Hollywood Domination Chapter 232: Gate to the new world

In the past few months, "Michael Clayton" has also completed its final cut, and sent it to mpaa for grading, and it was first shown to film critics, and sent to Venice to participate in the film festival Compared with the previous version, the changes in this version are not too many, just slightly adjusted the soundtrack, and added a few explanatory shots, which can take care of some audiences with weaker professional backgrounds and let them understand the interests of the story entanglement. The whole film is 120 minutes long, and it maintains a neat and stern style from the beginning to the end of the film, without making more adjustments for commercial release.

Two hours is a fleeting moment for the attentive audience, but for those who cannot get into the show, these two hours will be very boring. When the theater door was pushed open again, people walked out of the screening hall in single file, discussing the plot in twos and threes—of course, like every movie, the feedback of "Michael Clayton" must be varied , and even said that it has tended to be somewhat polarized. For some older audiences who love literary and artistic films, this movie touches the soul directly, and it brings a very deep and touching touch. For those who are not good enough to understand the theme of this film, "Michael Clayton" can only be said to be a boring action movie. If it is not supported by the sometimes thrilling scenes, they may exit halfway.

"What do you think?" Jon asked Harry beside him, "Does it make you feel unworthy to watch this movie early on Saturday?"

Now that she has gone to the Bay Area to study for graduate school, she naturally reconnected with Harry. Harry, who came to the Bay Area for an internship as early as college, has now been working in Silicon Valley for a year. Working in the IT industry, he easily wrote a small ticket grabbing program, which helped the two get tickets to the screening. At 10 o'clock on Saturday morning, I met Jon at the cinema to watch a movie starring Jennifer Jefferson, whom the two good friends became friends with.

"It's not like J.J's old movies..." Harry frowned, picking out words, "Simple? I don't know, you won't be happy after watching it-it won't be like drinking a drink Cans of Coke are so cool and cool...but I understand why Venice gives awards, do you know what I mean?"

"I understand." Jon nodded sympathetically, "This movie is like "Animal Farm" and "Lord of the Flies". The purpose of its creation is not to make you happy, but you will Being inspired to think about it will outlast the rest of Jennifer's films, at least I think so."

Both she and Harry are well-educated, unlike those children in public schools, many of the courses are perfunctory, although there is no literature and art to the point where they can read a lot of books and develop in the direction of philosophy and profoundness. But at least the extracurricular readings required by the course are carefully read. Although they didn't have much emotion at the time, after gradually stepping into the society and becoming familiar with it, a classic movie was enough to evoke their accumulation in the past, allowing them to discuss these more profound topics, and was triggered to reconnect with similar cultural interest.

"Yes, this is like "The Glass Menagerie" we saw on Broadway." Harry also came to chat, "Is it enjoyable? It may be so in the artistic level, but in the direct feeling, it is not In this way, but you will remember the feeling of being stunned after watching it for a longer time, and maybe a few years later you will accidentally think of this name and re-immerse yourself in this feeling.”

After "Chicago", Harry once fell in love with Jennifer enthusiastically, and then gradually faded out due to various reasons. He talked about his former idol again with great interest, but this time, the topic changed from her I became her work, "I really liked Arthur's comment at the beginning. Arthur's lines are very powerful. In fact, the theme is obvious from the beginning. I have to say that Jennifer's performance is also amazing. You It's even hard to believe that Pirates of the Caribbean and this film will be played by one actor!"

"Yes, yes, yes," Jon said repeatedly, "I have a similar feeling, and it's even hard for me to decide whether I want her to act in more "Pirates" or more films of this type..."

In Los Angeles, which is a six-hour drive from San Francisco, Charles also finished his movie watching and was walking to pick up his bicycle, but his pace was slower than usual—while walking, he was still thinking Watching the film made him feel.

As a geek and cult lover, Charles began to fall in love with Jennifer from "The Fifth Sally". He was also very surprised by the beating girl in "Pirates of the Caribbean 2". He will try his best to get tickets for on-demand screenings , to see "Michael Clayton", also because in Venice's publicity and film reviews, Jennifer's acting breakthrough this time was mentioned, and she played a deep and desperate role. For him who is crazy about "Sally" For example, the murderous Karen in "Michael Clayton" (he was inevitably spoiled in the trailer) is undoubtedly very suitable for Charles, and he is also a fanatic' Watching Party' for the first time, so under the provocations and teases of the preview meeting and Venice, he was already impatient. After buying the screening tickets, he was almost restless looking forward to the day, the 10 o'clock show in the morning , he came to line up at 7 o'clock (but he didn't make it to the first place, some of Jennifer's fans were crazy), and this movie failed to meet Charles' expectations in advance. In fact, it was the same as Charles's expectations , it can even be said to be the opposite...

Cult fans like to watch exciting scenes, novel lens language, violent aesthetics, twisted reversal plots, or brain-burning details. They have no idea about the connotation and conception of movies It can be said that they are actually just a different kind of audience for commercial films. Charles’ reading experience of literary and artistic films is very narrow. He has no interest in almost all popular literary and artistic masterpieces. A movie with a terribly long lens is simply a waste of his time.

At the same time, unfortunately, Charles is not stupid, he can be said to be a very intelligent audience, very good at understanding the intentions of directors and actors, so, although there are many "Spy Shadows" in "Michael Crichton" Heavy"-style reliable details, but what he saw from "Michael Clayton" was not a suspenseful story, but a sigh of sadness, helplessness, despair and depression. He had already stepped into society, As for the theme of the film itself: the alienation of human nature by the system, and the final struggle of human nature, how can it be really indifferent?

"It's really a frustrating movie. Although it's ding, even ding makes people unhappy," he muttered and complained silently. Browsing the familiar scenery aimlessly, as if these windows are strange again, "I really don't like this kind of movie, it makes you re-examine your life, and makes you have to tell yourself again, you have to make changes , you can never give up... It doesn't matter if it's a vulgar inspirational movie, that kind of cheap warmth can only deceive idiots, but precisely because it is not..."

Different from watching his favorite cult movie, Charles didn’t feel much excitement, instead he was in a trance, as if he couldn’t get out of the plot for a while. Shaking his head, he sighed silently, "Although I don't want to admit it, compared with "The Fifth Sally", "Michael Clayton" has a much deeper connotation. Those old Oscars don't like "The Fifth Sally". There is also a reason for the first Sally, in comparison, "Michael Clayton" really cares about it, and "The Fifth Sally" just wants to tell a cool story..."

He made a to-do list in his mind: when he goes back, go to netflix to see if there are any similar movie recommendations. Although he said he never liked this type of movie before, "Michael Clayton" has changed In his view, perhaps, these traditional classic films are not without value.

"This is such a boring movie." On the streets of New York, Paula was complaining to her new boyfriend about the two wasted hours just now, "Jennifer is so ugly in it, she looks so old—— God Ah, is this her real face? It's terrible, I've never been so restless in a movie theater."

Her new boyfriend just likes movies. He is a fan of Daniel Day-Lewis. He wants to see the on-demand screening as soon as possible. The mood is no lower than Jennifer's fans, so he got the movie very early I watched it with my girlfriend who claimed to like Jennifer very much. He and his girlfriend had some disagreements. "It's a good movie. No wonder the critics praised it unanimously. It has bright spots in every aspect. Compared with the "Bourne Shadow" series, maybe A little less suspense, but more depth."

Getting a glare from Paula, he raised his hand, smiled and surrendered not to talk about "Bourne" - Paula didn't like this movie either, "talk about lunch, what shall we eat ?”

"Well, it's no wonder that the ratings of film critics have remained at about 95%. Walked out of the auditorium in Seattle, "Venice still has a vision. This film is more peaceful than "I'm Not There", and the performance of the actors is also more bright. It is worthy of recognition. Whether it is from the director's technique, the actors' In terms of performance or conception, there are no obvious flaws, but on the contrary, it is very bright. Especially Jennifer Jefferson, she finally proved herself. In "The Fifth Sally", her performance is still occasionally The traces of youthfulness, especially the connection between several personalities, are handled too dramatically, but her Karen is completely natural. Considering the contrast between her and Karen, this reflects a deep skill. It's a pity, if this movie is moved to 2005, then the controversy of her being the best actress will be much less. Her performance in this movie should be recognized by the award, so this year, I guess I can only accompany her to run away."

"Jennifer must have considered this point, did she really give up public relations because she couldn't get the actress?" His thoughts began to turn to the industry trends, "It's a pity, this is really It is a high-quality film. Jennifer should come forward to promote it. Why is she both the lead actor and the main producer? In the opening credits, her name is even in front of Sidney. If "Michael Clayton" can win If she gets the best picture, it will be of great benefit to her, but according to the current publicity trend, maybe even Oti won't get it..."

Because he loves movies and is also keen on industry gossip, Joel joined this industry. He has always prided himself on being calm and objective. He has no preference for actors. He just calmly analyzes the prospects of this year's Oscars from the perspective of various situations: Immediately It's December, and all the Austrian films have started to promote themselves, but "Michael Clayton" has been extremely quiet, hardly participating in any promotional activities, as if it doesn't even bother to be nominated for an Oscar. The Oscar situation this year is completely different from that of 2006. This year is considered the best film year. "La Valley" is extremely competitive and ambitious. Except for "There Will Be Blood" who still can't invite Daniel, the rest of the leading actors are busy promoting themselves and the film. If "Michael Clayton" It's not that he won two awards in Venice, it may be that even Otti is completely out of play. Even if Venice won the award, because "There Will Be Blood" may not want Daniel to be nominated for two leading actors, the votes are scattered, Jennifer has just won two Oscars, and "Michael Clayton" is not Venice. Best Picture—In short, under the influence of these unfavorable factors, the crew has not moved yet. It can only be said that they have a special mentality. Anyway, the colleagues really can't understand.

"However, the evaluations of film critics are very high." After returning home, Joel opened the film review summary website and browsed the new film reviews of "Michael Clayton". It seems that "Michael Clayton" has been in the limelight at this year's Sentinel Awards - but I don't know if Jennifer will return to China to attend the award ceremony. In the past few months, she has almost completely disappeared from people's eyes, which is the lowest in history The best actress in Venice..."

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Although the screening can be said to be a special situation, Warner is still very excited by the close to 100% attendance at this garbage show at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. They began to increase the number of theaters for the first round of screenings. The line also swept away the previous cautious attitude, and was willing to allocate its best theater to "Michael Clayton", agreeing to divide it according to conditions that are more beneficial to the film studio. However, so far, the release scale of "Michael Clayton" is still not too large, with more than 2,000 theaters, and the scale of simultaneous release of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and other box office blockbusters in 4,000 theaters is not enough. Compared, after all, its subject matter is relatively niche, and there must still be a limit in terms of total box office. The distributor’s strategy is to spread out the cities as much as possible, even if there are not many theaters in the cities, because most of the people who will like this film are adult audiences, and they are less constrained by geographical factors. If they are interested, they can drive to see it directly. , and can afford the resulting costs.

The results of the audience survey after the screening are also very optimistic: more than 70% of the audience admitted that this is the first time they have participated in the premiere of a literary film, and more than 60% of the audience admitted that they rarely watched serious movies with similar themes before. The movie, but only more than 20% of the audience thought that the plot of the movie was boring and drowsy, and about 80% of the audience said it was a good movie, and some viewers wrote in the last comment column: Thought-provoking, not sensational, but tear-inducing, very touching and other comments. The name of "Michael Clayton" quickly appeared in the related searches of some film and television websites, and entered the user preference list-this is a new concept developed since 2005, and it is also the director of Big Dream Jim Davidson. A data to pay attention to.

Of course, to outsiders, this is Jim Davidson's idea, but to insiders, there is no need to conceal too much whose idea it is. While taking off the motion capture suit, Jenny covered the bluetooth headset so that she could hear Cesare's voice more clearly, "From Netflix's preference search, "Michael Clayton" and "Shawshank Redemption" It has entered the associated list (see note), which shows that the audience after ordering the screening has recognized the quality of the film, which is very good news for the box office and subsequent DVD sales, as well as the price of the first round of playback rights."

For art films, follow-up copyright is a very important profit-making item. "The Fifth Sally" is still earning cash for the company through selling TV rights to this day, not to mention DVD sales. A long, steady river of cash. If it weren't for its fantastic box office, the number earned from the box office would have been surpassed by subsequent copyrights. Therefore, after Netflix started to focus on DVD rental and algorithm recommendations in 2006, it has become a new data that major companies are very concerned about. Source—In the past two years, Internet marketing has been the most popular concept, and of course trolls were also included during this period. However, imdb can try to brush it, Rotten Tomatoes can use it, and online forums can use marketing, but the data of netflix , because it is linked to a credit card and real address, but there is no way to swipe it out. Therefore, Cesare attaches great importance to the big data that Netflix can provide, which he believes is much more reliable than box office predictions based on experience.

"Good news." The corners of Jenny's mouth couldn't stop rising—there's nothing more gratifying than getting someone's approval for a project you didn't expect to make money, "It's much better than we estimated. After the filming of City of Light and Marley and Me, we may have more money for publicity.”

"Twilight" is basically the original team, co-developed with Dingfeng, while Dameng has the advantage and is responsible for global distribution, "Marley and Me" is solely owned by Dameng, and the cast remains the same , Both dramas have entered the middle of filming, and the production department of Dameng is responsible for follow-up. After the first round of running-in, the leadership of the new department has also been affirmed by the management. The docking operation is also very standardized, and there is no need for Cesare to follow up.

"The original budget should be enough." Cesare said, "Is Chris with you? His cell phone can't get through."

Jenny put on a T-shirt, tidied her hair, and walked out of the dressing room. She bid farewell to her colleagues with her eyes and said, "He's in the hotel, maybe he didn't hear the bell. Do you have anything to do with him?"

"He needs to go back to Los Angeles for a medical checkup, which is related to his staff insurance, so we have to modify the itinerary, and I'm starting to worry about the situation in the Middle East, maybe he shouldn't go back to make up the shoot," Cesare said—— Chris will start preparing for "The Hurt Locker" in a few days, "See him and ask him to call me."

"No problem." Jenny hung up the phone, put on a smile and waved goodbye to Anthony Ryan, until she got into her car, she closed her eyes and let out a heavy breath, "oh, **** There are still seven days, we can hold on, there are still seven days!"

Mary looked at her sympathetically, "James is losing his temper again, isn't he?"

Jenny made a grimace, and silently answered Mary's question: Yes, James lost his temper again. As the estimated production time for post-production special effects has been extended and the budget has been increased again and again, it seems that "Avatar" will be delayed again. Of course, his temper is getting worse and worse, which is why Jenny never dared to ask for leave to return to Los Angeles after Venice. Compared with Otti, who is destined not to win an award, she values ​​her goodwill with Cameron more. This kind of goodwill is an iron friendship after a long time, and in the long run, it is of course more important to her.

It is certainly not a pleasant thing to work in an atmosphere where the whole crew is trembling. However, what is pleasing is that half a month ago, Chris, who finished working in Los Angeles, flew to New Zealand and gave Jenny Great comfort—not only physically, but at least emotionally, it gave her a lot of support. After work, I can complain with my boyfriend and have dinner together, which is much easier than shutting myself in a room and eating a salad. After all, this kind of face-to-face communication cannot be replaced by the phone.

"Hey, I'm back." Jenny swiped her card, waved goodbye to Mary, then went to the terrace and kissed her boyfriend's forehead, "It seems that you had a good day today, hon."

While sunbathing, while leisurely flipping through a novel, Chris gave her a lazy smile, and said in a low voice, "Hey—it's really pretty good, I just took a nap, How are you today?"

"As usual, every moment I pray that the next shot will be finished." Jenny grimaced, "You didn't receive a call from Chesa, it seems to be related to the medical examination, and there is a reshoot—tonight What do you want to eat?"

"Call room service." Chris got up and looked for his phone, "Hey, Chesa, I'm sorry I didn't hear it just now..."

Ordered a simple dinner through the room service, Jenny briefly washed and tidied up, when she returned to the living room, Chris had finished the call, she asked casually, "What is the reshoot, what does it have to do with the Middle East? "

"Oh, it's "The Hurt Locker", they need to rework it for a few days." Chris shrugged, "Because of the recent escalation of the crisis in the Middle East, the staff insurance must change the terms, it's all sag clichés, I'll see you tomorrow I have to go back to Los Angeles first."

"Oh." Jenny was a little frustrated——Chris's vacancy was only about a month, and now after going back, the possibility of coming back is very slim, and she will go directly to London after New Zealand. Reese stayed in Hollywood to promote his film. It may be a few months before the two meet again.

Although she was indeed a little bit reluctant, and it is normal for a woman to act coquettishly and complain a few words between lovers who are reunited after a long absence but are about to separate soon, but Jenny hesitated for a while, and swallowed her dissatisfaction. Said nonchalantly, "Then we'll wait until we make an appointment for the phone call—let Jack and Mary worry about it, I don't want to calculate the maddeningly complicated time difference now."

Chris took a deep look at Jenny, pursed his lips, and said nothing, while Jenny made a puzzled expression, "What's wrong?"

"Room service." At this time, there was a light knock on the door, and a vague voice said politely. Jenny quickly shouted, "Here we come", and stepped forward to open the door. ——Soon, she and Chris sat at the dining table by the floor-to-ceiling windows, with a simple and healthy dinner in front of them: salad forever.

"What did you just want to say?" She picked up the knife and fork and forked a shrimp, "Aren't you too busy to even have time to make a phone call? Or do you not want to go to the Middle East for reshoots? Then listen It does seem a little dangerous."

Chris shook his head, picked up the utensils too, and thoughtfully sliced ​​off a piece of lettuce.

"Three months have passed." His attitude was rarely cautious and polite, and it could even be said that there was a trace of rustiness. Jenny raised her eyebrows in surprise, while Chris said further politely, " Jenny, it's been three months since we talked in Venice."

"Ah..." Jenny didn't know what to say.

"Three months is a lot of time, enough to make a comprehensive consideration of many things," Chris took a sip of water, but his eyes did not move away from Jenny's face, like a predator, not Willing to miss the slightest movement of the prey. ——He was upset, this signal was quite obvious, "I wanted to give you a few more days, but... anyway, at this moment, Jenny, I want to hear your answer."