Chapter 97: Looking for someone to mediate the Silence of the Lambs
"Where was Lone Dove filmed?" Ronald called Paula Wagner and asked her about the filming location of the mini-series in which Diane participated.
In this TV series, Diane is the heroine, Lorena, a "salon girl" in a small Texas town. There are two male protagonists, one is Gus played by Robert Duvall, and the other is Tommy Lee
Jones plays Woodrow, both of whom are retired Texas Hussars war heroes and current cowboys.
"Are you going to visit Diane in the wilderness around the town near Bastrop State Park in Texas?" Paula was a little surprised.
"Yes, tell me how to get there, contact their crew, and I'll go see Diane."
"You have to fly to Austin, Texas, and then transfer from there to a place called Alamo Village on Highway 674 near Bastrop State Park. You'll know you're there as soon as you get to the dusty place. Forget it, I'll accompany you.
You go ahead, that place is too hard to find. Before we go, I’ll give the producer Susan a call..."
Halfway through Paula Wagner's words, she realized that she should be more positive about Diane. Ronald rarely visited such a distant place.
"That's great. With you here I won't get lost. How are the shooting conditions there? Do I need to bring anything?"
In fact, when Ronald went to visit the crew of Lone Dove, in addition to watching Diane, his other purpose was to talk to Robert Duvall, who plays Gus. When Ronald came to see him, he also consulted his agent Niceta. He was very interested in these things.
Veteran actors have more connections than they are familiar with.
Before becoming an actor, Duvall had a stable job at the postal service. After quitting his job to pursue his dream of acting, he found another actor in New York who had begun to make a name for himself. Duvall, who had little money, rented a house at a very cheap price.
his home.
The actor also introduced him to audition for Arthur Miller's play. In the end, the two were spotted at the same time and starred in the new play together. As a result, he became famous on Broadway. Later, he was selected by Coppola to play the godfather and the godfather's adopted son.
, the role of military advisor Tom Harkin became popular.
The actor who helped him also found his own world in Hollywood, played many tough guy roles, and finally became an Oscar winner because of the "Laiguo Network".
This actor is Gene Hackman, the guy who got the script adaptation rights for "Silence of the Lambs".
…
"Isn't it here yet?" Ronald looked at his watch and got off the business jet. The group of them had been driving along Highway 674 for two hours, then turned onto a dirt road in the countryside and moved forward on the bumpy road at a low speed.
.
"Come on, haven't you noticed that the dust here is getting bigger and bigger?" Paula Wagner picked up the radio and asked the vehicle in front of her, "Rick, when can we arrive?"
"It's pretty quick. The driver said he's done it several times, so it only takes about ten minutes."
"Let's work harder and take a good shower when we get there." Paula Wagner opened the public channel and shouted to the trucks and off-road vehicles in front and behind the convoy.
"Lonesome Dove" is a project promoted by CAA. One of the producers is Suzanne De Passe, a rare female producer in the television industry. She put everything she has into her professional dream.
All were involved in filming.
She not only lobbied the TV station and CAA, but also persuaded two major acting stars, Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones, to join the cast. After she spotted Diane, she asked Paula to audition.
But although he is ambitious and capable of action, De Passe still knows nothing about television production, so he has no experience in ensuring the crew, many necessary things are not prepared, and the budget is estimated to be hundreds of thousands short. In order to fill the gap, Su
Shan even worked for Motown Records, producing their company's Christmas special.
After learning all this, Ronald wanted to show his kindness to Duvall first, and by the way, make Diane live a better life during the few months of filming. Through his good relationship with the Navy, he rented it from the nearby military division base
We bought a mobile toilet, purchased a large amount of supplies in Austin, assembled several large trucks, and drove all the way over to comfort the crew.
"Didi..." The motorcade arrived at Alamo Village, the filming location. The motorcade parked one after another. A naughty truck driver even blew the whistle, and the sound spread far in the wilderness.
"Who the hell are you? Who told you to blow the whistle here? We are filming, don't you know? Where is the mayor of Alamo Village? This bastard took our money and never came out again.
I have to be interrupted every time while filming.”
A woman with dark skin and a loud and direct voice walked over quickly, pointed at the convoy and started to curse. The mini-drama that was broadcast live was most afraid of the interference of this modern sound. At that time, the only sounds in Texas were the neighing of horses and cows.
As soon as the whistle came in, today's scene was shot in vain. At least it had to be re-dubbed afterwards.
"Susan, it's me." Paula jumped out of the car and hugged producer Susan.
"Oh, you are finally here. We finally don't have to deal with it in the bushes." Susan De Passe immediately changed her face and walked to the trailer at the back to look at the two mobile toilets.
Produced by Fang, it is indeed very good.
"This is Ronald. He is the one who funded the increase in equipment and supplies for you." Paula introduced to Susan the sponsor of all this, Ronald.
"Aha, it's you. I really like you. The women in your movies are so independent and strong." Susan, who is of Jamaican descent, burst out with her Latina nature and embraced Ronald enthusiastically.
"The crew's filming went very smoothly today, except just now... Anyway, the director said that we can get off work after one more scene." Susan said, leading everyone from the front to the actual filming location.
It was a wilderness, and the land glowed golden yellow under the setting sun. It looked beautiful, but in fact it was very dirty. There was a creek next to it, and there were several tents beside the creek, and a few people were beside the tents.
Standing, there is a camera not far away on the other side.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Simon, Simon, our stuff is here..." Susan shouted at the director Simon Wenchel behind the camera at the top of her lungs.
"what?"
"Just what I told you, someone sent us a batch of things, a mobile toilet, a refrigerator, a mobile grill, and a lot of food and Coke."
"Ronald..."
Susan was explaining to the director and the crew that a girl wearing a long skirt like those from the Westward Expansion period screamed and ran towards here quickly.
Diane had red hair, braided into two braids and tied around her head. Her whole body was covered tightly, but she still showed off her great figure through her waistband. She rushed over happily and jumped in.
On Ronald
"Hahaha..." Ronald put his right hand under her knees, picked her up and spun her around twice. Diane's joy also infected him, and everyone laughed inexplicably.
Ronald set up a trailer camp and treated everyone to a meal of still-warm pizza and Coca-Cola. The filming looked very difficult, and even big-name actors like Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones enjoyed the meal.
"It was 1958, not long after I retired from the Marine Corps. In that guest bedroom, Gene was getting married at the time, and he and Faye lived in the master bedroom. Later, there was a guy from California who slept on the living room floor, that was Das
Dinh Hoffman.”
Robert Duvall knew Ronald's purpose and chatted with Ronald about the past in the trailer. He, Hackman, and Hoffman were all friends before success. Gene Hackman
People pay great attention to personal privacy, so after becoming famous, I didn’t make any real friends, and I just kept in touch with two old friends.
"Later, he and Fei couldn't stand it anymore, so they paid for Dustin and I to find a sixth-floor walk-up youth apartment at the intersection of 109th Street and Broadway. Not long after we moved there, Fei...
She got pregnant, his son Chris, and later two daughters."
Duvall was a bit nostalgic when talking about the past years ago, which was very different from the tough guy Gus he played in Lone Dove.
Duvall was in a good mood today. Thanks to the mobile refrigerator and mobile toilet that Ronald sent, the conditions for shooting in the wild have improved a lot. He immediately agreed to help Ronald and said he would give it to Jean Ha in the evening.
Kerman called.
…
"It's great that you're here. I can get off work early and have a little more rest. The filming here is really intense. It's my first time filming a TV series, and they shot it so fast."
Back at the hotel in the town, Ronald and Diane stayed together. After taking a shower, Diane made herself smell fragrant and lay in Ronald's arms talking.
"Have you never made a low-budget movie?" Ronald laughed. After Diane's debut, she made all regular Hollywood movies. She had never tried a movie like Roger Corman's.
"We have to shoot eleven pages of scripts a day, and we don't have time to figure out the characters ourselves. We rely on experience in many places. Fortunately, I read the original novel before filming, otherwise the behavior of the characters in many places in the script would not be appropriate.
There is logic."
"Eleven pages? That's too fast. Are you too tired? I see you have split ends." Ronald combed Diane's red hair with his hands.
Diane's hair was originally dark brown, but this time in order to play the role well, she specially turned it into red hair. This hair color represents passion and impulsiveness for girls in American culture.
"The environment is so bad. We are exposed to dust every day. The food we eat is often visited by ants and bees. Sometimes we have to deal with it in the bushes..."
"Are you a little regretful?" Ronald thought to himself. It seems that the pressure of filming a TV series is greater than that of a movie. There are eleven pages of scripts every day, and the shooting is very fast. Now that he is shooting a movie, he can only make one or two pages a day.
"Fortunately, they have a good eye and chose Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones to play the two protagonists. Especially Duvall, his personality seems to be exactly the same as the protagonist Gus..."
Diane plays a promiscuous woman who is engaged in the leather and meat business in the town, and finally falls in love with Gus, an old cowboy who respects her. Finally, together with the old cowboy, they drive their cattle to Montana for sale, and in Gus
After Si died, he took his ashes back to his hometown.
"Hehe..." Ronald smiled. Obviously Robert Duvall's personality is not like this. Some experienced actors will stay in the character's state when filming such a film and television drama with a tight schedule.
Come out, it will improve a lot of efficiency.
"Why are you laughing? Are you jealous because he and I acted as a couple?" Diane buried her head in Ronald's chest. It was very warm here and she didn't want to come out. Today Ronald specially escorted things and rushed to give them to him.
The visit to the class moved her very much.
"I just feel strange, why would your character be attracted to an old man like Gus? Why would you give up a comfortable life and go drive cattle? I haven't read the novel, won't the audience find it strange? There are obviously young and handsome cowboys."
Ronald saw several handsome young actors wearing cowboy costumes on the set.
"This novel is really good. At that time, girls who wanted to escape from rural life had the only option of becoming prostitutes. Only then did they have the opportunity to leave their hometowns and visit big cities.
But this kind of life is not something to be envied.
Just like my character Lorena, there is only one reason why the men in town would talk to her...except Gus, a veteran of the war, who would come to the salon to play cards with her, talk, and talk.
She treats her like a respectful woman."
"So that's it...Are you having any difficulties here? Do you need anything? I'll have someone bring it to you. By the way, for the cowboy scene, can you ride a horse?"
"I can. I made a western movie when I was fourteen, but that movie was very traditional, and it was very exciting to shoot with Burt Lancaster."
Diane's filming was very hard, and she often had to shoot night scenes continuously. In this rural area of Texas, there were no actors from the Screen Actors Guild to assert their rights. Under the comfortable feeling brought by Ronald's warm hands combing her hair, Diane gradually became more breathless.
Slowly, I calmed down from the intense and intense shooting.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Finally she fell asleep with a smile on her face. Ronald held her gently, moved her to the bed and covered her with a blanket.
It’s very helpless to film in such a remote place. America’s national logistics network is supported by highway trucks and aircraft shipping. So no matter which country in the state, it is easy to see the trails of roads, trucks, and planes in the sky.
.
As soon as there is a truck horn or aircraft tracks, the scene will be ruined and have to be reshot. So the crew can only come to this place to shoot. This is near the Austin Military Base, and civil aviation will not come here. The village is in the opposite direction of the base for air force training.
There are usually no aircraft tracks.
…
Early the next morning, Diane woke up and saw the breakfast that Ronald had brought for her. After eating it in a hurry, she was about to set off to shoot the morning scene. Diane embarrassedly kissed Ronald on the face several times.
, "When I finish filming, I will spend a few days with you to make it up to you."
When he arrived at the set, Robert Duvall was already waiting for him.
"I had a phone call with Gene (Hackman) last night, and he promised to meet with you to consider giving you the production rights to 'Silence of the Lambs'."
"Thank you very much." When Ronald heard that it was an old friend's words, he immediately thanked him.
"These things you brought us are of great help..." Duval pointed to the mobile toilet, "We use the toilet here, and we have to be careful of ants and bees..."
"Um..." Ronald didn't expect that the actor would be so happy with his impromptu idea. In the future, his company can build a batch of such equipment for use by those big production crews?
"He and Fei divorced the year before last, and now they live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is the address." Duval smiled for a while and handed over a note.
"Santa Fe..." Ronald looked at the address. Hackman did not live in Los Angeles, but lived in a place like this. It seemed that what Niceta had learned about this man's difficult-to-cooperate character was not a lie.
"Gene likes to inspect the directors and actors he works with. Don't be intimidated by them." Duvall also smiled, patted Ronald on the shoulder, and turned around to get ready.
"Ronnie..." Diane came up and said goodbye to Ronald.
Looking at the leaving motorcade, Diane touched her hair, feeling a little unsure. Did Ronald dislike it after dyeing his hair red? He seemed to prefer blond hair?