After winning two games in a row at home, the New York Knicks played an extremely ugly game against the New Jersey Nets. They trailed by ten points in the first three quarters, struggled to catch up in the fourth quarter, and the tie went into overtime, ultimately losing by one point.
Ronald's guess was very correct. Coach Pat Riley had no way to solve the problem of poor offense. Once he fell behind, he played extremely ugly. So his plan began to be officially launched. He found professional screenwriters in Hollywood and began to polish it.
A comedy script about a female fan who becomes the head coach of the Knicks.
A similar story was also playing out on the Hollywood box office rankings during this period. French director Jonathan Caplan, who became famous for filming "Pear Blossoms", also suffered a disastrous box office failure.
Bad Girls, which he directed, brought together four well-received female stars in the industry. Drew Barrymore, the grown-up little girl in Spielberg's "ET", just appeared in
Andie MacDowell stole the show in "Four Weddings and a Funeral."
There's also Madeleine Stowe, a critic's favorite in "The Last of the Mohicans," and Mary Stuart Masterson, who has Oscar buzz in the one-woman film "Fried Green Tomatoes."
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Four rising star actresses were recruited by Jonathan Kaplan, who is good at making feminist films, to shoot a film whose script is called "the female version of Unforgiven"...
Who would have known that this movie with high hopes, which opened in 2,000 theaters, only managed to take in a box office of 5 million in its opening weekend.
Not only that, the performances of the four actresses were very embarrassing. It was obvious that there was a big deviation between the director's presentation of the script and the actors' performances. This was originally another innovative, feminist western film aimed at western films.
The movie that I went to was eventually nicknamed "Western Barbie" by film critics...
These are the female cowboys who teased this movie, acting as awkwardly as Barbie dolls come to life in the real world. Four actresses who had shined in other movies suffered a heavy blow in Hollywood.
Of course, director Jonathan Kaplan is responsible for all this. The four actresses also suffered serious setbacks in their careers...except for one...
That's Andie MacDowell, who plays Erin in the movie.
The reason why she was able to survive, of course, has nothing to do with this movie, but because his other low-budget production, "Four Weddings and a Funeral", unexpectedly experienced very good box office results in the United States.
The first week of the release of Fatal Women, Four Weddings and a Funeral is already the seventh week of its release. Even excluding the first two weeks of screenings, the next two weeks of small-scale openings, and the third week of large-scale openings
, this romantic drama continues to grow at the box office.
With a screening scale of less than 900 theaters, it has achieved a box office of more than 4.3 million. The single-theater box office of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is exactly twice that of "Female Women", creating a not-so-big movie.
Small miracle.
The first is because the production scale of this movie is very small, with a shooting budget of only three million pounds. The second is because the love concept and some backgrounds of this movie are completely British culture.
For example, the heroine Carrie, played by Andie MacDowell, is married to a British aristocrat, which is a high threshold for American audiences to understand.
A romantic drama that originally required certain cultural backgrounds, unexpectedly achieved great success in America. By this weekend, the movie had exceeded the 20 million box office in North America.
I have to say that behind this success is the great success of the script, as well as the very obvious chemistry between Hugh Grant, a British actor, and Andie MacDowell on the screen.
Sometimes, as long as the male and female protagonists make the audience feel that they should be a couple, then everything else is not an obstacle. They just want to see the two break through all obstacles and finally live happily together because of love.
Andie MacDowell is lucky. Originally, the only American female role in this British romance drama was given to the supporting actress in Basic Instinct, Janet Tripplehorn.
of.
However, she withdrew from the filming due to personal reasons before filming began. Later, the role was offered to Marisa Tomei, who also rejected it. Andie MacDowell was selected as an understudy.
What's even more unfortunate (or fortunate) is that the filming funds for the movie are very tight. The main actor Hugh Grant is an unknown actor who is considering quitting the showbiz and finding a real job. His salary is only 35,000 pounds... because of his agent.
The person wanted a salary increase of 5,000 pounds from the film crew and was almost fired.
After all, Andie MacDowell is a newly popular Hollywood female star because of "Groundhog Day". Her salary is one million US dollars. The film studio had to negotiate with her and only paid a quarter of it.
The remuneration of US$250,000 is included as an investment in the film, and dividends are finally distributed according to the box office performance.
In this way, judging from the box office trend of "Four Weddings and a Funeral", Andie MacDowell can earn at least more than two million.
Afterwards, the box office was uneventful, and "Four Weddings and a Funeral" continued to be a nail on the charts. Many American female viewers were dissatisfied with the shaggy-haired, easily nervous British man Hugh Grant in the movie.
Good impression.
As predicted by film critics, "Female" experienced a rapid decline in box office and quickly slipped out of the top ten.
In May, Miramax's "The Crow", which used Brandon Lee's legacy as a marketing gimmick, began to be released. The movie unexpectedly received praise from some niche movie fans. This Gothic style, lens language is full of comic colors,
The leading actor died during filming just like his character. With the help of this marketing stunt, he became a dark horse at the box office, briefly occupying the top spot at the box office for a week.
But soon, Brandon Lee’s sister and former girlfriend also came out to accuse Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein of various practices.
For example, during the filming, the actors worked overtime intensively regardless of their fatigue. Another example is the chaos in on-site prop management because everyone was exhausted from overtime work, which may have caused the accidental death of Brandon Lee.
Such voices, fueled by some well-intentioned people in Hollywood, spread quickly. Although Miramax quickly came out to refute the rumors, when some crew members came forward to testify, the defense became very weak.
Although various confrontations created a lot of momentum, and the death of Brandon Lee was reopened by the LAPD, the box office did not buy it. In the second week of its release, "The Crow" was knocked off the top of the box office list by a real big production.
This is Jodie Foster, who became the Oscar-winning actress for "The Last Day", and stars such as Mel Gibson and James Garner. Richard Donner, the director of Superman and the Lethal Weapon series, is back in action
The director's commercial blockbuster "Marvellian Gambler" - a story about Mahuali, a professional gambler in the cowboy era of the West.
This movie is completely used to make money. Jodie Foster won two awards, but this movie is the one where she really got a big salary. And James Garner is the remake of the 1960s movie of the same name.
He plays the protagonist of Ma Huali in the TV series. This time he plays the new version of Ma Huali. Mel Gibson's father in the movie is also a gambler and liar.
It can be seen from this that this movie has nothing to do with art at all, it is just a movie used to make money. Everyone gave professional performances, and it earned 17 million in box office in the first weekend, achieving
The number of theaters in this number is not as high as that of "The Last Day", which only has 1,700 theaters.
"If you ask me, this is the best movie in Hollywood. The audience likes to watch it, the actors' performances are also appropriate, and the most important thing is the nostalgia. Audiences who grew up watching the TV series of the same name have to cheer when they see James Garner.
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Ronald also borrowed a copy and played it at home. The film's technique is smooth and it is worthy of being a work of Richard Donner. As long as he is given a big star who suits the script, the sequence and transition are very smooth.
"I think you are also hinting at the direction that the new 007 episode should take..." A personable gentleman clinked a glass of Coca-Cola with Diane and Ronald to commemorate the old days when they were filming Coke commercials.
Pierce Brosnan, who had been confirmed to be the new version of 007, was also invited to watch the movie with Ronald and Diane.
The spokesman for the foundation of the family of Ian Fleming, the author of the original novel, and the producer of the original 007 film series, Albert Broccoli, is in declining health. His daughter Barbara Broccoli
Lokoli gradually took over his father's role and devoted himself to the production of a new movie.
The copyright situation of 007 is very strange and fragmented. MGM/United Arts owns the distribution rights, but the producer has always been the Broccoli family from Britain.
MGM's financial situation is very bad. The last James Bond actor broke the contract and stopped filming the third film stipulated in the contract. MGM wanted to rely on the new 007 to turn around. After announcing the start of the project, it was dismissed by the author.
The Laming family sued, resulting in another bankruptcy and liquidation.
Coupled with the disintegration of the 1991 Alliance, this movie, which uses the Cold War as the main background of the series of movies, is faced with a situation where the audience can no longer immerse themselves in the situation.
The new 007 episode has also been on hold until Ronald received a hint from Her Majesty the Queen of Britain. This episode, the first Bond movie since the Cold War, did not really begin.
The first screenwriter of the movie was from Britain, but his name was Michael French. He fundamentally changed the background of the Cold War story, and the new episode was portrayed as a story after the end of the Cold War.
007's boss defected to the Northern Powers and turned against 007. In the Bond series, the big threat in each episode was changed to the leakage of nuclear weapons. After the camp collapsed, the reason why the West supported the Northern Powers so much
Stabilizing the country was also because they were generally afraid that the largest nuclear arsenal in the world at the time would leak some nuclear warheads to countries that did not have the ability to manufacture nuclear weapons but were unfriendly to America.
"Do you have any requests for modifications to the script..."
Barbara Broccoli also came to Ronald's mansion in Beverly Park. She was very interested in this Hollywood upstart. Ronald was not as flamboyant as the old Hollywood tycoons, and he could even exchange movies with you on an equal footing.
shooting ideas.
But like all Hollywood tycoons, he is backed by the huge North American market and has a huge bargaining advantage over British filmmakers. No matter how unique your views on drama are, their will will eventually be reflected in the final script.
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Just like "Four Weddings and a Funeral" currently showing in America, the protagonist Hugh Grant is not good enough to play a real Shakespeare play in the eyes of many British filmmakers and dramatists. The best he can do is Jane.
Austen, or a pulpy melodrama based on a work by Charles Dickens.
But women in America love him, so Grant is always the first candidate mentioned in the scripts of The Story of Britain being filmed in Hollywood.
"I have communicated with some people who are interested, and there are roughly the following points that need to be modified..."
Ronald is also welcome. As the coordinator of the 007 reboot project, he is responsible for balancing multiple stakeholders. He has friendly communication with the powerful departments and politicians behind it. Except for Ronald who has a special status.
It is much more difficult for others to do this job.
Imagine a person who is trusted by the British royal family, MI6, CIA, and the American Navy, and has rich experience in film production. Apart from Ronald, there is almost no other person.
Ronald's opinions on the script also mainly reflect the will of these powerful figures and power departments.
For example, MI6 believed that it was inappropriate for 007's boss to defect, and that the defector should be downgraded to at least the position of James Bond. So Ronald wrote 006, Bond's former partner.
Later, he defected with the help of a mission and became a "gangster"
Another example is that the royal family does not like the reason why this defector betrayed Britain. The conflicts during the Cold War period are too new, so it is best to push it to the time period before and after World War II. Not many of the royal family at that time are still alive today.
So Ronald changed the identity and background of the defected 006 from a top student from Oxford and Cambridge who defected due to ideological ideals to a Gypsy who was abandoned by Britain...
Another example is the navy of America. They are dissatisfied with the plot in the first scene where the admiral of America is seduced by the bad Bond girl and squeezed to death by two powerful long legs on the bed. It must be changed to Canada or
The navy general of the country.
In addition, the CIA also proposed some modifications to the role of CIA agent Jack Wade who appeared in the 007 movie. The leak of nuclear weapons has not yet been declassified because the plot is very similar to reality. It was suggested that it would be better to change it to a different type of weapon.
Weapons of mass destruction. Preferably not the chemical weapons they promote in the media as the Iraqis have...
Ronald made up a fictional electromagnetic pulse weapon that can emit pulses from satellites in outer space to destroy people and buildings on the ground. This kind of weapon that emits blue light is also relatively cheap and easy to produce in special effects production.
"I can agree to all of this... Do you have any other requests?" Barbara Broccoli has been influenced by it since she was a child. This was the case when filming 007 during the Cold War. Not only were many plots restricted by Western allies, but also by Eastern allies.
The camp is also unable to film realistic plots. In several previous 007 movies, none of the villains was a spy agency of the Alliance. It was just a lunatic who wanted to trigger a world war, and was finally eliminated by both parties in the Cold War...
These requests from Ronald were completely reasonable and reasonable. Not only was she not dissatisfied, but she also sincerely admired Ronald's efficiency.
"There are also two Bond girls. The final casting decision must be made by me. I have the right to veto..."
"Aha..." Barbara Broccoli thought to herself. This Hollywood tycoon must be very capable. Can he talk about choosing a Bond girl in front of his wife?
She agreed and left with Ronald's revised opinions.
"Sorry, Pierce, I have to say this. The copyright of this Bond movie is too complicated. If I don't have a veto power in my hand, there will be too many people inserting their girlfriends, relatives, and friends..."
Ronald made a gesture to Brosnan, "The casting depends mainly on your chemical reaction with them. If you encounter someone meddling in something, just come and tell me and I will deal with them..."
"How is the director determined?" Diane herself can no longer play the Bond girl, but she is still very interested in trying to restart the evergreen movie 007, and by the way, she helped Brosnan, her then advertising partner, to find out.
Situation. Many people in Hollywood are not optimistic about this movie, thinking that Brosnan has entered the grave of his acting career.
"I sent an invitation to director John Woo in Hong Kong. His film The True Colors of a Hero is very interesting. You can take a look at it when you have time... But he hasn't answered my invitation yet..."