Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald didn't know that John Hughes was jealous of his poor box office performance and fired Howard Deutsch for telling the ugly truth.

He had his own things to worry about.

Copies of "Ruthless People" have been printed and will be released at the end of June.

As a producer, Ronald actually didn't interfere much in the filming of this movie with an investment of more than 10 million.

The first film released by Disney's new Touchstone, backed by the Screen Fund, is a comedy directed by the Jerry Zucker trio, who have made billion-dollar movies at the box office. Ronald also didn't think that his comedy talents could give any useful advice to the directing team on the set.

So he just went to watch the set for a day when the movie started filming, and by the way, he gave a stand to Helen Slater, who played the female kidnapper. Except for letting everyone know that she is his own person, she did not interfere with anything directed by Zach.

Jerry Zucker is one thing like himself. He is a transfer student from Roger Corman Film University. He is also a director with a very professional ethics in exploitation films. He is basically able to complete creations within the scope of the budget and shooting plan.

So after that, Ronald simply asked Eddie, who was daydreaming, to stare at the set for a while, and then let it go.

Ronald feels that for a director like Jerry Zucker who knows exactly what he is doing, the most important job of a producer is to keep his promise, attract investment, and never interfere with artistic creation. The director's responsibility is to ensure that the shooting is completed within the planned time and does not exceed the budget.

However, after Ronald attended the last test screening before the release, he fell into deep doubts about his so-called "producer's concept."

The response to test screenings was less than favorable.

The frequency and intensity of the audience’s laughter are incomparable to those of the Zack trio’s first two works, “Unprecedented and Unprecedented (!)” and “Laughing Through the Iron Curtain” (top secret!).

Especially his debut film "Unprecedented", which grossed US$80 million at the box office. There are so many laughs that there is at least one every minute, or even one every twenty seconds. All kinds of parodies are endless. Not only did the film critics like it, but the audience also laughed from beginning to end. Many of them suffered from abdominal muscle pain the next day.

But the audience at the test screening of "The Evil Husband" had restrained laughter. When they smile, it is often a knowing smile rather than an indulgent laugh. Moreover, the interval between laughter is also very long, and some laughter points often take a few seconds to react to.

As Ronald watched, his brows began to tighten.

The rhythm of comedy is very important, much more important than ordinary movies. If a laugh point is not felt by the audience, it will not only affect the laugh point, but also the next laugh point. While you may still be thinking about what was so funny about the last laugh point, the next laugh point has already arrived.

In this way, both laughter points are often not felt.

In this film, "The Evil Husband", the laughter often lags behind. This is not just a matter of the rhythm of one or two laughs, it may be a problem in the entire movie. The original intensity of laughter was rated at 10, but this rhythm may have interfered with it and only rated 6.

Not only did Ronald frown, but when he saw that the audience around him did not laugh at the right time, Ronald would also sigh "Tsk...tsk...".

No one else heard it, but Helen Slater, who was sitting next to him and hugging his arm tightly, heard it clearly.

She initially looked at Ronald to signal him not to be so disrespectful of moviegoers. Later, he was also influenced by Ronald, and his face slowly fell.

By the end of the test screening, Helen's face was already pale, and her two big blue eyes seemed to be about to shed tears.

Ronald comforted her in turn, "Don't worry, the audience's response is not bad, maybe it will be a big hit when it is officially screened? My Top Gun also experienced the same situation."

This is Helen's third film to hit theaters. The first two films, in which she played the undisputed female lead, failed at the box office. If he fails this time, he can strike out and kiss his film career goodbye.

Even if you are the biological daughter of the presidents of seven major studios, no one would dare to use her to play an important role in a big production.

Helen, who knew this very well, put her head on Ronald's shoulder and hugged him tightly.

Ronald felt Helen in his arms start to tremble slightly because of nervousness and fear. I didn't know how to comfort her for a while, so I had to slowly soothe her back with my hands.

She was very dedicated to her acting career, but she couldn't force this kind of thing. If there was something that Helen couldn't think of and triggered depression, Ronald didn't know what to do.

Her father Gerald entrusted his daughter to him, and he also introduced her to the role. However, the quality of a movie really involves too many factors, and the box office performance is not as simple as hard work and reward.

"Congratulations!" The male protagonist, Danny DeVito (dano), is a short and bald comedian. He came over to drag the female comedian Bette Midler (Bette Midler) who played the kidnapped rich girl )'s hand, congratulations to her.

"Thanks, you too."

Bette Midler is not good-looking, she is a bit fat, and her main job is a singer. She previously starred in a biographical film about a singer, which was her transition into comedy.

The two of them said congratulations, but the expressions on their faces told another terrible story.

"I'm done, what about you?"

"I'm done too."

Ronald watched all this silently from the side, and became even more worried about everything.

This was the most uncomfortable preview he had ever attended. The audience was not in high spirits and the actors had apocalyptic expressions on their faces.

Danny DeVito previously appeared in a comedic supporting role in "Emerald," starring Michael Douglas and Kathryn Turner. This time, I originally wanted to use Hollywood's top comedy director Jerry Zucker to get the leading role in one fell swoop.

This test screening is frustrating, but he is still a gold medal supporting actor, and if he returns, he will still have a small supporting role to hang out with. Soon his face changed, and he began to have a relationship with producer Ronald and director Zach.

"I watched Top Gun, Ronald. It's really a masterpiece. When can I get into the cockpit of a fighter jet and fly a plane?"

Ronald had just comforted Helen and made her smile again. I was about to chat with Jerry Zucker, but I was a little impatient when he interrupted me.

"Danny, can you give me and Jerry some privacy?"

Ronald, who was not smiling, turned serious, which was really scary.

"I'm just joking, joking." Danny DeVito quickly backed away from the corner, leaving the space to the producer and director.

"What do you think, Jerry?" Ronald pulled Jerry Zucker together to chat about the reaction to the screening. He handed over a cigarette, and Zach took it, lit it on Ronald's lighter, and the two of them puffed away for a while.

"I don't know, Ronald. I want to change the way of comedy in this movie. No longer stick to the rhythm of one laugh per minute. This movie is actually a comedy in the form of a drama. We hope The audience can find the absurdity in the story itself, rather than us feeding it verbal jokes into their mouths, you know?”

"I understand, and I have no intention of interfering with your directorial skills." Ronald took an ashtray, held it in his hand, and let Jerry Zucker kowtow the ashes.

"I'm grateful for this. You know your stuff. This change is what I insist on. We can't continue to produce such dense jokes. The change is a matter of time, otherwise the audience will be inexplicable to this kind of inexplicable dissatisfaction before us." Know where the sense of humor comes from.

David and Jim actually didn't quite agree with my decision. But artistic creation always involves risks. If we don’t take this step, we will be eliminated by the audience if we stay where we are. "

"Hey...I understand, I understand." Ronald also took a long puff of cigarette. Now it’s hard to blame Jerry Zucker too much. In order to achieve an artistic breakthrough, he even destroyed the iron triangle relationship between his brothers and buddies.

"I just want to ask you, what do you think of the box office prospects?" Ronald asked in a low voice. After all, he is the producer and is responsible for the box office of the entire movie.

"I can't say for sure. I heard that the test screenings of your Top Gun were not well received. The unprecedented test screenings were not as good as the official release. If you think I want to make more changes, I will do it."

"I'm just a little surprised by the delayed laughs...Forget it, the copies have already been made, and the cost of re-editing is too high. And I can't make any useful suggestions. I trust your artistic vision."

Ronald began to regret that he should have gone to the crew more to interfere with the progress of the filming. It seems that the trio had some artistic disagreements during the filming, and if they had intervened earlier, they might have been able to save a little bit.

But now it’s superfluous to say anything, let’s retain the dignity of an artist.

"Ronald, thank you. But we may not lose. Those delayed laughs were deliberately designed by me. The humor in this movie is not so dense, so the audience has enough time to reflect on the absurdity and irony in the plot. place."

The two shared a tight hug as a sign of mutual understanding between the artists.

"Wish us good luck." Jerry Zucker adjusted his glasses and said to Ronald.

"I do need some good luck," Ronald replied.

If it fails at the box office, Ronald will have cheated Michael Eisner and the deputy commander's eldest son.

Touchstone had just released its first film, and was about to suffer a critical failure. As for the second phase of the Screen Fund, the first investment failed in the hands of George. He will also be laughed at by those noble buddies for a long time.

It was hard to say that I had to take action once more so that my two friends who believed in me and suffered losses would not continue to lose money because of my mistakes as a producer.

The audience began to leave, and Ronald hurried to the bathroom to eavesdrop.

This time they didn't discuss the plot of the movie or some impressive lines, but talked about their own affairs.

Are you like the protagonist and haven't made any money during the economic recovery? How abominable are those rich people. They make money by stealing the ideas and creativity of talented people. Even when they get rich, they don't give the poor people the rewards they deserve.

It's quite responsive, but is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Ronald touched his head and had no clue. He returned to the screening room, where Helen was still waiting for him.

Helen was wearing a white T-shirt and jeans, with her hair tied back casually. She had the aura of an outstanding beauty.

"Where will we go later?" She looked at Ronald with a pair of big almond eyes.

Helen failed completely in her audition for "The Secret of Success." Director Herbert Ross found Kristy Michol (Kristy Michol) recommended by his close friend Barbra Streisand to play the heroine.

A large number of actresses are concentrated in the age group of 18 to 35. Without a good relationship, it is impossible to have the opportunity to star in a large-scale movie with large investment in the theater.

It was only after Helen was ruthlessly rejected in the second round of auditions that she deeply understood the importance of relationships. She had no choice but to make amends and hold on tightly to her only relationship, commercial film wizard Ronald.

Kristy McNichol's relationship is much deeper than her relationship with Herbert Ross. Herbert Ross was originally Streisand's choreographer, and most of the Broadway actors belonged to this circle.

And Kristy McNichol is not unknown. She was also a child star. In 1980, she starred in the hit comedy "Little Darlings" with Tatum O'Neal, who was also a child star. )".

It's a pity that her appearance and acting skills are not as good as Tatum O'Neal and Jodie Foster, two actors with the same background as child stars, and have not had many opportunities.

However, one of the two competitors had no acting roles after graduating from Yale, and the other did not get a good teenage role and successfully transitioned. He just married American tennis player McEnroe last month and temporarily retired from the entertainment industry.

This opportunity fell on her head instead.

It seems that as long as you stay in the entertainment industry long enough, you still have a chance to get one or two big productions.

"I'm not going anywhere, just sit with me for a while." Ronald put his arm around Helen, and the two of them sat in the empty screening room.

"Let them show the movie again," Ronald told the Touchstone staff.

"Even if you fail, you still have to figure out where your shots are not going well." Ronald has always been persistent in professional matters.

The lights dimmed again, and only Ronald and Helen watched the movie from the beginning.

Helen plays a female kidnapper. Her and her husband's patented invention was stolen by the rich son-in-law played by Danny DeVito. After making a fortune, they wanted to get back what they deserved by kidnapping the rich girl. Half a million patents.

"Tsk..." Ronald sighed when he saw the scene on the screen where Helen wore Huey and Dewey's duck mask and kidnapped a rich girl into her home.

It seems that any movie that has anything to do with Donald Duck's family has bad luck. Lucas' Howard the Duck has basically failed, and it has also implicated two Universal executives.

The pacing of the movie is a bit unlike a traditional Zack comedy. Helen's performance is particularly different from others. Pay attention to her performance this time, which made Ronald, who was used to watching classic Hollywood movies, feel a bit out of his element.

Then the rich girl was arrogant in the basement, and Helen played the role of a frustrated little daughter-in-law. Instead, she was conquered by the rich girl and did not dare to abuse the hostage too much, but fried steak for her.

"Tsk..." When Ronald heard her lines, she also gave people a strong stage accent, which was very dramatic.

Helen saw that every time she appeared, spoke, or made any physical movements, Ronald would make a tsk sound, and she was frightened.

"Did I really do such a bad job? What did Ronald want to say by leaving me here?"

She looked at the screen, and indeed when she watched it for the second time, she felt that she was out of place with the others' relaxed acting style.

"Hmm..." Helen panicked, holding Ronald's arm and burying her head on his chest. She didn't dare to look at the screen, and she didn't want Ronald to comment on her acting skills anymore.

"Did I ruin the whole movie? Woohoo..."

"Turn on the lights..." Ronald raised his hand and told the staff to pause the screening.

"Don't panic, honey. I think I've found the problem."

"Where?"

Helen, whose almond-shaped eyes were a little red and swollen from crying, looked at Ronald with tears in her eyes.

"When you were performing, were you listening to yourself talking?" Ronald called the staff and asked him to replay the clip of Helen talking.

"Me?" Helen looked at her performance on the screen and thought for a moment.

"Yes, I'm very nervous. Director Jerry Zucker is a well-known comedy director. I asked him for a lot of advice on the character's mentality, the highest task, and what tone should be used to perform."

"No wonder, every time you read your lines, you always pay attention to your tone, stress, and intonation, so that your lines are a little different from how normal people should speak."

"What does a normal person talk like?" Helen no longer dared to ignore Ronald's opinion. She also felt that there was a big gap between her performance and the other protagonists.

"When normal people speak, they always pay attention to what others say, rather than what they say. Maybe in the future, you should allocate more attention to the opponent actors instead of thinking about how you should say your lines to fit the role."

"Is that so?" Helen was stunned for a moment. How could she not pay attention to such a simple thing?

"Yes, you have taken more acting classes than me. You should have heard that acting is about acting out reactions."

“Acting is acting out reactions.”

Helen Slater murmured, then burst into laughter. The real secret is sometimes as simple as being revealed by your lover in just one sentence. It’s ridiculous that I have taken so many acting training classes.

She was pleasantly surprised to find that she also had a few scenes where she didn't pay too much attention to how she should act, but instead looked more natural.

Helen hugged Ronald hard and gave him a sweet kiss.

"I'm so stupid, Ronnie. It seems you know more about acting than me. I will listen to you from now on."

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