Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 187 Going to America to Release the Movie

  Ronald took a look at the opponent's body and weight, and reckoned that if he really jumped, he would definitely not be able to hold him, and he might have to take him down with him.

  Looking at the crowd downstairs, Ronald asked tentatively, "Meinahan, why are you here, can you talk to me?"

"Who are you?"

  Minahan Golan glanced back and said without interest, "You don't understand the pain of the artist, my film failed and was hated by the audience, just like Van Gogh's paintings were not understood by people at the time."

   As he said that, he burst into tears.

   Ronald stood on the balcony of his room, watching the fat man in his 50s crying very sadly, thinking that he didn't jump off the building to lose money for the movie? Is it to cry over artistic failure?

   But he can't even judge this kind of movie, his artistic ability is really indescribable.

   "My name is Ronald. Yesterday, I moved the film for you. You also gave me two movie tickets. I also went to see your movie. It wasn't that bad."

  Minahan Golan wiped his tears with his fat hands, "You don't have to comfort me, I was humiliated by the audience at the scene, it was a nightmare."

   "Uh, I'm actually a filmmaker too, this is my badge, you see. I'm a buyer of New World Company, I promise the movie isn't that bad."

  Ronald shook his badge at the opponent.

   "Really, will you buy the distribution rights to America?" Minahan looked back.

  I'm not stupid, Ronald secretly said, "No, my company is famous for introducing art films. This kind of commercial film is not within the scope of my company's introduction."

Afraid that the other party would not believe him, Ronald added, "My boss, Roger Coleman, is a famous film distributor in America. He has introduced Akira Kurosawa from Eastern Japan and Ingmar Bergman from Sweden. His works, his distribution channels are all cinemas where art films are shown.”

"You work for Mr. Roger Coleman?" Minahan Golan glanced back at Ronald again, "Well, I'm sure you're really discerning, what do you think about my movies? ?"

   "I think the names you named Alfie and Bibi for the hero and heroine are good." Ronald began to pick the only good thing about the movie.

   "The line of 'sell first, then make' is also very interesting."

   "You really have a vision. That's all I changed. It wasn't in the original script."

   "Yeah, yeah, it's rare to hear such a business philosophical line in a movie."

   "Then you say, why don't the audience like my movie?" Minahan Golan looked outside again.

   At this moment, the door to the room he was in was opened, and his cousin Yoram and the hotel staff rushed in.

   "Meinahan, have you forgotten our dream? We came to Hollywood from Tel Aviv to win the Oscar. This time the movie is not good, we have another time, don't be discouraged."

"I haven't forgotten, you're right, Yoram." Minahan Golan finally got down from the railing, the two fat men hugged and cried bitterly, saying a lot in a language that Ronald couldn't understand talk. Ronald is estimated to be the language of Israel, with a high-pitched voice, like a normal speech and a quarrel.

   "Then what, who can sign the check for me?" The theater manager looked at them eagerly and compensated for the repair costs of the screen.

   "I'll sign it for you, how much?" Little fat Yoram took out the checkbook, signed the number requested by the manager, and finally signed the name of Minahan Golan and handed it to the other party.

   "Here, it's signed in Minahan's name." The manager took the check and looked at it, and found that the signature was wrong.

   "That's right, both of us brothers can sign the check in each other's name, you just have to hold it, the bank will cash it." Big fat Minahan said to the manager.

  The theater manager hesitated and accepted the check.

   The staff of the organizing committee who came along said to Minahan Golan, "The organizing committee of the film festival believes that this film is not suitable for the audience's selection of awards, and we would like to seek your opinions."

  Meinahan waved his hand, indicating that he would not participate in the audience award selection.

  The people from the organizing committee also comforted him, "Mr. Golan, as Yoram said, the success or failure of a movie does not affect the evaluation of the creators. Remember to collect copies."

   Seeing that Minahan's mood had basically returned to normal, everyone left after saying a few words of comfort.

Minahan Golan dragged Ronald, who had come to watch the fun, not to let him go, and introduced to his cousin, "Yoram, this is Ronald, he works for Mr. Roger Coleman in America. ."

  Ronald said hello to the little fat Yoram, and the two exchanged business cards. The little fat man, whose full name is Yoram Globus, is the son of Menahem Golan's uncle.

  The two had just finished post-production on the set in West Berlin, so they excitedly came to the Montreal Film Festival, hoping to make a name for themselves and enter the American market.

  Minahan came out of the bathroom after washing his face, the fat man had returned to normal, and started chatting with his cousin Yoram.

   In front of Ronald, the English with a strong accent began to discuss something again. Coupled with the colorful body language and the increasing volume, it seems to be noisy.

   But Ronald didn't understand a word.

   After finally waiting for the two of them to stop, Ronald said his farewell in embarrassment, and was grabbed by Meinahan.

   "Ronald, Yoram and I were discussing where to invite you to dinner. Do you have any suggestions?"

   After half an hour, the three sat and chatted in the Schwartz smoked meat restaurant.

   "So how did you meet Mr. Roger Coleman?" Ronald, knowing that the two were descendants of Polish Jews who immigrated to Israel, brought them here after asking them if they had no dietary restrictions.

   "I fell in love with the film industry because I was Mr. Coleman's studio assistant, and went back to Israel to start a film company." Minahan Golan said, "Is it true that Mr. Coleman can't release our films?"

   "You know Mr. Coleman's style, Minahan." Ronald smiled.

   "Hahaha, yes." Minahan Golan himself laughed.

"We really had high expectations for this movie. Last year we bought a film company in America called Cannon Films, just to get into the American market. You know, foreign films are going to come into America. It’s hard, and once it hits theaters in America, other English-speaking markets will open up for us.”

   "Oh? So your purpose is to only show it in America?" Ronald heard the overtones. Is Golan trying to persuade overseas theaters and TV stations to buy their films through the release? "

   "No, not so." Golan denied.

"The Cannon Films we acquired actually has some distribution capability in America. Our dream is to get a real Oscar, best picture, best director, best actor and actress, best screenplay kind of thing. Not Best foreign language film of a comforting nature."

   turned out to be a dreamer.

   "Yes, actually, Operation Thunderbolt, which we produced and released in 1978, has been nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film," added Yoram.

   "Have you seen it?" Seeing Ronald shaking his head, the big fat Minahan told him the story.

Operation    Thunderbolt is based on the true events of the 1976 Israeli special forces raid on Uganda's Empedd Airport to rescue hostages from the plane.

   The hostages were rescued safely throughout the operation, and only Netanyahu, the commander of the Israeli special forces, was killed by a stray bullet.

   This is the first time Ronald has heard of this rescue operation. If only America had such special forces, the Persian hostages would not have been rescued until now.

"We have done distribution in the UK, China, Germany, and Spain. America was released only last year, and we realized that with the strength of Cannon Films, it is impossible to get a large-scale release. America's theatrical chain is mostly empty. The stalls were booked by the eight studios a year in advance. So we hope to make a name for ourselves at the film festival, and then negotiate with the eight studios for distribution.”

  Minahan Golan talked about his plans, "Unfortunately..." He sighed helplessly.

   "Is your film costing a lot?" Ronald asked tentatively. He wanted to learn more about the film distribution market and the method of financing for filming, so as to prepare for filming in the future.

   "Yes, we found tax rebates in West Berlin, and we got $8 million from businesses there, plus $2 million from our own Cannonball Films, for a total of 10 million..."

  Minahan Golan was not worried about Ronald stealing his own secrets, and he talked to him about the preferential policies for filming provided by the West German government. To encourage cultural undertakings, compete with East Germany. In addition to setting up the West Berlin Film Festival, the West German government also encourages companies to invest in the film industry.

   Any company that invests in the film industry can get a large tax exemption from the government. However, this tax-free amount is only given after the film is released, and the intervening time span must be solved by a bank bridge loan.

  The unique competitive advantage of Minahan Golan is that they have a good cooperative relationship with Slavenburg’s Bank in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and can get low-interest bridge loans.

Although this bank has recently been exposed by the media for money laundering in the underworld, they have a very good relationship with Lyon Credit Bank, which has recently acquired half of the shares of Slavenburg Bank. to future financing business.

   "That's it, thank you for telling me this." Ronald thanked the two brothers.

   "I heard that you are still a screenwriter?" Minahan Golan and Yoram Globus exchanged glances, "Do you know what work you have written that was made into a movie?"

   "The recently released famous film has my signature."

   "I saw that movie, it was released by MGM."

  Minahan probed further, "Although you are very young, you know the American film market very well, and you are still an artist. Do you have any suggestions for us to enter the American film distribution market?"

   "Advice?" Ronald was stunned, what advice could he give? Only worked on the midnight screening of High School of Rock and made some money and this opportunity to participate in the film festival.

However, after thinking about it, he still said, "I heard that United Arts and MGM have encountered some business difficulties recently, and their film production business has been suspended. You may try to talk to them first. I don't have a movie to release, right? Films from other companies should be quite eager."

   "That's it, I know Ronald you are a perceptive young man." Minahan and Yoram are very happy, they are still outsiders to Hollywood, and there are rumors in the industry that they are indeed not well-informed.

   "I'm kind of wondering how did you guys get the opening movie position?" Ronald also asked the two for advice, "It's hard to get the opening movie of this A-level film festival, right?"

  Meinahan smiled, "Don't be fooled by the meaning of A-level, he only stated that this film festival has an award-winning stage. Moreover, the Montreal Film Festival is newly established and faces a lot of competition.

   Once a film has participated in the selection of an A-level film festival, it cannot participate in the selection of another film festival. Participation is by screening only. "

   "So it is." Ronald nodded, thinking of the participating films on the film festival's promotional materials, and sure enough, not many English-language films participated. I also saw a Dongying film, an Italian film, and a Russian film. Sure enough, the A-level film festival is not so easy to hold.

   "So these are screening films, not competing, right?" Ronald picked up a flyer for the festival and asked Minahan for advice.

   "Of course, Hitchcock just passed away, and here's a tribute to his films." Yoram said, pointing to a row of film titles written in French.

   After the three of them finished their dinner, Minahan Golan called the waiter to sign the bill.

"By the way, why are you two cousins, but have different surnames?" Ronald suddenly remembered that the two brothers were named Golan and Globos, and the cousins ​​should have the same last name, "Is it a stage name? ?"

   "No, I changed my surname to Golan." Minahan paid for the meal, leaving a few notes as a tip.

   "I was a fighter pilot in the Israeli Air Force and participated in the 48-year war, so I changed Globos' last name to Golan and used Golan Heights as my last name."

   (end of this chapter)