Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Chapter 155: 第一百〇六

  Chapter 155 Chapter 106 Customized script

  Lawyer Lindsay Dole applied to the court for a temporary restraining order (TRO). Since the temporary restraining order does not require a trial, it can be issued as long as the applicant has sufficient evidence. The police's investigation records after receiving Pfeiffer and the confession records of the district attorney's routine conversation with Pfeiffer became decisive evidence.

  TRO prohibits the two crooks from approaching Pfeiffer. The validity period is 14 days, and an extension can be applied for when it expires. It was enough for Pfeiffer's agent to return to New York from Hollywood to help her solve the problem thoroughly. At that time, this is not something Ronald will consider.

  However, the Manhattan Police Department did not find any trace of the two of them. It is very likely that they have fled America and went to Central and South America to continue deceiving people.

   The casting of "Endless Love" is also becoming clearer. Michelle Pfeiffer listened to the advice of her agent Limato, and gave up the competition for the heroine, and was satisfied with getting a supporting role of the heroine's classmate. Tom Cruise is also confirmed to play Billy, a character who plays a small role but plays a key role in promoting the drama.

   "Blue Lagoon" received poor reviews after its premiere, but it did surprisingly well at the box office. Guber lost patience with Shields' mother's increasingly tough negotiating attitude and moved on to a third round of lead actress auditions. From what Ronald heard, the girl named Meg Ryan was promising.

   Ronald no longer participated in auditions, and his main time was devoted to final exams and script writing. Richard, the manager, gave him a lot of feedback. This time, the Vietnam War-themed script was almost not a free creation, but customized by CAA according to the trend of Hollywood.

  The American people still have a lot of trauma in their hearts from this war with heavy casualties. The weekly draft lottery has left a generation of middle-class parents in fear that their college-age sons will be drawn and sent to Vietnam.

  Another part of the parents are worried every week for fear that the postman will come to their door and hand over a death notice. Every week, television shows footage of dead bodies wrapped in bags and carried off planes. It can be said that the Vietnam War is still a nightmare for American families.

   Therefore, Hollywood studios are careful not to directly depict the brutal scenes of the Vietnam War. Many so-called Vietnam War movies actually describe the beauty of life before the war and the trauma of veterans after the war, or write a fantasy story with the background of the Vietnam War.

  This is also an unspoken rule in Hollywood. If the Vietnam War script is not written in this way, no one will buy it. Even if you find foreign funds, or pay for it yourself, to make a movie about the defeat of the Mi army in Vietnam, there will be no theaters.

  Maybe it will take a few more years until a new generation of moviegoers no longer have such memories, before there will be a movie that positively reflects the Vietnam War.

  Ronald is actually more happy with such a script. There is no war scene, which means that the budget is small. If it is mainly a post-war emotional drama, it is possible to invite big-name stars to star in it, so that the probability of his script being shot is also higher.

  Broker Richard made many long-distance calls, and the two communicated many times. Ronald summed up the feedback given to him by CAA executives, and the Vietnam War was to highlight three elements.

  The relationship between the first comrade-in-arms or a couple. The destruction of human nature by the Second Vietnam War. The third best has some controversial plots of the Vietnam War.

  Ronald thought for a long time, and suddenly realized, isn’t this just a copy of last year’s Oscar-winning movie “Return”?

  There are love triangles, disabled veterans from the Vietnam War, and military wives having affairs with old lovers. The routine of emotional CAA executives is to copy award-winning films.

  However, there must be a way to copy, and the three plots of Ronggui must not be used again. Ronald decided to go deep into the veteran group and find materials related to the three elements.

   On this day, Ronald came to the dance supply store again, where many widows of Vietnam War veterans would come to hand in the leg warmers they had made, drink some coffee and chat. The RTKD dance supply store brings not only economic benefits to these veteran wives, but also a social occasion.

  Ronald communicated with them a lot, and still knew some unknown inside stories about the Vietnam War. For example, because the conscription system is fair on the surface, many rich people actually avoid military service by sending their children to study abroad. A large amount of military service is borne by the sons of poor families.

  A veteran wife also told some anecdotes that her husband had told. A few years after the start of the Vietnam War, conscription became more and more troublesome. In order to make up the numbers, McNamara, a "genius" minister of the Ministry of National Defense, actually used his brains on mentally handicapped people whose IQs were below the passing line.

  McNamara formulated a plan to recruit tens of thousands of mentally handicapped people into the army every year. He himself has never been on the battlefield, and he fancifully believes that soldiers only need to obey orders and do not need a high IQ.

   As a result, these so-called "McNamara's fools" were not suitable for the battlefield at all, and they couldn't even master basic shooting and grenade throwing. The troops also need to allocate already tense people to take care of them, so as not to accidentally hurt their own people.

  The casualty rate of these mentally handicapped soldiers on the battlefield is very high, several times that of ordinary soldiers. Many veteran wives know that their husbands have mentioned that they had mentally handicapped comrades, but they don't know that this is a planned act by the American government.

  Ronald thinks this plot is very good. It is controversial, anti-war, and scolding the American government. It must be welcomed by Hollywood.

  He went to several libraries in New York to find relevant information. But nothing was found. Even if this kind of scandal happened, the federal government also knew that it stinks. It censored the news reports, and the original data had not yet reached the declassification period.

  So Ronald's plan to reveal the scandal failed, and he turned the plot to focus on individual phenomena.

  A mentally handicapped person serving in the military camp was excluded by everyone, only a platoon leader from a military family who had been in the army for generations took pity on him and often took care of him in ordinary training and fighting.

   But the retarded soldier still drags the company down in the fight, and he ends up dying in one of the biggest battles in the movie...

The retired platoon leader found the family of the mentally handicapped soldier who died in Vietnam, and helped to take care of his parents, younger siblings. The family of the mentally handicapped soldier was very grateful to him, and persuaded him that the death of his son was not his fault, and hoped that he could bring Forgive and start a new life.

  Until one day, the younger brother of the mentally handicapped soldier came to play with the platoon leader. In the platoon leader's diary, he found the truth about his brother's death...

   "So what is your truth?" Diane Lane found the outline of the script written by Ronald at Aunt Karen's house, and was very curious, so she asked Ronald directly.

   "I haven't figured it out yet. Maybe he killed the sneak attacking enemy and saved the entire company; or he threw grenades, killed his comrades, and was shot dead by the platoon leader."

   Ronald shrugged and replied.

  Diane Lane often comes to see her cousin Donna, in order to study math and science so that she can be admitted to high school and complete high school courses to get a diploma. In fact, it also kind of means running away from his father Bert.

  In particular, the box office of the westerns she acted in was not satisfactory, and there were no good comments from the film critics. The number and quality of the scripts sent to her recently showed a downward trend.

   "What? You haven't thought about it yet?" Diane was taken aback. "When writing a script, don't you always think about the story first and then write it out?"

   "I don't know how others write it. I just follow a certain framework, determine the general direction of the plot, and then fill in the details. As for the plot, anyway, it needs to be revised many times according to feedback before it is finalized."

  Ronald recently ran into Diane several times at his aunt's house. Donna's tutoring was good, and Burt was relieved and even encouraged his daughter to come over. Being friends with girls of the same age and high IQ is actually good for her daughter's acting career.

   "Okay, when you finish writing, you must show me first. By the way, why doesn't your script have a name?"

"I haven't figured it out yet, I need a big name. No one knows me in Hollywood, so the script name is the only tool to interest the producers. I won't be able to until I have a script that is made into a blockbuster movie." Give the script a name at will."

   Diane Lane's interest quickly moved away from the script, "Why isn't Michelle coming with you?"

   "She is reading the script of Endless Love, and she heard that it will be launched next month, and she wants to be fully prepared."

  Diane Lane has been in the showbiz since she was a child, and she knows that actresses are generally very concerned about whether the appearance of the scene is beautiful. With Ronald's help, Michelle Pfeiffer should have a guarantee of appearance.

   "With you as a director assistant, I will definitely give her some positive shots, hmph."

  Ronald laughed. Director Zeffirelli and Michelle share an agent, so it’s really useless for him to contribute.

However, before Ronald took a few photos for Michelle, and drew a few storyboards with Michelle's scenes, which was seen by Zeffirelli by chance, and he greatly appreciated it, and invited Ronald to be his crew member. assistant.

  Ronald estimated the shooting time, which was basically within the time frame of his summer vacation, and he was unwilling to be too far away from Pfeiffer, so he agreed.

   "Ronald, do you think the rules my father set for me are reasonable? I actually regret that I didn't take 'Blue Coral Reef'." Diane was still quite jealous that a supporting role of Pfeiffer could have several frontal shots.

   "I can't say that well. Bert is an insider, and he should know best what is the most suitable development route for you."

"But those ideas of his were decades ago. Find a big-name director and try to play the leading role." Diane Lane complained, "Nowadays, big-name directors rarely direct teenage movies. Playing the younger sister always has very few scenes.”

   "It's hard to act in a play with many roles, and the film critics still don't speak well."

   "Film critics are after-the-fact evaluations, which have nothing to do with the creator's artistic level." Ronald persuaded.

   "Hmph, you are famous all over the world and praised by film critics, of course you say so." Diane Lane leaned back on the sofa, hung one leg up on the armrest, and began to concentrate on drinking and watching TV.

   Ronald Xiaoxiao, his old acquaintance, two film critics from the Chicago Tribune and the Sun, Bald and Glasses, their film review TV program has been broadcast by PBS as a national syndicate since last month.

   In this way, every new episode of the program, the two of them can be seen by audiences across the country, and they became the most popular combination of film critics for a while.

  The two of them spoke highly of "Fame", giving it 3.5 out of 4 stars. Ronald felt that the film's failures, such as incomplete narrative, revealing too many dark sides, and too many foul language so that it was rated as R, in the mouth of Glasses Albert, became a big plus.

   But the bald Sisko’s views are a bit like Ronald’s. The songs are good and the dances are good, so young audiences like it.

  Their hard-working promotion did not greatly improve the box office of the film. After the large-scale release, the box office of a single theater soon fell below the average line, and it will soon be closed by the theaters.

On the other hand, the previous film review program of the two was also dug up and broadcast by PBS. The audience’s response seemed to be good when they commented on the "Rock and Roll High School". Call to congratulate, Ronald's second dividend is just around the corner.

   I'm late today, sorry

  

  (end of this chapter)