Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 208 Undercover High School



Chapter 208 Undercover High School
Cameron Crowe was slightly older than Ronald, but looked more like a high school student than Ronald.He has long hair parted in the middle, shorter than a Beatle and longer than a bob.Wearing a T-shirt on the upper body, jeans and tennis shoes on the lower body, and carrying a backpack on the shoulders.

He is the author of the novel Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Ronald was amazed by his outfit, more like a real teenager than an author.

Agent Richard, through Universal Pictures, invited the author of the novel to meet Ronald.After the two authors had introduced each other, Cameron Crowe handed Ronald a book with a blank cover.

"Here's the sample book, Simon & Schuster booked the novel to come out early next year, and they gave me a contract two years ago, and I went undercover at Claremont High School in my hometown of San Diego for a year. Then I wrote this novel. .Universal Pictures was very satisfied after reading the sample book, and gave me an option contract to buy the film adaptation rights of the novel."

Ronald took the book and flipped through it. This book is less than 250 pages. It is a youth novel, and he must be able to read it on the plane.

"Going undercover to go back to high school must be very difficult, right? Do you have to be careful of being found out that you are an undercover writer?"

"On the contrary, I went undercover at Claremont High for 10 months and no one ever found out I was an adult. By prom, the principal had forgotten who I was." Crowe giggled.

"He questioned me for half an hour at the beginning, and finally agreed to me to be an undercover agent when he knew that I had written a biography for singer and movie star Kris Kristofferson."

Ronald was also laughed at by Crowe. He liked Crowe very much. After staying in Hollywood for a long time, he met a writer who usually didn't act. The two had a very pleasant chat.

"Actually, I think that anyone who goes back to high school can quickly integrate into being with teenagers. Of course, I take advantage of being young." Cameron Crowe continued to talk about his experience, "The memories of those teenagers are just Stored in our memory, they are quickly activated when the situation is right."

Ronald nodded, and he felt the same way. "I felt the same way. When I was revising the script for 'Fame', I was with some art high school students, and I could understand their ideas very quickly. Memories from high school would flood out like a floodgate."

"That's right," Cameron Crowe was delighted to have a playwright who thought as he did. "The real hard thing is growing up again. When I went to the prom at Claremont High, my mom complained, Ka You were a very grown-up kid, Melen, and you never got so excited about prom and driving a car to prom."

"Hahaha……"

Ronald flipped through the novel, which contained many detailed descriptions of high school life.It begins and ends with two middle-class siblings, Brad and Stacy.A lot of their own emotional stories and stories with friends are interspersed in the middle, which is a group portrait of a teenager growing up.

He put the sample book of the novel on the table, closed the cover, and said sincerely to Cameron Crowe:
"Cameron, I really like the beginning and the end of your novel, and I think I'll finish it quickly. But you can adapt this novel yourself without my help. You are the most suitable to come. The guy who wrote the script.

There is no secret in the so-called script format, you can learn it after buying a few copies.But the emotions of those characters, the development of the story, and the detailed handling, only you can do it in the world. "

Cameron Crowe scratched his head like a high school student, "Ronald, that's why I asked an experienced screenwriter to help me."

He took the book, opened the pages, pointed to each name and said to Ronald, "This Mark, nicknamed 'Mouse', is my good friend, he is a nerd Geek, very good at understanding technology products , but not very good at making girlfriends.

This is the first friend I made at Claremont High School, Linda.She's a socialite and everyone at school knows her.The protagonist Stacy is Linda's best friend.

This is Jeff Spicoli, he's a good surfer, he's not very bright sometimes, but he surfs like a pro.

……

All of these people are real people I know, and I can't let go of any of them.The movie is only 90 minutes long and cannot accommodate all the characters and plots in the novel.My emotions make it impossible for me to choose, and my lack of experience does not allow me to analyze which episodes are important.

I heard Richard say on the phone that you don't want to take credit from me, and I appreciate that.But I do need your help, otherwise it can't be turned into a successful movie, and I'm sorry for my friends, I have a friendship with these characters and their prototypes, and I hope they can be reproduced on the screen. "

Ronald nodded and put the novel into his bag. "I understand your creative impulse. I will read the novel first and then make a decision. What does Universal think of your adaptation?"

Cameron Crowe has already written a slightly more detailed story than the synopsis and submitted it to Universal Pictures.

"They had a lot of comments and wanted me to cut half of the characters in the novel from the script. Focus the story on Brad and Stacy. But I don't think they understand the story. It's a teenager growing up. Stories, no one is perfect without anyone.

Teenagers are full of hope for the future, and they think more about the world than most adults.Because they get so busy with petty things as adults that they forget who they are.This age may be the most active stage of thinking for most people, full of thinking and experience about life and the whole world. "

"I get your point, you want this to be a teenage group drama."

"That's it!"

Ronald also scratched his head. Like the previous "Fame", which he participated in the revision, it was another loose group portrait script without a main story.

"My main energy now will be on the sequel of Universal's other movie script 'Grease', so in the rest of this year, I'm afraid I don't have extra energy to revise your script."

"It doesn't matter. Simon, Schuster and Universal all hope that after the novel is released next year, we will understand the readers' feedback and opinions before finalizing the script. Now the editors of the publishing house are very optimistic about the novel, but the market reaction cannot be predicted in advance after all. .”

Ronald understood that Universal's investment and the direction of the script may need to be adjusted according to the sales of the novel.So he agreed to Crowe and seriously considered participating in the work of adapting the novel into a screenplay.

……

After parting ways with Cameron Crowe, Ronald has an extra YA novel in his bag, along with Universal's revisions to the 'Grease' sequel.

After the high-intensity meeting, Ronald boarded the plane back to New York.The schedule was very tight this time, and I didn't have time to get together with old friends such as James Cameron and Gail Hurd.I called Gail and knew that she was valued by Roger Coleman, and she had already started to supervise the progress of some crews and started working as a producer.

Cameron received another special effects modeling job for Roger Corman's "Deus Out of the Galaxy."He is also considered a well-known low-cost special effects expert in Hollywood.

On the plane, Ronald finished reading Cameron Crowe's novel "Fast-paced Richmond High School" in one sitting.

The novel is really fast-paced, with more than 200 pages, telling the stories of seven or eight high school students.In addition to the main characters Stacey and Brad siblings, there are surfer Jeff, nerdy mouse Mark who has a crush on Stacey, Stacey's good friend social Queen Linda, and the poor boy Mike who knows everything...

Ronald was attracted by the plot of the story and had arrived in New York before he knew it.

"I can't read it. Now I need to focus on the sequel of Grease." Ronald stuffed the novel into his bag, and took a taxi back to his aunt Karen's house.

"Ronald, it's time for the quadrennial general election in America. You are 20 years old and you can vote. Can you tell your aunt which candidate you plan to vote for?" At the dinner table welcoming Ronald home, Aunt Karen asked Ronald slightly seriously.

Yes, I was not old enough for the last general election.This is something my aunt attaches great importance to, and she thinks it is her duty.Ronald didn't pay much attention to this. If Aunt Karen hadn't mentioned it, he would have forgotten it.

"I haven't figured it out yet. I'm not very satisfied with the current general manager. The oil price and the economy are not good. But the governor of California was an actor before, and I don't know if he can really change all this." Ronald decided to start Procrastinate, let's understand and understand first.

"That's just right. The Women's Voting Alliance will hold the second televised candidate debate next week. You can watch it together, which will help you make better choices."

"Okay, okay..." Ronald agreed vaguely.

(End of this chapter)


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