those movies mainly rely on action scenes and the plots are relatively simple. Many black people also like to watch lively scenes, and Hong Kong action movies are particularly popular in the black community.

In addition, the plots of action movies are very stylized. Even if you don't understand the lines, it doesn't affect your understanding of the plot. It’s clear who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. What the audience appreciates the most are the wonderful action plots.

This is a market that the seven major studios cannot touch. It is impossible for them to invest in this seemingly "low-level" market.

And this kind of movie is especially cultivated with daydreams. Relying on the business based on these action movies accumulated over the years, a small team can be supported. Relying on these movies, they can attract video retailers, Chinatown and black areas, as well as some second-run theaters to distribute some re-releases of old movies.

With distribution channels, it can in turn give "promoters" and niche discourse movies like "Hi, Frank" a channel to be released. Anyway, due to the exchange rate relationship, relying only on this small distribution theater system, the box office share can already support Chinese-language films that have little investment in the first place.

This is like a flywheel, which can spin faster and faster and enter a virtuous circle if it is started by Xiangjiang's action movies.

"Very good, you will serve as my assistant for a period of time and help me sort out the resources needed to complete this matter. When the time is right, we will do this. When the time comes, you will be in charge of the new business People, or you can do things independently and daydream about investing in your new company."

Ronald understood that it was impossible for such a top student to stay under someone for a long time as an assistant. She wants to enter Hollywood because she loves this industry and wants to make a career here.

"Thank you, I'll book a ticket for you to New York first." Yang Yanzi's dream is to be a producer herself, and she was very happy to hear this. It would be much happier to work for such a boss.

"Hehehe...he has a business jet that he can use...you have to get more familiar with his daily habits..." Diane said with a smile next to him. She is also quite satisfied with Ronald's new assistant. She is not pretty and is a few years older than Ronald.

"Hahaha, Yanzi is not here to be my assistant. I just want her to become more familiar with the business so that she can work independently." Ronald said with a smile.

In order to get a job, he asked Yang Yanzi to fill out a resume. She had first worked at MCA Global and was familiar with the prices of old Hollywood movies. When she saw the opportunity, she was the one who sold the operation of Roman Holiday to China for release. Just because of ethnicity, there is no room for advancement in Global.

In addition, she still loves the film industry, so she went to work as a production assistant for Oliver Stone. This is a very good talent, but she did not discriminate against Chinese Americans, so she saw an opportunity for career development, and she decided to jump over and work for him.