"In response to widespread calls, the Academy will establish an independent investigative committee to investigate the fact that The Basketball Dream was not nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The committee is composed of some reputable people in the industry and will conduct the investigation independently of the Academy.

.”

After the scandal broke, college executive director Bruce Davis and chairman Arthur Shearer held a public press conference and stated that they would launch an investigation into the incident.

"Who will lead this investigation? The executive committee of the college, or Mr. Chairman?" The reporter did not simply let them go, and began to continue to question the independence of the investigation.

"We have asked well-known documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple to lead this investigation, and her experience and reputation make us unanimously the best choice."

"oh……"

Only then did the reporters become somewhat convinced that the Academy was really going to investigate this matter. Barbara Copple is the winner of two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature, and the two award-winning films "Harlan County, Ami"

"Liga" and "America's Dream" both talk about strikes.

Harlan County, in particular, spent a huge sum of US$200,000 in 1972 to shoot a film about the miners' strike in the Appalachian Mountains. The industry had great trust in her integrity and character.

of.

This action had a big shock to Hollywood. The Academy has not carried out such drastic reforms on itself for a long time. In the following week, the first thing many Hollywood insiders asked when they met was that they had heard about the Oscars.

Have the judges investigated?

For a while, it actually became a trend that replaced the catchphrase of ordinary American people when meeting, "Do you think Simpson did it?"

The trial of O.J. Simpson's case has begun. In order to avoid the suspicion of racism, Judge Ito of the Los Angeles Superior Court not only agreed to the composition of the jury with a majority of blacks, but also allowed the television media to broadcast the trial for a certain period of time every day for the first time.

Simpson's murder of his wife, which was very popular not long ago, has now resumed occupying the main time of the news media. The British and French media have also reported a large number of reports and reprinted this case. The most famous American in the world now may be OJ·

Simpson.

Even when Commander-in-Chief William met with Russian leader Boris, the first thing Boris said when he saw him was, "Do you think Simpson did it?"

…

"What do you want from me, Ronald?"

At the same time, Ronald also had his own things to focus on. Harvey Weinstein made a special appointment with him through his agent Richard.

He was quite annoyed that the scandal surrounding the jury voting for this documentary was revealed. As the general manager of a medium-sized production company that relies heavily on awards, he would not be able to fight for the public relations budget in person.

Therefore, he must go out of his way and do something in the gray area to win the favor of the Oscars, so that the independent art films he favors can make money back.

Although Ronald did not directly name him for this move, some people in the circle have noticed his method. If he takes precautions in the future and uses it again, it will not be so effective.

"I don't want to do anything to you at all, Harvey, are we not in a competitive relationship?" Ronald replied with a smile. Although the budget of the movie he is currently investing in in his daydream alone will not be very large, but it will not be very big.

They are some popular scripts in Hollywood. They are different from Harvey who can only pick up scraps that other studios don't want. The two of them are not competing on the same level.

"Ah, yes, yes..." Harvey Weinstein nodded quickly and cursed in his heart. What do you mean it doesn't constitute competition? I lost all the nominated films to you this year, okay?

"What I pursue is an orderly Hollywood. Although it may not be 100% fair, generally people can still pursue their dreams in this market." Ronald knows the Oscars and the Academy deeply. Since Gerry

After Gary Pike's reforms decades ago, it has reached the point where it has already suffered from serious shortcomings and has to reform.

The average age of the voting judges has once again risen to more than 50 years old. A large number of judges have left the production line, and their aesthetics are still at the level of 20 or 30 years ago. If you add in Harvey Weinstein,

If the PR is specifically aimed at these elderly judges, then the next Oscars may change from pleasing the audience to pleasing the judges.

The foundation of Hollywood movies is actually a commodity. If the audience does not like to watch and is unwilling to enter the cinema, then these so-called arts are just castles in the air. In the future, it will become an art form like opera, relying on state funding or some

It is possible for the wealthy to survive with their donations.

But seeing Weinstein's expression, Ronald knew that he didn't take anything he said seriously. What about absolute fairness and order? I didn't learn all the tricks I used to please the elderly judges from you.

of.

"Harvey, when I say this, you may think I am hypocritical, but this industry must be big enough to accommodate the movies you like."

Ronald didn't have anything to say to him, so he just said that. His worries were real. Today's Hollywood production costs have ballooned dramatically, and the salaries of top male stars have reached more than 20 million US dollars.

The salary of A-list female stars is also trending towards tens of millions of dollars.

As for Roger Coleman's low-cost B-level exploitation films, after the gradual demise of drive-in theaters, there was no market for them. Today's directors rely solely on exploitation films exclusively for the video tape market to survive.

But the problem is that the shooting methods of those videotape movies are quite different from those of big-screen movies. When Ronald first debuted more than ten years ago, a young man like him could still play Roger Cole.

Companies like MAN produce big-screen films. But it is undoubtedly more difficult for directors to make their debut films now.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The current standard for low-cost theater movies is a shooting cost of 2 million US dollars, which is more than 10 times higher than fifteen years ago. A person who has just graduated from college or from

The possibility of young people who have become enthusiasts to raise this amount of money is very small.

This situation is quite troublesome for the future of Hollywood. Without young directors like Ronald and Cameron entering the industry, there are no young people who have the courage to challenge the artistic expression techniques of already famous directors.

The entire film industry has become a backwater without a source.

In the history of Hollywood, all new genre films and all new expression techniques were invented and created by young people.

Therefore, Ronald is planning to support these talented young directors and create an opportunity for them to direct a big-screen film for the first time.

Any young director who has directed a TV commercial, a documentary, or has filmed a short film with his own financing, or has filmed student projects in college, can send their work to Daydream and apply for funding from this project.

Ronald also plans to give lectures at several universities to encourage these students who are talented but have no chance to try to shoot some short films. Whether it is Ang Lee, Cameron, or Ronald himself, the biggest characteristic is that he likes to make movies.

, being able to find ways to squeeze into this industry with very limited funds and shoot even short short films.

"I completely agree that it is very important to ensure the fairness of the Oscar awards." Harvey Weinstein felt that he had been treated unfairly. Why do movies from big studios get a lot of public relations?

With the blessing of funds, how about doing award-winning public relations?

And I think of some ways to spend a small amount of money to achieve big things, and I am said to be destroying the fairness of the industry? It is you who are unfair in this world, not me. Harvey Weinstein has made up his mind to be like Ronald

He will not mess with people who know some of his tricks very well in the future.

Not to mention not winning an award, but also wasting a lot of money. It will depend on the situation later. If it is released during the awards season at the end of the year, the films that are preparing to win awards will all be like Barbra Streisand. Once you enter the industry, you will get a big-budget award.

It is produced by stars who are treated very formally by the studio. Only this kind of technique can have the greatest effect.

"Thank you for coming to communicate with me..." Ronald could see that Harvey Weinstein was still unconvinced, but he would probably be more restrained in front of him in the future.

The Academy's executive director, Bruce Davis, launched an investigation. He obtained the original voting ledger from PricewaterhouseCoopers and confirmed that a certain movie was voted 10 points and all other movies were voted 0 points.

Immediately afterwards, they took measures to cancel the qualifications of these critics. Although the names of these judges were not announced to the public, this was already a very severe punishment. As an Oscar judge, there are many bargains every year.

It's only a matter of time before my friends realize that they are cheating.

The news lasted a week in some Hollywood outlets before being overtaken by a bigger story.

Panasonic's sale of 80% of Universal Pictures and Universal Music to Seagram was announced on April 6, 1995. The total value of the transaction was approximately $57

billion, including cash and assumed debt.

In order to complete this transaction and enter the entertainment industry, the Bronfman family's Seagram Company sold all 24% of its shares in DuPont, raising a total of US$8.5 billion to cope with the acquisition.

With the efforts of Michael Ovitz, both parties are very satisfied with this acquisition. Seagram feels that it has saved a lot of money. Although it is not a 100% wholly-owned acquisition, 80% of the holding is still enough.

Guarantee their absolute say in MCA (the parent company of Universal Pictures and Universal Music).

Panasonic is also very happy. They purchased MCA for US$6 billion a few years ago. This time they only sold 80% of the shares and retained 20%. Whether it is "in fact or in theory"

”, they did not suffer any loss in this transaction.

Even Panasonic's decision to invest in Hollywood was not wrong. For Masaharu Matsushita, the son-in-law and adopted son of the company founder and the chairman who made the acquisition decision, it maintained his authority in the company.

Whether in Hollywood or Wall Street, it is a very rare thing for both parties to be relatively satisfied with such a merger and acquisition involving more than 5 billion US dollars. Ovitz, who was the matchmaker and promoted the completion of this transaction,

Suddenly he became the favorite of Wall Street and Hollywood.

Everyone is talking about whether Ovitz will leave CAA and become the CEO of MCA after the merger.

"Ronald, Ovitz has taken the bait..."

On the second night after the merger was announced, CAA's Ron Meyer managed to find a very private Cantonese restaurant in Chinatown. In a dimly lit private room, he met Ronald who entered from another entrance.

people, had a confidential conversation.

Ovitz was busy with this M&A matter at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. He was dealing with big M&A cases worth five to six billion dollars every day, and a packaged movie project worth $50 million seemed insignificant.

In order to promote a "merely $50 million" film project, Ovitz had to get up at 5:30 every day, talk on the phone with Europe, and exercise at the same time.

He also has to make more than 200 phone calls every day and arrange every lunch and dinner and all his itineraries three months in advance.

He flies more than 600 hours every year and arranges more than 30 various activities during the New Year holidays from the beginning of November to the end of the year.

He has to return phone calls at seven o'clock in the evening every day, and then has dinner with various customers and partners. After returning home at ten o'clock in the evening, he still has to call customers in Japan until midnight, and then six hours later,

The same day begins again.

"Ovitz told me that being an agent is a young man's game. He has been running non-stop since the first day he joined Philip Morris and has been running until today. At the age of 48, he has no more fuel in the tank.

The more fuel you have, the farther you can run.”

Ron Meyer recounted to Ronald the very emotional words Ovitz said to him one-on-one in the office today. He believed that Ovitz was determined to leave CAA.

, ready to take over at MCA.

"Are you sure? I feel all this fatigue, boredom and fatigue when I'm shooting a movie and in the later stages. But after I take a long vacation and spend more time with my family, I will feel more confident about shooting a new movie.

Full of longing.”

Ronald frowned. Such sensational words were not very reliable evidence. Besides, Ron Meyer also had the same emotions that Ovitz had. For the sake of income, he didn't just stay in Ovitz obediently.

Under the pressure of Wiz, he continued to work at CAA.

"I'm pretty sure that he wanted to join MCA, but he couldn't bear to part with the CAA business, so he invited me to join MCA as the vice president first and be his agent, and then wait for him to sell off the equity in CAA in ten months.

, then join MCA as CEO.”

"That's more certain..." Ronald smiled. This arrangement made it clear that Ron Meyer was treated as a subordinate, rather than a founding partner who was on an equal footing with him. But on the other hand, it was very
Chapter completed!