Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The next morning, Ronald took Brooke out of London to play. He borrowed a car from the CAA London office, tried to adapt to the right-hand steering wheel and accelerator, and drove to the outskirts of London.

Brooke combed her hair, which was completely different from her usual hairstyle in America. She wore huge sunglasses and sat in the passenger seat.

Although she was with Prince Andrew yesterday, many media knew her. But for ordinary people in Britain, she is not an idol known to all women and children. Only some young people know her.

This is the weakness of models. Compared with movie stars, the popularity accumulated by magazine covers is obviously not as profound as the audience watching a story on the screen in the cinema.

Ronald vaguely remembered the road here, and drove along with his memory, and actually drove to the Pinewood Studios. This is a place he is familiar with, especially the largest studio, which was once the main shooting location of "Supergirl".

Since you are here, why not take a look here.

Ronald made up his mind, parked the car, and walked along the path with Brooke. There was a comfortable hotel in front, and the muffins there were good.

"You seem to be familiar with this place?" Brooke asked.

"This is Pinewood Studios, the largest filming base in Britain and even Europe. In front is the studio where "Superman" and "Star Wars" were filmed." Ronald pointed to the largest studio and said.

"Oh," Brooke looked at it. Now her interest in filming is not as strong as her desire to get a Princeton diploma. Although she once dreamed of becoming an actor in the future, the reviews and box office of the two recent movies were average, which made her doubt her talent a little.

The two walked in the pine forest. Pinewood Studios is worthy of its name. It was originally a large pine forest, and now there are many forests between the studios. There are grasslands between the forests, and some outdoor scenes that require grasslands can be filmed here.

There are some ancient castles in the distance, which are ancient castles handed down from older times. Because of the convenience of filming, this is an ideal location for Shakespeare's plays and Jane Austen's plays, and many costume crews shoot here.

Ronald held Brooke's hand, and the two walked on the grass. The grass was a little damp in the morning. Under the sunlight, people could smell the smell of green grass, which was very pleasant.

Holding hands, they strolled together. The fresh air coming through the grass and pine forests made Ronald's spirit and body seem to be recharged.

The two walked up a gentle slope, and from a distance, it seemed that a group of people were filming a movie in front of them.

"Oh, the clothes they wear are so simple, it seems to be a costume movie," Brooke Shields is very knowledgeable about clothes, and she couldn't help but say it.

"Let's go and take a look." Ronald walked slowly along the path, passed through a pine forest, and arrived at the filming location.

When I got closer, I saw that the clothes worn by the crew were very simple. They were not the style of Shakespeare's plays, nor were they the handsome men and beautiful women of Jane Austen. Instead, they were dressed like a farmer's wife in the Midwest of America.

After careful identification, she was not a farmer's wife, but a teenage girl wearing an old-fashioned skirt, carrying a lunch box in one hand and a hen in the other.

"What kind of British drama is this?" Ronald searched his brain but couldn't think of it.

However, others were filming, so he couldn't interrupt them. Fortunately, the filming was in the middle shot, and Ronald and Porky's appearance in the distance did not affect the crew's filming.

The hen clucked, and a metal monster came over. It looked like an upside-down spittoon with metal eyes and beards, and a big key for winding the spring on its back.

"Mr. Tik-Tok, we still have to defeat those wheelmen."

"Bang bang bang..." The big spittoon began to stomp the ground with its feet, walking on the ground in a slightly strange way. Ronald guessed that there was someone walking in this iron suit, just like the R2D2 robot in Star Wars.

"Cut!" A call to stop came, and a middle-aged man with a scruffy beard and a tired face stopped filming with an electric horn.

Ronald felt that the voice was a little familiar, and took Porky's hand and walked forward two steps.

Sure enough, this director was Ronald's mentor in editing technology, Walter Merzi. His new film was shot at Pinewood Studios?

"Walter!" Ronald waved happily at him and walked down the high slope with Brooke.

Walter Merzi was worried about the unsatisfactory progress of the filming. Suddenly, he heard someone calling him. He looked over and a flash of sunlight flashed across his glasses.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Ronald. Sorry to bother you." Seeing that the atmosphere was not right, Ronald immediately slowed down and apologized.

"Oh, Ronald. Nice to see you here." Walter shouted to the crew, "Ten minutes of rest."

A small man came out of the big spittoon named "tik-tok". He was in an upside-down position inside, with his legs tucked together at the bottom of the upside-down spittoon, and his hands supporting the two legs of "tik-tok" so that he could pose in that stupid walking posture.

"Who is that? Is the girl with him Brooke Shields?" He asked the little girl holding a hen next to him.

"I don't know," the girl sighed and handed the hen to the assistant, "This scene is so slow to shoot, this chicken stinks."

"How is it? I didn't expect you to be shooting here. I just happened to be walking next to you." Ronald was very excited. Walter Murch was shooting here. It must be the "Return to Oz" he wrote and directed. The little girl should be Dorothy.

Walter Murch smiled bitterly, "If you had come a few days later, I might not be here." He handed Ronald a cup of coffee.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Ronald was surprised.

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"Nothing, I'll tell you later. You came to see me, which is the only good news in the five weeks since the start of filming." Walter looked at Ronald and was very pleased. His apprentice was really promising.

"Is this Brooke Shields?" He saw the tall girl holding Ronald's fingers and realized that it was the American idol.

"Yeah, it's me. Nice to meet you, Mr. Murch." Brooke Shields took off her sunglasses and greeted him.

"Oh oh..." Everyone exclaimed. It turned out to be Brooke Shields.

Brooke quickly pulled her hand back. She was afraid that the news would be spread.

"You are all professionals here, right?" Ronald looked around. It would be best if the news that he and Brooke came together did not appear in the newspaper.

"It doesn't matter. I may be fired soon. They will also be dispersed to other crews. Even if reporters come in two days, they will not be able to find the parties involved." Walter Murch still had a little sense of humor. He found a chair with his name on it and sat down. He told Ronald about his experience since the start of filming.

It turned out that Disney's performance has declined in recent years. The power of Ron Miller, the son-in-law of the founder Walt Disney, in the company has been greatly reduced by the old servants led by his nephew Roy Disney.

Ron Miller's original green-lit project "Return to Oz" was also put on another list. In addition, Walter Murch encountered difficulties in filming. After five weeks of filming, the progress was more than two weeks behind, and Disney had begun to discuss whether to end the project.

In order to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, the senior management of Disney has fired Walter Murch's first assistant director and the director of photography. If Merzi doesn't speed up the progress and continues to delay, he will be the next to be fired.

"Why?" Ronald looked at the little actors on the set and was a little confused. Although animals and children are two of the three most difficult subjects to shoot in a movie, Ronald just saw that the little actor who played Dorothy performed quite well.

Even if her shooting time was restricted by the union, it would not be so late as to fall behind by half in five weeks.

"Come and see," Walter Merzi urgently needed to find someone to talk to. He took out a storyboard drawing, "This is my movie drawing. In this movie, in addition to the little girl, there are robots, hens, mechanical hens, and stop-motion animation. Our actors are equivalent to performing against imaginary things and often make mistakes."

"Oh," Ronald understood. Walter Merzi's debut film is too ambitious. From the beginning, it was posed as a stunt blockbuster. In the end, except for Dorothy who appeared in almost every scene, most of the other characters were special effects that needed to be synthesized in post-production.

Even George Lucas only dared to make two robots and one humanoid when filming Star Wars.

"Disney has always had doubts about this movie, and now I may be fired at any time." Walter was a little discouraged.

Ronald also sighed. This kind of thing can only be undertaken by the director alone. Halfway through the filming, no one can directly help. The only thing is to encourage the director and let him persevere.

Just as he was about to give Merzi some encouragement, a group of people came over there.

The leader was a big man in a suit and leather shoes, and next to him was a secretary-like person.

"Walter, we should talk."

"Okay, Gary." Walter Merzi recognized him as the executive producer of the film and knew that the expected ending was coming. He looked around and saw that no crew member was willing to approach him. Everyone guessed the ending of this conversation.

Walter sighed, put the electric horn in Ronald's hand, and walked into the trailer parked next to him with Gary.

Ronald opened his mouth wide. No way? He actually happened to encounter the moment when Walter Merzi was fired.

"Is he okay?" Brooke looked at Ronald and asked.

"At most, he will be fired. I can just talk to him and save him from being too sad." Ronald replied. This movie was the result of Walter Merz's hard work for several years. If he was fired, the movie would probably die. It is difficult to find someone to take over such a movie that uses a lot of special effects.

"He is so pitiful." Brooke listened to Ronald's story about Merz's preparation for the movie and felt that this was too cruel to him.

"There is no way. Once the filming of the movie is overspent, the money is spent like water. There are not so many Orion Pictures that can support Coppola's spending like this." Ronald also felt very sorry.

"Am I not suitable to be a director?"

At night, Walter Merz, who was fired, drank a lot of wine with Ronald in the bar.

"No, I think the problem lies mainly in the underestimation of the shooting time of the special effects." Ronald replied, "I haven't seen the sample film, but I think the performance level of the child actor you chose is already first-class."

"Fairuzabalk," Merzi replied, "I spent a long time choosing her. She is very suitable for the role of Dorothy, even more suitable than Judy Garland in the original version. In the original version, Dorothy was just a little girl of twelve or thirteen."

"Is there no room for redemption?" Brooke interrupted as she watched them drinking whiskey.

"No, I was able to convince Disney to give the green light because of George's influence." Walter Merzi gradually lowered his voice and finally leaned on the table. He was a little drunk.

Ronald sent Walter Merzi back to the room.

He pondered Merzi's last words, "George exerted influence." Could it be his college friend George Lucas?

Ronald touched his chin, as if Walter Merzi had told him that George Lucas and he were competing for the opportunity to be Coppola's assistant. The two agreed that the winner would help the loser when they met a critical moment in the future.

Returning to his temporary room, Ronald dialed the front desk, "I want an international call, yes... Los Angeles, America."

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