America 1987

and……

The late 80s and early 90s were probably the last period for Hollywood to divide up the pie.

After all, the rise of the independent film movement did indeed challenge the power monopoly of the six major studios over Hollywood.

However, by the mid-90s, it had been reintegrated into the group structure. To be precise, after 95, the pie had basically been divided up, and the "Big Six" regained control of the situation.

If you haven't entered the center of power by 1995, you'll basically only be able to find a niche within the system after that.

Nolan suffered from his age, only slowly emerging in the new century. Even after releasing blockbuster IPs like the Batman series and Inception, the lion's share still went to the film companies.

It is difficult to become the absolute controller and beneficiary of a project like Spielberg and Cameron, who rose to prominence in the 80s and 90s.

David Ovitz was naturally not content with just being a top-tier director and producer; his goal was to become a media mogul like Sumner Redstone and Rupert Murdoch.

Sumner Redstone was able to be hailed as "the last big boss of Hollywood" 20 years after his death because he got the biggest slice of the pie during those final years—acquiring Paramount for a staggering $94 billion in 100.

After Hollywood’s hierarchy began to solidify in 95, he used Paramount and MTV to complete the last round of large-scale vertical integration, transforming himself into the most powerful person in Hollywood, a position he held until his death 20 years later.

However, his approach was purely an invasion of Hollywood by external capital, relying on his deep pockets and directly throwing money at acquiring studios. It was rather unskilled and he wasted a lot of money.

David's initial plan was very clear: first, to become one of the few super directors like Spielberg and James Cameron, who could leverage their personal brand to drive global box office success.

As for the next step, we could try to steal the luck of that Disney boss—Michael Eisner.

But those are things for the future. Right now...

"Hi, David." A young white man gave David Ovitz a warm hug. "Long time no see. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to work with you."

"Tony, you're still so enthusiastic, it doesn't quite match the role you'll be playing later."

David made the joke in good-nature.

Tony Goldwyn, who played the villain Carl in the movie "Ghost." This is his most well-known role to audiences.

In addition, he has also appeared in masterpieces such as "The Last Samurai" and "King Richard". Another of his most representative works is that he voiced the protagonist "Tarzan" in the 99 Disney animated film "Tarzan".

In recent years, he has also starred in Nolan's "Oppenheimer," and his acting career is very long.

However, Tony, born in 60, is still very young. The original owner of this body knew him and they had a good relationship, which is why he said that.

"Don't worry about that. I've thoroughly figured out the character of Carl Bruner. I definitely won't hold you back during the script reading later."

Yes, he's here for a script reading.

Actors reading the script together is a standard procedure in film or theater production. It refers to a collective activity in which all the main actors and the core creative team sit together and read the script aloud for the first time.

Actors read their lines according to their assigned roles, usually without acting, moving around, or wearing costumes, conveying the text purely through their voices. Directors, screenwriters, producers, cinematographers, art directors, and others are present to listen, sometimes recording the conversation for later reference.

David and Tony are now in a conference room at Paramount Pictures.

The room was fully equipped with a round table, comfortable chairs, basic recording equipment, and tea service—all standard features of a Hollywood film studio. It was very professional and truly befits the world's most mature film industry system.

"Then I'll wait and see. I hope you don't lose to our female lead who's making her movie debut."

David pulled out a chair and sat down, introducing the person next to him, "Catherine, Miss Catherine Zeta-Jones, our leading lady this time."

"Cathy, just call me Cathy." Catherine adopted a very humble attitude.

"Tony Goldwyn, just call me Tony."

After exchanging names, David began reading the dialogue for the first scene.

The first scene takes place in the new home that the male and female protagonists are about to move into. Because the renovation is not yet completed, the male protagonist Sam, the female protagonist Molly (sometimes translated as Molly, but the latter is more convenient, so we will use the latter to refer to the female protagonist), and their friend, who is also the villain of the whole film, Carl, are visiting here.

The male protagonist used a shovel to smash open the door connecting to the second floor, and the three of them saw the scene inside through the large hole. At the same time, the camera focused on the three of them.

Because of his photographic memory, David remembered the movie plot very clearly and wrote a very detailed script that could almost be read as a novel.

Therefore, in addition to the dialogue, David also explained the character's psychological motivation and emotional tone in detail before the dialogue. The rich material can provide the actors with clear and specific emotional anchors to help them build inner authenticity.

This avoids them sitting there reciting a few lines of dialogue and imagining the whole story out of thin air. By directly unifying the team's imagination of the atmosphere, it can greatly improve the efficiency of actors getting into character.

"This place is really nice."

Catherine began with this exclamation.

David let out a "Wow!" and agreed.

"It's at least seven or eight feet high..."

"And eighty years of dust."

It was still Catherine and David singing in unison.

The opening dialogue doesn't contain much information; it mainly consists of the male and female protagonists flirting and showing affection.

The next scene shows the three of them working together to break down a wall and enter an indoor space, where the environment is noticeably cleaner and brighter than the outside.

"So beautiful!"

It was Catherine who started the conversation again.

The female protagonist, Molly, went in first, exclaiming, "This is unbelievable!"

"Indeed," Tony finally had a line, "with a little embellishment, it could..."

After the villain Carl entered, he looked around and said, "Selling for double the price."

"You've become greedy."

"A little."

Catherine and Tony ended their second conversation.

"So, what are your thoughts?" David put down the script and asked.

"Hmm, were Tony's lines just now meant to portray him as greedy?"

Catherine raised a question.

"Of course," David said, quite appreciatively. "After all, Carl betrayed his friend for that million dollars, which sets the emotional groundwork for the story to unfold later."

"But I just looked at Tony's script, and all the lines seem to revolve around this point."

Catherine asked, somewhat puzzled, "Isn't this a bit too one-sided and simplistic? It feels like labeling."

Although the original Catherine preferred commercially oriented films when accepting scripts, she also took on some "purely decorative" roles early in her acting career.

However, she herself doesn't like to be confined to the role of a "pretty face," and after the millennium, she prioritized roles that could showcase her singing and dancing skills or possess complex feminine charm.

Therefore, they have a very keen sense of what constitutes a stereotyped persona.

"Kathy," David switched to this form of address, "This is a commercial film with box office as its core objective, and what commercial films need most is to help the audience reduce the cognitive cost as much as possible."

"That's right, so that viewers don't have to rack their brains to piece together the villain's motives or the complexity of their humanity, it can ensure that the audience is broad enough to the greatest extent."

Tony, who has already participated in the filming of several commercial films, added from the side.

"After all, the budget for a movie is in the tens of thousands every minute. It's dangerous to use such a high investment to create a complex villain."

David Ovitz poured two cups of tea and handed them to Catherine and Tony.

"This can avoid controversy about the protagonist's behavior; the more firmly the label is attached, the wider the safety margin for box office revenue."

This explanation makes sense to Catherine, since the West End in London, where she lives, is essentially a cluster of commercial theaters.

Operating through a private investment model, the project builds a complete industry chain with a profit-oriented approach. The producer is the core of the project, responsible for financing, supervision, and promotion, with clear division of labor and efficient collaboration at each stage.

She starred in "42nd Street" for two years, and from the very beginning of the project, factors such as return on investment, residency period, and tour potential needed to be considered.