Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Kathryn Bigelow is a tall woman, 6 feet tall (1.82 meters), with flowing blonde hair.

She wore a white shirt, suit and pants, with a director's viewfinder hanging around her neck, giving her a heroic look.

"This is William Dafoe, I asked him to prepare my new film." Kathryn introduced Ronald to the actor she had booked for her new film.

"Hello, hello." Ronald shook hands with the two. "To be honest, I think you are more like an actor than a director." Ronald felt that Kathryn Bigelow's face showed a three-dimensional sense under the light, and she was a good material for being a movie star.

"I'm better at directing." Kathryn Bigelow hated it most when others ignored her directing talent and only saw her beauty.

"Sorry, that's not what I meant." Ronald saw that the blonde beauty in front of him also had some independent female spirit and liked to be praised for her professional ability.

"Ronnie, you don't know. Catherine not only got a master's degree from Columbia, but also taught there, teaching screenwriting." Douglas Jr. came over and formally introduced Catherine's background to Ronald. "She also made a short film last year, and a Hollywood director admired her very much."

"You are already a teacher at Columbia University?" Ronald looked at Catherine. This blonde beauty still looked more like a college student.

"I am already 29 years old. It's not strange to be a temporary substitute lecturer." Catherine Bigelow shook her hair.

"29? Are you sure it's not 19?" Ronald said.

"Hahaha, your friends are much more interesting than you, Doug." Catherine was very happy to be complimented.

"If there is a chance, I would also like to see your short film." Ronald felt that Douglas Jr. was very interested in Catherine and probably invested a lot in Catherine. "What is the story of your new film?"

"It's a story about a gang member riding a motorcycle helping a girl in a small southern town to avenge her father's murder."

I didn't expect the plot of a beautiful woman making a movie to be so retro and full of male hormones.

"William is the leading actor I booked. Now we are looking for investment in the film."

Ronald looked at Douglas Jr. It was one thing to give a few thousand dollars to finance a short film, but making a feature film was far beyond the scope of his sponsorship.

"It sounds really great, a bit like a Roger Corman movie. Do you have the funds?"

"No, no, I'm not making an exploitation film. I want to make a film with profound humanistic meaning." Kathryn Bigelow began to talk about her aesthetic design for the film and the conflicts in the plot.

Ronald was a little distracted when he heard it. If it was made into an exploitation film, maybe someone would invest. If it added a profound humanistic spirit, the financing prospects would not be very good. It would be better to talk about how many exciting scenes, violent gun battles, and motorcycle chases there were.

But the leading actor she found was really distinctive. The actor named Wille Dafoe had a face that was born to be a villain. Two gray eyes, a hooked nose, and a mouthful of uneven teeth when smiling, he looked like a sinister and vicious gang boss.

"So what are your ideas for financing?" Ronald pulled his thoughts back and asked Catherine where the money for filming came from.

"I will keep trying until the goddess of luck favors me." Catherine knows very well how hard it is for a new director to raise money for his first film.

"Tell me, how did you find a suitable male lead like William?" Ronald shifted the topic to William Dafoe.

William is usually quite kind, but his smile ruins the atmosphere a bit. "I just came out of the Heaven's Gate crew, and Catherine happened to find me to talk about the new film. I agreed after reading the script."

"Heaven's Gate" is not the new film invested by United Artists by the fat guy Michael Cimino, the best director of the last Oscar?

Ronald remembered seeing the news that the crew started filming in April. It's October and it hasn't been finished yet?

"It took so long to shoot this film? What's the subject matter?"

"It's about the Johnson County War in the last century," William Dafoe explained when Ronald still didn't understand. "It's a war between local farmers and new immigrants. The director hopes to show a forgotten history of America."

"That's great. We'll soon be able to see your performance on the big screen." Ronald said a few polite words.

"Hahaha," William Dafoe and Kathryn Bigelow laughed together, "No, William's role was cancelled. He was kicked out of the crew."

"Huh?" Ronald felt something was wrong, "Why do you seem so happy?"

"You don't know, Cimino is a lunatic. I'm happy to finally be able to get out of that crazy crew, and I got my salary." William Dafoe took a sip, and the few of them sat down to continue chatting.

William Dafoe shook his wine glass, as if he was organizing his words, "Cimino's requirements for details are crazy. Every morning we have to leave the hotel at 4 am and drive 2 hours to the location to practice horse riding and roller skating."

"And he himself, at this time every day, with the female production director and the leading actress Isabelle Huppert, who is a French woman, is in the room having a blast. The crew said that they have to have a Coke in the morning before they can get up."

"He was very paranoid about details. Because the width of a constructed street was not enough, he ordered all the antique wooden buildings on both sides of the street that cost more than 2 million US dollars to be demolished and rebuilt. I just said, if the width is not enough, we can Just demolishing one side of the house was enough, and Cimino fired me on the spot.”

"I spent several months learning the rules of cockfighting in central America 100 years ago. I actually fought a lot of chickens with the animal caretaker on the crew. I don't know how many of my pitiful cockfighting scenes he will have left. "

The more Ronald listened, the more he gloated, until he heard that Cimino had to tear it down and rebuild it again because the scenery did not meet the requirements. United Artists is really rich. The US$2 million in set construction costs alone is enough for him and Kathryn Bigelow to make a feature film each with a lot left over.

"Is the production company just going to let him waste it like this?" Douglas Jr., who also had an idea of ​​2 million US dollars, asked Ronald's question.

"Because he is the best director at the Oscar?" Ronald guessed.

"No, not even the Oscar for Best Director." Kathryn Bigelow stayed in Los Angeles some time ago, attended many parties with many people in the industry, and knew some inside information.

"I met Milos Forman, the director of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," in Hollywood. His new film is also being distributed by United Artists.

Since United Artists' top executives left last year to found a new company, Orion, the new management appointed by Pan American wanted to prove their abilities, so they hired Michael Cimino to direct a new film, hoping to make it a 007 movie. , a box-office success model like Rocky.

So they gave Cimino a lot of power, and Cimino is a successful power game player. In the game with the new management, he won the decision-making power of the heroine and more and more additional budgets.

In addition, the on-site production manager is his little crush, and everything goes along with him. I heard that the budget for Heaven's Gate has increased from US$4 million at the beginning to over US$30 million. United Artists' cash is starting to get tight. Milos Forman's next film has not received investment from United Artists and is looking for a new producer. "

"A strong new Oscar-winning director and a weak manager who has just been promoted have to make achievements to become this crazy crew."

"Now the crew is going crazy. The day before I left, Cimino shot a scene of whipping people with a whip, which lasted a full day. It had been filming for seven months, and more than half of the plot was not filmed. I think the actors were also very uncomfortable. No more rebellion," Willem Dafoe added.

More than $30 million? After adding interest, wouldn't it be 40 million after rounding? Ronald somewhat understood the mentality of Catherine and William. Many people in the industry did not like Fatty Cimino and were waiting to see his jokes.

"If this continues, the crew will lose control, right?" Ronald didn't have any experience with this kind of large-scale production, but he didn't want to sit back and watch this happen when he came to United Artists. "Why didn't they fire Cimino and replace him with someone else?" What about a director completing the shoot?”

Douglas Jr. also nodded. He had been raised by his family since he was a child. If he encountered this kind of situation in other businesses, he should have cut his losses and changed his manager long ago.

"Who says they don't have this idea? The problem is that they can't find any famous director willing to take over this mess."

"Milos Forman told me that United Artists once contacted him to come to the rescue, but he saw the samples shot by Cimino. They were all lengthy shots, shot ten or twenty times. Even if he took over, there was nothing he could do. Using old footage, his exact words were, 'This is crap and only Cimino knows how to edit it.'"

Kathryn Bigelow said.

"If you were asked to go, would you do it?"

"Of course I do. The worst I can do is to shoot it all over again. I make films very quickly. I only shot the short film that Doug funded in 5 days." Kathryn Bigelow is a fast-moving film maker, which is in line with Ronald's habit.

"I heard they were convincing legendary British director David Lean, director of 'Lawrence of Arabia', to take over in exchange for United Artists investing in David Lean's next film, 'Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian.' That Mr. Lean has been planning the movie for three years."

Several people lamented "Heaven's Gate", especially two young people who were interested in directing careers. They were calculating how many movies they could make with $30 million.

"The commander-in-chief signed an executive order to allow the deposed King of Persia Pahlavi to enter the country for treatment of his illness." A person changed the TV channel and accidentally jumped to CBS News, which was broadcasting new news about Persia.

"When will Persia return to normal and oil prices return to normal?" Someone began to complain loudly.

Several people looked at Kathryn Bigelow's alumnus, Persian student Amir.

"I don't know either. I heard that the Grand Ayatollah of the new regime has issued a threat, asking the Grand Commander to send the former King Pahlavi back to the country for trial, otherwise he will launch an attack... I am very worried about the safety of my family, and I hope that the great leaders of America will The commander fulfills his wishes.”

"The commander-in-chief of America will not accept such a threat." Ronald shook his head secretly.