The king of ghost horse comedy

Chapter 75 "Great White Shark"

Zhao Yazhi smiled meekly, "Then I'll get you a cup of coffee to refresh you."

Xu Guanwu turned back to the table and continued to read the scripts delivered by these producers.

After flipping through nearly a hundred books, Xu Guanwu couldn't help rubbing his eyes.

He found that the batch of submitted scripts was similar to the scripts he saw when he first came to Hollywood a few months ago.

They are all art films and experimental films that are difficult to recover their investment.

"Why isn't there a commercial film that will hit the blockbuster later?" Xu Guanwu muttered depressingly.

At this moment, jingle bell, jingle bell, the phone rang suddenly.

Xu Guanwu picked up the phone and heard Lei Shidong's voice.

"Stanley, are you still picking a script? I have a project here that you might be interested in." Lei Shidong smiled.

"What project?" Xu Guanwu asked curiously.

Since the box office of "Rocky" really broke through [-] million US dollars, Lei Shidong has obviously become closer to Xu Guanwu.

"It's a movie about big sharks eating people." Lei Shidong said with a smile.

Xu Guanwu was taken aback for a moment, and suddenly a flash of inspiration flashed in his mind, "Great white shark?!"

"Huh?! Did you already know?" Lei Shidong couldn't help being startled when he heard Xu Guanwu yell out the title of the film.

Xu Guanwu was inexplicably pleasantly surprised, he never thought that there would be nowhere to find after breaking through the iron shoes, and it took no effort to get it.

I actually let myself meet "Jaws", one of the top-grossing films of the 70s.

"Where are you now? I'll be there right away." Xu Guanwu asked urgently.

"Don't be so impatient. It's too late now, and we have to wait until tomorrow to talk. Besides, if you are too eager, others will hold you back." Lei Shidong laughed.

Xu Guanwu also immediately realized that he was too excited, and quickly smiled, "Then let's meet again tomorrow."

After putting down the phone, Xu Guanwu laughed happily twice, wandering around the room by himself, unable to calm down no matter what.

He knew that the global box office of "Jaws" was as high as [-] million US dollars, [-] million more than the dark horse "Rocky".Moreover, this film also made Steven Spielberg, who was unknown at the time, become the highest-grossing commercial film director in Hollywood.

"This is really a beautiful thing that fell from the sky." Xu Guanwu couldn't help laughing and said that the more he thought about it, the more beautiful he became.

"Ah Wu, what are you doing here alone? Have you found a movie that you can invest in?" Zhao Yazhi asked curiously when she saw Xu Guanwu laughing from ear to ear.

"Yes! Ah Zhi, do you believe that I will create a box office miracle again?" Xu Guanwu laughed.

"Naturally." Zhao Yazhi nodded.

"Hey, come and kiss me!" Xu Guanwu hugged Zhao Yazhi and smiled triumphantly.

……

Early the next morning, Xu Guanwu hurried to Lei Shidong's office.

"Stanley, it seems that you care about this movie very much. Why, did you foresee that it would be a hit?" Lei Shidong asked curiously.

"Of course, how about it? Do you want to get involved?" Xu Guanwu smiled.

Lei Shidong was stunned for a moment, then waved his hand, "Forget it, your money is earned by luck, even if you lose it, you don't feel bad. My money is hard-earned money, and I have to be responsible for the entire family. It’s hard for me to explain.”

"That would be such a pity," Xu Guanwu said with a look of regret, "The opportunities are all presented to you, and you can't grasp them. Then when the movie is released in the future, don't say you didn't remind you."

Lei Shidong smiled and ordered the secretary to invite people in.

Xu Guanwu then met the two producers of the film "Jaws", Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown.

Richard Zanuck is a well-known Hollywood film producer, and his father is the CEO and general manager of 20th Century Fox, Daryl Zanuck.

David Brown is also from 20th Century Fox. He and Richard Zanuck are very good colleagues, and they are also a pair of unlucky fellows who share the same disease.

A few years ago, as American movies were hit by the TV broadcast industry, the box office fell sharply. 20th Century Fox also suffered serious losses, so the shrewd Richard and Brown told the board of directors that Fox "must focus on those films with small investment and high success rate to occupy new markets."

His proposal is that these films must provide audiences with content that cannot be seen on TV, that is, "like" "sex" films.

So he chose several screenplays adapted from notorious pornographic novels and hired pornographic host Ruth Meier to make them.

As a result, these tertiary films not only failed to make money for the company, but caused losses in the eyes of 20th Century Fox, and at the same time greatly damaged the reputation of this established film company.

So under the unanimous protest of the company's directors, Darryl Zanjuk killed his relatives righteously, personally fired his son Richard Zanyuk, and David Brown, who was also responsible for the scapegoat.

After these two unlucky guys left 20th Century Fox, they didn't sink down. Instead, they transferred to Warner Corporation with a five-film shooting plan.

But bad luck has always been with these two unlucky guys. Not long after staying in Warner Company, the two who were neglected left in despair amidst boos.

Then the two of them, who were like bereaved dogs, invested in the return of Universal Company, but Universal only provided them with a house, let them become a satellite company under Universal, use the funds of Universal Company to shoot movies, and then use the name of Universal Company. piece.

The movie "Jaws" is the second film made by Richard and David. The first film they invested in was called "Rampage and Escape", and the director is also Steven Spielberg, but at the moment The movie hasn't been released yet.

The film "Jaws" is the ambitious work of Richard and David. They tried their best to get 500 million US dollars from the world. overrun.

When shooting sea scenes, there are often unexpected situations such as sailboats breaking into the frame, cameras getting wet, ships sinking, etc., so the shooting progress has been repeatedly delayed.Mechanical Sharks also malfunction frequently, as seawater corrodes internal parts.

Universal has become more and more impatient with Richard and David's repeated demands for additional investment, and has reservations about this disaster film full of disasters.

Therefore, when the mechanical shark sank to the bottom of the sea again due to a malfunction, when Richard asked Universal to pay for divers to salvage it, he was always rejected by the board of directors of Universal.

"Just let that piece of scrap metal settle on the bottom of the sea, and we won't pay another penny for this film." The CEO of Universal Corporation said to Richard.

Richard Zanjuk and David Brown naturally don't want their hard work to go to waste, so they can only find another investor in this situation.

But things are not that simple.

The movie "Jaws" has just been halfway through filming, and the investor must first compensate Universal for its losses, and also invest a large sum of money into the film crew; besides, Richard Zanjuk and David When Brown made the film, he promised to share 10% of the net profits of the original author of "Jaws".

That is to say, investors need to pay at least tens of millions of dollars, but they cannot enjoy all the net profits.

(End of this chapter)