Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1604: Introducing Fresh Water
Mark Canton's description of the script, "Die Hard on Air Force One," is a pretty accurate summary.

The plot is a bit like Die Hard. The President went to the former Alliance area and said that he would not compromise with the terrorists. Then the terrorists disguised themselves as photojournalists, infiltrated Air Force One, and took control of the plane.

Afterwards, the President took out John McClane-style lone hero tactics, hiding in the cargo hold of Air Force One and dealing with the terrorists. After killing several terrorists, he got a satellite phone and got in touch with the country.

Finally, the Department of Defense sent a plane to pick up the hostages and transferred them to a new plane by air. At the last moment, the spy who had been lurking in the Secret Service was exposed, and the President fought with him and won the final battle. Then he and his family were safely transferred to the receiving plane, which was finally given the new call sign of Air Force One. The movie ended with the victory of the President.

In a closed space, the villains don't know the hero's identity. The hero defeats many villains one by one and finally escapes with his family. In addition to the hero's identity changing from an ordinary NYPD to a commander-in-chief, the structure of the entire script is to move the plot of Die Hard to an airplane.

Ronald felt that this script was more like a sequel to Die Hard. Die Hard 3 did not meet the audience's imagination of a Die Hard sequel as well as this one.

With a reliable director and a reliable male lead, the project is unlikely to fail, and with the confirmation of his dream, Ronald wanted to agree.

"We have contacted Kevin Costner, and if he knows you will be involved, he will be very happy to star in it." Mark Canton chose Kevin Costner to play this lone heroic commander-in-chief.

Ronald touched his chin. He remembered that Harrison Ford played the role in his dream, but it seemed feasible for Costner to play the president?
"What do you think? This kind of movie is what Hollywood should make, right? I don't know why 3th Century Fox made Die Hard like that. If it were me, I would never do that." Mark Canton continued to tout Ronald's production philosophy.

Ronald actually agrees with this statement, but Hollywood does not have only one production model. Movies are not commodities like Coke. Once you find a successful formula, you can copy it millions of times.

For creative products like movies, we still need to give artists more space. A healthy film market must allow creativity to play freely. Only with their constant trial and error can we accurately grasp the audience's preferences and then innovate.

The film industry is a very peculiar one. Only innovation can discover new genres that audiences love to watch. If everyone just follows the successful formulas of the past, and then shoots some sequels, follows the trend, or changes the background of the characters and then puts them into a specific formula movie, then the audience will soon get bored.

Thinking of this, Ronald felt a little sorry for Air Force One. There has indeed never been a movie in Hollywood where the president himself plays the hero. This idea was originally very good. However, the production system disciplined by the seven major studios must have repeatedly asked the original author to revise the script. When he saw it today, the original innovation and edges had been smoothed out, just like an industrial production line with no creativity, but it won the prize in terms of cost-effectiveness and would not be lower than expected.

It is definitely not a good thing that such works dominate Hollywood. In the short term, people don’t feel it and are happy to make money. But after five to ten years, people suddenly realize that they can no longer make works that the audience likes to watch. That is the day when Hollywood dies.

"Do you have any other works that will catch my eye?" Ronald put the Air Force One script in his hand and asked to see some products that were not ordinary commercial films.

Mark Canton was a little surprised. Ronald has always liked the logic of blockbuster commercial films. Why now... does he really want to revive the tradition of United Artists?

Ignoring Canton's surprised look, Ronald searched through the pile of introductions for works that he was curious about. He actually found a very interesting work.

It was a peculiar story, a family that lost its mother, a father and a daughter came to live in a new place. The daughter accidentally found a pile of wild goose eggs that had lost their mother due to deforestation.

After hatching the group of little wild geese, the big birds thought the girl was their mother and kept running after the little girl.

The stupid geese accompanied the little girl through the most difficult days of losing her mother. But as time passed, when the geese flew far away, they had not yet learned how to fly, nor had they ever been carried by the geese to their habitat.

In order to fulfill his daughter's wish, the father took her to do something incredible: he got two light aircraft, took his daughter to fly, and led the wild geese to their winter habitat.

With the help of a group of kind-hearted people, the father and daughter became stars in the news. They finally successfully reached the wild geese's wintering ground, and also protected this habitat from being flattened by real estate developers.

By the spring of the following year, all 16 wild geese had returned to the girl's home.

Ronald also dreamed about this movie, so he asked Mark Canton what the current situation of the movie was and who was operating it?
"Ahaha, you really have a sharp eye. You saw this problematic script at a glance. This is Carol Ballard's project, and his projects all have a poor return on investment... I have stopped filming and am preparing to switch to a streaming project."

Canton thought Ronald wanted to laugh at the movie, so he started talking about how wise he was to find out Columbia was investing in such a typical movie that didn't sell well, so he decisively gave the red light and locked the project in a filing cabinet. Unless there is an idiot investor willing to restart it, the movie will forever be in the basement of Columbia's script library, never to see the light of day.

"I also want to invest in this movie, two films in one. I can either invest in both or neither..."

Ronald interrupted his boasting. This film with the wild geese is exactly what Carol Ballard, Coppola's senior, is best at. This maverick director is good at making movies about children and animals.

Previously, I have shot The Black Stallion and Wind, which is about sailing. Although the box office of these movies were not very ideal, they are still quite popular among a certain group of people in the video market. If we look at it over a longer period of time, there is no loss at all.

With the idea of ​​contributing to the diversity of Hollywood, cultivating young practitioners, and finding some opportunities for these niche projects, Ronald decided to collaborate on two films.

Mark Canton was stunned. He wanted to change his tone and continue praising Ronald, but Ronald waved his hand to stop him.

“I also have conditions. If director Carol Ballard wants to start filming this movie, he must agree to one condition of mine. That is, several winners will be selected from this year’s college student short film competition, and he must pick two to join his crew as trainee assistants to observe his directing throughout the process.

I paid their salaries, but Director Ballard couldn’t hide what scenes to shoot from them, and the entire shooting process had to be open to young people.”

Ronald plans to cram a few young college students into the productions he is collaborating with major studios this year.

The current film industry is not like before. New directors have no experience in the crew. They have only learned countless theoretical knowledge and watched countless classic movies in their four-year college life, but they have no chance to work in a real Hollywood crew.

In the past, when Hollywood still had a big studio system, if you wanted to be a director, you had to start as a screenwriter, then assistant director, second assistant director, first assistant director, and assistant director. You would slowly be trained in this way, and after an average of seven years, you would have the opportunity to direct a small production of your own.

Such directors may not have as much theoretical knowledge as current college students majoring in film, but their practical skills are extremely solid. They have been honed through film after film, and their practical experience is very sufficient.

When Ronald first entered the industry, the Directors Guild often had such internship programs, but compared to the big studios in the past, only a few lucky people could get the opportunity to gain practical experience, and the opportunity was often taken by second-generation stars like David Lynch's daughter.

Therefore, in order to discover new talents, Ronald decided to give the top ten winners of the college student short film competition he initiated an opportunity to study in the New United Arts program funded by Daydream.

……

Carol Ballard, who was waiting for Columbia's response, suddenly received good news. The additional internship conditions were nothing to him.

However, producer Carol Baum told Ballard that this was an opportunity that Ronald's new United Artists had fought for him, and specifically proposed to Columbia to bundle his film into a big-budget commercial film.

If Columbia didn't invest in his Fly With Me, then New United Artists wouldn't have worked with Columbia to shoot another big production with a budget of over $8000 million.

Carol Ballard didn't know what to say for a moment. The sailing-themed movie that was rewarded and filmed also relied on Ronald's investment to reshoot some scenes and make up for the regrets, although the box office was still not very ideal...

"What else does he want?"

Ballard still thought of thanking Ronald, but because he was busy, he had to write a postcard to express his heartfelt thanks. Then he asked Ronald's agent what he could do to express his gratitude to Ronald.

"Ah, I like his Black Stallion and Beyond Speed ​​very much. Please ask him to give me a signed videotape..."

After meeting Richard, Ronald said that he was a fan of Ballard's films. Only a director like him who insisted on his ideals could make such a niche production. That kind of narrative structure has a kind of classical Hollywood beauty that is not available in current commercial films.

I also want Hollywood to be more colorful. Anyway, I have made a lot of money from stocks. Even if the movies don't make money, I can still live a rich life. Cultivating the market and cultivating talents are Hollywood's top priorities.

When Ronald heard that Director Ballard wanted to come in person to thank him, he said that it was not necessary. It was not easy for him to make a movie, so he should just concentrate on his work.

If I really meet with him, I will probably find that my creative ideas do not agree with his. To avoid a quarrel, it is better not to meet him and keep a good reputation of helping the old director realize his dream.

"Do you really like movies like this?"

Richard wasn't quite sure either. Ronald's director and producer always made commercial hits that suited the market's tastes. So why were his favorite movies so different?
"Of course, just like I like Chinese food, Italian food, and Japanese food, but I also like to change my taste. Sometimes I also eat Greek food and Mexican food..."

Ronald said that he is also a director and needs to watch works with different styles and ideas. For example, he has just watched a work with a unique style that is currently being shown.

This is the new film written and directed by Mexican director Robert Rodriguez, "Heroes Don't Cry (Desperado)"

This movie is very interesting, starring two Latino actors Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. The temperament of the whole movie is completely different from Hollywood, and it has a unique aesthetic of grassroots filmmakers.

The whole story is not told like that in Hollywood, as if it only relies on the unique personalities of the characters to pursue a coherent feeling.

This is a typical case where the characters and the story cannot be balanced. Generally speaking, Hollywood productions will give up the uniqueness of some characters to take care of the integrity of the story.

But the Mexican director Rodriguez chose to preserve the integrity of the characters rather than the integrity of the story.

The whole movie is like a bedtime story told by a Mexican grandmother to her grandson. Years later, you will still remember the unique characters, but you will almost forget the story.

The director's imagination is amazing. Who would have thought that the singer's violin case is filled with all kinds of violent guns? Who would have thought that the protagonist's friend brought two guitar cases, one of which can fire like a machine gun and the other can launch rockets?
With such creativity and unique characters, it seems that Hollywood clichés such as story, three-act play, character arc, etc. are not so important.

"Who would have thought that movies could be shot like this?" Ronald was overjoyed. It was so new. A movie like this earned over 7 million in the first weekend, which was enough to cover the production and marketing costs.

Director Rodriguez actually spent only $7000 on his debut film, The Killer's Elegy, with all amateur actors. Now Hollywood has asked him to use cheap Latino stars, which is equivalent to reshooting it, and the production cost is only $600 million. Such small productions are the source of Hollywood's continuous innovation.

It seems that we still need to introduce more unique directors and stars from around the world, make more movies like this, and inject fresh vitality into Hollywood, so that Hollywood will not become rigid and stale.