Hollywood Domination Chapter 84: Countermeasures

"Hasn't Bell already picked up "Van Helsing"?" Jenny adjusted her posture in Cesare's office chair, "Has she expressed interest in "50 First Dates" before?"

""50 First Dates" is enough to deliver the script to her." Cesare put the water glass in front of Jenny, "but whether she read it is another question."

In Hollywood, no matter how much the budget is for the films planned every year, they definitely want to invite the biggest stars to act in them. For a movie that tells a story, they will try their best to cast scripts in the hands of as many stars as possible, so it is not difficult for agents and movie stars to find out what movies are in the preparatory stage on the market, but whether every script will be read or not? It's hard to say.

"I think she picked it up entirely for you." Jenny's tone didn't contain much complaints. The thing has already happened, and it would be false to say that she is not angry, but Jenny has already I have learned a new way of thinking, and now it is impossible to make the same mistake again. Instead of blaming who is at fault, the important thing now is to straighten out the whole thing. "I met Bell in the Chanel store before..."

She briefly explained what happened that day, "... At that time, I felt that she was very interested in which movie I chose, but what I don't understand is why she came out and snatched it yesterday. "50 First Dates."

In Hollywood, unless it is a 300,000-level newcomer, which star auditioned for which crew and negotiated a performance contract with which crew is a very confidential matter. Except for the parties involved, the specific results are generally not clear , There are several reasons for doing this. The first is to prevent the filmmakers from lowering the price on both sides, which will make the actors suffer. The second is that this is also very offensive to the crew. For example, this time, they chose Bell. If everyone knows the ins and outs In other words, Jenny has lost face in the industry once, and she and the Adam Gang will lose the basis for cooperation in the future, so even if both of them are stars in the operation of CAA, Jenny will not know Bell before signing the performance contract. What movie are you going to act in?

"It's very simple, because Aniston signed a performance contract with "Meet Polly" the day before yesterday and got a deposit." Cesare said, "It seems that Bell didn't confirm that you chose "50 First Dates" until then. .”

"So she wasn't actually interested in Van Helsing in the first place, but she was just trying to lower my guard so she could trick me out which one of the two I took?" Jenny asked, "Oh, Judging from her dialogue, what she wants to know is whether I am not interested in "Van Helsing" or whether you screened it out first, and didn't let me know at all, so she said... So, she rejected "Van Helsing" because of confirmation You don't like this movie, and you took away "50 First Dates" because you think you like this movie more?"

"It looks like this." Cesare didn't show any surprise. Jenny had a feeling that maybe Cesare had guessed it a long time ago, but she just didn't say it. "I think the most important thing now is to figure out where Bale got the knowledge of these two alternative films."

"Yes, I was too negligent at the time." Jenny also reflected on herself, "As soon as she opened her mouth, she asked directly about the two films, and her attitude was too natural, so I followed. She started to lie to me, and before that, she wasn't sure that I was in a situation where I had to choose between the two."

Cesare did not answer the topic, "You need to choose between these two films, who else knows besides Judy?"

"Mary, Julian, Josh and Dave, no more." Jenny said, "Oh, by the way, Dave wants me to be a guest star in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and I have already agreed."

Cesare didn't respond in particular, but just raised his hand, "How is the relationship between Mary and you?"

"She just came from New York to Los Angeles and was pretty much with me." Jenny said objectively, "I don't think she has much chance of knowing Bell, let alone being seduced by her. Bell must already have a manager."

Although the two sides haven't communicated on this topic yet, it depends on the details. Jenny thinks her judgment of Mary is quite accurate. Otherwise this girl wouldn't have to put up with such low pay, tiring and menial work, and do it with so much heart.

As for Josh, Julian, and Dave, they are all old people in the industry, and they are tied to her interests. There is no reason to betray their partners, employers, and friends, and they are also alienated from Bell. Of course, Judy, an old Jianghu, will also keep her mouths in check. Jenny is not suspicious that someone close to her leaked the secret, she also has suspicions, "Your assistant Nisha and Bell seem to have a good relationship."

Cesare glanced out the window, "Nissa has served me for more than six years."

The implication is that she must know the rules.

"But at least Bell is most likely to talk to her." Jenny insisted on her opinion.

Cesare looked at her for a while, then took out his phone.

"Jim." He said in a commanding tone, "don't look up, listen to me..."

If Jane can see Mary's thoughts, then Cesare should also be able to see Jim's thoughts-don't think that there are no factional fights in American companies, Jim should have long been optimistic about Cesare's thigh , has been hugging up hard, so even though he is a good agent, he has been willing to do many things for Cesare as an assistant in the past few years.

Of course, there is no need for Cesare to worry about things like testing Nisha. After giving Jim a few words, Cesare hung up the phone and started the next topic, "Bell and Adam have signed a performance contract, Adam You also called me personally to apologize, I suggest you forget about "50 First Dates" from today, in front of the current Bell, if the price is the same, you really don't have much competitiveness."

Before "Pearl Harbor", although Jennifer Bell debuted only five years ago, she has already directed seven or eight films, among which there are a comedy, a romance and an orthodox masterpiece with outstanding achievements. Remake of a literary film, the first two films won her a People's Choice Award and two Teen Choice Awards, and the last remake of a famous book won her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Her acting skills are guaranteed. She is wide, popular, and has entered the A-list after winning the award, but "Pearl Harbor" will hit the street soon, and it will definitely lose her value after that, but even so, there will still be filmmakers who are willing to invite her to star in "Underworld". It shows that the film company is very confident in her popularity. According to Jenny's estimate, her current film salary should be around 10 million. ——This is the power of box office and commercial films. Before "Pirates of the Caribbean", even if Depp's acting skills were affirmed, there were many popular classic films, and he was an actor. The figure of over 10 million is because the box office performance of his films can only be said to be mediocre.

Such a star who went up the B-list and was almost able to reach the A-list is now willing to play "50 First Dates" at a price of 5 million. Normal people will know what to do between her and Jenny Let's just sit there and make a vase. Bell is also very beautiful, and she is also popular and has a high status. It is definitely more cost-effective to invite her for 5 million than to invite Jenny.

Maybe because she has always had doubts about "50 First Dates", Jenny is not too angry with Adam's team, this is indeed a very normal market behavior, "I just hope they don't use my ideas to change the script If so, it would be a bit shameless."

"I'm afraid this is beyond your control," Cesare said tactfully, "Now tell me what you think, "Meeting Polly" and "50 First Dates" have passed you by. How about it, have you considered going back to "Van Helsing"?"

"Huh?" Jenny raised her voice in surprise, "but—"

"I rejected "Van Helsing" before because you already have a series of films. "Van Helsing" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" are somewhat overlapping in genre, and your role in the plot is just a foil for Hugh Jackman. , although the script is not bad, but there are many good projects every year, and you can't take them all. From the perspective of developing genre films, it will not do you much good to play one more big-budget vase, so I declined "Van Helsing" ", but for you to choose the two romance films with the most potential in the second half of this year." Cesare showed a gentle smile, "But anyway, this is also a big production of Universal. Bell is not lying. I am very interested in inviting you to play in "50 First Dates", Bell did not hesitate to give up "Van Helsing" which can cost her at least 13 million. If you enter "Van Helsing" with 10 million at this time , things will be interesting, won't they?"

If it wasn't for knowing that "Van Helsing" would hit the street, Jenny would really be moved by Cesare's simple and direct face-slapping idea, but of course she doesn't have to think about it for too long now, "I still want to play another type Comedy movies, romance movies or Chick-flick, for a vase of big productions, a series of "Pirates of the Caribbean" is enough-in fact, what I want to do most now is Chick-flick."

Chick-flick is a girl movie, which is different from the genre of comedy and love. Although "50 First Dates" is mainly about love, because the plot focuses on men rather than women's self-growth, it cannot be regarded as a movie. Chick-flick, generally speaking, is a typical chick movie. Men play the vase role that women often play in big productions. Apart from selling face, they don't promote the plot much. "Legal Blonde", "BJ's Diary" and "The Devil Wears Prada" are all very successful Chick-flicks. It can be said that if a Hollywood actress has such a blockbuster Chick-flick series in her hands, it will be difficult for her to fall out of the first line, even if She has failed to try new genres many times, but with this series as a basis, she can still make new attempts.

"Who doesn't want to play Chick-flick? But this is indeed not a popular genre. From the Bell era to now, I have been looking for a good Chick-flick, but so far I have not encountered a suitable work. "Cesare pursed his lips, and rejected Jenny's idea without hesitation, but instead of insisting on "Van Helsing", he frowned. "In terms of schedule, you are not suitable for "Van Helsing", the crew can't wait for you that long."

"So what should we do now?" The discussion seemed to be at an impasse so far, Jenny asked a little unwillingly. "Should I give up the filming and wait until next year?"

Cesare shook his head, he stood up and walked to the filing cabinet, and opened the door. "Would you mind giving me a hand?"

"This is—" Jenny saw a cabinet that was neatly arranged, and even the colors changed regularly, just folders of different thicknesses.

"This is the script cabinet for this year." Cesare replied. "The movie scripts worth watching in the second half of the year should be here. We can do another screening together to find the genre you want."

He took down the index sheet hanging on the cabinet door, "Comedy, Romance, and Women's Movies... corresponding to blue, green, and purple folders."

"...Tell me, are you a Virgo?" Jenny said while holding her forehead. "Forget it, pretend I didn't say it."

This is a very large filing cabinet. Even if it is only three kinds of movie scripts, it is not a small amount. In the end, the folders they took out filled Cesare's desk. Jenny roughly estimated the number— —Even if you do a brief reading of each script, it is by no means a job that can be done in a day.

An idea suddenly popped into her mind, and Jenny quickly grasped it, she thought for a while, then turned to propose to Cesare, "I think you should have read all these scripts, instead of letting you screen them again first , and then choose two scripts that I may not be satisfied with, why don't you let me screen them first, and come back to discuss with you after finding the ones you are interested in."

This proposal is actually to further expand her autonomy, Cesare gave her a mysterious look, "It seems that the robbing of "50 First Dates" is my failure in your opinion. "

Jenny does not deny that she has the intention of taking advantage of the situation to improve her status, but she did not make this request to engage in 'gong fight', but to make better use of her golden fingers, but this idea is not easy to explain, she We can only avoid the important ones, "At least Bell's intention to snipe "50 First Dates" is very obvious. He is not optimistic about my vision, but optimistic about yours——since she believed in you so much, why did she kick you off at that time?"

In the past, she might have felt that it was because Bell was very popular at the time, so she was very proud and broke up with Cesare after failing to pursue him. But after getting in touch with Bell, Jenny felt that she was not such a superficial girl. It can be said that it is worthy of being a client that Cesare will fancy. Bell's intelligence and calmness are beyond her expectation. She guessed that Bell may have realized that his film selection is not so reliable after "Pearl Harbor" hit the street, but Wanting to turn back, Cesare has found her again, and there is no room for Bell to come back, so she would rather find a chance to get Cesare's selection, and then receive 5 million "50 First Dates" instead of using it. Double the price to pick up "Van Helsing", which Cesare is not so optimistic about.

If it were Jenny, if she didn't have Goldfinger, she would definitely not have such decisiveness. There is nothing to deny on this point. Bell is indeed more wolf-like than her. If "50 First Dates" " exploded, and her new movie hit the market, or she couldn't get a new movie for the time being, then Bell might plan to return to Cesare's side in the next step and force her away. ——So Jenny is also very interested in the reason why Cesare and Bell "broke up" at that time. Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you win a hundred battles.

"Who said she kicked me out?" Cesare asked back, he folded his arms confidently, with a polite smile on his lips, "I told you that the reason why I parted ways with her , because she proved that she wasn't the kind of person I was looking for by making "Pearl Harbor."

"Then, has she re-proved her potential by taking screenshots of "50 First Dates"?" Jenny asked, she now completely disbelieves Lilian's reason for breaking up. There was a little good feeling, but this is definitely not the biggest reason for the two to break up.

"Are you worried about losing your status?" Cesare responded to Jenny's question with another question.

"Yes." Jenny answered frankly. "Should you comfort me now, Master Vijay?"

"I thought you were strong enough not to worry too much." Cesare replied jokingly, "I have to say, Jenny, you let me down today."

Jenny could hear from his tone that Cesare was not willing to give a clear promise today, but she could also feel that at least Cesare did not give up on her now, even if he wanted to abandon her To join forces with Bell again, it must be when the advantages and disadvantages of both parties are further expanded.

She knocked on the pile of scripts and said with a smile, "Then I will read more of these scripts-I have to work harder to prove my worth to you, don't I?"

Cesare helped her pack the script, "If you don't want to go back to the hotel, you can read it in the meeting room—"

Jim and Mary were called soon, and they moved the script box with Nisha, and Jenny picked up the handbag, "I will call you as soon as possible."

"Wait a moment." Cesare stopped her, and he closed the office door again. "I want to make a call, I think you should be very willing to listen in."

Jenny leaned against the door and raised her eyebrows—because of the vague conflict just now, even if Jenny didn't express anything in particular, the atmosphere between the two is still a bit alienated.

Cesare didn't say anything more, but took out his mobile phone and dialed a number. After a while, he greeted the person on the phone with a business-like tone, "Hey, Georgia, it's me, Cesare .”

Jenny's heart skipped a beat—although the name Georgia is common, under the current circumstances, it is easy to think of Bell's fiancé, Georgia, a senior executive at Universal.

The following conversation confirmed her conjecture, "Yes, don't hide, Georgia, I didn't call to incriminate you, Bell is Bell, you are you..."

Cesare let out a hearty and professional laugh, put his hand in the pocket of his suit pants, and motioned for Jenny to walk to the window with him, overlooking the Century City under the sun. "Yes, I was a little surprised. I didn't expect Bell to choose "50 First Dates", but this gave me an idea-Georgia. At that time, I gave up "Van Helsing" because Jefferson might not be able to play with Bell now. Competing for the position of the heroine—"

Cesare's voice drew an ambiguous arc, and then he continued, "Now that Bell has chosen "50 First Dates", I would like to ask you if you can arrange an audition for Jefferson , in fact, I still have a certain interest in this script..."

He winked at Jenny and continued to say calmly, "If the contract can be finalized, I will arrange Jefferson's itinerary so that she will be free at the end of this year... yes, okay, keep it Contact."

He hung up the phone, put the phone back on the desk, put his hands in his pockets, lifted his heels off the ground, and bounced lightly, "This is an interesting call, isn't it?"

Jenny finally couldn't help laughing out loud, "You are taking revenge on Bell."

"I'm just doing my job as an agent." Cesare said solemnly, "However, "Van Helsing" is indeed worth considering. I'll give you three days to read the script, Jefferson, I hope you don't let it go. I am disappointed."

Jenny also wanted him to guess how Bell would choose, but she gave up. Cesare has already made her attitude very clear, and now is not the time to care about these personnel conflicts. What she should do most is to find future big players in these scripts, play the role of gold finger, and choose a movie that is better than others. "50 First Dates" is a more prosperous film.

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When she analyzed the inappropriateness of using golden fingers to write scripts before, Jenny has actually touched some of the core of this idea-since there will be thousands of scripts in the script library, waiting for the day when she is lucky, Theoretically speaking, there must be many good scripts on the market for people to choose from at this time. Some of them are lucky this year, some are not lucky this year, and they are not filmed until a few years later, or some are even more rough. Yes, the crew was formed, but it died halfway, and the filming really started after several reconstructions. For example, there are introductions in the background tidbits of many movies: "This story was thought up 6 or 7 years ago, but due to various reasons, the filming did not start until today" and so on.

What Jenny has to do is to find films that she has seen in this batch of scripts and have good film effects. It would be even better if they still remember the box office. , "Bridesmaids" and other popular films, even if she can't make them, she can try to get a loan to invest. Of course, if there are some movies in her memory that failed miserably at the box office, then it's not useless. Jennifer Bell is a good candidate for the role. You do the first day of junior high school and I do the fifteenth day. Even if she is not too angry, she will not be too polite to Bell from now on. If she can set up a trap for Bell, she will not be soft.

Because many scripts have no titles, or are only tentative titles, Jenny’s progress is not very fast. In order to avoid missing a good script, she usually reads the story briefly, and then thinks about whether she has seen similar movies. . She canceled all the trips for the whole day, locked herself in the hotel room and kept reading the script, entering the performing arts space, and so on. Except for walking around occasionally, there is no second kind of activity arranged.

One afternoon and most of the night, Jenny read more than 60 scripts, and she was a little numb after seeing it—no wonder there is nothing new under the sun. These scripts that have been screened by Cesare are indeed selling points, but among so many scripts of the same type, none of the selling points is too new, and none of the scripts is really good enough to be inseparable from the first glance. She suspected that Cesare did not screen scripts just by looking at the content, because his handwriting mainly fell on the self-made label on the first page of the script—this should be some forms made by Cesare's office, which recorded some key information : David Frank intends to direct, and Sarah Jessica Parker is willing to star in. Cesare probably uses these labels to decide whether a certain script is worth reading carefully.

From this point of view, the biggest possibility of writing a script and then selling it is that the script has been buried in the library since then, or it may not be sold at all, until one day the original owner wrote the same work in the past Litigation to make money... Well, it can be regarded as 'the right way to make money'...

Jenny threw aside the "Summer" script marked 'Anne Hathaway is interested in starring'. This script was definitely aborted in the end. At least Anne Hathaway has never acted in her history. this film.

I've watched a lot of comedies, and I'm really tired of aesthetics. Jenny rubbed her face, and simply pushed down the pile of scripts that she hadn't seen, so that all the scripts were mixed together, and she pulled out How many.

"Cesare might go crazy when he sees all the colors mixed together." She slandered Cesare to herself. Read it out. ""Lianlian Notebook", adapted from the novel of the same name... Wait!"

She who was half lying down suddenly sat up, "I...I remember I heard this name before!"

Although she has never watched "The Notebook" (Chen Zhen's distaste for romance films is deep-rooted), she often hears Ryan Gosling's name mentioned when watching American dramas and movies. Chen Zhen has never watched any of the films, but because Ryan Gosling in the mouth of these characters is simply an all-American male god, so Chen Zhen searched his information out of curiosity, so he is very interested in "The Notebook", which is his success. A masterpiece (at least in my impression), Jenny is still very impressed. This should be a very successful film, because Rachel McAdams, whom Chen Zhen likes very much, was also made popular by this film.

Flipping through the summary table, she confirmed that Ryan Gosling was the male protagonist. Jenny closed her eyes and immediately activated her golden finger. Fortunately, she found that this movie really existed in the space.

After watching the movie for more than an hour, she exited the performing arts space, proudly picked up the folder and kissed it, "It's you! "Lian Lian Notebook"!"

Even though Jenny still doesn't like watching romance movies, she has to admit that "The Notebook" is indeed a masterpiece from an objective point of view. Both Ryan and Rachel's performances are extremely moving. Compared with "50 First Dates", which cannot guarantee the effect, of course, such a quality-guaranteed film makes people feel confident. ——Jenny even memorized the names of the director and screenwriter, preparing to compare it with the reality here to reduce the risk.

Although she usually has a very mature style, she was so excited that she kicked her legs on the bed a few times before carefully putting the folder aside.

"Well, let's go to bed after reading the few selected books." After the results are achieved, she is not in a hurry anymore. She can read these scripts slowly when she has time. The possibility of being snatched away is also very low.

Flipping through the next purple folder at hand, Jenny checked the thickness first—a few thin pages, the script seemed to be just a prototype, and the outline of the scenes was not even written.

Her attention was further reduced, she casually picked it up and flipped through it, seeing the chaotic creative explanation, she didn't bother to read it carefully, and only saw a few names clearly, 'Miranda, Nate'... ...

Her cell phone rang, and Jenny glanced casually at the summary sheet before putting down the folder.

She stopped suddenly.

'"The Devil Wears Prada", adapted from the novel of the same name, copyright company: Fox, scheduled director: Peter Hengis...'

On the summary form, there are simply printed these few lines, 'Meryl Streep intends to play Miranda'...

The author has something to say: Note: 1 Lianlian Notebook was photographed in 2002 in reality. Some adjustments have been made here, because the two worlds were different at the time

2 I'm really too lazy to make up the name of the movie played by Bell. After all, it's just a background setting. I don't want to waste too much ink. I will introduce it later if necessary. Comedies and romance movies are original. If it is adapted from a famous book, it is sister Beckinsale The starring role in "Emma" is ready.

3 Fox did want to be a devil wearing prada since 2003.

There are still many friends who seem to have misunderstood that Bell was doing the film at the same time, but this is not the case. As mentioned above, she can't do anything else after filming Van Helsing in the remaining 4 months of this year, so she gave up on Van Helsing.

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Updated.