Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Hey, okay, I'll take the radio to my room later." Little Bud spent a long time with his girlfriend during this vacation, and he smiled when he saw Ronald.

"When will you propose to Lucy?" Ronald knew that his extended family had close contacts with Lucy, and Lucy was very satisfied with this boyfriend who could have a serious job.

"Come on, I'm asking a real estate agent to find a suitable rental house in the surrounding area. I plan to pick up Lucy and we will settle down near your apartment. Lucy has learned some typing work and is looking for a word processor here. The secretarial job is not difficult, but the rent of the surrounding houses is a bit expensive."

"Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it." Ronald was very happy when he heard that little Bud and his fiancée were so motivated, and planned to rent a small apartment for them to live in at his own expense. Anyway, I can't do without this driver and assistant who knows everything.

Little Bud was very different from his out-of-the-box personality when he first met him. The few years he spent in the Marine Corps made him less talkative and developed some money-saving habits.

Ronald didn't ask him about his experience. Anyway, his mother would repeatedly say for a long time every time she saw him that Ronald saved little Bud back then and allowed him to complete his high school education in the Marine Corps.

Ronald picked up the phone and asked his agent, Richard, to look for apartments not far away.

"Ring ring ring ring..."

Another phone in the apartment rang in the living room, and Ronald motioned to Little Bud to answer it. This phone call is mainly my work number at Daydream, and only people from Daydream Pictures will make it.

"Just stay close to me. Yes, it's for little Bud and his girlfriend." Ronald told Richard.

Then, he said to Bud, who had also answered the phone, "Let's make an appointment. The real estate agent that CAA cooperates with will give you a call and let's go look at houses together. CAA often finds cheap houses with good conditions for actors who are just starting out in the industry. , have long-term partners.”

"Ronald, I don't know how to thank you." Bud was very happy to be separated from his girlfriend.

"It's a trivial matter. Our fathers were brothers, and so are we." Ronald waved his hand to let him ignore it, "Who was looking for me just now?"

"Oh, it's your general manager Ed. He said that there is a man named Bannon who claims to be your friend. He said he has a movie project and wants to talk to you." Bud replied, referring to the phone call he just answered in the living room. .

Ronald frowned. Now he was famous. Some people knew that he was the boss behind Daydream.

Many people claim to be their friends. Daydream will communicate with Ronald to eliminate scammers and people who come to try their luck.

"Bannon? I don't know him. Let him go."

Ronald didn't expect to have such a friend, "I have to go to CAA, please call Ed back and explain."

After speaking, Ronald drove his Ferrari to the CAA office.

Tom Cruise thought about it for two days and felt that Ronald's suggestion that he would be more likely to win Oscar favors by playing the mentally retarded character made sense, so he proposed his idea to CAA President Michael Ovitz. Conveyed.

But Ovitz tried his best to persuade him to consider the role of the younger brother with normal intelligence, and said that if Cruise played the mentally retarded character, it would damage the star's image. And Dustin Hoffman often plays some abnormal roles, which makes it easier for the audience to accept.

In short, Ovitz's point of view is that whether the character is mentally retarded has little to do with winning the award.

After learning that Ronald was the mastermind who encouraged Cruise to grab the role, Ovitz invited Ronald and Tom Cruise to interview at CAA.

Outside Ovitz's huge office, his secretary quickly stood up and guided Ronald and Cruise through the aisle. The secretary knocked on the door and led them in.

"Aha, my favorite director client and my favorite male star client are here."

Michael Ovitz is very low-key to the outside world and never accepts interviews, but in the kingdom of CAA, he is undoubtedly the king.

Ronald had not seen the king for a long time. He was impressed by his debut script before he could sign the contract. At that time, Ovitz was full of passion and was very dedicated to his work.

CAA has been developing very fast in the past few years, signing many actors and directors continuously. In addition to screenwriters, Ovitz's scripts have taken the lead, and the project packaging strategy has also been a great success.

The top three box-office-grossing movies for several years can essentially be said to be his role as producer. From the script, to the director, to the actors, it was all handled by CAA. It's just that Ovitz was unable to sign his name on the opening credits due to legal reasons.

Movies such as "Ghostbusters" made CAA a lot of money, and Ovitz gradually became more and more popular, which can be seen from the increase in the area of ​​​​his office. Now his renovated office occupies almost a quarter of the first floor, which is much larger than the other partners.

"I don't know why you would think that, Ronald."

Ovitz was very vocal about his dislike of the idea of ​​Cruise playing a weakling.

"He is a star, a big star! Letting such a beautiful boy play a fool is simply a crime against all the female audiences in America. Besides, Tom is young, so he doesn't look good playing Dustin's brother."

"But, Mr. Ovitz, the fool played by Tom is also a beautiful fool. Don't you think it's interesting? And it will help him get an Oscar nomination. As for age, we just change the script and let Tom play It would be nice if the fool was the younger one."

Ronald insisted that if he wanted Cruise to be nominated for an Oscar, it would be best to play a role that was completely different from his image.

"God, he's a star, and a star is someone who has the same qualities in every movie he plays. We're talking about Tom, perhaps the most beautiful star in Hollywood since Paul Newman."

Ronald agrees with this classification.

The existence of a movie star is the kind of person who makes the audience want to watch his movies when they hear his name.

If celebrities, like ordinary actors, perform roles with different personalities so that no one can tell that it is the actor who plays them, then why should the audience be attracted to the stars and buy tickets?

Many stars, such as Harrison Ford, always have a sense of cynicism no matter what they play. As for the earlier James Stewart, although his acting skills are superb, his character also has strong characteristics of a typical small-town American hero.

It is difficult for Ronald to refute this statement. Cruise's management team also hopes that he will continue to develop under the image of a beautiful boy full of male impulses.

"But what we are talking about is winning awards. As for the problem of mental retardation affecting Tom's image, I also have a solution. How about we change the character of Raymond from mentally retarded to autistic. Autism has normal, even Beyond the talents of ordinary people.

I also heard that there is another type of autism that, in addition to difficulty communicating with people, also has amazing talents in other areas. For example, if you are good at math, you can calculate how many toothpicks there are in the box in one second. "

Ronald clings to what Cruise wants most - the award:

"Tom's image is fixed as a handsome guy with mainstream American values. If he doesn't break through this shackles, what's the point of talking about an Oscar?"

"What do you mean by that?" Ovitz knew that Tom Cruise wanted to win an Oscar when he entered the industry. The first thing he did when he signed with CAA was to make a list of big-name directors he wanted to work with.

"What I mean is that actors who have their own star qualities in such roles must break through their stereotyped image if they want to win an Oscar."

Ronald stretched out his hand and counted them one by one.

"Bogart, Humphrey Bogart, has played ruthless tough guys all his life, but he got his best actor role in the movie 'The African Queen', playing an incompetent, foul-mouthed boatman with no initiative at all. No, he was eaten to death by the missionary played by Katharine Hepburn. He did whatever he was asked to do. In order to please the old maid, he mustered up the courage to do something serious.

Henry Fonda, who played a lifelong left-wing hero, was wronged and misunderstood, but he was still able to endure the humiliation and lead the people to resist exploitation. But the role he won as the best actor was indeed the decrepit and frail father in Golden Pond.

Faced with her daughter's liberating and progressive values, she instead embraces conservative family values. Breaking through the shackles that had always been there. "

"Ronald, you are overgeneralizing. What about John Wayne? His film 'True Grit', which won the Best Actor, still won the award with the image of a typical western hero?"

Ovitz made a big move. He had done this trick of positioning a star and balancing commercial value and critical awards countless times, and he also knew how to refute Ronald's point of view.

He began to talk endlessly about his understanding of winning awards, how actors should choose at different career stages, how to optimally plan their careers, etc.

Ovitz is strong and eloquent. He speaks very quickly, sounds logical and very confusing.

Ronald clearly felt that the balance in Tom Cruise's heart had shifted towards playing the normal younger brother.

"Steven (Spielberg) and Sidney (Pollack) are both very optimistic about your acting skills. You will perform very well in this movie. Coupled with the operation of our CAA, we will get Nomination is very possible.”

"What do you think, Ronald? What Mr. Ovitz said makes sense. John Wayne did not break through his star image and also won the Best Actor. Maybe breaking his image is not necessarily necessary."

Listening to Cruise say this, Ronald knew that his heart was already leaning towards playing the normal younger brother Charlie.

"If you insist..." Ronald shrugged, indicating that he had no intention of continuing the debate.

Then he whispered in a low voice that he could only hear, "True Grit, John Wayne plays a one-eyed dragon."

Paula Wagner could already tell she was pregnant. She whispered to Cruise next to her, and the two came to an agreement.

Niceta was behind Ronald and whispered in Ronald's ear, "You just said that Wayne played the role of a one-eyed dragon, which would damage his image. But Tom is not as smart as you. If Tom doesn't want to He’s acting mentally retarded, why don’t we give up on this project?”

"Go out and talk." Ronald whispered back.

"I will carefully consider your opinion, Ronald. In fact, this role of Charlie is also very difficult to play. I feel that it is no less challenging than my brother's acting skills. When the time comes, I will exchange ideas with Dustin during rehearsals. Give it a try. It’s a good challenge for my acting skills.”

Tom came over and chatted with Ronald about his thoughts sincerely.

Ronald looked at Cruise, who looked forward to it, and thought, "Poor Tom, you missed this role, and you don't know how long you have to wait to get nominated."

Obviously Ovitz, the president of CAA, wants to make him a big star. The more roles he plays, the more he will be stereotyped. It will not be easy to break through in the future. I wonder if he can be as lucky as Henry Fonda and Humphrey Bogart, who can make a breakthrough in the twilight years of his star career, win the Best Actor, and get what he wants?

"I don't want to direct anymore. Tom doesn't play mentally retarded people. I'm not sure that his acting skills can meet the standards of the Oscar judges. Besides, I haven't been nominated for best director yet, so I'm not convincing enough now." Ronald Together with Niceta, after leaving Ovitz's office, we went to his office to continue chatting.

"I'll pass your comments on to Paula. But I have to think about your interests first. Dustin Hoffman is a big problem. All the directors and actors who have worked with him say he is a big ass." sore."

Unlike Tom Cruise, who is more superstitious, Hoffman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor five times and won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Kramer and his wife. Niceta has been immersed in the industry for a long time and knows that Hoffman is actually a very troublesome partner.

He is a typical method actor who can constantly torture the director and fellow actors on the set in order to get into the role. When playing the role of the Kramers, in order to increase believability, he impromptuly threw a glass against the wall. The shards scratched the face of the co-star Meryl Streep and almost disfigured her.

As for the various strange behaviors he did on set for acting, for example, when he was playing a marathon runner, he forced himself not to sleep for 72 hours. Laurence Olivier, who was acting with him, almost lost his energy. This kind of thing is commonplace.

Ronald has never been truly recognized by the film critics, nor has he won an Oscar, or even a lesser directing award from the Directors Guild or the Film Critics Association. If Cruise plays the leading role, the two can still have a positive interaction. If Dustin Hoffman plays the role, might something happen on the set?

The two reached an agreement and continued to look for a movie script that was more suitable for Ronald.

"Your directing style is more like Frank Capra in the golden age. You can always find the touching American spirit in ordinary people's characters. We will select more scripts in this direction in the future.

This kind of script relies on weak intelligence to highlight dramatic conflicts..."

"It may not be suitable for me, right?" Ronald answered.

In fact, every director has his or her own strengths, and Ronald really prefers stories about ordinary people. In fact, he was not very interested or enthusiastic about those highly dramatic stories that were far away from ordinary people, such as growing up to be a freak, having low intelligence, being mentally ill, or being a born criminal.

Since his friend Cruise doesn't play the role that is easy to win awards, there is no need for him to challenge himself.

At the same time, in Ovitz's big office, he called Dustin Hoffman.

"Dustin, I have convinced Tom that the role of brother Raymond is still yours. In addition, they came up with an idea to make Raymond not a real intellectual disability, but an autistic person who is said to be autistic. Some people have extremely high IQs. What do you think? Is it more difficult to act?"

"Let me think about it, is what you said true? I will go to the Autism Patients Association to observe."

Dustin Hoffman has returned to the ranks of the top-grossing male stars since "My Fair Lady." His salary in 1982 was US$5.5 million.

The salary inflation brought about by Stallone and Schwarzenegger in the past two years has allowed Dustin to charge higher prices.

And Cruise doesn't have that much influence yet. In Top Gun, he has just entered the ranks of male stars and still has a lot of potential to grow.

This is also the real reason why Ovitz prefers Dustin Hoffman to play this mentally retarded character who is more likely to win awards, so that he can pay more.

After coming out of CAA, Ronald remembered the countermeasures he had discussed with Niceta.

Ovitz valued Dustin Hoffman, who was of the same race, and was sure that he would play most of the mentally handicapped roles. You can gradually withdraw, show your weakening interest every time, explain the situation to Cruise when the time is right, and withdraw from this movie that Cruise is bound to find difficult to act in and rarely win awards.

Film projects come and go, and Ronald is not the first successful director to quit anyway. The two previous great Jewish directors, Spielberg and Sidney Pollack, did not stick to the end and both quit midway.

He drove to his Daydream Film Company. The employees here were more down-to-earth and everyone discussed matters. The distribution work of "Dirty Dancing" was going on in a busy and orderly manner. Every time Ronald saw them, he felt more at ease. .

"I'm Ronald's friend. We attended a gathering of top entrepreneurs there together in Japan. You must spread the word. I'm not lying to you. My project is very important to Ronald. Don't delay. Your boss’s business.”

A sound of arguing came from the front desk.

Ronald heard what happened at the front desk and seemed to be blocking a man from coming in. The man's voice insisted that he was his friend.

"Isn't that Bannon here?" Ronald opened the door in the office and stuck his head out, "What's wrong? What happened? Who is it?"

"Ah ha, Ronald. I'm so happy to see you. It's nothing. Your front desk is very responsible. I just forgot to make an appointment for you."

"Ah, it's you..."

Ronald thought of Bannon, the Wall Street banker he met outside the door when the presidents of Kadokawa Publishing House and Johnny \u0026 Associates treated him to high-end cuisine when he was in Tokyo.

With his big head and thick neck, wasn't he the same person who was scolding his enemy, the former Vice President of Universal, Tom Mount, whom he always had trouble with?

"Hello, Mr. Bannon?"

"Call me Steve, Ronald."

Bannon behaved like every banker in Hollywood, pretending to be very familiar with Ronald, and came up to address him by his name.

"How is your family? I'm going to visit your aunt on Veterans Day."

Ronald was not averse to this kind of familiarity. Bankers relied on this to make a living.

Moreover, their approach was different from Hollywood's overly enthusiastic and fake approach. Although Ronald was not familiar with him, Bannon actually knew that his aunt was a veteran.

"How do you know my aunt?"

After entering the small office and asking the front desk to bring him coffee, Ronald asked curiously.

"I did my homework." Bannon took a sip of coffee poured from the coffee machine and made no comment.

"Tell me what you want to see me for."

"That's right, I didn't get a large amount of financing in Japan, but the cooperation with Tom Mount will continue. This man is a waste, and I can only rely on myself.

I found some old friends on Wall Street and finally got the funds to shoot my first movie, and now I want to..."

As he spoke, Bannon looked into Ronald's eyes, anticipating his reaction.

"Our company doesn't have extra funds to shoot other movies now." Ronald also picked up the coffee and took a sip. The cheap coffee machine didn't taste as good as instant coffee.

"No, I don't need your funds. The money I got from Wall Street is enough to film this movie called 'Boys Rent Girls'. I came here to find a distribution company. Our movie has no stars, so the distribution company wants to I’m looking for your help. I heard that you have a good relationship with Disney’s Touchstone. Can you recommend me..."

"Boy rents girl?" Ronald heard the weird name of the script, reached out and took the script handed over by Bannon, opened it and read it quickly.

"This script is very well written."

Twenty minutes later, Ronald closed the script.

is a fun teen romance.

The male protagonist is a nerd Nerd, whose name happens to be Ronald. He falls in love with Cindy, the school's most popular cheerleader. By chance, Nerd paid to rent cheerleader Cindy as his fake girlfriend to teach him how to be popular among girls.

After a series of coincidences, Nerd finally changed his appearance and became a very popular boy. Finally, his fake relationship with Cindy came true.

Baimeng book

Ronald felt that, despite the naivety of other parts, there was a concept in the script that Ronald liked. That is the plot where the ugly duckling of the male protagonist turns into a swan.

This kind of plot where teenagers suddenly become mature and become more popular often happened to heroines in the past. Like that "wonderful" one that Ronald just finished.

But this script is just the opposite, it is a boy who changes his appearance and makes the girl fall in love with him. Presumably, there are many boys in America who don't have girlfriends and would like this kind of plot.

Thinking of this, Ronald looked up and looked at Bannon, "You said you did your homework?"

"What?" Bannon was a little confused.

"If you have really done your homework, you should know that my daydream is also involved in the distribution business. My new film will be released in about a thousand theaters during the summer. If your film can satisfy me , I can also distribute your movie, you don’t have to ask Disney.”

"That was my dereliction of duty. I didn't do my homework well. Of course I am very interested." When Bannon heard that it was released in a thousand theaters, he knew that Ronald had invested a huge amount of money in distribution. At least with this movie, my own "boy renting girl" can take advantage of it.

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . :