Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1058 Do you want to invest in other movies...

"Isn't her mother sick? I heard...Ronald...do me a favor and do yourself a favor and don't let her star in your movie..." Michael Douglas, after receiving a call from Ronald After De's phone call, he found his father Kirk to find out the whole story of the incident. After learning the real reason, he immediately came back and called Ronald.

"Why? She's a very good actress, so it's a pity not to let her act like this..." Ronald asked deliberately.

"I can't say what the specific reason is, but Claudia has annoyed a lot of people. If you insist on..." Douglas was a little annoyed and embarrassed. This matter was the collective will of many Jews, even he It is also impossible for liberal Jews to go against public opinion on this matter.

Moreover, it was inconvenient for him to directly tell the reason to Ronald—an outsider.However, it is not appropriate to treat Ronald's friendly attitude of coming over to say hello for no reason.This kind of thing cannot be exposed, otherwise the reputation of their Douglas family will be damaged.

He thought for a while, and changed his method, "Claudia's mother is sick, right? I can find a charitable foundation and give her some donations..."

"Ha, I think she's talented..."

"Ah, for Christ's sake, don't give her a role!" Michael Douglas was in a hurry, and yelled out a phrase commonly used by Christians on the phone.

"Hahaha, okay, I'll listen to you, Michael. Thank you for reminding me about this matter." Ronald no longer intentionally snooped more behind-the-scenes content. "So, I give her a job behind the scenes, secretary, marketer, whatever, just give her an income, now she needs money to help the family..."

"As long as she doesn't appear in movies and TV shows, I don't care..." Michael Douglas felt Ronald's respect, and the two reached a consensus, not to waste time on this shit.

Ronald finally arranged for Claudia Wells to work in Daydream Films as a white-collar film marketing assistant, receive the film dealers, and make some calls to movie theaters to promote movies, so that she can still be on time every day. Go back to get off work and take care of my mother.Coupled with the fact that Michael Douglas' charitable foundation paid for Claudia Wells' mother's qualifications for disease research, her major affairs were finally resolved in this way.

"You are really good to the female star, Ronald...but this time Claudia will not be able to return to the screen in the short term. Are you doing this..." Agent Richard said to Ronald I don't quite understand how to do this, and taking in a female celebrity like this can't be used in his own project. Could it be that he has taken a fancy to beautiful women again?

"Hey, you don't get it, Richard. You haven't participated in many movie promotions. If buyers from various movie theaters come to the screenings in Las Vegas to buy next year's movies, bang, Suddenly it turns out that the marketing manager of our daydream is Jennifer Parker from 'Back to the Future'...

boom!what would you thinkMany of these buyers are movie fans, and most of them are men...hehehe..."

"Oh..." Richard didn't really believe it, but on the surface he gave Ronald a thumbs up, "If you want to have something to do with her, you must tell me according to the old rules and let me do it." Tell her..."

"Hey, am I just a pervert in your eyes...?" Ronald patted Richard on the shoulder dissatisfied.He has personally witnessed the premieres of many movies and attended many fan meetings, so he understands the huge influence that such a star has on fans.

"Tut duk..." Ronald's current assistant, fat girl Rich Lake knocked on the door and came in. "Mr. Ted Tully, the screenwriter of The Silence of the Lambs, is here."

"Please come in, thank you Rich." Ronald shook his head, the fat girl's star luck was basically over.Appearing as a future star at the Oscars for 1 minute, and dancing with the handsome Patrick Dempsey, did not save her stardom.

Nowadays, Hollywood does not have many such "special body" roles, and there may be only a few in a year. Lake still has to compete with all kinds of old supporting actresses from 25 to 45 years old.

"Mr. Ted Tully, hello, please sit down, please sit down..."

Ronald rose to greet Tully, a well-educated screenwriter.He is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Drama (graduate program).This was his first screenwriting assignment, and he valued meeting Ronald very much.

"I've read your adapted script, and what I'm interested in is, why did you keep Starling in such a big way?"

"The Silence of the Lambs" is a novel, in which besides the protagonist Hannibal, there are many supporting roles, such as Jack Crawford, the director of the FBI, and Chilton, the warden who imprisoned Hannibal.But Tully's adaptation intercepts the perspective of Starling, a female intern of the FBI, and turns a character in the original work that does not have many plots into the center of the whole story.

"This is what I think," Tully reassured. This question shows that Ronald reads the script very carefully. "An audience who has not read the novel will feel that Hannibal is such a frightening character because of the lack of previous experience." Foreshadowing makes it difficult to feel the reader's trembling.

I put a effeminate Starling in the lead role, and the audience would step into her shoes and start to feel the horrors of Hannibal from her perspective as an intern aspiring to work as an FBI agent..."

Ronald was very satisfied after listening to the other party's explanation.This screenwriter has rich theoretical literacy and strong ability, and he is definitely not the kind of theorist who talks on paper.And it's clear that he has a genuine love for the novel.

The rhythm of the entire script is tight, and the selected content is well arranged, but there are still some parts that have not been completed.

"How much time do you need to write the script?" Ronald asked.

"I need a month and a half, no, a month..." Ted Tully was overjoyed. He was afraid that Ronald would dislike the long adaptation time, so he reported a schedule based on ten hours a day and seven days a week.

"You don't need to do this, you follow your original rhythm, and I'll give you two months." Ronald said, took out a check from the desk drawer, and handed it to the other party.

"The remuneration promised by Mr. Gene Hackman before, I bought it from him. In this way, your remuneration will be paid by me and Orion. This check is an additional subsidy. You can find a beautiful scenery Hotel, or buy something delicious, or make your partner happy, whatever, try to make yourself happy in the next time..."

From the previous experience of Cameron Crowe, Ronald knows that for screenwriters under time pressure, in addition to the delivery date, they also need to provide them with a good pressure-free environment to cooperate.

"Thanks, Ronald," Tully rejoiced.This is his debut work. If it is written well, there will be more film screenwriting jobs in the future.Now he urgently needs a sum of money to stabilize his family life.

"By the way, who do you think should play the heroine?" Ronald asked the other party's thoughts on casting.This is also his consistent practice. Although he does not necessarily adopt it completely, it is helpful for him to understand the script by communicating more with the screenwriter on casting.

"I think she is a woman who is weak on the outside but strong on the inside." Although Tully wrote a script for a movie for the first time, she learned a lot about Hollywood rules, characters, especially the heroine from friends and classmates. It's the director's ban.

"For example?" Ronald insisted. Everyone's interpretation of being weak on the outside and being strong on the inside is different.

"Such as Michelle Pfeiffer", Tully couldn't help but say what he imagined in his mind when he was writing. He really wanted his goddess to interpret this role.

"Hmm...", Ronald thought, sure enough, everyone's thoughts are different. In his heart, Pfeiffer is more of a "fragile" trait. If he wants to say that his heart is strong, it seems to be in a dream. The original version, the later version of Xinke Films is better.

"What do you think of Jodie Foster?" Ronald asked.

"Her? Well... She's also very... suitable..." Tully felt that Foster was too small, but what the director said must be reasonable, anyway, it's not his turn to decide.

"Haha, I'll just wait for your finished draft..." Ronald saw that he was a little insincere, but he was still very sure that you must not be a better choice than me.

……

"Tsui Hark is here..." Michelle Cannold, who manages distribution, knocked on the door.

"Ah, ask him to come in..."

The director of the Chinese-born Xiangjiang surprised himself a lot. His shooting speed was very fast, and he finished filming the scenes of Xiangjiang in a few clicks, and then returned to Los Angeles, using the set of the first two films, to shoot the scenes here as well. It's over.

Tsui Hark didn't need any rest. With the help of the editor, he spent two weeks in the editing room and finished the rough cut.

While Ronald admired their shooting speed, he was also a little uncertain about the quality of the film.So this time I invite Tsui Hark to talk.

"Our shooting speed in Xiangjiang is like this... This is because your martial arts here are not professional enough. If all the scenes of the book are shot in Xiangjiang, it may be [-]% faster..." Tsui Hark said to the shooting speed over there, Still quite proud of it.

"Professionalism is an industry standard. It doesn't mean that Wu Xing also has to guest-star Ravia, nor does it mean that the lighting team has to guest-star to push the camera..."

Ronald shook his head. The so-called professionalism of Xiangjiang people is actually that people from all walks of life can specialize in multiple skills.Can work concurrently with each other.Therefore, the number of crew members is smaller than that of Hollywood productions of the same type and level.

But this is absolutely not feasible in Hollywood. In addition to the higher production requirements in Hollywood and the need for more professional talents to work, the more important reason is that the labor unions here are rampant.Each type of work must have a job certificate from the trade union.

If there is also a stunt double here, who works part-time to pull the wire, or the lighting team comes to help push the camera every day, then the first unhappy person is not the director, but the technicians whose jobs have been done by you.

These people rely on a certain professional job for a living, and they have also undergone special training, have a license, and have a trade union. If you encroach on their work scope, they will come up to scold people, even complain, and finally go to the trade union to expose and accuse.

Because of this, Tsui Hark's filming progress in Hollywood was much slower than in Xiangjiang, which made him a little dissatisfied.But there are rules in Hollywood. If you want to get involved in the film industry here, you have to abide by the rules here.

The two talked about the similarities and differences of filming in the two places, and finally reached a consensus, where the future films will be shot, they will follow the rules there.In addition, when Hollywood actors go to Xiangjiang to film, special treatment must be given to these actors' union members to prevent them from being dissatisfied and suing the union.

"I figured out why the cost of filming Hollywood movies is so high..."

Ronald nodded, you finally understand.I think you also have reasons for saving costs in this regard.

The rough cut of Tsui Hark has been sent to the laboratory, and when it is ready, weintraub will be arranged to watch the test screening with the cast and crew.

……

"Piu..."

"watch out……"

On the day of the screening, Ronald and Weintraub sat in the best seats, with the leading actors Ralph Mazio, Morita Noriyuki, and the third Long Wei Kid girl, Rosamund Kwan Watch the internal preview.

The shooting style of the third part is indeed a bit different from the first two films directed by Ronald.At least Daniel and Miyagi's fighting style is no longer completely karate-style.There are a lot of oriental concepts in the movie, such as internal force, qi, etc., and the flying movements of flying up and down are indispensable.

The most obvious difference is that those villains, including Qiu Yunbo and Qiao Hong, flew much farther after being kicked out by Mr. Miyagi's ancestors.

This is the result of the help of Xiangjiang's Jackie Chan's team. They have many exclusive secrets, which can make the fight look both powerful and vigorous.

"Great..." After watching it, Ronald took the lead in applauding. This movie suits his taste very much. In addition to the wonderful martial arts action, Tsui Hark's costume and color design are also very extraordinary.There is some oriental chivalrous feeling.

Different from the rough set style of Hollywood westerns, Tsui Hark's art design is more stylized, and it has the half-realistic, half-fantasy feeling in Akira Kurosawa's "Kage Samurai".Although he knew it was fake, he was able to attract the audience's eyes without leaving the screen.

"Bravo!" Weintraub also likes it very much. It is the first time he has watched this kind of unconstrained style of film, and it feels very good to be immersed in it.

"I can't understand..." His lover Susan looked at Weintraub and Ronald in a daze, not knowing what to say.

Ronald looked at the staff in the screening room, and a large part of them also seemed to have puzzled expressions.

"Honey, what don't you understand? Isn't it easy to understand?"

Why did they fly in the sky, why did that bad guy fly so far after being slapped?Are they using magic?Say a spell before you punch? "

"Um, haven't you watched the TV series 'Kung Fu'? What about the Green Hornet? The General?" Weintraub talked about several TV series that were popular in America before the 70s, but Susan, who was much younger than him, a Haven't seen it either.

"They don't seem to know much about martial arts..." Rosamund Kwan was whispering to Tsui Hark.

"Ghosts are like this..."

"Let's expand the scale of the test screening. Let's see the audience's reaction." Ronald stared at his own Rosamund Kwan with wide eyes. It's still a bit unfamiliar, what is the effect, whether it needs to be re-edited, or even re-shooted, it needs to be decided by a trial screening.

……

News of the "Silence of the Lambs" has already spread in a small area.Ronald spent a lot of money to buy the production rights, and invited the screenwriter to make revisions to the final draft.

There are also many related households on Ronald's side who have revealed their intention to buy investment shares.For example, Ronald’s partner, Douglas Jr., and Steve Bannon, who had worked with him before, both greeted in advance and booked an investment quota.

This novel is selling well in America. The previous series of stories with Hannibal as the protagonist already has some book fans, and many people are very interested.

This news really made Orion people feel different.Those directors who put art first, don't have such box office appeal.Many film and television investors, as well as some Wall Street funds, were too late in the queue at Ronald, and they took the initiative to find Orion Films, the producer of the other half of the investment, to ask for investment.

Orion founder Mike McDavoy was overjoyed.His strategy has been successful, and Orion can't always cooperate with art-first directors. Mike McDavoy proposed a new idea to cooperate with commercial directors like Ronald.

It's been a long time since they have tasted the momentum that has been hotly discussed in the circle before the project is officially approved.

"Ronald..." The happy Mike McDavoy immediately went to interview Ronald. Orion has a lot of movies that need investment. Is Ronald interested?

(End of this chapter)