Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 325 If the Comet Hits the Earth

   "Does this item have life?"

"No."

   "Bigger than my palm, or smaller?"

"Big."

   "Does it use electricity?"

"want."

   "Will it glow?"

"meeting."

  …

   Ronald accompanies Helen to a party with her high school classmates in performing arts. Most of the participants in this party are children from wealthy families like Helen.

   Instead of loud rock music, everyone played a plate of jazz. Under the soft music accompaniment, Ronald and Helen's friends played the game of "Twenty Questions".

   As the name suggests, this is a quiz game.

The    responder picks an item in the room, then the rest can ask her twenty questions, which the respondent can only answer with "yes or no". If no one can guess what the item is, the answerer wins.

   During the filming of the movie "Famous in the World", most of the actors with high performing arts degrees that Ronald had met had graduated, and most of Helen's classmates had not participated in the filming at that time.

   But they are still talking about all kinds of "famous" anecdotes and gossip. Because Helen's classmate Erica, is playing the leading role in the TV version of "Famous in the World", the Latino black girl CoCo.

   Another party member was Juilliard graduate Lori Singer, who also starred in the TV version as a cellist.

   "Is it the TV?" Helen asked.

"no."

   "Ah, Helen. You lost, I didn't guess, it was the desk lamp. Not only the TV, but also the desk lamp would be on." Lori laughed out loud, and she won this round.

  Everyone giggled and started drinking drinks, taking a break and watching TV.

   "Lori, are you a real cellist?" Ronald had nothing to say and chatted with Helen's friend. This kind of music and games are actually not in line with Ronald's appetite.

  The TV version of "Famous in the World" was broadcast on the MGM TV network, and the ratings were relatively dismal. Sad producer Da Silva has lost quite a bit of her hair again. In the original film, only a few others, including Ronald's younger brother Leroy, participated.

  The real big names, such as CoCo's actor Erin Kara, have long been out of the TV drama circle.

"Yes, I played with the Oregon State Symphony Orchestra when I was thirteen. I also won the Bergen Philharmonic in 1980." Lori is a cello prodigy. She looks very young and is still acting as a high school student. Been married for two years.

   "Oh, that's amazing, didn't you develop into a professional cellist later? Why did you become an actor later?"

   "I really wanted to be a cellist. My father was the conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. This was my childhood dream. But all my dreams were shattered at a music summer camp in New York that year."

"what happened?"

"At that time, Ms. Dupree held the summer camp. At that time, she had quit playing and turned to teaching. There was a Chinese boy who was two years older than me. After listening to his performance, I felt that I could not reach that level. already."

   Ronald shook his head, the careers of these classical musicians were worse than that of film directors. Unlike directors who can make different movies, they can only perform the same piece of music over and over again. After the popularization of modern recording technology, a well-known classical music, often only one or two performers can be sought after by the public.

   "So you turned into an actor?"

   "Yes, my uncle is a TV cameraman and my brother is also an actor..."

   "I figured it out, it's your turn to ask questions, Ronald." A girl came to interrupt Ronald's chat, and the game continued.

   "Okay, I'll think about it." Ronald began to think about how to ask his own questions in order to find out as quickly as possible.

   "Does it have life?"

"No"

   "Does it use technology for entertainment, communication, or work?"

   "Yes." The girl didn't expect Ronald to ask a silly question, so she nodded.

   "Is it a product for entertainment?"

   "Will it glow?"

   "It's a TV."

   "You're a fool." Helen came over and rubbed Ronald's face. Everyone burst into laughter.

   "Well, let's play a 'Whatif' game." Ronald, seeing that everyone was not very interested, proposed a different game.

   "I give a precondition, if something happens, and then you use your imagination to tell me, what will happen next?"

   "Okay, you can ask." The boys and girls all gathered around, and they all looked at Ronald with a look of interest.

   "If a comet hits the earth, most of the human beings are wiped out, and you find that there are only a few living people around, what would you do?"

   "That's great, we can go to Macy's, and we can pick up those beautiful clothes that we can't usually afford."

   "If most people are extinct, then I don't have to compete with other handsome guys. And the handsome guys have no choice but to date me."

"Hahaha…"

   Ronald didn't expect the girls' ideas to be so interesting, and chatted with them more.

   Most of them still regard this kind of thing as an opportunity to indulge themselves, and they can have the opportunity to do things that they usually dare not do.

   "What's wrong with you? What are you thinking?"

  Helen saw that Ronald was in a daze, and came to ask him.

   "Your friend's answers are great, I was wondering if I should use them to write a script."

   "Oh, Ronald, don't forget us then, I'm going to play the lead role." Lori began to boo.

   "Who knows? If the studio likes my idea, I'll ask you to audition."

   "The director of ET Alien Spielberg was exposed to plagiarism from the script created by the Indian director Satyajit Rey..."

   A burst of entertainment news came from the TV.

   Ronald was startled and raised his head to look at the TV.

  Everyone's voices fell down immediately, and a girl walked over to help turn up the volume of the TV.

"Indian-Bengali director Satyajit Rey claimed that ET Alien plagiarized his 1967 script 'The Alien', Rey said through a reporter that without his script, "E.T. Alien" "Star Man" simply cannot exist."

   "Is this true, Ronald?" Helen's fellow actors asked the director most familiar with Spielberg and Hollywood, Ronald.

   "I can't tell. The script and the final movie are not necessarily the same thing. And I haven't seen the movie Rey said, so I can't answer this question."

   Ronald confused the past with a few words.

   Script plagiarism is a serious charge, and in this case, it is illegal to do so without first contacting the original author. Not only must the original author be compensated in court, but also the reputation of the plagiarist in the circle will be greatly affected.

  The biggest investment film Hollywood is shooting now, "Once Upon a Time in America" ​​director Sergio Leon was once a plagiarist.

   His famous work "AFistful of Dollars" is Clint Eastwood's famous work, telling the story of a western cowboy who saves the town from villains.

  This movie, in fact, every scene and every shot is a copy of the black-and-white Japanese film of Akira Kurosawa, director of Toyo, "with the heart".

  Leon's movie just changed the story from the ancient East to the western town. The protagonist's weapon, changed from a katana to a revolver. Such plagiarism is of course untenable in court. After Akira Kurosawa sued, Leon lost money.

   Of course, in the case of ET aliens, it is estimated that this will not be the case. The script that Rey said has not been made into a movie, and is still in the script state. As Ronald said, the script is still far from being a film.

   This kind of movie with many special effects scenes, coupled with Spielberg's unique brushstrokes, uses light and shadow to draw a children's fairy tale, and the effect of the finished film is not what can be seen in the script. Ronald didn't quite believe Spielberg had to plagiarize.

  Ronald estimates that there may be some similarities in terms of creativity and plot. This kind of thing is an alien theme, and it will inevitably crash.

   Ronald, who returned home, called his agent Richard and asked about the ET aliens.

   "Isn't this Rey here to touch porcelain?"

   "No, Ronald. Rey is a well-known director of Indian origin, and he is also a well-known screenwriter and composer.

He directed 'Song of the Road' which won an award in Cannes, and later made two other films, 'Song of the Big River' and 'Song of the Big Tree', which won the Venice Golden Lion Award, and West Berlin Golden Bear. "

   "Uh...I wanted to ask about the accusation of script plagiarism, did Steven really copy his script?"

  Ronald knew that he was weak in non-English films, third world films. He didn't watch many of these films. Compared with Spike Lee, an alumnus of New York University, he was ignorant.

   "I heard he will make a statement tomorrow."

   Irrespective of all the surprises that come with these ET Alien box office hits, Ronald started sitting at the keyboard trying to write a synopsis of the script.

   He wanted to seize inspiration and write a script by himself without the help of dreams.

   Dreaming of movies has no regularity and is difficult to reproduce. If I want to continue my career in the film industry, I am afraid that sooner or later I will have to return to being a screenwriter and writing scripts.

   "The comet hit the earth, a cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs in the Cretaceous period. New York and Los Angeles were devastated…

  Several young girls in the valley survived because of visiting nuclear war protection facilities. How do they use the valley girl's ideas to solve a series of survival problems after the catastrophe. "

  Ronald kept writing and writing, without reference to the original book, nor the direction of the movie in his dream, he wrote very slowly.

  The screen made by the TV was a bit dazzling, and Ronald quickly felt his eyes dry and wanted to cry.

   It seems that I still have to buy a computer like SE Hinton, which has a dedicated typing display.

   "Ask the dealer tomorrow to see how much it will cost."

   (end of this chapter)