Chapter 355: Frank Macasso

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After sending off Jeff Bezos and Jim Siegel, Ryan called and talked with Swift for a long time to determine the next investment direction.

For a long time, technology stocks will be in crisis and need to choose new investment directions.

Moreover, following the September 11 incident, the North American economy was completely hit hard, and many investment projects were about to suffer landslides.

For example, Swift's proposed investment in real estate was directly rejected by Ryan, and he chose the relatively stable gold market instead.

Of course, Ryan will not only invest in gold for a long time, and will still buy the bottom of Nasdaq in the future, including Amazon's stock repurchase.

Then I went to Google again, and talked with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and promised that Orion Pictures would not give up its investment in Google, but would continue to support Google.

Although Google is not listed, it is still affected by the Internet crisis. Many investment institutions chose to withdraw, which caused a lot of panic within the company.

Fortunately, with Ryan and Orion Pictures taking over, they took the opportunity to get a lot of shares, and it can also play a role in stabilizing people's hearts.

Other Internet companies were not so lucky, and even Yahoo, the leader of Internet companies, suffered a plummeting stock price.

What makes people desperate is that this Internet crisis has only just begun, and it is far from over.

Due to the outbreak of the NASDAQ Internet crisis, many Hollywood film companies have encountered financing difficulties, and as a result, the competition between "American Beauty" and "There is always a sun" came to an end soon.

Miramax Films, the production company of "There's Always a Sunshine", canceled the next public relations plan, and the public relations scale of DreamWorks, the production company of "American Beauty", did not decrease, but increased a lot.

As a film company mainly focusing on independent films, Miramax Films' main financing channels are concentrated in North America, which has been greatly affected by the Internet crisis.

In contrast, most of the financing channels of DreamWorks come from overseas, such as overseas financial companies such as India and Japan, and have not been affected by the Internet crisis.

Miramax Films could only give up public relations and choose to collect funds.

In addition, the management of many film companies has also been affected by the Internet crisis and needs to spare time to deal with personal investment matters.

Even, many people become nothing overnight.

In the chaos, on March 26, 2000, western time in the United States, the 72nd Academy Awards Ceremony kicked off in the Holy Auditorium in Hollywood.

The number of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" production team reached an astonishing 30 people, including Zhou Dafa's wife and the singer of the film's theme song.

To put it simply, it is to bring a whole family here to enjoy the heat.

In this regard, Ryan swiped his pen directly to get people to agree. Anyway, it didn't cost much, just to increase the exposure of the film on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

By the way, the box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" on the other side of the Pacific has exceeded 100 million yuan, and the box office in North America is 95.4 million US dollars, which is about to break through the 100 million US dollar box office mark.

"Temporary audience!"

Ryan saw that Ang Lee got up and left just now, and an Asian girl came over and sat down immediately. It wasn't until Ang Lee came back that the Asian girl got up quickly.

This is not an opportunity to occupy a seat, nor is it to come to get close, but a temporary audience specially prepared by the Oscar jury.

Whether someone went to the toilet, or the award presenter left his seat, or left early, the next moment, a temporary audience will fill the vacant seat.

Doing so is conducive to the live broadcast effect.

"This is Helen's next business!" Ryan asked curiously.

Star Brokerage Company has developed fairly well, and has many well-known actors under its banner.

In addition, it is the largest provider of temporary fans and audiences in North America.

Well, let's call it a supplier for now.

"It has nothing to do with Helen."

Sofia Coppola said in a low voice: "The Academy Awards ceremony has a fixed cooperative company, and Star Entertainment Company is not involved."

"It's better to focus on TV shows and some Hollywood stars than the Oscars."

The Oscar Awards Ceremony is only held once a year, and there is no need for Star Entertainment to participate.

Casual audience!

Angelina Jolie on the side was a little strange, and said, "Helen's company also provides temporary audience and temporary fan business?"

Temporary audiences and temporary fans are nothing new in Hollywood. Almost every film premiere will see temporary fan groups.

"Star Brokerage Company is considered to be the first economic company in North America to provide temporary viewers and temporary fans."

Having said that, Sofia Coppola pointed to Ryan, "It was his idea."

"The earliest casual viewers and casual fans of Star Brokerage Company, Ryan's crew is the biggest employer."

"Even the current Orion Films still has to pay a lot of money for this every year."

Angelina Jolie suddenly realized, "There are also casual audiences at the premiere of "Tomb Raider?"

"There should be." Ryan said indifferently: "This is also part of the propaganda."

Angelina-Jolie was completely speechless.

In fact, it is very easy to distinguish temporary audiences from temporary fans. As long as they look intoxicated, almost none of them are real audiences.

In other words, the viewers in the TV show are all temporary viewers.

"Okay, be serious."

"Next, the awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Supporting Actress are coming soon." Ryan glanced at the stage. The next award should be Best Foreign Language Film.

Right now, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" has won three statuettes, namely Best Cinematography, Best Soundtrack and Best Art Direction.

There is a hint of a consolation prize faintly.

At the Oscars, there have been more than one times when popular films came away empty-handed, and in the end they only won a few technical awards.

The only thing that can make him breathe a sigh of relief is that the best foreign language film is not an important award.

At least for many Hollywood film companies, the best foreign language film award is far less important than the best actor/actress award, best director award, and best film award.

"The nominees for Best Foreign Language Film are All About My Mother Spain, Himalayas Nepal, East West West France, Solomon and Gano UK, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Across the Pacific."

Li An obviously showed a nervous expression, holding his hands tightly together.

This is the most likely major award for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Even Ryan was a little nervous, after all, it was impossible not to be nervous at this moment.

Over the past period of time, Orion Films has devoted a lot of resources to the best foreign language film award, and he naturally hopes to get the best foreign language film statuette.

In addition to the monetary income, the statue of the best foreign language film statue in front of him is the statuette that Orion Films is most likely to win since its establishment.

It can play a big role in increasing the influence of Orion Films.

The next moment, the award presenter looked down at the card, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon from the other side of the Pacific Ocean."

There was warm applause at the scene.

Ryan stood up and hugged Ang Lee to celebrate.

In any case, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and finally it was not disappointed.

Ang Lee walked onto the stage with a look of excitement, and received the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film from the award presenters.

"Thank you Academy, thank you Orion Films, thank you..."

Hearing Ang Lee's award acceptance speech on the stage, Sofia Coppola glanced sideways at Ryan, pouted and said, "As long as you are willing to change your shooting style, you can be on the Oscar stage like him, and even win Best Director Statue."

"You should tell George these words." Ryan's expression didn't change a bit, "As long as he is willing to bow his head to the academy, the Oscar jury will definitely not be stingy with a statuette for best director."

In fact, George Lucas also has a statuette, but it is not the best director statuette, but the 1992 Erwin Thalberg Memorial Award.

However, the relationship between George Lucas and the academy did not ease because of this, but remained very tense. He even publicly criticized the notarization of the Oscar jury.

Of course, as long as George Lucas is willing to bow his head, the academy will definitely present a best director statuette.

"He has been disappointed in Oscar for a long time." Sofia Coppola shrugged.

She wouldn't try to persuade George Lucas.

In fact, every year someone persuades George Lucas to join the academy.

The end result is that George Lucas is still not a member of the Academy.

"By the way, how do you plan to place the statuettes from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"!"

"Do you need to go back and order a special display cabinet!" She asked.

"It doesn't need to be so troublesome." Ryan shook his head and said, "In the name of Orion Films, I will donate several statuettes to the Film Museum across the Pacific."

"You mean the museum that you donated money to build in your own name some time ago!" Sofia Coppola showed a look of surprise.

It seems that Ryan is very serious about the potential of the box office market across the Pacific.

Some time ago, Ryan donated money to build a film museum in his own name, covering an area of ​​52 acres.

"That's right." Ryan nodded.

The amount of donations this time will be as high as tens of millions of dollars, and there will even be follow-up donations, as well as several Oscar statuettes won by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", which will also become important collections in the museum in the future.

Of course, there will be rewards if you pay. Recently, many films produced by Orion Films, except for "American Pie 3", most of the other films have passed the review on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Another reason is that the US government is very **** up.

At that time, the relationship between China and the United States was very tense, and Orion Pictures had to show its goodwill through donations.

specific reason!

You can search for the Yugoslav embassy incident in 1999.

Next, several important awards were presented one by one. Angelina Jolie won the Best Supporting Actress statuette, and the Best Supporting Actor statuette was taken away by Michael Caine, who starred in the movie "There is always a sun" .

The most important three awards are Best Actor/Actress, Best Director and Best Film.

Among them, the best actor statuette was won by Kevin Spacey, who starred in the film "American Beauty", and the best actress statuette was won by Hillary Swank.

The two statuettes for Best Director and Best Picture were successively won by Sam Mendes and American Beauty.

"American Beauty" won three of the four Oscars, and only the Best Actress award was taken by Hilary Swank.

As one of the most popular award-winning films, "There Is Always the Sun" only won two statuettes for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.

Harvey Weinstein didn't even attend the Oscars.

For a time, DreamWorks and "American Beauty" had a bright future.

According to Ryan's memory, DreamWorks will become a frequent visitor to the Oscars, and the biggest winner of the 73rd Oscar next year will still be DreamWorks.

"Gladiator" won best picture, and Russell Crowe won best actor for "Gladiator."

However, this is not over yet, the 74th Oscar DreamWorks is still a big winner, with "A Beautiful Mind" won two awards for best director and best picture.

It can be said that DreamWorks completed a beautiful three-peat.

It is a pity that three consecutive films have achieved great success at the Oscars, but they still cannot save the decline of DreamWorks.

That's why Ryan felt that DreamWorks had chosen the wrong direction of development and shouldn't focus on the Oscars. Commercial films are the core business of a film company.

The biggest achievement of Orion Films on the Oscars is only a few statuettes won by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and there are several technical award statuettes in the rest.

But Orion Films has achieved success one after another in terms of commercial films, stabilizing DreamWorks as a whole.

With the awarding of the last award, the Oscar awards ceremony came to an end, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" received four statuettes, making it the biggest winner besides "American Beauty".

A group of crew members went to a nearby hotel to change their dresses, and then immediately went to the Oscar night in Beverly Hills.

They will be the focus of the banquet tonight.

Rather than join in the fun, Ryan took Angelina Jolie back to the Bel-Air mansion for a fashion show.

Early the next morning, Ryan drove away from Bel-Air, went to the MGM headquarters building, and met MGM CEO Frank Macasso.

"Mr. FrankIt's very nice to meet you." Ryan looked at the puzzled Frank Macasso opposite, with a smile on the corner of his mouth.

Frank Macasso is no small person. He was originally an executive of Warner Bros., but was drawn into MGM by the head of the Italian consortium, Giancardo Peretti, as the president.

After Frank Macasso took over MGM, his team successively released blockbuster films such as "Short Man" and "GoldenEye".

In addition, "True Lies" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger launched by MGM in 1994 had a global box office of 378 million U.S. dollars, and "Speed" starring Keanu Reeves also created a global box office of 280 million U.S. dollars.

There are also plans to launch "Hannibal", "Legal Blonde", "Scary Cannibal", etc., which are all box office hits.

It can be said that MGM under the leadership of Frank Macasso has a burst of vitality.

However, at this time MGM has lost its overseas distribution channels, and the authorization of the film copyright library has not expired, and except for the above few films, most of the other films not only did not bring profits, but caused the company to fall into losses.