Chapter 197 Back to the Future Sequel - Everyones Turnaround
Mike Medavoy, the founder of Orion Pictures, is a tall Jew. However, his feelings towards the film industry are different from those of ordinary Jews. He does not regard movies as a pure business, but believes that they are part of the world.
The greatest art form in the world.
With such a philosophy that has been rooted in him since childhood, his path along the way can be said to be exactly the two extremes of Michael Ovitz.
He first worked as an agent at "Creative Managing Partners", an agency well-known for signing artists in the industry. This company is known for serving artists and giving clients more artistic freedom, unlike CAA, which aims at maximizing profits.
.
After that, he went to United Artists, the only major studio in Hollywood that adopted a director-centered system and gave the director the final editing rights (of course, it was eventually bankrupted by this director-centered system).
During his time at United Artists, Mike McDavoy supervised Oscar-winning films such as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Rocky," "Annie Hall," "Apocalypse Now," "Dark Horse," and "Homecoming."
Afterwards, he defected from United Artists and established "Orion Pictures". He still maintained the style of giving creative freedom to directors and released Oscar-winning films such as "Platoon" and "Mozart".
Artistically, the director is given maximum freedom of expression, so that commercial success is much inferior. Orion Pictures has not jumped out of the trap of a medium-sized studio, and the budget of each movie is also around 20 million.
Hesitating, and every time he has to wait for the investment to be recovered before he can start filming the next blockbuster.
They accumulated a large number of projects during the writers' strike, and immediately began large-scale filming after the strike ended. As a result, Orion now also encountered the problem of insufficient cash.
Ronald purchased the share that originally belonged to Gene Hackman, and Mike Medavoy immediately became happy. It is widely rumored in Hollywood that Ronald is rich. He now wants to win an Oscar, and Orion needs investment and
A director, isn't this a match made in heaven?
…
"This is the set where the Back to the Future sequel was filmed. This set was rebuilt according to the look of Marty McFly's home in the first film. Hollywood is an industry. Based on the records at the time and the photos of the scene, it can be completely
Restore the shooting details at that time..."
On the set of the Back to the Future sequel, Ronald was speaking to Xiao Yan in Chinese. After graduating from community college, he interned at Daydream for a period of time. Like his father, he also fell in love with operating cameras and lights.
This time, he represented Daydream and joined the Back to the Future crew, operating lightning lights and other photography accessories produced by Daydream. Ronald was familiar with director Zemeckis and producer Spielberg, and was the one who pulled the strings.
, in addition to the lightning lights, they also promoted their company’s new first-person dog-view camera pole to director Zemeckis, which can greatly reduce the difficulty of filming the racing scenes in Back to the Future.
The method that originally required a camera moving team to be tied to a stand outside the racing car can now be simplified to two people, and the camera operator can use the reflecting mirror to watch the second-person lens effect live, which is very convenient.
Daydream also used the Steadicam model, only renting but not selling it. This time, Xiao Yan was asked to be the operator, fulfilling his dream as a fan of "Back to the Future".
"Ronald, your Chinese is pretty good, and your machine is also good. When I was Steve McQueen's agent, drag racing scenes could only be shot outside the car, and only McQueen could do it."
Quinn can make those moves..."
Mike Medavoy, who also came to visit the "Back to the Future" crew, became very familiar with Ronald and greeted him in Chinese. He made a special trip here to interview Ronald.
"Hey, how come you, Wai Guoren, know Chinese?" Xiao Yan was surprised next to him.
"I'm not a crooked nut, but I am a crooked nut after all. I can still gossip about Songhai." Mike Medavoy spoke a Shanghainese dialect, which shocked Xiao Yan.
"Hahaha, you must be Mr. Medavoy." Ronald smiled and shook hands with him.
Richard briefly told Ronald about the background of Mike Medavoy. His parents were Jewish immigrants living in Hongkou. When he was young, his family opened a tailor shop, and his customers were all female stars in Shanghai at that time.
Including several movie queens.
Therefore, he has been obsessed with film art since he was a child, and he often went to Daguangming to watch the latest Hollywood movies and local Chinese films. He had a talent for languages, and later became proficient in Russian and Spanish, and could communicate smoothly with actors from all walks of life.
The two found a lounge and sat down, and Mike Medavoy got straight to the point, "Ronald, from what angle do you want to approach this story? What style do you want to film Silence of the Lambs in?"
"Hey? I don't have any definite ideas yet, but what do you think?"
"Haha, speaking of which, after you have been famous for so long, this is your first time working with Orion. We have never interfered with the director's ideas..."
"Is this so?" Ronald thought to himself. With this style, unless you meet a director who is artistically confident and has a good personality, you will either find that the film is shot in the wrong direction while filming, or prepare to submit it to the director.
Paying for it out of selfishness, buying a lot of expensive and useless props and scenery.
Or, the worst case scenario is that you encounter both problems, like Michael Cimino who brought down United Artists.
"To be honest, I haven't thought of a suitable angle yet. I want to talk to the screenwriter Ted Tully first."
Adapting a novel into a movie is actually quite difficult, because the novel is long and the movie lasts two hours, so the plot of the novel needs to be selected and trimmed.
"I'll make arrangements for you right away. Ted Tully happens to be out of work right now. He has put a lot of effort into rewriting the script. I really like his adaptation. Of course, it all depends on you."
This chapter is not over, please click the next page to continue reading! Mike Medavoy knows how to deal with artists, which is to give them space, support, money, and find beautiful (or handsome) actors they like.
In the end, it's up to them to do their best. On average, they will hit the big prize once every three to five times.
Not to mention Ronald's request is just this, ten times more can satisfy you. For example, Ronald can propose the candidate for FBI detective Starling, and Orion will be responsible for persuasion.
"Very good. My good friend Jim Cameron worked with you on The Terminator. He said it was a pleasant experience to work with you. In this way, we can talk about the business conditions first, and then we will focus on that market.
Moviegoers.”
"Huh?" Mike Medavoy was also surprised. Orion and the others didn't have many contacts with such directors. Let's not talk about art first, let's talk about production planning first. No wonder most of the movies made by Ronald made a lot of money.
The two quickly exchanged ideas about the investment plan for "Silence of the Lambs". Both Ronald and him confirmed that they should invest a budget of about 20 million and invite celebrities to star in it. This kind of suspense thriller drama has a relatively unconventional theme.
A serial killer case and a large number of psychological analysis plots. If there are no stars to star, the marketing costs will be so high that no matter how well the movie is shot, there will be no profit.
Among them, Daydream and Orion are each responsible for half of the quota. As long as the script is ready, a suitable star is found, and then Ronald is announced to direct, a lot of investment will come in immediately. In this industry, everyone is looking at the stars.
To invest, Gene Hackman had difficulty raising money, which does not mean that Ronald also had difficulty.
"Camera? Recording? Action!"
After talking about things, Ronald and Medavoy went out to watch the filming of director Zemeckis. The filming had just started for two days, and the main task was to reshoot the ending of the first part of "Back to the Future", Michael J. Fox
Marty McFly, who plays Marty McFly, reunites with his girlfriend Jennifer Parker on the doorstep of their home that has become richer, and then encounters Dr. Brown who has returned from the future and drives a flying DeLorean sports car.
"Marty..."
"Jennifer..."
The two actors, wearing the same clothes and hairstyle four years ago, looked at each other lovingly again.
The reason why we had to reshoot this section instead of using the footage from the end of the first film is a bit complicated.
In the first film, Claudia Welles, who played the heroine, withdrew from the filming of the sequel due to family reasons, so the crew had to find an actress who looked similar to her to film the sequel.
Many newcomers were recommended to audition for the crew, but Zemeckis was not satisfied. It happened that Ronald's agent Richard learned about this and recommended Elizabeth Shue to play this role.
Originally, Elisabeth Shue had already starred opposite Tom Cruise in "Cocktail" and was considered to be the most popular female star. She should not go back to replace Claudia Wei, who only had one well-known film.
of els.
But her ability to make money was greatly questioned after "Cocktail", so much so that she no longer received invitations to work in blockbusters, so she had to sit at home every day, not knowing what to do.
The filming cost of "Cocktail" was US$20 million, and the domestic box office reached US$78 million. After the money is recovered, there will still be a small profit. It is said that Elizabeth Shue will not be depressed because of this.
But the box office of this movie is a miracle that breaks the convention. Originally, Cinema Score gave this movie only a B rating, and the reviews were all negative. According to experience, this movie can only get 2.5-3 times the first time at most.
The weekend box office multiplier is a base of 30 million.
However, this movie actually broke Cinema Score's always accurate empirical formula, making distributor Disney overjoyed.
This also made Cinema Score unconvinced. They did not think that their sample survey was wrong. Finally, after joint large-scale audience interviews with Disney, they finally found out that the most important reason for attracting audiences to watch this movie is
Tom Cruise.
In other words, Tom Cruise has broken an accurate empirical formula in Hollywood. He alone can increase the box office of a bad movie. This is real and can make the audience come in just to watch him.
Cinema star.
After the Oscars, Tom Cruise's ability to boost box office was even more appreciated by the industry. Because the day before the Oscars, Cruise was nominated for the "Worst Actor" at the Golden Raspberry Awards. That is to say
, no matter whether he is a good actor or a poor actor, as long as he shows his face, there will be female viewers watching like a nymphomaniac.
In these film reviews and audience surveys, no one has ever mentioned Elizabeth Sue.
This has led to a consensus in Hollywood that if the director and heroine were changed, this movie might become another blockbuster movie. Therefore, Tom Cruise's current salary quotation has exceeded that of the new actor Das
Dinh Hoffman, a real game changer.
At the same time, the movie also puts Elizabeth Shue in a difficult position. Sometimes, things are just so ridiculous that you can do nothing wrong and Hollywood downgrades your rating.
Therefore, Elizabeth Sue was also very grateful to Richard for his generosity and came specially to thank the crew who had just gone to Ronald.
"Cut!" After Zemeckis stopped, he watched the ending of the first part again on the on-site video recorder. After discussing with the photographer, he called in the three protagonists, pointed out a few minor flaws, and then announced a break.
, waiting for the prop team to re-create several areas that are inconsistent with the original.
This change of roles caused a lot of trouble. This reshoot scene requires the audience to accept the Jennifer played by Elizabeth Sue and forget the appearance of Jennifer played by Claudia Wells. Because there are many fans of Back to the Future, many
People also bought the video and watched it many times. Any discrepancy would make the fans and audience members at the beginning feel wrong and make the audience laugh.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! There is a drama at the beginning, and I start to think about whether the heroine has been replaced, and the plot seems wrong. This is a very troublesome thing, and will have a negative impact on the audience's subsequent viewing experience.
It had a huge impact, which in turn affected the box office, so Zemeckis had very strict requirements, and the filming lasted for several days, and it looked like it would take another week.
Ronald stepped forward and handed Elizabeth Sue a bottle of mineral water. Next to her were Leigh Thompson, another heroine who returned to the series, and Michael J. Fox.
Leigh Thompson is engaged to her boyfriend, director Howard Deutch. This time she has more scenes than in the first film, and she also has a special make-up because Marty's mother, Lorraine, had breast augmentation in this sequel. Ronald
When I hugged her, I felt the power of silicone makeup.
Her situation is similar to that of Elizabeth Shue. After starring in "Howard the Duck", her status as a star regressed so much that she urgently needed to go back to the future to get some blood.
Next to them is Michael J. Fox, the popular leading actor in America. He is famous in TV and movies. This sequel was only launched after Zemeckis confirmed his joining.
"I still have to learn to skateboard. There is a floating skateboard in this episode, which can float without wheels. I don't know if it will be invented in 2015." Michael J. Fox and Ronald chatted happily.
When filming the first film, he was running between two crews and could only sleep two or three hours a day. He relied on Ronald to arrange a van so he could take a nap in the car. So the relationship between the two was very good.
"I said, don't you know how to skateboard? Why do you still want to learn?" Ronald was a little confused. Isn't skateboarding similar to riding a bicycle? Once you learn it, you won't forget it. Fox also had a lot of skateboarding scenes in the first film.
ah.
"Huh? I do know how to skateboard." Fox scratched his head. He didn't know what happened. It seems that I can't skateboard anymore and I have to learn it all over again with the coach.
"You must be too busy..." Leigh Thompson smiled, she was friends with both of them.
"Fortunately, now it's the director's turn to sleep three hours a day..." Fox smiled and nuzzled at Zemeckis.
"Haha..." Everyone was a little dissatisfied with Zemeckis's high standards and strict requirements, so they took the opportunity to make fun of him.
Zemeckis's previous film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" has just been released in China, with a box office of 150 million. However, the production cost was more than 50 million, and the shooting period reached a seven-month period that made the distributor Disney want to vomit blood.
Month and a half.
Halfway through, Disney CEO Eisner even wanted to shut down the production stop and get out of the game, but fortunately Katzenberg made him give up the idea.
Who knew that something even more bloodthirsty would happen later? The post-production of this film was also very slow. Due to the need for the synthesis of live-action and animation, Industrial Light and Magic invested two teams, which took a year and two months to complete.
Therefore, even high box office cannot make up for the numerous production cost overruns.
Zemeckis, like the two heroines, has to rely on this sequel to make money and make Hollywood recognize his value again. Zemeckis needs financial rescue, so this time, he took a very radical approach.
Two sequels were filmed in succession.
Because the production cycle of two consecutive sequels is extremely long, they are still processed in parallel. After the second film is completed, the assistant director will be responsible for post-production, while another team will continue to shoot the third film, and Zemeckis will
I'm responsible for twice as much work as a normal director, so I'm very busy.
"How long do you have to shoot?" Ronald asked several friends. This was the first time in the history of Hollywood that two episodes were shot consecutively. He wanted to know more.
"We don't actually have many scenes, but the director requires us to be on set all the time. It's estimated that we will have to stay here for ten months..."
"Hey, this is really terrible..." Ronald couldn't help but feel that Zemeckis was not very humane. How could he not have a role and have to occupy all the scenes?
But there are advantages to this. Daydream's lightning lights and dog-viewing camera poles are charged according to the rental time. Zemeckis likes to waste other people's time, which is a good thing for business and Xiao Yan's study.
After Ronald's visit was completed, he returned to the city with Orion's Mike Medavoy. The two walked to the door of the filming base and found another Jennifer Parker, wearing the same costume, struggling with the security guard at the door.
If he hadn't just said goodbye to Elizabeth Sue inside, Ronald would have thought he had a vision problem. When he got closer, he discovered that it was Claudia Wells, who played Jennifer in the first film.
When it comes to the temperament and beauty of the two, Claudia Wells is actually better than Elizabeth Sue. She is more beautiful than the girl next door, and can be considered the most beautiful 1% in high school.
Already.
"Wow..." Wells, who had been refused entry to the set for the second day, squatted at the door and cried.
"What's wrong with you? Don't cry..." Ronald couldn't bear to see the beauty crying, so he pulled her up, and together with Mike Medavoy, persuaded her to leave the set, and found a cafe to slowly understand the situation.
"I heard that you gave up the role yourself?" Ronald couldn't figure out what was going on. Now it seems that the news in the "Hollywood Report" may not be true.
"My mother was seriously ill and I really needed this job...but my agent informed me that I had been blacklisted by Universal Pictures. I came to see Zemeckis several times and he wouldn't
Want to see me..."
Claudia Wells's costume was from four years ago. It was already a little yellowed, but it could be seen that she had washed and ironed it carefully.
"Is there any misunderstanding here?" Ronald handed the coffee cup to Claudia, but for a movie that has already started filming, it is definitely impossible to change roles.
"I don't know...I don't know what I did wrong..." Claudia's tears that had just stopped flowed again.
"Don't worry too much, ask your agent to help you see if there are other roles?" Ronald knew that Back to the Future has many teenage fans. Although the heroine Claudia Wells did not appear in the sequel, she did not
As for not being able to get a single role.
"My agent wanted to terminate my contract... He also warned me that I had to quit on my own initiative..."
"I remember you are Jewish?" Mike Medavoy suddenly interjected from the side. He saw the cross around Claudia's neck.
"I used to be, but I have reconverted to Christ, and now I am a born-again Christian..." Claudia Wells showed them the unique cross of their sect. This sect emphasizes spiritual rebirth and acceptance.
The gospel requires re-baptism as an adult before you can join the religion.
"Well..." Ronald roughly understood the problem. Claudia Wells was blocked by some people to some extent.