Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 352 Chapter 303 Pet Project

   On the plane back to Los Angeles, Ronald and both producers had a business class seat. The lunch here is much better than in economy class and there is even steak and wine on the menu.

  The well-fed Ronald, seeing that it would be a while before he arrives in Los Angeles, picked up the "Time Magazine" exclusively for business class and read it.

   "Mrs. Margaret's Fall", the title of this in-depth report is very interesting. It tells the story of the British Prime Minister's fall in China.

"After the meeting, Mrs. Margaret walked out of the door with a dignified expression. She stepped down the stone steps of the north gate of the Great Hall, looked up at the reporter at the lower right, and suddenly smiled, turned her head to signal to the reporter, and worked hard. to appear calm.

   When she continued to walk down, the high heels stumbled on the stone steps, causing her body to lose her balance and fell to the ground under the stone steps. Her shoes and handbags were also thrown to the side. Fortunately, she was almost on the ground, and she didn't fall hard.

   This year, the Prime Minister has encountered many major events since taking office. At the Paris-Dakar Rally at the beginning of the year, her son disappeared in the middle, and the Prime Minister used the British armed forces to search, only to find the unharmed and drunken son.

   used public tools to do private affairs. She had a poor approval rating and suffered a vote of no confidence. She won the support of the people by her tough performance in the Falkland Islands War in Argentina, but unexpectedly encountered a "wrestling" here.

   "Iron Lady" was in a bad mood after two and a half hours of talks, which is undeniable, even if her fall was purely accidental.

   A few days later, Britain and China signed a joint declaration to return sovereignty on July 1, 1997..."

   "Well, it seems that the Chinese people are still good, better than that South American football power." Ronald closed the magazine, and the plane was about to land.

   arrived at the airport arrival hall, Ronald said goodbye to the two producers. Don Simpson still looks full of confidence, and the shooting process gave him a lot of confidence.

   Jerry Bruckheimer, who doesn't know much about the movie, is a little worried. Paramount is going to sell half of the distribution rights of "Lightning Dance" to Polygram, which is not optimistic about the future of the movie.

   "Goodbye, Ronald." The two said goodbye to Ronald.

   I didn’t expect this goodbye, and it soon came true. Don Simpson called Ronald the next day, and Eisner, the president of Paramount, summoned Ronald to ask him something about the "Lightning Dance" shoot.

   Ronald waited outside the office of the president of Paramount. This time the secretary came quickly, "Ronald, Mr. Eisner is waiting for you."

   He was led into Eisner's office by the secretary.

   "Give me and Ronald some time, please go out first." Eisner politely asked Don and Jerry to leave the office first. He wanted to chat with Ronald privately to get a handle on the shooting situation.

   "Ronald, how was the movie?"

   Ronald glanced at Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer who were walking out, nodded and greeted them, thinking that he was not the one who gave Eisner an idea to ask questions.

   "Judging from the sample parts I've seen, the director's level is extraordinary, and the filming of the singing and dancing parts is of a very high standard. It will be a musical film of the new era.

  Mr. Eisner, I'm not talking about the old-fashioned musical of 'Grease', full of the texture of this Broadway musical, with characters dancing inexplicably. "Lightning Dance" is a new type of musical, the dance scenes are all happening in real life, and they are perfectly integrated with the plot.

   And the texture of the dance is great, teens will love that dynamic, fast-paced dance. "

   "Looks like you enjoyed Director Ryan's filming?" Eisner asked Ronald, sitting behind his desk, as if thinking about something.

   "I do like it."

   "The dance scene is the highlight, eh?" Eisner continued.

   "Yes, the plot is actually a bit cliché, and director Adrian Lane also understands it very well, but the dance scene is really eye-catching."

"Okay then, Ronald, I trust your judgment. Please go out first, I want to talk to Don about the issue of the contract." Eisner pressed the secretary's phone, "Please let Don and Jerry come in ."

   Ronald walked out the door, and when he was about to reach the door, he turned around and suddenly asked, "Mr. Eisner, that 'Footloose'?"

  Eisner raised his head sharply, "Oh, that movie has been handed over to a new vice president who is about to take over. She will contact you."

   Ronald waited at the door, and sure enough, not long after, Don Simpson whistled and walked out of Eisner's office with Jerry Bruckheimer.

"He agreed, and only sold 25 percent of the distribution rights to Polygram's Guber. That's less than the original 50 percent, which means Eisner is more optimistic about the film's box office. prospect.

   "Hey, you called me here to endorse you in front of Eisner? You bastard." Ronald scolded Don Simpson with a laugh.

"Isn't this a good deal. You earn a little trust in Eisner. He's pretty rough, but he's good for directors with artistic creativity. Maybe he'll invest in your new script." Don Simpson He put his arms around Ronald and whispered in his ear.

   "You owe me one, Don." Ronald wouldn't let him run away with a word.

   "Of course, of course... I know you're financing your film, but you see, this is my first film with Jerry, and it's going to be released next year, and we'll have the opportunity to help you produce it."

   "That's about the same."

   "Ronald, Don is also a last resort. We don't have any strong resources. This movie is actually a pet project of a senior female vice president of Paramount. She recently left, and we only got the production rights."

After   Jerry Bruckheimer and the other three stepped out of the ear of the president's secretary, they explained it to Ronald.

   The so-called "pet project" refers to a project that a senior executive of a major studio is particularly optimistic about, and he has to start shooting regardless of other people's objections, and has devoted a lot of resources.

   Just like Universal's Simberg treats Spielberg's project, the female vice president who has left Paramount also likes the script of "Lightning Dance" and did a lot of things to promote the project in the early stage.

   "Why?" Ronald was a little puzzled. Simberg has confidence in his old partner Spielberg, and the directors of this "Lightning Dance" have changed several times. It is difficult to say why the vice president likes it so much.

"Because it represents the equality of women." Don Simpson put away a nonchalant smile and said to Ronald seriously, "She is a fool, she thinks this movie represents the female sex. This is obviously a A movie made for a male audience."

   It turned out that the female vice president who had left the company took a fancy to some details in the script.

  Alex does not rely entirely on men, but has his own efforts and dignity. After finding Nick and his ex-wife in a car together, she picked up a rock and smashed the glass window of Nick's house.

   It wasn't until Nick apologized to her that he turned his anger into joy and made up with Nick. In this extremely unequal relationship between the welder and the company boss, she still insists on one-to-one equality between men and women, and never considers herself just one of Nick's many lovers.

   And the boss Nick first knew Alex because Alex's immediate superior wanted to get more social security benefits for workers from Nick, so he introduced her to Nick as a plaything.

"These women are all emotional animals. They don't know what the audience likes to watch. When they see a feminist plot, they can't wait to jump into it. But that's fine, otherwise we won't be able to get the film's production rights. ."

"It can't be so arbitrary. Isn't the president of Twentieth Century Fox a woman? I remember her name is Sherry Lansing." Ronald looked at Tang's disdain for female studio executives and deliberately proposed A counterexample.

   "You mean Jerry Lansing? Hahahaha..." Don Simpson laughed wildly, causing everyone outside waiting for Eisner to summon the eyes.

   "Sherry, not Jerry." Ronald didn't know why.

   "Hahaha, you don't know the story here." Jerry Bruckheimer pulled Ronald aside and told him the jokes going out in the industry.

After   Sherry Lansing retired from her career as an actress, she started a partnership with her for a few years and served as the producer of two blockbuster movies "Hua Guo Syndrome" and "The Kramers". The two films not only sold well at the box office, but also received critical acclaim.

   Twentieth Century Fox, who was in financial trouble at the time, believed that Lansing had the vision to see the film and the ability to ensure the success of the film. Two consecutive Oscar-level successful movies made the boss at the time think that Lansing has a peculiar magic.

  She was named president of production for the company, the first time in history for seven major studios to appoint a female president.

But the good times didn't last long. After Lansing became president, she never reappeared her magic power and lost a lot of movies. Only the "Lights Out" filmed with the former best supporting actor Timothy Hutton was a small box office. success.

  At the beginning of this year, the financial situation of 20th Century Fox was very bleak, so the oil tycoon Marvin Davis took the opportunity to acquire a lot of shares and became the new owner of 20th Century Fox.

   When he summoned the CEO Shirley Lansing on the first day, he saw Lansing walk into the office and the first thing he said to her was "I don't want coffee, thank you."

   Lansing explained to Marvin Davis that he was the Shirley Lansing she was looking for, not his secretary.

  Marvin blurted out the famous reply, "I think there's a misunderstanding here, I'm looking for Jerry Lasing, the president of the company."

   He refused to believe that the president of the seven studios was a woman. Or maybe he just pretended not to believe it and gave Shirley Lansing a slap in the face.

   In short, this matter spread quickly, and it was rumored in the film industry that Shirley Lansing would resign in anger, but she has not moved so far.

   "Hahaha..." Ronald couldn't help laughing after hearing this. He immediately stopped his laughter and told a joke about the president of Twentieth Century Fox in Paramount's office, which was not very appropriate.

"See you, Ronald. You don't like Hollywood parties. Next time I'll ask you to hang out at a more formal party." Don Simpson winked at him, and the two were eager to prepare to sell some distribution rights. contract.

   "See you", Ronald also waved to them.

   "Ronald, I heard they call you Ronald. I'm..." A tall and thin man walked over, wearing a pair of huge black-rimmed glasses, and introduced himself to Ronald.

"No, Mr. Bogdanovich. You don't need an introduction in the film industry." Ronald recognized the person who was the boyfriend of the murdered supermodel Dorothy Stratten, the famous director Peter Stratten. Bogdanovich.

   "I really like your director's 'Paper Moon', it's a really fascinating movie."

"Hahaha", Peter Bogdanovich also laughed, being admired by the younger generation who was crazy selling his debut novel, made him feel happy, "My new work 'They All Laughed' was also released, I think it is better than 'paper' The moon' is even better, have you seen it?"

   "I haven't watched it yet. Maybe I was busy with other crews a while ago and didn't see your new work."

"It's okay, it's a problem with the distributor, this movie is only shown in very few places. I'm here today to re-release this movie. It's great to see you today, why don't we go to a restaurant for lunch , by the way?"

   Peter Bogdanovich was very enthusiastic and directly invited Ronald to have dinner.

  Ronald had little interest in this director, and he also played a disgraceful role in the Stratten murder case. Knowing that Stratten had a husband, she openly cohabited with her, and did not help Stratten to settle the divorce between her and her husband. In the end, she was killed by her husband.

"Not only me, but also a guest. He is also a teenage genius like you. He debuted at the age of 23 and shot a masterpiece that shocked Hollywood." Bogdanovich saw Ronald's intention to shirk, and hurriedly Overweight, named the other invited guests, and persuaded Ronald to get acquainted together.

   "Oh, who is it?"

"Orson Welles." Bogdanovich pushed his glasses, this Ronald was young, but he came and went in Eisner's office casually, and re-released the movie "They All Laughed". Hope, It might be on him.

   (end of this chapter)