Rebirth of America, this is my era

Chapter 197 MGM, here it comes.

I got chills, they're multiplyin'
(I can’t contain my excitement)

And I'm losin' control
(I'm about to lose control)

'Cause the power you're supplyin'
(Because of the power you give)
It's electrifyin'
(Electricity radiates)
When the dynamic music started, John Travolta, wearing a black suit, pink shirt and shiny leather shoes, suddenly jumped into the center of the basketball court. On the screen, he pretended to be very cool and used his hands to simulate the action of combing his hair, and stroked his crew cut in the air with an exaggerated expression.

As the lyrics came out, he also did a 360-degree turn, lunged forward with his chest puffed out, put his hands on his waist, made a cowboy waist-shooting gesture, and emitted electric shocks wildly in all directions.

This situation caused screams in the cinema.

Many girls leaned against the sofa, holding their chests, with suffocation written all over their smiling faces.

The boy was whistling and leaning forward, staring at the screen with wide eyes, as if he was looking forward to the arrival of the heroine, but it was more like he was trying hard to memorize John Travolta's dance and was unwilling to miss even a single detail of it. In their opinion, learning these things should be very useful in picking up girls.

Unfortunately--

None of the above has anything to do with Evelyn.

When John Travolta first appeared, showing his profile to the audience in front of the screen with a cigarette in his mouth and the corners of his mouth raised, Evelyn's facial features suddenly tightened.

"Oh Sxxt—this guy has such a greasy smile!"

This was her evaluation at the time.

When the director perfectly displayed John Travolta's evil smile through a close-up of his face, trying to give the audience an electric shock feeling, Evelyn immediately shook her head and complained.

"Don't you think his chin is weird?"

"It looks like a butt no matter how you look at it."

When John Travolta showed the world his dancing prowess, twisting his hips and shaking his body to show off his dancing skills... Evelyn elbowed Ethan and said, "Don't look."

"Why?"

"He's so flirty, don't learn from him."

"Ok?"

"You are already more handsome than him. If you are a little more coquettish, others will not be able to survive."

"!"

“Hahahahaha—” Ethan laughed like a pig.

Even though Ethan was distracted during Evelyn's speech, which made the girl very unhappy, the girl would still accept his active invitation... Well, okay, he was bragging.

When he suggested watching a movie, Evelyn didn't want to come over at all.

If Ethan hadn't waved his hand and told the graduates of the School of Engineering, "Today's expenses will be paid by me," and "Since everyone is interested in John Travolta, I will book the entire theater for everyone to watch a movie," Evelyn would probably have gone home angrily after the celebration.

"Although John Travolta is a bit greasy, this movie is pretty good."

While Ethan was laughing, Evelyn commented: "It's unrealistic and exaggerated."

The movie "Grease" actually tells the story of American high school students in the 1950s. The male and female protagonists played by John Travolta and Olivia John met during the summer vacation and then fell in love, but had to separate because of the end of summer vacation, which also made the female protagonist a little sad.

But because of an accident, the heroine transferred to the hero's school, and the two met again.

When they were dating in the summer, the male protagonist gave the female protagonist the impression of being a gentleman, but when she went to school with him, she found out that the so-called gentleman was just a disguise for a sex scam and that the male protagonist was just a gangster, so the female protagonist wanted to forget him. After some twists and turns, the two reconciled. In order to please the girl, the male protagonist became a good boy, and in order to cooperate with the male protagonist, the female protagonist became a bad girl.

The final ending is that lovers finally get married.

Oh no, that description is a bit inappropriate.

Because if this happened in the Internet age, it would just be a respectful blessing plus a lock.

To be honest, the plot of this movie is terrible. Like all Hollywood campus youth films, the high school students here only know how to race cars, fight, date, skip classes, pick up girls and have sex. But maybe because of the good songs in bad movies, the songs and dances in it are very catchy. The charming disco dance steps are still being imitated by people even decades later.

The reason why Ethan suddenly asked to watch "Grease" was not only because the movie had just been released and he had seen a lot of reports about it in the past period of time, but also because he was impressed by the actor John Travolta.

"Pulp Fiction", "Face/Off", "Broken Arrow", those are all his favorite movies.

Of course, Scientology is bullshit.

"Bye, see you someday~"

"Okay, okay, you're welcome to play with me."

"Yeah, I still have to stay in school for two more years."

After watching the movie, Evelyn said goodbye to her familiar classmates.

Although she had spent at least three quarters of her master's degree in the company and had hardly ever been to school or earned any credits, every time she showed up at school, there would always be 'acquaintances' who would come and chat with her, smelling the scent of success.

Anyone with a bit of common sense would know that these people are here to make themselves known.

But Evelyn didn't care.

In her opinion, anyone who can obtain a master's degree must be capable. If things go smoothly in the future, he or she will definitely achieve some results.

Be friendly with these guys, maybe it will come in handy someday.

After the farewells were over, they got in the car and went home, leaning back in the back seat, Evelin felt a little tired after a busy day.

The girl yawned and looked at Ethan and said, "I'm going to Washington tomorrow. Please charter a plane for me and I'll go there when I wake up."

This statement aroused Ethan's curiosity. "What are you doing in Washington?"

“Go see Vinton.” Evelyn rolled her eyes and said, “I told you before, I wanted to choose him as a mentor, but he left.”

"But these are not important, right? Since we have already graduated, let's go see him. I wanted to call him, but it is not convenient for him to hear the phone with that ear, so I'd better go."

This reason made Ethan nod his head. "Okay, I'll talk to Steve later."

"Oh yeah, I'll go with you?"

"No, I'll go there and come back the same day. At most I'll have a meal with him, but I won't stay there."

Chartering a plane is a very common thing for them nowadays.

After all, if you squeeze into a plane with a bunch of people according to the flight schedule provided by the airline, it is not only a waste of life but also a torture to yourself.

As for buying an airplane?
"How about we buy a Boeing? I think the 747 we took last time was pretty good."

"Sure!" This suggestion perked up Evelin, who wanted to take a nap.

But after thinking for a while, she gave up and said, "Forget it, let's not buy it for now."

"A 747 costs million US dollars!"

"Now the company needs to spend money everywhere, so let's rent a plane first."

"We will see whether to buy it after our home machine is launched on the market."

Although they never refuted Fortune magazine's claim of 100 million that year, the two never took the propaganda seriously. After seeing the real accounts, they still have a good idea of ​​the situation.

One hundred million in cash a year is simply nonsense, because the arcade sales in the United States are significantly different from those overseas, and that profit margin cannot be directly applied.

Of course, after deducting production costs, employee salaries and company benefits, they can indeed earn tens of millions of US dollars a year, but that money is not enough for them to easily support a Boeing. It costs money to continue production, it costs money to conduct company research and development, it costs money to do routine maintenance, and it costs money to save money when surrounded by enemies. It is an indisputable fact that the more they earn, the more they spend.

Oh yeah – and movies!

Thinking of this, Evelin said again: “How is the filming of your movie going?”

“Can it make as much money as Grease?”

When this matter was mentioned, Ethan immediately shook his head like a rattle.

"I do not know either."

"I didn't care about it at all."

"Tomorrow is Sunday, the day after tomorrow is Monday, and I'll ask the day after tomorrow."

"I'll tell you after I ask you."

“…” This result made Evelin curl her lips, hum twice, and close her eyes.

Ethan was telling the truth. He really didn't take care of "Alien". It wasn't because he trusted Spielberg and Lucas, those two idiots, but because he simply didn't have the time to take care of it.

The last time he knew about "Alien" was when Gary Kurtz, president of Destiny Pictures, reported to him on the preparations for the film and told him that the project had entered the casting stage.

After that, there were the midterm elections, new product launches, the spinach epidemic in Atlantic City, his sister's graduation ceremony...all these things left him no time to care about the development of Apple, let alone movies, something he didn't understand at all.

And since Evelyn asked, he called Destiny Pictures on Monday, and then he found out...the president of his own film company was actually in California?

"No, why are you in Los Angeles?"

Ethan was shocked.

"Shouldn't you be in London keeping an eye on the project?"

He was puzzled.

His doubts were quickly answered by the other party.

"Boss, the Alien project is on track. The casting has been completed, the first batch of props have been made, and Universal is trying to charter a plane to transport the things to London... Steven is watching over London now. George and I came back to discuss Star Wars 2 with Fox..."

"Because he doesn't want to be a director this time..."

"As for the reason..."

"That's Columbia's fault..."

Although the check counterfeiting and cover-up cases in Colombia have not yet had any results, and judging from the current situation, there may be no results in the future, the impact of this incident is very bad.

At least that's how it was for George Lucas.

When the "Star Wars" project was a little dirty, and the reason for the dirtiness was related to the culprit of check forgery, how to keep the project became a science.

Before the check counterfeiting case appeared, he could produce and shoot movies with confidence because he was invincible at that time. After he brought unparalleled visual shock to the people of America, shooting the sequel himself could not only firmly consolidate his position as a god, but also attract more audiences to the theaters. After all, the gimmick of the original team creating a sequel itself is full of sincerity.

But now, he has to cut ties with Star Wars.

Because no one knows when the investigation into the check forgery case will fall on Lucas, in this case, it becomes necessary to ensure that the money-making project is not affected.

Therefore, being listed as the producer and hiring another director became what he had to do.

For this reason, after confirming that there were no problems with "Alien", he rushed back to California from London with his producer Gary Kurtz.

As for the Alien thing...

Spielberg, who feels the most guilty towards Ethan, is watching.

Of course, according to them, it will definitely be released next winter.

After Ethan told Evelyn about the twists and turns of the story, Evelyn, who had already returned from Washington, D.C., sighed and said, "Do you think they are really reliable?"

The girl wanted to know the answer.

"Oh - stop cursing, stop cursing - how could I know that things would turn out like this -"

Ethan scratched his head speechlessly and complained, "This check case is so damn disgusting!"

The dissatisfied complaint made Evelin take a deep breath. She wanted to say something, but finally gave up. “So now?” She pursed her lips and asked, “That’s it?”

"What else can we do?" Ethan understood what his sister meant and spread his hands helplessly. "Things have already come to this. We can only let them continue to develop."

"And our only connection in Hollywood, besides them, is Roy Disney."

"And that guy..."

"Forget it, forget it, I won't say anymore—"

Ethan waved his hand and changed the subject.

He admitted that he was very annoyed now!
He just didn't understand why the check counterfeiting case in Columbia suddenly appeared?
If it weren't for this unexpected incident, the film might have started shooting earlier!

His relationship with Steven and George wouldn't have turned out like this!
You said MGM wants to acquire Columbia, then just do it!

Why do you have to launch a hostile takeover to drive down the other party's stock price and reduce your own acquisition costs?

Of course, this kind of money-saving thing is a good way for capitalists, but if it affects me in a special way, then it’s a bad idea!
'Damn it!'

Ethan cursed in his heart: "What a bunch of idiots!"

While Ethan was filled with anger at MGM's behavior that had affected him, with the arrival of July 1st, something that he had been paying attention to finally appeared.

MGM held a new game launch conference at its Los Angeles headquarters.

Those invited to the event were either the heads of North American cinema chains, or the owners of major audiovisual stores in the United States, or MGM's partners across the country, or the big bosses in Las Vegas. As they appeared, MGM's game producers also began to talk about their creativity on stage.

The first thing I want to introduce is their core product, Tom and Jerry.

“The gameplay of our game is similar to Snake but not the same.”

“In a large map, there are two game characters, Tom and Jerry, and depending on the version of the game, players can enjoy three different ways of playing.”

"Let's talk about Tom's gameplay first. When the player chooses to play as Tom, his goal is to control Tom to catch the AI ​​Jerry on the map. When this condition is met, he will win."

"The criterion for failure is that our countdown is reset to zero. Each of our games has a time limit of 90 seconds. If the player has not achieved the goal when the time reaches zero, then they will fail."

“Jerry’s gameplay is the opposite of Tom’s. The player controlling him must avoid being hunted by AI Tom.”

"Its failure condition is to be captured by Tom, and its victory condition is to hold out for 90 seconds."

"The third way to play is a two-player battle, and this way of playing is even simpler."

"That's one player playing Tom and one player playing Jerry."

"Tom catches Jerry, and Jerry hides from Tom."

"Either you catch me successfully, or you hide me successfully..."

When Ethan, who was guarding the Palo Alto base, held the receiver and listened to Roy Disney's story on the other end of the phone, what he saw with his own eyes made him close his eyes while sitting in the office.

Because he knew that the enemy was coming!
They used serious products and punched!

Note: ① Grease was a big hit in that era. It was the box office champion for seven or eight years. Even now, after many years, the number of clicks on their theme song on YouTube is 1978 million. ② In reality, the first draft of the script of The Empire Strikes Back was completed in March 3, and then the screenwriter of that draft died. Then Lucas invited a new screenwriter to improve the script. At this time, Lucas wanted to shoot it himself, but after the president of Fox who supported him was pulled for an interview by the chairman of Fox in June, Lucas immediately cut off his relationship with the film and invited his teacher to shoot it. His teacher refused at first, but in September, Columbia exploded and MGM quickly proposed to acquire it, and his teacher decided to help him shoot this movie. In major media reports, it is said that Lucas was too busy to shoot The Empire Strikes Back because of company affairs, and those who helped him get the complete copyright of Star Wars were busier than him. (The timeline in the article has been slightly modified)
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(End of this chapter)