Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Nicita and Paula hurried back to make a phone call to learn more about Gene Hackman. The situation is not optimistic. This actor who has no box office appeal has had a smooth year this year. He is very proud and feels that he can do everything.

On the one hand, he participated in the film "Mississippi Burning" directed by Alan Parker, which tells the story of three black volunteers of the civil rights movement who were murdered by the remnants of the KKK in 1964 in the conservative and backward Mississippi (the state with the lowest per capita income) during the civil rights movement. He plays a senior FBI agent who tries to uncover the truth.

British director Alan Parker is still the same old way. He turns a blind eye to the disgusting things in his own country and takes pleasure in exposing racial discrimination in America every day. In fact, the class contradictions in their country are much more acute.

Let's talk about the acting industry. In Britain, it used to be a profession for gentlemen who graduated from aristocratic public schools and Oxford and Cambridge and spoke in the accent of the West End of London. Peter O'Toole, Laurence Olivier and others are all like this.

A few actors who are not from that line, such as Michael Caine, who was born in the slums of the East Side, deliberately retained the "Cockney" accent of the East Side, which is carried out by manual laborers, in order to inspire later working-class actors to feel that they can also succeed.

However, you have to say that those Hollywood actors still like this kind of drama that exposes the dark side. This "Mississippi Burning" was invested and distributed by "Orion Pictures", which has a strong ability to win Oscars. It is estimated that it will be a strong competitor for the Oscars next year.

However, in terms of audience box office, this kind of movie is much weaker. It depends on winning Oscars to attract the audience's interest and go to the cinema. This is exactly the opposite of Ronald's "Working Girl", which puts satisfying audience needs before winning awards.

However, Gene Hackman's face really has no ability and need to attract audiences. He does not have any hope for this, but just wants to win another Oscar for Best Actor, add honor to his acting career, and join the ranks of those few actors who have won two Oscars in history.

However, this ordinary-looking actor was favored by the Japanese-American Miss Arakawa. He had not divorced his first wife yet, and the two had already lived together, which made Hackman's ego swell again. An old man always has to appear omnipotent in front of his young girlfriend.

After returning to Los Angeles, Ronald and Niceta talked for two hours behind closed doors. He didn't say it, but Niceta saw that her client was very unhappy. Not to mention the continuous production of high-grossing movies, this time he has been nominated for the best director, and he was despised as a young man. Ronald must be very unhappy.

The first priority of the agent is to find a way to satisfy the wishes of the client. Niceta encouraged Ronald to continue to invest resources in "The Silence of the Lambs". Even if he couldn't get the movie, at least he had to ruin Hackman's wishful thinking.

They still have time to wait for changes in the project. After all, no screenwriter dares to go against the wind and secretly adapt it into a script. And this kind of adaptation rights that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire are popular, and it must be a big star to guarantee profitability.

After all, no matter who plays the two protagonists Hannibal and Clarice, at least one of them must be a star to arouse the audience's desire to go to the cinema to watch. Ronald doesn't believe that an outdated actor like Hackman can really decide the fate of this popular adaptation alone.

…

Walter Murch has basically completed the final detail adjustments in "Working Girl". Ronald and he watched the entire copy and were very excited. The master's final assembly took a lot of thought on the details. The rhythm of the whole movie is much better, and every time the camera is shifted, the focus of the audience's thinking is taken care of.

For example, after Tess saw her boyfriend cheating, she wandered around the ferry terminal on Staten Island in distress, staring at the Manhattan skyscrapers across the pier. The next shot cuts to her sitting in the office, dressed like a manager, ready to pretend to be Catherine's colleague to start her last adventure.

But there are some problems with this switch. The audience was still feeling unfair about Tess's experience, but it suddenly switched to the office, where Tess changed her outfit. Audiences who are used to watching Hollywood commercial films will have the illusion that several years have passed and Tess has climbed to a high position as she wished.

Murch is a master of intuition in such places. He keenly discovered the problem and inserted a shot of the ferry docking taken by Ronald from an aerial photograph. This shot overlaps with Tess's experience at the beginning, evoking the audience's memories, and they know that Tess is just working on the ferry, and the time on the screen has not suddenly accelerated.

Such adjustments make the audience less likely to be out of the play when watching. The whole movie plays smoothly, and multiple climaxes echo each other. I guess they don't have much chance to go to the bathroom.

"After your adjustment, this movie has some Lubitsch touches." Ronald applauded and thanked Walter Murch who was sitting next to him.

Lubitsch is a very special Hollywood director. At that time, everyone made movies, but no one could make the audience like him as much as he did. At first glance, it was known that it was Lubitsch's work.

In the words of his apprentice Billy Wilder, he never tells you the result directly, but uses plot twists to let the audience find out the remaining 20% ​​of the answers that the movie does not directly show.

For example, Billy Wilder once explained to Cameron Crowe that he wanted to film a husband who had a cold relationship with his wife and was unfaithful. The screenwriter wrote four pages to express this plot, but Lubitsch tore up the script and just ordered a top hat to be added to the husband.

When the husband and wife entered the elevator together, they did not take off their hats (it was understood at the time that men should take off their hats to show respect when meeting ladies. But when they reached the upper floor, a beautiful blonde walked in, and the man immediately took off his hat to salute.

This plot was perfectly borrowed by Billy Wilder in his own movie "The Apartment". Shirley MacLaine, who played the elevator lady, used a portable makeup mirror to have a good impression of the male protagonist Baxter, played by Jack Lemon, in the elevator, and found out that the elevator lady was the lover of her boss.

"I got your check this time, and the second child's college tuition is almost earned. When I solve the family financial problem, I can do what I want to do." Walter Murch took the check issued by Ronald, which was twice the usual price, flicked it and put it in pocket.

"Don't you still have the third and fourth sons?" Ronald laughed. Murch's film and sound editing are both Oscar-nominated, and it's much easier to have him. Giving more is also rewarded. Murch didn't give him a job, but a masterpiece that he completed with the attitude of an artist.

He called the people at 20th Century Fox and they agreed to arrange a preview. Ronald continued his vacation.

"Hi, Ronald. So happy to see you."

Ronald came to the office of "Back to the Underworld", and the director Emil had basically confirmed all the actors. In the end, the role of Sybil Shepherd's daughter and Robert Downey Jr.'s girlfriend was given to Mary Stuart Masterson according to Emil's idea.

Masterson was the actor in John Hughes' project "So Kd of Wonderful), the actress who helped Eric Stoltz pursue the class beauty Lea Thompson and finally became a couple with his childhood sweetheart neighbor.

She still had short hair, but now it is dyed blonde. She is an actress with a very unique spirit. Among the typical girls in America, this kind of actress who is tomboyish on the surface but gentle and sensitive on the inside is rare.

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Masterson was deeply impressed by Ronald, the key figure who enabled Howard Deutch to keep his position as director and Eric Stoltz not to be replaced as the male lead again after "Back to the Future".

After a few years in Hollywood, Masterson has gradually realized that there are very few directors who can give actors a little extra opportunity. So seeing Ronald Ronald came, in a very cheerful mood.

"Ah ha, Mary, nice to see you, how long have we not seen each other? Haven't seen each other since the release of Incredibles in 1987?" Ronald happily hugged her. This actress is already 22 years old, and she can still play an 18-year-old girl, which is rare among white Americans.

"How are our old friends?" Ronald asked the actors in Incredibles. Lea Thompson played Lucas' Howard the Duck and became a box office bomb, but she never recovered. Eric Stoltz missed Back to the Future, and director Howard Deutch was almost cut off by John Hughes...

A group of frustrated people got together to shoot Incredibles, which only achieved a small success and did not bring them good luck afterwards.

"Lee (Thompson) and Howard (Dutch) are dating. They got to know each other during the movie promotion. Howard's career is going better than Lee's. He directed a comedy starring John Candy.

Eric is still the same. I haven't seen him for a long time. As for me, my luck may change now. The last time I saw you on the set, I kept the starring position."

Masterson is no longer the little girl who just entered the industry. She will also build a relationship with Ronald.

"Lee doesn't have to worry about her stardom," Ronald laughed. "As long as she goes back to the future to make a sequel, she will be on the list of female stars again."

"Will it? Is there going to be a sequel?" Masterson is also a fan of Back to the Future.

"It's possible. I heard that there is this possibility. Now that the writers are on strike, Michael J. Fox's evergreen TV series may also end. I heard Steven (Spielberg) mentioned that Director Zemeckis may give in and come back to make a sequel."

What Ronald said was the filming of Zemeckis' new film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". This movie is also a combination of real people and animation. The idea is a good one, but when it comes to implementation, the technical difficulty is far beyond expectations.

Spielberg's Amblin and Touchstone Pictures both participated in the production, and Disney had to add an additional budget of nearly 30 million for the shooting, and the total budget reached just over 45 million. It is considered the most expensive movie in recent years.

In addition, Disney also licensed famous animated characters such as "Bugs Bunny", "Daffy Duck", and "Pig" to appear in the movie for free. If these copyright fees are counted, the production cost is definitely more than 50 million, which is staggeringly expensive.

Even Disney's chairman Eisner had a hard time on the board of directors.

Now, Hollywood has called this movie "Robert Rabbit", and compared it with Lucas' Waterloo, the live-action and animation film "Howard the Duck". Many people began to have doubts about Zemeckis and Spielberg, who invested a lot of money in Ann Bolin.

Under the pressure of making a profit, Zemeckis had to put aside his pride and began to agree to shoot the sequel to the hit movie Back to the Future.

"Oh, that's great. Li is now shooting some B-level movies. Her new movie is called "Sex on the Spot", which is not very good. She is my idol, and I hope she can become a bigger star than her boyfriend Dutch."

Masterson still retains some innocence, and Ronald likes her very much. He had lunch with her and cared about Masterson's career development. There are not many suitable roles for actors with such temperament in Hollywood.

Ronald has opened up the acting path for actresses and made some movies with female stars as the central roles. In the eyes of these female stars, he is undoubtedly the best film director.

Thinking of the Canadian actors John Candy and Michael J. Fox, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, Ronald asked Richard to contact them again and prepare to reunite with them.

Because of the strike, the two Canadian stars were very free and soon made time to meet with Ronald.

"Ronald... This is my girlfriend, Tracy." Michael J. Fox walked into the party venue with a pretty girl. She was Tracy Pollan, a friend of Fox's character Alex in "Family Ties".

"Oh... Isn't it Lauren? Alex's audience will be disappointed." Ronald laughed and joked. In the TV series "Family Ties", the audience's favorite is the eldest son Alex played by Michael J. Fox.

This TV series has been played from 1982 to today, and the characters have grown up. Fox's character has also reached the age of starting a family and starting a career. In the TV series, Tracy Pollan's Ellen is a potential girlfriend candidate for Alex. But at the end of the fifth season last year, her role began to fade.

Lauren, played by another actress, Courteney Cox, is becoming more and more popular with the audience, and her appearance time is increasing.

However, in real life, Fox's taste is just the opposite. He prefers to compare with Tracy Bolan. The two co-starred in a movie last year and officially started dating. The progress is very fast, and they are preparing for the wedding this year.

"Hahaha..." Tracy Bolan also covered her mouth and laughed. Ronald was not the first friend to say this.

Just at this time, a noisy sound came from the door. Everyone looked and saw that it was the fat actor John Candy, who came with a big family.

"Ronald, this is my wife Rosemary, this is my son Chris, and my daughter Jennifer."

Candy has been going out with his whole family recently. He just finished filming the Great Outdoors, which was directed by Howard Deutch. The whole process was shot in Yosemite National Park. It was very hard to be separated from his family for several months.

"Hahaha, come to my place and have fun. There are Nintendo game consoles there." Ronald held Candy's son and daughter, one in each hand, and sent them in to play.

"This is salmon from the West Coast, this is butter puff made with Canadian maple syrup... and there are many Japanese and Hawaiian dishes." Ronald, who had settled the children, came out to chat with the two big stars.

They themselves may not care, but the ladies pay attention to healthy eating. The chef Ronald hired is good at fusion dishes, some of which are Canadian, and more are Hawaiian, Japanese, and Thai dishes.

"Wait, I also found a friend to come. It's my partner in the movie."

John Candy did not open the beer, but asked everyone to wait. This actress is a senior executive of many studios with strong relationships. They all greeted him through the agent and asked him to bring him to Ronald's party, especially to introduce him to Ronald.

"John?" A delicate voice came from outside.

"She's here..." John Candy waved to the outside, "Annette, here."

"Who is this?" Ronald looked at the person who came. It was obvious that she had the temperament of an actor, but he had never seen any movie she had acted in.

"Let me introduce you to Annette Bening, who I met in the movie Wild Wild, a very good actress. By the way, she also lives in New York and has been performing on Broadway."

"Hello," Ronald looked at the slightly plump Bening. This woman has a good temperament. It's a waste for her to be a Broadway actress.

"I'll help you," Annette Bening said. She took the plates and cups from Ronald and served everyone. It seems that she had worked part-time as a waitress in a restaurant before. Annette Bening quickly took care of everyone in an orderly manner.

She didn't have the eagerness of a young actress. She usually stood by and listened quietly to Ronald, Fox, and Candy chatting.

"I recently went back to Toronto with my family and happened to catch the football team's playoffs. The games there don't make as much money as in America, but the games are more intense and exciting."

Ronald smiled as he watched Candy talk about his fan complex. The three of them first became familiar with each other by watching the San Francisco 49ers' playoffs.

He turned his eyes and saw Annette Bening looking at him with a smile.

"Another salmon sandwich?"

"Oh, thank you." Ronald took the sandwich and ate it. He felt very comfortable being taken care of by a mature woman. He couldn't help but look at Bening twice more.

"I saw in a magazine that this kind of food is very good for men's energy." Annette Bening's eyes moved, and suddenly she changed from a virtuous woman who knew how to be cold and hot to a sexy and voluptuous girl.

"Well... it tastes very good." Ronald put his hand on Bening's waist, and then continued to chat with John Candy, "You are so crazy about your hometown team, you can consider buying it and becoming the boss."

"This is not the NFL, don't make fun of me, I can really afford it." Candy laughed.

"Hahaha..." Annette Bening laughed freely, and the muscles on her waist vibrated with the laughter, which also made Ronald feel full of energy.