Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 822 Someone Wants To Send You Money
"How could this be?" Ronald looked at Kelly McGillis in amazement.

After confirming that the other party was not joking, Ronald got out of bed, put on his clothes, poured a glass of water, and handed it to McGillis.While holding her hand gently, and looking into the other's eyes, "If you think it's painful to recall... I'm afraid it will hurt you to say it again."

"It doesn't matter. I saw a psychiatrist for a long time. It was five years ago. Now I can face this matter, and I really want to talk to someone about this matter. I am a bit conflicted."

"Take your time," Ronald felt that McGillis' hands were still shaking a little, even though five years had passed.It can be seen how frightened and hurt McGillis was at that time.

“I was just divorced from my first husband, and I was living with my girlfriend in a small rent-regulated apartment in Manhattan, New York. One night, while I was taking a shower, two men broke in and they beat me with a knife. I……"

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Ronald heard McGillis tell the whole story.

McGillis, who was taking a shower, was stabbed to the neck by one of the thugs.Forced into the bedroom, the two took turns assaulting McGillis.They also spat at McGillis, beat her repeatedly, threateningly cut him with a knife and said they would kill her.

"They kept telling me they were going to beat me until I died," McGillis said, with fear at the time. "At that time I thought I was really going to die, and I gave up."

"Relax, you are safe now, I am here." Ronald held McGillis in his arms, and then gently comforted the unfortunate woman.

"Later, it was my girlfriend who went home and immediately called the police when she saw this situation. After the NYPD arrived, they scared the two thugs away."

McGillis gradually regained his composure, "Since then, I have been unable to fall asleep for several months, and I can only rely on alcohol to anesthetize myself, barely falling asleep every morning."

"It's all over, it's all over." Ronald didn't expect that Kelly McGillis's need to maintain independence, the knot of not being able to form an intimate relationship with men, and the reason for alcohol addiction are actually here.

"I have been seeing a psychiatrist for more than a year before I can fall asleep normally. In fact, sometimes when I am alone at home, I still have sudden fears."

"Those two thugs must have been punished by the law. They can't hurt you anymore." Ronald was still silently comforting McGillis, making her feel that there are still people in this world who can protect her.

"Ha..." McGillis' body moved, "You guessed wrong, the two escaped on the spot and were arrested a month later. One of the fingerprints matched the one in my room, and he was sentenced to three years in prison. .And the other one was released directly because there was no direct evidence."

"Why? You are a robbery, intentional homicide, assault and other superimposed felonies. As long as you can identify them and add fingerprint evidence and confessions, they will definitely not be able to escape, and they will stay in prison until the next century."

Ronald felt strange that the prosecutors in New York could not be so incompetent and let them run away.

"Because I didn't agree to testify," McGillis replied, looking Ronald in the eyes.

"Is there something hidden?" Ronald slowly comforted McGillis' arm with one hand, and he vaguely felt that McGillis was going to tell him next.

"You can trust me, Kelly. If you want to talk to me, tell me. I won't judge who you are because of what you do. You will always be the one who is full of love in my eyes. An actress with confidence and presence, a good actress."

"I believe you." McGillis pulled the blanket over his body, covered his face with his hands, and said in a low voice after avoiding Ronald, "Because the one who lives with me is my daughter." friend."

"what……"

Ronald's hand froze, what's going on?
McGillis just had a passionate fight with himself, how can he have a girlfriend?Is that what he understood?

It must be, and only this kind of thing made her unable to testify at the time, because if these contents were used as confessions, her relationship would be exposed to the public media.It is very likely that it will be exposed to the eyes of the public.

"Are you out of words?" McGillis grabbed Ronald's arm more and more, as if to see his attitude.

"I think that in America, everyone has the freedom to choose their own way of life. It's just that some people among the people still can't understand it." Ronald chose his words carefully.

"Do you know? Because at the party, you didn't have any barriers to getting along with Emil, who was your assistant director, so I'm willing to tell you this today."

McGillis could tell at a glance that Emil, who was Ronald's assistant in "Dirty Dancing", was in the same group as her.Ronald never looked at anyone with a judgmental eye and was tolerant of such personal matters.

"Since you still have scars on that memory, why don't you just refuse completely. If you need, I can come forward and talk to Shirley Lansing. No matter how strong she is, I will save face if I come forward." Rona De felt that Lansing was always making strong invitations, which caused McGillis to suffer psychologically.

"No, this is where I hesitate. I really want to make this movie. This story is very similar to my experience. Female victims are always viewed with judgmental eyes, and those criminals are treated with punishment. Tolerance. I hope to change the American people's perception of this unfair thing."

"but?"

"But I can't play the role of the victim. As soon as I imagine that scene, the horror deep in my memory will jump out. I can't..."

"If you really can't, that's fine. Are there any other female characters in the movie?"

"There is also a female lawyer who seeks justice for the victims, and finally catches the criminal's flaws, provides justice for the victims, brings the criminals to justice, and severely scolds the bystanders who judged the victims .”

"Don't worry, Kelly. If Shirley Lansing thinks you're the best victim, I'll give you another role. Where's the movie from?"

"Paramount."

"That's just right, their president, Ned Tanin, still owes me several times." Ronald hugged McGillis and comforted him, "It just so happens that this role can also allow you to do what you have long wanted to do, let Amy Liga people will also change their perception of this kind of thing."

"Um"

Ronald felt that McGillis finally relaxed, his breathing began to be steady, and his body was not as stiff as before.

"I'll call Ned tomorrow, but..."

Ronald remembered one more thing.

"What?" McGillis looked up at him, did he have to offer something in exchange?

"You have to be honest with me, did you make this movie because you wanted to win an Oscar, or did you do it purely for yourself and to bring justice to the millions of victims?"

"No actress can refuse an Oscar nomination, but in my heart, I still hope to awaken the public's correct view on this kind of thing. Beautiful women are not at fault, but criminals."

Ronald nodded. This role is similar to the role in "Rain Man" accepted by Tom Cruise. It is a role that leads to the main line of the story.In order for the audience to feel sympathy for the victim of the protagonist, it must be viewed from the perspective of the lawyer role before they can enter the plot.

The role of a lawyer requires very high acting skills, but it may not be brilliant.The audience and those actors who don't know much about acting skills will ignore the lawyer's acting skills and recognize the victim's performance with extreme twists and turns.

"It's okay, I didn't intend to make this movie to win awards. Besides, the salary they give is also very good, several times higher than Top Gun."

Seeing that McGillis had made a decision, Ronald also supported her 100%. Acting in this way requires great courage, and it is also a break with his past scars.

Ronald held McGillis in his arms, and the two breathed and heard each other.McGillis only felt calm and peaceful in his heart, and felt very safe.

"You know, in those two years I was under a lot of psychological pressure, overeating, and gained thirty pounds." Confiding his thoughts to a trusted close friend, McGillis seemed to feel that the impact of this past event on him began to really fade up.When she was happy, she revealed the biggest secret of an actress - her weight.

"Actually, I think you are more beautiful if you are fatter." Ronald felt that the delicate body in his arms was a bit Monroe's temperament, but it was actually suitable for those who were heavier, and the way of wearing heavy makeup could best show its charm.

"By the way, what's the name of this movie?"

"The Accused"

The two lay quietly hugging like this for a long time until they looked at each other and smiled.

But Ronald seemed to think of something again, and his body began to feel strange.

"What's wrong?" McGillis keenly noticed the changes in Ronald's body.

"Ahem..." Ronald scratched his head in embarrassment, "I didn't know you had a girlfriend, between us, do you really have feelings for me..."

"Hehehe, you don't know much about us. Most of them don't reject maintaining an intimate relationship with men." McGillis smiled and leaned into Ronald's arms, "Of course, I like you, macho!"

"Then you now?" Ronald felt a little weird again.

"Am I now? Have a girlfriend, rest assured, none of us have the only commitment to be true to each other."

"Hmm..." Ronald put his arms around her, and then kissed her neck from behind. His nose touched the messy hair, and a nice fragrance came into his nose. McGillis's perfume was very tempting.

"Ah..." McGillis raised his head abruptly with a low moan in his throat, and then dropped it again.

"You were very memorable just now, hunk." McGillis felt that Ronald's energy just now was more intense and admirable than all his interactions with him.

"Did you think of being with me... Hehe, should I introduce you?" As a senior person, McGillis knew the thoughts of men like the back of his hand.

"No, no, I just want to hold you now and have a good rest."

……

"Come on, Ronald. You are also a producer and understand the market. The selling point of this movie lies in those marginal shots. Otherwise, we would not be able to attract audiences with such a small production budget and marketing budget."

The next morning, Ronald said goodbye to McGillis, and when he got to the office, he called Ned at Paramount.Ned Tannin agreed to all of Ronald's requests. Anyway, McGillis is still one of the leading actors, and as far as financing is concerned, she only needs to participate.

But this McGillis played the lawyer, and when the decision to cast the victim was notified to the independent producer Shirley Lansing, she was very angry and called Ronald to complain.

"Xue Li, this is your problem, not mine. Besides, the marketing of a movie does not have to be based on money, the key is the word of mouth of the movie." The old god Ronald sat on the chair, faintly said.

"Okay, are you interested in becoming a director? Or as a producer. Your vision for women's films is first-rate, and it would be nice if you could recommend some leading actresses for me."

Shirley Lansing almost choked and didn't come up. She knew that this was the privilege of the successful, and Ronald was obviously teasing her for her poor marketing skills.

However, Lansing is also a veteran player who has suffered a lot. Although she was kicked out at [-]th Century Fox because she was a woman, she has been working as an independent producer for so many years. Good reviews from film critics.

Lansing's production level is average, unlike Ronald's ability to see commercially popular movies, but after decades of experience, she still has predictions about which movies will be applauded by film critics .

"I'll see what I can do, Shirley. Goodbye."

Ronald didn't make a promise, so this kind of thing has nothing to do with me.

He put down the phone and looked at his company assistant, "Where's Mr. Bannon? He was still here just now."

This morning, Steve Bannon just made an appointment to talk to Ronald about the follow-up of the movie "Love Is Not For Sale".

"He's on the phone," Ms. Chen, a company clerk, replied.

"Telephone, isn't there a telephone here, where did he go?"

"I'll go and have a look," Miss Chen got up and opened the door of the office.

"Hello? The signal here is not good. That's it. I'll call you later." Just as he was talking, Bannon held up a big brick-like object and gestured to Ms. Chen while walking.

"What are you?" Ronald looked at the thing made of beige plastic, feeling inexplicably familiar.

"This is Motorola's mobile phone. You can make calls in places where there is no phone, just like a car phone, but this thing uses batteries, so you can make calls while walking."

"Big brother?" Ronald said a sentence in Chinese inexplicably.

"what?"

"It's nothing." Ronald waved his hand, "Is this thing useful? I'll hear your signal."

"Yes, you have to be at a certain distance from Motorola's communication station. I used it better when I was on Wall Street. There are many communication stations there and they are very concentrated. Unlike Los Angeles, you can't hear clearly when you are far away. "

"Let's use the car phone and the coin-operated phone." Ronald felt that this was just a toy, and he held it up and talked loudly, so he might as well leave a message for the other party, or find a phone to talk to. "

"Tell me, what do you want to do with the dividends of 'Love is not for sale'?"

The news of Ronald's big check at the party yesterday has spread in Hollywood, and many old friends have called to express their appreciation for their generosity.

When Bannon heard the news, he would definitely come to ask. His "Love Is Not For Sale" has already been released, and it raked in 3500 million in America. Bannon has begun to change from a banker to a banker's investment target on Wall Street.

"Can you pay dividends quickly?" Of course, Bannon hopes to get the money as soon as possible, so he can speak louder on Wall Street.Accounts receivable and cash, after all, are still different.

"Film is a business that pays very slowly." Ronald remembered the rhetoric given to him by the distributor Atlantic Company when he was filming "Night of the Comet", and used it from a different angle.

"The owners of those movie theaters are unwilling to settle the settlement. They are willing to delay me for a year, and then use this year's interest to renovate the seats and upgrade the automatic candy machine.

By the time I sent them the lawyer's letter, and when it was time to threaten to sue, they settled the arrears as soon as they saw it was going to court.These people are also struggling on the profit and loss line, and I sometimes have a hard time dealing with it. "

"Understood", Bannon raised his hands, saying that he did not mean to urge Ronald. After all, he still wanted to tie up a relationship with Ronald, so that Wall Street would give him more confidence.

"If you want, I can talk to you about buying out in advance. Your future income, discounted to the present, and after the discount, I can settle the settlement with you now. We will let accountants and lawyers handle it." Luo Nader actually didn't want to settle so quickly, so he threatened him a little.

"Why? I don't want to do this. You shouldn't share it right away, but it's better to invest in new productions. This way the film business can circulate. This is the right way to do business. I will always support you."

"You know what to do, Steve." Ronald was very happy, and quickly withdrew his hand pretending to grab the phone, "then wait until the theater settles with me, and I won't delay you. In addition Michelle Cannold still has several new projects in preparation, you can chat with him, if you are interested, you can join and earn together, I will leave you an investment share."

Bannon rubbed his hands, and sure enough, he showed full confidence in Ronald. This is not an investment opportunity.

"Not only do I not want your money, but I also want to bring you a large investment." Bannon stroked his hair, then straightened his tie, and said mysteriously.

"Have you found money from Wall Street?" Ronald became interested. Compared with loans, the money from Wall Street funds has more favorable terms to use, and the interference in projects and assessment standards are more relaxed.

Disney's Michael Eisner also got 4 million from the screen fund, and only then began to slowly take the initiative in Disney.It is more than three times cheaper than the bond financing used by Minahan Golan.

"No, I went to Dongying to find financing. Because of the appreciation of the yen, the companies there are now very interested in investing in Hollywood. Moreover, the friction between our two countries has made their entrepreneurs hold back and want to buy and invest in our industry. .”

"Fuck, isn't this a good thing? We welcome investment." Ronald was happy when he heard it. Want to come to Hollywood to invest?Good thing.

"The friction between our two governments ended with the victory of America and the signing of a favorable agreement. It hurt the self-esteem of the people of Japan. They always feel that the people of Japan work harder and should be better than our American products. inexpensive."

"Huh? Why? Isn't our market open to them? On the contrary, it's our films that have difficulty entering the Japanese market." Ronald has been there several times to market movies, even two films with Japanese cultural background." "Longwei Boy" did not do well at the box office in Japan.

Vaguely, Ronald also felt that the movie theaters there seemed to have made an agreement, and they always didn't invest enough in Hollywood movies.

"They feel that working nine hours a day and eating a bite of rice is considered a delicious hard worker, and they should make the best products in the world. Not only physical products, home appliances, textiles, cars, but also movies." Ban Nong told Ronald what he knew in Wall Street.

"So, Dongying entrepreneurs who are suffering from friction, want to invest in Hollywood movies to make money? Go back to Dongying and tell the people there to buy Hollywood, are you proud? Win-win, win-win... Hahaha." Ronald understood. , There is also a kind of national pride and the psychology of the defeated country that wants to win back in the market.

"Hahaha, that's right!" Bannon laughed wickedly.

"Okay, I'll call the presidents of Kadokawa Bookstore and Johnny's Office and have a chat." Ronald figured it out, as long as he gave them the false name they wanted, he and Bannon could get benefits.

A Wall Street banker and a Hollywood producer, two people who wanted to go to Japan to pick up cheap, laughed.

……

Ronald and his old friends in Tokyo got in touch again, and they learned that Ronald had brought the box office monster that killed the Quartet in America to Dongying, and they all expressed that they would show greater sincerity this time, and come to meet Hollywood. The youngest famous director, to discuss cooperation.

Arranging the itinerary with Kannold and others, Ronald also asked the laboratory to print copies, and planned to sell them to several East Asian countries first.

"Brother Ronnie, my movie failed again." Diane's new movie "The Prodigal Son" failed again. More than 800 theaters only got a box office of more than 70 yuan, and the average box office of a single theater did not reach 1000 US dollars. It fell below the profit and loss line in the first week.

It was released vigorously to build momentum, but failed vigorously.

"Ah?" Ronald asked Diane to sit next to him, "Don't be sad, I told Tom Cruise, the heroine in his new movie, you go and try it?"

Fearing that Diane would lose confidence because of successive failures, Ronald deliberately downplayed the matter and gave her a good new opportunity.

"I..." Diane pouted and hit the table a few times, "um...um...um..."

"This time the film critics started to say that I was not good, and that I played a stripper without even a pornographic scene."

"This... I think your acting skills don't depend on the size of your clothes. Besides, didn't the second female lead, Suzy Amis, take off the scene?" Ronald remembered forcing the producer to change the play, not allowing Diane to go too far naked things.

"They said that Susie played a single mother, and that scene was superfluous." Diane was not very happy, and being criticized by film critics was a kind of harm to the actor's psychology.

"It's not your fault. Matt Dillon and Tommy Lee Jones are also in the movie. They are also responsible for the failure of the movie. The most important thing is the idiot producer Martin Ransohoff. How could audiences in the 60s appreciate it if the plot of the 80s was filmed."

"Well... If I go on like this, I can only make B-grade movies."

"Don't be stupid, I will find a way. Besides, there are good B-level movies."

"Are you going to Japan?" Diane saw the ticket on Ronald's desk.

"Yeah, I'm going to do a Dirty Dancing release."

"I'll go with you. It just so happens that the advertiser of Dongying asked me to shoot a new version of the advertisement."

"They are really loyal to you, and they shoot new editions every three years."

"Well, they like to see American people speak a few words in Japanese and praise their products."

"That's right," Ronald smiled. The Dongying people's superficially arrogant but actually inferior feelings can be confirmed by Diane's experience.In order to make the Dongying audience feel more substituting, Diane has to dye her hair blond every time, more like the American girl in their stereotype.

"You'd better audition for that new Tom Cruise movie first? He's like a bartender in a bar who's in love with a college girl."

"Well," Diane didn't speak.

"What's the matter?" Ronald was very strange, as if Diane was not very interested in this opportunity.

"You know, Tom approached me first when he was doing Crazy Boys, but I said something outrageous, and I said my father would never let me play that kind of woman."

"Um...", Ronald understood. At that time, Diane was a popular child star turned teen movie star, and Coppola's queen heroine.Tom Cruise was just a fledgling kid with crooked front teeth.

At that time, he invited Diane, but after being rejected, he got started because of the "Good Boys Are Crazy" and started a journey of skyrocketing in the past few years.

Diane was afraid of going to the audition and felt awkward towards both of them.

"You go and try it first, I think they will be treated equally. That's history, Tom won't do anything." Ronald comforted Diane.

But that being said, Cruise is no longer alone. Many people around him have formed a community of interests around him. Whether they are willing to find Diane to act is beyond their control.

"If it's a fair game, I'm fine. I'm afraid that because of this history, the two of us will act awkwardly."

"I will call Tom's agent, and it will be completely fair and based on your performance, and there will be no personal affair at all."

"Hee hee..." Diane was still very serious about her acting skills. Hearing what Ronald said, he became happy again.

"Paula, this is Ronald." When Ronald was alone, he called Cruise's agent, Paula Wagner.

"Hello, Ronald." Paula's voice was a little tired.

"When was the baby born?"

"There are still two months."

The two chatted for a while, and Ronald said to Paula, "Tom told me to invite Diane Lane to audition for the heroine of the new film."

"I know about it, I was going to talk to you about this 'cocktail'." Paula Wagner was not happy with Tom Cruise's choice, but his wife Mimi Rogers was very enthusiastic The law advises.

"Diane, just follow the normal audition? I guess you may also have difficulties?" Ronald asked tentatively.

"Yes, Mimi gave me a lot of hard problems."

"Hey..." Ronald didn't like this Scientologist either, "That's it, don't work too hard."

"Mimi has her plans, and she has a lot of influence over Tom." Paula Wagner can't stand her, either.

(End of this chapter)