Chapter 1927: 1927 Screenwriter Identity

The east coast of the North American continent has already felt the pain of the raging winter, only the southernmost state of Florida is still sunny, where "The Truman Show" is being filmed in full swing; and the west coast of the North American continent is not only free of ice and snow—— Besides Seattle, California is also buzzing with holiday gear.

This year’s summer season was quite satisfactory—it can even be said to be a big disappointment. Not only did it fail to reproduce the glory of “Independence Day” last year, but the current annual box office champion has been won by “LA Confidential”, and the autumn season beat the summer season. This is also the first time in North American film history.

Now, everyone is looking forward to the holidays, to see if Thanksgiving combined with the power of Christmas can reproduce the glory of the box office and bring the North American box office market back to the "normal track". Even the most courageous people have no way Imagine that the North American annual champion belongs to a suspenseful drama work in autumn.

It's a pity that people are disappointed. Although works such as "The King of Fighters 2: Annihilation (Mortal. Kombat: Annihilation)" and "Dr. Oolong (Flubber)" performed well, they are far from being comparable to the summer files, and even more so. Stop talking about "LA Confidential".

There are only two weeks left in 1997, and there is not much time left for the North American film market. "LA Confidential" actually made history and won the national and global box office championship in 1997, only two weeks away. This surprised the major film companies, and many media began to panic. Now, all hopes are pinned on three new titles coming out in the third week of December.

"Titanic", "Tomorrow. Never. Dies" and "As Good as It Gets".

This is a very interesting thing, such a confrontation is rare even in the summer, the collision of the three works, the result is even more unpredictable, Paramount and 20th Century Fox teamed up against MGM Pictures, Sony Columbia Pictures, and the eight major Hollywood film companies accounted for half of the country this week, and the ending of the confrontation is also full of countless possibilities.

As the work with the highest investment at the end of the century, "Titanic" has been full of countless topics since the beginning of filming. The initial investment was only 100 million US dollars, but it gradually began to lose control. James Cameron seemed to never be able to get enough The cost control is like a runaway wild horse, first broke through 150 million, and then broke through 165 million... Before the movie was released, Paramount and 20th Century Fox officially announced the cost The data is impressive - 200 million US dollars.

This is the first work in film history with a cost of 200 million US dollars. More importantly, unlike "Independence Day", the two leading actors of "Titanic" Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate - Neither Winslet is at the top level, and the combined remuneration of both of them is no more than one Hugo, which means that "Titanic" squandered sky-high shooting costs.

In addition, the shooting cycle of "Titanic" was delayed again and again. It was originally scheduled to be completed in six months, but then it was delayed to eight months, and finally it took nine months to complete the shooting. Not to mention that as a director, James is well-known for his violent temper. He has repeatedly clashed with other crew members, and constant trivial unfavorable news has caused Paramount and 20th Century Fox to be devastated.

All this reminds people of a familiar work - "Future Water World".

Although "Independence Day" created an unbelievable box office miracle last year, none of the works in this summer's file were able to replicate such a development track, which gradually extinguished the enthusiasm in the North American market, and people once again thought of "Future Water". World" -- and "Batman & Robin."

The same cost is out of control again and again, the same is the constant internal contradictions of the crew, the same is the work of computer special effects, the same is the theme of "water", and the same is far from topical. Works higher than the film itself...

There are too many similarities between "Titanic" and "Waterworld of the Future", and the cost of the former is unbelievably breaking through 200 million US dollars - what does this mean? It means that even if the film's North American box office exceeds 400 million US dollars, it may not be able to achieve profitability, and it must rely on the popularity of the global box office to achieve its goal; it means that "Titanic" must replicate the "Independence Day"-style miracle to satisfy the two major The appetite of the production company can avoid the possibility of replacing "Future Water World" as the first disaster in film history.

This is almost an impossible task.

All the media are lively discussing the box office prospects of "Titanic", and more than two-thirds of the people are not optimistic that this work can create a box office miracle, and some of them even think that "this work will become the most terrible movie in film history." a catastrophe" view, and has plenty of support; the remaining third, while less straightforward, don't hold out much hope that "Titanic" will achieve "Independence Day"-level results , I just think that this work may not be a disaster, but it is also difficult to create a miracle.

Even before its release, the prospects for "Titanic" were clouded.

More importantly, the opponent of "Titanic" is an absolute summer class heavyweight player: "007: Tomorrow's Empire".

Two years ago, "Golden Eye of 007" was released, and Pierce Brosnan took over the position of James Bond. In comparison, the box office has also achieved great success, which has revitalized the "007" series and made the precarious MGM once again grasp the straw.

Now, "007's Tomorrow's Empire" is coming, costing 110 million US dollars, and the momentum is huge.

Originally, MGM planned to release it in the summer of this year, but due to the late start of filming - the filming did not start until April this year, and it was not completed until September. But it was too late to postpone the release until next summer, and MGM simply couldn't afford to wait, so it was arranged to be released in the holiday file, looking forward to the long holiday that can bring excellent results to the film.

When "007: Tomorrow's Empire" collides with the "Titanic", who will win the final victory? Most of the media chose the former, not only because of the excellent results of the previous "007: Golden Eye", Pierce Brosnan was also well received; moreover, because of the strong appeal of the "007" series, it is difficult for fans to watch movies. offset the appeal; also because people thought that "Titanic" had a good chance of being a disaster.

This makes this week's North American weekend box office rankings extremely exciting. Whether it is "007: Tomorrow's Empire" crushing "Titanic", or "Titanic" crushing "007: Tomorrow's Empire", this is the most important thing for failure. For the latter, it is a tragic loss; or if there is a situation where both win and lose miserably, it is even more unpredictable. Even in the summer, such a grand event is rare.

What's more, no one will forget the existence of "as good as it gets".

As a comedy-drama film, "As Good as It Gets" cost $50 million, which is not inferior to the two works released at the same time. Although this work is just a comedy movie, first of all, it is incomparable with the two competitors in terms of magnitude, but it is absolutely not inferior in terms of attention, and even slightly better.

Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and James L-Brooks have a lot to talk about; but none compare to Hugo, who appeared on the credits list as a screenwriter. This is Hugo's second work as an independent screenwriter after "Before Sunrise", and unlike "Before Sunrise", Hugo did not participate in the performance this time, he was just a pure writer screenwriter. This will also become an important test-the best time to verify Hugo's screenwriting skills and standards.

The expectation for Hugo's screenwriter's works also keeps the topic of "perfect" hot.

Interestingly, Hugo and the "Titanic" are also very close. He was once infinitely close to the actor's position, but he finally rejected the proposal and recommended it to his close friend Leonardo, but Yu Guo still played a cameo role in the movie; and now "Titanic" is trying to copy the box office of Hugo's classic "Independence Day", and it also has to compete with Hugo's screenwriting work "As Good as It Gets". It is full of wit and wit.

Faced with such a lively scene, although the reporters did not find Seaside to interview Hugo, they still contacted Hugo for a telephone interview. Nicholas McClenn's aggressive question made Hugo laugh, "I'm right" 'Titanic' is confident, it's a very good piece of work, I just hope 'As Good as It gets' isn't too ugly - I'll be reading the reviews, especially the writing part."

Nicholas was rather surprised. In terms of box office selection, Hugo chose "Titanic" without any hesitation, which is completely different from the current mainstream thinking in the media. "Haven't you read the papers lately? Nobody thinks so."

"Nick, are you sure you want to discuss the correctness of the media's views with me?" Hugo's rhetorical question also made Nicholas laugh.

"Of course, why not, because this time I think the media's point of view is correct." Nicholas replied with a smile, but he heard Hugo smacking his lips noncommittally, "Otherwise we bet, the box office of 'Titanic' will definitely Frustrated."

"Business or private?" Hugo became interested.

Nicholas thought for a while, but he still didn't intend to make Leonardo look bad, so he said, "Private matter."

"Success! What about the bet?" Hugo was completely intrigued.

Nicholas thought about it seriously, "In public interviews with the media, shout out the other party's name and say 'I love you'."

Hugo laughed loudly, "Nick, I will definitely not accept your show of love." That tone seemed to have won the bet, making Nicholas dumbfounded.