Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"The female friend of the actor (Richard Gere) has the right to visit at any time. The crew must be responsible for her food, accommodation and schedule, and enjoy the same level of treatment as the actor (Richard Gere)..."

Richard Gere read all the details of the agreement, and the last one made him hesitate for half a second, but he still signed his name on the contract agreeing to star in the eyes of Julia Roberts.

In addition to Cindy Crawford's right to visit at any time, he also enjoys the top privileges an actor can enjoy.

On the set, his trailer had more space than all the other actors, including Julia Roberts, with a wider bed and more luxurious interior decoration.

He also has a full-time chef who prepares food for him every day, and the crew is also responsible for this part of the expenses.

He has a separate team of costumers, hairstylists and make-up artists, all expensive professionals he has worked with for a long time. Of course, this part of the cost will also be borne by the crew.

Finally, of course, full-time drivers and bodyguards are indispensable. It is essential when he is starring in a movie to isolate fans from all walks of life who come to visit him.

After the male and female protagonists were confirmed, Disney held a small celebration ceremony specifically for this crew.

"Good job, Ronald." Jeffrey Katzenberg, Disney's producer, gave Ronald a thumbs up. Raise a glass of champagne in his honor.

Disney can't see big stars in live-action movies, so it can only focus on such medium-production movies. It was an unexpected surprise for them to find Richard Gere to star.

"We need to invest more..." Ronald made the most critical request. Not only is Richard Gere's salary very expensive, but all his various benefits are paid for by the crew.

Do the math, convert these benefits into money, and add them up with his salary, and you can almost catch up with the market price of a first-line male star of US$5 million.

"Of course we will invest more, would you like to invest a little more?" Katzenberg was deeply satisfied with being able to invite Richard Gere to star in a Disney movie. But the script is an R-rated film after all, and its box office base is not as good as PG-13. But he would undoubtedly be happy if some risks could be shared.

"No problem, I'll also increase some shares here." Ronald thought of the fund tailor-made for George Jr., and he could also absorb some of the investment brought in by Bannon, together with the screen controlled by Disney President Eisner. Fund together, invested in the production process of this film.

But in this way, the investment in this movie will become extremely complicated. There are a total of more than a dozen investors at three levels, who will be divided into three batches based on the distance of their relationships and first-come, first-served basis to enjoy a share of the box office after the movie is released.

The first level is the daydream of Disney himself and Ronald, who were the main producers leading the project. The second level is Hollywood insiders. In addition, they have a lot of other money and have been operating in Hollywood for a long time. They are also classified into this level. It is not easy to exploit them too harshly.

The third layer is those investment funds that have made some isolation arrangements with the project. Their movies are so popular that at most they can only use some of the leftovers from the last few rounds of sharing as a ticket to enter the Hollywood game.

"So your movie is still called 3000?" Katzenberg asked. This kind of movie naming is generally seen in the creative works of some directors. If it is a commercial film, it is best to change it to a film title that allows the audience to understand what type of film the content is.

"It also has something to do with budget. If you can allocate extra money to buy the copyright of a song..." Ronald laughed.

Bannon’s participation gave him some inspiration. Back then, Bannon directly used the title of the song "Love Is Not For Sale" by the Beatles as the title of the movie. And based on this title, I wrote a script, and it turned out to be a hit.

Nowadays, Julia Roberts and Richard Gere have such a good chemistry that the scenes and dialogues in the entire movie have to be redesigned based on their chemistry.

Ronald discussed with music director Jimmy and soon found a famous pop song, the 1964 swing song "Oh, Pretty Woman". The song was covered by the rock band Van Halen in the 1980s. It is a very popular song.

It is very appropriate to use this song as the title of the movie, because the lyrics include sentences such as "Beautiful women, walking on the road, beautiful women, I like...". In the plot, Vivian's identity as a street girl and her encounter with Lewis fit perfectly.

"Haha, no problem..." Katzenberg was extremely satisfied with this proposal. Indeed, this name is better than the so-called 3000. Who knows where. And it doesn’t cost much to buy the copyright to an old song from 1964.

"Mr. Li, I'm glad to have the opportunity to interview you. What are your expectations for this new film?"

Disney's celebration also invited some familiar media to report on the film project. In addition to the "Hollywood Reporter" published in Los Angeles, which will contact them for interviews and reports on the preparation of each new film, the "New York Daily News", which Ronald is familiar with, also sends reporters from their entertainment section.

"I am only one of the producers of this film. For such artistic questions, you should ask our director Mr. Garry Marshall and the two protagonists." Ronald saw that this newbie reporter was not particularly skilled in his business. , and quickly directed her to go for an interview.

"Sorry, Director Li, I just really like your interpretation of women's films..." The female reporter stuck out her tongue. It seems that the reputation of Ronald's feminist films has spread widely both inside and outside the industry.

Lollard shook his head. In fact, she is not making films about women. She is just giving women more and more appropriate roles in the films than usual, and some films use women as the protagonists to narrate the story.

But this did create a new genre in Hollywood, and he and Jim Cameron are the representatives of this genre. In their films, women's stories always occupy a main line of the narrative, which is quite different from the traditional Hollywood script structure in which male stars dominate and women are just foils.

And the two people have one thing in common, that is, female roles are not limited to those young and beautiful women. They often have the opportunity to portray some professional women over 30 years old. This is obviously more attractive to famous female stars in Hollywood than to ordinary directors.

"Richard, what are your expectations for working with Julia?" The newcomer entertainment reporter ran to interview the actor again.

"Julia is great, and I'm really looking forward to working with her in this movie. In fact, if it weren't for her, I wouldn't necessarily have accepted the offer for this movie..."

When Richard Gere said this, he changed his usual acting style and was leaning towards the banker's reserved and low-key handsome style.

For a star like him who is very photogenic, acting is nothing more than playing a handsome banker, a handsome worker, and various handsome characters...

Originally speaking good things about other characters during the preparatory meeting is both a common practice and an obligation for stars. Their remuneration is so high, a large part of it is to pay for their appeal and attract more fans to watch the movie in the media.

But today, his words of praise for Julia Roberts angered another beauty present.

"Ahem..." His real girlfriend Cindy Crawford came forward and took Richard Gere's arm. A pair of wonderful eyes stared at the reporter to see what other questions she could ask.

This female declaration of territory surprised the reporter. She hurriedly ended her interview with Richard Gere and went to interview other actors.

Seeing this, Richard Gere also became very impatient and waved his hands... The clause about visiting the team at any time was obviously deliberately added by Cindy Crawford.

Cindy Crawford was not someone to be trifled with. When she saw this, she threw her hand away and ran over to Ronald on her high heels.

"Ronald, Richard won't let me read his script. You have to tell me, how many intimate scenes are there in this movie?"

"Ahem, Cindy, you don't need to be like this..." Ronald had never seen this kind of scene. In order to monitor her husband, Harrison Ford's wife only came to the site to visit the class every day. Ronald took them Just a couple going to eat.

"Don't be like this, then what do you want from me? What is the entertainment industry like? It's not like I haven't seen it before. It's even better than our fashion industry..."

The mole on Cindy's lip is still so fascinating, and her wavy hair is just in line with Ronald's aesthetic. When he said this, he shook his head and raised the tips of his hair, which made Ronald feel a little itchy. He quickly touched the wedding ring on his left ring finger with his fingers.

"I agreed to all your requests, Cindy. You can come and visit us anytime you want. I only have one request, don't interfere with the filming.

You know a lot of times, this type of movie relies heavily on the chemistry between the male and female leads. But that’s not true. They just acted like this on camera. When they finish shooting and go back to their trailer, he will be your very good boyfriend again... A good actor can make a very clear distinction between acting and life. …”

"I've never made a movie, I don't know. Ronald, I believe you, can you guarantee that what you say is true?" Cindy Crawford put her hands on her waist and pushed her hips forward. The sexiness of an American big girl shines through from the core.

"Come on Cindy, have some confidence in yourself, no one can resist your charm..."

"Huh, don't you just..." Cindy was quite satisfied with Ronald's compliment. She also felt that as long as she often visited her class and appeared in front of her boyfriend Richard Gere, no one could take him away.

"Kristy (Turlington) still lives in our original apartment in New York. She sometimes calls me and talks about you. She misses you..."

"If Christy needs help, tell her to call my agent..."

"Hey, why are you so heartless?" Cindy Crawford patted Ronald's arm.

"Ahem." Ronald raised his left hand and signaled that he had already put on his wedding ring. He looked at Richard Gere over there, who was still accepting several media interviews with Julia Roberts, and didn't notice what was happening here.

Fortunately, Cindy Crawford's attention immediately shifted to her very dangerous boyfriend.

"It's really terrible..." Ronald shouted in his heart as he looked at the back of Crawford who was twisting towards his boyfriend. The toned figure and elegant temperament of the T-stage model made him feel... In addition, Cindy Crawford walked the traditional cat walk, which requires high waist and hip strength. Looking from behind... Ronald quickly took a sip of champagne, then touched the wedding ring on his hand and composed himself.

…

Now coming home on time every day was not only fulfilling Ronald's husband's duty, but also becoming a way for him to escape his dangerous thoughts.

"I feel like now we are like a couple in a traditional Hollywood movie. You come home from get off work on time every day, and I prepare food for you."

"Well, what kind of dishes did you instruct Wang Ma to cook today?" As long as Diane didn't do it herself, Ronald thought it wouldn't be a big problem.

"Just some common things, nothing special?" Diane smiled and asked the maid to serve the food. Sometimes she would cook a dish herself and then ask Ronald to guess which dish she made as a little game.

"Well, I couldn't guess. I think all the dishes today are equally delicious." Ronald was surprised to find that his sensitive sense of taste was a bit out of order today.

"And some baked cookies...", Dane smiled as he served the dessert after the meal.

"Hmm..." Ronald took a bite. This was obviously Aunt Karen's recipe, but there seemed to be something wrong with the butter and eggs being mixed.

"What's wrong?" Dane took a bite and found that the roast was not delicious, so he laughed.

"The people from Paramount called you today and asked if you like their scripts?" Dane waved the maid to remove the cookies and took out the treasure sent by Aunt Karen. Then he told Ronald about some calls he received today.

"Do you like that ghost movie?"

"I don't really want to..." Dane has worked with the veteran Hollywood star Oliver Lawrence since she was a child. She knows that this is a taboo that male stars tacitly agree on and no one talks about. It's hard to find an established star to play a ghost...

"Then I'll go push it in two days..."

After eating, the two of them sat on the sofa and watched TV.

NBC is currently the TV station with the highest ratings, and their TV series tend to be the first to become popular. As the base of the left-wing ideology of the Donkey Party, ABC often plagiarizes the themes of NBC’s TV series and then creates a left-wing version.

Just like growing pains is to family ties, they also created a more progressive version of NBC's detective dramas.

What Ronald was watching today was this TV series called "Dragon", in which the male protagonist Ma Gaixian is a special soldier who is entrusted with solving various crises around the world.

But because he is a pacifist, he never uses weapons or kills enemies. Instead, he uses a variety of things that can be bought in supermarkets to achieve what he wants to do.

This kind of ridiculous TV series has good ratings. Housewives like Diane (temporary) especially like this kind of TV series. They are not worried about their children imitating guns and violence after watching it.

At this time Bannon called.

"How's it going? Does Fox have any ideas about purchasing Seinfeld?"

"They liked it very much, but they also encountered the problem of low ratings from the audience. So they only gave a six-episode first season order. Are you willing to accept it?" Ronald said of Barry at 20th Century Fox Diller told Bannon what he called him personally.

Barry Diller and his boss Rupert both owed Ronald a favor, so they wanted to know if Ronald really thought so much of the show. If so, they would be willing to push it forward to return the favor.

"If there are only six episodes, then I might as well accept NBC. They are also willing to give a four-episode order, but NBC is definitely much better than the Fox TV network."

Bannon made a quick decision. The choice was easy because NBC is one of the three nationally syndicated television networks. The Fox Television Network is only a regional, local television network.

"Okay, I'll refuse, Fox. I got you a share of 1.5 million US dollars in investment from 'Pretty Woman'..." Ronald invested part of his own daydream, and then gave it to Xiao George kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in the fund, and he packaged and sold the rest to Bannon on low-priority terms and asked him to sell it on Wall Street.

"Very good, very good. Now the market is very interested in the romantic dramas you like..."

What Bannon said was not entirely flattering. After "When Harry Met Sally" was released in more than 1,000 theaters, it directly reached a weekend box office of US$12 million. Directly surpassing Batman and second only to "Lethal Weapon 2," another new Warner Bros. film.

Ronald's vision for women's films has once again been proven, and the film's overseas release is on the agenda.