Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Weintraub happily signed over the ownership of the British 2000 film library to a company owned by Ronald Douglas, Jr. and an anonymous minority shareholder.

Although it was nearly half less than the peak price when he bought it, it was much higher than the price that was nearly 90% off when it was auctioned by the court after bankruptcy.

And this money can support his cash flow. Those bastards at Bank of America, seeing that there was no opportunity to take advantage of his bankruptcy, found another reason to continue to give him loans.

Weintraub learned from the experience, regrouped, and found a new bank to balance the risks. Ronald also introduced him to Bannon's foundation to invest in his new film in the form of investments or loans. But there is a condition, it must be a film project approved by Ronald.

Weintraub learned the hard way and decided to look for the subject of "The Dragon King" that Ronald had filmed to get a turnaround. He immediately held a press conference and invited Noriyuki Morita, who plays Miyagi-sensei, to announce that he would shoot a new Dragon Boy movie.

Ralph Mazzio is already thirty years old and would be inappropriate in any way to play a young man. So Daniel officially retired from the "Dragon Boy" series and went to college.

Weintraub carefully studied Ronald's film success studies in recent years and found that there is always a very strong female character in his movies, so he also officially announced that the untitled "The Dragon King" will be A girl will be found to replace Daniel and continue to be trained in Ryukyu Karate by Master Miyagi.

To this end, they will also open an audition to the public to select Daniel's successor...

…

"Weintraub is finally back to normal..." Ronald looked at Weintraub talking about America's need for a female Daniel LaRusso at the press conference, and knew that this guy had finally recovered from the blow. Zhong stood up.

"Look, ABC is live broadcasting Julia Roberts' return to Los Angeles..." Diane grabbed the remote control and switched to the scene at Los Angeles Airport.

I saw Julia Roberts wearing big sunglasses, and Jason Patric walked out of the airport with their fingers intertwined. Faced with the swarm of photographers and reporters, the two showed no fear and officially appeared as a couple.

"I'm just telling you, Kiefer Sutherland is definitely in the wrong. If the bachelor party involves a stripper, he will definitely not show up at the scene..." She was about to run back and start a fight with Demi Moore. On the phone, the two had different opinions on whether there would be two men competing for a woman at the airport.

All of America is talking about this gossip, and young people are automatically divided into two camps, those who support the old love and those who support the new love. Some people think that Kiefer Sutherland is not good enough for Julia Roberts after "Pretty Woman". He doesn't even have his own house but still has to live in his girlfriend's mansion. Sooner or later, the two will score points.

Some people also think that Julia Roberts didn't want to be with Sutherland anymore, so she deliberately planned the stripper time, and Kiefer was purely a victim...

Under such circumstances, the news that Justice Clarence Thomas successfully passed the Senate by a few votes did not receive such a large space of coverage.

…

"This is the list of actors I want..."

On this day, Chinese director Wang Ying, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, also came to Ronald's home in Los Angeles. Yang Yanzi brought him in with him. The "Joy Luck Club" in preparation is a movie for American audiences, not like the "promoter" of Ang Lee, which is mainly Chinese audiences.

Therefore, the importance of casting in the movie The Joy Luck Club is closely linked to the movie's box office success.

First of all, these female characters must have the Chinese appearance characteristics in the eyes of American audiences, and they must look like Chinese. Secondly, they also need to have an understanding of mainstream American culture. After all, this is a movie that understands Chinese culture from an American perspective.

Finally, the actors had to speak fluent English, but with a distinctly Chinese accent. Only in this way can the audience be able to take part in it.

In the past few months, Wang Ying's most important thing was casting. He traveled to Broadway and Hollywood, as well as drama students in other parts of the United States, to find suitable candidates.

Ronald took the stack of photos and looked at them. In addition to the familiar Zhou Caiqin and Lu Yan, there were also two Vietnamese actresses, Qiao Zheng and Ruan Yun'e.

"They look very Chinese..." Ronald looked at the two old Vietnamese ladies.

"They are immigrants from South Vietnam and originally of Chinese origin..." Wang Ying explained.

The four mothers who play the roles all have profound Chinese facial features, and their English has also been well tempered. They have been working in theater circles and film festivals for decades, so it is not a problem to perform in English. .

"These are the candidates for the four daughters..." Wang Ying handed over four more photos. It was more difficult to find young actresses who met the requirements.

This time, it took a lot of effort and finding some potential newcomers to bring together the four daughters. One is Zhao Jialing, a Californian. She was the only non-white female graduate of Pomona College where she attended college.

One is Lauren Tom, from Chicago. She is a Chinese immigrant

One is named Wen Minggna. She was born in Macau and later immigrated to her father. Her family ran a restaurant in Pittsburgh. But she is very promising. She graduated from the drama department of Carnegie Mellon University.

For the last one, I really couldn’t find a Chinese person who met the requirements, so I had to find one...

"Pfft, isn't this Tomita? She has grown into a big girl now?"

Ronald almost spit out his black tea with a sip. Is this the same Tomita Tan Ling who played Daniel's fat Japanese girlfriend in "The Dragon King 2"?

"Do you know her?" Wang Ying was surprised.

"Why don't I recognize her?

Tomita Tan Ling has grown out now, and she doesn't have the cute look of baby fat at all. Her whole body is very well-proportioned and has a feminine look. After she finished filming "Dragon Boy 2", she went to UC to complete her college studies, so she never got more film and television roles.

This time, she couldn't live without drama and participated in some auditions for TV series before being discovered by Wang Ying. After the interview, she found that Tomita Tan Ling has a strong sense of camera, her performance is relaxed, and she is not nervous at all. She immediately felt that she had found a treasure. …I didn’t expect that this was an actress trained by Ronald.

"Very good, who else do we need now?" Ronald saw a lot of audition photos at the back, including Chao Li, and knew how difficult it was to assemble such an all-Chinese team in Hollywood.

So he decided to give his support to the film.

"There are also young versions of the four mothers..."

"That's going to be difficult. You've found all the Asians in Hollywood who can speak English and can perform..."

"This plot is about the four sisters who have just arrived in America, so they don't need good English..."

"Oh, that's easy. I have an expert here. Just ask him." Ronald called Director Wu and asked him to come to his house for dinner and ask him about mainland movies.

"Hey, mainland actresses are very good. A large number of them came to America in the past few years, and they were all the actresses of Golden Rooster... However, many of them were influenced by the acting methods of old movies and were stereotyped. Yes. It may not meet your requirements..."

Director Wu's daughter is now in college, he has an important job entrusted by Ronald, and with a good income, his life is very comfortable and he has gained weight. I'm just a film director and the head of a film studio, but it's still a bit lonely when I don't have any filming opportunities in Hollywood.

Today, he had the opportunity to talk about the film situation in the Mainland, and he became more motivated. He named all the Mainland actresses who have outstanding performances in the past few years.

"But my movie is about the older generation of women who came to the United States. They didn't know English when they first came. After their own struggles, they now have children and grandchildren and are living a good life. So it's best for those who have never been to America. A very talented actress can truly portray the sense of cultural alienation and the strangeness of America..."

Wang Ying attaches great importance to this movie, and he has the idea of ​​making the movie a classic.

"Then you should go to Beijing Film Academy and China Theater to choose. The actors there have not yet been stereotyped by that kind of performance routine..." Director Wu listened to Wang Ying's ideas carefully, thought for a long time and gave his own suggestions.

"Let me ask Director Huang..." Ronald called Director Huang who was filming "Hi, Frank". When he came back, there were two names written on the note in his hand, Wu Junmei, "Xi Meijuan...

"Is this the actress who plays Princess Wenxiu in The Last Emperor?" Wang Ying recognized the name. "I've seen her named one of the fifty most beautiful faces in People Magazine, and I thought she wouldn't come to take a photo like this. Movie……"

"It's okay to try, just say it's been Hollywood for years

Ronald asked Yang Yanzi to write down the names of several people and arrange for them to audition. If necessary, he could also invite them in his name.

As for other characters, it is inevitable to go to the mainland. Ronald also asked Xiao Yan to help contact Xujiahui Studios and two colleges in the far north to open the door for large-scale productions of Chinese stories after "The Last Emperor".

Apart from anything else, Ronald's reputation as the city's foreign special consultant still has some credibility.

"Is this the bamboo mahjong prop you found?"

The Joy Luck Club is the name of the mahjong club established by four women. They encountered various unsatisfactory things after immigrating. During the regular mahjong gatherings, they supported and understood each other, and finally settled down successfully.

Therefore, mahjong is a very important prop in the movie.

"I spent a lot of time and found a lot of mahjong from that year. This is a sample of the props made after referring to many pairs of mahjong..."

"Self-touch... red..." Ronald twisted a mahjong tile with one hand, touched two tiles back and forth on the card with his middle finger, and then turned it over with a snap. Sure enough, it was a red... …

"Director Luo, you are really an expert on Chinese culture. They really found the right person when they asked you to be a foreign expert..." Director Wu laughed loudly, "How about we do some work?"

"A few...am I still afraid of you?"

We agreed that we would play sixteen rounds, and the loser would put money into the prize pool. After the game was settled, we would go to a new restaurant in Chinatown to eat Cantonese food. I heard that the master chef is a famous chef from Xiangjiang.

"Three short of one, Wang Ma, Wang Ma, come here, do you know how to play mahjong? Yes, play a few rounds with us, if you win, it's yours, if you lose, I'll pay..."

"Seven loaves..."

"Wait a minute, touch...all the same...you dare to hit me with just one piece of seven cakes..."

Wang Ma happily hugged the chips in front of Ronald. This boss was smart and kind, but his poker skills were really bad.

Ronald's face turned pale after losing a few games. He wanted to be a big player, but he was pushed down by others and cut off many hands. He quickly lost all his chips.

It happened that Diane walked in and asked, "What kind of game are you playing?"

"Mahjong is fun. Come and help me play a few hands. I have to make some phone calls." Ronald quickly popularized the basic knowledge of mahjong. Diane found it very interesting and sat down to play the cards seriously.

"How is Ovitz? Is there any movement?" Ronald called Niceta. Now they are also paying close attention to what Ovitz will do after losing David Letterman.

"He wants to sign Spielberg now. His Captain Hook crew has run into a lot of trouble these days. Ovitz wants to help him solve this problem. If he succeeds, Spielberg will probably have a good impression of him..."

"What's the problem?" Ronald thought. If Spielberg stood on his side, the power comparison between the two sides would definitely be unbalanced. He had to find a way to deal with this matter...

"It's the most famous woman in America..."

It turned out that Julia Roberts had a role in "Captain Hook", Tinker Bell, an elf girl who helped Peter Pan to find his courage to find himself...

This role didn't have many scenes with many other roles, and most of them were with Robin Williams. In addition, special effects had to be shot with a green screen, so they were concentrated in the last period of filming.

But after Julia Roberts experienced a series of operations such as escaping from the wedding and being with the groom's good friend, her mental state was not stable.

On the set, Roberts and Spielberg had a big disagreement. Spielberg was already under a lot of pressure. The original shooting period had been extended to three times the original time because of Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams, and it was already seriously overspent.

Now Julia Roberts also wants to do this. She has to maintain her image and slowly adapt to shooting with a green screen. This is definitely not possible.

But Julia Roberts vowed to refuse to shoot the remaining scenes, saying that she suffered mental trauma...

"So, you have a good relationship with Steven and Julia. Can you go to the set of Captain Hook once?" Nicita said.

"Then how much are you willing to pay for Spielberg?"

When Ronald heard that he was asked to be a peacemaker, he thought about whether Nicita and the others were sure to sign Spielberg, otherwise it would be too stupid to make wedding clothes for others.

"..." Nicita said their conditions. In order to prevent Ovitz from succeeding, they also fought hard.

"Okay, I'll go and see, this thing may not work..."

After Ronald finished the phone call, he returned to the card table. Changing luck is a very mysterious thing. It is said that novices have good luck. I must be lucky this time, I will kill all three of them, let them see the power of mahjong masters.

"Hahaha, red, self-drawn, same color, give me money..." Diane checked the hand table and confirmed that she had a big hand, and happily pushed down the cards...

Now it was their turn to be pale.

"Hahaha, Ronnie, this game is really interesting, I like it very much..." Diane happily counted the chips.

"Director Luo, your wife is amazing, the big cards are better than you..." Director Wu had just won the chips, and now almost all of them were returned to Diane.

"Uh..." Ronald saw that Diane was happy and he had nothing to do, "It's almost time to eat, right? Let's take a break first..."

"How about after dinner?" Diane turned around...