Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Vic Morrow was not a good father, at least in the eyes of his second daughter, Jennifer Jason Leigh.

When Jennifer was three years old, Jennifer's mother, Barbara, divorced Moreau. Although Jennifer was sentenced to be given to her father, Moreau was addicted to alcohol and could not take care of the children. In the end, she still lived with her mother Barbara.

In the days to come, Jennifer rarely saw this father in her life. She was more resentful towards her father, Moreau.

Originally, the opportunity to be the heroine of "The Story of a Beautiful Girl" was hers. But his legal guardian father, Vic Morrow, refused to sign, giving up the opportunity to Brooke Shields, who became famous in one fell swoop.

Jennifer was so angry that she went through the court to change her guardian to her mother, and then changed her last name from Morrow to Leigh.

And now Vic Morrow actually asked Jennifer Jason Leigh to delete a special scene in the movie "Fast Richmond High".

"You're so talented, Jenny, and you have no idea how proud I was to see you perform in the TV series 'The Best Little Girl in the World,' where you played the anorexic, so realistically."

Vic Morrow went to a tavern next to his daughter's single apartment, met him, and was very excited when he talked about his daughter's acting skills.

"You lost less than 100 pounds to play her. Your mother called and complained, but I am very happy. My daughter is an excellent actress. You can still occupy a place in Hollywood without those nudity scenes..."

"But you can't get famous by playing that." Jennifer interrupted Moreau coldly. I have played several roles on TV that require great acting skills, but does anyone know me?

"Don't say that, Jennifer. I know I haven't cared enough for you in the past, but I'm sober, I'm taking anger management classes, I can get a starring role in a Spielberg movie project, and I'll give it to you later Find great movie roles. Trust me..."

"Dream!" Jennifer Jason Leigh refused to listen to Moreau's nonsense and turned around to leave. Now that she is an adult, she can make decisions about her acting career.

Morrow got up and chased after him, but was hit by the waiter who came to check and almost fell to the ground. After holding on to the wall to steady her body, she saw that Jennifer had already left the tavern, stopped a taxi and left.

"fxck!" Morrow shouted, picked up the water glass on the table and threw it on the ground.

"Pa!" The waiter was at a loss, "Sir...please calm down.

"

"Give me a double Jack Daniels, no, a bottle, no ice."

At the same time, Ronald received a call and went to Universal to discuss distribution with producer Lin Sen.

"It is impossible for Universal to give too many marketing resources to a small production with a production cost of 3.1 million. If you have other ideas such as product placement, you might as well share them together."

"How can I have so many good ideas?" Ronald laughed, "How many theaters do you expect it to be in?"

"It depends on the final effect of the film. Generally speaking, after the summer season ends in July every year, there is a gap period where competition is not fierce. If your film is released at that time, you will hopefully win more theaters. Painting, after this it will depend on your box office performance."

"I understand." Ronald nodded in understanding. It can be released after the summer vacation, before the start of school in September, and during the holidays for high school students. This is actually not a big problem for a "fast-paced" youth film.

This kind of movie with a relatively single target audience will not be too bad at the box office as long as it does precise marketing to the target audience.

Opened at the end of July this year, "Endless Love" starring Brooke Shields has performed well at the box office, already earning 30 million at the box office.

Director Zeffirelli said to himself that PolyGram completely miscalculated the target audience of the movie. The target audience of teenage couples only accounted for 10% of the final audience, and more than 80% of the audience were junior high school girls.

Even though all the marketing materials were put out incorrectly, it was still able to achieve such good results because of the word-of-mouth spread among moviegoers. Teenage girls already have the habit of chatting with each other frequently. If a movie that suits their taste appears, the word-of-mouth effect is very good.

Ronald is also confident in his film. There are not many movies about teenagers growing up in the current movie market.

While major studios have seen this trend in moviegoers, whether it's the rural Oklahoma story of Disney's "The Texans" or Paramount's musical "Grease 2," the story is It's far away from the main movie-going crowd.

What young high school students want to read are the stories that happen around them, how urban teenagers in grades 10-12 like them deal with the various troubles in their lives.

"It seems that you are very confident. I will wait for you to come back after the New Year holiday to edit." Lin Sen shook hands with him and wished Ronald a smooth vacation back home.

"By the way, I received a message from a company executive this morning, asking you if you could cancel Jennifer Jason Leigh's nude scene." Lin Sen finally said casually.

"Why?"

"If you feel the need, just ignore them. Universal is an old studio and there are a lot of old people at the top of the company who are out of touch with the times."

Ronald nodded. There were many "high-level people" commenting on the movie. This is a common problem in big studios. It's not like a small company like New World, which can make a decision with just one word from Roger Corman.

"Rhythm of Richmond High" has a limited marketing budget and relies primarily on word-of-mouth from its audience. In this case, the importance of these shots increases, and I don't think I can cut them out.

For a movie to be talked about, in addition to its exciting content, it must also have a selling point that can be explained clearly in one sentence, making it easier for viewers to recommend it to their friends.

The reason why "Endless Love" was able to achieve a good box office despite miscalculating its target audience was because it was easy to spread. Any middle school girl can say to her classmates and friends, "Do you know how much the heroine Jade's boyfriend loves her?"

If the other party is interested, you can list a series of infatuated behaviors of the male protagonist David, sneaking into Jade's bedroom, setting fire to her house, running out of the mental hospital to find Jade who has moved, etc.

Ronald noticed this when he saw the test screening. I also want to add some elements that facilitate dissemination into my movies.

The scene between Jennifer Jason Leigh and Phoebe Cates is what he needs to carefully design and spread easily.

"Why would higher-ups care about an actress?" Ronald still didn't quite understand and asked producer Lin Sen.

"Because Jennifer's father is Vic Morrow, he was once a popular star on TV. In the circle, male stars of the right age always have some extra power." Lin Sen explained when Ronald saw that he didn't understand. one time.

"Is it him?" Ronald thought of the man who broke into the scene on the day he signed the contract for filming. "But you also said it, Mr. Lin Sen. He is a 'former' TV star. Why do male stars who have passed away also Can I interfere with the filming of the movie?”

"To call it outdated is a bit too disparaging to Moreau. Male stars always have great influence, not even limited to the film industry." Lin Sen smiled, "You know the recent big events in Hollywood, Natalie Wood A death case?"

"I know." After Ronald finished filming the movie, his family made up a lot of entertainment news during the filming.

At the end of November when he was busy filming, the famous Hollywood actress fell into the water from her yacht and died.

"What does this have to do with the influence of male celebrities?"

"Go and find out for yourself, it's spread all over the industry." Lin Sen was unwilling to discuss more details with Ronald, "Male celebrities who have been famous all have social influence that far exceeds female celebrities.

Male stars have a long career. As long as you are popular, the audience will remember you. Maybe there will be a movie that makes them famous. Moreau is only 52 years old and has nearly ten years of career left. So someone will give him some face and send a message. "

Ronald didn't know why. After returning to the hotel, he read last month's entertainment newspapers and finally learned about some of the issues mentioned in the reports.

It turns out that Natalie Wood, the actress she met once at the Golden Globe Awards dinner, had a bad relationship with her husband Robert Wagner because her husband cheated on another female star while filming a TV series.

When Wood boarded the ship, in order to make her husband Wagner jealous, he deliberately brought actor Christopher Walken with him on board the ship.

When Natalie Wood fell into the water, someone on a nearby boat heard a woman calling for help. But with such high suspicion, the district attorney easily dropped the prosecution.

Ronald felt that Lin Sen's suggestion was a bit exaggerated. The district attorney had great power, and one person could decide whether to prosecute the suspect, but he would not let go of someone who might have murdered a famous actress just because the suspect was a has-been actor. The murderer?

Ronald thought for a moment, then picked up the phone and called his agent Niceta. He was well-informed and might know something.

“Legend has it that Natalie Wood wore a mink coat to her funeral, with the collar turned up, to hide a visible scar on her face.”

"Huh? Is there really a problem?" Ronald was a little surprised. Would something like this happen in America?

"Oh, you were filming a movie at that time, and the TV station gave you endless interviews. The district attorney said that it was caused by hitting the side of the ship when it fell into the sea."

"That's possible, right? The district attorney never talks nonsense?"

"But Natalie Wood was born with a fear of water, and she doesn't even swim." Niceta told Ronald some rumors in the circle, "Her sister Lana, said everywhere in the circle that her sister is afraid of water. But It’s of no use.”

Ronald put down the phone and felt very emotional. A national star died so easily. It seems that male celebrities do have some influence.

However, he still had to insist on keeping the scene between Jennifer and Phoebe in the edit. Vic Morrow was not a popular movie star, so what could he do about the legal editing of Jennifer's signature?

He couldn't beat himself as an alcoholic.

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