Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Helen discovered her misunderstanding that paying too much attention to her performance would make the audience keenly aware of your "acting".

She was very happy and started practicing with Ronald that night.

The two kept looking at each other, using their eyes to express their feelings, and then repeating what the other person had just said, paying attention to the feeling between the lines.

Sure enough, when the attention is focused on the other person, one's body will give a better response, and the other person will pick up the response of this body and give a response of the response. In a virtuous cycle, the two people really feel much better than usual.

However, long-term acting skills and habits need professional training to correct. After two days of gathering with Ronald, Helen Slater couldn't help but go to a new acting training class and practice acting with her best friend Helen Hunt.

Ronald is single again, and the main time these days is still allocated to John Patrick Shanley, the screenwriter of the dream movie "Bride and Wolf".

Shanley is a New Yorker. This time he came to Los Angeles to discuss filming with Ronald.

He is a handsome man who is in his thirties and has blue eyes, which are common among Irish people. He is also a little melancholy.

When the two chatted, they found that their backgrounds and experiences were very similar.

Like Ronald, Shanley was born in the poor class. He grew up in the Bronx, where black people live, not far from Bud's original house.

Shanley's mother is a telephone operator and his father is a worker in a meat processing plant. Growing up in an environment full of gangsters, Shanley knows some street wisdom.

He once joined the Marine Corps. After retiring, he went to college through the GI Bill. He is Ronald's schoolmate and a graduate of New York University.

However, his grades are better than Ronald's, and he finally graduated with an honors degree in drama.

Before this, Shanley had been writing Broadway scripts. He was lucky. In 1982, his script was favored by a performance company outside Broadway (a performance venue outside Broadway, usually a venue for newcomers), and he began his career as a screenwriter.

But his luck became average afterwards. His scripts have been circulating in Off-Broadway, and none of them have been liked by critics and have the opportunity to be promoted to Broadway.

Shanley then began to transform and slowly began to try to write movie scripts, thinking of trying his luck in the Hollywood track.

Similar growth experiences made Ronald and Shanley hit it off at first sight. The two found an Irish restaurant, drank beer, and began to eat potato stew while talking about the filming of the script.

"You are Irish, why don't you write the story of an Irish family, but write a story of an Italian?"

Ronald and Shanley had three rounds of drinks, and they were drunk and started to talk about some core topics.

As the author of the first movie script, most screenwriters will write stories around them. So Ronald must ask the other party how he found the inspiration for this script that does not write about things around him.

In this industry, all kinds of deception and betrayal happen all the time. Ronald doesn't want an author to come out and claim that Shanley stole his script ideas after he starts filming.

"Hahaha, this is actually very interesting. I have lived in an Irish community since I was a child. My classmates are either Irish, Italian, or black. A street over our block is an Italian settlement.

My parents and I live here, and our neighbors are all typical Irish families, with an elderly father, a much younger mother, and a group of children.

The Italians on the other side of the street are much more interesting than us.

First of all, they are all very good at making delicious food. The whole family is together, and it seems that every Italian mother can make a lot of delicious food. And they often live with their grandparents, and the whole family eats together, which is very lively."

"Hahaha, Italians do have more large families." Ronald remembered that the great director Coppola had invited him to his home for dinner, and it was indeed a whole family eating together.

"Yes, I feel that their mothers know a lot. Italian and Irish children are easy to distinguish. The clothes of Italian children are ironed very well by their mothers or grandmothers. In our Irish family, we often see unwashed liquor stains on our clothes." Shanley became more and more excited as he spoke, and winked at Ronald.

Ronald put his worries aside. By analyzing his own creative process and ideas, it is very likely that he came up with it himself.

"So I have always longed for a big Italian family. After school, I always went to my classmates' homes. They all called me half Irish and half Italian." Shanley continued to say that it was a very pleasant thing to discuss creation with a Hollywood winning director like Ronald.

"When I studied drama, I wanted to write a movie that reflects Italians. I wanted to write into the story the delicious food, the warmth of a big family, the clothes that fit me, and a little bit of superstition that I longed for when I was a child.

But the sweeter the memories I have in my heart, the more difficult it is to write them out. It was not until a few years ago that I completed the first draft. But my agent pitched it to many film companies, but was rejected.

Because now in Hollywood, when people hear Italians, they think of gangster movies (The Godfather) and dance movies (Saturday Night Fever). Joining gangs and dancing have become the stereotypes of Italians.

I'm not saying that the characters I wrote were not stereotyped, but the studios didn't want to risk disappointing the audience by making a movie that reflected the life of an Italian-American family.

They felt that a film about Italian life that didn't see a Chicago typewriter splashing water on the street or a handsome guy like Travolta doing a passionate dance would be like committing fraud. "

Ronald nodded, this kind of operation by the studio is normal. Regardless of the quality of your script, the marketing department doesn’t know how to advertise such a script.

If it were a gangster shootout movie, it could be said to be the new "Godfather". If it were a dance movie, it could be the new "Saturday Night Fever." But how would you recommend this movie to your friends?

The new one...well...you know, it's a romantic love story about a big Italian immigrant family, with parents and children at different stages of their lives, and a sense of humor...

"Italian, is it a gangster love story?" Often a friend can choke you to death with just one sentence.

So Ronald took over the film and bought the rights to shoot it, so he had no choice but to take another path. It’s marketing through celebrities.

Ronald plans to discuss with various distribution companies to see if he can sign a distribution contract. Then you can find big stars like Cher to star.

Among the three giants of director, leading actor, and leading actress, Ronald, a blockbuster director, is already involved. Next, as long as we find a female star of Cher's level, we can guarantee the blockbuster.

At that time, the marketing of the seven major studios can say, "Go and see the love story directed by Ronald Lee and starring Cher."

"So, we have been able to sell it to distributors?" Shanley was very excited when Ronald confirmed in person that he wanted to direct the film himself.

"Well, actually we still need a heroine. And..."

"What?"

"The name of the movie needs to be changed. The names of Bride and Wolf are too ordinary, and the audience doesn't have much expectations for the story after watching it."

"Then what are you going to call it?"

"How about oonstruck? Like you wrote in the script, there is a big, bright moon, and when it appears, people fall in love."

"Well, very good. You are right." Shanley took a sip of beer, "Who are you going to invite as the heroine?"

"What do you think? When you wrote the script, did you keep any actor's image in mind and write accordingly?"

Ronald knows this little trick of writing scripts. If you write a script with a certain star as the target, then the character's speech and behavior will inevitably be replaced by the image of that star.

In this way, if someone else plays this role, some of her details will have to be adjusted to fit the new star's performance style.

"I actually had Sally Field in mind when I wrote it," Shanley said.

"Huh? Her acting skills are okay, but the first thing I thought of was Cher. What do you think?" Ronald didn't expect that the script was based on Sally Field, a double-actor.

"She is very beautiful. Her black hair and eyes fit the image of an Italian. Is she Italian?" Shanley is no stranger to Cher. She debuted as a pop group with her first husband, Sonny. However, after the divorce, Cher gradually tried acting. Not only did she act in a movie that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, she also performed in a Broadway musical.

"No, she is of Armenian descent, but she looks very Italian, right?"

"Yes, but Sally would be a good candidate too, wouldn't she?"

"She seems a little not Latin enough," Ronald thought for a long time, "but I will also invite her to audition."

…

"Shanley said he was basing the script on Sally Field, and we would like to invite her to try it out. I still prefer Cher, and Sally is not Italian enough. Do you think there is any suitable candidate?" That day In the evening, Ronald went to meet his agent Niceta.

"A middle-aged woman, sexy, who can play an Italian, isn't that the usual suspects?"

Niceta heard about the results of the discussion between Ronald and Shanley, and also gave Ronald some advice.

"Which suspects?"

"In addition to Field, and your favorite Cher, actors who can generally play middle-aged beauties include Sigourney Weaver, who is said to have performed well in the Alien sequel. Diane Keaton, she and Al Pa Sino has worked with The Godfather and understands Italian culture, and his appearance and acting skills are both passable.

Katherine Turner, she is very beautiful, suitable for middle-aged people and can also charm her younger brother. Like her there is Kim Basinger. But she is a little younger. Like her, there is Deborah Winger. She has black hair. The problem is that like Basinger, she is a little younger.

By the way, there's also Woody Allen's new film, "Hannah," starring Dianne Wiest as the middle sister and Barbara Hershey as the younger sister. "

"What, can't you play the role of the eldest sister?" Ronald asked casually.

"Mia Farrow is not sexy enough," Niceta said.

In fact, none of the people he recommended were the most suitable actresses for the role of Loretta Castorini in the new movie script that Ronald bought.

But the ones he recommends are all those that have won Oscars, been nominated for Oscars, have a high demand for nominations, and some that are extremely popular and well-known right now.

This romantic comedy that reflects the love story of middle-aged people still needs some stars to reduce the difficulty of publicity.

Ronald also fully understood, "So, you can ask them privately if they are interested in making a romantic comedy with me. If they have an idea, send them part of the script. If they are interested, then promote it to the seven major companies."

"Well, I can give you the full script from Cher." Ronald added that he still hopes to maintain the original cast in his dream. After all, chemical reaction is still very mysterious, and he wants to use the cooperation that has been proven to be feasible.

"What about the male lead? What do you think? Do you want to ask Tom?"

Nicita closed the notebook and asked Ronald if he wanted Tom Cruise to play Ronnie Camarelli.

"You can ask Paula for her opinion." Ronald also felt that if Cruise wanted to act in a movie with his girlfriend, he seemed to have no reason to refuse.

The star attracted the audience, and he was a couple with the heroine, so there was a chemical reaction. It's just that he looks a little too handsome, and he doesn't match the hand-disabled Ronnie who bakes bread in this script.

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