I’m in Hollywood - Chapter 123
[Chapter 120 Interview with Richard Gere]
“The setting of the male protagonist is very bizarre. He has a doctorate and is good at a very mysterious oriental tai chi, but he is willing to do the job of watching the horse in the bar. Then, the director made it awkwardly. He became a paranoid avenger, but he was not a qualified avenger. He could kill those little scumbags without hesitation, but he would be soft on the bully who hated him the most, and in the end he was almost killed by the other party. All in all, it’s a very awkward and tangled film.” – The Chicago
Tribune .” – “Film Guide” magazine
“I only saw gangster fights, broken beer bottles, a group of big-breasted girls and blood splashes, the plot was pale and unconvincing, Richard Gere deliberately exercised for the film His muscles are also uninteresting, and his actions in the film are not even as crisp as the villain’s supporting role.” – “Montreal Film Magazine”
“A ridiculous and noisy fist fable.” – ” “Reel Movie Review”
“This is completely a movie that can remove the male lead, and then things will continue to develop according to the plot of the movie, the crap bar is reorganized, causing bullies to covet, a series of violence, arson, murder, and then intolerable small. The townspeople rebelled and killed the bullies, and Richard Gere gave up Eric Williams’ Pretty Woman for a movie like this, and I wonder if he’ll lose sleep because of regret.” – ” The Hollywood Information
“Except for the rock soundtrack interspersed in it, this movie is nothing but good.” – “Rolling Stone” magazine
Because of the strong promotion of the film in the early days of United United States, “Dragon Kills” has been in more than 1,900 theaters The attendance rate on the first day reached more than 70%, but with the one-sided negative reviews of the film after the release, the attendance rate plummeted.
Three days later, the opening weekend of the Easter schedule was released.
“Pretty Woman”, which was released in the sixth week of its release, experienced a reverse drop in the box office without any surprise. It received more than 2.4 million more than last weekend, and won the top three-day box office list with a score of 11.27 million US dollars. The cumulative box office for six weeks was 9,769. Wan, I believe that after this full week, Eric is about to usher in his third film with a box office exceeding 100 million yuan.
It is still several months before Eric will celebrate his nineteenth birthday, and this achievement will surely usher in a wave of media hype again.
Although “Dragon Killing Array” has nearly 2,000 opening screens, with the sharp drop in attendance on Saturday and Sunday, it only received $5.25 million at the first weekend box office, less than half of “Fengyue”. Runner-up.
In third place was Universal’s crime comedy “Fletcher’s Life,” which earned $5.04 million in more than 1,400 theaters.
Because of Colombia’s increased support and the Easter schedule, “Home Alone”, which was released in its eighteenth week, unknowingly won another 4 million at the box office, steadily approaching 300 million US dollars. This film has been at the top of the box office chart for 12 consecutive weeks, and it is still in the top five box office dark horses for more than four months after its release. Everyone has been numb.
Maybe one day, the box office of “Home Alone” suddenly accumulated to 300 million US dollars, and the public will open their eyes again and let out a “wow” after seeing the number.
In the new week, Eric finished the casting audition for “Dark War”, handed over the auditions for “Small Island” and “Scent of a Woman” to the two directors, and began to run around the Greater Los Angeles area for the film. Make a scene selection.
Although there are not many scenes needed in “Dark War”,
there are a lot of shots that need to be closed for shooting, but it is not easy to find a suitable place.
At the same time, Eric also discovered the inadequacy of his strength.
As the base of Hollywood, Los Angeles has strong policy support for movies, but it does not mean that the film crew can do whatever they want. The shooting of many scenes requires the approval of various municipal departments. Although it is very flexible, the process is very difficult. cumbersome.
In addition, related personal connections are also essential. Although Eric is very famous now, he is completely incomparable with those big directors and gold-medal producers who have been famous for many years. Maybe sometimes others can do things with just a phone call. But had to personally come forward to communicate repeatedly.
Fortunately, Columbia values this film very much. In order to ensure that the film can start shooting as soon as possible, an experienced producer was specially sent to assist Eric in the preparations, which greatly shortened the preparation time in the early stage.
When Eric was scouting for “Dark War”, another thing happened unknowingly.
This turmoil started with Richard Gere, a former superstar in his late 40s. After the first weekend box office release of “Fengyue”, he began to feel more and more brooding about the loss of the hero of “Fengyue”. He knew that he had missed a very precious opportunity to return to the A-level superstar, especially the recent box office failure of “Dragon Killer”, which made him even more annoyed and regretful.
After “Dragon Killing Array”, Richard Gere’s mentality was eager to get another movie contract, and he also felt that CAA had a responsibility and obligation to help him, because it was what the other party owed him, if not for Michael. Ovitz’s personal grievance, he can’t give up the hero of “Fengyue”.
To this end, Richard Gere wanted to interview Michael Ovitz many times. Unfortunately, after Michael Ovitz successfully matched the Sony consortium and Coca-Cola, he was busy coordinating the acquisition of Sony and Columbia. I took care of the trivial matter of Richard Gere, but handed it over to Richard Gere’s agent, Horner Wiley, the one with serious cleanliness who was instigated by Eric to join forces with Stuart Runker. Disgusting guy.
According to Richard Gere’s status quo, Horner Wiley recommended him the leading role of a low-budget horror movie. Of course Richard Gere was not satisfied. It’s not too much of a requirement for a medium production film.
But Horner Wiley would not agree to get Richard Gere that role.
He directly rejected Richard Gere on the grounds that Universal couldn’t use an actor who had already fallen to the bottom of the second-tier and had just smashed a big production.
Horner Wiley was one of CAA’s very early agents, and is now CAA’s gold medal agent. Even many A-level actors are polite to him, which has slowly encouraged the agent’s reputation. temper.
And Richard Gere completely blamed CAA for the mistake of losing the opportunity of “Fengyue”. The grievances in his heart have been accumulating for a long time. After Horner Wiley refused to fight for him for that role, there was another wave of resentment. The anger of being deceived, and then completely broke out.
The two had a big fight in Horner Wiley’s office. If it hadn’t been found that other people who were not doing well broke in in time to stop it, the two would probably have started a fight.
After this incident, Richard Gere left CAA that day, and on the third day of the incident, relying on a friend’s introduction, he joined another brokerage giant, William Morris (WMA).
This incident would have been a very normal actor job-hopping. There are countless such job-hopping incidents that occur every year among several major Hollywood brokerage companies. Even CAA, which claims to have set up a perfect betrayal cost system, cannot avoid it. But it will be relatively less.
CAA’s so-called ‘betrayal cost’ system is more to prevent its own brokers from establishing themselves, because the five founders of CAA all jumped from another brokerage giant that year.
The big stars themselves are not very binding. It is very easy for top stars to leave. Second- and third-tier stars, as long as they are willing to pay liquidated damages, they can leave easily, but the current film and television industry chain owned by CAA The resources are very huge, so most stars are not tempted enough to leave this big tree easily.
Moreover, CAA also issued a stern gag order in time for the quarrel between Horner Wiley and Richard Gere, which was originally thought to pass unknowingly.
But forget that Richard Gere is also one of the parties.
Richard Gere’s job-hopping quickly aroused the idea of some media. When interviewed by the “Hollywood Information” reporter, Richard Gere, who was hated in his heart, as a ‘victim’, would CAA smeared hard.
The next day, the “Hollywood Information” appeared in an article titled “Interview with Richard Gere: The Detailed Inside Story of the Lost ‘Fengyue’ Protagonist”.
“Recently, Richard Gere, the famous actor who was expected to star in Eric Williams’ box-office hit “Pretty Moon”, suddenly left the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) with which he had worked for a long time. Cha Gere finally confided to us the specific process of having to reject the male lead film contract of “Fengyue”.
The following is Mr. Richard Gere’s original words: When I read the script of “Fengyue”, I felt , it’s going to be a great story, it fits my profile so well, I even did some character prep for it. Eric Williams is very young, but I learned from watching his first two works He’s a very talented young man. But when I was about to agree to that deal, my former agent, Horner Wiley, hinted that I would reject him.
I was puzzled, and then Horner Wiley Just tell me, because Eric Williams just recruited Kapoor Sheed, Mr. Michael Ovitz has a deep conflict with Kapoor Sheed. So I don’t like his artists and Airi K. Williams has any cooperation, UU reading www.sonicmtl.com clearly said that Michael Ovitz wanted to block Eric Williams.
However, I did not want to give up that opportunity, so I went with
Horner Wiley negotiated. But what I got was the veiled threat that if I worked with Eric Williams then I would be refrigerated by the CAA later, I was already at a low point in my career because Fearing the threat of CAA, I had to refuse the film contract of “Fengyue”.
Then, in the name of appeasement, CAA gave me the hero of an action film “Dragon Killing Array” by Lianmei. I saw the script. When I was around, I said to Horner Wiley: No, this character image is not suitable for me. Although I have acted in action movies, this role is too violent. Maybe it is more suitable to find a muscular man to play.
Horner Wiley Li said that I had no choice, and then I had to take over “Dragon Killing Array” with a very low salary. In order to be more in line with the image of the hero in the film, I deliberately did a period of high-intensity fitness. But the film failed in the end.
The reason why these are exposed today is because I think CAA has forgotten their identity. After they monopolized too many resources, they have become unscrupulous to do whatever they want, and some people have a little personal grudge and show their personal power. , you can make jokes about the future of the actors, and you can use the movies invested by other companies with tens of millions of dollars as bargaining chips. This is a very bad thing.
The agency is supposed to serve the actors, and the interests of the employer should be the first criterion, so that they can survive for a long time, but now CAA has begun to treat actors as pawns in their hands, and they will kill themselves sooner or later.
”
[End of this Chapter]
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