Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

"In the final days of the Oscar campaign, before the final ballots are filled out and mailed in, several rumors are circulating in Hollywood claiming that Kevin Costner isn't the only director to direct 'Dances with Wolves.' Costner's old My friend Ronald Lee actually directed some of the best scenes in the movie.”

After reviewing this year's major awards, the Los Angeles Times film reviewer started two reports about other stories surrounding the awards.

The first is the gossip about Ronald being Costner's replacement. However, the Los Angeles Times is a major newspaper, so he started from the perspective of analyzing whether the gossip was true. Why is there such a rumor circulating? In fact, it still makes sense:

First, Ronald and Costner had known each other for a long time. Costner had previously done the first film to be released in Ronald's film "Night of the Comet."

Secondly, Ronald visited the set several times during the filming of "Dances with Wolves". A series of people close to the main creator said that Ronald actually directed certain major scenes in the movie.

However, this rumor is not credible. All cast members interviewed said Ronald did not do any directing work. And the Directors Guild will not let this happen. Not to mention that Ronald did not direct, even if he directed many scenes, if the film he shot does not exceed two-thirds of the entire film, the director's name will still be Costner's. instead of him.

The purpose of this newspaper repeating this unfounded rumor is to tell readers how unscrupulous they will be in order to snipe the leader in the competition for this award, which is not the most authoritative in terms of artistry...

Last year, Oliver Stone's critics managed to link Stone to the unpopular political ambitions of "Born on the Fourth of July" author Kovich, which may have changed the outcome of the Oscars.

In the end, Stone won the best director award, but his bitingly satirical, anti-Vietnam War film lost out to the uplifting and politically correct "Driving Miss Daisy."

……

The Los Angeles Times is a serious media, but its film review column is also very professional because it is located in the city where Hollywood is located.

Ronald read this report several times, and finally he discovered some clues. The suspect actually has to be found among the other nominees for several awards for which Kevin Costner was nominated.

Ronald is an acquaintance of Penny Marshall, the director of "Silence" who was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor. I called her immediately. Penny laughed loudly after listening to Ronald's analysis, and said that because she was not Jewish, she was not even nominated for Best Director.

However, she confirmed that during the awards competition stage, someone did come to public relations and proactively provided attack ammunition to target other nominated films.

The one with the greatest suspicion is the movie "The Debt of a Rich Family" that won the Best Actor Award and was also nominated for Best Director.

This is a small-budget production directed by a French director, starring a British actor, and distributed by Warner Bros., and its domestic box office is also average. Therefore, winning the award is of great benefit to all parties involved.

Dances with Wolves is the favorite to win this time, so there are many public relations points and competitive tactics used by others to attack Dances with Wolves. It's really eye-opening.

The tricks for judging awards are actually not simple compared to movie box office announcements. It’s not like investing some money will increase your chances of winning.

This time I only paid for it, so I was able to watch the various methods of competing for prizes at close range. It was a very rare opportunity.

The key points here are to break through two key points. The first is that when being nominated, the film must have enough technical breakthroughs to satisfy the Directors Guild and critics. Otherwise, someone like Penny Marshall, who is having an affair with someone of her own, will not be able to pass the nomination battle.

The second is that when competing for awards, the members of the Screen Actors Guild must be satisfied. This group of talents is the key to determining the final award. The decisive factor in the previous nomination battle is completely irrelevant at this level. The tastes of the acting judges still favor stories involving white people who have the largest number of people, and stories that are in line with American values.

This is a bit like the election of a general. If you talk a lot about things that voters in your party like to hear, then you have a higher chance of passing the primary election. But if you still do these things in the finals, then winning over the majority of people will not be as good as those candidates whose positions on those topics are biased towards ordinary people.

Fortunately, in the interview after the award ceremony, he denied this theory of acting on behalf of others. Otherwise, it would be troublesome for Costner to have conflicts with himself.

Ronald specifically hung up the phone to Costner, who was still in the joy of winning the award and laughed it off. He also rushed to go on vacation with his wife, Cindy.

The second report from the Los Angeles Times said that Scorsese failed miserably again. Even the title is sad: "Everyone loves Martin Scorsese, except the Oscars..."

"There's a lot of grievance coverage here for you." Ronald entertained Scorsese at his home. Pointing to those newspaper reports that said only "good guys" should win awards.

"Hey……"

Martin Scorsese has been in a bad mood these past two days. In fact, he has had three chances to win the award. In addition to Raging Bull, there is also "Taxi Driver" with Jodie Foster. But at that time, due to the violence of the film, he was not even nominated for best director. The film also received nothing from its other four nominations.

Earlier, his first commercially successful film "Once Upon a Time" made actress Ellen Bernstine famous, but his directorial work was not recognized.

"You don't know, I received Ellen Bernstine's trophy for her." Scorsese was in such a bad mood that he even revealed the past events from many years ago.

At that time, Bernstine didn't think he could win the award, so he still acted in stage plays on Broadway. The performance contract she signed at that time had an Oscar clause. If she was nominated, she could take time off to attend the awards show in Los Angeles.

But she didn't ask for leave. She just said that if she was lucky enough to win the award, she would ask Scorsese to accept it on her behalf. This is obviously a lack of confidence in oneself. Who would have thought that Scorsese's first time on stage to win a statuette would be like this. He also thanked himself on stage on behalf of Bernstine...

Chatting with Scorsese about these Oscar past events made Ronald more certain about his research results on Oscar competition.

Taxi Driver was not nominated because it was not well received by fellow directors (the story is quite anti-social...). If it gets nominated, this kind of story will be more popular with actors. After all, he photographed Sybil Shepherd and Jodie Foster so beautifully...

Raging Bull is the other way around, the nomination was unquestionable, but the actors didn't like it. There is not a single good-looking female character... and less than half of the actors who have the right to vote are women.

"I'm going to the bathroom." Scorsese and Ronald chatted a lot, and their mood improved a little.

"It's just over the aisle." Ronald showed a funny smile, and he arranged a little joke for Scorsese.

"Do you think winning this award depends on luck?" Diane said.

Had Dances With Wolves not happened this year, or if another film had been nominated ten years ago, Scorsese would have been very likely to win.

"It's hard to say, it does have something to do with luck. However, what may be more critical is the technique of winning the prize."

Scorsese stayed in the bathroom for several minutes. When he came out and returned to the living room, both Ronald and Diane looked at him, trying not to laugh.

"Fuck...you kid, did you arrange it on purpose?" Scorsese couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed loudly.

Ronald placed the statuette he got yesterday on the bathroom sink. When everyone washes their hands, it is impossible to miss it.

For an industry insider who has never won an award, how can he resist the desire to pick up the statuette and give an acceptance speech in front of the mirror?

Sure enough, Scorsese couldn't escape. He took the statuette and rehearsed all the acceptance speeches he had prepared in the past two times in front of the mirror when he failed to win the award. When he returned to the living room, he realized what he was doing. For such a long time, he will definitely betray what he has done.

However, just such laughter made him feel a lot less stressed. Putting it in the bathroom is also a good metaphor. Winning an award doesn't mean anything, it's just an award. Real recognition comes from the market and colleagues in the industry.

"You can rest for a while, and I will explain to them about the Coca-Cola commercials." Ronald took the initiative to mention the commercials that Scorsese still owed.

"No need, you made me very happy today. I will be able to direct it soon." Scorsese smiled. The commercial was actually just a gimmick and he could finish it in half a day. Some time ago I was competing for prizes and had no intention of creating.

"Okay, I'll coordinate the time with them..."

"Bye-Bye……"

Scorsese said goodbye and Ronald immediately rushed into the bathroom and picked up the statuette. This gold-plated trophy is very heavy and requires electricity to hold, so it has a lot of fingerprints stuck on it. The fingerprints are everywhere, and there are some water stains on it...

"Hey, it's true...I spent a lot of money just to cheer you up..." Ronald took out a piece of suede, breathed on the head of the little golden man, and then slowly began to wipe the fingerprints and fingerprints on it. trace.

"Dances with Wolves" box office rises...

The weekend before the awards show, the audience suddenly became interested in this western film due to the popularity of the Oscars and multiple nominations.

The box office statistics for this weekend were out and placed on the table in front of Ronald. An increase of more than 40% from last week. Returned to the top five at the box office.

In the 20 weeks since its release, this movie has accumulated a domestic box office of 130 million, and with the overseas screenings about to begin, it is expected to have a good harvest.

The best thing is that when it was screened overseas, the movie happened to win six Oscars, and won the most important ones of Best Picture and Best Director.

The highlight of overseas box office is Europe and East Asia. Audiences in these two places have a similar characteristic, that is, their preferences for movies between the masses and elites are not as polarized as Hollywood.

Many times, European audiences will attend movie viewing parties and listen to experts explain the content of the movie. I also go to professional film review magazines like Cahiers du Cinema to try to accept the opinions of the elites. In Japan, there is also a similar magazine like "Movie Xunbao".

On the other hand, in mainland China, the situation there is somewhat similar to that in America. The biggest-selling and most popular popular movies are completely catered to the tastes of the mass audience. Sometimes, these two countries have similar phenomena in many markets because of their large size and vast population.

……

Another week passed and Ronald reunited with Kevin Costner.

"Hahaha, it has been rising for two consecutive weeks."

Kevin Costner and his wife returned from vacation in Palm Springs and came to Ronald again to talk to him about overseas distribution.

The star is still in a state of ecstasy, with the Oscars bringing "Dances with Wolves" not just honor and recognition, but real money.

The award brought a wave of repeat audiences, and there are also many new viewers who only heard about this strangely named movie because of the Oscars and went to the cinema to watch this western film for the first time.

This weekend, based on last weekend's box office, it increased by 45%, with a box office revenue of more than million. This box office figure has returned to the box office level of December last year, which was the fifth week of release.

In terms of ranking, the movie also returned to third place. This is the longest period of time in the past many years for a movie to fall out of the top three at the box office and then return to the top three after a total of fifteen weeks.

The film's domestic box office has already reached close to 150 million, and preparations are underway for its premiere in Britain and other places.

Ranked second is another movie that Ronald invested and served as a producer, "The Silence of the Lambs." Anthony Hopkins's ugly face stayed at the top of the box office for five weeks and finally dropped to second place.

The number one box office hit this week is the sequel to the unexpectedly successful "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" by Hong Kong-based Golden Harvest. Released exactly a year ago, the movie about four teenage turtles wearing balaclavas sold over $200 million. This made Jiahe overjoyed, and he immediately took out the Xiangjiang Speed ​​​​and rushed to shoot the second part.

However, their production costs are not as stable as those of Xiangjiang production. The rules of Hollywood are that if you want to make a sequel, your salary must be increased. Golden Harvest's production costs doubled to $30 million.

Even if all four actors wore balaclavas and did not show their faces throughout the film, the Screen Actors Guild could still guarantee that they would not be replaced. As long as the second sequel uses their make-up images, even if they are not used, they still have to pay them expensive licensing fees, so it would be more cost-effective for Jiahe to hire them back and raise their salary.

This is all the result of the lawsuit caused by the replacement of the actor Crispin Glover who played Marty's father in the second part of "Back to the Future". In the second part, his role was changed, he didn't have much screen time, and he still wore a hood and stood upside down. Crispin Glover sued the studio.

The crew of Back to the Future all believed that this case could not be lost because the image of Crispin Glover did not appear in the second part. He was wearing an old man's hood. Who could tell whether it was Crispin Glover? ?

But the judge's decision disappointed them. The judge believed that the image of Crispin Glover in the first film had become a character image. No matter how he changed it in the second film, the character was still called George McFly.

Crispin Glover won the case, making the case a common practice in Hollywood. Characters who wear hoods also have the right to assert their own character image. The producers cannot simply replace them, they must give priority to negotiating with them.

Ronald and Costner were enjoying themselves drinking whiskey and eating Italian salami. Costner also wanted to find the mysterious Chinese wine he drank last time, thinking it brought him good luck.

Ronald was reluctant to take out the remaining bottle of old Moutai, so he opened a new bottle bought in a Chinese supermarket. The packaging does not have a five-star trademark, but a new image of a flying dancing girl.

"By the way, Ronald, I have an idea..."

After three drinks, Costner suddenly said to Ronald.

"I wanted to add the parts that were cut out of the version that was released in America."

"Isn't this version great? It even won an Oscar." Ronald disagreed. The film has a loose structure and was cut into the current version of less than three hours. Is it actually a balance between showing the Indian landscape and culture and the plot narrative?

"But there are still many good scenes. This time we won an Oscar, so the audience will definitely not be afraid of it being too long."

"But..." Ronald originally wanted to convince Costner from the perspective of editing technology and director's aesthetics, but looking at the other person's confident eyes and a smile on his lips, he suddenly thought of the key to the problem.

As soon as Ronald finished speaking, he changed his mind. Costner is the best director Oscar, and I haven’t won yet? What to teach?

"You have a new idea? Give it a try. You can try it from the British screening and see how the audience responds."