Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"I want to talk to Mr. George Lucas. I'm Ronald Lee. He said if I need help, this is the number to call."

Ronald was alone in the office and dialed the number given by George Lucas.

"George, there is a man named Ronald looking for you." There was a woman's voice on the phone.

"Thanks, Linda", Lucas took the receiver from his girlfriend Linda. Since their divorce, he has been dating pop singer Linda Ronstadt.

"Ronald, hello. Linda and I happen to be on vacation at Skywalker Manor. Would you like to come over and have some fun."

"I have something and I need your help, George. You once said that if I have any problems, I can come to you." Ronald asked for help straight to the point.

"Okay, then let's hear what problems you have that are difficult to solve." Lucas became a little more serious and changed his sitting posture.

Ronald told Lucas the dilemma he was facing, hoping that he would come out and endorse him, saying that his "Dragon Boy" was not an imitation of "Rocky".

"Of course there is no problem. Let your public relations company contact me. You have a public relations company, right?" Lucas heard that it was such a small matter and didn't take it to heart. "But you are sure to use mine." Promise? I think your agent should have other solutions to this matter."

"Yes, they offered me to acquiesce to Rocky or wait for the news to fade away, but I didn't like that. This movie was the first time my family praised and recognized my work. I didn't want this movie to be stained with such a stain.”

Lucas was silent for a moment. Ronald's experience reminded him of his father, George Lucas Sr.

His father was a right-wing businessman who was very disappointed after Lucas went to college to make some boring movies, and the relationship between the two has never been good.

Just like the villain Darth Vader in Star Wars, George Sr. also hopes that his son can join him and inherit his business empire. The father-son antagonism scene in "The Empire Strikes Back" was a scene where Lucas refined his father-son relationship, then exaggerated it and then reshaped it.

Fortunately for the Skywalker family, Lucas's father lived to see his son become famous and become the most profitable director and producer in Hollywood. Just like in "Return of the Jedi," the two reconcile in the end.

If Star Wars, which reunited his father and son, was slandered as a copycat by someone, I'm afraid I would be very angry and would have to fight back and clarify.

"Okay, how do you want me to help you?"

"I will work with my public relations consultant to come up with a plan to go on TV first... to counter Stallone's rhetoric. Then I hope you can be interviewed and endorse my statement."

"Okay, I haven't been interviewed by a TV station for a long time. If you find a prominent talk show host to come to Skywalker Manor, I can spare two hours." Lucas agreed.

"Lucas has agreed to give an exclusive interview at his estate. Next, we will contact the media and let Ronald appear on an influential program as soon as possible to clarify the facts."

After Ronald invited Lucas, Niceta immediately invested all the resources he could mobilize and began to plan for Ronald.

This young man always surprises himself. With the support of a top producer in the industry like Lucas, Ronald's future is limitless.

"This matter needs to be completed within this week, and it is best to find a host at the level of the three major talk shows." Public relations consultant Eva began to go out and make calls with Paula to coordinate resources with all parties. Their makeshift team was very excited and would rather pay a big price to make Ronald famous again while the public was still deeply impressed by the incident.

The so-called Big Three talk shows refer to the three male hosts who have dominated late-night talk shows since the 1970s. NBC's Johnny Carson Tonight Show is a standout, making CBS and ABC among the three major wireless TV stations jealous, and they have also introduced their own candidates for the ring.

CBS is looking for Melvin Griffin, and ABC is looking for Dick Cavett.

The two have their own characteristics, but Griffin takes a low-end route, which is more vulgar and obscene than Johnny Carson's jokes. By the 1980s, the ratings were bleak. After being fired from CBS, he went to the cable station. Stallone was on his show.

ABC's Dick Cavett conducted in-depth interviews. Although he was able to talk about in-depth content, in America, where the average household has one and a half televisions, he talked about in-depth content during the late-night period and the ratings were not good. After being fired, It moved to the PBS station together with the show, and the contract was terminated at the end of the year before last.

In addition to the three veteran talk shows, NBC's Late Show in the time slot after Johnny Carson's show was hosted by Ronald's friend David Letterman, and its ratings were about half of Carson's.

After a series of emergency negotiations and exchanges of resources, David Letterman and David Letterman agreed to replace the original guest on Friday night with Sean Connery's new film, a knock-off of the "007" movie Bond Girl. 1. Barbara Carrera, let Ronald go up and talk about "The Dragon King".

The show was taped at NBC's Studio 5 in New York, and Ronald, along with Niceta and public relations consultant Eva, caught a flight to New York.

"Your appearance will last about thirteen minutes. I will ask about some movies and your personal experiences, and then turn to Stallone's rumors about you." David Letterman briefly introduced the arrangement to Ronald.

Because talk shows require on-site reactions, Ronald did not rehearse and went straight to the recording.

"Three... two... one... start", the on-site director pointed the camera at the host Letterman.

"The next guest is our old friend. His movie once made me addicted to acting in the studio... Let us welcome Ronald Lee, the director of "Breakdance" and "The Karate Kid"..."

"Hello!" Ronald waved his hands and greeted the audience.

"Thank you, David. I am very happy to be here." Ronald shook hands with Letterman and sat on the guest's chair.

"Your breakdancing brings us great enjoyment. I see that you like to give bikini girls thigh shots. Is this your personal hobby?" Letterman's show is broadcast late at night, and this kind of edge ball jokes are indispensable.

"Hahaha..." The audience laughed at Ronald's embarrassment.

"Hey, the audience likes this scene. My job is to shoot what they like to see."

A loud whistle accompanied by applause, the audience likes this kind of director very much.

"Speaking of movies, your other new movie 'The Karate Kid' is now in theaters, and there is also a beautiful girl in it."

"Yes, you may recognize her, one of the Burger King girls..."

The two talked briefly for a few minutes, and Letterman began to get to the point, "A few days ago, Stallone said on TV that your new movie was an imitation of his Rocky, a teenage version of Rocky, is that true? Did you, the director, deliberately imitate those classics when making the movie?"

"You know me, David. I didn't actually imitate Rocky."

"So, you did imitate other movies, but not Rocky?"

"Movies always have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Every movie story must conform to the rules in order to be liked by the audience. We don't say they imitate because the hero and heroine kiss at the end of every romantic comedy." Ronald pretended to be dissatisfied and shrugged his shoulders.

"But your plot is really imaginative, especially the fact that there is a master who defeated the defending champion under his training."

"If that's the case, then all movies are imitations. If we have to give 'The Karate Kid' an object of 'imitation'..." Ronald stretched out his hands and hooked his index and middle fingers twice, indicating that the imitation is in quotation marks.

"It should imitate 'Star Wars'."

"Star Wars? Daniel slashed with a lightsaber?" Letterman made a gesture of slashing each other. The band played the Star Wars theme song in coordination.

"No, but their masters have more similar backgrounds, don't they? Rocky's coach is just a grumpy boxing coach.

And Master Yoda and Master Miyagi were both hidden at the beginning, dressed as ordinary people without magical powers."

"Repairman, huh?"

"Yes, they are all short, speak humorously, like to use inverted sentences, and don't follow grammar."

"Use it correctly, no defense can stop it." Letterman sat on the chair and tried to make a crane kick.

"And in the end, what they value most is not the apprentice's victory over the opponent, but the victory over themselves. It is the correct philosophy that defeated the wrong philosophy. After being taught by the master, their apprentice did not kill the opponent, but reached a reconciliation.

So this is not a martial arts movie, but a movie about the philosophy of life. The correct philosophy of life allows children to get good results, not the level of martial arts. This is completely different from those boxing and martial arts movies."

"The dark side of the force?" Letterman used his hands on the table to imitate the drum beats of Star Wars "Bang, bang, bang... bang... bang."

"Hahaha, the audience started laughing."

"It's like pursuing power too much and falling into the dark side of the force." Letterman concluded.

"Yes, that's it, just like Darth Vader, everyone has their own light side and dark side. Sometimes we forget the philosophy, we will get lost, and then we can't see ourselves clearly. Just like..."

Ronald deliberately paused, and Letterman raised his eyebrows. Is he going to mention Stallone by name?

"Just like Johnny in the movie." Ronald gave the audience a moment to smile knowingly, realize who he was actually talking about, and then returned to the movie.

The theme song of David Letterman's Late Show began to sound softly, which was a signal to remind that time was almost up.

"Dear audience, Ronald Lee," Letterman began to lead the audience in applause.

Ronald stood up and bowed to everyone.

"Very good, very good," Eva pulled the back of Ronald's suit, which was a little wrinkled because of sitting, "You have completely achieved our expected purpose. I can't tell that your conversation style for talk shows is also good."

"It will be broadcast on time at 10 o'clock on Friday night," Letterman came over to confirm that the recording was all OK, "My ratings are only half of Carson's, but this is the best I can do."

"Thank you," Ronald came forward and hugged him tightly. I have to remember this favor myself. Although CAA, Sean Connery's agency, is helping to mediate, Letterman has also made a great effort. Without his permission, I may not be able to do this.

"Next is the team that will interview Lucas. We'd better get a reputable talk show host to interview Lucas before next weekend." Niceta came up to talk. This was their next most important job.

The angle of Ronald's front punch today is very strange, which seems to be beyond Stallone's expectations. Then let's see how "Rocky" defends, and Ronald's team will hit Lucas's back punch.

"This shouldn't be difficult, which reporter doesn't want to interview him?" Ronald asked.

"Of course, but you need to find someone who is willing to cooperate and ask the right questions, so you need to be careful in choosing." Eva concluded. "In fact, if he hadn't retired, Dick Cavett from the three major talk shows would be the most suitable. His interviews are always in-depth, and he asks questions in casual places, which makes the interviewees willing to talk in depth."