hollywood melon man

Chapter 405 Laying out the future
On the eve of the Oscars, there is one more thing worth paying attention to.

The global theatrical tour of "The Return of the King" has come to an end, with only a few countries and markets still showing the film, reaping meagre box office revenue.

When it came to February 2003, Disney and Warner decided to release the DVD of "The Return of the King".

There is no trailer for the "Lord of the Rings" series in this DVD, but it does add a lot of new extras, including content about "The Hobbit" revealed by Gilbert Jr.

Likewise, the DVD version has nearly an hour more feature film content than the theatrical version, which will definitely give the audience a full enjoyment.

In addition, the deluxe edition DVD also includes a live concert of "The Lord of the Rings" performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, which can make up for the regret of fans who cannot go to the concert in person.

In Peter Jackson's previous version of "The Return of the King", the whereabouts of all the members of the expedition team were also explained.

But in Gilbert's theatrical version, these explanations were not made, and the story ended when Frodo returned to the Shire.

This approach was undoubtedly successful in terms of box office and word of mouth, but it also left a trace of regret for fans of the series.

They are eager to know the fate of the protagonist team after the expedition to Mount Doom.

Where did the elves go? How is Frodo's life after returning to the Shire? How are Aragorn and Arwen's lives? These have strongly aroused discussions among fans.

And now, the DVD extended edition has an extra hour of content, which is just enough to satisfy movie fans' fantasies about the subsequent story.

Perhaps it was because the large amount of content satisfied movie fans enough and they were willing to pay for it, "The Return of the King" DVD achieved sales of 1 million US dollars in the first week of its release, which was a big explosion.

Subsequent sales were also quite good, with sales estimated to be over $3 million in the first month.

However, this is not the end. According to the plan, the Lord of the Rings series will also release a trilogy of hardcover DVDs, and also include the development of animation, drama and other resources.

Warner's gaming division also plans to join forces with Banana's gaming studio to jointly develop a Lord of the Rings game, which is also the focus of profitability.

By the way, after discussion, Banana’s creative staff believed that online videos would have great potential in the future, so they set up a new department to create an online video website.

However, due to the limitation of the clarity of online video playback today, the picture quality is barely 270P, which is really ugly, so it is still in the verification stage.

But Gilbert Jr. is very concerned about this project. He told banana that online video will be an important part of the entire industry ecosystem in the future.

Gilbert Jr. gave this video website, which was still in the verification stage, a name, YouTube.

However, YouTube is still quite immature, and it will take at least one to two years before it can be put on the market. At the very least, the picture quality and picture transmission speed must be improved.

The reason I mention this is that video websites are closely related to the future film and video copyright industry.

Just as DVDs replaced videotapes and VCDs, video websites will sooner or later replace DVDs and become an important part of movie-related profits.

In the past, some people made predictions that video websites would sooner or later replace the functions of movie theaters, bringing about earth-shaking changes in the way film, an art form, exists.

Little Gilbert had felt this in his previous life. After all, he was a director of online movies in his previous life, and his movies had never been released in theaters.

The reason for developing the online video industry is very simple. Gilbert Jr. believes that the online video industry has the ability to subvert the Hollywood landscape, just like Netflix in its previous life.

Knowing the trend of the development of the times, Little Gilbert might as well make arrangements in advance so as to occupy an advantageous position in the new era.

However, few people can see through this. After all, not everyone is Little Gilbert and has that special experience.

The release of the DVD of "The Return of the King" is another huge commercial success for the "Lord of the Rings" series, and people have become accustomed to it and numb to it.

Previously, some media outlets devoted space to reporting on this issue, but now they just mention it briefly and then pass it over. No one cares about this issue anymore.

What everyone is most concerned about now is who will be the final winner of the Oscar.

On the eve of the Oscars, several betting sites were already open in Las Vegas. I don't know who started it, but now there are also online betting sites that allow netizens to participate in the betting online.

Every year after the Oscar nominations are announced, the most fascinating thing is to guess the final winner.

However, this year's winner seems particularly easy to guess. From media critics to ordinary movie fans, everyone agrees that "The Return of the King" will win a big victory.

So how can we make accurate predictions? At this time, professional film critics play a huge role, because they still have influence during the award season.

It was during this period that professional film critics were able to stir up trouble and influence Hollywood.

However, among professional film critics, except for a few, such as Kenneth Turan, who makes a living by criticizing Gilbert Jr., most of the film critics are working hard to cheer for "The Return of the King".

Kenneth Turan agrees with most media opinions on this year's Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars.

He believes that Adrien Brody in "The Pianist" and Charlize Theron in "Monster" will both get what they want.

In fact, other candidates competing for the Best Actress award include Nicole Kidman from "The Hours" and Julianne Moore from "Far from Heaven".

But Nicole Kidman in this time and space did not divorce Tom Cruise and did not win the sympathy of the Academy, so the hope is not very great.

Julianne Moore has been paying off her youthful bragging, so getting a nomination is good enough, but she can't count on winning. The rest are no match for Charlize Theron.

As for the Best Director and Best Picture awards, Kenneth Turan believes that Gilbert Jr. will not win, and neither will The Return of the King.

"The reason is simple," Kenneth Turan said on the show: "In the history of the Oscars, the Best Picture and Best Director awards have never been given to a non-realistic film."

"But," the guest on the show objected, "I think Titanic was also a huge success, wasn't it?"

"You don't know this," Kenneth Turan said confidently, "Titanic is based on real events, but The Lord of the Rings is not."

Looking at Kenneth Turan's words, many viewers of the show believed his words.

However, the only people who know the results now are a few accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers who counted the votes.

On the morning of the awards ceremony, four PwC accountants split into two groups and were escorted by security forces to the Kodak Theater, where this year's Oscars ceremony would be held.

Because of the 911/ incident, security has been beefed up for major events. The Oscars is a grand event for Hollywood and the film industry, so it must be held in a grand manner, but it is also easy for unstable factors to sneak in.

As early as a few days ago, the Los Angeles County Police Department worked with Foble to investigate all unstable factors in Los Angeles.

The thugs in the several blocks near the Kodak Theater were driven to other neighborhoods, and police and Agent Foblet patrolled the streets to ensure safety.

Of course, these people are not free. The Oscar organizers paid a considerable amount of money to these police officers and detectives.

A 600-meter-long red carpet has been laid out, and the red carpet camera also has a five-meter-high enlarged model of the Academy Awards trophy, which looks magnificent.

There are media areas and fan viewing areas on both sides of the red carpet. Cameras and surveillance cameras are in place. Police, agents, and security personnel are also deployed to ensure everyone's safety.

Because the weather in Los Angeles in March is unpredictable and it may rain, a tent was set up at the starting point of the red carpet for the celebrities and guests walking the red carpet to take a rest.

At 2:00 p.m., the helicopter of ABC TV, which broadcast the Oscars live, was already hovering overhead. The live broadcast site was also ready for live broadcast at any time.

However, to prevent accidents, ABC's live broadcast will be delayed by thirty seconds.

Naomi Watts is pregnant and it is not convenient for her to attend the Oscars ceremony. She was also scared by what happened last time, so she watched the live broadcast at home this time.

Therefore, it is Scarlett who will accompany Gilbert Jr. on the Oscar red carpet this time. Anne Hathaway will walk with the crew of "The Return of the King", while Gilbert Jr. will take Scarlett on the red carpet alone.

At 3:30 in the afternoon, Gilbert Jr. brought Scarlett, who was wearing a yellow dress, to the tent at the starting point of the red carpet. It was drizzling a little at this time, but it did not affect the enthusiasm of the fans at all.

Walking on the red carpet again, Scarlett has become quite mature. She held Gilbert's arm and followed Gilbert to greet the celebrity guests who were waiting in the tent.

"Hi, Sally!" Little Gilbert chatted with Steven Soderbergh and happened to see Charlize Theron coming.

"Sister Sally," Scarlett also greeted sweetly.

Charlize Theron touched Scarlett's head. She is tall and has long legs, while Scarlett is indeed not tall, and there is an inexplicable height contrast between the two of them.

"Are you confident that you will win this time?" Gilbert Jr. asked Charlize Theron.

Charlize Theron expressed her confidence: "Don't worry, with your support, I am certainly confident. How do you want me to thank you?"

"Let's talk about it when we get back. We can't talk about this here." Little Gilbert looked around.

Charlize Theron rolled her eyes: "Huh, what's the matter? This is our family affair, no one else has any right to interfere."

While they were chatting, Tom Cruise and his wife came over to say hello and introduced someone to Gilbert: "This is Heath Ledger, an Australian actor."

"Hello, Director Gilbert Jr."

Today, Heath Ledger is at most a second-tier actor, and he seems a little nervous when he meets a big director like Gilbert Jr.

Gilbert Jr. simply shook hands with Heath Ledger, then turned to Nicole Kidman and said, "It looks like your Australian gang is going to grow again."

After Gilbert Jr. brought Mel Jebson in, Nicole Kidman undoubtedly became the face of the Australian gang.

So when some new Australian actors enter Hollywood, they tend to rally around Nicole Kidman.

In fact, Naomi Watts is also considered to be from the Australian gang, and her qualifications are even better than Nicole Kidman. However, she is pregnant after all, and has rarely appeared in public recently.

Nicole Kidman smiled and said, "Thank you for your care. I hope you can find more of our Australian actors. They are all very good."

"Okay, okay..." Little Gilbert agreed casually, all these words were just for show.

As we were chatting, the curtain of the award ceremony slowly opened.

(End of this chapter)