Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 328 Book Publishing

   "Some of the media took what I said out of context. I first met Rey at the Cannes Film Festival in the seventies, and had seen his Abdul trilogy before.

Rey was invited by Hollywood in the mid-1960s to shoot his Alien movie. At that time, the script was mimeographed a lot. Twentieth Century Fox was very close to reaching a cooperation with him. At that time, the script was in the big screen. It's widely spread by studios. "

   Scorsese denied the allegation of supporting Rey on the phone, he only expressed his admiration for the Bangladeshi director Rey.

   This matter of plagiarism has been widely mentioned by people in the film and television industry, but Universal seems to have made some efforts to suppress domestic media reports of plagiarism allegations.

  The American media generally did not report this accusation from an unknown small country director as news, attacking his own teenage hero who saved Hollywood, Spielberg.

   It was some tabloids and magazines in Fleet Street in London that really reported the suspected plagiarism of Spielberg with great fanfare. They seem to have written numerous reports in disregard of America's media silence.

   Including this entertainment magazine under the "Daily Star" that Ronald bought, "Star Weekend".

  Spielberg denied that he copied Rey's script. The main reason he used was that when Rey's script was approved in Hollywood in 1967, he was still in high school and had no chance to see Rey's script at all.

The report of    "Star Weekend" did not directly compare the similarities between the two scripts, but seized Spielberg's rebuttal and began to examine Spielberg's real birth date.

   "Mr. Spielberg graduated from high school in 1965, and in 1969 he started working as a director in Hollywood..."

The    magazine also has his high school graduation photos and transcripts. I don't know how much effort these puppies took to dig out these old things.

   "What's the use of listing Spielberg's high school graduation date like this?" Ronald didn't quite understand the mystery of the British tabloid report, so he asked Richard for advice.

   "If this graduation photo is real, then he was over thirty when Jaws came out in 1975, not the genius who was advertised as the one who changed Hollywood before he was thirty.

  There are rumors in Hollywood that Steven reported his age by two years. "

  Richard hit the point.

  If Spielberg was thirty-one when he shot Jaws, not twenty-nine, he wouldn't have the aura of making the best-selling movie of all time before he was thirty.

  Ronald has a hard time understanding what these people think. Spielberg was two years older and shot Jaws when he was 30 years old. That's a rare talent in the history of cinema, so what does it matter?

"Because that way, the British director Alfred Hitchcock would have the honor of making a blockbuster masterpiece before the age of thirty. Hitchcock, at twenty-seven, depended on the director.' Blame the Tenants', it became famous in Britain, and then Hollywood."

   Ronald finally understood the strange vanity of the British. Bangladesh is also part of the Commonwealth, so America's genius, the script for his top-grossing film, was actually borrowed from the Commonwealth's genius.

   "It's really kind of boring, we Americans don't care about that at all."

   "bell bell bell"

   put down the phone and Ronald's doorbell was rang.

  Two workers who looked like they brought two large and one small three boxes into Ronald's house.

   "This is the IBM personal computer (PC) you ordered, Mr. Ronald Lee? Please sign." One of them took out a receipt and asked Ronald to sign.

   Ronald, who had signed, saw the two of them open two large boxes, took out two white plastic boxes, and placed them on his desk.

   They put a flat box underneath with a monitor stacked on top. After plugging in the cables, doing some debugging, and then powering up the monitor.

With a    "hum" sound, the monitor lights up, and there is movement on the black screen.

   "Here are two floppy drives, you can put floppy disks." Take out a boot floppy disk and insert it into the A drive on the front of the lower host. Then he turned on the red power switch located at the bottom right of the chassis.

   After a squeak, the system was successfully started, and the A:\\> mark appeared on the display.

   "Power on the monitor first, then power on the host. Turn it off when it's off."

"OK."

  Ronald sat next to the monitor, typed the "Dir" command, and entered.

   The directory below the floppy disk in drive A appears on the screen.

   After playing a few times, Ronald nodded in satisfaction.

   "This is the PC-DOS version of the word processor 'Wordstar'". Another worker punched the small box, which also contained a floppy disk and instructions.

   Ronald took it and stuffed it into the B drive, then started WordStar, tried it, and signed for it.

   A new personal computer, plus a typing software, cost Ronald $1,800 in total, the computer $160, and the software $200, very expensive.

   However, using a high-quality mechanical keyboard, Ronald felt that it was worth it, and it was much more comfortable than Commod's keyboard.

The configuration of    two floppy drives also allows Ronald to switch floppy disks when he does not need to save.

   Looking at the sentence he typed on the monitor, it was not dazzling at all, and it seemed that typing for a long time would not cause dry eyes. Ronald felt that his shopping was worthwhile.

   Anyway, I have already made a lot of money by relying on personal computers and text stars, so I bought this machine as a reward for myself.

   A few days later, Ronald was at home with his agent Eddie, and a female editor of the publishing house, looking at the proof of the book, and a news on TV caught their attention.

   "Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, suffered head injuries in a car accident yesterday, September 13th, and unfortunately passed away in hospital today..."

   "Oh my gosh." Eddie called out, and the TV was accompanied by a picture of Grace Kelly with two numbers 1929–1982.

"Grace Kelly passed away in a way that didn't seem to belong to her. Fifty-two, daughter of a wealthy Philadelphia businessman, Hollywood actress, Oscar winner, Princess of Monaco, and more about her life, by Rainer to you bring."

The TV shows the images of Grace Kelly announcing her engagement to King Rainier of Monaco, followed by a review of her film career, with scenes from "Rear Window", "High Noon", "Country Girl" and more. .

   "Is Hollywood cursed? It lost two superstars in two weeks." The female editor also interjected.

   Ronald knew she was talking about Ingrid Bergman, who died late last month.

   Two of America's most dazzling female stars of the 1940s and 1950s died within two weeks of each other.

   These two can also be regarded as two of the most beautiful and temperamental female stars in the golden age of Hollywood. I wonder what beautiful actresses will join Hollywood in the next two decades of the twentieth century?

   "Mr. Ronald Lee, your manuscript is like this. If you have no objection, we will be ready to deliver it for printing next month, and you can see your book in the bookstore in October."

   After spending more than an hour reading the proof of the book page by page, the female editor finally completed the final comparison of Ronald's first published book and got up to leave.

   "Thank you, thanks for your patience in proofreading." Ronald sent the editor out.

   "Ronald, I was there when I signed you, but I didn't expect you to be able to write books other than scripts and be able to publish them."

   Agent Eddie laughed happily. Ronald's agents outside of his film business are all entrusted to him in New York, and the published book, according to the editor, is the first of its kind on the market, and is likely to sell well.

   "Thanks to Ms. Hinton, I didn't recommend it to publishers."

   Ronald smiled, and simply made a long-distance call to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and called Hinton, the author of the novel "The Urchin", to thank him.

   "Ms Hinton? I'm Ronald."

   "Hi, Ronnie. Is your book ready for publication?"

   "Yes, I called specifically to thank you for your help."

   "Haha, I thought you had talent in this area. At that time, I was on the set of Tulsa's 'The Outer Boy'. Without your help, I couldn't write the script for 'Betta Fish' with a computer."

  Hinton smiled heartily. When she saw Ronald's talent, she helped the publishing house she contacted and wanted to publish a book for what Ronald taught her to help authors like her.

   "Thank you, how's your 'Betta' shooting?"

   "Director Coppola is progressing relatively smoothly. It is expected that the filming will be completed early next month."

   "They didn't fight now, did they?" Ronald asked with a smile.

"Nope, unlike the urchins who have two gangs and a dozen lads, Douyu has only three male protagonists, Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, and Francis' nephew Nick. No need for your help, Diane is there. , they can't fight. Hahaha..." Xinton also laughed.

"By the way, I haven't congratulated you on your movie's big sales. Is there any hope of breaking 40 million?" Hinton remembered the big sales of Ronald's film "Fast Pace". At that time, the assistant of the crew had become a blockbuster. director.

   "Universal said that there are still four to six weeks of release time, and it is still in the middle of whether it can break through 40 million." Ronald replied.

   "Anyway, congratulations... Ronald."

"thank you too."

   hung up the phone, Ronald looked at the proof of the book in his hand, the title of the book was "WordStarForDummies" on the cover of the large format.

  This is a book for authors who write with WordStar software on the computer. It tells how to install and use WordStar software to write novels or documents.

   is also equipped with a lot of explanatory diagrams, and also comes with a list of shortcut keys, which can be cut out and pasted next to the personal computer.

  Not only IBM computers, but others such as Commodus, and even Apple II computers, also have detailed installation instructions.

  Ronald fell into deep thought when he read this book. He remembered the scenes of filming "The Urchin" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and how he got the idea to write this book.

   (end of this chapter)