Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 576 Chapter 2

Tom Cruise is very concerned about being able to sit on a real fighter jet for real shots.He insisted on including two safeguard clauses in the contract.

One is that I must have real shots of fighter jets sitting in the navy.The second is that these shots must appear in the final film.

Ronald only had editing rights, and Paramount had the final say on the length of the film.So Ronald's promise was not enough, and the two producers submitted Tom Cruise's request to Paramount for approval.

Soon, Paramount agreed to Cruise's request and signed a film contract with him.

Ronald felt that the reason why Paramount agreed so simply was that they did not agree on how many seconds of Tom Cruise's actual shot in the fighter jet he would need to guarantee in the end.

And Tom Cruise's original intention of adding this clause may be that he wants to take the opportunity to satisfy himself more and enjoy himself on fighter jets.

Soon, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were featured in a preview of new upcoming projects in The Hollywood Reporter.They vaguely mentioned that new projects are in the works.Ronald Lee is expected to direct.

Ronald did not respond to the newspaper's request for an interview or comment.Now the preparatory work has just begun.The first problem is to solve the script review and the shooting method of air combat.

The producers brought in two screenwriters, Jim Cash and Jack Epps, to flesh out the script.

Ronald went to "Long Legs" Christy Fox to discuss how to shoot fighter planes and combat shots in the air.

"Longlegs" Fox is a true aerodynamic expert.She is a researcher at Naval Air Station Miramar, providing technical analysis support to the Navy.

Every Wednesday and Saturday, the bars in the base are crowded with pilots who come to drink and have fun.

Ronald met "Longlegs" Fox here, and the two could barely communicate amidst the noise.Long Legs took him to his apartment.

"Long Legs" also has a handsome boyfriend, and young people nowadays are really useless. "An older pilot drank beer and hated the youngsters.

"Don't pay attention to them, the lads rely on these to vent their excess energy." Long Legs was a bit masculine, and he pointed at the pilots who were about to come up, warning them not to be troublesome.

"It seems that you are very popular here." Ronald laughed.

"Their flight performance, I have to score." Long legs opened the door of his apartment.

"Here are models of two Navy fighter jets in service. This is a Grumman F-14 Tomcat, and this is a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet." She took two large model of the airplane, and handed it to Ronald.

Ronald really didn't know much about fighter jets, so he started playing with two models.

"This wing can move." Ronald took a delta-winged plane, found a switch, pulled it back, and the front half of the delta-wing spread forward like a big bird, and became an open one. wing.

"That's a Tomcat. It opens up when taking off and landing at low speeds to get more lift, and sweeps back into a delta wing when it breaks the sound barrier to reduce drag."

"Oh, that's right." Ronald fell in love with this plane at first glance, it looked better than the other rigid Hornet.

"The vision is very good, the pilot also likes the Tomcat. It can mount multiple Sidewinder air-to-air combat missiles, and the Vulcan 20mm cannon. The improved model can also mount bombs for ground attack."

"So, what kind of opponents will the F-14 Tomcat encounter against the Sowell Alliance on the ocean?"

"Mainly two, the first is their MiG-21 fighter jet." The long-legged Christie took two more models from the cabinet. These are not products of the toy company, but they seem to be models made of wood by herself.

Holding a small plane with a nose and a cone with long legs, he said,
"MiG-21 supersonic fighter jets, most of the alliance's fighter jets take off from shore bases, and come to our aircraft carrier formation to harass and investigate. It has a 30mm cannon and can also mount radar or infrared guided missiles."

"What about this one?" Ronald pointed to the big plane.

"This is the Tu-22M Backfire supersonic bomber, which can be equipped with anti-ship missiles. Our F-14 Tomcat has the task of fighting him and defending the aircraft carrier formation."

"How to fight such a big plane?" Ronald looked at the size of the bomber, it was so big.

"This is a military secret, I can't tell you. If you want to know, you can join the navy."

"Hahaha..." Seeing that military secrets were involved, Ronald stopped asking.

He took a fancy to the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. This aircraft is very beautiful in appearance and has variable wings. It is more likely to take wonderful shots in air combat.

As for his two main opponents, Ronald still prefers the MiG 21. The backfire is too big, and it is estimated that it will be difficult to find an aircraft for real shooting.

It's just the two of them, who happen to be the real villains in the movie.

"By the way, our American Navy has MiG-21s, right?" Ronald wanted to ask the navy to borrow some of them as enemy planes.

"Who told you?" The long-legged expression suddenly became tense.

"No one? If not, we have to build a model, and use other aircraft to simulate the MiG-21? What aircraft do you think is closer to the MiG?"

"The MiG-21 is a single-seat, single-engine light fighter. Our navy's F-5 Freedom Fighter is closer to him." The long legs saw that Ronald did not get entangled in the top secret of the Pentagon, the MiG-21 imaginary enemy squadron.I thought that even a film director might not be clear about this, so maybe he just said it casually.

"Well, okay," Ronald wrote down the aircraft model in his notebook, "This F-14 Tomcat, why is there two seats in the cockpit, one in front and one in the back?"

"This is a two-seat, twin-engine heavy fighter. The front is the pilot's seat, and the rear is the radar weapon officer, who is responsible for detecting and identifying enemy aircraft and issuing attack instructions."

"I want to shoot the scene of dogfighting in air combat, just like the feeling of X-wing and TIE fighters in Star Wars. Is there any way to think about it?" Ronald loves the F-14 model and simulates it with his hands. With various actions.

"You have three options." Long Legs picked up another plane and motioned.

"First, you install a camera on the F-14 so that you can simulate the pilot's perspective and take pictures of various No. 1 perspectives from the inside of the cabin.

Second, you can install a camera on his wingman, which can simulate the shots of aircraft approaching, air combat, dog fighting and so on.The audience is like watching the planes fighting at close range.

Third, you can use another plane to shoot next to the two fighting planes, which can reflect the relative positions and attack tactics of several planes. "

"Wow, your understanding of photography is also very deep." Ronald couldn't help but sigh. Not only is Long Legs an official researcher of the Navy, how can he know so much about photography?

"In that issue of California magazine, I was written about. The lead photographer was my partner, and we discussed a lot of shooting methods." Christie Fox laughed.

"I'm so lucky." Ronald looked at the long legs. This turned out to be the prototype of the heroine who fell in love with the actor played by Tom Cruise in the script.

"So, I don't know if it's an honor to invite Miss Long Legs to dinner?" Ronald also wanted to talk more about photography with this female expert.

"My honor." Long-legged Christie adjusted her old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses and agreed to Ronald.

The two found a Japanese restaurant, and Ronald ordered all the most expensive items on the menu, and then asked Long Legs what to drink.

“Their sake is pretty good.”

Sushi and sashimi, served with yellow wasabi and sake, a very enjoyable meal for two.Ronald deliberately flattered her and asked her to act as a technical consultant for the film. Long Legs also thought that making a film was a very interesting thing, so he agreed.

"Does the F-14 have any special tricks? We wanted to make the movie an 80s western, but instead of a revolver, the cowboys would duel with advanced fighter jets."

"In that case, the F-14 can actually do a very interesting action." The long legs stretched out both hands, simulating two fighter jets in a dogfight.

"The one in front is an F-14, and the one behind is a MiG-21. Dog fighting means that the two sides are scrambling to get behind each other, just like two dogs biting each other on the ground."

Ronald took out his notebook again and wrote down.

"The aircraft's cannon fires forward, and air-to-air missiles can only be fired at targets at a certain angle in front. So whoever occupies the six o'clock position behind the opponent can shoot down the opponent."

Ronald thought to himself that the name of this dog fight was really appropriate. Thinking back to his ancestors, when they drove fighter jets with only machine guns, they must have been like dog fights in the air.

"Now the F-14 in front can suddenly pull up the nose and then reduce the output of the engine." The hand in front of the long leg suddenly raised its head and flew towards the high altitude.

"In this case, the speed of the F-14 will slow down, and then maintain a fighting posture with a large angle of attack." The hand with long legs is raised upwards, as if a fighter jet is showing its belly.

"And the speed of the MiG-21 behind is still at the original speed of tracking the front plane, and it will rush..." The other hand with long legs moved forward quickly, rushed over the head, and reached the other hand. Front.

"Are you going to rush to the front of the F-14 Tomcat?" Ronald showed a sudden realization.In this way, the F-14 Tomcat that was in front of it turned into a movement at the tail of the MiG-21, and became a predator the moment it was hunted.

"Yes, you comprehend it quickly, so that the tomcat can appear in the attacking position." Longfoot retracted both hands.

"Then what if the MiG-21 also comes here?" Ronald was puzzled again.

"That's impossible." Christie with long legs smiled. "This kind of fighting action with a large angle of attack is like suddenly braking in the air. Only a heavy fighter with two engines can do it. The MiG 21 was captured by the Tomcat like this. I'm afraid It is impossible to escape."

"Yeah," Ronald wrote down again.The meal was very cost-effective. This kind of detail can be included in the script, and the audience enjoys watching it. It is also technically in line with the capabilities of the F-14.

"However, not everyone can do this kind of maneuver. Only those ace pilots with years of flying experience can do it."

"Why? Isn't this very simple?" Ronald made a movement of pulling the handbrake of the car with his hand, "Isn't this just braking in the air?"

"First of all, your action is very correct. The engine throttle valve of the aircraft is reduced backwards and increased forwards. But this action is very dangerous." Long Feet stretched out his hand to simulate a fighter jet.

"When the nose is pulled up, the engine output is reduced at the same time, so that as long as there is a slight swing of the nose, it is easy to cause a stall and a horizontal spiral."

"Horizontal spiral?" Ronald asked.

"A stall is when the plane has no forward speed. It stops flying forward. The nose starts to spin in one direction. The whole plane is like a spinning top, spinning on the horizontal plane. Soon you will crash."

"So scary?"

"Yes, in fact, there were similar accidents in the early models of F-14." Long Legs picked out something that could be said publicly and told Ronald.

"It's great, this is good material that can be used in a movie story." Ronald asked the boss to serve hot soup, and then settled the bill.

"By the way, if we need to install cameras on the plane, which department of the Navy should we contact for this matter?"

"You shouldn't be looking to the Navy, you should be looking to the manufacturer of the F-14, Grumman. They'd be interested."

"Really? They're going to help me put a camera on the plane and test it?"

"Yes, believe me, they will definitely help, maybe for free." Long Legs finished his hot soup, stood up with Ronald, and prepared to go back to the base.

Grumman's expensive new order was questioned by the Navy internally. As long as this movie can be made to show the elegance and lethality of the Tomcat in front of the American people, follow-up orders will definitely be obtained.

(End of this chapter)