Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 272 The Power of Male Stars

  Vic Morrow is not a good father, at least in the eyes of his second daughter, Jennifer Jason Lee.

   At the age of three, Jennifer's mother, Barbara, divorced Morrow. Although Jennifer was sentenced to her father, Morrow was addicted to alcohol and could not take care of the child at all. In the end, she lived with her mother, Barbara.

   In the days to come, Jennifer rarely saw this father in her life, and she was more resentful of her father Morrow.

   Originally, the heroine chance of "The Legend of Yanwa" was hers. But his legal guardian father, Vic Morrow, refused to sign, giving up the opportunity to the famous Brooke Shields in vain.

  Jennifer angrily changed her guardian to her mother through the court, and then changed her surname from Morrow to Leigh.

   And now Vic Morrow, actually asked Jennifer Jason Leigh to offer to delete the special scene in the movie "Fast-paced Richmond High School".

   "You're very talented, Jenny, you don't know how proud I am to see you in the TV series 'The Best Little Girl in the World', the anorexic you play, very real."

  Vic Morrow went to a tavern next to his daughter's single apartment, met his daughter, and was very excited about his daughter's acting skills.

   "You lost less than 100 pounds to play her, and your mother called and cried, but I'm very happy, my daughter is an excellent actress, and you can get a place in Hollywood without all those **** scenes..."

   "But I'm not famous for that." Jennifer interrupted Morrow coldly. He has played several roles in TV stations that require great acting skills, but who knows himself?

"Don't talk like that, Jennifer. I know I haven't given you enough attention in the past, but I've quit drinking, I'm taking anger management classes, and I can get Spielberg's movie project to star in, and I'll give it to you later. Found great movie characters. Trust me..."

   "Dream!" Jennifer Jason Lee refused to continue listening to Morrow's words, and turned away. Now that she's an adult, she can make decisions about her acting career.

  Morro got up and chased after him, but was hit by the waiter who came to check and almost fell to the ground. After holding the wall to stabilize her figure, she saw that Jennifer had left the pub and stopped a taxi to leave.

   "Fxck!" Morrow shouted, grabbing the water glass on the table and throwing it on the ground.

   "Crack!" The waiter was at a loss, "Sir...Please calm down."

   "Give me a double Jack Daniels, no, a bottle, no ice."

  Meanwhile, Ronald received a call to go to Universal to talk to producer Lin Sen about the release.

   "Universal can't give too much marketing resources to a small production with a production cost of 3.1 million. If you have ideas such as placement of advertisements, you might as well say it together."

   "How can I have so many good ideas?" Ronald laughed, "How many theaters do you expect to go to?"

"It depends on the effect of the final film. Generally speaking, after the end of the summer vacation in July every year, there is a period of less competition. Your film will be released at that time, and it is very hopeful that you will win more theaters to open. Painting, after that, it depends on your box office performance.”

   "I see." Ronald nodded in understanding. After the summer break, before the start of school in September, and during the holidays of the high school student group, this is actually not a big problem for youth films like "fast-paced".

   This kind of movie with a relatively single target audience, as long as accurate marketing is done for the target audience, the box office will not be too bad.

   Opened at the end of July this year, "Endless Love" starring Bo Ji Xiaosi performed well at the box office and has already earned 30 million at the box office.

   Director Zeffirelli said to himself that PolyGram completely miscalculated the target audience of the movie. The audience of teen couples only accounted for 10% of the final audience, and more than 80% of the audience were junior high school girls.

  In the case where all marketing materials were misplaced, it was possible to achieve such good results, all of which depended on the word-of-mouth communication of movie audiences. Teenage girls have the habit of chatting often, and a movie that suits their tastes appeared, and the effect of word of mouth was very good.

   Ronald also has confidence in his films. There are not many movies about teenagers growing up in today's movie market.

Although major studios have seen this trend of moviegoing crowds, whether it's the story of Disney's "Texas" rural Oklahoma or Paramount's musical "Grease 2", the story is A long way from the main moviegoing crowd.

   What teenage high school students want to see is the stories that happen around them, how urban teenagers in grades 10-12 like them deal with various troubles in their lives.

   "It seems that you are already very confident. I will wait for you to come back and edit after the New Year's holiday." Lin Sen shook hands with him and wished Ronald a successful vacation home.

   "By the way, I received a message from a company executive this morning, asking if you could cancel Jennifer Jason Lee's **** scene." Lin Sen said casually at the end.

"why?"

   "If you feel the need, then ignore them. Universal is an established studio with a lot of outdated seniors in the upper echelons of the company."

  Ronald nodded, there are many "high-level people" commenting on the film, which is a common problem of big studios. Unlike a small company like New World, you can rely on Roger Coleman to decide.

   "Fast-paced Richmond High School" has a limited marketing budget and mainly relies on word-of-mouth communication from the audience. In this case, the importance of these shots has risen, and I felt that I couldn't cut them out.

   For a movie to be talked about, in addition to its wonderful content, it must also have a selling point that can be clearly stated in one sentence, so that the audience can recommend it to friends.

   The reason why "Endless Love" was able to get a good box office under the condition of misestimating the target audience is because it is convenient to spread. Any middle school girl can say to her classmates and friends, "Do you know how much the heroine Jed's boyfriend loves her?"

  If the other party is interested, you can list a series of infatuation behaviors of the hero David, sneak into Jade's bedroom, set fire to her house, run out of the mental hospital to find Jade who has moved, and so on.

  Ronald noticed this while watching the preview. I also want to add some elements that are convenient for dissemination in my own movies.

   Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Phoebe Cates's play, is what he needs to carefully design, easy to spread content.

   "Why would the higher-ups take care of an actress?" Ronald still didn't quite understand and asked the producer Lin Sen.

"Because Jennifer's father is Vic Morrow, he used to be a popular TV star. In the circle, a male star of the right age always has some extra power." Lin Sen explained that Ronald didn't understand. a bit.

"It's him?" Ronald recalled the man who broke into the scene on the day he signed for the filming, "but, you also said it, Mr. Linson. He was a 'once' TV star, why is an outdated male star also Can you interfere with filming?"

"It's a bit too demeaning to say that Morrow is too old. Male stars always have a great influence, not even limited to the film circle." Lin Sen smiled, "You know the recent big events in Hollywood, Natalie Wood Death case?"

   "I know." After Ronald finished filming, his family made up a lot of entertainment news during the filming.

   At the end of November when he was busy shooting, the famous Hollywood actress fell into the water on her yacht and died.

   "What does this have to do with the influence of male stars?"

   "Go and find out for yourself, it's spread all over the circle." Lin Sen was reluctant to discuss more details with Ronald, "Male stars who were once popular all have social influence far exceeding that of female stars.

  The careers of male stars are long. As long as you are popular, the audience will remember you. Maybe there is a movie that will make them popular, Morrow is only 52 years old, and has nearly a decade of career. So someone will give him some face to pass a word. "

   Ronald didn't know. So, after returning to the hotel, he took a look at last month's entertainment newspapers and finally got to know some of the issues mentioned in the reports.

  It turns out that Natalie Wood, the actress who had a relationship with her at the Golden Globe Awards dinner, had a bad relationship with her husband, Robert Wagner, because her husband cheated on another actress while filming a TV series.

When   Wood boarded the ship, in order to make her husband Wagner jealous, he also deliberately brought actor Christopher Walken, who was rumored to be making a movie together, on the ship.

   When Natalie Wood fell into the water, someone on a nearby boat once heard the voice of a woman calling for help. But with such a big suspicion, the district attorney easily gave up the prosecution.

Ronald felt that Lin Sen's suggestion was a bit exaggerated. The district attorney has great power, and one person can decide whether to prosecute the suspect. Murderer?

   Ronald thought for a while, then picked up the phone and dialed his agent, Nisita, who was well-informed and might know something.

   "Legend of Natalie Wood's funeral wearing a mink coat with a raised collar to hide a visible scar on her face."

   "Huh? Is there really a problem?" Ronald was a little surprised, does this also happen in America?

   "Oh, you were shooting a movie at that time, and the TV station was doing a lot of interviews. The district attorney said that it was caused by hitting the side of the ship when it fell into the sea."

   "That's also possible, right? District Attorneys don't always talk nonsense?"

"But Natalie Wood is afraid of water by nature, she doesn't even swim." Nisita told Ronald a little bit of rumors in the circle, "Her sister Lana, in the circle, talked about her sister's fear of water. But It's no use."

   Ronald, who put down the phone, sighed with emotion. A big national star died so easily. It seems that male stars do have some influence.

   But I still insist on keeping the scenes of Jennifer and Phoebe in the editing. Vic Morrow is not a popular movie star. What can I do for Jennifer to sign and agree to shoot?

   He couldn't beat himself even an alcoholic.

   (end of this chapter)