Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 272 The Power of a Male Star
Vic Morrow is not a good father, at least in the eyes of his second daughter Jennifer Jason Lee.

Jennifer's mother, Barbara, divorced Moreau when she was three years old.Although Jennifer was sentenced to her father, Morrow was addicted to alcohol and could not take care of the children at all. In the end, she still lived with her mother, Barbara.

In the following days, Jennifer rarely saw this father in her life, and she felt more resentment towards her father, Moreau.

Originally, she had the opportunity to be the heroine of "The Legend of Yanwa".But his legal guardian father, Vic Morrow, refused to sign, giving up the opportunity to Brooke Shields, who became famous in one fell swoop.

Angrily, Jennifer went through the courts to change her guardian to her mother, and then changed her surname from Morrow to Leigh.

And now Vic Morrow actually asked Jennifer Jason Lee to ask Jennifer Jason Lee to delete a special scene in the movie "Fast-paced Richmond High School".

"You're so talented, Jenny, you don't know how proud I am to see you on the show 'World's Best Little Girl,' where you play the anorexic, so real."

Vic Morrow went to a tavern next to his daughter's single apartment, met his daughter, and talked about her daughter's acting skills very excitedly.

"You starved and lost less than 100 pounds to play her. Your mother called and cried, but I am very happy. My daughter is an excellent actress. You can occupy a place in Hollywood without those nudity scenes..."

"But you won't be famous for that," Jennifer interrupted Morrow coldly.I have played several such roles that require acting skills on TV, but who knows me?
"Don't say that, Jennifer. I know I haven't given you enough attention in the past, but I'm sober, I'm taking anger management classes, and I can land a starring role in Spielberg's movie project, which I'll give you later. Find great movie roles. Trust me..."

"Go ahead and dream!" Jennifer Jason Lee refused to listen to Mo Luo's nonsense, and turned her head to leave.Now that she is an adult, she can make decisions about her acting career.

Mo Luo got up to chase, but was hit by the waiter who came to check, and almost fell to the ground.After leaning on the wall to stabilize her figure, she saw that Jennifer had already left the tavern, stopped a taxi and left.

"Fxck!" Morrow yelled, picked up the water glass on the table and threw it on the ground.

"Crack!" The waiter was at a loss, "Sir...please calm down."

"Give me a double Jack Daniels, no, a bottle, no ice."

At the same time, Ronald received a call and went to Universal to chat with producer Lin Sen about the release.

"It is impossible for Universal to give too many marketing resources to a small production with a production cost of 310 million. If you have ideas like placing advertisements, you may wish to share them."

"How can I have so many good ideas?" Ronald laughed, "How many theaters do you expect to see?"

"It depends on the effect of the final film. Generally speaking, after the end of the summer vacation in July every year, there is a gap period with less competition. Your film will be released at that time, and it is very hopeful that you will win more theaters to open." After that, it depends on your box office performance."

"I see." Ronald nodded in understanding.It is actually not a big problem for "fast-paced" youth films to be able to be released after the summer, before school starts in September, and during the holidays of high school students.

This kind of movie with a relatively single target audience, as long as accurate marketing is done for the target audience, the box office will not be bad.

The film started at the end of July this year, and "Endless Love" starring Brooke Shields performed well at the box office, earning 3000 million at the box office.

Director Zeffirelli told himself that PolyGram completely miscalculated the target audience of the film. The target audience of young couples accounted for only 10% of the final audience, and more than [-]% of the audience were junior high school girls.

Even when all the marketing materials were misplaced, it was able to achieve such good results, all thanks to word-of-mouth from movie audiences.Teenagers and girls already have the habit of chatting frequently, and a movie that suits their tastes appears, and the effect of word of mouth is very good.

Ronald also has confidence in his film.Movies about teenagers growing up to adulthood are not available in today's movie market.

Although the major studios have seen this trend of moviegoing crowds, whether it is the story of rural Oklahoma in Disney's "Texas" or Paramount's musical "Grease 2", the stories are different. It's a long way from the main movie-going crowd.

What the young high school students want to see is the stories that happened around them, the urban teenagers in grades 10-12 like them, how they deal with all kinds of troubles in their lives.

"It seems that you are already very confident. I will wait for you to come back after the New Year's holiday to edit." Lin Sen shook hands with him and wished Ronald a smooth vacation home.

"By the way, I received a message from a company executive this morning, asking if you can cancel Jennifer Jason Lee's nude scene." Lin Sen finally said casually.

"why?"

"If you feel the need to, just ignore them. Universal is an established studio, and there are a lot of old people at the top of the company who are out of date."

Ronald nodded. There are many "high-level people" who express their opinions on the film, which is a common problem in major studios.Unlike a small company like New World, Roger Coleman can make a decision with one word.

"Fast-paced Richmond High" had a limited marketing budget and relied mostly on word-of-mouth from viewers.In this case, the importance of these shots has increased, and I feel that I can't cut them out.

For a movie to be talked about, in addition to its wonderful content, it must also have a selling point that can be clearly stated in one sentence, so that the audience can recommend it to friends.

The reason why "Endless Love" was able to get a good box office despite estimating the wrong target audience is because it is easy to spread.Any middle school girl can say to a classmate or friend, "Do you know how much heroine Jed's boyfriend loves her?"

If the other party is interested, you can list the hero David's series of infatuated behaviors, steal into Jed's bedroom, set fire to her house, run out from the mental hospital to find Jed who has moved, etc.

Ronald noticed this when he watched the test screening.I also want to add some elements that are easy to spread in my own movies.

Jennifer Jason Lee's play with Phoebe Cates is what he needs to be well-designed and easy to disseminate.

"Why would the higher-ups take care of an actress?" Ronald still didn't understand, and asked the producer Lin Sen.

"Because Jennifer's father is Vic Morrow. He used to be a popular TV star. In the circle, male stars of the right age always have some extra power." Seeing that Ronald didn't understand, Lin Sen explained one time.

"It's him?" Ronald remembered the man who broke into the scene on the day he signed the filming contract, "But, you also said, Mr. Lin Sen. He was a TV star who was 'once', why would an outdated male star also Can you interfere with filming?"

"It's an outdated statement, and it's a bit too demeaning for Moreau. Male stars always have a lot of influence, not even limited to the film industry." Lin Sen smiled, "You know the recent big events in Hollywood, Natalie Wood Is it a case of death?"

"I know." After Ronald finished filming, his family made up a lot of entertainment news during filming.

At the end of November when he was busy filming, the famous Hollywood actress fell into the water from her yacht and died.

"What does this have to do with the influence of male stars?"

"Go and find out by yourself, it's spread all over the circle." Lin Sen was unwilling to discuss more details with Ronald, "The male stars who have been popular in the past all have far more social influence than female stars.

The career of a male star is long, as long as you are popular, the audience will remember you.There may be a movie that will make them popular, and Morrow is only 52 years old and has nearly a decade of career.So someone will give him some face and send a message. "

Ronald didn't know why. After returning to the hotel, he browsed the entertainment newspaper from last month, and finally understood some of the issues mentioned in the report.

It turned out that Natalie Wood, the actress who met her at the Golden Globe Awards dinner, had a bad relationship with her husband, Robert Wagner, because her husband cheated on another female star during the filming of the TV series.

When Wood boarded the ship, in order to make her husband Wagner jealous, he also deliberately brought actor Christopher Walken, who was rumored to be in a movie together, on board.

When Natalie Wood fell into the water, someone on a nearby boat heard a woman calling for help.But with such a big suspicion, the district attorney easily gave up the prosecution.

Ronald felt that Lin Sen's hint was a bit exaggerated. The District Attorney has great power, and one person can decide whether to prosecute the suspect, but he would not let go of the possibility of murdering a famous actress just because the suspect is an out-of-date actor. murderer?

After thinking for a while, Ronald picked up the phone and called his agent Nisita. He was well informed and might know something.

"Legend has it that Natalie Wood wore a mink coat at her funeral with the collar turned up to hide a visible scar on her face."

"Ah? Is there really a problem?" Ronald was a little surprised. Could this kind of thing happen in America?

"Oh, you were shooting a movie at that time, and the TV station had a lot of interviews. The district attorney said that it was caused by hitting the ship's side when it fell into the sea."

"That's possible, right? The District Attorney never talks nonsense?"

"But Natalie Wood is born afraid of water, she doesn't even swim." Nisita told Ronald a little rumor in the circle, "Her sister, Lana, said everywhere in the circle that her sister is afraid of water. But It's useless."

Ronald, who put down the phone, was very moved.A big national star died so easily.It seems that male stars do have some influence.

But I still have to insist on keeping Jennifer and Phoebe's scenes in the edit. Vic Morrow is not a popular movie star, so if Jennifer signed and agreed to shoot, what can I do to edit legally?
He couldn't beat himself as a drunkard.

(End of this chapter)