Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1580 Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic
Negotiations between Ovitz and Bronfman Jr. continued for some time. The two sides seemed to have reached an impasse. The two sides held several rounds of negotiations in Los Angeles and New York, but no results were achieved.

Ovitz thought that his request to let Seagram pay his taxes was unreasonable. But it was also a way of testing him. If the other party firmly refused, he would understand that this was a treatment he could not get. He knew that his competitiveness was not strong enough and he could not let Sony pay all the money he paid to Warner Brothers like Guber did in the past.

But Bronfman Jr. did not reject the offer outright, but instead acted as if he was trying to reason with the company. No matter what kind of deal was reached, Ovitz was certain of one thing: Seagram wanted Ovitz very much, and there was no obvious competitor.

Of course, this idea is also Ovitz's own speculation. In the past 20 years in Hollywood, there are fewer reliable projects and more studios. His strategy of grabbing famous directors and signing half of the stars is still very intimidating to the top executives of those studios.

But the situation is now the opposite. Seagram's young Bronfman may be frightened by Ovitz's behavior, but his father will definitely not regard Ovitz as a powerful figure.

To put it bluntly, the boss of an agency who started out as an agent is just someone who finds film contracts for actors and then gets commissions. In the eyes of the Bronfman family, who sold bootleg liquor during the Prohibition era, there was nothing to be afraid of.

Then there is Bronfman Jr.'s uncle, Charles Bronfman...Uncle Charles had been excluded from Seagram Group's new entertainment business by his brother Edgar Sr. So given this opportunity, he would certainly attack Bronfman Jr.'s strategy in order to take the top spot himself.

So, even if Bronfman Jr. wanted to spend a fortune on a horse like Sony did and give Ovitz the Guber-like treatment, he did not have the final say within the Seagram Group.

Therefore, he had to delay his new request to Ovitz as much as possible, and then buy time to convince other family members, especially his father Edgar Sr., to give him treatment beyond the standard. This would have a good demonstration effect for the new Universal Pictures and make directors and stars willing to work with Bronfman, a new face.

In this way, Ovitz expected Bronfman Jr. to eventually give in, while Bronfman Jr. expected his father and uncle to agree with his strategy. Both sides expected something that was almost impossible to happen, so it was not surprising that the negotiations reached a deadlock.

All Ronald can do now is wait for the two people who are unclear about their own positioning to slowly walk to the inevitable end... and then he will give them a heavy blow.

……

There is an iMAX screening room inside the California Science Center in Exposition Park in Los Angeles, where some popular science iMAX 70mm films are usually shown, which, unlike ordinary movie films, run sideways.

Moreover, the unique 1.43:1 aspect ratio, coupled with a curved screen about six stories high, makes people feel very immersive when watching.

On this day, the cinema did not show the usual science films for visiting students and tourists as usual. Instead, it was closed. Two famous Hollywood directors, Ronald Lee and Jim Cameron, were going here to watch a newly released IMAX feature film.

Since the cost of filming is very high and the xenon headlights used by IMAX are easily scrapped due to long continuous screening time, there are very few feature films that are longer than 30 minutes. Previously, only one IMAX manufacturer filmed a long documentary about the Rolling Stones' concert in order to demonstrate IMAX's ability to shoot feature films.

The advantage of IMAX lies in its unparalleled visual impact. The impact of the Rolling Stones concert was not very strong, so they found a deep-sea diving team to go to the Atlantic Ocean to shoot a documentary about the world's most famous shipwreck... the Titanic.

The original version of the film was 90 minutes long, but considering the fragility of IMAX projectors, the officially released version was cut down to 40 minutes, and the famous Interstellar actor, Leonard Nimoy, was re-recruited to do the dubbing.

When the huge shipwreck appeared on the screen, Ronald felt a great sense of sadness and epicness. Especially on the deck were the porcelain specially fired during the first voyage, which was still intact.

To photograph the wreckage 70 feet underwater, two deep-diving submarines were equipped with an IMAX camera and a light bulb equivalent to watts, making the wreckage as bright as day.

The camera moves back and forth, left and right, and is occasionally accompanied by photos of the passengers who died that year, newspaper headlines, and video interviews with surviving passengers.

Ronald thought the documentary was well made and was interested in buying the copyright for the 90-minute video version. This subject has always been the focus of public attention. The sinking of the Titanic after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage is a household name.

Such documentaries will not have trouble selling. In addition to selling videotapes, they can also be sold to PBS for broadcast as documentaries...

Suddenly, the camera showed a panoramic view of the Titanic's bow. A huge bow slowly appeared in the center of the camera.

Ronald suddenly felt that it looked very familiar. Wasn't this the angle of the special effects romance movie in his dream, where the hero and heroine were hugging each other romantically at the bow? The shape and style of the ship were exactly the same as in his dream, except that there were no two lovers...

"Hiss..."

Cameron next to him was even more excited, "This is really spectacular. I want to write a script with the sinking of the Titanic as the background and film it..."

"Hey?" Ronald suddenly looked at Cameron beside him. Did you shoot this? But there is no muscular man like Schwarzenegger as the hero in this movie. It is a love movie between a man and a woman.

"A love story?" Ronald asked tentatively.

"Hey, how did you know? This was the thought that just occurred to me. Could it be that you also..." Cameron was very surprised.

"Titanic is the most famous shipwreck. With such a background story, no action movie is worthy of it. You should make the world's greatest love movie. Only love can be worthy of such a huge tragedy."

"You really understand me..." Cameron was very happy. Ronald was indeed the one who understood and supported him the most. His ex-wife Gail Hurd, although she was his producer, did not have such vision...

"There's only one question, how much does this movie cost? For the bow shot just now, you could have arranged for the hero and heroine to hug each other, standing on the tip of the bow, with the same angle and the same camera position. It's simply... I think no boy or girl would not be moved by it."

"Is that so?" Cameron took the small notebook beside him and made a simple sketch with a pen.

"How about having the hero hug the heroine from behind? In this way, the heroine's excited face will occupy the close-up of the screen, and all the girls will be crazy about it. Of course, you have to find an extremely handsome guy to play the hero..."

Ronald took the notebook, turned a page, and made a sketch himself, drawing out the storyboard of the scene in his dream.

"God damn it, you're a genius, Ronald. I'll get this shot, how much do you think it'll cost in CGI?"

"The whole movie?" Ronald quickly calculated that if the special effects were to be used, the cost of the whole movie would normally be over 100 million. Adding some margin for Cameron, "I think it would be around 150 million..."

"Then we might as well just add some more money. I think we can build a real model to shoot it. Two hundred million will be enough to do it." Cameron said half-jokingly.

His movie, which cost 100 million US dollars to produce, just broke the record, and now he is going to break the world record of 200 million...

"Two hundred million?" Ronald did a quick calculation again. It seemed that the film would need to earn more than six hundred million in global box office to break even. However, with the well-known reputation of Titanic, if it could really make a heart-wrenching love story, it might be able to break even.

Commercial films are actually about telling a story with film, and the best-selling films in history are all centered around love, probably because this is what touches the most audiences.

If inflation is adjusted, or the number of moviegoers is used instead of box office figures, then the most profitable movie in history is undoubtedly Gone with the Wind. There are also The Sound of Music, Snow White, Star Wars, etc. The genres of these movies can be varied, but at their core, love is the most important part of the main plot.

"It seems possible. If you write the script and find a distributor, I can invest in you." Ronald calculated that the only way to make money from a movie like this is to let as many audiences as possible see it.

In this case, global distribution capabilities are very important. Ronald's own daydream cannot be realized, but if the seven major studios are willing to invest in distribution and Ronald also invests in the project, this can still be done.

Ronald always had a feeling that this movie might have really changed Cameron and helped him move away from being a certain type of director.

"Really? Is it a deal?" Cameron was overjoyed. He liked diving, especially deep sea diving. If he could get the film approved, he could at least get some funding and go to the Titanic wreckage on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the name of investigation... This is an opportunity that only a few people in the world can have.

"Of course. Once you finish writing the script, show it to me. If the studio has difficulties, I can help you convince them."

A production budget of $2 million was a scale that even th Century Fox, which was always known for its big productions, might not easily agree to. Other studios, such as Paramount, were still cutting budgets to reduce risks under Redstone, so it was even more impossible.

Perhaps in the entire Hollywood, only Fox and Universal, which just changed its major financial backer, are likely to invest.

Two weeks later, Cameron finished writing the script. Ronald got the first copy and after reading it, he also felt that Cameron's script was so cliché.

A young woman who was engaged to a rich man met a young man on the Titanic who had gambled to get a third-class ticket and wanted to go on an adventure to America. When the golden wind and jade dew met, they formed a great love.

But since the audience has seen that this movie is Titanic, they will definitely expect it to end in tragedy. With this expectation in mind, and having seen such a beautiful love story, Ronald feels that at least the script is worthy of a budget of 200 million.

With such a big budget, how can we make our money back if it’s not a cliché tragic love story?
However, no one else was as confident as Ronald about this clichéd story. The first person Cameron contacted was his old partner, 20th Century Fox.

Their management simply did not have the ability to decide on such a large investment. After reporting to the Fox Group, the new CEO Peter Chernin personally met with Cameron to discuss the film.

Their idea was to persuade Cameron to give up the idea of ​​filming the Titanic. Just like this very unlucky cruise ship in history that hit an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage, all movies shot with the Titanic as the background also suffered box office failures.

In 1953, Barbara Stanwyck starred in a film called Titanic, which was a family-centered story mixed with some details of a shipwreck. Although it won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, it was a box office failure.

The Night That Titanic Came (1958) was an adaptation of Walter Lord's bestseller, which also received very good reviews but was a complete failure at the box office.

The Night the Ship Sinks in 1979 did not qualify for theatrical release and was ultimately broadcast on television.

Besides, Cameron was really recognized by Hollywood for his whimsical action movies. If his Titanic was about the people fighting each other to save themselves after the ship sank and finally escaping, it might be worth watching. Why would he want to make a love movie? And with a tragic ending?

It was unthinkable that Cameron would direct a romantic film with the kind of budget he demanded.

It's like the newly crowned Oscar winner for Best Director, Ronald Lee, decided to invest a large sum of money and then invite famous Hollywood comedians Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy to star in a hilarious comedy together. No one dares to invest in such a movie unless the director invests in the filming himself.

But the Fox team, led by Peter Chernin, did not dare to respond to Cameron. With the box office success of True Lies, which he directed, Cameron has become the top-selling director who has worked with Fox.

Just like Universal, it doesn't dare to offend Spielberg, or Paramount, it doesn't dare to offend Ronald. In order to continue the long-term cooperation with Cameron, the box office guarantee, Fox still has to keep him hanging and not let him feel disappointed.

So they kept discussing the plot and budget with Cameron, hinting that it would be better not to make such a love movie and return to the type of action movies that make money.

Finally, Cameron got impatient and told Peter Chernin of Fox that if Fox was unwilling to invest, he would go to other film studios to try to sell it. Anyway, Ronald Lee had promised him that as long as he found a distributor, he would invest part of the budget.

"Ah, why didn't you tell me earlier, Ronald, is he willing to invest? We can talk about it."

In this way, Ronald was dragged by Cameron to meet Chernin of Fox.

Despite Ronald's promise, Fox still had great doubts about a film of this scale. They wanted to know why Ronald was so confident in his friend Cameron's film.

"That's very simple. First, let me ask you, how many people are there in the world now?" Ronald asked with a smile.

"Well, go check it out." Chernin asked his assistant to look up some information. According to the latest statistics from the United Nations, there are about 58 billion people in the world.

"Let me tell you why you have to make a love movie, and why you have to make a tragedy. A movie with this scale of investment is the Gone with the Wind of the new era, or Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic."

After Ronald said this, Chernin nodded frequently. This summary is very correct. The most famous work of love tragedy has always been Romeo and Juliet. Add the popularity of Titanic, and the two together, isn't it a big production like Gone with the Wind in this era?

"So the biggest problem with making this kind of movie is that you have to get as many people as possible into the theaters. If we can get the equivalent of 2% of the population into the theaters to watch this movie, then it will make money."

The Fox executives were stunned. Was there such a way to estimate the box office potential of a movie? However, after thinking for a long time, they could not think of any good reason to refute Ronald.

Finally, they reached a preliminary intention to cooperate and approved several million dollars of funds for Cameron to organize some investigation and filming activities on the wreckage of the Titanic. On the one hand, it was to accumulate materials for the film, and on the other hand, such a large project also required marketing a long time in advance.

A great director like Cameron diving under the sea to film the wreckage of the Titanic was an action that could arouse public interest and hype up the Titanic.