Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1594 Aspen's Deal and Calculation

After completing the stunning acquisition, Eisner gradually began to give up some of his obsession with work and turned to enjoying life. Of course, the change was not so drastic. He just invited many people to Aspen in the name of work to participate in the traditional Hollywood vacation activities there.

This is a resort in the middle of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. In winter, many wealthy people from all over the country come here to ski. The old money families in the traditional northeastern region especially like to spend the ski season here.
The main reason is that there is a small airport here, which is only suitable for private planes. If you take a commercial flight, you can only choose the more backward turboprop aircraft, which filters out only the top wealthy people to go there.

The rich on the West Coast, on the other hand, are more likely to choose ski resorts such as Lake Tahoe or Park City in Utah. Anyway, most of the rich on the East and West Coasts have a kind of contempt for each other.

But in the summer, many tourists come from the West Coast, especially Hollywood stars and high-ranking officials. This is a tradition that began in the 1950s. In order to attract tourists during the off-season, Aspen specially invites some Hollywood stars to vacation here for free, which gradually became a tradition.

Ronald also came here and stayed at Kevin Costner's vacation home in Aspen. There are many vacation activities here in the summer, such as hiking in the mountains, fishing for trout in the nearby stream, bathing in the nearby Glenwood Hot Springs, and cycling on trails suitable for your own car.

Diane was busy preparing for the filming of her new movie, Mr. Sweetheart, so Ronald simply asked Helen to come with their little daughter. He usually took Diane with him on formal vacations, so this was a way to make up for it.

Kevin Costner's "Waterworld" was released this past weekend, and its domestic box office reached 2160 million in its first weekend. This result can be said to be mediocre. It neither made those who nicknamed it "Kevin's Gate" gloat, nor did it reach the level of a big explosion that a movie with a production cost of 1.7 million US dollars should achieve.

Ron Meyer, who had just betrayed Ovitz and joined Universal Pictures, was very unsure about the potential of the film. After meeting with his predecessor, Sidney Sheinberg, who had advocated the film project, he found that Sheinberg did not have strong confidence in the film, so much so that he even thought about canceling the release.

Mayer was really afraid that if his first project after taking office became a big failure like "Heaven's Gate" that year, his career might end early.

However, Mayer still had some workplace wisdom. He knew that as his predecessor, Sheinberg's interests were likely to conflict with his own, so he found an opportunity to visit Ronald.

Ronald knows Kevin Costner very well. He may make money from the project and get himself a very high salary, but he is essentially an artist who pursues the quality of the film. He is not a jerk like Cimino who only cares about making money and picking up girls and doesn't care about the life and death of the producer.

So, after watching the copy with Meyer, he confirmed his conclusion that this movie is a standard commercial production, learning some elements of the low-budget Australian movie "Mad Max" and combining it with Hollywood's production capabilities.

This movie certainly has worse box office potential than Jurassic Park, but it's not as bad as critics say. The main problem is that the hurricane destroyed the set and Costner did not have a good on-site producer, which caused the production cost to be too high.

If we simply calculate based on the producer getting half of the box office revenue, the release of the film would not allow him to recoup his costs, but it would allow Universal to recoup a lot of money.

With Ronald's relatively objective opinion, Ron Meyer immediately approved additional investment in film marketing, and the result really pleased him. The Universal board of directors gave Ron a high evaluation for being able to get a good box office start in a film that was shot down by many internal executives.

Kevin Costner, on the other hand, was very grateful to Ronald, which was equivalent to saving his reputation. Inviting Ronald to stay at his holiday home was the most basic thing, and he also said that he would be obliged to help Ronald if he needed anything.

However, Ronald didn't need any help from him, but he did have a residence in Aspen, which was a very prestigious thing in front of everyone in Hollywood.

After staying here for two days, Ron Meyer came to Aspen to visit again.

This time he still had to seek Ronald's wisdom. A movie project of 20th Century Fox was red-lit by Fox one month before filming began. This made the project's director, British director Anthony Minghella, very annoyed, so he had to keep looking for takeovers among other major Hollywood studios.

Ron Meyer wanted to seize this opportunity to make his first film since joining Universal Studios, but he was also worried about whether this young director had the ability to make a good film that could win awards and increase his score with his boss, Bronfman Jr. at Universal Studios. After all, this was also a boss with great artistic aspirations.

Meyer's philosophy is that if your own wisdom is not enough, then go and ask for advice from wise people. They all came to Ronald with the script and the director.

"I am enjoying my rare free time with my friends. Please don't disturb my precious time."

Ronald was dissatisfied. He didn't have much time to spend with Helen and his daughter, and now they had to disturb him. What important matter did he have to ask him?
Meyer was embarrassed by the question and was about to explain, but Anthony Minghella who came with him was more proactive than him, "Mr. Lee, your support for director Ang Lee is well-known in the British film industry. We all think that it is the greatest fortune for a young film director to have someone like you to support him... I wonder if I am so lucky to protect this very good film of mine and allow it to be filmed?"

Ronald was very pleased with the flattery, so he pointed at Minghella and said, "I'm going to ride a bicycle with my friend, you can go pick one and come too."

Seeing Helen Slater riding a bicycle with Ronald in all her glory, Minghella didn't dare to say much, but just followed with the script. When they arrived at the hot spring, while Helen went to change her clothes, Minghella came up quickly, holding the script and briefly recounting the story to Ronald.

"This is a man who has been burned beyond recognition and speaks with an English accent, who recalls his history through a series of flashbacks, revealing to the audience his true identity and the love story he was involved in before the war..."

"Wait, you don't have a producer for this movie? Why doesn't the producer help you raise enough money?"

Ronald interrupted the director's sales pitch and said that it was impossible for this film to get a distribution contract from 20th Century Fox without first securing a certain amount of funding. Why didn't they come and solve the problem?

"Yes, my producer is Saul Zaentz..."

"Huh?" Ronald frowned when he heard that this was the unscrupulous producer of the former CCR band and the producer of two Oscar-winning best films, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Amadeus".

This old man has a bad character, but he has a good vision. He is usually not in Hollywood, but lives in San Francisco, but every movie he invests in is a double harvest of commercial success and awards.

"Won't he continue to invest in you?" Ronald knew that for a movie like this, the producer usually pays part of the money, and the rest is guaranteed by the company that signs the distribution contract, and then financing is sought.

Now that 20th Century Fox has canceled filming and the distribution contract has been invalidated, the film has a funding gap of nearly two-thirds of the total filming cost. Unless the original producer is willing to pay out of his own pocket to make up the gap, the film will be scrapped.

"He was unwilling to invest, saying that he would only make up for part of the cost if he got other distribution contracts... Well, to be honest, Saul Zaentz even said that he would sue me, thinking that I ruined the filming of the movie..."

"Oh, why?" Ronald was a little unaccustomed to this kind of British "honesty".

"He said that my insistence on filming in Tunisia had annoyed the top executives at 20th Century Fox... He also said that I shouldn't have been stubborn and refused Fox's request to let Demi Moore play the leading lady..."

"So why not Demi Moore?", Ronald asked.

"This is a British woman, which requires an accent, style, and most importantly, the restraint in performance... Demi is a very good actor, but she is Hollywood-style..."

"That makes sense..." Ronald nodded, "How much does it cost to produce a movie?"

"The total investment is about 4000 million US dollars. Mr. Zaentz and the investment he attracted are 2700 million... If the gap is made up..." Minghella felt that there was a chance. He just needed Ronald to invest a little, and then persuade Mayer to sign a distribution contract.

"The plot of your film is very trivial. Although there is a big suspense at the beginning, the plot is actually flashbacks within flashbacks. It is very difficult to understand. I can agree with your idea of ​​choosing British actors, but how do you ensure that your film is well-made and can be understood by ordinary audiences? This is not a small-scale film aiming for film festivals or Oscars. This is a big-budget art film that does not use special effects." Ronald interrupted him. He did not have that much time.

"You are worthy of being an Oscar winner for Best Director. You have pointed out the biggest difficulty of this film. I want to start with the atmosphere of the film, the pictures and sounds, so that the audience can enter a set scene. This is why I insisted on shooting on location in Tunisia. Setting up the scene cannot convince the audience..."

“I can take over, but there are two conditions…” Ronald interrupted Minghella again when he saw Helen had changed her clothes and was waving at him from inside.

"First, you have to find Walter Murch to edit it. I don't trust anyone else to edit a movie like this and ensure the audience's viewing experience. You have to let him join the crew from the beginning and let him know what he will have to deal with during the filming."

"No problem..." Minghella gritted his teeth and agreed, which was equivalent to depriving him of the right to final cut. However, Murch's strength was obvious to all, and he felt that this was a good partner.

"Second, I want to buy out all of Saul Zaentz's investments and make him leave. I will make up for any shortfall in investment," Ronald stated his second condition.

"Why? Saul Zaentz was very supportive of this project, but later Fox Films temporarily gave up on the distribution, so he..."

"Tony..." Ron Meyer, who had just arrived and was riding slowly, wanted to stop Minghella. Anyway, Ronald was willing to invest, which meant he was optimistic about the future, so he could just kick Saul Zaentz away.

"But I..." Mingla felt that this was too cruel, "Why?"

"No reason, I hate him. You have two days to think about it, and it will be invalid when I return from my vacation in Aspen." Ronald waved to Helen inside, "Don't disturb me from enjoying my vacation now."

Minghella walked back with Meyer with a sad face, thinking about how to make Saul Zaentz give up.

On the other side, Eisner and Ovitz were fishing in the Rolling Fork River for trout fishing. Although they were fishing, someone was actually helping them put on the bait and cast the rod. They only had to reel in the rod at the assistant's reminder and take pictures holding the fish.

"I have a new idea, Michael," Eisner chatted with many wealthy people from Wall Street in Aspen and gained a new understanding of Wall Street's expectations for Disney. These people did not expect the so-called cooperation between Disney and ABC to achieve 1+1 greater than 2, but were happy that those old Disney movies could be broadcasted by ABC. It would be better for both sides not to think too much about cooperation with each other, as long as one side produced the original and the other side broadcasted it.

And those so-called new projects for the sake of synergy, such as letting ABC TV stars to shoot Disney's new movies, may not be a very good idea. Disney's live-action movies have always been medium-sized productions, while ABC TV stars are mostly family soap operas, and the two may not be compatible.

"That's also a solution. I wonder what you think of my role in this?" Ovitz thought about it and felt that this was also a solution. He would be the CEO, mainly in charge of the live-action movies at ABC and Disney. The people he brought with him could then contact the original CAA team.

"Here's what I think. You should just take charge of the operations of ABC first. It's easier to achieve results here. Then you will have a good foundation to manage the entire group as CEO."

"Hmm?" Ovitz was puzzled. How come now it has become that if I have achievements in the future, I will have a better foundation to become a CEO? Is the title of CEO still conditional now?
"Michael, I think what you said is very right." Ovitz decided to keep calm and test the waters. "However, since my position is not confirmed, do I need to decide on the salary in advance?"

"Haha, of course, we can discuss this issue tomorrow. Now, let's go meet Joe Ross... He is the producer who is responsible for many live-action film projects at Disney after Katzenberg resigned."

"I know. I used to be his agent..." Ovitz agreed with a smile. Since he could negotiate the salary, it didn't matter what position was printed on the business card. Although it was a bit against his usual strategy of talking about work first and then talking about the salary, he could set a higher option on the salary...

Today is New Year's Eve, I'm posting this a little early, wishing everyone a happy New Year's Eve dinner with their families...