Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 334 The Fast-paced Celebration Reception
The time went back to October [-]. At the urging of his agent, Ronald flew to Los Angeles to attend the "fast-paced Richmond High School" celebration reception.

Helen Slater suspended her acting training for "Supergirl" to accompany Ronald to Los Angeles to celebrate.

"Honey, here is your new book." Helen was very happy.

Outside the hotel arranged by Universal, Ronald and Helen saw a bookstore, and found Ronald's new "Word Star Book for Dummies" in the "Reference Books/Software" column.

"Is this written well?" Ronald took a few movie scripts he hadn't seen before to check out, and Ronald asked when he saw that the person who checked out in front was holding a fool's book he wrote.

"It's very good, look here." The man in front was very enthusiastic. He opened the last page of the fool's book, where there is a list of shortcut keys, and pointed it to Ronald. "It's very useful to stick it next to the monitor. One."

"Just for the shortcut key list? Isn't it also in the text star's manual?" Ronald asked.

"Hey, what are you kidding. Where did I get the instructions?"

Ronald understood that this person was using pirated software.

Wordstar published the DOS version in 80, so that he became a cross-operating system word processing software, which can be used on Commodore computers using the CPM-[-] operating system and IBM personal computers using DOS.

The most powerful function of Text Star is that what you see is what you get. What is displayed on the monitor is what the printer prints.This is much better than his competitor's "electronic pencil". Those softwares show one way and print out another way, and it takes a long time to adjust the typesetting.

Such easy-to-use software is of course very popular. The sales of genuine software have gone from 50 US dollars in [-] to tens of millions of dollars before the end of this year.

But piracy also followed. Word Star is distributed on floppy disks. As long as you have an IBM computer and install two floppy drives, you can give a copy to your friends.

These pirated users do not have user manuals, and they need such teaching books to learn how to use the software.

……

"Mr. Linsen, this is my girlfriend Helen Slater, she has been chosen to star in..." Ronald introduced Helen to producer Art Linsen.

"Supergirl needs no introduction, hello Helen."

At the celebration reception, Helen wore an ordinary dress, as if she was already known to many people in the circle, but it was unknown whether it was because of her father or the influence of Superwoman herself.

"What are your plans for the new film? Do you have a new script?" Art Linsen was aroused by the fast-paced box office results, and he planned to pull Ronald to continue the journey of youth films.

"I wrote a sci-fi script, with two valley girls as the protagonists, telling how they use the wisdom of the valley girls to survive under the disaster of annihilation."

"Oh, your inspiration is endless. As soon as I saw you, I knew you had a heart to understand young audiences." Lin Sen began to boast in different ways.

"You are very kind."

"Do you have any youth dramas with urban themes?"

"I don't have any inspiration yet," Ronald replied.

"It's okay, enjoy your moment of success. We'll go talk to Cameron Crowe later, he might have a new idea."

"Thank you, Lin Sen. What do you think of my sci-fi script? May I ask my agent to send you a copy?"

"Wonderford, I'm just waiting to read it. Are you in Los Angeles these two days? I'll make an appointment with your agent, and then we can chat with Crowe. Is it possible to have another fast-paced film?" character sequel."

"sequel……"

"Ladies and gentlemen... let us welcome Ronald Lee."

A master of ceremonies asked Ronald to give a speech on the stage. Ronald and Lin Sen paid their respects and walked to the microphone on the stage.

"Thank you everyone, I'm a lucky man..."

After finishing the speech, the staff pushed a big cake with the words 4000 million on it.In late October, the fast-paced release scale began to shrink, and the weekly box office of more than 100 million was advancing rapidly. By this weekend, the box office finally broke the 4000 million mark.

"Cheers!"

Ronald cut it across the board, picked up the wine glass, and drank the big champagne with all the crew and guests who came to the celebration.

"Honey, how much box office will your film eventually make?"

After the celebration party was over, Ronald returned to the senior executive suite booked by Universal to rest, and talked with Helen.

"Last week's average single-house box office has fallen below 100 U.S. dollars. I estimate that it may be offline next week, and the copy will be transferred to second-tier theaters. It may be about [-] million U.S. dollars more."

Ronald wondered regretfully, if it hadn't been influenced by Mount at the beginning, and if it had been released nationwide simultaneously, would there have been a chance for more box office?
After sending Helen on the plane back to New York, Ronald temporarily stayed in Los Angeles. He and his agents, Nisita, Richard and others, frequently met with producers to promote the script of "Night of the Comet".

"Very good, Columbia is willing to cooperate with you. Although 'My Brother's Protector' has not been approved, we have been looking forward to a cooperation with you, Ronald."

"Warner has always been optimistic about your talent, Ronald. We have collaborated on 'The Urchin of the World', why don't you make another movie at Warner?"

"Twentieth Century Fox looks forward to working with the most talented young comedy director."

……

Accompanied by Nisita, Ronald visited several major studios with the script of "Night of the Comet".

As an upstart director of youth films, a talented supernova who made his debut with a box office of 4000 million yuan, Ronald was warmly received by the executives of several production companies.

"It seems that the new film is not worrying about no one to shoot? Which one should I choose?" Ronald was very happy, and after returning to CAA, he asked Nisita happily.

"Don't be too happy, none of them asked to buy the script of your new film. Let alone set up a project for you to direct."

"Ok?"

Ronald thought carefully about what he heard when he met with high-level officials these days.It's all flattery, touting his genius grasp of the market and the speed and efficiency of writing scripts.

Indeed, no one really opened their mouths to buy scripts or set up projects.

"So they are perfunctory to me?" Ronald was unhappy, "I am a 4000 million director."

"It can't be said to be perfunctory. If your script is a fast-paced youth comedy, I guarantee they will give you a high commission, and then line up to invite you."

Yeah, Ronald feels a little better.

Even one of the fast-paced producers, Art Linson, invited himself and Cameron Crowe to talk about the sequel, not the script of Night of the Comet.

"But sci-fi movies." Nisita shook his head. "I don't think they approve of it very much. Tomorrow I have an appointment with Ned Tanin from Universal, and he is willing to chat with you."

Ned Tannin later helped "Fast Tempo" handle the film review issue, and he didn't side with Tom Mount on ET, so the position is safe for the time being.

Of course, he also needed a new film to consolidate his position, so he invited Ronald, who had created a surprise for him, to have a chat in person.

"Why don't you continue to make youth films? Sex comedies are not very good, they are very popular?" Tanin asked Ronald with a frown as he tossed and rattled the script.

"This 'Night of the Comet' is essentially a youth film, but it just borrows the background of a comet hitting the earth, and the main line is how two young girls are in crisis..."

"Shit, a sci-fi movie is a sci-fi movie. Which audience with this name would treat it as a youth movie?"

"Then what do you mean?" Ronald's film title was criticized by Universal Vice President Tanin, but he was not very angry.Compared with the perfunctory of other studios, Tanin is still telling the truth.Although the words are ugly, there is no lack of truth in them.

"I think it's better to call Comet, Maiden, and Zombie."

Ronald thought that the name was straightforward, but that was the way of real exploitation films.

"This name is very straightforward..." Nisita took over the conversation.

"Why don't you keep doing teen sex comedies, Ronald?" Tanin interrupted Nisita and asked Ronald directly.

"My inspiration is this comet movie."

"No one in Hollywood wants to break the formula for success, and your fast pace is very popular with teenage audiences. Why not make another one? I know you probably don't want to do something like this again, but the audience hasn't seen enough."

"I don't have good script ideas," Ronald replied.

"Actually, I also thought, isn't it because I haven't dreamed of a suitable teen sex comedy script?" But I can't say this reason.

"If you don't have any inspiration, you can take a look at Universal's script library. There are many youth scripts in it. Which one is better for you? Just change it."

"I still think the idea of ​​the comet...the comet, the girl, and the zombie is very good, and I have great confidence in it."

Ronald couldn't help it either. He didn't know which of the scripts in the library would sell well. This Night of the Comet was certified by Dreamland, and all of them were released on videotape, so there was nothing wrong with it.

"Sci-fi is shit. No one in Hollywood wants to touch sci-fi these days."

Ned Tannin slapped the cover of the script and told the truth.

"Blade Runner's box office was a complete failure, only about 2000 million box office, and the cost of filming was not as high, let alone the cost of publicity and distribution, and the share of the cinema.

All sci-fi projects are on hold.I heard that David Lynch's 'Dune' script was sent back for a rewrite.

The investment in this kind of movie is too big. I think only George dares to shoot his Star Wars-Revenge of the Jedi in Hollywood. Why don't you read other scripts first?Take your pick from all the teen screenplays in Universal's library. "

Tanin looked at Ronald, let's go and make teen sex comedies.

(End of this chapter)