Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

"What's his reason?" Ronald came to Jonathan Demme's office again.After Sean Connery read the script, he declined the invitation, saying that he would not play Dr. Lecter.

"He said he didn't want to play a serial killer..." Jonathan Demme's face was not very good, he was unwilling to even audition and interview, so he immediately refused.Such a direct refusal is not very polite to a director like him.

"Let me ask his agent..." Ronald said and called Nisita.Sean Connery has a detached status inside CAA because he was Ovitz's first star signing.Now in CAA's new building, Connery still has a super-large office. Many celebrities who are more famous than him only have a small office to use because of their lack of qualifications.

A moment later, Nisita called back, "Ovitz called me himself, and he said that Connery's star image needs to be protected from playing this particularly nasty villain. It's his personal decision." .”

"OK, I see. Thank you." Ronald turned to Demi and relayed the reason.

Everyone understands that this reason is justified. A positive male star with a good image is best not to try a villain role.Even if you play a villain, it is best to be a villain who has a compelling reason and has various lovable qualities.A serial killer like Dr. Lecter is absolutely untouchable.

However, this reason is not valid for Sean Connery.After Connery 007, there is no positive new image that is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. CAA strongly praised him for winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in [-]. The Supporting Actor Award is a serious statement. Connery has degenerated into a character actor and can only play supporting roles in Hollywood.

Still want to play the leading role, or go to the B-movie "Highlander", or go back to Britain to make Europe's own film "The Name of the Rose".

After all this, and still pretending to be a star and not acting, Ronald undoubtedly thought of whether the real reason was Ovitz's hostility towards him.

"Maybe Mr. Connery wants to go back to play Bond..." Ronald smiled at Demi helplessly, laughing at himself.

"It's not impossible, the current Bond is really bad." Jonathan Demme has experienced many failures, and his fighting spirit and sense of humor are still there.

"What do you think about the leading actor? Let's find some criteria." Ronald actually didn't know the actor in the dream, but he felt a little familiar.

"I still have the same idea. I want someone who plays a good guy and has an inherent image in the audience's mind to play this villain."

"Then who do you think is the best good guy in the movie you've seen?"

"Hmm..." Demi stroked his chin and thought for a long time, "Do you remember David Lynch's The Elephant Man?"

"The man with the deformed face?" Ronald had a vague impression.

"Yes, the British actor who played Dr. Treves was so kind to such a deformed child. The audience was very moved."

"what is his name?"

……

The actors of each movie are recorded in the MPAA, but the fastest way is to call the casting director.Ronald put the call to Julia Taylor.

"Oh, he, he is a stage actor, specializing in Shakespeare plays. Katharine Hepburn played the version of the Lion in Winter who won the best actress, and he played her son Richard the Lionheart. His name is Anthony Hopkins Sis, I'm sending you his audition photos.

I don't have his phone though, and he lost big money on his last Hollywood film, 84 Charing Cross Road.After that, they all performed stage plays and movies in Britain.You'll have to find his agent. "

Anthony Hopkins' agent in America has basically given up on his future, Ronald did not go to find him through CAA, he did not want Ovitz to interfere again after getting the news.

So Ronald went straight to Die Hard villain, Alan Rickman.

"Hopkins? I know him quite well. Do you want to find him? I'll give him a call." Rickman is now hoping to get more opportunities in Hollywood because of his success in Die Hard. But everyone looking for him still follows the villain's template.

"Of course, that's why I'm looking for you. In addition, what do you think of his ability to play a villain? It's the kind of villain with a lot of inner drama."

"Hey, don't you know? He was King Lear at the Old Vic, and Antony in Cleopatra."

"Hopkins played King Lear and Anthony, he has no problem playing this." While telling Demi about the actor's qualifications, Ronald received an audition photo of Anthony Hopkins.

"Ha, I think he is Dr. Lecter." Ronald looked at the pair of eyes with a hint of mischief in the photo, and handed it to Demi.

"It looks fine. I need to talk to him."

"I've sent him an audition invitation and he's coming over from Britain right away."

Having dealt with the casting of the Silence of the Lambs, there was another problem with Minahan Gran.He made an appointment with Ronald, and brought the team of the musical "Lombarda" to meet Ronald.

"Hi, Miranda, long time no see." Ronald was pleasantly surprised to see the choreographer of Dirty Dancing in the team, and Miranda Garrison who played an important supporting role.

"Ronald, I'm so glad to meet you..." Miranda Garrison jumped up and hugged Ronald, and led him to dance a few steps back then.

"Quack quack, my idea is to copy the choreography team of Dirty Dancing... How about it, isn't it good?" Minahan Gran said to Ronald with a smile.

The sales of Dirty Dancing videotapes have been stable, and there are a lot of surplus dividends distributed to these year's participants.

This part of the remaining dividends is not a dividend signed by each actor individually, but a dividend that is uniformly allocated to the actors' union and then distributed to participating actors every quarter.

In general movies, a participating actor can get a dividend of tens of dollars each time.Hot movies, maybe hundreds of them per month.But the videotape sales of "Dirty Dancing" have long been popular, and there is a lot of surplus.

In particular, those special actors who worked as dancers because of the relatively high risk of dancing have entered the remaining dividend list. Their income is thousands of dollars every quarter, and it is extremely stable.Since the videotapes went on sale, the checks have been stable at four digits each time.

Ronald also saw several pairs of dancers who came to participate in the choreography and performance of this Lambada when they were filming Dirty Dancing, and he really admired Minahan's intelligence in his heart.This kind of dance between men and women has special provocative movements, so looking for a dirty dance team is the most suitable.

It should be said that Minahan has a good eye for making movies, and his ability to control ordinary small productions is also good. He can guarantee that he will not lose money every time, and there is still a movie that can make a lot of money every year.Just can't let him go into a daze and shoot some big productions, that's really not his field of expertise.

"This is the leading lady, Miss Laura Harring. She was Miss America in [-], and then traveled around the world to promote the concept of world peace and environmental protection. But she studied drama at the London Academy of Performing Arts and received Latin dance (including Argentine tango)." Minahan introduced the heroine to Ronald.

In this kind of dance movie, the most important thing is that the heroine is beautiful.Ronald was satisfied that Laura Harring was actually born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.A typical Latin beauty who later settled in Texas. She worked her way up from local beauty pageants, won Miss Texas, and then participated in the Miss America pageant.

"Nice to meet you... Minahan is very good at choosing actresses." Ronald shook hands with her politely.

The cost of this play is very low, and Ronald is very confident that it will be profitable.In the future, Minahan will make more B-movies like this.To be honest, Ronald doesn't mind Minahan's remake of his Dirty Dancing scene, as long as the audience loves to watch it, and he cooperates with him to shoot all kinds of samba, rumba, and tango, that's fine.

"So what's the matter?", Satisfied with the team and the casting, Ronald dragged Minahan into the meeting room, wasn't it smooth?What happened again?
"Hey, I...someone stole my...my...I lost the name of the movie."

"What the hell, how did you lose the name of the movie?" Ronald was puzzled.

"Well, Ronald, don't be angry. My cousin Yoram", Minahan said his cousin's name, and spit on the ground to express his contempt, "he is in my 21st century movie A spy was planted in the industry, and when they got the news that I was going to make Lombarda, they bought the right to adapt the name of Lombarda in advance, and they also wanted to make this movie.”

"Ah? Why didn't you agree to buy it in advance?"

"On the one hand, the spy is a manager who can see my project files. On the other hand, I want to save some money." Minahan smiled awkwardly, but still told the truth.

"Hey..." Ronald was helpless, why the two cousins ​​seem to be enemies now, and Yoram is still staring at Minahan's project, just to destroy his movie and prevent him from coming back to take revenge on him.

"Did you buy the right to use that song?" Ronald asked after thinking about it.

"Of course, I bought the right to use the episode of Kaoma's song, but the title of the song was taken away by that bastard Yoram...drink, bah..."

"Don't spit in my conference room, you disgusting ghost." Ronald was so angry that he took a few napkins and threw them on the ground.This guy……

"I'll ask my lawyer..."

Ronald called Lindsay Dole and told the story of the movie so-and-so.

"Hmph..." Lindsay looked up some case materials over there, and said to Ronald when she came back, "I remember that Lambarda, like tango, is the name of a dance, right?"

"Hey, yes, it's a proprietary dance name, and it wasn't invented by Kaoma, who sang the popular song. In fact, she also sang the Spanish song in Portuguese."

"That's easy to handle. The name of this dance is legally a proprietary name and cannot be applied for patent protection. The adaptation rights they bought can only be controlled. You can't just use the word Lombarda as the name of the movie.

But, you guys could make a movie called something like, Lombarda - Magical Dance, Lombarda - Sexy Dance or something.There is no basis for copyright law to award them the name of this dance.Even if they sue, we have a great chance of winning, and the greatest possibility will be rejected by the judge at the pre-trial stage. "

"Lombard, the forbidden dance..." Minahan heard the two names repeated by Ronald, and he immediately called out another name that was more desirable.

For young audiences, the more taboo it is, the more they want to watch it.This is also one of the main reasons why the average box office of PG13-rated movies is higher than that of PG-rated movies.

"Okay, it's called the forbidden dance", Ronald also recognized the name.

"But, you can do this," Ronald picked up the pen and paper, and began to draw on the white paper.

"Lombarda... The Forbidden Dance." Ronald wrote the word Lombarda big, and the Forbidden Dance was several sizes smaller. He squatted on the second line aggrievedly as a subtitle.

"Quack, Ronald, you're such an evil genius, but I like it. I'm going to fight face-to-face with Yoram's Lombarda at that time, and see if I don't punch his cock! Drink... yuck ..."

"Damn it, get lost..." Seeing that Minahan was about to spit again, Ronald pushed him out of the conference room angrily.

……

"Hahaha, that's it. This unlucky guy forgot to buy the right to adapt the name of the song. As a result, two production companies made one movie."

Back at the hotel, Ronald told Diane, Tom Cruise, and Nicole Kidman a joke about Minahan.They are all actors in big Hollywood productions, and they all laughed out loud when they heard the messy approach of this low-budget B-grade movie.

Kidman, an Australian girl, is very tall. In order to match Cruise's height, she specially wears flat shoes.She originally wanted to catch up with Ronald, but accidentally fell in love with Tom Cruise at first sight.

Cruise's first movie "Thunderbolt" as a screenwriter invited her to act as the heroine.Kidman is content with his charm, and his good fortune in Hollywood.Until Cruise brought her to Ronald and officially introduced his new girlfriend to him, he felt lost again.

Ronald also showed Tom a few photos of his luxury holiday home on the beach in Brisbane, Australia, and invited them to go on vacation together when they are free. There are two connected villas, which are completely open.

Kidman, who grew up in Australia, knows that it is the most desirable and luxurious holiday beach house for Australians.It originally belonged to the local rich man Skas, but he was the one who could send a private jet to fetch clothes for his wife.

That Diane is not as pretty as herself...

"Ronald, Nicole just came to Hollywood, do you have any advice to tell him?" Tom Cruise was still very concerned about his new girlfriend, so he directly asked Ronald, who is very experienced in training actresses. , I want to give Kidman a little pointer.

Ronald looked at Paula Wagner who was coming with him.She and Nisita also came to the party.

Wagner makes the "I think Tom's in it too" look.Tom Cruise's previous girlfriends were all mature and older than him, and their faces were not too aggressive.From Rebecca De Mornay, to Cher, to Mimi Rogers, who has not yet completed her divorce, they are not the most beautiful types in Hollywood.

But this Nicole Kidman is the glamorous type.Especially a very small oval face with rich layers, which is the type that the director of photography likes.

Ronald understood that this time Tom Cruise had deviated from his usual aesthetics, it must be no small matter to fall in love, and the divorce would definitely cost a lot of money.

"It's hard to say what an actress' career is. I can't give you any advice, which may limit your performance." Ronald felt that it's better not to say anything too specific in this case, otherwise he might complain later.

"The only thing is that your hair is very distinctive, whether it is hair color or curly hair, it is actually very beneficial to maintain it like this. Hollywood lacks such a distinctive type, which is easy to be remembered by the audience."

"Thank you..." Nicole Kidman didn't take it seriously. Everyone in Hollywood knows that blondes are the audience's favorite.

"Puff," Diane next to him almost laughed out loud. Brother Ronnie likes his original hair color and hairstyle. Is this a special reminder to himself?