Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 686: Real-life Fighting Between Global Executives

Ronald knew nothing about Tanin's little tricks.

He and Nisita are busy preparing for the new film "Secret of Success" led by Universal President Frank Price.

This movie is actually not a purely commercial film, it is a rare commercial war film in Hollywood, but it mixes a lot of love between men and women, and the plot of the villain's counterattack.

In addition to the adaptation of Spielberg's personal experience, the climax of the film is the process of the acquisition and anti-acquisition of a large listed retail company.This part attracted Ronald. He found someone to do his homework and went to Wall Street to interview many fund managers and lawyers engaged in mergers and acquisitions.

In addition, what attracted Ronald was the ubiquitous sense of humor in the script.Including those executives who are ignorant, running and exercising on the roof of the building every day, and eating a lot of dietary supplements, Ronald can't help laughing.

In a large organization, no one knows who you are, you can pretend to be someone, and the core of the story of attending high-level meetings without being seen through also makes Ronald feel very real.Today's large enterprises, with a scale of tens of thousands of people, may indeed be exploited by scammers without being discovered.

"The so-called 'aunt' of the protagonist must find a coquettish middle-aged actress, otherwise the whole story will not be convincing. We can try the most sought-after Kim Basinger now. See if she has a schedule and interest .

In addition, the vase role that Helen wanted to play, I considered using the height difference between her and Fox to persuade her to give up.Hey, it's really troublesome..."

Ronald is also a star director now, and most producers want to support him, so many privileges that he could not enjoy before can now be used to his heart's content.

Want that actress, get in touch.If you want to know which actress or not, someone will help you.

"The video of the model you want is here, which one do you like?" Nisita took out a lot of video tapes from a large box, put them into the machine and played them for Ronald to watch.

At the beginning of "Secret of Success", the protagonist Brantley was shocked and eye-opening when he first came to New York from rural Kansas.

Here's a shot of him seeing a line of fashion models taking photos on Fifth Avenue, saying hello to them, and being ignored.A good portrayal of a country kid new to New York.

Ronald asked for real models to shoot, so Nisita contacted a modeling agency and found a batch of fledgling models for him to choose from.

"This one is not bad. It looks very distinctive. It looks like a model." Ronald saw a good one.

"Paulina Porizkova, a Czechoslovak immigrant. You have a good eye."

Ronald glanced at Nisita.

"I mean her swimsuit was on the cover of GQ Magazine, she's famous."

The competition for female models in the fashion industry may be more intense than that of Hollywood actresses.Therefore, the ones I chose for this movie can greatly add points to their modeling careers, so it is undeniable that some models are willing to exchange themselves for a chance to appear on the screen.

Ronald didn't have any prejudices, but he was afraid that the models he found were not beautiful enough, and the opening was not powerful enough to shock the audience, so he insisted on choosing by himself.

"This one is also good, very photogenic."

"Linda Evangelista, a Canadian model, but she has already been spotted by Chanel, signing her needs a little wrist and salary."

"Well, I think it's good. She can try it if she wants to." Ronald felt that this one also looked like a fashion model.

"Look at mine." Nisita seemed to understand something.

"This one is also good, this mole looks very charming." Ronald finally took a fancy to a model with a mole on the corner of his mouth.

“Cindy Crawford, this is a real country production. Just signed with Elite Modeling Agency in New York.” Nisita found her name in the catalogue.

"I think these are good, and you can recommend the others."

"Okay..." Nisita hastily jotted down Ronald's choices. Apart from Linda Evangelista, these three are not difficult to win.

For the remaining places, you can do favors yourself.

"Let's go to Universal's office and talk to Frank Price, don't make him wait for us." Nisita looked at his watch, and the next trip was to report the results to Universal and Mr. President.

One of the benefits of being a popular director is that you can find the best technical experts in Hollywood to cooperate with.

Ronald's two big productions in a row were big hits, and the third "Longwei Boy 2" is about to be released. Except for a few first-line stars, he can almost find whoever he wants to cooperate with.

This time, he has no choice but to choose the director of photography, and the art director is the famous Polly Platt.

She is the ex-wife of famous director Peter Bogdanovich.In the middle of filming "The Last Movie," her husband Bogdanovich abandoned her to live with lead actress Sybill Shepard.

After she got stuck, it was Ronald's former boss, Roger Coleman, who offered her a job to get back on her feet and raise the kids.

Ronald has always wanted to work with the legendary art director Polly Pratt, who once worked as the art director for the Oscar-winning film "Mother and Daughter" and also wrote the screenplay for Brooke Shields' debut novel "Embarrassing Baby". Cooperation, this time finally got his wish.

In addition, for the soundtrack part, he also named John Williams, the soundtrack composer of the Star Wars, Jaws, and Superman series.

These people have a characteristic, they are rare among technical experts, and their names are known to outsiders.Ronald also planned to ask Walter Murch to be his editor.In this way, I can get rid of the heavy editing work, and just be a bystander and adviser, and maybe I can learn two tricks from Murch.

Nisita drove the cash cow himself to the Universal Studios office next to Universal Studios.

Ronald took over this movie, and his own faction in CAA could add many actors to it.There are many supporting roles, such as the protagonist's uncle, if Helen does not play the vacant heroine, there are many important supporting roles, such as the protagonist's friend in the reception room and so on.

"Please wait a moment, Mr. Price is watching the trial screening. He should have come to wait for you. There may be some delays."

Frank Price's secretary is a middle-aged woman who has no pretensions like her boss. She treats Ronald with great respect and even makes Ronald's favorite black tea for her.

"Okay, it's okay. Mr. Price is the benefactor who helped me make my debut. I should wait for him. I don't know what movie he is watching? Can you tell me?"

Ronald asked curiously.

"It's the new movie by George Lucas. I wanted to see it too. If it's good, I'll take my daughter to watch it together."

"Sorry to interrupt your arrangement."

"Hahaha, Mr. Li, this is my job. I've never seen such an unassuming big-name director like you."

Sipping black tea and eating snacks, Ronald didn't expect it to be Lucas' new movie.

At that time, Diane Lane went to audition, but unfortunately she couldn't really sing, and lost to Leigh Thompson.If it's being previewed internally now, it looks like it'll be out in August anyway.

It’s best not to crash with my own Top Gun and the sequel to Dragon’s Way Kid. Lucas’s lightsaber is too sharp. His Star Wars and Indiana Jones series are really box office harvesters. Whoever touches it will die.

Fortunately, they are aiming at the very center of the summer file, and there is not much competition with me.Presumably at the film ordering meeting in Las Vegas, Paramount and Universal coordinated the schedule of several big productions with high expectations.

Looking at it this way, there is still a gap between myself and the real big-name directors like Lucas and Spielberg.At least the Seventh National Congress would not dare to fight the two of them head-on by themselves.

Fortunately, his friend Paul Hogan's "Crocodile Dundee" also avoided the limelight of his new film, and no one wanted to meet him head-on.

"By the way, what's the name of Lucas' new film?" Ronald couldn't remember a bit, and he even promised Lucas to attend the premiere in return for his participation in the premiere of Top Gun.

"It's called Howard the Duck. When you meet Price, don't forget that this is their biggest project this year. Lucas made a duck with special effects. It's an alien who fell in love with a rock star on Earth... ..."

"Yeah, thank you." Ronald hurriedly made up the plot, so that he wouldn't be unable to catch up.

"Mr. Li, Mr. Nisita..." The secretary came over and called the two of them. Frank Price seemed to have finished watching the internal preview and was walking towards his office from the next screening room.

Next to him, it seems that another acquaintance of Ronald, in his debut novel "Fast-paced Richmond High School", once helped his Universal parent company, the senior leader of the Gulf West, Sidney Simberg gentlemen.

Ronald adjusted his clothes and tie, and this time it was the two Universal speakers who appeared together, and he had to maintain the corresponding respect.If there were anyone in the Big Seven that Ronald had to listen to carefully, these two were undoubtedly the most important.

"Dxmn It! Who gave the green light?" Simberg walked behind, with a dejected face under his gray hair, and cursed as he approached the office.

"Sidney, what do you mean? You were the one who insisted on winning Lucas back then." Frank Price was also in a bad mood, and the nasolabial folds on his face deepened. If so, he ignored Ronald who was waiting for him in the office, and turned around to argue with Simberg.

"Me?" Simberg's face darkened, and he pushed his big square-rimmed glasses, "I just said to pay attention to win over Lucas, and I didn't directly instruct to take this Howard Duck."

"We've got to get him, Frank. He's the most profitable producer and director for the next decade. Don't make the same mistake of letting the ET aliens go in Columbia again... You don't admit what you said?"

Price's face darkened.

The finished film of "Howard the Duck" is very bad. The protagonist is a duck who has been a special effects model. The audience doesn't like such a protagonist at all, and his character is not pleasing.

The story of the whole movie is extremely chaotic, and the sex scene between the heroine played by Lea Thompson and the duck is simply a disaster.Frank almost cried and laughed at the scene.

Such a movie must have been a catastrophe for Universal.The production cost of close to 4000 million, plus the inevitable 2000 million publicity cost, has basically been booked for this year's global financial report will be very ugly.

Now at this stall, Simberg actually wants to shirk responsibility, saying that he is the one who gave the green light?

"What do you mean, Frank? We're in the same boat, the movie sinks, and we're both screwed."

"So you asked me to take responsibility for the sinking of the Titanic? Then you escaped in a lifeboat?" Price also tore his face, and shook his fist at Simberg.

"Don't lose your mind. You are the president of Universal. Of course you have to be responsible for such a big investment movie."

"Okay, you really have the idea of ​​scapegoating me, you Jew! Traitor! Judas!"

"You have to calm down, Frank, take back what you said, I can pretend I didn't hear it..." Simberg also rolled up his sleeves...to show that he is not a weak chicken.

"Ah..." Simberg quickly got a slap on the face.

"You old bastard..." He also threw out a punch, but unfortunately he missed.

"You Jew, you are all such bastards. When you encounter problems, you pass them on to others, and when you encounter benefits, you take advantage of them yourself."

Ronald and Nisita were stunned. This is Universal, the two most powerful old men in the seven major Hollywood studios. How did they stage a live-action fight?
"Come and help, Ronald, and Mr. Nisita." The middle-aged secretary saw that his boss was fighting with his immediate superior, and hurriedly called for help.

"Eh..." Ronald rushed up and hugged Price who punched again.Nisita went to Raschenberg.

Frank Price was hugged by Ronald, out of reach of Simberg.He was so angry that his fist couldn't hit, so he raised his leg and kicked Simberg.

"Ouch," Sinberg was hit in the thigh, and a swing punch also hit Price in the face.

"Quickly, separate them."

Ronald hurriedly hugged Price and pulled him away, "Calm down, Mr. Price, calm down!"

"Be careful, Mr. Simberg, don't let others see it." Nisita understood the thoughts of these executives better, and fought on the spot. If this was seen and spread, it would become a laughing stock.

However, the sky failed to meet people's wishes, and the two people made too much noise, which has alarmed many high-level managers and their secretaries in the office.

They went out to inquire one by one, and when they saw that it was the two bosses who did it, they immediately shrank back in embarrassment, hoping that God would bless them, and they were not recognized by the two bosses.

"Calm down, I'll come back tomorrow." Simberg calmed down first, and he walked to the elevator with his hands, ready to go back to his office.

"You have to calm down, Mr. Price." Ronald scratched his head, not knowing what to say.

"I'm very calm. These Jews from Eastern Europe are like snakes and scorpions, lying on America's body and sucking blood. I'm sorry Ronald, it hurts you."

"No way? Mr. Simberg won't take his anger out on me, right?" Ronald thought he wouldn't be so stingy, right?

"No." Price calmed down and shook his head, "Sinberg is not so stingy. But this time, the troubles and the fact that Lucas's new movie is doomed to fail at the box office, I will leave soon. The secret of this success is no longer in my care, and the person who takes over will most likely want to vent their anger on Simberg and make things difficult for you."

"Sorry," Frank Price simply began to organize his things, he did not report any hope, and planned to submit his resignation as soon as possible.

"Uh... this... can't be, if I make a good movie, it won't hurt him, right?"

"Do you think Simberg can continue to maintain his position in Gulf West, the parent company of Universal, after this fiasco? He is right about one thing, and it is very likely that he will leave with me this time. For If he is not tied to me, he can do anything."

Ronald and Nisita looked at each other, what's the matter?
(End of this chapter)