Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1579 Can you please pay the tax for me?
"Why did you ask him to play the role of Jack, a technologist and hacker?" Paula Wagner asked at her home in Los Angeles, looking at the casting list for "Mission: Impossible" shortlisted by Tom Cruise and pointing to the name of Emilio Estevez, who played the operative who was crushed by the elevator at the beginning.

"Why? Because he and I did The Little Brats together early in his career, and now his offers are terrible, so I want to give him a chance." Tom Cruise raised his head sharply. Paula Wagner usually wouldn't interfere with his judgment on things like movie casting. There must be a reason for asking this out of the blue.

"Don't you know? Ronald hated him. He challenged Ronald for a while. Diane also hated him in the crew back then. He was the leader of those who teased Diane the most."

"Oh My..." Tom Cruise recalled, his old memories were already fuzzy, he only remembered someone played a prank on Diane Lane, but he couldn't remember whether it was Emilio Estevez or someone else...

"You can ask him yourself when the time comes. Ronald is coming soon anyway." Paula Wagner is still very sensitive about this. Tom Cruise must feel very accomplished to help Emilio Estevez, an "old friend" who was much more popular than him back then. And no one knows how deep Ronald's hatred for Estevez is, and whether he still cares about such a small fry getting the role.

"Ronald, do you think Emilio Estevez or Matt Dillon should play the role of the hacker? I see my former co-stars and want to help. Their careers are not going well now."

"Um, hackers? Then choose one that is more similar to the public stereotype. Anyway, the hackers you chose in the second half can avoid stereotypes, right?"

Ronald frowned slightly when he heard the name of Emilio Estevez. He recommended Matt Dillon, an actor who also played an important role in The Little Brats, but had been unlucky all the way and no serious commercial films could find him now.

"Yes, this is a good choice. He and Ving Rhames, who played the later hacker, are exactly two opposite extremes. One is fat, the other is thin, one is black, and the other is white." Paula Wagner came over and ended the topic.

"Come and see how good this move I practiced is..." Tom Cruise took a CD in his hand, then made a quick movement in the air, and the CD disappeared.

This is a trick often used by magicians to hide a card in the palm of their hand behind their hand. In the movie script, the protagonist played by Tom Cruise deceives his traitorous companion by changing the disc to scare him and get the disc containing the spy list back.

Because the plot is very interesting and it fits Tom Cruise's personality of liking to play these action games, he decided to practice the magic trick himself without a stunt double. After two months of continuous practice, he is now able to perform magic tricks comparable to those performed by ordinary dinner magicians.

"Very good..." Ronald applauded. CDs are more difficult to grasp than playing cards, and it is very good to be able to practice to this level.

Ronald looked at the project schedule of Mission: Impossible and the financial statements of the film project, and found that Tom Cruise agreed to defer his $2000 million salary and convert his part of the salary into a share of the box office revenue after the film is released in the future.

"You seem very confident about this movie?" Ronald smiled and closed the folder.

"I don't know that the box office of a movie is hard to predict, but this movie is the most passionate one I have made in many years. Before I was ten years old, I often dreamed of getting those props of 007. This movie provides me with many opportunities to use these fun things."

Tom Cruise is a man who has a better grasp of his body and movements than his brain. In this Mission: Impossible film, in addition to many 007-like props, he can also perform many acrobat-like action scenes, which makes Tom Cruise very excited.

"Maybe you can watch Jackie Chan's movies. He is particularly good at using action to express comedy. I think many shooting techniques and editing methods will be helpful for action scenes."

Ronald gave Paula Wagner some advice and asked her to negotiate with director Brian De Palma. Since they were going to make such an acrobatic action movie, they should learn from the best acrobatic action movie master in the world.

After chatting and visiting some of Tom Cruise's recent motorcycle, sports car and airplane collections, Ronald hurried back to his home. He had just returned from New York and hadn't seen Diane and little Roger at home for many days. He missed them very much.

However, it was unexpected that Tom Cruise's influence has been raised to a higher level than last year. Paramount's Sherry Lansing would rather not pay a fixed salary, but adopt the form of dividends, in order to reduce Paramount's own risks.

But this also means that Tom Cruise's own box office appeal is enough to make the major studios give them such privileges.

"How's Tom doing?" Diane asked Ronald Cruise about his new film when she got home. The film had been delayed for several months, causing her "Jerry Maguire" to be delayed as well.

"It has been decided that the main exterior scenes will be shot in Prague, Czech Republic. Director Brian De Palma and Tom have reached a consensus. By the way, he also recommended Matt Dillon to play a supporting role, which can be regarded as a promotion for the young companions who filmed the film together that year."

There were still many problems with this impossible mission. The original script was to invite all the main actors of the TV version to guest star, and then have them all die in the first scene they appeared in, in order to introduce a new generation of IMF agents represented by Ethan Hunt played by Tom Cruise.

But to their surprise, all the veteran actors in the TV series refused. Perhaps they didn't want their omnipotent image in the TV series to be ruined in the movie version.

Therefore, the crew had to revise the script. The protagonist of the original TV series, IMF main agent Jim Phelps, was written as a traitor. Because he was approaching retirement, he did not receive enough pension to maintain a decent life with his beautiful wife Claire, who was also an agent and was decades younger than him.

Then, Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, falls in love with this beautiful wife named Claire, adding a triangle relationship and a major reversal in which the original protagonist betrays the IMF to the traditional spy movie.

On the other hand, director Brian De Palma also wanted to shoot in the Czech Republic. This was his personal preference. In the end, the two sides made some compromises. Tom Cruise agreed to shoot in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, and Brian De Palma also agreed to several supporting actors recommended by Tom Cruise.

Diane was happy to hear that the filming had already started. As an actress herself, she knew that once the filming started, it would move forward very quickly, because money was spent like water every day, and if it was not filmed quickly, the studio would definitely interfere. This was how she could set a filming schedule for the project she had prepared.

After handling the major film projects, Ronald also put the young film director support program on his list of priorities.

Paul Thomas Anderson's new film script is basically an extension of his short film. This project has been highly recognized by David Simkins, who also believes that Paul Thomas Anderson's ability is already capable of handling a theatrical feature film.

After hearing his strong recommendation, Ronald recognized Paul Thomas Anderson's ability, so he decided to give the green light to the project. They only needed to wait for the other party to come up with a feasible plan before they held a meeting to approve it.

However, there are still only a few young people who are such film talents and are willing to spend time and energy to improve their directing skills.

The dozens of other applications Ronald received were generally not up to the level of Paul Thomas Anderson. People who are truly extremely talented and highly motivated do not need the help of this program, and can also work hard on their own to find opportunities in Hollywood.

Just like Ronald himself and Cameron in the past, they can always find the first opportunity for a novice director. However, there are also many talents in Hollywood who are not strong in both talent and action.

For example, Ronald's own alumni, Spike Lee and Ang Lee, etc. They either lacked talent or lacked the ability to take action, so they entered New York University earlier than Ronald, but got the opportunity to direct independent theatrical films several years later than Ronald.

It just so happened that Sparks Lee had no new projects after completing his movie about the New York Knicks, so Ronald invited him to come and give a lecture to these junior students at New York University to teach them some issues that new directors need to pay attention to in their first work.

Moreover, Spike Lee likes to be a mentor, especially to black people in America. So Ronald is also considering sending black applicants to Spike Lee and asking him to be a mentor and contribute to the Young Directors Support Program.

Of course, Ronald also plans to contact those famous directors he knows to get them an internship opportunity in the crew, just like when he was an assistant to Coppola, to learn how the director works in a comprehensive way.

Of course, most people will not have these two rare opportunities. Ronald plans to launch similar projects in several universities in Los Angeles, and then invite Roger Corman to teach students in both places how to shoot a film at an ultra-low cost that can make money and become a stepping stone to a Hollywood director's career.

After all this was done, many days later, Ron Mayer also came back from New York and found time to meet with Ronald to inform him about Ovitz's attendance at the Seagram family lunch.

"Bronfman's father was a very comfortable person, and he always made people feel that he was sincere when he spoke. But Bronfman's uncle was not very comfortable."

Ron Meyer talked about that experience. Ovitz still had the attitude of "I don't want to change jobs, it's your son/nephew who wants me to come."

Old Bronfman was very tolerant. He was not angry at such a rebellious attitude, and he had a kind of aura that he had cultivated over the years. Instead, he had a good chat with Ovitz. But young Bronfman's uncle was more confrontational, and he had several verbal exchanges with Ovitz. As a bystander, Mayer also felt that the two of them really had different auras.

Fortunately, this uncle was not placed in the senior management team of the new Seagram Company by Bronfman Sr., so when he went to work there later, he did not have to serve such a person in addition to Bronfman Jr.

"Haha..." Ronald did not comment on Mayer's attitude. If he came to talk to Ovitz, he should either not let his brother who had a negative attitude towards Ovitz show up, or he should not let Ovitz attend the family banquet.

We not only let him come, but also specially arranged an opposition to send a mixed signal. In our family, there are people who like you and those who hate you, so you have to find a way to please them.

This little trick is similar to the Peking Opera performance that Ronald had seen in Xujiahui. They have a term that specifically refers to the attitude of superiors towards their subordinates, called a character performing red makeup and a character performing white makeup.

But Ronald didn't think much of this kind of trick. There was no need to treat subordinates in the 1990s using the same plot that was often played in Hollywood movies 70 years ago.

The Bronfman family and Ovitz both had their own twists and turns. If they were not satisfied with the conditions, they could just refuse or continue the negotiations. Ronald didn't know any other words to describe the situation other than wasting time by pretending to be courteous or that he would only come if you beg him.

Ovitz's extreme pressure negotiation method may allow him to earn more money in the next three to five years of this contract. But compared with the lost trust and the fun that could have been enjoyed in the work, it is very doubtful whether the money is worth it.

"Michael (Ovitz) told me that he would continue to exert extreme pressure and make the Bronfman family pay more money to get him. Otherwise, they will not respect talents that can be obtained without such a price."

Seeing that Ronald was deep in thought, Ron Meyer told him another shocking news.

"How much more money does he want? In addition to the 5% option, does he want any signing fee?" Ronald did not expect that in the face of Uncle Bronfman Jr.'s attack, Ovitz's response would be to raise the price.

"It's not a signing fee. He wants Bronfman to pay all the taxes incurred in the process."

"Hah, I guess Bronfman Jr. is already feeling the price of accepting Mr. Ovitz's 'consulting help' without agreeing on a price."