Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Ronald, I hope our investment will yield a good harvest."

"Don't worry, George. The revenue cycle of TV series may be longer than that of movies. You can see it from the revenue of the movie Love is Not For Sale..."

Ronald asked little Douglas to do everything to help little George pave the way. He only needs to use the profits extracted from the oil company to buy a few shares of the Wall Street investment company's funds, and then he can enjoy the profits from the daydream TV series project.

"But do you think I can put all my investment in the movie Working Girl you produced? Laura also loves watching that movie. She said that if it is made into a TV series, he will definitely watch it at home every day."

"Well... this is stipulated in the investment contract. Through such a relatively complicated investment agreement, we can only invest in the overall project of our TV series, not a specific TV series. Otherwise, the name of the investor must be disclosed. Besides, TV series do not Like movies, no one is sure that they will be renewed by the TV station. Maybe it is a better strategy not to put all the eggs in one basket?"

"Ha, what you said makes sense. Let me help you filter and see which TV series will stand out..."

"That's what I asked for..." Ronald said with a wry smile, but he didn't expect that little George would actually take it seriously.

"I said, the military shipbuilding industry will get a big order recently. I don't have the capital to participate. Are you interested in making a quick buck?" Xiao Qiao was very satisfied with Ronald's arrangement. He thought of the recent What the brokers surrounding my father hope to accomplish these days.

"I don't know anything about that. I'd better invest in my film and television entertainment industry..."

Ronald hung up the phone and shook his head. People like the commander-in-chief really lacked understanding of the real business society. He thought he was looking for him because he really needed his hundreds of thousands of dollars? Or do we need to borrow his extraordinary ability to appreciate TV dramas?

But it's no wonder. America has always been a society where power and money are traded, and the rich have to coax these people in exchange for other protections. The big boss who acquired the Rangers, the Wall Street fund boss Roland Bates, also had to coax little George to participate in various management tasks of the team, and even let him play and kick off in various events.

"Here we come, the outside is ready, there are no paparazzi..." Bodyguard Dan came in and informed Ronald that he had gone out to check and no one came to deliberately peek or follow the trip.

Ronald nodded, quickly got off the elevator, quickly walked down the steps from the exit of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in a low-key manner, opened the door and got into Little Bud's car. Heading to Disney.

"Ronald, my sister praised you very much and said good things about you from beginning to end. It's not easy for her to say good things about someone with her personality."

Disney's factory is far away from the other major studios. In an empty office here, Garry Marshall was waiting for him in the office where Diane had given up on the movie.

"It's a pity that she didn't stay and continue to be a director. Diane got along very happily with her."

"I heard about your wife's pregnancy, congratulations."

Garry Marshall looks like a little old man, but he gives people a very friendly feeling, just like the uncle next door. In addition, Bob Reiner, a partner of Castle Rock whom Ronald is familiar with, is his ex-brother-in-law, and Dane is also close to his sister Penny Marshall. Ronald and he communicate with each other in exactly the same way. The attitude of an acquaintance.

"I heard that the heroine is still making a lot of noise?" Ronald Dele is trying to solve the script problem of the movie. If an actress wants to change the script, it is not a good thing for the producer and director. .

"Ah, yes, you will know if you meet Julia Roberts. She is in love now, and she exudes a special charm when she meets all the men." Garry Marshall smiled, but he was very fond of Roberts. I'm not completely opposed to the idea.

"Oh, do you also agree to change it to a happy fairy tale ending? The prince and the princess live happily ever after?"

"Yes. To a certain extent, this is inspired by you. The happy ending you created in When Harry Met Sally was very popular with the audience. The current audience seems to like this. A sweet ending.

I've been in this business long enough and audience preferences come and go like a tide. I feel like their expectations for romantic films are now gradually returning to happy endings. I no longer like the kind of stories from the 1980s where men and women's reason triumphs over their emotions. "

"Really?" Ronald didn't expect Garry Marshall to use his own movie to testify, which greatly strengthened the credibility of his case.

"It's true, look at this..." Garry Marshall is not a pure director. He took out a table listing the endings of the blockbuster romantic movies in the past five years.

The numbers do seem to be trending towards the classic Hollywood romance - no matter how illogical and impossible that ending may be in real life..."

"Are you serious? Who would believe that a ruthless Wall Street banker who bankrupted his father would fall in love with a southern daughter who was born on the street and has not even graduated from high school?"

"This is the main reason why I asked to meet with you today. You are a great expert, Ronald. I want to invite you to discuss how to make this ending at least slightly possible logically, so that the audience can cherish it. Beautiful dreams can come true..."

"Oh, Gary..." If Ronald hadn't known that Garry Marshall had a happy family and a loving wife, he would have wondered if Julia Roberts had seduced the staid romance director.

"It's for the box office..." Garry Marshall knows a lot of people. Of course he knew that Rood was most concerned about box office numbers.

"Okay, okay, let me think..."

Ronald looked carefully at the life background of the male protagonist Edward Lewis in the script. His mother was disliked by his father since childhood. His own background is very similar to those on Wall Street who are experts in using junk bonds to acquire good companies.

Taking advantage of the long-term low interest rates during the previous years, these people took advantage of the corporate junk bond market on Wall Street to issue bonds frantically, used this high-yield bond to finance, and then acquired companies with good fundamentals.

After buying those companies, they did not use them to operate them. Instead, they took advantage of the low valuation of these local manufacturing industries to split them up and then sell them to foreign manufacturing capital.

Under certain market conditions, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. These people made a lot of money by dismantling and selling off America's old industries.

But in 1988, the last year of the previous president's term, the Federal Reserve began to raise the base interest rate multiple times. Companies including Milken that issued junk bonds encountered great difficulties. For example, Minahan's Cannon Pictures was dragged down by such rising interest rates.

Edward Lewis in the script is not exempt. He did so many bad things in the early stage and has suffered retribution now.

"Okay, let's do this, let's let him stop in time before the stock market crash, stop dismantling America's industrial manufacturing industry, and keep them as a whole. I think a Wall Street banker wants to escape this This is probably the only way to avoid a disaster.”

Ronald looked at the script and scratched his head and said that the male protagonist could not be an outstanding person like Milken. He had collusion between politics and business and had so many internal relationships that he was outrageous, which led to prosecution by prosecutors. He is not a business wizard and cannot have his eye on a certain industry. Then rely on your own talents to increase the stock price of the business.

It happened that little George told him about the recent news that the government would increase investment in military industrial enterprises. Then let this person who plays with political and business relationships rely on inside information and then invest in the military and shipbuilding industry to build big ships for the country.

"dxn, you are really a genius Ronald. My sister and ex-brother-in-law were right about you. Because of his father's ruthlessness towards his mother, Lewis gradually turned into a person who only cares about making money and has no feelings.

Only when Vivian brings him family warmth can he restore a normal emotional world. Only in this way can we be unwilling to break up such a good shipyard due to emotional ties, and if it continues to operate, good people will be rewarded. "

Garry Marshall instantly thought of the point where the two threads converged. The emotional ups and downs between Edward Lewis and Vivian Ward happen to be the main points of the ups and downs of the male protagonist's career.

Marshall quickly thought of many plots, such as making Vivian like the shipyard owner and his son, which aroused Lewis's jealousy.

It was also because of this that Edward Lewis was able to face up to his feelings for Vivian. This feeling of jealousy has been missing for a long time in him. Several of his ex-girlfriends married other people because they couldn't wait for his proposal.

Sometimes the script is just like this, and often just one inspiration can lead to a big breakthrough.

"But I'm afraid you will face great difficulties..." Ronald saw that Garry Marshall was very emotional, and he had no choice but to pour cold water on him.

"What difficulty?" Marshall was an expert, and he knew that the difficulties Ronald mentioned were certainly not groundless.

"The problem lies in the casting," Ronald spread his hands, "No self-respecting male star will accept such a role.

Because the male star's character creation in this drama is even more outrageous than Harrison Ford's character in Working Girl.

Harrison Ford at least plays an active role in pushing the plot forward. But in this movie, the male protagonist Lewis is only pushed forward by the female protagonist from beginning to end. All the active scenes are on the heroine Vivian.

I'm afraid the audience will only remember the heroine's wonderful performance and not the male protagonist. Then which star is willing to deign to act in this role? "

"Then it depends on Julia Roberts..."

Garry Marshall smiled and said that he had already seen Julia Roberts' "ability" during the audition process in the past few days, and he was not really worried about this matter.

"You seem very confident..."

…

A few days later, Ronald discovered that Garry Marshall's confidence was justified. He participated in several auditions for Julia Roberts and male actors.

This woman didn't know if it was because she had recently found a new boyfriend and was in love with her, but the charm she exuded was completely different from when she was filming "Steel Mulan".

Ronald felt strongly that Julia Roberts was not actually acting, but was expressing the mood of being in love naturally. To some extent, this is also a kind of true-to-life performance. Or it is the emotional memory in the method school, no matter what you call it.

Many men can't stand her feeling of being in love from the inside out.

"Who is her boyfriend?" Ronald asked Garry Marshall quietly. He was also curious about the boyfriend who caused such a huge reaction in Julia Roberts.

"Donald Sutherland's son Kiefer, he and his father presented the Canadian Film and Television Association awards at the Oscars ceremony two years ago. He is also a person with very strong emotions."

"Oh?" Ronald remembered this actor, who was also a person with a wide chin and excessive hormone secretion.

...

"Thank you for coming, we will notify your agent if there is any news."

The person who just auditioned with Julia Roberts was John Travolta, who hadn't seen him for several years. He was also fascinated by Julia.

Since filming the dance movie directed by Stallone, Travolta has fallen into a career slump and has not been able to get any good roles. Now he is going to audition for a medium-sized production like Disney.

"Well... Thank you. Thank you Julia, I am very happy to perform with you..."

"Hehe, thank you..." Julia Roberts's electric eyes flashed at Travolta... After all, he was the idol in the hearts of thousands of girls back then. If she could work with him, she would probably be able to make herself a big star... right?

John Travolta was shocked by Julia Roberts and left happily.

Ronald and Garry Marshall were left with a bitter smile. These two handsome men and beautiful women put together, there was no chemical reaction at all.

...

"Oh, God, it's too hot here... Can you give me a cup of cappuccino?" Another actor who came to audition was Al Pacino, who played the Godfather.

"Oh, give Julia a cup..." After Ronald signaled his assistant to bring the coffee, Pacino didn't drink it himself, but handed it to Julia Roberts.

"Hehe, thank you..."

Roberts was very satisfied with Al Pacino's profound drama skills. They enjoyed reading the lines in the script together, but the height of this dwarf...

"Thank you for coming. We will inform your agent when there is news." Ronald was also desperate about the height difference between the two. How much work did Coppola do to make the second-generation Godfather Michael so tall?

"Julia, I hope we can have a chance to work together in the future..." Al Pacino probably also saw that his height did not match his, but this did not prevent him from asking Julia out.

"Ahem, we still need Julia to continue auditioning..."

Ronald coughed twice and drove the dwarf away. Al Pacino had lost all his underwear when he was preparing to shoot "Revolution" by himself.

After Al Pacino walked out of the audition room, Julia Roberts came over with a cup of coffee, put it close to Ronald's ear, and whispered "Hehe, thank you..."

Ronald felt his ear was itchy, and was scratched by her hair. Then, his hand felt hot, and Julia Roberts held his hand with her other hand, and felt a note, and quickly handed it to his palm.

When he walked away, Ronald found an opportunity to pick it up and saw that it said, "Thank you for writing Vivian Ward's story so well, I am very grateful to you..." There was also a string of numbers below, which was Julia Roberts' phone number.

Ronald quickly flipped his hand and hid the note in his pocket. It would not be good if Garry Marshall saw it.

"Do you feel her charm?" Garry Marshall also tilted his head and said to Ronald.

"Ahem, yes..." Ronald covered it up.

"Only such a person can be convincing in the role of Vivian, otherwise a banker like Edward Lewis would not be tempted..."

"Hmm..." Ronald was relieved when he heard that they were discussing the plot.

However, what the director said made sense. There is a kind of actor who has a unique charm in front of the camera, as if the audience wants to have a love affair with them. No matter how low the IQ of the actor himself is or how bad their acting is, the camera's preference for them makes the audience ignore all their shortcomings and just want to replace the person who plays opposite him on the screen and be affectionate with him.

Just like Julia Roberts, no matter how bad her acting is, she can't interpret the logic behind the role at all. But after the audition film was developed and played on the screen, Ronald saw it and felt that it was so convincing.

"I'm afraid it's hard to find this actor, who has to be on par with her..."

Ronald's worry didn't last long, and another actor auditioned. Like Julia Roberts, he is also an actor who can gain audience recognition based on his appearance, regardless of his lack of acting skills and stupidity.

"I don't know, the audition was very pleasant, but I always feel that this movie is not suitable for me..."

The speaker is Richard Gere, who once worked with Diane in Coppola's film "The Cotton Club". So in a private setting after the audition, when Ronald asked him what he thought, Richard Gere was willing to tell the truth.

"Okay, I will keep in touch with your agent."

This time, it was Ronald and director Marshall who wanted Richard Gere to take the role. There was no other reason, just because of the chemistry between him and Julia Roberts in the audition.

When a romantic movie encounters such an opponent, Ronald and Garry Marshall both know that this pair is the best candidate.

"Thank you, goodbye..."

After the private conversation, when Richard Gere and Ronald returned to the audition room, Julia Roberts was still waiting for him there, and came up to hug and kiss Richard.

Ronald, who was talking to the director, looked back and confirmed that the chemistry between the two also existed outside the camera.

"Huh?" Ronald accidentally saw Julia Roberts' hand struggling to take it out of Richard Gere's hand, and it seemed that there was a note left in the other's palm.

"Hey..." In the subsequent discussion, Ronald said to Garry Marshall, "I will try my best to promote the cooperation between these two love bombs..."

After a day's work, Ronald got into Bud's car. After sitting down, he reached into his pocket, took out the contact information Julia Roberts gave him, crumpled it up and threw it out of the car window.