Chapter 242 Human blood steamed buns stir up public opinion
"Nicolas Cage?"
"I have no conflict with him!"
After hearing this name, the first reaction in Roland's head was that he was accused of being blackmailed.
No way, who let him still clearly remember that when he discussed the release schedule of "Spider-Man" with James Cameron, in order to avoid "Independence Day" and "Tornado", he deliberately picked out of all the persimmons. What about a soft pinch?
At that time, it was Nicholas Cage's "Into the Deadly Island" that was blocked by him and suffered heavy losses.
Although through the disc market, the movie finally returned to blood and profit, but in terms of box office, it was a mess. The global box office of more than 300 million yuan in the previous life was missing. Only a little over 100 million.
After that, Roland was very careful about this guy and didn't want to run into him.
After all, we are all our own people, so it's not good to have such an infighting.
However, Roland felt that he was fine, but Francis Coppola felt that Roland's problem was really too big. The old man looked at Roland a few more times with his stomach full, and then shook his head with emotion: "I haven't said anything specific yet. Well, why did you get rid of yourself first? I heard before that you are the guy who hates trouble the most in Hollywood. I didn't believe it at the time. I thought they were joking. Now... you really don't want any trouble Provoke!"
'It's not that I don't want to cause trouble, I just don't want to cause some inexplicable housework. '
Roland secretly complained in his heart, but on the surface, he shrugged.
The indifferent attitude also made Francis Coppola unable to dig deeper, touched his chin, and entered the theme, "The failure of "Brave to Kill the Island" in 1996 caused a certain impact on him. However, after all, it was right for you, so the industry did not look down on him much, so after the failure of "Into the Deadly Island", Jerry Bruckheimer still approached him and invited him to participate in " "Prison in the Air" project."
"After reading the script, he readily accepted the job, and last June, the film was officially released, with an investment of 75 million yuan, and a box office of nearly 225 million yuan. Although it didn't make much money, But it slowed him down."
"Because of this, he admires the director of "Prison in the Air" very much."
"Because before the filming started, he made a lot of suggestions to the other party. Among them, at the beginning of the film, the scene describing the eight-year prison life of his character Cameron was what he asked to join. As an actor, you should know that if If the director revises the script according to your ideas, then you must also appreciate him, right?"
Speaking of this, Francis Coppola blinked at Roland.
Well, Roland responded with the most understanding laugh.
Roland may be the best-tempered actor in the world, and he also appreciates all the directors he has worked with.
Because the directors he has worked with basically changed the script for him.
"Of course, appreciation is just an opportunity, not the point." Francis Coppola, who received a response, continued.
"The point is that after the success of "Prison in the Air", the director Simon West found Jerry Bruckheimer and told him that he had always had a wish in his heart to make a movie, hoping to get His support."
"But after hearing about the project, Jerry Bruckheimer didn't respond immediately, but shied away."
"So, Simon West found my nephew."
"And my nephew, after hearing what Simon West said, felt uncomfortable, but decided to help."
"You know, I just told someone that I admire you very much one second ago, but then turned around and said that this project is not good."
"That's not how it's done, is it?"
"So, he went to Amblin, to Kennedy/Marshall, but they weren't very interested."
"After asking around, all he got was rejection."
"So, he asked me to ask you, if you are not interested, then..."
"He can only tell Simon West the 'bad' news."
Francis Coppola went around and talked a lot, but Roland was confused.
If you want to talk about the project, then just talk about the content, yesorno, how easy it is!
I have to go around in a big circle, like constipation, explain the whole story clearly, what are you doing?
However, when Francis Coppola put an emphasis on the word 'Badnews' at the end, Roland, who already felt something was wrong, became alert. If it wasn't for some tricky project, this guy would never have hinted at him so clearly. .
So, Roland, who wanted to complain about 'Are you old and not thinking quickly', put away his jokes and joking thoughts, stared at the old man for a while, and after confirming that this guy was indeed serious, Only then did he ask quietly.
"Is this project a pit? Even Steven and the others don't do it?"
"It's a pit, er... no, it's not exactly a pit."
"I can't understand what you're saying! Can you be more specific?"
"This project is based on real events."
"How real?"
"'1993,' 'Somalia,' 'Super 61.'"
Nima!
When Roland heard the three reference nouns from Francis Coppola's mouth, he was about to explode!
Time, 1993?
Location, Somalia?
Codename, Super 61?
Isn’t this special incident the Black Hawk incident?
Since 1840, Somalia has been invaded and partitioned by colonial empires such as Italy, Britain, and France.
In 1941, Britain occupied Italian Somalia, and eight years later, it was handed over to Italy.
In 1960, British Somalia and Italian Somalia became independent successively, and then merged to form a country.
In 1969, Siad came to power and implemented a policy of comprehensive closeness and attachment to Mao Xiong.
But after the guy who announced the disintegration of Mao Xiong came to power, Mao Xiong began to adopt a shrinking strategy, cut off aid to the slave countries on the three continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America, and achieved reconciliation with America. Under such circumstances, Siad, which previously relied on Mao Xiong's aid for a living and suppressed its opponents in the civil war, collapsed in January 1991. After Siad was overthrown, Somalia quickly fell into a large-scale warlord melee, causing a large number of civilian casualties and fleeing.
In 1992, "the whole world" saw the skinny Somalis on TV, and the international community thought that something should be done for the Somalis, so relief supplies began to arrive in Somalia. But in the process, the supplies to relieve the poor were robbed by warlords.
As a result, the United Nations decided to launch a peacekeeping activity called "Operation Restoring Hope". The main purpose of this operation is to solve the major famine in Somalia and then disarm the warlords in Somalia. But the Somali warlords believe that the UN peacekeeping force headed by the US military is not out of humanitarianism to help Somalis, but to obtain oil exploration rights.
As a result, shortly after the UN peacekeeping force entered Somalia, the Somali warlords clashed with them.
In June 1993, a gun battle broke out between warlord forces and peacekeeping forces, shooting and killing more than 20 Pakistani peacekeeping soldiers.
After this incident, the United Nations authorized the peacekeeping force to take some necessary measures, including arresting the culprit behind the incident and bringing it to justice. Because the U.S. military was also attacked before, they dispatched hundreds of Delta special forces to capture the leader of the Somali armed forces in August of that year.
In October, the U.S. military received intelligence and dispatched several Black Hawk helicopters carrying 160 Delta and Ranger special forces soldiers to land on the streets of downtown Mogadishu. Twenty-four Somali fighters were captured in an adjacent building.
However, during the retreat, Aidid's armed forces counterattacked. During the battle, a Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a rocket launcher and fell. It was shot down. In addition, a search and rescue helicopter was damaged. At the same time, a five-ton operating truck was blasted to pieces by rockets.
The 160 U.S. troops who participated in the operation were trapped in the streets of Mogadishu. In order to save people, the U.S. military sent another full company, and the rescue operation continued until late at night. When the U.S. military returned to the base, they discovered that a total of 18 people were lost in this operation, 73 people were injured, one person was captured, two helicopters were shot down, and three were damaged.
Of course, this is not the point. The point is that when the bodies of American soldiers were dragged through the streets by Aidid's armed forces the next day, public opinion in America was in an uproar. The international public opinion in China also believes that what the US military has done has gone beyond the scope of the 'humanitarian mission' and is conducting a 'dirty war'.
Under many pressures, the two sides negotiated. Aidid handed over the captured pilot Durant and the body of the American soldier; as a target.
Until March 1995, the last batch of peacekeeping troops withdrew from Mogadishu. The peacekeeping operation, which lasted 27 months and cost more than two billion U.S. dollars, ended in failure; this operation cost more than one hundred peacekeeping soldiers And nearly 10,000 Somalis were killed.
And put on the table a shame that only five years have passed?
This is the old birthday star hanged himself, enough to live!
Thinking of this, Roland looked at Francis Coppola and cursed, "Oh, Fuck!"
"Isn't this project a scam?"
"If it is said that the filming of "Death of a Virgin" requires money, then the filming of "Black Hawk Incident" is terrible!"
Although Roland knew that the "Black Hawk Incident" was indeed made into a movie in his previous life, and the reputation was not bad. Although the box office did not recover, the sales of the DVD and video tape were very good, but this would not be Roland's choice for taking over the project. reason.
Because the film "Black Hawk Down" has more complex components than "Schindler's List", and there are too many interested parties involved in it, no one will be able to please anyone who shoots it!
Since you can't make money by taking this thing, and it's easy to provoke a show, then only a fool will do it!
The straightforward refusal did not surprise Francis Coppola.
After all, he also knows that this matter is very difficult.
With Roland's refusal, the third question ended, and the topic between the two did not extend any further.
Now that the conversation was over, Francis Coppola stopped occupying Roland and took him to find Kate who was looking at famous paintings in the collection room. Then, together with his wife, they accompanied the two of them around the hilltop mansion.
Extremely luxurious arrangement, Kate is smiling, but Roland...
That is of course a full promise.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the Italian black gold flower background wall in the living room, or the two-foot-high golden deer in the pantry, as long as Kate thinks it looks good, Roland will say that he got the same material and ponder over the design with her.
Because there was no concealment, those promises were clearly heard by the old man and his wife.
The intimate words and doting actions made Francis Coppola smile again and again, but when he turned his head, he found that his daughter-in-law was staring at the young couple side by side.
‘Shit! '
'It's over! '
The old man knows that Roland is very rich now, and he can build a mansion on the top of a mountain like he wants, so don't look at Kate's many ideas, but with Roland, it's just a matter of changing materials and building it vigorously, but he himself, can There is no way to make such a fuss. If his wife wants this and that like Kate, then his old life will have to be paid for.
So, after glancing at the time, he said, "Ah, it's already seven o'clock? How about we have dinner first and then watch..."
In the process of going to the restaurant, he deliberately pulled Roland behind, constantly hinting 'I'm not as rich as you', 'Women are unreasonable', 'Don't show your love there in front of my wife',' If I go bankrupt, I'll go to your house for dinner" and a series of slightly threatening words that kept admitting cowardice. Roland, who understood, didn't stalk him, and drove him to a corner. After dinner, he and Kate Farewell, back to the hotel.
"What did he talk to you about today?"
As soon as she returned to the hotel, Kate asked about her situation after being dismissed by the other party.
The three things that Francis Coppola said were not confidential, so Roland did not hide them and told the other party all of them.
The power transfer of "The Virgin's Death" and the firm endorsement of "The New York Times" are all within the scope of Kate's acceptance, but she has some doubts about the "Black Hawk Incident", "The 'Black Hawk Incident' really Is it impossible to shoot?"
"It's not that I can't shoot, but this matter is too sensitive." Roland said truthfully.
"I know sensitive, and I mean, aren't sensitive topics your favorite thing?"
Now that she has decided not to be an actor, and she has to watch her man well, then Kate has put in a lot of hard work in the position of producer, don't look at the project of "Saving Private Ryan", what's wrong with her? She didn't do it, but in the past year, she has studied all the projects invested by Roland.
"Isn't your favorite thing to do is to find a right opportunity for a bad project?"
“The Seven Deadly Sins, Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption…”
"It's all like this."
Kate's words are actually not much wrong.
Roland's favorite thing to do is not to make a good film at all, but to follow the current situation and become the pig in the wind!
But the problem is, regardless of whether it is "The Seven Deadly Sins" or "The Shawshank Redemption", their success has nothing to do with Roland! Roland just knew they would catch fire, but he didn't know why they caught fire until he did it!
But unfortunately, Roland understands that this kind of self-knowledgeable truth cannot be said directly.
So, he could only explain in a roundabout way: "The Shawshank Redemption was an accident."
""The Seven Deadly Sins" was also an accident."
"Except for "Forrest Gump", other movies are actually not directly manipulated by people. It can only be said that we did certain things at a certain time, but God made him go to an extreme."
"Like Platoon."
"No one knows that the commander-in-chief will attack Libya in that year!"
"The foreign war of that year brought the anti-war sentiment in America to its peak. Therefore, "Field Platoon" was invincible in that year. Whoever touches it will die, and the opponents in the same period will be unlucky!"
Now that he talked about the conditions under which a war film should be successful, Roland also extended it along the way, "If you want the 'Black Hawk Incident' to be valuable, you must meet some people when it is released. Big things…"
"But the question is, how can there be so many big things to touch?"
"Besides, the only thing that can make war movies sweep the world is war itself. It is best not to fight..."
At this point, the voice stopped abruptly.
Just as Roland kept denying the value of "Black Hawk Down", he suddenly remembered something.
Wait a minute!
Isn't the "Black Hawk Down" in his memory the movie four years later?
and "Spider-Man" were originally at the same time.
Because of 'September11 attacks', "Spiderman" was forced to move, but "Black Hawk Down", it was released on time, and then a movie that was supposed to be disliked by everyone, in a garbage schedule, in the case of national grief, It sold a box office of 172 million. Although based on the investment of 92 million, this movie is a huge loss, but...
This should also be considered a time, right?
If we make a little packaging and release it before 'September 11 attacks', then there is a lot of room for manipulation—before 'September 11 attacks', we will promote this movie in an anti-war form, preaching 'how cruel war is, Unnecessary intervention will only kill your children, husband, and father'; and after 'September11 attacks', jump directly to the reverse, 'means that blind tolerance and peace talks can't solve any problems, tolerance for those terrorists is To be cruel to oneself is to hand over the lives of oneself and your family to others, and you must kill them with lightning force. Only the death of those people can bring peace to the country and the people of America! '
In this way, isn’t it conforming to current events?
Before 'September11attacks', the American people's desire for war was not strong, so it is a correct position to advocate anti-war, but after 'September11attacks', the American people's desire for war is unprecedentedly high, if it is matched with "Black Hawk Down" This humiliation will arouse the people's war sentiment even more!
Of course, the most important thing is that in less than a month, the war on terrorism has kicked off, and during the war, the then commander-in-chief repeatedly stated that "Black Hawk Down" was his favorite movie !
If "Black Hawk Down" can help him stir public opinion, it doesn't matter even if he still loses money!
Because he is in the interests of the commander-in-chief, and the interests of those military workers behind the commander-in-chief!
As long as they are happy and willing to meet Roland, then this business is a **** profit!
But…
This is eating human blood buns!
The point is that if something happens in the east, stir up public opinion, and promote a national war...
No one can recite it!
Note: ①Nicolas Cage's request to change the scene of "Prison in the Sky" is true. ②After "Prison in the Sky", Simon West approached Jerry Bruckheimer and told him that he wanted to film the "Black Hawk Incident", but was rejected by the other party, so there was no way, Simon West Te turned around and found Nicolas Cage, but was still rejected. At that time, no one in Hollywood was willing to invest in the filming of 'Black Hawk Incident', because they thought it was causing trouble, and even the book was not published by the publishing house. After the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the publication of "Black Hawk Down: A Modern Warfare Story" was put on the agenda. In March 1999, it was officially launched. After the book was released, Simon- West found Jerry Bruckheimer again, and the other party decided to buy a book and shoot. But shortly after buying the copyright, Simon West turned around to shoot "Tomb Raider", so the project "Black Hawk Down" fell into the hands of Ridley Scott. ③The project "Black Hawk Down" is super sensitive. From the project approval to the release, the US Department of Defense participated in the whole process. The script alone was overhauled three times. There is a certain gap between the whole movie and CNN's initial report, and Bush Jr. did endorse him. However, it is feasible for the article to be published on the basis of current events, because in reality they did the second half, but there was no rebound.
(end of this chapter)