Chapter 612 Perfect Opportunity!

Before Spielberg and the others went to the Hong Kong premiere of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", he didn't talk to Yin Jun about the investment amount.

Since it is decided to cooperate with Universal, how much investment, how to use it, how to distribute rights and so on, all need to be carefully negotiated before a final decision can be made.

This is not something that can be decided in a day or two.

But he did mention that he asked the person Yin Jun sent to negotiate to help him fight for the final editing rights.

Because Spielberg is a great director in the first place, after "Jaws", he has the final editing rights, so he didn't think it was a surprise, just mentioned it in passing.

After Spielberg's reminder, Yin Jun suddenly remembered a very important thing!

An important event about the changing landscape of Hollywood giants!

Let me explain here first, the problem of film editing.

Movie editing, in the simplest terms, is a means of creating a suitable movie atmosphere by reducing the intermediate links, removing unnecessary pictures, etc., by taking the film filmed by the director, or the digital film data in the future.

Film editing is not a one-time job, but requires multiple edits.

One cut, two cuts, three cuts... these are all normal.

The work of ordinary film editors is to do one or two previous edits, and then the director must also follow the effects of the previous few edits, and discuss with the editor how to achieve the desired effect.

Generally speaking, in Xiangjiang, as long as the director finally confirms, and then the film company sees no major problems, then the editing is considered successful, and the version made by the director is called the final editing.

But in the United States, the final editing right is a great power.

The most common situation is that after the director finishes editing, the film company will make the last edit, and then this version of the movie will appear in front of the audience, so this is called the final editing right.

For the director, after working so hard for a year and a half to film a movie, the final version for the audience was not edited according to his own ideas. It is conceivable how much passion ran through his heart. And know.

But any director with a little self-respect cannot tolerate such a thing.

Because filmmaking is also a profession of art, most of the directors have literary and youthful feelings, and naturally have strong self-esteem.

But even the directors who have already achieved success and fame, many times they cannot get the final editing rights.

In Hollywood, there are no more than 10 directors who can get the final editing rights, or even to say it absolutely, there are only three or five directors.

The truck driver only got this power after the Terminator series.

Spielberg got his powers after E.T.

George Lucas has this power because he has always made his own movies.

In addition, even super directors such as Peter Jackson, Michael Bay, Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton, etc., do not get the final editing rights every time.

For example, Peter Jackson, after the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, he can have the final editing rights on "The Hobbit".

Once "The Hobbit" ended, he still couldn't get the final editing rights for other movies.

For example, Bombay, since "Pearl Harbor" came out, at best, he has the final editing rights in some medium-produced movies, and has shot several world-best-selling "Transformers" movies in succession. He also failed to get the final editing rights alone, but decided with the production company.

Even they are like this, let alone ordinary directors.

This is also the reason why after the development of DVD, usually in the movie DVD market, there are "director's cut" DVDs for sale-you don't let my cut version be released, but when I finally make money, my version Take it out, it's always okay, right? Anyway, I want to let the works in my mind meet the audience!

Not to mention the bitter life of the directors in the future.

You said that Hollywood has implemented the policy of the production company controlling the final editing rights from the very beginning?

of course not!

In fact, although it is still impossible for second- and third-rate directors to obtain the final editing rights, many famous directors, including quasi-first-rate directors, had their own final editing rights before this year.

The turning point in history happened just this year, a few months later.

United Artists Films, one of the seven giants in the United States, has produced a big-budget movie called "Heaven's Gate" since last year.

The so-called big production is because United Artists invested 38 million US dollars to produce this western film, and secondly, the director they hired, Michael Cimino, won the award with "The Deer Hunter" last year. It won five Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and it is so majestic that no one can stop it.

United Artists Films is fully expecting that with a big production, the production skills of the best Oscar director, and a group of well-known actors, "Heaven's Gate" will definitely achieve brilliant achievements.

But the facts gave them a hard blow.

After "Heaven's Gate" was released at the end of November this year, it only earned a box office of about 1.6 million US dollars in a week, and was immediately shamefully dismissed, and finally locked the box office at the figure of 1.6 million US dollars.

As we all know, Hollywood film companies don't look very powerful, but they are actually very fragile many times.

It was such a movie with a serious loss of about 36 million, which directly led to United Artists, one of the seven major Hollywood film companies, declaring bankruptcy, and was acquired by MGM in the second year. The old company founded by the director no longer exists.

It is difficult for others to imagine such an example.

How could you, one of the seven major Hollywood film companies, with a turnover of three to five billion U.S. dollars a year, just go bankrupt like this?

In fact, not all the film companies' money for making movies is their own, some are loans, some are cooperation, and their working capital is far less than others imagined.

Therefore, once a huge loss occurs during a certain period of time, it will definitely cause a chain reaction, and it is not surprising that it will eventually go bankrupt.

There were such things before 1980, and there are still after.

For example, "Wind Talker", which bankrupted MGM, the next company of United Artists, is so famous.

Although like "Heaven's Gate", they are just the last straw that overwhelmed the camel. Both companies had various problems before, but there is no doubt that this is an out-and-out catalyst for bankruptcy. So much so that people directly put the blame on them.

Back to the movie "Heaven's Gate".

After Michael Cimino's success in "The Deer Hunter", his mentality was inflated out of shape. "Heaven's Gate" is a movie made with this mentality.

Procrastination, disorganization, facial makeup of characters, too many dull links... etc., these are the finished films he made.

In fact, Hollywood directors made bad movies, but in the end they edited them out and turned them into not-so-bad movies. There are also a lot of movies.

The key to the failure of "Heaven's Gate" is that Michael Cimino has the final editing rights. He thinks what the movie looks like, and that's what it looks like in the end.

As a result, everyone saw it naturally. The audience didn't like his idea at all, and they didn't buy it at all, so United Artists went bankrupt directly.

After United Artists declared bankruptcy and was acquired by MGM, the remaining six major film giants in Hollywood reached a secret agreement.

That is, no matter how old you are as a director, the company must control the final editing rights, otherwise United Artists' today will be everyone's tomorrow.

This is the most important reason why the vast majority of super directors have been unable to obtain the final editing rights since then.

It's just that a few people, such as Spielberg and the truck driver, have performed so well that they can be treated equally by the film company giants, so they can get the final editing rights.

But there are only a few such examples, and after future directors rely more on special effects, it is even less likely that there will be directors with a combination of personality and talent like truck drivers and Spielberg. There really is no director who can get it.

but!

These final editing rights have little to do with Yin Jun.

What Yin Jun really cares about is the collapse of United Arts this time.

There are many reasons for the collapse of United Artists, but it is one of the seven major film giants in Hollywood. It has a very complete production capacity and distribution network. These are the foundations for it to gain a foothold in Hollywood.

Not to mention that United Arts has two very good treasures in its hands.

The first is the well-known 007 series.

The 007 series was first created by United Artists. Since five years ago, it has taken back all the copyrights of justice, and it has truly become unique to United Artists.

Everyone on the screen is familiar with James Bond, the super big IP. After it was bought by MGM, it would directly bring MGM back to life in difficult situations. Otherwise, MGM would not only go bankrupt three times. According to the gambler City tycoon's gameplay, it is not surprising that ten bankruptcies are not surprising at all.

The second is another super big IP that is far beyond 007 that people are not familiar with now - the copyright of "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit".

Many people thought Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were new lines.

actually not.

As early as 1969, United Artists Film Company bought the film copyrights of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" from the Tolkien Trust Foundation, at a price of 7.5% of the total profit, including a series of films, peripheral products, etc. profits.

Of course, because the current technology is far from enough to support the performance of the entire Middle-earth world, after United Artists won the copyright, it has not produced it. Instead, it has cheaper new lines later.

But the food of the new line is too ugly, not only cheated Peter Jackson, but also cheated the Tolkien Trust Foundation, making "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" such a big IP that earned more than 1 billion US dollars , made a loss-making account, and none of the profits were distributed to the Tolkien Trust.

This angered the Tolkien Trust Foundation. Not only did they take New Line to court directly, but they also announced that all Tolkien's works in the future will not be put on the screen unless this situation is approved. Maximum improvement.

You know, many Chinese people don’t know that, in fact, among Tolkien’s novels, the most brilliant novel suitable for being adapted into a movie, there is also a larger-scale "The Silmarillion", which is also the time when Peter Jackson finished filming "The Lord of the Rings". " and "The Hobbit" are the most desirable targets.

But because of this, "The Silmarillion" was sealed in dust, and there was no hope for ten or eight years.

When Yin Jun thought of the collapse of United Artists, he thought of these two super big IPs.

If, if I can buy United Artists ahead of MGM, wouldn't that be an excellent opportunity to enter Hollywood?