Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"How's it going? Is it a good fit?" Tom Hanks laughed and handed over a synopsis of the script.

"Where is the right place?" Ronald was full of doubts. He took it and took a look. The cover said "AL League of Their Own" and couldn't help blurting out, "What is this?" It was in 1943, when the European and Pacific battlefields were going on. After fierce fighting, Major League Baseball couldn’t find enough suitable players, so it formed a women’s baseball league and really sold a lot of tickets..."

"How come I don't know?" Ronald was dubious. This is not a joke on me, right? I have never heard of American women playing professional baseball. Besides, this casting choice is too...

"I don't know either. This is something that director Penny Marshall learned from watching a documentary in 1987. After that, he collaborated with the director and screenwriter of the documentary to write the script. I like this story very much, although the Red Pink Alliance It was later disbanded in 1954, but the spirit of this woman is very interesting. The movie begins when Dottie Hinson, the catcher of the Peach Team of the Red Pink League, is invited to participate in the commemorative event..."

"Then why are you looking for these female stars? What role do you play?" Ronald was still not sure this was not an April Fool's Day joke.

"I play their coach. Have you noticed that these female celebrities all have one thing in common?" Tom Hanks looked at Ronald with a half-smile.

"Yes...no, no, is it or is it not?" Ronald sweated with guilt.

"Yes, they are all strong. Look, this is a still from their previous movie. They all have strong arms and buttocks, like baseball players..."

"Ah, oh... that's right..." Ronald took out his handkerchief and wiped his sweat.

"Hey, what's wrong with you? Why are you still sweating in this weather?"

"Ah, it's nothing. I drank too much last night...and now I'm still a little bit...ahem, it's not important. There are so many players in the women's baseball team, right? Who else are you going to find to play?"

Ronald tested it again. If Hanks was here to make a joke, it would be revealed.

"What do you think? I think these female stars have become a topic. Hollywood female stars co-starred in the all-star women's professional baseball team that year... If you can find more stars to star, that would be great. "

"Um, what do you think of Annette Bening and Kim Basinger? They are very popular right now..."

"This doesn't seem to work. Neither Bening nor Basinger's body looks like a female athlete, nor is it the type that can hold up a baseball uniform. Of course, if you want to specify, we can go and talk to Penny together... …”

Ronald was completely relieved, "No, you're right, this is a movie about women's independent spirit. What we want is female baseball players, not baseball players' girlfriends..."

"By the way, why isn't Penny here?"

"Hey, she's not in good condition right now. I want you to meet her..."

…

"Oh, Ronald..." Penny Marshall has suffered a lot of unfair treatment in the past two years (her good works have not been nominated for Oscars). She does not have the status of Barbra Streisand and can help the Jews to complain. I can only bear it silently.

This "Red Pink Alliance" made her nerves suffer a lot of attacks. At the beginning, the film was pitched to 20th Century Fox, but it encountered resistance from the top management and when it was about to get the green light, it was released on the grounds that "no one would go see a movie about a woman playing baseball." Entered the circulation warehouse.

After that, they went to Warner Bros. to sell the film. This time their executives went even further, using sexist language and attacking the script for being irrelevant. Penny Marshall cried on the spot.

She had no choice but to go back to Fox to try her luck with the script. This time something went too far. They took away her directorial rights and let director David Ansbaugh, who is famous for the basketball movie "Basketball", take over. she.

Penny Marshall didn't sign the script originally because she was the director and didn't want to cover up her reputation as a screenwriter. Now she had nothing to gain.

She later directed other films, but the project encountered problems and was postponed. Many female stars were unable to take the film because of schedule issues. She regained the power of director, but there was no distributor and no heroine.

Penny Marshall went to Sony Columbia to try her luck again, and this time she had good luck. Guber liked her new movie "Awakening" very much, and she also advocated for actress Deborah Winger, who had been resting for many years, to play the heroine Catcher. Dottie.

Just when everything was going perfectly, Guber cast a supporting role as a female taxi driver turned center fielder. May's singer Madonna had another conflict with Deborah Winger.

Deborah Winger was dissatisfied with Madonna's acting skills and felt that it would bring down the quality of the entire movie and ruin her plans to return to Hollywood. She had to choose one of the two.

But Madonna's current popularity will bring a lot of free publicity to the movie. She took the initiative to cut her salary to US$2 million to star in the film, which is considered a big bargain for the film studio. In this case, the filming was in a stalemate again. Seeing that the filming was about to be postponed or canceled, Tom Hanks couldn't sit still and took advantage of Ronald's fame in Hollywood after winning the award to ask for help.

"What's in it for you?" Ronald looked at Tom Hanks. He didn't believe that he was working so hard for a feminist movie.

"Me? I don't have a very handsome face. When I was a child, my mother told me that I had to learn to tell jokes and make women laugh before I could have a girlfriend. So I have always been a comedian in Hollywood..."

Tom Hanks is not a star like Tom Cruise. His audience appeal needs the blessing of roles. Only when the audience identifies with the story and likes his role can he become a first-line actor in Hollywood.

This movie tells the story of the only male coach in a baseball team composed of a group of women. It is a very good role that the audience likes. Hanks doesn't want to let it go.

"Of course, they also gave a salary of five million..."

"Hey, I agreed, but she doesn't want to join," Ronald crossed out Meg Tilly's name.

"Do as you say..." Hanks was overjoyed. With Ronald's appeal among the female star group, they would definitely be willing to come.

The next day, Ronald had his first meeting with Hanks and Penny Marshall.

"You should have come to see me earlier, Penny... Diane says hello to you." Ronald said.

Penny Marshall shrugged, saying that she didn't know it would go wrong like this.

"Anyway, I won't interfere with your casting and creative freedom, but it's better for Madonna to stay because she's really popular now..." Ronald said that he is still the angel producer who respects the creative freedom of artists.

"Then let Debra Winger go..." Penny Marshall, with the confidence of Ronald's support, did not indulge the troublemaker on the set who had conflicts with Shirley MacLaine in the past, and directly determined the lineup of several leading actors.

Brooke Shields is tall, so she can play a strong bat as a left fielder.

Diane can try pitching first.

Demi Moore will replace Debra Winger to play the role of catcher Dottie.

...

Because of Ronald's endorsement and participation, Sony's CEO Guber was overjoyed. He wanted to snatch the project back from Ronald's preferred TriStar Pictures and took the initiative to offer Ronald some of the first round of investment shares.

This is not because Gubel has a conscience, but because many female stars heard that it was a movie produced by Ronald and it was a baseball movie with female independence. They knew it was an opportunity to become famous, so they all expressed their willingness to reduce their salaries to act in it, forming an all-star lineup.

Demi Moore took the initiative to reduce her salary to 1.8 million, Diane said she was willing to act for 1.5 million, Brooke Shields said she was willing to act for 1.2 million, and Madonna couldn't compete with the three female stars for the top spot, so she took the initiative to reduce her salary to 1 million, just to have an important role. Only Debra Winger, who was kicked out, insisted on taking 2 million in compensation according to the contract.

Everyone reserved time to receive special training from William E. Hughes, the coach of the university baseball team, to learn the correct pitching, catching and base running posture training.

Ronald finalized the project, turned a corner and went to the office of Mike McDavoy of TriStar Pictures.

"I heard that this project was originally intended for me?" Mike McDavoy said with a bitter face.

"I'm here, and I have a good project. It depends on whether you dare to take it..."

"You have something good?"

"Of course, I'll make a call..."

Michael Douglas, who received the call, came over quickly. His new movie "Falling Down" lacked a courageous distributor and was about to be sold to HBO TV as a TV movie.

"Michael, your movie will have no distributor?" Mike McDavoy didn't believe it.

"You'll understand after you read it," Michael Douglas handed over the script.

"Oh, my God, your movie is so fierce..." Mike McDavoy exclaimed in admiration or surprise as soon as he flipped through the script.

If "A League of Legends" is a movie that praises the bright side of American society and is inspiring. Then this "Falling Down" is simply facing all the dark sides of America.

It looks like a common Hollywood theme of a middle-aged man's dilemma, but once you look at the details, it's all magic realism irony.

William Foster is an engineer in a military enterprise who was fired because of the end of the Cold War. After that, he was very depressed and pretended to go to work every day. His wife divorced him and he was not invited to his youngest daughter's birthday party.

William happened to be stuck in traffic. He was upset and abandoned his car and walked into a Korean grocery store, hoping to find some change to make a phone call. The Korean owner made things difficult for him and refused to give him change, insisting that he buy things.

The things in the Korean grocery store were very expensive. William refused to give in. The Korean proprietress took a baseball bat to defend herself. William grabbed the baseball bat and smashed the store.

Later, when he was resting in the park, gangsters came to rob his briefcase again. He picked up a baseball bat and beat the gangsters away, but took their pistols instead. After that, he gave the briefcase to a beggar who was even worse off than him. There was nothing in the briefcase except his lunch.

William went to a fast food restaurant to order a breakfast burger. He finally got in line, and the clerk told him that it was lunch time. The burger he bought was much smaller than the one in the advertisement picture, and the things were not right. Because he had a dispute with the waiter, he pulled out his pistol and shot randomly.

Afterwards, he called his ex-wife through a phone booth to attend his daughter's birthday, but his ex-wife called the police.

William passed by a bank, and another black man protested at the door because he was denied a loan, and was taken away by the LAPD. Before leaving, the black man told William not to forget him.

William was completely out of control afterwards. He went to a weapons store and was sold a rocket launcher by a homophobic store owner.

On the way to his ex-wife's house to celebrate his daughter's birthday, the road was jammed again because of road construction. William was so angry that he jumped out of the car and scolded these people for digging and repairing the road for the government budget. In a rage, he blasted the construction site into the sky with a rocket launcher.

Finally, facing the gun of the retiring police officer who came to arrest him, he asked him: "Am I a bad guy?" and tricked the police officer into shooting and killing himself.

All the scenes in this movie are about an ordinary white American who encounters things that make people angry, divorce, child support, Korean grocery stores are too smart and cannot apply for loans, hamburgers are much smaller than advertised, digging on the road is a waste of money, and there are ubiquitous traffic jams in Los Angeles...

All happened to one person, which is simply crazy...

But it is precisely because of these things that people feel sympathy for William, an engineer who works in a military enterprise, which was once the protector of Americans' peace of mind, and lost his job because of the end of the Cold War.

However, this movie is a bit inconsistent with the current social trend. This is also the reason why a big star like Michael Douglas is willing to play the male lead William, but no distributor is willing to release it.

"Your movie..." Mike McDavoy pondered for a moment.

"You are not afraid, are you?" Ronald deliberately provoked, "If there is anyone in Hollywood who can respect the creative freedom of artists and not care about other interference, it is you and the original United Artists and Orion..."

"And you, are you also investing?" Mike McDavoy turned Ronald's army.

"Okay, but I have to change the project company..." Ronald thought to himself, this movie must have audience support, but it can't be marketed too aggressively. In order to prevent the protest army, it's better to do some technical processing.

"Okay, I can distribute this movie on behalf of TriStar Pictures. Are you the director?"

"Ha, no..." Ronald looked at Douglas.

"Joel Schumacher..." Michael Douglas immediately said the person he wanted.

"Although many female stars have reduced their salaries, the cost of the film Pink League is still more than 40 million US dollars, and a baseball stadium needs to be rebuilt. This film, in addition to Michael..." Ronald saw that he was still hesitant, and immediately told him the most important KPI assessment indicator for him.

"I know him, it's settled. I'll report to President Price." Mike McDavoy thought to himself, I really like this script.

...

"Is it that simple? Just finished?" After leaving the office, Michael Douglas still couldn't believe that Ronald had managed to get the distribution that he had failed to negotiate with many production companies?

"You have to know Mike McDavoy. He is a producer who has always advocated respecting the creative freedom of artists since the United Artists era. This is the last bastion of Hollywood. You have to press his button..."

"Anyway, thank you, Ronald." Michael Douglas stretched out his hand, "I also heard some gossip among the Jews, you have to be careful..."

Ronald handed the investment documents of the two films to Michelle Cannold and asked him to handle it. He went home and wanted to discuss the news conveyed by Michael Douglas with Richard and Niceta.

"Ring, ring, ring..." Just then, Simberg from Panasonic Universal called.

"I owe you one, Ronald. You convinced Steven, which helped our ethnic group a lot."

"Don't say that. I can be a director thanks to you..."

"Hahaha..." Simberg laughed heartily. He liked this about Ronald, who was nostalgic and had the demeanor of an old-school Hollywood man.

"When will it start? Can I go and see?" Ronald was also curious about how Spielberg would make this kind of movie.

"He won't shoot it first. I want him to shoot another monster movie first. This Schindler's List is too depressing. I think he won't have the heart to shoot commercial movies after shooting it. At least take a break for half a year..."

"So amazing?" Ronald also knew that this kind of movie consumed too much energy, but he didn't expect it to be to this extent.

"By the way, I have something else to ask you. Is that flashlight a product of your company?"

"Yes, what, do you want to use it?" Ronald thought to himself, is this a reward? He liked this about Simberg, a rare executive among Jews who liked to give immediate returns.

"It's not that simple. That monster movie uses all kinds of special effects. Can your flash work under high-brightness lighting or sunlight?"

"I've been waiting for someone to ask me this question for a long time. Our engineers have been developing flashes that can be used in daylight shooting. The instantaneous power can achieve lightning effects even under the sun. If you want, I'll ask them to make it right away..."