Exploiting Hollywood 1980

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"Isn't this an Ingrid Bergman-style witch hunt? Why are you still doing this now?" Ronald was also a little surprised after listening to Brooke's mother Terry's description.

It turns out that the public service advertisement of the smoking ban for teenagers shot by Bo Ji Xiaosi was banned by the US Department of Public Health some time ago. The reason is that Bo Ji's previous films are indecent, and as a teen idol, it has no positive impact on young people, and it is not appropriate to appear in public service advertisements for smoking ban.

The incident made some waves in the media, both for and against the Ministry of Health. However, some conservatives have long been dissatisfied with the controversial plots of Bo Ji Xiaosi in the two films "The Legend of Yanwa" and "Blue Coral Reef".

This time I found the reason, and finally started to attack in an all-round way, to ban all her movies in America.

Some conservative lawmakers in southern states on Capitol Hill also took the opportunity to investigate whether Brooke Shields violated the law during the filming and whether she filmed inappropriate footage of her age.

Fortunately, it is 1981, not 1951.

People have been educated by Hollywood for years to know that what is on the screen is not necessarily what is happening. It's almost impossible to get a majority in a congressional vote now, like the resolution that Congress condemned Ingrid Bergman's moral turpitude once again.

For this reason, Brooke Shields was also called to testify before Congress. He was grilled on Capitol Hill by members of both houses of Congress about whether there was any wrongdoing while filming the film.

They'd be hard-pressed to find CK jeans ads that technically violate anything. Because this ad is a pun intended to stimulate the hidden desires of teenagers. Not easy to grab the handle.

So several conservative lawmakers focused their investigations on Brooke's first two films, and the unreleased "Endless Love," especially since the latter has been rated X by the MPAA four times.

Terry hired a lawyer and tried every means to get "The Legend of Yanwa" and the two crews of "Blue Coral Reef" to testify in writing, and also asked the director to testify for "Endless Love". Ronald was also asked to provide this time. Testimony.

"I, Ronald Lee, swear in the name of God that the following written statement is the truth and the whole truth, and there is no lie beyond the truth.

As a temporary assistant on the 'Endless Love' crew, assisting director Mr. Frank Zeffirelli to shoot... During this period, Miss Brooke Shields played the role of Jed, and all her nude scenes were done by a stand-in..."

Ronald signed the testimony, then asked attorney Lindsay, "Is that all right?"

"That's ok. There's nothing wrong with Bo Ji, the current youth atmosphere is open, and the high school students are still innocent, which has become a psychological burden, it seems that they are not attractive enough.

With the exception of a few particularly conservative states, most legislators are just doing it on a routine basis. Maybe they just want to meet the hottest girl idol in person and ask for an autographed photo for their granddaughter. "

It seemed that Brooke was just crying on the phone because she was scared for a while. After her mother found a famous lawyer, she should not be so flustered.

"What is this?" Lindsay found the outline of "Golden Jade Alliance" written by Ronald on the table.

"That's the synopsis of an old movie I wrote, Jin Yumeng."

"Oh, it was on CBS two days ago. I liked it the most. Every time I saw Cary Grant on top of the Empire State Building and didn't wait for Deborah Kerr, Helen and I cried."

"Why do you lawyer elites also like to watch this kind of romantic drama?" Ronald didn't expect it, "I thought only housewives liked to watch it."

"Who doesn't like to watch Cary Grant, he just got married for the fifth time, and this time it's a hotel PR who is 47 years younger than him."

"Actually, I also like to watch his movies." It's just those suspense movies that Hitchcock made, Ronald added in his heart.

Thanks to the lady lawyer who stopped by to help read the written testimony, Ronald began to prepare his sales pitch again.

"I wanted to make 'Fast Pace' a film about teenage development,

Reflect the living conditions of California high school students. When the audience sees it, they feel that these high school students are so real, as if they were in the high school next door to them.

Therefore, the background of the film is a realistic, light comedy with a slightly exaggerated tone, and the five main student characters represent the typical five types of students now...

This will be a group portrait of modern high school students..."

After a few days, when he became proficient in looking in the mirror, Ronald specifically called his agent Nisita to do some phone rehearsal, and asked the experienced Nisita for advice.

"No, no, don't talk about group portraits." Hearing Ronald's self-report on the phone, Nisita was still very satisfied, but this group portrait was a bit taboo.

"Let's not talk about group dramas. In the ears of studio executives, group dramas are equivalent to box office failures. There is only one person in Hollywood who can auction group dramas, and that is Robert Altman."

Altman is the director of the low-budget films "Merry Medic Pretty Nurse," and "Nashville." Both are group dramas, and they not only sold well at the box office, but also received Oscar nominations for best director.

"But this is a group drama? It's almost like being famous all over the world." Of course Ronald couldn't be compared with Ultraman, but he didn't understand why he couldn't mention this term.

"Yes, Ronald. He's a groupie. But you don't call him a groupie, you can call it a teen neurocomedy, it can be a romantic comedy, but it can't be a groupie."

"I don't know……"

"It's easy to understand, Ronald. The studio executives are super busy people with 15-20 theatrical films a year and the same number of potential scripts to be negotiated for next year. In order to achieve this Numbers, the same number of scripts must also be put into the circulation warehouse, and three times the number of non-shooting scripts must be thrown away.

So they simply can't remember the specific plot of each movie. They can only label each movie, this is a copycat Star Wars, this is the new Wizard of Oz, this is a group portrait - not making money.

If the film you are fighting for as a director is labeled as a group drama, and your name is not Robert Altman, there is only one result, you will find your script in the trash, and then find a producer business talk. "

"Okay, I see, this is a youth romantic comedy..."

Brooke Shields' hearing was held as scheduled. Sure enough, several conservative lawmakers asked questions about whether there was nudity during the filming of the movie.

Brooke and Terry, who had been prepared for a long time, told them a lot of protective measures during the shooting. For example, during the shooting of the blue coral reef, Brooke will wear a long wig and use glue to fasten the wig to the chest, so there is no suspicion of being exposed.

And during the filming of the passion scene of Endless Love, all nudity scenes were shot with a stand-in. Pieced together using post-editing methods, Brooke actually only shot a few reaction shots. Ronald was present as a temporary filming assistant, and his written testimony was also presented as evidence in court.

The stills and schematics of the shooting scene left the conservative congressman speechless and could only publish a scene denouncing the increasing number of morally corrupt scenes in American films, and called for stricter grading standards, and movie theaters Censorship for teenage audiences, young people watching R-rated movies, must show identification.

There was another raucous report in the media about the result. The New York Times mainly called for better industry self-discipline, and the New York Daily News did an in-depth analysis of the situation of teenage actors. Of course, the best seller is the New York Post, who republished the stills of Brooke Shields at the Blue Coral Reef.

The happiest person I've ever seen in a congressional investigation is "Endless Love" director Zeffirelli.

Brooke Shields suddenly became the focus of the media again, and Guber, the president of the producer Poly Gold, saw the potential of the film and could grab the news of Brooke.

He immediately approved another million-dollar marketing budget. Taking advantage of the opportunity of Congress to return Bo Ji's innocence, the revised film was sent to MPAA for grading for the fifth time, and finally got the R grade as wished.

"When they're together, it's as if the outside world doesn't exist." Zeffirelli read Ronald the title of the poster prepared by Polygram over the phone. "Listen, how Shakespeare that line is."

"So you decided to use love words between couples for marketing?"

"Yes, we are mainly targeting teenage couples, and PolyGram has also made an agreement with the distributor Universal that at the movie theater box office, there will be a discount on 'Endless Love' and a couple's popcorn package."

Ronald felt as if something was wrong, and said quickly, "Franco, in the last test screening, I clearly saw that teenage couples' perceptions of this movie were not as good as those of junior high school girls who came with their best friends.

High school students laughed a lot, but several junior high school girls cried. "

"No no, Ronald. I underestimated the literary and artistic accomplishments of the younger generation of ordinary Americans in America. They do feel the lingering love in the endless love, and they don't dislike Shakespeare..."

Ronald felt that Zeffirelli was full of fighting spirit again, and he might not be able to hear some of his own observations.

However, when this movie was tested, the little girl who had never been in love really liked it more. But this has nothing to do with me, maybe the preview may not accurately reflect the audience's preferences.

Ronald is more concerned about the "fast-paced Richmond High School" program. It has been a few weeks since the Oscars, and there is still no firm news from Universal, whether it will replace David Lynch and find another suitable director.

This afternoon, Ronald is helping Spike Lee, who has received a grant from a black human rights organization, shoot his graduation project. It's been two years since the filming stopped, and the filming of the barbershop in the black neighborhood has not been finished.

Ronald also brought Li Ang over, and Di Shi Academy encouraged students to help each other in filming, work in other people's crews, and can count as credits for professional courses.

After shooting a scene, Ronald went to check the pager in the bag. In order to prevent it from interfering with the live radio, Ronald put it in the bag and turned it to silent mode.

There is a paging.

Taking the coins, Ronald found the phone booth and called the paging station to ask that it was Nisita.

Ronald then shoved coins one by one and made a long-distance call to Los Angeles.

"Ronald, you can leave for Los Angeles. We will find time to meet Tom Mount, the president of Universal Pictures."

"What, he finally fired David Lynch?" Ronald said happily as he continued to stuff the coins.

"No, Lynch fired Universal."