Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Helen Slater was very happy. Although she later failed to pass the primary selection for the heroine in Leon's new film, she had a great time in Los Angeles. Especially with Ronald accompanying me from time to time, visiting scenic spots and enjoying delicious food.

It wasn't until her father called twice to urge her that she bought a plane ticket back to New York to star in an ABC TV series.

Gerald arranged for his daughter to be the heroine in an episode of the evergreen drama "ABC After School Special". This is a unit drama with independent plots in each episode, all starring young actors, for children after school to watch.

"Which episode will you appear in?" Ronald asked Helen at the departure gate of the airport.

"I still have to audition." Helen, still wearing a turtleneck sweater and a black woolen coat, said to Ronald with a smile.

"Gerald will make arrangements for you." Ronald wrapped his two big hands around Helen's small hand, seizing the last bit of time together.

"In the female version of 'It's a Wonderful Life', I play a girl who meets an angel. Only after the angel helps me can I grow wings." Helen shrank her head and shrank into the raised collar of her woolen coat, feeling a little embarrassed. I relied on my father's relationship to get the role.

"Oh, will ABC show your TV series every Christmas Eve in the future?"

"Hehe..." Helen was amused by Ronald and laughed. "It's a Wonderful Life" is a Christmas Eve film directed by Frank Capra and starring James Stewart.

RKO, which produced the film, later went bankrupt, and Universal Pictures, which took over the rights to the film, forgot to register a copyright renewal for the film. So every Christmas Eve, the TV station will show this movie for free. Decades later, the box office failure of the year turned out to be the most famous Christmas movie.

"Flights to New York will be closed for check-in..."

"I have to go, bye!" Helen took her hands out of Ronald's hands and covered Ronald's face. Seeing that his face was a little deformed by her hands, Helen felt inexplicably happy. She gave Ronald a quick kiss on the lips, then took the package and walked to the cabin.

Ronald waited until Helen's plane took off before turning around and walking outside the airport. Such a normal date seemed abnormal to him in the film industry. Unable to suppress the smile on his face, Ronald returned to Coppola's studio.

"This is impossible. You promised to give me the right to make the casting decision for the movie. You should see the audition videos of the actors I selected."

"Of course we respect your decision, Mr. Coppola. But we are responsible for the final quality of the film. Mr. Executive Producer is concerned that the actors in the film are not well-known enough to attract enough audiences into the cinema."

"The producers of 'The Godfather' were also worried about this. When that movie was shot, there were no famous stars... You also know the result."

Before he entered, Ronald heard Coppola's loud retort coming from inside the wooden partition.

"What's going on?" Ronald asked the trainee girl who was eavesdropping at the door in a low voice.

"Warner Bros., the executive producer of the film, was not satisfied with Mr. Coppola's casting decision. He wanted to have more popular stars in "The Kid", such as Brooke Shields. So he sent people to put pressure on it.

It's a story set in a small country town in the 1960s, and they thought today's young people wouldn't be interested in this kind of small-town Italian gang drama. "

The trainee girl quietly told Ronald what she knew.

"Will Coppola compromise?" Ronald asked.

"Why compromise? This is an artistic decision. He is the director who made 'The Godfather' and we should trust his artistic vision."

The trainee girl looked Ronald up and down, as if she didn't believe he would say such a thing and did not support Coppola's casting decision.

"Well, he is one of the best directors in Hollywood. He can make genre films like the author's films, with an overall aesthetic feeling." Ronald replied.

However, he felt that Warner's executives were justified in worrying about the subject matter. Although such a movie would be supported by Hinton's readers.

But the number of readers, in twentieth-century America, was still an absolute minority compared to movies and TV shows. In order to recoup its costs, "The Kid" must attract viewers who haven't seen it yet.

But most moviegoers who haven't seen it are still in a state of confusion as to whether they can appreciate this kind of movie.

Although the movie itself has all the elements that made "The Godfather" a hit: a best-selling adaptation, Coppola's direction, a gang story, and a group of young and talented actors.

But times have changed, and so have the audiences.

Coppola is not the same Coppola who the production company paid more than 10 million U.S. dollars to make "The Godfather Part II" and did whatever they wanted.

Coppola refused to compromise and suspended work on the cast of "The Kid". The art director who had planned to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma, also canceled his air ticket. The actors selected during the casting process were informed that filming might be postponed.

The executive producers at Warner Bros. were unwilling to compromise. After all, this is an investment of 10 million US dollars. It is the first project of the new president. It is used to establish authority within the company. It is only allowed to succeed and not fail. They insisted on a popular teen star, preferably Brooke Shields.

The casting matter suddenly reached a deadlock.

Ronald had no choice but to watch movies and scripts at home every day to hone his skills. At the same time, we are waiting for either Coppola or Warner to give in first.

The ballots for the 54th Oscars have been mailed to Ronald. He started voting for people like Henry Fonda.

There is one more award this year than last year. Last year, David Lynch's "The Elephant Man" failed to win any of its eight nominations, causing considerable controversy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added an award for Best Makeup to quell the controversy.

However, although David Lynch's "The Elephant Man" has magical makeup, this year's awards cannot give him a replacement award for last year. Lynch's movies still maintain the record of eight mentions and zero hits.

After casting his votes for the cast of "On Golden Pond," Ronald sealed the envelope and mailed it to the academy. There, PricewaterhouseCoopers will secretly count the votes and deliver them to the awards show on the day of the awards to ensure fairness and confidentiality.

"Ronald."

As soon as Ronald threw the letter to the hotel front desk, he heard someone calling his name.

"Ronald, that's great you're here. Something happened to Jim."

Ronald's old friend in the New World, Gale Hurd, hurried into the hotel lobby and stopped him.

"What's wrong? Speak slowly. What happened to Cameron?"

"I received an international call last night from Rome, Italy. The signal was very poor, but I'm sure it was Jim's voice. He seemed to be seriously ill and called me for help."

"Could there be a mistake? He went to Rome to complete the post-production work of 'Piranha 2'. Besides, if he had a problem, shouldn't he call his wife first?"

"You don't know." Gail pulled Ronald aside, "He and his wife had a falling out, and Jim spent all the family money on a one-way ticket to Rome.

His wife also received a call from Jim, but they had fallen out and were preparing for a divorce. Jim probably called me because there was no one to ask for help. "

"What did he say on the phone?"

"He said he was very uncomfortable and had no clean food or drinking water. But the signal was very poor, and I heard some intermittently."

Ronald pondered for a moment, feeling that he would rather believe it. Cameron fell ill alone in backward Italy. If something happened, he would regret it if he did not help as a friend.

"In this case, I will go to the Italian consulate to apply for a visa. I will go to Rome immediately. You can check the phone number Jim used to call you. I will check it in Rome. There is also the phone number and address of the producer. ”

"It's all here, Ronald." Gale took out a copy and handed it to Ronald, "I'll go apply for an emergency visa with you. By the way, your job doesn't matter, right? I just talked to Roger... Coleman took a leave of absence."

"It's okay, it just so happened that the crew was deadlocked on casting."

The two of them went to the consulate to apply for visas. Ronald went to Wells Fargo Bank, wrote himself ten traveler's checks of varying denominations, and hurried to the airport.

The two bought the first flight to Rome at the airport. Hop aboard a Pan Am Boeing and fly straight to Rome, Italy.

After a stop in Munich and a fifteen-hour long flight, Ronald and Gale arrived at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome. After leaving the customs, the two hailed a taxi and set off to the company address of Assonitis, the producer of "Piranha 2".

“Buon gioro a roa!”

The driver of the Fiat car, who did not understand English, spoke a series of Italian words, supplemented by gestures, in an attempt to communicate with Ronald.

"Please take us to this address." Gale handed over a piece of paper with the English address of the producer Assonitis' company.

"Stai andando qui?"

"Studio del ea?"

"Yes, Studio! ea!" Ronald understood two words in Italian, studio and movie. This is a language that is pronounced equally in Europe and America.

The driver gave two thumbs up to indicate that he understood, and pulled them to Assonitis' office.

There were many people in Assonitis's office, but no one spoke English. But they all like to communicate, and when they come up and make gestures, they also want to talk to Ronald and Gale.

"I'm looking for Mr. Assonitis, Assonitis!" Ronald said to his secretary at the front desk for a long time without understanding what he meant.

“Non lo os……#%#￥……”

While he was anxious, a man came over and explained to Ronald in English with a strong Italian accent, "She said she didn't know the person you were talking about. This is the Rome Film Studio."

"Oh, thank you. Can you help me ask him if he knows where Assonitis, the producer of 'Piranha 2', has his office."

"Eh, is it you? Roberto?" Ronald saw the familiar face of the man. It was Isabella Rossellini, Roberto's partner in Italian news reporting at the New York TV station.

"That's great, Roberto, God bless there's someone here who speaks simple English."

Ronald quickly took out the phone number that Cameron dialed and asked, "Let's find a friend, Jim. He is the director of 'Piranha 2'. We only have his phone number but no address. So we went here to make the film." I came here to try my luck at the filmmaker’s address, but I didn’t expect that this was not his company.”

Roberto couldn't understand too long English sentences, so he took the phone number handed over by Gale, "You are looking for this person? He called this number, phone number?"

"Yeah, that's what it means. Jim, he called me from this phone. We're looking for him."

Roberto went to talk to the front desk secretary, borrowed a phone and dialed the number on the note.

After a conversation, Roberto said to Ronald and Gale, "Your friend, he is..., well, small, bad, what should I say?" He put his hands next to his ears as if sleeping.

"hostel?"

"Oh, yes. The hotel is what you Americans call it..." Roberto pretended to drive again, making a beeping sound from his mouth.

"car?"

"Motel?"

"Yes, motel."

"Can you take us there?" Ronald took out a few U.S. dollar bills and handed them over. "Please prepare a car for us and take us there."

"I have a car." Roberto did not accept the money he handed over, but let the two of them get into his Fiat car.

After Ronald finally squeezed into the passenger seat, Roberto started the car and drove through the narrow streets.

"Hey, don't block the road." Roberto banged the car door with his hand, cursed the driver in front of him, and then turned around to explain, "In Rome, we don't listen to the horn very much."

When we arrived at the motel where Cameron called, the owner suddenly became excited when he heard that he was looking for an American. He said a long speech to Roberto, including these curse words.

"Well, he said that your friend had no money and stole food from the kitchen. If it weren't for his illness, he would have kicked him out."

"I have a traveler's check here, which is enough to repay all my friend's debts." Ronald took out a traveler's check. The hotel owner was knowledgeable and knew that dollars could be cashed immediately in large department stores, so he grabbed it. Then he mumbled and led the three of them to the room where Cameron lived.

In a small room at the far end of the ground floor next to the laundry room, amid the rumbling noise of the washing machine, Ronald and Gale found a pale Cameron lying on the bed with only a tattered blanket on him.

"Oh, Jim." Gale rushed up and held Cameron's head in his arms, "We finally found you."

Cameron was drowsy and woke up from his dream. I saw Gale and Ronald standing next to me. For a moment, he didn't know where he was. Thinking of the scene he had seen in his dream, he blurted out, "It's terrible, it's terrible."