Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Where was Lone Dove filmed?" Ronald called Paula Wagner to ask her about the filming location of the mini-series in which Diane participated.

In this TV series, Diane is the heroine, Lorena, a "salon girl" in a small Texas town. There are two male protagonists, one is Gus played by Robert Duvall, and the other is Woodrow played by Tommy Lee Jones. Both characters are retired Texas Hussars war heroes and now cowboys.

"Are you going to visit Diane in the wilderness around the town near Bastrop State Park in Texas?" Paula was a little surprised.

"Yes, tell me how to get there, contact their crew, and I'll go see Diane."

"You have to fly to Austin, Texas, and then transfer from there to a place called Alamo Village on Highway 674 near Bastrop State Park. You'll know you're there as soon as you get to the dusty place. Forget it, I'll accompany you. You go, that place is too hard to find. Before we go, I called the producer Susan..."

Halfway through, Paula Wagner figured out that she should be more positive about Diane. Ronald rarely visited such a distant place.

"That's great. I won't get lost with you here. How are the shooting conditions there? Do I want to bring anything?"

In fact, when Ronald went to visit the cast of Lone Dove, in addition to seeing Diane, his other purpose was to chat with Robert Duvall, who played Gus. Ronald approached him and also consulted his agent Niceta. He was more familiar with the network of these veteran actors than he was.

Before becoming an actor, Duvall had a steady job at the Postal Service. After resigning to pursue his dream of acting, he found another actor in New York who had begun to make a name for himself, Duvall, who had little money, and rented in his home at a very cheap price.

The actor also introduced him to audition for Arthur Miller's play. In the end, the two were spotted at the same time and starred in the new play together. As a result, he became famous on Broadway. Later, he was selected by Coppola to play the godfather and the godfather's adopted son. , the role of military advisor Tom Harkin became popular.

The actors who helped him also found their own world in Hollywood, played many tough guy roles, and finally became an Oscar winner because of the "Laiguo Network".

This actor is Gene Hackman, the guy who got the script adaptation rights for "The Silence of the Lambs."

…

"Isn't it here yet?" Ronald looked at his watch and got off the business jet. The group of them had been driving along Highway 674 for two hours, and then turned onto a dirt road in the countryside and moved forward on the bumpy road at a low speed. .

"Come on, haven't you noticed that the dust here is getting bigger and bigger?" Paula Wagner picked up the radio and asked the vehicle in front of her, "Rick, when can we arrive?"

"It's pretty quick. The driver said we've been there several times, so it only takes about ten minutes."

"Let's work harder and take a good shower when we get there." Paula Wagner opened the public channel and shouted to the trucks and off-road vehicles in front and behind the convoy.

"Lone Dove" is a project promoted by CAA. One of the producers is Suzanne de Passe, a rare female producer in the television industry. She put everything into filming for her professional dream.

She not only lobbied the TV station and CAA, but also persuaded two major acting stars, Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones, to join. It was Diane who asked Paula to audition after she spotted him.

But although he is ambitious and action-oriented, De Passe still knows nothing about television production, so he has no experience in ensuring the crew, many necessary things are not prepared, and the budget is estimated to be hundreds of thousands short. To fill the gap, Susan even went to work for Motown Records, producing the company's Christmas special.

After learning all this, Ronald wanted to show his kindness to Duvall first, and by the way, make Diane live a better life during the few months of filming. Through his good relationship with the Navy, he rented mobile toilets from the nearby military division base, purchased a large amount of supplies in Austin, assembled several large trucks, and drove all the way over to comfort the crew.

"Didi..." The motorcade arrived at Alamo Village, the filming location. The motorcade parked one after another. A naughty truck driver even sounded the whistle, and the sound spread far in the wilderness.

"Who the hell are you? Who told you to blow the whistle here? We are filming, don't you know? Where is the mayor of Alamo Village? This bastard took our money and never came out again. I have to be interrupted every time.”

A woman with dark skin and a loud and direct voice walked over quickly, pointed at the convoy and cursed away. The mini-drama that was broadcast live was most afraid of the interference of this modern sound. At that time, the only sounds in Texas were the neighing of horses and cows. As soon as the whistle came in, today's scene was shot in vain, and at least it had to be re-dubbed afterwards.

"Susan, it's me." Paula jumped out of the car and hugged producer Susan.

"Oh, you're finally here. We don't have to deal with it in the bushes anymore." Susan De Passe immediately changed her face and walked to the trailer behind to look at the two mobile toilets. Produced by the military, it is indeed very good.

"This is Ronald. He is the one who provided the money to add some equipment and supplies to you." Paula introduced to Susan the sponsor of all this, Ronald.

"Aha, it's you. I really like you. The women in your movies are so independent and strong." Susan, who is of Jamaican descent, burst out with her Latina nature and embraced Ronald enthusiastically.

"The crew's filming went very smoothly today, except for just now... Anyway, the director said that we can get off work after one more scene." Susan said, leading everyone from the front to the actual filming location.

It was a wilderness, and the land glowed golden in the sunset. It looked beautiful, but was actually very dirty. There is a creek next to it. There are several tents on the edge of the creek. Several people are standing beside the tents. On the other side is a camera not far away.

"Simon, Simon, our stuff is here..." Susan shouted at the director Simon Wenchel behind the camera at the top of her lungs.

"what?"

"That's what I told you, someone sent us a batch of things, a mobile toilet, a refrigerator, a mobile grill, and a lot of food and Coke."

"Ronald..."

While Susan was explaining to the director and the crew, a girl wearing a long skirt like those from the Westward Expansion period screamed and ran towards here quickly.

Diane had red hair, braided into two braids and tied around her head. Her whole body was covered tightly, but she still showed off her great figure through her waistband. She rushed over happily and jumped in. On Ronald

"Hahaha..." Ronald put his right hand under her knees, picked her up and spun her around twice. Diane's joy also infected him, and everyone laughed inexplicably.

Ronald trailered the camp and treated everyone to a meal of pizza and Coke that was still warm. The filming looked tough, and even big-name actors like Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones were having a blast.

"It was 1958, not long after I retired from the Marine Corps. In that guest bedroom, Gene was getting married at the time, and he and Fey lived in the master bedroom. Later, there was a guy from California who slept on the living room floor, that was Das Ting Hoffman.”

Robert Duvall knew Ronald's purpose and chatted with Ronald about the past in the trailer. He, Hackman, and Hoffman were all friends before they succeeded. Gene Hackman is very concerned about his privacy, so he didn't make any real friends after becoming famous, and he just kept in touch with two old friends.

"Later, he and Fei couldn't stand it anymore, so they paid for Dustin and I to find a youth apartment with a walk-up on the sixth floor at the intersection of 109th Street and Broadway. Not long after we moved there, Fei... Pregnant, it was his son Chris, and later two daughters.”

Duvall talks about things from years ago with a bit of nostalgia, which is very different from the tough guy Gus he played in Lone Dove.

Duvall was in a good mood today. Thanks to the mobile refrigerator and mobile toilet that Ronald sent, the conditions for shooting in the wild were much improved. He responded to Ronald's idea and agreed to help, saying that he would give it to Jean Ha in the evening. Kerman called.

…

"It's great that you're here. I can get off work early and have a little more rest. The filming here is really intense. It's my first time filming a TV series, and they shot it so fast."

Back at the hotel in the town, Ronald and Diane stayed together. After taking a shower, Diane made herself smell fragrant and lay in Ronald's arms talking.

"Have you never made a low-budget movie?" Ronald smiled. After Diane's debut, she shot all regular Hollywood productions. She had never tried a Roger Corman-like movie.

"We have to shoot eleven pages of scripts a day, and we don't have time to think about the characters ourselves. We rely on experience in many places. Fortunately, I read the original script before shooting, otherwise the behavior of the characters in many places in the script would not be very good. logic."

"Eleven pages? That's too fast. Are you too tired? I see you have split ends." Ronald combed Diane's red hair with his hands.

Diane's hair was originally dark brown, but this time in order to play the role well, she deliberately turned it into red hair. This hair color represents passion and impulsiveness for girls in American culture.

"The environment is too bad. We are exposed to dust every day. The food we eat is often visited by ants and bees. Sometimes we have to deal with it in the bushes..."

"Are you a little regretful?" Ronald thought to himself. It seems that the pressure of filming a TV series is even greater than that of a movie. Eleven pages of scripts are shot every day, and the shooting is very fast. Now I am making a movie, and the progress is only one or two pages a day.

"Fortunately, they have a good eye and chose Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones to play the two protagonists. Especially Duvall, his personality seems to be exactly the same as the protagonist Gus..."

Diane plays a promiscuous woman who does flesh business in the town, and finally falls in love with Gus, an old cowboy who respects her. Finally, together with the old cowboy, he drove the cattle to Montana to sell, and after Gus died, he returned home with his ashes.

"Hehe..." Ronald smiled. Obviously Robert Duvall's personality is not like this. Some experienced actors, when filming such a film and television drama with a tight schedule, will always stay in the character's state, which will improve a lot of efficiency.

"Why are you laughing? Are you jealous because he and I acted as a couple?" Diane buried her head in Ronald's chest. It was very warm here and she didn't want to come out. Today, Ronald specially escorted her things and rushed to visit her, which moved her very much.

"I just find it strange, why would your character be attracted to an old man like Gus? Why would you give up your comfortable life and drive cattle? I don't. Wouldn't the audience find it strange? There are obviously young and handsome cowboys." Rona De saw several handsome young actors wearing cowboy costumes on the set.

"This movie is really good. At that time, girls who wanted to escape from rural life had the only option of becoming prostitutes. Only then did they have the opportunity to leave their hometowns and visit big cities.

But this life is not enviable.

Just like my character Lorena, there is only one reason why the men in town would talk to her...except Gus, a veteran of the war, who would come to the salon to play cards and talk to her. Treat her like a respectful woman. "

"So that's it...Are you having any difficulties here? Do you need anything? I'll have someone bring it to you. By the way, for the cowboy scene, can you ride a horse?"

"I can. I made a Western movie when I was fourteen, but that movie was very traditional. It was very exciting to shoot with Burt Lancaster."

It was very hard for Diane to shoot, and she often had to shoot night scenes continuously. In this rural area of ​​Texas, there are no actors from the Actors Guild to assert their power. Under the comfortable feeling brought by Ronald's warm hands combing her hair, Diane gradually slowed down her breathing and calmed down from the intense and intense shooting.

Finally she fell asleep with a smile on her face. Ronald held her gently, moved her to the bed, and covered her with a blanket.

It was very helpless to film in such a remote place. America's national logistics network is supported by road trucks and aircraft shipping. So no matter where you are in the countryside of the state, it's easy to see roads, trucks, and airplane contrails in the sky.

As soon as there was a truck horn or plane tracks, the scene was ruined and had to be retaken. So the crew could only come to this place to shoot. This is near the Austin Military Base, and civil aviation will not come over if nothing happens. The village is in the opposite direction of the base for air force training, and there are usually no aircraft tracks.

…

Early the next morning, Diane woke up and saw the breakfast that Ronald had found. After eating in a hurry, it was time to set off for the morning shoot. Diane embarrassedly kissed Ronald on the face several times, "When I finish filming, I will spend a few days with you to make it up to you."

When he arrived on the set, Robert Duvall was already waiting for him.

"I had a phone call with Gene (Hackman) last night and he promised to meet with you to consider giving you the production rights to 'Silence of the Lambs'."

"Thank you very much." Ronald immediately thanked him when he heard that the old friend's words worked.

"These things you brought us are of great help..." Duval pointed to the mobile toilet, "We use the toilet here, and we have to be careful of ants and bees..."

"Uh..." Ronald didn't expect that the actor would be so happy with his impromptu idea. In the future, will my company be able to build a batch of such equipment for use by those large film crews?

"He and Fei divorced the year before last, and now they live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is the address." Duval smiled for a while and handed over a note.

"Santa Fe..." Ronald looked at the address. Hackman didn't live in Los Angeles. He lived in a place like this. It seemed that what Niceta had found out about this man's difficult-to-cooperate character was not a lie.

"Gene likes to inspect the directors and actors he works with. Don't be intimidated by him." Duvall also smiled, patted Ronald on the shoulder, and turned around to get ready.

"Ronnie..." Diane came up to say goodbye to Ronald.

Looking at the leaving motorcade, Diane touched her hair, feeling a little unsure. Did Ronald not like it after he dyed his hair red? He seems to prefer blond hair?