America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 104 Score 5, Zombie Conqueror

Atlanta, Georgia State University.

This is an institution of higher learning that has been established for nearly a century. However, because it is a public university, its conditions are naturally not as good as those of private universities in all aspects, and it does not belong to the Ivy League.

In the morning, Little John dragged his exhausted body back to the dormitory. He drank too much at the party last night. When he woke up, he was lying in the trash can.

He shook his roommate who was still under the quilt: "Jon, wake up Jon, it's time for class!"

"Wow!"

Jon's reaction was fierce. He kicked Little John down and woke him up.

"Wang Defa! What are you doing!"

Fortunately, the kick was not very strong. Little John rubbed his abdomen and stood up again.

After being stunned for a while and looking at the buddy in front of him, Jon finally came to his senses.

"Sorry, it was a stress reaction. I had a nightmare. There were zombies, a lot of zombies."

Little John looked at the other party speechlessly: "Brother, "28 Days Later" was a movie last year. Are you still awake from your dream?"

Jon got dressed and got out of bed: "No, it's not "28 Days Later" John, it's "The Walking Dead". Tina and I were on a date in the common area last night."

"Then the TV screen jumped to HBO, and I don't know who the son of a bitch changed the channel, and then it came."

"This is a new show, a very pure zombie TV series, you know? Zombie TV series!" Jon emphasized every word.

"I have never seen such an exciting TV series. The sense of creating the apocalypse is stronger than "28 Days Later". It's so exciting!"

"Originally, Tina and I wanted to do something, but we were all attracted to the TV. We didn't see the scene like yesterday. The public area has never been so crowded."

"It feels like half the school is here, and everyone is still using the phone to notify others. Fortunately, Tina and I are sitting on the sofa in front. Those who came late can only stand on the table to see clearly."

"What! It's too exaggerated!"

Little John naturally didn't believe it. He knew about zombies, but this was the first time he heard about zombie TV series.

"Exaggeration? That's because you didn't see the scene last night. You can check the school forum. I think it has been posted on it."

When the two went to the classroom, Little John was surprised to find that many of the classmates they met on the way were actually talking about zombies.

As soon as she entered the classroom, Beatrice stood up and asked loudly: "Jon, they said you made a video last night? Do you have the video tape of "The Walking Dead"? Can you lend it to me?"

"And I!"

"And I!"

"I wanted to watch it too. Everyone said the show was great, but it was a pity that I didn't catch it last night.

"Me too. When I got to the public area, it was already crowded."

Jon shook his head: "Who said that? I don't have a videotape. I'm looking for it too. I need to review it again. Last night was too sudden. The show suddenly jumped out and many details were missed."

"Okay, then I can only ask for help by posting on the forum."

Finally, after class, it was noon. He found a computer and entered the school forum.

As expected, there are a lot of new posts here, almost all of them discussing The Walking Dead.

A photo hangs high on the top. It is a scene of a crowd of people in the school common area. There is a sentence Photoshopped on the photo: Zombies have come to reality!

"It's just a TV series, is it really so good?"

Little John's curiosity was aroused and gradually amplified.

Similar situations occur not only at Georgia State University, but also in various schools across the United States. College students can watch it at school, and many middle school students watch it at home after school.

As for elementary school students, their parents will send them away and watch on their own.

Of course, there are also parents who are fascinated or don't care much, and just hold their children and watch it together, regardless of whether it will leave a psychological shadow on their children.

Overnight, after HBO only aired the first episode, "The Walking Dead" became popular. Topics began to appear on the Internet, and the discussion gradually increased.

In the MGM building, Eric came to the office and took a sip of the coffee Chen Xing had brewed. The temperature was just right.

Turning on the computer, Eric clicked on Google, then entered the four words "The Walking Dead", and links popped up one after another instantly.

After looking at the page numbers, it turned out to be over a hundred pages. Although some of them were available before the broadcast, Eric couldn't help but be alarmed by the speed of dissemination.

You must know that this is not yet the year 2010 when "The Walking Dead" was broadcast in the original time and space. The Internet has not yet been fully popularized. Most families use large backpacks and easy-to-carry notebooks that most people cannot afford.

And without the 7 years of accumulation of popularity of the original comic, it can still reach this level of discussion overnight, so we can only say that this drama is really excellent.

There is another reason, that is, the incomplete popularization of the Internet has led to the fact that today's home entertainment is still dominated by televisions. People sit in front of the television after work, have dinner, and this is still the mainstream habit.

Furthermore, excellent large-scale dramas have not entered the blowout era like they did in a few years, and the audience's taste has not yet been cultivated. "The Walking Dead" made the audience feel novel.

"We must establish Facebook as soon as possible. Taking advantage of Facebook's social nature will play an important role in the spread of film and television dramas."

While thinking about it, Eric clicked on IMDB. As expected, the entry interface for "The Walking Dead" appeared here, and the one selected was the scene of Rick riding in Atlanta alone.

Looking at the number of people who rated it, there were already 5,322 people with a score of 5. Among them, 72% gave 10 stars and 3% gave 1 star.

Of course, this score cannot be used as the final criterion for considering the quality of "The Walking Dead", after all, the number of people is too small.

With the increase in the number of TV series, it is impossible for every episode to be as exciting and exciting as the first episode.

The increase in the number of raters will also cause the scores to continue to decrease. These are normal phenomena.

So far, the number one reviewer is "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back," with more than 600,000 people rating it.

In second place is "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" with more than 500,000 viewers.

This shows the influence of the Star Wars series around the world, especially in Europe and the United States. However, after all, the two movies have existed for more than 20 years and have a solid foundation.

In third place is "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", which also has more than 500,000 ratings, which is only over 50,000 less than "Star Wars: A New Hope".

Ranked fourth is "The Matrix" with more than 480,000 ratings.

The fifth place is the Cavalry of Middle-earth. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" has only been released for 5 months, and it has received more than 430,000 ratings, which is very outrageous.

Turning the mouse and pulling down, Eric browsed the comments.

It was almost unanimously praised, and the key words focused on excitement, reality, novelty, humanity, survival, and morality.

The few criticisms mainly focused on the horror, especially the scene of a half-length female zombie crawling on the ground, which scared many people.

dong dong dong

Dad and Bordeaux came in, the latter holding a stack of newspapers.

Dad's face was full of joy, and the corners of his mouth almost reached his molars: "Eric, look at these comments. Those picky movie reviewers have all given recommendations, hahahaha."

Eric opened the newspapers, and sure enough, many of them mentioned "The Walking Dead" in the entertainment section.

Independent Spirit: "I have been paying attention to it since I learned that MGM started this project. We have seen sitcoms, urban emotional dramas, and crime suspense dramas, but this is the first time we have seen this type of zombie TV series."

"While there have been many zombie movies on the big screen, this was a groundbreaking first on the small screen, and after I watched the first episode, I knew The Walking Dead was a success. Congratulations to MGM. Congratulations." HBO!”

ABC Entertainment Online: "Frank Darabont is my favorite director, I loved his The Shawshank Redemption, and when I found out he was taking on a zombie TV show, I thought maybe he was going to have a successor. It was the second failure after Forgot Who I Was, but it turned out that Forgot Who I Was was an occasional miss.”

"Frank Darabont teamed up with MGM to give us an amazing journey into the apocalypse, and if subsequent episodes maintain their standards, I'd say The Walking Dead will sweep this year's Emmys."

Los Angeles Post: "Last night I was told to watch a new HBO show called "The Walking Dead." Frankly speaking, I'm not interested in fantasy creatures like zombies, and the beginning of this show is very similar to "28 Days Later." It’s all a coma, hospital, sobriety, and apocalypse routine, and I thought it was just a cheap imitation drama.”

"But when I saw the Morgans and their sons being stuck in the decision-making process of killing or not killing their wife who had turned into a corpse, and when I saw the survivor camp getting into a dispute over whether to risk saving Rick, I discovered something different, the struggle of human nature. It is the connotation that a qualified TV series should have, and "The Walking Dead" does a better job than "28 Days Later" in this regard."

"And when The Walking Dead doesn't focus too much on zombies, it will be liked and accepted by more viewers, so I recommend it."

"Eric, MGM didn't stuff money this time, and HBO only used normal promotion methods. "The Walking Dead" is conquering the market."

"Have you got the viewing data?" Eric asked expectantly.

Dad was silent for a moment: "The prime-time data is 6.2 million subscriptions and online viewings at the same time, which may be lower than everyone's expectations."

Hearing this, Eric frowned. If the figure of 6.2 million was placed in 2010, it would certainly be a hit, but in 2003 it would not be worthy of the cost of "The Walking Dead."

As a result, just when he was thinking about what went wrong, his father suddenly shouted: "But the 11 o'clock replay episode reached 9.5 million subscription views, second only to "Band of Brothers"'s 10 million, we did it!"

"Yes!"

Eric immediately stood up and punched the air with a left hook. This is the power of a good work. As long as it is not too advanced like "Future Water World", even if it was born ten years in advance, it will still be loved by the audience. .

It should be noted here that 9.5 million refers to HBO subscribers, not the specific number of people. One user may be a family, and a family generally does not have only one viewer, so the specific number of people often doubles to three times.

"Eric, the viewing data of rerun episodes can only illustrate the potential of "The Walking Dead". Even if it is half a place behind "Band of Brothers", I believe that "The Walking Dead" will definitely surpass "Band of Brothers", maybe next week." Dad. Said with confidence.

"No need to comfort my dad. The director of "Band of Brothers" is Spielberg. Its cost and publicity are more than three times that of "The Walking Dead". I will be very happy if it surpasses it, and I won't be disappointed if it doesn't surpass it."

"The best thing you can think of is, that Zach Thomas guy, now I can kick his ass for sure!"

Dad said, kicking the air left and right, laughing and walking out of the office.

After his father left, Bordeaux handed over a report with information about the crew of "Happy Death Day". This project was already ready to start.

Since the cost was not high, only 5 million US dollars, after the initial approval, Eric left it to Volvo for overall planning and operation, and never cared much about it.

The preparations are almost done, just come over and make a report.

The quality of a movie has the greatest relationship with the director, screenwriter and starring. Other aspects have an impact but are secondary factors.

In addition to Eric, the other screenwriter was Christopher Smith, who was recruited from the labor union and was a newcomer who had only been in the industry for a few years.

But in a few years, his career will take a turn, because he will write and direct a famous movie "Terror Cruise", which shows that this man is capable.

Given Smith's potential, MGM signed him to a three-picture writing contract.

The director column says Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, yes, they are the famous Russo brothers.

In the future, the Russo brothers will co-direct movies such as "The Lost Boys", "Captain America 2", "Captain America 3", "Avengers 3" and "Avengers 4".

It can be said that the Russo brothers account for half of the high-scoring works in the Marvel series.

But it's 2003 now, and it's still early for the Russo brothers to rise. Now, they are still small actors who have only directed two or three non-grossing movies.

Eric is very satisfied with this choice, because his brother Anthony Russo is good at playing time and space montage. I believe it will be a very good choice for them to direct "Happy Death Day".

MGM also gave the Russo brothers a five-picture directing contract.

Five movies may take seven or eight years, and ordinary famous directors will definitely not sign them, but some of the current Russo brothers' movies are pretty good, so don't ask for a bicycle.

The leading actor has been selected as Benjamin McKenzie, a newcomer who only debuted last year. He will play the singles king James Gordon in "Gotham" in the future.

The heroine column is empty, leaving this position for Eric to make a decision.

He picked up the pen and wrote Gal Gadot in the blank space.

According to his idea, after Gadot finishes filming "Transformers", she will take a break and MGM will start filming "The Hunger Games". Then she will continue to be the heroine. The investment in two big movies will be enough for her to make the jump directly from an amateur. Become an A-list female star.

However, so many things happened later, and MGM is now under greater financial pressure, and "The Hunger Games" may not start filming until next year.

So Eric kept a secret. If "Transformers" could be filmed before "Happy Death Day", he would let Gadot play the heroine.

If we can't finish filming, there is no shortage of young girls like this in Hollywood. Let your dad use them to sell favors.

Now that "Transformers" has been filmed, good projects will naturally be left to our own people.

If nothing else happens, this movie will be released before "Transformers", so it can build up a wave of popularity in advance, which will also help the Autobots' box office.

【】