Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Mr. Li, Mr. Li?"

A young girl who looked like a secretary, wearing high heels, ran into Ronald's business jet lounge at Los Angeles Airport. Opening the doors from room to room looking for Ronald.

"Ah, Mr. Li, you are here..." Ronald waved to her, and she finally saw herself.

"Mr. Goldberg asked me to deliver this script to the airport. I didn't know how to get to the passenger lounge of the business jet, so I had to ask a lot of people before I found the way in. It's really great that everything went smoothly."

"Thank you, would you like to sit down and have breakfast together?" Ronald saw that she looked very tired and had dark circles under her eyes. She probably slept very late last night and was assigned such an extra task by her boss so early in the morning. The daily working hours are also probably very long.

Looking at her, Ronald was a little reminded of his cousin Donna. These girls who have just worked for a short time are the hardest working, and not many of them continue to work hard after two or three years.

"Thank you", the girl sat down, picked up the sandwich and started eating it. Ronald handed her a glass of orange juice.

"Mr. Li, our plane is ready for boarding."

After a while, the flight attendant came and asked Ronald to board the plane. He motioned for the secretary girl to finish eating before sending her back. He took the script in his hand and got on the plane together with Little Bud, who was carrying his luggage.

"I am Captain Jimmy O'Connor, and on behalf of all the crew, I would like to welcome on board Mr. Ronald Lee, the film director who has made our Navy pilots so respected."

Ronald laughed loudly. Unexpectedly, the captain of the business jet this time was a fighter pilot who retired from the navy. He was also invited into the cab and took a group photo with the crew.

Returning to his seat, Ronald took the black tea brought by the flight attendant, and then opened the script he had just received.

The script is neat, but the paper has some rough edges, indicating that this is a copy that has been circulated by many people. The title of the film was simply written on the cover:

"Working girl (irl)"

"By Kevin Wade"

"I've never heard of it," Ronald thought to himself. The script Goldberg sent him was actually written by an unknown screenwriter?

Ronald continued to turn over the pages. Goldberg doesn't just send in an uninteresting script without a purpose.

"Working Girl"

Fade out, fade in...

1 exterior scene. The Highlands of Staten Island—Shots from the Series—Scene 1

in the morning

Close shot of walking footsteps. A pair of them, wearing worn out running shoes that were soaked by the rain, ran down the mountain quickly.

The camera extends the island's calves, beautiful legs, trotting. The owner of the leg reached down and pulled up a pair of stockings that had lost their elasticity and were sagging.

Panorama of Theresa McGill. To her friends, it was Tess, a twentysomething secretary who was close to Ben San.

She was very attractive, but there was nothing exciting about her, but she had her own unique sex appeal.

She is trying to balance an umbrella, a newspaper, and a briefcase, almost as if she is juggling.

Camera angle reversal, panning...

We see her walking toward the slow-moving crowd of hundreds of commuters streaming into the entrance to the Staten Island Ferry, huddled against the rain and gray morning.

The camera pulls back from Tess, the long shot...

Tess blends into the vast crowd of people commuting to work in Manhattan.

…

"Huh?" Ronald understood what Goldberg was thinking, and it was no wonder he was looking for him. It tells the story of my aunt's home on Staten Island. He turned a page and continued reading...

Interior. Staten Island Ferry – same as above (indicates sequence immediately following above), scene 2

Tess and Sheen, her fellow secretary, and best friend, Sheen with a short bang and very heavy make-up, huddled together on a wooden stool on a crowded ferry.

On the ferry. Tess held a bouquet of flowers in her hand, and Xin lit one

Matches placed on top of Tkie small butter cakes. She started singing "Happy Birthday" in a thick accent.

One or two passengers joined in the song, but the vast majority started complaining, some quite loudly.

Tess smiled and blew out the match. The ferry whistle sounded loudly as it docked. Everyone rushed to the exit.

…

The more Ronald read, the more he felt that the quality of this script was similar to the movie with grand aerial shots that he had dreamed about several times on the plane to and from New York and Los Angeles.

The core of the story is an older female secretary named Tess who continues to study hard. She has a seriously ill mother to take care of, and in between her heavy work and family obligations, she attends night classes and pays attention to financial news.

She was on the ferry one day and saw a very good merger and acquisition opportunity in the news, but her boss, a staid middle-aged man, did not believe in her ability as a secretary to propose a merger and acquisition proposal.

Finally, a friend of her boss, a mergers and acquisitions consultant named Jack Traer, understood her and worked with Tess to propose a great merger and acquisition plan to a company that owned the property rights of the television network.

At this time, Tess's boss saw that his secretary was actually able to surpass him, so he became evil and claimed that the plan was his own.

Tess, who has fallen in love with Jack Traynor, hopes that her boyfriend Traynor can help her clarify to the company's boss who is the original author of the plan.

But under the coercion of Tess's boss, Treanor had to give up Tess, saying that the plan was her boss's original idea, and Tess just plagiarized her boss's idea.

However, Tess produced evidence to prove that she was the original creator of the merger plan. Her boss and Treanor were fired, and Tess's wish for many years was finally achieved.

When the plane flew over the Midwest, Ronald had watched the last scene in one breath:

Another angle, internal office, continue, scene 260

Tess: Okay.

Ben (Tess's male secretary after the promotion) closed the door behind him. Tess walked to the window, looked out, and then tentatively sat on the bench and lay leisurely.

Tess was as happy as a child in a candy store. She walked to the phone, took a piece of paper from her wallet, and made a long-distance call.

Tess:

(into the phone)

Yes, please look for "Cynthia O'Rourke!"

"Cynthia, guess where I am?"

"Well, it doesn't seem to be a movie." Ronald closed the script and compared it carefully with the shots in his dream. The contents of his dream were not in the script.

For example, the beginning and the end, two great long shots with full focal length zoom through helicopter aerial photography, are definitely not in this script.

Either someone changed the script, or it is another movie with similar content. Ronald closed the script he had read and thought secretly.

This screenwriter named Kevin Wade has a writing style very similar to John Patrick Shanley, the screenwriter of "Moonlight" he worked with last time. Many scenes have a strong stage play style.

For example, he likes to use series shots to complete a dense plot in a limited space. This is an inevitable requirement for stage play occasions, but it is not necessarily necessary in film shooting.

...

"Thank you for the ride, thank you." When they arrived at the New York airport, the crew members of the former Navy pilot came over to say goodbye to Ronald.

"Thank you," Ronald took another photo with them under the plane, then turned to Bud and said, "You go get the car, I'll make a phone call first."

"Mr. Goldberg, I just arrived in New York, yes, I finished reading the script on the plane, I like the tone of the story very much, but I want to meet the screenwriter Kevin Wade to talk about what can be modified."

"Where do you think adjustments can be made?" Goldberg

I was very happy to hear Ronald's call. The original director Michael Nichols had many requirements for filming, some of which were unacceptable to Fox.

There is a new competitor, which is a good thing for Fox.

"I have two ideas. First, Tess's boss should be a woman, so that her method of replacing her boss's identity will be convincing. Otherwise, Wall Street will not listen to a secretary's talk."

"Very reasonable." Goldberg had no objection to this. If Tess had a female boss, then Jack Traynor could be written as her boss's boyfriend. In this way, some bloody romantic elements of love triangles would be added to the script, and the audience would love to watch it.

"What's the other idea?"

"Another idea is that the details of the merger and acquisition in the script are a bit frivolous. The background of this story is very realistic. We have to make the details of this merger and acquisition so that even employees working on Wall Street can't see the flaws."

Ronald likes this story very much, but the details of the merger and acquisition case are a bit exaggerated and lack authenticity.

When Ronald read it, he felt that this story was a bit like the "Secret of Success" starring Helen Slater and Michael J. Fox. The main story focuses on the love story of the male protagonist, and work and mergers and acquisitions are simplified into the kind of cartoon stories in the general education textbooks of middle school students.

But that movie was a romantic love story, and this one is a business war drama. Tess's story must be set off by very realistic business war details.

"Is that so? There are not many screenwriters who understand Wall Street."

"I can find some people who understand Wall Street to participate in the rewriting of the script and turn it into a movie with the most realistic business war details. In addition, I want to find a screenwriter to rewrite it."

"I remember your request. You give me an actionable plan first, and then we will contact each other."

"Hmm?" Ronald felt that Goldberg's tone was a bit wrong. Did he find him more as a competitor to lower the price to the original director Michael Nichols? Or to fight for greater voice?

"What about the screenwriter Kevin Wade?" Ronald thought about it, but did not break the news, but asked if he could meet with the screenwriter.

"Of course, I will let him call you. He is in New York."

Little Bud packed his luggage and came to find Ronald who was calling.

"Let's go to the apartment on Fifth Avenue. Call the lobby manager and ask him to turn on the air conditioner for me and order some food. I have to work tonight."

"Okay..." Bud opened the car door, let Ronald get in, and then called the apartment on Fifth Avenue.

Ronald took out a piece of white paper from his bag and started drawing with pencils on it. He tried to draw the beginning and ending aerial shots of the dream.

When he arrived at the apartment on Fifth Avenue, Ronald had already finished drawing two storyboards.

He put the drawings and script together, made a few phone calls, and made an appointment with Michael Gray, a marketing consultant who had arrived in New York in advance, to talk about the premiere of "Moonlight" in New York.

"Instead of Los Angeles, in New York we invited all the Broadway supporting actors who participated in the filming. In addition, we also found some celebrities, such as members of the rock band Bon Jovi, and some of your actor friends in New York, Shirley Mac Lin, Matt Dillon et al.

Oh, by the way, there is also the social celebrity of the Kennedy family, JKF’s sister-in-law Lee Radziwiew. That leaves Cher and Nicolas Cage. "

The arrangement of the premiere in New York is even higher than that in Los Angeles. There are many social celebrities like Lee Radziwiew here in New York, but they don’t actually have any profession, they just know a lot of people.

Being able to find such a social butterfly at the premiere will attract many celebrities, which will be good for the promotion of the movie.

Jon Bon Jovi, the lead singer of Bon Jovi, lives in New York. He likes to date movie stars and enjoys joining in the fun.

"Is Cher still coming with her little baker boyfriend?" Seeing Gray nodding, Ronald continued to confirm the list of all the guests with him

, "Well, please remind Nicolas Cage to ask his publicist to dress him up this time, and by the way, he also needs to find a female companion."

By the time the details were confirmed, Ronald was already feeling tired. He took a shower and slept on the big bed.

"Huh...", a wave of sleep came over me.

…

A secretary-looking woman with long, blond hair combed high up got off the Staten Island ferry. Next to her is another friend with heavy makeup, who also looks like a secretary. His hair is like a chicken coop, colorful, and his eye shadow is also very colorful, but the actress's face looks very cute.

They both wore very cheap clothes. The female secretary with blond hair wore an oversized leather jacket and a pair of white sneakers. Apparently it's Tess from the movie.

Her friend with colorful hair is Xin, also wearing a red coat and blue silk scarf, both bargains.

"Hey, isn't this Melanie Griffith?" Ronald recognized the actress as the heroine of Jonathan Demme's movie "Shotshot."

Is she starring in this movie? What a surprise.

Ronald found it interesting that Melanie was about the same age as the heroine Tess, also in her thirties. Her experience is also somewhat similar to that of the protagonist Tess. She was born as a child star but failed to achieve stardom.

But this look is very impressive. At first glance, Tess looks like an old secretary with an unsatisfactory life, the kind with no future.

Can she really transform into a sexy girl who makes even Wall Street elites swoon?

The movie was playing forward, and Ronald saw Melanie Griffith again. She was already wearing a black low-cut diamond formal dress.

She was in a bar, looking for Jack Trainor to talk about mergers and acquisitions.

A very handsome guy came over to strike up a conversation.

"Hello, I rarely see such a sexy lady like you on such occasions."

"Why not? I have a mind suitable for business and a body tempting to commit crime."

"oh……"

Ronald was also fascinated by Melanie Griffith's appearance. This actress is very malleable. The two appearances before and after were very consistent with the character, and the audience could tell that it was the same person, which was very convincing.

And the handsome man who came to strike up a conversation was clearly played by Harrison Ford.

"Hehehe... It seems like this is the movie. The star is in the spotlight, there's no doubt about it."

But why, this scene of Tess changing shoes on the dock is so familiar, I seem to have seen something similar.

"Huh? Ah... not bad..." Ronald was startled by his own question.

He touched the edge of the bed and found that it did not fall. The special mattress was indeed big enough.

"I thought about it." Ronald, who was anxiously trying to remember the dream in bed, finally thought of the origin of the scene of changing shoes.

This is not a movie, but what happened in real life when I first met my partner in the leg warmer business, Theresa Kate, who was a secretary at a Wall Street company at the time, on the pier of Staten Island. She was afraid that her high heels would be damaged on the ferry, so she always put her shoes in a bag and took them to the office before changing them.

"Also, Teresa's nickname seems to be Tess. Could it be that Kevin Wade based it on her true story?"

Ronald wrote down what he wanted to do tomorrow in his notebook and invited Theresa Kate to come and chat.

Then he fell asleep again.