Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Helen Slater, a girl from New York, became the luckiest one among thousands of girls who auditioned. She beat Brooke Shields, who had been highly popular before, and was selected to play 'Supergirl'.

Warner Bros. announced that she has signed a contract with Supergirl, and the first film will be shot in Britain. "

There was a very short project announcement in The Hollywood Reporter, announcing that Helen had been cast as Supergirl.

"I'm so happy," Helen said, wrapping her arms around Ronald's neck. It really helped to put on the Supergirl uniform to audition.

She received a notice to ask the photographer to take another set of photos of her uniform under lighting conditions, so that the costumes and props could be used as a reference to customize real movie costumes.

"When will you start filming?" Ronald asked Helen.

"Warner wants us to go to the UK to shoot some scenes with 'Superman Part 3', which is currently being shot at Pinewood Studios outside London. The official filming will not be until next year. They said I have to go to the gym to gain some muscle. Match the character.”

"Okay. In fact, this role is very suitable for you. It doesn't require high acting skills..."

"How could it be? I also have to act with Jane Fonda and Peter O'Toole, which requires very high acting skills. Gerald has already found an acting training teacher for me."

Ronald smiled, Gerald was still very concerned about this daughter from his ex-wife. He hired a famous Shakespearean drama coach to train Helen's line skills and acting skills.

Although Ronald felt that the movie may not require such dialogue skills, he did not intend to interfere. It’s always healthier than the so-called “method” actors’ studio methods.

"Have other roles been chosen?" Ronald asked about other candidates for "Supergirl".

"They're going to cast Jane Fonda as my mother, Dolly Parton as the witch from the comics, and Peter O'Toole as my mentor. But that's not set in stone yet, and it might change."

"Yes, movie shooting is very uncertain, and sometimes schedule changes will make the actors who were originally promised unavailable." Ronald recalled that in the dream, it seemed that everyone except Peter O'Toole had changed actors.

"There is also a Hollywood TV actress named Demi Moore. She came to play Supergirl's best friend Lucy Lane. I heard that she was also a candidate for Supergirl."

"It's such a small world. I used to use her audition photos as an advertisement for my portrait photography business..." Ronald couldn't help but sigh,

Demi, a girl who is very good at looking for opportunities, finally entered the entertainment industry.

Helen's classmates in the performing arts college were also envious of her and began to call her repeatedly to hold parties and invite Helen to attend.

"I never knew I was so popular in high school. They all liked Erica Kimpel and chose her to be the prom queen." Helen received another invitation call and complained to Ronald. explain.

"Oh, I don't know. Has she acted in any movies?"

"She was in the TV version of 'Famous.'"

"Isn't that the role played by Erin Kara in the movie version?" Ronald thought of this triathlon role of drama, dance, and singing. Erin Kara's current career focus has shifted to being a singer. She sings "Famous" on variety shows every day. No wonder she has to act in a TV series version.

Ronald was very happy. Every time she appeared on TV, her income from writing lyrics increased, and she would get another check next quarter.

"Aren't you going to their party?"

"Oh, it's not interesting. I might as well go pick out the new jazz records. I have to take a Shakespeare drama class later. What about you?"

"I'm going to meet two producers." Ronald got up and drove.

"When we see Ronald later, we must praise him. You know Americans like other people's praise." The two fat men were talking about Ronald in the hotel suite.

"Why didn't you see that he had such a good directing talent?"

"Hi, Ronald. Long time no see!"

Two Israeli producers, Minahan and Yoram, stood up and hugged Ronald and his agent Richard.

"Your fast pace is so amazing. Our movie costs more than you, but the box office is only a fraction of yours." Minahan began to compliment Ronald.

The movie he's talking about is Cannon Pictures' "The Last American Virgin," which is already in theaters. The total income in America is less than US$6 million, which is not as high as the cost of film shooting and music copyrights.

"It's hard to tell about movies, and I don't know what I did right," Ronald said modestly, "I heard that your copies abroad are selling well?"

Ronald originally did not want to meet the two Israeli brothers. He discussed it with his agents Richard and Niceta and declined their invitation.

But Niceta's words caught Ronald's attention. The two brothers have received large investments in Europe and are preparing to shoot multi-million blockbusters.

The movie shot in America was losing money, but it was able to attract such a large investment. Ronald was very interested in chatting with them, so he agreed to the meeting. Richard even flew over specially to accompany him for the meeting.

"Ah, yes. Ronald, why don't you come and help us direct a movie, a youth movie, so that we can join forces and win the Oscar for Best Picture and the Oscar for Best Director.

The box office performance of these two movies made me understand a little bit. I haven't grasped the taste of American people, so that's why they failed at the box office. "

Minahan Golan gushes about his movie.

"Why are your movies so successful? Ronald. Have you mastered some secret?"

"Success is a poor teacher. If I fail, I can talk about the lessons. But with box office success, I really don't know where I am right?"

"Oh? Then can you talk about why our 'Last American Virgin' failed?"

Minahan himself is a director. Although he is not named as the director of this movie, he went to the filming site many times to guide, and most of the final editing was his handiwork. He really couldn't figure it out.

Teen movies, nudity, abortion, all kinds of pick-up scenes. It is said that Cannon Pictures' movies have more of these blockbuster elements than Ronald's "fast-paced" movie. There are more than a dozen actresses in the movie alone, which is much more than Ronald's movie.

But young American audiences just don’t like watching it. My investment in distribution far exceeds that of Universal, but the single-theater box office is being squeezed by the 'fast pace'. Now others still have a box office of two to three million per week, and my movies have been invited to theaters.

"If you tell me how you found the money to shoot in Europe, I'll tell you why your movie doesn't do well in North America." Ronald said with a smirk on his face.

"I don't care about this matter. It's all about Ram to discuss."

Yoram is like a smaller version of Minahan, except that his head is one size smaller than his cousin's, and his whole body is also fat.

"We mainly rely on the pre-sales of this movie and European bank funds." Yoram didn't speak much, mainly listening to others.

But what he said was very important knowledge to Ronald. “Excuse me, what’s going on with the pre-sale?”

"Pre-sale is when the movie has not yet started shooting, in Europe and Asia, we sell the rights to local screenings, and we use the pre-sale money to shoot the movie. We will deliver it after the filming is completed."

“How do I pre-sell a movie?”

"You must have a successful precedent, and the movie must have stars recognized by foreigners, or some connections." Yoram still didn't say much.

“What happened to the bank funds?”

Ronald also wanted to find out more about the secret of Cannon Pictures's ability to attract large investments despite losing money repeatedly.

"Ronald, this is our core business secret. If you want to know more about pre-sales, I can help you. You will understand when you go to the country with us next time at the Cannes Film Festival. .”

"Yes, Ronald, come with us to Cannes next year. It's a paradise for film directors, and the beaches are full of..." Minahan beamed as he described the courtesy he received in Cannes.

"It's your turn, Ronald. What's wrong with our movie?"

"I can't say that my opinion is definitely right, but I think the movies you make are all about American stories as seen by foreigners, rather than domestic stories as seen by Americans."

"What do you mean?" Minahan stared blankly, a little confused.

"I've seen a few of your movies, like the one that was shown in Montreal, 'Apple,' which tells the story of a hippie."

"Yes, hippies save the world..."

"Minahan, I'm guessing you haven't been exposed to the hippie lifestyle."

"how do you know?"

"I grew up in America, and I've seen a lot of hippies in my life. And as an Israeli, all you know about hippies is on TV or in magazines."

Seeing that Minahan listened attentively, Ronald expressed his opinion.

"In fact, the core concept of hippies is freedom. I can smell who is a hippie on the road. They always drive second-hand shabby cars, have long hair, wear flowers, play guitars and sing, but those are just appearances. Their true spirit lies in freedom.

And your movie gathers hippies, lets them obey the command of a leader, and sacrifice themselves to accomplish a great cause. How can this be? In the eyes of North American audiences, this is not hippy at all. "

"So I said, your movie may be suitable for foreign audiences to watch American stories. Those stories match their imagination of America, but North American audiences don't feel that it is their story."

Ronald raised his glass to signal that he was finished.

Minahan stared and said nothing for a long time. Suddenly he hit the table with his fist, "Ah...I understand."

"Ronald, will you direct our next movie? Youth, beauty, and love are exactly the elements you are good at."

"Ahem..." Richard suddenly choked on his wine and coughed.

"I'm sorry, Minahan. I need some rest, and I don't want to make any more teen exploitation films these days. You know I turned down an invitation from Atlantic Distribution to do their movie a few days ago."

Recently, a song called "Valley Girl" climbed to the top of the pop music charts and caused a great impact.

CBS TV station also criticized this valley accent and made a special report. Criticizing this kind of emphasis and grammatical expression will have a great impact on Americans' language expression and reading comprehension ability in the future.

Atlantic approached Ronald and wanted to hire the director who started the "Valley Girl" accent trend to make another movie called "Valley Girl". He wrote the script and was paid 200,000 yuan. The casting and editing decisions were all made by Ronald.

"Well, you should enjoy this privilege. America's best-selling directors should enjoy this privilege. It's all my fault that I was stupid and didn't seize the opportunity to ask you to direct Cannon's movie."

Minahan made several exaggerated gestures of regret.

"When will you make a new movie next? What subject matter will you make? Don't forget about Yoram and I. Cannon Pictures will always welcome you. Our financing capabilities and tolerance for talented directors are incomparable to the seven major Hollywood companies. Yeah, you’d be a fool if you didn’t cooperate with us.”

"I don't know, I haven't got inspiration yet. Maybe it's a science fiction movie?" Ronald felt that these two brothers were really very motivated, and no failure could destroy their confidence in always making progress. Having such blind confidence is sometimes a good thing.

"It is said in Hollywood that their money was given by banks in Belgium and was laundered funds from Europe."

Richard said on the way to send Ronald home.

"What's the truth?"

"I don't know, but what Minahan's cousin said today is indeed a good financing path. The funds including Supergirl were also raised from pre-sales in Europe and Asia. Now the seven major Hollywood companies Studios are also beginning to learn this approach.

If they can really find pre-sale funds from Cannes, then I'm afraid the so-called dollar laundering is just a rumor. "

"It's time for you to go back to Hollywood, Ronald." At the door of Ronald's aunt's house, Richard began to urge Ronald to return to Los Angeles.

"The box office of the movie has exceeded 33 million, and it will continue to be a long-term show. Now there are many people in Hollywood who want to cooperate with you. If you don't appear in front of them for a long time, Hollywood is very forgetful."

"I know, I'll go back after I finish some things." Ronald patted Richard on the shoulder.

"Ronnie, hold down here for me."

Donna saw Ronald coming back, holding one end of the telescope, asking Ronald to hold it down, and then put the tube away.

"Why don't you look at comets anymore?"

"Halley's Comet has been discovered, and I can't be in the newspaper news." Donna shrugged.

“Why do so many people want to see Halley’s Comet?”

"Because comets are very popular now. Legend has it that the extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by a comet hitting the earth."

"So scary? What if humanity is wiped out by a comet?"

"No, the chance of hitting the Earth is very low. Many small celestial bodies are blocked by the moon."

"What would happen if you were a survivor if it hit the earth and caused the extinction of a large number of humans?" Ronald thought this was a good subject for a disaster movie, so he asked Donna.

"Huh? I will probably collect my books and keep the technological fire of mankind."

"Haha, what about yourself? What do you want to do?"

"Nothing, I might go to the Library of Congress and get all the good books there." Donna thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll get some beautiful clothes that I can't afford, toys that I can't play with, and then I'll get a motorcycle. Open up."

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