Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald came to Coppola's home in the suburbs of San Francisco.

Coppola deliberately cooked by himself in the large house where the mortgage had been paid off, prepared a table of dishes, and entertained Ronald for dinner.

His previous film "The Cotton Club" had a budget of 50 million, and he obviously gave a lot of money to his "Peep Show" company. Although it caused misfortune to the heroine Diane and the hero Richard Gere, he finally managed to make the previous film a success. Most of the huge high-interest loans caused by the two "Apocalypse Now" and "Old Love, New Love" have been repaid.

Ronald greeted Coppola's wife, Eleanor, and handed the script to Coppola. Several people drank red wine from Coppola Winery, paired with various Italian meats, and ate happily.

"Ah ha, as expected, you are not a director who only wants to make commercial high-concept films, Ronald. I heard that Pauline Carr in New York approached you, good, good. Your first film was What a talent, but then you entered the Hollywood creative mode. Fortunately, this time you finally returned to the right path."

"How do you say this? Why do you know so much just by looking at the cover?" Ronald was surprised. He had never told Coppola about the plot of "Moonlight" before.

"Look at this script. There are so many coffee marks on the cover. You can tell that it has been transferred several times to the seven major studios." Coppola pointed to the marks caused by coffee, red wine, etc. on the cover of the script to Ronald. said.

"This kind of script must be liked by people in various studios, but it does not conform to the current trend of commercial promotions, so it is read repeatedly and has no results. If you hadn't seen it, you would probably be silent. It’s in that company’s script library.”

Coppola opened the script with his fingers and flipped through it quickly. Directors all have the ability to read quickly, and Coppola read very quickly. After ten minutes, he knew that this was a Broadway drama-style movie and had nothing to do with gangsters or anything like that.

Now the five major Italian families in New York are closely pursued by the prosecutor Rudy. Senior members of each family were arrested and prosecuted. Seeing that their power is getting smaller and smaller, Coppola will soon no longer need to inform them about any Italian scripts.

"What do you think of this script? I have a great desire to create for it, and my whole body is full of impulse." Ronald ate a meatball, and he felt that he had regained a little of the passion he had when making his debut film.

Coppola took a sip of wine and ate a piece of salami, "Well, this is a romantic comedy, so I don't have any objections."

Coppola filmed the romantic comedy "Old Love, New Love" and rushed home. For this purpose, he mortgaged the big house and made it very unhappy with his wife Eleanor. In addition, he had a new love during that time, and the conflict with his wife became serious.

Almost divorced. He stopped touching this subject after that.

"Actually, I want to ask you for advice in person this time. I encountered some problems when signing a contract with a distributor. Several studios agreed verbally, but they all delayed in signing the contract. I know whether they are interested in the film. I have doubts about whether it will be a hit, but I have already made two super-hit movies, so am I allowed to be as willful as I want?"

"You can't let the producers hear this, Ronald. Shhh..." Coppola laughed.

“Actually, when we took the lead on the project, we were similar to the workers who parked the ships at the docks in San Francisco.

When they docked, they would tie a thin rope to a small iron ball and throw it ashore. Then workers on the shore would pick up the iron ball and keep pulling it up.

Then a thicker rope, then an even thicker rope, and finally a cable about as thick as your wrist.

If you throw a thick cable at the beginning, you won't be able to land it. "

"Isn't this what deception means?" Ronald complained secretly.

"So how do I throw the rope where the seven major studios can catch it?"

"Giggle..." Coppola looked very happy, "You still have less contact with us Italian filmmakers. The stereotype of Italians in Hollywood is that they like to talk big. No matter what position we are in, we always show off. Act like you are here to beg me and I have many choices.

This is not arrogance on our part, but it has benefits. This is called the boss mentality, you can try it. That was the case when I was filming The Godfather. There were a few people who wanted to replace me as director, so I went over and fired them first.

I still don't know whether I have the authority to fire them, but I just did it, and the subsequent sample results were good, so they approved it. "

"Hehe..." Ronald understood in his heart, wasn't he just bragging?

These seven major studios are also in a competitive relationship. It is impossible to share everything with the other party's executives. As long as they are brave, they can use a gap to cut in. When the time comes, they will see that they are confident. Ask yourself in return.

After thinking about his own style of doing things, Ronald probably had an idea. Of course, he couldn't completely copy Coppola's approach, and it had to be in line with his own consistent attitude.

The biggest problem was solved. Ronald relaxed his mind and body and began to devour Coppola's delicious food. He kept praising the deliciousness of Italian food, which made Coppola's wife very happy.

"So after The Godfather, when you set up your own peep show production company, did you also use the same method to deal with Hollywood?"

After three drinks, Ronald began to compliment Coppola's directorial skills.

Coppola was very happy to be coaxed by this new box office winner and talked about some past events from that year.

"Actually, when George Lucas was in the peep show, his American Peep Show was once asked to be edited by the distributor Universal. The senior management didn't understand anything and just wanted to show it by deleting a few scenes. His power.

George was very unhappy at the time. Seeing how uncomfortable he was, I also felt that Universal disrespected my employees. I pulled out my checkbook and signed a $600,000 production offer to buy George's rights back from Universal.

Seeing how determined I was, Universal began to smooth things over, and finally agreed to reduce the number of scenes. I also persuaded George to make a few minor changes.

Alas, now it seems that this was my biggest mistake in running Peep Show Films. Instead of taking back the check, I should have insisted on buying the copy rights. The American style painting finally sold more than 100 million at the box office in North America, and that was in 1973. "

"By the way, in your new movie, the male protagonist has the same name as you, Ronnie. Did you change it specifically?" Coppola said about Ronald's new movie.

"No, the original author's name was originally that."

"This author must be of Italian origin and writes about our lives very well. I bet more than half of the scenes in the entire script were shot in the kitchen. That's what we Italians are like, sweet and frustrating. What may seem inconsequential to others is a big deal for us Italians and must be solved in the kitchen.

We have a proverb in Italy that the table is God. "

Ronald smiled and did not say anything about the fact that the screenwriter was of Irish descent, "That's true. I really like these scenes of eating around the dining table. But it is a test for casting. Maybe I need to find more dramatic actors. They are more Get used to this kind of scene."

"Who are you looking for for the role of Ronnie?" Coppola asked. "It needs to be very explosive, which is not easy to find, and many plots are driven by him."

"This character is very painful inside, so I decided to find an actor who was filled with pain inside."

Ronald looked at Coppola, "Has Nick taken on any new movies recently?"

"Oh, hahaha... He didn't take any new roles after filming Peggy Sue Gets Married."

Coppola saw that Ronald was very sensible, so he heard what he was saying and asked Nic Cage to audition. Very happy, Ronald respects this Italian culture of helping each other, what a good guy. It's just a pity that he is not Italian, but that doesn't matter. As long as he marries an Italian girl, he can be regarded as the successor of Italian directors.

Nicolas Cage's nephew, although his stage name is no longer Coppola, is still his eldest brother's son. When he was filming Peggy Sue, he had too many ideas and had deep conflicts with the heroine Kathryn Turner.

Cage insisted on using a husky, slurred voice to play the husband of heroine Peggy Sue. Kathryn Turner couldn't accept starring opposite a man who spoke slurred words, and almost contacted the producers, who replaced Cage midway.

Thanks to Coppola's mediation, the filming was barely completed without changing roles.

After the film was released, Cage and Katherine Turner had no chemistry at all on the screen. They didn't have the sweetness of high school sweethearts or the closeness of a middle-aged couple, but the mutual dislike of divorced couples. reality.

Looking at it this way, Cage’s choice at that time was still wrong. Even if you understand the character correctly, it's not worth the loss if it destroys the most important chemical reaction between the male and female protagonists in the movie.

This made Cage very hurt and he was always in a bad mood, but he was somewhat in tune with the kind of actor Ronald was looking for who was suffering from inner pain.

"I'm so happy today. If you have time, you should also come and watch the premiere of my Peggy Sue is Getting Married..."

Coppola drank too much red wine, talked for a while, and began to doze off.

Seeing that he was very tired, Ronald asked his wife Eleanor, "Is Francis very busy now? Has the new movie been finished?"

"Yes, his new film 'Stone Garden' has just finished shooting the exterior scenes at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. In addition, he was busy revising the copy of 'Peggy Sue is Getting Married' in the previous period, and he was very tired during this period. .

But I'm glad that Francis finally paid off the mortgage on the house. This is the house we bought after the first Godfather was released. It contains sweet memories of our family. I don’t want the bank to take it away. "

"I don't think so. Francis has regained his genius. Everyone says he performs best under pressure. You don't have to worry too much."

…

Back in Hollywood, Ronald found Niceta, and the two went to meet Tanin, the president of Paramount.

"Ned, many studios are competing for my movie. We have always been happy to cooperate, so I will give you a little more time, two weeks. You think about it. If you still haven't made a decision after two weeks, I will work with someone else. Signed."

Ronald said what he had rehearsed for a long time.

"Have you got the heroine? Has Cher agreed?" Ned Tanning was very nervous and quickly asked about the heroine's progress.

"Not yet, and I don't necessarily have to use her. I have sent scripts to Sally Field, Barbara Hershey, and Diane Keaton. I don't set any restrictions on whoever is suitable can come."

"Two weeks? Two weeks? Okay, I will give you an answer within two weeks." Ned Tanin sent Ronald away.

He closed the doors, drew the curtains, and thought about things in the dim light.

"Is Ronald really competing with other studios? Or did he learn this Hollywood talk from someone? It's really a headache."

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