Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Latest website: "Welcome, Francis..." Ronald specially stood at the entrance of the garden, where the guests got off the bus, to welcome Coppola. The two hugged and kissed each other passionately, just like Coppola did when he entertained Ronald at home.

He walked through the garden with Coppola and his current assistant, his daughter Sophia, and took them to the reception room. The little girl back then was now an eighteen-year-old girl, looking at Ronald curiously with her eyes wide open.

"Diane, my little Diane..." Coppola greeted Diane warmly in the reception room, especially when he saw the espresso coffee brought by him personally, a smile appeared on his face, "Ronald, Who knew... you were still on the set back then... huh? Hmm..."

After taking half a sip of coffee, Coppola swallowed it down. "Ronald, I really need your help this time..."

"Sofia, I have some delicious food here..." Diane curled her lips when she saw Coppola's daughter Sofia drinking coffee. Knowing that she had not finished it yet, she quickly brought out persimmons from Kumamoto Prefecture to treat her.

"Is there anything I can do to help? I heard from Nick (Nicolas Cage) that your Godfather Part 3 has been started, and you are very busy..."

"Hey, Ronald, you are also a film director now. How often have you heard that the heroine has not been confirmed after the filming of the film has started?"

Coppola sighed and talked about the purpose of his visit.

In fact, after he finished filming The Godfather, he didn't want to make The Godfather Part II. He only took over and made the second part because he needed money to make the movie he wanted to make. He has been saying since then that there will not be a third Godfather part.

But after entering the 1980s, Coppola seemed to have lost his sense of public aesthetics. From an artistic point of view, the films he made were all excellent. As a director, he could also learn many innovative techniques, but the box office was never high.

Coppola suffered from several big-loss movies one after another. Not only did Coppola lose money to his Peep Show Film Company, but he also exchanged his family's real estate and wine estate for high-interest loans. In short, he has always had big financial problems. .

"The Godfather Part III", which will be released at the end of this year, is, to put it bluntly, a work that he can use to pay off his loans and make a fortune financially. Fortunately, the audience still likes to watch the story of the Godfather family, and they are looking forward to what interesting stories will happen when Michael reaches his father's age.

But the film was positioned as a money-making tool for Coppola and Paramount, so a lot went wrong from the start.

Originally, in the first movie, Michael's eldest brother Sonny was shot dead by a rival. In the second movie, the second brother Fred was killed by the new godfather Michael because he had eaten everything. In the third movie, if you look at the structure of the movie trilogy, From a practical point of view, the most convenient thing is to let Tom Hagen, played by Robert Duvall, the godson-like strategist of the old godfather, oppose Michael's death in the third film.

In this way, the structure can perfectly echo the cruelty and ruthlessness within the Mafia family and the torture of Michael falling into hell.

However, Coppola went there for a salary of 6 million and a share of the box office. Actors from the first two films, such as Al Pacino and Diane Keaton, also went there for similar salary conditions.

Especially the indispensable Al Pacino, who also received a bonus of 6 million in salary. He had also failed at the box office consecutively before, and only the Godfather series could offer him the salary of a first-line male star.

But this annoyed Robert Duvall, and his salary, Paramount and Coppola, only gave him a million dollars. He also persuaded him to star in the film even with a low salary for the sake of the integrity of the trilogy. Robert Duvall felt insulted. Surely his acting skills and the importance of his role couldn't be so much lower than Pacino's?

As expected, the two sides broke down, and it was impossible for Coppola to hire another $6 million star. He would rather revise the script and write out the important role of Tom Hagen in the first two films.

Of course, Ronald also understood this approach very well. As a businessman, sometimes you really have to consider profits. After all, unlike himself, Coppola had no financial problems. If it was just for an artistic end, he would definitely let Duvall appear.

Therefore, this kind of thing happened repeatedly in the crew of The Godfather Part III. Coppola always cuts off actors who are famous and need high salaries and replace them with newcomers who have potential and image, or old actors who are outdated but have excellent acting skills.

As for the most important female character in the third film, Michael's daughter Mary, Coppola took a fancy to several new actors discovered by Ronald.

In fact, at the beginning, Coppola had an ideal candidate, the Polish model and actress Rebecca Schaeffer. But in July this year, unfortunately, he was followed to his home by a fanatic fan and shot dead.

This incident made Coppola very passive. Although the actor was originally Jewish, she looked a bit like an Italian woman. Now that she has unfortunately passed away, she can only look for actresses who have promising acting skills, have filmed films that have received good reviews, and are waiting for them to become popular after they are released.

There are not many such actors, and Coppola chose two candidates, both related to Ronald. One is Winona Ryder, the heroine of "Sid", which he invested in. The second one is Julia Roberts, the star of "Pretty Woman" who is still filming.

"Hey, don't tell me, Coppola has really good taste..." Ronald suppressed his smile. This is a good thing. Participating in The Godfather Part III is a good opportunity for any actress to expand her reputation.

Winona Ryder was his first choice, and she's currently filming the Cher-led drama Mermaids. Her hair color is black and she is relatively quiet, which suits her position as the daughter of an Italian father and a white mother.

But her agent didn't want her to star in a Coppola movie right away because Coppola hasn't been very good at promoting actresses in recent years. Moreover, her agent has already told her about a new film "Edward Scissorhands" by Tim Burton, the director of Batman.

The same goes for Julia Roberts. After finishing the filming of Pretty Woman, she will soon co-produce a psychological horror film with her boyfriend Kiefer Sutherland: The Twilight Zone.

Coppola wanted to work with either of the two, but Paramount was impatient with his habitual overspending. The film's budget has risen to 45 million, and it is expected to further exceed the budget. They gave Coppola an ultimatum. If they are no longer sure about the heroine, they must use the one with the best publicity effect...

Famous singer Madonna!

"Pfft..." When Ronald heard this choice, he almost spit out the black tea in his mouth.

"That's right, Mary plays Diane Keaton's daughter in the movie. How can Madonna do that..." Coppola immediately agreed. He glanced at Diane Lane who was happily chatting with her daughter next to her. In fact, she was the most suitable for this role. If she wasn't pregnant...

Ronald understood Coppola's purpose. According to laws and rules, he could not contact the two actresses directly. But their agents actually saw the potential of the two actresses and didn't want them to star in The Godfather Part III. After the new movie is released, it will be The Godfather Part III that takes advantage of their popularity.

However, Hollywood is full of ways around the rules. Ronald is a very suitable candidate to speak directly to the actor himself. And he has such a good reputation in the industry that actors don't necessarily trust Coppola, but they certainly trust him.

Ronald thought for a while, and in any case, starring in the sequel to a movie like "The Godfather" would not have any negative impact on the actress. And Coppola may have failed in other films, but he will never fail in The Godfather. This is a lot of things about his Italian family.

Agreeing to pass the message, Ronald sent Coppola and his daughter Sophia away. Ronald looked at Diane beside him.

"I don't regret it...hehe...I have already played the heroine in three movies with him." Diane smiled and said that she would not be disappointed if she missed the role because of her pregnancy.

Ronald held Diane tenderly and then began to call Richard.

…

"Hi...Cher..." Ronald agreed to talk to Coppola and flew to the Great Lakes region of Texas, where Winona Ryder and Cher were filming "Mommy's Daughter."

When he arrived on the set, Ronald felt that the atmosphere was not right. This is also an Orion-distributed film, the type where the director is responsible for all the artistic aspects and the company doesn't interfere much. But on the set, Cher was bossy and overshadowed director Richard Benjamin.

For a moment, Ronald couldn't tell who was the director.

"Ronald, you're here. It's great. I'm really pissed off. Working with you has raised my expectations too high. This crew is really far behind your level."

"You were not an Oscar-winning actress at that time, so of course it was much less important to act like a big name." Ronald complained in his mind. After understanding some of the situation, he discovered that Cher was no longer the outdated star she was when she was filming "The Moonlight".

Now she really didn't like everything she saw, and complained that the original heroine didn't look like her daughter. She finally stopped by inviting Winona Ryder.

During the filming, the director repeatedly interfered, and she had to read every scene and say it was OK. A lively showman style.

Ronald brought the news to Winona Ryder, and it turned out that Winona Ryder had not learned about Coppola's invitation from her agent. She was given the opportunity to play the daughter of Al Pacino and Diane Keaton, and of course she agreed without hesitation.

The agent was convinced on the spot and asked her where she got the news. Winona Ryder just said she heard gossip on the set and asked the agent if this happened. This of course hit the agent's back, and he had no choice but to agree to call Coppola.

Coppola had actually seen Winona Ryder's audition footage through informal channels, so although there was still an audition process, she had actually got the role of Mary.

"Ronald, tell me, is it better if I think about it this way..." Xueer ran over to Ronald to reason again. She had a new idea and rejected the director's previous shooting method.

"I'm going back right away. I've been running around a lot lately to stay with Diane..." Ronald quickly stopped him. Once this kind of thing was involved, the director would hate him. Cher was not good enough to play the role of a director. , don’t blame yourself when the time comes.

Back in Los Angeles, Ronald began to push forward the progress of "Ghost". The progress of the special effects was slower than expected. A small positioning error during shooting would take thousands of times to correct later.

If this continues, there will be no finished film by the end of the year. Ronald convened a meeting with three special effects supervisors, and everyone said that it was now the result of the engineers' all-out efforts. It was impossible to speed things up any further.

After looking through the work schedules of various engineering teams, Ronald couldn't say anything. It is true that every team uses engineers to the limit. It is impossible to let them work overtime every day, right? Even if I am willing to pay an excess salary, the film special effects union will not agree. They are a secondary union affiliated with a powerful union like the Teamsters Union.

"Is there any way to speed up the process?" Ronald asked.

“Unless…” the three directors hesitated, “unless the assassination scene is reshot. Now that we have experience, we can more accurately locate Patrick Schwytz’s location.

"That's not impossible. I'll contact Patrick and Demi..." There were only the two of them and an assassin actor in this scene. Ronald did what he said and picked up the phone to coordinate with Richard.

"I didn't expect him to be so easy to talk to..." the three directors murmured. Many Hollywood directors are actually biased against computer special effects and are absolutely unwilling to reshoot a movie in order to match the post-production special effects on computers. In the eyes of many "old-school" directors, this is tantamount to admitting that they have made a mistake.

"Very good, they agreed. We need to sum up our experience this time. I estimate there will be many special effects shots like this in the future..." Ronald settled the situation with the actors and came back to chat with several special effects directors. Not many people in Hollywood understand this kind of experience in combining real-life shooting with computer special effects.

"Ronald, can you talk to Director Coppola... I really want to make The Godfather Part 3, but my agent didn't tell me before..."

Back home, Julia Roberts also called and, relying on her friendship with Ronald during the earthquake, she coquettishly wanted to appear in The Godfather Part III.

Julia Roberts was also on Coppola's shortlist as a backup. There is a problem with her schedule. After finishing Pretty Woman, she will soon start filming a new movie with her boyfriend.

She knew that the schedule put her at a disadvantage, so she had to come and ask Ronald, the middleman.

"I can't influence Director Coppola, he is the godfather..."

"Ah, is there any way?"

"Keep hope and cross your index fingers..." Ronald also didn't expect that the character of Mary would have such high recognition among actresses. It seems that the Godfather series has such a high status in their hearts.

"That's the godfather..."

Even Madonna got the news. Somehow she found out that she recommended Winona Ryder and Julia Roberts as two major candidates, and called to harass Ronald.

"Which company filmed The Godfather?" Ronald felt that Madonna was too persistent. Although she was Italian, she didn't look like an Italian woman at all, and she was too old.

"Paramount?" Madonna was confused by the question. She asked her assistant and confirmed.

“Who directed The Godfather?”

"Francis Ford Coppola..."

"You have the wrong person, Madonna. Do you think I have the ability to influence Paramount and Coppola?" Ronald smiled and hung up the phone.

Madonna held the phone and heard the busy signal on the receiver. For a moment, she felt that Ronald's logic was impeccable.

"It seems so...keep looking for me someone, I want to play the heroine of The Godfather, and that's the Godfather!"