Exploitation Hollywood 1980

Ronald didn't know that John Hughes fired Howard Deutsch for telling the ugly truth because he was jealous of his poor box office performance.

He still has his own things to worry about.

Copies of "Ruthless People" have been printed and will be released at the end of June.

As a producer, Ronald actually didn't interfere much in the filming of this movie with an investment of more than 10 million.

The first film released by Disney's newly established "Touchstone", invested by the Screen Fund, was a comedy directed by the Jerry Zucker trio, which had created billion-dollar box office hits. Ronald also didn't think so.

With my comedy talent, what useful advice can I give to the directing team on the set?

So he just went to the set for a day when the movie started shooting, and by the way, he stood up for Helen Slater, who played the female kidnapper. Other than letting everyone know that she was his, he did not interfere with Zach's director.

Any action.

Jerry Zucker, like himself, is a transfer student from Roger Corman Film University. He is also a director with a very professional ethics in exploitation films, and can basically complete creations within the scope of the budget and shooting plan.

So after that, Ronald simply asked Eddie, who was daydreaming, to stare at the set for a while, and then let it go.

Ronald feels that for a director like Jerry Zucker who knows exactly what he is doing, the most important job of the producer is to keep his promise, attract investment, and never interfere with artistic creation. The responsibility of the director is

Make sure the shoot is completed within the planned time and don't go over budget.

However, after Ronald attended the last test screening before the release, he fell into deep doubts about his so-called "producer's concept".

The response to test screenings was not very good.

The frequency and intensity of the audience’s laughter are incomparable to those of the Zack trio’s first two works, “Unprecedented (ne!)” and “Laughing Through the Iron Curtain” (top secret!).

Especially his debut film "Unprecedented", which grossed 80 million U.S. dollars at the box office. There were so many laughs that there was at least one every minute, or even one every 20 seconds. There were all kinds of parodies. Not only did the critics like it, but the audience also laughed from beginning to end.

Finally, many people have symptoms of abdominal muscle pain the next day.

But for this movie "The Evil Husband", the audience at the preview showed restrained laughter. When they laughed, it was often a knowing smile rather than an indulgent laugh. Moreover, the intervals between the laughs were also very long, and some laughed

Clicks often take a few seconds to respond.

As Ronald watched, his brows began to tighten.

The rhythm of comedy is very important, much more important than ordinary movies. If a laugh point is not felt by the audience, it will not only affect the laugh point, but also the next laugh point. You may still be reminiscing about the last laugh.

By the time you click on what’s funny, the next funny point has already arrived.

In this way, both laughter points are often not felt.

And in this movie "The Evil Husband", the laughter often lags behind. This is not a problem with the rhythm of one or two laughs. It may be a problem in the whole movie. Originally, the intensity of the laughter is 10 points, maybe

Being disturbed by this rhythm, I only got 6 points.

Not only did Ronald frown, but when he saw that the audience around him did not laugh at the right time, Ronald would also sigh "Tsk...tsk...".

No one else heard it, but Helen Slater, who was sitting next to him and hugging his arm tightly, heard it clearly.

At first, she looked at Ronald to signal him not to be so disrespectful when watching movies. Later, she was also affected by Ronald, and her face slowly fell.

By the end of the test screening, Helen's face was already pale, and her two big blue eyes seemed to be about to shed tears.

Ronald comforted her in turn, "Don't worry, the audience's response is not bad, maybe it will be a big hit when it is officially screened? My Top Gun also experienced the same situation."

This is Helen's third film to be released in theaters. The first two films in which she played the undisputed leading lady failed at the box office. If she fails this time, she will be out of the game and kiss her film career goodbye.

Even if you are the biological daughter of the presidents of seven major studios, no one would dare to use her to play an important role in a big production.

Helen, who knew this very well, put her head on Ronald's shoulder and hugged him tightly.

Ronald felt that Helen in his arms was shaking slightly because of nervousness and fear. He didn't know how to comfort her for a while, so he had to slowly comfort her back with his hands.

She was very dedicated to her acting career, but she couldn't force this kind of thing. If Helen had something that she couldn't think of and triggered depression, Ronald didn't know what to do.

Her father Gerald entrusted his daughter to him, and he also introduced her to roles. However, the quality of the movie really involves too many factors, and the box office is not as simple as hard work and reward.

"Congratulations!" The male protagonist, Danny DeVito, is a short and bald comedian. He came over to drag the female comedian Bette Midler who played the kidnapped rich girl.

midler)'s hand, congratulations to her.

"Thanks, you too."

Bette Midler is not good-looking, she is a bit fat, and her main job is as a singer. She previously starred in a movie that was also a biopic of a singer. This is her transformation into a comedy.

The two of them said congratulations, but the expressions on their faces told another terrible story.

"I'm done, what about you?"

"I'm done too."

Ronald watched all this silently from the side, and became even more worried about everything.

This was the most uncomfortable test screening he had ever attended. The audience was not very interested and the actors had doomsday expressions on their faces.

Danny DeVito previously participated in the "Emerald" starring Michael Douglas and Kathryn Turner as a comedic supporting role. This time he originally wanted to use Hollywood's top comedy director Jerry Zucker to make a breakthrough

Heading towards the protagonist.

This test screening was frustrating, but he was still a gold medal supporting actor, and there were still small supporting roles to hang out in. Soon his face changed, and he started to get angry with producer Ronald and director Zach.

relation.

"I watched Top Gun, Ronald. It's really a masterpiece. When can I get into the cockpit of a fighter jet and fly a plane?"

Ronald had just comforted Helen and asked her to smile again. When he was about to chat with Jerry Zucker, he was a little impatient when he interrupted her.

"Danny, can you give Jerry and I some privacy?"

Ronald, who was not smiling, turned serious, which was really a bit scary.

"I was just joking, joking." Danny DeVito quickly left the corner and gave up space to the producer and director.

"What do you think, Jerry?" Ronald pulled Jerry Zach together to talk about the reaction to the screening. He handed over a cigarette, and Zach took it and lit it on Ronald's lighter.

, the two of them puffed away some smoke first.

"I don't know, Ronald. I want to change the way of comedy in this movie. I no longer stick to the past rhythm of one laugh per minute. This movie is actually a comedy in the form of a drama. We hope

The audience can find the absurdity in the story itself, rather than us feeding it to them with verbal jokes, you know?”

"I understand, I have no intention of interfering with your directorial skills." Ronald took an ashtray, held it in his hand, and let Jerry Zucker knock the ashes.

"I'm very grateful for this. You know your stuff. This change is what I insist on. We can't continue to produce such dense jokes. The change will happen sooner or later, otherwise the audience will be dissatisfied with this inexplicable dissatisfaction before us."

Know where the sense of humor comes from.

David and Jim actually don't agree with my decision. But artistic creation always involves risks. If we don't take this step, we will be eliminated by the audience if we stay where we are."

"Hey... I understand, I understand." Ronald also took a puff of cigarette. Now it's hard to blame Jerry Zucker too much. In order to achieve an artistic breakthrough, he even ruined the relationship between his brothers and buddies.

broken.

"I just want to ask you, what do you think of the box office prospects?" Ronald asked in a low voice. After all, he is the producer and is responsible for the box office of the entire movie.

"I can't say for sure. I heard that the response to the test screenings of your Top Gun was also not good. The unprecedented test screenings were not as good as the official release. If you think I want to make more changes, I will do it."

"I'm just a little surprised by those delayed laughs...Forget it, the copies have already been made, and the cost of re-editing is too high. And I can't make any useful suggestions. I trust your artistic vision."

Ronald began to regret that he should have gone to the crew more to interfere with the progress of the filming. It seemed that the trio had artistic differences during the filming. If they had intervened earlier, they might have been able to save things.

But now it’s superfluous to say anything, let’s preserve the dignity of an artist.

"Ronald, thank you. But we may not lose. Those delayed laughs were deliberately designed by me. The humor in this movie is not so dense, so the audience has enough time to reflect on the absurdity and irony in the plot.

place."

The two hugged each other tightly as a sign of mutual understanding between artists.

"Wish us good luck." Jerry Zucker adjusted his glasses and said to Ronald.

"I do need good luck," Ronald replied.

If it fails at the box office, Ronald will have cheated Michael Eisner and the deputy commander's eldest son.

Touchstone, which had just released its first film, was about to suffer a serious failure. As for the second phase of the Screen Fund, the investment in the first film failed in the hands of George. He would also be laughed at by those noble buddies for a long time.

It's hard to say, but I have to take action once, so that my two friends who believed in me and suffered losses will not continue to lose money because I made mistakes as a producer.

The audience began to leave, and Ronald hurried to the bathroom to eavesdrop.

This time they did not discuss the plot of the movie or any impressive lines, but talked about their own affairs.

Are you like the protagonist who has not made any money during the economic recovery? How hateful are those rich people? They make money by stealing the ideas and creativity of talented people, and even when they get rich, they do not give the poor people the rewards they deserve.

It's quite responsive, but is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Ronald touched his head and had no clue. He returned to the screening room, where Helen was still waiting for him.

Helen was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, with her hair tied back casually. She looked like an outstanding beauty.

"Where will we go later?" She looked at Ronald with a pair of big almond eyes.

Helen failed completely in the audition for "Secret of Success". Director Herbert Ross found Kristy McNichol (Kristy McCnichol) recommended by his connections Barbra Streisand to play the female lead.

main character.

A large number of actresses are concentrated in the age group of 18 to 35. Without a good relationship, it is impossible to have the opportunity to star in a large-scale movie with a large investment in the theater.

It was only after Helen was ruthlessly rejected in the second round of auditions that she deeply understood the importance of relationships. She had no choice but to make amends and hold on tightly to her only relationship, commercial film wizard Ronald.

Christy McNichol's relationship is much deeper than her relationship with Herbert Ross. Herbert Ross was originally Streisand's choreographer, and most of the Broadway actors belong to this group.

circle.

And Kristy McNichol is not unknown. She was also a child star. In 1980, she starred in the hit comedy "Little Darlings" with Tatum O'Neal, who was also a child star.

)".

It's a pity that her appearance and acting skills are not as good as those of Tatum O'Neal and Jodie Foster, two actors with the same background as child stars, so she has not had many opportunities.

However, one of the two competitors had no acting roles after graduating from Yale, and the other did not get a good teenage role and successfully transitioned. He just married American tennis player McEnroe last month and temporarily retired from the entertainment industry.

Instead, this opportunity fell on her head.

It seems that as long as you stay in the entertainment industry long enough, you still have a chance to get one or two big productions.

"I'm not going anywhere, just sit with me for a while." Ronald put his arm around Helen, and the two of them sat in the empty screening room.

"Let them show the movie again," Ronald told the Touchstone staff.

"Even if I fail, I still have to find out what is wrong with my shooting." Ronald has always been persistent in professional matters.

The lights dimmed again, and only Ronald and Helen started watching the movie from the beginning.

Helen plays a female kidnapper. Her and her husband's patented invention was stolen by a rich man's son-in-law played by Danny DeVito. After making a fortune, they wanted to get back what they deserved by kidnapping the rich girl.

Half a million patents.

"Tsk..." Ronald sighed when he saw the scene on the screen where Helen wore Huey and Dewey's duck mask and kidnapped the rich girl into her home.

It seems that any movie that has anything to do with Donald Duck and his family has bad luck. Lucas's Howard the Duck has basically failed, and it has also implicated two Universal executives.

The rhythm of the movie is a bit unlike a traditional Zach comedy. And Helen's performance is particularly different from others. Pay attention to her performance this time, which made Ronald, who is used to watching classic Hollywood movies, feel a little bit out of place.

.

Then the rich girl was arrogant in the basement, and Helen played the role of a frustrated little daughter-in-law. Instead, she was conquered by the rich girl. She did not dare to abuse the hostage too much, but fried steak for her.

"Tsk..." When Ronald heard her lines, it also gave people a strong sense of stage drama, which was very dramatic.

Helen saw that every time she appeared, spoke, or made any physical movements, Ronald would make a tsk sound, and she was frightened.

"Did I really do such a bad job? What did Ronald want to say by leaving me here?"

She looked at the screen, and indeed when she watched it for the second time, she felt that she was out of place with the other people's relaxed acting style.

"Hmm..." Helen panicked, holding Ronald's arm and burying her head on his chest. She didn't dare to look at the screen, and she didn't want Ronald to comment on her acting skills anymore.

"Did I ruin the whole movie? Woohoo..."

"Turn on the lights..." Ronald raised his hand and told the staff to pause the screening.

"Don't panic, honey. I think I've found the problem."

"Where?"

Helen, whose almond-shaped eyes were a little red and swollen from crying, looked at Ronald with tears in her eyes.

"When you were performing, were you listening to yourself talking?" Ronald called the staff and asked him to replay the clip of Helen talking.

"Me?" Helen looked at her performance on the screen and thought for a moment.

"Yes, I am very nervous. Director Jerry Zucker is a well-known comedy director. I asked him for advice on the mentality of many characters, the highest task, and what tone should be used in the performance."

"No wonder, every time you read your lines, you always pay attention to your tone, stress, and intonation, so that your lines are a little different from how normal people should speak."

"What does a normal person talk like?" Helen no longer dared to ignore Ronald's opinion. She also felt that there was a big gap between her performance and the protagonists.

"When normal people speak, they always pay attention to what others say, rather than what they say. Maybe in the future, you should allocate more attention to the opponent actors instead of thinking about how you should say your lines to fit the role."

"Is that so?" Helen was stunned for a moment. How could she not pay attention to such a simple thing?

"Yes, you have taken more acting classes than me. You should have heard that acting is about acting out reactions."

"Acting is acting out reactions."

Helen Slater murmured to herself, and then burst into laughter. The real trick is sometimes as simple as being revealed by her lover in one sentence. It’s ridiculous that she has taken so many acting training classes.

She was pleasantly surprised to find that she had a few scenes, and she didn't pay too much attention to how she should act, but instead looked more natural.

Helen hugged Ronald hard and gave him a sweet kiss.

"I'm so stupid, Ronnie. It seems you know more about acting than me. I will listen to you from now on."