Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Vic Morrow is not a good father, at least in the eyes of Jennifer Jason Lee, the second daughter.

When Jennifer was three years old, her mother Barbara divorced Morrow. Although Jennifer was awarded to her father, Morrow was addicted to alcohol and could not take care of the child at all. In the end, she lived with her mother Barbara.

In the days that followed, Jennifer rarely saw her father in her life, and she was more resentful of her father Morrow.

Originally, the opportunity to be the heroine of "Beautiful Baby" was hers. But her legal guardian, father Vic Morrow, refused to sign, and gave the opportunity to Brooke Shields, who became famous overnight.

Jennifer was so angry that she changed her guardian to her mother through the court, and then changed her last name from Morrow to Lee.

And now Vic Morrow actually proposed that Jennifer Jason Lee ask to delete the special scenes in the movie "Fast and Furious Richmond High".

"You are very talented, Jenny. You don't know how proud I am of your performance in the TV series 'The Best Little Girl in the World'. The anorexic patient you played was very real."

Vic Morrow went to a tavern next to his daughter's single apartment and met his daughter. He was very excited to talk about his daughter's acting skills.

"You starved less than 100 pounds to play her. Your mother called and cried, but I am very happy. My daughter is an excellent actor. You don't need those nude scenes at all. You can also occupy a place in Hollywood..."

"But you won't be famous if you play that." Jennifer interrupted Morrow coldly. She has played several such roles that require acting skills on TV, but who knows her?

"Don't say that, Jennifer. I know I didn't care about you enough in the past, but I have quit drinking and am taking anger management courses. I can get the lead role in Spielberg's film project, and I will find you a brilliant movie role later. Believe me..."

"Dream on!" Jennifer Jason Lee refused to listen to Morrow's nonsense and turned away. Now she is an adult and can make decisions for her acting career.

Morrow got up and chased after her, but was bumped by the waiter who came to check on her and almost fell to the ground. After holding on to the wall to steady himself, he saw that Jennifer had already left the bar and stopped a taxi and left.

"Fxck!" Morrow shouted, picked up the water glass on the table and threw it on the ground.

"Bang!" The waiter was at a loss, "Sir... please calm down."

"Give me a double Jack Daniels, no, one bottle, no ice."

At the same time, Ronald received a call and went to Universal to discuss distribution with producer Lin Sen.

"Universal can't give too many marketing resources to a small production with a production cost of 3.1 million. If you have any ideas like product placement, you might as well share them together."

"How can I have so many good ideas?" Ronald laughed, "How many theaters are expected to be shown?"

"It depends on the final effect of the film. Generally speaking, after the summer vacation in July every year, there is a period of time when the competition is not fierce. If your film is released at that time, it is very likely to win more theaters to open. After that, it depends on your box office performance."

"I understand." Ronald nodded to show his understanding. Being able to open after the summer vacation and before the start of school in September, which is still during the vacation of high school students, is actually not a big problem for youth films like "Fast and Furious".

For this kind of movie with a relatively single target audience, as long as precise marketing is done for the target audience, the box office will not be too bad.

This year, "Endless Love" starring Brooke Shields opened at the end of July and performed well at the box office, earning 30 million box office.

Director Zeffirelli told him that PolyGram completely misjudged the target audience of the film. The target audience of teenage couples only accounted for 10% of the final number of viewers, while more than 80% of the audience were junior high school girls.

Even though all the marketing materials were misplaced, it was still able to achieve such good results, all thanks to the word-of-mouth spread of the moviegoers. Teenage girls have the habit of chatting with each other frequently, and when a movie that suits their taste appears, the word-of-mouth effect is very good.

Ronald is also confident in his film. There are not many movies about teenagers growing up in the current film market.

Although major studios have seen the trend of this type of audience, whether it is Disney's "The Texan" that tells the story of rural Oklahoma or Paramount's musical "Grease 2", the stories are far away from the main audience.

Teenage high school students want to see stories that happen around them, and how urban teenagers in grades 10-12 like them deal with various troubles in their lives.

"It seems that you are very confident. I will wait for you to come back to edit after the New Year holiday." Lin Sen shook hands with him and wished Ronald a smooth vacation home.

"By the way, I received a message from a senior executive this morning, asking if you can cancel Jennifer Jason Leigh's nude scene." Lin Sen finally said casually.

"Why?"

"If you think it's necessary, then ignore them. Universal is an old studio, and there are many old people who are out of touch with the times in the upper echelons of the company."

Ronald nodded. Many "seniors" commented on the film. This is a common problem in large studios. Unlike small companies like New World, Roger Corman can make decisions with one word.

The marketing budget of "Rhythm of Richmond High School" is limited, and it mainly relies on word-of-mouth communication from the audience. In this case, the importance of these shots has increased, and I feel that they cannot be cut.

In addition to the wonderful content, a movie can be talked about by people. There must be a selling point that can be explained in one sentence, which is convenient for the audience to recommend it to friends.

The reason why "Endless Love" can reap a good box office despite misestimating the target audience is because it is easy to spread. Any middle school girl can say to her classmates and friends, "Do you know how much the heroine Jade's boyfriend loves her?"

If the other party is interested, you can list a series of infatuated behaviors of the male protagonist David, sneaking into Jade's bedroom, setting fire to her house, running out of the mental hospital to find Jade who has moved, etc.

Ronald noticed this when watching the preview. He also wants to add some elements that are easy to spread in his own movie.

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Phoebe Cates' scenes were what he needed to carefully design and spread.

"Why would the top management come to care about an actress?" Ronald still didn't quite understand, so he asked producer Lin Sen.

"Because Jennifer's father is Vic Morrow, who was once a popular TV star. In the circle, male stars of the right age always have some extra power." Seeing that Ronald didn't understand, Lin Sen explained.

"Is it him?" Ronald remembered the man who broke into the scene on the day of signing the contract for filming, "But, you also said, Mr. Lin Sen. He was a 'former' TV star. Why can an outdated male star also interfere with the filming of a movie?"

"The term outdated is a bit too derogatory of Morrow. Male stars always have a great influence, not even limited to the film industry." Lin Sen smiled, "Do you know the recent Hollywood event, the death of Natalie Wood?"

"Yes." After Ronald finished filming the movie, his family made up a lot of entertainment news during the filming.

At the end of November when he was busy filming, this famous Hollywood actress fell into the water from her yacht and died.

"What does this have to do with the influence of male stars?"

"Go find out for yourself, it's all over the circle." Lin Sen was unwilling to discuss more details with Ronald, "Male stars who have been popular have far more social influence than female stars.

Male stars have a long career, as long as they have been popular, the audience will remember you. Maybe there will be a movie that makes them popular again. Morrow is only 52 years old and has nearly ten years of career. So someone will give him some face and pass on a message."

Ronald didn't understand. After returning to the hotel, he took out last month's entertainment newspaper and browsed it. Finally, he knew some of the issues mentioned in the report.

It turned out that Natalie Wood, the actress who met him once at the Golden Globe Awards dinner, had a bad relationship with her husband Robert Wagner because her husband cheated on another female star during the filming of a TV series.

When Wood boarded the ship, in order to make her husband Wagner jealous, she deliberately brought actor Christopher Walken, who was rumored to be filming the same movie, on board.

When Natalie Wood fell into the water, someone on a nearby boat heard a woman calling for help. But with such a strong suspicion, the district attorney gave up the prosecution easily.

Ronald felt that Lin Sen's suggestion was a bit exaggerated. The district attorney had great power and could decide whether to prosecute the suspect alone, but he would not let go of the murderer who might have murdered a famous actress just because the suspect was an out-of-date actor, right?

Ronald thought about it and picked up the phone to call his agent Niceta. He was well-informed and might know something.

"It is said that Natalie Wood wore a mink coat at her funeral with her collar turned up to cover a clear scar on her face."

"Ah? Is there really a problem?" Ronald was a little surprised. Could such a thing happen in America?

"Oh, you were filming a movie at that time, and the TV station interviewed him repeatedly. The district attorney said that it was caused by hitting the side of the ship when falling into the sea."

"That's possible, right? The district attorney wouldn't say anything nonsense?"

"But Natalie Wood is afraid of water by nature. She doesn't even swim." Nicita told Ronald some rumors in the circle, "Her sister Lana spread the word in the circle that her sister is afraid of water. But it's useless."

Ronald, who put down the phone, was very emotional. A national star died so easily. It seems that male stars do have some influence.

But he still insisted on keeping the scenes of Jennifer and Phoebe in the editing. Vic Morrow is not a popular movie star. What can he do with Jennifer's signing and agreeing to shoot, and his legal editing?

He is a drunkard and can't beat himself.