Chapter 776: How the Movie Was Murdered

In many cases, the producer is a kind of confinement and restriction to the director's creation, but sometimes, this kind of confinement and restriction may not be a bad thing.

A considerable proportion of directors, once they get out of the reins, tend to run wildly on the road of artistic creation.

This may not be a bad thing for film art itself, but for film companies, it often means that extremely horrible tragedies will happen.

After all, a good movie needs a certain amount of investment to be made. If there is no commercial interest, the film company will naturally not have the interest in investing.

Compared with his Hollywood counterparts, Relativity Entertainment's movies have a strong commercial atmosphere, and Ronan never hides it.

He is a producer, but also a film businessman.

In the next two weekends, the leading releases in the North American film market are "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Escape from Clone Island". Those who know Hollywood are generally more familiar with these two films.

After that, Relativity Entertainment will make another hot debut, and the first animated feature film "Despicable Me" of Shahai Entertainment Animation Studio will be released soon.

The promotion and distribution of this film is progressing in an orderly manner. Thanks to the good response of the short film "Minions", the resulting "Despicable Me" has attracted considerable attention.

Especially in the successive previews in April, "Despicable Me" has been unanimously recognized by the media and movie fans.

Then there is the Memorial Day holiday, George Lucas has already publicly announced the end of the "Star Wars" series "Revenge of the Sith", which occupies this excellent schedule.

This can be said to be the most watched movie in the summer of 2005, because everyone knows that Anakin Skywalker will fall into darkness, and the super popular character Black Lord Darth Vader is about to return.

It is difficult for Ronan himself to appreciate space opera sci-fi films such as "Star Wars", especially incapable of accepting soft lightsaber fights, but from a commercial point of view, he is very clear that this is the No. A big IP.

Regardless of the box office, Lucasfilm's peripheral revenue alone has exceeded 20 billion US dollars since the release of "Star Wars: A New Hope".

This series made George Lucas the recognized richest man in Hollywood.

Ronan has been creating the persona of enthusiastic alumni of the USC Film Academy, and has also accepted George Lucas' invitation to attend the premiere of "Revenge of the Sith".

Perhaps, feeling the atmosphere and charm of "Star Wars" at close range will make Ronan more confident in his future plans.

Regardless of whether he admits it or not, Ronan is on a very special development path: following the path of Walt Disney, leaving Walt Disney with nowhere to go in the future.

This week, 20th Century Fox held a huge premiere for Kingdom of Heaven.

After all, a film project with a total investment of US$200 million in production plus publicity is definitely at the top level of investment in the industry.

When the weekend came, Ronan took the time to go to the theater in Beverly Hills and watch this movie.

Along with Jessica Felton, who just returned to Los Angeles from New Mexico.

"Why do you suddenly want to invite me to watch a movie together?"

Inside the box on the second floor of the theater,

Jessica Felton looked at Ronan curiously: "Any thoughts?"

Ronan took a bottle of mineral water, stuffed it into Jessica Felton's hand, and said, "Don't worry, I don't want to chase you. A man invites a woman to watch a movie, it may not be a date, it may be Work reasons."

Jessica Felton unscrewed the mineral water, took a sip, and emphasized: "I eat by technology."

Ronan turned back to the topic: "This is Ridley Scott's war epic film. There are many rumors about Ridley Scott and Twentieth Century Fox in this film."

"I've heard of it." Jessica Felton is no longer the house girl editor before, and there are many sources of information: "The power game between the producer and the director..."

Speaking of which, she shook her head slightly: "It's not really a game, I heard that Ridley Scott didn't argue too much, and after 20th Century Fox emphasized it a few times, he voluntarily agreed to shorten the movie's duration."

Ronan said softly: "Ridley Scott disagrees and there is nothing he can do, after all, he does not have the final editing rights."

Jessica Felton was thoughtful: "Kingdom of Heaven had a good reputation in the trial screening, but the response after the premiere was not good. Is it related to this?"

"Very likely." Ronan roughly guessed: "It is estimated that the version released to the public is the producer's second edit on Ridley Scott's director's cut version, deleting nearly 60 Minutes."

Jessica Felton is a producer and is used to this role and position, so she will naturally think about it from the perspective of a producer: "The length of Ridley Scott's director's cut is also too exaggerated. Now, even if he has to take a longer time to express something, it must be moderate."

She frowned slightly: "The scale of investment in this film determines that the director cannot act willfully."

The lights in the cinema hall were turned off, and the picture on the big screen was turned on. Ronan said, "Let's watch the movie first, and then talk about other things."

Once upon a time, Kingdom of Heaven was the poster child for a film whose release and director's cuts were so different that they hardly looked like the same film.

After seeing the released version, you will find it strange that although the quality of Ridley Scott's film is uneven, it is not so bad, right?

Then I downloaded the director's cut version from the Internet, and after watching it, I suddenly realized that this is the film Ridley Scott wanted to shoot.

What is shown on the screen now is very similar to the public version that Ronan has seen before. The length of a little over two hours is just right for the first-line big production at the end of the year, but it is a bit unsettling.

The main reason is that many plots are inexplicable.

The role of Eva Green has almost no meaning of existence, but it is also the heroine. The whole function of existence seems to be to connect the contradictory relationships of several characters, and talk about love with Orlando Bloom by the way, and talk so covertly She didn't even show her body.

Eva Green has never been a good movie star.

Orlando Bloom lost the opportunity to blacksmith in "Pirates of the Caribbean" because of Ronan's relationship, but in "Kingdom of Heaven", he finally became a blacksmith.

When acting skills reach a certain level, it is very subjective to judge good or bad, but if the acting skills are too different, people can still tell at a glance.

In this film, Orlando Bloom is typical.

Edward Norton wears a mask from beginning to end, but any rivalry with Orlando Bloom makes people feel that the masked man is the protagonist!

The difference in acting skills is really too great, so big that a layman can tell the difference at a glance.

More importantly, in the screened version, Orlando Bloom's character is very tall and abrupt. He was obviously a blacksmith at the beginning. How did he become a talented leader once he inherited the title? And I feel that Orlando has nothing to do. Silence is golden all the time, just keep a cool face from beginning to end.

If Ronan recalls correctly, this was the last time Orlando Bloom appeared in a Hollywood A-list production.

Orlando Bloom, who had a fantastic start to his movie career with "Lord of the Rings," hasn't had much luck since then.

Without the little blacksmith of "Pirates of the Caribbean", the blacksmith of "Kingdom of Heaven" will only act as a drag on the work...

Orlando Bloom's future has become crystal clear.

When Ronan saw the end, he could see Ridley Scott's ambitions in this kind of film. Probably he really wanted to make "Kingdom of Heaven" an epic, and it was a film in the traditional sense. epic.

Someone once said on the Internet that if you watch the two versions of "Kingdom of Heaven" together, it may be more valuable, and it will give people more inspiration: it will allow people to witness how a movie with good quality was murdered.

Many people said at the time that if Ridley Scott's version was released in theaters, "Kingdom of Heaven" might have a very different fate.

At first Ronan thought it made sense.

However, he has operated many films in Hollywood, and has been constantly researching the North American and even global film markets. Ronan's views and ideas now are completely different from those at that time.

Even if Kingdom of Heaven does end up in theaters with this director's cut, its box office fortunes may not be much better, because the pace is too slow and the plot is too long.

The premiere of "Kingdom of Heaven" was not well received, and its box office fate is completely predictable.

But it's impossible to put all the responsibility on 20th Century Fox. In Ronan's eyes, Ridley Scott also needs to be responsible for this.

His shooting determines that it takes a long time to express the story of the film clearly.

As for the later editing of Twentieth Century Fox, it can be described in one sentence: keep the most expensive and grand shots, and don’t want anything else.

Then there is really a problem with the casting of the leading actor in the film.

Orlando Bloom is one of the weakest links in the whole film, a protagonist can't support a movie like a model can't support a dress.

Maybe Orlando Bloom is very hardworking, but it has to be said that he has no acting talent.

Orlando Bloom is still more suitable as a vase, and Legolas plays very well.

After watching the film, Ronan and Jessica Felton quietly exited.

"How do you feel?" Ronan asked directly, "Is it the same as the rumors?"

Jessica Felton nodded slightly: "It's really bad, worse than I expected."

Ronan chimed in: "It's hardly a Ridley Scott movie."

"This film made me think of one thing." Jessica Felton obviously felt: "Twentieth Century Fox did something wrong."