Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald returned to his apartment and looked at the manuscript of Orson Welles. This is not a complete manuscript, it seems to be part of his draft. There was some content that Ronald could understand, such as Welles also wanting to remove the opening subtitles.

Others were incomprehensible. Welles said that a close-up shot of a villain used the wrong focus, making his face distorted, but isn't that what a villain should look like?

Ronald put the manuscript away in a drawer, and there was little hope of re-editing "The Last Lady". For movies made in the 1950s, Universal did not necessarily retain the original negatives.

He ignored the old gossip and went to bed early. Because tomorrow my girlfriend Helen Slater is coming to Los Angeles.

"Helen!" Ronald shouted at the boarding gate.

Helen Slater, wearing a white woolen hat and ordinary jeans, just walked out of the cabin carrying a handbag.

"Ronnie." The two hugged each other.

"Your accent has changed, and now you speak like an old Hollywood heroine." Ronald helped Helen get her luggage and walked to the car that Niceta lent him.

"Really? It seems that my special training in Shakespeare drama has some effect. My dialogue teacher said that my accent is very similar to Katharine Hepburn." Helen was very proud.

"Well, I think you are more like another Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn." Ronald thought of Orson Welles's gossip about Katharine Hepburn, and he didn't want Helen to be said to be like her.

"It doesn't look like it now, look... Dangdang..." She suddenly took off her hat, and her long golden hair fell down.

"You have become Superwoman." Ronald hugged Helen and spun around. It was a sudden surprise.

Helen's eyes are blue overall, and her dark brown hair was not very conspicuous originally. Now she has dyed her hair blonde and matches it with her blue eyes. At first glance, people are deeply intoxicated.

The two hadn't seen each other for a long time. Ronald couldn't wait to drive back to the apartment, closed the door, and started kissing.

…

"Christopher Reeve, who plays Superman, and I had a long chat about the experience of playing a comic book superhero. He was no longer a guest star in Supergirl. He specifically called the same agent to say sorry, and later asked me to talk in person."

After a long time, Helen gently touched her with her toes,

He reached Ronald's calf step by step. The two were chatting on the bed.

"Really, what did he say?" Ronald's hand slowly slid on Helen's smooth arm.

"Ahem..." Helen cleared her throat and said with typical emphasis, pretending to be Superman, "Superheroes are the dream of all Americans, so the characters are more important than the plot..."

"What does it feel like when Supergirl meets Superman?" Ronald asked.

"Well, it's pretty good. Reeve is a very good person and told me a lot of acting tips. But he doesn't seem to be very happy. The script for the third Superman movie has changed a lot, and he doesn't want to act anymore."

"Is he as handsome as he looks on screen?"

"Absolutely. You are actually a bit similar in height and appearance to him. Why do you ask? Are you jealous?"

"Hahaha..." Ronald kissed Helen on the lips.

After a while, Helen turned her body over and leaned on Ronald's chest:

"Ronnie, he said that there is something particularly scary about playing a superhero. If your movie is successful, it will be difficult for the audience to accept you playing another character. This kind of success is a good thing for actors, but it is also a huge constraint."

"Ha, I don't think it would be cool to be Supergirl, the first female superhero in Hollywood history?"

"Do you really think so? This time I will sign a three-film contract with Warner Bros...."

"You are so beautiful, Helen..." Ronald looked at the blond beauty who was very different from the past. He was attracted by her blue eyes. He didn't pay attention to what Helen was saying at all, and hugged her tightly.

"Uh-huh……"

…

"I feel hungry." Helen took a shower and came out wrapped in a bath towel and said to Ronald.

"Then let's go out to eat and take a look at the night view of Los Angeles. What do you want to do?" Ronald jumped out of bed and went to take a shower. In the bathroom, Ronald shouted to the outside, "How about we Go to the movies?"

"Okay, I haven't seen Stallone's new movie 'First Blood' yet."

The two grabbed some L.A. Perry's pizza and then went to see tonight's first show of "First Blood."

This time Stallone did not play the inspirational counterattack hero in "Rocky", but played the down-and-out Vietnam War veteran "Rambo".

He was a member of America's special forces, the Green Berets. Many years after returning to my hometown, I still wear a green m65 windbreaker, jeans and sneakers.

Rambo went to his comrade's hometown to find him. Unexpectedly, his comrade had died of cancer due to the contamination of Agent Orange used on the Vietnam battlefield. Frustrated, he ate in the town, but when he saw the Vietnam War veteran, the police sergeant thought he was a potential trouble and threw him out of town in a police car.

Rambo felt insulted and returned to the town to protest, but the police chief used this as an excuse to seize the police station for questioning. The police conducted humiliating questioning on him. Rambo suffered a PTSD attack on the Vietnam War battlefield, knocked down the police, grabbed the police's motorcycle and escaped.

The Sheriff mobilized all police forces to capture Rambo and drove him into an abandoned mine to starve Rambo to death. They didn't know that Rambo was an elite special forces soldier in the Vietnam War jungle. Rambo's old superior, the colonel, also came to persuade Rambo to surrender.

The mine has been blown up, the Sheriff Rambo is dead, and only the Colonel has doubts. Sure enough, Rambo escaped from the mine, took the stolen M60 machine gun, and returned to the town to take revenge single-handedly, and seriously injured the police chief.

The film ends with a freeze-frame shot of Rambo surrendering to his old boss, the Colonel.

"What's wrong with you, Ronnie? You talk very little after the movie."

Ronald and Helen ordered a Pepsi-Cola and French fries at a Burger King restaurant, and they ate in silence. Helen couldn't bear it and asked.

"I just think the ending of the movie is too heavy. Rambo served his country, returned to his motherland and his comrades passed away. He was treated wrongly, and he didn't end well in the end."

"But this is the purpose of the movie," Helen began to analyze the value of the movie to Ronald. "If there were no such original works and movies to expose the unfair treatment of veterans in this country, they would continue to be ignored by society. .”

"You may be right, but my uncle died in the Vietnam War. I emotionally hope that they all live a better life. That line made me sad and reminded me of Aunt Karen's difficult life."

"Which paragraph?" Helen looked at Ronald with big eyes and held his hand.

""During the war, I could drive attack helicopters, I could drive tanks, and I had used weapons that cost millions of dollars. When I returned home, I couldn't even find a valet parking job. "Ronald remembered these words of Rambo and felt a little uncomfortable.

"Oh, poor Ronnie." Helen came over and hugged Ronald tight and patted him on the head.

…

At the same time, in the annex building of Paramount's office, two middle-aged people, a man and a woman, were discussing movie shooting.

The man's name is Daniel Melnyk. He was originally an executive at MGM. After a financial scandal broke out, he resigned and started his own production company "IndiePro".

Melnyk handed a script over the table and said to the former studio partner across the table, "This is the version revised by the script doctor hired by Paramount. What do you think?"

Sitting opposite him was a beautiful middle-aged woman, wearing a golden bracelet on her right hand, wearing a white suit and white trousers.

The shoulder pads of the suit are very high, the hair is shawl-length, and the facial features on his face seem to have been slightly adjusted, making him very beautiful. However, his behavior shows the air of a professional manager, and his words are no less aggressive than those of men.

"Let me take a look." The middle-aged woman took the script and it said "footloose" on it.

While reading the script, the middle-aged woman frowned from time to time. Finally, she read Ronald's revised version at a glance.

"Daniel, I don't think this is the right way to modify it. The essence of this movie lies in dramatic conflict, not a high-concept movie. We should find a veteran in drama to adapt it, and then find a director who is used to making drama movies. shoot."

"Whatever," Melnick said, a little bored.

"The original director Herbert Ross met your requirements. He has always worked on both Broadway and Hollywood. But now that he has resigned as director, you have to find a new one, Shirley. Also, Paramount How have you considered the invitation to your vice president?"

Shirley Lansing, a former partner of IndiePro and former president of 20th Century Fox, frowned.

"I'm still thinking about it. My two years of experience at Fox made me think that I still like to be personally involved in film production. Sitting in the office and engaging in politics with people is not what I like best."

"No matter what your final decision is, I will support you, just like I supported you when you went to 20th Century Fox to serve as president." Melnyk told Lansing.

Melnyk had some complaints about Shirley Lansing in his heart, "This bitch abandoned IndiePro for the position of president of 20th Century Fox, and recently she finally tasted the feeling of being fired by an oil tycoon.

Although there is a six-month buffer period, everyone in the industry knows that she will die. Who knew that I would be able to get an invitation from Paramount as vice president again. What a stroke of luck. "

But now she has to rely on her to attract investors and distributors for her new film "The Whole Body". It would be even better if she could preside over the production of the film.

“The three investors of the film are us, IndiePro, Paramount, and Silver Screen Investment Fund (Sliver’s partners).

Screen Investment is willing to fill in all the remaining investment shares. They are very convinced of your resume as a producer and asked you to take charge of the production of this film. If you can serve as the producer of this film, then invest immediately. can be in place. There could also be a green light from Paramount.

Then you can go about adapting the script you like, and finding a new director and casting process. "

"Who does Paramount belong to now?" asked Shirley Lansing. She was also interested in supervising the production of a successful movie before joining Paramount, so that when she joined Paramount, she would have a successful resume and her words would have more weight.

Melnyk pointed to the cover of the script, "That's Ronald Lee, who wrote and revised the script. The director of 'Fast-paced Richmond High.'"

"It's him, no wonder." What Shirley Lansing likes is the discussion of women's freedom and equality in "Full of Strength". That director who made an exploitation film and had the actresses expose their breasts was not in my taste.

"If you agree to take over, meet him. If you have other candidates, let me know as soon as possible. I have invested a lot of preliminary preparations for this movie and hope it can start shooting as soon as possible."

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