Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

The plot of Chapter 1484 must be revised

After winning two games in a row at home, the New York Knicks played an extremely ugly game against the New Jersey Nets. They were ten points behind in the first three quarters, and tried hard to catch up in the fourth quarter. The game was tied and went into overtime, but they finally lost by one point.

Ronald's guess was correct. Coach Pat Riley had no way to solve the problem of poor offense. Once they fell behind, they played very badly. So his plan officially started. He found a professional screenwriter in Hollywood and began to polish the comedy script about a female fan as the head coach of the Knicks.

A similar story is playing out on the Hollywood box office charts during this period. French director Jonathan Kaplan, who became famous for shooting "The Untold Story," also suffered a box office failure.

His Bad Girls, which he directed, brought together four female stars who were widely acclaimed in the industry: Drew Barrymore, the grown-up little girl in Spielberg's "ET the Extraterrestrial", and Andie MacDowell, who had just made a splash in "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

There's also Madeleine Stowe, who was a critics' favorite in "The Last of the Mohicans," and Mary Stuart Masterson, who has Oscar hopefuls in the female-led film "Fried Green Tomatoes."

Four rising actresses were recruited by Jonathan Kaplan, who is good at making feminist films, to shoot a film with a script called "the female version of Unforgiven"...

Who would have thought that this highly anticipated movie, which opened in 2,000 cinemas, would only earn five million in the first weekend box office.

Not only that, the performances of the four actresses were very awkward, and it was obvious that there was a big deviation between the director's presentation of the script and the actors' performances. This movie, which was originally aimed at another innovation in westerns, a feminist western, was finally nicknamed "Western Barbie" by film critics...

This is the film's female cowboys, who act awkwardly like Barbie dolls come to life in the real world. Four actresses who have shone in other films have suffered a major blow in Hollywood.

Director Jonathan Kaplan is to blame for all of this, of course. All four actresses also suffered serious setbacks in their careers... except for one...

That's Andie MacDowell who plays Erin in the movie.

The reason she survived, of course, had nothing to do with this film, but was because his other low-budget production, "Four Weddings and a Funeral," unexpectedly did very well at the box office in the United States.

The first week of the release of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is already the seventh week of its release. Even if we exclude the first two weeks of previews and the next two weeks of small-scale openings and the third week of large-scale openings, this romantic love film continues to rise at the box office.

With less than 900 theaters showing, it earned more than 430 million yuan at the box office. The single-theater box office of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is exactly twice that of "Desperate Housewives", creating a miracle of some magnitude.

First, it’s because the film was made on a very small scale, with a budget of only three million pounds. Second, it’s because the film’s love philosophy and some of its background are all thoroughly British culture.

For example, the heroine Carrie, played by Andie MacDowell, married a British aristocrat, which is difficult for American audiences to understand.

The romantic drama, which originally had certain cultural background requirements, unexpectedly achieved great success in the United States. By this weekend, the film had already exceeded 2000 million in North American box office.

It has to be said that the reason behind this success is the huge success of the script and the very obvious chemistry between the British actor Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell on the screen.

Sometimes, as long as the male and female protagonists make the audience feel that they should be a couple, then everything else is not an obstacle. They just want to see the two of them overcome all obstacles and finally live happily together because of love.

And for Andie MacDowell, there is more luck than this. Originally, the only American female role in this British romance drama was given to Jeanne Tripplehorn, the supporting actress in Basic Instinct.

However, she withdrew from the filming due to personal reasons before filming began, and the role was later offered to Marisa Tomei, who also turned it down. Andie MacDowell was chosen as a replacement for the replacement.

Even more unfortunate (or fortunately) was that funding for the film was extremely tight, and the lead actor, Hugh Grant, was an unknown actor who was considering quitting showbiz to find a real job. His salary was only £35,000... and he was almost fired because his agent wanted the studio to increase his salary by £5,000.

After all, Andie MacDowell was a newly popular Hollywood actress because of "Groundhog Day". Her salary was one million US dollars. The film company had to negotiate with her and only paid a quarter of her salary, that is, $250,000. The rest was included in the investment of the film and finally distributed according to the box office performance.

In this way, judging from the box office performance of "Four Weddings and a Funeral", Andie MacDowell can earn at least more than two million.

The box office performance was uneventful afterwards, and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" continued to be a fixture on the charts. Many American female audiences developed a liking for Hugh Grant, the British man with fluffy hair and easily nervousness in the film.

Just as the critics predicted, the box office of "Desperate Housewives" dropped rapidly and soon slipped out of the top ten.

In May, Miramax's "The Crow", which used Brandon Lee's death as a marketing gimmick, was released. The film unexpectedly received praise from some niche moviegoers. This Gothic-style film, with its comic-book-like camera language and the leading actor who died during filming like the character he played, became a box office dark horse with the help of this marketing gimmick, briefly occupying the top spot on the box office chart for a week.

But soon, Brandon Lee's sister and ex-girlfriend also came out to accuse Miramax's Harvey Weinstein of various practices.

For example, during the filming, the actors were forced to work overtime without regard for their fatigue. Another example is that the on-site props management was chaotic because everyone was exhausted from working overtime, which may have caused Brandon Lee's accidental death.

Such rumors, fueled by some people in Hollywood, spread quickly. Although Miramax quickly came out to refute the rumor, its defense became pale and powerless when some crew members came out to testify.

Although the various confrontations caused quite a stir and the LAPD reopened its investigation into Brandon Lee's death, the box office was not happy with the film, and in its second week, "The Crow" was knocked off the top of the box office charts by a real big production.

This is the commercial blockbuster "Maverick", in which Jodie Foster, who won the Oscar for "The Untold Story", collaborated with stars such as Mel Gibson and James Garner, and was directed by Richard Donner, the director of the Superman and Lethal Weapon series of films. It tells the story of Maverick, a professional gambler in the Western cowboy era.

This movie is a work designed to make money. Jodie Foster won two Best Actress awards, but this movie is the one that really earned her a big paycheck. James Garner, who played the main character of the remake of the 1960s TV series of the same name, plays the father of the new version of Mel Gibson in the movie, who is also a gambler and con man.

From this, we can see that this movie has nothing to do with art, it is just a movie to make money. Everyone gave a professional performance, and it earned 17 million in the first weekend. The number of theaters that achieved this figure was even lower than that of "Desperate Housewives", which was only 1,700 theaters.

"If you ask me, this is the best Hollywood movie. Audiences love to watch it, the actors' performances are appropriate, and most importantly, there is nostalgia. Audiences who grew up watching the TV series of the same name will have to go to show their support when they see James Garner..."

Ronald also borrowed a copy and played it at home. The film's techniques were sophisticated and worthy of being the work of Richard Donner. As long as he was given a big star who was suitable for the script, the beginning, development, climax and ending would be very well-crafted.

"I think you are also hinting at the direction the new 007 should go..." An elegant gentleman clinked glasses with Diane and Ronald while holding a glass of Coca-Cola, commemorating the old days when they filmed the Coke commercial.

Pierce Brosnan, who has been confirmed to play the new 007, was also invited to watch the movie with Ronald and Diane.

Albert Broccoli, the producer of the 007 series and the spokesperson for the foundation of Ian Fleming, the author of the original novel, has been in declining health. His daughter Barbara Broccoli has gradually taken over her father's role and devoted herself to the production of the new film.

The copyright situation of 007 is very strange and fragmented. MGM/United Artists has the distribution rights, but the producers have always been the Broccoli family from Britain.

MGM's financial situation was very bad. The previous actor who played James Bond broke the contract and refused to shoot the third film as agreed in the contract. MGM wanted to make a comeback with the new 007, but after announcing the start of the project, it was sued by the author Fleming's family, resulting in bankruptcy and liquidation again.

Coupled with the disintegration of the Alliance in 1991, this film series, which uses the Cold War as the main background, faces the situation where the audience can no longer immerse themselves in the situation.

The new episode of 007 had been on hold until Ronald received a hint from Her Majesty the Queen of Britain. This was the first Bond movie after the Cold War and it was not until then that the film really began to be made.

The first screenwriter of the film was from Britain, and his name was Michael France. He fundamentally changed the background of the Cold War story, and the new episode was portrayed as a story after the end of the Cold War.

007's boss defected to the northern superpower and turned against 007. The big threat in every Bond movie was changed to the problem of nuclear weapons leakage. After the collapse of the camp, the reason why the West supported the northern superpower to stabilize the country was that they were generally afraid that the world's largest nuclear arsenal at that time would leak some nuclear warheads to those countries that did not have the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons but were unfriendly to America.

"What changes do you want to make to the script..."

Barbara Broccoli also came to Ronald's mansion in Beverly Park. She was very interested in this Hollywood upstart. Ronald was not as flamboyant as the old Hollywood tycoons, and he could even discuss filming ideas with you on an equal footing.

But like all Hollywood tycoons, he has the huge North American market behind him and has huge bargaining power over British filmmakers. No matter how unique your views on drama are, their will will ultimately be reflected in the final script.

Just like the "Four Weddings and a Funeral" currently showing in America, the protagonist Hugh Grant is not good enough to play a real Shakespeare play in the eyes of many British filmmakers and dramatists. At most, he can play the kind of cheesy melodrama adapted from the works of Jane Austen or Charles Dickens.

But American women love him, so Grant is always the first candidate mentioned in the British story scripts shot in Hollywood.

"I have communicated with some stakeholders and found that there are a few points that need to be revised..."

Ronald was not polite either. As the coordinator of the 007 reboot project, he had to balance multiple stakeholders and communicate with powerful departments and politicians in a friendly manner. Except for someone with a special identity like Ronald, it would be much more difficult for others to do this job.

Imagine a person who is trusted by the British royal family, MI6, CIA, and the American Navy, and has extensive experience in film production. There is almost no one else like Ronald.

Ronald's opinions on the script also mainly reflect the will of these powerful figures and departments.

For example, MI007 thought that 006's boss defected and wanted to lower the rank of the defected person to at least James Bond. So Ronald wrote a , Bond's former partner, who later defected to become a "gangster" by taking advantage of a mission.

For example, the royal family does not like the reason why this defector betrayed Britain. The conflicts during the Cold War are too new, and it would be best to push it back to the time period before and after World War II. There are not many royal family members from that time who are still alive.

So Ronald changed the identity of the defected 006 from a top student from Oxford and Cambridge, who was attracted by ideological ideals and defected, to a gypsy who was abandoned by Britain...

For example, the American Navy was dissatisfied with the plot in the first scene where the American admiral was seduced by the bad Bond girl and was crushed to death by two strong long legs on the bed. This must be changed to a Canadian or American naval admiral.

The CIA also proposed some changes to the role of CIA agent Jack Wade who appeared in the 007 movie. The nuclear weapon leak was also not declassified because there was a plot that was very similar to reality. It was suggested that it would be better to change it to a weapon of mass destruction. It would also be better not to use the chemical weapons that the Iraqis had as they promoted in the media...

Ronald invented an electromagnetic pulse weapon that could send pulses from satellites in outer space to destroy people and buildings on the ground. This weapon, which emits blue light, is relatively cheap and easy to make in special effects production.

"I can agree to all of these... Do you have any other requests?" Barbara Broccoli has been influenced by this since she was a child. During the Cold War, 007 was filmed like this. Not only were many plots about the Western Allies restricted, but even the Eastern Bloc could not film realistic plots. In several previous 007 movies, none of the villains were from the Alliance's spy agency. At most, they were just a madman who wanted to start a world war, and were eventually eliminated by both sides of the Cold War...

Ronald's requests were completely reasonable. Not only was she not dissatisfied, but she also sincerely admired Ronald's efficiency.

"Also, the two Bond girls, the final casting must be reported to me for decision, I have the right of veto..."

"Ahaha..." Barbara Broccoli thought to herself, this Hollywood tycoon must be very capable. How could he talk about selecting a Bond girl in front of his wife?

She agreed and left with Ronald's suggestions for revision.

"I'm sorry, Pierce, I have to say this. The copyright of this Bond movie is too complicated. If I don't have a veto power, too many people will insert their girlfriends, relatives, and friends into it..."

Ronald gestured to Brosnan, "The casting should still be based on your chemistry with them. If you encounter someone interfering, tell me and I will deal with them..."

"How is the director's confirmation?" Diane herself could not play a Bond girl, but she was still very interested in the attempt to reboot the evergreen 007 movie, and she also helped her advertising partner at the time to find out about the situation. Many Hollywood people were not optimistic about this movie and believed that Brosnan had entered the grave of his acting career.

"I have invited John Woo, the Hong Kong director. His film A Better Tomorrow is very interesting. You can watch it when you have time... But he has not responded to my invitation yet..."