Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 281 How much money do I have now?

  CBS hostess Pia agreed to contact David Letterman. They were colleagues at CBS Los Angeles in their early years. Letterman wrote a string of words to Pia when she was a weather forecaster.

   Letterman, who received a call from an old colleague, was very talkative and agreed to meet Ronald and the producer, who was at home with his family.

   Producer Linson and Ronald visited Letterman's home together.

   Letterman didn’t have long for fame, and his house was small, much smaller than the mansion that his teacher Johnny Carson was famous for across the country.

   Letterman is still at home preparing for the show. He drew aside the information on the living room table and greeted Ronald and Lin Sen warmly.

   "I'm a little busy, I heard Pia call and say, you want to make a cameo movie with me?"

   "Yes, we'd like you to guest-star yourself as the host to interview a character in the movie, Spiccoli, who was invited to your morning show for saving Brooke Shields."

   "The evening show, I'll start switching to evening hours next month."

   "Invitation to your evening show. You'll ask him a few questions, and Spiccoli will answer with that typical idiot-mindedness."

   "This is very interesting. I also have a little acting skills. You may not know that the Zach brothers first asked me to play 'Unprecedented and Flying in the Sky', but unfortunately my agent rejected it."

   "That's why we want to see you, Mr. Letterman."

   "Is that all? I thought you guys would give me a big role." Letterman read the two-page script and laughed.

   "If it wasn't for your agent's refusal, we would have asked you to audition for the role of a teacher in advance."

   "That's it, I'm still very similar to playing a teacher."

  …

   Chatted with David Letterman for a while, and finally he happily agreed to make a cameo.

   "I didn't expect Letterman to talk so well, but his agent was too tough." Ronald said to fellow producer Lin Sen after he went out.

   "It's because he's so good at talking that the agent is responsible for screening all the opportunities. Letterman is essentially a naive person, maybe that's why he can host a good talk show." Linsen replied.

   Maybe he is right, Letterman's naturally friendly and close character, if he were to handle all business cooperation invitations by himself, he would probably agree to all the invitations, which would be a disaster.

   Several of the big names in cameos have agreed, and Ronald began to have his assistants contact Sean Penn, who is now in Chicago for his stage play. The three actors needed to come up with a suitable shooting time and film the supplementary shots at one time.

Just when everything was ready, Ronald suddenly received a call from producer Lin Sen. Their reshoot plan was questioned by Ned Tanin, senior vice president of Universal Pictures, and he was needed tomorrow. Universal production, and Tanin and other high-level meeting to discuss.

   "Why? I don't understand. It's just a small production, and the cost of reshoots is only $300,000. Why is this vice president Tanin suddenly coming out and questioning us?"

   "Don't be mad, this Tanin is a well-known nuisance. He has a terrible reputation with directors, often interfering in questioning other high-level projects.

   The movie has nothing to do with him, but as a SVP he does have the power to ask questions about any project. We need to go to a meeting with him and explain his doubts, and Mr. Simberg's people will speak for us. "

  Linsen rushed to Ronald's editing room and discussed with Ronald how to deal with Tanin's question.

   "You have to be careful, don't be frightened by his initial questioning, Tanin is good at frightening the conversation object with super aggressiveness at the beginning..."

   "Super aggressive?"

"It will give you some hats when you come up, and accuse you of film creativity, shooting techniques, editing, etc. As long as you refute it according to the facts, you can speak the truth. Tanin will not insist on opposing it. He used to use this method to scare away liars who pretended to be capable."

   "What is his origin?"

   "MCA started out in the mail room, he never made a movie himself, he only showed his power by attacking the director and cutting out some other people's clips without meaning.

   Lucas cut out several minutes of the "American Graffiti" because he was making things difficult for him. After the movie sold out, he vowed not to work with Tanin anymore, and left Universal to find 20th Century Fox to work on "Star Wars". "

   "It turned out to be a troll."

   "Yes, when he accuses you of being rude, you must resist and fight back appropriately, so that he knows that you really understand how to make a movie."

   "To fight back against his accusations of spraying", Ronald wrote in his heart.

   In the conference room the next day, Ronald saw the super aggressiveness of the vice president Tanin.

  Tanin has a traditional Jewish appearance, with a bulge like a hump in the middle of his big nose. The slightly curly hair and the hanging eyebrows disappeared when it climbed to half the distance from the outer corner of the eye, and the two small eyes below stared at Ronald with a fierce look.

If you remove all the elements that make people feel comfortable on the face of Meinahan Golan, the owner of Cannon Films, such as large glasses, a kind smile, and a sincere face, and replace them with three points of rudeness, you are also Jewish. Tanin's first impression.

   "I don't understand why you would give the green light to such a script, which is full of contempt and trampling on the traditional morality of America. This script should not be filmed by us at Universal."

  Tanin attacked Ronald's movie while scanning the side of Simberg's subordinate, a female vice president.

   "Mr. Tanin, I don't know why you say that, this is originally a youth comedy..."

"Comedy? The real comedy should be like 'Mayvin and Howard', suitable for all ages, and there is no such scene that purely satisfies the audience's low taste." When Tanin attacked, he did not forget to mention the Oscar-winning film he produced. Award for a comedy film.

   "But 'Fast-Paced' is a low-budget youth comedy, we lack marketing investment and need some shots to get the audience into the cinema..."

   "Going into the movie theater? Do you want more people to watch your 'movie'?" Tanin said the word "movie", with his hands on his chest and **** on each side. It means putting double quotation marks on the movie, satirizing that what Ronald made was not a movie at all.

  Ronald's anger was suddenly hooked by his actions, why is it that I'm not shooting a movie? You gave the green light to "Melvin and Howard" which was a fiasco at the box office, got a few Oscar nominations and praised by film critics with PR, even if you know how to make movies?

"Of course, I don't think there is any problem with this. The director has made a film, and of course I hope his box office will be good. Even if this small production is a small production, I hope he can make a big hit at the box office, not just get four or five million box office and be satisfied. already."

   Ronald shot back. Tanin mentioned just now that he gave the green light to "Melvin and Howard". Although he won several Oscars, the box office was only over 4 million.

   Those words first frightened Lin Sen who was sitting next to him. He glanced at Ronald to see if the young man had misunderstood what he meant and responded appropriately, but not by sarcastic and exposing the other party's bottom line.

   "Mr. Tanin, Ronald means..."

   "I know what he means!" Tanin looked a little angry, "You anti-Semitic..."

   Now even the female vice president next to him frowned. Where did the hat of anti-Semitism come from?

   "How can my movie have an anti-Semitic plot, my two heroines are Jewish actors." Ronald himself paid attention to this kind of detail, and "Fast Pace" has enough quotas for any race.

   "Why not, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Phoebe Cates are both actors of Jewish descent, and you let them be naked in the movie, playing two ignorant and superficial teenage girls who are deceived by men of other races."

   "I don't understand, why photographing beautiful Jewish girls is anti-Semitic? Is it that to find an ugly Jewish girl, or a Jewish boy to soak up beautiful women of other races, is to support the Jews?"

   "I'm afraid that in this case, the reputation of the Jews will be even worse?"

   But the female vice president next to him understood what he meant and smiled at him. Tanin's unreasonable and arrogant attitude made her, who was also the vice president, disgusted.

"You haven't made a movie, so why should I trust you? Can you guarantee that your movie will sell out? If so, why do you need to invest 300,000 yuan in reshoots?" Tanin said from the perspective of the reshoot budget question.

   "Of course I can guarantee it." Ronald thought to himself that the 15th anniversary edition of the original film was released, can it not sell well? And the few scenes I shot by myself are better than the performance in my dreams.

"Do you really believe him? Lin Sen? Will the 300,000-dollar reshoots have any effect on the box office of the movie? If this investment cannot increase the box office of the movie by more than 900,000, we are doing business at a loss. "

   The female vice president under Sinberg also raised doubts. Of course, she was actually giving Ronald and Linson a chance to explain.

"Of course, Brooke Shields and David Letterman are both stars with great appeal. Their participation can attract more teenage audiences to the cinema. As long as they have seen the movie, word of mouth spread can make The movie was a big sell. We didn’t have a marketing budget, and this reshoot was our best marketing.”

   "How can you prove that your film will be popular? Our reshoot investment will definitely pay off?" Tanin frowned and stared at Ronald, who was most disgusted by nonsense film directors. But listening to the young man Ronald said slowly, it seemed that he did have his own set of ideas.

  In this era of film market downturn, you can only invest and bet if you find a director who can really bring a box office return. Otherwise, as soon as the company's annual report comes out, if there are too many losses, his position will not be preserved.

  Simberg has Spielberg, the cash cow, in his hands, but he is not like him. He must question every movie to ensure his right to speak. Anyway, if the movie is a hit, no one will raise his doubts. If it doesn't sell, it's foresight.

"I have confidence in my film!" Ronald nodded to the female vice president next to Tanin, "I hope to approve our reshoot budget sooner, and the two stars who promised to make cameos have very tight schedules. Don't delay."

   "Please let me make a phone call first, and I'll show you the proof." After Ronald finished speaking, he walked out of the conference room and went to the front desk to get an extension to make a long-distance call to his personal accountant, Lawrence Wang.

   "Lawrence, I'm Ronald. I don't have time to talk, tell me, how much money can I use now?"

   Lawrence replied without hesitation: "Ronald, I'm assuming you need some cash urgently right now.

   Your securities assets have not grown much, but the shares of IBM, Coca-Cola, Kodak you have bought for more than a year are only subject to capital gains tax, not personal income tax. If all are sold, it will be in the early $357,800,000.

  Your tax payment on this sale will be in next year, so you can use the money in the short term, which is this money plus the cash in your bank checking account of $100,000. Leaving aside the taxes due this April, you'll be able to spend about $350,000.

   If you need more, then consider taking a mortgage on the house with the bank. "

   "If I write a check for $300,000 now, will it bounce immediately?"

"No, it's only when Wells Fargo finds out that you don't have enough accounts when they go to cash out that it bounces. You have about two days to balance the account. If you sell the stock, I can get the cash in within two days. Your checking account won't bounce."

   "Okay, you can always wait for my order."

   Ronald re-entered the conference room, took out a checkbook from his pocket, took out a pen, signed a check for $300,000 on the first one, and handed it to Ned Tanin.

   "This is my personal check. I can pay for this $300,000 reshoot fee. Universal will share the account with me according to the investment ratio."

   "No, I believe you. You are very confident in your movies, and I like people with confidence." Tanin said something unexpectedly, in contrast to the questioning mouth just now.

   "The budget is finally here, and we can arrange reshoots." Lin Sen opened the car door and let Ronald get in the car.

   "Why did Tanin finally agree? I thought he would let me pay the money myself.

   "Of course he agrees. If you pay for it yourself, the box office sells well, and Universal has to pay you dividends, he will become a laughing stock in the industry. How can capitalists be exploited by directors?"

   I got up late in the morning, sorry for the delayed update

   (end of this chapter)