Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Make an appointment with Jerry Weintraub for me and meet him when I get to Los Angeles." Ronald called temporary agent Kevin Huwen.

The high-quality asset Yoram Globus was talking about was the nearly 2,000 British-produced films that Weintraub's film company bought from them before Giancarlo Paretti took over Cannon. Library.

At that time, Cannon encountered a financial crisis, and Weintraub obtained a US$150 million credit line from Bank of America, signed a twenty-year distribution contract with Columbia, and began to flex his muscles.

Weintraub's first big move was to swallow up this part of the British film library assets in one fell swoop. Want to become a comprehensive film and television group.

But the stock market crash and Wall Street's interest rate hikes are fair to all companies that Hollywood borrows to acquire. Two of Weintraub's big projects failed.

One project is to follow the successful route of Cannon in the past, first pre-sales in Europe, obtain a bridge loan from Credit Lyonnais, and then invest in the sports movie "The Big Bue" by new Chinese director Luc Besson.

But this project tells the story of ocean divers and dolphins. The audience is too small, the marketing is not good, and the production cost is not even recovered.

The second project is a Broadway adaptation of the musical "Evita," directed by Oliver Stone and starring Meryl Streep as Mrs. Peron.

This project received the support of Argentine President Menem, who promised to provide 50,000 free extras to ensure that the film would be shot in Buenos Aires. But unfortunately, there were riots in Argentina and it had to be stopped for security reasons.

After that, they moved to Spain for filming, and the grand scene caused the production cost to soar to 35 million US dollars.

At this time, news came that "Blue Sea and Blue Sky" had failed at the box office, and Bank of America canceled his credit facility because of this project. Without money, it was impossible to make a movie, and the "Mrs. Peron" project had to be cancelled.

At that time, Weintraub had no choice but to ask Ronald for help. After filming "The Kid 3", he regained some strength. With the help of his newly hired president Harry Usher, Bank of America resumed its relationship with the United States. The bank signed a credit line of US$95 million, which was a relief.

Still, Weintraub's business was shaky. It is called a "mini-big studio" by the Hollywood media, which means that although it is not large, it will make big productions, star stars, famous directors to help, and adapt famous works.

What Weintraub wanted to be was a smaller version of Orion.

The real Orion can't stand this business model. It's running hard and now it's looking for buyers everywhere. If Orion is a smaller circle, it will directly declare to enter the bankruptcy process.

Before he filed for bankruptcy and reorganization, it was a good opportunity to purchase the "British 2000" film library that had several buyers.

The two romantic comedies invested by Ronald, "Pretty Woman" and "A Ghost Story", had domestic box office scores of 176 million and 216 million respectively. It's just about time to enter the account division.

It is more than enough to buy a "British 2000" film library. . .

It is a pity that the heroines of the two movies, Julia Roberts and Demi Moore, have greatly increased their net worth and may not be willing to shoot movies with similar themes. If you want to repeat the box office success of a romantic comedy, you have to wait for the opportunity

"Sorry, Ronald, Weintraub seems to have disappeared from Hollywood now, and no one can find his whereabouts."

As soon as he landed in New York, Kevin Huwen called him.

"You're looking for his favor, aren't you, your assistant Susan? If you're looking for her, she should know where Weintraub is."

"Susan?" Kevin Huwen was obviously unfamiliar with this.

"Susan Eakins, his personal assistant, should now be a producer at Weintraub Pictures, or the director of the president's office or something like that."

"Okay, I'll go check it out."

"By the way, what's the news in Hollywood these days when I'm in London? Have you sorted out important articles from newspapers and magazines for me these days?"

"Uh, sorry, I'll ask my assistant to send it to you right away," Hu Wen said awkwardly.

Ronald shook his head. Richard was still familiar with his affairs. Hu Wen is not as proactive as Yang Yanzi. His advantage is that he has a wide range of friends and deep relationships.

"It's okay, I'll just find someone to handle it." Kevin Huwen is considered a very powerful one among the young agents at CAA. Winning him into your own camp has many potential benefits, even if you make a small mistake. However, I still need to find a capable assistant in the future.

"Hey, Richard, I'm not here these days, is there any news I need to know?" Ronald called Richard anyway.

"It's probably just about Julia Roberts."

"Ah? What happened to her? Isn't she filming a Spielberg movie?"

"She and her boyfriend canceled their wedding the day before they were to get married"

"Um"

A few hours later, Ronald finally got the full report on this big piece of gossip. It's very exciting, and in some ways more twists and turns than a Julia Roberts movie.

Julia Roberts had a vulnerable moment when she was hit by an earthquake while filming "Pretty Woman," when her boyfriend Kiefer Sutherland showed up and made her feel like she had met Mr. Right.

Their relationship progressed well afterwards, and they even starred in a movie together. They also appeared as a couple at the Oscars.

The two had planned to hold their wedding this fall, and invited many young actors as guests. After Madonna and Sean Penn, another famous celebrity couple in Hollywood was going to hold a grand wedding, and the paparazzi were out and about, lying in wait opposite their love nest, hoping to take exclusive intimate photos of the fiancée.

But just three days before the wedding, rumors were circulating in the Hollywood circle that the two had canceled their wedding. Although the two parties did not come out to clarify.

Even more outrageous was that on the day of the wedding, Kiefer Sutherland moved out of Julia Roberts's house in Beverly Hills. And Roberts then openly drove away with a man. . .

Gossip reporters all jumped on motorcycles and followed the runaway bride and the third man to the airport. There they bought tickets to Ireland. At the airport, the reporters who were close to them took photos of the man, and after identification, they found that the man was also an actor named Jason Patric.

What's even more outrageous is that Jason Patric is a good friend of Kiefer Sutherland, or rather, a former good friend.

According to subsequent reports, Jason was once a candidate for best man, but Kiefer immediately cancelled the arrangement. He was later removed from the guest list.

Just when everyone thought that this was a gossip drama about two good friends fighting for a beautiful woman, new gossip broke out a week later. The reason why Kiefer Sutherland was kicked out was that he was caught cheating with a stripper by Julia Roberts a few days before the wedding.

For a time, whose fault was it became the biggest discussion point of the couple's escape from marriage. The National Enquirer magazine, the largest gossip media in the United States, even created a series of columns to follow up on this incident.

The gossip titles were also ups and downs, very interesting. From "Runaway Bride", to "My Best Friend's Wedding", to "British Lover" and so on.

Ronald felt like he had missed the big gossip that only happens once in a decade, and it was very interesting to read it all the way on the plane back to Los Angeles. When they got home, Diane saw that he was still reading the National Enquirer, so she curled her lips and said, "Is it so interesting?" "Hey, the audience thinks it's interesting. I'll find someone to adapt it into a movie script in the future. Hahaha."

This gossip is dramatic, with a series of stories before and after. It's also one of the most box office-appealing actresses in Hollywood today playing out movie plots in real life. The only flaw is that the two male protagonists are not famous enough.

If the men are also heavyweight movie stars, then even the first black Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas nominated by the current President George W. Bush would probably be overshadowed by the scandal of his former colleagues accusing him of sexual harassment before the Senate voted to approve this historic nomination.

"Oh yeah? Can it really be written into a movie script?" Diane was a little unconvinced.

"Really, these titles of the National Enquirer can actually be used as movie script titles. They are topical and stimulate the curiosity of the audience. It's best to let Julia Roberts play the role herself, hahaha." Ronald hugged Diane's waist and kissed her on the mouth.

"By the way, Richard just called and said he'd come over." Diane's uncomfortable mood was dispelled by Ronald's kiss.

"Oh"

"Weintraub is hiding and refusing to see anyone. His company is about to enter bankruptcy protection."

"Does he owe a lot of money?" Ronald was also very sad about the situation of this old friend.

"It's not a matter of owing money. That's actually not difficult to deal with, because he still has a 20-year distribution contract with Columbia. With this, he has no worries about food and clothing, and can maintain the life of a rich man without any problem."

"Then why not see anyone?"

"I called Jane Morgan, and she asked Susan Aikins to come to see me in person. She said that Weintraub fell into depression and autism. He felt that his business failure was ridiculous and didn't want to see anyone in the circle again, so as not to lose face." . .

"Why is it like this?"

Ronald understood. No wonder even Kevin Hu Wen couldn't find him. Fortunately, he knew Weintraub's wife Jane Morgan and his lover Susan Aikins, so he had the opportunity to find him.

Susan Aikins wore very ordinary clothes and came secretly to chat with Ronald for a while. Then she got into Ronald's car and went with him to a secluded suburban villa, which was a gift that Weintraub bought for her with his own money. Weintraub was hiding in it now.

"Jerry, Jerry" Susan Akins told the servants to keep an eye on Weintraub when she left. When she didn't see Weintraub in the house, she became nervous.

"Will he be in trouble?" Ronald was also shocked.

Then he heard Weintraub's hoarse voice coming from a small study on the second floor, "Susan, who did you bring? Didn't I say that I won't see anyone from Hollywood or the record industry? And those vampires on Wall Street, no, no, no, no one"

"It's me, Ronald." Ronald answered outside the door, "You don't see me either? Come out Jerry, or I'm going to knock on the door."

"Oh" When he heard it was Ronald, Weintraub was not afraid of embarrassment, and he immediately opened the door.

There was thick cigar smoke inside, and the lights were not on. Susan went to turn on the light and opened the window to let out the smoke.

"What's wrong with you? Jerry, the Weintraub I know is a person who never compromises and is always full of optimism." Ronald looked at Weintraub, who was only wearing a bathrobe, with a decadent look on his face.

"Hey, Ronald, I'm done, I'm completely done. I now understand that the success of The Karate Kid is not the result of my unique vision, but the result of your screenwriter and director ability. Without genius directors and genius screenwriters like you, I was fooled by them in Hollywood."

Weintraub did not hide anything from Ronald. Ronald helped him alleviate his previous financial difficulties. Only Ronald in Hollywood would not make him feel ashamed to see people, because he had lost face long ago.

Weintraub took a bottle of Martell brandy and drank from the bottle mouth, while telling Ronald everything about being fooled by people on Wall Street.

It turned out that the various financing contracts he signed were full of loopholes. When the projects of Weintraub Pictures were progressing smoothly, they could use these to leverage, and with one movie, they could get rid of the situation of "mini-big studios" and become "medium-sized big studios" like Orion, relying on their vision in choosing movies and big directors and big stars to win.

But after two consecutive big projects failed, his funds were very tight, and even The Karate Kid III could not completely get him out of danger. So Weintraub made another big gamble, imitating "Batman" to shoot a "Peter Pan" movie.

Who knew that after finally attracting the interest of Dodi Fayed, the young master of the Middle Eastern billionaire, who was interested in investing in this movie, Paramount expressed interest, bought the production rights, and prepared to start shooting.

Who knew that after a few months of delay, Paramount sold the production rights of the movie to Mike McDavoy, vice president of TriStar Pictures. Mike McDavoy found his former client Spielberg again, and he knew that Spielberg had long been interested in shooting a Peter Pan movie. . .

As a matter of course, Spielberg brought in two more stars, Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams, to play Captain Hook and the adult Peter Pan, respectively. Julia Roberts, who had just caused a big gossip, also had a role as Tinker Bell.

But big stars mean big trouble. Dustin Hoffman's old problem came back, and the method-oriented him had to drag his feet to find the feeling of a pirate captain.

Robin Williams also had a lot of his own ideas. He wanted to join the Peter Pan who got married and had children as an adult and forgot his childhood identity, so he needed to revise the script a lot.

As a result, the film, which was supposed to start shooting at the beginning of the year, was delayed for a long time.

It didn't matter that it was delayed, but Winterraub's cash flow dried up. His loan expired and he couldn't continue to renew it through the share of Peter Pan, and his credit line was cancelled by the vampire bankers on Wall Street.

To a certain extent, Bank of America was looking forward to his bankruptcy and reorganization. Some of the high-quality assets in Winterraub's company could be taken over after his bankruptcy and reorganization, and the profit would be much better than the loan interest.

"Hey, I'm here to buy assets from you too." Ronald thought it would be better to be frank. "Originally I wanted to buy some of the copyright shares of the Britannia 2000 film library that you acquired from Cannon. Now if you need it, I can find some private investors to buy more. Of course, it's up to you to decide whether to sell it or not, and how much to sell. If you decide to go bankrupt and reorganize, I can also accept the court auction afterwards."

"Why are you the same? You really know how to buy things. These film libraries can be in your hands, and they can also play the biggest role." Weintraub jumped up suddenly. If he had this money to save his life, his production company would be saved, and he wouldn't have to be laughed at by "friends in the circle".

Not only is his film library willing to sell to Ronald, but also the Karate Kid series he produced. If you like it, you can sell it. Do you want the copyright of your own director's work? It's OK to remake or shoot a sequel in the future

"That won't work. That's your favorite movie series. When we shot the third part last time, you said that this was the movie you wanted to have engraved on your tombstone. I can't steal your love."

"Hey, we are old friends. The Karate Kid is more your success than my success." Weintraub was afraid that Ronald would not want to buy it, so he quickly persuaded him

"I can buy it, but even if we shoot sequels and remakes in the future, you will be the producer of course. I will keep this power for you." Ronald really couldn't get interested in shooting the Karate Kid series again. If Weintraub still wanted to be a producer, he would definitely spend 100% of his energy to do it well because of emotional and financial factors.

"Hey, you are a true friend. I understand it." Weintraub hugged Ronald with tears in his eyes

The selling price is really too discounted

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