Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1046 Why Didn't You Nominate?
"Mr. Ovitz, what do you think of Working Girl's prospects at the Oscars?"

Ronald and two agents, plus Tom Cruise, represented by Nisita's wife, Paula Wagner, formally met with Michael Ovitz.

"Ronald, we have known each other for a long time. Oscar is not an award that can be manipulated by an agency. What I can do is to do my best for CAA's clients. I can't say that all clients are treated equally, because resources are limited, we must Guarantee our core customers first.

For example, you and Tom are our most important customer assets.I was also shocked by the issue of this nomination.I've had all the brokers do closed surveys, and it can be said that this is not a normal election. "

Ovitz has had enough experience with customers coming to settle accounts after the Oscar nominations every year.Therefore, he was already prepared.First of all, he and Ronald's team explained the reasons for the unfavorable nomination.

"Unfortunately, during the filming of your working girl and the subsequent preparations for the new film, it was one of the few film projects that were able to operate normally during the strike of the screenwriters union. Although the final outcome of the strike has nothing to do with you, the staff of the screenwriters union blamed you Because of these screenwriters who were still paid during the strike, many of the films made last year were treated unfairly."

"Ah..." Ronald looked at the summary of the secret investigation that Ovitz showed him.The fallout from the strike was far-reaching, with nominations for best original screenplay.

Not only "Working Girl", but also big productions such as "The Robbery of Pear Blossoms" and "The Last Temptation of Christ" have not received the nominations they deserve for screenwriting.

And the filming was relatively early, "Growing Up", "A Fish Called Wanda", which avoided the screenwriter's strike, and "Unlimited Wanted" starring River Phoenix, although traditionally not the best screenwriter My favorite movie genres were unexpectedly nominated.

Originally, feminist-centered films such as Working Girl and Robbery of Pear Blossom have always been preferred by the screenwriters' union with a high proportion of women.It is generally difficult for children's films such as "Growing Up" to win the Best Screenplay Award.

"It seems to make sense?" Ronald felt that what Ovitz said was so sincere, it didn't seem like it was intentional... right?

Afterwards, Ovitz also spoke to Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise about his failure to win Best Supporting Actor.

Tom actually knew he made the wrong choice when he was filming "Rain Man", and then he corrected his mistakes and took over Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July".Because of the busy shooting, I missed the most important public relations time slot.

In short, Ovitz is quite modest. After explaining the problem, he also promised to improve and win more for them at next year's Oscars.

Tom Cruise cut off his long flowing hair for the filming of "Born on the Fourth of July" and turned into a handsome guy with a cropped cut.The training of the Marine Corps is indeed much more cruel than that of the Navy. His current hair is much shorter than in "Top Gun", and his scalp can almost be seen.

However, cutting round and inch is indeed the gold standard for testing the quality of a handsome guy.Even with such a big soldier, Cruise is still very handsome.After the conversation, he asked the agents to go back first, and he took Ronald and the two to find a private small restaurant. He wanted to ask Ronald for advice:
"Do you think Ovitz is telling the truth?"

"Half-true, half-false, I feel that what he said is the truth, but only part of the truth." Ronald knew that Ovitz had the nickname of a tyrant in CAA, and he was not the sincere and honest appearance when he was treating customers. .

"What do you mean?" Tom Cruise wanted to make a breakthrough in acting since he entered Hollywood, and wanted to win an Oscar winner.

Ronald was not as inconvenient to speak in front of his little brother as before. He took out the list of nominations for this year's Oscar for Best Screenplay and pointed it out to Tom Cruise.

"Rain Man" - Ronald Bass
"Grown Up" - Ann Spielberg

"Unlimited Wanted" - Naomi Foner
"A Million Dollar Arm" - Ron Shelton

"What do they have in common?" Ronald asked Cruise, pointing to the list. "Why aren't their films interfered with by WGA membership votes?"

"Huh? They are all new screenwriters?" Tom Cruise didn't understand what Ronald wanted to ask. These screenwriters are all new to the industry, and Lon Xie, who wrote "Million Golden Arm" Leon had just come from minor league baseball.

"Stupid, look at their surnames..." Ronald smiled and patted Cruise on the shoulder, revealing the mystery, "They are all Jews."

Tom Cruise was not familiar with screenwriters, and when Ronald reminded him, he discovered the mysteries that Ovitz didn't say.

Just like his own "Rain Man", Dustin Hoffman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award winner and Oscar winner.In the same movie, there is not much difference in the acting performance of the two brothers.

The autistic person played by Dustin Hoffman may feel good in the eyes of actors who don't know how to act, but in the eyes of actors who know how to act, as well as directors, screenwriters, etc., Tom Cruise's Acting is more difficult.

And Tom Cruise was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, Kevin Kline in "A Fish Called Wanda" and Martin Landau in "Tucker: His Dream" are both Jewish.

Ronald's discovery of actress Phoebe Cates' boyfriend, Kevin Kline's acting nomination is not bad. "A Fish Called Wanda" did get a lot of praise.

That Coppola-directed biopic of inventor Preston Tucker is pretty weird.The movie did so badly at the box office that it didn't even recoup its production costs.And in the whole movie, the director Coppola, the leading actor Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Christian Slater and others who are more outstanding in supporting roles, did not get an Oscar nomination for art.

Only this Martin Landau, the perennial supporting actor and acting coach, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

"Fuxk", bang!
Tom Cruise slammed his fist on the table.Every time I play a leading role, I give CAA face very much, and put a lot of CAA contracted actors in it.Also offered to help CAA's efforts to sign directors like Martin Scorsese.

But he seems to be an asset, and Ovitz always earns income from it without maintenance and upgrades.

"How can I be nominated for an Oscar? I feel that I have done a lot, but I have received very little recognition." At this moment, Tom Cruise seemed to have no money to fix his teeth, but he was conscientiously auditioning At the door of the room, the little actor was waiting to be recognized.

"Well, if you want me to say, you are still a star, and you have made a greater contribution to Hollywood. Maybe one day, they will realize that the industrial foundation of Hollywood is created by stars like you attracting audiences to movie theaters. Not Created by those 'acting schools' who don't make much money and complain that the audience doesn't understand their films."

"I just feel that I have spent a lot of time and energy on acting, but I can't get their approval..." Cruise rarely showed his true feelings in front of Ronald, and he was still the one who worked hard in everything he did. Children from poor families who want high scores.

Ronald understood what Cruise said, including producers in the industry, film critics, and big bosses in the agency like Ovitz.These people say that they are the leaders of the industry, but they say that they are parasitic species that rely on the market created by these star actors whom they look down on.

Who is the cornerstone of Hollywood?It will take time to prove it.

"Don't be like this. I'll watch Oliver's new movie, and you're very hopeful. But the nomination is proof of your strength, and winning depends on luck. If you fail once, you can only try again..."

"I will mobilize my friends to vote for your best director," Tom Cruise regained his confidence.Ronald, the noble man back then, was able to convince him with what he said, and a single call made him see the profound content that he hadn't seen before.

"This is your second consecutive nomination, right? Will you win?" Tom Cruise sincerely hoped that Ronald would win.

"Hey……"

Ronald just persuaded Cruise to be very organized, and it was his turn, but he still couldn't let go of the obsession with wanting to win the award.

After the Golden Globes and before the Oscars, it is the annual awards season.All kinds of awards are intensively awarded during this period.

Ronald couldn't avoid it, and he went to various places to attend award ceremonies non-stop, and at the same time he was doing public relations for the movie.

The first to be presented was the National Society of Film Critics Awards.The award is voted on by film critics across the country.There are also many members who are professors in universities.

It is conceivable what kind of "deep meaning" movies this award favors.Best Picture was awarded to "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."Best Director was also awarded to director Philip Kaufman.

Ronald was only nominated for Best Director, the other nominated for Best Actress for Melanie Griffiths.

Next up, are the awards from the New York Film Critics Circle.

This is Ronald's home field.The reporters on the film review pages of the major media in New York took great care of Ronald, a local kid.In particular, Ronald organized many social activities for New York film critics. As long as they used the film critic's certificate, they could pay a very low fee and enjoy various discount coupons of five-star hotels.

This allows these reporters who write "film critics" that don't make much money in New York, a city with a high cost of living, to have many opportunities to show the benefits of being a film critic reporter in their circle of friends.

Although it is not as respected as a social commentary reporter, and it does not have all kinds of extra money like a financial reporter, but after all, there are opportunities to get in touch with various celebrities and actors, and you can also bring friends to watch this kind of premiere for free.Coupled with the various film review activities sponsored by Ronald, these people's favor for Ronald and Daydream made them change their preferences for films that reflect the test of human nature.

Best Director was awarded to Ronald. Neither "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" nor the Australian film "Crying in the Night" starring Mel Streep won Ronald's "Working Girl."

Faced with doubts from some insiders, they were also very confident: "Working Girl is a movie that reflects life on Wall Street in Manhattan. Didn't you Jews enjoy watching it?"

However, Melanie Griffiths once again missed out on Best Actress, which went to Meryl Streep.

All the way north, the third film critic award is the Boston Film Critics Award.

The city has a long sporting tradition.The Boston Celtics, and the Boston Red Sox are both traditional strong teams in their respective professional leagues.

Especially the Boston Red Sox, because they sold MLB's greatest hitter, Babe Ruth, to the New York Yankees in order to support theatrical cause.So being possessed by the curse, he has never won a championship since 1920.

Therefore, the film critics here also love the baseball movie "Million Golden Arms" very much.They hope, in turn, to award the film eccentrically in the film awards, in exchange for the lifting of the curse of the Red Sox.

The best movie and the best screenplay were awarded to "Millions of Golden Arms", but the best actress was awarded to Melanie Griffiths. Griffiths, who was pregnant and came to public relations, was very happy. After winning the award, he gave a speech for 3 minutes on the stage.

In addition to these traditional awards, this year there is a new Film Critics Award, presented for the first time in the most famous city for film critics, this is the Chicago Film Critics Awards.

This award, and two of the most famous film critics, Roger Ebert and Gene Sisco, have nothing to do with this award.With the blessing of PBS's film review program, their influence is nationwide.

Apart from the two of them, the film critics of other media in Chicago are not doing very well.Every time a new movie came to Chicago for promotion, they were treated a notch below their counterparts in New York and Los Angeles.

Movie promoters are generally content to serve Albert and Sisko well and they're done.Because of this, very few films come to Chicago for their premieres.

After years of preparation, the two female journalists who wrote TV drama reviews finally won the TV station's sponsorship. Only the third largest city in the United States has a film critic award commensurate with its status.

The funds for the first awards ceremony were limited, and there was no awards ceremony. They published it in the newspaper and announced the winners, and it was over.

Best Actor, Jeremy Irons.Best Actress Barbara Hershey.Best Director for "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" Robert Zemeckis.

Best Picture, "Mississippi Burning" by Alan Parker.Their awards, perfectly sidestepping all the Oscar favourites, seemed like a protest.

Ronald also felt that it was a mistake after reading the newspaper. This award was issued for the first time, and it was issued by the big city of Chicago. If there is also public relations, the return on investment will be very high.Come back next year, this place will become a battlefield where everyone invests real money.

One after another, awards are coming in day by day, and soon, it will be the turn of the most important Oscar Sentinel Award.

(End of this chapter)