Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The place on Long Island is too restrictive and there is no social life. Ronald simply ended his vacation early and returned to Los Angeles.

"I thought you were going to stay in New York for a while?" Ronald asked Diane, who was determined to go back to Los Angeles with him. Now that the Writers Guild's strike is still going on, new movie projects have come to a halt. The originally busy audition work is now very sparse, and I don't know what Diane is going to do back.

"Someone saw my performance when I was growing up and called Paula specifically to tell me they wanted me to audition. Paula said it would be a good fit for me."

Diane finally matched her clothes to the plane. What she wore today was very Marilyn Monroe style. Maybe every actress has the dream of becoming Monroe.

"What kind of movie is it?" Ronald felt very strange. Now there is no one to change the script. What studio is willing to make a bet at this time? Bet the strike will end soon? This is not the news I heard from the Producers Alliance. When I go to Los Angeles this time, I will attend a meeting to discuss countermeasures.

"It's not a movie." Diane blew a kiss like Monroe.

"Is that a TV show?" Ronald asked.

"It's not a TV series," Diane kept giggling, "it's just the miniseries that CAA launched a few years ago."

A miniseries is a TV series of about six episodes. Compared with a normal TV series that has more than a dozen or even dozens of episodes in a season, a miniseries is different in that its number of episodes and plot direction are determined.

Moreover, the length of each episode is also relatively long, the shooting techniques and budget, and the seriousness are closer to movies than to TV series. Ten years ago, CAA entered the agency market with a miniseries called "Shogun" about Japan's Warring States Period, and has become one of the largest companies in the agency industry today.

"What kind of subject is it?" Ronald thought, no wonder Diane would take it. When she had a choice, she always had high requirements for the quality of the role.

"Western"

Ronald frowned. The market for western movies has shrunk very badly. Not only are no one watching western movies, but the ratings of western TV series are also very poor.

But he soon felt relieved that this was not his project, and Diane could shoot whatever she wanted. Anyway, Paula has good taste and will not trick her. Even in declining genres, there are still some masterpieces.

"This is a script that Peter Bogdanovich co-wrote, and it was going to be made into a movie nearly twenty years ago, and John Wayne, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda were going to collaborate.

But after that, Wayne was unwilling to make the film, so he kept it on the shelf. This time, it was changed to a four-episode, six-hour miniseries in total..."

On the plane, Diane told Ronald a lot about the script called "Lonesome Dove". Ronald is actually not very interested in this old subject matter. The story of a group of Texas cowboys driving cattle to Montana. The three positive male protagonists reminded him of the classic Hollywood business card "Red River".

The structure of the story is similar, but the details are slightly different, and it is stretched to four episodes. But you can't say this to Diane, she is very interested now.

Ronald waited for Paula Wagner who came to pick her up at the airport, and only asked her, "How is the quality of Lone Pigeon Town?"

"It's very good, suitable for Diane, and we expect it to become a hit TV series. The recent script shortage is very serious, and we are lucky to get this old script."

Ronald nodded, and this hit the point.

"Aren't you still considering Rain Man?" Paula only asked Ronald.

"I still have the same answer, unless Tom (Cruise) chooses to play the mentally retarded person." Ronald still feels that only by letting the good-looking Cruise play the mentally retarded person can the effect be unexpected by the audience. And Niceta warned herself that Dustin Hoffman, who was originally scheduled to play the mentally handicapped brother, was difficult to handle on the set.

Having seen such big stars who were paid six million for a film, Ronald thought it would be better to find someone who was easy to work with. If Tom Cruise, whom I personally discovered and worked with, was to star, then I would be very interested in getting him an Oscar nomination.

Now, it is more difficult to play a supporting role, but it is not outstanding. Why? Cruise may not have the confidence in his acting skills yet

Bar?

…

The next day, Ronald went to the Producers Alliance meeting. Brian Walton, the negotiator for the Writers Guild, had already put soft words in the media the week before, saying that he would consider accepting the $50 million compensation proposal from the Producers Union and would go to the union to persuade representatives of each branch. .

"The strike that has lasted for more than a month is expected to end. Let's resume normal filming as soon as possible." In the Producers Alliance, major production houses gathered together and complained about the strike.

Unlike large studios that have a lot of scripts accumulated, small and medium-sized studios are currently facing a serious shortage of scripts. Moreover, their financial pressure is even greater. If the project is delayed, bank interest will crush them to death.

Over there, representatives from major manufacturers gathered in another group to chat. What they are more concerned about is how much they can control the share of the screenwriters in the agreement. These senior managers rely on this to write their year-end summaries.

"Gentlemen..." Alliance President Nick Kuant came out more than ten minutes later than scheduled. "Bad news, the Writers Guild has officially rejected our conditions."

"Oh, Shxt..."

"Isn't he going to agree to it?"

"We can discuss whatever terms he is dissatisfied with..."

There was a cry from small and medium-sized producers. They had expected to get new contracts today, but they were all disappointed as they were preparing to resume work.

"They did not put forward new demands, and we did not modify the terms. We completely followed the arrangements of the negotiating envoy sent by the Grand Commander. The reason why the negotiations broke down was that Brian Walton could not convince the Writers Guild Committee to agree to accept This condition. They still insist on a compensation of 200 million US dollars and greater creative control of the screenwriter (a greater say in deciding directors and actors)."

"We cannot accept those..."

"Who do they think they are?"

Now it was the big studios' turn to complain.

Nick Kuant, president of the Producers Alliance, waved everyone for silence, then detailed the negotiation process and the details of the breakdown, and answered everyone's questions.

Ronald sat in the back and basically understood. Brian Walton, the writers' union negotiator, won election to this position by instigating lower-level writers. The reason he convinced the Screenwriters Guild Bargaining Committee was that if he had listened to himself three years ago, he could have obtained 200 million and regained creative control from greedy and amateur producers.

Such excessive conditions, of course, caused a lot of damage during the negotiation process. Even if the commander-in-chief personally interrogated the special envoy sent by the federal government to negotiate, he would not be able to succeed.

Brian Walton had no choice but to go back and report the bad news. But the low-level screenwriters who were bewitched by him did not agree, and the committee members representing them would never allow Brian Walton to agree.

If we go back to the conditions put forward by the Producers Guild in the past, it means that everything Brian Walton said before was all lies. Then the next re-election of these committee members elected by the union members will be bad.

Moreover, in the early stage, they all believed Brian Walton’s confident appearance and his propaganda about union members was too optimistic. They believed the lies and actively participated in the strike. They also established an inspection committee to prevent screenwriters who wanted to work from working.

Such investment made them refuse to believe that Brian Walton could be an incompetent liar.

Brian Walton had no choice but to pretend that this was just a temporary setback and that as long as he continued to strike, he could get the promised terms.

So under this false confidence, the bargaining committee of the Screenwriters Guild officially rejected the management's conditions and announced that the strike would continue.

"The pressure in Hollywood is not the greatest right now," President Nick concluded above. "Now the TV station is about to start production of the new autumn season of TV series. The screenwriters have also spotted this opportunity and want to force us to submit.

Everyone agrees that if creative decisions were even partially ceded to screenwriters, Hollywood would cease to be Hollywood. We can only unite and continue to fight them. screenwriter who is opposed to the agreement, the main

They all write about low-level screenwriters who have never independently written a blockbuster movie or TV series.

But they make up the majority of the union. Originally, they couldn't get much of the remaining dividends from rebroadcasts on TV stations. These people's ideas are too idealistic, too simple, sometimes even naive, and they are easily exploited by people like Brian Walton.

We can only soften them with the fact that no work means no pay, and now they are looking to star actors to raise funds for the strike and help writers survive the strike without pay.

You can make it clear to your friends from the Screen Actors Guild through your respective channels. It will do no one any good if this farce continues.

I will continue to maintain contact and negotiate with the Writers Guild and try to help everyone win some exemption clauses. "

Everyone was very disappointed, but due to the situation, everyone had no choice but to discuss how to apply for exemption clauses, what conditions needed to be met to apply for exemption, and then filled out the opinion form and submitted it to President Nick for reference.

Ronald filled in something casually, paying attention to the conversation of the producer next to him.

"Is the situation at your TV station really that bad?"

"Forget it, did any of you watch David Letterman's show last night?"

"I didn't read it. I had to find screenwriters from Australia and Canada to change the script. What happened?"

"He really had no choice but to install a fountain in the studio. When there was no topic, he would let the fountain spray water on himself."

Ronald almost couldn't hold back his laughter. It seems that the situation on television is even more serious, especially the talk shows that are broadcast every night, which require constant output of jokes, and usually have a writing team to serve the host.

"I am now in the script warehouse every day, looking at old scripts from decades ago to see which ones can be reused."

"That's not true, but many details of those scripts are old and inappropriate, and we can't find a good screenwriter to revise them. The good screenwriters are all union members."

"I think one day we will all be driven to places like Australia and Canada, where there is no union harassment and you can find English-speaking screenwriters."

Ronald looked at the producers, big and small, around him, always with a melancholy face. Fortunately, this strike has little impact on my business. If I was filming Dirty Dancing and investing my own money and that of my friends and family, and encountered such a strike, then...

Ronald didn't dare to think about it anymore. At this moment, he heard a sigh...

"Why……"

Ronald looked up and saw that it was Minahan Golan from Cannon.

"When did you come? I didn't see you just now."

"I just came, Ronald... I'm really happy to see you. I haven't had anything happy recently. I thought my big project would turn around, but I have no choice but to go back to Tel Aviv to find a screenwriter to revise my script."

Minahan was normal, without his usual enthusiasm. He even spoke slowly.

"You're fine. There is a base in Israel, and the screenwriters there have very good English." Ronald comforted his old friend and pointed to another medium-sized producer across the street.

That was Dino De Laurentiis, an Italian producer. A Naples native who had an old grudge with Ronald because of the movie "Year of the Dragon".

"Puff...Haha..." Minahan finally laughed. The other party turned around and looked at him.

"Hehehe..." Ronald smiled and looked back without concealing it.

"He's even worse off than me. I heard that the last film was halfway through its production when the bank took back the funds and had to sell it to other distributors."

"What happened? Tell me, I love to hear this." Ronald stared at Dino De Laurentiis and smiled evilly.

"Hmph..." Dino muttered and turned away. It's really not nice to be laughed at in person.

"He found Peter Bogdanovich, hoping to borrow his talent to promote another male star of the Brad Gang, Rob Lowe. In the end... he didn't achieve any goal anyway."

Minahan also pursued Peter Bogdanovich for a while, wanting to sign him as the exclusive director of Cannon. But Bogdanovich looked down on him, and finally found Dino, who had produced many classic commercial films.

As a result, a few days before the filming of "You Are the One", Dino informed Bogdanovich that the budget of the film had been reduced and the script had to be revised to adapt to the shooting of a lower budget.

Bogdanovich, who originally filmed for money, immediately arranged for his confidante Colleen Camp to play the leading lady when he saw that things were not going well. Anyway, the two had worked together many times and knew how to fool people.

Then all the high-cost scenes were deleted, and a female supporting role was added to fill in the deleted scenes. It just so happened that his deceased girlfriend, Stratten's sister Louise, played this role. All the money that could be made was earned.

"Hehehe..." Ronald and Minahan laughed for a while. Both of them were directors, and of course they knew what kind of damage would be caused to the film if the director deliberately made a bad movie to make money.

Rob Lowe's idea of ​​taking this film to the next level was completely shattered. He also had to be careful not to be affected by the bad reputation of the film, and act in a film with good reputation or box office as soon as possible to recover the impact.

It seems that the most seriously affected Hollywood studios in this strike are medium-sized studios. Even smaller producers, such as Roger Corman's ultra-low-cost filming, are not greatly affected by this strike.

This script is not allowed to hire screenwriters to modify certain scenes? That's fine, just tearing this scene off will save money. And many of his screenwriters are talented people who are not in the union.

Perhaps it was the inappropriate laughter of the two that attracted the attention of the producers around.

"Ronald, Minahan..." Finally someone came up to greet the two unsociable producers.

"Samuel?" Ronald recognized the person, Samuel Jr., the son of MGM founder Samuel Goldwyn, and the producer of this year's Oscars ceremony, which was a mess.

"You are here too?"

"I actually have my own small production company..." Samuel Jr. laughed. Their family and MGM, except for a little relic in the name, have nothing to do with each other. "What are you talking about? You seem very happy?"

"We are making fun of ourselves, are we going to Israel to hire screenwriters?" Ronald laughed.

"It worries me so much, I have to find a Chinese screenwriter to modify my new film." Samuel Jr. said with a smile.

Now it is something worth showing off if a producer can find a screenwriter who is not in the Writers Guild but has a certain level of film.

"Haha, what's his name? Is he from Hong Kong?" Ronald thought about it. The person in Hong Kong who can write scripts in English, could it be Tsui Hark? Has he come to Hollywood?

"He's very good. He graduated from the Film Department of New York University. I heard that he couldn't find a job for many years and stayed at home to take care of the children. I found him by chance."