Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 445 Ovitz's Ambition

   "It was a really great party, Mary. I hope it was a great birthday too."

   "Oh, it's my last birthday. I'm tired of living."

  A man dressed in a black robe with only a white neckline as a priest, helped an elderly woman with white hair go upstairs.

   Ronald is at home watching his own recorded TV series, and ABC is running a four-episode miniseries called "Thorn Birds." Originally Ronald rarely watched TV dramas, but this miniseries is because Richard Chamberlain is the male lead. He previously played the lead role in the TV series "General" led by Ovitz, and also won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award. .

   Of course, Ronald was even more attracted to the white-haired woman, the most famous actress in Old Hollywood, perhaps the best actress who had never won an Oscar. Or from Ronald's point of view, she is the best acting of all the actresses.

  Barbara Stanwyck, the real girl with a thousand faces, can be a liar, a bad girl, a victim, a childish teenage girl, a columnist, and all of them are vivid. She is already over old, and this time she is also playing an Australian manor owner on the TV screen.

  The two walked up the stairs and were about to enter Mary's bedroom.

   "Kiss me and then bye, Ralph," Mary, played by Barbara Stanwyck, says to Reverend Ralph, played by Richard Chamberlain.

   "Good night and happy birthday to you." Ralph took Mary's hand and bowed his head to kiss it.

"No! Kiss me on the mouth, Ralph, kiss me like we're a couple." Barbara Stanwyck's acting skills burst out, the kind of emotional expression that a woman longs for a man to kiss her, not at all. Like a seventy-six year old man.

   Ronald was taken aback. He hadn't read the original novel, and he didn't know that Pastor Ralph was sent to Australia because he violated the prostitution precept.

   "But I'm a priest!" Ralph defended without changing his face.

   "You're not a priest, you're just a timid, atrophied man! I love you, I've always loved you."

   "No, you don't love me. I'm just a phantom in your memory of the past. When you see me, you remember when you were young."

"Let me tell you what it's like to be old, I'm still young under this stupid skin! I still feel! I still want! I still have dreams!" Barbara Stanwyck's eyes were full After being unwilling to the past, "I still love you!"

  Ronald pressed the pause button on the remote and went back to watch it again. The performances of these old opera bones are consummate, and the progression of emotions is very rhythmic, and they meet good opponents again. This kind of climax performance of Stanwick can be said to be seen once less.

   When I watched it again, Ronald felt that this performance of Barbara Stanwyck was not only a plot, but also a farewell to his past acting career? The increase in experience, the increase in wisdom, if not for the aging of her face, she has just reached the peak of her acting skills now.

   After watching Stanwyck's performance a few times, Ronald took notes. I am always told that my acting skills are not good, so I still have to watch more of the performances of these old actors who have experienced the golden age of Hollywood. Anyway, I don't really want to act, but to inspire actors to perform.

   "Hey, who is this actress?" The tape continued to play, and several years later, Pastor Ralph seduced Maggie, the granddaughter of old lady Mary's brother.

  This actress has big eyes and a refined temperament, unlike an American girl. The inner wildness of the soul and the outer soft appearance are precisely an interesting contrast. Not really an Australian girl, right? Only that wild land can cultivate such characters.

   "Rachel Ward", Ronald took her name down.

   "Have you seen the ABC miniseries 'Thorn Birds'? Barbara Stanwyck is so good in it."

   The next morning, Ronald went to CAA's office to chat with Nisita about his next movie project. Haven't seen Nisita for a while, bragging first. Ronald talks about his discovery yesterday to Nisita and Richard's two agents.

"It was a project that Mr. Ovitz facilitated." Nisita smiled. "Richard Chamberlain was the lead actor in Ovitz's first packaged TV project 'General'. It was the first time CAA tried this Packed, but we'll have a copy on the film right away."

   "Oh, which movie?"

   "Come with me." Nisita took Ronald into a large conference room. "On the wall are all the Hollywood projects we track, movies, TV shows, talk shows, all here."

   Ronald remembers this big board with the progress of all the big productions, where CAA agents hunted, traded, and tracked every opportunity.

   At the bottom are the new films released recently.

   "Dragon Flying Phoenix", directed by Stallone and starring John Travolta, opened in more than 1,600 theaters in the first weekend, and finally received only 12 million at the box office.

   "Jaws 3D", 1,300 theaters, got more than 13 million box office.

   Looking at the performance of these films, Ronald was amused. He might as well be able to play his own "Night of the Comet". If Atlantic had the ability to market and distribute blockbusters, these would be his own defeats.

  Because there was no movie that could carry the banner, "Night of the Comet" moved up two places slightly to the twelfth place, with "Lightning Dance" above it, and continued to be a box office nailer.

   Of course, this is not the strongest nail household.

  The strongest nail household is Disney's colorful cartoon "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Almost every seven or eight years, Disney will re-release her to let the younger generation of children who have not seen it familiar with this Disney princess. The first weekend has already captured more than 6 million box office.

   As a color cartoon filmed in 1937, this result is really scary.

  The board goes further up, it is a movie that will be released next year, has been completed now, or is in production.

   "Dune" finally started, and after several painful changes to the script, David Lynch went to Mexico to shoot this sci-fi masterpiece.

The above is "Red Dawn" by John Milius. This film tells the story of America being airborne and invaded by the Soviet Union and Cuba, and many teenagers have turned into militias, fighting guerrilla warfare until China sends troops, and the US military. Join forces to save the people of America.

   All the young Hollywood actors, including those Ronald worked with, almost all auditioned. The screenwriter of "Apocalypse Now", John Milius himself wrote and directed "Red Dawn", which is favored by many producers.

   In the upper column is the new project "Romancing the Stone" directed by Robert Zemeckis. In order to direct his "Back to the Future", he first chose a commercial film to prove himself. Ronald saw Michael Douglas written in this column. CAA chose the film for him.

   On the top, it is "Mozart Biography (Amadeus, Ronald saw that the names here did not have the logo of CAA, indicating that this was not a contracted customer of CAA.

   Director Milos Forman is the director of the former Oscar Grand Slam "Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Ronald accidentally saw Meg Tilly's name in the lead actress column. Her husband, Kinneyman, is still very strong.

   "Czechoslovakia" and a mark beside "Mozart Biography", indicating that they were filmed in a foreign country. Many Eastern European socialist countries will attract Hollywood movies to shoot there to earn foreign exchange. It just so happens that Milos Foreman is of Czech descent again.

  The top is the two movies "Beverly Hills Detective", and "Ghostbusters" that Ronald has seen.

"It's the Ghostbusters", this is another package project that Mr. Ovitz facilitated, and if this movie is a big hit, CAA will have more studios coming to us to work with, and you will have more Here's your chance, Ronald", Nisita tapped the title of the movie on the board.

   "Hello, gentlemen," Ron Mayer, one of the founders of CAA, walked in wearing a Hawaiian shirt, "Can you give us the conference room? Michael is going to meet important guests here soon."

   "Of course", Ronald and Nisita and others filed out.

   "I wonder which big star Mr. Ovitz meets again?" Ronald thought.

  Richard opened the office door a small crack and was peeking.

   A very strong figure, guided by Ovitz himself, entered the conference room.

   "It's Stallone," Richard LeWitt said.

   "Stallone? He has a new movie?" Ronald thought of the script for "First Blood 2" written by his good buddy Cameron.

   is another long-haired man behind Stallone, chatting with Stallone all the way.

   "It's John G. Ivelson!"

   "Evelson?" Ronald was a little suspicious, why did they talk together again?

   "What's going on?" Ronald looked at Nisita.

"It's normal, Stallone's The Dance of the Dragons did not do well at the box office, and the critics received a lot of bad reviews. He had doubts about whether he would direct his next Rocky series, 'Rocky IV', so he asked the first A director of Rocky, Evelson to discuss."

  Nisita and Stallone are both Italian and he has his own channels.

   "Isn't Elvisson directing the Longwei kid I wrote?" Ronald muttered.

   "So we should visit Mr. Weintraub."

   (end of this chapter)