novelraw Chapter 136
Chapter 136
The casting of "The Perfect Victim" is over, and Australian newcomer Heath Ledger finally got the role, which is also his first film in Hollywood.
Josie took the time to conduct a statistics for her career since her debut, and her agent Martha Miller.
From 1994 to the present, she has released a total of seven films in North American theaters. Among them, the best box office and word-of-mouth is undoubtedly the most recent "Titanic", but other films are also remarkable.
"Leading the Coquettish", a phenomenon-level youth film and chick film, IMDB score 6.8, domestic box office nearly 900 million US dollars, sold very well in the video market, allowing Josie to gain a group of loyal fans;
"Life is Beautiful because of You", an unpopular literary film, with an IMDB score of 7.3, Josie has very few roles, but she got her first Oscar nomination, and the response of this film in the video tape market is also very good;
"First Fear", a feature film with multiple reversals, IMDB score 7.7, the domestic box office reported close to 6000 million US dollars, and the global box office also successfully broke through [-] million, which made Josie's acting skills widely praised;
"Mr. Sweetheart", a sports inspirational film widely misunderstood by audiences, with an IMDB score of 7.5, has won more than 1.5 million US dollars in the North American box office and nearly 2.8 million US dollars in the global box office as one of the best love movies of the year. It belongs to Josie 's second phenomenal work;
"Everybody Says I Love You", Woody Allen's classic romantic comedy, IMDB score 6.7, the box office is not even as good as its cost, but its performance in the back-end market is amazing, and the videotape is also selling well ——The most important thing is that this film made Josie feel good in the New York theater circle, and also attracted many petty bourgeois movie fans from middle-class families.
In addition, there are "The Devil's Advocate" and "Titanic" for which the data has not yet been fully counted.
Martha Miller commented on this: "Your works have a wide range of characteristics, that is, they are all very popular in the video market. And until now, every one has been on the same level. For any actor , are all masterpieces.”
"I hope it will be the same next time." Josie said so, but her tone was self-assured.
And her next movie is "The Perfect Victim", which is preparing to launch a strong impact on the Oscar queen. This is also the first role that deviates from the established track, but she is very empathetic.
In the following days, Josie spent a temporary vacation and preparing for a new movie.
In Ernest's rewritten script, the heroine Iris is a gifted pianist, so Josie takes the time to reacquaint herself with piano and musical performance, in addition to regularly visiting an NYU Professor of Psychology, understands how antisocial personalities behave.
Of course, she still has to go back to school to take classes, and by the way, she will take a big class in the music department, so she is extremely busy.
At the same time, in order to play the role of Sean, Heath Ledger, who has been focusing on acting after graduating from high school, also got a witness certificate and rented a room in New Jersey, the "dormitory area" of New York University. An extremely cheap house, the euphemistic name is to enter the state of performance in advance.
He attends lectures and does homework like any student at this school, and he's mixed into the junior party, and even the professors at the college remember his name.
Compared with Heath, Josie didn't look like a normal college student, because she was too busy.
First of all, the debut film "Boys Don't Cry" by female director Kimberly Pierce has completed the script, and started casting and preliminary preparations. The budget of this project is only 200 million US dollars, and it is adapted from real social events;
Then came the movie Fight Club.
David Fincher's salary was finally set at 500 million US dollars, but Brad Pitt directly opened his mouth and killed the 2000 million US dollar price, so Josie directly let Archie Dano Connect with other people.
To be honest, Brad Pitt is not without meal replacements. For example, Russell Crowe is good-he is still cheap, and $200 million can be easily bought-but Josie doesn't want to use the same meal replacements repeatedly. actor.
In fact, there are indeed many actors who think they can play this role, and as Stella Adler told Josie in the acting classroom, there are no irreplaceable actors in Hollywood, only irreplaceable roles.
Ewan McGregor in "Trainspotting", Joseph Fiennes, the younger brother of British actor Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law who just missed "The Perfect Victim"... even Sean Penn has revealed Some interest, but director David Fincher thinks that some of his characteristics are too similar to another actor Edward Norton who has been selected, otherwise it is very exciting.
And Kiefer Sutherland also fought for the role through his agent. He was a popular youth film star in the 80s, but unfortunately he didn't succeed in transition after that-by the way, he was the one who died on the eve of the wedding The unlucky guy who was abandoned by Julia Roberts.
In addition, Josie also needs to pay attention to the ill-fated female thief script "The Trap of Stealing the Sky".
According to her original plan, the actor wanted to invite Zun Long to play the role, but neither Archie Dano nor Arnold Milkan supported it, because they thought it would be an ethnic minority—and an Asian — to be the leading actor in a movie with a $5000 million budget would be a terrible disaster.
They wanted to find a more famous, mainstream movie star.
Well, the name Zun Long has indeed been famous in Hollywood for a long time. His performances in films such as "Year of the Dragon" and "The Last Emperor" are very exciting, but the problem is that he has been doing too badly in recent years, and he is still an Asian He is not a Bruce Lee-type action star yet.
However, their heroine seems to want to cooperate with John Lone very much, because on the audition list given by Josie, the first name is the other party's name, followed by the British actor Jeremy Brett, but the most popular The welcome Sherlock Holmes actor has been in poor health since undergoing heart surgery three years ago and is not sure if he will be able to finish filming.
What Josie wants to do is a heroine movie, which means that the role of the male protagonist will be greatly reduced, and more attention will be paid to the growth and awakening of the heroine, so she is looking for second- and third-tier male stars at the beginning To act as a supporting role, you must not steal the limelight from the heroine, but you must also have enough personal charm.
In her view, after "Titanic", she has become an A-list star, and it is time to expand her performance in the heavy industry market of Hollywood-the field of action movies.
No one can convince anyone, so I temporarily skipped the choice of the actor, but first decided on the director of this project, Jon Amir or Catherine Bigelow.
Jon Amir was highly recommended by producer Arnon Milkan, and they have had many pleasant collaborations.
After looking at their creative ideas and rough budget for the film, Josie finally apologized to Catherine Bigelow and chose Jon Amir, the director of the original film.
And because of this decision, Arnon Milkan was not as resistant to the choice of the leading actor at the beginning.
——Well, at least Zunlong is very influential in the overseas market, and the Rolex watch advertisement he endorsed was also well shot.
At this point, the project "The Trap of Stealing the Sky" has changed beyond recognition, whether it is the script or the main creator-in fact, from the moment Josie bought it, it has moved towards a new destiny.
Qiao Qian met Zun Long, a legendary Chinese movie star, in a Cantonese-style restaurant in Chinatown, New York, where the other party's manager, Ms. Huang, was the host.
The Chinese always like to talk about things at the dinner table. The intercourse of cups and chips can easily shorten the distance between each other, and you can also see the character of some people. In case there is any disagreement, you can reconnect with each other between pushing the cup and changing the cup. The atmosphere is hot.
This was Ms. Huang Yumei's original idea, but after communicating with Josie Horton's assistant, the meal turned into drinking tea, because the famous star didn't drink at all.
Ms. Huang's English name is Jadin Wong.
This old lady who is not very well-known in Hollywood first debuted as an actress, and later focused on the field of brokerage business of Chinese actors.
As the manager of Zunlong, Ms. Huang knows that her client wants to go back to China to make movies, and has no interest in Hollywood cliché action movies—he was originally an actor who was very picky about scripts—but this time he issued a cooperation agreement. The one who invited was Josie Horton, who was one of the most outstanding actresses in Hollywood in the 70s.
The most important thing is that Ms. Huang personally read the script outline of "The Trap of Stealing the Sky" and found that the role assigned to Zunlong this time is not a villain with a face or a stereotyped gangster godfather, but a complex and charming righteous thief. .
Even for orthodox white movie stars, this is a role that cannot be missed, let alone those of Chinese descent who are deeply discriminated against by Hollywood.
So when the producer proposed to meet and talk, and Zunlong himself was hesitant, Ms. Huang decisively arranged the dinner this time.
Now, the other party really wants Zun Long to participate in this movie. This is really good news for Zun Long whose career has been declining since "Mr. Butterfly"; the bad news is that the producer One of them, Arnold Milkan, doesn't like Zunlong very much, and he didn't appear at today's dinner.
According to Ms. Huang's information channel, Arnon Milkan's candidate for the leading role in a movie is Robert De Niro, or a mainstream Hollywood star like Michael Douglas.
But fortunately, Josie Horton, the heroine of the film who has the most say in the whole project, has one-eighth of their blood flowing from her compatriots, and obviously she herself likes and admits this.
"My grandmother once said to me——" the blond young girl's tone was sincere, and there was hardly any fabricated element, "Chinese people should unite and help each other. Although my appearance looks exactly like the big Most Westerners are the same, but I always keep her teachings in mind. Moreover, I hope that there will be more diverse content in my films, rather than the old Hollywood plots that are old-fashioned and outdated."
There are only a few people sitting in the private box of this restaurant, besides herself, there are only two sisters, Kelly Wilson and Connie Wilson, on Josie's side, so she is not very worried that the above words will be lost in a blink of an eye. Appeared in the tabloids.
Ms. Huang was sitting on a Chinese-style sofa with her partner—or apprentice—on the other side was one of today's protagonists, Zunlong, and opposite him was Qiao Qian.
This movie star who once became the light of the Chinese people has officially entered middle age now. His flat cheekbones are slightly unable to hold the skin and flesh that has gradually slackened with the passage of time, but he is still surprisingly handsome.
His Western-style skeletal structure and Chinese-style upright facial features are just right. His personal temperament is gloomy and introverted. Just sitting there quietly, he has a strong sense of story.
In fact, John Lone has always wanted to make action movies, but he hates those shallow and repetitive action movies-this is the most produced assembly line commodity in Hollywood.
Therefore, his current thinking is very contradictory.
On the one hand, these producers in Hollywood have always been full of nonsense. They can do anything to complete a movie, including but not limited to depicting the story and prospects of the movie in a hype;
On the other hand, he really wants to make an interesting action movie, and he also knows that it is difficult to meet such a creative lineup as "The Trap"-Jon Amir's "The Lucky Stars in London" has a good reputation in comedy and The balance between the actions is well done, and Josie Horton is a new generation star with both popularity and acting skills.
Zun Long knew that he should speak up at this time, but this was precisely one of the things he was not good at, so he silently turned his attention to his manager.
"Oh, I think your grandmother must have great wisdom, Ms. Holden." The old lady said slowly and unhurriedly, "She is right, we should all help each other. For example, although I am dying I am old, and I can still speak a few words in this small circle of Chinese people."
Business is business.
Ms. Huang has been ups and downs in Hollywood for decades, and she has long been unable to believe that the young girl in front of her will provide selfless help for a little blood.
Hollywood stars, especially Hollywood female stars who have climbed to the top of the food chain, most of them are animals with excellent dual business and keen on chasing fame and fortune.
She prefers to believe that Josie Horton, a smart person from a Wall Street financial family, wants to get something more valuable from them than those mainstream stars through this movie.
Qiao Qian smiled slightly, picked up the purple sand tea cup in front of her with downcast eyes, and took a sip of the green tea in the cup.
This teacup is not big, just enough capacity to drink it up in one gulp, and the whole set of movements made her do it like flowing water, with a noble and elegant look from the bottom of her heart, which belongs to the oriental charm, like a strange and harmonious Lady figure.
Josie clearly felt that the eyes of others stayed on her for a few extra breaths, but she didn't care, and she didn't try to hide it.
She put down the glass, and Zun Long, who was sitting across from him, silently refilled it for her out of gentlemanly demeanor and feeling a little uncomfortable with nothing to do.
"Thank you." Qiao Qian smiled slightly, and then returned to the topic, "I believe that, Ms. Huang. Before this, I think we have understood each other, and my arrival today fully expresses our enthusiasm for this cooperation." sincerity."
Ms. Huang paused, and asked: "So, you want to see our sincerity next—"