Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Have you received my script?"

"Yes, I have made two copies and sent them to producer Stewart and Paramount's project manager."

Ronald was on a long-distance call with his agent Richard. After intense writing, he completed the first draft of the script for "Sons of Grease" in just one month and ten days, and then sent it to the CAA office in Hollywood via FedEx in two days.

"What did Mr. Stewart say? Does he have any suggestions for revisions?"

"Overall, he was quite satisfied. He wrote a handwritten revision, mainly focusing on the plots related to the Vietnam War. He hopes you can tone down the plots related to the Vietnam War. I have faxed the comments to my colleagues in the New York office, and he will send them to you."

Ronald knew that fax, a machine that can transmit paper content through telephone lines, is a very convenient office equipment for screenwriters. When using it, you only need to pay the telephone fee to transmit a piece of paper you wrote or scribbled on to the other party's machine as it is.

It's just that fax machines are too expensive, costing more than $10,000 each.

"Do you want to tone down the Vietnam War plot?" Ronald discussed this issue with Spike Lee after he saw the first draft. He actually tried to downplay the presence of the Vietnam War, not mentioning which war it was, and left the values ​​he wanted to convey vaguely in the background.

"Okay, then I'll lower it a bit. In this way, young audiences who have not experienced it will hardly be aware of the existence of the Vietnam War. Only those who have experienced it will find some traces from the clues."

"Mr. Sternwood hopes that you can make the changes as soon as possible. He has urged Paramount to start the project as soon as possible and start casting."

"Casting? The Screen Actors Guild is still on strike now? How can we start filming?" Ronald was a little surprised. "Isn't it said that only those movies and TV shows that have already started filming can apply for the union's exemption qualification?"

"The union has relaxed the exemption application. Now Hollywood is saying that the strike will end soon and the two sides will reach a new agreement."

"This is great. It's good news for us. Otherwise, I don't know how long the work will be delayed." Ronald was also very happy to hear the good news. "But didn't the negotiations break down again two days ago? Why did it reverse immediately?"

"The President has arranged a special envoy to intervene in the negotiations between the two sides. Because the new season of the TV series has not yet been aired, the audience is very angry, and the accusation is implicitly directed at the President. Persian hostage crisis, rising oil prices, inflation The unemployment rate is high, and now even the beloved movies and TV shows are gone...

Under pressure from the election, the president announced that he would solve this problem. He sent a special envoy to listen to the negotiations. It is said that the union negotiator, Ed Asner of the left wing of the Donald Trump Party, was also under great pressure and was forced to give up some clauses, such as the new agreement that the actors' union would not strike again within three years. "

"So the strike will end soon?"

"Not yet. The end of the strike requires the approval of the two major actors' unions and the Producers Association. It takes 3-4 weeks to go to the actors' unions in various places to convene members to vote. If the clause is rejected, then the process will be repeated again, which is estimated to last for one or two months.

However, as long as it is a film project of the eight major studios and a TV series of the three major TV stations, the actors' union will give the green light to exemption. I heard that many Broadway stage actors have also resumed rehearsals. "

"That is actually equivalent to the end of the strike. Large crews can be exempted, and small crews, such as low-cost films like Kathryn Bigelow, can go to the countryside of Georgia and the union can't control it. In short, it's a good thing for us." Ronald said.

"Yes, many delayed projects are about to start filming." Richard felt the same way. In addition to screenwriters and directors, CAA mainly represents TV actors. Recently, agents have also been wailing.

"By the way, the movie 'Endless Love' that Tom participated in will also start filming in Long Island, New York, and Paula Wagner will accompany him. Tom hopes that you can go to the shooting site and give him some guidance. He attaches great importance to his first big screen role. He said that you encouraged him to continue his acting career and hoped that you could be there to witness his screen debut."

"That's no problem, I will have some free time after revising the script."

"By the way, who did you choose for the heroine?"

"Who else, of course, is the popular Brooke Shields. The jeans commercial you shot for her is completely popular."

Well, it is popular, but it is not a good reputation.

In the past month, entertainment news reporters have been chasing Brooke Shields and her daughter all over the world.

The jeans commercial is widely understood by the audience as Brooke Shields wearing nothing in her tight jeans. When the mother and daughter were on vacation in Europe, they were chased by people to ask their opinions on this interpretation, and some tabloids with lower tastes directly asked whether Brooke Shields really didn't wear it.

A few days ago, the mother and daughter just returned to New York and were surrounded by a large number of reporters at the airport.

Brooke Shields was obviously advised by a public relations expert. She laughed on the spot and asked the reporter, who would associate it with such a distorted place? On the surface, she got through the crisis.

But Ronald knew that Brooke Shields was actually very panicked and didn't know how to deal with such a thing. She secretly called Ronald and regretted not listening to Ronald's kind advice to modify the lines at the filming site.

But her mother didn't care at all, and often bought a lot of newspapers and magazines home to count how many newspapers and magazines Brooke Shields appeared on the cover and front page because of this incident.

I think Terry can still offer a high price to the crew of "Endless Love" because of this advertisement that made her daughter famous.

However, PolyGram is also willing to let this kind of actress who has her own news popularity join the crew as the heroine. The press conference for the start of filming will surely be packed.

Regardless of the controversy of the advertisement itself, CK jeans began to sell like crazy in big cities like New York. During this period, two out of five young girls on the streets of Manhattan wore tight jeans.

Designer Calvin Klein also became famous because of this. Last time, he invited Ronald to the celebration party and said that he had found the product design code for young people. Since tight jeans are so popular in the youth market, he plans to simply use sexy tights as CK's brand characteristics and turn to designing some clothes designed for young people.

Ronald has also become a little famous in the industry. Eddie, the agent of the advertising business, has gradually received more and more offers from advertising directors.

However, due to priority issues, Ronald is busy with the movie script, and Eddie's business has rejected most of the business. Only a kitchen and bathroom plastic wrap advertisement was confirmed for Darcy Maguire of BBDO, an old client, next month.

A few days later, Ronald revised the script according to the producer's request and sent it to CAA again. This time Robert Sternwood was very satisfied and submitted it directly to Paramount.

According to the news Richard got from Sternwood, the casting work is also being stepped up, and the crew is expected to start filming at the end of November or early December.

However, the real situation may not be so optimistic. Paramount has not yet settled on director Jerry Zucker. The Zucker brothers are enjoying their great success and are not very interested in taking over the sequel of a movie in the short term. If they want to shoot a sequel, they will also shoot a "unprecedented and unparalleled" sequel.

The male lead of the previous film, John Travolta, has an ambiguous attitude towards guest starring in a supporting role, and the female lead Olivia Newton-John expressed her willingness to work with Travolta again. Her acting career really needs a rescue.

Anyway, the project is still moving forward, and Ronald is happy to enjoy his free time, attend more classes, sign in with the teacher, answer the classroom quizzes, and accumulate some regular points.

The most interesting course is the study of ancient Chinese poetry. The teacher is a so-called sinologist, but he doesn't understand it at all. Usually, he takes 300 Tang poems translated into English and teaches the beauty of Tang poems in English, and Ronald can only understand half of it.

On this day, Ronald received a call from Paula Wagner, and Tom Cruise officially went to the crew of "Endless Love" to shoot his only scene. Ronald went to the scene to cheer Tom.

The film was mainly shot at Kaufman Studios (Kaufan Astoria Studios) in Queens, New York. At the beginning of the century, this place was the center of the film industry in America. In order to avoid the patent pursuit lawsuit related to Edison's film, various new studios gradually moved to Hollywood in Los Angeles in the west.

Kaufman Studios was once owned by Paramount, and the construction quality and equipment were top-notch at the time. After Paramount moved west, this place was bought by an independent investor and later sold to the Army for filming training movies. Now it is mainly used for TV series.

The famous PBS children's program "Sesame Street" was filmed here.

However, Tom Cruise's scene today is an outdoor scene, filmed in a park near the Kaufman Studio.

Tom Cruise was very happy to see Ronald. The two talked about some things after their separation, and Tom took a cake from Paula and gave it to Ronald. He said that when he had his birthday more than two months ago, Ronald didn't have time to come to Los Angeles to attend, so he brought a cake to make up for it.

Ronald was also happy for Tom and asked Paula about Tom's role today.

"The role is only a cameo, but from the plot of the whole film, it is the source of the hero's idea of ​​arson to arouse the gratitude of the heroine's family."

Tom Cruise played a young classmate of the hero, and accidentally mentioned that he lit a pile of wet newspapers when he was eight years old. The wet newspapers created a lot of smoke, and he went to fetch water to put out the fire. From then on, he was regarded as a little fire-fighting hero by the neighborhood.

The speaker is unintentional, but the listener is intentional. The male protagonist David also wants to follow suit, saving the female protagonist's family and gaining their gratitude, so that he can no longer be prohibited from dating the female protagonist Jade.

"Ronald, it's you. I'm so glad you can come." The speaker is Italian director Franco Zeffirelli.

The old director hugged Ronald, "Would you like some whiskey? I always like to drink when I'm shooting."

Ronald declined, he didn't want to drink strong liquor during the day. But Zeffirelli still pulled him aside.

"Tell me, Ronald, how did you make Brooke act so naturally?"

"Huh?" Ronald was a little confused.

"It's that jeans advertisement."

"That's not my idea, it's the script that Calvin Klein gave me." Ronald quickly denied that he had created "There's nothing between me and Calvin."

"Stupid, I'm talking about the version of 'I'm the one who brings the bread home'. How did you make her laugh so naturally at the end?" Zeffirelli also smelled of alcohol.

It turned out that Franco Zeffirelli encountered the same problem as Ronald after starting the filming. Brooke Shields has been shooting print advertisements for many years, and she has been trained to have a model's mindset that is very sensitive to her smile and body shape.

So during the filming process, Brooke Shields often paid attention to whether her smile was beautiful, whether the camera was facing her more beautiful side, and whether her posture was elegant.

Movies are moving images, and the result of paying attention to everything is that Brooke Shields' smile looks very artificial and not natural. Zeffirelli was not satisfied with the daily work samples. Not long after the start of filming, the filming progress began to fall behind.

Zeffirelli complained to the producer that Brooke Shields' acting skills were not up to standard and could not achieve the performance effect in his mind. He hoped to replace the heroine before many shots were taken.

The producer certainly did not agree, and played several CK advertising videotapes shot by Ronald to Zeffirelli, which made the old director a little embarrassed.

In the advertisement, Brooke Shields actually smiled very naturally, without any scruples that she would become less beautiful because of laughing.

After learning from the producer that the director of the advertisement was Ronald who had helped him choose the cast before, Zeffirelli also asked the film company to ask Ronald to come to the crew to help.

"Ah, you mean that laugh?" Ronald finally understood what Zeffirelli wanted to know.

"The filming process was very difficult, and I even made her cry. In the end, I asked Brooke's close friends to record some private jokes they usually chatted on the phone, and played them to her on Walkan, and that's how it worked."

"Is that so?" Zeffirelli's eyes lit up, and he had an inspiration, and he knew where to start to train Brooke Shields' acting skills.

"Will you come to Kaufman Studio tomorrow? We have a big scene, and we need your help."

Patting Ronald on the shoulder, Zeffirelli turned around and yelled to his assistant, "Get ready to start filming..."

"Drunk in the morning? Even with an Italian accent," Ronald thought, "Can a director who drinks during filming like this make a good movie?"

It turns out that alcohol has no effect on Zeffirelli's directing skills.

Ronald stood in a safe area behind the camera, watching Tom Cruise's scene with Paula Wagner.

Tom was mixed in the group, playing football. Tired after a sprint, he went off to rest. Then he took off his vest in front of the camera, revealing his muscular upper body.

When he heard the male lead and his friend discussing how to have a tryst with his girlfriend Jade, he interrupted and talked about his experience when he was eight years old.

"And Cut."

Zeffirelli's actor scheduling was smooth, and he whispered to the director of photography, "This one is passed, print it."

Paula hurriedly stepped forward to hand Tom water, and Ronald also went up to congratulate Tom Cruise on his successful big screen debut.

"I practiced for a long time and memorized all the lines." Tom Cruise smiled happily. His dream finally came true.

"Tom is a slow reader, so I recorded his lines for him and asked him to memorize them by listening to the recording." Paula said beside him.

"Anyway, you acted very well, very naturally." Ronald really thought that Tom Cruise's performance was good, and he even surpassed the male lead Martin Hewitt next to him.

Of course, Tom Cruise's handsome appearance and the hormone-filled, beautiful upper body also contributed to it.

Maybe they spoke a little loudly, the male lead Martin Hewitt looked back at them.

"He is the male lead in the audition, Martin Hewitt. He used to be a bartender and valet parking." Paula Wagner whispered. She felt that the image of the protagonist was not as good as Tom Cruise.

"Really?" Ronald raised his eyebrows. Martin Hewitt was indeed a handsome man with a melancholy temperament, which met the aesthetics of director Zeffirelli.