Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1538: Kick David Letterman's glass
The browser, combined with the new www World Wide Web protocol, reduced the skills required to surf the Internet to a level that ordinary people could do. This was followed by a huge explosion in users. The free strategy allowed the number of users of the official version to exceed millions in the first week of its release, including the number of users of the trial version.

In addition, there is a classified website called Yahoo hosted on a server at Stanford University, which provides a good place to search for information in a specific field. The information posted on the website is also growing exponentially.

Ronald found it very interesting, so he hired a programmer to help put all the movie profiles of Daydream online, and made a friendly link with IMDb. In this way, all netizens who visit IMDb can go to Daydream's website by clicking on the logo of the website.

In the Hollywood circle, Ronald was definitely one of the first people to try the Internet. In private communications and public statements, he highly praised the benefits of the World Wide Web. He even printed the website address on his business card.

On that day, Cole Needham, the founder of IMDb, came to Los Angeles from faraway Bristol on a business class ticket reimbursed by Ronald. Ronald treated him very well, not only inviting him to stay at his home, but also personally introducing him to several Hollywood stars.

It just so happens that Forrest Gump is also participating in the selection of awards from various film critics associations and some small industry organization awards. Cole Needham will attend with Ronald or other staff members of Daydream.

Cole Needham also wrote down his daily activities into a Hollywood travelogue, which he then compiled and posted on his website as a report on the 1994 Golden Globe Awards and Hollywood preview.

Of course, this is also very troublesome. Many places do not have Internet access, and Cole Needham has to go online after returning home every day. Ronald's family has already laid a dedicated line to ensure that every room has an Internet access port.

Cole Needham's days were busy and fulfilling, and Ronald also learned some things he didn't know before. He and Cole Needham actually knew each other online a long time ago and exchanged a few comments on movies.

Ronald sometimes went to check the Usenet group for film reviews. There was a section called "rec.arts.movies" where Cole Needham had been an active user since 1990. He put a lot of movie and celebrity-related content he collected in this section, and you could find it by just using the first letter.

With the help of more and more netizens, the size of this database of movies and stars has been growing. Until the end of last year, Cole Needham simply used his salary as a software engineer to set up an independent website IMdb. All the relevant content in "rec.arts.movies" was moved to the website.

As the number of users increased, the server rental fee became more and more expensive. Cole Needham used his income from work and part-time jobs to pay for the service, but it was becoming increasingly difficult. Ronald generously donated money and wrote him a check that could directly support the current size of the server for a year.

However, Ronald still asked Cole Needham to consider whether to turn IMDb into a company and then accept his investment to become a commercial company, rather than an amateur website created by a few enthusiasts.

From the fact that Cole Needham collects, organizes, and uploads information about various movie stars for free in the "rec.arts.movies" section, it can be seen that this person has a bit of an engineer's mentality and has never thought about making money from this.

But now the website's users and traffic are growing rapidly, and his travel notes in Hollywood have attracted many new readers. He knows that one day, the website will inevitably embark on the road of commercialization.

However, it also makes a big difference who is in charge of commercialization. Ronald promised not to promote certain films based on his own likes and dislikes, or the needs of Daydream Pictures or even DDH, and he would keep the website from an objective and neutral perspective.

In addition, Ronald also promised to give some shares to himself and the first batch of staff members scattered all over the world, who were also the enthusiastic netizens of "rec.arts.movies". It didn't take him long to consider it, and he was inclined to agree to Ronald's conditions.

However, he is a mature engineer after all, and he knows that IMDb cannot be sold at a high price now, so he hopes Ronald will give him another two years to develop the website to a level that his spare time cannot support. At that time, Ronald will be the first choice to acquire it.

Ronald understood what the other party was thinking. During his days in Hollywood, Cole Needham also read a lot of reports about Mark Anderson and his Netscape, and realized that he might have accidentally hit a gold mine.

Ronald asked a lawyer to draft a contract to solidify their verbal gentleman's agreement. Ronald would provide part of IMDb's operating expenses for two years according to Cole Needham's request. Within two years, when Cole Needham chose to commercialize the website, Ronald would have the exclusive right to make the first offer. After two years, if Cole Needham wanted to keep the company operating independently (implying that there were other investors), he would have to return Ronald's donation.

Of course, all these commercial terms are hidden in the warm friendship. Ronald still plays a loyal fan of Hollywood who is very moved by the fact that he builds a network database in his spare time, so he donates some money to make the database run well.

As for the purpose of making it public, it is to add some professional data for the convenience of industry insiders. Ronald has opened up special user services for Daydream and several casting directors he is familiar with, which can directly contact the agents of the actors.

Of course, the biggest gain for Cole Needham during his visit to Los Angeles was meeting his hero, Jackie Chan from Hong Kong. Not only did he get Jackie Chan's autograph and take a photo with her, he also had dinner with his idol and attended the premiere of "Rumble in the Bronx" in Hollywood.

In his opinion, although his idol Jackie Chan's English is not very good, his every move undoubtedly has the demeanor of a superstar. Even the talk show interview he was invited to participate in by Hollywood received very high ratings.

This trip to Los Angeles was a great combination of both my personal and professional interests. This small part-time project and my favorite star both achieved my goals.

After dinner, Ronald went to talk about some personal topics with Jackie Chan.

"It seems that my guess is correct?"

Ronald smiled and told Jackie Chan that his prediction was more accurate than his. At that time, Jackie was working on two movies, one was Rumble in the Bronx, which was filmed in America, and the other was Thunderbolt, which was filmed in Japan.

The investments in both are huge, and this is also an experiment by Jackie Chan to try internationalization after the rapid decline of the Hong Kong market.

He has a strong appeal in Japan, and has big sponsors like Mitsubishi Motors. He also seems to have many fans in America, and his good brother Ronald is a big shot in Hollywood. So he is filming a movie while raising funds and releasing it in both places, to see which one has greater potential.

After the premiere, the box office performance in the first weekend was pleasantly surprised. Although there are still quite a lot of non-English dialogues in the re-edited version according to the tastes of American audiences, Jackie Chan's action comedy still surprised the audience who are used to watching Hollywood action movies.

In particular, the story takes place in the Bronx, New York, which makes the audience feel at home. The East Coast, especially the black audience in New York, contributed a lot to the box office results. Coupled with the support of Chinese audiences across the United States, this award season, among many literary and authorial films, it stood out and won a box office result of 11 million.

This result has already surpassed the combined box office performance of Jackie Chan's previous film in many places, tipping the balance of possibilities for future development heavily towards Hollywood.

In addition, some problems in the filming process of the two films, and the comparison of the ability and number of professionals in the film industry in Japan and the United States, also gave Jackie Chan a better impression of Hollywood. The film industry in Japan has also shrunk significantly compared to the past, and professional staff are not as easy to find as in Hollywood.

The directors of the two films also had a clear distinction. Stanley Tong, the director of Rumble in the Bronx, was obviously very popular in America, and many people, including Hong Kong actress Anita Mui and Canadian actress Franoise Yip, had a good relationship with him.

This guy not only knows how to make women happy (actresses are a profession that needs to be coaxed), but he is also very good at action design. The male lead was exercising at a relative's house in the Bronx, and needed to stand upside down and "walk" with his hands. Because of some injuries Jackie Chan had in the past, Stanley Tong also personally acted as a stand-in and completed it seamlessly.

As for the Thunderbolt filmed in Japan, director Gordon Chan was not used to such a global film. Not only did he have some conflicts with the leading actress Anita Yuen, but he also had a falling out with the original assistant director and action director Dante Lam. In the end, Jackie Chan had to replace his senior brother Hung with the action director to complete the filming.

After comparing the two sides, embracing Hollywood's professional system and making use of the professional talents here is the future trend.

Jackie Chan frequently clinked glasses with Ronald and praised the leading actress of the film, Franoise Yip. She also participated in the premiere, smiling from ear to ear, and was much more enthusiastic than the cold beauty in the movie.

Ronald is actually quite optimistic about the performance of this actress. In Hollywood and TV dramas, there are always some Asian female characters due to racial quotas. Now, most Asian actresses in Hollywood often conform to a stereotype. They are either ugly, or their personalities are more like the audience's imagination of Asian women, rather than real Asian women.

Franoise Yip is so unique. Not only is she beautiful, but her temperament is also different from that of local Asian women. In fact, it is not difficult for her to get a regular role in a TV series or play a supporting role in some movies.

However, Ronald did not say this. It was obvious that Franoise Yip wanted to follow Jackie back to Hong Kong to develop her career. Ronald simply did not mention it...

Under Ronald's arrangement, Jackie Chan appeared on many talk shows. The most famous one was David Letterman's Tonight Show. Of course, Jackie Chan's English was not good, and it was not appropriate to have a translator on a talk show. This once became an obstacle for her to appear on the show.

But Jackie Chan is very confident. Even if he can't speak English, he is still a star. He told Ronald that his movements are the universal language.

Sure enough, after Ronald made the call, the host of the top-rated late-night talk show agreed to the plan.

Jackie Chan smashed a full glass of water on Letterman's show with her bare hands, then jumped on his desk and used her kicks to smash a bottle of wine that Letterman had placed on the table.

The audience at the scene screamed loudly and was very excited. It seems that there is no tradition of street performance in America, using skills to kick glass bottles, break large stones with chests, bend spears with throats, etc.

In the eyes of these audiences, even if they punched a glass, they would probably just knock it to the ground and break it. But in this case, with just one punch at a very short distance, the glass broke into pieces on the table. They had never seen such kung fu.

Not only did the audience cheer with excitement, the ratings also showed that this might be the show that ranks in the top ten in ratings since Letterman's Tonight Show on CBS began.

For a time, the movie Rumble in the Bronx was also brought up by Jackie Chan's fame and received a lot of free publicity. In the second week, the theaters also increased the screening schedule of the movie, and it is expected to break the 10 million box office for the second consecutive week.

"We have granted Jackie Chan from Hong Kong a full membership in the American Stunt Performers Association and have given him the title of Honorary Ambassador."

During Jackie Chan's time in Los Angeles, Ronald also arranged a ceremony for him to become an official member of Hollywood's Stunt Guild.

Stuntmen are a small group, so small that they don't have a formal union code of their own and can only join the Screen Actors Guild like other actors.

However, stuntmen are completely different from ordinary actors. The requirements for acting skills, casting qualifications, and the salary they receive are not in the same system.

Therefore, the stuntmen formed an organization called the Stuntmen's Guild. This organization does not have the legal status of a trade union, so it does not have the power to enforce it. They can unite to strike and negotiate with producers.

The main purpose of the Stunt Association is to promote the skills, safety, and personnel training of movie stunts. The association also organizes training programs to teach some of the latest special effects action techniques used in movies.

Such an association is easier to do public relations, and they granted Jackie Chan an overseas membership, plus a special honorary title. This is also a little selfish of them. Jackie Chan's Hong Kong-style stunts are much more advanced than Hollywood's, and many association members also want to learn some tricks, so they can tell the director that they can imitate Jackie Chan's movements and make more money.

However, Jackie Chan just laughed off such a request. The directors in Hong Kong don't care about the safety work procedures. When it comes to jumping from the roof, the action director says so and the stuntmen have to grit their teeth and do it. Even if they know that this action may cause fractures, they will still complete it bravely.

If this kind of work were to come to Hollywood, apart from anything else, the stuntman would definitely be sued in court. Knowing that there were risks, they were still asked to do such actions. If they lost the case, they would definitely have to pay a large sum of money.