Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 777 Chapter 4 Annual Box Office Champion - Top Gun
Back in Bud Jr.'s Mercedes, Ronald was chatting with Elizabeth Sue to relax.The tense shooting is a very intense use of the director's mental strength. Ronald feels that chatting with beautiful women is a way to reintegrate into life and rejuvenate.

Su talked a lot about her experience at Harvard. The Liberal Arts major was purely prepared for those rich kids. After Elizabeth entered Harvard, she realized that it was useless to her acting career.

"That's not the case. University is a place to receive education, which is good for your acting career." Ronald disagreed with this. Many actors from the bottom of the class cannot play high-status roles, but they have a good education. It is possible for educated actors to turn around and act as low-level people.

At least you can broaden your play path.

"Actresses are such a few years of career. I have wasted several years in college. After this time, my agent also advised me to suspend my studies and focus on my career as an actor."

Ronald shrugged. He is also a Hugh student, so he is not qualified to speak on such matters.

Chatting along the way, Ronald felt a lot more relaxed.Su studied at Harvard for three years, and her temperament has changed a lot. Ronald chatted with her very happily.

"When you arrive in Toronto, I have arranged for the crew to pick you up. You should have a good rest. You are exhausted from this business trip."

"Hehe, it's okay, I think it fulfilled a girl's generation's dream."

When the car arrived at the airport, Ronald carried Elizabeth Su's luggage and sent her to the plane.Ronald specially bought a first-class ticket so that Su could take a good rest and continue the intense filming when he returned to Toronto.

As soon as the car turned around, Bud Jr. asked, "Shall we go to the apartment, or the hotel?"

"Let's go to the hotel. The apartment hasn't been lived in for a long time, and it needs to be cleaned." Ronald is a director, and his income is mainly from film salary and some investment income. Naturally, I don't want to go back and clean the room.Little Bud turned the steering wheel and went to the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel.

"Didi..." The car phone rang, and Ronald picked it up, "Hey, who is looking for me?"

"Ronald, the two producers of Top Gun, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, asked you to come to the celebration party, Top Gun won the box office of the year in [-]. They called me Here, are you going?" It was the call from the manager, Nixita, who was the only one who made the most of this kind of private calls.

Before Ronald could express his opinion, Nisita went on to say, "Go, Tom will also go sometime, you haven't seen each other for a long time."

"Okay, I'll go, you tell little Bud the time and address."

The celebration party is a private banquet.Don Simpson is currently on a "twelve-step regimen" to get over his booze addiction, so he doesn't have a lot of beauties to mess around with at parties.Instead, it was placed in his mansion in Beverly Hills, the normal mode of everyone bringing their own girlfriends.

When Ronald arrived at the hotel and checked into a suite, he called a few familiar female companions.

Helen returned to New York and filmed two films in a row as the heroine. She was thinking about leading the filming of a film by herself. Recently, she was doing the preparatory work with the help of her father.

Diane wasn't in her small apartment in New York, and the phone call was recorded, but she had an agent to help with things. After Ronald called her agent, she called back quickly.

"Ronnie, where are you?"

"I'm in Los Angeles, see if you're free, I'm going to the Top Gun celebration party."

"Oh? I happen to be in Los Angeles, wait, I'll find you."

Di An hurriedly asked for the address, and hurriedly hung up the phone.

"Do you have a new audition?" Ronald poured a cup of coffee for Diane. She didn't have many contacts in the circle. Ronald was busy with new movies and didn't care too much.

"No, it was Matt Dillon who called me this time and said he had a great opportunity and asked if I wanted to try it."

"Oh", Ronald hasn't heard about Matt Dillon for a long time, and this guy has also been cheated by Coppola's two or three consecutive unsold movies.Like Diane, three consecutive lead roles failed at the box office, and he has not yet become a star.

"Hey, I actually don't get along with him, but they all say that I have a great chemistry with him on the screen. You know, the camera will capture two people who hate each other very much."

Seeing that Ronald didn't speak, Diane thought he was a little upset, so she hurriedly explained.

"No, no, I'm happy for you, Diane. The 'Running Man' I introduced to you, is there any news when it will be released?"

"I heard that editing was difficult, and it reminded me of bad memories from the past."

Ronald knew Diane was talking about "The Amazing Stains," and "Streets of Rage," and the shooting went wrong, and the editing was slow and difficult.The end result is often not good either.

"But this movie is produced by Martin Ransohoff's company. I heard that he wants to make Matt Dillon into the next Paul Newman or Steve McQueen."

A longing flashed in Diane's eyes. She also wanted to be famous and find her lost dreams.

She was born as a child star, although she has experienced ups and downs, success and failure, but she has not yet reached the age of 22.Compared with Elizabeth Su, a woman in her 20s since her debut, she has a strong age advantage.

"Who is Martin Ransohoff?" Ronald didn't know these people.

"Don't you know? Your friend Tom Cruise played 'The Color of Money' before, which was the sequel to 'The Prodigal Son' produced by him in the 60s, which made Paul Newman popular, and later also filmed 'Cincinnati Kid', He made Steve McQueen popular. He was the one who made the two big male stars famous back then, and this time he wanted to make Matt Dillon the same star.

Even the plot is similar, and he is also a master of casinos. "

"Oh", Ronald has no feelings for casinos. Isn't it more exciting to spend real money to make a movie in reality than playing poker in Las Vegas?

"This is a more casual party, so normal clothes will do, Paula Wagner said, and it looks like Tom's new girlfriend is going too."

Ronald took Diane to the shopping mall of the hotel, bought her a pair of earrings, and the two of them wore their everyday clothes to the "Top Gun" celebration party.

"What's the final score?" Ronald asked Jerry Bruckheimer, who came to say hello, at the party.

"The national release time entered into the box office statistics, a total of 34 weeks, a total of 300 million in the domestic market."

Bruckheimer reported a figure, and then handed a box office summary to Ronald.

"It almost broke [-] million." Ronald clicked his tongue, which was a bit of a pity.

If it can break the [-] million mark, I would call it a "[-] million director", which is a bit different from the [-] million director's hat.

"The Persian Gate matter has an impact on us. The audience saw the government's powerlessness in the Lebanese hostage incident, so they lost interest in violently beating fighter jets from other countries in the movie."

Bruckheimer gave Ronald a reason.After the end of the first week of [-], the film withdrew from screenings in mainstream theaters across the country due to the plummeting box office.

"Oh, what a pity," Ronald read the summary carefully.At that time, I was able to direct this movie thanks to the help of the Commander. This time, because of the scandal of the Commander, the box office did not end perfectly, so it was returned.

Top Gun won the box office title of the year in [-].However, compared to last year's champion "Back to the Future" and the previous year's champion "Ghostbusters", the results are still slightly worse, not breaking through the [-] million mark like the previous two years.

However, the average weekly box office results, and the average box office of a single hall, are actually similar to the champions of the previous two years.

The gap at the box office is mainly because "Top Gun" didn't spend enough time in theaters like them.

Comparing the box office champions in the past five years, the most powerful is Spielberg's "ET Alien", which won 5000 million box office in China. For many weeks, it took more than a year.It spent more than 80 weeks on the box office charts.

"Congratulations, Ronald." Bruckheimer picked up the champagne and congratulated Ronald loudly.

Regardless of whether it has exceeded [-] million or not, the fact that a movie can become the annual box office champion is a great recognition of a director's commercial ability.

Especially the theme of "Top Gun", which no one has successfully experienced before, made Ronald's reputation equal to the guarantee of making money in the eyes of major producers.

"Congratulations."

Ronald clinked glasses with him.Diane, who was holding her arm, smiled happier than herself. She stamped her feet desperately to express her excitement.

"Ronald, you are really amazing, you succeeded."

"Hahaha", Ronald was still a little happy to be praised by the beauty, but he still had to be humble, "It's luck to be able to be so popular."

Diane looked into Ronald's eyes, full of admiration.The fame of the director represents the past achievements, while the box office reflects the current ability.

"Where's Don?" Ronald asked Bruckheimer where Simpson was going.

"He's over there, talking to Tom and his new girlfriend, let's go over there."

Ronald nodded to the crowd who were eager to come up to talk to him, and floated to the other side of the big room with Diane.

Looking at the envious eyes of the actresses around her, Diane also felt a strong sense of satisfaction in her heart, "Hmph, what kind of friendship does Ronald have with me! I have attended the Oscars with him since [-]."

"Hi, Ronald." Tom Cruise, who was chatting with Don Simpson, saw Ronald coming over, and quickly hugged and greeted him.

"What are you talking about?" Ronald saw that Don Simpson and Cruise seemed to be chatting speculatively.

"We were talking about twelve-step therapy. Tom's new girlfriend inspired me a lot. Sometimes religion and a psychiatrist are similar."

Don Simpson's improvement has improved a lot after treatment, he said with a hand holding champagne, pointing to a blonde beauty next to him.

"I haven't introduced you yet, this is my girlfriend Mimi, this is Ronald, and this is Diane." Tom Cruise reacted and hurriedly introduced to Ronald.

Then he looked at Ronald, wondering how he would react to his new girlfriend.

"Ah, hello, Miss Rogers."

Ronald took a look at this beauty just now, she was very particular about her position, very measured, slightly behind Cruise, always highlighting Tom's position.

Ronald looked down, and sure enough she was wearing a pair of flat shoes, which made her appear a few inches shorter than Tom when he was behind him.

But this woman named Mimi looks a lot older than Tom, her blond hair roots, and some newly grown black variegated hair, it seems that she is also an artificial blonde.

But Ronald is no stranger to Cruise's taste. From the original Rebecca De Morney, his girlfriends are at least three years older than him.At least Mimi Rogers is much younger than Cher.

"It's really nice to meet you, Ronald. When Tom was talking about working with you just now, it was his most comfortable acting experience."

"a ha ha ha……"

As soon as Mimi Rogers spoke, Ronald couldn't help but frowned inwardly.

This woman is a crooked mouth.

It's not that she acts according to the wind and is very good at watching her face and saying things that make everyone happy.It's that Mimi Rogers really has a crooked mouth.

Whenever she speaks, her mouth involuntarily tilts to the right.It made Ronald very uncomfortable.

Moreover, Mimi gradually came out from behind Tom, and communicated with Ronald. Ronald took a closer look, and Mimi was still a little bit big-eyed.

"Mimi, Mimi, where are you?"

At this time, a short man came from the dark part of the corridor leading to other places in the room, and he called Mimi Rogers hurriedly.Ronald and Diane looked in the direction of the voice together.

A short man with a funny watermelon hair and a moustache came up to Mimi Rogers and said, "I've been looking for you for a long time, Mimi. Are you free now? I feel an urgent need audit!"

"Oh, Sonny, can I go over later? I'm still chatting with other people." Mimi looked very polite to the visitor.

"Hey, Tom, hey, Don, I have to borrow Mimi's time, do you have any objections?" The man named Sonny apologized to Tom Cruise, and pulled Mimi to leave.

"Are you impolite? We're chatting." Ronald felt something was wrong, and looked at Tom Cruise as if it was a bit difficult to hide, so he stopped him.

"It's okay, Ronald, this is Mimi's job, I'll accompany her to have a look." Tom was not particularly dissatisfied, but he didn't want Mimi to leave him.

"I'll do an audit for him, soon." Mimi Rogers smiled with her mouth crooked, and patted Tom Cruise's arm.Then she walked out of the room with that watermelon head and went to another room to chat alone.

"That seems to be Sonny Bono, Cher's ex-husband?" Diane whispered in Ronald's ear.

"Are you sure?" Ronald recalled, and his voice was indeed very similar to the male voice that sang with Cher in the song "I Got you Babe".

"It's Sonny Bono," Don Simpson nodded to Ronald in confirmation. "Mimi is a senior auditor for Scientology, and Tom is her client, as is Sonny, but soon I guess she just Audited for Tom."

"Auditor? Is she an accountant?" Ronald felt that Mimi Rogers's temperament was not at all similar to his own accountant Lawrence.

"Ah, no, a form of Scientology."

"Scientology, what is that?" Ronald looked at Tom Cruise suspiciously.Is it the name of the accounting firm?

"It's a new kind of religion. Auditing is in Scientology, just like Protestant prayer, or Catholic confession." Tom Cruise knew that Ronald had misheard.Not the accounting kind of audit.

"Yes, they work. It's an instrument invented by Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. It works like an electrician's multimeter. I feel that after using it, the whole person It's all easy." Don Simpson was beside him saying good things about Scientology.

"Lafayette Ronald Hubbard? I seem to have heard that name somewhere." Ronald frowned.

"He was originally a science fiction writer, wrote a best-selling book 'Battlefield Earth', and later created a new form of meditation 'Dianetic' that combines psychology, mystical experience, and religion. It's very beneficial." Tom Cruise introduced the work of his new girlfriend Mimi to Ronald.

"Oh", when Ronald heard these things, he thought of David Lynch's Transcendental Meditation, and he had a natural distrust of such things.

"Actually, this Scientology has helped my dyslexia. I can read more scripts now." Tom Cruise whispered in Ronald's ear.

"Oh, that's good, it will help you a lot." Ronald heard that it can treat dyslexia, so he didn't feel so disgusted with Dianetics. Maybe it's because the psychiatrist's things have been changed, which is just right for Tom. .

"By the way, Ronald, what is your religious belief?" Tom Cruise asked him, "There is a celebrity club in Scientology, do you want to experience it?"

"I belong to the Quakers in New York and Boston." Ronald didn't expect Tom to ask himself this question. After thinking about it, he moved out of the sect his ancestors belonged to and pushed back.

"Oh, that's a very old sect." Tom Cruise didn't continue talking.

After a while, Mimi Rogers finished auditing Sonny Bono and came out to chat with Tom and Ronald.

"You know Quigg? Do you go to church every week?" Mimi Rogers was much more enthusiastic about Scientology than Tom.

"I'm the director, so I'm sure I don't have time." Ronald was a little impatient. The enthusiasm of this kind of preacher was out of place, and Mimi's crooked mouth seemed even more annoying.

"Actually, the solution in the West has come to an end. We have to go to the East to find some solutions to solve the current problems in America."

Mimi Rogers also wants to try, "Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, the founder of our Scientology, has been inspired by a master from the East. In the 50s, he was inspired by Inspired by the founder of Jetlab, Jack Parsons, and his Eastern partners, he gradually became interested in the occult."

Ronald gradually began to get tired of this kind of messy rhetoric, and Diane, who was holding hands with him, felt that the strength in his hands was not right.Diane looked at Ronald, and quickly touched his arm with the other hand to soothe his emotions.

"When you are free, you can visit the hall left by Herbert. He was called by the Unicron at the beginning of last year and left the believers who loved him." Mimi Rogers also keenly felt Ronald's love. Impatient, ended the topic.

"I feel that Eastern philosophy does have its merits. Our Western civilization has its weaknesses, and we don't think too much about the connection between people. That's why many people in the film industry are interested in Eastern philosophy. Ronald, you You are also interested in oriental culture, I think your Longwei boy has many elements of oriental culture."

Mimi Rogers chatted for a while, then brought the subject back.She knew that Ronald didn't like occultism, so she changed the method and wanted to discuss some high-end philosophical issues with him.

Mimi's father was one of the founding fathers of Scientology and a good friend of Herbert's.She has learned from her childhood that she knows how to deal with different people and attract them in different ways.

Tom Cruise is not well-educated and has dyslexia, so he is very interested in talking about the occult, and it can help him read scripts without feeling dazzled. This is the best proof that Scientology is effective.

And Ronald seems to be a person who reads a lot and knows a lot of film and television technologies like the back of his hand.For this kind of people, if they are not interested in occultism, they should talk about it from a philosophical level. Some well-educated people who joined Scientology were also interested in some specious universe theories of the founder Herbert. And joined.

"Actually, I have also studied Eastern philosophy. For example, I have been studying the teachings of Confucius." Ronald felt that he was not interested in chatting with her, and moved out the ultimate topic terminator:
"Confucius said that a gentleman should not talk about phenomena of supernatural power, or the crimes of man's unnatural depravity, and supernatural evil creatures."

"Forehead……"

Mimi Rogers' mouth was even more crooked. Why did this person talk about the topic to death?
(End of this chapter)