"Ronald! I have known for a long time that you are a genius. Come and sit. I have prepared the best brandy in Italy for you."

Ned Tanning, the president of Paramount, with a loud voice and a red face, personally went to the elevator door directly connected to the president's office to greet Ronald and his entourage.

"Top Gun's box office is expected to return to No. 1 next week. I am now at Paramount's high-level meeting, and my words are listened to. This is all your credit." Tan Ning said to the director who can make money, that is Baiyi

Baishun.

"Mr. Tanin, this is a reward for your confidence in me."

"Hahaha, call me Ned, how many times have you said it. Come on, come in and talk."

Ned Tanning has great respect for Ronald. He had previously filmed "Fast-paced Richmond High" and "Night of the Comet", which were low-budget movies that would pop up in Hollywood every year.

department, but soon these famous directors will fall into silence again.

Some people in the industry have a special term for this kind of movie, called "one-time success." It is unknown in advance that it will be a hit, and it is difficult to summarize the real reasons for its success afterwards. It is a miracle that cannot be replicated.

Hollywood producers have never been very interested in "one-time success" that cannot be replicated.

Unless the director and other main creators can continuously demonstrate their strength and let Hollywood understand what type of movies they make will be successful and then place their bets, this will be the discernment of presidents and vice presidents with executive titles.

Ronald is a very different director. He does not follow the rules of Hollywood at all. He does not focus on one subject like most directors. He first started making high school musicals, then jumped to science fiction films, and then martial arts films.

Finally, he came to shoot an aerial combat film that no one in Hollywood had picked up in decades.

All Hollywood studio executives were frightened by this indiscriminate shooting style. They began to study Ronald, hoping to find the secret of his success, but found nothing.

For example, for a successful director like Spielberg, everyone knows that he makes aliens, children-related themes, or scary animal movies, which will definitely be a hit, and people can compete to invest in him.

But the other themes he shoots may not be able to achieve breakthroughs at the box office, worthy of his expensive director's commission. You can invest and make bets, but you won't compete for them.

In contrast, Ronald had no clue when it came to choosing movies. He tried various genres everywhere, but every movie was a hit. Everyone was a little jealous of Weintraub who invested in "The Kid". Who knew Ronald was still there at that time?

Can you make a martial arts movie?

If I had known this, it would be better to act like an amateur and blindly trust this young director. He can shoot whatever he wants. Follow him and get a popular star, and you can brag about it anyway.

By today, it is a foregone conclusion that "Top Gun" will be a hit, and everyone has reached a consensus that maybe Ronald has a secret that no one knows about.

He seems to have seen through the aesthetic tastes and values ​​of the new generation of young people after the end of the baby boom. It seems that only a few new directors such as Ronald Lee and John Hughes can grasp this subconsciousness rooted in the new generation.

.

Hollywood executives now only know that the new generation of audiences is no longer interested in the anti-war, left-wing, and rebellious values ​​of the previous generation. However, they have not returned to the silent and hard-working people of the silent generation before World War II.

The value of work goes up.

Like Alex, the young character in "Ties" played by Michael J.

Concept, take it in stride.

But on the other hand, they have inherited the sexually open concept of their parents. Traditional family concepts such as Puritans and Catholics are rapidly disintegrating. They are the first generation to grow up when their parents' divorce rate is extremely high. They always have a few friends.

Or the classmate is from a single-parent family.

Almost everyone agrees that you must live together before getting married in order to achieve happiness. Before getting married, it has gradually become a consensus among urban teenagers to get along with more than a dozen male and female friends and find the most suitable one.

High school sweethearts (high school sweethearts getting married and living happily) have become something only found in fairy tales, and are hard to see in real life.

But these characteristics that can be summed up in words do not seem to be a good inference as to why Ronald is able to sell movies. What do audiences who like martial arts, like fighter jets, science fiction, and high school life have in common?

?

He must have some qualities that allowed him to achieve success that is difficult for ordinary people to achieve. As long as he can be one step ahead and understand the secret of his success, he can discover a few more young directors like Ronald, and he can enjoy it for at least five years.

The secret to success.

In short, as long as Ronald makes a movie about teenagers, Ned Tanin will rush to invest in it. What is there to fear? Whether he makes sweet love or tank battles, it will definitely be another miracle.

"So, what new ideas do you have now?"

After chatting about the good news about how "Top Gun" was widely mentioned in major media, Ned Tanin couldn't help but inquire about Ronald's next project.

"I'm still looking for inspiration, and there's no script that stands out to me yet."

"If you have one, be sure to tell me. Paramount can sign a first look agreement with you for three movies. We do not stipulate what movies you will cooperate with us, nor do we stipulate what movies you will cooperate with us.

How many projects can we cooperate with? We only ask that if you are interested, please send it to Paramount first. We promise that if we offer the same conditions as our competitors, you will give us priority.

We compete fairly with others, all we want is that under the same conditions, you consider Paramount first... no, you consider my opportunity first."

"This flatters me, but even if we don't sign such an agreement, I will first consider companies like Paramount if I have a project."

Ronald refused to sign the agreement, but he didn't say anything.

If Paramount had proposed such a condition before filming "Top Gun", even if Ronald did not agree, the agent would have begged him to agree.

However, two consecutive movies have grossed over 100 million in box office, and he has become a popular star in Hollywood. It is impossible to sign a long-term contract with several movies. Let's talk about it one by one.

What's more, the script assistant he signed, David Simkins, has recommended several good scripts. Some of them are in the film libraries of other seven major studios, or have been put on the circulation list.

As long as he raises his finger, the studio executives will hand over the script without hesitation and then negotiate an extremely favorable condition.

Anyway, I don’t have a close relationship with Ned Tanin, and the other party didn’t help me in times of need, so don’t blame me for thinking about my own interests first.

"I knew you were a very commercially gifted director." Ned Tanin's heart was bleeding. If he had shown his full support to Ronald back then, he wouldn't be like this now.

There were rumors in the circle that Ronald was negotiating with Universal President Frank Price for a new film. Who made Price give the unknown Ronald a script purchase price of US$350,000 at that time?

"In short, don't forget Paramount's distribution strength. After this, you can clearly see that it is not without reason that Don and Jerry signed a long-term agreement with us. I can also give you the conditions they obtained, and even

Even better. I don’t care about the subject matter, casting, or team. There is only one issue, it’s just that it’s released by Paramount.”

Ned Tanning raised his glass and clinked it with Ronald.

Who doesn't want to release Ronald's movies? Now when he makes movies, it's like making money out of the air. With a wave of the magic wand in his hand, the audience obediently drives to the cinema, takes out their money from their pockets, and queues up to hand it over to the box office.

staff of.

It would be even better if there was an opportunity to embed some products in the movie. From sunglasses, to motorcycles, to fighter jet models, to the Navy’s recruiting booth, everyone is taking photos of the objects that appear in “Top Gun” now.

The long queue obediently handed over the money.

Ronald took a sip of the brandy. It tasted really good. It seemed to be made by a very good winery. "This brandy is really good."

"Do you like it? My friend gave it to me. You can take a few bottles with you when the time comes." Ned Tanin pressed the bell and asked his secretary to come in and ask her to load a box into the trunk of Ronald's car and take it away.

"Speaking of distribution, I have a movie here that you can consider." Ronald continued to taste the brandy. Paramount's distribution strength is indeed very strong. Among the seven major Hollywood companies, it can get the most films and has the most professional distribution team.

.

That Australian film hasn’t found a way yet…

"What movie? Are you a director, producer, or screenwriter?"

Ned Tanin immediately became energetic. It would be very useful to give Ronald some good things from time to time. Ronald was born a commoner, so in the future, he would have to give him some exquisite things from the upper class.

"No, it's a movie made by Australians. I happened to see them filming on the streets of Manhattan, New York, before Christmas last year. I heard that their movie broke the Australian box office record."

"It wasn't taken by you? You didn't participate?" Ned Tanin's interest dropped a bit. It seems that Ronald was doing a favor for a friend? Maybe there is a beautiful girl as the protagonist?

This kind of thing can be helpful, but on a business-related basis, just sell it a little to save face. As long as the quality is not too bad, there is no problem with Paramount helping to release and distribute it.

"You didn't hear what I said clearly. What I said was that they broke Australia's box office records every year..."

Ronald was not satisfied with Tanin's look. Did he just recommend movies casually? After seeing the copy brought by Paul Hogan, he had long wanted to buy it, through Roger Corman, or

Minahan Golan's Cannon is released.

It's just a good horse with a good saddle. The quality of this film is very high, far exceeding Ronald's own estimation. Neither Coleman nor Minahan has the ability to realize the potential of this film. Whether it is from a profit perspective or from a financial perspective

From the perspective of making friends famous, it is best to leave it to Qida.

If the quality of the film itself were not very good, Ronald would not recommend it to the seven major distribution companies for fear of delaying other people's opportunities.

"Is Australia's box office record so easy to break? In the past two years, Mel Gibson's two 'Mad Max' movies were the highest box office record holders for foreign films introduced to Hollywood. They were very powerful wasteland road action movies. They were directly

Launched a type of mountain monster."

"What do you mean? Broke Mad Max's Australian box office record?" Ned Tanin reacted, "What movie? Introduce it to me quickly."

"Crocodile Dundee."

"Crocodile Dundee? A horror animal movie like Jaws?" Ned Tanin scratched his head?

"It's not a crocodile named Dundee. The crocodile is the nickname of the protagonist named Dundee." Ronald briefly explained the plot. A beautiful reporter from a New York newspaper went to the primitive reserve in northern Australia to conduct interviews.

A warrior who killed a super giant crocodile in a fight and survived.

Crocodile Dundee and the reporter went through many hardships in the original reservation, saved her life, and wrote a first-class report. Then the reporter came up with an idea and asked Dundee to go to New York to continue writing his story.

Dundee and reporter Sue came to New York and made all kinds of jokes like country people coming to the city. In the end, Dundee used the unique Australian enthusiasm and directness to solve a lot of troubles, and finally the two got married.

"You also thought it was an animal horror movie? It seems that when it is released in North America, the word crocodile in the title must be put in quotation marks, so that the audience can know it is a nickname. This is not the first time Ronald has received this reaction.

"Actually, this movie is Tarzan and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. No one has made these two types of movies for a long time, and they did a very good job.

If you are interested, I will ask them to talk. I guess they have already come to Paramount, but were rejected by the subordinates of your distribution department. If you are not interested, I will go to 20th Century Fox, their boss Barry

Diller also told me that I welcome movie recommendations. And their new boss is Australian, so he will definitely agree."

"No, no, no... what is our relationship? Don't look for anyone else. Just ask them to come over." Taning pressed the bell and called the secretary in. "I will be free tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to receive two guests from Australia.

."
To be continued...