Chapter 1308: Zack Schneider

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On the last day of this trip to Ukraine, Simon mainly visited several universities in Rivni and life science research institutes under construction or completed.

It is still one of the goals of the 3G plan.

Ukraine will be the main research base in Europe for the goal of "breaking the time limit" in the 3G plan. The reason is the same as the US military used to set up a large number of biological laboratories in Ukraine. There is no need to be too strict here. Many of them may encounter strict regulations in other countries. In the field of regulatory research, there are basically no obstacles in Ukraine, which is gradually disintegrating.

Moreover, compared with the biological laboratory of the US military, the Ukrainian authorities will definitely support the research of the Westeros system more.

No one wants to live longer.

In addition, compared with Africa, which is more unruly, Ukraine has another big advantage, that is, talents.

Ten or twenty years later, Ukraine feels in decline. However, Ukraine in the former Soviet Union can be said to be the essence of the once powerful red empire.

Before the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the literacy rate in Ukraine reached over 90% very early. This piece of land is only equivalent to less than 3% of the former Soviet Union. It is not only the granary of Europe, but also has dozens of colleges and universities, and has gathered China's cutting-edge industries such as aviation, military industry, shipbuilding, and nuclear energy are rich in human resources.

Such a good deck of cards is hard to beat.

Of course, these have nothing to do with Simon. Like many people, he is very happy to see the messy Ukraine, so that he can easily draw a circle in a place and become a city lord, and then use Ukraine as a testing ground for the 3G plan.

In addition to life science research, Simon will also deploy in Ukraine in the fields of aviation and nuclear energy that involve the other two goals, but this aspect is mainly to empty Ukraine's family.

After spending the last day in Ukraine, Simon left that afternoon.

Back in New York, it was still Friday night, January 16th.

Just one box office week from January 9 to January 15 has passed, and the box office data for the full week of "Titanic" has been released. The exact figure is 38.11 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office has reached 279.7 million US dollars.

The super blockbuster whose budget was seriously out of control during the production stage of this project, the cumulative box office has doubled what many people originally expected. In the same week, the single-week box office of "The Flash 2", which was optimistic by almost everyone, was only 22.34 million. In the U.S. dollar, the box office of "Titanic" in the fifth week of its release was still as high as 38.11 million U.S. dollars. In this unpopular schedule that should have cooled down, the momentum has not diminished in the slightest.

Simon spent the weekend in New York and returned to Los Angeles. The 55th American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards will also be held on Sunday, January 18.

Under Daenerys Entertainment's unremitting efforts, "Titanic" won four awards: Best Drama, Best Director, Best Original Song and Best Original Development.

Even if the controversy is unavoidable, there is no doubt that "Titanic" completely overshadowed all other films at this year's Golden Globe Awards, including Daenerys Entertainment's own series of classic films produced in the past year.

Moreover, because of the public's strong attention to "Titanic", the live broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards has also reached the highest ratings in the past ten years.

Stimulated by the success of the Golden Globe Awards, the attention of the film has once again increased significantly. In the week when Simon returned to Los Angeles, this phenomenon-level disaster love movie unexpectedly achieved another reversal. On January 16 In the sixth week of its release from March 1 to January 22, the box office not only did not go down, but rose by 13%, returning to the range of more than 40 million US dollars again, reaching 43.06 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office also reached 322.76 million US dollars.

This time, everyone was once again a little confused about the film's box office trend.

In the sixth week of its release, the domestic box office was close to 300 million, and it was able to reverse the decline again, pushing the single-week box office to more than 40 million US dollars. It is not a miracle, but what is it? !

Before the Golden Globe Awards, according to the previous box office trend, the industry generally believed that the domestic box office of the film would be between 400 million and 500 million US dollars.

Now, returning to the 40 million single-week box office range, with the super long-term trend shown by this movie, there must be more than 200 million box office potential left in the follow-up. Therefore, it may eventually reach the level of 500 million to 600 million, or even exceed 600 million , Going even closer to the super record of $703 million set by "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" two years ago.

In this case, it is only released in local theaters. Excluding the ultra-high production and publicity budget of 250 million US dollars, "Titanic" can still achieve a considerable profit.

The most stark contrast is "The Flash 2".

In the fifth week of its release, the much-anticipated Christmas film last year, even if the decline narrowed to 26%, the single-week box office still fell from last week's 22.34 million US dollars to 15.79 million US dollars, and the cumulative box office was only 225.45 million US dollars. I don't know. Unconsciously, it has fallen behind the box office of "Titanic" by nearly 100 million US dollars.

It will only fall further behind.

Sundance, Park City.

"The Blair Witch", which has received little attention due to the early viral marketing during this period, premiered on Saturday, January 24th.

When Simon arrived in Park City at noon, the premiere at 10 a.m. had already ended, and some film critics had already given their first batch of film reviews on the Internet.

The most representative one is Roger Ebert, who has always been strict with the thriller genre because he failed to become a horror film screenwriter. This famous film critic gave a preliminary short on his personal facebook page

Critics praised the film for its "wonderful structure, sophisticated technique, and successfully created another brand-new pseudo-documentary template after "Ghost Story"".

Because the film critics invited to the premiere have basically been screened, so most of them are praises such as Roger Ebert.

Of course, not without voices of dissent.

A columnist in the San Francisco Chronicle called the film "just another cheesy camp hunt wrapped in a pseudo-documentary film."

Camping and hunting movies are a very common genre in Hollywood. The general structure is that a group of teenagers and girls go camping during the holidays and are killed one by one by perverted killers. The typical example is the "Friday the 13th" series.

It is also true to say that "The Blair Witch" is another "camp hunt".

However, in the final analysis, Hollywood movies are actually just such routines, and the key is who can come up with new ideas. Just like the "Jurassic Park" series, if it is far-fetched, it can also apply a very clichéd camping hunting template. A group of people gather on a small island and are hunted one by one by a big "killer". Think about it ,Is it this way?

"The Blair Witch", which adopts the pseudo-documentary form and adds witch elements, has too many innovations compared to the real traditional camp hunting.

In short, Daenerys didn't even bother to refute the criticism of the reporter of the "San Francisco Chronicle". The overall positive feedback of the film has proved most people's attitude towards the film. When it is officially released on the 6th, it will be tested by the market.

Speaking of which, the team of New World Pictures who managed this project, and even the main creators of "The Blair Witch", were most worried about "Titanic".

The momentum of this super blockbuster is too strong, even if the momentum will slow down by the beginning of February, the key is that during this period, "Titanic" occupies too many pages, and it will inevitably suppress the popularity of "The Blair Witch". Exposure, and this movie, which uses a very traditional viral marketing model, needs exposure and topics most.

However, worrying can only be worrying.

No one knows how much the box office of "The Blair Witch" will be, but the fierce momentum of "Titanic" is well known, so "The Blair Witch" can only be said to be unlucky.

Hilltop House South of Sundance.

At noon, I only had time to attend the premiere reception of "The Blair Witch", and then Simon returned here to start some work schedules.

In the evening it was a 'Westeros Villa Party' as usual.

In addition, Simon finally finalized the itinerary and will fly to China tomorrow. According to the lunar calendar, tomorrow is already the 27th of the twelfth lunar month, and the time to arrive in Hangzhou is the 28th of the twelfth lunar month. Like last year, this year is still a New Year's Eve without thirty, and twenty-nine is New Year's Eve.

It just so happened that I went to have a New Year's Eve dinner with Lin Su's family, and stayed for a few more days by the way.

Therefore, some work must be dealt with as soon as possible.

In a reception room on the first floor of the Hilltop Villa, Simon is chatting with a newcomer to Sundance this time.

This newcomer is named Zack Schneider.

That Zack Snyder, of course.

The 32-year-old Zack Schneider's career history is similar to that of Michael Bay and David Fincher. They both started from filming mvs and commercials. This year, they finally made their first film and sent it to Sundance for exhibition . Zack Schneider entered Hollywood seven years earlier than when he filmed his first full-length feature "Dawn of the Dead" until he was 37 years old. Obviously, it was due to the influence of Simon, a big butterfly.

The former Zach Schneider, who liked it very much, hated it very much, was full of criticism.

Simon is one of those people who really like Zack Snyder movies. Of course, if you like it, you like it, but Simon will not imitate many of the other's directing styles, such as being too detailed and even the fact that the length of the film is always a little out of control.

Frankly speaking, the director's cut versions of many of Schneider's films are very brilliant. However, as a theater film, it is actually unqualified.

The requirements of theater movies, especially commercial movies, must be controlled within 3 hours, and two hours is the best. On this point, "Justice League", which once caused great controversy, Warner requested two hours. , there is nothing wrong with this, the only fault is Warner's two-hour version of "Justice League", which is so mediocre that it created the biggest tragedy in the DC movie universe.

This is not much to say.

All in all, Zach Schneider is an excellent director who is capable enough and has his own personal style and even ideas. The key is whether he can use it well and find a project that suits him.

Just like Schneider's relatively most commercially successful "300 Spartans", with a cost of 65 million U.S. dollars and a global box office of more than 400 million, this is a good example. In addition, the other party's debut feature film "Dawn of the Dead", although it is a remake, but the story rhythm of the film is quite brilliant, with an investment of tens of millions, the global box office has exceeded 100 million, which is considered a blockbuster.

Then, from "Pretty Girl Secret Service", Schneider began to have both controversy and admiration.

After the explosion, it got worse and worse. In Simon's view, it was the result of not paying attention at all, and Schneider finally quit the DC movie universe sadly. That sentence can only be said to be inappropriate. What Warner wants is a commercial miracle like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Zack Snyder just wants to instill in the audience some connotations and thinking that comic movies should not bear, and conflicts are inevitable.

In any case, since Schneider chose to make his debut, Simon will naturally not let it go.

The film that the other party broke into the main competition of Sundance this time is a road movie, which combines the sci-fi elements of the apocalyptic background. A completely original brand new film inspired by butterflies.

After chatting, I realized that Zach Schneider is a fan of the "Mad Max" series. The reason why he made such a movie similar to George Miller's famous work is also influenced by the "Mad Max" series.

Simon had seen the film in advance, with a production cost of 10 million US dollars, the story was quite satisfactory, and the most brilliant part was the camera.

Even with a budget of only 10 million, Zack Schneider still successfully used his art skills in it. Only this point can raise a film that can only score 6 points in plot to 7 points. In addition, as a commercial and MV As a director by birth, the soundtrack of the film also has the style of Schneider later, at least 0.5 points can be added.

The debut work can reach 7.5 points, which is quite successful.

Simon also ordered the New World Pictures team to try to buy this film produced by an independent production company in New York.

The meeting between the two, apart from discussing Schneider's film, was mainly about another project: "Resident Evil".

This is a project that Simon has been considering recently.

The game department of Daenerys Entertainment has completed the story planning of the "Resident Evil" game, because it was the idea given by Simon, and he intervened several times during the period, which is basically the same as the original idea and story structure. There are basically missions and plots that should be there. Even, including the character design style of the next game, Simon wants to be more beautiful, unlike the realistic style common in Western games, which is too ugly.

At the same time, out of support for this series, Simon intends to make the movie ahead of time instead of waiting for the game to be released. Daenerys Entertainment will focus on the game business in the next few years. Making movies in advance is also a kind of promotion for games.

After finalizing his ideas, Simon also considered for a long time about the director of the film.

The former director of the film version was initially the first choice, until I saw Zach Snyder's name in this year's Sundance competition unit film materials.