Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald, David Simkins, and some other screenwriter friends discussed it many times and finally made an important decision. He decided to make a moderate modification to the part of the movie he saw in his dream.

First, he was reluctant to let Danny DeVito play the protagonist Garfield, because DeVito's comedy performance structure largely relies on his appearance that makes people laugh at first sight and his strong language skills.

This is a very realistic business war drama. If too strong comedy elements are mixed in, it will dilute the overall theme of the drama and make the audience feel more fragmented when watching the movie.

Second, he was also determined not to play the overly sexy and beautiful heroine in the original work. Based on Ronald's experience dealing with lawyers and Wall Street elites, these people can be beautiful or handsome, but there is no vase without brains or inexperienced. The actress in the dream was too lustful, which made the audience unable to believe that this was a successful lawyer in Wall Street mergers and acquisitions.

For example, in "Working Girl" directed by Ronald, when Melanie Griffith and Joan Cusack were secretaries, they were not too sexy. But when pretending to be a manager, Griffith had to hide her sexiness, put her hair up, and show a shrewd, restrained sexiness.

Diane could not just show her sexiness, but had to transform into a successful career girl, beautiful within the scope of the current American business world. In other words, she could gain some advantages through her appearance, but she could never sell her beauty directly like Vivian in "Pretty Woman".

As for the overall tone, Ronald tended to adjust this "Other People's Money" into a business war drama with romantic love comedy elements.

Such a script requires two elements as the necessary characteristics of the male protagonist. One is that he can have a chemical reaction with Diane. The second is to have a certain sense of comedy and make the audience sympathize.

Based on these two elements, Ronald began to send audition invitations to suitable people in Hollywood. Finally, three main candidates were determined.

The first was Billy Crystal, who Ronald had directed. His "When Harry Met Sally" happened to be a hit in America, and female audiences especially recognized his charm. His comedy talent is mainly based on lines rather than appearance, and he is a very good choice in terms of box office appeal.

The second is Batman "Michael Keaton". Although he became famous for Batman, the male protagonist in "Gonghe" before was a commercial film in which he petitioned the executives of Japanese automobile companies to reopen the Detroit factory, thus generating a series of cultural conflicts.

The third one is undoubtedly Tom Hanks, who has worked with Diane in "Grown Up". He and Diane have been proven to have chemistry on the screen. However, the business and drama aspects have not been effectively proven.

Ronald basically sent the script to them in this order to test their reactions.

...

However, before waiting for Billy Crystal's reply, Ronald received an unexpected invitation.

NBC suddenly contacted Ronald and wanted to give "Working Girls" a full season broadcast contract and invited his production team to negotiate the terms.

"So it's a replacement..."

At NBC, Ronald and the head of the writing team, Lawrence Connor, met Rick Ludwin, who was in charge of the evening TV series.

After talking with him, I learned that the reason why NBC suddenly changed its mind was that they canceled three long-running TV series and six new TV series at once due to a sharp decline in ratings this year.

There are three TV series that started broadcasting in 1985 and 1986 before the writers' strike and received good ratings. But after the strike, the ratings fell sharply last year, and this year's performance is even worse. Advertising revenue has dropped sharply, and they were directly ordered to write a grand finale and end it hastily.

A series called "Family with Alfred" is about an alien creature who comes to a happy family. Alfred looks like a wild boar. It is a family comedy. Alfred actually feels a bit like "ET" back then. He is ugly but kind and has superpowers. Unfortunately, his spaceship crashed on Earth and he met a group of kind people to help him.

One is called "My Two Dads", which tells the story of a 12-year-old girl whose mother unfortunately passed away. Two single men who had pursued her mother at the time, a financial consultant and an artist, jointly raised the orphan. This is actually the idea brought by the hit movie "Three Dads and a Baby".

Both series use the time-tested formula of a hit movie, a core concept of a hit movie, and change it to a story that fits the rhythm of a TV series. Since the beginning of this spring, the ratings have fallen badly, and the writers' room can't do anything about it.

If the first two series only made NBC feel regretful, then the third one made NBC feel shocked. The series is called "Apartment 227", a situation comedy about two gossipy black women in an apartment in Washington, DC, and their family stories.

This kind of hit drama with ethnic characteristics should be stronger than ordinary white family dramas, because black people are always more tolerant of black stories. But this TV series with the longest history and the most measures to save it (many black stars were invited to guest star) also fell below the red line.

There are also six new series that were released last year. They were all highly anticipated after the strike, but they all tragically didn't even make it to the end of the first season.

This led to a decline in NBC's overall ratings, and their leadership, Rick Ludwin, who is in charge of late-night TV series and talk shows, was under tremendous pressure. He had no choice but to look at the eliminated series to see if there were any suitable substitutes to fill the vacancies.

Reminded by David Letterman, the host of the late show, Rick Ludwin remembered that this year NBC lost the weekend ratings championship for more than a year because it was snatched away by the Oscars produced by Ronald.

He found the pilot episode of "Working Girls" and watched it for a long time, and decided to let Daydream's new TV series take over.

"Well..." After talking about the temporary succession of "Working Girls", Ronald remembered Bannon's request, "That Seinfeld..."

"The ratings of the five episodes last year were not ideal... Well, if this trend of large-scale decline in ratings continues to spread, maybe I will let them try again..."

The right time, right place and right people, it didn't take much time to sign the broadcast contract, Ronald and Lawrence Connor got the contract for twelve episodes in the first season that day.

They still had a few weeks to continue to produce the episodes after the pilot, so they immediately gathered the actors including the heroine Sandra Bullock, and the writing room was started again, and they were engaged in the shooting of every minute.

"Oh my God, I can film again..." In a cafe in New York, a waitress received a pager and called her agent to get the good news that the TV series she played the heroine was reshooting. She called out on the spot, causing the boss to quickly stop her, "Sandra, what are you doing?"

"Your waitress got the heroine," a customer reminded nearby. The boss, who was silent for a while, began to applaud Sandra Bullock, and finally everyone in the cafe applauded the lucky girl.

Sandra Bullock bowed like in classical drama, and she immediately took off her waiter's apron. As soon as she got the plane ticket booked by the crew, she rushed to the Los Angeles studio.

A few days later, Ronald saw this girl in the studio, and the makeup artist and hairstylist of the crew were adjusting her. Ronald asked the director and screenwriter on the scene for their opinions. Sandra Bullock's performance was full of passion, and the whole crew was very motivated by her.

Doing what you love can indeed transfer this passion to the people around you.

"Well done, Sandra..." Ronald went over to encourage her. He also deliberately established Sandra Bullock's status in the crew. Because TV series take longer to shoot and the pressure to catch up with the progress is greater, the general staff will treat people according to their needs.

Ronald's face-to-face encouragement helped Sandra avoid many messy crew struggles. After all, the series Daydream was going to be broadcasted on NBC nationwide, so there was no time for them to engage in crew gossip.

This seemed to give the crew the wrong hint, and everyone suddenly thought that Sandra Bullock was the boss's woman, which unexpectedly achieved the effect Ronald wanted - everyone worked together, did not fight internally, and kept up with the progress with quality and quantity.

"Why are these TV series suddenly not working?"

Ronald took a few videotapes, pressed the fast-forward button, and quickly watched the TV series that NBC canceled.

This abnormal phenomenon always made him feel a little uneasy. After comparing the quality of the three TV series when they were just starting to air and before they were canceled, Ronald felt that there was not much difference in quality.

There were no major personnel changes or strategic adjustments within NBC. He also confirmed with NBC's head Rick Ludwin that it was indeed because of the sharp decline in ratings that the large-scale cancellations in the mid-season were replaced by new ones.

It is said that the screenwriters' strike has been over for so long, it is impossible that it is still affecting the quality of TV production, right?

Ronald seemed to have caught a little inspiration, but he was still half a step away from explaining it. He felt very upset and had to press the remote control of the video recorder, fast forward and rewind over and over again, hoping to catch that vague feeling again.

"Ronnie, do you want to watch it or not?" Diane was annoyed by his actions.

Ronald made an apologetic gesture, "I want to find out why no one watches these episodes suddenly."

"Forget it, I'll go to the study to watch it. Little Roger just fell asleep..." Diane waved her hand. She liked the "My Two Dads" very much. It happened to be when two possible fathers were doing DNA tests to reveal who was the biological father of the child. Diane picked up two boxes of the next videotapes and went to the next room to watch.

"Hmm..." Ronald simply turned off the remote control, installed the ejected videotapes, and threw them into the box next to him. Sometimes thinking too much and too hastily will make you unable to grasp the essence of the problem.

It just so happened that Billy Crystal had just finished reading the script of "Other People's Money" and called him to ask him to meet and chat.

"Hi, Billy..."

"Hi, Ronald..."

The two met in a cafe next to Biberly Park and hugged each other. The Oscars ceremony hosted by Billy Crystal was widely praised and he was the most praised host in the past five years.

Billy Crystal's reputation in the industry is rising rapidly. Compared with the past, he has received a lot more financing for his own projects and scripts.

However, he still likes the script that Ronald sent him. The success brought to him by "When Harry Met Sally" last time was beyond the reach of all other previous movies, and he also looks forward to working with Ronald again.

"I am very willing to play the role of Garfield..." Billy Crystal came up and expressed his feelings, "But I have just received financing for my own new project and am still looking for a distributor, so I don't know when you plan to shoot this movie in terms of schedule?"

"It will start shooting in the second half of this year. Is this your project?" Ronald reached out and took the script in Billy Crystal's hand, "Is this the cowboy film project you said you were going to invest in last time?"

"Hey, yes, I have always wanted to make a different cowboy movie, a deconstruction of traditional cowboy westerns, and a recollection and tribute to past western cowboy movies in the new era of urbanization."

Billy Crystal talked about his project very smoothly. He had practiced countless times when looking for funds, and now it is very smooth.

"If you are still looking for a distributor, I can recommend Columbia and Disney..." Ronald guessed what Billy Crystal meant and took the initiative to point it out.

"That's great, but if this happens, I may not have the time to act in your movie."

"Well..." Ronald was quickly flipping through Billy Crystal's script "City Rednecks". The script of this movie is really well written. Today's cowboys no longer do the traditional work of driving cattle and driving cattle to the slaughterhouse.

After large-scale urbanization, high-income urban white-collar workers are generally willing to go to the countryside to experience the life of western cowboys seen in movies and receiving tourism from these people in the city. It has become the biggest source of income for cowboys on farms now.

This movie tells the story of several powerless urban white-collar workers who engage in cowboy life, make a fake into a real life, and really rely on their own courage to drive cattle to the destination and find the precious things they lost in their life in the city.

If Billy Crystal only starred in this movie, then it would not be a problem to shoot two movies this year. But if he is also a producer and has to take charge of a lot of financing and distribution work, it is really difficult to find him to take care of two movies.

Especially this is his first time doing this kind of work, and he must invest a lot of time and energy.

Ronald nodded, indicating that he already knew the restrictions on his schedule. This is also a common thing for famous Hollywood stars. It is determined by the characteristics of the film production industry itself, and it does not affect the friendship between the two.

"Does my daydream have an investment share?" Ronald turned to invest in his movie.

"Of course, I'd love to, your investment is a very good recognition, and my future financing will be much easier..." Billy Crystal certainly would not refuse.

"Well, thank you." Ronald flipped through the script, and suddenly he found that there seemed to be a vase supporting role in it. A city professional woman who also joined the cowboy tour group because of her own emotional troubles.

She was harassed by the cowboy tour guide, and the three male protagonists did not dare to stand up for the beautiful girl, which led to a real cowboy, a man who was about to change and teach them the true meaning of cowboy life.

"I'm talking about the proportion. Can I arrange an audition for this female role?" Ronald pointed at the character named Bonnie and asked.

"But isn't Diane preparing for your new film? Or do you want to wait for me to make time..."

"Hahaha, I'm not recommending Diane..." Ronald laughed. In fact, he thought the quality of this movie was good. The role of a vase was suitable for Helen Slater's superficial acting skills. It didn't matter if she overacted in this kind of comedy.

"Ah, no problem. I will send the script before the audition. This role is also very important. The key turning point of the story was triggered by her..." Billy Crystal understood it immediately and made a promise immediately. As long as he is not completely unable to act, then this role is the person you recommend.

"What did Billy say?" Diane, who had just finished feeding her son, asked Ronald who had returned home.

"He has his own project and the schedule is not suitable. I have asked someone to contact the second choice, Michael Keaton."