MTL - Exploiting Hollywood 1980-Chapter 869 stars

  Chapter 869 Star Participation

"The beginning of this script is too dull. I have to find the opening theme song (in the dream), and then match it with the helicopter aerial shot, overlooking the center of New York from the direction of Staten Island, Manhattan Wall Street. The new song that directly shocked the audience , and hold on tight..."

"Tess and Mick Dugan, a chef who wants to open a restaurant, have been in love for a long time. Their breakup needs some proper preparation. The two are not the same in spirit, and Dugan has to cheat too much. Tess, so that the audience can rationalize the plot of Tess breaking up with him and refusing to get back together, and not anger this secretary who is trying to climb up"

  …

  Ronald used a pencil to write down the various inspirations he had generated from reading the script on the yellow post-it, and then posted it on the position of the page that needed to be modified.

  Kevin Wade's script is good at narration and foreshadowing, but the shortcoming is that it doesn't jump out of the structure of the stage play. The characters and plots in it are arranged in several centralized scenes, so that it is convenient for the scenery on the stage to switch between acts.

  But movies are different from dramas after all. Editing can be used to escape the limitations of the set and fly freely in the limits of the audience's imagination. Therefore, some hidden plot lines can be paved and then skipped. When it is necessary, a scene will be cut, and the audience will not feel clueless.

  Ronald doesn't mind giving Wade a little help. Anyway, if he is the director, he doesn't need to sign the screenwriter, just don't sign for the contribution.

   "Ding Dong..."

   "Who is it?" Ronald asked very unhappy when his thoughts were disturbed.

   "Um...it's me, Helen."

   "Oh, wait for me, I'll come", Ronald put down the pencil, got up and opened the door of the apartment

  "Ronnie", Helen Slater specially asked for leave from the crew of "Sticky Fingers" to meet her lover. As soon as he entered the door, he put his arms around Ronald and gave him a deep kiss.

"I thought you would come tomorrow. How is your rehearsal going?" Ronald was very happy that Helen came back to see him specially. She is currently preparing for the movie directed by Catherine Bigelow and has just started the rehearsal before shooting .

   "Catherine wants us to rehearse for two weeks. I have already memorized the lines of the script. This time, you are here. I asked her for leave and said that I would accompany you on the weekend. She couldn't refuse this excuse."

   "What do we have for dinner?" Ronald happily went to get his coat. Donna has a handsome guy on her date, so don't want her old brother anymore. Fortunately, Helen was able to come, and finally someone accompanied her for dinner at night.

   "Anything is fine, we can just find a place to eat in the building."

   "Alright, I'll call Little Bud and tell him that he doesn't need a car at night." Ronald went to the living room to make a phone call.

"Okay, I'll sit for a while." Helen sat on the chair next to the desk where Ronald was working just now. A wave of heat left by the man was transmitted through the chair. Helen felt that the ironing was very appropriate, and she began to open the Something on the table, "Hey, what's this?"

   A thick script of "Working Girl" appeared in front of her eyes. Helen saw a lot of post-it notes on the side of the script, and her curiosity made her open the cover.

   "Helen, Helen! Shall we go?" Ronald had already finished making calls, but seeing that Helen hadn't come out, he came over to call her.

   "Wait a minute, this script is very good, I have to finish it." Helen was fascinated by the story of the "working girl" and the encounter with Tess, and she quickly flipped through one by one.

   "Eh...", Ronald put down his coat, wondering why he forgot to put away the script.

  Helen saw the plot of Tess' loss after she found out that she was betrayed by her direct manager Catherine and took the merger idea she came up with as her own. She was disappointed to find that there is a very wide gap between those who have a family background and those who have not attended a top-notch university.

  After discovering that Catherine was deceiving herself, Tess returned home in a daze, just in time to see Mick Duggan, the chef boyfriend, having an affair with a dark-haired beauty on the bed. She suffered a double blow from her career and relationship, and suddenly lost her direction. Staying at the beach overnight, looking at Manhattan across from home, Tess is not willing to be a secretary forever, and her friend Xin came up with a crazy move to pretend to be a colleague of her boss Catherine, and when Catherine was away, she made the project her own.

  As a rich girl, Helen has never considered issues from the perspective of those who are not born with much privilege. She was moved by the experience of the protagonist Tess, and her eyes were a little moist.

"I never thought that these secretaries and assistants would encounter so many difficulties in reality." Helen heard Ronald's footsteps, she looked at Ronald, "Did you Are you often made things difficult by people with a background like Catherine?"

   "That's all in the past, it's nothing..." Ronald remembered all the difficulties he encountered when he entered the industry, which is considered a very normal thing in America. But one good thing about this country is that there is still a narrow upward passage for those who work hard.

"Oh, poor Ronnie," Helen touched Ronald's face, "ah, sorry, I read your script without your permission. I was just curious by those post-it notes you wrote, and then Once you see it, you can’t let it go.”

   "It's okay, I haven't finalized the directing contract of this movie with 20th Century Fox yet. Don't tell anyone else just yet," Rona replied.

   "Then what happened to Tess? Did she defeat that cruel boss, Catherine, and did she get together with Jack Trainor?" Helen stood up and was about to eat.

   "Forget it, you can finish it here, I'll ask them to send it to the room." Ronald signaled Helen to sit back and finish the script, and then he made a phone call to order food.

   "It's really a good script, like those classic plays on Broadway."

   After nearly an hour, Ronald ordered dinner to be delivered to the apartment, and Helen also finished reading the script. She seemed very excited, this script was very to her taste.

   "You seem to like this script very much?" Ronald didn't expect Helen to like it so much. This is a very good indicator. A girl who grew up in a city like Helen is exactly the audience for this movie.

   "Yes, I have never seen such a wonderful script since I was a child. You must make it look better."

   "Why?" Ronald wanted to know more about the views of the audience.

"I grew up watching movies where women are gentle, beautiful, caring for their husbands, and taking care of their children. This is the first movie I've ever seen where women can be just as good at work as men. Places like Wall Street can also get ahead, and a man may not necessarily be able to do a position."

Helen came up and put her arms around Ronald, and said slowly, "You know, the one I filmed with Michael (J Fox) before; 'Secrets of Success', although it was also a working girl, but there were very few scenes, The role of that character involved in professional work is even less, and the key parts of the mergers and acquisitions in the movie are all thought of by the character of Michael."

"I like Tess in this movie very much. This is the professional woman I want to play. Unlike 'Secret of Success', it is actually a beautiful woman next to a man. Even the top manager is because of the relationship with the boss. Personal affair."

   "It's broken", Ronald thought to himself, Helen's feelings were obviously moved by this character.

  But Helen Slater's acting skills are still not enough to handle such a complicated role. Tess was just a female secretary who didn't have self-confidence at first, but hoped to jump out of the bottom competition and strive for higher development through hard work.

   Later, the fake became real, pretending to be an M&A manager in the workplace with ease.

  Tess before and after, no matter in appearance or inner temperament, needs to act out the feelings of two completely different people.

  This kind of acting that convinces the audience requires a particularly strong imagination, so that you can first believe yourself, turn yourself into a character, and then impress the audience and make them believe.

Helen, although her acting skills are also improving, but she lacks life experience for the kind of inferior person in the workplace, the life of a secretary who is angry, and the temperament of a senior manager in the workplace. Ronald doesn't quite believe that she can act. it is good.

  Sometimes this kind of thing can't be learned by an acting teacher.

   "Do you want to play this role? It will take a lot of time to prepare, your new play?" Ronald felt that this matter had to be said directly.

"Hey, if I hadn't got an appointment for this 'Sticky Finger' film, I would have auditioned anyway." Helen bit her lower lip, "I know I might not be ready to play such a role, but I’m always unhappy when I see it. When I graduated from high school, my classmates said in the message book that I was more like a Wall Street working girl than an actor.”

"Have you noticed that the roles of professional women are slowly increasing now. Whether it's movies or TV shows. There will be opportunities in the future." Ronald patted Helen on the back to comfort, "Besides, this is a female secretary who is almost thirty years old. , if you do, you won’t be able to play the role of a girl.”

   "Ha..." Helen became happy again, now she still looks like a girl, playing a high school student, college student or something.

   "You will be the final director, right? I really want to see you direct this movie." Helen sat in the living room, chatting with Ronald while eating.

  She is very happy. The film she made is about to start shooting. The director, Catherine Bigelow, is very kind to the actresses, giving them many hints to inspire them, and giving Helen a lot of space to play.

  However, it is a movie about the stories of two young girls. This "Working Girl" contains business wars, love, betrayal, conspiracy, and other classic drama elements. Helen was originally a drama fan, and Ronald being able to direct such a classic drama movie suits her appetite very much.

   She also likes to watch Ronald’s previous commercial films, but as a girl who received drama education since childhood, she still hopes that Ronald can one day direct a drama film, which will be nominated for an Oscar for best director and will be famous in film history. This is the perfect boyfriend of your dreams.

"You know? When you put it that way, my desire to direct this movie is even stronger. I really want to direct this kind of urban fairy tale movie, to give every female employee who works hard in the company a hope, even if it is the one in the movie. That kind of hope."

   "Great, you will win an Oscar." Helen looked at Ronald affectionately.

   "I will find a way. Fox's original intended director is nothing but Mike Nichols. I will win the opportunity to direct."

   "Who?" Helen was taken aback, "Is it 'The Graduate' director Mike Nichols?"

   "You should have more confidence in me." Ronald wiped off the food sauce sticking to the corner of Helen's mouth with his hands, put it in his mouth, and took a mouthful.

  Seeing this scene, Helen couldn't help sending herself to Ronald's mouth.

  …

  Helen Slater came here on leave after all, and everyone in the crew was waiting for her to rehearse, and she went back to the crew the next morning.

  Ronald also started to get busy, calling his agent Nisita and naming himself to compete for the director of the script.

   "What is the main conflict between 20th Century Fox and Mike Nichols?" Ronald asked Nisita. Brokers are always the first to know about these relatively secret conflicts.

"Nichols' main conflict with 20th Century Fox is that he doesn't want a star in the movie. It's best for him to repeat what happened to 'The Graduate.' Star, Dustin Hoffman was a fledgling kid back then, hanging out on Broadway.

   Several of his recent films, such as ‘Silkwood’, used Meryl Streep, and Cher. Back then Cher didn't have much movie experience, and Streep wasn't a star.

Last year's "Heartfire" directed by him used the star Jack Nelson and his old partner Streep, but the box office was a complete failure, with over 20 million US dollars, which is not as high as the production cost. After all, Nicholson alone It takes six million.

  So this year his new film "Genius Soldiers" went back to find Matthew Brodick. He had just recovered from the fatal car accident in Northern Ireland. If anyone asked him to act, he must listen to the director. "

  Nisita really knows a lot of inside information. Fox’s Goldberg has a lot of money this year. Apart from the few movies Ronald participated in, he has great ambitions just after taking office and wants to make some achievements. At the end of this year and early next year, it is expected that there will be five to six major productions. As long as one is successful, he will be able to gain a firm foothold within Fox.

   Sure enough, it is a characteristic of 20th Century Fox, who likes to bet big. Ronald smiled, the production companies in Qidali have different commercial styles. Paramount, with Michael Eisner at the helm, was obviously more stable, knowing how to make movies that had the greatest chance of box office success.

  He has now brought this style to Disney, but it is a bit unsatisfactory. Disney, which was originally the bottom of the seven, actually needs a big gamble like Fox.

   Twentieth Century Fox is currently in a poor business situation, and what it actually needs is a steady strategy, step by step. However, their traditions and the unfamiliarity of the foreign Australian boss with America prevented Goldberg from taking the company's best interests into consideration, and took a few big bets for his own future.

   "So, our key is to be able to find suitable stars to participate in?" Ronald asked Nisita.

   "That's right, in fact, you have never worked with real big stars in your previous success. They are very difficult to get along with. Sometimes on the set, you need to play a few rounds of shoulder-bumping games to tell who is the boss.

  So the key is whether you can find a star who is willing to cooperate with you, so that your resistance will be much smaller.

  Goldberg's idea is very simple. He wants stars to participate in the show, which can increase the insurance for the box office. You have to pick one of the current A-listers...Too bad Tom Cruise is not the Jack Trainor in this movie, he might be able to play it ten years from now. "

   "So Goldberg needs an A-list male star?" Ronald asked.

   "One A-level male star, or two A-level female stars. There is room for discussion. Goldberg prefers male stars. After all, they are more guaranteed box office for theater managers and can be blockbusters."

   "Now in Hollywood, are there any A-level stars? Send me a list, and I'll pick them slowly."

  …

   "Squeak..." Ronald in the business center of the building waited for a long time beside the fax machine before the long list faxed from Los Angeles was all spit out from the fax machine.

   With a hiss, Ronald tore off the fax paper, quickly folded it, and went back to the apartment.

  It seems that I have to put a fax machine in the apartment in the future, otherwise I always come to the business center to receive faxes, and it will be troublesome if the secret is leaked.

  CAA has an internal ranking for male and female stars in Hollywood, according to their status in the eyes of fans. In addition, CinemaScore also provides a similar sample survey.

   However, the list sent to Ronald by the CAA brokerage company is only divided into grades, and there is no ranking of individual stars. Because one-third of the list is CAA's clients, one cannot favor one over the other.

   Sean Connery?

  The number one ranking will always be the predecessor 007, Sean Connery. He was the first star signed by CAA, and he will always occupy the largest office in the office building besides the partner.

   Ronald felt that Connery was not suitable for the role of a Wall Street banker. After all, he was a New Yorker, not a Scottish gentleman.

  Pass.

  Harrison Ford?

   Ronald remembered throwing a party for Harrison in order to force Bruce Willis to give up his privileges. Harrison Ford expressed the idea of ​​wanting to cooperate with himself once. This Jack Trainor character has a lot of romantic scenes, maybe he will try it?

  Maybe.

  Warren Beatty?

  Maybe you can't play the banker?

   Jack Nicholson?

  It's a bit too evil.

  Michael Douglas?

   Well, he is not bad, but he just played a Wall Street banker, I wonder if he would like to repeat it?

   Ronald looked down one by one on the list, and everyone carefully evaluated it. There are fewer A-level male stars, but more A-level female stars.

  Meryl Streep

  Jane Fonda

  …

  Anyway, female stars can generally play roles that are more than ten years younger than their real age. These veteran female stars can also play roles like Tess and Catherine who have just turned 30.

  Michelle Pfeiffer?

  Hmm... The star status of female stars is actually not as good as that of male stars. Today's A-level female stars generally earn only one-tenth to one-fifth of that of male stars of the same level.

  Thus, actors who have acted as leading actresses in two or three successful movies will also be included in the A-level female stars. Of course, the A-level threshold is a little lower than that of male stars.

   I didn't expect that Michelle Pfeiffer, who I haven't seen for a long time, can now enter the A-level list.

   Names with beautiful faces and figures passed under Ronald's fingers.

   "Huh? Huh..."

   Ronald suddenly found a familiar name, is she also an A-list star?

  (end of this chapter)