Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 203 Tom Cruise's Screen Debut

   "Did you receive my script?"

   "Received, I've made two copies for the producer, Sterwood, and the Paramount project manager in charge of this."

   Ronald is on a long-distance call with his agent, Richard. After intense writing, it took him only one month and ten days to complete the first draft of the script for "Son of Grease", and it took another two days to send it to the CAA office in Hollywood via FedEx.

   "What did Mr. Sterwood say? Does he have any amendments?"

"Generally satisfied, he wrote a revised opinion, mainly focusing on the Vietnam War-related plot, and he wants you to lower the intensity of the Vietnam War plot. I have faxed the opinion to my colleague in the New York office, and he will send it to you. of."

Ronald knows that fax, a machine that can transmit paper content over a telephone line, is a very convenient office device for screenwriters. When using it, as long as you pay for the phone bill, you can send a piece of paper that you have handwritten or scribbled to. on the other side's machine.

   is that the fax machine is too expensive, a set of more than 10,000 US dollars.

   "And to tone down the Vietnam War plot?" Ronald discussed this question after looking at the first draft with Spike Lee. In fact, he has tried to reduce the presence of the Vietnam War as much as possible, without mentioning which war it was, and put the values ​​to be conveyed loomingly in the background.

   "Okay, then I'll lower it a little bit. In this case, young audiences who have not experienced it will almost be unaware of the existence of the Vietnam War. Only those who have experienced it will find a trace from the clues."

   "Mr. Sterwood hopes you can revise it as soon as possible. He is already urging Paramount to set up the project as soon as possible and start casting."

   "Casting? The Screen Actors Guild is still on strike now? How to start filming?" Ronald was a little strange, "Didn't you say that only those films and televisions that have already started filming can apply for the union's exemption?"

   "The union has relaxed the exemption application, and now Hollywood is saying that the strike is about to end, and the two sides will reach a new agreement."

"This is great, it's good news for us, otherwise we don't know how long we will delay work." Ronald was also very happy to hear the good news, "But didn't the negotiations break down again two days ago? Why did it reverse immediately? already?"

"The commander-in-chief has already arranged a special envoy to intervene in the negotiations between the two sides. Because the new season of the TV series has not yet started, the audience is already very angry, and the blame is vaguely directed at the commander. Persian hostage crisis, rising oil prices, high inflation, unemployment The rate is high, and now even the beloved movie and TV are gone...

   Under the pressure of the general election, the commander announced that he would resolve the matter. A special envoy was sent to observe the negotiations. It is said that the trade union negotiator, Ed Asner of the left wing of the Donkey Party, was also under a lot of pressure and was forced to give up some clauses. strike. "

   "So the strike will end soon?"

"Not yet. The end of the strike requires the approval of the two major actors' unions and the Producers' Association. It will take 3-4 weeks to go to the actors' unions in various places to convene members to vote. If the clause is rejected, then another process will be required. Last for a month or two.

   However, as long as it is a film project from the eight major studios and a TV series from the three major TV stations, the Actors Guild will give the green light to exempt it. I've heard that quite a few Broadway actors have started rehearsing as well. "

"That's literally the end of the strike. Big crews are exempt, but small crews, like Katherine Bigelow's low-budget films, go to the Georgia countryside, and the union doesn't care. Anyway, for us Good thing." Ronald said.

   "Yeah, a lot of delayed projects are about to start." Richard also felt the same way. In addition to the screenwriting and directing business, CAA's other agents are mainly TV actors. Recently, the agents are also mourning.

"By the way, the movie 'Endless Love' that Tom was in is about to start on Long Island, New York, and Paula Wagner will accompany him. Tom wants you to go to the set and give him some guidance. The first big screen role is very important, saying that you gave him encouragement to continue his acting career, and I hope you can be there to witness his screen debut."

   "That's okay, I'll have some free time after I finish editing the script."

   "By the way, who did the heroine choose?"

   "Who else, of course the hot Brooke Shields. That jeans ad you shot for her is totally on fire."

  Hey, the fire is on fire, but it's not a good reputation.

  The entertainment journalists in the past month have been chasing the mother and daughter Brooke Shields all over the world.

The    jeans advertisement is widely understood by the audience as Brooke Shields wearing nothing in skinny jeans. When the mother and daughter were on vacation in Europe, they were chased by people to ask for their views on this interpretation, and some tabloids with a relatively low-key style directly asked Brooke Shields if she really didn't wear them.

   The mother and daughter just returned to New York a few days ago, and they were surrounded by a large number of reporters at the airport.

  Borgy Xiaosi was obviously instructed by a public relations expert, and laughed on the spot, and asked the reporter, who would think of such a distorted place? On the surface, the crisis has passed.

   But Ronald knew that Brooke Shields was actually very panicked and didn't know how to deal with this kind of thing. She secretly called Ronald and regretted that she had not listened to Ronald's well-meaning advice to revise his lines on the set.

   But her mother didn't care at all, she often bought a lot of newspapers and magazines to go home, and counted how many newspapers and magazines Brooke Shields had on the cover and front page because of this incident.

  Thinking that because of this advertisement that made her daughter famous, Terry could even charge a high price for the "Endless Love" crew.

   However, this kind of actor with his own news enthusiasm joined the crew as the heroine, and he was willing to come to Polygon. The start-up press conference is bound to be crowded.

   Regardless of the controversy of the ad itself, CK jeans are starting to sell like crazy in big cities like New York. Two of the five young girls on the streets of Manhattan during this time were wearing skinny jeans.

  Designer Calvin Klein also became famous because of this. Last time, he invited Ronald to the celebration party and said that he had found the product design code of young people. Now that skinny jeans are very popular in the youth market, he plans to simply make **** skinny fit as a brand feature of CK, and turn to designing some clothing designed for young people.

   Ronald also has a little reputation in the industry. Eddie, the agent of the advertising business, has gradually started to receive more offers from advertising directors to shoot.

   However, due to priority issues, Ronald was busy with the movie script, and Eddie's business refused most of it. Only finalized next month's regular customer Darcy Maguire of BBDO's side, an advertising film for kitchen and bathroom supplies plastic wrap.

   After a few days, Ronald revised the script according to the producer's request and sent it to CAA again. This time Robert Sterwood was satisfied and submitted it directly to Paramount.

  According to Richard's information from Sterwood, the casting work is also intensifying, and the crew is expected to start in late November or early December.

   But the real situation may not be so optimistic, Paramount has not yet got Jerry Zack director, the Zack brothers are enjoying their big success, and there is not much interest in the sequel of a movie in the short term. To make a sequel is also to make a sequel to the "unprecedented flying".

  The actor John Travolta of the previous work was ambiguous about his cameo appearance as a supporting role, and the heroine Olivia Newton-John expressed his willingness to cooperate with Travolta again. Her acting career really needs a rescue.

   In short, the project is still approaching, Ronald himself is happy to enjoy a little free time, take more classes, go to the classroom to sign in, answer the classroom quiz, and accumulate some normal points.

The most interesting thing about    is the study of ancient Chinese poetry. The teacher in the class is known as a sinologist, but he does not understand Chinese at all. He usually holds 300 Tang poems translated into English and teaches the beauty of Tang poems in English, but Ronald can only understand half of them.

  On this day, Ronald received a call from Paula Wagner, and Tom Cruise officially went to the "Endless Love" crew to film his only scene. Ronald came to the scene to cheer on Tom.

  The film was mainly shot at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York. At the beginning of the century, it was the center of America's film industry. The fledgling studios gradually moved west to Los Angeles Hollywood to avoid patent recourse lawsuits related to Edison's films.

   Kaufman Studios was once owned by Paramount, and the build quality and equipment were top of the line at the time. After Paramount moved west, it was bought by independent investors and later sold to the Army to shoot training films. Now it is mainly used for TV series shooting.

  PBS' famous children's show "Sesame Street" was filmed here.

   But today's Tom Cruise scene was on location, shot in a park near Kaufman Studios.

  Tom Cruise was very happy to see Ronald. The two talked about things after parting, and Tom also took a cake from Paula and gave it to Ronald. It was said that when it was his birthday more than two months ago, Ronald didn't have time to come to Los Angeles to participate, so he brought a cake to make it up.

   Ronald was also happy for Tom, and asked Paula about Tom's role in today's scene.

   "The role is only a cameo, but judging from the plot of the whole film, it is the source of the hero's memory of using the idea of ​​arson to arouse the gratitude of the heroine's family."

   Tom Cruise, a young classmate of the leading actor, accidentally mentions that when he was eight years old, he lit a pile of wet newspapers. The wet newspaper produced a lot of smoke, and he went to bring water to fight the fire, and he was regarded as a little fire fighting hero by the neighborhood since then.

He does not mean that. The hero David also wants to follow suit, save the heroine's family and reap their gratitude, so he can no longer be banned from dating the heroine Jade.

   "Ronald, it's you. I'm so glad you came." Italian director Franco Zeffirelli spoke.

  The old director hugged Ronald, "Would you like some whisky? I always like to drink some when I'm shooting."

   Ronald declined, he didn't want to drink spirits during the day. But Zeffirelli pulled him aside.

   "Tell me, Ronald, how did you make Brooke play so natural?"

   "Huh?" Ronald was a little confused.

   "It's that jeans ad."

   "That's not my idea, it's a script given to me by Calvin Klein." Ronald hurriedly denied that he created "there is nothing between me and Calvin".

   "Idiot, I'm talking about that version of 'I'm the one who brought the bread home'. How did you make her laugh so naturally at the end?" Zeffirelli also smelled of alcohol.

   It turns out that Franco Zeffirelli had the same problem as Ronald after turning it on. Brooke Xiaosi shoots print advertisements all the year round. She is trained to be a model who is very sensitive to her smile and body.

   Therefore, during the filming process, Brooke Shields often pays attention to whether her smile is beautiful, whether the camera is facing her more beautiful side, and whether her posture is elegant.

   And the movie is a moving image, and the result of paying attention everywhere is that Brooke Xiaosi's smile looks very artificial and has no natural feeling. Zeffirelli was dissatisfied with the daily work swatches. Not long after it was started, the shooting progress had already begun to lag behind.

  Zeffirelli complained to the producer that Brooke Shields's acting skills were not good enough and could not achieve the performance in her mind. She hoped that she could replace the heroine while not taking many shots.

   Of course, the producer refused to do it, and gave Zeffirelli a few CK commercial videos shot by Ronald, which made the old director's old face a little uneasy.

   In the advertisement, Brooke Xiaosi actually smiled very naturally, without any scruples that she would become less beautiful because of her laughter.

   After getting to know the director of the commercial, Ronald, who helped him cast the role before, Zeffirelli also asked the filmmaker to ask Ronald to come to the crew for help.

   "Ah, you said that laugh?" Ronald finally understood what Zeffirelli wanted to know.

"The filming process was very difficult, and I made her cry. In the end, I asked Bo Ji's close friend to record her some of the private jokes they usually talk on the phone and play it to her with a Walkman to achieve that effect. "

   "Is that so?" Zeffirelli's eyes lit up, he had inspiration and knew where to start to tune Brooke Shields' acting skills.

   "Will you come to Kaufman Studios tomorrow too? We have a big event and need your help."

   patted Ronald on the shoulder, Zeffirelli turned around and yelled at his assistant, "Get ready to start shooting..."

   "Drinking too much in the morning? All with an Italian accent," Ronald thought to himself, "Can a director who drinks while filming like this make a good movie?"

   As it turns out, alcohol had little effect on Zeffirelli's directivity.

  Ronald stands in a safe area behind the camera, watching a Tom Cruise scene with Paula Wagner.

  Tom was in the group, playing football. Tired after a sprint, take a break. Then take off the vest in front of the camera, revealing the strong upper body.

   Heard the male protagonist and his friends discussing how to have a tryst with his girlfriend Jade, and interjected to talk about his experience when he was eight years old.

   "AndCut."

  Zeffirelli's actor scheduling was smooth, he and the director of photography muttered, "This one is over, print."

   Paula hurried forward to hand Tom some water, and Ronald also went up to congratulate Tom Cruise on his big screen debut.

   "I've practiced for a long time myself and have memorized all the lines." Tom Cruise smiled happily. My dream has finally come true.

   "Tom's reading is slow, so I recorded his lines for him and asked him to memorize them by listening to the recording." Paula said beside him.

   "Anyway, you acted very well, very natural." Ronald really felt that Tom Cruise's performance was good, even compared to the actor Martin Hewitt next to him.

   Of course, Tom Cruise's handsome appearance, and his hormonal, graceful upper body also contributed.

  Maybe they were talking a little loudly, and the hero Martin Hewitt looked back at them.

   "He's the leading actor in the audition, Martin Hewitt. He used to be a bartender and a valet." Paula Wagner whispered. She felt that the image of the protagonist was not as good as Tom Cruise.

   "Really?" Ronald raised his eyebrows. Martin Hewitt really had dark hair and a melancholy temperament, in line with director Zeffirelli's aesthetic.

   (end of this chapter)