Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 426 Submitting the script

Ronald drew the sketches and had a good idea. He turned on the computer, called up the latest archive, and began to revise the ending. He held the two cranes high on both sides of his body and feinted. The unique trick of the foot crane kicking the opponent's head is described in detail.

   Saved the file. Ronald was about to print it out when suddenly a thought occurred to him.

   He saved the document again as "Karate Project New", then deleted the new part of the specific action description, and added back the original description at the end.

"Danny used a crane kick, took off with one foot with his uninjured right foot, flew up and kicked Johnny's head to score, and then landed on the ground with his right foot. After the silence, the audience seemed to be taken aback by this move. The killer move was shocked.

   The referee declared Danny the winner, and the audience suddenly burst into the loudest and longest cheers of the two days of competition...

  End of the full text”

   "Squeak... Squeak", the dot matrix printer made a sound, stamping a dense dot matrix on the ribbon, and the last chapter of the "Karate Project" script was printed.

  …

   The next day, Ronald and Nisita went to the office of producer Jerry Weintraub to hand in the script. The Jew's office is also a converted house he owns, not far from his home in Beverly Hills.

After entering the door, Ronald saw a huge desk with a young secretary sitting inside.

   "Hello, we're here to find Mr. Weintraub, I'm Ronald Lee, this is my agent, and we've made an appointment to talk about the script."

   "Oh, let me see." The young secretary seemed a little flustered, and began to find the notebook on the table with the appointment arrangement. Stacks of magazines, documents, faxes make the desk a little messy.

   "Oh, found it", the Secretary-General let out a sigh of relief. "Ronald Lee, um, please wait a minute, I'll call Jerry, I mean Mr. Weintraub."

   Ronald smiled at the red-haired secretary, motioning her to ask for instructions first. She looked a little clumsy. The secretary is of medium-to-high appearance, but there is a kind of innocence in her temperament that is not common in the workplace.

   "Susan, who's here?" Jerry Weintraub asked when he saw secretary Susan Atkins, the daughter of an old friend, in the corner of the large office.

   "Here comes Ronald."

   "Ronald, have a drink?" Weintraub greeted Ronald and Nisita, then waved his secretary, Susan, to sit down and observe their meeting.

   "Is it early in the morning? Well, I'll have a glass too." Ronald reached out and took a glass of whisky. The sunshine this morning was very good, and Weintraub was in a very good mood like sunshine.

   "The Karate Kid"? Weintraub saw Ronald's name on the script.

"Yeah, I think it's simple and straightforward. It also piques the audience's curiosity." Ronald took a light sip of the wine, which tasted good, what appeared to be an aged scotch, with a woody and grainy aroma. .

   "Very good." Weintraub continued.

  Secretary Susan sat aside, looking at Weintraub's tall figure and wise face, with an expression of admiration on his face. It's really a very attractive person to be able to decide the production of a movie project.

   "Very good, I'm very satisfied". After a long time, Weintraub, who read the script in one breath, looked very excited, "This is the kind of movie I thought about in my mind. It has a sense of humor and a story. It's very good."

   "It seems that you are satisfied with my script, Mr. Weintraub." Ronald felt that the singer-manager and live performance organizer did not hide his feelings in front of others, and was considered a man of affection.

   "Of course, of course, after I made an appointment with Mr. Price, the president of Columbia, we will go to see him and try to get a one-time green light. It's a pity that he will be leaving soon, he is a very insightful person."

   Weintraub immediately called Columbia and agreed with Price's secretary the time to go to Columbia.

   In fact, because the film's shooting budget is all money from Weintraub, Columbia is only responsible for the distribution. Generally speaking, there is no special reason, and the script will not be rejected.

   "Then it's settled. When you come to my house, we'll go to Colombia together." Weintraub liked Ronald's script very much, and hugged Ronald.

   "I don't know who the director is...?" Ronald asked tentatively.

   "Well, I'm going to invite an Oscar winner for the best director to direct this movie. He is good at directing stories of small characters counterattacking, and is the best person to direct this story."

   "Oh? I thought you would choose me, Mr. Weintraub." Ronald quickly recommended himself.

"Of course, Ronald. You are a very good director, and I have seen two of your films. But this story of yours is a film that focuses on character development. The film you direct is more about the story, more Group play.

   Of course, I will not treat you badly. My first production film, it needed to be a hit. We can also have more cooperation opportunities. Besides, the director seems to be paying attention to his own interests, so I may not be able to invite him. If he refuses, let's have a good talk about it. "

   "Okay, you're the boss. I don't know who you're going to hire?" Ronald saw that he had made it clear, so he had to leave it alone for the time being.

"John G. Ivelson, the director of 'Rocky', is 'Rocky' also a typical ordinary man comeback movie? Or arguably the greatest ordinary man comeback movie. Ever since I When I saw the story in the newspaper, I thought he would be the most suitable director."

   "But the story of this 'Longwei Kid' is not fundamentally similar to Rocky, right?"

   "Oh, why do you say that? I think what I asked you to write is a counterattack story, isn't it a teenage version of 'Rocky'?"

   "That's not the case. What 'Rocky' is talking about is actually a story of a person who was looked down upon after giving up his career, and, with the encouragement of his lover, regained his courage to fight for his future and complete personality.

   And 'Longwei Kid' is essentially a heroic adventure film. The teenager is bullied, he meets a master as a master, teaches stunts, and finally defeats his opponent and holds the beauty back. It's actually a 'Star Wars' kind of story. "

"But Danny is, in essence, an ordinary man fighting back. Don't be like this, Ronald. My reputation is well known in the record industry. As long as I promise, there is nothing I can't do. You can rest assured that this After that, my company got on track, and I will definitely give you a chance to be a director."

"I feel like I have the right to give it a shot, Jerry. Why don't you give me a chance? I can go into detail about what I'm going to do about directing this film, what kind of film I make it into. I think as a Writer, I know the core of the story better, and I know better what he should be made of."

   "You're such a stubborn young man. Well, it's not a bad thing to hear. Then you come to my house earlier, I'll listen to your statement at noon, and go to Columbia's Price in the afternoon."

   "Thank you for your generosity." Ronald shook hands with him, left the script, and left with Nisita.

   "Susan, send them for me."

   "Oh, okay, Ronald, please come with me." Susan Atkins with red hair quickly stood up and hurriedly led the way to see them out.

   "What an interesting young man." Jerry Weintraub, started to open Ronald's "Longwei Kid" script again, and started to read it again.

"Unfortunately, in order to get a good distribution for the first film of my company, it must either find a famous director or a famous actor, otherwise, it will be the same as the last 'dinner' that I named myself as a producer, obviously The box office is good, but it doesn't get the tilt of Colombian resources."

  Jerry Weintraub looked at the script, the more he read it, the more he liked it, and the more he admired Ronald. He decided to give Ronald at least one chance to direct, maybe he could bind this young man to direct the next movie.

"Looks like you really like this script, Ronald," Nisita asked when sending Ronald home, "Last time Stallone asked you to write 'Falling in the Air', and then he has to drastically change your script, You handed it over without much resistance, and this time you have to hold on a lot more."

"Of course, this story is very interesting. I think American audiences may have never seen this type of film before. In the past martial arts films, like Bruce Lee's, the protagonist was a master as soon as he appeared, and our expectations were In how he defeated those fierce enemies.

   And this story is different, Danny was a weak one at the beginning, and was bullied. The audience watched him from the weak side, through the guidance of his master Miyagi, and gradually rely on hard training to become stronger. And then defeated Johnny who couldn't be beaten.

   I think the previous movies of this type were like "Star Wars", and the protagonists had a kind of super power. And in this karate movie, what the audience can see is that Danny is struggling. This is a real-world, possible story that they will love. "

"You know what? I think you have a special magic power to perceive what kind of stories the audience likes to watch." Nisita sighed, "When the script of Night of the Comet came out, I didn't feel where the story was. Attract the audience. After the release, I realized that the audience likes it everywhere.

   Some people like that popular episode, some people like sci-fi elements, some people like zombie horror movies, and some people like independent stories of girls. It seems that at that point in time, you kneaded all the popular elements together and presented it to everyone.

  I don't know what other people think, but a director who has the ability to catch what the audience wants to see will often make a career. "

   "The popular elements are integrated together?" Ronald thought of another aspect, "Is that the popularity has passed, and no audience will like to watch this movie in the future?"

   "It's possible, but you've already made it, haven't you? The box office has exceeded 17 million."

   "Yes", Ronald stopped talking, his dream is to make a movie that will be remembered in twenty years, and if it is still remembered in forty years, it will be even better.

   (end of this chapter)