Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Niceta and Paula rushed back to make phone calls to find out more about Gene Hackman. The situation is not optimistic. This actor, who has little box office appeal, has everything going well this year. It is the time when he is satisfied and feels that he can do anything.

On the one hand, he participated in the film "Mississippi Burning" directed by Alan Parker, which tells the story of three black volunteers of the civil rights movement in conservative and backward Mississippi (a state with the lowest per capita income) in 1964 during the civil rights movement. , the story of being murdered by remnants of the Ku Klux Klan. He plays a senior FBI agent trying to uncover the truth.

British director Alan Parker is still in the same old style, turning a blind eye to the disgusting things in his country, and taking pleasure in exposing America's racial discrimination every day. In fact, class conflicts in their country are much more acute.

Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s just talk about the profession of acting. In Britain, it was originally a profession only pursued by gentlemen who graduated from aristocratic public schools and Oxbridge and spoke with a West End accent. Peter O'Toole, Laurence Olivier and others are all like this.

A few actors who are not that familiar, such as Michael Caine, who was born in the East End slums, deliberately retained the "Cockney" accent of the East End, manual laborers, just to inspire later working-class actors to think You can also succeed.

But don't tell me, the actors in Hollywood really like this drama that exposes the dark side. This film Burning Mississippi is invested and distributed by "Orion Pictures", which has a strong ability to win Oscars. It is estimated that it will also be a strong contender at next year's Oscars.

But in terms of audience box office, this kind of movie is much weaker. It relies entirely on winning Oscars to arouse the audience's interest and enter the cinema. It's exactly the opposite of what Ronald's "Working Girl" filmed, which put satisfying the needs of the audience before winning awards.

However, Gene Hackman's face really has no ability or necessity to attract the audience. He doesn't have any hope for this, he just wants to win another Best Actor Award, add honor to his acting career, and join the ranks of the few actors in history who have won two Oscars.

However, this ordinary-looking actor actually won the favor of the Japanese-American Miss Arakawa. Before he divorced his first wife, the two were already living together, which made Hackman's ego expand again. The old man always seemed to be omnipotent in front of his young girlfriend.

Back in Los Angeles, Ronald and Niceta talked behind closed doors for two hours. He didn't say anything, but Niceta could see that her client was unhappy inside. Not to mention the continuous production of high-grossing movies, this time he has been nominated for best director, and he is still being looked down upon as a young man. Ronald must be very unhappy.

The first priority of an agent is to find ways to satisfy the client's wishes. Niceta encouraged Ronald to continue investing resources in "Silence of the Lambs" even if he couldn't grab the movie.

At least it would mess up Hackman's wishful thinking.

They still have time to wait for changes to the project. After all, no screenwriter dares to go against the trend and secretly adapt it into a script. And if the adaptation rights, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire, are going to sell well, they will definitely need a big star to ensure profitability.

After all, no matter who plays the lead roles of Hannibal and Clarice, at least one of them must be a star to arouse the audience's desire to go to the cinema to watch it. Ronald didn't believe that a washed-up actor like Hackman could really decide the fate of this popular adaptation by himself.

…

Walter Murch has almost completed the final details of "Working Girl." Ronald and he read the entire copy and were very excited. The master put a lot of thought into the details in the final assembly. The pace of the whole movie is much better, and every time the camera is moved, the focus of the audience's thinking is taken care of.

For example, after Tess saw her boyfriend having an affair, she wandered around the ferry terminal on Staten Island in depression, looking at the Manhattan skyscrapers across from her in a trance on the terminal. The next shot cuts to her sitting in the office, changing into a manager's outfit, preparing to pretend to be Catherine's colleague to start her final adventure.

But there are some problems with this switch. The audience was still feeling sorry for Tess's experience, but it suddenly switched to the office, and Tess changed her outfit again. Audiences who are used to watching Hollywood commercial movies will feel that several days have passed. Years later, Tess got her wish and had the illusion of climbing to a high position.

Murch is a master of intuition in this kind of place. He keenly discovered the problem and inserted a piece of Ronald's aerial footage of the ferry docking. This shot overlaps with Tess's experience in the opening scene, which evokes the audience's memories. They know that Tess is just taking the ferry to work, and the time on the screen does not suddenly accelerate.

Adjustments such as these allow the audience to have fewer opportunities to act out while watching. The whole movie played smoothly, with multiple climaxes echoing back and forth. They must have had little chance to go to the bathroom.

"After your adjustments, this movie has a touch of Lubitsch's touch." Ronald applauded and thanked Walter Murch who was sitting next to him.

Lubitsch was a very special Hollywood director. At that time, everyone was making movies, but no one could make the movies as popular with the audience as he did. You could tell at a glance that it was Lubitsch's work.

In the words of his apprentice Billy Wilder, he always does not tell you the results directly, but uses a twist in the plot to let the audience find out for themselves the remaining 20% ​​of the answers that are not directly shown in the movie. Eucalyptus.

For example, Billy Wilder once explained to Cameron Crowe that he wanted to film a husband who was cold and carefree with his wife. The screenwriter wrote four pages to express this plot. Lubitsch tore up the script and just ordered that the husband be given a top hat.

When the husband and his wife entered the elevator together, they did not take off their hats (this was the understanding at the time that when meeting a lady, a man should take off his hat to show respect. But when they reached the upper floor, when a blond beauty walked in, the man immediately took off his hat to salute.

This plot was perfectly borrowed by Billy Wilder in his own movie "The Flat". The elevator lady played by Shirley MacLean used a carry-on makeup mirror to talk to her in the elevator. The male protagonist Baxter, played by Jack Lemmon, goes from liking each other to discovering the truth that the elevator lady is his boss's lover.

"I got your check this time, and my second son's college tuition has almost been paid. When I solve the family financial problem, I can do something I want to do." Walter Murch took Ronald The check, which was twice the usual price, was bounced and put into his pocket.

"Don't you still have a third and fourth child?" Ronald laughed. Murch's film and sound editing are both Oscar-nominated, and he saves a lot of trouble. Even those who gave more were rewarded. What Mochi gave him was not just a job, but a masterpiece that he had put in with an artist's attitude towards creation.

I called someone from Twentieth Century Fox, who agreed to arrange a test screening. Ronald continues his vacation.

"Hi, Ronald. It's great to meet you."

Ronald came to the office of "Back to the Twilight Zone". Director Emil had basically determined all the actors. In the end, the role of Sybil Shepard's daughter and Robert Downey Jr.'s girlfriend was given to Mary Stuart Masterson based on Emile's idea.

Masterson was John Hughes's project "some kind of wonderful", the one who helped Eric Stoltz woo Lily Thompson and ended up marrying his childhood sweetheart neighbor. actress.

She still had short hair, now dyed blonde. She is an actress who has a very unique spirit all over her body. Among typical American girls, there are not many actresses who are tomboyish on the outside but gentle and sensitive on the inside.

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Masterson was deeply impressed that Howard Deutch was able to retain the director's position and that Eric Stoltz was not replaced by Ronald, the key male lead after "Back to the Future".

After working in Hollywood for several years now, Masterson has gradually come to understand that there are very few directors who can give actors extra opportunities. So when I saw Ronald coming, I felt very happy.

"Ah ha, Mary, it's nice to see you. How long have we not seen each other? Not since The Wonder came out in 1987?" Ronald hugged her happily. This actor is already twenty-two years old. , and can also play an 18-year-old girl, which is rare among white Americans.

"What happened to our old friends?" Ronald asked about the actors in "Wonderful." Leigh Thompson failed to recover after starring in Lucas's Howard the Duck, which became a box office bomb, Eric Stoltz missed out on Back to the Future, and director Howard Deutch was almost cut off by John Hughes...

A bunch of frustrated people got together to make a "wonderful" photoshoot, which only achieved a small success and brought them no good luck afterwards.

"Leigh (Thompson) and Howard (Dutch) were dating, and they got to know each other when the movie was announced. Howard's career was going better than Leigh, directing a comedy starring John Candy.

Eric is still the same, I haven't seen him in a while. Well, maybe things are going to turn around for me now. Last time I saw you on the set, I kept my starring role. "

Now Masterson is no longer the little girl who just entered the industry, and she will also have a relationship with Ronald.

"Lee doesn't have to worry about her stardom," Ronald laughed. "As long as she goes back to the future and makes a sequel, she will be on the female star list again."

"Will it? Is there going to be a sequel?" Masterson is also a fan of Back to the Future.

"It's possible, I've heard it's a possibility. Now that the writers are on strike, Michael J. Fox's evergreen TV series may end. I heard Steven (Spielberg) mention it, saying that Zemeckis The director may relent and come back to make a sequel.”

What Ronald was talking about was the filming of the new film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" directed by Zemeckis. This movie is also a combination of live-action and animation. The idea is a good one, but when it was implemented, the technical difficulty far exceeded expectations.

Spielberg's Amber Lin and Touchstone Pictures both participated in the production, and Disney had to add an additional filming budget of nearly 30 million, bringing the total budget to just over 45 million. It is the most expensive movie in recent years.

Moreover, Disney has also licensed famous animated characters such as "Bugs Bunny", "Daffy Duck", and "Piggy" to appear in the movie for free. If these copyright fees are included, the production cost will be over 50 million. Shockingly expensive.

Even Disney Chairman Eisner is having a hard time on the board of directors.

Now everyone in Hollywood calls this movie "Robert Rabbit", comparing it to Lucas' Waterloo, the live-action and animated movie "Howard the Duck". Many people began to invest big money in Zemeckis. Amblin's Spielberg had doubts.

Under this pressure to recoup his capital, Zemeckis had no choice but to put aside his aloofness and start filming the sequel to the hit movie Back to the Future.

"Oh, that's great. Li's movies are all B-level movies now. Her new movie is called 'Sexuality', which is not very good. She is my idol. I hope she can be better than her boyfriend. Dutch also wants a big star."

Masterson still retained some innocence, and Ronald liked her very much. He had lunch with her and cared about Masterson's career development. There are not many suitable roles for an actor with such a temperament in Hollywood.

Ronald opened up the career of actresses and created some films with female stars as central characters. In the eyes of these female stars, Ronald is undoubtedly the best film director.

Thinking of the Canadian gang actors John Candy and Michael J. Fox whom he had not seen for a long time, Ronald asked Richard to contact them and prepare to reunite with them.

Due to the strike, the two Canadian stars were very free, and they quickly took out time to party with Ronald.

"Ronald...this is my girlfriend, Tracy." Michael J. Fox walked into the party with a very pretty girl on his arm. She is Tracy Pollan, the friend of Foxx's character Alex in "Family Ties."

"Oh... isn't it Lauren? Alex's audience will be disappointed." Ronald laughed and made a joke. In the TV series "Family Ties", the audience's favorite is the eldest son Alex played by Michael J. Fox.

The characters in this TV series have grown up from 1982 to today. Fox's character has also reached the age of starting a family. Ellen, played by Tracy Pollan in the TV series, is a potential girlfriend of Alex. But at the end of the fifth season last year, her role began to disappear.

Lauren, played by another actress, Courteney Cox, is becoming more and more popular with the audience and has more and more screen time.

However, in real life, Foxx's taste is just the opposite. He prefers to compare with Tracy Pollan. The two co-starred in a movie last year and officially started dating. The progress was very fast and they are already preparing for a wedding this year.

"Hahaha..." Tracy Pollan also smiled. Ronald was not the first friend to say this.

Just at this time, a noisy sound came from the door. Everyone saw that it was the fat actor John Candy, who arrived with his whole family.

"Ronald, this is my wife Rosemary, this is my son Chris, and my daughter Jennifer."

Candy has been traveling with his whole family recently. He just finished shooting the great outdoors, directed by Howard Deutch. The entire film was shot in Yosemite National Park. It was very difficult to be separated from his family for several months.

"Hahaha, it's fun to come to my place. There are Nintendo game consoles there." Ronald held Candy's son and daughter, one in each hand, and sent them in to play.

"This is salmon from the West Coast, this is butter puff pastry made with maple sugar from Canada...and there are many Japanese and Hawaiian dishes." Ronald, who had settled his children, came out to chat with the two big stars.

They may not care about it, but the ladies pay great attention to healthy eating, and the chef Ronald hired happens to be good at fusion cuisine, some Canadian flavors, more Hawaiian, Japanese, and Thai flavors.

"Wait a minute, I also found a friend. He's my partner in the movie."

John Candy did not open the beer, but asked everyone to wait. This actress was one of several studio executives with strong connections. They all asked her through her agent to bring her to Ronald's party, especially to introduce her to Ronald.

"John?" A delicate voice came from outside.

"She's here..." John Candy waved to the outside, "Annette, here."

"Who is this?" Ronald looked at the person who came. He obviously had the temperament of an actress, but he had never seen her act in any movies.

"Let me introduce to you, Annette Bening, who I met in the movie Wilderness. She is a very good actress. By the way, she also lives in New York and has been performing on Broadway."

"Hello," Ronald looked at Bening, who was a bit mellow. This woman had a good temperament. Being a Broadway actress was a waste.

"I'm here to help you." Annette Bening came to know her, took the plate and cup from Ronald's hand, and became a waiter for everyone. It seems that Annette Bening also worked part-time as a hotel waiter before, and Annette Bening quickly took care of everyone in an orderly manner.

She was not as eager as a young actress. She usually stood nearby and listened quietly to Ronald, Fox, and Candy chatting.

"I recently went back to Toronto with my family, just in time for the rugby team's playoffs. The games there are not as lucrative as America, but the games are more intense and exciting."

Ronald watched Candy tell his fans story and smiled too. The three first became familiar with each other by watching the San Francisco 49ers' playoff games.

He turned his eyes and saw Annette Bening looking over with a smile.

"More salmon sandwich?"

"Oh, thank you." Ronald took the sandwich and ate it. This feeling of being taken care of by a mature woman was very comfortable. I couldn't help but look at Bening twice.

"I read in the magazine that this kind of food is very good for men's energy." Annette Bening's eyes flashed, and she suddenly changed from a virtuous woman who knew both cold and heat to a sexy and sexy girl.

"Hmm... it tastes very good." Ronald put his hand on Bening's waist, and then continued chatting with John Candy, "You are so fanatical about your hometown team, you can consider buying it and becoming the owner."

"This is not the NFL, don't make fun of me, I can really afford it." Candy smiled.

"Hahaha..." Annette Bening smiled freely and relaxed, letting go of her whole body. The muscles in her waist vibrated with the laughter, which also made Ronald feel full of energy.