Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 551 Glorious Discharge

   "Diddy took over the entire set, John Hughes focused on acting, and Diddy handles all the chores like board and storyboarding. I think you can sit back and relax."

   Ronald returned to Los Angeles to announce the good news to Ned Tanning.

  "Thanks to you", Tanin was very happy, "You should sign a three-film contract with me, Ronald. Together, with a global distribution network, it will be a great success."

   "I just want to rest for a while now, and make two movies in half a year, it's really busy me."

"Have a chance, have a chance, when you have a new idea, be sure to come to me" Tanin handed Ronald two tickets for the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, "Here are two tickets, you take them, yes Front row position. This time the organizing committee said that there were black stars performing at the closing ceremony, and everyone guessed that MJ went back to make up for the regret."

  "Thank you", Ronald took the ticket and went back to the airport to pick him up.

  "Little Bud", saw a sturdy black guy in the distance, wearing a Marine Corps T-shirt and a bucket bag, coming out of the boarding gate.

   The person who came was the son of his uncle's comrade-in-arms, little Bud who was sent to the army by Ronald to escape the court sentence. When his service expired, he did not continue to choose to join the army, so he returned from the Marine Corps with honorable discharge.

  "Sir", when little Bud saw Ronald pick him up in person, he smiled with two rows of teeth.

   "Hi, it's nice to see you, let's go... have dinner with me." Ronald hugged him warmly. In his military career for a few years, he has tempered little Bud a lot, and he is no longer as jumpy as he was when he was a child.

  The two found an American-Italian restaurant and had a delicious meal of cheese chicken chops with fava bean puree. Little Bud also sits upright when he eats, which shows that he has learned a lot in the Marine Corps. Of all the services in America, the Marine Corps is the most disciplined.

   "Where are you going back?" Ronald asked him.

"My mother told me to listen to you, Sir," replied Bud Jr. "I'd like to follow you if you need people here. I learned weapon use, maneuvering, and reading in the military, if you don't need it here. Me, I'm going back to Staten Island and working in a leg warmer factory."

   Little Bard was deployed overseas, spending two years each in Hawaii and the East Ying base. The experience of the past few years has made him fully realize the huge gap between America's ethnicity and class, put away those unrealistic fantasies, and just want to follow Ronald.

   "Don't you want to go back to see your mother first?" Ronald asked.

   "Yes, but I want to see what you can do here first, Sir."

  "Okay", Ronald nodded with satisfaction, "You can be my driver for a few days, I'm going back to Staten Island next month, you go with me."

   "YesSir."

   "If you want to work for me, you have to put away this Marine Corps style first. Hollywood doesn't pay attention to this. You can just call me Ronald."

   "Yes... Ronald, I understand." Little Bud scratched his head, showing a little boyish emotion, "Actually, I'm also afraid of spending money. The army only gave me a decommissioning allowance of over ten thousand dollars."

  …

   "Breathe, pay attention to the breath."

   In Daryl Vidal's new dojo in Venice, Ronald practices martial arts. Relying on the double salary of actors and action doubles that the crew received, Vidal bought the dojo and began to teach karate.

   He now recruits a lot of children, and there is no need to advertise at all, and parents just line up to give him money. The reason is on a few posters outside.

At the entrance of the    dojo, there are posters of him, Miyagi-sensei and Daniel LaRusso, two "Dragon Power Boys" cosplayers.

Next to    is a still photo poster of him acting as a stand-in for Miyagi and kicking a crane on a stake by the beach. Inside the door, there is another photo of him and Ronald and several main actors, with the words "Real Crane Kick Master" written below.

   Seeing that it was a dojo opened by the inventor of "Crane Kick", children from the entire West Side of Los Angeles were clamoring to come here to learn.

   In order to recover his physical fitness, Ronald also started coming here to exercise recently.

  Not only in Los Angeles, but also in cities across the country, the karate craze has begun to re-emerge. It turned out that karate, which gradually declined after Bruce Lee's death, began to fill up again.

   Unlike the last karate craze, it was not martial arts enthusiasts who came, but parents who signed up for their children. The more cowardly and bullied children are, the more they are sent by their parents to learn the mentality of the strong and the attitude of competition.

   "I went to see another 'Longwei Kid' yesterday, and there were still a lot of viewers." Vidal stretched Ronald to relax himself.

   "Yeah, the feedback from Colombia is very good, and the box office of the single hall has hardly dropped in two months. Weintraub has invited me to find an opportunity at the end of the year to go overseas to promote and cooperate with overseas release."

   "How? Is it boring to drive for me?" Ronald took a shower and got into the car with a change of clothes. Little Bud had been waiting for him.

   "No problem, the Marines are more boring than that."

   "Okay, let's pick someone up and go to the volleyball hall." Ronald took a nap in the back seat of the car after giving the order. The discipline and professionalism that Bud Jr. exercised in the army is good.

   "Ronnie, hey, aren't you?" Diane came out of the hotel and saw the black driver next to Ronald.

   She was wearing no makeup today, wearing a T-shirt with the Olympic rings, shorts underneath, and sneakers. Seeing Bud, he took off his big sunglasses and looked at each other up and down.

   "Miss Lane", little Bud helped open the car door.

   "Thanks, are you working for Ronald now?" Diane recognized Bud, a former leg warmer and bootleg video salesman who used to haunt Donna's house.

   "He just came back from military service, so help me temporarily." Ronald asked Bud Jr. to take the two to the volleyball hall in Long Beach. Today is the final of the women's volleyball team between China and the United States.

   "Yeah!" Ronald stood up and applauded.

The competition between the two sides in the first game was very fierce. When the Huaguo Women's Volleyball Team was leading 14-10, the main attacker of the United States, Heyman, moved to the front row. She scored four points with a heavy smash, and the two sides played 14-to-1. fourteen.

   Fortunately, the main attacker on Huaguo's side also returned a ball and got the right to serve.

   "Di..." Hua Guo's head coach called for a substitution.

   "USA, USA..." The audience cheered loudly, cheering for the American women's volleyball team.

   Ronald and Di An sat in the ticket area given by the Huaguo team, and there were Chinese and overseas Chinese beside them. The two were also wrapped up, "Come on, come on..."

  The thunderous shouts of the audience made the referee's whistle almost inaudible, and Hua Guo's new server came up with a strong serve.

   "Oops", Ronald shouted badly in his heart, the power of the ball was too great, and it was going to go out of bounds.

  The U.S. team also watched the volleyball, waiting for it to go out of bounds. Unexpectedly, when the volleyball was suddenly weightless, it fell quickly and would fall within the baseline when it flew past the players in the front line.

   "Within the bounds, Hua Guo, score." The referee gestured.

   "Yeah!" Diane stood up and applauded with emotion.

   "What's going on with this ball?" Ronald and all the spectators in the stands were confused.

   The serving player retreated to the end again, and hit the baffle again with a strong serve.

   This time, the American players did not dare to be careless and waited before the bottom line.

   Who knew that the ball was weightless again halfway through and fell off ahead of time. The unprepared player jumped to save the ball and crossed the net, and was dunked by Huaguo's main attacker with a probe.

   "Very good", the head coach stood up and smiled, and the secret weapon played really worked.

   The main attacker wipes his sweat, the Chinese food he has been eating these days, and the smash is powerful.

   In the next two games, the Huaguo team won easily, and the audience in the stadium witnessed this historic moment.

   "What are you thinking?" Diane and Ronald returned to the hotel, and Bud Jr drove back to the apartment to pick them up tomorrow morning.

"I was thinking about today's game, why the audience is so engaged. You see, it's like a great movie script, with a wonderful beginning, a fun process, and a twist, and at the last moment one side came up with a secret weapon. ."

   "Hee hee hee, if you support the Huaguo team, it will be the finale of the drama."

   "Huh? Yeah," Ronald thought, and I unknowingly supported Huaguo again.

   "How are you doing? Have you seen your mother?" Ronald hugged Diane, who was sitting on his lap, and rubbed her belly.

   "See you," Diane replied, "She's not as bad as I remembered."

Diane turned to a more comfortable position, "It turns out that my mother divorced Bert when I was sixteen days old. The two of them have been looking for a lawyer for my custody for more than ten years. litigation.

  I asked her why she wanted to kidnap me at that time. She said that she was afraid that Bert would send me into the cruel entertainment industry, and wanted me to live with her and my grandmother for a while, understand different life choices, and then make a decision. "

   "Do you believe her?" Ronald asked.

   Diane nodded, "Both of them are full of malice towards each other, maybe in their imaginations, they have magnified each other's malice countless times?"

   "How is your acting career? I have some resources here if you need it." Ronald helped Diane run her fingers through her hair, and the girl had a hard time walking by herself.

  Diane was lying in Ronald's arms, squinting his eyes comfortably, "No problem, "Cotton Club" is scheduled to be released in December, when you are free, come to New York for the premiere."

  Ronald is now considered a very good director, and being able to come to the premiere is also a blessing.

   "I'll go when I'm free." Ronald rubbed Diane's head gently, "Also, if you need help, be sure to tell me."

   "Got it, Brother Ronnie." Diane was touched by a warm hand and cried out comfortably. She took the initiative to hug Ronald and kiss him.

   The next day, Bud Jr. drove to pick up Ronald on time.

   "Don't you have anything to ask me?" Ronald got into the car.

   "Among the few things that the army has taught me, there is one thing to follow the orders, and I am responsible for picking you up today." Little Bud responded.

   "We're going to Guber-Peterson."

  The car arrived at the office where Peter Guber was.

   Peter Guber himself greeted Ronald at the door.

  "Ronald, it's nice to see you in Hollywood", the two embraced warmly.

   The casting assistant of the "Endless Love" crew is now the director of two big-selling movies.

   "I was very surprised to learn that you resigned as the president of Polygram." The two talked about the past, and Ronald took the initiative to mention Guber's career choice.

   "Many things in big companies are not very free. I prefer to lead projects one by one. This is what I like to do." Guber explained a few words.

“We can negotiate deals with major distribution companies, and we don’t have to limit ourselves to a certain company. In this way, we can find different distributors for scripts with different characteristics. They all have their own tastes, and our production choices will be much larger. "

   "Like Spielberg's 'Purple'?"

   "Like his 'purple'", Guber snapped his fingers, Ronald's understanding was good.

   This time, Spielberg hopes to make a film that shows the director's ability, not entirely directed at the box office. For this reason, he was willing to give up his director's market price of $1.5 million and only choose to take the director's union minimum wage of $40,000.

  The trick to doing business is not that you bid high, but that you know better than your competitors what your customers want. What Spielberg wants most right now is undoubtedly an Oscar nod.

   "The movie Tanin mentioned is also a project that leans towards classical literature. You can think of him as a modern version of Joan of Arc."

  Ronald took over the script. This movie script, originally called "Fairness is Fairness", tells a story about a society at the bottom of the story.

  The heroine and her younger brother were slandered as motorcycle thieves by the children of the wealthy class. The owner of the machine repair shop also took the opportunity to **** his sister. The sheriff is indiscriminately arresting them for theft.

   In the end, the sister and brother escaped. Encouraged by Joan of Arc, the sister began to resist, and finally won the support of all the public, so that the criminal finally revealed himself, and the sister and brother were acquitted after trial.

In order to gain the popularity of MJ's single "Billy King", after obtaining MJ's authorization, the character name of the sister in the script was changed to Billie Jean, and the name of the movie was also changed to "" The Legend of Billie Jean".

  Ronald didn't like the script very much, he smelled a lot of low-cost exploits in it. Why the siblings were wanted, how the shopkeeper oppressed them, and finally why the public supported the siblings, the key points in the script are all lacking convincing.

  There are many signs that this script did not want to deal with it properly, but used a B-level exploitative film attitude, intending to let the audience admit that this is a low-budget movie, you can believe it.

  For example, the key scenes of the characters in the movie are all passed by. For example, there are some symbolic things in it, such as Billy King's haircut, Joan of Arc as an example, and so on.

   "What? Not to your taste?"

  Gubert admires Ronald very much and is willing to let him direct the projects he leads. But looking at Ronald's expression, he knew that the other party might not be satisfied with the script.

   "You know I've made several films like this, and I hope I can change the subject matter." Ronald declined politely.

"Of course, this is just a small production. If Gerald's daughter wants to try it, he is welcome too." Guber thought that was the case, Ronald has already made two movies with box office of more than 50 million US dollars, Letting him go to direct low-cost exploitative films is wishful thinking on MJ's side.

   "Thank you, Mr. Guber."

  "It's okay", Guber waved his hand, "You said you want to change the subject matter, don't you know you are interested in high-concept movies?"

   "Of course," Ronald nodded. He didn't reject high-concept movies like "Lightning Dance" and "Longwei Kid", he just didn't want to make those low-cost exploitative films.

   "Okay, I'm discussing a new movie with Paramount recently. If you're interested, you can talk to me when I talk with Eisner about the results."

   "That's great." Ronald was immediately interested when he heard that he was working with Paramount.

   "I have submitted a budget of more than 15 million dollars to Paramount, and this is a movie that speaks well of the American army. You are not anti-war, are you?"

   "If the Vietnam War theme is good for the American government, then I'm not suitable. My aunt is the Vietnam War widow."

"No, it's a modern theme." Guber waved his hand, "Don't worry, I'm still waiting for Paramount's reply. Now is not the same as when I was shooting 'Endless Love', I have a lot of production business, I'm too busy now, I'll talk to you when I have news."

  Ronald knew that his relationship with Guber was limited, so he did not ask for more information, "Well, thank you for your trust, Mr. Guber."

   (end of this chapter)