MTL - Exploiting Hollywood 1980-Chapter 888 Award Nomination Voting

  Chapter 888 Awards Nomination Vote

  After receiving Ronald's invitation, Corey Yuen flew from Xiangjiang to Los Angeles at the fastest speed. He got off the plane and was taken to Ronald's office in Daydream.

   "I'm sorry I didn't let you rest first, I have a lot of things here, so I have to trouble you to come over and talk about the 'Boxing World' first." Ronald first apologized to Corey Yuen.

   "It's okay, I slept well on the plane, and those of us who come from martial arts background are not afraid of this kind of hardship." Corey Yuen took out a folder from the luggage and handed it to Ronald.

   "This is Qiao Hong. He competed with Bruce Lee back then. Now that he is older, he is still in good shape. He is very stylish in Tang suits and Japanese ronin kimonos."

In the folder are audition photos of several actors named by Ronald. The actor named Qiao Hong, born in 1927, has a beard, but his face has a sense of elegance of a high-level intellectual, and he is wearing Dongying costumes. The audition photo is very suitable for the tutor who plays the leading role.

  After the death of Bruce Lee, Qiao Hong returned to Xiangjiang to be a film and television actor, and his role is not an action actor, but more connotative roles. He's also good at English, having played the part of a tycoon in Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Palace.

   Such a candidate saves the trouble of dubbing in the later stage. Ronald is very satisfied with Corey Yuen's preparation.

"This is Jet Li, a domestic martial arts champion. The Shaolin Temple he took is well-known and he is a big star." Corey Yuen took out another photo, "He recently changed careers as a director. If you want to hire him, the salary will be higher, but in China and Southeast Asia is very popular at the box office."

"Can he speak English?" Ronald is not interested in the so-called domestic box office appeal at all. After being fooled last time, he already knows that domestic and Southeast Asian box office are mainly buyout copies. Small companies, don't think about box office cuts that even the Big Seven can't do.

   "Not very good. I heard that he is studying and planning to immigrate with his wife and children."

   "This Pass", Ronald is not very interested in actors who need to be dubbed later, "Are there any other martial arts champions in China? It is best to speak better English."

   "They all don't speak English very well. Except for JetLi who has already arrived in Xiangjiang, all other organizations are in the martial arts team. The leader's approval is required to make a film, and the remuneration must also be given to the martial arts team."

   "Is that so..." Ronald was even less interested in inviting people from the martial arts team to film. Many domestic martial arts practitioners do not study well, and one can imagine their English proficiency. Moreover, if the film is to be released in America, it must be registered with the major trade unions. This remuneration arrangement is estimated to be in conflict with the union's regulations. Ronald is not sure if it will cause trouble.

   "If you must record live, then you can consider this. He has also participated in domestic martial arts competitions and won the routine championship. I was born in America, and English is not a problem."

   "Oh, this person is not bad looking, he can play the protagonist's master's son. The martial artist who participated in the martial arts tournament and was killed by the villain can just lead to the reason why the protagonist participated in the martial arts tournament to avenge his brother."

   Ronald looked at the martial arts champion with fluttering hair in the photo, and he was quite photogenic. He turned the photo over to look at the resume, on which was written his name and date of birth: Qiu Yunbo – 1960.

  …

  Put Corey Yuen in the hotel and let him beat the jet lag first. Ronald started filling out ballots for the major unions' 1987 film awards.

  The awards of the two major scriptwriters unions of the East and the West are jointly awarded. Divided into two categories: movies and TV shows. There are three awards under the film category, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Documentary Screenplay. The Western Screenwriters Guild is mainly for film screenwriters, and Ronald also joined the union as a film screenwriter, so he has the right to vote for film awards.

  Ronald filled in John Patrick Shanley in "Moonlight" and Bertolucci in "The Last Emperor", and the other temporary vacancies. Nominations will be announced in early January of next year after the ballots are mailed.

  The directors' union awards include categories such as Best Theatrical Film, Best Short Film, Best Director's Debut, Best Documentary, and Best TV Director. Ronald has five voting slots in each category. By mid-January next year, the nomination list will be issued.

  Of course my "moonlight sultry" must have a vote. Then Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor," Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun," and then old friend Adrian Lane's "Fatal Attraction," the last vote, Ronald thought for a moment, Voted for "The Princess Bride" by that new acquaintance Bob Reiner.

   This movie Ronald saw afterwards, and it was unexpected in structure. The film opens with a grandfather telling his sick grandson a story from a storybook. Very corny beginning with the princess in love with the handsome guy who tends the horses.

But unlike the classic story of the princess and the knight, at every turning point, there will be a flashback to the scene where the grandpa and the grandson tell the story. The grandson doesn’t want to hear the old story, and at this time he always asks the grandpa to lead the story to an unexpected direction. direction.

  Then the camera flashed back to the story itself, just like a child who used his imagination to make up and change many call stories and string them together.

This kind of storytelling technique is very difficult to deal with, and the actors, Robin White who played the princess, Carley Elwes who played the horse, and Billy Crystal who played the pirate, all chose The roles are well done and the acting is superb.

   Ronald is also worthy of his own vote from a purely technical point of view.

   After filling out the nomination votes for various awards, Richard also came to Ronald's office. He came to collect the vote slips.

   "Aha, your Directors Guild Awards votes are full."

   "Haha, yes, this is my profession, so I wrote all 5 places on my own initiative." Ronald laughed.

   "It doesn't matter, the list of trade union awards, generally we respect the choice of customers." Richard picked up the voting slip from the Screenwriters Union, "The last three, I will use them to exchange resources."

"Please, I haven't written a script for a long time. I'm almost no longer a professional screenwriter." Ronald was a little ashamed. Although he paid his membership fee every year, he hadn't participated in the activities organized by the Western Screenwriters Union for a long time. up.

"Over there, Nisita and I will use some resources to exchange votes for Olympia Dukakis and Cher..." Richard and the others got Ovitz's promise, and this year they will be nominated for the Oscar for Best Director. The two of them, together with Paula, wanted to mobilize all available resources and give Ronald a little more hope.

  The nominations for the Oscars and the nominations for each special award can only be voted by the people of this special project. The members of the Academy of Film Arts and Technology are composed of senior professionals in the industry, and their membership qualifications indicate their majors.

  For example, Ronald, although he is a member of two labor unions, but when he joins the academy and votes for Oscar nominations, he can only choose five film nominations as a director. For the nomination of the best screenwriter, he does not have a vote.

  This is why, the nominations for the Oscars each year largely overlap with the awards of each union. These two groups of voters are basically the same group.

  Of course, there is a special case of Oscar awards, and that is the best picture award. In theory, this award is for the producer to receive, but his nomination is not voted by the Producers Union.

  Members in the Academy of Film Technology and Art, no matter whether they are producers, directors, screenwriters, or actors, have the right to nominate the best film.

   And for the best picture nomination vote, a member can choose ten films instead of five for other awards.

   "Which one is your best film submission?" Richard took out a large notebook and began to write down. The nomination vote for the best director confirmed that Ronald would be selected for the five films from the Directors' Union.

   "I want to add another "Wall Street", and remove the "Princess Bride". You can decide the rest."

Ronald From the overall point of view of the movie, "The Princess Bride" is not so good, and "Wall Street" starring Michael Douglas, although the performance and director level is not high, but the overall presentation is better than other movies have strength.

   "Wall Street" is also an award-winning film released in December. After watching it, Ronald felt that the audience's reaction was absolutely unusual.

   This movie was originally about Oliver Stone exposing the ugly side of Wall Street predators. In it, Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, took advantage of the loopholes of the rules. Instead, the conscientious Charlie Sheen played Bud, who was taken away by the police as a scapegoat for manipulating insider trading.

  But when the audience heard Gekko's famous line "Greed is Good", they clearly stood on Gekko's side, and some young audience members even applauded.

  This kind of reaction that violated the director's original intention made Ronald very touched.

  The people of America are not very disgusted with tycoons who make huge amounts of money legally but unreasonably. The puritanical moral code of the baby boom generation has now been replaced by this kind of money worship, as long as it is legal to make money, it has become a common consensus among young people.

Now that everyone has a positive attitude towards making money legally by exploiting loopholes, Ronald also discussed with Kevin Wade, the screenwriter of "Working Girl", and added some plots to Tess's project, so that she accidentally discovered it. Legal loopholes can bring the client of the owner of the listed company a magic weapon to resist the merger of Dongying Capital.

   After all, Ronald is not the kind of Broadway-born screenwriter or director who uses drama theory to plan the direction of characters and plots.

  What he really values ​​is what plots the audience likes to watch. If what the audience likes to watch conflicts with the so-called Puritan moral code, or the likes and dislikes of theater theorists and film critics, Ronald always stands on the side of the current audience's taste without hesitation.

In the end, Oliver Stone arranged for an ending reversal, allowing Bud to cooperate with the police, wearing a recording device in the park, and luring Gekko to say what he broke the law. In the end, Gekko was prosecuted, and Bard Germany was sentenced lightly.

  But the direction and ending of the whole story are not in harmony, it seems that the director deliberately did it. The story itself is complete where Bud was caught and sentenced and Gekko was at large. Oliver Stone deliberately added a Billy Wilder-style "end after the end" because of his attitude towards financial predators.

  Billy Wilder's false ending is the aftermath part of the story after the climax, and there is another reversal, which is completely unexpected to the audience. But this kind of reversal needs to be paved in the first act and the second act in the early stage. The audience regrets the false ending, and the final reversal is satisfying.

The movie "Wall Street" had an accident at this point. The director thought that the audience would be dissatisfied with the fake ending, but in fact, they agreed with the philosophy of "bad guy" Gekko in their hearts. It looks awkward.

  But this is also what Ronald likes about this movie. After editing the movie, the director actually only completed 90% of the creation of the movie, and about 10% of the final part has to be completed by the audience. This kind of audience's disapproval of the original intention of the director's creation, and understanding the plot according to their own ideas, are often an indispensable part of high-grossing classics.

"Okay, let's vote according to this, I'll go first." Richard took the voting slips from the Screenwriters Union and the Directors Union, and then took the nomination ballot slips for Ronald Oscar, and rushed to CAA to discuss with Nisita. How to cooperate vertically and horizontally, and who to make deals with can get the most Ronald supporters.

  After Richard left, Kevin Wade, the screenwriter of "Working Girl", came to discuss with Ronald again the direction of revising the script.

"In the final ending, the leading actor, Jack Trainor, did not stand on Tess' side, but instead supported Tess's boss, ex-girlfriend Catherine. In the end, Tess was recognized by the client, proud at work, but frustrated emotionally. Will the ending make the audience dissatisfied?"

   Kevin Wade asked. He and Ronald had been chatting about improving the script. On the one hand, Ronald asked Bannon to check and added a lot of professional content on Wall Street mergers and acquisitions, so that the script, at least in the eyes of professionals, had no major flaws.

  On the other hand, Ronald and Kevin Wade had a lot of discussions on the emotional line of the protagonist Tess.

   "Now the age of marriage and childbearing of professional women in America is being delayed year by year. I'm not sure, but the current female audience, watching movies, also expects that the heroine must live happily with the hero.

  Look at the hit 'The Princess Bride', it didn't follow the old fairy tale formula at all, and it did well at the box office. I'm a little skeptical that the current urban female audience, seeing Tess being able to transform from a secretary to a manager, will feel that she deserves a better man? "

   Through Donna’s introduction, Ronald also met many elite women on Wall Street, communicated with them on the phone a lot, and negotiated for Demi Moore and Joan Cusack to follow them as trainees for two weeks.

   When talking about this emotional scene, these elite women working on Wall Street all looked down on the role of Jack Trainor. In the end, he didn't trust Tess to think of the legal loophole to fight back against the acquisition of Dongying Capital, and on Wall Street, loyalty is the most precious quality.

"Well, I'll take your word for it and write another ending where Jack Trainor gets fired because he doesn't trust Tess. He ends up meeting Tess at the ferry terminal in lower Manhattan, giving them an open ending .”

   "Hmm, that's a good idea." Ronald nodded in agreement. Elite women don't like Jack Trainor's infidelity, but at the end of the day, they want romance in the workplace. Such an open ending may satisfy both urban professional women and small-town housewives. Both types of female audiences can interpret according to their own preferences.

   This is how Ronald’s time is filled every day, and all kinds of things fill his time slot.

   When Corey Yuen recovered from the jet lag, the two actors recommended by Chaoli also came from San Francisco and other places to accept the joint audition of Corey Yuen and Ronald.

   "Oh, your muscles are really similar to Schwarzenegger's."

  In the audition room, Yangs took off his shirt and posed in a bodybuilding pose for the two to see. His muscle lines are very good, and the resolution of his upper body muscles is also very high. Apart from their race differences, he and Schwarzenegger may have the biggest weakness in that they don't look like good people.

  Yang Si's face is full of flesh, his eyebrows are a little bald, and there is a sense of ferocity when he smiles. A born villain.

   "How is it?" Ronald asked Corey Yuen.

"I didn't expect you to invite him. He also made a few movies in Xiangjiang. The villains there couldn't get high pay. He went back to America to open a bodybuilding agency. I thought he had quit the film industry. Yang Si The best choice for the villain in this movie."

   Then, it was Bruce Lee's eldest son who came to audition.

   "Hi, my name is Brandon Lee."

  Brandon is tall and tall, which is inherited from his white mother's genes. With a parted hairstyle and a distinctive American accent, Ronald has a good impression of the son of the legendary kung fu superstar.

   "Your uncles in Xiangjiang missed you very much after you went to filming last time. If they have the opportunity this time, they can see you again." Corey Yuen said the last sentence to Brandon in Cantonese.

  Corey Yuen is also quite satisfied with Brandon's audition. His appearance is not very photogenic, but Kung Fu movies mainly focus on action scenes, and he is not as particular about the actor's appearance as other types of movies.

   Ronald looked over, and Corey Yuen explained to him. Brandon Lee has always wanted to be in the film industry, but there were no opportunities in Hollywood. Last year, he went back to Xiangjiang to shoot a Cantonese action movie, but it didn't cause any box office response.

  However, many of the martial arts in Xiangjiang were brought up by his father Bruce. When the eldest son returned, they all came to help. Yang Si, who was brought into the film industry by Bruce, took the initiative to play a supporting role for Brandon and praised him as the hero.

   "I said, in this way, eight to four in the ring, two highlights in the semi-finals, can give Brandon a little more scene." Ronald and Corey Yuen decided to give Brandon Lee an important supporting role. He represented his father's Jeet Kune Do style of martial arts in the Budo Conference.

  …

   "What? Don't want to participate? Why?" Surprisingly, the next day Brandon Lee's agent called and declined the invitation for the second audition. Ronald was a little surprised when he received a call from Corey Yuen, "He hates the lack of appearances?"

"They said on the phone that they didn't want to go back to Xiangjiang to film. The last time they went to film, they gave Brandon a bad impression. The working hours were very long, and the food was not used to it. But it may be the reason you mentioned, There are fewer scenes."

   "Okay," Ronald thought, it seems that someone else has given him a chance, "Then you can figure it out."

  (end of this chapter)