Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald came to Coppola's home in the suburbs of San Francisco.

Coppola cooked a table of dishes in the big house where the mortgage had been paid off and treated Ronald to a meal.

The "Cotton Club" he shot before had a budget of 50 million, which obviously cost his "Zepershot" company a lot of money. Although it hurt the heroine Diane and the hero Richard Gere, it finally paid off most of the huge high-interest loans caused by the previous two "Apocalypse Now" and "Old Love, New Love".

Ronald greeted Coppola's wife Eleanor and handed the script to Coppola. Several people drank red wine from Coppola Winery and ate various Italian meats happily.

"Aha, you are not a director who only wants to make commercial high-concept movies, Ronald. I heard that Pauline Carr in New York found you. Very good, very good. Your first movie was so talented, but you entered the Hollywood creative mode afterwards. Fortunately, you finally returned to the right path this time."

"What do you mean? Why do you know so much just by looking at the cover?" Ronald was surprised. He had not told Coppola about the plot of "Moonlight" before.

"Look at this script. There are so many coffee marks on the cover. You can tell at a glance that it has been through the seven major studios for several rounds." Coppola pointed to the marks of coffee, red wine, etc. on the cover of the script and said to Ronald.

"This kind of script must be very popular in each studio, but it does not conform to the current commercial promotion trend, so it will be read repeatedly without any results. If you hadn't seen it, it would probably be silent in the script library of that company."

Coppola twisted the script with his fingers and flipped through it quickly. Directors are good at speed reading, and Coppola reads very quickly. Ten minutes later, he knew that this was a Broadway drama-style movie, and it had nothing to do with the mafia.

The five major Italian families in New York were now being pursued closely by the prosecutor Rudy. Senior members of each family were arrested and prosecuted. Seeing that their power was getting smaller and smaller, Coppola soon didn't need to inform them of any Italian scripts.

"What do you think of this script? I have a strong desire to create it, and my whole body is full of impulse." Ronald ate a meatball, and he felt that he had regained some of the passion he had when he made his debut.

Coppola took a sip of wine and ate a piece of salami, "Well, this is a romantic comedy, I have no objection."

Coppola's romantic comedy "Old Love, New Love" rushed home, and he mortgaged the big house for it, and he and his wife Eleanor were very unhappy. In addition, he had a new love during that time, and the conflict with his wife, who had been supporting each other, became serious, and they almost divorced. After that, he didn't touch this kind of subject matter.

"Actually, I came here this time to ask you for advice in person. I encountered a problem when signing a contract with a distributor. Several studios verbally agreed, but they all dragged their feet on signing the contract. I know they have doubts about whether this movie can be a hit, but I have already made two super hit movies. Shouldn't I be willful a little?"

"Don't let the producer hear this, Ronald. Hush..." Coppola laughed.

"In fact, when we lead the project, we are similar to those workers who dock at the San Francisco dock.

When they dock, they will tie a thin rope to a small iron ball and throw it ashore, and then the workers on the shore will pick up the iron ball and keep pulling it up.

Then there is a thicker rope, then an even thicker rope, and finally a cable that is about the thickness of your wrist.

If you throw a thick cable at the beginning, you can't throw it ashore."

"Isn't this what cheating means?" Ronald secretly complained.

"Then how can I throw the rope to where the seven major studios can catch it?"

"Hehe..." Coppola seemed very happy, "You still don't have enough contact with us Italian filmmakers. The stereotype of Italians in Hollywood is that they like to brag. No matter what position we are actually in, we always show that you are here to beg me and I have many choices.

This is not our arrogance, but it is beneficial. This is called the boss mentality. You can try it. When I was filming the Godfather, it was like this. Several people wanted to replace my director position, so I went over and fired them first.

I still don't know whether I have the authority to fire them, but I did it, and the sample film turned out well, so they recognized it."

"Hehe..." Ronald understood in his heart, isn't it just bragging?

These seven major studios are also in a competitive relationship. It is impossible to tell everything to the executives of the other side. As long as you are bold, you can use a gap to cut in. When they see that you are confident, I am afraid they will beg you in return.

After thinking about his own style of doing things, Ronald probably had an idea. Of course, he couldn't completely copy Coppola's approach, but he had to be consistent with his usual attitude.

The biggest problem was solved, Ronald relaxed and began to eat Coppola's food, constantly praising the deliciousness of Italian food, which made Coppola's wife very happy.

"So after The Godfather, when you independently started your own Zoetrope Production Company, did you also use this method to deal with Hollywood?"

After three rounds of drinks, Ronald began to compliment Coppola's directing skills.

Coppola was very happy to be coaxed by this new box office winner and talked about some past events from that year.

"Actually, when George Lucas was in the peep show, his American Peep Show was asked to be edited by the distributor Universal. The senior management didn't understand anything, and they just wanted to show it by deleting a few scenes. His power.

George was very unhappy at the time. Seeing how uncomfortable he was, I also felt that Universal disrespected my employees. I pulled out my checkbook and signed a $600,000 production offer to buy George's rights back from Universal.

Seeing how determined I was, Universal began to smooth things over, and finally agreed to reduce the number of scenes. I also persuaded George to make a few minor changes.

Alas, looking back now, this was my biggest mistake in running Peep Show. Instead of taking back the check, I should have insisted on buying the copy rights. The American style painting finally sold more than 100 million at the box office in North America, and that was in 1973. "

"By the way, in your new movie, the male protagonist has the same name as you, Ronnie. Did you change it specifically?" Coppola said about Ronald's new movie.

"No, that's the original author's name."

"This author must be Italian, and he writes about our lives very well. I bet more than half of the scenes in the entire script were shot in the kitchen. That's how we Italians are, sweet, frustrated." What may seem inconsequential to others is a big deal for us Italians and must be solved in the kitchen.

We have a proverb in Italy that the table is God. "

Ronald smiled and did not say anything about the fact that the screenwriter was of Irish descent, "That's true. I really like these scenes of eating around the dining table. But it is a test for casting. Maybe I need to find more dramatic actors. They are more Get used to this kind of scene.”

"Who are you looking for for the role of Ronnie?" Coppola asked. "It needs to be very explosive, which is not easy to find, and many plots are driven by him."

"This character is very painful inside, so I decided to find an actor who was filled with pain inside."

Ronald looked at Coppola, "Has Nick taken on any new movies recently?"

"Oh, hahaha... He didn't take any new roles after filming Peggy Sue Gets Married."

Coppola saw that Ronald was very sensible, so he heard what he was saying and asked Nic Cage to audition. Very happy, Ronald respects this Italian culture of helping each other, what a good guy. It's just a pity that he is not Italian, but that doesn't matter. As long as he marries an Italian girl, he can be regarded as the successor of the Italian director.

Even though Nicolas Cage's nephew changed his stage name to Coppola, he is still his eldest brother's son. When he was filming Peggy Sue, he had too many ideas and had deep conflicts with the heroine Kathryn Turner.

Cage insisted on using a husky, slurred voice to play the husband of heroine Peggy Sue. Kathryn Turner couldn't accept starring opposite a man who spoke slurred words, and almost contacted the producers, who replaced Cage midway.

Thanks to Coppola's mediation, the filming was barely completed without changing roles.

After the film was released, Cage and Katherine Turner had no chemistry at all on the screen. They didn't have the sweetness of high school sweethearts or the closeness of a middle-aged couple, but the mutual dislike of divorced couples. reality.

Looking at it this way, Cage’s choice at that time was still wrong. Even if your understanding of the characters is correct, destroying the most important chemical reaction between the male and female protagonists in the movie is not worth the gain.

This made Cage very hurt and he was always in a bad mood, but he was somewhat in tune with the kind of actor Ronald was looking for who was suffering from inner pain.

"I'm so happy today. If you have time, you should also come and watch the premiere of my Peggy Sue is Getting Married..."

Coppola drank too much red wine, talked for a while, and began to doze off.

Seeing that he was very tired, Ronald asked his wife Eleanor, "Is Francis very busy now? Has the new movie been finished?"

"Yes, his new film 'Stone Garden' has just finished shooting the exterior scenes at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. In addition, he was busy revising the copy of 'Peggy Sue is Getting Married' in the previous period, and he was very tired during this period. .

But I'm glad that Francis finally paid off the mortgage on the house. This is the house we bought after the first Godfather was released. It contains sweet memories of our family. I don’t want the bank to take it away. "

"I don't think so. Francis has regained his genius. Everyone says he performs best under pressure. You don't have to worry too much."

…

Back in Hollywood, Ronald found Niceta, and the two went to meet Tanin, the president of Paramount.

"Ned, many studios are vying for my movie. We have always cooperated happily, so I will give you a little more time, two weeks. You think about it. If you still haven't made a decision after two weeks, I will work with someone else. Signed."

Ronald said what he had rehearsed for a long time.

"Have you got the heroine? Has Cher agreed?" Ned Tanning was very nervous and quickly asked about the heroine's progress.

"Not yet, and I don't necessarily have to use her. I have sent scripts to Sally Field, Barbara Hershey, and Diane Keaton. I don't set any restrictions on whoever is suitable can come."

"Two weeks? Two weeks? Okay, I will give you an answer within two weeks." Ned Tanin sent Ronald away.

He closed the door, drew the curtains, and thought in the dim light.

"Is Ronald really being sought after by other studios? Or did he learn this Hollywood rhetoric from someone? It's really a headache."

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