Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 177 Disney's List of "Genius Directors"

The name    is familiar to Ronald. It was him and Ovitz of CAA who went to Disney to sell the script. After being blocked by the president, they came out and sent their vice president. Remember that Wilhelm was in charge of live-action movies at Disney.

  Walter Murkey had a long chat on the phone.

   Ronald walked out of the editing room, added some hot water to the thermos cup, and drank silently. It seems that the Oscar curse is not always so effective. As long as you don't float and do things solidly, someone in the industry will still recognize it.

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

"Disney will ask me to direct a movie, I will consider writing a new script and then put it into production, can't teach you more about editing in the diorama." Diorama coffee outside the Sentinel building Hall, Walter Murkey pointed out to Ronald the content of the Disney call just now.

"I'm sorry, this time you came to learn the editing process, and I also made preparations to let you use the opportunity to organize the film to learn the editing process of Apocalypse Now from beginning to end, but I have directed the film for many years. The wish is a rare opportunity.”

   "This should be something to celebrate, Walter, I'm already grateful." Ronald quickly adjusted his mentality and congratulated Walter Merzy.

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

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

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

  Walter Murkey took a sip of Italian coffee, as if reminiscing.

"When Angie and I got married, we lived for a while in the countryside of her hometown of Britain. At that time, many of her relatives and friends heard that I was in the film industry, and they all felt that Angie had good luck and would have a good life in the future. ."

   "But they don't understand what editing means. In America's industry term, editing is called Editing, which means editing, but in Britain it is customary to say Cutting, which means cutting the film."

"So they asked me if it was like an 8mm home camera, just cut out the bad ones and keep the good ones. I was young at the time, and was very disgusted with this simplification of my work. , so I told them a lot of editing work is actually a very advanced type of work, which requires a lot of experience and skills.”

"But I always remember this conversation, and the longer it goes on, the more I think Angie's relatives are right. Daozhijian, editing is actually cutting out the bad ones and connecting the good ones. And we want to What I can figure out is what counts as a bad shot, what counts as a good shot, and how to connect the good parts."

  Ronald repeatedly chewed on the sentence "editing has no secrets", and felt that it was very reasonable. In many industries, the core principle that really works is that one or two hands, and the key is personal understanding and application.

   So I look forward to tomorrow's teaching even more. However, Walter said that he should combine film to teach, and it is unclear now.

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

   "It doesn't matter, because the movie to be shot has not yet been decided, it is just based on the script I wrote. I have long wanted to make a sequel to a movie that was decades ago to see if they would be willing to shoot my script."

   "A masterpiece of film history? Disney's? Are you going to make a cartoon?" Ronaldo asked?

   "No. It's a movie with real people combined with model stunts." Walter smiled, "But you can't guess it too far, it's really a fairy tale adaptation."

   "Could it be Snow White? Cinderella? Sleeping Beauty?" Ronald guessed several classic Disney animations in a row, which are more convenient to adapt into live-action movies, not to mention Dumbo, which can't be made in real people.

   "It's The Wizard of Oz"

   "Isn't that an MGM movie?"

   "Not bad, but the rights to the sequel to The Wizard of Oz lie with Disney."

  …

  In Disney's president's office, the last time Ronald came to promote the script of "My Brother's Protector", the president Ron Miller, who had not seen it, was discussing with his deputy Wilcht.

This is Walt Disney's nephew, Roy Disney Jr. scorned as "Disney's door-to-door son-in-law, former football star, ignorant layman, failed movie actor" The current Disney president Ron Miller has a series of titles. , is sipping whiskey comfortably.

"So Walter Murkey has a good idea, although he's low on our list, but John Milius just wants to make his dark war movie, and we at Disney can't invest in such a natural R-rated movie, at most Put it on PG."

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

"Since Diane's uncle Roy passed away, we haven't made a cartoon for many years, and now we're finally getting the hang of it. We also have to keep up with the times. Star Wars and the Black Horse, two real-life box office hits , 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 old Hollywood manufacturer back to glory.

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

In the early stage, the live-action movie he led was good at the box office, and the offensive against the best-selling author also had preliminary results. The author, who is very well-known among teenage readers, has promised to sell the unpublished film adaptation rights of the next novel to Disney. .

   I heard that Warner Bros. is also lobbying 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 interest of the author, so that Disney can take the lead.

   "So our "genius list" has reached the last few?" President Ron Miller woke up from the complacency of success, gulped his whiskey and asked his vice president.

   "Yes, Walter Murkey is the third-to-last on the list. The first one is either not interested in working with us, or the proposed film theme is not suitable for Disney."

   "Blacklist those who are unwilling to cooperate with us, and 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 his own "potential director list plan". After 20th Century Fox's "Star Wars" and Diorama's "Black Horse" became a big hit, Ron Miller has always believed that this kind of film should have been made by Disney.

   For children and teenage audiences, fairy tales, wonderful imaginations. He pored over the résumés of the two film directors, Lucas, and Carol Ballard. The two have one thing in common, that is, they were newbies before shooting these two big-selling works, and they were not valued by the industry.

So Ron Miller and Wilcht, secretly drawn up a list, and collected all the potential seeds of Hollywood who have made achievements in other types of work and hoped to become directors, and then called secretly one by one in order. . If both parties are interested in cooperation, and the subject matter of the other party's interest is in line with Disney's audience market, the cooperation process will begin.

   "As long as his script passes, we'll put some money in to test the waters." Ron Miller immersed himself in his vision of bringing Disney back to a great company. "Do you have any candidates to add to the list of potential candidates?"

   "There's The Empire Strikes Back screenwriter Laurence Kasdan, Joe Dante, who got his start in low-budget exploits, and the recent comedy genius John Landis."

   "Let's all get in touch. As long as it conforms to Disney's audience and values, and the story can be rated above PG, everyone can try the water."

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

"What is your name?"

"Ronald Lee, his script was handed over to Disney, but that day, Mr. President, you happened to be discussing the adaptation of the best-selling novel with producer Kinneyman. In addition, the film is about the Vietnam War, it is very likely that Rated R, not suitable for Disney, so we didn't bid."

"Ronald Lee, I remember the name. Kinneyman told me that he was just a villain trying to make a name for himself. I heard that he used the audition to choose the topic on the set, and deliberately let Kinneyman's little girlfriend not be the heroine. .

   And what kind of profound Vietnam War script can a young man in his early 20s write? Frank Price really lost his head. Ignore him. "

  …

   "So you know Jenny Rosenberg, the screenwriter of 'The Black Horse'?" Walter Murkey said to Ronald. "The director of the film, Carol Ballard, was Coppola's brother. In fact, Disney wanted to work with him the most. He had already submitted a script about wolves in the wild."

   "Yeah, I was a errand in Roger Coleman's low-budget production 'High School of Rock' and Jenny was the showrunner for that film, and she said she was going to be involved in the adaptation of the script for 'The Black Horse'."

"Her last name was Rosenberg, and she was related to some Jewish power figures," said Walter Murkey. "She came in after the script was written and edited some of the dialogue and details about horse racing. She was familiar with horse riding since she was a child. "

   "So that's the case?" Ronald no longer envies Jenny's connections. After "Black Horse", Jenny's screenwriting talent has not been generally recognized by the industry and received new projects. It's better to move forward step by step.

   "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)