Chapter 177 Disney's list of "genius directors"

   This name is familiar to Ronald. It was he and Ovitz from CAA who went to Disney to promote the script, but came out after being rejected by the president and dismissed their vice president. Remember that Wilcht was mainly in charge of live-action movies at Disney.

  Walter Murch had a long conversation on the phone.

  Ronald walked out of the editing room, added some hot water to the thermos, and drank silently. It seems that Oscar's curse is not always so effective. As long as you don't drift and do things in a down-to-earth manner, there will still be people in the industry who will recognize it.

   "Let's go, let's go have something to eat together, I still have something to talk to you." After a long time, Walter Murray finished his phone call and patted Ronald on the shoulder who was sitting drinking tea.

"Disney will invite me to direct a movie, I will consider writing a new script, and then put it into the production of the film, I can no longer teach you more editing knowledge in the diorama." Diorama Coffee outside the Sentinel Building At the hotel, Walter Murch clarified to Ronald the content of Disney's phone call just now.

"I'm sorry, this time you came here to learn the editing process, and I also prepared for you to take advantage of the opportunity of organizing the film to learn the editing process of Apocalypse Now from beginning to end, but directing the film took me many years. A wish, a rare opportunity."

   "This should be something worth celebrating, Walter, I'm already very grateful." Ronald quickly adjusted his mentality and congratulated Walter Murzy.

"I will go back later and tell Angie about my decision to resign from Diorama and devote myself to Disney films. Tomorrow I will come to Diorama Company, and you come too. I will teach you the most important principles of editing, and the rest You can learn it by yourself slowly in practice.”

   "Huh? What? Isn't the timing of blinking that you told me today the most important secret of editing?"

   "No, this is at best a trick, or technique. There is no secret in editing. Anyone with a pair of scissors and a piece of tape can edit. The important thing is which part is cut and which part is left."

  Walter Murch took a sip of Italian coffee, as if remembering.

"When I married Angie, I lived in her hometown of the British countryside for a while. At that time, many relatives and friends of her heard that I was in the film industry, and they all thought that Angie was lucky and would have a good life in the future. .”

   "But they don't understand what editing means. In the industry language in America, editing is called editing, which means editing, but the British are used to saying cutting, which means cutting the film."

“So they asked me, is it like an 8mm home camera, just cut out the bad shots and keep the good ones. I was young and very repulsed by this kind of simplification of my work. , so I told them a lot that editing work is actually a very advanced job, requiring a lot of experience and skills.”

"But I always remember this conversation, and the longer it goes on, the more I feel that Angie's relatives are right. As simple as it is, editing is actually cutting out the bad shots and catching up the good ones. And we want to What I have figured out is what is a bad shot, what is a good shot, and how to connect the good parts.”

   Ronald repeatedly chewed on the phrase "editing has no secrets" and felt that it made sense. In many industries, the core principles that really work are the one or two hands, and the key is personal comprehension and application.

  So I look forward to tomorrow's teaching even more. However, Walter said that he would use film to teach, but it is not clear now.

   "What movie did Disney invite you to make, Walter? If it's convenient to disclose." Ronald asked during the coffee time after the meal.

   "It doesn't matter, because the film to be shot has not been decided, it is only based on the script I wrote. I have long wanted to make a sequel to a masterpiece of film history decades ago, and see if they are willing to vote for the script I created."

   "A masterpiece in film history? Disney? Are you going to make a cartoon?" Ronald wondered?

   "No. It's a movie with real people combined with model stunts." Walter smiled, "But you guessed it's not too far away, it's indeed an adaptation of a fairy tale."

   "Could it be Snow White? Cinderella? Sleeping Beauty?" Ronald guessed a few classic Disney animations in a row, which are more convenient to be adapted into live-action movies, and Dumbo is not mentioned.

   "It's The Wizard of Oz"

   "Isn't that an MGM movie?"

   "Good, but the rights to the sequel to the Wizard of Oz novel are with Disney."

  …

  In Disney's president's office, when Ronald came to promote the script of "My Brother's Protector" last time, the president Ron Miller, whom he didn't see, was discussing with his deputy Wilcht.

The nephew of Walt Disney, Roy Disney Jr., called "Disney's door-to-door son-in-law, former football star, ignorant layman, and failed movie actor" the current Disney president Ron Miller. , drinking whiskey comfortably.

"So Walter Murch's idea is good, although he is relatively low on our list, but John Milius just wants to make his dark war film, we Disney can't invest in this natural R-rated film, at most Put it on PG."

   "The Wizard of Oz series has a large number of readers, and the MGM movie in 1939 is still missed by many audiences. It's time for a sequel." Vice President Wilcht echoed.

"We haven't made an animated film in years since Diane's uncle Roy Sr. passed away, and now we're finally getting back on track. We've got to keep up with the times. Star Wars and Black Stallion, two big box-office hits starring real people. No matter how you look at it, it should be produced by Disney."

  After Ron Miller came to power, he began to integrate the power of Disney, hoping to lead this veteran Hollywood manufacturer back to glory.

  But among the old courtiers left by Walter and his younger brother Roy, many people only obey Disney's blood, his wife Diane's cousin Roy Jr. In order to completely control the company, Ron Miller's starting point is to shoot live-action movies.

The box office of the live-action movies led by him in the early stage was good, and the offensive against the best-selling author has also achieved preliminary results. The author, who is very well-known among young readers, has agreed to sell the rights to adapt the film of his next novel that has not yet been published to Disney. .

  I heard that Warner Bros. is also lobbying for the same author, but after all, Disney has always been targeting the youth market. Compared with Warner Bros.’s background in making gangster films, it must attract the author’s interest more, so that Disney can take the lead.

   "So our "genius list" has come to the last few?" President Ron Miller woke up from the success, drank his whiskey, and asked his vice president.

   "Yes, Walter Murch is the third from the bottom on the list. Either the ones in front are not interested in cooperating with us, or the themes they propose are not suitable for Disney."

   "Pull those who are unwilling to cooperate with us into the blacklist, and they will not be allowed to invest in Disney in the future." The former Los Angeles Rams tight end likes to manage the film company with a professional football attitude.

  As soon as he took office as the president of Disney, he and his deputy Wilcht proposed their own "potential director list plan". After 20th Century Fox's "Star Wars" and Diorama's "Black Horse" were sold, Ron Miller always believed that this kind of movie should have been shot by Disney.

  For children and young audiences, fairy tales, wonderful imagination. He pored over the bios of the directors of both films, Lucas, and Carol Ballard. The two have a common feature, that is, before filming these two blockbuster works, they were both novices and were not valued by the industry.

So Ron Miller and Wilcht secretly drew up a list, collecting potential seeds who had made achievements in other types of work in Hollywood and hoped to become directors, and then called one by one in order to secretly contact them. . If the two parties intend to cooperate, and the subject matter that the other party is interested in matches with Disney's audience market, then enter the cooperation process.

   "As long as his script passes the test, we will invest some money to test the water." Ron Miller was immersed in his vision of bringing Disney back to a great company. "Do you have any candidates that can be added to the potential list?"

   "There's Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote The Empire Strikes Back, Joe Dante, who started out making low-budget exploitation films, and John Landis, the latest comedic genius."

   "We all get in touch. As long as it meets Disney's audience and values, and the story can achieve a rating of PG or higher, we can try the water."

   "There is one more..." Wilcht hesitated, "There is a very young screenwriter, he was recently appreciated by Frank Price of Columbia, and his debut script sold 350,000."

"What is your name?"

"Ronald Lee, his script was also handed over to Disney, but that day, Mr. President, you happened to be discussing with the producer Kinneman about adapting a best-selling novel to a movie. In addition, that movie is about the Vietnam War. R-rated, not suitable for Disney, so we did not participate in the bidding."

"Ronald Lee, I remember this name. Kinneman told me that he was just a villain trying to catch his name. I heard that he used the audition topic selection in the crew to deliberately let Kinneman's little girlfriend lose the female lead. .

  And a young man in his early 20s, what profound Vietnam War script could he write? Frank Price was really out of his wits. Just ignore him. "

  …

   "So you know Jenny Rosenberg, the screenwriter of 'Black Horse'?" Walter Murch said to Ronald. "The director of that film, Carol Ballard, is Coppola's senior brother. In fact, Disney most wants to cooperate with him. He has already submitted a script about wolves in the wild."

   "Yes, I was working in Roger Coleman's small low-budget production 'High School of Rock'. Jenny was the scene reporter for that film. She said that she would participate in the adaptation of the script of 'Black Horse'."

“Her name was Rosenberg, and she was related to some Jewish power people,” Walter Murch said. “She came in after the script was written and changed some of the dialogue and details about horse racing, which she had grown up with. "

   "Is that so?" Ronald is no longer envious of Jenny's connections. After "Black Horse", Jenny's screenwriting talent has not been generally recognized by the industry, and she has received new projects. It's better to move forward step by step like this.

   "So, see you tomorrow?" Walter hurried back to discuss with his wife about changing careers.

   "See you tomorrow, thank you, Walter."

  (end of this chapter)