Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Martha Lucas stayed. Ronald and many guests continued to attend the party in a slightly weird atmosphere.

Ronald also met Coppola. He and Lucas were old acquaintances and chatted constantly. Ronald knew them all and listened to a lot of news from the outside.

Spielberg was in Sri Lanka and China filming the prequel to "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Raiders of the Lost Ark." But star Harrison Ford fell off the elephant, and Lucas was soon flying out to assess the situation.

If the situation becomes serious and Harrison is unable to continue filming, a stuntman may be used to replace him for the remaining scenes.

Coppola, Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, and nephew Nicolas Cage filmed "Betta Fish" with "The Kid" last year, which will also be released in August. He is very much looking forward to this movie , can achieve commercial success.

Lucas said he would take a break. Star Wars had left him physically and mentally exhausted, and he would not be restarting the space opera in the short term. He will focus his energy and time on being a producer and further strengthen the technical reserves of Industrial Light and Magic. Of course, we must first win the war with our neighbors.

The next day, Ronald got on a plane back to Los Angeles, and Chris Columbus was on the same plane with him. The two chatted all the way, and Columbus was very envious of Lucas's mansion, especially the various toys for children.

Ronald feels the same way. Now that he has some spare money, he can afford a house in New York or Los Angeles when he starts a family. Wouldn't it be great to pick up Auntie and Donna when the time comes?

Ronald returned to the apartment and immediately boiled water to make tea. He first pressed the play button on the answering machine. The dark red light flashed on it, indicating that there were a few more messages when he went to Skywalker Ranch.

"Hey...Ronald, this is Jerry (Weintraub). I have found a suitable candidate for Danny. If you are free tomorrow, come to my office. Avelson and I both want to hear what you have to say." Opinion.

Call me back if you hear that. drop……"

Ronald also wanted to see who would play Danny in the script he wrote. He took out his phone book and prepared to call Weintraub.

"Ronnie, it's Helen. I'm about to shoot the flying scene. I'm a little scared, so I'm going to give you a call. Are you at home? Aren't you there? Okay, I just want to hear your voice. Wish me well. Good luck."

Hearing Helen's voice, Ronald smiled on his face and looked at the time. It was already late at night in London, so he didn't call immediately. Helen should have finished filming and rested by this time.

He picked up the phone, called Richard, and asked his colleague in London to send an extra bouquet of flowers to Helen, saying that he had heard his message, and in the postscript he sent a gift for her bravery.

Early the next morning, Ronald arrived at Weintraub's office early, just as Weintraub was talking to his secretary, Susan.

"Did you like the last time you rode a horse? As soon as I ride on the horse, I will relax and throw away all the stress."

"Hehe, Mr. Weintraub. You have your own horse farm and horses, of course you can say that. I don't often ride horses, but I still like the smell of the grass."

"Call me Jerry," Weintraub said softly.

"Good morning, Jerry. Good morning, Susan." Ronald greeted them from a distance.

"You came just in time, I was about to show you the audition photos of the person who was booked."

"Susan", Weintraub reached out to Susan, took an audition photo, and handed it to Ronald.

The photo showed a blond young boy with an ordinary boy's hair style, a fluffy mushroom head hanging down on both sides of his face. He looked very ordinary. The actor's name was not left on the front of the audition photo as usual.

"Who is he?" Ronald turned over the audition photo, and there was no actor's resume on the back. None of this conforms to the audition procedures. It seems that there is something unusual about this boy.

"Remember what I told you about the star strategy? Guess who called me?"

Ronald shook his head and said he couldn't guess.

"It's Clint Eastwood. This is his youngest son, Kyle."

"Oh," Ronald picked up the photo and looked at it carefully. There was indeed something between his eyebrows that looked like his father, the famous western cowboy actor.

"How was his audition?" Ronald asked.

"His father is Clint, and Kyle has inherited good acting potential. As long as we train him, he will be able to play the role of Danny."

Ronald said nothing, waiting for Susan to take out Kyle Eastwood's audition video and put it in the VCR to watch.

"What's wrong with your eyes?" Susan made a temporary guest appearance as the heroine Ali and read a line to Kyle.

"Nothing, don't be careful...it's no big deal." Kyle Eastwood also took the script and read his lines.

"Did Johnny hit him?"

"It's okay, it doesn't hurt anymore."

"I haven't found a chance to thank you yet."

"It's nothing, you don't have to worry about it."

"e On, I should thank you."

"I'm sorry, I broke your tape recorder yesterday."

"Recorder, what do your eyes say?"

"Cut!" Weintraub can be heard calling the audition to a halt.

"What do you think?" Weintraub asked Ronald.

Ronald said nothing. This Kyle is not very good at acting.

Danny is a poor child raised by a single mother, while Ali is the only daughter of the local wealthy middle class. There is a relatively large class gap between the two.

In Ronald's script, in this conversation, Ali has obviously developed a liking for Danny, and she wants to create opportunities for Danny to ask him out.

But Danny was quite concerned about the fact that he asked Ali out yesterday and was beaten up by her ex-boyfriend Johnny, leaving him with a black eye. He didn't want to date Ali because he was pitied. He also wanted to show a strong attitude and win Ali's heart.

This Kyle's father is a well-known star in the United States. He comes from a wealthy family and has never felt like being looked down upon. So in this audition, the emotions he acted were very inconsistent with what Danny should have been.

From this point of view, Kyle does not have any acting skills that can penetrate the character's heart. Of course, he is only a teenager, and his acting skills are difficult to achieve. But Kyle does not have the background and mentality of the role of Danny, which already shows that he is not suitable for playing this role.

But Weintraub seems to like him?

"What do you think, Director Avelson?" Ronald began to do Tai Chi.

"You can ask him yourself when he comes," Weintraub said. "Actually, this movie is mainly about the story and action scenes, as well as Master Miyagi's humorous lines. The actor's acting skills are not that important. You It’s the screenwriter, you should know that, right?”

"No, he is very important." Suddenly Avelson's voice came. He just walked in from the door and heard Weintraub's words.

"The two most important characters in this movie are Danny and Master Miyagi. The two of them complement each other. If one actor is weaker, the other will not get the correct reaction, and he will be weakened. performance.”

Ronald nodded secretly. This script itself has a lot more character growth than the previous two exploitation films I wrote. The backgrounds and identities of the two actors are actually revealed gradually, one by one and one by one.

Danny is the obvious one. The audience knows his family background from the beginning, his affection for Ali, and his desire to learn karate on his own to become stronger after being beaten.

Master Miyagi is dark. When he appears, he is just an apartment maintenance man who speaks broken English, and then the character is peeled off layer by layer like an onion. Every time Danny interacts with him, he reveals part of the character's personality and backstory.

If Danny's performance is not strong enough, it will also weaken the intensity of this interaction, and Miyagi's character will not be able to stand up. It will bring down the entire film.

"Hi, Susan. When will you agree to go on a date with me? Do you think I'm too old? In fact, I'm in good health. A few years ago, I practiced boxing with Stallone every day." Avelson was half-joking again of flirting with Susan.

"Do you think so too, Ronald?" Weintraub asked Ronald.

The two had another controversy over the casting. Ronald thought for a while and asked instead without answering directly:

"I haven't seen Kyle live yet. Do you think he is a person who would hold a grudge if he didn't choose this role?"

"Him? Of course not, he is Clint Eastwood's son." Weintraub smiled, which was a bit too much.

"When I wrote the character Danny, I had in mind a kid who has a chip on his shoulder. Only this kind of person would be obsessed with practicing karate instead of giving up and never dating Ali again. "

Put bsp; on one’s shoulder (Put bsp; on one’s shoulder) is an American idiom that describes a person who will keep resentment and grievances in his heart and think about taking revenge in the future. In Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", it is used to describe the behavior of the protagonist Tom Sawyer.

"A chip on my shoulder." Weintraub rubbed his chin in thought.

"But Kyle is Clint's son who was only born when he was thirty-eight years old. This playboy is very precious to this son. He may really not understand what it means to be frustrated and what it means to be bullied. And he is only fifteen. age……"

"Mr. Weintraub, Mr. Clint Eastwood's phone number." Susan came over to remind Weintraub.

"Okay, I'll come." Jerry stood up and went to answer the phone with Susan.

"Ronnie, you didn't see Kyle's audition yesterday. It was a disaster." Avelson didn't shy away from Ronald and directly pointed out that Kyle was not suitable for the role of Danny.

"I said John, this may be a bit inappropriate, but is there something wrong with you always flirting with Susan like this? I think Weintraub seems to like her very much." Ronald knew that Avilson was single now , is also a Hollywood director and a playboy.

"You're worrying too much, Ronald. The first rule of thumb when hunting for a woman is to see if the other person has a regular boyfriend. Susan is obviously a very shy girl, and there's no way she could be Weintraub's type. Have you met Jerry’s girlfriend too?”

"That's true." Ronald thought of the blonde beauty Weintraub had an affair with at home that day. She had a good figure and appearance, while Susan was just a girl with average appearance and a little fat.

"I'm sorry, maybe I thought too much."

"John, Ronald, when Clint comes back, we'll talk to him together. See if we can change the role for his son Kyle, and make him a student of Johnny's classmate, Rattlesnake Kay Karate Dojo." Soon, Weintraub came back.

Ronald looked at Susan who was following behind him. It was indeed not the type that Weintraub would cheat on.

"Thank you, Susan." Ronald thanked her, took the two cups of coffee she brought over, and handed one to Avilson.

...

"What? You want my son Kyle to play the villain?"

A few hours later, Clint Eastwood came to the office and was furious when he heard Weintraub's explanation of why Kyle was not suitable for the role of Danny, and then proposed that he play a supporting role.

This tough guy on the screen obviously has a cowboy-like hot temper in life. But his demeanor is still there. When he is angry, his voice is not loud, but he speaks slowly in a tone that is whispering in your ear.

"Kyle is my son. If he wants to be in a movie, he should be the protagonist. If you think I'm here to ask you to give him an insignificant role, then you're wrong."

"Clint, I don't mean that. It's just that Kyle is not suitable for a role with such a personality. Danny is a child from a poor family, and you always give Kyle the best of everything..."

"Do you really think I care about a movie that is shown in a drive-in theater? An exploitation movie that deceives children? But you, and Columbia, should know how to respect me!"

Clint threatened in his unique soft voice, "I will remember all this. From now on, all Coca-Cola (Columbia's parent company) products will not appear in my movies."