Six Hundred and Forty-Eight-1 My Heart Is for Sony’s Paul

There are few sequels in Hollywood, and few can surpass their predecessors in reputation after release. There are many reasons why this common situation occurs, but it is difficult for sequels to meet the expectations of movie fans. This is a headache for many film companies.

The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment will be when the film begins a wide release and fans find that it does not live up to their expectations. In the short term, it will affect the box office trend of the film, causing the film to fail to meet the expectations of the film company. The long-term impact will be even greater. Even a film with a bad reputation will have an immeasurable impact on subsequent works.

What Shirley Lansing is most looking forward to is for this to happen on Warner Bros.'s DC series, specifically "The Flash." A Greenberg-style superhero movie that fans around the world are looking forward to, if it is discovered after its release that this movie does not meet the expectations of most people, the scene must be very exciting, right?

"Ms. Lansing, I am very grateful to Paramount for giving me the opportunity to perform, but I must remind you that he is Wayne Greenberg! Although I personally dislike him very much, I have to admit that in the market control In terms of power and fan taste, he has never deviated from the public's appetite, even in those early films that were violent and bloody!"

Before directors Mimi Ryder and Morgan Freeman left, the black movie star looked at the woman's back, hesitated for a long time, and then said these words before bowing his head and leaving.

Now his career is steadily on the rise, and he has very high expectations for this film. You know, once a science fiction film wins the favor of the audience in the early stages of its release, the box office often grows explosively. The possibility of becoming a phenomenon-level film is The biggest, even bigger than horror films that are known for their small scope. After all, the investment in science fiction films is naturally much higher.

Whether it was Mimi Ryder, the director and producer, or Shirley Lansing, who kept looking out the window with her cup of coffee, they actually didn’t take Morgan Freeman’s words to heart. There are people like them. One characteristic is self-confidence.

Compared to vague speculations, they believe more in the news they get from their own ears and the judgments they make after careful consideration in their heads.

Especially the person who spoke, who doesn’t know that if Morgan Freeman hadn’t used his big mouth and used his temper to crazily smear Wayne, which touched the bottom line of Warner Bros., a series of subsequent unfortunate events would not have happened. Attacked all at once for no reason.

No one will underestimate a media giant that wants to establish its reputation, especially when it ranks among the top three in the world. That is to say, after that incident, no individual star in the entire Hollywood dared to use despicable methods against Wayne again.

Therefore, both of them had the same idea in their minds, that is, Morgan Freeman was scared once. It is true that it is normal to be afraid. Normal people who go through such an experience and quickly transform from a nationally renowned star to a criminal, and then a group of big lawyers continue to cause trouble like mad dogs will feel the malice of capital.

Shirley Lansing was the only one left in the Paramount office. It seemed like she was looking at the busy traffic downstairs and the tourists attracted by Hollywood. In fact, her head didn't stop working for a moment, and she kept thinking. Looking at gains and losses, we want to find those conditions that are most beneficial to Paramount.

This year is different from previous years. This year's Paramount Pictures' head project is only "Collision", which means that the success rate must be guaranteed.

Leaving aside the company's other bits and pieces of small projects, that is not something she should consider. Just talk about the production cost of "Collision", which is claimed to be as high as 75 million US dollars. But in reality, the cost is much higher than this.

If you include the messy expenses such as promotion, marketing, distribution, etc., this number will double, which is Paramount’s real investment cost. Therefore, Shirley Lanxi cannot afford not to think too much.

"Yes, his name is Wayne Greenberg... No one can underestimate Wayne Greenberg... No matter what... we must ensure that "Crash" "The success..."

In the empty big office, the intermittent mutterings of the Paramount CEO could be heard. Not long after, a middle-aged woman wearing a ladies' skirt turned around and walked neatly back to the desk, put down the cold coffee in her hand, and looked at her. Sharply picked up the phone on the table.

"Yes, I need to think about it, ok, I will discuss it with the book people as soon as possible, but... well, no but, I will call you back before tomorrow night at the latest, that's it, bay."

Paul slowly put down the phone in the office of the head of distribution at Sony's Columbia Pictures headquarters at 10202 West Washington Avenue in Los Angeles. He crossed his hands and placed them on the desk in front of him. After taking a deep breath, he slowly leaned back on the office chair, frowning as he considered the phone call he had just made.

Risks and benefits coexist. This is the conclusion reached after careful consideration. This is Hollywood, where kindness and innocence have never had the soil to grow.

Thinking of this, his eyes unknowingly became firm. He raised his hand and picked up the phone on the table again. After waiting for more than ten seconds, he whispered: "I am Paul. Is Mr. Dahe busy? Yes, things are very serious. It's important and urgent, okay, I'll be right over..."

After hanging up the phone, he didn't hesitate at all. He stood up, straightened his suit, and went straight to the CEO's office. Along the way, he kept thinking, thinking about the feasibility of the woman's plan, thinking about how to persuade the CEO of Benziyi, thinking about Sony Columbia, no, what benefits he could get from it.

"Clang, clang, clang."

Standing in front of the office door of Sony Columbia's CEO, Paul nodded politely to his secretary, raised his hand and knocked on the door. With a very awkward accent, he opened the door and walked in.

In recent times, the CEO of Japan has been keeping an eye on the progress of "Godzilla". For local executives in North America, this film may be just one of the company's ordinary large-scale investment projects and has no other meaning, but It's different for Ohgao, because this monster comes from the book.

Without any polite greetings, Paul, the distribution director, completely recounted the contents of the phone call, and the rest was a long silence.

The CEO is also carefully considering the feasibility. Yes, the benefits of doing so are visible to the naked eye, especially for "Godzilla", which he cares about very much. It is definitely a major benefit, but he has more concerns. .

It has been nearly ten years since Sony acquired Columbia Pictures from the Coca-Cola Company in 1989. In the eyes of most Hollywood film companies, after such a long time, this company still enjoys the treatment of an outsider in all aspects. This has to be It's sad to say that.

Especially since Columbia Pictures has been in a state of chaos for so many years, as if it will never get over the pain of being acquired. Until the past two years, Sony Columbia's life has been relatively easy. The continued success of small and medium-cost projects has also given Ohga the opportunity to slowly reorganize the company.

But he has never forgotten that the reason why Sony Columbia was able to make a fortune quietly by relying on small and medium-cost projects was due to the fact that in the past two years, other giants had targeted Warner Brothers together. Of course, the result was obvious. Wayne went crazy. He also played a trick in arranging his troops in the summer season, causing several film companies that targeted him to suffer heavy losses.

It is precisely because of these bad things that Sony Columbia did not participate because they were too busy to take care of themselves. Therefore, similar to 20th Century Fox, they took advantage of Warner Brothers to beat those companies to silently release their own projects. What is even more rare is that a large number of Chinese Low-cost projects have good returns.

Dahexiong was fed up with being targeted by other companies in unison and treating Sony Colombia as an outsider. This was what he was most worried about now. If we follow the wishes of the distribution director, will Sony Columbia be in trouble with Warner Bros.?

"The reason why the previous works in the DC series were so successful..."

Seeing the CEO getting entangled, Paul curled his lips inwardly, feeling that the other person came from a small place after all and was in a dilemma when things happened. He looked down on the other person's appearance of wanting candy but being afraid of being beaten. He thought for a moment and said in a low voice:

"I have carefully analyzed that the most important reason for his continued success is undoubtedly Wayne Greenberg's strong personal style that cannot be imitated. This is also the biggest difference between him and other niche noir film directors. The audience has grown up Familiar characters, familiar stories, coupled with his dark stylized treatment and master-level storytelling ability, make DC comic book superheroes so unique."

Da Hexiong, who was opposite the office worker, nodded silently, obviously very much in agreement with his own opinion. He continued:

“Whether it’s the ultimate special effects scenes, the shocking space layout like an epic opera, or the story design that is so clever that you can’t find faults, and the discussion of various social issues in the film, it can be said that "The Dark Knight" They have all reached their peak on the big screen! But...

But we all know that the internal test screenings of "The Flash" were rumored to be controversial, and the biggest controversy was the change in style. My personal analysis is that Wayne Greenberg himself knew that he could not surpass "The Dark Knight" in the same style, so he had no choice but to take the risk and make a bold transformation to see if he could find another way. "

As Paul narrated, Dahexiong's eyes became brighter and brighter, and he couldn't help but say: "The risk of a great director's rash transformation is extremely high, and there are very few successful ones. If the film causes dissatisfaction among the audience after it is released, our good The opportunity is here!”

"That's right." Paul nodded and closed his mouth tightly.

"Since we have chosen to release it on the same weekend and take advantage of the huge popularity of "The Flash" in the promotion, there is nothing to hesitate!" CEO Ben Ziyi gritted his teeth hard, looked up sharply at the man across the desk, and said in a deep voice Said: "You are responsible for contacting that woman, I will leave this matter to you! I'm sorry to trouble you! Paul Sang."

"ok, no problem."

No one knows what Paul is thinking in his heart. At least on the surface, he appears to be working hard for Sony Columbia and "Godzilla" initiated by the original CEO.