"Sorry, my main job now is to spend time with my wife and children...have I kept you waiting for a long time?"
Ronald apologized and walked down the stairs. Although he did not need to take care of the child himself, he still learned to change little Roger's diaper once. He was so happy that he forgot that Nicolas Cage was already waiting for him downstairs.
"Is having a child really so happy?" Cage looked a little worried.
"What's wrong?" Ronald saw something was wrong, so he pulled him to the study room next to him, took a bottle of Coca-Cola from the refrigerator, and threw it to him across the room.
"Christina is pregnant..." Cage's hair was a little messy. I don't know if he was annoyed and didn't notice it, or he scratched it.
Christina Fulton is Nicolas Cage's girlfriend. She recently informed him that she is pregnant. However, Cage has no idea of getting married and is in distress...
"Ha, this is a good thing, Nick. No matter whether you and Chris are suitable for living together, having a child is a fulfilling thing. Let me tell you, I regret not having a child earlier..."
Ronald also took a bottle of Coke and drank it. Taking care of children was quite tiring. Changing a diaper by himself took a lot of energy and he did it carelessly.
"Yeah? As you said, I also want a child..." Cage stopped frowning and began to smile.
"That's right, kids are so fun..." Ronald giggled for a while, and then started talking about business.
"We have communicated well with the Army and the DEA. The authorities will provide real shots of Apache helicopters and let us use helicopter simulators. It's very interesting..."
What Ronald was talking about was the gunship version of the "Top Gun" film he collaborated with Disney on.
Disney is responsible for the domestic distribution business, and Daydream is responsible for the production. The Army is responsible for providing the most advanced big toys that big boys like to play with, and the DEA, which also wants to make a name for itself, is responsible for their overseas filming in Central America.
Emile Adolino, the most capable director under Ronald, was the most suitable person to shoot this film, which did not require high special effects but required some sensational content.
"But who is the heroine?" Nicolas Cage asked.
"Let's look at Emile Adolino's choice..." Ronald kept his mouth shut. After all, theoretically speaking, the director is the final person responsible for casting, and the producer can only make some suggestions...
"Hey, have you already recommended a candidate? Don't tell me it's Sean Young. Then I won't do it. I'll be bored to death if I work with her..."
Cage had auditioned with Sean Young before, and that woman simply went too far and had to retake it at every turn. Even for a simple audition, she had to replace the casting director and call "stop" a dozen times.
"No, I can guarantee that, no one can stand her..." Ronald laughed. Speaking of Sean Young, she is the most jealous female star in Hollywood right now.
The ground-breaking "Batman" was jealous of everyone who made it to the box office, and Jack Nicholson's miraculous contract for a share of the box office. Sean Young, who had already been confirmed to be the heroine, was inexplicably at the Pinewood Studios in London.
He fell off his horse and was injured, which led to him being overtaken by Kim Basinger.
The better Batman's box office performance is, and the stardom of the protagonists is rising, the more Sean Young's heart is swallowed up by jealousy. Now basically no one in Hollywood is willing to invite her to parties, as long as he talks to her
In ten seconds, she would definitely say, "I really regret it. I shouldn't have gone horseback riding when I was tired..."
"Who is that? You must have recommended someone, right? It's not Sean Young..." Nicolas Cage detected Ronald's tone and immediately asked to reveal it.
"The final decision rests with the director. We found a few well-known actresses, such as Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy. In short, this movie is about giving you a male character.
The heroine the audience is jealous of.”
"Yeah..." Cage rolled his eyes. These people were also very famous five years ago, but they are famous more because of their impressive roles, not to mention that their appearance is better than that of their contemporaries.
The female star is one inch taller...
Cage looked at Ronald with a "why don't you tell me everything" look... half-smiling.
"Hahaha, okay, let me tell you, Brooke Shields was also invited." Ronald couldn't stand this friend's expression, "But you don't want to spread the word, especially..."
"Don't say it in front of Diane, right?" Cage gave him a look that made me understand.
"What a mess, I asked you not to spread the word before the audition, otherwise I might get a fine from the Screen Actors Guild..."
Recently, the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild jointly issued a special newsletter to all members of the Directors Guild and the Producers Guild, focusing on stopping sexual harassment during auditions.
This is actually a real situation in Hollywood. It is a common situation in the industry for directors and producers to exploit actresses during casting. Some people do not do this during auditions, but there are also many who do it.
On average, an actress has to participate in several movie auditions every year. Therefore, on average, actresses will always encounter directors or producers with bad morals. In the eyes of people who don’t understand, Hollywood is already hidden.
It's so filthy that everyone is a hooligan.
However, this kind of thing is common among people in the industry, and those who condemn it are just short-sellers who take advantage and do nothing.
The reason why the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild launched a special communication to remind and warn is that recently director and producer Victor Salva was sentenced to jail for violating the law and officially went to prison to serve his sentence.
.
This director has always been an avid movie fan, and later wrote many horror movie scripts. In 1987, his script "Clown House" was appreciated by Coppola, who attracted investment and wanted to produce it in his film.
Try your luck with small things to win big things.
Victor Salva, as the director, filmed the film "Clown House", but during the audition, he attacked an underage boy. Later, the boy's parents called the police and later found a child in his house.
album that violates the law.
This scum was sentenced to three years in prison by the local court, and he was imprisoned just at the beginning of the year. Hollywood is very sensitive to this kind of thing, and everyone pretends to be invisible when there is chaos in the industry, but it attacked minors and even confessed in court and went to jail.
It is definitely a loss to the image of Hollywood practitioners.
At this moment, Ronald didn't want to cause trouble, so he tried his best to follow the union's regulations.
"Emil, are you here?" Ronald changed the subject when he saw the mustachioed director Emile Adolino walking in.
"Then I'll leave first. I can't have a private meeting with the director before the audition..." Cage blinked, greeted the director Emil, and left on his own.
"Did you tell him?" Emile Adolino asked Ronald with a smile.
"He is very smart, and he guessed that Brooke Shields was our first choice. Cage is very close to the character. It depends on whether Brooke can break away from the girlish acting method. In fact, her image is very suitable for a career woman and an officer's identity.
It also matches her figure..."
Of course, Ronald's heart was for Brooke Shields, who had changed her agent. Her biggest problem was that she clearly had potential, but it was completely destroyed by her ignorant mother. If she could have transitioned to playing adult women earlier, it wouldn't be a problem.
It would be so embarrassing now...
"How is the cooperation from the army?" Emile Adolino stopped expressing his opinions on the casting. The two actresses from the Boy Gang also had a similar problem, they just couldn't get rid of the acting of teenage girls, and they were already in second grade.
It's embarrassing to still pretend to be a high school student who is ignorant of the world and full of dreams when he is already ten years old.
For "Firebird" with a medium production budget of 20 million US dollars, the best female star that can be found may be Brooke Shields. There are definitely many of her fans who were willing to buy tickets for her, plus she and Nicolas Cage
With cooperation, maybe Brooke, who looks dashing and wears military uniform, can return to being a Hollywood star?
Anyway, this kind of movie doesn't require much acting skills. Being beautiful and handsome, coupled with the modern weapons of the US military, and beating up the bad guys are the biggest attractions for the target audience.
"The Army coordinated the direct participation of more than 100 personnel, including technical advisors on helicopter operations and pilots of various types of armed helicopters.
They agreed to use AH-64 Apache, UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-1 Cobra, McDonnell Douglas MD 500 helicopter, and OH-58 Kiowa rotorcraft during the filming.
McDonnell Douglas and Bell will send technical personnel to the crew permanently. The conditions are the same as when they were filming Top Gun."
As Ronald said, he took out one after another models of armed helicopters equipped by the US military from the cabinet next to him and placed them on the table.
"Ah, these are all movie-standard models..." Emil Adolino was very happy and carefully studied the details of the model aircraft.
"I asked the modelers from Cameron Special Effects Company to make it. Each model has several models. This one can take close-ups, this one can take long shots, and this one can use Industrial Light and Magic's tracking camera to shoot action scenes. The rotors are electric.
The motor..."
Ronald introduced the use of various models to Emile Adolino one by one, "Richard Stevens, the special effects artist at Industrial Light and Magic when I was filming Top Gun, would come to the set.
As the coordinator of special effects shooting, if you have any special effects shooting requirements, you can tell him. If he can't solve it, you can come to me..."
"Okay, okay..." Emile Adolino doesn't want to always follow the stars and make romantic comedies without a say. He also wants to completely control the shooting of a movie. This opportunity is very good...
Emile Adolino left happily with a lot of resources. In Hollywood, the best producers are often directors, because they understand what resources directors need. And the worst producers are often directors.
Being a director, they always understand the director too well but interfere too much, and end up having a lot of conflicts with the director.
Ronald is willing to let go, gives the director precious trust, and understands what the director needs. At the most appropriate time, he appears like an angel with the resources the director needs most.
It was a great experience to work for such a producer. Especially the movie "Kevin's Gate", with a new director like Kevin Costner, if it hadn't been for Ronald, it would have turned into a tragedy halfway through the filming.
Already.
There is no precedent for this in Hollywood. Due to budget overruns and shooting delays, the director is then changed (in name only, or in reality, an on-site producer is replaced as the director), and the rest of the movie is hurriedly shot, causing the quality to collapse.
There have been more and more examples in recent years.
On the one hand, film shooting costs are rising rapidly, and large-scale commercial productions exceeding 50 million are common. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult for directors to enter the industry, causing trust in new directors to fall to perhaps the lowest point in the history of Hollywood.
Only someone with experience like Ronald can know how to support new directors. No wonder the circle of young directors in Hollywood has begun to spread rumors that Ronald may become a new director after Lucas and Spielberg.
A powerful person who can direct and produce.
…
After arranging the filming of the movie, Ronald set out for the Columbia Plaza Building on Sunset Boulevard.
This was once the recording studio of Columbia Records and is now home to KNX Radio (AM 1070).
In order to reward Ronald for his repeated help in Sony's acquisition of Columbia, Sony, which needed to sell Columbia's radio and TV stations due to Federal Communications Commission regulations, made a smooth favor and transferred several radio stations and small local TV stations.
Transferred to Ronald at a friendly price.
In New York and San Francisco, Ronald's New York Daily News station gained several more brother stations. Among them, in Los Angeles, it is the long-established AM and FM syndicated KNX station.
This radio station has a glorious history. It was the first radio station to broadcast the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy during the election of President.
They later became the first all-news station in Los Angeles and even Southern California. However, in the past ten years, under the impact of television and competing radio stations, they have lost many well-known hosts, and their revenue and listening ratings have declined year by year.
After Ronald asked Ed Bastian to take over the station, he copied the New York style to this station. The all-news program was canceled and replaced with ten minutes after each time and half-time programs.
Five minutes after the hour, indoor traffic conditions in Los Angeles will be broadcast.
He also hired a location team, a host, a driver, and a technician to patrol the streets. At half time, he got out of the car to interview some passers-by and drivers and talk about traffic conditions.
Soon, this novel format won the love of listeners, and advertising began to increase. Ronald also brought some New York programs to Los Angeles for recording and broadcasting, and conversely, he also tried to introduce some Los Angeles West Coast radio programs to New York
, and Miami.
Although there are only a few small radio stations, they are all limited to big cities. However, Ronald is also following the practices of the big players and trying his best to share resources. If you cannot build a big syndicate, you can also build a small syndicate...
In addition, PBS acquired some overseas programs, and Ronald also obtained the rights to broadcast them from Helen's father.
For example, the historical documentary about China that Helen just completed will be played on PBS after one round, and the audio version will also be played on this station.
"Mr. Li..." Everyone from the radio station came out to welcome the new boss.
"Hello, I brought pizza delivery, ice cream, and Coke..." Ronald used some small favors to win over the employees.