Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 531 Ronald in the eyes of insiders

   "Ronald, welcome, we meet again." Paramount's vice president of production, Jeff Katzenberg, met Ronald in the office with his agent.

   "Hello, Mr. Katzenberg." Ronald shook his hand generously.

   "I watched the narration of 'Longwei Kid' quite wonderful. I admit that when I watched it, I felt a bit like the work of an old-school director. The characterization and the final action scenes were very exciting."

   "Thank you." Ronald thought, sure enough, when he came to Paramount before, he didn't have this kind of treatment.

"Mr. Eisner happened to be not in Los Angeles. He called and asked you to come and have a good chat when he came back." Katzenberg took out a script, "This is a new work we plan to shoot. Days (Explorers)'.

  I originally wanted to talk to you about this movie, but after watching "Longwei Kid", I think that writing and directing may be more suitable for you to play. What do you think? "

   "Mr. Katzenberg, I have no inspiration for a new script right now."

  Katzenberg nodded and pushed the script of "Rush Out of Heaven", "Then you should read this first, and if you have new ideas in the future, you can come and talk to me at any time."

   "Why do I think he seems to treat me a lot better." Ronald asked Nisita as he walked out of the office.

"A movie with a budget of one or two million is not the same as a movie with a budget of ten or twenty million. The big studios need good directors, but whether you can control the big stars, can you direct the huge Whether the work team can produce the performance required by Hollywood needs to be investigated.

  Fortunately, you've already proven this to them yourself, and you've graduated without them taking the risk of letting you do a test shot. ' Nisita explained to Ronald in the car.

"Jeff, how was your talk with Ronald?" Michael Eisner, the president of Paramount, seemed to be very concerned about this. thing.

   "He is very good and has a good impression of us. But I don't think he has a lot of enthusiasm for creating recently. Maybe he just succeeded and it will take some time."

"Very good, you give him the best conditions, and when I come back, I will see his wishes. As long as three months later, he can sign the Paramount film contract, which is a good explanation to the board of directors. "

  …

   "Ronald, I'm so glad you came." Ned Tanin from Universal Group, now the owner of an independent production company, warmly received Ronald.

   "I said, when will you give me a 'Longwei Kid' too?" Taning, contrary to his very tough attitude back then, has proved himself capable of being a director, and he can also be a corporal of Li Xian.

   "Have a chance, what movie are you busy with recently?"

"Hey, that's the movie John Hughes wants to make." Tanin asked his secretary to bring coffee, "He wanted to make his 'The Breakfast Club' last year, so I asked him to try 'Sixteen Candles' first. Hand, this year he was clamoring to bid, I agreed, anyway, the budget is not much, only one million dollars."

Taning watched Ronald pick up his coffee and drink, and felt a little helpless. It would have been better if 'Sixteen Candles' was directed by Ronald. As a result, Hughes' directorial debut was met by his "breakdance". beat.

  John Hughes is still not very good at portraying characters and shooting those very "heavy" performance scenes.

   "He is a very good screenwriter. With this experience, he will definitely get better and better." Ronald replied casually.

   "Well, there is another one, which is 'St. Elmore's Fire' written by your friend Cameron Crowe." Tanin also picked up his coffee, "Are you interested?"

  "Cameron", Ronald saw Cameron Crowe, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, in that row of bungalow offices.

   "Ronald", Crow still had long hair and came up to hug Ronald warmly.

"I watched your new film, really, really..." Cameron Crowe looked at Ronald in front of him. The scene where the two filmed "fast-paced" was right in front of him, and Ronald could shoot it in a blink of an eye. This is a blockbuster that has been praised by many film critics.

   "Haha, I heard from Mr. Taning that your new film is also a youth film?"

   "Yes", Crow took a script and handed it over with both hands, "This is my script, I think your opinion is very important."

   "Of course, I'll watch it. How are you and Nancy?" Ronald put away the script and chatted with Crow.

   "Very good, we're still living in the old place." Crow was happy that Ronald still had the same attitude towards him as a friend.

"Aren't you thinking about directing yourself?" Ronald quickly flipped through the script and saw that the cover was written under the pseudonym "Xiao Han", which was really similar to the movie "Da Han" from the previous two years. It was a group drama with many stories. A protagonist's love and work after graduating from college.

"I don't have experience yet, so this time I will stay on the set and learn from the director." Crow looked at each other. Last time Ronald asked him to learn directing, and he didn't take it too seriously. If this time If you have the opportunity, you can follow behind him and carefully try to figure out the directing skills. "

   "I can't promise you yet, Cameron," Ronald told his old friend truthfully, "I have to contact more scripts and make a decision."

   "Of course, you can come and visit often when you have time. I will be working here during this time."

  …

   "Tanin, why are you working with this bastard?"

   Ronald met Robert Zemeckis in Amblin's production office. Zemeckis groaned for Ronald when he heard that Ronald and Tanin were talking about working together on the next film.

"You may not know that our last movie was made by this bastard." Zemeckis took the script of "Back to the Future" and handed it to Ronald. Look at the villain, I will put it His name was Biff Tanning. "

   "Ahahahaha..." Ronald opened the script and turned to the villain who bullied the protagonist Marty McFly, and he was given Tanin's surname as expected.

   It seems that no one can offend the screenwriter.

"You've given great advice, Ronald. We looked at Eric Stoltz in detail and he's really improved a lot, and he's doing a great job on Peter Bogdanovich, and Peter has complimented him a lot. Got him. He can perform well in a huge ugly headgear, his method is passable."

  This time Zemeckis invited Ronald to thank him for his pertinent actor evaluation.

   "Look at his audition tape," Zemeckis took a tape and started playing.

   Ronald saw Stoltz wearing a black jacket with a blank look on his face.

   "This is how his performance suddenly went back to the 1950s." Zemeckis introduced Ronald.

   "It's good, he's really improved." Ronald commented while looking at Stoltz on the screen.

   "The confused expression is very real, that is, his method is relatively heavy, a little too heavy." Ronald thought to himself, of course, this is inconvenient to say, Zemeckis has his own considerations.

   "Your introduction can't be wrong." Zemeckis greatly admired Ronald's vision for choosing actors. "So this time, I want to ask you for help."

   "Who do you want to hire?" Ronald understood that Zemeckis wanted him to help find actors.

   "We wanted to use your 'Dragon Power' lead character, Elizabeth Shue, who seemed like a good fit for McFly's mother role in the movie.

"She went back to Harvard, haven't you contacted her?" Ronald read the script and knew that Marty McFly's mother was not played by a middle-aged actor, but a young role, and Marty traveled back to fifty In the 1990s, I met my parents who were still in high school.

   Such a girl needs a little classical temperament and considerable acting skills, and can act like a high school student in the 1950s.

"That's why I want to ask you to help convince her." Zemeckis raised his glasses, "You know, we signed an agreement with Universal, and if we can't finish the film within the stipulated time, they have the right to cancel the release. Agreement. I can't wait until she's on spring break next year, but I'd love to see Elizabeth play."

   "Oh", Ronald knew that sometimes, the director would like a certain actor and must want her to play a certain role. Perhaps Zemeckis also hopes to borrow a little of Elizabeth Shue's current super popularity.

   "She actually had a very strong desire to go to school. My producer Weintraub invited her to participate in a marketing event, and she also shied away from being busy with her studies."

   "Hey," Zemeckis sighed. He was also rejected by Su for this reason.

   "However, if you need an actor with the girl-next-door temperament, I still have someone here." Ronald recalled that when he was filming the "Burger King" commercial, the actor was better at acting...

   "Lee Thompson," Ronald said, "the one with Sue in that Burger King ad."

   "Oh? Really?" Zemeckis was surprised, how could Ronald have filmed so many young actors with good acting skills.

   "It's her, it's her, call her agent!" After Zemeckis saw Leigh Thompson's video, she felt that Thompson's reaction was too good.

   "Thank you, Ronald. You have to come here more, I will be here next. Your judgment and training of young actors are really good."

   "I will, I'm also curious about the special effects of this movie." Ronald saw that there were many novel descriptions of special effects in the script, and wanted to see how Zemeckis made it.

   "Why don't you take on another 'Young Sherlock Holmes' from Steven, so we're all here directing new plays, wouldn't it be fun."

  …

"Ronald, why do you want to make that old-fashioned detective movie, it's an antique, who still watches detective movies now, Mason Detective?" Weintraub heard that Zemeckis persuaded him to take Spielber Grid's new film, hates iron and steel and said a few words to Ronald.

"Your reputation is already very loud. I went to Colombia, and the producers and executives there are talking about you. There is absolutely no need for you to work for Steven like a director who has never made a big production. ."

   Weintraub hinted at Spielberg's Jewish businessman style.

   "I'm different from him, although I always think about saving money, but you know, I never point fingers at real artists."

  Weintraub took out a piece of paper, "Look, this is the outline of the story I wrote yesterday, let's take advantage of the heat to strike the iron and shoot the second part of 'Longwei Kid'.

   (end of this chapter)