Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Daniel continued to learn karate with Mr. Miyagi. The next year...it was the annual Fernando Valley Karate Championship again. This time, as the defending champion, he had to accept challenges from masters from all walks of life..."

Ronald read the synopsis written by Weintraub.

"How is it? Is this story okay? You are an expert. How about we design another trick to let him defend the championship in the championship?"

Ronald tried to hold back, but couldn't help it and told the truth, "Jerry, the first movie has already written the end of Daniel's story. If you want to make a sequel, the protagonist must focus on other characters, otherwise it is equivalent to reshooting the first movie with a different face. The audience will not buy it."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Weintraub was still deeply impressed by Ronald's confident mentality on the first day of the release. What he said must have made sense.

"Well... for example, in Lucas's 'Star Wars', if the plot of blowing up the Death Star in A New Hope, the Empire builds a bigger Death Star in the sequel, and then lets Luke blow it up again. Even if the Force is several times stronger than before, and the trick is more powerful than before, but the core of the story remains unchanged, the audience will not like it."

"You have a point," Weintraub put away the outline he wrote, "Then whose story do you think we should shoot?"

"Why not shoot the character of Ali? There are many things to explore about her. She is not the kind of passive heroine. She dates Daniel, plays football, takes the initiative to conflict with Johnny, and encourages Daniel to persist despite his injuries. I think it is possible. Let her be the second apprentice of Mr. Miyagi. Talk about women practicing martial arts to protect themselves.

And Elizabeth Shue is a sports girl. She has a foundation in gymnastics and football, and is also very good at karate. She can perform action scenes without a double. After she finishes part of her studies, we will find a summer vacation and let her come back to shoot the sequel. ”

“Is that so, it means that the sequel will be released at least two years later?”

“Yes, it must wait a year before shooting, so that the audience can have time to savor and look forward to it. Even Star Wars cannot be released one year a year.”

“Are there any other candidates?” Weintraub was actually a little annoyed that Elizabeth Shue refused to participate in marketing activities.

"Hmm..." Ronald thought for a moment, "Then there is another option, which is to film the story of Master Miyagi, how he went from a fisherman in Ryukyu to America, and from a hero in the war to an inconspicuous repairman in the apartment."

"The story of an immigrant? Just like "The Godfather Part II"?"

"Yes, to uncover the mystery of Master Miyagi, I think there must be some stories about him leaving Ryukyu, and we can also let him return to Ryukyu again in the story to finish the previous story."

"Hmm... I like your idea more. Can we also film the story of the villain coach Chris?" Weintraub drew inferences from one example.

"This?" Ronald didn't expect Weintraub to like fighting scenes so much, and all his ideas revolved around more and more exciting fighting.

"But he is a villain, will the audience be interested in villains? I didn't actually give him too much ink in the movie."

"We can discuss it slowly, so you are still very interested in directing the sequel?" Weintraub laughed.

"Hahaha, maybe." Ronald didn't dislike Weintraub's way of communication, but whether to continue to serve as a screenwriter and director, or not, let's talk about it later.

"How is the box office trend this week?" Ronald asked the topic that the two were most concerned about. If the box office can be a big hit, then the filming of the sequel will be guaranteed. The investment in the second part will definitely exceed the first one.

In today's movies, all actors have signed a single film contract. If a sequel is filmed, the salary of the director and the actors will increase. Only if the box office is a big hit, the production company and distributor will invest more budget to shoot the sequel.

"Very good momentum, Columbia's feedback, the single-theater box office even exceeded "The Legend of the Demons" and is comparable to "Gremlins."

"The trend is really good," Ronald couldn't help but look forward to the box office statistics for the second week. It is estimated that the decline will be small.

...

"We need a director who is good at teen exploitation films." In the producer's office of 20th Century Fox, a middle-aged man lamented to his subordinates, think about it, who can take on this important task?

"This?" The subordinates looked at each other in bewilderment. The script of this movie was written by Noel Bck, who held a senior position in Fox Production Department, and then he green-lit it himself.

However, he continued to find many directors, but they either expressed disinterest or were rejected by Bck.

The current 20th Century Fox is very chaotic. After the female president Shirley Lansing was driven away by the new boss, the oil tycoon, the senior executives acted on their own and took advantage of this short happy time without the president to start various performances.

Relatively speaking, Mr. Bck only used his power to shoot the script he wrote, which was very moral, except that the script was a bit outdated.

However, finding someone to direct his script is not an easy task. A director who is too good will not be interested in such an outdated script, and a director who is too bad will not be satisfied with the result of the filming.

"Don't any of you think of a suitable candidate?" Noel Bck began to speak loudly, "We must seize this period of time and start filming as soon as possible."

"If we wait too long, this movie may be reconsidered once the new president comes." The subordinates are all here.

A subordinate in the corner, named Ben Fatty, raised it with trembling hands.

"explain!"

"How about we get Ronald Lee? He's been directing exploitation films and they're all hits."

"The kid who directed the breakdance?" Noel Black asked.

"Yes, he also directed 'Fast-paced Richmond High', and his debut film was a youth comedy about teenagers on campus."

"Pfft..." Another subordinate couldn't help laughing.

"Do you have any opinions?" Noel Black glared over, "I think Ronald is a good candidate."

"I don't have any problem with Ronald. I just think Ben may have been busy with work recently and not watched movies. I don't know that Ronald Lee is the most popular director now. He has become a big shot and will not go back to direct this movie." It’s a low-budget exploitation film.”

"What other movies has he directed recently? Didn't Breakdancing just come out?" Noel Black continued to ask.

"The best-performing new film this week, 'The Kid', is his work. It was released by Columbia with a production budget of eight million. He was highly praised by film critics. Roger Ebert of Chicago even gave him the best The rating is four stars.

In addition, the box office results are also very good. With this success, he has basically jumped out of the low-cost quagmire. "

"Eight million?" Noel Black thought for a while, "We can also invest him with eight million, and increase the director's salary to fifty, no, one million."

His subordinates were talking about a script from the 1960s, but he actually wanted to invest 8 million to film it. Was this because he was pursuing his dream? Or is he using power for personal gain and taking advantage of Fox's messy format to turn his script into a film?

"What are you still doing? Go find Ronald Lee's agent. I want to interview him at Fox."

Everyone left the office in a mess and went to make phone calls separately.

Noel Black searched on his desk, picked up the latest issue of the Chicago Sun-Times, and found the latest Roger Ebert movie review segment.

Sure enough, "Longwei Boy" was reviewed above.

"I wasn't going to see this movie. I glanced at the title and thought it was either (a) an outdated martial arts fight movie or (b) a poor adaptation of a DC comic.

I was totally wrong. "The Kid" was the biggest surprise of 1984 - an exciting and heart-warming story about two people who have been together for years, and one of the funniest friendships we've seen on screen in a long time. one.

Two friends come from different worlds. A kid named Daniel (Ralph Marzio) is a New Jersey teenager who moves to Los Angeles with his mother. An old guy named Miyagi (Pat Morita Noriyuki) is the Japanese janitor in their apartment building...

Then begins the best part of "Kid Longwei", where the old man befriends the kid from Jersey and starts teaching him authentic Ryukyu karate. Miyagi's karate teaching system was offbeat, to say the least. He sent Daniel to wax the car, paint the fence, and scrub the floors.

Daniel complained that instead of learning karate, he was working as free labor. But Mr. Miyagi’s training is systematic.

"The Kid" was written and directed by someone I wouldn't expect, Ronald Lee. I've disparaged his directorial abilities before. I think he can only shoot some good-looking scenes, but lacks the ability to describe characters and wonderful narrative.

But this movie completely shattered my prejudices. The heart of it isn't the fight scenes, it's the relationships. In addition to Daniel's friendship with Miyagi, there's also a sweet romantic relationship with Ari (Elizabeth Shue), your standard girl from the right side of town with typically snobbish parents.

Ralph Mazzio was an unusual and interesting choice for Daniel. He is not your typical handsome Hollywood teenager, but a lanky, energetic kid whose delivery always sounds natural, without any sense of reading lines.

He's a good, wholesome, interesting protagonist, but the film really belongs to Pat Morita (Noriyuki), an actor who's been in the business for a long time (he played Arnold in "Happy Days" ), but there has never been such a good role.

Morita made Miyagi a model of accumulation and success. His performance as Miyagi is a completely original character, which is really refreshing.

"The Dragon King" is a Sleeper Hit. Maybe his title gave you the wrong idea: this is one of the best movies of 1984.

Four stars!

"Well..." Noel Black put down the newspaper with satisfaction, "Only a director like this can produce good results for my semi-autobiographical script."