Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 447 The Great Dragon Eagle

John Hughes, a native of Chicago, got his first job as a copywriter at Leo Burnett and later wrote humorous pieces for National Lampoon.

The part-time job gave him the opportunity to switch to film, and he published a magazine article that was turned into the [-] hit comedy "National Lampoon's Animal House."

His two sequels, "National Lampoon: Homecoming" and "National Lampoon: Vacation," were both successful, and "Vacation," which was released recently, was a huge hit at the box office.This allowed Hughes to be spotted by Ned Tanin and signed a director contract.

The script this time is called "Sixteen Candles", another script by John Hughes. After being rejected by Tanin, it took him less than a week to come out.

It tells the story of Samantha Baker, a girl from a middle-class family in the suburbs of Chicago, who was forgotten by everyone in her family on her 16th birthday.

Parents and grandparents are busy with Samantha's sister's wedding, and she is also neglected by her crush, the rich boy Jack Ryan in school.

With the help of male friend Ted Farmer (Ted Farmer), Samantha finally fell in love with crush Jack Ryan after her sister's wedding, and Ryan lit sixteen candles for Samantha at home .

After flipping through the script casually, Ronald had a general impression of the story.It may have something to do with Hughes' origin, but the story of this script also takes place in the suburbs of Chicago, where wealthy white middle-class people live.

The characters in it are all Caucasians, except for one high school exchange student from Korea, Asia, with a strange name, Long Duk Dong.

Ronald was a little annoyed by the somewhat vulgar name given to Asians, but it was clear that Hughes was writing for the low-brow magazine National Lampoon.

"Farmer, and Baker? Why didn't they end up together?" Ronald saw the surnames of the two protagonists, Samantha and Ted, and felt that Hughes did it on purpose, but The two friends of the opposite sex ended up not being together, and Samantha went to celebrate her birthday with her crush.

"I had this idea..." John Hughes adjusted his glasses.Ronald is an expert, and he can see the joke he set up at a glance.Samantha and Ted are both from ordinary families, while Jack Ryan is from a wealthy family, and his father has a Rolls-Royce.

"But American audiences like beautiful women with heroes, don't they?" Ned Tanin interjected.

"It also makes sense." Ronald put down the script and continued to visit.

"Ronald, actually this is the script I want to make, but Mr. Tanin wants me to make this commercial film first." John Hughes agreed with Ronald when he saw that Samantha and Ted were together , is the ending the story should have, so he took out another script and asked Ronald to read it.

"The Breakfast Club?" Ronald flipped through the script and glanced at the outline.

"I actually like your 'fast-paced Richmond High'," John Hughes adjusted his big black-rimmed glasses again. I liked the idea of ​​different types of high school teenagers in it, so I set the protagonist as five typical high school characters.

Athletes, princesses, criminals, wise men, and deep wells.Arrange for them to stay in school for inspection on the same day, breaking the social barriers of high school students and allowing them to get to know each other. "

"Oh, God. John, you have to make this movie well first. If it sells well, the Breakfast Club is a very simple matter, and the investment is not high." Ned Tanning's temper came up again, Come and pull Ronald aside.

"I invited you here mainly to hear your opinion. The heroine in 'Sixteen Candles', which one do you think is better?"

On the table were audition photos of two leading ladies, Ally Sheedy, the heroine of "Games of War," whom Ronald had met on the movie screen.The other was a red-haired girl who looked younger.

"Looks like producer Ned Tannin and director John Hughes have had a fight too," thought Ronald.In today's big studios, the producers are always giving pointers to things like scripts and casting to show off their abilities and vision.

However, they seldom give instructions on technical work such as video recording and recording.Because the photographer can say generously, "Why don't you come?"

As for the screenwriting and casting, anyone who has watched the movie can come out and make irresponsible remarks.

"Why not choose her? Ellie is very beautiful and has passed the market test." Tanin likes Ellie Siti, the heroine in the war game.

As for Molly Ringwald, whom director John Hughes likes, he said in a light tone, "No, I just saw the casting photos of Molly Ringwald, so I wrote this script for her." .”

After "Longwei Boy", Ronald saw this kind of controversy in casting again. Instead of giving his preference, he asked Hughes what he thought.

"Because Molly has a quality that makes the audience empathize with her."

Ronald held up the photos of the two actresses and looked at them for a long time, "Why not let them all come to the audition? This way we can see their acting skills and temperament intuitively, which one is selected, and we will recall it when the time comes, and others It would be nice for the actors to watch the chemistry together."

"Just do it like this." Tanin slowly gained confidence in his vision, and agreed to Ronald's suggestion, "But you have to come when the time comes."

"Yes, you're coming too, Ronald." John Hughes was also fighting for Ronald.He saw that Ronald had some influence over Tanin.I also know that Director Ronald's "fast pace" has won the gist of youth films, and I will definitely agree with my judgment. Inviting him to audition will increase my persuasiveness.

During the audition the next day, Ronald came to Universal's office as scheduled.Two actresses, Allie Sheedy and Molly Ringwald, came in and did an audition.

After watching the performance of the two, Ronald was convinced that John Hughes was right.Molly Ringwald is really the best choice because she is a teenager herself.

Ali Sheedy was born in 21 and is [-] years old this year.If she plays the role of Samantha, she must use "methods" to integrate into the role.

And Molly Ringwald was born in 15 and is exactly [-] years old this year.It is exactly the same age as Samantha in the play.

One of the hardest things about playing teenage characters is that most people, as adults, forget all the stupid things they did in high school, and some of the silly ideas, and emotionally emotional things that don't make sense .

To re-live those emotions and ideas, you have to go back to high school and go undercover for a while, as Cameron Crowe, the writer of "Fast-Pace Richmond High," did.

Often 20-year-olds, when reading their diaries from previous years, are amazed at the rapid change in their thoughts, and sometimes they can’t remember why they wrote in the diary.

And a 30-year-old person can easily remember his thoughts and feelings at that time by reading his diary when he was 20 years old.

That's the hard part about teenage characters.And generally speaking, teenage actors are in a rebellious period, which is very difficult to tune.But Molly Ringwald is a spiritual girl, she has a mature side beyond ordinary people.

Molly was in high school, and she knew every aspect of high school life, which things embarrassed her, and which boys caught her heart.

"I think it's clear that Elle Sheedy is fine, but Molly Ringwald is Samantha," Ronald said to Ned Tanin about his thoughts.

Tanin also nodded frequently. He didn't know if he really agreed with Ronald's idea, or because there was a step down, it was more decent to agree with John Hughes' opinion in this way.

"Sorry, I have to go to the bathroom." Ronald got up and walked out of the audition room, leaving Tanin and Hughes a chance to chat and communicate alone.

He walked into the corridor outside the door, and the scenes of fighting wits and courage with Tom Mount flooded back in his memory.I have made some achievements along the way.

"Excuse me, is this the audition location for 'Sixteen Candles'?" A voice interrupted Ronald's memory.

Ronald looked up and saw an Asian face with his hair parted in the middle, which was a little funny.

"Yes, are you here for an interview?"

"Yes, I'm here to audition for the role of Long Da Diao. My name is Gerd Watanabe, and you can call me Gerd." The Japanese-American actor reached out his hand and shook hands with Ronald.

"Hello, Gerd, they are still interviewing the heroine. You may have to wait." Ronald heard Mr. Watanabe speak, and his pronunciation was completely like that of an American born and raised. Guess he is a second generation, or even a third generation immigrant.

"Okay, I'm just about to get ready."

Watanabe took out a page of paper, which was exactly what he had prepared when he came to the audition.

"Very good dinner. Amuse-bouche, served in funny round pies." Watanabe began speaking with a ridiculous accent.

"Huh?" Ronald was surprised to hear that Watanabe's accent changed, from a boy who received American education from a young age to the dull accent of Koreans speaking English, and he spoke very slowly, as if using When you want to say something in Korean, you can translate it into English word by word.

Ronald was very surprised, this acting is very unusual.

"How did you do it? This accent is exactly the same as the Korean tourists I saw speaking."

"I learned from the Korean exchange student at school." Watanabe has completely switched to the accent of the Korean exchange student Long Da Diao.

"I like your performance, especially your accent." Later, John Hughes, who auditioned, was very satisfied with Gerd Watanabe's audition performance, and made an appointment with him on the spot to let Watanabe free the schedule.

"Actually, he's..." Ronald thought it was funny that Watanabe spoke in that Korean accent throughout the audition, and John Hughes might have thought he was a Korean actor.

"Thank you, I will spare time. Thank you for your support, thank you Director Hughes, and thank you Ronald..."

While thanking everyone with a Korean accent, Watanabe winked with Ronald and asked him not to say that he can speak fluent American English.

Ronald understood and winked his eyes, expressing that he would not expose his scheme with John Hughes.

(End of this chapter)