Another meeting that Ronald could not avoid was the invitation from Joseph Farrow, the vice president of Twentieth Century Fox.

He serves as executive producer on "Mannequin," directed by Michael Gottlieb and starring Kim Cattrall and Andrew McCarthy, which has completed filming and is in the editing room for its first rough cut.

Secondary assembly.

Ronald has taken on the title of producer, and at this time has the power to enter the editing room and inspect the director's work with senior executives from other producers.

Since the 1950s, when the traditional big studio system collapsed, directors have gradually gained artistic decision-making power over film shooting and editing. However, producers are responsible for financing and final box office results, so a system has been arranged.

The handover point between the two parties.

After completing the first rough cut, the producer will find some people to watch the internal test screening, and then based on their own experience and the feedback of the test audience, they will make a decision whether the film meets the requirements and make some modification decisions.

"Ronald, I'm a little nervous. I've never been invited to an internal preview of a movie I've shot before."

Kim Cattrall sat on the chair next to her, leaning closely against Ronald next to her. Generally speaking, actors have no power and no need to participate in internal previews.

Ronald heard Niceta say that during the filming in Philadelphia, Kim Cattrall worked very hard, working harder than ever before, striving to make a breakthrough in the first real heroine movie she only got at the age of thirty.

However, according to Ronald's understanding of the thoughts of all parties before filming, it was the director's first time filming a theatrical feature film, and he was not very optimistic about the quality of the film. So he asked Cattrall to come and exchange ideas with her.

.

The internal test screenings were all attended by Fox receptionists, secretaries, and studio workers.

They often attend such internal movie viewing parties and are accustomed to movie copies without opening and closing subtitles. Experienced secretaries will also place bets on the box office performance of the movie based on some internal gossip.

Twentieth Century Fox didn't have time to assemble the title sequence with the lights waving in front of the theater, and the movie opened directly without a title. This is the interior of a Pharaoh's pyramid. Amy, played by Cattrall, is the daughter of the Pharaoh.

Wearing white cloth strips, she pretended to be a mummy to avoid her mother's desire to marry her.

Cattrall, whose whole body was covered with strips of cloth, with only two eyes exposed, vividly acted out his naughty attitude of trying to hide from his mother.

Ronald turned his head and glanced at Cattrall. After all, he underestimated her acting skills and hard work. Being able to achieve this level was completely beyond the reach of a blond vase.

Even though the audience has not seen her full face, they can still see Amy's character from her eyes. Cattrall's appearance is very unusual.

"What do you think of my performance? This is the best role I have prepared for since my debut. I have also become in good shape after working out. You will know after watching it." Cattrall smiled and said very

brilliant.

"The wedding is ready. You have rejected Pharaoh's jewelers, you have rejected grain merchants, you have rejected Pharaoh's food testers. Now there is only one choice. You must marry Hazara."

"So, what does Hazara do?" Cattrall took off his veil, his expression critical and curious.

"He's a fuel dealer."

"mom!"

"Well, he sells camel dung."

"Don't even think about it!"

"Don't be crazy, you must marry him."

Then the queen said something and explained to her daughter that women have no power in today's era. If women can do what they want to do, wouldn't the mother encourage her daughter to do it?

Amy was still full of dreams. She prayed to the gods, hoping to go to an era where women also had the right to pursue their dreams. Then the blue light flashed inside the pyramid, the cave walls shook, and a final burst of ashes erupted, and Amy disappeared on the spot.

Ronald turned to look at director Michael Gottlieb on the other side. This sequence was shot skillfully and smoothly, and the special effects were visible. The cost was not high, but the effect was very good.

Although the performances of the two actors may not conform to the habits of ancient Egypt, for American teenagers, these lines and performances are exactly in line with their ideas.

Gottlieb felt the kindness and appreciation in Ronald's eyes, and nodded and smiled at him.

"It seems good." Ronald looked back. Gottlieb was able to balance so many interests and produce a movie with a very good beginning under a limited budget.

The opening theme song hadn't been finished yet, and the camera switched to modern times after the black screen, giving the male protagonist Jonathan played by Andrew McCarthy riding a motorcycle.

Jonathan was an unlucky guy. He lost his job when he first came to work. When he came to pick up his girlfriend on a motorcycle, he was teased by his colleagues. After a heavy rainstorm, his girlfriend also broke up with him.

"Forehead……"

Ronald covered his face.

Don't praise too early.

I don't know what happened to Andrew McCarthy, but he didn't have the same level of acting as before. He was completely blank and could only express the emotions of the character with his eyes, grins, and fake smiles.

He also recalled going to the Philadelphia set, where director Gottlieb tried his best to exaggerate everyone's acting. But exaggeration is exaggeration, so why did Andrew McCarthy perform so poorly?

"What the hell is going on? Why did Andrew act so badly?" Ronald couldn't help it. He approached Cattrall's ear, covered his mouth with his hand, and asked softly.

"Andrew? He was drunk every day on the set. When I was filming opposite scenes with him, I could smell the bad smell in his mouth."

"Tsk..." Ronald sighed, and throughout the entire movie, whenever McCarthy was present, he always seemed out of place with the other characters.

This also brought down Cattrall's acting skills. Several times when Ronald saw her and McCarthy hugging, getting close, kissing, etc., Cattrall's face could not help but show disgust. It seems that this

The members of the Brat Gang are indeed very smelly.

But compared with Andrew McCarthy's performance of Jonathan, which was too exaggerated and looked very fake, the exaggerated performances of the supporting characters did not make Ronald feel uncomfortable.

It seems that the different roles also give different people's performances different tolerance ranges.

The male protagonist, Jonathan, is a silly boy who is naive enough to believe that a wooden model can turn into a living person because of his gaze at night when no one is around. Therefore, the audience must believe in such a person in order to be involved in the whole story.

Then Jonathan's behavior is required to be authentic and credible. The audience's tolerance for him will be relatively low.

Several supporting characters, the security guard in the shopping mall, the cheating manager, and the hero and heroine's ally, a black "Hollywood" with an obviously strange orientation and very feminine clothes, are all exaggerated supporting characters in fairy tales.

The audience has a high level of tolerance for them. They can be as bad as possible, as weird as possible, and as exaggerated as possible, and they won't feel abnormal.

Ronald had been thinking about this issue while watching the movie. The same seems to be true in traditional fairy tales. The supporting characters can be very extreme, but the protagonist must be believable. For example, the two sisters and stepmother in Cinderella are very bad.

It's normal, but Snow White's seven dwarfs are also very weird and exaggerated.

After watching the test screening, Ronald asked Cattrall to wait for him outside and went into the conference room with director Michael Gottlieb and executive producer Joseph Farrow.

Discuss further modifications to the film.

"I said Michael, what's going on with your filming? Why are the characters so exaggerated? It's not like a live-action movie, but like those movable figures produced by Disney."

Executive producer Joseph Farrow specially took time to watch the internal test screenings. He has a lot of profits to share in his own projects. If the finished film is still of this exaggerated quality, I'm afraid the distribution department will be very disappointed.

Opinion. They will be afraid that it will not be released and no theater will be willing to show it, even in the traditional off-season.

At that time, if someone raises objections and reduces the distribution budget, I am afraid that I will lose a large piece of cake.

"What do you mean by that? I have expressed my opinion a long time ago. This kind of story is originally a story that is difficult to believe. The wooden model turns into a real person. It can only be told in this fairy tale way.

The story must make people immersed, otherwise we will lose a lot of audiences." Director Gottlieb began to argue for himself.

"I know, but your filming is a bit too exaggerated. I can already imagine how those film critics will comment on the actor's acting skills - not at all."

"No, Cattrall's performance is very good, and the supporting roles also have their own characteristics."

The two talked fiercely for a long time, and finally Farrow thought of Ronald, who was silent.

"What do you think, Ronald? Who do you agree with?"

"Actually, I kind of agree with Joseph a little bit, and I agree a little bit with Michael." Ronald said, "In fact, I also think that the exaggerated acting skills of the supporting characters in this movie are not a bad thing. Disney's little activities

People', also the character of the supporting character is very exaggerated."

Ronald used the fingers of both hands to flex and stretch, and put a quotation mark on the term "mobile little person", "Cattrall's performance is very good, her figure is also maintained very well, and she changes with the wooden model."

The scenes are convincing. But Andrew, he made me a little disappointed. The whole movie's ability to put the audience into dreams, because of his expressions and movements, will go down a notch."

"Ha...Andrew."

The other two people stopped talking.

"How did he do it? I believe that if he could show a normal performance level like the last 'Pretty in Pink', the audience might not even notice the disharmony in the movie." Ronald asked.

"He was crushed."

Finally, it was Joseph Farrow who spoke, after all, Andrew McCarthy was the person he found.

It turns out that McCarthy, as a member of the Hollywood "brat pack", has been increasingly criticized by public opinion.

The leader of the Brats, Emilio Estevez, got together last year with another of Ronald's enemies, Italian independent producer Dino De Laurentiis.

He took a fancy to Emilio's potential and signed a three-film contract with him. The first "Chariots of Fire" was released by Laurentiis' own company in July this year.

The quality of the movie was mediocre, and the audience generally hated Emilio's boy gang. This kind of teenage star who did not do his job properly left the theaters after two weeks of release. The box office did not even reach the production cost.

Another film, "Wisdom", which he wrote, directed and starred in, is also failing at the box office and is looking for a distributor in Hollywood.

Another main member of the Brat Gang, Rob Lowe, co-produced the movie "Last Night" with Emilio's girlfriend Demi Moore, which did well at the box office. This movie directed by newcomer director Edward Zwick just

It was released and unexpectedly earned a box office of 35 million.

But Rob Lowe's stardom is also worrying. He has had affairs with many actresses, and a large number of fans claim to have had a one-night affair with him.

The title of "boy gang" has been attached to these young actors since they came out. Regardless of whether what they do is different from other actors or not, the audience's perception of them is very bad.

The bad reputation of the Brats has put a lot of pressure on Andrew McCarthy. Many scripts with good image characters will not be handed to him, but many bad boy roles are beckoning to him.

In addition, the box office of the previous film "Pretty in Pink" did not meet expectations. Andrew McCarthy almost suffered from clinical depression. He stayed away from Hollywood and returned to New York where his parents lived. This resulted in fewer scripts being sent to him, which led to him becoming addicted to alcohol.

, I drank until I was so drunk every day that I couldn’t wake up.

"Hey, the mentality of a loser." Ronald sighed in his heart. The best way to fight back against this kind of pressure from public opinion is to use a successful character to fight back, instead of being afraid at home every day.
To be continued...