Vic Morrow is not a good father, at least in the eyes of his second daughter, Jennifer Jason Leigh.
When Jennifer was three years old, Jennifer's mother Barbara divorced Moreau. Although Jennifer was sentenced to her father, Moreau was addicted to alcohol and could not take care of the child. In the end, she still lived with her mother Barbara.
In the days that followed, Jennifer rarely saw this father in her life. She was more resentful towards her father, Moreau.
Originally, the opportunity to play the leading role in "The Legend of the Young Lady" was hers. However, her legal guardian father, Vic Morrow, refused to sign, and the opportunity was in vain given to Brooke Shields, who became famous in one fell swoop.
Jennifer was so angry that she went through the court to change her guardian to her mother, and then changed her last name from Morrow to Leigh.
And now Vic Morrow actually asked Jennifer Jason Leigh to delete a special scene in the movie "Fast Richmond High".
"You are so talented, Jenny. You have no idea how proud I am to see you perform in the TV show 'The Best Little Girl in the World'. The anorexic you played was so real."
Vic Morrow went to a tavern next to his daughter's single apartment and met him. He was very excited when he talked about his daughter's acting skills.
"You lost less than 100 pounds in order to play her. Your mother called and complained, but I am very happy. My daughter is an excellent actress. You can occupy a place in Hollywood without those nudity scenes..."
"But you can't get famous by playing that one." Jennifer coldly interrupted Moreau. She has played several roles on TV that require acting skills, but does anyone know her?
"Don't say that, Jennifer. I know I haven't cared enough for you in the past, but I'm sober, I'm taking anger management classes, I can get a starring role in Spielberg's movie project, and I'll give it to you later
Find a great movie role. Trust me..."
"Dream!" Jennifer Jason Leigh refused to listen to Moreau's nonsense and turned away. Now that she is an adult, she can make decisions about her acting career.
Morrow got up and chased after him, but was hit by a waiter who came to check and almost fell to the ground. After holding on to the wall to steady himself, he saw that Jennifer had already left the tavern, stopped a taxi and left.
"fxck!" Morrow yelled, picked up the water glass on the table and threw it on the ground.
"Pa!" The waiter was at a loss, "Sir...please calm down."
"Give me a double Jack Daniels, no, a bottle, no ice."
At the same time, Ronald received a call and went to Universal to discuss distribution with producer Lin Sen.
"It is impossible for Universal to give too many marketing resources to a small production with a production cost of 3.1 million. If you have other ideas such as product placement, you might as well share them together."
"How can I have so many good ideas?" Ronald laughed, "How many theaters do you expect it to be in?"
"It depends on the final effect of the film. Generally speaking, after the summer season ends in July every year, there is a gap period when competition is not fierce. If your film is released at that time, you will hopefully win more theaters.
Painting, after this it will depend on your box office performance."
"I understand." Ronald nodded to express his understanding. It can be released after the summer vacation, before the start of school in September, and during the vacation of high school students. This is not a big problem for a youth film like "Fast-paced"
.
This kind of movie has a relatively single target audience. As long as it does precise marketing to the target audience, the box office will not be too bad.
Opened at the end of July this year, "Endless Love" starring Brooke Shields has performed well at the box office, already earning 30 million at the box office.
Director Zeffirelli told himself that PolyGram completely miscalculated the target audience of the movie. The target audience of teenage couples only accounted for 10% of the final audience, and more than 80% of the audience were junior high school girls.
Even though all the marketing materials were put out incorrectly, we were still able to achieve such good results because of the word-of-mouth spread among moviegoers. Teenage girls already have the habit of chatting frequently, and when a movie that suits their taste appears, word of mouth spreads.
The effect is very good.
Ronald is also confident in his movies. There are not many movies about teenagers growing up in the current movie market.
Although major studios have seen this trend of moviegoers, whether it's Disney's "The Decker," a story about rural Oklahoma, or Paramount's musical "Grease 2," the story is
It's far away from the main movie-going crowd.
What young high school students want to read are the stories that happen around them, how urban teenagers in grades 10-12 like them deal with the various troubles in their lives.
"It seems that you are already very confident. I will wait for you to come back after the New Year holiday to edit." Lin Sen shook hands with him and wished Ronald a smooth vacation back home.
"By the way, I received a message from a company executive this morning, asking if you could cancel Jennifer Jason Leigh's nude scene." Lin Sen finally said casually.
"Why?"
"If you feel the need, then ignore them. Universal is an old studio, and there are many old people at the top of the company who have outlived the times."
Ronald nodded. There were many "high-level people" commenting on the movie. This is a common problem among big studios. It's not like a small company like New World, which can make a decision with just one word from Roger Corman.
The marketing budget of "Rhythm of Richmond High" is limited, and it mainly relies on word-of-mouth communication from the audience. In this case, the importance of these scenes has increased, and I feel that I can't cut it out.
For a movie to be talked about, in addition to its exciting content, it must also have a selling point that can be explained clearly in one sentence, making it easier for viewers to recommend it to their friends.
The reason why "Endless Love" was able to achieve a good box office despite miscalculating the target audience is because it is easy to spread. Any middle school girl can say to her classmates and friends, "Did you know that the boyfriend of the heroine Jade has a boyfriend?"
Do you love her much?"
If the other party is interested, you can list a series of infatuated behaviors of the male protagonist David, sneaking into Jade's bedroom, setting fire to her house, running out of the mental hospital to find Jade who has moved, etc.
Ronald noticed this when he watched the test screening. He also wanted to add some elements to facilitate dissemination in his film.
The scene between Jennifer Jason Leigh and Phoebe Cates is what he needs to carefully design and spread easily.
"Why would higher-ups care about an actress?" Ronald still didn't quite understand and asked producer Lin Sen.
"Because Jennifer's father is Vic Morrow, he was once a popular star on TV. In the circle, male stars of the right age always have some extra power." Lin Sen saw that Ronald didn't understand, so he explained.
one time.
"Is it him?" Ronald thought of the man who broke into the scene on the day he signed the contract for filming. "But, you also said, Mr. Lin Sen. He is a 'former' TV star. Why do male stars who have passed away also
Can I interfere with the filming of the movie?"
"To call it outdated is a bit too derogatory to Moreau. Male stars always have great influence, not even limited to the film industry." Lin Sen smiled, "You know the recent big events in Hollywood, Natalie Wood
A death case?"
"I know." After Ronald finished filming the movie, his family made up a lot of entertainment news during the filming.
At the end of November when he was busy filming, the famous Hollywood actress fell into the water from her yacht and died.
"What does this have to do with the influence of male celebrities?"
"Go and find out for yourself, it's spread all over the industry." Lin Sen was unwilling to discuss more details with Ronald, "The male stars who have been famous all have social influence that far exceeds that of female stars.
Male stars have a long career. As long as you are popular, the audience will remember you. Maybe there will be a movie that makes them famous. Moreau is only 52 years old and has nearly ten years of career. So someone will give him some reputation.
Just a word."
Ronald didn't know why. After returning to the hotel, he read last month's entertainment newspapers and finally learned about some of the issues mentioned in the reports.
It turns out that Natalie Wood, the actress she met once at the Golden Globe Awards dinner, had a bad relationship with her husband Robert Wagner because her husband cheated on another female star while filming a TV series.
When Wood boarded the ship, in order to make her husband Wagner jealous, he deliberately brought actor Christopher Walken with him on the ship, who was rumored to be having an affair while filming the movie.
When Natalie Wood fell into the water, someone on a nearby boat heard a woman calling for help. But with such a strong suspicion, the district attorney easily dropped the prosecution.
Ronald felt that Lin Sen's suggestion was a bit exaggerated. The district attorney had great power. One person could decide whether to prosecute the suspect, but he would not let go of someone who might have murdered a famous actress just because the suspect was a has-been actor.
The murderer?
Ronald thought for a moment, then picked up the phone and called his agent Niceta. He was well-informed and might know something.
"Legend has it that Natalie Wood wore a mink coat to her funeral with the collar turned up to hide an obvious scar on her face."
"Ah? Is there really a problem?" Ronald was a little surprised. Would something like this happen in America?
"Oh, you were filming a movie at that time, and the TV station gave you endless interviews. The district attorney said that it was caused by hitting the side of the ship when it fell into the sea."
"That's possible, right? The district attorney never talks nonsense?"
"But Natalie Wood was born with a fear of water, and she didn't even know how to swim." Niceta told Ronald some rumors in the industry. "Her sister, Lana, was talking about her sister being afraid of water. But
It’s of no use.”
Ronald put down the phone and felt very emotional. A big national star disappeared so easily. It seems that male stars do have some influence.
However, he still insisted on keeping the scene between Jennifer and Phoebe in the edit. Vic Morrow was not a popular movie star, so what could he do about the legal editing of Jennifer's signature?