Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Garbage, all garbage."

Don Simpson took the scripts in Paramount's script circulation warehouse and threw them around. "Are these people still alive 20 years ago? Who wants to watch this kind of movie now?"

Jerry Bruckheimer collected the scripts he had thrown around and threw them into a cardboard box. "Not many people understand the secrets of high-concept movies. If they all understand, we won't be able to enjoy the value of this vision."

"I heard that Eisner and Katzenberg are very cautious. They try every means to hide any scripts that have the potential to sell well and prevent them from flowing into Paramount's circulation library." Don Simpson went back to normal from his furious state.

"We need to find a script that will hit the audience hard. No explanation is needed. They will be excited just by looking at the title, and they will be climaxing just by watching the trailer. They must call their friends to the cinema to enjoy the movie."

As he said this, Don Simpson walked to the boxing magic ball hanging from the roof and began to vent his abnormally excited energy due to excessive use of drugs.

"Getting excited just by looking at the title? Here's an unfinished script synopsis that seems to meet your requirements." When Bruckheimer was sorting out the script, he found a piece of paper sandwiched between the scripts, with only a few lines of plot synopsis on it.

"Tell me about it?" Simpson also became interested.

"Fighter pilots, naval jet fighters, aircraft carriers, sexy female officers, hot summer, and passionate love soaked in sweat."

"Oh, shxt!" Don Simpson was excited. He ran over and grabbed the synopsis, and cursed repeatedly after reading it. "What the hell is this movie called? Where's the fucking script? Where's the script?" He was anxious and began to bang the paper box containing the remaining script.

"Here," Bruckheimer held up a piece of paper that seemed to be the cover of the script, "gun!"

...

"We want Tom Cruise to star in this movie!" Don Simpson said to Rick Niceta, a famous agent of CAA.

The two producers found Nicita and wanted to talk to Paula Wagner about Cruise's film contract, but Paula was accompanying Cruise to reshoot the movie "Legend" in London, so they came to Paula's boyfriend to talk.

"I'll call her." Nicita knew that the two producers had recently been given higher authority by the new president of Paramount, so she didn't dare to neglect it and called Paula.

"Paula, this is Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. They want to find Tom Cruise to make a high-concept movie."

"What movie?" Paula's voice came through the speaker.

"Tentatively named Gun", it is a movie about naval jet pilots. The script is still being perfected, and we are very optimistic about this concept.

"Tom's recent thoughts are still on the sequel to 'The Hustler' directed by Scorsese and Paul Newman. I don't think he is necessarily interested in participating in a purely commercial film, let alone a fighter jet. You all know that one of the taboos in Hollywood is that no one watches the battle of planes."

"That's a thing of the past. Today's fighter jets are all jets. Think about it. In the summer, it's so hot that sweat drips down your neck, and the steam catapult on the aircraft carrier distorts the air on the ground.

Bang, a pilot kisses his officer girlfriend passionately, and then goes out to fight the MiGs of the Soviet Union. What a stylish scene, Tom will become a superstar." Don Simpson is very good at describing scenes, which made Paula Wagner on the phone stunned for a moment, as if it sounds good.

"I will tell Tom, don't worry. But whether to accept or not is up to Tom himself. His current idea is to work with a big director like Scorsese, hone his acting skills, and then become a superstar with both acting skills and box office appeal.

In addition, your script should be written first. Tom has very high requirements for the script now. He will make a decision only after we help him read it through."

"That's no problem. We are looking for someone to complete it." Bruckheimer remembered that the two of them spent a long time searching last night before finding a 30-40 page script outline in the office of the former president of Paramount. Many specific scenes in it were glossed over, and someone had to be found to rewrite it.

"By the way, which director are you going to find? Tom has requirements for the director." Paula continued to talk about the conditions for working with the popular young actor Tom Cruise.

"We haven't confirmed it yet, but we will definitely be able to match Tom."

"Okay, I'll hang up. I'll tell Rick if Tom responds."

Paula hung up the phone, "If they can find someone on Tom's list of directors he's willing to work with, it's not impossible to work together."

"By the way, who are you going to ask to direct?" Nicita hung up the phone and asked the same question to the two producers.

"Why, do you want to recommend Ronald?" Bruckheimer asked with a smile. Nicita has signed many actor contracts and received a lot of commissions thanks to Ronald as a client. Other agents in the industry laughed at Nicita for picking up a treasure, but privately they envied his luck.

"Of course, he is the most suitable. Haven't you noticed that what he is best at is to create an atmosphere, shoot this kind of high-concept movie, and then have the delicate temperament of a feature film in the details?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I knew he was a future star when he came to the "Flashdance" crew." Don Simpson nodded, "But this movie is not suitable for him."

"Why?" Nicita asked curiously.

"Hollywood hasn't made any air combat movies worth mentioning since the early 1960s. European directors have made "Eagles Over London" and "Battle of Britain". It takes great skills and experience to shoot beautiful airplanes. We think we need to find an old guy this time to control the scene."

"But now it's jet fighters. Those old movies you mentioned were shot in the propeller era, right? The old guys may not know how to shoot jets." Niceta raised an objection.

"Who says it's not? We are worried about it. Maybe Hollywood hasn't made air combat movies for a long time because of technical difficulties. We are asking people to find all movies related to air combat, even commercials and music videos with airplane shots, to see if we can find talents."

Bruckheimer also agreed with this statement.

"Haha, then you guys look for it," Niceta laughed happily, "you will come back."

The two producers said that Niceta said that they would come back to find Tom Cruise, so they said goodbye and left.

...

The two producers were at Don Simpson's house again, holding a pile of videotapes and browsing them one by one. This is the Hollywood and TV commercials that the secretaries have collected with great effort. If there is a fighter shot, they count it as one. The two of them hold a TV and watch the tape separately.

"Come and see this commercial," Bruckheimer excitedly took a videotape and replaced Simpson's tape, "It's really fucking exciting, I wonder who directed it."

The TV showed a Saab car commercial. The airspeed tube of the Saab Lightning fighter pierced the door of the hangar like a needle and passed through.

The air on the airport runway was heated by the rear nozzle of the engine, and a mirage-like distortion appeared. Finally, the plane took off from the ground, flew over the head of the Saab car, and went straight into the blue sky.

"Fuck, who the hell shot this? No one on earth can shoot a jet fighter as beautifully as he does. No one can get close to his level!"

Don Simpson jumped up and paraphrased the slogan "Nothing else on earth can get close" again.

"Let me look for it," Bruckheimer picked up the form sorted by his secretary and found a line corresponding to the Saab advertisement, on which was written the name of an acquaintance.

"Director: Ronald V. Lee."

"Damn it, this was fucking shot by Ronald. This Saab advertisement was shot by fucking Ronald. Niceta is a liar, a rogue, a thief. He deliberately wants to see us make a fool of ourselves."

Don Simpson jumped up and scolded the unscrupulous agent Niceta.

...

"Mr. Niceta, I'm sorry for what I said yesterday.

You should have told us earlier. I'm embarrassed for what I said yesterday. We are also friends of Ronald. If we had seen the jet fighter he shot earlier, it would have been full of agility and power. He would have been the director of this movie."

Don Simpson came to CAA again. This time he didn't dare to say anything rude, but carefully said nice things, hoping that Niceta would not interfere and pass on his words that Ronald couldn't shoot a fighter.

"Don't worry, I haven't had time to tell Ronald about your project yet. I knew you would come back." Niceta happily lit a cigar and blew out a puff of smoke victoriously.

Then he picked up the phone and triumphantly called Ronald's home.

"Ronald, Mr. Don Simpson is here with me, and his partner Jerry Bruckheimer. They have a script and must invite you to be the director."

"Don, Jerry," Ronald, who rushed to the CAA office, hugged the two producers.

"What project?" He heard Niceta's tone, as if it was very suitable for his big investment.

"Gun, tells the story of a naval fighter pilot."

"Here is the script, you can take a look first, and then we can discuss it."

Ronald took the script and weighed it, "Why is it so short?"

The script is less than 40 pages, and it is full of descriptions of scenes. Even the dialogues and air combat plots are only mentioned briefly.

"This is a high-concept movie. We plan to find a suitable director and then discuss with him how to fill in the content." Don Simpson flattered Ronald.

"Okay, I'll go back and see if you're still making movies for Paramount?" Ronald mentioned the past.

"Yes, Paramount gave us good authority. As long as you agree, Paramount can invest 15 million US dollars in this movie."

"And Tom Cruise," Niceta added beside him. It was obvious that this movie was suitable for him to be the leading actor.

"Did Tom agree?" Ronald asked.

"No, he said he wanted to see who the director was. It just so happened that he really wanted to make a movie with you, so it shouldn't be a problem."

Ronald returned home with a script (outline) that was written one-third of the way, and began to read it carefully.

After an hour, Ronald yawned.

Jodie Foster was still not favored by Konchalovsky and returned to Yale disappointed. Ronald just sent her to the airport this morning. He was a little tired and began to feel heavy eyelids, so he simply took a bath and went to bed.

"Ding... Ding... Ding", accompanied by the rhythmic bell sound that seemed to come from a distant church, against the dim background, the nose of a jet plane appeared on the screen.

The staff members nearby were walking up and down in the weak light reflected from the sky before the sun rose, like black silhouettes walking on the deck of the aircraft carrier.

Waves of white water vapor rose from the catapult of the aircraft carrier, and Ronald actually saw a holy meaning.

The nose of a very beautiful jet plane entered from the left side of the picture, and the morning sun began to slowly climb over the sea, and the first rays of dawn appeared on the nose.

The throttle of the jet engine gradually opened, and the sound gradually became louder. This mechanical monster seemed to wake up the sun all of a sudden.

The helmet of the staff began to shine with golden light.

The plane slowly slid into the ejection position, the folding landing gear was opened, and the hydraulic mechanism popped open with a bang. The sound of the engine became louder and louder, and a baffle rose on the deck behind the engine to prevent the deck from being burned by the flames ejected by the afterburner engine during takeoff.

A staff member squatted on one leg, with one hand forward, making a gesture that he could fly.

The sun suddenly jumped out of the sea, and the golden light illuminated the entire deck of the aircraft carrier.

"Pop!" There was a loud noise.

The obstacle that was tightly holding the front wheel was released, the landing gear of the plane shook violently a few times, and two orange-red flames spurted out from the rear of the jet engine.

The rhythm of the music suddenly accelerated, and the plane crossed the screen from left to right, raised its head violently, and flew into the sky.

"This seems to be an advertisement I shot." Ronald liked this kind of picture arrangement very much in his dream. The atmosphere was warm, the movements were simple, and the rhythm of the music matched the protagonist. The fighter on this aircraft carrier became.

It seemed to be hazy for a long time. Ronald didn't remember the plot in the middle. The picture turned to an airport runway.

An officer was giving a lecture on the screen, and the background was a model of the aircraft on the aircraft carrier just now.

Flying suit, playing cool there.

"It turns out that Tom is still in the role. He is really suitable for this kind of movie." Ronald felt funny, a little childish, a little nervous, but Cruise, who was handsome to the sky, was really comfortable in playing the role of this pilot.

"Your lecturer is called Charlie. She is a doctor and an expert in aerodynamics..." the officer was introducing.

The camera turned to the back of the students.

A pair of beautiful legs walked in from behind the camera.

An A-line skirt, slightly narrowed at the knees, modified the waist and hips of the beauty very well. The skirt limited her room for movement, so she could only walk forward in small steps, but such small steps were charming.

The camera moved down and followed the pace of the beauty. The stockings under her skirt were a retro style. There was a black silk thread in the middle of the back of the calf, extending from the heel all the way up and disappearing at the skirt, which made people imagine.

The swaying gait made Ronald feel hot in his lower body, "Isn't this taken by me? Hollywood knows that I am good at taking photos of beautiful women's legs."

The camera continued to fast forward, and Ronald did not see the front of the actress, which was a pity.

The scene came to an outdoor beach volleyball court again.

Tom Cruise was naked from the waist up and playing beach volleyball with his opponent.

In the sun, with a gleaming body, Cruise, wearing aviator sunglasses, scored a spike.

"Oh, if a girl sees this, she will go crazy."

Ronald was just about to continue watching to see if there were any air combat shots, so that he could learn the director's scheduling skills in his previous life.

"Ring, ring, ring..." A phone call woke Ronald up.

"Damn it, don't you know I dreamed about the critical moment?" Ronald cursed and reached out from the quilt and took off the receiver, "Who is it? It's four o'clock in the morning." Ronald cursed after looking at the electronic watch.

It was Niceta who called, "It's me, Ronald, I'm sorry to wake you up, White House Chief of Staff James Baker called, First Lady Nancy wants to summon you for something."

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