America 1987

Chapter 16 The Violent Robbery of Pear Blossoms

David Ovitz was furious. Just how much did the original owner like Jodie Foster? It was so hard for him to keep explaining!

This is New York City, where most of the exterior scenes of "Ghost" were filmed, while the interior scenes and a few exterior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles.

It's not that he's bored and likes to fly around.

The main reason is that the original movie used these locations, and since he was already prepared to be a plagiarist, he would definitely try his best to copy them verbatim.

His original plan for choosing filming locations was simply to find a few places in Los Angeles that were similar to the scenes in the movie.

However, after some preliminary research and investigation, he decided to follow the original production team's approach.

The American film industry actually originated in New York, but was later forced to move west to Hollywood under pressure from Edison.

Therefore, the cityscape of New York has long been deeply embedded in the genes of American movies.

Moreover, the global recognition and cultural capital inherent in landmark buildings such as the Empire State Building, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and the Brooklyn Bridge are indeed unmatched by Los Angeles.

In addition, the experience of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, as well as various policy supports such as tax credits, have indeed lowered the threshold for filming.

The classic comedic scene in the movie where the Black female supporting character donates $400 million was filmed near the Washington statue in front of Federal Hall at 28 Wall Street.

In some ways, there really isn't anywhere in the US more ironic than donating money on Wall Street.

and so……

"Don't say anything, just stay here and watch. It's my turn."

After saying that, David hurriedly went up to prepare for the next scene—a comical scene where he and Ubi Goldberg donate money to the nuns.

So far, the filming has been going smoothly, with each take going quickly and no takes requiring multiple takes. He had initially thought that Catherine was the most likely to slow things down, but she turned out to be the best performer—second only to Ubi Goldberg.

Because he had not received professional acting training, even though most of his scenes were simple, he did not finish them much faster than others, which made him feel very embarrassed. He didn't want to end up being the one who slowed down the progress.

Fortunately, the final result was good; David was in good form and managed to keep up with Whoopi Goldberg's performance.

After finishing work today, David Ovitz suddenly remembered something very important because of his casual conversation with Tony earlier in the day.

He left the hotel booked by the film crew, came to a bus stop, looked around, and then went into a silver-gray phone booth.

He was going to call his uncle, Michael Ovitz.

While you can make calls from hotel rooms, it's too expensive. You not only have to pay the basic call fee, but also a high service charge, making it far less economical than calling from a phone booth.

Although he transmigrated into the body of a second-generation rich kid, David still retained the mindset of saving money wherever possible. Moreover, ordinary hotel rooms are generally not soundproof, and although what he was saying wasn't exactly confidential information, he subconsciously didn't want more people to hear it.

At this point in time, although mobile phones had already been invented, such as Motorola, those things were incredibly heavy, like carrying a brick, making them extremely inconvenient to carry.

After a series of calls, the call was answered.

"Hey, Uncle, are you asleep?"

"You already called my office directly, why did you need to ask me that question?"

Michael Ovitz, who was working overtime at the company as usual, ruthlessly exposed David's feigned concern.

"If there's anything you need, just say it quickly, I'm busy right now."

"Well, it's like this," David cleared his throat to ease the tension, "Last year I asked you to help me stockpile the copyrights to some feminist-themed screenplays, but after you didn't just casually agree, you just tossed them aside, didn't you?"

"How could that be?" Michael Ovitz picked up the coffee that had gone cold on the table, a playful smile appearing on his lips. "I'm counting on our big director to make a few more artists famous in the future, so I can sit in the chairman's seat of CAA for a few more years."

David Ovitz ignored the other man's teasing, judging from his tone that the man had already complied, so he quickly continued, "You wouldn't miss out on the film adaptation rights to that script based on the infamous case from 83, would you?"

"No, how could I possibly miss it?"

Michael Ovitz was puzzled. Why would his usually clever nephew ask such a basic question? "The trial was being broadcast live nationwide, and it was the first rape case in American history to be tried in its entirety. I couldn't possibly have missed this one!"

The case David and Michael mentioned in their conversation was the "New Bedford Bar Gang Rape Case" that occurred in Massachusetts, USA in 1983.

To summarize the case briefly, a 21-year-old girl was gang-raped by three men in a bar for nearly two hours. Not only did none of the more than 20 onlookers intervene, but some even cheered her on.

After the incident was exposed, it quickly attracted nationwide attention in the United States. The media rushed to report on it, and CNN and other TV stations broadcast the court proceedings repeatedly, causing the ratings to soar. The public followed the trial's progress every day like a TV series.

When the case was first heard, the victim's low social status, "indecent" behavior, and revealing clothing led to a view similar to "victim blaming," which resulted in the three perpetrators being charged with only misdemeanors of "involuntary sexual acts."

However, this verdict sparked strong public dissatisfaction. Under immense public pressure, the prosecution had no choice but to reinvestigate and retry the case. In the end, not only were the three main perpetrators sentenced to 6 to 9 years in prison for rape, but another man who instigated the disturbance, named Anthony Bishop, was sentenced to 2.5 years of probation as an accomplice.

He also became the first accomplice in a sexual assault case to be convicted of "verbal incitement" in U.S. judicial history.

Shortly after the case was concluded, Tom Topal, a screenwriter who had transitioned from newspaper reporting, was inspired to complete the script.

However, due to the highly sensitive subject matter involving gang rape and "imperfect victims," ​​mainstream Hollywood production companies are not optimistic about its commercial prospects, and most popular actresses have refused to star in it.

Even without David Ovitz's involvement, the project's smooth progress was ultimately due to the strong support of two Hollywood female executives—Dawn Steele, Vice President of Production at Paramount Pictures, and ace producer Sydney Lansing.

And the female lead, of course, is Jodie Foster, the one he and Tony were talking about today.