Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Nora, Nathan must go..." After Ronald talked with the parents of the boy named Nathan Watt, he gave him another day. But this little Nathan is still the same as before. As long as he doesn't have a camera to shoot, he will cause all kinds of "accidents" to cause trouble. Don't let

"But I replaced him. There is currently no suitable boy to take his place. Later, I will go get the photos. There are photos of all the boys I auditioned for." Nora Ephron was also very anxious.

Every day of delay is a cost. Not only does this Nathan Watt always ruin the shoot, he also steals the scene. Tom Hanks, who had a scene with him, was also affected and has not yet entered the state.

"He was very good during the audition and rehearsal. He didn't have this problem. Why would he be like this after the official filming?" Nora Ephron was so anxious that her face dropped. If she changed A producer who is not so friendly might have to change the director now. Who made you miss the audition?

"I think it's because of his parents. These are typical Hollywood parents..." Ronald has seen parents like this before, but it's rare for Nathan's parents to be so typical.

In fact, this is a psychological problem of little Nathan. Making trouble when filming without his own lens is actually a disguised form of stealing the spotlight. Children at a young age usually have a playful and curious attitude when filming movies and TV series. And he is full of anxiety all the time. As long as there is a shot where he is not the center of the camera, he will be anxious to cause trouble and destroy, and he will not stop until he becomes the center.

This mentality was obviously developed in the very fierce audition competition for child actors. Behind the scenes, it is definitely inseparable from the deliberate indoctrination of my parents. I must beat other competitors in the audition, and I will not hesitate to use extra tricks.

And a boy under eight years old still can’t tell what is an audition and what is a formal shooting. He obviously regards Tom Hanks as a competitor...

The two of them did the casting call on the spot in the hotel room. After selecting dozens of possible candidates, the assistants brought in the video tapes of the auditions for the two of them to watch. Later, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan and others also came to watch...

"I think this is good..." Ronald pressed the pause button and pointed at a slightly fat boy on the TV.

"Ross Malinger," the assistant announced the child actor's name, "has starred in the Fox teen drama The Big Deal, guest-starred in three episodes of the ABC sitcom Who's the Boss?, and Roseanne played a recurring supporting role as Sammy Mee. Le..."

"Him? I eliminated him in the first round. He wasn't cute enough..." Nora Ephron looked at this fat guy and couldn't figure out why Ronald thought he was good.

"What do you think?" Ronald asked Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

"It's good. I was also very fat when I was a kid." Hanks was embarrassed by Nathan and thought that this fat Ross looked very honest.

"A child like this is actually not bad. The son of one of my cousins ​​is like this, which makes people feel familiar..." Meg Ryan also voted in favor.

"He looks like an average American boy, but Nathan is too pretty..." Ronald picked him because he looked very real. This kind of realism is needed for Sleepless in Seattle.

Another point is that this child has no outstanding acting skills. Unlike Nathan or the previous actor Macaulay Culkin of "Home Alone", he is a talented child actor at first glance.

This is not a comedy, at least the scenes involving the child and his father are not a comedy. Therefore, such unpolished child actors are more able to express the kind of reality that the audience needs, a particularly unreal fairy tale.

Ross Malinger was quickly summoned to Seattle. After two test shots, Ronald made a decisive decision and replaced him.

"Huh, why did you replace my son? It's not fair. Let me tell you, we have close communication with the Screen Actors Guild, and they have expressed great concern about this. It's not my first day in Hollywood. All major newspapers have it. I know reporters, and I also know several fair lawyers. You’d better get my son back as soon as possible, or else give our... son the compensation he deserves..."

The person who accompanied the replaced Nathan in the filming was his mother. She had been working in Hollywood for many years. After getting the news, she came to negotiate with Ronald. There are only two purposes: to change his son's role back, or to lose a lot of money. Anyway, those lawyers who are willing to fight free lawsuits and get a share of the compensation say so. This is against Hollywood practice. Paramount has lost money because of similar things in the past.

"I have something to go to New York, you come and tell him." Ronald was too lazy to deal with such a stupid mother and asked the on-site production director to stay and explain to him.

"Hi, you..." Nathan's mother pulled Ronald's sleeve to prevent him from leaving.

"Don't try to lie to us. Then he will delay us for a few days with the excuse of asking you to nod. You must give me an answer now. Is it OK or not? Otherwise, I will go find a lawyer." He wavered. Shaking a phone book in hand.

"Okay, you can call a lawyer. You can also go to court and sue us. We might win and you won't get a penny. We might also lose and pay you three times the minimum wage, times your son's Working time is equivalent to three thousand US dollars, and by the way, you have to split it with your lawyer.

But when the time comes, the court will ask us to present evidence to explain our reasonable reasons for replacing your son. Then the fact that your son, instigated by your mistake, destroyed the filming of the crew and caused hundreds of thousands of yuan in losses, will be made public.

Just ask him what will happen. "

Nathan's mother was shocked by Ronald's confident statement, and she didn't know whether it was true or false for a moment. She involuntarily let go of Ronald's sleeve, and then turned to the production director.

"When the time comes, I can guarantee that from Hollywood to the NBC studio in New York, no crew in America will hire your son again. You should come to me, sign an agreement, and take the money our crew gave you. According to the agreement, your son can It’s better to leave if you get the full salary.”

"Ah, can I still get full salary for this?" Nathan's mother was happy again.

"Aren't you familiar with people from the Screen Actors Guild? How come you don't even know this?"

…

After spending a few days on set to get things straightened out, Ronald headed off to the East Coast to wrap up a few other years of stuff for "Sleepless in Seattle."

The first is the issue of the shooting location. In Seattle, the crew spent a lot of money and communicated a lot with the Seattle city government, and were able to approve the request to shoot in several iconic landmarks in Seattle.

Because of Ronald's reputation, the city hall agreed to a request that few city governments outside of Los Angeles could agree to. After all, Ronald's previous photo of "Working Girl" made the Staten Island Ferry, the most backward in New York, famous, and now it has become one of the must-see attractions for tourists.

Seattle was originally an emerging industrial city for high-tech, IT, and pharmaceutical industries, and many well-known companies in the design industry have settled here. If the movie is popular, then Pike Place Market, Sorrento Hotel, Alki Beach, Fremont Bridge, Dahlia Restaurant, etc., will become tourist attractions and create many employment opportunities in the tourism industry.

However, these scenic spots can only shoot some exterior scenes and aerial shots. It is impossible internally to suspend official duties and lend it to the crew for several days of filming.

Therefore, this movie with many famous scenic spots also needs a large venue that can be used as a studio to build various internal scenes.

The crew looked around, but Seattle was not a traditional industrial city and there was no warehouse large enough to borrow. Only one suitable location was found around Seattle, the Navy's Thunder Point Naval Station.

Because the film was on schedule, filming began almost immediately after Nora Ephron completed the script. Therefore, there is no time to wait for many things to go through the process slowly, and Ronald must come forward to handle special matters.

Thunder Point Naval Base is one such example. Because this naval base is also closed under the disarmament policy of the current commander-in-chief. So now basically the base managers are thinking about keeping their jobs and going to another good place in the Navy instead of being stationed in a ghost place like Guantanamo. So not many people pay attention to a movie crew renting it.

I contacted them several times but received no substantial progress. The navy officers who had been in contact with each other for the filming of "Top Gun" were also busy looking for other ways out.

Ronald had no choice but to call the office of John Warner, the former Secretary of the Navy and now Senator from Virginia, through the original Navy's Hollywood Liaison Department. This man is a senior navy man and knows a lot about Hollywood, because he is Elizabeth Taylor's sixth husband...

"Mr. Senator..."

John Warner meets Ronald in an office inside the Senate

"Look, we have a good boy in the Navy." John Warner is a hard-liner on Capitol Hill and a real power. Very dissatisfied with the disarmament policy of the current commander-in-chief, some formal opposition actions are being planned. When he saw Ronald, he was extremely satisfied. The surge in the number of people joining the navy that year was inseparable from this good young man.

"I heard that your father also participated in the Vietnam War? In what army did he serve?" On John Warner's desk this morning, there was Ronald's experience compiled by his assistant. He is a person of origin, and believes that people with military backgrounds, especially those from the Navy, are the true pillars of the United States.

"Yes, he is from the Marine Corps. But my grandfather was a fighter pilot in the Navy..." Ronald told the glorious family history.

"Let me just say, to be able to shoot such good air combat footage is because of experience, hahahaha... I thought it was a director like John Ford who had shot real naval battles..."

John Warner was overjoyed and patted Ronald on the shoulder. The young man was so talented that he was pleasing to the eye. "Liz told me about you, you're a good director. We need more movies like Top Gun, can you make a sequel?"

"Mr. Senator, the alliance has disintegrated. We no longer have such a natural imaginary enemy, and the tastes of the audience are also changing. Moreover, the office of cooperation between the Navy and Hollywood is also being abolished. It is difficult for us to obtain the strong support of the Navy as we did back then. We had the convenience of real-life shooting, and we also fired two air-to-air missiles at that time. Now my production company cannot afford such a high budget..."

"Hey, this country can't leave the navy... The disarmament under the leadership of the commander-in-chief is really... They also want to retire the F14A... Forget it, I will call the people in the navy, and you can contact the base leasing company Bar……"

John Warner waved his hand and let Ronald go first. The commander-in-chief of the Xiang Party actually presided over disarmament. The current commander-in-chief has gone too far in some things. The alliance is gone, but the imaginary enemy is not there yet? There are many countries in the world that pose threats to America.

…

What happened next went smoothly, and the Thunder Point Naval Base was leased to the crew for two months at a nominal price. The crew immediately moved in and started work on various props and scenery. Just waiting for the crew to come in and shoot.

Ronald returned to New York from DC. He made an appointment with Bannon on Wall Street. There was another crew here that needed his help.

"The Empire State Building, can't you not take a picture? Or use your computer magic to fake it? No?"

Ronald came to New York mainly to secure the filming of the Empire State Building. The final climax of this movie is between Sam and Annie, imitating the Hollywood movie "The Golden Marriage" of that year, where the hero and heroine meet on the rooftop of the Empire State Building.

This place is a landmark building in America and New York. Whenever a movie about New York is shot, a second shot of the Empire State Building or the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center is always added, so that the audience can know that they are in New York.

Unlike this indicative shot, Sleepless in Seattle requires the filming of actual rooftop scenes and close-up aerial photography of the Empire State Building, both of which require the consent of everyone in the Empire State Building.

The real estate industry and finance are closely related, so Ronald asked Bannon to try to communicate directly with the owner of the Empire State Building through him.

But Bannon shook his head when he heard it. The owner of the Empire State Building is Harry Helmsley, but the real talker is his wife, Leona Helmsley. This woman is very difficult to deal with.

"It's not that exaggerated. I just borrowed it for filming..." Ronald felt that Bannon was exaggerating.

"She was nicknamed the Queen of Mean. Her only son Jay died. A few days after the funeral, she sent an eviction notice to her daughter-in-law and sued her for hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is so famous. , even on Wall Street, there are few people who don’t admire..."

"Where is she now?" When Ronald heard this, he thought this was too exaggerated, so he still tried to find a way to chat. If that didn't work, he would just fly a helicopter to take photos secretly. Anyway, he had a good relationship with the NYPD, so he wanted to get one nearby. Photography permission is enough.

"In prison..."

…

Through his personal lawyer, Ronald contacted the lowest-security prison specifically for wealthy Wall Street men.

Leona Helmsley, the evil queen and owner of the Empire State Building, was sentenced to sixteen years in prison for tax evasion. The truly decisive witness was her housekeeper Elizabeth Baum. The housekeeper testified in court that one of the things Leona Helmsley often said was, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes..."

Although Leona denied saying this in court, the housekeeper and servants often said how Leona abused them when testifying in court, which had a very bad impact on the jury, so the verdict was She received a very high sentence, but her lawyer later appealed and the sentence was reduced to twenty months, which she recently served.

"We hope Mrs. Helmsley will agree to our filming, which will have public relations benefits for her application for parole and medical parole."

Ronald contacted Helmsley's assistant, but she refused to meet. Finally, her public relations manager was contacted through Pat Kingsley. She happened to be going to visit the prison and discuss with Helmsley how to use public opinion and public opinion to alleviate some people's bad feelings for her.

"I will bring the message to you. Just wait for the results of my visit to the prison."