Chapter 685: Streisand’s top contributors to the script
In an ideal Hollywood world, screenwriters' scripts are all copyrighted. And scripts that are revised by others will also be passed down in an orderly manner. Who revised which draft and how much text was contributed to the final draft can all be based on
Find it out through records.
But in reality, Hollywood is often full of lies and deception. For most scripts, the copyright is determined by the time when the big studio pays for pre-purchase, and who writes most of the content in that draft.
Who is the screenwriter recognized by the law and the union.
Movie directors or financiers will also tell a lot of lies about the script because they want the project to start shooting smoothly. Some directors are actually not good at finalizing the script before starting filming. They always want to keep as much information as possible
There are so many possibilities, so I have been reluctant to lock the script. I have to constantly revise it, insert new pages, and make temporary modifications before filming starts, or even during filming.
Coppola is the most typical director of this type. I want to see the scripts of classics he shot, such as "The Godfather". In fact, those movies have already been filmed, and even after they have been released, the film company released them in order to make more money.
The post-approved version of the script that came out was actually based on the finished film and then revised in reverse.
This is definitely not the version that the director and actors could see when the filming of "The Godfather" started. The script that was actually used for filming was completely messy. If you look at that version, maybe one-third of the scenes were not included in the film.
Inside, the other third has been modified so much that it's unrecognizable.
Barbra Streisand is such a director. On the one hand, due to lack of ability, she is not able to take care of all the details that need to be taken care of when shooting a movie. She also does not have the energy or willingness to take care of it.
For her, perhaps the most ideal situation is for someone to do these trivial things well, and she only needs to decide those things that are decisive for "artistic expression".
On the other hand, Barbra Streisand's own artistic taste is also not very good. She doesn't quite understand what details can be handled well to improve the artistic quality of the finished film. The things that she values are not as good as Ronald's
From the perspective of an experienced director, it may not be important, or alternative methods can save money and produce results.
And in addition, Barbra Streisand also has some selfish motives. She always wants to add her own understanding of love and family affection into this movie. For example, the English professor she plays is not beautiful, so
There is a lack of intimate behavior with my colleague, a mathematics professor.
Another example is that her sister and mother, who are much more beautiful than the protagonist, have many messy relationships between men and women that she cannot understand. Although at the end of every crisis, the protagonist has to come forward to help solve the problem, they still seem to be much happier than the protagonist.
Of course, such content and theme are not something that a new director like Barbra Streisand can control. Of course, famous star actors like Barbra Streisand have also played some little tricks to deliberately incorporate these ideas.
Hiding, trying to coax Ronald and distributor TriStar Pictures to start filming without their knowledge, and then she could have the final say.
Of course, such a little trick couldn't be hidden from Ronald's eyes. Yang Yanzi went to Barbra Streisand's place, and then talked with several screenwriters and crew members who had been fired by Streisand, and it became clear that she was
What's the idea?
Streisand refused to hand over the script despite repeated objections, so Yang Yanzi easily obtained a copy of the script from the time of his dismissal from a screenwriter whom she had fired.
"This script has quite a commercial perspective..." Ronald saw the script and his first impression after reading it was that the screenwriter named Richard LaGravens was actually quite good.
The script does not focus too much on "Do men love women for their brains or their appearance?", a theme that Barbra Streisand is particularly concerned about. Instead, it adds many traditional romantic comedy elements, such as how the two professors went from hating each other to each other.
To appreciate, how the relationship between the heroine, her mother and sister changes from conflict to reconciliation, etc.
Especially the mother's scene is particularly exciting. The regret for the lost time and appearance, and the love for a daughter who is not as good as her are intertwined until the very end.
Sure enough, when I looked at the screenwriter's resume, I found that this person's other work was the Warner Bros. movie adapted from the novel "The Bridges of Madison County" which was filmed last year and has just been edited and is being previewed.
)" screenwriter.
The protagonists of this movie are Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. Although many people in the industry disdain this movie, they also teased who would want to watch two middle-aged people in their forties.
What about stories about people falling in love?
However, the popularity of this novel has remained high, and it was the best-selling book in the country in 1993. Since its publication in 1992, it has been in the top ten of the New York Times bestseller list, and it still shows no signs of quitting.
The accumulated popularity of such a bestseller is daunting, and Ronald feels that it will definitely not fail at the box office as those people said. The last time such a pure love tragedy was a "love story" in the 1970s, when movies were generally weak.
", the blockbuster movie is like a movie from the golden age.
After making a few phone calls and asking some friends who had seen the test screening, Ronald received all praises, saying that Eastwood, who directed and acted himself, gave a top-notch performance this time, and that Meryl Stewart's performance was top-notch.
Rip is even more of an actress, and the middle-aged heroine she plays can make college boys fall in love with her.
Richard LaGravenese was called in, and Ronald chatted with him for several hours. The situation gradually became clear.
Barbra Streisand must have a hidden plan. After she got the version of the script written by Richard LaGravens, everyone praised it at first. But a week later, she had many new ideas.
The idea was to be modified by Richard LaGravens.
This situation is not uncommon. Generally speaking, there will be a certain honeymoon period when reading a script. After that, if problems are discovered, the screenwriter welcomes this situation and can make targeted modifications.
After that, Barbra Streisand invited him to her home, where he was "guided" at any time on how Richard LaGravins should revise the script.
Of course, the direction of the modification is a very common star disease. The heroine Rose's problems need to be alleviated. She cannot be really ugly like Richard LaGravens wrote. She must have a certain degree of beauty, but she can't
dress up.
Rose was the only sane woman in the family, and her mother would only sharply tease her for not being good-looking and not knowing how to dress herself up.
Mathematics professor Gregory still hopes that his wife will be good at dressing up and become more beautiful and more attractive. Although he can appreciate Rose's high IQ, he still wants superficial beauty...
In short, these supporting characters are all flawed characters. Only under the guidance and education of the protagonist Rose (played by Barbra Streisand in her true colors) can the beauty of the heroine be discovered...
This is also the most common problem faced by celebrities as producers, directors, and screenwriters. They always think that good movies must develop stories around them as stars, and that good qualities and stories must happen to them.
OK.
In fact, if you just want to be a star, it is not wrong to think this way. Many Hollywood commercial films rely on stars to support the box office, so of course they have to occupy all the good qualities.
However, as a director who oversees the overall situation, thinking like this will cause big problems. Since you are already so perfect, what story is there to tell? Those supporting characters have become just a foil to the heroine, as thin as a piece of paper, as if
Their only purpose in the script is to highlight how beautiful the heroine is (her appearance is as beautiful as her soul) and how her IQ is superior to everyone else (for example, English professors are smarter than math professors).
What made Richard LaGravenese the most angry was that during the time he stayed at her house to revise the script, Richard LaGravenese would modify some plots of the script according to Streisand's opinions every time.
But then, Barbra Streisand got some "high-profile" opinions from somewhere, and she had new ideas on how to highlight the image of the star in the script.
Anyway, "high ginseng" always makes sense. Every time Richard LaGravens tried to convince Streisand with the rules of film creation, he was refuted the next day by the reasons she learned from "high ginseng".
…
"Barbara, I heard that your new version of the script has been revised? Can I see it? Yes, Mr. Medavoy from TriStar Pictures also wants to see it. After all, Columbia no longer has a CEO. Any movie
In order to start filming new projects, they have to go through a more troublesome process than before... Yes, the final script must be sent to Sony before shooting starts... Yes, you know, Japanese people are very particular about red tape..."
Coincidentally, Sony Columbia CEO Peter Guber's resignation was officially announced. He received a large severance package, as well as a distribution agreement with Sony Columbia for an independent studio he created, and broke up with Sony "amicably"
.
During Peter Guber's tenure at Sony Columbia, the figures for his various incomes were kept secret. However, judging from the terms disclosed through various channels, he earned more than hundreds of millions of dollars during his several years at Sony.
In addition to the US$200 million it cost to invite him over and acquire his company, Gubel's annual salary during his time at Sony was US$2.75 million, as well as a one-time bonus of US$50 million during his tenure.
In addition, Guber also has generous option rewards. The overall conversion is equivalent to approximately 8.08% of the overall asset appreciation of Sony Columbia Pictures during his tenure.
Of course, due to the limitations of Guber's ability during this period, although there were many box-office and critical reviews of the films released by Columbia, there were also many failures, and he did not receive many rewards in this regard.
In total, including a three-year distribution agreement when he finally left, and the money to fund his re-establishment of his own independent studio, Gubel's income during his time at Sony is estimated to be between US$300-500 million.
between.
This number makes all Hollywood executives envious. Who doesn't want to defraud more money from Japanese people?
This also made Sony very angry, but due to the requirement to continue operating in America, they could not deprive Gubel of his normal resignation income, so they could only close their eyes and pretend as if nothing had happened.
In comparison, the performance of Columbia Records, which Sony had previously acquired, was much better. Motura's management really helped the Japanese owners make a lot of money.
Therefore, Sony has a new view on Columbia Pictures' operations. They are no longer looking for a new CEO candidate for the time being. Instead, they have tightened their powers and required more reporting.
Mark Canton, who temporarily replaced Guber, was not granted the power of interim CEO. All important decisions in daily operations must be reported to the Sony America branch and approved before proceeding.
The Japanese also look down upon Medavoy, the president of TriStar Pictures, who has achieved outstanding performance in recent years. They are still somewhat superstitious about America's winning philosophy. When selecting people, they must choose candidates who have always won.
Medavoy's wife was abducted by a billionaire. Whether it is American or Japanese standards, it is difficult to call him a winner.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Therefore, Medavoy had to give up the idea of being a Sony film businessman, and came back to contribute to Ronald's projects. At least this boss treats capable employees as before.
Very fair.
Taken together, the only result of Barbra Streisand's chaos is that the movie will fail at the box office. But when it comes to stars, they can't directly conflict, and they have to find ways to coax them.
It happened that Sony had tightened the decision-making power of Columbia Pictures, and Mark Canton seemed to be only a caretaker cabinet. In the name of filing with the Japanese, the two asked Streisand to hand over the new script obediently.
They also scared Barbra Streisand that people at Sony were very rigid. When the movie started shooting, they would send people to look at the daily dailies. If they did not match the submitted script, they would stop the filming. These people had long ago
After studying the setbacks that United Artists Pictures encountered when filming "Heaven's Gate", I know that we need to manage the film at a micro level.
In fact, such terms only apply to those film and TV series projects approved by Colombia during Guber's period. Sony is actually quite satisfied with Tristar Pictures' Metavoy. And if Ronald wants to participate in the project, they
I will never interfere.
Japanese people admire strong winners. Since you have a continuous history of success in box office reviews, then don't interfere. They are still relieved that Medavoy will not be CEO and will be in charge of film projects.
This reason was used to prevaricate Barbra Streisand, which was very appropriate. She also made several calls to the project producers at Columbia Pictures, and those people confirmed that this statement was true. Sony is now in the midst of a major
The scale re-examines all the stalls left by Gubel.
"Don't worry, I'll get Richard LaGravenese, and any other script doctor you see fit, to work with you. You're an artist, Barbara, and I'm confident in your creativity, and we're going to
The best thing is to fix those brilliant ideas in your mind..."
Barbra Streisand had no choice but to personally bring a copy of the script she really wanted, show it to Ronald, and try to find a way to pass Sony's review.
Ronald opened it and saw that, as Richard LaGravens said, the script had become like a promotional brochure from a Wal-Mart supermarket, full of colorful papers.
This is a common practice for Hollywood scripts. Every time there is a new revision, they do not directly print a new batch of copies, but disassemble the copper nails that bind the script, and then print the revised parts on different colored papers.
The text is re-binded.
In this way, you can retrace the history of script revisions like a diary. The paper in this copy of the script is of different condition. The manuscript that was originally written on white paper has been turned over and has rough edges. The condition of the paper in different colors is different.
It's also completely different.
The latest piece of paper, already made of magenta paper, was very new, and Ronald seemed to smell the laser printer toner on it.
"Is this the latest?" Ronald said, flipping through the script.
"Yes, I just took this off the printer this morning." Barbra Streisand said that she had a hard time. She still had to learn how to print multiple documents, how to take apart the script, and how to put in the new revised parts.
Replace the original old version.
It turned out that someone had done all this with help. I happened to fire Richard LaGravens, and what Ronald said was scary, I had no choice but to do it myself...
"That's it, Medavoy and I went to Sony to talk to them and try to get approval as soon as possible. Then you start looking for the script doctor you like, and then the casting will start. If you have any candidates, you will put them forward...
"
Ronald kept the script and sent Barbra Streisand away. He thought for a while, then took out the script and read it carefully. Especially the modifications added later, he also took out a magnifying glass to look at them.
Several minutes.
Then he picked up the phone and said, "Dr. Lee? I have another document here. I hope you can help me identify it. Yes, there will be no express delivery this time. I will ask my subordinate to send it by plane. Your identification results are also