Meiyu: I don’t care about the cost when making movies

Chapter 44 Movie watching party, attention from giants

"Hello, Wayne?"

After the call was connected, Wen Ziren's extremely hoarse and dry voice came from the other end. It sounded as if he hadn't drank water for three days, which shocked Wayne.

"Damn it! Wen, are you okay? I heard from Mia that you have been staying in the editing room working day and night these days? Please, I don't want to cause death at such an important time! And I plan to continue to cooperate with you for a long time. Woolen cloth!"

Regarding Wayne's concern, the person on the other end of the phone was already a little mentally numb, and James Wan, who was completely immersed in the editing work, had no reaction. Basically, it went in one ear and out the other.

However, after hearing that Wayne planned to cooperate with him for a long time, he suddenly became energetic.

"Don't worry, Wayne! You have entrusted me with such an important job. I will not fall down until it is completed! I will let you know that I am worthy of your trust!"

"."

Why does this sound so igniting?

Wayne couldn't help but be speechless for a while.

"Okay, so how is the production progress? Are there any difficulties? How long will it take to complete the production?"

James Wan thought quickly and said, "The first cut will be completed before four o'clock this afternoon. If you think there are no big problems after reading it, the subsequent dubbing and fine editing will only take two days at most."

After hearing this, Wayne couldn't help showing a surprised expression.

Can all post-production be completed in just one week?This kind of situation usually only happens in small independent films that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, right?

But it's normal to think about it.

The post-production of many movies takes half a year or even more than a year. Not only because it is troublesome and time-consuming to create special effects, but also because the editing ideas are not unified.

The huge difference between the officially released version of "Justice League" in the previous life and Zack Snyder's version is due to this situation.

Directors, investors, even the leading actors and the agencies behind the leading actors all have their own demands.

This leads to the need for repeated discussions, revisions, stalemates, and compromises countless times during the editing process, so that a film may have N versions cut out before the official version is finalized.

And this will undoubtedly consume a lot of time.

Nowadays, the post-editing of "Happy Death Day" is completely decided by director James Wan alone, and no one will interfere with him.

Since his thoughts were clear and he knew what kind of picture he wanted in his head, and the film had no special effects, it was actually normal to do it so quickly.

"Okay, I'll go to the company in the afternoon." Wayne said, giving up the idea of ​​letting James Wan take a rest first.

If he could complete the post-production of "Happy Death Day" earlier, he could take advantage of the fact that the box office decline of "Admission" is not serious and sell it at a good price.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Wayne brought Jessica and Charlize Theron to the internal screening room of Hemera Pictures on time.

Compared with the last internal screening of "Admission Notice", many more people came to participate this time, even though it was only a preliminary version.

All the major actors, including Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins, were present.

Even a minor supporting role like Annie came over at the instigation of her agent after learning about the film screening from Wayne.

"Hi, Wayne, congratulations! I saw you in "Acceptance," and my God! Your performance in it was so great!"

After Liv Tyler saw Wayne, she took the initiative to walk towards him.

At the same time, her eyes quickly swept over Charlize Theron next to Wayne, and she noticed that Charlize Theron did not bring her agent or assistant, but came with Wayne, and she felt a faint feeling in her heart. There is some speculation.

"Thank you, Liv."

Wayne smiled politely and elegantly.

He had heard so many words like this these days that he had long been numb and immune to them.

Liv Tyler noticed Wayne's reaction and couldn't help feeling a little upset.

The same words must have different meanings when spoken by different people. Wayne's reaction showed that he did not take her to heart.

Having been in Hollywood for many years, she does not think as highly of herself as Natalie Portman.

But as a recognized beauty, she doesn’t feel that she is any worse than Charlize Theron. She is even younger than Charlize Theron. She had put a lot of thought into her previous in-depth communication with Wayne. Why does Wayne fall in love with Charlize Theron but not her?

Unfortunately, there were too many people here and her status was not high enough to take up too much of Wayne's time, so she could only suppress her thoughts and planned to call Wayne for an in-depth discussion later.

"Hello, Mr. Anderson, we meet again!"

"Hello Mr. Wilson, I heard that you were promoted recently, right? Congratulations."

"Thank you. This is all thanks to your "Admission Notice"."

"Haha! If you really want to thank me, then ask Wilson to help convince the top management of your company to give a sincere price to this "Happy Death Day". I heard from Serra that Fox and Universal have also taken the initiative to contact She expressed interest in the film."

"Don't worry Anderson, we are old friends. I will definitely do this even if you don't tell me."

"." Wayne then exchanged a few words with the man in front of him, Warner's senior buyer Stephen Wilson, who he had met during the last film screening.

Because of the great success of "Admission Notice" and his rich qualifications in the past, this guy has now been promoted to deputy director of the film purchasing department.

However, since it was just an internal screening of the first cut version, Serra originally planned to invite only the crew and never thought of inviting him.

It was Stephen Wilson himself who had been paying attention to the actions of Hemera Pictures. After learning that an internal viewing meeting was going to be held, he took the initiative to come over, so he was the only one from Warner Bros. this time.

Soon, Mia came to the screening room with James Wan, who looked haggard and like a refugee, and the first cut version of "Happy Death Day."

A few minutes later, as the lights in the screening room went out, everyone was focused on watching the picture on the screen.

To be honest, if you look at it from the perspective of an ordinary audience, the first cut version of "Happy Death Day" is really not very good.

Of course, the same is true for most first-cut versions of movies.

However, those present were all professionals in the industry, so they could watch it carefully.

Senior film purchase experts such as Stephen Wilson and Anthony Hopkins, who also has directing experience, can even roughly imagine the standard of the official version directly from the preliminary version.

For two hours and 15 minutes, in the huge screening room, apart from the occasional exchanges between Wayne and James Wan, only Stephen Wilson wrote notes in a notebook with a pen from time to time, while the others remained quiet. .

To be honest, these people are just here to go through the motions.

If it hadn't been for the huge sales of "Admission" that put Wayne and Hemera Pictures in a different position now, they wouldn't have come at all.

Otherwise, even a professionally trained actor would feel uncomfortable sitting there for two hours.

"Mr. Anderson, when will the official version of the film be completed?"

As soon as the film ended, Stephen Wilson had already taken the initiative to ask Wayne about it.

Obviously, after watching the preliminary version, he has developed a strong interest in this suspenseful horror movie with a very novel plot setting.

"If everything goes well, it should be completed within three days."

Wayne reported one day more than the time given by James Wan.

But this still surprised Stephen Wilson at first, and then his eyes immediately lit up.

"Does it really only take three days? Then we can make it in time for Halloween!"

Halloween is the traditional release time for horror films in North America. Many horror films are released at this time every year. At the same time, more audiences will enter theaters at this time and choose to watch horror films instead of romance and comedy films. , action movies and other types of movies.

Therefore, as long as the production company has confidence in its film, it will choose this time to release the film.

Part of the reason why Wayne filmed "Happy Death Day" first was to catch up with this schedule. After all, the release time of the movie is also very important for the box office impact.

"Then please be sure to inform me when there is another viewing party." Stephen Wilson said proactively, once again showing his optimism for the movie.

Anyway, the cost of purchasing the film will definitely exceed US$1200 million. Such a price needs to be decided by the president himself, and the negotiations are conducted by higher-level personnel, which has nothing to do with him.

So he only needs to submit his analysis and evaluation report as soon as possible.

"No problem," Wayne nodded first, then changed his tone and said, "But because of time constraints, we also want to release the movie on Halloween, so we may also invite other distribution companies to participate. Movie watching party.”

Stephen Wilson frowned slightly when he heard this.

This is not because he is dissatisfied with Wayne's actions, because this is a normal operation. After all, Hemera Pictures is not a subsidiary of Warner, and it does not necessarily have to sell the film to Warner.

He just stood from Warner's perspective and instinctively thought that if multiple parties bid, the price would be raised.

Three days passed in a flash.

The box office of "Admission Notice", because it was a working day, and due to the impact of "Meet the Father-in-law", the total revenue in the three days was only 650 million US dollars.

The cumulative box office in North America reached 9768 million US dollars.

At the same time, the overseas release of "Admission" also officially started yesterday. Perhaps due to different cultures and environments, the box office on the first day was only US$760 million, which is much lower than in North America.

But at this time, Warner had calmed down and saw the situation clearly, so it didn't feel too disappointed.

But as a result, the final box office estimate of "Admission Notice" will be lowered.

Warner's latest estimate is that the North American box office is 1.2 million and the global box office is 1.8 million.

Although it failed to achieve a global box office of over 2 million, it was enough to satisfy Warner.

After all, even including the increased publicity and distribution expenses in the later period, their investment in this movie was only about US$4000 million.

They can make almost double the profit through box office, what else can they be dissatisfied with?
So when "Happy Death Day" held an official viewing party, Warner not only sent Andrew Wiggins and Stephen Wilson from last time, but also a vice president who was probably in his 40s to show his appreciation. This film and the attention of Hemera Films.

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(End of this chapter)