Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald finished the sketch and felt confident. He turned on the computer, called up the latest archive, and began to modify the ending. He raised the two crane-shaped hands high on both sides of the body and faked a move with the left foot, and finally used the right foot to kick the opponent's head. He described it in detail.

After saving the file, Ronald was about to print it out when he suddenly had an idea.

He saved the document as "Karate Project New", then deleted the newly written part of the specific action description and added the original ending description back.

"Danny used a crane kick, jumped up with his uninjured right foot, kicked Johnny in the head and scored, then landed with his right foot. After a moment of silence, the audience seemed to be shocked by this unexpected killer move.

The referee announced Danny's victory, and then the audience suddenly burst into the loudest and longest cheers in the two-day competition...

The end of the full text"

"Squeak...squeak", the dot-matrix printer made a sound, and a dense matrix of dots was poked on the ribbon, and the last chapter of the "Karate Project" script was printed out.

...

The next day, Ronald and Niceta went to the office of producer Jerry Weintraub to submit the script. The office of this Jewish man was also converted from a house he owned, not far from his home in Beverly Hills.

After entering the door, Ronald saw a huge desk with a young secretary sitting inside.

"Hello, we are here to see Mr. Weintraub. I am Ronald Lee, and this is my agent. We have an appointment to discuss the script."

"Oh, let me see," the young secretary seemed a little flustered, and began to look for the notebook with appointments on the table. Piles of magazines, documents, and faxes made the desk look a little messy.

"Oh, I found it," the secretary breathed a sigh of relief. "Ronald Lee, um, please wait a moment, I will go to call Jerry, I mean Mr. Weintraub."

Ronald smiled at the red-haired secretary and motioned her to ask for instructions first. She looked a little clumsy. The secretary was of average appearance, but her temperament had a kind of innocence that was not common in the workplace.

"Susan, who's here?" Jerry Weintraub asked when he saw the secretary Susan Aikins, the daughter of an old friend, walk in from the large office in the corner.

"Ronald is here."

"Ronald, drink something?" Weintraub greeted Ronald and Niceta, then waved to the secretary Susan to sit down and listen to their conversation.

"So early in the morning? Okay, I'll have one too." Ronald reached out to take a glass of whiskey. The sun was shining brightly this morning, and Weintraub was in a very good mood, just like the sun.

"The Karate Kid"? Weintraub saw the name Ronald wrote on the script.

"Yeah, I think this is simple and clear. It can also arouse the audience's curiosity." Ronald took a sip of the wine. It tasted very good. It seemed to be aged Scotch whiskey, with a woody aroma and grain flavor.

"Very good." Weintraub continued to read.

Secretary Susan sat aside, looking at Weintraub's tall figure and wise face, and an admiring expression appeared on her face. Being able to decide the production of a film project is really a very charming person.

"Very good, I am very satisfied." After a long time, Weintraub, who finished reading the script in one breath, seemed very excited, "This is the kind of movie I have thought of in my mind, with humor and story, very good."

"It seems that you are satisfied with my script, Mr. Weintraub." Ronald felt that this singer manager and live performance organizer did not hide his feelings in front of others, and he was also a man of character.

"Of course, of course, after I make an appointment with Mr. Price, the president of Columbia, we will go to meet him and try to get the green light at one time. Unfortunately, he is about to leave. He is a very insightful person."

Weintraub immediately called Columbia and finalized the time to go to Columbia with Price's secretary.

In fact, because the filming budget of this movie was all paid by Weintraub, Columbia was only responsible for distribution. Generally speaking, the script would not be rejected without special reasons.

"Then it's settled. When the time comes, you come to my house and we will go to Columbia together." Weintraub liked Ronald's script very much and hugged Ronald.

"I don't know who will be the director..." Ronald asked tentatively.

"Well, I plan to invite an Oscar winner for Best Director to direct this movie. He is good at directing stories about small people's counterattacks, and he is the best candidate to direct this story."

"Oh? I thought you would choose me, Mr. Weintraub." Ronald quickly recommended himself.

"Of course, Ronald. You are a very good director. I have seen two of your movies. But your story is a movie that pays great attention to the development of characters. The movies you direct pay more attention to the story and the group drama.

Of course, I will not treat you unfairly. My first production movie needs to be a hit. We can have more opportunities for cooperation. Besides, the director seems to pay much attention to his own interests, and I may not be able to invite him. If he refuses, let's talk about this matter properly."

"Okay, you are the boss. I wonder who you are going to invite?" Ronald saw that he had made it clear, so he had to put it aside for the time being.

"John G. Avelson is the director of 'Rocky'. Is 'Rocky' also a typical ordinary person's counterattack movie? Or it can be said to be the greatest ordinary person's counterattack movie. Since I When I saw the story in the newspaper, I thought it would be best for him to direct it.”

"But the story of 'Longwei Boy' is not very similar to Rocky in nature, right?"

"Oh, why do you say that? I think what I asked you to write is a counterattack story. Isn't it the teenage version of 'Rocky'?"

"That's not the case. 'Rocky' actually tells the story of a man who was looked down upon by others after giving up his career, but with the encouragement of his lover, he regained his courage and fought for his future and integrity.

"The Young Man" is essentially a hero's adventure film. A young boy is bullied, meets an expert as his master, teaches him special skills, and finally defeats his opponent and wins the beauty. It’s actually a ‘Star Wars’-like story. "

"But Danny is essentially an ordinary person who fights back. Come on, Ronald. My credibility is well known in the record industry. As long as I promise, there is nothing I can't do. You can rest assured that this After this, my company is on the right track and I will definitely give you the opportunity to be a director.”

"I think I have the right to give it a try, Jerry. Why don't you give me a chance? I can talk in detail about what kind of movie I would make if I directed this movie. I think as a Screenwriter, I know the core of the story better, and I also know better how it should be made.”

"You are really a stubborn young man. Well, it's not a bad thing to listen. Then come to my house earlier then. I will listen to your statement at noon, and then go to Price's place in Columbia in the afternoon."

"Thank you for your generosity." Ronald shook hands with him, left the script, and left with Niceta.

"Susan, send them off for me."

"Oh, okay, Ronald, please come with me." Susan Akins, who had fiery red hair, stood up quickly and quickly led the way to send them out.

"What an interesting young man." Jerry Weintraub opened Ronald's "The Kid" script again and started reading it again.

"It's a pity that in order for the first film of my company to be well distributed, it must either find a famous director or a famous actor. Otherwise, it will be the same as the last film 'Dinner' that I produced as a producer. Obviously The box office was good, but it didn’t get the support of Colombian resources.”

Jerry Weintraub read the script, and the more he read it, the more he liked it, and the more he appreciated Ronald. He decided to at least give Ronald a chance to direct, and maybe bind the young director to his next film.

"It seems that you really like this script, Ronald," Niceta asked when sending Ronald home. "Last time Stallone asked you to create 'Dragon Dance', and then he wanted to drastically change your script. You handed it over without much resistance, and this time you have to hold on much longer.”

"Of course, this story is very interesting. I think American audiences may have never seen this type of movie before. In martial arts movies in the past, like Bruce Lee's, the protagonist was a master as soon as he appeared, so our expectations were high. On how he defeated those fierce enemies.

But this story is different. Danny Boy was weak at the beginning and was bullied. The audience watched him grow from a weak one, through the guidance of his master Miyagi, and gradually become stronger through hard training. Then he defeated Johnny, who was originally unbeatable.

I think previous movies of this type were like "Star Wars", where the protagonists all had super powers. In this karate movie, what the audience can see is that Danny is struggling. This is a story that could happen in the real world and they will love it. "

"You know what? I think you have a special magic power and can sense what kind of stories the audience likes to watch." Niceta sighed, "When the script for Night of the Comet came out, I didn't feel what the story was about. Attract the audience. After it was released, I discovered that the audience liked it everywhere.

Some people like the popular interlude, some like the sci-fi elements, some like zombie horror movies, and still others like the story of a girl on her own. It seems that at that point in time, you kneaded all the popular elements together and presented them to everyone.

I don't know what other people think, but directors who have this ability to capture what the audience wants to see will often achieve a great career. "

"Integrating popular elements together?" Ronald thought on the other hand, "Will the popularity pass and no audience will like to watch this movie in the future?"

"It's possible, but you've already succeeded, haven't you? The box office has exceeded 17 million."

"Yes." Ronald stopped talking. His dream is to make a movie that people will still remember twenty years later. If people still remember it forty years later, that would be even better.