Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"How is your relationship with Ronald? Isn't he going to propose to you soon?" Helen Slater's mother Alice came to inquire about the news.

"Why do you have such an idea?" Helen Slater felt very surprised, "We just feel good together, so... we don't have the idea of ​​getting married."

"Your relationship is not stable, and he invested so much money in your movie?" Alice was a little confused.

"No, he is good to talented people. Look at the directors of several movies he invested in, and he had no relationship with them before. He is such a person. When he sees a good movie, he wants to make it happen.

Besides, even if he proposes, I won't agree." Helen Slater clarified to her mother that Ronald's investment in a movie does not mean that he will propose.

"Why?"

"It's hard for me to live with him every day. We will quarrel every day. We can tolerate each other after seeing each other every once in a while."

"Oh... my poor daughter..." Alice found that Helen Slater might be too deeply influenced by her free thinking.

…

"He won't transfer for Helen Slater. I asked someone to check. He did donate money to build a small church on Staten Island. It's not very expensive." Michael Ovitz visited Kirk Douglas who was on vacation in New York. One of the most authoritative elders in the Hollywood Jewish circle.

"Do we still have girls like Helen? Those who meet Ronald's aesthetic standards. When men reach old age, they will yearn for the warmth of family. As long as they meet his aesthetic standards, have a gentle personality, and have a firm identification with Jewish traditions. We can find a way to introduce them to Ronald."

"He has worked with many Jewish girls, such as Jennifer Grey and Jennifer Jason Lee, but his taste for women is..." Ovitz also learned about Ronald's love history. They were all top beauties in the model and film circles, and he did not show a special interest in Jews.

"Alas, the biggest problem of our ethnic group is that there are not many beautiful girls. Helen is already the top Jewish in Hollywood."

"He may not be interested in ordinary girls. Jennifer Grey is already the most popular actress in our ethnic group. It's a pity that Debra Winger is married and has children..."

"Damn Tim (Timothy Hutton), not only ruined his career, but also dragged down Deborah. Try to create opportunities for Ronald, and try to arrange for him to meet all the beautiful girls in the industry..."

"Nowadays, beautiful actresses all have boyfriends, and they are also our important assets..."

"I don't care about these, Ovitz . I heard from Michael that Ronald is a rare genius who knows how to succeed in this industry. Those male actors now have a tendency to self-destruct, and all the beautiful women resources are inclined to Ronald, just like we are inclined to Steven (Spielberg).

By the way, how are you looking for Steven? Steven likes beauties who look like foxes. "

"I have arranged several suitable candidates for his new Indiana Jones movie."

"This time, I have to be more careful and identify with the traditions of Judaism." Old Kirk Douglas combed his meticulous hair with his hands, and then nodded to Ovitz. These are the effective means that Jews have been trying to monopolize the entertainment industry for decades.

Give more opportunities when entering the industry, grasp the key positions of large companies, win over young artistic talents, and then create a virtuous cycle, so that young people in the ethnic group have great advantages when they enter this industry from generation to generation.

"This old bastard..." Ovitz left Kirk Douglas's sanatorium. This man, who was once a representative of the Jewish gang in Hollywood, was able to withstand the pressure of McCarthy's blacklist and fish out good left-wing screenwriters to work for him. He is definitely not comparable to the fake gangster like Frank Sinatra.

Now marriage is no longer recognized by the public as a contract that must be abided by as in the past. Hollywood stars, let alone divorce, are not despised by the audience for cheating in marriage. Everyone is used to the fact that stars are such emotional playboys.

Only those who respect marriage will be bound by this form. Ronald, judging from his communication with himself, is not someone who wants to enter into marriage so quickly.

However, love is hard to say. What if he falls in love with a Jewish girl at first sight? Becoming one of them is very good for CAA's business. It doesn't hurt to try.

For example, Spielberg's Jewish wife Amy Irving does not respect Jewish traditions after marriage, so now that there is a gap in their relationship, everyone is trying to find him a girlfriend who respects traditions more.

...

"Ronald, what did I tell you then?"

Helen's father, Gerald Slater, the president of PBS, also met Ronald again in the office.

"This is a misunderstanding..." Ronald is no longer the fledgling screenwriter of the year.

"Misunderstanding? I thought you would be with Helen... I have already prepared all the money for the wedding." Seeing that Ronald was not overwhelmed by him, Gerald sat down angrily. He was too busy, why is Ronald not as easy to scare as before?

"I remember you wanted to start a family before? You and Helen have been very close later, I thought, can you tell me what stopped you?"

"It's true that I have seen too many marriages break up in the past two years..." Ronald replied.

In recent years, I have seen many marriages of Hollywood directors break up due to the busy filming. George Lucas is a distant example, and Cameron is a good friend recently. The celebrity couple Madonna and Sean Penn also had a domestic violence scandal.

In his heart, he still longs for the warmth of family, but in this world of fame and fortune, he can't tell who can live with him for a long time. Instead of getting married and divorced to make a lot of trouble, it's better to take it slowly. Anyway, it's not bad to be free now.

"Hey..." Gerald threw a cigar to Ronald, and then took out brandy. He himself had nothing to say about this. He also divorced Helen's mother and started a family.

"I can't ask you for more. I still said what I told you at the time, don't make Helen sad."

"I won't..." Ronald raised his glass and drank a little with him.

"Is your PBS affected by the strike?" Ronald changed the subject.

"Very big, our business has increased by more than 200 percent," Gerard said with a smile, "PBS is one of the few TV stations that has cooperative projects in Britain and Europe. The BBC documentaries we introduced, and several political satires, "Yes, Minister", and the sequel "Yes, Prime Minister", all broke the TV station's record for audience share.

...

"The TV programs nowadays are really boring, all TV stations are showing animal documentaries." When Ronald returned to Staten Island to visit his aunt and check on the progress of the garden, he heard Aunt Karen complaining about not having TV to watch.

"Only old movies are replayed during the TV show time slot. You see, even the ones I watched when I was a child are being replayed. "Aunt Karen was very unhappy about the writers' strike, which deprived her of her favorite "Growing Pains" and "Family Ties". These two family dramas were her favorites, and there were no new movies to watch now.

The remote control was tuned to ABC, and a very old TV series appeared on the TV. Ronald thought the first few edits were pretty good. A person picked out the photos of the members who made up the team one by one with his hands, and put them on the table after he picked them.

The hand put away the selected photos of the members and began to explain the details of the mission. This is a 007-style spy TV series.

Then a match was struck, and a white line on the screen was burned short by the match, accompanied by very nice music.

TV series in the 1960s and 1970s all had theme songs. The music was gripping from the beginning, as if some mysterious and dangerous action was about to be carried out. The style of jazz music laid out the theme layer by layer. They were all 007-style gambling, shooting, lock picking, masks and other elements. The scenes were quickly edited and finally stopped at the red title.

"Mission Impossible (also known as Mission Impossible) ipossible)".

"The quality of TV series at that time was not low..." Ronald watched the beginning with gusto. In fact, except for the small TV screen at that time, which resulted in too many close-up shots, the plot and performance editing were all of high quality.

"I liked watching it very much at that time. Before Steve went to Vietnam, he often watched it with me." Aunt remembered her husband who died in Vietnam.

"Oh, now I can watch it with you." Ronald hugged his aunt and watched an episode with her.

"Dong Dong, Dong Dong, Dong Dong, Dong Dong..." Ronald hummed the theme song of Tiger's Courage in his mouth. This song is a bit magical and unforgettable.

"Someone found me and invited me to shoot a low-budget movie." Emil Adolino, the assistant in Dirty Dancing, told Ronald good news in the New York office of Daydream.

"Oh, congratulations. It's not easy to have a legal script at this time. I'm happy for you."

"But they haven't figured out the distribution channel for the movie yet, and they found me to see if Daydream has the ability to distribute it. "Emile Adolino was still so reserved. He would get nervous when he talked about his own affairs.

"This is a good thing. The strike of the Screenwriters Guild has left all distributors without movies to distribute. I think any distributor you send it to will evaluate your movie with several times more enthusiasm than before." Ronald laughed. Now it is really not the past. Distributors have to beg for those old script projects with filming permits.

"But I still want to find Daydream. I feel very safe here." Emil Adolino smiled shyly. This guy is the quiet type and speaks very softly.

"Of course, it's my honor. Please ask him to come over. I'll let Michel take a look at the script and make an assessment to see if we can distribute it independently or find other companies to distribute it jointly."

"Okay, I'll let him come over." Emil Adolino's mustache seemed to curl up with joy.

"What is the subject matter? "Ronald saw Emil Adolino was so happy that he had to ask him about the content of the movie.

"You see, I almost forgot. It's called Life After Life, a romantic love quadrangle. The man who just proposed to marry died in a car accident, and after reincarnation, he fell in love with the daughter of his former fiancée. Suddenly he remembered his past life... In short, it's a bit complicated, but many female audiences like this kind of plot." Adolino briefly introduced the plot.

"It's complicated enough..." Ronald touched his chin. This kind of movie actually requires a lot of acting skills, but if it is made as a low-budget movie, those female audiences who go to video rental stores should be able to accept it.

Anyway, if it is controlled below 3 million, it is worth a try. Adolino's directing skills have been verified in commercials and V, and it is time for him to try a feature film. Moreover, scripts are very scarce now, so this is a very good project.

The screenwriter who came with Adolino, Perry Howze, also came because of Ronald. After talking about the intention of creation, Ronald felt good.

This person is not a novice. He has written several scripts and polished them carefully. The first movie that became a film was the modern Cinderella (Ystic Pizza) that Ang Lee revised for him. It seems that he is a professional in writing romantic dramas.

I called Ang Lee to confirm the level of the script.

Ang Lee said that his script is generally good in structure. He has seen the finished film of Modern Cinderella and it was shot very smoothly.

However, the box office of this screenwriter's debut work "Mail Order Maid" was average, and it also shattered the star dream of the female star Ali Siti of the Boys Gang. So whether it is suitable or not, Ronald has to evaluate it himself.

"So it's more of a test of the actors' acting skills, right?" Ronald put down the phone and discussed with Michelle Cannold.

"Our small production is not that demanding on acting skills, and the audience will generally forgive the flaws in the performance of a small production."

"I think so too. Anyway, Adolino's debut work can also be used as a practice. If it doesn't work out, there is a videotape market to support it. This kind of plot is very similar to old TV series. I've watched some recently, and it's actually very popular with housewives."

"Then are we sure to invest?" Michelle Cannold asked Ronald if he would give the green light.

"Look for other distributors to see if we can co-distribute it, so we can save some money. New films are scarce during this period, and movies like ours with legal scripts will be very popular." Ronald mentioned it.

"Okay, I'll make a round of calls to the seven major and medium-sized companies in Hollywood."

"Do you trust Emile so much? You haven't worked with this screenwriter before?" General Manager Eddie closed the door and discussed with Ronald after Cannold left. In this way, they met, talked, and then gave the green light. Isn't it too risky and a bit hasty? The production departments of the seven major companies will have at least three or four rounds of evaluation before filming, and finally make the final decision.

"We are a small company, and we don't have the conditions to do any scientific evaluation. Besides, those who evaluate don't really understand. When I went to the door myself, I saw many unprofessional people wasting good scripts." Ronald smiled. The pain he had suffered in the past was useless, so there was no need to let the newcomers experience it again.

"As for Adolino, he has been with us for a long time. The series of commercials for the deputy commander received a very good response. I have enough time to confirm his shooting ability, ability to coordinate people and resources, and ability to complete work under pressure.

Adolino gave a very high score. I think the next step is to trust them and treat them as well as possible within the scope allowed, so that they can take care of us in return and make our business good."