plagiarism

45 Paramount and The Graduate

The next day, Tan Xiaozhong brought Deborah and Tan Jiabao to the Paramount headquarters in Hollywood, where they met Robert Evans, the president of Paramount.

Robert Evans is in his 40s, slightly bald, with a lean look.

Tan Xiaozhong explained the purpose of coming, and Robert Evans was slightly surprised, and quickly shook hands with Tan Xiaozhong and Deborah enthusiastically, praised Tang Xiaozhong's works, and gave a very high evaluation of "The Graduate".

Tan Jiabao was just a child, and he was directly pushed aside by Robert Evans.Kid Tan Jiabao was not angry, he came to see it himself, and he gave Tan Xiaozhong all the right to dispose of it.So he obediently sat on the sofa behind Tan Xiaozhong and watched the negotiation between them quietly.

"Last spring, I received an old man from China. He gave me the script of "The Graduate" and also brought 11 songs of "The Graduate" as well as shooting suggestions. To be honest, I was very surprised at the time. , I don't even believe that a Chinese can write a good play that depicts the background of this era in America, but after I read this script, I found out that I was wrong. Oh, sell cakes, this amazing Chinese It was so well written that I decided to do it without hesitation. Oh, and you know, Paramount hasn't done anything like this since Roman Holiday." Robert Evan Si can talk freely, it seems that he is a very talkative character.

Tan Jiabao knew that the old man he was talking about was his master Ren Zhichu.Tan Jiabao was not mistaken about Ren Zhichu. After Ren Zhichu went abroad, he immediately dated Robert Evans and handed over the script and songs of "The Graduate" to Paramount.

Tan Jiabao also knew that although Paramount was at the forefront of the eight major Hollywood film companies, it was also one of the earliest film companies in Hollywood.But the company's performance has been mediocre, far behind MGM, Warner Bros. and Disney.Over the years, the classic films they have shot are really lackluster. Except for a few classic films such as "Roman Holiday", the other films can only be described as "average".Especially in recent years, Paramount has changed hands, and a large number of original talents have left, which has caused Paramount's future to be worrisome.

Robert Evans is an excellent entrepreneur. Since he entered Paramount, after his drastic reforms, Paramount has gradually emerged from the shadow of the early stage and has shown some vitality.However, they urgently need to shoot one or two heavyweight films to restore the confidence of employees and revive Paramount's former glory. "The Graduate" entered Paramount at this time and fell into the hands of Robert Evans.

Tan Jiabao's "The Graduate" was filmed by MGM in his previous life.MGM cost the film $300 million to produce, and it grossed just under $500 million in the U.S.However, the film was nominated for multiple Oscars and won the Oscar for Best Director that year.

After Evans finished speaking, Tan smiled and said, "Thank you, Mr. Evans, for putting so much emphasis on "The Graduate"! I recently heard that the filming of "The Graduate" has been completed, and it will be released nationwide in the near future. I don't know if Evans What's Mr. Si's opinion on the future of The Graduate?"

Robert Evans thought for a while, and immediately said: "The Graduate is a great film. We started filming in March last year, and it has been more than a year now. About 3 days later, our This "The Graduate" will be released in the United States. Paramount has invested nearly 10 million US dollars in this project, and most of the main creative personnel are selected according to the requirements of Mr. Tang Xiao."

Tan Jiabao was slightly surprised. He knew that MGM only took 5 months to shoot the film in the previous life, but Paramount took such a long time and spent 0 US dollars more than MGM.It can be seen how much Paramount attaches importance to this film.

Robert Evans continued: "The director of The Graduate is Mike Nichols, the male lead is Dustin Hoffman, and as the female lead, Audrey Hepburn declined our invitation due to various reasons, So the alternative Anne Bancroft was left to play Mrs. Robinson. The Beatles were asking too much for songs, and they didn't like to sing songs made by others, so we had to go with Paul Simon and Streisand came to perform, and most of the other actors and crew members were matched according to Mr. Tang Xiao's request..."

Tan Jiabao nodded secretly, he was prepared for all of this.Audrey Hepburn is currently one of the most popular female stars in Hollywood. Her salary is the same as that of Elizabeth Taylor, reaching 100 million US dollars. It is also possible that Paramount did not try hard to win her to play Robinson One of the reasons Mrs.As for the Beatles, who are now at the peak of their career, their asking price is of course high.However, he believes that Anne Bancroft, Paul Simon and Streisand will also not disappoint him.

"As for the box office of "The Graduate", our requirements are not high. We only need to keep our capital or have a slight surplus in the first round of screenings. Because the subject matter of this film is a bit different, and the director's approach is also different from traditional ones. The shooting method has changed a lot. To be honest, the reason why we shot this film is to go to the Oscars, and Paramount needs an Oscar statuette to boost our morale now." Robert Evan Si has nothing to hide from Tan Xiaozhong.

Tan Xiaozhong nodded slowly, and then said: "I understand Mr. Evans' thoughts. However, although this film appears to be different in terms of subject matter and other aspects, I believe that as long as we promote it properly, this film can still achieve good box office revenue. of."

Robert Evans smiled and said: "As for the promotion of the film, we actually promoted it before the film was shot. I think many viewers are numb to our promotion."

"Don't we plan to promote it? There are still 10 days until the film is released. Have we launched a large-scale publicity campaign during this period of time?" Tan Xiaozhong frowned and continued to ask.

Robert Evans shrugged and said: "We don't think it's necessary, because in the past year or so, there have been enough publicity reports on "The Graduate". If you spend money on this aspect, it will be useful." It's not big anymore. And it would be superfluous."

Hearing this, Tan Xiaozhong was obviously disappointed.He stood up, and he felt that he should have a good theory with this American film entrepreneur.