Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"The question is where does this weird idea come from?"

Ronald asked Richard if it was Ovitz spreading rumors about himself again?

"I'm going to inquire about the news. I haven't heard this rumor in CAA. Maybe it came from other channels?" Richard is more sensible. This kind of thing may not be caused by rumors. Kluge is the richest man. He doesn't I will pay attention to all kinds of rumors like a Hollywood practitioner.

Richard went to search for clues, activated all his connections, and desperately called acquaintances to get information, but for a while he had no clue.

Ronald didn't stop. While editing Ghost, he found David Simkins and Lawrence Connor, whom he recommended, and finally gave him the script for the pilot episode of "Working Girl" and the overall plan. Take it out.

"It seems that after the movie story ends, Tess is in the investment company, and what will happen next?" Ronald read the script quietly, didn't say anything for a long time, and then asked.

"In fact, the direction of this story has a similar background to the movie. The overall story can be said to be a new TV series." Lawrence Connor is tall and thick, with a beard. If his nose hadn't betrayed him Outsiders can't tell that he is a Jewish screenwriter.

Ronald glanced at David Simkins in the conference room. He felt a little weird that his movie script had been changed like this.

The story begins when Tess comes to work as an attack supervisor at Teske Company. Tess's good friend Xin is still so concerned about her makeup that she avoids work. She usually enjoys cheering for Tess and seems to regard her as a secretary. Spokesperson.

Her boyfriend Jack Traynor still plays the role of a life coach. He often travels for business, and sometimes he and Tess have to talk to each other over the phone.

Tess's secretary is a veteran. She tells Tess that Mrs. Newhouse, the senior executive in charge of Tess's performance, is called a witch by the people in the company. Although Tess has the recommendation of her boss Teske, she must be wary.

Tess had to go back to her home in Staten Island every day. Her two parents who loved her very much, but had limited knowledge, often gave her some outdated and old-fashioned advice.

Tess's neighbor is a Latino blue-collar plumber, Romero. When he sees Tess, he shows off the skills of a Latino man and pursues her relentlessly.

"Ronald, the first thing to consider is the stricter classification of the TV station. Many plots in the movie version cannot be reproduced on the TV station. This is a public TV station, and many underage children also want to watch it..."

"That makes sense..." Ronald nodded. In the original movie, Tess was topless and used a vacuum cleaner, and the sex scene with Harrison Ford, who played her boyfriend, could not be reproduced in the TV series.

Compared with the MPAA's rating system for movies, the TV station's rating system is more strict. Language, nudity and violent content are generally a level stricter than movie ratings. In other words, a TV series with a PG rating is actually similar to a G-rated TV series that can be watched by children of several years old.

If any public television station dares to put some inappropriate content in the TV series to win ratings and advertisements, parents, especially housewives, will continue to call the "Television Program Parental Guidance and Standards Committee".

This organization is similar to the Hays Commission in the Hollywood film industry. It is an organization actively established by major public television stations to proactively cater to the ideas of housewives, the main operators of TV remote controls. Otherwise, they will complain to the federal government agency in charge. Communications Commission (CC), there would be a risk of license revocation.

"But this plot is too..." Ronald muttered a few words and flipped through the script. His heart was very resistant to such an adaptation.

Business wars, office struggles, and love between men and women in the workplace have become very childish in TV dramas. There is absolutely no merger plot in the movie version that has been approved by Wall Street experts, and the actors are asked to train with real Hollywood bankers, and the bankers give lectures to the actors in a rigorous manner.

It seems that the plot suddenly changed from real Wall Street to a simulated competition between high school students and Wall Street. Ronald is very proud of the movie version of "Working Girl". The plot in it can make Wall Street practitioners find it difficult to fault it.

"I understand your love for the movie version. But this is a TV series. You know, the biggest problem with TV series is that the whole family can watch it together. The real and profound commercial content will make parents and children unable to watch it. , and those middle-aged people had to listen to their opinions and change the channel.

In recent years, the TV series with the highest advertising value are family-friendly TV series with various plots. Parents can see how Tess's parents dote on their children and what their children are thinking.

Blue Collar can watch Romeo take on a beautiful girl working on Wall Street. Young people who have just entered the workplace can see real workplace competition and all kinds of gossip. These viewers originally hold some secretarial jobs, and they do not understand the complicated office struggles.

More importantly, everyone needs to see love. Romantic love is in line with the preferences of audiences of all ages..."

Lawrence Connor was bolder and expressed his views on Ronald. He finally concluded, "I have also been a screenwriter for several movies. Although I have not achieved great success at the box office, I also understand the difference between movies and TV series. 2 hours In a movie, the audience is sitting in a dark room. They can't do anything except watch the movie, so the level of investment is very high, and you can lay out some complicated plots.

But when the TV series is on, everyone can stand up and do other things at any time, so that when they come back, they can still catch up with the plot. The script must be simple and fit the public imagination. "

"I understand the truth, but it's just awkward..." Ronald actually agreed with Lawrence Connor's statement intellectually, but he always felt a little physically uncomfortable when his own movie was changed into this way.

"Forget it, I don't care about the treatment of this TV series. You guys polish the script and wait until David (Simkins) agrees. I will sign it and fund the filming of the pilot episode, and then we will go to NBC and other TV stations to promote it. .”

Ronald couldn't bear that his hard work was turned into a soap opera, so he simply closed the script, threw it in the drawer, and never thought about it again.

"Who are you going to hire to play Melanie Griffith's role? Where's Harrison Ford's role?" Regardless of the plot, the casting still needs to be taken care of.

"It would be best, of course, to have Melanie Griffiths..."

"It's impossible. If you ask Melanie to play this version of Tess, she would rather die for you..." Ronald pushed his own envelope, knowing that Melanie Griffiths, who was addicted to acting, would never agree. He destroyed his most representative character with his own hands.

"Then we recommend this one..." Seeing this, Lawrence Connor and David Simkins pushed a picture of the actress over.

"This is?" Ronald looked at the photo. The actor looked very similar to the photo of Melanie Griffith when she was younger. It seemed that she was well prepared, "Nancy McKeon?" "Ronald flipped to the resume behind the photo.

"Turns out she was a grown-up child star." The resume lists Nancy McKeown's acting resume. From 1980 to 1988, she played a rebellious and smart character in the evergreen TV series "The Facts of Life." A 15-year-old high school student of Polish descent who acted until she was 22 years old.

The character she played ended up graduating from high school with the highest honor, "valedictorian." This is usually the one in a high school who has the best grades, the best activities, and the last speech on behalf of the students.

This also matches Tess's IQ in the movie version. Coupled with Nancy McKeon's ten years of TV drama experience, she is indeed a suitable candidate.

As for the selection of handsome guys, it is not a problem. TV dramas have much lower requirements for male actors. Basically, they can have a handsome face, remember their lines, and the rest can be handled through close-ups and editing.

TV dramas are different from movies. The most important role is the screenwriter. Because usually during filming, each episode can be shot in parallel by different directors, and the overall characters and plot direction must be controlled by the screenwriter.

Ronald had received permission to shoot the pilot episode, and the two writing supervisors went to take action.

"Steve, I didn't expect that filming a TV series would cause psychological harm to me. If I want to change any movie into a TV series in the future, I will have to consider it carefully."

Ronald had no one to express his frustration at the plot being changed into a soap opera. He could only call Steve Bannon. This person is responsible for the production, project establishment, and promotion of several TV series, and he can better understand Ronald's mood.

"I don't even read the content. This is just a product. It doesn't matter whether it's orange or cherry-flavored, as long as someone looks at it." Bannon was very happy to have the opportunity to talk to Ronald about this and wholeheartedly Put yourself in Ronald's shoes, enlighten him and make him happy.

"You're right, but I'm still an artist, hey..." Ronald poured out some bitterness. He initially agreed to establish the project, but no matter how dissatisfied he was, he couldn't cancel it. This made a backbone like Simkins give birth to a very Unhappy thoughts.

"Just think of it as a try..." After Ronald complained, he felt much better. He remembered the Seinfeld movie, "How was the filming of Seinfeld?"

"Seinfeld (here refers to the actor himself, Jerry Seinfeld) is very motivated. Although he is a little disappointed with the 5 episodes, it is his first big project after all." Bannon was also not satisfied with the 5 episodes. But this is already a "poor for your efforts" contract given by NBC for Ronald's sake.

"Is it possible to add the normal 22-episode purchase order after the first season?" Bannon also has higher pursuits of his situation. He pretended to be a Hollywood expert on Wall Street and only sold 5 episodes. It is not very good. results.

"Honestly, I don't know. I only know that TV stations look at ratings... I just recently discovered that TV series and movies are a completely different field... Sigh..."

Ronald chatted again. This kind of nitpicking about the adaptation of his own works is really human nature.

After finally talking about their mood again, Bannon saw that Ronald was in a much better mood, and after hesitation, he asked a question.

"Ronald, have you taken the initiative to contact Wall Street recently to explain and promote the company's business?"

"Why, no?" Ronald felt that Bannon had something to say.

"That's right. A certain investment bank on Wall Street did an analysis of Hollywood's industry. It listed your daydreams on a list of non-recommended investments. I think you may already know..."

"I don't know what the hell, who did this? Why is my company listed as not recommended?" Ronald thought to himself, could the strange ideas of the richest man Kluge come from here? No wonder he has thoughts about himself.

"It's just a bunch of fools who graduated from Harvard. They used various indicators and made a KPI to list several small and medium-sized studios in Hollywood that are worthy of investment, as well as famous directors and stars that can be used as fund targets.

Your daydream was not favored by them because it was at a disadvantage in several scoring areas..."

When it comes to Ronald's daydream, there really aren't any particularly outstanding achievements. After Dirty Dancing became famous, the investments were made in very low-cost productions.

Particularly noteworthy are the very cheap "Hairspray" and the "Sid" co-produced with Roger Corman. In short, it is to use a small cost of one to two million to win an award at an independent film festival, or to screen it in some small theaters, and then make money through video distribution.

Wall Street wants to invest in projects where the studio's own financial resources are insufficient to support filming and must rely on financing. Only in this way can Wall Street earn excess profits from the movie project.

Therefore, Ronald's Daydream received a very low score on this important indicator of "loanability."

The so-called loanability refers to how much funding gap the studio needs. The risk can neither be too big nor too small. If the risk is small, they will not be able to get a suitable rate of return. The risk is too great, and they are afraid of losing all their money.

"You bastards, give me a copy of that assessment report."

"This is circulated internally on Wall Street..."

"Stop talking nonsense..." Ronald was a little angry.

"I was about to say, so I'm afraid you don't have a copy, so I'll send you a copy, Ronald. Be careful not to spread it outside."

…

Two days later, Ronald was still in the editing room editing the movie "Ghost" with Walter Murch.

"Ronald, the editing of your movie is really boring. You have reserved all the editing points. The shots of the movie are also very predictable. If it weren't for Whoopi Goldberg's performance, I think you could just find any editor. , with two assistants from the university’s film department, there’s nothing we can’t edit.”

Walter Murch said, looking at the small display on the editing machine. This is a common feature of commercial films, but it is particularly extreme in the one directed by Ronald. Except for Whoopi Goldberg, each of her shots is different, and unlike other actors who are good at improvisation on the spot, her shots can only be used as one, and there is no way to mix and edit between different shots.

"Indeed, there is a real barrier to working with such an experienced stage actor in a commercial film..." Ronald readily admitted that he was doing this to make money.

There are some particularly good acting scenes throughout the film, but the overall structure is very predictable.

"How's the progress on the special effects side?" Murch is also a very curious technical expert and wants to see how computer special effects are done.

"I'll call them and you'll give them some guidance?" Ronald knew that Murch's curiosity was coming again. Progress on the CGI was very slow, as the film had a lot of special effects shots, and a lot of time was spent aligning the scenes frame by frame with Patrick Schwytz and the background stock footage.

Ronald is not Spielberg or Lucas, and does not have the ability to hire special effects personnel on a large scale (because there is no subsequent film shooting to keep up, it is impossible to hire a large number of people and then fire them after the filming is completed), so he can only rely on time. Grind slowly.

"Ronald, your express delivery." Assistant Lake's head popped in and delivered an envelope to Ronald.

"snort,……"

Ronald opened it and saw that it was the investment bank report that Bannon was talking about. He looked through it, and all the items containing daydreams were posted with post-it notes.

Finally, the report also made a special summary. Although Daydream is the company of blockbuster director Ronald Lee, unlike Spielberg, most of his big productions are not placed under Daydream. Instead, it cooperates with seven major studios.

As an investment target, Ronald himself has great potential, but his company is not a good target.

In addition, Ronald's recent expectations for the Oscars have been too heavy, and his requirements for artistry are increasing day by day. According to insiders who did not want to be named, the two participating films have invested heavily in cooperation with Orion Pictures ( For an analysis of Orion’s unsuitability for investment, please see page XX). Considering the box office median of Orion, a movie that has impacted Oscar awards in recent years, financing these two major productions is not recommended...

"If you don't invest, you don't invest. Why are you classifying me?" Ronald was not very happy. He called Orion's Mike Medavoy:

"Did you know? Our movie was shorted by Wall Street..."

"What? Do you have inside information? I did meet a lot of bankers recently, and they criticized the efficiency of the filming of Dances with Wolves. They also gave the movie a very bad nickname."

"Nickname? What's your name?"

“Kevin’s Gate…”

"What?", Ronald didn't understand.

“Rhymes with Heaven’s Gate…”

"Who the hell did this?" Ronald stood up angrily. Nicknames can easily be spread as gossip. They want him to look good... Gate of Heaven cost more than 40 million back then. , which directly drove United Art into bankruptcy.

Is this a mockery of myself and Mike Medavoy's inability to manage a director, leaving Kevin Costner to fool around?

No, it’s not completely ironic, Mike Medavoy came from United Artists, so this is a direct insult, right?