Birth of an actor

William later thought that maybe he had thought of making a movie of his own, so after learning that he was driven out of Brokeback Mountain, he was neither angry nor very depressed, but accepted the idea calmly. As a result, he can calmly talk to Ang Lee about the future cooperation.

As for what kind of movie to make and how to make it?William has no specific plans yet, he just has some vague inspirations, and he needs to find some time to sort them out before he knows what kind of movie he really wants.

Because the idea was born in Amon Goffman's office, the Jewish broker became the first person William would share the idea with.

Judging from Amon Goffman's expression, he obviously disapproved of William's idea, and he didn't want to be optimistic and support him, but seeing William's excited eyes, the Jewish agent was at a loss for words, and the sarcasm It turned around in his throat a few times, but he finally swallowed it, and only spit out a dry sentence: "Ha, yes, it sounds good."

"There is one more thing I need your help with."

Amon Goffman wanted to say "I don't want to help", but again, in the face of William's puppyeyes, he couldn't say no: "If I can."

"You can definitely do it-help me find some gay-themed scripts." William said enthusiastically: "The script of "Brokeback Mountain" was bought by James Shams after several years of nobody's interest. This is not an exception. There must be more scripts in Hollywood that have also been buried because of the subject matter. I want you to help me collect as many of them as possible. "

All Amon Goffman wanted now was to call William's publicist, Barbara Wilson, who desperately needed to pass this headache on to someone else.

As for the script, of course he will help William find it, and he even said that there is no need to look for it. There are a lot of sorted out LGBT-themed scripts in the mailroom of every top agency company that have been neglected all year round. WMA, This is true for CAA, and IAA is certainly no exception.

Maybe that's a way too.The Jewish agent thought, flooding Will with countless scripts, and when he gets dazzled, or if he doesn't find a pearl like "Brokeback Mountain", maybe he will give up on his own.

……

After Amon Goffman sent his assistant to deliver three heavy boxes, William was caught in a sea of ​​scripts.

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, it would be hard for William to imagine that there are so many LGBT-themed scripts in Hollywood that have been neglected and shelved since their birth, and there is no hope of shooting them. A few years ago, there were more LES movie scripts than gay movies, accounting for more than half of the number.

From the number of scripts and the wide range of themes involved, it can be found that LGBT scripts are not particularly niche in Hollywood screenwriting circles. Some scripts William knew after a few pages that the screenwriters wrote them purely to win awards. It is always the studio that controls the investment and distribution channels that decides whether a film project is approved, and the more successful the studio, the less likely it is to lose money.

LES movies are not currently what William is interested in. However, if a film of this kind is produced, it will be highly topical and award-winning, so William simply selected some LES scripts created by well-known screenwriters or adapted from novels. In the future, all film and television adaptation rights will be bought.

It’s just that, as Amon Goffman hoped, when faced with the rest of the script, William encountered difficulties in reading and choosing. In Hollywood, a standard movie script is between eighty and 120 pages thick. It takes at least two hours to finish a rough reading. If you want to read all these scripts, you will need at least a week without sleep.

And William is not the kind of person who likes to let others choose scripts for him, so he chose a more tricky way relying on experience, that is, only read the first ten pages and the last ten pages, and judge the type and subject matter of the script from the first ten pages. , tone and character image, judging from the last ten pages whether there are strong conflicts and dramatic tensions, it seems faster, but even so, it took a few days.

As a result of reading all the scripts, William became more and more critical as he read them, and he didn't come across one that he was particularly satisfied with.

Upon seeing this, Amon Goffman sent several commercial movie scripts that he had carefully selected, and actively suggested that William "change the taste". William simply flipped through it, and accidentally saw a copy of Warner's "Superman Returns" in it. ".

"Warner asked me to play Superman?" William put the back of his hand on his forehead, without getting hot: "Is this not a joke?"

In the past few years, William's name has often been associated with DC. One reason is that he was a veteran comic fan, and even owned the first issue of the 1938 "Action Comics" where Superman debuted, and the 1939 "Detective" where Batman debuted. "Manga" No.20 Issue [-] These two "Holy Grail" collections in the comic world.Because these two editions of comics are too old, the number of preserved copies is extremely rare. If they are put up for auction, the value of each copy will easily exceed one million dollars. In Hollywood, the only other star with a similar collection is everyone. Known as Nicolas Cage, the number one fan of Superman.

For another reason, Willot first acquired Marvel Comics, DC Comics' arch-rival, and almost bought DC as well, almost dominating the North American comics industry.The acquisition was ups and downs. When Willot was only one step away from the success of the acquisition, he encountered a dramatic failure. This incident caused a lot of enthusiasm in Hollywood for several weeks, but it was talked about by comic fans in the comics world. Le Dao has been around for several years. After all, fans who love comics also have rich imaginations. Few of them don't expect to see the Justice League vs. Avengers on the big screen...

Now, Warner actually wants to find William to play Superman. I don't know if it's for hype or if he really thinks so.

"Warner seems to be sincere." Amon Goffman said quite proudly: "They also offered a very high salary plus dividends. If the global box office of the movie exceeds 5000 million US dollars, you can get 7000 million. U.S. dollars, if it exceeds a billion U.S. dollars, you have at least 2 million U.S. dollars in the account. This is at least three times the salary of Tobey Maguire when he took over "Spider-Man [-]."

"I'm a little confused."

"I think it's easy to figure it out. In recent years, superhero themes have become more and more popular. Marvel movies are so profitable. Of course, Warner also wants to create a DC movie universe. It is currently filming "Batman: The Mystery of the Shadow" It is a prelude, but Warner has always regarded Superman as the core of DC and the link linking other superhero movies. This can be seen from the budget. It won't be more than 2000 million, but this Superman movie—" Amon Goffman pointed to the script in William's hand: "Warner is going to invest 5000 million U.S. dollars."

"Unprecedented investment, of course, with unprecedented actors. There is no better gimmick than casting an Oscar winner as the greatest superhero. And, I don't think anyone will have a doubt about this-except for different eye colors, Will, you are a born superman." The Jewish agent shrugged and said: "Besides, you still have shares in Warner, to some extent they are their own. By the way, the person who once wanted to buy DC joined DC, so dramatic I am afraid that ordinary screenwriters will not be able to write about the development of globalization, and it will definitely poke the excitement of many people."

William is indeed a little interested in this script called "The Return of Superman"-it's not that he likes the new and hates the old. He is not ready to give up his idea of ​​making a movie. No matter how high the salary is or how good the commercial script is, it can't change his mind. .But William is also really curious, what kind of movie is worth Warner's investment of [-] million US dollars, which is enough to make at least two Marvel movies.

"Is the script great, or is it terrible?" Amon Goffman finally couldn't help asking because the more William read the script, the weirder his expression became.

"This script makes me doubt the chances of success for Warner's DC movie universe project." William searched for the right words, "It's a bit too nostalgic." As he spoke, William stretched out four fingers to manually give the nostalgic Words with double quotation marks to express his unfinished meaning.

Of course, William would like to say more bluntly that Warner's "Superman Returns" script gives him the feeling that it is not nostalgic at all, but outdated.

In terms of story, "Superman Returns" continues the timeline of Christopher Reeve's four "Superman" movies. Like Shadow Begins, the reboot storyline tells the origin of Batman.

If Warner wants to create its own superhero movie universe, then the combination of mature and stable Superman and young and immature Batman will be the one that will interact on the big screen in the future. It’s just that the portrayal of Superman’s character in the script is too vague, and the setting of superpowers is too omnipotent, like a selfless god dedicated to mankind—after the comic "Death of Superman", Even DC cartoonists are deliberately downplaying Superman's divinity, and portraying his emotional side as a human being. The "retro" core of the script of "Superman Returns" seems to be a product of the last century. Needs Christopher Reeve to be 20 years younger and remake a movie that's pretty much the same as before.

"Your sense is really sharp. The script of "Superman Returns" has been born for almost ten years. At that time, the first "X-Men" hadn't even started filming."

"Isn't this the one that Tim Burton failed to make?" William was surprised: "But the script doesn't look like Burton's style."

"It's that one. The luck of "Superman Returns" is not very good. From the beginning of the project, it has been changing directors, producers, and actors. The script has been revised many times. There is no Tim Burton. Isn't your style very normal?"

Warner originally wanted to remake the Superman movie in the mid-90s, and the designated director was Tim Burton, who had filmed "Batman". The first version of the script was created with the participation of Tim Burton, but both parties Later, due to disagreements, the partners broke up. The director was replaced by Michael Bay and then Joseph McGinty Nicher, but the filming was not completed. There is an answer.

"Commercial films pay attention to novelty. Ideas ten years ago must be outdated now. I thought Warner would at least rewrite a script."

"Maybe some people in Warner also think so, but it's too late. They have already spent tens of millions of dollars on the endless director, cast, and delay of "Superman Returns". The movie must be shot now—— That's why Warner Bros. will offer an unprecedented salary, counting on you to save the world."

"It's a pity that I'm not the real savior." William said, putting aside all the scripts sent by his agent.He wasn't someone who would change his goal midway, and if he planned to make an LGBT movie, he had to finish it first, not to mention that Warner's script wasn't very moving.

But later, at the celebratory dinner after "The Aviator" was finished, when Martin Scorsese heard that he was troubled by the choice of film titles, he gave him a very pertinent suggestion: "General directors or new producers , it is the easiest to shoot a masterpiece, because the classic script is already available, as long as you shoot carefully, you will not go wrong. The second is a biographical film, which will test the skills of the director and screenwriter. The possibility of drama is the greatest, and there is no upper limit and no limit to success. The lower limit, but a good script is also the most rare."

This coincides with William's idea.

Because there is a good enough "foundation", most of the movies adapted from famous works can be called good movies. Hollywood has many remakes or adapted movies of famous works approved every year, among which Shakespeare, Hugo, Dickens, Jane Austin's works are even more popular among the popular ones. There are even some seemingly original plot films. Henry V," "The Lion King" and "Hamlet," "Leadership" and "Emma," "Artificial Intelligence" and "Pinocchio."

However, there are not many world literature masterpieces on gay themes, some of which are easy to adapt and have already been made into movies, such as "Broken Venice", "Kiss of the Spider Woman", "Maurice's Lover", "Orlando", The rest are either too difficult to adapt, such as "Reminiscence of Things Past" and "The Immortal", or they describe too much same-sex love, but lack deep thinking. The interestingness of the story is far higher than the artistic and ideological. Such as "Dorian Gray", "Revisited" and "Giovanni's Room", although these stories can be made into mainstream films, and they can easily succeed, but they always feel that something is missing.

……

"Turing can't." Amon Goffman started shaking his head after getting in the car.

"Why? Because he's English?"

"Yes, because he is British. If you want to please the Academy judges and win a second Oscar winner, Turing is of course a good choice, but if your purpose is to impress the audience... American audiences will not like it." Feel the tragic fate of a British man."

"I see." William nodded and accepted the manager's suggestion.Although there are many good works in the scripts collected by Amon Goffman for him, none of them gave him the urge to make them immediately. Recently, he has been looking for good stories suitable for film adaptation. There are too many but it is difficult to get a clue, so William recently met acquaintances and had to chat with them about the script, and get new inspiration through the conversation. This method is indeed useful, at least it helped him eliminate many wrong options.

William has now set the subject matter on a biographical film. On the one hand, it comes from Martin Scorsese's suggestion. On the other hand, he, who has played in "A Beautiful Mind", knows very well that he wants to make people feel and accept it. In terms of the values ​​conveyed by the movie, biographical movies are indeed the most suitable.

William thought of another person of interest: "If Turing can't do it, what about Harry Hay? At least he's an American."

"Not even Harry Hay, he's a Communist."

Harry Hay is the initiator of the Matthews Association - the Matthews Association was founded in 1950. It was the first organization in the United States to combine the gay liberation movement and political activities. It has influenced countless subsequent groups. It has a pivotal position in history-and in the 40s, there was the idea that homosexuals should cooperate with ethnic minorities to jointly win social support for vulnerable groups, and their vision can be described as advanced.

However, there is another important label on Harry Hay, that is, he is a member of the Communist Party.In fact, it is not just him. Most of the founders of the Matthews Association are members of the Communist Party. The structure and operation of this organization are also modeled on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The association gradually fell apart, and the earliest members either quit completely or established another association. Only Hay continued to be active, and persisted until the 50s when the affirmative movement was fully revived.

William was helpless: "This is not the McCarthy era, Amon, you don't have to be so sensitive."

"But you have to admit that although Harry Hay is a legend, the label on him is indeed not easy to please the audience."

This is true. Although it is the 21st century, there are still many Americans who are watching the sky from a well, and their ideas have not yet come out of the McCarthy era.

When passing by the flower shop, William motioned for the car to stop, walked into the flower shop and picked a bouquet of flowers.

"Champagne roses, one, two... 22." Amon Goffman nodded with satisfaction: "The variety and quantity are the right choices for visiting patients."

The flowers were for Jonathan Bates and they are on their way to visit Bates in the hospital now.

In fact, after Jonathan Bates turned the corner and regained consciousness, William wanted to visit him again, but was stopped by his agent——Jonathan Bates is in the celebrity circle in New York, and his friends include writers, screenwriters, actors, and others. Prominent lawyers, doctors and magazine editors are almost all gay, but many of them keep their sexuality secret in their working lives.After Jonathan was assassinated, his friends went to the hospital to visit him one after another. Some of them were touched and came out voluntarily, while others were forced to come out after being photographed by tabloids with ambiguous titles.

There are many similar news, and Amon Goffman is very scruples about William's frequent appearance in the hospital. Even this time, it was only after the media's attention to Bates finally faded that he agreed. The photos taken by the media can also be interpreted as a show that celebrities care about and support movie fans. Anyway, such things are quite common in Hollywood.

The flower shop was very close to the hospital, so the two chose to walk for the rest of the way.

One of the advantages of living in New York is that the streets are full of passers-by in a hurry, everyone is racing against time, never paying attention to what the pedestrians walking across look like, and William covered half of his face with a bouquet of flowers, No one noticed that it was a movie star walking towards them and brushing past each other.

"How about the Stonewall movement?" Amon Goffman suggested, shrugging again: "I really don't know much about the rainbow flag. The most famous event I can think of is this."

"Not very good." Of course, William also had a deep understanding of the Stonewall Movement, but it was precisely because of his research that he knew that this period of history was not suitable for being made into a movie: "To be honest, such a fuse as the Stonewall Movement It is difficult to focus on a certain person because of such mass historical events."

There is, however, one barely important character, Raymond Castro, a gay man living in New York whose Stonewall Bar is his hangout, and who was arrested in the chaos of the night the police raided the bar, Therefore, it has become the center of the storm and is one of the founders of the gay rights movement in North America—yes, like Jonathan Bates, countless historical events with important influences are often started by ordinary people—— But the problem is that Raymond Castro is a minority, and that alone doesn't match William's appearance.Moreover, the Stonewall Movement is still more suitable to be filmed as a documentary. There are already two such documentaries, namely "Before Stonewall" in 1984 and "After Stonewall" in 1999.

William considered other options: "I recently read a biography about Rock Hudson."

"He will definitely win the sympathy of the audience." Amon Goffman said immediately: "If there is a choice between Harry Hay and Harry Hay, Rock Hudson is undoubtedly the better choice."

Rock Hudson is one of the superstars in the golden age of Hollywood. In the 60s, he was the most perfect public lover, elegant gentleman, and Prince Charming in the hearts of female fans. Many actresses, including Si Dai, fell in love with each other, but in real life, he had no interest in women at all. He relied on the arrangement of the brokerage company to stir up scandals with different actresses to maintain his screen image. Later, he was criticized by the media. Speculation and suspicion, and a fake marriage with the agent's assistant to deceive people's eyes. This marriage lasted for three years and ended. The ex-wife later published a book to expose Hudson's private life, which forced Rock Hudson to intensify. Hype gossip.

Double identities and double lives naturally bring double pressure. The way Rock Hudson chooses to release pressure is sex. He has many male partners and often holds same-sex parties in his villa in Beverly Hills. The indulgence had the expected consequences - he was diagnosed with AIDS.

After being tortured by illness for more than a month and experiencing intense ideological struggles, Rock Hudson decided to announce his illness to the public. He became the first Hollywood movie star who came out publicly and the first celebrity who announced that he had AIDS—— Later, he became the first star to die of AIDS-his illness really shocked the world at the time.In the last period of his life, Locke Hudson, who had been in the closet for decades, lived very honestly. He and his friends raised money for the AIDS Foundation, and he was interviewed and tried to improve people's prejudices until he died of complications.

Rock Hudson's life is extremely complicated and wonderful. He was born in the best and worst era of Hollywood. With his unique handsome appearance, he easily achieved brilliant success. In order not to ruin his career, he had to wear a mask carefully Telling lies in the closet for decades.If Rock Hudson had lived with AIDS for many years, he would have had both good and bad, but he was gone after only a few months, and people lost him before they could bash him. Some of the remarks turned to sympathy and nostalgia. It can be said that Rock Hudson's life is already a very wonderful movie.

"Whether it's Harry Hay or Rock Hudson, we must first find a good screenwriter." While speaking, the two had already entered the hospital, and they did not meet any reporters on the way, even if others were curious He looked at William carefully, but people visiting patients with bouquets can be seen everywhere in the hospital.

"Leave this matter to me. I know someone who is absolutely suitable. He hasn't written a few movie scripts, but as long as it's about LGBT subjects, he won't be troubled." Amon Goffman stood at the door of the ward, Said proudly while pushing the door.

But Jonathan Bates was not the only one in the ward. There was a tall man talking to him. He had dark blond hair, blue eyes, a long face and a striking nose. He was not Bates' boyfriend, and only One glance at William (with the bouquet still covering his face) and he recognized him: "William Bradley!"

A vigilant look immediately appeared on the Jewish broker's face.

William handed the bouquet to Jonathan Bates, in exchange for Bates smiled with surprise, and patted the manager's arm by the way, telling him not to be so careless.Although he had never seen the fourth person in the ward, judging from the flushed cheeks of the other person and the nervous attitude after recognizing William, he really didn't look like a media worker.

"Thank you for coming to see me, Will. And this bouquet, how do you know that champagne roses are my favorite?" Jonathan Bates, who had just recovered from a serious illness, was in good spirits. He took the flowers and sniffed them in his arms. Sniff, when he turned around to find a vase, he found a statue standing beside the bed, and immediately introduced: "By the way, this is Dustin Black, my old friend and also your movie fan."

William shook hands with a stiff Dustin Blake, who for a moment looked on the verge of passing out.

"Correction, I'm a super fan." Dustin Black said in a nervous but very fast tone: "I know all the plots of all your movies, and I can even recite the lines of individual movies backwards-this may be the screenwriter of me. Kinda related - your next movie is Brokeback Mountain right? Jack or Ennis? I read the novel and it's a masterpiece of real life. And having you in a movie like this makes me, let We are all very encouraged.”

"Uh..." William didn't know how to answer. He and Li An agreed that the news of the replacement of the leading role in "Brokeback Mountain" would not be announced too early.

Fortunately, Amon Goffman helped him out at this time. "Are you a screenwriter?" After learning that the other party was not a reporter, the Jewish agent's shoulders relaxed: "A screenwriter for a movie or a screenwriter for a TV series?"

Under the questioning of Amon Goffman, Dustin Black said the names of several of his works, such as "Fake and True" and "Journey to Discover Love", but these works seem to be unknown, at least William and Amon had never heard of it, so the two of them didn't react, and Dustin Black blushed first.

"Dustin is the most talented person I know. His work is not well-known, but there is an inside story, because he only writes gay-themed scripts. He even helped the public station to write a youth soap opera about two high school girls. Only responsible for the parts with gay characters.” Jonathan Bates argued for his friends: “Dustin is not liked by producers and TV stations at all, and even his agent ran away several times, but the LGBT stories he wrote The play on Broadway is very popular, and he is also a documentary director, and his whole movie "Gay Through America Chronicle" is like an MTV."

William was a little interested, and before his agent could stop him, he said, "I'll buy the DVD and watch it."

Dustin Black's face seemed to be getting redder.

"Will has been working on LGBT stuff lately," adds Amon Goffman, "and he's always wanted to do more."

"This is the best news I've heard recently. Your movie will change the minds of countless people, Will." Jonathan Bates' eyes lit up with excitement, and he joked again: "Is it because of what happened to me?" Did it touch you?"

Jonathan Bates said this sentence was a joke, and he didn't even take it seriously, but what he didn't expect was that William actually nodded and admitted: "You are my friend, what happened to you Things...made me think I had to act."

Jonathan Bates was shocked and moved, speechless for a long time. "When I first woke up in the hospital with a homophobic lunatic with such a serious injury, I thought I was so damn unlucky. But I didn't expect that there would be so many people of different classes and identities because of me. And stand up and help us fight discrimination, fear and violence and fight for equal rights."

Jonathan Bates pointed to the unhealed body that he took in his hospital room, and sighed in frustration: "Recently, I have been thinking that Harvey Milk is not the first And I won't be the last gay assassinated - even if I'm not as great as him and didn't sacrifice my life, I can still be a fighter and fight for countless people like me who can't legally register with their partners in the city hall Brothers and sisters who are married and do not have shared health insurance to fight."

"I'm proud of you, Joe." Dustin Black looked at his friend with relief and appreciation: "No matter what you want to do in the future, speeches, books, shows, even running for office like Milk— — Just kidding, of course I know you’re not interested in politics — I and everyone else will stand by you.”

Milk?

Milk!

Another sudden inspiration hit William.