Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Sure enough, Weintraub proposed that Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee's lifelong friend who played the final villain of the Colosseum battle in "Enter the Dragon", be the action director, and invited him to play the "Cobra" karate gym. The role of Chris, the owner of the museum.

But Chuck Norris was not a good choice. The owner, Chris, has his own fighting philosophy. As a veteran of the Vietnam War, he believes in taking no prisoners and striking first. This is exactly the opposite of Miyagi-sensei's philosophy of not bullying the weak and striking first later. These two philosophies are also the essence of the struggle between the protagonist Daniel and his enemy Johnny.

The problem is that Chuck Norris has no acting skills. He has a poker face throughout Enter the Dragon and shows no expression. He has a big beard, and even when he talks, you can hardly see any movement of his facial muscles. It is impossible for such a person to play any role as a coach with philosophical thinking, he can only be a martial artist.

Weintraub has been having all kinds of whimsical ideas recently, and Ronald has already figured out that this producer is essentially just a movie buff who often wants to put stars together in one movie and become a collector.

But sometimes, he had some reliable opinions, and his sometimes professional and sometimes amateur ideas made Ronald suspect that he had one or several people in the industry as consultants, and they communicated with each other every few days.

Of course, Ronald has more important things to deal with now, which is the choice of the heroine, so he has not discussed the choice of this important supporting role with Weintraub for the time being. He just introduced Daryl Vidal to him as the actor for the action scenes. Assistant joins the crew.

Two days later, bad news came. Two leading actress candidates, Leigh Thompson and Jennifer Gray, were both chosen by director John Milius to play the female guerrillas in "Red Dawn."

After Ronald heard the news, he immediately booked a flight to Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was going to meet Elizabeth Sue and persuade her to postpone her studies at Harvard as much as possible to star in "The Kid". This is no longer the best choice among Ronald's current casting options, but the only choice.

Elizabeth Sue heard that Ronald wanted to confirm that she would be the heroine of "The Dragon King". Although she was already a twenty-year-old college student, she was still very excited. She shouted in the Harvard cafe on the spot, attracting the attention of those around her. A sideways glance.

"I'm so happy." Elizabeth Sue, who still had a baby face and her baby fat had not completely faded away, apologized to everyone with a smile. Seeing her cute face, several Harvard students seemed to recognize her as "Burger King" Girl", wanting to come up and strike up a conversation.

Now Ronald felt that her appearance was also very good, and she would be recognized by the audience if she played a middle school student.

"Okay, I'll let the producer contact your agent. There will be a total of two months of filming, and there will be two weeks of rehearsal before that, and the remuneration will be paid according to the standard.

"

Ronald came to see Elizabeth Sue first because of his personal relationship with her, so as to prevent the agent from interfering with her and taking the opportunity to blackmail her for more pay and on-set treatment. As long as Su is willing and the agent doesn't know that they have no more options, this contract is not difficult to sign.

"Well, but I have to get my parents' permission." Elizabeth Su was happy, but then looked a little worried. She is a child who grew up in a wealthy family and will consider her parents' requirements for some things.

"I thought you were an independent girl." Ronald targeted her psychology and tried to arouse Su's feeling of independence.

"I know, um... it's just my tuition. My parents paid a big part of it. You know the tuition at Wesleyan College and Harvard is very expensive. The salary I get from commercials is not enough at all." After all, Elizabeth Su is already at Wesleyan Women's College After attending college for a year, I am no longer the naive high school student I was in a chewing gum commercial.

"I'll let the producer talk to your agent. I think it will be enough to cover your next college tuition expenses."

"Well, I have another idea. I have a younger brother, Andrew, who is also interested in acting. Can you give him a small role? That way, my father and mother will be inclined to agree."

"how old is he?"

"fifteen."

"I can cast him as one of the students at the Cobra Dojo," Ronald replied.

"Okay, I have prepared the materials to apply for deferred admission." Elizabeth Su smiled "Haha, I succeeded."

Without having time to visit the ancient Harvard campus, Ronald hurried back to Los Angeles. There are more auditions and preparations waiting for him here.

Auditions for Daniel LaRusso's rival, Ally's ex-boyfriend Johnny, also began. This is the biggest villain in the movie, the opponent Daniel defeated in the finals of the karate championship.

Emilio Estevez auditioned again. He has had bad luck recently. His brother Charlie Sheen was chosen by Milius to film "Red Dawn", but he himself was not chosen.

"I can't play the protagonist anyway, so it's not bad to play the first villain." With this idea in mind, Emilio read some of Johnny's lines.

"What do you think?" Weintraub asked Ronald and the casting director as soon as Emilio had finished reading his lines and walked out.

"He's a hunchback," complained casting director Dupont. "His resume says he has wrestling experience, and I can't tell it."

"A little fatter, and he doesn't look like a middle school student." Ronald clearly objected, "Emilio Estevez's figure is completely that of an adult. He and Ralph Martin When Zio's Daniel fights, the audience will not believe that Daniel, who is as dry as a chicken, has the possibility of victory."

Ronald didn’t like Emilio Estevez anyway. On the set of "The Naughty Boy", I felt like young men were constantly competing with each other. Relying on my father's status in the industry, he was quite generous.

Moreover, he also wanted to flirt with Diane several times. When he had a fixed girlfriend, he could be called a "scumbag".

"I agree with you." Weintraub didn't expect that they didn't like Emilio either. "I think Johnny should find a new person to play, so that the audience will not be disturbed by the famous actor's previous roles, but from the plot. Judge them as bad people.”

"Here comes another new idea," Ronald thought. This judgment actually makes sense. Weintraub must have asked his "senior consultant" again.

"I think this principle is very good. Even Chris, the owner of the Cobra Dojo, we'd better find a new person to play. Emilio has played the 'bitty mouth' in 'The Kid', and the audience will not realize it. They thought he was just a cheap character and would interfere with their impression of Johnny." Ronald took the opportunity to sell his idea that it would be best not to have Chuck Norris play the role.

"What you said makes sense, huh." Weintraub looked at the character list, "Fortunately, the other contestants in the Cobra Gym, we use junior movie stars, they have never acted in any movies, so Just right."

"Okay, let's try the next one. Robert Downey Jr."

Outside the door, the assistant called in another audition actor to read the lines. Emilio Estevez has not left yet, he is chatting with Chad McQueen, whom he knows well. Chad and the others, who played Johnny's classmates who trained karate at the Cobra Gym, came to see Weintraub to ask for treatment on set.

Both are sons of Hollywood male stars, with Chad's father, the late Steve McQueen, being a bigger star than Emilio's father, Martin Sheen. So Chad's temper is a bit worse than Emilio's.

"Hey, Emilio... why are you here again? You look downcast. Did 'Red Dawn' not take a fancy to you?" Chad McQueen said provocatively to Emilio Esteve when he came up. Zi said.

Next to them, Ron Thomas and Rob Garrison, whose fathers were not as famous as McQueen, so they respected Chad in their daily play. Seeing Emilio's defeat, they also came up and laughed at him with "hehehe".

"Pfft, you are not even qualified to be the protagonist, you can only play a supporting role." Emilio was also unforgiving.

"Hey," Chad was about to get angry when he came up. "Aren't you both chosen? We can still play a supporting role, and it's an important supporting role. This is our first movie."

"Hey, I played a supporting role in 'Apocalypse Now' in my first movie."

"Really?" Chad McQueen asked the two followers in disbelief, "Did you fucking see him when you watched 'Apocalypse Now'?"

"No, you're not bragging."

"It was just cut out later." Emilio has already established himself in Hollywood and has many offers. He doesn't want to talk to these ignorant second-generation stars.

"Don't be too happy, this is just a silly exploitation film, just for kidding. Do you still want to be famous for this kind of movie?"

With that said, Emilio Estevez walked out of the audition office.

The three second-generation stars looked at each other in confusion, wondering if what he said about an exploitation film to entertain children was bragging.

"Don't listen to him, Chad, it's just a loser's whine."

"Go away," Chad McQueen pushed away the attendant who came to persuade him. "It's nothing special. Movies are all about making yourself look handsome, no matter what the movie or the role." Chad twitched. Nose, his late father Steve McQueen once said to him that male stars don't have to think too much about plot and dialogue, as long as they perform their own temperament.

He looked at the audition room, as if he was thinking of the scene in the movie where he showed off his power and beat up the male protagonist Daniel.

Inside the audition room, three people were interviewing the actor named Robert Downey Jr. His father was a director making low-budget films in New York.

"Have you ever practiced karate?" Weintraub asked.

"No, but I can act very similar."

"Have you ever practiced other martial arts?" Ronald asked additionally.

"No, but I played a supporting role in the Broadway musical 'Grease' and I have a dance foundation." Robert Downey Jr. did a few dance moves, but he didn't look very flexible.

…

"What do you think? The acting seems a bit softer." Weintraub wrote his own evaluation.

"He reads the lines very well, but he can't handle the action scenes." Ronald thought about his dance move just now. If it was a crane kick, he couldn't do it. That shot was the ultimate trick to defeat the opponent, so it was very troublesome to have a stuntman.

"Next up, Eric Stoltz," the audition director said, moving down the list.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Hi Ronald, see you again."

"Hi Eric, please read this line for us." Ronald spotted the actor who played Sean Penn's sidekick in "Fast Times."

"What do you think?" Weintraub didn't know whether it was suitable, so he could only ask Ronald and Dupont.

Ronald also looked at the audition director. He and Eric Stoltz were the actors he selected to join the film industry. Eric also greeted him, but in order to avoid suspicion, he asked Dupont to speak first.

"The appearance and movements are okay, but he reads his lines too quietly and his line work is not powerful enough."

"Then let's take another look," Weintraub said.

Ronald wanted to laugh. When Eric Stoltz was on the set of "Fast Times", he admired Sean Penn's method acting, but ended up blindly imitating the method master, Marlon Brando. The "hum hum" style of line delivery doesn't matter that he is still a fledgling kid.

"The next one is William Zaba...no, Ziba...no, Ji..." Ronald encountered a surname that he couldn't pronounce again.

"William Zabka." It was casting director Dupont who saved his life.

Ronald had a headache when he saw a name with two consonants stacked on top of each other, and the name sounded like someone of Eastern European descent.

"Good afternoon, I'm William Zebka."

An actor who looked very tall and fit appeared in front of the three of them.

"Have you ever practiced any martial arts?" Ronald could tell at a glance that the other person had the physique of a martial artist.

"I was on the high school wrestling team, and I once placed in the top three in the Los Angeles interscholastic wrestling competition."

"It turns out we are colleagues." Ronald's feelings for Zebka improved.

"Have you ever practiced karate?" Weintraub asked.

"No, but I have the basics, so I shouldn't be slow to learn." Zebka was very confident.

"Please read this line," said Dupont, the casting director.

"Okay, we will notify your agent if we have news." Dupont said after he finished reading his lines. Then he looked at Ronald and received a look of affirmation.

"Do you have anything else?" Dupont asked strangely when he saw that he wouldn't leave.

"I, I wrote a biography for Johnny." Zebka took out a piece of paper.

"Oh, tell me." Ronald became interested. It seemed that the actor had done extra homework.

"I came up with a loose backstory to get a better 'feel' for the character. I envisioned Johnny as having no father, and Chris from Cobra Gym being the closest thing to a father figure in his life."

"Not bad." Ronald didn't write Johnny's background story after Zebka left. Zebka's handling of it gave Johnny and Daniel's competition a sense of destiny and the times. The divorce rate in America is very high now, and children from single-parent families also account for a large proportion of the audience.

In this way, the competition between the two people is not only for honor and Ali, but also has a subconscious desire for a normal family life.

"I think he is the best choice." Weintraub is also very satisfied.

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