Made in Hollywood

Because of his own identity, Duke can say very little, and it is unknown how much the other party can listen to when he speaks these words. As a person who is sensible most of the time, this is just what he once felt. With little emotion, Duke is very clear that he will not be the one leading the development of Chinese film.

Moreover, he will not give too much attention to Chinese films and Chinese filmmakers, and he will not get into the water to select some Chinese actors and cast them into Hollywood superstars.

Not to mention it is now, even in a few years, it will not be possible.

Hollywood's exclusion and invisible discrimination against actors and other filmmakers from non-English speaking areas is actually quite obvious.

The problems caused by the entire social environment cannot be changed by one person at all. Anyone with a little bit of mind knows this.

When it comes to the development of some Chinese films, Duke seldom speaks again. The topic of Zuoshan Diao and Phil has also turned to the many issues of the introduction of Warner Bros. films into the Chinese market.

Although not much involved, Duke is still very concerned about the content of the discussion between the two, after all, this will also involve his future movies.

Phil first mentioned the release date of Warner's film, and believed that once the China Film Group introduced it, it should determine the release date as soon as possible to avoid collisions between the schedules of different films.

The protection month for domestic films here has always been a problem, and Warner hopes to enter the Chinese market during this period.

On the other hand, marketing is the key to the life and death of a movie. If Warner can determine the movie's release date in China, it can let the star go to China for interviews and build momentum for the movie's publicity.

"China's cinemas and the film itself can benefit from it, and taxation can also increase. This is a win-win-win move, as long as marketing can be prepared in advance."

Phil's obviously had enough preparation. "Transparency is also very important to ensure that theater box office revenue can be returned to the China Film Group, producers and investors."

The words of the mountain eagle and Phil are basically working on these four issues-protection month, release date, marketing and transparency.

In fact, these four issues Warner and China Film Group have been discussing and working hard to solve them, but the progress has not been much.

In addition, the two people also discussed co-productions, involving not only Hollywood movies, but also Chinese-language movies.

The popularity of "Transformers". It also allowed Warner to fully see how great the potential of this market is. Capital wants to maximize profits, and Warner also wants to truly enter the Chinese film industry.

The number of imported films each year is limited, not to mention a mountain eagle, even the entire China Film Group can do nothing about it. This is part of the China-US WTO Agreement.

Therefore, not all Warner's major productions can be introduced into the Chinese market.

Compared with making movies, Duke pays less attention to this aspect, although he has his own agents at Warner Bros. and Time Warner, and he will also have a strong voice in matters related to his own interests. But for a considerable amount of time, he was not very involved in Warner's operations.

Filmmaking and operating a film company are also two completely different professions.

Hollywood is a relatively small group of people actually involved in film production. Filmmakers are familiar with each other. If you look at their resumes, you will find that they have worked in many crews, and even in different departments of different crews. In many ways, this is a small group.

This ability to cooperate with each other in a stressful environment. It may take a year or even longer to make a movie. But after the production was completed, people came quickly and scattered quickly. There was a gypsy feeling. It was very challenging and people who were not familiar with each other gathered together. The time spent making a movie together may be longer.

In any case, in this world, anyone who creates something, hopes that someone will like it, and then continue to create the next work.

Duke can be said to be a typical in this regard. The movies he made were never for himself or a small group of people.

As he said to Zuo Shan Diao before, the cost of making movies is very high, and some movies do require only a small cost, but most excellent movies require large-scale investment to make the movie well, and it involves the participation of a large number of people. , This is true in the United States, and it is the same in China.

About 95% of film professionals have no chance to walk on the red carpet or get on the cover of movie magazines. These people are conscientious behind the camera and work hard every day.

Electricians, woodworkers, make-up workers, truck drivers, plumbers... They are all working hard to create the movie. If you sit for a while after the movie is over, you can see their names in the ending subtitles.

To gather so many people together and to work hard, it is never art and ideals, but real money. If there is not enough money in return, what about excellent film production.

For example, films such as "Shawshank's Redemption" are regarded as classics by many people. They do have sufficient quality assurance, but it takes more than ten years to generate profits. If you know that this will happen, the Castle Rock Company of the year This project will definitely be rejected.

In Hollywood, no matter what type of film it is, film companies are willing to invest in production in order to make a profit and generate profit as quickly as possible.

Time cost is also cost, and inflation that cannot be ignored.

If Hollywood companies are now to choose between "Cars" and "Robot Walle", 100% will choose the former instead of the more classic latter.

Later, Duke also inserted a few sentences in the protection month and the release date.

The farther a movie is released overseas from North America, the greater the possibility of loss.

Anyone’s films can appear in the Chinese market. Of course, they want to be released in the summer files in July and August, the Lunar New Year files in December, and the Spring Festival period. The next May and November holidays are also good. If Hollywood’s Commercial masterpieces can be released in these time periods, which will undoubtedly create higher box office revenue figures.

However, it is impossible now. The domestically produced protection month prohibits the premiere of foreign commercial masterpieces, which means that the original introduction films can continue to be screened, but new introduction films are not allowed to be released during this period.

Of course, except for imported films whose screening rights are bought out by China Film Group.

Duke definitely wants to get his film into these schedules, but it all takes time and is difficult to solve in the short term.

After meeting with the statue of the mountain eagle, Duke took part in publicity activities in several other big cities in China. After spending the third weekend in China, he flew to Tokyo by business jet.

"Transformers" also screened in China for two full weeks.

After closing the box office of 325.6 million RMB in the first week, "Transformers" showed a decline in the next week, but it still swept everything in the Chinese film market. In the seven days of the second week, it easily won 2 Billion 96.24 million RMB.

Within two weeks of its release, "Transformers" has set the highest box office record in Chinese film history-621.84 million RMB.

China Film Group and Chinese media also quietly changed the film’s box office forecast to RMB 1 billion.

Just when Duke flew to Tokyo, the latest news came from Warner Greater China. China Film Group is very likely to get the key to the postponement of "Transformers", which means that the film may create a terrifying scene in China. Box office numbers.

The film is popular in China, and it is no exception everywhere in the world. Although it is not a sequel movie like The Dark Knight, the theme of "Transformers" at the beginning of the series is more relaxed, the scene is more popular, and it is easier to attract the audience.

Even in the relatively mature North American market, this severely popcorn-oriented movie is no exception.

Moreover, a slightly more sensible media will not treat such a commercial masterpiece with the attitude of the award-winning film.

Coupled with the public relations of Warner Bros., compared with the professional film critics who lacked attention, the major mainstream media praised the film's 3D and special effects.

"Chicago Tribune" said that by seeing "Transformers", you can understand the audience's feelings when they saw "King Kong" in 1933; "Los Angeles Times" believes that whether the audience chooses 3D or normal mode, "Transformers" brings shock It is worth watching and awe, the film will give people an unprecedented visual impact; "Detroit News" praised "Transformers" in terms of real movie special effects can be called unparalleled; "Empire" praised "Transformers" for the audience It was a huge surprise experience. The new technology allows the director to make movies like a sand table...

The latest issue of "Time" magazine North America selected Optimus Prime as the cover character, and commented like this-"Transformers" is actually a film we have seen before, but the bold production method is like we have never seen before , It is the "Star Wars" of our time.

In the blazing sun, two students in their twenties quickly passed through the red-brown promenade in the film school of the University of Southern California, and walked quickly toward the classroom. This is different from the previous practice classes. Today It was a theory class.

The USC Film Academy is one of Hollywood's most important reserve talent bases, and the study career here will be closely linked with Hollywood, which is within easy reach.

The two students talked as they walked, and the focus of the discussion was the character to be discussed and studied in this theory class, and his movie.

"Joseph, if "Transformers" won US$311.21 million in North America and more than US$670 million in the world after its release in two weeks, or a failed movie, then what is a successful movie? "

The man named Joseph shrugged and asked, "Carter, is this a movie? It's just a commercial that relies on special effects technology!"

Carter originally wanted to say something, but the two of them had already walked to the classroom, so they had to shut up temporarily, chose a front seat and sat down, and then looked at the front projection screen, which was the subject of this theory class— —What makes Duke? Rosenberg so unique! (To be continued...)

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