Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Back in October 1982, Ronald, at the urging of his agent, flew to Los Angeles to attend the "fast-paced Richmond High School" celebration reception.

Helen Slater paused her acting training for "Supergirl" and accompanied Ronald to Los Angeles to celebrate.

"My dear, here is your new book." Helen was very happy.

Outside the hotel arranged by Universal, Ronald and Helen saw a bookstore. After scrolling through the "Reference Books/Software" column, they found Ronald's new "Word Star Book for Dummies".

"Is this well written?" Ronald took a few unseen movie scripts to check out. Ronald saw the person checking out in front holding a fool's book he had written, so he asked.

"It's very good. Look here." The man in front was very enthusiastic. He opened the last page of the book for fools and pointed it to Ronald. "It's very useful to stick it next to the monitor. I suggest you buy it too." One."

"Just for the shortcut key list? Isn't it also in the instruction manual of Word Star?" Ronald asked.

"Hey, are you kidding me? Where did I get the instructions?"

Ronald understood that this man was using pirated software.

WordStar published a dos version in 1982, so that it became a cross-operating system word processing software that can be used on Camcord computers using the cpm-80 operating system and IBM personal computers using dos.

The most powerful feature of WordStar is that what you see is what you get. What appears on the monitor is exactly what the printer prints. This is much better than its competitor "electronic pencil". Those software display one way and print out another way. It takes a long time to adjust the typesetting.

Of course, such easy-to-use software is very popular. Sales of genuine software have increased from half a million US dollars in 1979 to tens of millions of US dollars before the end of this year.

But piracy also followed. WordStar was distributed on floppy disks. Anyone with an IBM computer and two floppy drives could give a friend a copy.

These pirated users do not have user manuals and need such instructional books to learn how to use the software.

…

"Mr. Linson, this is my girlfriend, Helen Slater, who has been chosen to star in..." Ronald introduced Helen to producer Art Linson.

“Superwoman needs no introduction;

Hello Helen. "

At the celebration reception, Helen wore an ordinary dress, as if she was already known to many people in the circle. I don’t know if it was because of her father or the influence of Superwoman herself.

"What are your plans for a new film? Do you have a new script?" Art Linson was aroused by the fast-paced box office results and his ambitions were aroused, and he planned to recruit Ronald to continue his journey of youth films.

"I wrote a science fiction script, with two valley girls as the protagonists, telling how they used the wisdom of the valley girls to survive in the face of a world-ending disaster."

"Oh, your inspiration is endless. As soon as I saw you, I knew you had a heart to understand the young audience." Lin Sen began to praise in different ways.

"That's very kind of you."

"Do you have any urban-themed youth dramas?"

"I don't have any inspiration yet." Ronald replied.

"It doesn't matter, enjoy your moment of success. Let's go talk to Cameron Crowe later. He may have some new ideas."

"Thank you, Lin Sen. What do you think of my science fiction script? Can I ask my agent to send you a copy?"

"Wang Defu, I'm just waiting to read it. Are you in Los Angeles these two days? I will make an appointment with your agent. In the meantime, we will talk to Crowe about the possibility of doing another fast-paced movie. A sequel to the characters.”

"sequel……"

"Ladies and gentlemen...let us welcome Ronald Lee."

A master of ceremonies asked Ronald to come up and deliver a speech. Ronald and Lin Sen paid their respects and walked to the microphone on the stage.

"Thank you everyone, I am a lucky man..."

After finishing his speech, the staff rolled in a big cake with the words 40 million written on it. In late October, the fast-paced release began to shrink, and the box office of more than one million yuan per week was advancing at a rapid pace. By this weekend, the box office finally exceeded the 40 million mark.

"Cheers!"

Ronald cut it off with a single stroke, picked up the wine glass, and drank the large champagne to celebrate the victory with all the crew and guests who came to the celebration party.

"Honey, how much will your movie make at the box office?"

After the celebration party, Ronald returned to the high-end executive suite booked by Universal to rest, hugging Helen and talking.

"Last week's average box office per theater has fallen below two thousand US dollars. I estimate that it may be offline next week and the copy will be transferred to second-tier theaters. It may be about one million US dollars more."

Ronald regretfully thought, if it had not been affected by Mount at the beginning and had it been released simultaneously across the country, would there have been a chance for more box office?

After sending Helen on the plane back to New York, Ronald stayed temporarily in Los Angeles. He and his agents Niceta, Richard and others began to have frequent meetings with producers to promote the script of "Night of the Comet".

"Very good, Colombia is willing to cooperate with you. Although the 'My Brother's Protector' project has not been established, we have always looked forward to reaching cooperation with you, Ronald."

"Warner has always been optimistic about your talent, Ronald. We have already collaborated on 'The Kid', why don't you make another movie at Warner?"

"Twentieth Century Fox looks forward to working with one of the most talented teen comedy directors."

…

Accompanied by Niceta, Ronald visited several major studios with the script for "Night of the Comet".

As an upstart director of youth films, a talented supernova with a box office of 40 million for his debut film, Ronald was warmly received by senior executives of several production companies.

"It seems that there is no need to worry about no one filming the new movie? Which company should I choose?" Ronald felt happy. After returning to CAA, he happily asked Niceta.

"Don't be too happy. None of them have offered to buy the script for your new film. Let alone set up a project for you to direct."

"Um?"

Ronald thought carefully about what he heard when he met with senior officials in the past few days. It's all flattery, boasting about his genius grasp of the market and his speed and efficiency in writing scripts.

Indeed, no one actually asked to buy the script or set up a project.

"So they are perfunctory with me?" Ronald was unhappy, "I am a director worth 40 million."

"I can't say it's perfunctory. If your script is a fast-paced youth sex comedy, I guarantee that they will give you a high commission and then queue up to hire you."

Yeah, Ronald feels a little better.

Even Art Linson, one of the producers of Fast Pace, invited himself and Cameron Crowe to discuss the sequel instead of the script of Night of the Comet.

"But science fiction movies," Niceta shook her head, "I think they don't really approve of it. I have an appointment with Ned Tanin from Universal tomorrow, and he is willing to talk to you."

Ned Tanin later helped "Fast Pace" handle film review issues. He did not side with Tom Mount on ET, so his position was relatively safe for the time being.

Of course, he also needed a new film to consolidate his position, so he made an appointment with Ronald, who had created a surprise for him, to have a chat in person.

"Why don't you continue to make youth movies? Aren't sex comedies very good and very popular?" Taning turned the script over and over again and asked Ronald with a frown.

"This 'Night of the Comet' is essentially a youth film. It just borrows the background of a comet hitting the earth. The main plot is still how two young girls deal with the crisis..."

"Shit, a science fiction film is a science fiction film. Which audience with this name would watch it as a youth film?"

"What do you mean?" Ronald's film title was criticized by Universal Vice President Tanin, but he was not very angry. Compared to the perfunctory behavior of other studios, Tanin tells the truth. Although the words are ugly, there is also some truth in them.

"I think it's better to call them Comet, Girl, and Zombie."

Ronald thought that the name was straightforward, but it was a real exploitation film.

"This name is very direct..." Niceta took over.

"Why don't you do a teen sex comedy again, Ronald?" Tanin interrupted Niceta and asked Ronald directly.

"My inspiration was this Comet movie."

"No one in Hollywood wants to ruin a winning formula, and your fast pace is so popular with teenage audiences. Why not do another one? I know you probably don't want to do a similar plot again, but audiences haven't seen enough."

"I don't have a good script idea," Ronald replied.

"Actually, I also think about it. Isn't it because I didn't dream of a suitable teenage sex comedy script?" But I can't say this reason.

"If you have no inspiration, you can take a look at Universal's script library. There are many youth scripts in it. You can just revise whichever one you think is better."

"I still think the idea of ​​Comet: Comet, Girl, and Zombie is very good, and I am very confident in it."

Ronald had no choice. Among the scripts in the film library, he didn't know which one would be a hit. This Night of the Comet was certified by Dreamland, and it was all on video tape, so it couldn't be wrong.

"Science fiction movies are bullshit. No one in Hollywood wants to touch science fiction movies now."

Ned Tanin slapped the cover of the script and told the truth.

“Blade Runner was a complete failure at the box office, with only over 20 million in box office, which was not as much as the cost of filming, let alone the cost of publicity and distribution, and the share of the theaters.

All science fiction projects have been suspended. I heard David Lynch's 'Dune' script has been sent back for rewrites.

This kind of movie requires too much investment. I think only George in Hollywood dares to make his Star Wars - Revenge of the Jedi. Why don't you look at other scripts first? You can choose from all the teen scripts in Universal's library. "

Tanin looked at Ronald and thought he'd better make a teen sex comedy.

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