Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"The female friend of the actor (Richard Gere) has the right to visit at any time, and the crew must be responsible for her accommodation and itinerary, and enjoy the same level of treatment as the actor (Richard Gere)..."

Richard Gere read all the details of the agreement, and the last one made him hesitate for half a second, but he still signed his name on the contract to agree to act in the expectant eyes of Julia Roberts.

In addition to Cindy Crawford's right to visit at any time, he also enjoys the top privileges that a male actor can enjoy.

In the crew, his trailer is larger than all other actors, including Julia Roberts, with a wider bed and more luxurious interior decoration.

He also has a full-time chef who prepares food for him every day, and this part of the expenditure is also borne by the crew.

A team of costume designers, hairstylists and makeup artists who serve him alone are all very expensive professionals with whom he has cooperated for a long time. Of course, this part of the cost is also paid by the crew.

Finally, of course, full-time drivers and bodyguards are indispensable. It is essential to isolate the fans who come to visit him when he is acting in a movie.

The male and female protagonists were determined, and Disney held a small celebration ceremony for this crew.

"Well done, Ronald." Jeffrey Katzenberg, the producer of Disney, gave Ronald a thumbs up. Raised champagne to greet him.

Disney can't see big stars in live-action movies, so it can only focus on medium-sized movies. It is a pleasant surprise for them to find Richard Gere to star.

"We have to invest more..." Ronald put forward the most critical requirement. Richard Gere's salary is not only very expensive, but also his various benefits have to be paid by the crew.

Calculate it, if these benefits are converted into money and added together with his salary, it will almost catch up with the market price of 5 million US dollars of a first-line male star.

"Of course we will invest more, do you want to add a little bit?" Katzenberg was very satisfied with being able to invite Richard Gere to star in Disney's movie. But the script is an R-rated movie after all, and the box office base is not as good as PG-13. But if he could share some of the risk, he would undoubtedly be very happy.

"No problem, I'll also increase some of my shares here," Ronald thought of the fund tailored for George Jr. He could also absorb some of the investment brought in by Bannon, and invest in the production process of this film together with the Screen Fund managed by Disney President Eisner.

But in this way, the investment of this film will become extremely complicated. There are a total of more than a dozen investors at three levels, and they will be divided into three groups to enjoy the box office share after the film is released according to the distance of the relationship and the first come first served.

The first level is Disney himself and Ronald's Daydream, who are the main producers leading this project. The second level is the insiders in Hollywood, plus there are a lot of other money, and they have been operating in Hollywood for a long time and are also included in this level, so it is not good to exploit them too harshly.

The third level is the investment funds that have made some isolation arrangements with the project. Their movies are selling well, and at most they only take some of the leftovers after the last few rounds of sharing as a ticket to enter the Hollywood game.

"So is the name of your movie still called 3000?" Katzenberg asked. This kind of movie naming is usually seen in some directors' creative works. If it is a commercial film, it is better to change it to a movie title that can let the audience know what kind of movie the content is.

"This matter is also related to the budget. If you can allocate extra funds to purchase the copyright of a song..." Ronald laughed.

Bannon's participation gave him some inspiration. Back then, Bannon used the name of the Beatles' "Love is Not for Sale" as the title of the movie. And around this title, he wrote a script, and it really sold well.

Now that Julia Roberts and Richard Gere have such a good chemistry, the scenes and dialogues of the whole movie have to be redesigned according to their chemistry.

Ronald discussed with the music director Jimmy and soon found a well-known pop song, the 1964 swing song "Oh, Pretty Woan". This song was covered by the rock band Van Halen in the 1980s. It is a very popular song.

It is very appropriate to use this song as the title of the movie, because the lyrics include the sentence "Beautiful woman, walking on the street, beautiful woman, I like...". It fits perfectly with the plot, Vivian's identity as a streetwalker, and her encounter with Lewis.

"Haha, no problem...", Katzenberg was extremely satisfied with this proposal. Indeed, this name is much better than the meaningless 3000. Moreover, it is an old song from 1964, and it doesn't cost much to buy its copyright.

"Mr. Li, I am very happy to have the opportunity to interview you. What are your expectations for this new film?"

Disney's celebration also invited some familiar media to come to report on the film project. In addition to the "Hollywood Reporter" published in Los Angeles, which will ask them to interview and report on the preparation and establishment of each new film, Ronald's familiar "New York Daily News" also sent their entertainment reporters.

"I'm just one of the producers of this film. You should ask our director Mr. Garry Marshall and the two protagonists about such artistic issues." Ronald saw that the new reporter was not very proficient in her business, so he quickly pointed her to the interview.

"Sorry, Director Li, I just like your interpretation of women's movies..." The female reporter stuck out her tongue. It seems that Ronald's reputation for feminist movies has spread quite a lot inside and outside the circle.

Roland shook her head. She didn't actually make women's movies. She just gave women more and more appropriate roles in the movies than usual, and some movies were narrated with women as the protagonists.

However, this did create a new school in Hollywood, and he and Jim Cameron were the representatives of this school. In their two movies, women's stories always occupy a main line of the narrative, which is quite different from the traditional Hollywood script structure where male stars dominate and women are just foils.

And the two have one thing in common, that is, female roles are not limited to those young and beautiful women, and there are often opportunities to portray some professional women over 30. This is obviously more attractive to Hollywood's famous female stars than ordinary directors.

"Richard, what are your expectations for working with Julia?" The new entertainment reporter ran to interview the male lead again.

"Julia is great, I am very much looking forward to working with her in this movie. In fact, if it weren't for her, I might not have accepted the invitation to this movie..."

When Richard Gere said this, he changed his usual acting style and was leaning towards the implicit, introverted and low-key handsome style of a banker.

For a star like him who is very photogenic, acting is nothing more than playing a handsome banker, a handsome worker, and various handsome roles...

Originally, saying good things about other roles at the preparatory meeting is both a common practice and an obligation for stars. Their high pay is largely paid for their attractiveness, attracting more fans to watch the movie in the media.

But today, his praise of Julia Roberts angered another beautiful woman present.

"Ahem..." The official girlfriend Cindy Crawford came up and took Richard Gere's arm. With a pair of beautiful eyes, she stared at the reporter to see what kind of questions she could ask.

This female swearing territory action surprised the reporter. She hurriedly ended the interview with Richard Gere and went to interview other actors.

Richard Gere also became very impatient when he saw this, and made a gesture of shaking his hand... The clause of visiting the set at any time was obviously added by Cindy Crawford on purpose.

Cindy Crawford was not easy to mess with either. Seeing this, she also shook her hand and ran to Ronald's side in high heels.

"Ronald, Richard won't let me read his script. You have to tell me, how many intimate scenes are there in this movie?"

"Ahem, Cindy, you don't need to do this..." Ronald had never seen such a scene. In the past, Harrison Ford's wife only came to the set every day to visit her husband in order to monitor him, and Ronald took them to dinner.

"Don't be like this, then what do you want me to do? What is the entertainment industry like? It's not like I haven't seen it before, it's even better than our fashion industry..."

The mole on Cindy's lip is still so charming, and her big wavy curly hair just fits Ronald's aesthetic. When she said this, she shook her head, and the ends of her hair lifted up, which made Ronald feel a little itchy. He quickly touched the wedding ring on his left ring finger with his fingers.

"I agree to all your requests, Cindy. You can visit the set anytime you want. I only have one request, don't interfere with the filming.

You know that many times, this type of movie depends largely on the chemistry between the male and female protagonists. But this is not true, they only have such performances on camera, and when the filming is completed and they return to their trailers, he is your very good boyfriend... Good actors can clearly distinguish between performance and life..."

"I haven't made a movie, I don't know. Ronald, I believe you, can you guarantee that what you say is true?" Cindy Crawford put her hands on her waist and thrust her hips forward, and the sexiness of an American girl came out from her bones.

"Cindy, have some confidence in yourself. No one can resist your charm..."

"Huh, you are..." Cindy was quite satisfied with Ronald's compliment. She also felt that as long as she often came to visit and appeared in front of her boyfriend Richard Gere, no one could snatch him away.

"Christy (Turlington) still lives in our original New York apartment. She sometimes calls me and talks about you. She misses you very much..."

"If Christy needs help, let her call my agent..."

"Hey, why are you so ruthless?" Cindy Crawford patted Ronald's arm.

"Ahem," Ronald raised his left hand and gestured that he had put on his wedding ring. He looked at Richard Gere over there, who was still accepting several media interviews with Julia Roberts, and did not notice what happened here.

Fortunately, Cindy Crawford's attention immediately shifted to her very dangerous boyfriend.

"It's terrible..." Ronald screamed in his heart as he watched Crawford's back twisting and turning towards her boyfriend. The fit body and elegant temperament of the catwalk model made him feel... In addition, Cindy Crawford walked the traditional catwalk, which required a lot of strength in the waist and hips. Looking from behind... Ronald quickly took a sip of champagne, then touched the wedding ring on his hand and calmed down.

...

Now going home on time every day is not only Ronald's duty as a husband, but also a way for him to escape his dangerous thoughts.

"I feel like we are now like a couple in traditional Hollywood movies. You go home on time every day after get off work, and I prepare food for you."

"Well, what dishes did you order Wang Ma to cook today?" As long as Diane didn't do it herself, Ronald felt that it would be no problem.

"Just some common things, nothing special?" Diane smiled and asked the maid to bring the dishes. Sometimes she would cook a dish herself, and then let Ronald guess which dish she made in a small game.

"Well, I can't guess. I think all the dishes today are equally delicious." Ronald was surprised to find that his sensitive taste buds were a little out of order today.

"And some baked cookies..." Dane smiled and served the dessert after the meal.

"Hmm..." Ronald took a bite. This was obviously Aunt Karen's recipe, but it seemed that there was something wrong with the mixing of butter and eggs.

"What's wrong?" Dane tasted it and found that what he baked was not delicious, and laughed.

"People from Paramount called you today to ask if you have any interest in their script?" Dane waved to the maid to remove the cookies and took out the collection sent by Aunt Karen. Then he told Ronald about some calls he received today.

"Do you like that ghost movie?"

"I don't really want it anyway..." Dane had worked with Oliver Lawrence, a veteran Hollywood star, since she was a child. She knew that this was a taboo that male stars tacitly agreed to, and no one said it. It's hard to find a famous star to play a ghost...

"Then I'll turn it down in two days..."

After dinner, the two of them nestled on the sofa and watched TV.

NBC is the TV station with the highest ratings now, and their TV series often set the trend. As the base of the left-wing ideology of the Donkey Party, ABC often plagiarizes the themes of NBC's TV series and then makes a left-wing version.

Just like the pain of growing up to family ties, they also made a progressive version of the detective dramas in NBC.

Today Ronald watched the TV series called "MacGyver", in which the male protagonist MacGyver is a special forces soldier who is entrusted to solve various crises around the world.

But because he is a pacifist, he never uses weapons or kills enemies. Instead, he uses all kinds of things that can be bought in supermarkets to achieve his goals.

This kind of ridiculous TV series has good ratings. Housewives like Diane (temporary) especially like this kind of TV series. They don't worry that their children will imitate guns and violence after watching it.

At this time, Bannon called.

"How is it? Does Fox have any idea to purchase Seinfeld?"

"They like it very much, but they also encountered the problem of adapting to the low evaluation of the audience. So they only gave a six-episode first season order. Are you willing to accept it?" Ronald told Bannon what Barry Diller from 20th Century Fox personally called him to say.

Barry Diller and his boss Rupert owed Ronald a favor, so they wanted to know if Ronald really valued this TV series so much. If so, they were willing to push it hard to repay the favor.

"If there are only six episodes, then I might as well take NBC. They are also willing to give a four-episode order, but NBC is definitely much better than Fox TV Network."

Bannon made a decision quickly. This choice is not difficult to make, because NBC is one of the three major national syndicated TV networks. And Fox TV Network is just a regional, local TV network.

"Well, I'll turn it down. I've secured a $1.5 million share for you from Fox. "Ronald invested part of his own Daydream, and then left a few hundred thousand dollars for George's fund. He sold the rest to Bannon with low priority conditions, and asked him to sell it on Wall Street.

"Very good, very good, the market is very popular with the romantic dramas you like now..."

Bannon's words were not entirely flattering. After "When Harry Met Sally" was released in more than 1,000 theaters, it directly rushed to a weekend box office of $12 million. It directly surpassed Batman and was second only to another new film from Warner Bros., "Lethal Weapon 2".

Ronald's vision for women's movies was once again proven, and the overseas release of this movie was also put on the agenda.