- Hi, I'm Ron Howard.
You know, I've been in this business a long time
and I've seen a lot of crazy, crazy stuff go down.
But nothing that rivals the scope of this COVID-19 pandemic.
I am so grateful that the Motion Picture Television Fund
is here to help.
The MPTF helps individuals in our industry
weather the storms of life.
So, if you're in need,
or if you're fortunate enough to be able to donate,
please go to MPTF.com.
You know, this pandemic is so vast and so brutal
it actually makes me miss some of my old problems.
It's been helpful to go back and reconsider
moments in my life, that at the time,
were treated as total crisis.
I thought it might help you as well.
So, in that spirit, here's a voicemail
my agent, Warren Klein
left me in 1983.
(beeps)
- [Warren] Uh, Ron, it's Warren.
If you're there,
please pick up
because this cannot wait
and I wanted to make sure you heard this news
from me.
Um...
Shelley Long has passed on "Splash".
I did everything I could to get a "Yes" out of her,
but Shelley, she's holding firm.
And obviously I'm stunned.
I mean, Shelley, she brought you "Splash"
in the first place, she and I saw the stage version.
At the Taper, Shelley whispers to me,
"I see a movie here, and I wanna do it with Brian and Ron."
I didn't even stay for the second act.
I walked right out to go to work on the rights deal
but between you and me, Ron, Shelley felt that
Lowell and Babaloo's draft was too funny.
She wanted the mermaid to be more of the sea monster
that it is in many of the origin stories,
and maybe she's right, and maybe she's wrong.
But Shelley's got a ton of heat, a ton of heat,
coming off of "Night Shift".
I mean, everybody said,
"Oh a movie about prostitutes
who work in a morgue is gonna make audiences
run for the hills,"
and that's exactly what they're doing.
Agoura Hills, okay?
Where "Night Shift" just tested in the high 80's,
so if you want Shelley to put on fins, Touchstone,
you need to pay her for it.
And of course now Gere has passed on the male lead
and Armand was always long shot coming off "Unfaithfully".
I mean, you wanna talk about a catastrophe?
Fox's entire marketing campaign was,
"Oh, oh aren't we hot shit? We found a vehicle
for Dudley and Nastassja."
Big deal guys, okay?
All anyone's talking about is Armand.
So he's being offered everything, "The Buddy System,"
"Dreamscape," any part he wants in "Teachers,"
and now I mean, you're testing TV actors.
Ron, come on.
(sighs)
But we are gonna do what we always do.
We're gonna fight, okay?
This is not the first time that we as a community
have been brought to our knees.
I'll tell you something about this town,
it knows how to get up off the ground.
This city was built by survivors.
So by the time summer is over, this will all be behind us.
Um...
Actually, speaking of summer, Ron,
tell me you've seen "Summer Lovers."
It's Randy Kleiser's follow up to "Blue Lagoon."
I mean, well, between us it's the exact same movie,
but with Pete Gallagher in the Chris Atkins role.
There is a young actress, I've been hip-pocketing her,
she positively lights up the screen.
She is perfect for "Splash."
She's got the body of a goddess
and the name of an accountant.
It's Daryl Hannah.
Write that down, Ron, and then call me back.
And keep your chin up, Ron, we're gonna get through this,
all right?
You can reach me at the office or you can
fax me in the car.
Okay, bye, and I love you.
Okay goodbye.
(phone clicks)
- Somehow, I survived that one,
and I know our industry will come back from this
much realer crisis that we're facing today.
In the meantime, the Motion Picture Television Fund
is here to help.
Thank you.