Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1511: All Wrong Movie Marketing
This "Shawshank Redemption" is the first feature film directed by screenwriter Frank Darabont.

This person is very interesting. He initially entered Hollywood by writing scripts for low-budget horror films such as "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and TV series with horror elements.

Frank Darabont is of Hungarian descent. He was born in a refugee camp in the United States and later immigrated to the United States with his parents. When he was five years old, his family moved to Los Angeles. When he was young, after watching George Lucas's debut film "1138 Years Later (THX )", he decided to get involved in the film industry.

This is very different from the stories of many directors who joined Hollywood. For example, Cameron also jumped into Hollywood after watching Star Wars. Lucas's science fiction movie THX 1138 actually had a very bad box office and not many people watched it. He is probably the only one who still wants to join Hollywood after watching it.

As he came from an immigrant family, he couldn't find any good social connections to get into the film industry, so he started his first job in the film industry as a snack stand employee and usher at the famous Grauman's Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, and was grateful to be able to watch many movies for free.

With a stable income and plenty of time to write his own scripts, Frank Darabont took the most common path for children without backgrounds to enter Hollywood, starting as a screenwriter.

Of course, being a screenwriter is also difficult. Frank Darabont had the same good luck as Ronald. In the early stage of his screenwriting career, he met a noble person, the famous thriller novelist Stephen King, who supported him.

After Stephen King made a movie as a director, he knew that he was not cut out for it, but he loved the film format to adapt his novels, so he started his own "One Dollar Baby Project" in the early 1980s without being known to the public.

Specifically, Stephen King will offer an opportunity to young people who are still studying film in college or have just graduated and started working to select one of his own short stories and adapt it into a script.

After reading those scripts, if he is satisfied, he will transfer the film adaptation rights of the novel to the young man for one dollar and support them. If they are successful, he will have a more reliable candidate to adapt his own more important novella.

Frank Darabont was only 20 years old when he adapted "The Woman in the Room", but he was chosen by Stephen King and became "One Dollar Baby". This short story was finally invested in 1985 and directly made into a short film. Finally, it was edited together with the short films of five other One Dollar Babies and became a B-level film for the videotape market. Audiences bought the videotape, which was equivalent to watching five stories adapted from Stephen King's novels with one tape.

Although Stephen King was not particularly satisfied with the finished product of "The Woman in the Room", it was already the best short film he made in his "Dollar Baby" project.

So he also admired Darabont, and after the movie video was released, he reached a verbal gentleman's agreement with him, giving Darabont a chance to adapt any of his short stories and direct it into a feature film.

Darabont struggled for several more years. In 3, he finally earned a seat in the Writers Guild and some money for writing for "A Nightmare on Elm Street 5000". Darabont immediately went back to Stephen King and asked for $ to buy the adaptation rights to one of his short stories, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption".

The story of Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption is the original novel that was adapted into a movie. It was Stephen King's practice work to come up with a story model that was not a traditional thriller. It is not very prominent among his numerous works.

I don't know why Darabont liked this novel, but Stephen King also agreed to the gentleman's agreement. However, he did not cash the check Darabont gave him. Instead, he framed it and returned it to Darabont with a note saying, "In case you need it in an emergency..."

Darabont, who was admired by Stephen King, could not find anyone willing to invest in the film. It was not until five years later, after he had more successful cases in the industry, that he was spotted by Liz Grotz, a female producer at Castle Rock Pictures, and the script was brought to Castle Rock.

But there is a Hollywood legend that prison movies don't sell well, and Darabont had never directed a feature film before, so Castle Rock was inclined to give up.

Liz Grotz fell in love with the script and threatened to quit if Castle Rock didn't invest.

This strong endorsement made Robert Reiner, one of the founders of Castle Rock, interested. After reading the script, he also liked it. Reiner wanted to pay Darabont 2.5 million to buy the copyright of the script.

Robert Reiner directed the movie "Stand by Me" adapted from Stephen King's novel in 1986, so he likes King's story very much. This was supposed to be a happy ending for everyone, as Darabont was a child from an immigrant family in the slums and could use the money to improve his life.

Castle Rock also knew Darabont wanted to direct and promised to finance any other film scripts he had.

But after careful consideration, Darabont rejected Reiner's proposal and said he would still direct the film himself.

Fortunately, Robert Reiner was a broad-minded person. Seeing this, he was impressed by Darabont. In the end, it was decided that Castle Rock Pictures would invest 75 million dollars, with Robert Reiner as the mentor, and Darabont would receive a salary of dollars as the screenwriter and director, as well as a share of the box office profits.

Darabont got the chance and was immediately excited, wanting Tom Cruise to play Andy and Harrison Ford to play Red.

Of course, this is not something that a medium-sized company like Castle Rock can afford in Hollywood. The salary of Tom Cruise or Harrison Ford is almost higher than the budget of the entire film.

Finally, he chose the current protagonists Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, and changed the script in six weeks, changing the young character Tommy Williams from betraying Andy to being killed by the warden for Andy, in order to enhance the religious meaning of the story.

The film went through a lot of hardships. Brad Pitt, who was originally going to play Tommy, withdrew from the project because of his success in Thelma and Louise and received rave reviews. Fortunately, Tim Robbins helped a lot, and finally the film received a lot of praise from internal screenings.

Ronald also went to see the limited screening, but to his great surprise, there were no people in the theater, as if no one knew that this movie was going to be released.

After the filming of the movie was completed, Castle Rock was also acquired by Turner Media, and the distribution rights of the film were sold to Columbia during the acquisition.

These three organizations are all veteran players in the industry. It’s not possible that they can’t figure out how to market a movie, right?
Ronald got the ticket but was not in a hurry to go in. He pulled his hood and lowered his sunglasses. This kind of secretly watching a movie was a long-lost feeling for him.

Robert Reiner was a good friend and called Ronald to tell him that this movie might be the biggest rival to Ronald's Forrest Gump.

Ronald came to watch the game out of curiosity and the desire to learn more about his competitors.

But what he didn't expect was that there was no mention of the film being adapted from Stephen King's novel on the big poster in the cinema.

The poster shows an inexplicably tall man with his arms spread out in the rain, as if he wants to embrace the rain.

The backlight casts a circle of Jesus-like outline light around the protagonist. The darkness behind and the light from the heavy rain in front blend on the protagonist's body.

On the top of the poster are two sentences that sound like proverbs from the Bible: "Fear can turn you into a prisoner in a cell, but hope can set you free."

Ronald sighed. If he were daydreaming about such a marketing plan, the person involved would definitely have been fired by him.

Tim Robbins hasn't had many hit movies since he played a backseat weapons officer in Top Gun. His recent baseball movie with Susan Sarandon didn't receive much response either. However, he and Susan Sarandon hit it off, and unlike their characters in the movie, they soon lived together in real life.

Morgan Freeman has become famous since "Driving Miss Daisy", but he is not the kind of big star who can get a bank mortgage.

Even if the two appeared on the poster, not many viewers would remember their names. At most, they would say "hmm" or "hmm", and then say that they seemed to have played a role in a certain movie.

What's more, in this poster, even Tim Robbins is only shown with the back of his head. If you are not an insider, you probably can't tell which actor this is.

So, when audiences went to the cinema and decided which movie to watch, they couldn't find a reason to watch "The Shawshank Redemption".

On the other hand, the unreleased "Pulp Fiction" had Uma Thurman lying on the bed with her legs crossed behind her. Above her low-cut dress, she had a sexy face and a cigarette in her hand.

Several audience members were pointing and wondering why "Pulp Fiction" was not shown today.

Harvey Weinstein is indeed a businessman who has been selling movie copies in Europe for many years. He knows who should be highlighted on the poster as soon as he looks at the cast list.

On the other side of the poster are the names of the leading actors: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Carter...

If the movie hadn't been released yet, those audience members would probably have bought tickets on the spot.

In addition, the name "Pulp Fiction" is easy to remember. There is a special corner in American bookstores that sells these relatively vulgar novels that use curiosity, eroticism, etc. as selling points.

Who hasn’t read a few of these movies in middle school or college? So it’s not hard to remember the name of this movie.

However, the title of the movie "The Shawshank Redemption" is very difficult to understand and remember.

"Shawshank" is a fictional name created by Stephen King, referring to a state prison in Maine.

"Redemption" is a religious term, which means that a person has been spiritually redeemed by God.

"Give me two, hey, um..." Sure enough, an audience member didn't remember it when he went to the box office to buy tickets.

"What do you want to buy?" the ticket seller said impatiently.

"That's it. Who's the lead actor? It's called, it's called..."

The audience thought for a long time but couldn't find a hook. From the unfortunate title of the movie to the name of the leading actor, nothing could be remembered immediately.

"which one?"

"I forgot too. It was adapted from a novel..."

"Novel? Pulp Fiction? It hasn't been released yet."

"No, no, I mean the movie adapted from the novel. Oh, that's the one with the poster showing the hero's back. Oh, I just can't remember the name."

"There's a male lead's back on the poster. It's adapted from a novel. Here, two copies of Forrest Gump..."

"Oh, no... no, never mind, this one is also good, I'll just watch Forrest Gump."

"Puchi..." Ronald laughed out loud from behind.

"What are you looking at..."

"The Shawshank Redemption..."

"Don't you want to watch something else?"

"No, I'll just watch this one, The Shawshank Redemption..."

"Okay, here you go..."

The ticket seller was very frustrated and tore off two tickets for Ronald. He had no intention of reminding the customer just now.

The movie "Shawshank Redemption" didn't sell a single ticket today. If there is no audience, then the show can be closed and replaced with other movie screenings.

For example, the recently released "Time and Space Cop" starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, and "Forrest Gump", which has been in the top three of the box office charts for more than ten weeks, have sufficient copies and high attendance. Who knew that this idiot would buy two tickets? You're lucky. The theater is booked today.

"Andy!"

"Red!"

At the end of the film, Red was released from prison and ran to the Mexican beach where Andy had told him about it before he escaped. The two good friends in prison hugged each other on the free beach.

Ronald lowered his hat again and came out with his bodyguard Dan.

"Do you think it looks good?" Ronald asked Dan beside him.

"It's not bad, but only the ending is touching. I almost fell asleep when I watched it before. It's too boring. If you hadn't told me that the movie would end with Andy escaping from prison, I probably wouldn't have been interested in waiting to see how he escaped from prison, and I would have left first."

"yes……"

Ronald kept nodding his head. What if the name of the movie was changed to "Prison Break"? Not only would the suspense attract the audience, but when the audience watched the movie, they would be attracted by the suspense and must see how Andy escaped from prison in the end.

Moreover, with so many moviegoers in America, it is questionable how many of them can correctly spell the word "Redemption" and understand its meaning.

If it was changed to “Prison Break”, wouldn’t it be much simpler and clearer?
Moreover, isn't the most famous person in this film project Stephen King, the original author of the novel? Why not write his name in the largest font in the most conspicuous place?
"This movie is based on Stephen King's novel." This sentence is probably worth millions of dollars at the box office, right?
Ronald guessed that it was because the main creators were obsessed with the biblical religious concept of the movie, "Salvation is in it (the Bible)", and refused to use a sensational name like Prison Break. Or they didn't want Stephen King's name to overshadow their own...

"Who cares..." Ronald was in a good mood. The quality of this movie is good. The two leading actors, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, are also the type of performances that the judges like. They don't rely on good looks, but purely on acting skills to attract the audience (at least that's what the judges think).

If it really becomes a hit, I'll have a strong competitor.

If they want their movie to rot outside the top 30 of the box office charts, then so be it.