"Nora, Nathan must go..." After Ronald talked with the parents of the boy named Nathan Watt, he gave him another day. But this little Nathan was still the same, as long as he didn't have a camera
During filming, he would cause all kinds of "accidents" to cause trouble. He wouldn't let him
"But I replaced him. There is currently no suitable boy to take his place. I will go get the photos later. There are photos of all the boys I auditioned for." Nora Ephron was also very anxious.
Every day of delay is a cost. Not only does Nathan Watt always ruin the filming, he also steals the scene. Tom Hanks, who was filming a scene with him, was also affected and has not yet entered the scene.
state.
"He was very good during the audition and rehearsal. If he didn't have this problem, why would he be like this after the official filming?" Nora Ephron was so anxious that her face dropped. If she changed
A producer who is not so friendly might have to change the director now. Who made your audition go wrong?
"I think it's because of his parents. These are typical Hollywood parents..." Ronald has seen parents like this before, but it's rare that Nathan's parents are so typical.
In fact, this is a psychological problem of little Nathan. Making trouble when filming without his own lens is actually a disguised form of stealing the spotlight. Children at a young age usually have a playful and curious attitude when filming film and television dramas.
Mostly. And he is full of anxiety all the time. As long as there is a shot where he is not the center of the camera, he will be anxious to cause trouble and destroy, and he will not stop until he becomes the center.
This kind of mentality is obviously developed in the very fierce audition competition for child actors. Behind it, it is definitely inseparable from the deliberate indoctrination of parents. They must beat other competitors in the audition, and they do not hesitate to use extraneous tricks.
And a boy under eight years old can't tell what is an audition and what is a formal shooting. He obviously regards Tom Hanks as a competitor...
The two of them auditioned on the spot in the hotel room. After selecting dozens of possible candidates, the assistants brought in the audition tapes for the two of them to watch. Later, Tom Hanks, Mei
G. Ryan and others also came to see...
"I think this is good..." Ronald pressed the pause button and pointed at a slightly fat boy on the TV.
"Ross Malinger," the assistant announced the child actor's name, "has starred in the Fox teen drama The Great and Powerful, guest-starred in three episodes of the ABC sitcom Who's the Boss?, and Roseanne played a recurring supporting role as Sammy Mee.
Le..."
"Him? I eliminated him in the first round. He wasn't cute enough..." Nora Ephron looked at this fat guy and couldn't figure out why Ronald thought he was good.
"What do you think?" Ronald asked Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
"It's good, I was also very fat when I was a kid." Hanks was very embarrassed by Nathan, and thought that this fat Ross looked very honest.
"Such a child is actually not bad. The son of one of my cousins is like this, which makes people feel familiar..." Meg Ryan also voted in favor.
"He looks like an average American boy, but Nathan is too pretty..." Ronald chose him because he looked very real. This kind of realism is needed for Sleepless in Seattle.
Another point is that this child does not have any outstanding acting skills. Unlike Nathan or the previous actor Macaulay Culkin of "Home Alone", he is a talented child actor at first glance.
This is not a comedy, at least the scenes involving the child and his father are not a comedy. Therefore, such unpolished child actors are more able to express the kind of reality that the audience needs, a particularly unreal fairy tale.
Ross Malinger was quickly summoned to Seattle. After two test shots, Ronald made a decisive decision to replace him.
"Humph, why did you replace my son? This is not fair. Let me tell you, we have close communication with the Screen Actors Guild, and they have expressed great concern about this. It is not my first day in Hollywood. All major newspapers have it.
I know reporters, and I also know several fair lawyers. You’d better get my son back as soon as possible, or else give our... son the compensation he deserves..."
The person who accompanied the replaced Nathan in the filming was his mother. She had been working in Hollywood for many years. After getting the news, she came to negotiate with Ronald. The purpose was nothing more than two: to change the role of his son back, and to get him back.
Just pay a large sum of money. Anyway, those lawyers who are willing to fight free lawsuits and get a share of the compensation say so. This is against the conventions of Hollywood. Paramount has also lost money because of similar things in the past.
"I have something to go to New York, you come and tell him." Ronald was too lazy to deal with such a stupid mother and asked the on-site production director to stay and explain to him.
"Hi, you..." Nathan's mother pulled Ronald's sleeve to prevent him from leaving.
"Don't try to lie to us. Then he will delay us for a few days by asking you to nod. You must give me an answer now. Is it OK or not? Otherwise, I will go find a lawyer." He wavered.
Shaking a phone book in hand.
"Okay, you can call a lawyer. You can also go to court and sue us. We may win and you won't get a cent. We may also lose and pay you three times the minimum wage, times your son's
Working time is equivalent to three thousand US dollars, and by the way, you have to split it with your lawyer.
But the court will ask us to present evidence and explain the reasonable reasons why we replaced your son. Then your son, instigated by your mistake, destroyed the filming of the crew and caused hundreds of thousands of yuan in losses, it will be
be made public.
Just ask him what will happen."
Nathan's mother was shocked by Ronald's confident statement, and for a moment she didn't know whether it was true or not. She involuntarily let go of Ronald's sleeve, and then turned to the production director.
"When the time comes, I can guarantee that from Hollywood to the NBC studio in New York, no production crew in America will hire your son again. You should come to me, sign an agreement, and take the money our crew gave you. According to the agreement, your son can
It’s better to leave as soon as you get the full salary.”
"Ah, can I still get full salary for this?" Nathan's mother was happy again.
"Aren't you very familiar with people from the Screen Actors Guild? How come you don't even know this?"
…
After spending a few days on the set to sort things out, Ronald went to the East Coast to sort out other years of work for "Sleepless in Seattle."
The first is the issue of the shooting location. In Seattle, the crew spent a lot of money and communicated a lot with the Seattle city government, and were able to approve the request to shoot at several iconic landmarks in Seattle.
Because of Ronald's reputation, the City Hall agreed to this request, which few city governments outside of Los Angeles could possibly agree to. After all, Ronald's "Working Girl" film brought the most backward Staten Island in New York to
The ferries are now red and have become one of the must-see attractions for tourists.
Seattle was originally an emerging industry city for high-tech, IT, and pharmaceutical industries, and many well-known companies in the design industry settled here. If the movie is popular, then Pike Place Market, Sorrento Hotel, Alki Beach, Free
Monte Bridge, Dahlia Restaurant, etc., have become tourist attractions and can add many employment opportunities to the tourism industry.
However, these scenic spots can only shoot some exterior scenes and aerial shots. It is impossible to suspend official duties internally and lend them to the crew for several days of filming.
Therefore, this movie, which has many famous scenic spots, also needs a large venue that can be used as a studio to build various internal scenes.
The crew searched around, but Seattle was not a traditional industrial city and there was no warehouse large enough to borrow. Around Seattle, they only found one suitable location, which was the Navy's Thunder Point Naval Base.
Because this movie had to meet the schedule, filming started almost immediately after Nora Ephron completed the script. Therefore, there was no time to wait for many things to be slowly processed, and Ronald had to step in to handle special matters.
.
Thunder Point Naval Base is an example of this. Because this naval base is also subject to closure under the disarmament policy of the current commander-in-chief. So now basically the managers of the base are thinking about keeping their jobs and going to another one.
The Navy is a good place, don't be stationed in a ghost place like Guantanamo. So not many people pay attention to a movie crew renting it.
I contacted them several times, but no substantial progress was made. The naval officers who had been in contact with me before because of the filming of "Top Gun" were also busy looking for other ways out.
Ronald had no choice but to call the office of the former Secretary of the Navy and current Senator John Warner of Virginia through the original Navy's Hollywood Liaison Department. This man was a senior Navy man and knew about Hollywood because he was
Elizabeth Taylor’s sixth husband…
"Mr. Senator..."
John Warner met Ronald in an office inside the Senate.
"Look, our good young man in the Navy." John Warner is a hard-liner on Capitol Hill and a realist. He is very dissatisfied with the current commander-in-chief's disarmament policy and is planning some formal opposition actions. He met Ronald
, that was extremely satisfying. The skyrocketing number of people joining the navy that year was inseparable from this good young man.
"I heard that your father also participated in the Vietnam War? In what army did he serve?" On John Warner's desk this morning, there was Ronald's experience compiled by his assistant. He is a background theorist, and he is interested in people who were born in the military.
People, especially those in the Navy, feel that they are the true pillars of the United States.
"Yes, he is from the Marine Corps. But my grandfather was a fighter pilot in the Navy..." Ronald told the glorious family history.
"Let me just say, to be able to shoot such good air combat footage is because of experience, hahahaha... I thought it was a director like John Ford who had shot real naval battles..."
John Warner was overjoyed and patted Ronald on the shoulder. The young man was so talented that he liked it. "Liz told me that you are a very good director. We need more movies like Top Gun, you
Can we make a sequel?"
"Mr. Senator, the alliance has disintegrated. We no longer have such a natural imaginary enemy, and the tastes of the audience are also changing. Moreover, the office of cooperation between the Navy and Hollywood is also being abolished. It is difficult for us to obtain the strong support of the Navy as we did back then.
We had the convenience of real-life shooting, and we also fired two air-to-air missiles at that time. Now my production company cannot afford such a high budget..."
"Hey, this country can't leave the navy... The disarmament led by the commander-in-chief is really... They also want to retire the F-14A... Forget it, I will call the people in the navy, you go contact the base
Let’s rent it…”
John Warner waved his hand and asked Ronald to go first. The leader of the Elephant Party actually presided over disarmament. Some of the current leaders have gone too far. The alliance is gone. Is there still no imaginary enemy? Who poses a threat to America in the world?
There are many countries.
…
What happened next went smoothly. The Cape Thunder Naval Base was leased to the crew for two months at a nominal price. The crew immediately moved in and started work on various props and scenery. They just waited for the crew to come in.
shoot.
Ronald returned to New York from DC. He made an appointment with Bannon on Wall Street. There was another crew here that needed his help.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Can't you not take a photo of the Empire State Building? Or use your computer magic to fake it? No way?"
Ronald came to New York mainly to settle the filming of the Empire State Building. The final climax of the movie is between Sam and Annie, imitating the Hollywood movie "The Golden Marriage" of that year, where the hero and heroine meet on the rooftop of the Empire State Building.
.
This place is a landmark building in America and New York. Whenever a New York-related movie is shot, a second shot of the Empire State Building or the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center is always included, so that the audience can know that they are in New York.
Different from this kind of indicative shot, Sleepless in Seattle requires the actual scene of the rooftop and the close-up aerial photography of the Empire State Building, which must be approved by everyone in the Empire State Building.
The real estate industry and finance are closely related, so Ronald asked Bannon to try to communicate directly with the owner of the Empire State Building through him.
But Bannon shook his head when he heard this. The owner of the Empire State Building is Harry Helmsley, but what really matters is his wife, Leona Helmsley. This woman is very disrespectful.
Easy to deal with.
"It's not that exaggerated. I just borrowed it for filming..." Ronald felt that Bannon was exaggerating.
"She was nicknamed the Queen of Mean. Her only son Jay died. A few days after the funeral, she sent an eviction notice to her daughter-in-law. She also sued her for hundreds of thousands of dollars. This was too much.
Now that you are famous, there are few people even on Wall Street who don’t admire you..."
"Where is she now?" When Ronald heard this, he thought this was too exaggerated. He still tried to find a way to chat, but if that didn't work, he would just fly a helicopter to take photos secretly. Anyway, he had a good relationship with the NYPD, so he wanted to get one nearby.
Just get permission to take photos.
"In prison..."
…
Through his personal lawyer, Ronald contacted the lowest-security prison specifically for wealthy Wall Street men.
Leona Helmsley, the evil queen and owner of the Empire State Building, was sentenced to sixteen years in prison for tax evasion. The real decisive witness was her housekeeper Elizabeth Baum. The housekeeper testified in court
Say, something Leona Helmsley often said, is "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes..."
Although Leona denied saying this in court, the housekeeper and servants often said how Leona abused them when testifying in court, which had a very bad impact on the jury, so the verdict was
She received a very high sentence, but her lawyer later appealed and the sentence was reduced to twenty months. She recently served her sentence.
"We hope Mrs. Helmsley will agree to our filming, which will have public relations benefits for her application for parole and medical parole."
Ronald contacted Helmsley's assistant, but she refused to meet. Finally, he contacted her public relations manager through Pat Kingsley. She happened to be visiting the prison to discuss what to do with Helmsley.
Use public opinion and public opinion to alleviate some people's bad feelings for her.
"I will bring the message here. Just wait for the results of my visit to the prison."