I'm in Hollywood-Chapter 274: Fox Made a Wrong Guess
"Hello, Mr. Williams," Raymond Chow tried to appear nonchalant, but his face couldn't help but show a bit of eagerness: "Mr. Williams, I have seen your 'Lethal Weapon 2' movie. To be honest, this movie is similar to some of the styles of Hong Kong movies, and it was our Golden Harvest that released 'Lethal Weapon 2' in Hong Kong and had great box office success."
"Actually, I have always been a big fan of Hong Kong movies," Eric said: "Like Bruce Lee's several movies, 'Fists of Fury', 'Way of the Dragon', 'Enter the Dragon', 'Clash of the Titans', and half of 'Game of Death', it's a pity." At the end, Eric shook his head regretfully.
Hearing Eric suddenly say this, Raymond Chow also showed a nostalgic look on his face, shook his head and said: "It's a pity, alas, these have already been more than ten years ago. I still remember the first time I worked with Bruce."
Raymond Chow suddenly looked up and gazed at Eric, saying with emotion, "I remember, Mr. William is only 19 this year; when Bruce passed away, you were only three. It's unbelievable."
"Good movies are always good movies. Speaking of which, when I was shooting in Seattle last time, I even went to Bruce Lee's graveyard. Even though it's been more than ten years, fans from all over the world still go there to pay tribute."
Raymond Chow was silent for a while, a faint blush of embarrassment flashed across his face. If it weren't for Bruce Lee, maybe he wouldn't have achieved today's success. But apart from when Bruce Lee was buried, he hadn't been to Seattle a few times. "After I've finished my business, I'll also go to Seattle to pay homage."
Eric nodded without comment. He then looked at Robert Shaye who had not said much. He didn't know what Robert was thinking when he introduced the other party to himself.
Robert gestured to Raymond Chow as he said, "Well, I was part of a movie in Hong Kong that was funded by Golden Harvest called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You may have heard of it. Fox agreed to distribute it, but after they saw the finished product, they backed out."
Eric recalled the movie from hearing the words 'Ninja Turtles'. He wasn't too familiar with how it had done in the US, but he did know a bit about the history of Hong Kong films. It was said that Raymond Chow of Golden Harvest had long wanted to break into Hollywood. After a few skirmishes, he purchased the rights to the adaptation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and decided to go big, investing 80 million dollars in the movie. In the end, it brought in 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars in North America. According to current exchange rates, that's close to 100 million US dollars - an amount that a foreign company simply couldn't take out of Hollywood. So it must have been the North American box office that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles took, which is more than one hundred million dollars - enough to make the top ten of the current box office.
Fox had decided to pass on such a movie, which makes sense as they usually like to do this. Fox had previously passed on the North American release of 'Titanic', selling it to Paramount for a low price of $60 million, only to see 'Titanic' gross over $600 million in North America. Despite this experience, Fox didn't learn their lesson and 'stuck to their guns', later on, with James Cameron's 'Avatar', Fox worried about the risk and got other investors involved, only to see 'Avatar' become a box office smash. Fox again lost hundreds of millions of dollars due to this wrong decision.
Shaking his head to get rid of these jumbled thoughts, Eric asked, "Robert. What did you think?"
Robert said, pointing to the nearby, "I saw an old friend, let's go say hi.
Eric smiled and said, "Go ahead, have fun." Eric watched Robert leave and noticed that Raymond hadn't followed.
"Mr. Chow, is there anything else?"
"No, um, Mr. Williams, you said you like Hong Kong movies, so what do you think of them?"
Eric and Raymond walked towards the self-service table and grabbed some food, then they came to the sofa near the floor-to-ceiling window and saw Eric coming, the pair of men and women who were originally snuggling on the sofa had to give up their seats.
When the two walked down, Eric said, "Mr. Chow, I think Hong Kong movies have completely lost their rationality now, giving people a feeling of the last crazy before the collapse."
Raymond just wanted to chat with Eric about some excellent Hong Kong movies, hoping to get cooperation. Unexpectedly, he heard Eric talking about the current state of Hong Kong movies. With a wry smile, Raymond said helplessly, "Everyone is making money crazy, who will think so much. Mr. Williams, you as an outsider can see clearly, so, Mr. Williams, do you think there is any solution?"
Eric had no idea how to respond. Due to various restrictions, the future of Hong Kong movies was almost predetermined, and he could only say with seriousness, "Although I like a lot of Hong Kong movies, I don't have any solutions for this situation." Even if there were, they wouldn't be usable now. At least it would take 20 years for mainland China to open up its movie market completely. By then, it's likely that the concept of Hong Kong movies will no longer exist.
Leonard sighed and looked at Eric, tentatively asking, "So, Mr. Williams, do you think there is any possibility of our cooperation?"
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