I’m in Hollywood

There are three new films released in the North American market on November 13, Teddy Bear, Star Trek: Uprising and High School.

Teddy Bear has a plush toy image and the blessing of Eric's own screenwriting; Star Trek: Uprising is Paramount's old sci-fi series; Kevin Williamson of the series.

It can be said that the three new films have enough potential box office appeal.

However, with the outbreak of Teddy Bear, the opening box office of Star Trek: Uprising and High School have suffered a very obvious impact.

In the first three days of the first weekend, compared with the explosive box office of Teddy Bear of $55.41 million, Star Trek: Uprising, which occupies the second place in the list, only made $22.05 million at the box office in three days. Even Teddy Bear Less than half of that, but the sci-fi film had the highest production cost of the three new films, at $58 million.

Because of the big difference between word of mouth and audience, Horse Whisperer, which was released in its second week, was not greatly affected by several new films. The box office dropped at a very good 32% over the next three days as expected. , received another $21.86 million, and after ten days of release, the film adaptation of the best-selling book had a cumulative box office of $68.25 million. As long as it can withstand the pressure brought by Mission Impossible 3 next week, the hope of the film breaking 100 million at the North American box office is still very high.

Kevin Williamson's new screenwriter High School did not repeat the word-of-mouth and box office of Scream. It only received $11.63 million in three days of release, ranking fourth.

From the analysis of all aspects, the North American box office potential of this horror film is only about 40 million US dollars. Compared with the production cost of 30 million US dollars and the publicity budget of 10 million US dollars, Colombia can only hope that the overseas distribution can be recovered. cost.

Culver City.

In a screening room in Columbia Studios, the staff is preparing for the screening of a film, and Eric and Columbia Pictures CEO Bill Michanick are also chatting about Dead High School.

Teen horror films have always had a very broad market potential. The key is to find a reliable script and production team, and of course, cost control. In this regard, Deadly High School is a mess, starting from the script. There is a problem, the audience doesn't like to see a group of bad boys save the world inexplicably, they prefer to see these bad boys being killed one by one by a perverted murderer, the more brutal the better.

Kevin Williamson had signed a total of five film deals with MGM, but MGM last time selected the summer movie from Kevin Williamson's two new scripts. I Know What You Did Last Summer and gave up Dead High School, that's why. I Know What You Did Last Summer grossed more than $70 million in North America and $125 million globally, but the cost is still very high. Well controlled at $17 million, it's a huge profit. But the current North American box office potential of High School is only $40 million, and the production and distribution costs combined are also $40 million, which is a complete disaster. Bill, I won't pursue what happened in the past, but I hope it will never happen again in the future.

As Eric was speaking, the door of the screening room was pushed open, and Anne Hathaway, like a scallion, appeared at the door holding a few cups of coffee, staring at the two people sitting in the front row with big eyes.

Seeing the girl appear, Eric didn't continue talking, he waved to her, Anne Hathaway walked in obediently, handed a cup of coffee to Eric and Bill Michanic respectively,

Then he held a cup of coffee and sat down quietly on the other side of Eric, with a timid appearance.

During this time, Anne Hathaway still often felt like she was dreaming. She just heard Eric's unceremonious admonition to Bill Michanick at the door, which made her realize again that this man was Hollywood power. At the same time, the girl felt a sense of pride in her heart. Of course, she would not express these thoughts.

Eric was not in the mood to pay attention to the inner activities of the girl next to him, took a sip of coffee, and seeing that the screening was not ready, he continued to say to Bill Michnick: By the way, the director of High School is still good, I remember he was a good friend of Quentin?

Bill Michanick didn't have too much resistance to what Eric just said. In fact, Howard Stringer and Japan's Sony executives were much more rude to him than Eric, and , he also knew that Eric was just talking about things, and had no personal intentions against him.

Hearing Eric's question, Bill Michanick said: Yes, before the shooting of High School, I also specifically watched his debut film The Killer Elegy that cost only $7,000. , this is a very talented young director.

Then Columbia can continue to try to cooperate with him, Eric recalled Robert Rodriguez's series of very personal director works in the original time and space, and said: Of course, you don't want to because I just When I said that, I will focus all my attention on cost control. As long as you encounter a good project, you should spend money or you will spend money. I just don’t want to see a lot of completely unnecessary waste. Make up your own mind, with Colombia, I give you enough autonomy, but I also hope to see a corresponding return.

Bill Michanick nodded and said, Eric, in fact, I was recently discussing a project with Robert, which is a children's sci-fi film about a pair of children of retired agents who fought back bravely when they encountered revenge from bad guys. The script is still being written, and I will pass it on to you as soon as possible.

When Eric heard Bill Michanick's description, he immediately thought of the Alternative Very Little Agents series in Robert Rodriguez's works in the original time and space.

Although I don't know the box office status of this series, but being able to make three films in a row is definitely a very successful commercial.

Also, Eric's first feeling was that the series should be better for Disney to do.

However, this idea only flashed in Eric's mind. Colombia is in urgent need of some high-quality movie projects to recover. At this time, it is definitely not suitable to transfer the films that Bill Michanick personally identified to Disney. there.

Anyway, even if you don’t participate in the production and distribution of the film, as long as the series can be successful, the surrounding operations of the film can still be handled by an experienced Disney team to maximize profits.

Just notify me as soon as the script comes out, Eric nodded, seeing that the staff finally announced at the door that the movie could be shown, he waved his hand at will, and continued to say to Bill Michanick: Speaking of which, we want to The production cost of the film I watched was $1,000 less than Robert's The Elegy of a Killer, and the whole process cost only £3,500, or about $6,000. It is said that the director spent a year, using every Saturday It was shot in the spare time of my work. In September, the film also won the Best Debut Award at the San Francisco Film Festival.”

As Eric spoke, the lights in the projection hall dimmed.

On the big screen, the film does not have a title. A pair of hands wearing gloves appeared directly in the black and white picture. After a moment of scattered footage, the name of the film appeared on the screen: Following.

Christopher Nolan, Following.

Many things in this world always seem very strange.

For example, the last time Eric asked people to collect scripts in the UK, he originally wanted to find Guy Ritchie's Two Smoking Guns, but he found another once famous script, Memento, The screenwriter's name is a pair of brothers, Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan.

The note given by the British branch is Christopher Nolan's debut film Following, which is currently being shown. In the data, not only the San Francisco Film Festival, but also many other independent film festivals have achieved very good responses.

Eric has basically seen Nolan's works in the original time and space. Of course, the most impressive is the Batman trilogy.

As for other works such as Memento, The Chase in the White Night, Deadly Magic, etc., Eric used to be a director, although he could feel the special thought Nolan spent on these works, but it was difficult to be like those who died The movie fans enjoy these movies as much.

However, although I am not very interested in Nolan's films other than Batman, Eric will naturally not let it go since he encounters it. Moreover, after thinking about it these past few days, Eric even has an idea in his heart. A complete plan, that is Batman.

In the original time and space, Nolan's Batman trilogy is absolutely amazing in terms of box office and work quality.

But at the same time, the success of Nolan's Batman trilogy has also had a very 'profound' impact on Time Warner's dc comics universe. When the Marvel Cinematic Universe was on the rise, it was impossible to get rid of Nolan's Batman. Influenced by the Xia trilogy, in order to fight against several works of the Marvel universe, dc almost all embarked on a very unsuccessful dark route, and even some of them were so obsessed that most of the pictures were dark.

While titles such as Superman: Man of Steel aren't strictly commercial failures, the DC Cinematic Universe's disorientation after Nolan's Batman trilogy is obvious to all.

After last year's box office and word of mouth failed Batman and Robin, Warner Bros. will definitely fall into a period of silence in the adaptation of dc comics, but there is no doubt that if there is any Hollywood film company that has the same The potential of Marvel to compete is definitely the DC under Time Warner.

Once Marvel's next Iron Man, Spider-Man and even the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe flourishes, it is conceivable that Warners will definitely follow up immediately.

Well, if there is no restriction of Nolan's Batman trilogy this time, even if Warner's internal low execution factor will delay the advancement of the entire DC Comics Universe, as long as Time Warner's executives react, DC Movie Universe It will still be a huge threat to Marvel.

In the past, with the fierce competition between Marvel and DC, there has been a very obvious flooding trend in the comic film market. If this trend is not curbed, the audience will gradually feel tired one day, which will eventually lead to The decline of the entire comic film market.

Since the plans for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe have been advanced, just in case, Eric quickly made up his mind when he discovered Nolan and continued to push Nolan to make dc's Batman series.

As long as the dc comic universe can be firmly stamped with Nolan's mark again, with the constant internal disputes in Time Warner, Eric believes that within ten or eight years, dc will never want to return to the right path again.

Of course, on the other hand, Eric definitely doesn't intend to do this kind of 'good thing' in vain.

In any case, Nolan's Batman trilogy has earned more than $2 billion at the global box office. Although DC, which has the entire Time Warner as its backer, will never give up the copyright of Batman easily, but under the box office fiasco of Batman and Robin, at that time, the Firefly system will not be involved in Warner's copyright at all. It's very easy to just take part in a part of the investment and get a good profit from it.

Come to think of it, none of Time Warner's top executives would think that Eric's behavior of participating in the investment and sharing the risk without copyright and bringing Warner back to life in the silent Batman series is actually digging a new one for Warner. bigger hole.

How can there be such a bad person.

Eric thought about these things in his heart, and on the screen, Following, which was only 70 minutes long, was also played quickly.

After the lights came on, it was almost noon.

Eric took Annie and Bill Michanic to the in-house restaurant of Columbia Studios, and after ordering lunch, Eric asked Bill Michanic: So, Bill, what do you think about that movie just now? How about it?

It's a very interesting non-linear narrative, Bill Michanick said: It just seems to be a little too focused on skills. If you analyze it carefully, there is actually nothing worth remembering about the plot.

Eric nodded in agreement and said with a smile: However, this is actually a talent, not everyone can make such a good quality film at such a low cost. For new directors, They don't have the resources to invite stars or make big scenes, so they can only spend more time on storytelling skills. Isn't that the same with Quentin's Pulp Fiction?

Bill Michanick smiled and said, So, Eric, what are you going to do by letting me watch this movie?

There is also a script called Memento, the narrative style is similar to this Following, but the story is more detailed and complete, Eric said without detouring, I will fly directly to New York later. , so I didn't bring it to you. However, I've asked my assistant's office to send the script to your e-mail, you can check it out when you go back. My request is to find this director and sign him for three movies The film contract, tied him firmly to the chariot of Columbia Pictures. As for his film style, it may not be easy to achieve commercial success, but as long as the publicity strategy is right, such a director with a strong personal style is still very good. It's easy to get a legion of die-hard fans.

After saying this, Eric finally added with an ambiguous smile: As for the future, we will talk about it in the future.