Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The commercial time for Brooke Shields has not yet been decided, the start time of "Endless Love" has not yet been decided, and many pre-order plans have been interrupted by the strike. Ronald decided to go to San Francisco first to learn editing from Walter Mersey.

The trip to San Francisco has been decided with Merzi, but before going there, he has to go to the CAA headquarters to formally meet with Niceta and other agents. Richard has already told him several times. It just so happened that we took advantage of this opportunity to discuss the revised script and got things done together.

Michelle Pfeiffer is busy attending acting training classes in Los Angeles. Sometimes she can't find anyone on the phone and has to convey her thoughts through her agent.

After bidding farewell to his family, Ronald boarded a Pan Am flight to Los Angeles. This company, which originally specialized in overseas aviation, merged with China National Airlines and began operating domestic routes after the Prime Minister relaxed aviation control laws.

"Ronald, I'm so glad you're finally here." The main agent, Richard Lovett, made a special trip to the hotel where Ronald was staying in the evening and hugged Ronald as he opened the door.

Ronald got two bottles of drinks from the refrigerator, and the two young men started talking in the room.

"Richard, how is Hollywood? Is it greatly affected by the strike?"

"Hey, everyone is crazy. I just came from the office, and half of the people are still working overtime at eight o'clock in the evening. The shutdown has hit the actors hard. CAA has just made a big move into the film industry, and now everything is in chaos."

"I've brought my new script." Ronald took out a script from his luggage and handed it to Richard.

The revised draft is a quarter thicker than the first draft, totaling 119 pages. Ronald added an emotional line, the widow of a Vietnam War veteran, who worked in the Veterans Service Department and usually took care of the family of idiots who died in Vietnam after being forcibly drafted.

Because the fool's body was not found and no comrades could confirm that he had indeed died during the mission operation, he could not be counted as killed in action and could only be classified as missing. In this way, the fool's pension and military treatment are much lower than those of the fallen soldiers.

The retired platoon leader took the initiative to come over and live in a trailer next to the fool's house to take care of the fool's family. The neighbors around him didn't understand him and discriminated against him as a Vietnam War veteran. The fool's family didn't understand him either and were very wary of him. Only the widow of a soldier in the Department of Veterans Services understood the platoon leader's behavior and defended him to everyone.

The platoon leader was bullied, spat on, and thrown stones by neighbor children, but he never fought back. But when a soldier's widow came to visit him at night and was robbed by a stranger, she decisively took action and beat the robber away. It was only after showing the widow that he was a master of fighting, and the two had further communication.

Understand everything the platoon leader has experienced,

The soldier's widow fell in love with the platoon leader, and the two had dessert on page 73. Finally, the fool's brother saw the platoon leader's diary and learned the truth. The family accepted the platoon leader, who also settled in the fool's hometown town and lived with the soldier's widow.

Richard finished reading the script quietly, then closed the cover and remained silent for a long time. Suddenly, he put the script on the table with a loud bang, which startled Ronald.

"What? Is there something wrong?"

"No, this script is very good. It just so happens that Mr. Ovitz and Mr. Meyer are looking for scripts related to the Vietnam War for their clients. I will go back to the office immediately and let them see if they can recommend it to Sean Connery and Sean Connery. Sylvester Stallone.”

Ronald was also very happy when he heard these names. One was the original 007, and the other was the popular Italian boxing champion. "Is there hope? But Sean is old, can he play the role of a platoon leader?"

"It doesn't matter, the script will be adjusted according to the stars. Let's replace the platoon leader with a senior sergeant major and have a look." Richard Lovett was very excited. Under the background of the general strike, all shooting plans had to be adjusted. It's a good opportunity to sell the script to a big studio and then take advantage of it and insert stars into it.

Maybe it can also solve the current crisis of CAA. The strike has caused Sean Connery's film career to suffer another crisis. He has already confided in Ovitz the idea of ​​​​hopping to William Morris. If the first leading male star signed by CAA were to leave, it would be very detrimental to the company, and even the newly signed Stallone would be shaken.

And one of his clients has a Vietnam War-themed script that is currently popular. Who doesn’t want to get an Oscar nomination or even win an Oscar like “The Deer Hunter” with a good script?

This is very valuable to Ronald, himself, or company executives such as Ovitz. Ronald, a screenwriter, respects the studio's opinions very much and is also a quick shooter, which is rare.

There are thousands of screenwriters who can write characters, and there are thousands of screenwriters who can write stories, but there are not many screenwriters who can quickly revise their scripts according to the wishes of all parties and come up with satisfactory revisions.

Many screenwriters feel that their manuscripts are perfect. If they change a sentence or a word, it will make them feel as uncomfortable as picking their eyes out.

Let's add an emotional scene, and immediately add an emotional line, while still retaining the original plot of religion, war, anti-war, etc. without clutter. It seems that Ronald is a gold medal screenwriter, able to cooperate with stars and cope with all kinds of strange ideas and requests from stars and producers.

Richard Lovett hurried back to CAA's office, leaving Ronald alone in the hotel room.

Bored, Ronald called Michelle Pfeiffer again, but still no one answered. He contacted her and her agent Limato before coming here. In addition to being busy attending acting training classes, Pfeiffer is also trying to win a commercial for Lux soap. It dawned on him that he wasn't the only agent relying on advertising to stay relevant during the strike.

Due to the time difference, although it was only less than 9 pm in Los Angeles, Ronald was already very tired, so he did not go to find old friends such as Cameron, but took a hot bath and went to bed, waiting to see him tomorrow. You guys from CAA.

The next morning, Ronald woke up early and opened the door to see his agent, Richard Lovett, waiting at the door of his room.

"Are you here so early?" Ronald looked at his watch and it was only six o'clock. He got up early because there was a three-hour time difference and he was still in New York time. Richard seemed to have been there for a while, maybe he could still get up early. Stand and wait at the door.

"I go to the office at seven o'clock every day and leave at eight o'clock in the evening." Richard smiled.

"If you work so hard, it's hard not to succeed." Ronald smiled, "Should I be glad that I found an agent who works so hard?"

"I should be lucky, Ronald. Mr. Rick Niceta called me in the middle of the night last night and said that he was very optimistic about your script and would recommend it to Mr. Ovitz this morning." Richard smiled. Very happy, which is why he came to the hotel so early today.

Ronald asked him, "Are we going to CAA now?"

"It doesn't have to be so early. We can just get to the office at 9 o'clock." Richard now puts Ronald at the center of everything.

"Then you're here?"

"I'm here to accompany you. You have just arrived in Los Angeles and need help with many things. I drove the car and can take you to CAA."

"Then let's go have breakfast together." Ronald pulled Richard over and had breakfast in the restaurant of the Holiday Inn. They talked a lot about CAA and some of Ronald's ideas for rewriting the script, and then the two sat down Richard's little old car arrived at CAA together.

Rick Niceta took Paula Wagner and stood at the door of the office to greet Ronald, "Welcome, Ronald, the youngest gold medal screenwriter in Hollywood."

This time Ronald made no mistake and used the Hollywood etiquette of hugs and veneers. In the entertainment industry, any greeting that is less than a warm hug will be regarded as being very inconsistent with the other person.

"Paula, how is Tom?" Ronald and Paula hugged and said hello.

"He is very good. We will arrange an interview between him and Paul Newman next week. We arranged for Scorsese to talk to him last time. Thank you."

As the highest-ranking of Ronald's three agents, Niceta took Ronald around the company and greeted all the agents in the office.

Ronald noticed that even though it was not the 9 a.m. start time, there were already more than 10 brokers busy in the office, and some were still interviewing clients or chatting on the phone. This is really a very dynamic company, and everyone is working hard to make progress.

"Mr. Ovitz is busy. His schedule secretary said he will be free at 10:30. At that time, we will have a meeting with him and Mr. Meyer to discuss your script." Niceta and everyone returned to their office, Ask Ronald to sit down, "You can look around, or I can introduce you to some of our customers."

"You should be busy with your own business first. If possible, I would like to take a look at Hollywood's scripts in recent years. You should have quite a few here. I plan to collect scripts when I come to Los Angeles this time."

"Richard!" Niceta snapped her fingers and asked Richard to take him to the lounge next door, and then moved a lot of scripts from her office to him.

“A big part of my job is reading these scripts,” Richard told Ronald. “I help Mr. Niceta read the scripts and write summaries and comments, and he helps me graduate from the mailroom to getting I became an apprentice agent early.”

Ronald himself was quietly reading more than twenty scripts in the box. I first turned to page 73 to verify, and sure enough, in more than 15 of them, I saw the passionate scene within one or two pages before and after 73.

Sure enough, today's Hollywood must create some violent and passionate stunts to attract audiences to go out of their homes and go to the cinema to watch something different from TV. Since public television stations directly target children under the age of 18, the TV dramas produced by America's three major public television stations are relatively conservative and are only equivalent to G-rated movies.

Ronald has written many scripts, mainly musicals, biopics, and police action films. They are all the types of movies that had big hits in the past two years. Needless to say, the quality of the script is much higher than that of Roger Corman's The New World.

However, none of them contain content about the Vietnam War. It seems that my "My Brother's Keeper" was appreciated mainly because Rong Gui and The Deer Hunter detonated the theme of the Vietnam War and fit in with the current hot topics. Perhaps quality Vietnam War scripts were taken seriously and were not wasted on low-level agents like Richard.

"Ronald, let's go see Mr. Ovitz together." Ronald, who was flipping through the script, heard Richard's call and quickly stood up and walked with him to the conference room.

In the largest office of CAA, President Michael Ovitz is sitting inside. He is a middle-aged man with gray hair, wearing a pair of round glasses, energetic, and has heavy nasolabial folds on his face. His chin shows that he is a very independent person. And the right smile can well dilute the stereotype of others' stubborn character.

Beside him were two secretaries, both well-dressed young women. One arranges his schedule, the other keeps track of the phone calls he plans to make.

"Mary, how does my tie go with this suit? I'm going to meet a big client later." Ovitz looked at his tie repeatedly in the full-length mirror in the closet and asked Mary, the travel secretary, what she thought.

Mary had just been hired as Ovitz's secretary not long ago, and she was a little scared. After thinking for nearly ten seconds, she bravely expressed her thoughts, "It looks ugly. A purple tie and a light blue shirt are not suitable."

"Thank God, I finally have a secretary who dares to tell me the truth. I felt something was wrong, but they all said it looked good." Ovitz's exaggerated expression made his secretary Mary laugh.

"Mr. Ovitz, Mr. Niceta and his new client, screenwriter Ronald Lee, are here." The secretary in charge of Ovitz's schedule reminded him.

"Invite them to the executive conference room." Ovitz quickly put on a navy blue tie and said to them.

"Ah, welcome, Mr. Li." Ovitz sat on the table in the conference room and greeted Ronald without standing up to welcome him. The two secretaries next to him were still following his instructions, fetching and sending away documents that required his signature and other small notes that needed to be dealt with.

"Hello, Mr. Ovitz." Ronald sat on the other side of the conference table with Rick Niceta, Paula Wagner, and Richard Lovett.

"I heard you have a script about the Vietnam War?"

"Yes, the Vietnam War, brotherhood, anti-war, fools, religion, love between men and women..." Ronald briefly summarized the selling points of his script.

Richard took out two copies and sent them to the conference table. Opposite Ovitz is another CAA partner, Ron Meyer.

Next came the usual introduction. Ronald talked about some of his experiences when he started in the industry in the new world. Meyer also introduced the history of CAA and some of the main stars of the agency.

Meyer picked up the script and read it, "My Brother's Keeper, well, that's a good title."

Ovitz did not participate in the discussion, but immersed himself in reading the script.

"He is very busy and arranges his time according to 10-minute intervals." Richard whispered in Ronald's ear.

Then it only takes 10 minutes to meet me? Ronald thought to himself, still ostensibly echoing Meyer's comments about his script.

Five minutes had not passed when Michael Ovitz suddenly stood up from his chair without saying a word and walked out of the conference room.

"What a rude person!" Ovitz secretly commented as Ronald walked out of the conference room without saying hello.

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