Hollywood Domination Chapter 326: Two phone calls

"Slumdog Millionaire," just as Robert and his wife put the disc into the DVD player, the name was also being chanted in the small French town of Cannes, "This is the big dream that will be delivered this year." Is it a participating film?"

"I didn't give myself "Monroe", I didn't give "Michael Clayton", Jennifer chose "Slumdog Millionaire" for her first Cannes—"

"Of course, technically speaking, this is not her first Cannes, after all, this is just a movie she bought... However, she must be very optimistic about it-did you hear? Warner is using This movie brought me the opportunity to invest in "" together with Jennifer."

"Yes, when I had dinner with Ann Lee before, he once told me about this matter. Warner bought the capital injection opportunity with the North American copyright of this film within five years. I also heard that the big Meng bought its global distribution right afterwards, or simply bought out the copyright? I don’t know if there is such a thing.”

"This is not clear. You know, there are not many British counterparts here this time. Maybe there will be a reporter from London in a few days who can give us some news."

"Have you seen this movie? I heard that it was filmed in 2007, but it has not been released worldwide. Maybe this is the proof that Dameng bought its global copyright. I am just surprised. This movie The film has been produced, why didn't it be released last year, but delayed until this year?"

"Maybe it is because of the fear of forming an Olympic competition."

"Is this movie so awesome? Olympic competition?"

In a certain discussion occasion, a middle-aged man with a strong Hong Kong and Taiwan accent in Mandarin said disapprovingly, "Of course the director is famous, but "Trainspotting" has nothing to do with Oscar, Danny Boy I don’t know how much I like messy scenes, and Oscar doesn’t like this the most, just hearing the name, this movie has nothing to do with Oscar!”

"Ann, what's your opinion? You have been working in Hollywood for so long, have you ever had dinner with Jennifer Jefferson? If so, please come and get to know each other, we are all colleagues and friends Well, she has such a good relationship with Beijing, she speaks very slickly! There should be no obstacles in communication."

Although she has been developing in the United States for a long time, she has a deep relationship with the entertainment industry because of the choice of subject matter. Li An, who has a lot of old acquaintances, shook her head in a gentle manner and smiled subtly, "She didn't come to Cannes this time. , it’s just that the director and the lead actor came to promote it.”

"Isn't it? Just say that they have a lot of projects in their hands, hundreds of millions every minute, Boss Du," a lady laughed and said cheerfully, "This movie may not be that good, but They don’t have any suitable projects in their hands now. Cannes has always been very indifferent to English-language films, and it’s not like Venice. What’s so great about applying to Cannes? There are no awards, and the highlight is to apply to Venice—hey, I heard that this time What is Dameng going to report, did you go to Venice?"

"I haven't heard yet, Dameng probably won't have any other art films this year," the man with a Hong Kong and Taiwan accent complained again, "The relationship is too hard. With her around, Hong Kong films won't win any awards. , fled to Cannes, she followed again!"

"That's right—hey, people are becoming heroines now, don't you keep up?" The actress laughed and encouraged, "Give us a movie too——"

After chatting miscellaneously for a while, the topic returned to "Slumdog Millionaire"-although Cannes hasn't opened yet, according to the practice of this kind of film festival, the wind has already come out, and the judges The actress has already spoiled the final result: Although it was selected as the main competition unit, "Slumdog Millionaire" must have no hope of winning the award. Cannes's blood has always been not very fond of English-language films. In order to ensure fairness Basically, English-language films should be the lowest priority choice, otherwise the film festival will inevitably become the world of Hollywood films. In fact, this is also the helpless move of the three major European film festivals. Oscar is more artistic, and the themes of "Millionaire" are relatively commercialized. Judging from the content introduction and the age of the protagonist, it looks like a love movie with a sharp edge. However, since Jennifer Jefferson picked and launched it, she even did not hesitate to invite Warner to participate in the film of her most important blockbuster "" for this reason. Attention and interest, and even a faint sense of anticipation—this kind of expectation has nothing to do with the director himself, nor the subject matter, just because it was picked by Jennifer Jefferson.

"Why don't we find a house," the actress said frantically, "It's fine if you have a home theater, I have a disc here—hey, don't hit me, that is, I just got it today. I didn’t watch it! Why don’t you all come together!”

"Yes."

"Yes, yes."

"I'm going to call, I have a friend who seems to have a villa near here..."

For lively filmmakers, 10 o'clock in the evening is still early at night. Although the opening ceremony will be the next day, it can't stop their determination to change places to continue their stalls. Some people even warmly greeted Ann Lee— ——Among this group of people, the coffee is the highest, and there is already a big director with an Oscar, "It's okay anyway, let's go together?"

"Actually, I have seen it," Ang Lee hesitated, "This film has been in production for a long time, and some small countries directly release it on DVD..."

He thought about it, and changed his opinion, "It's okay to watch it again. I heard that Jennifer asked the crew to do some reshoots in Mumbai in order to participate in the exhibition. I don't know what she will change the finished product into. look."

"Oh, so I've seen it!" He showed his background a little, and immediately made a group of people gasp in amazement, and some people asked curiously, "How about the movie?"

"Excellent." Ang Lee didn't hold back on his praise, he thought for a while, and added, "I can't win Cannes, but the taste of Oscars - Jennifer was right not to release it last year... If "Millionaire" had been released last year, "Monroe" might not have won the best picture."

What he didn't say is: because he has seen the original version of "Millionaire" and heard that the crew has re-edited the finalized version for the exhibition to participate in the supplementary shooting, that's why he proposed to restart Fox. "Youth Pie", the proposal to introduce big dreams is non-committal-Ang Lee admits that he needs an excellent European and American mainstream film to make up for the loss of "Hulk", although after this film he launched "Brokeback Mountain" and " "Lust, Caution", but Hollywood still lacks confidence in his performance in billion-dollar productions, after all, his only attempt failed miserably. So he can understand Fox's desire to give him some off-site guidance, and he doesn't dislike having a knowledgeable person come to discuss movies with him. He is also grateful for Fox giving him this opportunity and is willing to do his best to cooperate, but There must be a limit to this interference. He will not change his core ideas out of gratitude and make movies he doesn't want to watch. Therefore, even though he knew that the opportunity was precious, he didn't give it a nod. He wanted to use his own eyes to judge whether the exhibited version is better or the original version is better. Perhaps, this can help him make up his mind...

Many people are easy to handle, not to mention that the people sitting here are all elites from all walks of life. Soon, the group sat in a small villa near the bar, and the assistant who was sent back to the hotel to pick up the DVD also drove away. Come over, under the master's operation, the room quickly darkened, a golden cup appeared in the middle of the screen - the logo of the production company, and the movie started.

#

Dev Patel, who plays Jamal, didn't say a word, jumped off the empty track, stared at Latika, turned over and boarded the platform, and shortened the distance between them to the limit. While embracing and kissing, the ending music sounded, Willow Bey breathed a sigh of relief, took out a tissue and wiped his eyes.

"The cheesy ending." She said with some self-mockery, "It's all for market considerations, but I still can't help but be moved and shed cheap tears."

"Yeah, a cheesy ending," Robert certainly didn't have the slightest urge to shed tears. He absently responded to his wife, closed his eyes and recalled the previous plot, and said after a while, "Seeing the big from the small, This is a horizontal "Forrest Gump."

As a senior media person, is Willow an ordinary wife in a vase? She was not thrown off by Robert's thinking, but said quickly, "You are right, the horizontal "Forrest Gump", the most brilliant point of this film is the structure, the precise triple structure drives the whole film The construction of - every question on stage triggers an experience in Jamal's life, and Jamal's life -"

"It reflects various problems in India." Robert nodded, "This entry point is more natural and dramatic than the bench dialogue in "Forrest Gump".

"But the ending is not as meaningful as Forrest Gump, and it's not talking about domestic problems in the United States-and the characterization is a bit weaker. They couldn't pull Tom Hanks into this movie after all. " Willow said sharply, and then smiled mischievously, "But no matter what, this is indeed a typical masterpiece of the Austrian series. It seems that it is absolutely correct for Dameng to postpone it. "Lu" than, this film is too dominant in terms of subject matter - I really don't know what Warner is thinking, it will be exchanged for Dameng, the person who made this decision should resign immediately."

"If "" can replicate the box office of "Pirates of the Caribbean", then it is worth it." Robert shook his head, "Indian themes, a large number of foreign languages, non-white actors... The market potential of this film is limited, Warner I made an understandable decision. If I were Jeff Robinov, I would not regret it. After all, this decision also made them and Dameng..."

Remembering his troubles, Robert shook his head. Instead of continuing, he linked to the home entertainment center and found another video on the hard drive.

"This is it?" Willow was a little surprised, "Don't you already have a file? Why do we have to wait for the CD?"

"This is the original version, and some changes have been made to the exhibition version under Jennifer's guidance." Robert said calmly, "I want to see what she has changed."

"This--" Willow frowned: As Robert, it is almost an exaggeration to say that he has a lot of things to do every day. Watching one movie can still be said to be relaxing, but watching the same movie twice? It seems a bit too low self-esteem for him to do this kind of thing.

Just about to say something, but seeing her husband's expression and thinking of the recent gossip, Willow swallowed the words again. She stood up, leaving enough room for her husband to think, "Then, I won't invite you to dinner..."

#

"Well..."

When the screen turned black again and the ending music started to play, there was a long silence in the spacious living room. In the end, it was the Hong Kong director who broke the silence and admitted in Hong Kong-style Mandarin with a little embarrassment, "This It's different from "Trainspotting"..."

"Structurally speaking, it's impeccable." The actress who hadn't spoken since the beginning of the movie shook her head, and said softly and in surprise, "This movie tastes like an award-winning movie..."

No one objected to her statement. Although the Hong Kong director also had a film exhibited in Cannes this time, he also had no objection to the actress's words. "From the beginning to the end of the whole film, there is a sense of completeness. The interweaving, and Danny's shots, are so sharp! The most rare thing is that they are very powerful until the end, the whole is contained, very plump and juicy, especially the elder brother's actors, the shootout scene is really brilliant—— Ann, what do you think? Is the original version better?"

"...This version is better," Li An was silent for a long time, which almost made people think that he was going to ignore this question rudely, then stared at the screen and said softly, "Compared with this version, The ending of the original version is a bit sloppy, and the second half is weak...This version should have added some more shots to solve this problem.”

"Lack of strength in the second half?" Everyone's interest was aroused, "How do you say this?"

"Danny Boyle is very good at shooting dirty scenes, using a shocking but very realistic approach to present shocking shots, arousing your strong attention to the content of the movie," Ang Lee After sorting out his thoughts, he said intermittently, "It's okay for him to shoot the vulgar beauty unique to India in the studio. I noticed that in his shots, the luxury in the studio is very vulgar and very Indian-but He can't shoot, or he doesn't like to shoot some love and conflict scenes at the end of the final clue, so the paleness in the second half is a prominent shortcoming of the original version, especially when Latika runs back to answer the phone In that scene, the actors, the scenes, and the shots were not in place, and the standard was too far from the first half. The technique was too rough and completely commercialized. You could tell that Danny's mood was impatient at this time... On such key points, the exhibition version has been changed, some have cut more shots, some have done reshoots and reshoots, if I am not wrong... I need to study the specific differences, but... ..."

He shook his head slightly in shock, and said in a low voice, "If all of this came from Jennifer's instructions, then she is really, really..."

At this point, he seemed to have made a sudden decision, stood up and said in a hurry, "Sorry, but I have an urgent call--"

He glanced at the screen again, turned around and strode out of the house, looking for his phone as he walked, unable to wait even a moment: Indeed, Jennifer directed Danny to make some changes, and fame has already Danny, who has been around for a long time, may be as bitter when he is being used by this little girl as when he is thinking about this possibility. No matter whether the other party is right or not, the feeling of being pointed out by a backward person is still complicated.

However—however—as long as the quality of the movie improves, as long as it makes for a better movie—

After pressing the dial button, he put the phone to his ear, thinking silently: After all, in the end, the most important thing is the movie——

#

Coincidentally, when Ang Lee pressed the keyboard, across thousands of miles and across oceans, on the other side of the earth, Robert Iger, the top figure in Hollywood's power list, had just ended his career. Watching the movie for the second time, he walked back and forth in the room, with big steps and fast speeds, which can be said to be very rare, and his frowning hinted at his embarrassment—he seemed to be thinking about a problem that had troubled him for a long time , I don't know what to do, what decision to make.

"Roy... Equity... Marvel..."

From time to time, he would utter a few words or short sentences that were difficult for others to understand, flexing his fingers, as if he was thinking about something in his mind. Suddenly stopped his pace.

"It's time to make up your mind."

Mumbling to himself in a low voice, Robert took a deep breath, and all hesitation and entanglement were dispelled in this breath, but the usual gentleness and politeness did not return to his face. He picked up the microphone, as if he was brewing something, pressed the dial button viciously, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, waiting for the other party to answer.

"Hello?" Soon, the ringtone was interrupted, and a calm voice appeared on the other end of the phone, "Bob?"

"Do you still want to hang out in this business?" Robert immediately released the ultimate move he had read for a long time, and his roar oscillated back and forth in the study, almost stirring up a visible storm. "Tell me, this CEO, do you still want to do it? -Richard W. Cook!"