Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 295 Roman Rescue

   Helen Slater is very happy, although she did not pass the primary selection for the heroine of Leon's new film after that, but she had a good time in Los Angeles. Especially with Ronald accompanying from time to time, visiting places of interest and enjoying delicious food.

  It wasn't until her father called twice to urge her that she bought a plane ticket back to New York to star in an ABC drama.

  Gerald arranged an episode of the heroine of the Evergreen drama "ABC After School Special" for his daughter. This is a unit drama. Each episode has an independent plot and is played by young actors for the children to watch after school.

   "Which episode will you be in?" Ronald asked Helen at the door of the airport seeing him off.

   "I still have an audition." Helen was still wearing a turtleneck sweater and a black woolen coat, and said to Ronald with a smile.

   "Gerald will make arrangements for you." Ronald wrapped Helen's small hands with his two big hands, and seized the last time to spend time together.

"In the female version of 'What a Beautiful Life', I played a girl who met an angel. After the angel helped me, I could give birth to wings." Helen shrank her neck and tucked it into the raised collar of her woolen coat, a little embarrassed He got the role by virtue of his father's relationship.

   "Oh, will ABC also play your TV show every Christmas Eve in the future?"

   "Hee hee..." Helen was amused by Ronald and laughed. What a Wonderful Life is a film about Christmas Eve, directed by Frank Capra and starring James Stewart.

   The RKO company that produced the film went bankrupt, and Universal Pictures, which took over the copyright of the film, forgot to register the copyright renewal for the film. So every Christmas Eve, the TV station will play this movie for free. After decades, the box office failure of that year has turned into the most famous Christmas movie.

   "Flights to New York... are about to stop checking in..."

   "I have to go, bye!" Helen pulled her hands out of Ronald's hands and covered Ronald's face. Seeing that his face was deformed a little by her own hands, Helen felt a little happy for some reason, kissed Ronald's lips quickly, then took the package and walked towards the cabin.

   Ronald waited until Helen's plane took off before turning around and walking outside the airport. For him in the film industry, such a normal person's date seems unusual. Ronald couldn't hold back the smile on his face and went back to Coppola's studio.

   "That's impossible, you promised me the right to cast my movie. You should see the audition videos of the actors I've chosen."

   "Of course we respect your decision, Mr. Coppola. But we are responsible for the final quality of the film. Mr. Executive Producer is concerned that the film's cast is not well known enough to attract enough audiences to the theater."

   "The producers of 'The Godfather' were so worried back then. When the movie was filmed, there were no famous stars... You know what happened."

   Before entering the door, Ronald heard Coppola's high-pitched retort from the wooden partition.

   "What's the matter?" Ronald whispered to the trainee girl who was eavesdropping at the door.

   "Warner Bros. is in charge of the film's executive producer, and is not satisfied with Mr. Coppola's casting decision. He wants to have more popular stars, such as Brooke Shields. So he sent someone to put pressure on him.

   This is a story about a country town in the 1960s, and they think young people today are less interested in this small-town Italian gang story. "

   The trainee girl quietly told Ronald what she knew.

   "Will Coppola compromise?" Ronald asked.

   "Why compromise? It's an artistic decision. He is the director who made 'The Godfather', and we should trust his artistic vision."

   The trainee girl looked Ronald up and down, as if she didn't believe he would say such a thing, and didn't support Coppola's casting decision.

   "Well, he's one of the best directors in Hollywood. He can make genre films like author's films, full of overall beauty." Ronald replied.

   However, he felt that Warner's senior management was not unreasonable about the subject matter. Although such a movie was welcomed by readers of Hinton's novels.

   But the number of readers of novels, in America in the twentieth century, is still an absolute minority compared to movies and TV dramas. "Old Boy" has to attract audiences who haven't read the novel to pay for itself.

   But most moviegoers who haven't read the novel can appreciate this kind of movie or not.

  Although the movie itself has all the elements of the "Godfather" hit: a best-selling novel adaptation, directed by Coppola, a gang story, a group of young and talented actors.

   But times have changed and so have the audience.

   Coppola is not the Coppola who made more than 10 million US dollars in the production company that year, begging him to make "The Godfather 2", whatever it is.

  Coppola refused to compromise, suspending the work of the "Old Boys" crew, and the art director who had planned to go to Tulsa, Oklahoma, also refunded the ticket. The actors selected for the casting were informed that the shooting may be postponed.

The executive producer of   Warner Bros. is also unwilling to compromise. After all, this is an investment of 10 million US dollars. The new president's first major project is to build a strong presence in the company. It can only succeed and not fail. They insisted on a popular teen star, preferably Brooke Shields.

  The casting thing came to a deadlock all of a sudden.

   Ronald had to watch movies and plays at home every day to hone his craft. At the same time waiting for either Coppola or Warner to give in first.

  The ballots for the fifty-fourth Oscars have been sent to Ronald. He started voting for Henry Fonda and others.

   This year’s award is one more than last year. Because last year's "Elephant Man" by David Lynch failed to win one of the eight nominations, it caused a lot of controversy. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences added a Best Makeup award to quell the controversy.

   However, although David Lynch's "Elephant Man" has amazing makeup, this year's award cannot be reissued to him last year. Lynch's film still holds the record of eight mentions in zero.

   voted for the "Golden Pond" crew, Ronald sealed the envelope and sent it to the academy. There, PricewaterhouseCoopers will secretly count the ballots, and they will not be delivered to the award ceremony until the day of the award ceremony to ensure impartiality and confidentiality.

   "Ronald."

   Ronald just dropped the letter to the front desk of the hotel when he heard someone calling his name.

   "Ronald, great, you're here. Something happened to Jim."

   Ronald's old friend in the New World, Gail Hurd, hurried into the hotel lobby, just in time to stop himself.

   "What's the matter, slow down. What happened to Cameron?"

   "I got an international call from Rome, Italy last night, the signal was very bad, but I'm sure it was Jim's voice. He seemed very ill and called me for help."

   "Could it be a mistake, he went to Rome to complete the later work of 'Piranha 2'. Besides, if he has a problem, shouldn't he call his wife first?"

   "You don't know." Gail pulled Ronald aside, "He had a falling out with his wife, and Jim used the family's money to buy a one-way ticket to Rome.

   His wife got a call from Jim too, but they had a falling out and were getting ready for a divorce. Jim probably called me when no one asked for help. "

   "What did he say on the phone?"

   "He said he was very uncomfortable and had no clean food and water. But the signal was very poor, and I also heard some intermittently."

   Ronald pondered for a moment, feeling that he would rather believe it. Cameron fell ill alone in backward Italy. If something really happened, and he didn't help as a friend, he would regret it too much.

"Well, I'll go to the Italian consulate to apply for a visa, and I'll go to Rome right away. You go look up the phone number Jim used to call you, and I'll go look it up in Rome. And the producer's phone number and address. ."

"It's all here, Ronald." Gale took out a copy and handed it to Ronald, "I'll go with you to apply for an emergency visa. By the way, your job doesn't matter, right? I just talked to Roger Coleman is on leave."

   "It's okay, the casting of the cast just happened to be deadlocked."

  The two went to the consulate to apply for a visa, Ronald went to Wells Fargo, wrote ten traveler's checks of varying denominations for himself, and hurried to the airport.

  The two bought the first flight to Rome at the airport. Hop on a Pan Am Boeing and head straight for Rome, Italy.

  After a stopover in Munich, Ronald and Gale arrived at the Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome after a fifteen-hour flight. After leaving the customs, the two called a taxi and set off to the company address of the producer of "Piranha 2" Asonitis.

   "Buongiorno! bevenutoaroma!"

  The driver in the Fiat car, who did not understand English, sent out a series of Italian, supplemented by gestures, trying to communicate with Ronald and the two.

   "Please take us to this address." Gale handed over a note with the English address of the producer Asonitis.

   “Staiandandoqui?”

   "Studio del Cinema?"

   "Yes, Studio! Cinema!" Ronald understood two words in Italian, studio and movie. This is a language with the same pronunciation in Europe and America.

   The driver gave two thumbs up, indicating that he understood, and dragged them to the office where Asonitis was.

   There were many people in Assonitis's office, but no one could speak English. But they both love to communicate, and come up and gesture to talk to Ronald and Gale.

   "I'm looking for Mr. Asonitis, Asonitis!" Ronald told the secretary at the front desk for a long time, but he didn't understand what the other party meant.

  “Nonloconosco…#%#￥…”

When    was anxious, a man came over and explained to Ronald in English with a strong Italian accent, "She said she didn't know the person you were talking about. This is Rome Film Studio."

   "Oh, thanks. Could you ask him for me if he knows where Asonitis, the producer of 'Piranha 2', works."

   "Huh, is that you? Roberto?" Ronald saw the man's familiar face, it was Isabella Rossellini, Roberto, the partner of the Italian news broadcast on New York TV.

   "Great, Roberto, God bless someone here who speaks simple English."

Ronald hurriedly took out the phone number Cameron had dialed and asked, "We're here to find a friend, Jim. He's the director of 'Piranha 2' and we only have his phone number, no address. So here we go. I tried my luck with the filmmaker's address, but I didn't expect this to be his company."

  Roberto, who couldn't understand the long English sentence, took the phone number that Gale handed him, "Are you looking for this person? He called this number, phone?"

   "Yes, that's what it means. Jim, he used this phone to call me. We're going to find him."

  Roberto went to talk to the secretary at the front desk, borrowed a phone and dialed the number on the note.

   After a while of conversation, Roberto said to Ronald and Gale, "Your friend, he's in..., oh, little, bad, what to say?" He put his hands in a sleeping position to his ears.

"hostel?"

   "Ah, yes. Hotels, that kind of thing you Americans say..." Roberto started to drive again, honking horns from his mouth.

"car?"

   "Motel?"

   "Yes, motel."

   "Can you take us there?" Ronald took out a few twenty dollar bills and handed them over. "Please help us prepare a car and take us there."

   "I have a car." Roberto didn't take the money he handed over, but let the two of them into his Fiat car.

   Ronald finally squeezed into the co-pilot, and Roberto started the car and drove through the narrow street.

   "Hey, get out of the way." Roberto tapped the door with his hand, cursed at the driver in front, then turned around and explained, "In Rome, we don't listen to horns much."

   Arrived at the motel where Cameron called. When the owner heard that he was looking for an American, he was immediately excited and said a long sentence to Roberto, mixed with these swear words.

   "Uh, he said, your friend has no money and still steals food from the kitchen. If it wasn't for his illness, he would have driven him out of the house."

   "I have a traveler's check here, which is enough to pay off all my friends' debts." Ronald took out a traveler's check, and the hotel owner knew how to cash it in dollars in a big department store, so he grabbed it. Then he muttered and took the three to the room where Cameron lived.

  In a small room on the ground floor next to the laundry room, Ronald and Gale found a pale Cameron lying on the bed with only a torn blanket on him, amid the rumble of the washing machine.

   "Oh, Jim." Gale rushed up and put Cameron's head in his arms, "We finally found you."

  Cameron was groggy and woken up in a dream. Saw that it was Gale and Ronald standing beside him. He didn't know where he was for a while, and when he remembered the scene he dreamed in the dream, he blurted out, "It's terrible, it's terrible."

   (end of this chapter)