Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 167 Father and Daughter

"Bert, I'm Ronald. I'm at Jane Fonda's house in Los Angeles, and I met Diane." Ronald dialed Bert's phone, "She's with me now, don't worry... Well, but Diane said that she has declared her independence in the newspaper, and she doesn't want you to arrange her acting life in the future."

Bert let out a long sigh on the phone, saw the letter left by his daughter, and knew that she had gone to Los Angeles with the bad boy Atkins, and was very worried.

In addition to being relieved, Burt felt very sad.He always treats Diane like a friend, and discusses everything with his daughter. Apart from a few principles, Diane also has a lot of decision-making power.

But her daughter's acting career encountered a little setback, and she ran away from home after being provoked by a bad boy.

"She left me a letter, saying that she was going to make a living in Hollywood, and that my film selection principles were outdated, and I had to decide my own future... Didn't I ask for her opinion every time I took a film? Or I forced her to interpret the role?"

Listening to his old father Burt's complaints, Ronald wanted to laugh a little.It was a fun way for the father and daughter to get along. He turned on the speakerphone and let Diane listen to Burt's thoughts.

Jane Fonda, who brought Ronald and Diane in on the phone, also heard what Burt said, and couldn't help feeling secretly.Like the father and daughter, the relationship between myself and my father Henry Fonda has been oscillating between love and hate.

Henry Fonda taught Jane from a young age that in order to be liked by men, she must be a perfect girl.When Jane was very young, her mother committed suicide because her father, Henry, divorced her and married another woman.Brother Peter Fonda also picked up a pistol for revenge, but accidentally fired and wounded his thigh.

This aggravated Jane Fonda's obsession.She believes that women must please men and become the perfect woman in the eyes of men, so as to keep their marriage.For her first husband Roger Vadim, Jane Fonda did not hesitate to dye her hair blonde, trying to be a sexy woman, and also starred in the erotic exploitation of "Space Heroine Barbara" directed by Vadim piece.

But this did not hold her husband's heart. Ex-husband Vadim still cheated frequently. After Jane Fonda divorced him, she met her current husband, Tom Hayden.In order to please her husband, a left-wing activist, she traveled to Vietnam to take pictures with North Vietnamese soldiers and call for peace.

The photo was sent back to China, which almost ruined her acting career, and some politicians targeted her to drive her out of the entertainment industry. Fortunately, public opinion changed, and everyone's appeal for peace to Jane Fonda was only mixed.

But because of this turmoil, his father Henry Fonda was very sad about Jane's unpatriotic behavior and refused to associate with her for several years.

Thinking of this, Jane Fonda picked up the receiver and took the initiative to talk to Burt.

"Hi, Bert. I'm Jane Fonda. We've never met, but I've heard a lot about you from your partner, John Cassavetes... Diane is safe in LA, Rob Nader took good care of him, she can stay at my house temporarily in Los Angeles..."

At this time, after hearing the news, Michael Ovitz found here.

Ronald went out of the room with him, found an unoccupied corner, and told Ovitz the whole story, saying that the producer Kinneman wanted to sign Diane Lane, and that he wanted to stop him after.

"I'm afraid we have to adjust the time and order. I will contact Disney first tomorrow morning. Otherwise, with the relationship between Kinneman and Disney President Ron Miller, it will be bad if he meets Ron Miller first."

"Such an exaggeration? I just prevented him from signing Diane without an agent present."

"You don't understand, this is the structure of power in Hollywood." Ovitz didn't want to say more, but he just asked Ronald to prepare, and he will start an intensive attack with him tomorrow, and meet with the top executives of the major studios.

"Diane, if you want, you can live with me first, see more things in the show business circle, and then decide how you should go on the road of acting." After talking on the phone with Bert, Jane Fonda said to Diane Lian En said.

"Thank you, Jane. I have money and can stay in a hotel. I will return to New York after staying in Hollywood for a week." Diane declined Jane Fonda's kindness, but her idea of ​​breaking into Hollywood alone was also extinguished after this time.Atkins is not a reliable person, and Hollywood has many pitfalls.She plans to play in Los Angeles for a while, and then go back to New York.

But after returning to New York, Diane Lane didn't want to live with her father anymore.Anyway, because I made two movies, I have a lot of savings. Her Chamber is kept in her own account, so she can move out and pay the rent by herself.

Jane Fonda liked Diane's independent personality very much. She remembered that she and her father Henry Fonda had not spoken for many years, and now she had to buy a script to invite the old man to make a film in order to reconcile with her father.

"That's fine, I'll be on the set at Golden Pond soon, and filming will resume. You can arrange it yourself. Just make sure you let Bert know where you are. Girls should be independent, but don't talk to your parents, they They all love you, and you love them."

Diane nodded, but still had a question in his mind, "I have another question, may I ask Mr. Tim Kinneman to sign a contract with me just now, but Ronald stopped him and said he would wait for my agent to arrive. Good thing or bad thing?"

Jane Fonda didn't want to spoil other people's affairs, so she thought about it and answered from a different angle, "To sign with Kinneman, you need a good agent and a good lawyer."

"Thank you, Jane. I'll go find Ronald."

"We're going to Disney tomorrow, then Orion, [-]th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Paramount, Columbia, and Universal. Roughly in that order. Small studios first, then mid-sized studios, The last is the biggest."

Michael Ovitz and Ronald were leaning on a small table in the outer corridor to discuss before going to the studio to sell the order of a package contract for "My Brother's Protector".

Ronald nodded. During the first negotiation, as a screenwriter, he had to be present.Ovitz's strategy is to sell the script first, then throw out the news that Jane Fonda is willing to participate, and finally introduce interested directors, and the rest of the positions can be filled with one CAA client.

"The smallest package is the trio of screenwriter + starring + director. We don't consider anything below this bottom line." Ovitz explained his thoughts to Ronald in a low voice, hoping that he would follow his own wink and act.

"Why exclude United Artists and MGM?" Ronald took out the small notebook he carried with him, and used shorthand notations to write down the names of the seven studios they were going to promote, and found that two were missing and one was more. Orion.

“MGM has been going through turmoil. Ever since Kirk Kerkorian bought MGM and transformed it from the biggest studio in Hollywood, it has actually become a casino business and an entertainment business. Company. You know what? They even sold Dorothy's ruby ​​slippers from 'The Wizard of Oz.'"

Ovitz was also a movie fan before he joined the entertainment industry, and he is still very sad about the fall of MGM.

"You are famous all over the world as the screenwriter, and it may become the last theatrical movie produced by this old boss."

"What? MGM is going to go bankrupt?" Ronald thought, no wonder MGM didn't even lock the schedule of the theaters in advance when it was produced, and the scale of the release was also very small. The large-scale screening has achieved good results, and it is possible to release it directly.

"Kerkorian will divest MGM's production business and sell it. The MGM brand will always remain on the roof of his MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas."

"Business is a good decision, but MGM can..."

"Then United Artists, they got ripped off by 'Heaven's Gate' Michael Cimino."

"Really? What's going on?" Ronald loved to hear this gossip.

"They had an internal screening last month, and I heard that the whole film was more than 5 hours long. To replace the two expelled senior executives, the new executives were crazy, and they forced Cimino to cut the whole film to three. It's under an hour, and it's set for release in November."

"So they don't have the money to invest in new projects right now, and all the executives are waiting for the final gamble, whether it's going to be an 'Apocalypse Now'-style miracle or a 'Cleopatra'-style farce."

Ronald understood Ovitz's analogy.Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" also took a long time to shoot, and finally exceeded the budget by three times.However, the quality of the film was very good. After its release, it won the Palme d'Or in Cannes, and its box office in North America was also very good. Coppola recovered from the brink of bankruptcy and became the number one director in Hollywood again.

And "Cleopatra" spent all of Fox's last coins that year, and the entire studio stopped paying employees for four months. If it weren't for the two off-screen starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor The scandal made the audience curious and bought tickets to watch the movie where the two fell in love. Fox had already declared bankruptcy because of this movie.

"Of course the worst is the "Queen Kelly" tragedy." Ovitz felt that Ronald didn't know the old story in 1932, and explained:
"Director Eric von Stroheim's nine-hour blockbuster was finally put on hold by the production company. Gloria Swanson, the queen of silent films, fell silent until Billy Wilder asked her to star in the sound film "Sunset Boulevard" before being recognized by the audience."

"Eric von Stroheim, the butler on Sunset Boulevard, right? I've seen it. I didn't expect him to be a director." Ronald nodded, thinking, it's best for United Artists to let Fat Boy Go this way.Cimino’s movies seem dull, but if you ask him to cut a part to shorten the duration, you really can’t use the scissors, and any part you cut will cause the plot to be incomplete.

"Then why do we want to meet Orion, how is this company?" Ronald counted, and found that in addition to the eight major studios, Ovitz also named Orion's name.

"In fact, Orion Films was established by United Artists' executives who were fired in 1977. They are also a company that respects artists very much and basically does not interfere with the creation of directors and actors. They only check when the final film is completed."

"I know Orion, and the bridge I shot is the first movie of Orion." Diane Lane just jumped out of the room and saw Ovitz and Ronald talking about the name of the company they knew. , so he interjected.

"Diane, have you finished chatting with Jane? Are you living with her? Have you talked to Bert?" Ronald asked several questions in succession.

Diane Lane suddenly became very obedient, "I will find a hotel to live in by myself, and after a week in Los Angeles, I will return to New York. I am preparing to take the equivalency test and go to high school next year."

"This is good."

"I heard you said that you are going to meet the studio, Ronald, do you have a new script to discuss cooperation?"

Ronald stood up and introduced Ovitz and Diane Lane, "This is Mr. Ovitz, he is the president of CAA, the most capable agent in Hollywood. This is Diane..."

"Of course I know Miss Diane Lane." Ovitz stood up happily and greeted Diane with a hug. "Miss Lane, do you have an agent now?"

(End of this chapter)