Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"How could this happen?" Ronald looked at Kelly McGillis in surprise.

After confirming that the other party was not joking, Ronald got out of bed, put on his clothes, poured a glass of water and handed it to McGillis. While gently holding her hand, he looked into her eyes, "If you find it painful to recall... I'm afraid it will hurt you to say it again."

"It doesn't matter. I have seen a psychologist for a long time. It was five years ago. Now I can face this matter, and I really want to talk to someone about it. I am a little conflicted."

"Take it slowly." Ronald felt that McGillis's hands were still shaking a little, even though five years had passed. It can be seen that McGillis was deeply frightened and hurt at the time.

"At that time, I had just divorced my first husband, and I lived with my girlfriend in a small rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan, New York. One night, I was taking a shower and two men broke in. They threatened me with a knife..."

"Oh, I feel very sad," Ronald listened to McGillis's complete account of the situation at the time.

McGillis, who was taking a shower, was held at the neck by one of the thugs with a knife. Forced into the bedroom, the two took turns to assault McGillis. They also spit at McGillis, beat her constantly, threatened to cut her with a knife, and said they would kill her.

"They kept telling me they would beat me until I died," McGillis said, still with fear in her voice, "I thought I was really going to die, I had given up."

"Don't worry, you are safe now, I am here." Ronald held McGillis in his arms, and then gently comforted the unfortunate woman.

"Later, my girlfriend came home and saw this situation and called the police immediately. After the NYPD arrived, they scared the two thugs away."

McGillis gradually regained her composure, "Since then, I have been unable to sleep for several months, and can only rely on alcohol to numb myself, and barely fall asleep every morning."

"It's all over, it's all over", Ronald didn't expect that Kelly McGillis's insistence on maintaining independence, the knot of not being able to form an intimate relationship with men, and the reason for alcohol addiction were actually here.

"I have been seeing a psychologist for more than a year before I can sleep normally. In fact, even now, sometimes I feel sudden fear when I am alone at home."

"Those two thugs must have been punished by the law. They can't hurt you anymore." Ronald was still silently comforting McGillis, letting her feel that there are still people in this world who can protect her.

"Ha..." McGillis' body moved, "You guessed wrong. The two escaped on the spot and were arrested a month later. One of them had a fingerprint that matched the one in my room, and was sentenced to three years in the end. The other was released directly because there was no direct evidence."

"Why? You are committing multiple felonies such as robbery, intentional homicide, and assault. As long as you can identify them, plus fingerprint evidence and confessions, they will definitely not be able to escape and will stay in prison until the next century."

Ronald felt strange. The prosecutors in New York would not be so incompetent that they would let them run away.

"Because I didn't agree to testify." McGillis answered, looking into Ronald's eyes.

"Is there something hidden?" Ronald slowly comforted McGillis' arm with one hand. He vaguely felt that what McGillis was going to say to him next.

"You can trust me, Kelly. If you want to tell me, just tell me. I won't judge you based on your behavior. In my eyes, you will always be that confident and graceful actress, a good actress."

"I believe you." McGillis pulled the blanket over her body, covered her face with both hands, avoided Ronald, and said in a low voice, "Because the one who lives with me is my girlfriend."

"Ha..."

Ronald's hand froze. What's going on?

McGillis had just had a passionate time with him. How could he say he had a girlfriend? Is that what he understood?

It must be. Only this kind of thing would prevent her from testifying at the time, because if these contents were used as confessions, her relationship would be exposed to the public media

"Are you speechless?" McGillis grabbed Ronald's arm harder and harder, as if to see what his attitude was.

"I think that in America, everyone has the freedom to choose their own lifestyle. It's just that some people in the public still don't understand." Ronald chose his words carefully.

"You know what? I'm willing to tell you this today because you didn't have any barriers with Emil, your assistant director, at the party."

McGillis could tell at a glance that Emil, Ronald's assistant in "Dirty Dancing," was in the same group as her. Ronald never looked at anyone with a judgmental eye and was very tolerant of these private matters.

"Since you still have scars from that memory, why not just refuse it completely. If you need it, I can come forward and talk to Shirley Lansing. No matter how strong she is, I will still give her face." Ronald felt that Lansing's always strong invitations made McGillis suffer psychologically.

"No, this is also where I hesitate. I actually want to make this movie. This story is very similar to my experience. Female victims are always viewed with judgment, while criminals are tolerated. I hope to change the American people's perception of this unfair thing."

"But?"

"But I can't play the role of the victim. When I start to imagine that scene, the horror deep in my memory will jump out. I can't do it..."

"If you really can't, it's okay. Are there other female characters in the movie?"

"There is also a female lawyer who seeks justice for the victim. In the end, she caught the criminal's flaw and pleaded for the victim. "I have brought justice to the criminals, and I have also scolded those bystanders who judged the victims."

"Don't worry, Kelly. Even if Shirley Lansing thinks you are the best to play the victim, I can let you change your role. Which company is distributing the movie?"

"Paramount."

"That's perfect. Their president Ned Tanin still owes me several times." Ronald hugged McGillis and comforted him, "This role is just right. It can also let you do what you have wanted to do for a long time, and change the American people's views on this kind of thing."

"Yeah"

Ronald felt that McGillis finally relaxed, his breathing began to stabilize, and his body was not as stiff as before.

"I will call Ned tomorrow, but..."

Ronald remembered something again.

"What?" McGillis looked up at him. Did he have to give something in exchange?

"You have to tell me the truth. Did you make this movie to win an Oscar, or was it purely for yourself and for the justice of the millions of victims?"

"No actress can refuse an Oscar nomination, but my heart still hopes to awaken the public to the correct view of this kind of thing. The beautiful woman is not at fault, but the criminal is."

Ronald nodded. This role is similar to the role Tom Cruise accepted in "Rain Man". Both are roles that lead to the main storyline. In order to make the audience sympathize with the protagonist victim, they must look at it from the perspective of this lawyer role to enter the plot.

The role of a lawyer requires very high acting skills, but it may not be outstanding. The audience and those actors who don't know much about acting will ignore the acting skills of the lawyer and recognize the performance of the victims with extreme plot twists and turns.

"It doesn't matter. I didn't make this movie to win an award. Besides, the pay they gave is also very good, several times higher than Top Gun."

Ronald saw that McGillis had made a decision and supported her 100%. It takes great courage to act like this, and it is also a break with the scars of his past.

Ronald hugged McGillis, and they could smell each other's breath. McGillis felt calm and safe.

"You know, I was under a lot of psychological pressure in those two years, and I overate and gained thirty pounds." After confessing his secrets to a trusted close friend, McGillis seemed to feel that the impact of this past event on him began to fade. Once happy, he revealed the biggest secret of actresses - weight.

"Actually, I think you are more beautiful when you are fatter." Ronald felt that the delicate body in his arms had a bit of Monroe's temperament, and it was actually suitable for a heavier weight and heavy makeup to show the charm best.

"By the way, what is the name of this movie?"

"The Aed"

The two of them hugged each other quietly for a long time, until they smiled at each other.

But Ronald seemed to think of something again, and his body began to feel strange.

"What's wrong?" McGillis keenly noticed Ronald's physical changes.

"Ahem..." Ronald scratched his head embarrassedly, "I didn't know you had a girlfriend. Between us, do you really have feelings for me..."

"Hehe, you don't know much about us. Most of us are not opposed to having an intimate relationship with men." McGillis smiled and leaned into Ronald's arms, "Of course, I like you, tough guy!"

"What about you now?" Ronald felt a little weird again.

"Me now? I have a girlfriend. Don't worry, we don't have a promise to be loyal to each other."

"Well..." Ronald hugged her with both hands, and then kissed her neck from behind. His nose touched her messy hair, and a pleasant fragrance entered his nose. McGillis's perfume was very tempting.

"Ah..." McGillis' throat groaned and he raised his head suddenly, then fell again.

"You were very memorable just now, tough guy." McGillis felt that Ronald's energy just now was more intense and admirable than all the times he had been with him.

"Did you think of being with me... Hehe, should I introduce you to each other?" McGillis, as a senior person, knew the thoughts of men very well.

"No, no, I just want to hug you and have a good rest."

"Ronald, you are also a producer and you understand the market. The selling point of this movie lies in those marginal shots. Otherwise, with such a small production and marketing budget, it is impossible to attract audiences."

The next morning, Ronald said goodbye to McGillis and called Ned at Paramount after arriving at the office. Ned Tanin agreed to all of Ronald's requests. Anyway, McGillis was one of the leading actors, so as long as she participated in the financing, it would be fine.

But when the decision to cast McGillis as a lawyer and a victim was notified to independent producer Shirley Lansing, she was so angry that she called Ronald to complain.

"Shirley, this is your problem, not mine. Besides, the marketing of a movie does not necessarily depend on money. The key is the reputation of the movie." Old Ronald sat on the chair and said calmly said.

"Okay, are you interested in being a director? Or a producer. You have a first-class eye for female films. You might as well recommend a few heroine candidates to me."

Shirley Lansing almost choked up. She knew that this was the privilege of successful people. Ronald was obviously teasing her about her poor marketing skills.

However, Lansing is also a veteran player who has suffered a lot. Although she was kicked out of 20th Century Fox because she was a woman, she has been working as an independent producer for so many years. She has long known that this "Pear Blossom" is very promising as a female film. rave reviews from film critics.

Lansing's production skills are average, and she is not as discerning as Ronald about movies with commercial potential, but after decades of experience, she still has a good idea of ​​which movies will be praised by film critics. .

"I'll see what I can do, Shirley. Goodbye."

Ronald has no promises, so this kind of thing has nothing to do with me.

After putting down the phone, he looked at his company's assistant, "Where is Mr. Bannon? He was still here just now."

This morning, Steve Bannon happened to make an appointment to talk to Ronald about the follow-up to the movie "Love Is Not For Sale."

"He's on the phone," replied Ms. Chen, the company's clerk.

"Telephone, isn't there a phone here? Where has he gone?"

"I'll go take a look." Ms. Chen stood up and opened the office door.

"Hello? The signal here is not good. That's it. I'll call you later." As he was speaking, Bannon held up a large brick-like object and gestured to Miss Chen as he walked.

"What is this?" Ronald looked at the beige plastic thing, feeling inexplicably familiar.

"This is a mobile phone from Motorola. You can also make calls in places where there are no phones, just like a car phone, except this thing uses batteries, so you can make calls while walking."

"Big brother?" Ronald said a Chinese sentence out of nowhere.

"What?"

"Nothing," Ronald waved his hand, "Is this thing useful? I'll listen to your signals."

"Yes, you have to be at a certain distance from Motorola's communication station to make a call. It worked better when I was on Wall Street. There are many communication stations there and they are concentrated. Unlike Los Angeles, you can't hear clearly when you are a little further away. "

"It's better to use a car phone or a coin-operated phone." Ronald felt that this was just a toy. He could hold it and speak loudly, so he might as well leave a message to the other party or find a phone to talk to. "

"Tell me, what do you want to do with the dividends from 'Love Is Not For Sale'?"

The news that Ronald threw a big check at the party yesterday has spread in Hollywood, and many old friends called to express their appreciation for his generosity.

When Bannon heard the news, he would definitely come and ask. His "Love Is Not For Sale" has been released and has grossed 35 million in America. Bannon has begun to change from a banker to an investment target of bankers on Wall Street.

"Can you pay dividends quickly?" Bannon certainly hopes to get the money as soon as possible so that he can speak louder on Wall Street. Accounts receivable and cash are, after all, different.

"Movies are a business that pays back very slowly." Ronald recalled the rhetoric given to him by the distributor Atlantic when he was filming "Night of the Comet", and he took it out and used it from a different angle.

"The movie theater owners are unwilling to settle the bill. They are willing to delay my payment for a year, and then use the interest earned during this year to renovate the seats and upgrade the automatic candy machines.

When I sent them a lawyer's letter and when it came time to threaten to sue, they settled the debt as soon as they saw that they were going to court. These people are also struggling with the profit and loss line, and it is difficult for me to handle it sometimes. "

"Understood." Bannon raised his hands, indicating that he had no intention of urging Ronald. After all, he still wanted to have a relationship with Ronald, so that Wall Street would give him more confidence.

"If you are willing, I can talk to you about an early buyout. Your future income will be discounted to the present. After the discount, I can settle the settlement with you now. We will let the accountants and lawyers handle it." Luo Nader actually didn't want to settle the matter so quickly, so he threatened him slightly.

"Why? I don't want to do this. You shouldn't share it immediately, but it's better to invest in new production. This way the film business can be recycled. This is the right way to do business. I will always support you."

"You know your stuff, Steve." Ronald was very happy and quickly retracted his hand that pretended to reach out to grab the phone. "Then wait until the theater chain settles the settlement with me. I won't waste your time. In addition, Michelle Cannold also has several new projects in preparation. You can chat with him. If you are interested, you can join and make money together. I will leave you a share of the investment. "

Bannon rubbed his hands. As expected, he showed full confidence in Ronald. This was not a project investment opportunity.

"Not only do I not want your money, but I also want to bring you a large amount of investment." Bannon smoothed his hair, straightened his tie, and said mysteriously.

"Have you found money from Wall Street?" Ronald was interested. Compared with loans, money from Wall Street funds can be used on more favorable terms, and the interference in projects and assessment standards are looser.

Disney's Michael Eisner also received 400 million from the screen fund, and then he slowly began to take the initiative in Disney. It is more than three times cheaper than the bond financing used by Minahan Golan.

"No, I went to Japan to find financing. Because of the appreciation of the yen, companies there are now very interested in investing in Hollywood. Moreover, the friction between our two countries has made their entrepreneurs hold their breath and want to invest in our industry. ”

"Damn it, isn't this a good thing? We welcome investment." Ronald was happy upon hearing this. Want to invest in Hollywood? Good thing.

"The frictions between our two governments all ended with America's victory and the signing of a favorable agreement. This hurt the self-esteem of the Japanese people. They always feel that the Japanese people work harder and should be better priced than our American products." inexpensive."

"Huh? Why? Isn't our market open to them? On the contrary, it is very difficult for our movies to enter the Japanese market." Ronald has been there several times to market movies, even two with Japanese cultural background." "Long Wei Boy" did not do well at the box office in Japan.

Vaguely, Ronald also felt that the movie theaters there seemed to have agreed not to invest enough in Hollywood movies.

"They feel that hard workers who work nine hours a day and treat a mouthful of rice as delicious food should create the best products in the world. Not only physical products, but also home appliances, textiles, cars, and even movies." Ban Nong told Ronald something he knew about Wall Street.

"So, Japanese entrepreneurs who have suffered from friction want to invest in Hollywood movies to make money? Go back to Japan and tell the people there to buy Hollywood, and feel proud, right? Win-win, win-win... hahaha." Ronald understood. , there are also national pride and the mentality of a defeated country that wants to win back in the market.

"Hahaha, that's right!" Bannon smiled wickedly.

"Okay, I'll call the presidents of Kadokawa Bookstore and Johnny \u0026 Associates and let's talk." Ronald figured out that as long as they gave them the false reputation they wanted, he and Bannon would get benefits.

A Wall Street banker and a Hollywood producer, two people who wanted to go to Japan to pick up bargains, burst out laughing.

…

Ronald contacted his old friends in Tokyo again. They learned that Ronald had brought the box-office monster that killed everyone in America to Japan, and they all expressed that they would show greater sincerity this time to fight with Hollywood. The youngest famous director, discussing cooperation.

After arranging the itinerary with Cannold and others, Ronald also asked the printing laboratory to print more copies, preparing to sell them to several countries in East Asia first.

"Brother Ronnie, my movie failed again." Diane's new movie "The Hustler" failed again. More than 800 theaters only received a box office of more than 700,000 yuan, and the average box office per theater did not reach 1,000 US dollars. It fell below the profit and loss line in the first week. The theaters will soon release them, and it will be a week-long trip.

It was released with great fanfare to build momentum, but failed with great fanfare.

"Huh?" Ronald asked Diane to sit next to him, "Don't be sad, I told Tom Cruise that he would like to try the heroine in his new movie?"

Afraid that Diane would lose confidence due to successive failures, Ronald deliberately downplayed the matter and gave her a good new opportunity.

"I..." Diane pursed her lips and hit the table a few times, "Um... um... um..."

"This time the movie critics started to say bad things about me again. They also said that I played a stripper without even a single erotic scene."

"This...I see your acting skills, not just the number of clothes. Besides, didn't you ask Suzy Amis, the second female lead, to do an extra scene?" Ronald thought of forcing the producer to change the scene to prevent Diane from going too far. The nudity thing.

"They said that Susie played a single mother, and that scene was redundant." Diane was not very happy. She was criticized by film critics, which was psychologically harmful to the actor.

"It's not your fault, there are Matt Dillon and Tommy Lee Jones in the movie. They are also responsible for the movie not being a hit. The most important thing is the idiot producer Martin Ransohoff. How could audiences in the 1980s appreciate it if the plot of the 1960s was filmed?”

"Hmm... If I continue like this, I will only be able to make B-level movies."

"Don't be stupid, I will find a way. Besides, there are good B-level movies."

"Are you going to Japan?" Diane saw the ticket on Ronald's desk.

"Yeah, I'm going to do a Dirty Dancing release."

"I'll go with you. It just so happens that the Japanese advertiser asked me to shoot a new advertisement."

"They are really loyal to you. They shoot a new version every year for three years."

"Well, they just like to see Americans speak a few words in Japanese and praise their products."

"Yes." Ronald smiled. The Japanese people's seemingly arrogant but actually inferior mood can be confirmed by Diane's experience. In order to make the Japanese audience feel more immersed, Diane would be dyed blonde every time to look more like their stereotype of an American girl.

"You'd better audition for Tom Cruise's new movie first? He seems to play a bartender who falls in love with a female college student."

"Yeah", Diane said nothing.

"What's wrong?" Ronald was very surprised, as if Diane was not very interested in this opportunity.

"You know, when we were filming "Crazy", Tom approached me first, but I said something too much. I said my father would never let me play that kind of woman."

"Uh..." Ronald understood. At that time, Diane was a popular child star who turned into a teenage movie star, and she was also Coppola's favorite heroine. Tom Cruise was just a young boy with uneven front teeth.

At that time, he invited Diane, but after being rejected, he started because of the movie "Crazy", and began his soaring journey in the past few years.

Diane was afraid to audition, and she felt awkward with both of them.

"You go and try first, I think they will treat you equally. That's all history, Tom won't be a problem." Ronald comforted Diane.

But having said that, Cruise is no longer a person now. There are many people around him who have formed a community of interests around him. Whether they are willing to find Diane to play is not something they can control.

"If we can compete fairly, I have no problem. I'm just afraid that because of this history, the two of us will feel awkward when acting."

"I will call Tom's agent, and then the decision will be completely fair based on your performance, without any personal feelings."

"Hehe..." Diane is still very serious about her acting skills. After hearing what Ronald said, she became happy again.

"Paula, this is Ronald." Later, when Ronald was alone, he called Cruise's agent, Paula Wagner.

"Hello, Ronald." Paula's voice was a little tired.

"When will the baby be born?"

"Two months later."

The two chatted about family matters for a while, and Ronald said to Paula, "Tom told me to invite Diane Lane to audition for the heroine of the new film."

"I know about this. I was just about to talk to you about this "Cocktail." Paula Wagner was not satisfied with Tom Cruise's choice, but his wife Mimi Rogers was very enthusiastic, and she couldn't persuade him.

"Diane, just follow the normal audition? I guess you may have difficulties too?" Ronald asked tentatively.

"Yes, Mimi gave me a lot of problems."

"Ah..." Ronald didn't like this Scientologist either, "That's it, don't work too hard."

"Mimi has her own plans, and she has a great influence on Tom." Paula Wagner couldn't stand her anymore.