Six Hundred and Thirty-Four - the Biggest Oscar Nomination Tragedy in History!

Although he holds a large share of Warner Bros., Wayne has never tried to intervene in the management and operation of Warner Bros. Even at the shareholders' meeting, his representative only followed his instructions and unconditionally treated Jeff Rowe. Binov suggested raising his hand.

Today's Warner Bros. has already embarked on the right path under his influence. In addition, he understands very well that what he has studied and is good at has never been about the operation of the film company. Interfering arbitrarily will only make continuous wrong decisions.

This is a giant company in the film industry, and it is definitely not monolithic within the company. It is normal for various factions to restrain each other and compete with each other.

Wayne has long understood that even if he manages to enter the management of this giant by relying on the shares in his hands, he will only add another faction, which is far worse than the current situation. No one can ignore his influence within the company. .

Coupled with the leadership of Jeff Robinoff, Warner Bros.'s strategy has been very clear in recent years, and various sequel films with large investments and large productions have emerged one after another.

Uninterrupted success can cover up all internal disputes. In the end, shareholders only care about revenue. As long as the company can bring them large amounts of revenue, they don't care who sits on the CEO's seat.

The turning point of the matter was that at a cocktail party held by the company's top executives, Jeff Robinov personally revealed that he intended to retire at the top of his career.

Today's Warner Bros. is the number one production and distribution company in Hollywood. No one can help but be tempted by the position of its leader, including of course some ambitious executives, and Alan Horn is obviously sending out The one with the earlier voice.

But no matter who is interested in this position, they can't get around Wayne. This is the embodiment of his influence at Warner Bros.

Originally, in the minds of countless company executives and shareholders, Bros-Rosenblum was the first choice. Whether it was qualifications or abilities, he was all qualified. Coupled with his good personal relationship with Wayne, everyone knew that now To stand up is to go against him.

“It won’t cause turmoil for Warner Bros., right?”

After understanding the whole reason, Wayne frowned and thought for a while, then suddenly raised his head and looked at Bruce Rosenblum sitting next to him.

"At least not now."

The head of distribution at Warner Bros. shrugged and said with an unsightly expression: "But it won't be certain in two years. As long as Jeff is still here, no one will dare to make big moves."

In fact, what Wayne least wants to see is that Warner Bros. has too many people who can make various voices as he remembered. When the company falls into a struggle and the turmoil does not end, the film project will become a victim of the struggle. Red-eyed film company executives will not hesitate to use any means to achieve their own goals.

Just like Walt Disney in recent years, Michael Eisner's domineering style has become increasingly unbearable to shareholders. Everyone could tolerate his character when he was doing great things for Disney, but when things didn't go as planned for Disney, all kinds of struggles arose.

Today's Disney, film projects and traditional animation projects are all performing very weakly. When The Lion King exhausted the last glimmer of hand-drawn animation, internal efforts had begun to challenge Michael Eisner for the limelight.

Although the current Disney Emperor is still able to suppress the constant internal opposition, it is inevitable that in this media group, infighting has become the main theme, and even some projects have become victims of various internal compromises.

"but......"

Bruce Rosenblum's fingers tapped on the desk, making a rhythmic sound. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly and he said hesitantly: "Although Alan Horn is usually quiet, since Jeff was promoted to CEO, most of the film and television production department has become his back garden.

You know, Wayne, if he wants to do something, even Jeff can't veto it all. In fact, although Jeff firmly supports me, in most matters related to film and television production, he also has to follow the company's regulations, and sometimes I can't guess Jeff's thoughts. "

Wayne nodded silently, of course he knew what the other party was worried about. Allen Horn is in a very free position, and it is much easier than Bruce Rosenblum to achieve some outstanding results.

As he said, no one knows the true thoughts of Jeff Robinov. If the projects initiated by Alan Horn succeed one after another in the past two years, the company's executives and shareholders will all We can clearly see his ability, but the final result is really uncertain.

"He can't get around you!"

At this point, Bruce Rosenblum showed his true thoughts, staring at Wayne with extremely sincere eyes, and said: "Everyone knows that if you want to sit in that position, you must at least get your support, Wei Well, we have always worked well together, I believe you can understand what I mean."

"Of course, I understand."

Wayne nodded and gave the other person a reassuring smile.

The two then exchanged a few words about the release of "The Flash". He pointed to his watch, stood up and buttoned his suit jacket. Before leaving, he raised a hand and put it to his ear, indicating that no matter what happened, If you have any questions, you can call him at any time.

"Boss, do you have different ideas?"

After getting in the car back to the manor, Nina, who had always been so transparent, suddenly spoke up and broke the silence, as if she had guessed Wayne's thoughts.

After smiling, Wayne looked away from the car window and turned to look at the assistant. "Did you see it?"

"Guessed it."

Nina smiled. She knew her boss very well, so she could figure out what the other person was thinking just by guessing some things.

"Boss, I want to remind you that the right thing to do is to stay out of it completely. Whether it's Bruce Rosenblum or Alan Horn, the director of the film and television production department, what we have to do is to Watch both of them carefully over a two-year period."

Quite simply, with Wayne's influence in Warner Bros., if he supports someone with a clear attitude, then this person will definitely have the greatest advantage. After all, neither shareholders nor executives can ignore his opinions.

However, if a capital's normal approach is to watch the competition between the two sides. Give both parties full space to demonstrate their capabilities, and the rest will become obvious, who can bring greater benefits to themselves, and who will be supported with a clear-cut stance in the end.

Not to mention personal relationships, when it comes to this kind of thing, there is no personal relationship to talk about. Who can bring them greater benefits is more important than anything else. The reality is that personal relationships can be cultivated.

"No, Nina."

Wayne shook his head and said with a smile: "You ignored trust."

The trusting relationship he established with Jeff Robinoff and Bruce Rosenblum was slowly built over many years. If he wants to rebuild this kind of trust with others, it will definitely take more time. many years.

"I knew it."

The assistant lady cooed and shook her head slightly. In her opinion, her boss always shows inappropriate human touch when he needs to be cold. This is not a good quality for a billionaire.

"The Romance of Fairy Wood"

From Wayne's point of view, he does not want there to be a fight within Warner Bros., and choosing to give clear support to Bruce Rosenblum from the beginning can, to a large extent, avoid a lot of unnecessary competition. Appear.

Not only Nina could see it, but perhaps even Jeff Robinoff had already seen it in his heart. Bruce Rosenblum's character traits, strictly speaking, are not suitable for him. Take the position of head of Warner Bros.

Of course, Wayne is very aware of this. The distribution director of Warner Bros. is a marketing master in the industry. He can master various methods of promoting movies and competing with other companies' projects at his fingertips.

But everyone can clearly see his own character. He has always remained vicious and narrow-minded in his middle age, and he is accustomed to using extreme methods on many things. These are far less stable than Jeff Robinov's. Letting him handle film distribution, publicity, public relations, etc. is a very sharp knife. But as the leader of a media group, no one knows what such a character will bring to the company.

But Bruce Rosenblum has an advantage that no one can compare with Wayne, and that is trust. This distribution executive personally worked on Wayne's public relations to win the Oscar for Best Director. The tacit understanding between them was completely unmatched by others.

"If one day Jeff does step down, Bruce is the person who is in our best interest."

Seeing that Nina wanted to persuade him, Wayne gave a serious affirmation. There were some things he couldn't say. The fact was that in his memory, there was never a trace of Alan Horn.

His arrival changed many things invisibly. According to the normal trend, Kevin Tetsuhara should still be the CEO of Warner Bros. now. This guy is a typical Hollywood boss. After the success of the first and second installments of Tim Burton's version of "Batman," he immediately interfered heavily in the DC series, and later in "Batman Returns" and "Batman." and Robin" suffered a big somersault.

It was precisely Wayne's arrival that Warner Bros. did not make any detours. His own films, coupled with his invisible influence, gave Warner Bros. the direct revenue of the six giants, and also allowed Kevin Te Suhara was directly promoted to CEO of Time Warner.

As for Jeff Robinoff, he is more famous. He has served as a top film and television production executive at Warner Bros. Film Group for 17 years. During this period, whether it was the "Batman" trilogy with a global box office of more than 2 billion US dollars, , or "Inception" with a box office of over 800 million U.S. dollars, "The Hangover" with a box office of over 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, and "Gravity" that won multiple Oscars, all with his shadow flashing behind them.

And he also relied on his stable management style and keen market insight for sequel movies to successfully occupy the position of president of Warner Bros.

Even though Wayne thought hard, he couldn't recall any information about Allen Horn, but he felt sensitively that the name was familiar. The thing was obvious. Driven by various reasons, he chose to support Bruce Rosenblum without hesitation.

The possible turmoil at Warner Bros. is still far away now. Wayne just ordered Nina to pay more attention to the information from Warner Bros., and then turned around and continued to focus on the upcoming movie "The Flash", and from time to time. He needs to be present on the awards stage.

As time goes by slowly in his busy schedule, the media's hype about "The Flash" versus "Godzilla" gradually died down as the awards season entered its climax. On February 10, 1998, the North American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially held an Oscar nominees luncheon and announced all the films shortlisted for the 70th Academy Awards.

This Oscar has a total of 24 regular awards, 1 honorary award and 5 science and technology awards. At the same time, the nominees luncheon will be broadcast live to the world by ABC TV.

The development of Hollywood in recent times can be regarded as surging. The strong appearance of "Titanic" at the end of 1997, which insiders call the Oscar-winning year, has made audiences and related practitioners throughout North America aware of it. This Oscar has generated strong curiosity.

The film "Titanic" did not exceed most people's expectations. It became the biggest winner at the Oscar nominees luncheon that day. At the same time, the film also broke a record and won the most Oscar nominations for a film with an unprecedented 14 nominations.

In fact, many people have expected that such a result will occur. Just before the Oscar nominees luncheon, the North American box office of "Titanic" has exceeded 450 million US dollars. In terms of this data, it only ranks behind "The Dark Knight", which cannot be ignored. Yes, there are still crazy audiences who go into the theater to buy tickets and watch it again and again.

If the results achieved overseas are included, the global box office of "Titanic" has accumulated more than 1 billion US dollars, and the upward trend has not slowed down much. Until now, no one, not even the so-called film market experts, can clearly see how deep the market potential of this film is.

The Oscar nominees luncheon has not yet ended, and public opinion in North America is already in turmoil. The reason is the unprecedented 14 Oscar nominations for "Titanic".

For comparison, "The Dark Knight", which caused the same large-scale movie viewing storm this year and also crushed the entire film market in the world, surprised countless people with the results announced at the nominees luncheon. There were only 8 nominations. This is obviously It aroused the sensitive nerves of countless media.

Yes, "Titanic" is not a non-reality film, but the film's commercial attributes are so strong that everyone knows it.

Since the North American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has bowed to the box office of "Titanic" exceeding one billion US dollars, or it has bowed to the market, why does it treat "The Dark Knight" differently? Is it difficult to watch because "The Dark Knight" is an unrealistic film? This obviously doesn't make sense.

Since it has decided to bow to the market, and since it cannot ignore the huge box office of over one billion US dollars, treating it differently is refuting the fairness advertised by the Academy, especially "The Dark Knight" is currently the number one box office in film history. Whether it is North American box office or global box office, it is the undisputed number one.

What excites countless media even more is that the 8 nominations received by "The Dark Knight" fully demonstrate the Academy's disdainful attitude towards the film.

Best Supporting Actor, Best Makeup, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Effects, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and one Best Cinematography. From the nomination list alone, we can see that there is not a single award of sufficient weight.

The Academy's attitude is obviously abnormal. There is no Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor or Actor, etc. It is really very different from the treatment of "Titanic".

On the day when the nominees’ luncheon ended, public opinion throughout North America pointed to the fairness of the academy. Not only ordinary viewers, but also a large number of people in the industry do not understand why the Academy still clings to the last vestige of its philosophy and chooses to ignore non-realistic films now that it has bowed to the market.

In fact, to put it bluntly, is there really a big difference between a commercial film and a non-realistic film? Anyone who has watched "The Dark Knight" and "Titanic" will know that the artistry of the former is far superior to the rough slap of the latter.

On the morning after the Oscar nominees luncheon, almost all media made relevant reports on their main pages. The Los Angeles Times, like a vanguard, openly complained about "The Dark Knight":

“The biggest nomination tragedy in Oscar history!

On February 10, 1998, the North American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially held a nominees luncheon at the Beverly Regency Hotel. "Titanic" led the way with an unprecedented 14 nominations. "The Dark Knight" by Wayne Greenberg, the dark king of Hollywood, only received 8 nominations in the technical category. It can be called the biggest Oscar nomination tragedy in decades!

From "Joker" back then to "The Dark Knight" now, it seems as if the academy cannot see the greatness of Wayne Greenberg. Especially now that this film has the highest box office in history, and is recognized globally as the best combination of market and art, if not the only one!

What are the criteria for judging the academy? What are the reasons for the votes of the judges who participated in the voting? Many things are unknown. After getting the relevant nomination results, this newspaper urgently launched a questionnaire to a large number of ordinary movie fans on the streets and in theaters. The results will definitely shock the attention of all Oscar judges.

According to the results of interviews with 920 movie fans, more than 800 movie fans said that "The Departed", for which Wayne Greenberg won the best director statuette, was far less great than "The Dark Knight." More than half of the audience is doubtful about the fairness of the Oscars and said they will not watch this awards ceremony..."

Similar reports include "Hollywood Reporter", "Entertainment", "Premiere" and other authoritative entertainment media. The views of these authoritative media are relatively consistent. They all believe that even if the Academy does not like unrealistic films, it should not completely reject them. Ignoring the greatness of "The Dark Knight", it shouldn't be so perfunctory as to only give 8 technical statuette nominations.

For a time, the whole of North America was full of opinions about the Academy, which was unexpected by countless people, such as "The Oscars have no fairness at all!", "The Academy's move will destroy the reputation of the Oscars that has been nearly a century old!" and other arguments became more and more noisy. .

The topic became more and more popular, and it quickly spread across North America at a speed that no one expected. Even in Europe, the birthplace of traditional cinema, which has always viewed Wayne's films with a critical attitude, many media have expressed relevant opinions on this matter, constantly ridiculing the Academy and the Oscars.

"Julia, stop! Replace this close-up shot of Barry Allen preparing to run with a backup propulsion shot."

In the post-production studio of "The Flash" at Warner Studio Studios, Wayne watched the finished film that had been completely edited. There was a sudden sound, and it was obvious that he had a new idea at this time.

"Boss, would it be better if this close-up is kept at the current high angle?"

The assistant director Gilmore on the side, with his hands folded on his chest, frowned slightly when he heard Wayne yelling to stop and wanted to change again, turned around and asked in a low voice.

Julia also turned her head at this time and looked at the junior student who was holding his chin with one hand and thinking. Replacing one lens was nothing. She was afraid that after replacing this lens, the subsequent series of connected lenses would have to be rearranged, and the workload would be invisible. It's gotten a lot bigger.

"Change!"

After thinking for a while, Wayne waved firmly and looked at editor Julia. "I need to let the audience enter Barry Allen's heart and feel the same feeling of "coolness" with him."

"ok."

Julia shrugged, turned and repeated his request in a low voice. "Close-up of Barry Allen before running, changed from rising camera to sliding camera."

The movement of the camera in the movie is far less complicated than ordinary people imagine. Simply put, there are only eight types in total, namely push, pull, shake, move, follow, rise, fall, and throw.

Especially the push shot and the pull shot that are most commonly used by directors, such as the close-up of Barry Allen running that is being replaced now. The push shot is easy to understand, that is, the camera gradually advances the subject, which is equivalent to using the audience's angle, gradually increasing the distance from the subject.

The extensive use of pushing shots of the protagonist of the movie will also produce an effect that allows the audience to enter the protagonist's heart.

Many directors like to use this technique extensively. Pushing the camera forward will stimulate the audience's subjective feelings. For example, the close-up of Barry Allen can give the audience the illusion of empathy and experience the refreshing feeling brought by speed.

Usually this method is used more in art films. The slowly advancing shots can allow the audience to enter the heart of the character and better feel the emotions the director wants to output. It's not that complicated in commercial films. The reason why it is used in this way is simply to increase the audience's pleasure.

While Julia was adjusting the film, Nina gently pulled Wayne's sleeve, waited for him to turn his head in confusion, and reported in a low voice: "There has been a quarrel outside because of the nomination issue of "The Dark Knight" God. The president of the college called Jeff and suggested that it would be best for you to come forward in person and provide some clarification to the media."

Wayne knows better than anyone else that the reason why the academy did this is simply because he had already received all the honors the previous year, and in addition to the fact that "The Dark Knight" had no attitude of wanting to win, everything was actually very normal. .

Coincidentally, when "The Dark Knight" and "Titanic" are put together, it is easy for people to feel unfair. Coupled with the media's hype for the sake of popularity, the current situation of national outrage has formed.

Smiling, Wayne nodded and told the assistant: "Okay, make the arrangement simple. The work on "The Flash" has reached the last moment, and I don't have much time to waste on it."