5 Graffiti Gamble

Chapter 5 Graffiti Gamble With Zoetrope gone, George formed his own company, Lucasfilm Ltd. He considered trying to write a screenplay about the Vietnam War called Apocalypse Now. But in 1971 no one was interested in producing a movie about the war in Vietnam. So George put that idea on hold. Instead, he began working on a movie about his own teenage years. He'd loved driving up and down the streets of Modesto. Maybe movie audiences would be interested in a story about cruising. He called it American Graffiti.

西洋镜公司倒闭后，乔治成立了自己的公司卢卡斯影业有限公司。 他考虑写一部关于越南战争的剧本，名叫《现代启示录》。 但在1971年，没有人有兴趣制作一部关于越南战争的电影。 所以乔治搁置了这个想法。 相反，他开始拍摄一部关于自己少年时代的电影。 他喜欢在莫德斯托的街道上开来开去。 也许电影观众会对一个关于巡航的故事感兴趣。 他称之为美国风情画。

If he was going to make a pitch to a studio, he needed more than one idea. As a kid, he had loved science fiction comics. Maybe he could do an exciting action movie set in space. He sent both ideas to the movie studios. Many people in Hollywood who were twice George's age and had far more experience had never even had one of their ideas picked up by a major studio. But George was confident that his could be hits. Would anyone in Hollywood agree with him? On George's twenty-sixth birthday, David Picker of United Artists offered him a two- picture deal if George would turn in a full screenplay for American Graffiti, for which they'd pay $10,000. George asked a film school friend, Richard Walter, to write the script. But George was disappointed with Walter's script. Walter had written a movie about wild teenagers—not the movie that George had envisioned. Now George had to write the script himself— for free, since Walter got all the money for his draft. George wrote furiously, listening to the rock-and-roll songs of his youth that he planned

如果他要向一家工作室推销自己的作品，他需要不止一个创意。 当他还是个孩子的时候，他就喜欢科幻漫画。 也许他可以拍一部以太空为背景的激动人心的动作片。 他把这两个想法都寄给了电影制片厂。 在好莱坞，许多比乔治大两倍、经验丰富得多的人，甚至从来没有一个想法被大制片厂采纳过。 但乔治相信他的作品会大获成功。 好莱坞会有人同意他的观点吗？ 在乔治26岁生日那天，美国联合艺术公司的大卫·皮克提出，只要乔治交出《美国风情画》的完整剧本，他们就给他2万美元的片酬。 乔治请电影学院的朋友理查德·沃尔特来写剧本。 但是乔治对沃尔特的剧本很失望。 沃尔特写的是一部关于狂野少年的电影，而不是乔治想象中的电影。 现在乔治不得不自己写剧本了——而且是免费的，因为沃尔特拿到了他所有的稿费。 乔治一边听着他计划好的年轻时的摇滚乐，一边疯狂地写作

to use on the sound track of the movie. He borrowed money from his father and even turned down a studio directing job. Even though he needed the money, he wanted to work on his own stories. The studio hated George's first script and turned it down. He rewrote it and showed it to other studios. Finally Universal Pictures showed interest, but only if George could attach a famous name to the project—a famous name that audiences would recognize. Francis Ford Coppola was famous now. After Zoetrope folded, he took a job directing the movie version of the best-selling novel The Godfather. (George had assisted him, filming some scenes himself.) The movie became one of the biggest hits of 1972. So when George convinced Coppola to produce American Graffiti, Universal gave the go-ahead for the film.

用在电影的音轨上。 他向父亲借钱，甚至拒绝了工作室导演的工作。 尽管他需要钱，但他想创作自己的故事。 制片厂不喜欢乔治的第一个剧本，拒绝了它。 他重写了剧本，拿给其他工作室看。 最终，环球影业表示了兴趣，但前提是乔治能给这个项目加上一个著名的名字——一个观众能认出来的著名名字。 弗朗西斯·福特·科波拉现在很出名了。 西洋镜公司倒闭后，他开始执导畅销小说《教父》的电影版。 （乔治协助了他，亲自拍摄了一些场景。）这部电影成为1972年最卖座的电影之一。 因此，当乔治说服科波拉制作《美国风情画》时，环球影业同意了这部电影的拍摄。

George's friends Bill Huyck and Gloria Katz wrote the screenplay, a coming-of-age story about one night in the lives of four young men. The characters were mostly based on different aspects of George's personality. Terry the Toad was the young, awkward George. John was the drag racer. Curt was the boy who leaves his

乔治的朋友比尔·哈克和格洛丽亚·卡茨写了剧本，这是一个关于四个年轻人生活中的一个晚上的成长故事。 这些角色大多是基于乔治性格的不同方面。 蟾蜍特里就是那个年轻笨拙的乔治。 约翰是飙车手。柯特是那种离开他的

hometown. The fourth boy, Steve, was the class president. The Faros gang members also became characters in the movie, and Wolfman Jack appeared in the film as himself. George shot the film quickly over twenty- eight nights. He then edited a version to show to movie executives along with a test audience. The test audience loved it—the studio hated it. "It's unreleasable!" a Universal representative said to George and Coppola. "You let me down." George was in shock. Coppola was enraged. "You should get down on your knees...! This kid has killed himself to make this movie for you. The least you can do is thank him!" Coppola then offered to buy the movie back from the studio.

的家乡。第四个男孩史蒂夫是班长。 法罗斯家族的帮派成员也成为了电影中的角色，狼人杰克也以自己的身份出现在电影中。 乔治用了28个晚上快速地拍摄了这部电影。 然后，他编辑了一个版本，向电影高管和试映观众展示。 试映的观众很喜欢它——电影公司讨厌它。 环球公司的一位代表对乔治和科波拉说：“这部电影不能上映！” “你让我失望了。”乔治惊呆了。 科波拉被激怒了。“你应该跪下来……！”这孩子为了给你拍这部电影而自杀了。 你至少应该感谢他吧！”科波拉随后提出要从制片厂买回这部电影。

George was devastated at the studio's reaction. He got angry when Universal demanded that changes be made before they would release the film. "They were simply coming in and putting a crayon mark on my painting and saying, 'Hey, don't worry about it. It's just a crayon mark.'" He vowed never to give up control of a movie again. On August 1, 1973, American Graffiti was finally released. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay. The little movie that cost only $775,000 to make earned over $118 million.

乔治对制片厂的反应感到震惊。 当环球影业要求在电影上映前进行修改时，他很生气。 “他们只是走了进来，在我的画上画了一个蜡笔，然后说，‘嘿，别担心。 这只是一个蜡笔记号。’”他发誓再也不会放弃对一部电影的控制权。 1973年8月1日，《美国风情画》终于发行了。 该片获得了包括最佳导演和最佳剧本在内的五项奥斯卡提名。 这部制作成本只有7.5万美元的小电影赚了1800多万美元。