Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 336 One Dollar Deal

"Ring, ring, ring..." Ronald rang the doorbell.

"Hi, Ronnie." Jim Cameron opened the door and hugged his friend warmly.

"Hi, Jim, hi, Gail." Ronald saw Gail behind him and greeted her quickly, "Are you moving here to live with Jim?"

"Huh, I actually moved in with Gail." Jim explained.

The two have seen each other since returning to Los Angeles after Gail Hurd took care of Cameron for a while in Italy.

Because the divorce procedures between Cameron and his wife still need a lot of time to deal with, the two are still living together as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Cameron had little money, and Gail re-rented an apartment where the two had lived for several months.

Ronald handed over the red wine he bought as a belated gift.Under the guidance of Gail, I visited the nest of the two.

I have to say that Gail is a career-oriented woman, and the house is a bit messy, but Cameron is also a casual person, and the two seem to match well.

"Are you still writing with pen and paper?" Ronald saw a table in the corner of the bedroom, all of which were handwritten scripts, with a lot of scratched words written on it.

"Mind if I take a look?"

"Of course, this is the story of the robot you saw in my painting in Rome, Italy."

Jim handed over a typewritten draft of the script and motioned for Ronald to look at it.

The script is not thick, only forty or fifty pages long.Ronald opened it and saw that it was not a Hollywood standard script format, but a literary script, without indoor and outdoor marks for shooting.There is no shot label, just a story.

"Thank you." Ronald took the coffee brought by Gail, sat down and flipped through the script.Several people can never go against each other, don't care about clichés.

The story is about a future where humans are ruled by the computer "Skynet", and the human rebels have been fighting against Skynet and his robots.In order to completely wipe out the rebels, Skynet sent two robots to return to the present with a time machine, trying to find the mother of the leader of the rebels and destroy him before he was born.

The Human Rebels also used a time machine to send two soldiers back, one died during the transmission, and the remaining one was dealing with two robots sent by Skynet: one is a liquid metal robot that mimics humans, and the other is Warriors are responsible for killing.

In the end, the human warrior impregnated the future leader's mother and sacrificed himself in a duel with the two robots.

"Oh, the script's imagination is very good." Ronald turned to the last page, and there were portraits of two humanoid robots on it.One is powerful and holds a shotgun; the other is handsome and can change into other people's appearance to confuse the other party.

This story seems to have the temperament of Spielberg's script. I am afraid that many plots will not be seen until the actual filming.

The core of the story is still an imaginative exploitation film. If Coleman were to shoot it, it would be done with a budget of almost 50 yuan.

"Tell the truth, brother." Cameron saw that Ronald was a little insincere.

"I don't know. This kind of movie depends on the level of special effects in the end. The lower limit can be Coleman's kind of movie, and the upper limit can be Spielberg or Lucas's movie. But if you are the director, I will look forward to it .”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Ronald felt a little wrong. It seemed that the plots of the two great directors, Steven and George, were actually similar to the Coleman-style exploitation films, except that they invested more in special effects and shooting. It's better.

"Hahaha, Roger used to say that Lucas just used more money to make his movies." Gail had heard similar statements.

"So you got the investment?"

"No, we're still pitching the idea to major studios for Jim to be able to direct."

"It's really not easy. I wrote a new sci-fi movie, but it was also rejected by many studios."

"Oh, sci-fi theme, can I have a look?" Cameron became interested.

Ronald took out his script and handed it to Jim.

"Does Jim still create with pen and paper?" Ronald asked Gale.

"Yes, he felt that the typewriter limited the creative process of writing and revising, and sometimes I typed for him."

"Let me give you a computer. I used it before. There is also Word Star software and a printer. It is very convenient to write scripts."

"Of course, you are rich now." Cameron joked while reading the script.

Ronald shook his head, "I made some money and improved my life, but that money is far from making a movie."

"You want to invest your own money to make a movie?" Gail asked strangely, no one in Hollywood did that, even Roger Coleman used the theater pre-sale money to make a movie.

"I didn't want to invest my own money to make a movie, but I couldn't find anyone who was willing to invest, so I had to contact Mr. Coleman. He was only willing to invest 50 yuan. I calculated that it was not enough, so I could only consider investing by myself. a little."

Ronald told Gail about his problem. Accompanied by CAA's agent, he went to several major studios, but they didn't get a positive response.

Gail laughed and looked at Ronald, "You didn't find a producer, did your agent accompany you to sell the script?"

"Yeah, how do you know?" Ronald replied.

"Then it's no wonder you get that kind of reaction.

For such an independent production project, the most important thing is to find a producer, so that his interests will be consistent with yours, and try his best to promote the project, instead of thinking about his own interests. "

"What do you mean?" Ronald seemed to feel that he had touched a little bit of the truth.

"Your agent is from CAA, right? Their agent only wants to stuff other actors into the project.

However, the top management of the studio thinks not to take risks, and to rely on the original successful formula to replicate success. They would rather earn a little less money, as long as they add a successful movie to their credit book.

Their interests are not aligned with the director's, and neither of them is considered for the artist. "

"Indeed, I fired my old agent, and now the project is handed over to Gale as the film producer," Cameron interjected while watching "Night of the Comet."

"Oh?" Ronald looked at Cameron, then at Gail Hurd, thinking that it was true.

New movies are always risky, and no one knows whether they will make money or not.How would you fight without a partner standing in a trench?
So Ronald asked,
"How did you and Jim work together? Can I invite you to be a producer too? How about you take a look at my script, are you interested?"

"My energy and time are now on the Terminator project. If you want to hire me, you have to wait in line." Gail replied, she is really a newcomer in the industry, she does not have enough resources and contacts, and only promotes Cameron The script occupied her main energy.

Gail still didn't understand Ronald, "You don't know how lucky you are, Ronald. You made a blockbuster movie when you debuted.

Jim's current situation is very embarrassing. The big studios are unwilling to invest in making science fiction films, and some people in small studios want to plagiarize his ideas, or buy his scripts and find someone to shoot them. "

"Hey, I understand..." Ronald remembered the situation where his fast-paced script was almost snatched away, "Then how can you protect Jim's interests?"

"Jim wanted to direct, so I signed a contract with him, and he sold me the 'Terminator' script for a dollar, and I said in the contract that only Jim could direct. "

Ronald knew it well, the two were boyfriend and girlfriend, and Cameron had not yet completed the divorce, so the two could not share the property rights of the movie as husband and wife.

Gail is willing to take over the role of producer, but she needs a guarantee to prevent Cameron from crossing the river and tearing down the bridge after getting the filming funds, so she will buy the copyright of the film and act as the producer of the film.

And Cameron was also afraid that after Gail got the investment, he would kick him out and replace him with a famous director, so he added a clause to the transfer contract, with the condition that Cameron must be the director and could not be replaced by someone else.

In this way, the two formed a close combination of interests. If you want to make a movie and make a lot of money, you can only succeed if you work closely together. If any one of them breaks the contract, it will cause big problems, and the movie will not be made.

As expected of an American-style couple, their interests must be protected.It seems that Gail's father is also Jewish...

"Your script is very interesting. Putting the zombie element in the background of the sci-fi doomsday, it can be regarded as a fusion of sci-fi and zombie films."

Cameron had a good opinion of Ronald's script.

"I am now trying to reduce the budget. Some scenes have to be deleted. If you are free, you can help me see if you can make some special effects scenes and makeup with a low budget."

Ronald made his own demands, and Cameron could pay for something if he wanted to.Jim and Gail are busy selling scripts, they must have had no income for several months, and now they are still eating their savings.

"You know, this is also our problem. I have met several producers, and they all have doubts about the film's investment. Why don't you help Jim see if you can cut some scenes from the script structure? After all, you have Made a movie, and Jim's Piranha [-] is actually not..."

"I won't admit that I directed that bad movie." Cameron muttered.

"Piranha [-]" has finished the post-production. According to the requirements of the directors' union, Cameron must watch it once. After returning, he wants to remove his name from the subtitles.

"Okay, then let's swap and read each other's scripts. Then see how we can lower the shooting budget."

Gail drafted two contracts. Ronald and Jim agreed to read each other's scripts, criticize each other from an objective standpoint, and write a report on how to reduce the budget of each other's filming without affecting the final screen effect.

(End of this chapter)