Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The group returned to Austin. There is no direct flight from here to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Commercial flights require a transfer in Dallas. Because there are no big companies here, it is difficult for business jet leasing businesses to ensure that a plane can be dispatched in time.

A few hours later, in the terminal of Dallas Airport, Paula Wagner and Niceta found a VIP lounge for Ronald, where the three of them took a short rest.

"Ronald, Tom regrets..."

Paula handed Ronald a cup of instant coffee. She accompanied Ronald on this trip, and the thing she wanted to do most was to help her biggest client and maintain a relationship with Ronald.

In fact, not only Tom Cruise, but also Paula, Niceta, Richard, and all other agents on the line of CAA regretted it.

A big star who can get an Oscar nomination has far more appeal than an Oscar winner plus a big star. Big stars who have won awards and box office have a huge impact on the business of related people.

If Tom Cruise can get an Oscar nomination, then no matter if it is a commercial film or a medium-sized production with a good story, if he expresses interest, the project can be established. On the contrary, if he does not want to take it, the project can fail.

Dustin Hoffman was enlightened by Ronald's unintentional words on the set of "Rain Man". He performed very smoothly, as if he had found the feeling, and played an autistic patient like a superb master.

This is of course related to the fact that he had been with a group of autistic patients for a long time before, but if there is a secret to his performance, it is that some autistic patients are easier to play than other people with relatively low IQ.

The part of them that ordinary people think is low IQ is not really low IQ, but lacks basic skills to get along with people and socialize. Some of them are not only not stupid, but also have an IQ higher than ordinary people. There is a medical saying that calls them "savant syndrome".

"Rain Man" is such a character in the script. Although he compulsively completes the same action every day to feel at ease, he can accurately report the number of toothpicks spilled on the table by looking at it.

Charlie, played by Tom Cruise, also takes advantage of his brother Rain Man's characteristics and goes to Las Vegas with him to kill people and earn enough working capital for his second-hand car dealership.

"We all realized it later and didn't know why Dustin insisted on changing the original script's real mentally retarded patient into an autistic genius. Or you can see at a glance that this revised script brings advantages to the performers."

"Hey, if you have been a director like me and have spent enough time in the editing room, you will be very sensitive to some small movements of the actors. In that scene, they are true to their feelings, and in that scene, they are acting out their memories. You will have an intuition."

The director is the only audience of the actors' acting skills on the spot, and he watches their performances over and over in the editing room. Over time, an intuition will be formed, and you can judge at a glance how much effort an actor has put in.

Dustin Hoffman's acting method, which relies on imitating real people, actually has a difficulty that is difficult to overcome. That is the real group of people with low IQ, and it is difficult for normal people to understand their thoughts.

So if Hoffman sticks to the original role setting, he will encounter the problem of not being able to live with the performance scale when acting. In other words, it will be easy to overact, making the audience feel that he is not the mentally retarded person they see in life or imagine.

However, this autistic genius patient is much easier to control the scale when acting. When the audience sees him acting out Rain Man's fear of social interaction and various stereotyped behaviors, it is easy to associate it with those introverted people in life, and magnify their behaviors several times, that is, Rain Man.

And Rain Man's talent in mathematics makes them think that such a character is very cute. The script cleverly makes the protagonist gain extra love from the audience.

To be honest, this kind of role is not difficult to act, and Tom Cruise is fully capable of it. In fact, he and Dustin Hoffman often exchanged roles and said each other's lines during rehearsal. After each rehearsal, he would call Paula to express his regret.

There is a subtle point here, which Paula and Cruise did not notice, that is, Rain Man is no longer the kind of low IQ person who is considered difficult to act. Everyone fell into the misunderstanding of the old sayings, only Ronald felt this by intuition.

"In fact, Tom's appearance is not suitable for acting. He is so handsome, and the audience prefers to see him on the screen, like a star, rather than being an acting school like Dustin Hoffman." Ronald said something that everyone in the circle recognized.

"It's a pity that Tom himself has a strong pursuit of acting. I can't convince him, and I don't want to convince him." Paula replied, of course she knew this. But it's a good thing that Cruise has his own pursuit. Besides, it's hard to persuade successful male stars of this age to change their minds.

At this time, the radio began to broadcast the news that they were starting to board passengers during the transfer. Ronald and several agents sat in the business class together. After stretching his legs, Ronald took out the eye mask and earplugs and said to Paula, "I'm a little tired. I need to catch up on sleep on the way to Santa Fe."

"I'll tell the flight attendant," Paula smiled a special smile and sat with her husband.

The pilot seemed to be a retired navy officer, and took off very hard. But after that, it was very stable after leveling off. Ronald fell asleep quickly. The noise from the engine was relatively weak after reaching the business class, and only some residual buzzing sound was heard after passing through the soundproof earmuffs.

…

"Buzz buzz buzz..." A low background music came, and Ronald saw a 2.39:1 widescreen picture, on which a team of Indians with colorful faces painted, holding spears and bows and arrows, were crossing the entire screen horizontally.

There were a team of seven or eight horses in total, and people kept riding their horses to the front, and were caught up by others. Such a picture only occupied more than half of the widescreen.

Ronald smiled in his dream. This is the authentic way of shooting a western film, integrating the characters with the vast western grasslands. If it were a normal 1.85 aspect ratio, it would be impossible to have so many characters in the middle ground and leave blank space for the beautiful grassland in the background. Not to mention the 4:3 TV-level images of Lone Dove Town shot by Diane. The dialogue can only be shown in close-up, and even an over-the-shoulder shot can't fit the two characters.

"Oh... Lulululu..." The Indians on the screen let out a unique howl. Ronald looked and saw that there was a man with a mustache wearing the uniform of the US Army during the Civil War mixed in with the Indians in the horse team. It was Kevin Costner.

"Did this guy really find an investor? This picture is real at first glance. So many horses, so many people, it's very expensive to shoot." Ronald couldn't help but sigh. Will westerns become a popular genre again in the future?

"No, why is Costner's character with the Indians?" Ronald suddenly found the problem. Traditional westerns all have plots of fighting with Indian warriors. White people and Indians rarely fight side by side. At most, some Indians naturalize as white people and fight against those more brutal Indian tribes.

The picture turned, and women and children came out to see off this team of warriors going out. Ronald clearly saw a woman with a white face wearing Indian women's clothes and decorations.

The camera began to soar into the air. After saying goodbye to their families, these warriors appeared in the picture from the bottom of the lens, riding horses without saddles and heading forward.

"This shot is beautiful." Ronald sighed in his dream, "but it's also so expensive..." On the grassland, the installation of tall jibs and the Indian warriors riding bareback horses, the training and safety costs of these extras are terrifying.

The deep and majestic soundtrack sounded, and the camera pushed to the undulating hills in the distance. A gray line gradually emerged from behind the hills.

"What is that? It doesn't seem to be the enemy's cavalry?" Ronald carefully distinguished.

The black and gray lines became clearer and clearer, and huge and fat animals gradually appeared on the horizon.

"Rumble, rumble..." The hoof sounds of these giant animals began to cover the entire picture. Ronald looked at them. They were bigger than ordinary cows and had thicker fur.

The camera turned, and the whole mountain was filled with this animal - American bison - running wildly towards the camera. The rumbling of hooves, accompanied by the puffs of dust raised by them, made people's hearts resonate with the hoof sounds and connected with the Indian hunters who were riding horses and driving the bison from the outside of the screen.

"My God, there must be thousands of bison here? This shot is really exciting, and it's really fucking expensive. How much money did it cost to shoot this?"

Costner rode a saddled horse and hunted with a shotgun. The Indians rode bareback horses without saddles and hunted with bows and arrows. The camera seemed to follow them and the bison herd, moving forward at a high speed, giving the audience a feeling of riding horses and following the hunters to hunt.

"It's so good... I've never seen a western like this."

Ronald shouted excitedly, and when he opened his eyes, he saw the concerned eyes of Niceta and Paula.

"Do you think Lone Pigeon is so good?" Niceta gave him a glass of water, and the couple also watched the live shooting of Lone Pigeon. I didn't expect Ronald to be so optimistic about this western miniseries. Could it be that the great director can see something that we can't see?

"Ah? Ah... It's okay, it's okay. That movie is a copy of Red River, so it won't be too bad."

Ronald evaded the question and drank a sip of water to calm himself down.

I don't know why, but I'm prone to dreaming about movies when I'm on a plane. This "Dances with Wolves" that Costner took a fancy to looks very magnificent. There has never been such a dynamic, realistic, and immersive hunting scene in previous westerns.

It seems that I have to find it and study it carefully. If it can really be shot at this level, it will definitely be a visual spectacle that American audiences have never seen.

The plane landed in Santa Fe, and Ronald strangely found that he didn't have the symptoms of blocked ears. The temperature here is warm but not hot, and the humidity in the air is very low, which makes people feel refreshed.

"Drink more water," Nicita handed over another bottle of water, and then gave one to his wife. "Santa Fe is a plateau city, with an altitude of 7,200 feet (about 2,000 meters). Drinking more water helps prevent altitude sickness."

After several people checked into the hotel, Ronald and Nicita found Gene Hackman's house here.

"Ding Dong...", Ronald rang the doorbell.

"Come in, the door is open, don't let me come out to invite you." Gene Hackman's familiar voice came from the room. Ronald and Niceta looked at each other, opened the door and walked in.

Gene Hackman held a beautiful black-haired woman in his arms and sat on the sofa in the living room. When he saw Ronald, he shook hands with him perfunctorily and did not get up.

The dark-haired beauty, on the other hand, looked at Ronald with a curious look.

"I know why you're here. I didn't want to say more at first. I already had arrangements for this movie, but Bob (Robert Duvall) called specifically and said that you are a director who understands the needs of actors very well..."

Hackman pointed to the sofa and asked Ronald to sit down.

"Who is this lovely lady?" Ronald did not follow the old actor's instructions. Instead, he asked for the beauty's name without introducing the lady. Hackman was very rude.

"Bessie, Bessie Arakawa," the dark-haired beauty introduced herself. She was the reason why Gene Hackman divorced his wife of thirty years.

Arakawa is a classical pianist, but there was no room for further development in Hawaii. He had to work part-time as a yoga teacher at a fitness center until he met the Oscar-winning actor.

"Hello, Bessie," Ronald shook her hand and sat down.

"We haven't met. But my last movie, 'Mississippi Burning,' was directed by Alan Parker. He didn't like you very much. He always said that you were a villain who stole other people's ideas." Hackman spoke very bluntly.

"The truth is exactly the opposite. The script I revised was plagiarized by him. However, the Writers Guild has made a ruling."

Ronald knew for sure that it was Alan Parker, the "famous" director, who had returned to Hollywood to direct movies. It seemed that Gene Hackman had heard a lot of bad things about him from him.

"Listen, Mr. Hackman. I came to Santa Fe to talk to you about that Hannibal Lecter adaptation, not to reminisce about our mutual 'friend' Allen."

"Haha," Gene Hackman seemed to be satisfied with Ronald's straightforward speaking style. He smiled, "Very good, then let's talk about this adaptation."

"Tell me, Ronald, who do you think is suitable for the role of Clarice?"

"This..." Ronald didn't expect to talk in such depth. "I think we have to wait until the first version of the script is revised before we can start looking for it."

The character image of the film can be the same as the adapted script, or it can be very different. Therefore, it is difficult to say whether experienced readers will recognize the character's image on the screen.

"E on, the Writers Guild still doesn't know when the strike will end. Do you have to wait until then to talk to me about casting?

e on, use your intuition, the first one that pops into your head. I have always believed that movies need to rely on intuition to move forward. "

Gene Hackman has quite a temper and obviously doesn’t have much room for maneuver when speaking. Ronald didn't know what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd, so he had to search in his mind and think about the real purpose of his question.

"Well, we need a weak appearance and a strong core. The appearance must be beautiful, making people doubt the professional ability of the female agent Clarisse, and the heart must be tense, so that the final role of subduing a serial killer can be convincing. force."

"Kid, I'm not here to give you a film analysis lesson. Use your intuition. Who are you thinking of now?" Gene Hackman didn't give Ronald time to stop and think.

"Um...Michelle Pfeiffer?" The image of Pfeiffer popped into Ronald's mind. She did have a delicate temperament.

"That's a good answer, hahaha," Gene Hackman said with a hint of appreciation in his eyes, and he was also satisfied with this casting choice.

"It seems we have thought of getting together." Ronald caught the change in the other person's expression and smiled.

"It seems that my old friend Bob still has such a good taste. He is very accurate in judging directors and knows who is the director who can really bring out the potential of actors."

Gene Hackman patted Arakawa on the waist and asked her to get some whiskey and have a drink together.

Several people took the poured wine glasses and drank slowly.

"Now that the Writers Guild strike is still going on, what are you going to do?" Hackman asked Ronald.

"I think we can slowly find overseas screenwriters. I have some contacts with screenwriters in Australia and Canada." Ronald relaxed and Hackman asked these questions. It seems that he has a tendency to cooperate with him.

"Hmm..." Hackman was noncommittal. This answer...

"With Michelle Pfeiffer, this cast configuration is very dramatic. Who do you think is better to play Hannibal?" Gene Hackman asked again about the candidate for another main role.

"Hmm... should I still rely on intuition?" Ronald asked. In fact, this kind of casting can only be analyzed after the script is ready. But Hackman is a bit eccentric, and he holds the rights to adapt the movie, so just follow his ideas.

"I want an authoritative actor with a bit of evil temperament, and he also looks very smart and arrogant, um...Jack, Jack Nicholson?" Ronald thought for a moment and thought it was Nicholson. Suitable for this kind of role, he, Hackman, and Pfeiffer are quite a good configuration.

Hackman has acting skills, but he is not popular. Nicholson has excellent acting skills and star power, coupled with a sexy actress. As long as the cast list is announced, it must be good publicity.

It's just Michelle Pfeiffer and herself... Never mind, it's been so long, everyone is professional, so there must be no problem. Besides, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he will direct it himself. If Hackman wants to direct, maybe he can find a way to test his directorial ability. It’s not impossible to act as a producer and start supervising on the set.

"Hey, Jack, he's a good choice."

Hackman stopped smiling, said a few words without saltiness, and then sent Ronald and Niceta out of the house. "Let my agent keep in touch with yours." Hackman nuzzled at Nicita, then shook hands and walked in.

"Keep in touch. I really like the sequel to Dragon King that you shot. You shot it in Hawaii, right? I saw a lot of familiar scenes." Arakawa also shook hands with Ronald and said goodbye, "You need to know more about Gene's thoughts. , he was very happy to get the rights to adapt this film, and told me a lot about his thoughts.”

Looking at the closed door, Ronald frowned, as if he had done something wrong. He and Niceta looked at each other, and the other shrugged and said that he didn't understand Hackman's thoughts either.

The two returned to the hotel and had a local dinner with Paula. The food here is deeply influenced by Mexico and the indigenous Indians. There are red and green chili peppers, steamed pasta filled with cornmeal vegetables and meat, as well as fried pastries, paired with chili-marinated pork chops. Ronald was full of them. Head sweating profusely.

"We have also eaten these dishes in Los Angeles, but it is the best experience to come to Santa Fe to eat them in person." Paula also enjoyed the meal. Her visit this time was like a vacation with her husband. She was so kind to her. For workaholics, this is a rare holiday.

"What did you say?" Ronald was stunned and asked Paula.

"I said I like this dish very much."

"No, the previous sentence"

"Rick and I also ate at a restaurant in Los Angeles..."

"No, the last sentence", Ronald asked again.

"For the best experience, I have to eat it in person?" Paula didn't know what Ronald wanted to ask.

"That's it, damn, Gene Hackman, this bastard, wants to write it himself, direct it himself, and play Hannibal himself!"

Ronald tossed the masa onto his plate. What Hackman really wanted to ask was who wrote the screenplay and who played Hannibal. This old bastard made false claims, and revealed all his true thoughts.

"He plays Hannibal? Can he play it?" Paula wasn't sure whether Ronald was right. Gene Hackman's face looks stupid at first glance, can he play the highly intelligent Hannibal?

"He can play a xx" Ronald cursed. People seem to think highly of themselves. Hackman's face has been stereotyped as a person who does things according to the rules. He wants to play a man who is unconstrained, extremely smart, and always He couldn't play Hannibal, the highly intelligent criminal who controls the minds of those around him.

This is a movie, and the audience wants to see a close-up of the face. It's not like Hackman is doing a play on Broadway. Anyway, you can't see the expression clearly, you can only see the body movements and lines.