Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Yes, I have signed a distribution contract with MGM, and the terms they gave are better than Paramount's."

Ronald was sitting at home proudly, answering a call from Paramount President Ned Tanin.

Tanin probably didn't expect that MGM's Weintraub was so fierce that in order to quickly gain dominance in the factional struggle, he was actually willing to pay for Ronald to make this feature film.

I don’t know that Weintraub, who used to be a record company owner, felt that he could handle everything after the success of the two "Dragon Boys". Or maybe he had some tricks up his sleeve, thinking that "Moonlight" could appeal to those "Sound of Music" audiences. Anyway, losing Ronald's new film distribution contract so quickly made him both happy and worried.

Fortunately, this way of denying this literary and artistic film will not lead to a quarrel with Ronald. But I am vaguely worried, what if Ronald creates another box office miracle? Moreover, this kind of movie with a strong literary and artistic atmosphere will be loved by film critics. If Ronald had won any awards by then, it would be too late for him to regret it.

"Ronald, I want to congratulate you for having enough budget to realize your dream. But if there are other commercial films, don't forget Paramount. As long as they are commercial and high-concept, I can discuss them in high-level meetings." Slap the table on those old fogies.”

"I will definitely do it. I said the same to Mr. Eisner of Disney and Mr. Barry Diller of 20th Century Fox. I'm going to hang up and fly to Massachusetts soon to talk to Cher about the heroine. ." Ronald showed off his popularity, then hung up the phone.

"Damn it, it turns out that Disney and Fox are also trying to get him." Ned Tanin put down the phone, smoked a cigar and drank two glasses of whiskey. "No, I can never let such a genius go. I will Becoming the laughing stock of Hollywood."

He pressed the call button on the phone and told his secretary, "Put me through to Michael Ovitz at CAA. Damn it, I want to talk to Ronald again. Even if he doesn't direct, he is willing to be a producer." , I must sign a few more movies with him."

"That's a good statement. Tanin must be restless." Richard handed over the ticket. He would go to Massachusetts with him to find Cher.

"I didn't lie anyway, Eisner and Diller did say that." Ronald chuckled. "Moonlight" received similar treatment at Disney and Fox as it did at Paramount. Everyone was a little worried about their transition to such an atypical commercial film.

Moreover, the current financial situation of these two studios is not very good. Without the generous donations from Wall Street funds, they really cannot spend a lot of money to bet on their new projects. MGM was more aggressive and gave the distribution contract without any counter-offer.

"Now that I have obtained the publishing contract,

If we go to negotiate with Xue'er again, the chance of success will be greater. Xueer is a relatively straight-tempered person. As long as she thinks your play can help her acting career, she will definitely agree. "

"Maybe, let's go to her first, and if she doesn't agree, then go to Sally Field."

The two took a plane to Boston, Massachusetts, and then transferred to a nearby town, Cohasset.

This is the filming location for the Warner Bros. movie "Witches of Easttown", and Cher is preparing to participate in the first day of filming here.

Ronald contacted Cher's agent through Paula, Nicita's wife and Tom Cruise's agent, and made an appointment to chat with Cher for a while in the morning before starting filming.

"The Witches of Easttown" is a fantasy film about an alien wizard (played by Jack Nicholson) who comes to a small town in Rhode Island and meets three single women. They had a relationship, and then strange things happened in this religious town.

Cher still had curly long black hair. She met Ronald at the hotel where she was staying.

"Ronald, what do you see in me? Are you here to ask me to participate in your movie? Tom even called me to say good things about you."

Ronald first took a look at Cher's appearance. Every move and every move was filled with the aura of a superstar. This made him very satisfied. In "Moonlight Seductive", after Loretta fell in love with Johnny and her heart regained consciousness, she would look like this seductively.

"I know you are a very good actor. My movie just needs a woman who is charming but lacks love. A beautiful woman who regains her brilliance after receiving the nourishment of love. You are the most suitable. "

"Aha... did you write the script after knowing about Tom and me? Do you also want Tom to participate in it?"

Xueer burst out laughing. She had actually known Ronald for a long time. The two knew each other when their own child, Tatum O'Neal, auditioned for Ronald's first movie. There was also an accident involving a fight between actresses. Tatum was grabbed by the hair and beaten violently by the older Melanie Griffith, but he still took her home.

Then she met again at Madonna and Sean Penn's wedding, when she and Tom first met.

"You are very good at pleasing women, Ronald. The focus of my work recently has shifted from singing to acting. I actually like your movies and want to work with you. But..."

"What?" Ronald glanced at Richard, "He is my agent, and I have no secrets from him."

"No..." Xue'er hesitated a little.

"I'll go out first." Richard walked out of the room by himself.

"You know, I have severe aphasia. The script you sent was very thick and had very long dialogues, and I didn't have time to read it.

You know, people with aphasia have to spend five times more energy than normal people to read. I can't even read my friend's phone number. "

"This..." Ronald didn't expect Cher's aphasia to be so serious, much more serious than Tom Cruise's.

"It shouldn't be a big problem, right? Didn't you just play one of the three heroines in this play?"

"I don't have many lines in this movie." Xueer flipped her long hair, "And I asked someone to make special arrangements."

"It doesn't matter, I can handle it the same way," Ronald agreed before saying, "Tom and I have also worked together before. I arranged it very well and no one on the set noticed."

Ronald asked someone to record the lines in the script, and then listened to Tom Cruise on a tape recorder, so as to avoid the impact of aphasia.

"But my agent has read your script, and he told me that this play has very good dramatic scenes. But I can either concentrate on reading the script or concentrate on acting. I can't do both at the same time. "Xue'er is still a little worried.

"I can ask someone to record..." Ronald explained what he did. "You can ask Tom for confirmation. The effect we have on the set is pretty good."

"But I'm not Italian. The characters here are all Italians in New York, and their accents are very thick."

Since this "Moonlight" is a realistic drama, of course the characters have to speak like Italians, and also like Italians from Brooklyn, with an Italian accent superimposed on a Brooklyn accent.

"It doesn't matter. I will find a coach who is proficient in accents and ask her to record all the lines in a Brooklyn Italian accent. You can listen to it then."

"But I'm not Italian. I'm Armenian with a little bit of American Indian. Will the audience recognize me as an Italian woman?"

"It's absolutely no problem. You have black hair, and you have facial features that are somewhat similar to Italians." Ronald thought to himself, anyway, you acted quite similar in the dream.

"Okay, since you have thought so carefully, I believe you. The accent coach and the recording of the script should wait until I finish filming this 'Witches of East Town'. You know my aphasia. Watching two movies at the same time The script is very difficult.”

"Okay, no problem." Ronald breathed a sigh of relief, and the original heroine nodded in agreement.

"Can you just hang out here? The filming will start in the afternoon. You should hurry up and talk to my agent. If appropriate, we can reach a consensus after we finish shooting the first day's shots in the afternoon."

"Okay, just in time to watch the filming of this movie."

…

"The price is not expensive. Cher's popularity is worth the price. She also ranks first among the three heroines in 'Witches of Easttown' in terms of pay."

Ronald found a phone number and told Weintraub and Niceta what Cher had promised. After they talked to Cher's agent, they tended to agree to the remuneration price she proposed.

"However, her schedule is very tight. After filming Easttown, she will soon go to Broadway to perform. There is also another movie 'Suspect' waiting for her. When her schedule is free, it will be early next year."

"Tsk...she works so hard? Is there any financial problem?" Ronald thought to himself. He made three movies this year, a Broadway play, new songs and performances. This is more hard work than his own. .

"I haven't heard of it. She is still living in that new building apartment in New York, and the monthly rent is several thousand dollars. But it is possible as you said. Celebrities always have to maintain their appearance, otherwise the creditors will come to them. .

What do you think, can you agree to this schedule? "

"It's not a big problem. Anyway, Mr. Weintraub still needs three months, and the filming schedule at the beginning of next year is about the same." After Ronald confirmed with Weintraub again, he agreed to Cher's salary and schedule contract.

"Female stars are so expensive nowadays," Ronald lamented as he looked at the number on the contract.

Cher's salary is relatively high among female stars, one-third as much as Stallone's. If this trend of rising star prices continues, we will soon be unable to make movies.

…

"Ronald, you are welcome."

In the small town location, the first scene of "Witches of East Town" will be filmed this afternoon.

"Hello, Mr. Nicholson."

The person who greeted him was the leading actor Jack Nicholson.

"When Roger and I were on the phone, I praised you very much." Nicholson and Roger Coleman had worked together for many years and were classmates in acting training classes together. The two were close friends from humble beginnings, and they kept in touch even after they became famous.

"I owe a lot to Roger."

"Ronnie?"

"Michelle?

Ronald suddenly discovered that his ex-girlfriend Michelle Pfeiffer was also present.

"Are you the heroine? Oh? Sorry, I don't know."

"Hahaha... Aren't you here to see me? I still want to make the headlines last time." Pfeiffer laughed happily. She was involved in Ronald's scandal last time. The two hadn't seen each other for a long time, and they were just like each other when they met. Surprise, so I joked.

"Haha, I'm here to see Xue'er and invite her to play the role in my next movie. Don't be jealous, she's playing the role of an old woman..."

"Okay, then I won't be jealous." Michelle Pfeiffer said nothing when she heard that she was playing a middle-aged man.

Once a Hollywood female star plays a middle-aged woman, her girlhood is over, and she can only play mothers from now on.

"Where is Xue'er?"

"I'm here..." Xueer walked out from behind, found a place to take the contract from Ronald, signed her name, and officially signed the contract with the "Moonlight" crew.

"Don't let her hear me say she's an old woman..." Ronald made the sign of the cross on his chest. These actresses were so elusive that he didn't see it at all.

"Hahaha, do you really want me to play the leading role?" Cher felt very happy when she saw Ronald making the sign of the cross and praying.

"No, when you are free, I will also let the male lead candidates audition with you to see the chemical reaction."

The two returned to the set talking and laughing, waiting for filming to start.

Another heroine also arrived at the scene. Her name was Susan Sarandon. The director and producer stopped her as if to say something.

Ronald watched from the side, thinking that writers always use the metaphor that three women are like five hundred ducks. In this play, there are three heroines, who knows what trouble will happen?

"What you are doing is so infuriating! This is a huge disrespect to me! Even if the roles are changed, you must tell me in advance. You only told me on the first day of shooting that I had been preparing for Alexandra for a month. You just told me today that this role will be given to Xueer, what does it mean?"

Susan Sarandon's eyes were already big, but now they were as wide as a bull's eye when she was angry.

"Hey, I chose the role of Alexandra, but this is what the producer promised me. I like this role." Cher stepped forward and started arguing with Sarandon.

The two actresses were very aura, and they started to criticize the unlucky director and producer from a distance.

"Oh, God?" Ronald, who was still holding the contract with wet ink in his hand, was startled. He took off his sunglasses, "Is Cher acting like a big name on the set? Can she still be like this? Grabbing You cast someone else's role, and then you didn't tell them until the first day of filming?"

"Let me see how liquidated damages are written?" Ronald lowered his head and began to search for the liability for breach of contract in the contract.

"What do women want?" Jack Nicholson sighed next to him. His girlfriend Anjelica Huston also wanted to play a role in this movie. This kind of script is really suitable for female stars to show their acting skills. It's too little.

"What do women want?" Michelle Pfeiffer heard this sentence nearby, glanced at Ronald, and silently thought, "What women want, even women themselves can't quite tell, but actresses want themselves. The role you wanted. If you hadn’t broken up, would the role you got now be better?”

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