Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Mr. Ovitz, what do you think of Working Girl's prospects at the Oscars?"

Ronald and two agents, plus Tom Cruise, who was represented by Niceta's wife Paula Wagner, formally made an appointment with Michael Ovitz.

"Ronald, we have known each other for a long time. The Oscars are not awards that can be manipulated by an agency. All I can do is do my best in public relations for CAA's clients. I can't say that I treat all clients equally, because resources are limited, and we must First, ensure our core customers.

For example, you and Tom are our most important customer assets. I was also shocked by the issue with this nomination. I've asked all the agents to do a closed-door investigation, and it's fair to say that this is not a normal election. "

Ovitz has had enough experience with clients coming to settle accounts every year after an Oscar nomination. Therefore, he had already made preparations. First, he and Ronald's team explain why the nomination is unfavorable.

"Unfortunately, during the filming of Your Working Girl and the subsequent preparations for the new film, it was one of the few film projects that was able to operate normally during the Writers Guild strike. Although the final outcome of the strike had nothing to do with you, the people of the Writers Guild were angry at These screenwriters were still paid during the strike, so many of the films made last year were treated unfairly."

"Ah..." Ronald looked at the summary of the secret investigation that Ovitz showed him. The strike had far-reaching consequences, with its fallout also affecting the nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Not only "Working Girl", but also "Pear Blossom", "The Last Temptation of Christ" and other major productions have not received the screenwriting nominations they deserve.

The filming was relatively early, "Grown Up", "A Fish Called Wanda", and "Wanted" starring River Phoenix, which escaped the writers' strike, although they are not traditionally the best screenwriters. My favorite film genres were unexpectedly nominated.

Originally, feminist-centered films like Working Girl and The Robbery of Pear Blossoms have always been the films favored by the Screenwriters Guild, which has a relatively high proportion of women. It is generally difficult for children's films like "Grown Up" to win the Best Screenplay Award.

"It seems to make sense?" Ronald felt that Ovitz said it so sincerely, and it didn't seem like it was intentional... right?

Later, Ovitz also talked to Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise about his failure to win Best Supporting Actor.

Tom actually knew he had made the wrong choice when he was filming "Rain Man", and then he corrected his mistake and took on the role of Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July." Because I was busy with filming, I missed the most important public relations period.

In short, Ovitz was quite modest. After explaining the problem, he also promised to improve and win more for them at next year's Oscars.

Tom Cruise cut off his long, flowing hair and became a handsome boy with a buzz cut for the filming of "Born on the Fourth of July." The training in the Marine Corps is indeed much more cruel than that in the Navy. His hair now is much shorter than in "Top Gun", and his scalp can almost be seen.

However, a round cut is indeed the gold standard for testing the quality of a handsome man. Even for such a big soldier, Cruise is still very handsome. After the conversation, he asked the agents to go back first, and he took Ronald and the two of them to a small private restaurant. He wanted to ask Ronald about something:

"Do you think what Ovitz said is true?"

"Half-truth, half-false. I feel like what he said is the truth, but it's only part of the truth." Ronald knew that Ovitz was known as a tyrant within CAA, and he was not at all as sincere and honest as he was when dealing with clients. .

"What do you mean?" Ever since he entered Hollywood, Tom Cruise has wanted to make a breakthrough in his acting skills and win an Oscar.

Ronald was not as inconvenient to speak in front of his little brother as before. He took out the list of this year's Oscar nominees for the Best Screenplay Award and pointed it out to Tom Cruise.

"Rain Man" - Ronald Bass

"Growing Up" - Ann Spielberg

"Wanted without Limits" - Naomi Foner

"Millions of Gold Arms" - Ron Shelton

"What do they have in common?" Ronald asked Cruise, pointing to the list. "Why weren't their movies interfered with by the Writers Guild nomination vote?"

"Huh? Are they all screenwriters who have just entered the industry?" Tom Cruise didn't understand what Ronald wanted to ask. These screenwriters had just entered the industry not long ago. Ron Xie, who wrote "Millions of Dollars" Don was a recent minor league baseball player.

"Idiot, look at their last names..." Ronald smiled and patted Cruise on the shoulder, revealing the mystery, "They are all Jews."

Tom Cruise was not familiar with screenwriting, and when Ronald reminded him, he discovered the secrets that Ovitz had not said.

Just like his own performance in "Rain Man", Dustin Hoffman was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar Award for Best Actor. In the same movie, there is not much difference in the acting performances of the two brothers.

The autistic person played by Dustin Hoffman may look good in the eyes of actors who don't know how to act, but in the eyes of actors, directors, screenwriters, etc. who know how to act, Tom Cruise's Acting is more difficult.

And those who defeated Tom Cruise to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor include Kevin Crane in "A Fish Called Wanda" and Martin Landau in "Tucker: My Dream". It's Jewish.

Kevin Kline, the boyfriend of actress Phoebe Cates discovered by Ronald, had a normal acting nomination. "A Fish Called Wanda" certainly received a lot of good reviews.

That biopic of inventor Preston Tucker directed by Coppola is very weird. The film did so poorly at the box office that it didn't even recoup its production costs. Moreover, in the entire movie, director Coppola, leading actor Jeff Bridges, and the more outstanding supporting actors Joan Allen, Christian Slater and others did not receive a single Oscar nomination in the arts category.

Only Martin Landau, a perennial supporting actor and acting coach, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

"Fuxk", bang!

Tom Cruise punched the table. Every time I play a leading role, I always give CAA face and include a lot of CAA contracted actors. He also took the initiative to help CAA in its efforts to sign directors like Martin Scorsese.

But he seems to be an asset, and Ovitz always earns profits from it without maintaining or upgrading it.

"How can I get nominated for an Oscar? I feel like I've done a lot, but received very little recognition." At this moment, Tom Cruise seemed to have become the same person who had no money to fix his teeth, but was diligently auditioning The young actor waiting to be recognized was waiting at the door of the room.

"Well, if you ask me, you can still contribute more to Hollywood as a star. Maybe one day, they will realize that the industrial foundation of Hollywood relies on stars like you to attract audiences to the cinema. . Not made by those 'actors' who don't make much money and complain that the audience can't understand their movies."

"I just feel that I spend a lot of time and energy on acting, but I never get their recognition..." It's rare for Cruise to show his true feelings in front of Ronald. In his heart, he is still the same person who works hard in everything he does. Children from poor families who want high scores.

Ronald understood what Cruise was talking about, including producers, film critics, and agency bosses like Ovitz in the industry. To put it nicely, these people are the leaders of the industry. To put it worse, they are just parasitic species that rely on the market created by these star actors whom they look down on.

Who is the cornerstone of Hollywood? Time will tell.

"Don't be like this. I've seen Oliver's new movie, and you have a lot of hope. But nominations are proof of strength, and winning depends on luck. If it doesn't work once, you can only try again..."

"I will mobilize my friends to vote for your best director," Tom Cruise regained his confidence. Ronald, a noble man back then, could convince him with his words, and with just a hint he could see the profound content that he had not seen before.

"Is this your second consecutive nomination? Will you win?" Tom Cruise really hopes that Ronald will win.

"Why……"

Ronald's persuasion to Cruise just now was very logical. Now that it's his turn, he still can't let go of his obsession with winning the award.

After the Golden Globes and before the Oscars, it’s the annual awards season. Various awards are awarded intensively during this period.

Ronald is not exempt from the secular world, and he travels non-stop to various award ceremonies, and at the same time does public relations for the film.

The first award was the National Society of Film Critics Award. The award is voted on by film critics across the country. There are also many members who are professors in universities.

It is conceivable that this award prefers movies with "profound meaning". Best Picture went to "The Unbearable Lightness of Being." Best Director was also awarded to director Philip Kaufman.

Ronald was only nominated for Best Director, and the other nomination was for Best Actress for Melanie Griffiths.

Next up is the New York Film Critics Circle award.

This is Ronald's home turf. Reporters on the film review pages of major media outlets in New York took great care of Ronald, a local boy. Especially for the many social events organized by Ronald for New York film critics, as long as you have a film critic ID, you can pay a very low fee and enjoy various discount coupons for five-star hotels.

This gives these reporters who write unprofitable "film review pages" in New York, a city with a high cost of living, many opportunities to show the benefits of being a film review reporter in their circle of friends.

Although he is not as respected as a social commentary reporter, and he does not have as much extra money as a financial reporter, he still has the opportunity to have close contact with various celebrities and actors, and he can also take his friends to watch premieres for free. Coupled with the various film review activities sponsored by Ronald, these people's good impression of Ronald and Daydream made them change their preferences for films that reflect the trials of human nature.

Best Director was awarded to Ronald. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and the Australian film "Cries in the Dark," starring Mel Streep, didn't win over Ronald's "Working Girl."

Faced with the doubts of some insiders, they were very confident: "Working Girl is a movie that reflects life on Wall Street in Manhattan. Were you Jews not very happy when you watched it?"

However, Melanie Griffiths once again missed out on the Best Actress award, which went to Meryl Streep.

Going all the way north, the third film critic award awarded is the Boston Film Critics Award.

The city has a long sporting tradition. The Boston Celtics and Boston Red Sox are both traditional strong teams in their respective professional leagues.

Especially the Boston Red Sox, because in order to support the theater industry, they kicked out Babe Ruth, MLB's greatest hitter, and sold him to the New York Yankees. So he was possessed by a curse and had never won a championship since 1920.

Therefore, the film critics here also love the baseball movie "Millions of Dollars" very much. They hope, in turn, to favorably award the film in movie awards in exchange for lifting the curse on the Red Sox.

The best film and best screenplay were awarded to "Million Dollar Arm", but the best actress was awarded to Melanie Griffiths, which made Griffiths, who was pregnant and came to public relations, very happy. After winning the award, he gave a three-minute speech on stage.

In addition to these traditional awards, this year there is a new Film Critics Award, awarded for the first time in the city most famous for film critics, this is the Chicago Film Critics Award.

This award has nothing to do with two of the most famous film critics, Roger Ebert and Gene Sisco. Their influence, supported by PBS's film review program, is national.

Apart from these two, film critics from other media outlets in Chicago are not having a good life. Every time a new movie comes to Chicago to promote it, their treatment is a notch worse than that of their counterparts in New York and Los Angeles.

Movie promoters are generally content to just wait for Albert and Sisko. Because of this, few movies come to Chicago for premieres.

After many years of preparation, it was finally thanks to two female reporters who wrote TV series reviews that they secured sponsorship from the television station. Only then did this third largest city in the United States have a film critics award commensurate with its status.

The funds for the first awards ceremony were limited, and there was not even an award ceremony. They published it in the newspaper and announced the winners and that was it.

Best Actor, Jeremy Irons. Best Actress Barbara Hershey. Best Director: Robert Zemeckis for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".

Best Picture, "Mississippi Burning," directed by Alan Parker. Their awards perfectly avoid all the Oscar favorites, as if to express protest.

Ronald read the newspaper and felt that it was a mistake. This award was the first and it was awarded by the big city of Chicago. If it was also publicized, the return on investment would be very high. Come again next year, and this will become a battlefield where everyone invests real money.

One after another awards are being announced day by day, and soon it will be the turn of the most important Oscar award.

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