Ronald came to Coppola's home in the suburbs of San Francisco.
Coppola deliberately cooked by himself in the large house where the mortgage had been paid off, prepared a table of dishes, and entertained Ronald for dinner.
His previous film "The Cotton Club" had a budget of 50 million, and he obviously gave a lot of money to his "Peep Show" company. Although it caused misfortune to the heroine Diane and the hero Richard Gere, he finally managed to make the previous film a success.
Most of the huge high-interest loans caused by the two "Apocalypse Now" and "Old Love, New Love" have been repaid.
Ronald said hello to Coppola's wife, Eleanor, and handed the script to Coppola. They drank red wine from Coppola's winery, paired with various Italian meats, and ate happily.
"Aha, as expected, you are not a director who only wants to make commercial high-concept films, Ronald. I heard that Pauline Carr in New York approached you, very good, very good. Your first film was
What a talent, but then you entered the Hollywood creative mode. Fortunately, you finally returned to the right path this time."
"How do you say this? Why do you know so much just by looking at the cover?" Ronald was surprised. He had never told Coppola about the plot of "Moonlight" before.
"Look at this script. There are so many coffee marks on the cover. You can tell that it has been transferred several times to the seven major studios." Coppola pointed to the marks caused by coffee, red wine, etc. on the cover of the script to Ronald.
said.
"This kind of script must be liked by people in various studios, but it does not conform to the current trend of commercial promotions, so it has been read over and over again with no results. If you hadn't seen it, you would probably have been silent.
It’s in that company’s script library.”
Coppola opened the script with his fingers and flipped through it quickly. Directors have the ability to read quickly, and Coppola read quickly. After ten minutes, he knew that this was a Broadway drama-style movie.
, has nothing to do with gangs or anything like that.
The five major Italian families in New York are now being pursued closely by the prosecutor Rudy. Senior officials of each family have been arrested and prosecuted. Seeing that their power is getting smaller and smaller, Coppola will soon no longer have to
It is necessary to inform them of any Italian script.
"What do you think of this script? I have a great desire to create for it, and my whole body is full of impulses." Ronald ate a meatball, and he felt that he had regained some of the passion he had when making his debut film.
Coppola took a sip of wine and ate a piece of salami, "Well, this is a romantic comedy, so I don't have any objections."
Coppola filmed the romantic comedy "Old Love, New Love" and rushed home. For this purpose, he mortgaged this big house, which made him and his wife Eleanor very unhappy. In addition, during that time, he also had a new love, and his wife was in love with him.
The conflict got so serious that he almost got divorced. After that, he stopped touching this kind of subject.
"Actually, I want to ask you for advice in person this time. I encountered some problems when signing a contract with a distributor. Several studios agreed verbally, but they all delayed in signing the contract. I know whether they are interested in the film.
I have doubts about whether it will be a hit, but I have already made two super-hit movies, so am I allowed to be as willful as I want?"
"You can't let the producers hear this, Ronald. Shhh..." Coppola laughed.
“Actually, when we took the lead on the project, we were similar to the workers who docked the ships at the docks in San Francisco.
When they docked, they would tie a thin rope to a small iron ball and throw it ashore. Then workers on the shore would pick up the iron ball and keep pulling it up.
Then a thicker rope, then an even thicker rope, and finally a cable about as thick as your wrist.
If you throw a thick cable at the beginning, you won't be able to land it."
"Isn't this what deception means?" Ronald complained secretly.
"So how do I throw the rope where the seven major studios can catch it?"
"Giggle..." Coppola looked very happy, "You still have little contact with us Italian filmmakers. The stereotype of Italians in Hollywood is that they like to talk big. No matter what position we are in, we always show off.
Act like you are here to beg me and I have many choices.
This is not our arrogance, but it has benefits. This is called the boss mentality, you can try it. When I was filming The Godfather, it was like this. There were several people who wanted to replace me as director, so I went there first
Fire them.
I still don’t know whether I had the authority to fire them, but I just did it, and the subsequent sample results were good, so they approved it.”
"Hehe..." Ronald understood in his heart, wasn't he just bragging?
These seven major studios are also in a competitive relationship. It is impossible to share everything with the other party's executives. As long as they are brave, they can use a gap to cut in. When the time comes, they will see that they are confident.
You should ask yourself in return.
After thinking about his own style of doing things, Ronald probably had an idea. Of course, he couldn't completely copy Coppola's approach, it had to be in line with his own consistent attitude.
The biggest problem was solved. Ronald relaxed his mind and body and began to devour Coppola's delicious food. He kept praising the delicious Italian food, which made Coppola's wife very happy.
"So after The Godfather, when you started your own peep show production company, did you also use this method to deal with Hollywood?"
After three drinks, Ronald began to compliment Coppola's directorial skills.
Coppola was very happy to be coaxed by this new box office winner and talked about some past events from that year.
"Actually, when George Lucas was in the peep show, his American Peep Show was asked by the distributor Universal to edit it. The senior management didn't understand anything, and they just wanted to show it by deleting a few scenes.
his power.
George was very unhappy at the time. Seeing how uncomfortable he was, I also felt that Universal disrespected my employees. I took out my checkbook and signed a $600,000 contract to buy the production from Universal.
Back to George's Copyright.
Seeing how determined I was, Universal began to smooth things over, and finally agreed to reduce the number of cuts. I also convinced George and modified a few insignificant places.
Alas, now it seems that this was the biggest mistake I made in running Peep Show Pictures. I should not have withdrawn the check, but insisted on buying the copy rights. The American style painting finally sold more than 100 million at the box office in North America, which was a huge success.
1973."
"By the way, in your new movie, the male protagonist has the same name as you, Ronnie. Did you change it specifically?" Coppola said about Ronald's new movie.
"No, the original author was originally called this name."
"This author must be Italian. He writes about our lives very well. I bet more than half of the scenes in the entire script were shot in the kitchen. That's how we Italians are, sweet and frustrated.
What may seem unimportant to others is a big deal for us Italians and must be solved in the kitchen.
We have a proverb in Italy that the table is God."
Ronald smiled and did not say anything about the fact that the screenwriter was of Irish descent, "That's true. I really like these scenes of eating around the dining table. But it is a test for casting. Maybe I need to find more dramatic actors. They are more
Get used to this kind of scene."
"Who are you looking for for the role of Ronnie?" Coppola asked. "It requires a strong explosiveness, which is not easy to find, and many plots are driven by him."
"This character is very painful inside, so I plan to find an actor who is full of pain inside."
Ronald looked at Coppola, "Has Nick taken on any new movies recently?"
"Oh, hahaha... He didn't take any new roles after filming Peggy Sue Gets Married."
Coppola saw that Ronald was very polite, so he understood what he was saying and asked Nic Cage to audition. He was very happy. Ronald respects this Italian culture of helping each other. He is really a good person.
Good young man. It's just a pity that he is not Italian, but that doesn't matter. As long as he marries an Italian girl, he can be regarded as the successor of Italian directors.
Nicolas Cage, the nephew, although his stage name is no longer Coppola, is still his eldest brother’s son. When he was filming Peggy Sue, he had too many ideas and had a deep relationship with the heroine Kathleen Turner.
contradiction.
Cage insisted on using a hoarse, slurred voice to play the husband of the heroine Peggy Sue. Kathryn Turner could not accept starring opposite a man who spoke slurred words, and almost contacted the producer, but Cage was removed from the show midway.
Strangely changed.
Thanks to Coppola's mediation, the filming was finished without changing roles.
After the film was released, Cage and Katherine Turner had no chemistry at all on the screen. They didn't have the sweetness of high school sweethearts or the closeness of a middle-aged couple, but the mutual dislike of divorced couples.
reality.
Looking at it this way, Cage's choice at that time was still wrong. Even if your understanding of the character is correct, it will destroy the most important chemical reaction between the male and female protagonists in the movie, which is not worth the loss.
This made Cage very hurt, and he was always in a bad mood, but he was somewhat in tune with the kind of actor Ronald was looking for who was suffering from inner pain.
"I'm so happy today. If you have time, you should also come and watch the premiere of my Peggy Sue is Getting Married..."
Coppola drank too much red wine, talked for a while, and began to doze off.
Seeing that he was very tired, Ronald asked his wife Eleanor, "Is Francis very busy now? Has the new movie been finished?"
"Yes, his new film 'Stone Garden' has just finished shooting the exterior scenes at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. In addition, he was busy revising the copy of 'Peggy Sue is Getting Married' some time ago, and he is very tired during this period.
.
But I am very happy that Francis finally paid off the loan on the house. This is the house we bought after the first Godfather was released. It has sweet memories of our family here, and I don’t want the bank to take it away.”
"I don't think so. Francis has regained his genius. Everyone says he performs best under pressure. You don't have to worry too much."
…
Back in Hollywood, Ronald found Niceta, and the two went to meet Tanin, the president of Paramount.
"Ned, many studios are vying for my movie. We have always cooperated happily, so I will give you a little more time, two weeks. You think about it. If you still haven't made a decision after two weeks, I will work with someone else.
Signed."
Ronald said what he had been rehearsing for a long time.
"Have you finished the heroine? Has Cher agreed?" Ned Tanning was very nervous and quickly asked about the progress of the heroine.
"Not yet, and I don't necessarily have to use her. I have sent scripts to Sally Field, Barbara Hershey, and Diane Keaton. I don't set any restrictions on whoever is suitable can come."
"Two weeks? Two weeks? Okay, I will definitely give you an answer within two weeks." Ned Tanin sent Ronald off.
He closed the doors, drew the curtains, and thought about things in the dim light.
"Is Ronald really competing with other studios? Or did he learn this Hollywood talk from someone? It's really a headache."