Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Is this object alive?"

"No."

"Is it bigger than my palm, or smaller?"

"Small."

"Does it need electricity?"

"Yes."

"Does it glow?"

"Yes."

...

Ronald accompanied Helen to a reunion party with her classmates from the performing arts college. Most of the participants in this party were children from wealthy families like Helen.

Instead of playing loud rock music, they played a jazz disc. With the accompaniment of soft music, Ronald and Helen's friends played the game of "Twenty Questions".

As the name suggests, this is a question-and-answer game.

The respondent picks an object in the room, and then the rest of the people can ask her twenty questions. The respondent can only answer with "yes or no". If everyone fails to guess what the object is, the respondent wins.

During the filming of the movie "Famous", most of the actors from the performing arts college that Ronald had met had already graduated, and most of Helen's classmates had not participated in the filming at that time.

However, they were still talking about all kinds of interesting gossips about "Famous". Because Helen's classmate Erica is playing the leading role in the TV version of "Famous", a Latino black girl.

Another person who attended the party was Lori Singer, a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, who is also one of the leading actors in the TV version, playing a cellist.

"Is it a TV?" Helen asked.

"No."

"Ah, Helen. You lose. You didn't guess it. It's a desk lamp. It's not just the TV that lights up, but also the desk lamp." Lori laughed out loud, and she won this round.

Everyone started drinking drinks and took a break to watch TV.

"Lori, are you a real cellist?" Ronald made small talk and chatted with Helen's friends. This kind of music and games are actually not to Ronald's taste.

The TV version of "Famous" was broadcast on the MGM TV network, and the ratings were relatively dismal. The worried producer Da Silva lost a lot of hair. In the original movie, only a few people, such as Ronald's younger brother Leroy, participated.

The real big names, such as Irene Cara, who played the role of the actress, have long since left the TV circle.

"Yes, I played with the Oregon State Symphony Orchestra when I was thirteen. I also won the Bergen Philharmonic Competition in 1980." Lori is a cello prodigy. She looks very young and is still playing a high school student. In fact, she has been married for two years.

"Oh, that's amazing. Didn't you develop into a professional cellist later? Why did you become an actor later?"

"I really want to be a cellist. My father is the conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. This was my childhood dream. But all my dreams were shattered at a music summer camp in New York that year."

"What happened?"

"It was a summer camp held by Ms. Du Pré. At that time, she had retired from playing and changed to teaching. There was a Chinese boy who participated. He was two years older than me. After listening to his performance, I felt that I could never reach that level."

Ronald shook his head. The careers of these classical music performers are even worse than those of film directors. Unlike directors, they can't make different movies. They can only perform the same music repeatedly. After the popularization of modern recording technology, a well-known classical music piece is often only pursued by the public for one or two performers.

"So you turned to acting?"

"Yes, my uncle is a TV cameraman, and my brother is also an actor..."

"I've thought about it, it's your turn to ask questions, Ronald." A girl came over and interrupted Ronald's chat, and the game continued.

"Okay, let me think about it." Ronald began to think about how to ask questions to find the answer as soon as possible.

"Does it have life?"

"No"

"Does it use scientific and technological aspects of entertainment, communication, or work?"

"Yes." The girl didn't expect Ronald to ask such a tricky question, so she nodded.

"Is it a product for entertainment?"

"Does it glow?"

"It's a TV."

"You're cheating." Helen came over and rubbed Ronald's face. Everyone laughed.

"Let's play a game of 'what if'." Seeing that everyone was not interested, Ronald suggested changing the game.

"I'll give you a premise. If something happens, then use your imagination to tell me what will happen next?"

"Okay, ask." The boys and girls gathered around, and they all looked at Ronald with interest.

"If a comet hits the earth, most of the human race is extinct, and you find that there are only a few living people around, what will you do?"

"That's great, we can go to the department store, and we can take those beautiful clothes that we can't afford normally."

"If most people are extinct, then I don't have to compete with other bitches for handsome guys. And handsome guys have no choice but to date me."

"Hahaha..."

Ronald didn't expect the girls' ideas to be so interesting, and talked to them more.

Most of them still regard this kind of thing as an opportunity to indulge themselves, and have the opportunity to do things they don't dare to do normally.

"What's wrong with you? What are you thinking about?"

Helen saw Ronald was lost in thought and came to ask him.

"Your friend's answers were great, and I was wondering if I should write a screenplay using them."

"Oh, Ronald, don't forget us when the time comes. I want to play the leading role." Lori started to boo.

"Who knows? If the studio likes my idea, they will definitely ask you to audition."

"Spielberg, the director of et Alien, was revealed to have plagiarized a script written by Indian-American director Satyajit Ray..."

A burst of entertainment news came from the TV.

Ronald was startled and raised his head to look at the TV.

Everyone's voices immediately became quieter, and a girl walked over to help turn up the volume on the TV.

"Indian-Bengali director Satyajit Ray claimed that E.T. plagiarized his 1967 script "Thealien". Ray said through reporters that without the script he created, "E.T. "Starman" simply cannot exist."

"Is this true, Ronald?" Helen's fellow actors asked the director who was most familiar with Spielberg and Hollywood, Ronald.

"I can't say. The script and the final movie are not necessarily the same thing. And I haven't seen the movie Rey mentioned, so I can't answer this question."

Ronald fooled him with a few words.

Screenplay plagiarism is a serious accusation and it is illegal to do so without first contacting the original author. Not only will the original author have to be compensated for his losses in court, but it will also have a great impact on the plagiarist's reputation in the industry.

Sergio Leone, the director of "Once Upon a Time in America," the biggest-budget movie currently being shot in Hollywood, was once a plagiarist.

His famous work "Afistful of Dolrs" is Clint Eastwood's famous work, which tells the story of a western cowboy who saves a small town from villains.

In fact, every scene and every shot of this movie is copied from Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's black and white Japanese film, "Yojimbo".

Leon's movie just changed the story from ancient Japan to a small western town. The protagonist's weapon is changed from a katana to a revolver. Of course, such plagiarism would not stand up in court. After Kurosawa sued, Leon paid the money and settled the matter.

Of course, this is probably not the case with aliens. The script Rey mentioned has not been made into a movie and is still in script form. As Ronald said, the script is still far from being a film.

This kind of movie has many special effects scenes, coupled with Spielberg's unique brushwork, using light and shadow to draw a children's fairy tale. The effect of the finished film is not what can be seen in the script. Ronald was less convinced that Spielberg needed to plagiarize.

Ronald estimated that there might be some similarities in creativity and plot. This kind of thing is all about aliens, so collisions are inevitable.

When Ronald returned home, he called his agent Richard and asked about the aliens.

"Isn't this Rey just here for a fight?"

"No, Ronald Rey is a famous Indian director, he is also a famous screenwriter and composer.

The film "Song of the Great Road" he directed won the Cannes award, and later he made two other films, "Song of the River" and "Song of the Big Tree", with the protagonist Apu, which won the Venice Golden Lion Award, and West Berlin Golden Bear. "

"Um... I want to ask about the accusation of script plagiarism. Did Steven really plagiarize his script?"

Ronald knew that he was weak when it came to non-English films and films from Third World countries. He had not watched many of these films and was relatively ignorant compared to Spike Lee, an alumnus of New York University.

"I heard he will make a statement tomorrow."

Regardless of the various surprises brought about by the box office success of E.T., Ronald sat down at the keyboard and tried to write a synopsis of the script.

He wanted to seize the inspiration and write a play by himself without the help of dreams.

Dreaming about movies has no rules and is difficult to reproduce. If I want to continue in the film industry, I am afraid that sooner or later I will have to go back to being a screenwriter and writing scripts.

"The comet hit the earth, and a catastrophe like the extinction of the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous came to the earth. New York and Los Angeles were destroyed...

Several young valley girls escaped death because they visited nuclear war protection facilities. How they use the ideas of Valley Girls to solve a series of survival problems after the catastrophe. "

Ronald wrote in stops. There was no reference to the original work, and no movie in his dream to guide him. He wrote very slowly.

The TV screen was a bit glaring, and Ronald soon felt his eyes became dry and wanted to cry.

It seems that I still have to buy a Se·Hinton type computer with a dedicated typing display.

"Ask the dealer tomorrow and see how much it costs."