Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Okay, I'll take the radio to my room later." Bud spent a long time with his girlfriend during this vacation. When he saw Ronald, he smiled.

"When will you propose to Lucy?" Ronald knew that his big family had close contact with Lucy, and Lucy was also very satisfied with this boyfriend who could have a decent job.

"Soon, I'm asking a real estate agent to find a suitable rental house nearby. I plan to bring Lucy over, and we'll settle down near your apartment. Lucy has learned some typing work, and it's not difficult to find a secretary job here, but the rent of the houses around is a bit expensive."

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it." Ronald was very happy to hear that Bud and his fiancée were so motivated, and he was ready to rent a small apartment for them to live in. Anyway, he couldn't do without this driver and assistant who knew him well.

Bud was very different from the erratic character when he first met him. A few years in the Marine Corps made him less talkative and he also had some habits of saving money.

Ronald never asked about his experience. Anyway, every time his mother saw him, she would repeatedly say for a long time that it was fortunate that Ronald saved little Bud and let him complete his high school education in the Marine Corps.

Ronald picked up the phone and found his agent Richard, asking him to look for an apartment not far away.

"Ring, ring, ring..."

Another phone in the apartment rang in the living room, and Ronald motioned for little Bud to answer it. This phone was mainly his work phone at Daydream, and only people from Daydream Pictures would call.

"Just be closer to me, yes, it's for little Bud and his girlfriend." Ronald explained to Richard.

Then, he said to Bud, who had also answered the phone, "The time has been arranged. The real estate agent who cooperates with CAA will call you, and we will go to see the house together. CAA often finds cheap and good houses for actors who have just entered the industry. We have long-term partners."

"Ronald, I don't know how to thank you." Bud was very happy that he could end the separation with his girlfriend.

"It's a small matter. Our fathers were brothers, and so are we." Ronald waved his hand to tell him not to worry. "Who called me just now?"

"Oh, it was your general manager Ed. He said there was a man named Bannon who claimed to be your friend and wanted to talk to you about a movie project." Bud answered. He had just received a call in the living room.

Ronald frowned. Now he was famous. Some people knew that he was the boss behind Daydream, and many people claimed to be his friends. Daydream would communicate with Ronald to exclude scammers and those who came to try their luck.

"Bannon? I don't know him. Let him go."

Ronald didn't remember that he had such a friend. "I still have to go to CAA. You call Ed back and explain."

After that, Ronald drove his Ferrari to the CAA office.

Tom Cruise thought about it for two days and felt that Ronald's method of playing the mentally retarded role to be more likely to win the Oscar was reasonable, so he conveyed his ideas to Michael Ovitz, the president of CAA.

Ovitz tried his best to persuade him to consider the role of the brother with normal intelligence, and said that if Cruise played the mentally retarded role, it would damage the star's image. Dustin Hoffman often plays some abnormal roles, so that the audience can accept them more easily.

In short, Ovitz's point of view is that whether the role is mentally retarded has little to do with winning the award.

After learning that Ronald was the mastermind who instigated Cruise to grab the role behind the scenes, Ovitz invited Ronald and Tom Cruise to go to CAA for an interview.

In the outer room of Ovitz's super huge office, his secretary stood up neatly to lead Ronald and Cruise. The two walked through the aisle, and the secretary knocked on the door and led the two in.

"Aha, my favorite director client and my favorite male star client are here."

Michael Ovitz is very low-key in the outside world and never accepts interviews, but in the kingdom of CAA, he is undoubtedly the king.

Ronald hasn't seen this king for a long time. Back then, his first script had to be favored by him before he could sign the contract. At that time, Ovitz was full of passion and acted on his work.

CAA has developed very fast in recent years, signing many actors and directors in succession. In addition to screenwriters, Ovitz's scripts come first, and the strategy of project packaging has also been a great success.

In fact, it can be said that the top three movies in the box office for several years were produced by him. From scripts to directors to actors, CAA is responsible for everything. It's just that Ovitz can't sign his name on the opening credits due to legal reasons.

Movies such as "Ghostbusters" made CAA a lot of money, and Ovitz gradually became more and more successful, which can be seen from the growth of his office area. Now his renovated office occupies almost a quarter of the first floor, which is much larger than the other partners.

"I don't know why you have this idea, Ronald."

Ovitz bluntly expressed that he didn't like the idea of ​​Cruise playing a mentally retarded person.

"He is a star, a big star! Letting such a beautiful boy play a fool is a crime against all female audiences in America. Besides, Tom is young, and he doesn't look like Dustin's brother."

"But, Mr. Ovitz, the fool played by Tom is also a beautiful fool. Don't you think it's interesting? And it will help him get an Oscar nomination. As for age, we just change the script and let Tom play It would be better if the fool is the younger one.”

Ronald insisted that if he wanted Cruise to be nominated for an Oscar, it would be best to play a role that was completely different from his image.

"God, he's a star, and a star is someone who has the same qualities in every movie he plays. We're talking about Tom, maybe the most beautiful star in Hollywood since Paul Newman."

Ronald agrees with this classification.

The existence of a movie star is the kind of person who makes the audience want to watch his movies when they hear his name.

If celebrities, like ordinary actors, perform roles with different personalities so that no one can tell that it is the actor who plays them, then why should the audience be attracted to the stars and buy tickets?

Many stars, such as Harrison Ford, always have a sense of cynicism no matter what they play. As for the earlier James Stewart, although his acting skills are superb, his character also has strong characteristics of a typical small-town American hero.

It is difficult for Ronald to refute this statement. Cruise's management team also hopes that he will continue to develop under the image of a beautiful boy full of male impulses.

"But what we are talking about is winning awards. As for the problem of mental retardation affecting Tom's image, I also have a solution. How about we change the character of Raymond from mentally retarded to autistic. Autism has normal, even Beyond the talents of ordinary people.

I also heard that there is another type of autism that, in addition to difficulty communicating with people, also has amazing talents in other areas. For example, if you are good at math, you can calculate how many toothpicks there are in the box in one second. "

Ronald clings to what Cruise wants most - the award:

"Tom's image is fixed as a handsome guy with mainstream American values. If he doesn't break through this shackles, what's the point of talking about an Oscar?"

"What do you mean by that?" Ovitz knew that Tom Cruise wanted to win an Oscar when he entered the industry. The first thing he did when he signed with CAA was to make a list of big-name directors he wanted to work with.

"What I mean is that actors who have their own star qualities in such roles must break through their stereotyped image if they want to win an Oscar."

Ronald stretched out his hand and counted them one by one.

"Bogart, Humphrey Bogart, has played ruthless tough guys all his life, but he got his best actor role in the movie 'The African Queen', playing an incompetent, foul-mouthed boatman with no initiative at all. No, he was eaten to death by the missionary played by Katharine Hepburn. He did whatever he was asked to do in order to gain the courage to do something serious.

Henry Fonda, who played a lifelong left-wing hero, was wronged and misunderstood, but he was still able to endure the humiliation and lead the people to resist exploitation. But the role he won as the best actor was indeed the decrepit and frail father in Golden Pond.

Faced with her daughter's liberating and progressive values, she instead embraces conservative family values. Breaking through the shackles that had always been there. "

"Ronald, you are overgeneralizing. What about John Wayne? His film 'True Grit', which won the Best Actor, still won the award with the image of a typical western hero?"

Ovitz made a big move. He had done this trick of positioning a star and balancing commercial value and critical awards countless times, and he also knew how to refute Ronald's point of view.

He began to talk endlessly about his understanding of winning awards, how actors should choose at different career stages, how to optimally plan their careers, etc.

Ovitz is strong and eloquent. He speaks very quickly, sounds logical, and is very confusing.

Ronald clearly felt that the balance in Tom Cruise's heart had shifted towards playing the normal younger brother.

"Steven (Spielberg) and Sidney (Pollack) are both very optimistic about your acting skills. You will perform very well in this movie. Coupled with the operation of our CAA, we will get Nomination is very possible.”

"What do you think, Ronald? What Mr. Ovitz said makes sense. John Wayne did not break through his star image and also won the Best Actor. Maybe breaking his image is not necessarily necessary."

Listening to Cruise say this, Ronald knew that his heart was already leaning towards playing the normal younger brother Charlie.

"If you insist..." Ronald shrugged, indicating that he had no intention of continuing the debate.

Then he whispered in a low voice that he could only hear, "True Grit, John Wayne plays a one-eyed dragon."

Paula Wagner could already tell that she was pregnant. She whispered to Cruise next to her, and the two came to an agreement.

Niceta was behind Ronald and whispered in Ronald's ear, "You just said that Wayne played a one-eyed dragon, which can be regarded as damaging his image. But Tom is not as smart as you. If Tom doesn't want to He’s acting mentally retarded, why don’t we give up on this project?”

"Go out and talk." Ronald whispered back.

"I will carefully consider your opinion, Ronald. In fact, this role of Charlie is also difficult to play. I feel that it is no less challenging than my brother's acting skills. When the time comes, I will exchange ideas with Dustin during rehearsals. Give it a try. It’s a good challenge for my acting skills.”

Tom came over and talked to Ronald about his ideas sincerely.

Ronald looked at Cruise who was full of ambition, and a thought came to his mind, "Poor Tom, you missed this role, I don't know how long you have to wait to get nominated."

Obviously, CAA's president Ovitz wants to make him a big star. The more roles he plays, the more stereotyped he will be. It will not be easy to break through in the future. I wonder if he can be as lucky as Henry Fonda and Humphrey Bogart, who can make a breakthrough in the twilight of their star career and get the best actor award and fulfill their wish?

"I won't direct anymore. Tom won't play a mentally retarded role. I'm not sure his acting can meet the standards of the Oscar judges. Besides, I haven't been nominated for the best director myself, so I'm not convincing enough now." Ronald and Niceta came out of Ovitz's office and went to his office to continue chatting.

"I will convey your opinion to Paula. But I have to consider your interests first. Dustin Hoffman is a big trouble. All the directors and actors who have worked with him say that he is a big sore on the butt."

Unlike Tom Cruise, who is superstitious about Hoffman's five Oscar nominations and his winning of the Best Actor Oscar with the Kramers, Niceta has been immersed in the industry for a long time and knows that Hoffman is actually a very troublesome partner.

He is a typical method actor. In order to get into the role, he can constantly torture the director and fellow actors on the set. When playing the Kramers, in order to increase credibility, he improvised to throw a glass against the wall, and the broken pieces scratched the face of the actress Meryl Streep, who was acting opposite him, and almost disfigured her.

As for the various strange behaviors on the set for acting, such as forcing himself to not sleep for 72 hours when playing a marathon runner. It almost made Laurence Olivier, who was acting with him, almost exhausted. This kind of thing is commonplace.

Ronald has never been truly recognized by the film critics, nor has he won an Oscar, or even a lesser director award from the Directors Guild or the Society of Film Critics. If Cruise plays the protagonist, the two can still have a positive interaction, but if Dustin Hoffman plays the role, I'm afraid something will happen on the set?

The two reached an agreement and continued to look for a movie script that is more suitable for Ronald.

"Your directing style is more like Frank Capra in the golden age. You can always dig out the touching American spirit in the roles of ordinary people. We should choose scripts in this direction in the future.

This kind of script that relies on mental retardation to highlight dramatic conflicts..."

"It may not be suitable for me, right?" Ronald added.

In fact, directors all have their own strengths, and Ronald really prefers stories about ordinary people. He is not interested in and passionate about those highly dramatic stories that are far from ordinary people, such as growing up as freaks, mental retardation, or mental illness, or born criminals.

Since his friend Cruise does not play the role that is easy to win awards, there is no need for him to challenge himself.

At the same time, in Ovitz's big office, he called Dustin Hoffman.

"Dustin, I have convinced Tom that the role of brother Raymond is still yours. In addition, they have come up with an idea to make Raymond not a real intellectual disability, but an autistic patient. It is said that some autistic people have very high IQs. What do you think? Is it easier to play?"

"Let me think about it. Are you serious? I'll go to the Autism Association to observe."

Dustin Hoffman has returned to the ranks of the most popular male stars since "Tootsie". His salary in 1982 was 5.5 million US dollars.

The salary inflation brought about by Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the past two years has allowed Dustin to ask for a higher price.

Cruise does not have such a great influence yet. In Top Gun, he has just entered the ranks of male stars' salaries, and there is still a lot of potential for growth.

This is also the real reason why Ovitz wanted Dustin Hoffman to play this mentally handicapped role that has a better chance of winning an award, so that he can get more money.

After leaving CAA, Ronald remembered the countermeasures he had discussed with Niceta.

Ovitz valued Dustin Hoffman, who was of the same ethnicity, and was sure that most of the mentally handicapped roles would be played by him. He could gradually withdraw, showing his diminishing interest every time, and when the time was right, he would explain the situation to Cruise and withdraw from this movie that Cruise was destined to find difficult to play and difficult to win an award.

Movie projects come and go, and Ronald is not the first successful director to withdraw anyway. The two great Jewish directors Spielberg and Sidney Pollack did not stick to the end and both withdrew midway.

He drove to his own Daydream Films, where the employees were more down-to-earth. Everyone talked about the matter at hand. The distribution of "Dirty Dancing" was proceeding in a busy and orderly manner. Every time Ronald saw them, he felt more at ease.

"I am Ronald's friend. We attended a gathering of top entrepreneurs in Japan together. You must pass the message on. I am not lying to you. My project is very important to Ronald. Don't delay your boss's important business."

A quarreling sound came from the front desk.

Ronald heard that the front desk seemed to stop a man from coming in, and the man insisted that he was his friend.

"Isn't that Bannon here?" Ronald opened the door of the office and stuck his head out. "What's wrong? What happened? Who is it?"

"Aha, Ronald. I'm so glad to see you. It's nothing. Your front desk is very responsible. I just forgot to make an appointment for you."

"Ah, it's you..."

Ronald remembered this Bannon. It was the Wall Street banker he met outside the door when he was in Tokyo and the presidents of Kadokawa Books and Johnny \u0026 Associates invited him to eat high-end cuisine.

He has a big head and a thick neck. Isn't he the one who was scolding Tom Mount, the former vice president of Universal, who had a grudge against him and always had a hard time with him?

"Hello, Mr. Bannon?"

"Call me Steve, Ronald."

Bannon acted like every Hollywood banker, pretending to be very familiar with Ronald and calling him by his name affectionately.

"How is your family? I'm going to visit your aunt on Veteran's Day."

Ronald didn't dislike this kind of familiarity. Bankers make a living by doing this.

Moreover, their way of getting close to others is different from the excessive enthusiasm in Hollywood, which is fake. Although Ronald is not familiar with him, Bannon knows that his aunt is a veteran.

"How do you know my aunt?"

After entering the small office and asking the front desk to bring coffee, Ronald asked curiously.

"I did my homework." Bannon took a sip of the coffee poured from the coffee machine and did not make any comments.

"Tell me, what do you want to see me about?"

"It's like this, I didn't get a large amount of financing in Japan, but the cooperation with Tom Mount will continue. This person is a waste, and I can only rely on myself.

I found some old friends on Wall Street and finally got the funds to shoot the first movie. Now I want to..."

Bannon looked into Ronald's eyes, expecting his reaction.

"Our company doesn't have extra funds to shoot other movies now." Ronald also took a sip of coffee. The cheap coffee machine tasted worse than instant coffee.

"No, I don't need your funds. The money I got on Wall Street is enough to shoot this movie called "Boy Rent Girl". I came here to find a distribution company. Our movie has no stars, so I want to ask you for help in distribution. I heard that you have a good relationship with Disney's Touchstone. Can you introduce me..."

"Boy Rent Girl?" Ronald heard the weird name of the script, reached out to take the script handed over by Bannon, opened it and read it quickly.

"This script is well written."

Twenty minutes later, Ronald closed the script.

It is a very interesting teenage romantic love movie.

The male protagonist is a nerd Nerd, whose name happens to be Ronald. He fell in love with Cindy, the most popular cheerleader in the school. By chance, Nerd paid to rent cheerleader Cindy as his fake girlfriend to teach himself how to be popular among girls.

After a series of coincidences, Nerd finally changed his appearance and really became a very popular boy. In the end, he and Cindy made their fake come true.

Baimeng Book

Ronald felt that, regardless of the slightly immature other parts, there was an idea in the script that Ronald liked very much. That is the plot of the male protagonist, the ugly duckling, turning into a swan.

This kind of plot where teenagers suddenly become mature and more popular often happens to female protagonists in the past. Just like the "Wonderful" that Ronald just finished.

But this script is just the opposite. It is the boy who changes his appearance and makes the girl fall in love. Presumably, there are many boys without girlfriends in America who would like such a plot.

Thinking of this, Ronald looked up at Bannon and said, "You said you did your homework?"

"What?" Bannon was a little confused.

"If you really did your homework, you should know that my daydream is also involved in the distribution business. My new film will be screened in about a thousand theaters during the summer. If your movie can satisfy me, I can also distribute your movie, and you don't have to ask Disney."

"That's my fault. I didn't do my homework well. Of course I am very interested." When Bannon heard that there were a thousand theaters showing the movie, he knew that Ronald had invested a huge amount of money in distribution. At least for this movie, his "boy rents a girl" can take advantage of it.