Chapter 432 Sponsoring George Lucas

Since Wang Yuanchao failed to reach an agreement with Kerkorian of MGM Pictures and had nowhere to put his spare money, he turned to investing in gold.

Since President Nixon announced the decoupling of the dollar and gold, the price of gold has increased from $35 per ounce at the beginning to $1 per ounce now, an increase of one third!

During that wave, Wang Yuanchao invested the money he earned from Woodstock in gold and made nearly 2000 million.

Now, that asset, including principal and interest, is worth about 5000 million.

But Wang Yuanchao knew that due to the impending Middle East crisis, the price of gold would skyrocket.

I originally thought I could take over MGM, but now it’s better to go to the gold market to make more money.

Therefore, the profit from "The Godfather" was invested in gold. Even so, he still has millions of available funds on hand, and Muse Music has been creating cash flow.

After celebrating with Coppola, Wang Yuanchao proposed to give 49% of Orange Film's 10% copyright and priority investment rights of "The Godfather" to Zoetrope Company.

Coppola's breath was short, and it was hard to refuse. He knew that this was Adam sending money.

When Coppola made The Godfather 1, his salary was $17.5, but now Paramount is contacting him about the sequel, and the director's salary has skyrocketed to $100 million, plus a 2% total profit. It is difficult for him to resist this attraction, and Adam is now going to give him 10% of the investment.

Of course he knew what Adam meant. He wanted his Zoetrope Company to stand together with Orange Company to ensure that their legal rights would not be infringed by Paramount.

The 10% investment amount, if we look at the dividends from The Godfather 1, the first wave of dividends would be $500 million. Since the movie is still in theaters and has not been completely taken off the shelves, the subsequent dividends will not be less.

I wouldn't say that The Godfather 2 is more successful than The Godfather 1. But even if it was only half as successful as The Godfather 1, with 10% of the investment, it would be easy to make three to five million.

With this money, his peep show will never be short of money again, and he can make the movies he likes according to his ideas.

The sad thing is, he doesn't have that much money to invest...

"Adam, ..."

Seeing Coppola hesitant to speak, Wang Yuanchao knew that the other party must be tempted.
So he said:
"If you are short of funds, I can lend it to you privately. Of course, you have to pay me interest, which can be deducted from the future dividends."

This is just pure giving away money!
It's not that Wang Yuanchao is stupid and rich, he is worried that Paramount will be too reckless and will release a Godfather 2 that is not The Godfather 2 in order to get rid of Orange. Although the revenue may be affected, it is still more worthwhile than the nearly half of the revenue that was distributed. Because the script of The Godfather 2 needs to be rewritten and there is no ready-made story.

Well, by bringing Coppola along, there's no need to worry about Paramount getting carried away.

Coppola created The Godfather. Without his soul, if Paramount changed its appearance, it would really become another gangster film.

Coppola obviously recognized Adam's affirmation of his value, saying:

"The peep show will stand with the orange!"

Wang Yuanchao smiled and said:
"Then hurry up and come to Orange to sign the cooperation agreement!"

Coppola relaxed now and said:
"No problem. By the way, Lucas is looking for investment for his new movie. Would you like to consider it?"

Wang Yuanchao was stunned:
"Ah? He didn't even look for me? Aren't we good friends?"

Coppola scratched his head and said:
"He initially approached United Artists, but later on, I don't know what happened, it seems he was rejected by a lot of film companies. I was also busy filming The Godfather before, and it's now out, so he came to me and wanted me to put my name on it so it might be easier to find investment."

Wang Yuanchao also had a lot of things to do, and Lucas was also one of his targets. "Star Wars" had not yet come out, but if he didn't build good relationships in advance, he might not be able to participate when the time came.

If Lucas's movie makes money, he will have to take me along for the ride next time, right? If it loses money, there is no reason to refuse my investment next time, right? "Star Wars" is a bigger movie treasure than "The Godfather"!
Then Wang Yuanchao said:

"Then give him a call and ask him to come over.

It’s so uninteresting.

Do you think I don’t have money?”

Coppola thought about it and reminded:

"His script has been revised many times, you still have to read it carefully."

Wang Yuanchao nodded, but he didn't really care.

Lucas picked up the phone:
"Hello, I'm George."

He was very anxious in his studio.

Last year, he founded his own Lucasfilm company in San Rafael near San Francisco, and wandered around major Hollywood studios with a five-page outline of "Brave Country" and less than $5. 500th Century Fox, Paramount and American International Pictures all rejected him.

But he had previously filmed a short play "Five Hundred Years Later" and met David Peck, president of United Artists, at the Cannes Film Festival. Peck was attracted by his idea and gave him $1 to complete the script of "Landscape".

After many twists and turns, he finished the script, but it required a lot of rock music as the soundtrack of the movie. Even if it was reduced from 75 songs to 45, it would still be a huge copyright fee, and Peck finally refused.

As the release of "Five Hundred Years Later" did not perform well, Lucas had no chance to find investors.

International Pictures said they would not consider filming unless Lucas was willing to add more violent scenes and advertising content. Columbia Pictures believed that it would cost $50 to use the songs in the film (the actual cost was only $8), so they refused to invest.

He had no other choice but to ask his good friend Coppola for help and let Coppola be the nominal producer, so as to attract investment. After all, The Godfather was very popular in the United States. "I am Coppola!"

The call was indeed from Coppola. Lucas was shocked. Did his friend agree with his suggestion?
"Adam is willing to invest in your movie, and he wants you to come over here as soon as possible!"

Adam? !
Lucas almost forgot that Adam's Orange Films also invested in "The Godfather".

But later he came to San Rafael to set up his own company, and Adam was also a very busy man, so it was difficult for everyone to get together.

Lucas said with difficulty:

"Does he know that I've been rejected so many times?"

Coppola laughed:
"Don't you know how rich he is?"

Lucas thought about it and realized that the profits from The Godfather were terrifying! When he was still in Zoetrope, Adam wanted to invest in Zoetrope and asked everyone to invest in The Godfather together!

"wait for me!"

……

Lucas rushed to Orange Film Studios in Los Angeles with the script and budget.

Wang Yuanchao took a quick look and, well, he hadn’t seen it, but that didn’t affect his investment.

"65?"

Lucas nodded and said nervously:

"Yes, but 60 is fine. I can convert all my scripts, directors, etc. into investments."

Wang Yuanchao smiled and said:
"No problem! Just do as you say.

But I'll pay 65!
You have to keep some money in hand to prepare for unexpected events, right? "

Lucas smiled and said:

"No problem. Let me do the math. 5 divided by 70..."

Wang Yuanchao said:

"7, divided by 70, that's easy. And I think your talent is as good as Coppola's, so it's worth the price!"

Lucas was shocked, and Coppola laughed:
"Then just shoot as hard as you can and help Adam make more money! He doesn't care about small amounts of money, he only cares about big amounts of money!"

[American Graffiti, Universal invested $60, and the final box office was $1 million. The profit margin is higher than that of The Godfather! But it is indeed far less famous than The Godfather. Lucas became a millionaire with this film and had the funds to invest in Star Wars]

Hans could only help both sides sign the contract. He found so many scripts, but the boss didn't like any of them. Then, it took less than an hour from the time Lucas came in to the time he came in to sign the contract for Lucas' script.

Is he a mascot?
Considering the generous salary offered by Orange Film, you should just do your job honestly.

After all, as the general manager of Orange Films, he is now a well-known figure in Los Angeles. When investing in The Godfather, well, it was the boss who asked him to follow up and execute. Being able to follow up and execute well is also a kind of ability, isn't it?
……

As Patricia's postpartum condition gradually improved, coupled with the delicate changes in her emotions as a new mother, the recording of "My Love" was indeed better than before.

Muse Music, which was ordered to delay time, actually succeeded unexpectedly!

Moreover, SHE's "My Love", which was jointly produced by Universal Music and Muse Music, was unstoppable and won the Billboard No. 1, staggering the time between the Jokers and the Carpenters!
The three girls were so happy that they were going crazy.

Their first single, "Brown Eyes", hovered in the top ten of the Billboard charts, and over time, it occasionally topped the charts for a week.

It can't be compared with winning the championship by airdrop.

what is this?
This is strength!

Patricia is sweating profusely in the gym. She just gave birth to a child and still has a lot of fat on her belly. Summer is coming soon and she has a lot of performances to perform. How will her figure look?
She was very conservative about the clothes the stylist designed for them, which was not what she liked!
She wants to show off her slim waist!
"Oh, Patty, that's enough exercise time for today!" Emma almost became Patricia's exclusive agent because Patricia didn't listen when others asked her to stop.

"Oh, Emma, ​​give me another half an hour! Please!" Patricia begged.

Emma was unmoved. Her boss was Adam Wang. Strictly speaking, Patricia was just her client. No matter how this client complained, it would not affect her boss's promotion and salary increase.

Emma pretended to be considerate of her and said:
"You have been following the advice of the rehabilitation doctor, and the results have been very good. If you don't follow the doctor's advice and something happens, I'm afraid Adam won't write a song for you. Think about "My Love"!"

The three songs were both Patricia's threat to Wang Yuanchao and Wang Yuanchao's threat to Patricia.

You didn't mention quality or time. What kind of song do you want? Will you listen to it?

Patricia, who is obsessed with fame and winning everyone's applause, really falls for this.

(End of this chapter)