Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1294: Movies Competing for Awards
October passed peacefully. When Ronald was at home, Diane put the phone receiver to his ear and said, "Demi wants to see you..."

"Demi? What's up? How's your second child? When will you bring him to my house to play?" Ronald thought Demi Moore was looking for him to have a family gathering. She gave birth to her second daughter in July, and Bruce Willis loved her but was a little disappointed that it wasn't a boy.

"There is a Broadway play that has recently moved to Los Angeles. I invite you and Diane to go and watch it..."

"Oh? What's her name?" Ronald didn't expect that Demi Moore would invite him to watch a play. He guessed that the play was not simple.

……

"There are so few good people... What an interesting name..." Ronald and Diane waited for Demi Moore at the entrance of the Wilshire Theater. Bruce Willis was too busy to attend the meeting because he had two movies released this month.

"This is a good play. Would you consider adapting it into a movie?" Demi Moore said to Ronald as soon as she came up.

"Do you want to play the leading female role? What's the story?" Ronald knew what Demi Moore was thinking.

"You'll know after you see it."

Ronald curled his lips and walked into the theater. The set looked like a courtroom and the actors were all wearing military uniforms, including those from the navy and the army.

"Huh?" Ronald thought of the movie he dreamed of. Could it be that it was effortless?

"Colonel, you said the flight you took was the first one, right?"

"Yes……"

"I have two record books here, one for Guantanamo Airport and one for Anderson Airport. There is no record of military aircraft taking off at Guantanamo Airport on that day, and the landing record at Anderson Airport was 2:00 a.m.... Colonel, how do you explain this?"

Ronald finally saw the whole story. A military lawyer handled a case in which a soldier serving at Guantanamo Bay was found dead on the night he was about to leave the base after his superiors approved his transfer application because of his "weak" attitude.

The lawyer discovered that this was a measure of the so-called "red punishment" in the army. The two soldiers taught this wimp a lesson, which led to his physical condition and his unfortunate death.

The two soldiers who caused the accident were sent to the military court, but the lawyer did not believe that two innocent soldiers would bully the unfortunate soldier like this. In the end, it was discovered that the so-called "red punishment" was ordered by the colonel and the two were just following orders.

In court, the lawyer found the colonel's alibi, which stated that he had left the base on the day of the accident, but it was false. In the end, the colonel pleaded guilty in court and the two soldiers were acquitted, but had to retire from the army.

"Why? Hasn't the colonel already admitted it? Why should we retire? We are just following orders. We have done nothing wrong!" One of the two soldiers had deep feelings for the army, and he could not accept forced retirement.

"Wow, wow, wow..." The play came to an abrupt end here, and the audience in Los Angeles stood up and applauded. Ronald looked around and found that not many people were applauding, perhaps because the ending of the play was not powerful enough.

"I want this heroine!" Demi Moore looked at Ronald and Diane and made her request with confidence.

"Does the copyright of this play still exist?" Ronald felt something was wrong. Why did Demi come to negotiate with him? I don't have the copyright of this movie either. Besides, Diane can also play the female lawyer with the male lead...

Diane gave him a look back that probably said I didn't really care.

"It has been sold to Castle Rock, Robert Reiner. This is a CAA packaged project. I must be the leading actress... You can't just ignore it. If it weren't for you and... I would have had a great chance of getting the role..."

"Why do you blame me for this?" Ronald thought to himself, what does this have to do with him? I don't have a good relationship with Ovitz, and he didn't recommend you to take his packaging project, right?
"Come to my house and talk? I rarely ask people for help, but this time I really deserve it, you have to help me..." Demi Moore invited Ronald and Diane to her home and said.

Along the way, Demi Moore talked about the casting process of this film. Originally, she went to the director Bob Reiner in March this year and recommended herself for an audition before giving birth to her second daughter.

Originally, Reiner was quite satisfied with her look, but later Ovitz told him that the project needed to be packaged, otherwise the film's leading actor could not be Tom Cruise, the most popular actor under CAA.

If Tom Cruise agrees to act in the film, he will be paid $12.5 million. Paula Wagner helped him get this price, which has set a record for the salary of a non-muscular action actor. He is the third actor to receive more than $10 million.

Bob Reiner couldn't afford such a high salary, so he had to let Ovitz do the package project so that he could adjust some budget internally, such as hiring a less expensive actress.

"Let me see what I can do..." Ronald heard that they were all acquaintances, and thought that maybe they could communicate with each other. It would be best if Ovitz's project could be ruined...

"But why are you so interested in this movie? After Ghost, you shouldn't be short of scripts, right?"

Demi Moore took the lead and got out of the car, opened the door of the house, and walked inside with Ronald and Diane. The three of them came to the large balcony. Demi pointed at Bruce Willis who was being interviewed in the backyard and said, "You'll know for yourself..."

"Uh..." Diane sighed. She was the first to recognize that the person next to Bruce Willis was Nicole Kidman.

"Are they the partners in the new film?" Ronald still didn't understand, and asked, pointing to the background board of the interview, which was the background of a gangster movie called "Billy Bathgate".

"That's right, you can see that I must act in a movie with Tom Cruise..." Demi Moore said firmly.

Before Ronald could react, Diane quietly squeezed his hand and whispered something in his ear.

"No way? Are we going to compete for this?" Ronald glanced at Demi Moore and thought she was a bit boring.

This gangster film, starring Dustin Hoffman, Bruce Willis, and Nicole Kidman, is similar in subject matter to Warren Beatty and Annette Bening's film "The Silence of the Lambs." The cast is similar.

However, the box office of "Winner Takes Two" was very bad, and the bad news came out in the first week. Bruce Willis had to do some interviews and make some news in order to survive for a few more weeks.

Demi Moore is also very bored. Her husband starred in a movie with Nicole Kidman, and she also wants to star in one with Tom Cruise.

Everyone waited for their interview to end and then greeted each other again. Ronald saw that there was no conflict between Demi Moore and Kidman, and after asking, he realized that the one who wanted to take the leading role from Demi Moore was not Kidman, but Annette Bening, the leading actress in "Ocean's End" who was pregnant by Warren Beatty.

It took Ronald a while to figure out the mess of gossip, and he hung up the phone with Robert Reiner.

Reiner told him that the reason why Ovitz had to be cast was mainly because Tom Cruise's star effect could make the project a reality. Another reason why he had to be cast was that it was difficult to find an actor for the villain Colonel, who had to be both extremely treacherous and sanctimonious, which was also a test of his acting skills...

The actor he chose, James Wood, is a client of Ovitz's apprentice. James Wood must be in Ovitz's package to act. Reiner was a bit of a checkmate. Wood's audition was very good. If he changed the actor, the important role would not be strong, and the strength of the movie would be greatly reduced.

Ronald thought what the expert said made sense, but he was not dreaming about James Wood, the actor who played the leading role in Oliver Stone's "Salvador".

Anyway, there is still room for improvement. Ronald asked Niceta and Richard to investigate the situation and prepare to do something.

……

At the same time, several movies targeting the Oscars are gradually being released.

The first movie to premiere was "For the Boys" starring Bette Midler. The premiere at the Beverly Cinema on November 22 marked the beginning of the release of movies that are aiming for the Oscars.

Ronald was not familiar with Bette Midler, and only worked with her in a comedy "The Wicked Man" in his early years, Helen Slater.

Bette Midler is not good-looking, but she has great acting skills and singing voice. She is a triple star in movies, TV and singing. She has won the Golden Globe Award, Emmy Award, Grammy Award, and Tony Award. The only thing she didn't win was the Oscar. In 1979, she was nominated for a singer's autobiographical film "The Rose", but she still didn't win, losing to Sally Field.

This movie is also very ambitious. In addition to Bette Midler's aiming for the Best Actress award, the leading actor James Caan also wants to win the award.

However, the film received negative reviews. Critics have been attacking the lead actor James Caan, saying that he was a bad choice and that it would be better to choose supporting actor George Segal to play his role.

In addition, the extras who played the role of the heroine entertaining the troops were also a mess, and they did not look like soldiers at all. Whether in terms of body shape or age, they did not look like American soldiers during World War II.

This was not the director's fault, but the fact that the Marines who had originally agreed to play the role were all mobilized due to Desert Storm, so they had to find civilians to play the roles temporarily.

In short, this movie fell behind in the Oscar competition in its first week, and only Bette Midler still had hope for the Best Actress award.

The second movie that debuted in the hope of winning the award was "The Boss" starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening in early December. Like the film starring Bruce Willis and Nicole Kidman, it also tells the story of the early gangsters.

Directed by Barry Levinson, the director of "Rain Man", the film's PR was much better, with most critics giving it positive reviews, and Roger Ebert even giving it a perfect four stars.

"Warren Beatty plays Bugsy with a lithe movement that belies his hidden powers. This is an optimistic and passionate film about the passion of the 'bad guys' of the day in the game."

Thanks to the fact that this was a film strongly promoted by CAA, Ovitz once again got a package deal for director Barry Levinson, who also wanted to recreate the grand occasion of "Rain Man". At the same time, he won the Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Actor...

However, Annette Bening may not think so. In some reviews that are different from the mainstream, her acting skills are mainly praised. These critics said that Bening is the shining point of this movie. If there is a movie god, it should be fair for this couple to win the best actor and actress at the same time to welcome the new life they are pregnant with.

Although the critics were "optimistic", the subject matter of the film was too old, and the performance of the leading actor and director was a bit behind the times. After all, this was not a story about an interesting autistic person, but a story about a gangster tycoon from fifty years ago, and the audience obviously did not like it.

His box office performance was not much better than Dustin Hoffman's "Winner Takes All". Both brothers fell into the trap of gangster movies...

The third film that created a lot of hype was "JFK" in mid-December.

This movie is not a packaged project promoted by Ovitz, but it is also of great significance. The best director winners of the past two years, Oliver Stone and Kevin Costner, joined forces to shoot this mystery story that American adults most want to know the truth about... the story of former President JFK who was assassinated while in office.

Oliver Stone is obviously trying to win the Best Director Award for the third time after "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July". If he succeeds, he will be the only director in Hollywood history who has won the Best Director Award three times, along with William Wyler and Frank Capra, and second only to John Ford who won four times.

As for Kevin Costner, he didn't come for the Best Director award, but to make up for the regret of not winning the Best Actor award last year.

However, the film received mixed reviews, with many media outlets criticizing the film's fabricated depiction of JFK's assassination and its fabrication of many non-existent plots.

Oliver Stone had to defend himself everywhere after the film was released, from CBS's 60 Minutes program to Oprah's talk show. He said everywhere that the files on JFK's assassination have not been declassified. He made this film not to reveal the cause of JFK's death, but to rekindle people's curiosity about the case. History is not as simple as they think...

However, judging from Oliver Stone's tone on the show, he obviously didn't dare to cross some lines. It seems that someone from the FBI really drew a red line for him on the grounds of state secrets. If he crossed it, he would be investigated for leaks.

Ronald has been trying to figure out how to re-arrange the casting of "A Few Good Men" for a while now, and the complicated interests involved are very troublesome. He is not a producer, so it is difficult for him to exert influence directly.

But instead of trying to untangle the mess, it might be possible to just pick up a pair of scissors and cut the knot off.

However, as Christmas was approaching, no one was in the mood to deal with the project, so Ronald brought Aunt Karen, Donna, little Doug and others to Los Angeles to spend Christmas there.

During Christmas, another award-winning movie will be released, which is Barbra Streisand's "The Prince of Tides." Her ambition is very big, not only aiming for the best film, best actress, but also the best director.

She directed and acted in this movie. Last year, Kevin Costner's debut film won an award, which gave her great confidence. Many dazzling praises and interview programs were arranged to be broadcast a few days before Christmas. I don't know how much money Barbra Streisand spent to win the award. This is all prime time...

Man proposes, God disposes. Although this movie spent a lot of money on PR, another big news came out on Christmas, suppressing all the heat...

(End of this chapter)