"How's it going? Is it a good fit?" Tom Hanks laughed and handed over a synopsis of the script.
"Where is the right place?" Ronald was full of doubts. He took it and took a look. The cover said "A League of Their Own" and couldn't help blurting out, "What is this?" It was 1943, Europe.
There was a fierce battle in the Pacific battlefield, and Major League Baseball couldn't find enough suitable players, so it formed a women's baseball league and really sold a lot of tickets..."
"How come I don't know?" Ronald was dubious. This is not a joke on me, right? I've never heard of American women playing professional baseball. Besides, this casting is too...
"I don't know either. This is something that director Penny Marshall learned from watching a documentary in 1987. After that, he collaborated with the director and screenwriter of the documentary to write the script. I like this story very much, although the Red Pink Alliance
It was later disbanded in 1954, but the spirit of this woman is very interesting. The movie starts with Dottie Hinson, the catcher of the Peach Team of the Red Pink League, being invited to participate in the commemorative event..."
"Then why are you looking for these female stars? What role do you play?" Ronald was still not sure this was not an April Fool's Day joke.
"I play their coach. Have you noticed that these female stars all have one thing in common?" Tom Hanks looked at Ronald with a half-smile.
"Yes...no, no, is it or is it not?" Ronald sweated with guilt.
"Yes, they are all strong. Look, this is a still from their previous movie. They all have strong arms and buttocks, like baseball players..."
"Ah, oh... that's right..." Ronald took out his handkerchief and wiped his sweat.
"Hey, what's wrong with you? Why are you still sweating in this weather?"
"Ah, it's nothing. I drank too much last night...and now I'm still a little bit...ahem, it's not important. There are so many players in the women's baseball team, right? Who else are you going to find to play?"
Ronald tested it again. If Hanks came to joke with him, the secret would be revealed.
"What do you think? I think these female stars have become a topic. Hollywood female stars co-starred in the All-Star Women's Professional Baseball Team that year... It would be great if you could find more stars to star in.
"
"Um, what do you think of Annette Bening and Kim Basinger? They are very popular right now..."
"This doesn't seem to work. Neither Bening nor Basinger's body looks like a female athlete, nor are they the type to hold up a baseball uniform. Of course, if you want to specify, we can go and talk to Penny together...
…”
Ronald was completely relieved, "No, you're right, this is a movie about women's independent spirit. What we want is female baseball players, not baseball players' girlfriends..."
"By the way, why isn't Penny here?"
"Hey, she's not in good condition right now. I want to ask you to meet her..."
…
"Oh, Ronald..." Penny Marshall has encountered a lot of unfair treatment in the past two years (her good works have not been nominated for Oscars). She does not have the status of Barbra Streisand to help the Jews to complain.
I can only bear it silently.
This "Red Pink Alliance" made her nerves suffer a lot of attacks. At the beginning, this movie was sold to 20th Century Fox, but it encountered resistance from the top management and when it was about to get the green light, it was
People put it in the circulation library on the grounds that "no one will go see a movie about a woman playing baseball."
After that, he went to Warner Bros. to sell the film. This time, their executives went even further, using sexist language and attacking the script for being irrelevant. Penny Marshall cried on the spot.
She had no choice but to go back to Fox to try her luck with the script. This time something went too far. They deprived her of the director's rights and replaced her with director David Ansbaugh, who is famous for the basketball movie "Battlefield".
she.
Penny Marshall originally didn't sign her name on the script because she was the director and didn't want to cover up her reputation as a screenwriter. Now she had nothing to gain.
She later directed other films, but the project encountered problems and was postponed. Many female stars were unable to take the film because of schedule issues. She regained the power of director, but there was no distributor and no heroine.
Penny Marshall went to Sony Columbia to try her luck again, and this time she had good luck. Guber liked her new movie "Awakening" very much, and she also advocated for actress Deborah Winger, who had been resting for many years, to play the heroine Catcher.
Dottie.
Just when everything was going perfectly, Guber cast a supporting role as a female taxi driver turned center fielder. May's singer Madonna had another conflict with Deborah Winger.
Deborah Winger was dissatisfied with Madonna's acting skills and felt that it would bring down the quality of the entire movie and ruin her plan to return to Hollywood, so she had to choose one of the two.
But Madonna's current popularity will bring a lot of free publicity to the movie. She took the initiative to cut her salary to two million US dollars to star in the film, which is considered a big advantage for the film studio. In this case, the filming has reached a stalemate again, and it is about to postpone or cancel the filming. Tom
·Hanks couldn't sit still and took advantage of Ronald's fame in Hollywood after winning the award to seek help.
"What's in it for you?" Ronald looked at Tom Hanks. He didn't believe that he was working so hard for a feminist movie.
"Me? I don't have a very handsome face. When I was a child, my mother told me that you have to learn to tell jokes and you have to make women laugh to get girlfriends. So I have always been a comedian.
Hollywood……"
Tom Hanks is not a star like Tom Cruise. His popularity with the audience needs the blessing of his role. Only when the audience identifies with the story and likes his role can he become a first-line actor in Hollywood.
This movie, about a group of women on a baseball team with the only male coach, is a very good character that makes the audience like it. Hanks doesn't want to let it go.
"Of course, they also gave me a salary of five million..."
"Hey, I said yes, but she won't join," Ronald crossed out Meg Tilly's name.
"As you say..." Hanks was overjoyed. With Ronald's appeal among female celebrities, they would definitely be willing to come.
The next day Ronald had his first meeting with Hanks and Penny Marshall.
"You should have come to me earlier, Penny... Diane says hello to you." Ronald said.
Penny Marshall shrugged and said she didn't know it would go wrong.
"In short, I will not interfere with your casting and creative freedom, but it is better for Madonna to stay, because she is really too popular now..." Ronald said that he is still the angel producer who respects the creative freedom of artists.
.
"Then let Deborah Winger go..." Penny Marshall had the confidence of Ronald's support and was no longer used to the troublemaker on the set who also had conflicts with Shirley MacLean.
The lineup of several leading actors was directly confirmed.
Brooke Shields is so tall that she plays the slugger role as a left fielder.
Diane can try pitching first.
Demi Moore replaced Debra Winger in the role of Catcher Dottie.
…
Because of Ronald's endorsement and participation, Sony CEO Gubel was overjoyed. He wanted to snatch the project back from Ronald's favorite Samsung Pictures and offered to give Ronald some first-round investment shares.
This is not because Guber's conscience is out of control, but because many female stars heard that the movie was produced by Ronald and that it was a baseball movie with a female independent spirit. Knowing that it was an opportunity to become famous, many female stars expressed their willingness to reduce their salary to star in it.
, creating an all-star lineup.
Demi Moore took the initiative to cut her salary to 1.8 million, Diane said she was willing to star in a movie for 1.5 million, Brooke Shields said she was willing to star in a movie for 1.2 million, and Madonna couldn't compete with the three female stars for the top spot, so she took the initiative to lower her salary.
With a salary of one million, they just wanted to have important roles. Only Deborah Winger, who was kicked out, reluctantly took away two million in salary as compensation according to the contract.
Everyone has set aside time to prepare for special training from college baseball team coach William E. Hughes to learn the correct posture training for pitching, catching and running bases.
After Ronald finalized the project, he turned around and went to the office of Mike Medavoy of TriStar Pictures.
"I heard this project was originally intended for me?" Mike McDavoy said with a grimace.
"I'm here right now. There are still good projects. It depends on whether you dare to take them..."
"Do you have any good stuff?"
"That's right, I'll make a call..."
Michael Douglas rushed over quickly after receiving the call. His new movie "Falling Down" lacked a courageous distributor and was about to be sold to HBO and made into a TV movie.
"Michael, your movie is going to have no distributor?" Mike Medavoy didn't believe it.
"You'll understand when you read it" Michael Douglas handed over the script.
"Oh, my God, your movie is so powerful..." Mike Medavoy turned over the script and exclaimed in admiration or surprise.
If "Pink" is a movie that praises the bright side of American society and is inspiring, then "City Heroes" simply confronts all the dark sides of America.
It seems to be a common Hollywood theme such as the dilemma of a middle-aged man, but when you look at the details, it is all a satire of magical realism.
William Foster was an engineer in a military industrial company. He was fired because of the end of the Cold War. After that, he felt very depressed and pretended to be at work every day. His wife divorced him, and he was not invited to his youngest daughter's birthday.
William happened to be stuck in a traffic jam on the road. Frustrated and frustrated, he abandoned the car and walked into a Korean-owned grocery store, hoping to find some change to make a phone call. However, the Korean-American shop owner made things difficult for him, refusing to give him change and insisting on buying something.
The items in the Korean grocery store were very expensive. William refused to give in. The Korean lady boss picked up a baseball bat to defend herself. William grabbed the baseball bat and smashed the shop.
Later, when he was resting in the park, gangsters came to steal his briefcase again. He picked up a baseball bat and beat the gangsters away, but instead snatched their pistols. Afterwards, he gave the briefcase to a beggar who was even worse off than him.
, there was nothing in the briefcase except his lunch.
William went to a fast food restaurant to order a breakfast burger, and finally got in line. The clerk told him that it was already lunch time. The burger he bought was much smaller than the one in the advertisement picture, and the ingredients were wrong. Because of a dispute with the waiter, he
He pulled out his pistol and fired randomly.
Later, he called his ex-wife through a phone booth to attend his daughter's birthday, but his ex-wife called the police.
William passed a bank, and another black man protested at the door because he was denied a loan, and was taken away by the LAPD. Before leaving, the black man told William not to forget him.
William was completely out of control. He went to a weapons store and was sold a rocket launcher to him by a homophobic store owner.
On the way to his ex-wife's house to celebrate his daughter's birthday, the road was blocked again because of road construction. William was so angry that he jumped out of the car and cursed these people for digging and repairing the road for the sake of government budget. In anger, he used a rocket launcher to blast the construction site.
sky.
Finally, facing the gunpoint of the retiring police officer who came to arrest him, he asked him: "Am I a bad person?" and tricked the police officer into shooting him.
All the scenes in this movie are about an ordinary white American, encountering things that make people angry, such as divorce, alimony, Korean-owned grocery stores are too smart to apply for loans, burgers are much smaller than advertised, and on the road
Digging is a waste of money, and there are traffic jams everywhere in Los Angeles...
It all happened to one person, it’s so crazy...
But it is precisely because of these things that people feel sympathy for William, an engineer who works in a military-industrial enterprise and was once the patron saint of Americans who felt at ease, who has lost his job because of the end of the Cold War.
However, this movie is a bit inconsistent with current social trends. This is also the reason why a big star like Michael Douglas is willing to play the leading role of William, but no distributor is willing to release it.
"This movie of yours..." Mike Medavoy pondered for a moment.
"Are you not afraid anymore?" Ronald deliberately provoked, "If there is anyone in Hollywood who can respect the creative freedom of artists and not care about other interference, it would be you and the original United Artists and Orion..."
"And you, will you also invest?" Mike Medavoy countered Ronald's army.
"Okay, but I have to change the project company..." Ronald thought to himself, this movie will definitely be supported by the audience, but it can't be marketed too aggressively. In order to prepare for the protest army, it is better to do some technical processing.
"Okay, I can distribute this movie on behalf of Samsung Pictures. Is the director going to be you?"
"Ha, no..." Ronald looked at Douglas.
"Joel Schumacher..." Michael Douglas immediately said his preferred candidate.
"Although many female stars had their salaries cut for that movie, it still cost more than 40 million U.S. dollars, and a baseball stadium had to be rebuilt. In this movie, except for Michael..." Ronald saw that he was still hesitant, and immediately said
identified the most important KPI assessment indicators for him.
"I know him, and that's it. I'm going to report to President Price." Mike Medavoy thought to himself, I really like this script.
…
"Is it that simple? Is it done like this?" After leaving the office, Michael Douglas still didn't believe that he had tried many production companies for distribution but had not negotiated with him, and Ronald had just finished it like this?
"You have to understand Mike Medavoy. He is a producer who has always advocated respecting the creative freedom of artists since the United Artists era. This is the last bastion of Hollywood. You have to press his buttons..."
"Anyway, thank you, Ronald." Michael Douglas stretched out his hand, "I also heard some gossip among the Jews. You should be careful..."
Ronald handed over the investment documents for the two movies to Michelle Cannold and asked him to handle it. When he returned home, he wanted to find Richard and Niceta to discuss the news delivered by Michael Douglas.
.
"Ring ring ring ring..." At this moment, Shenberg from Panasonic Global called.
"I owe you once, Ronald. You convinced Steven. This has done a great favor to our race."
"Don't say that, I can be a director thanks to you..."
"Hahaha..." Shenberg smiled heartily. He liked this about Ronald. He had the demeanor of an old-school Hollywood person.
"When will the shooting start? Can I go and see it?" Ronald was also curious about how Spielberg would make such a movie.
"If he doesn't make it yet, I'll let him make another monster movie first. This Schindler's List is too depressing. I don't think he has the heart to make commercial movies anymore after filming. He will take a break for at least half a year..."
"So awesome?" Ronald also knew that this kind of movie consumes too much mental energy, but he didn't expect it to be to this extent.
"By the way, I have other things to ask you about. Is that lightning lamp a product of your company?"
"Yes, why, you want to use it?" Ronald thought to himself, is this a reward? He liked this about Sheinberg. He was one of the few Jewish executives who likes to give immediate rewards.
"It's not that simple. That monster movie requires various special effects. Can your lightning lamp be used under high-brightness lighting or sunlight?"
"I've been waiting for someone to ask me this question for a long time. Our engineers have been developing lightning lights that can be used for shooting in daylight. The instantaneous power can make the lightning effect visible under the sun. If you want it, I will make it right away.