Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 549 Your girlfriend also came to audition?

   Spielberg called Zemeckis, Ronald, and the crew to watch the dailies. This was the first time he saw "Back to the Future" film.

  Stoltz's performance on screen made him feel heavy. Halfway through, Spielberg took off his glasses, wiped the hem of his cotton T-shirt, and said, "Stop."

   Zemeckis rolled his eyes to see what Spielberg would say next.

   "Robert, Ronald is right, you'll lose most of the box office this way."

   Zemeckis was a little frustrated, he whispered in Spielberg's ear, and the two quietly discussed changing the male lead.

  Spielberg was not persuaded by Zemeckis, and he made a decision on the spot to replace Eric Stoltz with Michael J. Fox.

   "I can't find Michael J. Fox, whose agent and 'Family Bonds' producer Gary Goldberg wears a pair of pants and doesn't let me speak directly to Fox," Zemeckis said in frustration.

The TV series "Family Bonds", in which Fox played the eldest son, Alex Keaton, unexpectedly became the audience's favorite character. Producer Goldberg did not want Fox to tread on two boats, and has already released words, The Back to the Future team was not allowed to have any contact with him.

   "Find him," Spielberg said flatly, "as soon as possible."

  Ronald saw Zemeckis' distressed appearance and went to comfort him, "I know John Candy, he and Fox are both Canadians, and I can pass the word through him..."

   "Thank you..." Zemeckis said gratefully.

   "I have seen the script you brought by Tocandi. I heard that Universal is making a big sci-fi production. Are you the director?" Michael J. Fox, called Ronald the next day.

"It's not me, it's Robert Zemeckis. Listen, they were going to ask you to star, but Mr. Goldberg stopped him. He said the script was good, and you're going to blame him for not letting it go. You acted, so I didn't let you see it at all."

"Hi, I think he's right. I do really want to play Marty McFly. I had a deal with Goldberg to only do it during the summer break from 'Family Bonds'. This year I've already played 'The Wolf of Eighteen' and I've used up my quota, but I really want to do 'Back to the Future'."

   "Then I will contact Mr. Spielberg and Zemeckis and let them have a showdown with Goldberg." Ronald confirmed Fox's willingness to play and told the crew.

   "You guys are robbery!" Goldberg, a Jew, was furious in front of several cast members who came to negotiate Fox's schedule.

   "Come on, Gary. We can share Fox's time." Spielberg bargained.

   "How to share? 'Family Bond' is the top-grossing character, and he plays here five days a week."

   "We could shoot him in the evenings and only do the daytime scenes two days a week." Zemeckis said of the way they came up with sharing Fox's schedule.

   "You can't prolong the shooting every night and prevent him from coming back the next day. If the 'family bond' has less than one hour of overtime every day, it must be satisfied first."

"make a deal."

   Both sides met each other's time requirements. Anyway, most of Marty's scenes in "Back to the Future" are indoors and at night. As long as Zemeckis goes home and re-shoots the shooting plan, it will be fine to accommodate Fox's schedule.

  The two sides tacitly did not mention Fox's rest issue. Anyway, he is an actor, and he asked to appear in "Back to the Future", so let him fall in two shifts.

  …

   "Uh... can you add an apple box?"

  Ronald comes to see Fox and Helen Slater audition again after the two sides have negotiated a schedule.

  Michael J. Fox and Helen have a height difference of four inches. The two stand together, Helen is half a head taller than him, and the close-up needs to be adjusted to make Fox stand on the apple box to barely fit together.

   "Marty and Jennifer have a lot of long-range sports shots." Zemeckis reminded by the side that since Stoltz has been replaced by Fox, his girlfriend Jennifer Parker will also be replaced by Helen and Claudia Wells.

  Ronald gave himself a slap, isn't this self-inflicted. Whether Zemeckis's movie is good or not has nothing to do with him, and he also loses Helen's role. You have to find another way.

   "Ronald", Spielberg looked at it and motioned for him to come out and have a chat.

   "I owe you this time, thanks to your reminder, otherwise Amblin will lose more money." Spielberg patted Ronald on the shoulder.

   "The quality of Zemeckis' shots is okay, not too bad, not to lose money."

   "Don't say that, we all know that if it weren't for you, Zemeckis would continue to shoot, and I would still propose a substitution after seeing the samples."

Spielberg pointed it out, "Back to the Future" is a high-concept movie. It didn't win by the storyline, but relied on the brain hole of time travel, and the various prophets brought to the protagonist Marty by the chaos of time and space. Intuition, attract the audience.

"A high-concept sci-fi film, if you put the deep acting skills that a drama film has, it will be a disaster. You may have saved millions for my Amberlin and the distributor Universal, and also saved Zemeckis' reputation. disaster."

   "But he doesn't necessarily thank me," Ronald thought to himself.

"I know Helen Slater is your woman, this thing started because of our mistakes, and I'll recommend her the heroine of another movie. It doesn't count in the favor I owe you. She likes What kind of role?"

   Ronald was overjoyed, "Well, she likes roles that require acting skills. She studied with those London Shakespeare actors in London before, but her own acting skills have yet to be tested."

   "I see, can Helen sing?"

   "Yes, her father has been raising her, she is a good jazz pianist and jazz singer."

   "The famous screenwriter Neil Simon of Broadway and Hollywood is preparing for his new film. The heroine is a singer. I will call him to recommend Helen."

  The two walked back, and the crew began to call the actors, recalling them to announce their decision to replace the male lead.

   And Eric Stoltz, was put aside, and then notified his agent when he was done. When this happens, damage to the reputation of Stoltz's actor is inevitable. But for better box office results, this kind of thing is always put in the last consideration.

   "Hey, I'm the 'Back to the Future' crew, I have something important to call Leigh Thompson." Ronald was also assigned a place to call, and he called Thompson's agent.

   "Uh, Miss Thompson is inconvenient to answer the phone." The agent didn't know what he was thinking.

   "The crew has made a major decision. You will be at your own risk if you don't contact her." Ronald decided to scare the agent who was confused about the situation.

   "Hee hee hee..." Helen listened to Ronald talking on the phone next to him, and smiled with both hands on Ronald's shoulders. She learned that she had an opportunity to audition for a new heroine, and she was not so disappointed in losing a vase role.

   "Hey, who's looking for me, I'm Li." After a while, Li Thompson called anxiously. Taking advantage of the crew's holiday, she sneaked to Germany to meet her lover. When she heard the crew's major decision, she was frightened to death, and hurriedly called to ask.

   "It's me, Ronald. I don't care where you are, hurry back to Los Angeles, the crew has a big decision."

   "Is it about me?" Leigh Thompson was even more frightened when she heard that it was Ronald. Could it be because of her poor acting skills that she should be fired from the crew?

   "Don't think blindly, since I informed you, it has nothing to do with you, come back soon."

   "Hey, Honey, I just got back, where are you going?" Dennis Quaid, his boyfriend, hugged Leigh Thompson from behind, "Don't go, I'm already very anxious here."

  The uncomfortable Thompson was hit by Quaid, and slapped him open, "Don't make trouble, Honey, there is a big problem with the crew, I'm afraid I'll be fired if I'm late." Li Thompson vaguely guessed it was about the male lead

   She immediately put the clothes in the suitcase, then turned around and left, and went to the airport to buy a ticket.

   Before going out, I saw my boyfriend who was looking unfazed, and came back and kissed him in his arms, "Don't be like this, I really have a very urgent matter. When you come back, I will make up for you, bye."

   "Oh, everyone is like this." Dennis Quaid lay down on the bed in frustration, reaching for a small bag of "good things" from his bag. "Ah...Ah..."

  The next day, Ronald took Helen to the "The Slugger\'s Wife" crew where Neil Simon served as a screenwriter. Neil Simon is one of the rare amphibious screenwriters who has won the highest honor in theater, a Tony Award, an Oscar in film, and an Emmy nomination for best screenplay in television.

   This happens to be Helen Slater's favorite type of work that requires acting skills. She studied drama in New York some time ago, and may be appreciated by Neil Simon.

   "Ronald, why are you here?"

   Outside the audition room, Ronald accidentally sees Tom Cruise.

   "I accompanied a friend to audition for the heroine."

   "Isn't it a coincidence? I'll accompany Rebecca to the audition." Tom was stunned.

   "No way?" Ronald looked at Cruise. Could it be that his girlfriend Rebecca De Mornay is also Helen's rival?

   "Uh, let them compete, we're just here to accompany you. You know that actresses always need a man by their side to be at ease at such times."

   "Ah, yes." Ronald thought that was too much of a coincidence.

   "Remember, you were outside the audition room and called my name, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the first role and I wouldn't have met Paula."

   "That's your own talent and hard work, Tom. I remember you knocked out all your dentures on purpose when you played the 'worldly urchin' to be realistic."

   Now Cruise has already found the best dentist, and his teeth are very white.

"Thanks to my good luck, I met you and found a good agent like Paula." Tom Cruise was very emotional, he must be lucky in this industry, "She is my career. The career has been very well planned, and the actor does not necessarily need to find a role that can perform his acting skills, the overall effect of the film is what the actor should consider."

   "Huh?" Ronald heard the complaints inside, so he pouted inside.

"Rebecca has her own considerations. She comes from an acting family, so she has a natural reaction to the role of her since she was a child. I have told her several times that she should also sign to CAA, but every time we will be because of this. Quarrel, she always thinks I'm too wordy."

   "Hey, you're not alone." Ronald patted him, the actress has many ideas and big ideas, it's really troublesome.

  The two chatted for a while, and Helen Slater came out first.

   "Goodbye then, I'll chat with Helen first." Ronald gave Tom a wink.

  Tom understood and waited for his girlfriend Rebecca to come out.

   The two actresses can be said to be direct competitors. If they have dinner or something, everyone will be uncomfortable.

"I think Mr. Simon might pick me," Helen chirped at the audition over dinner, "He asked me about my off-Broadway performances and talked a lot about the 'baseball player's wife' role. inner grasp.”

   Ronald looked at Helen so happy, and let go of his distraction.

   "I think that Helen is my biggest competitor." Rebecca De Mornay was complaining to Tom Cruise at another restaurant.

   "Don't do this, you have a lot of opportunities. After we acted "Good Boys Are Crazy", you should also plan your career. You don't just focus on acting, and you can get ahead in Hollywood."

   "Okay, I got it", Rebecca looked bored, Tom is fine with everything, he just likes to sell his own philosophy of success, and there's no end to it.

  …

   "Have you heard? The actor of the company's 'Back to the Future' has been replaced." Universal's producer Ned Tanin was chatting with his subordinates.

   "I heard that my friend was working as an assistant producer in that crew. I heard that Ronald Lee's proposal was approved by Spielberg. His vision is as good as ever."

"How's our shooting in Chicago? John Hughes will just say it's fine, everything is going well. I'm always a little worried." Ned Tanning has since heard the news of "Back to the Future" changing the starring role, I began to worry about the "Breakfast Club" filmed in Chicago. These directors cannot blindly believe their own words.

   "Should we send someone to take a look?" The subordinate's acting skills.

"It's useless," Ned Tanin took a sip of coffee, "The director is a very professional type of work, and if he sends a layman, he can't understand the quality of the filming. If it's so simple, how can there be a 'Heaven's Gate'? A catastrophe?"

   "How about we invite Ronald for a trip? He is an expert and has a good relationship with Hughes, so that we can get accurate information without arousing the objection of director John Hughes."

   "It's good, but how can I please Ronald? I'm not like Spielberg, who was a big favor to him back then."

"According to my friend, it turned out that the heroine was recommended by Ronald to join the crew. This time, the actor named Helen Slater lost his role because of his height match. If you can provide a heroine's Chance?"

   "A heroine?" Ned Tanin thought about whether it would be worthwhile to release a heroine for this matter.

   "Do you remember the project of the black singer's single adaptation? It's in Guber's hands. He's still worrying about the director and starring candidates."

   "With you", Tanin dialed Guber's phone with a smile.

  The two chatted for a while, and Ned Tanin called Ronald again.

   "Ronald, it's me, Ned."

   "Hello, Mr. Taning." Ronald was watching the TV broadcast in his apartment, and the Huaguo women's volleyball team won the Dongying team 3-0 and successfully entered the knockout round.

"Yeah, I heard Helen Slater was your guy, and now I have a movie project that's a modern-day Joan of Arc. The producer is Peter Guber, he remembers you, says you In the 'Endless Love' crew, helped a lot.

  I remembered that Helen was the actress who played Supergirl. This is a good opportunity. Back then, Ingrid Bergman played Joan of Arc and was well received by critics. "

   "Hey?" Ronald thought to himself how he had so much influence, are the characters chasing him now?

   "That's it, Guber is still looking for a director for that movie, and if you're interested, you can finish it with Helen."

   Ronald just wanted to refuse, but his heart moved. "The Baseball Player's Wife" hasn't finalized the candidate yet, so it's not necessarily a bad thing for Helen to audition.

   "Okay, but whether I will take it or not, I have to read the script before deciding."

   "Of course, Helen's audition is not tied to your being a director."

   "Well, then I thank you very much, Mr. Tanin."

  "Call me Ned", Tanin smiled on the other end of the phone, "I have something to trouble you too, can you spare two days to help me run a trip to Chicago?"

   (end of this chapter)