From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

— — Punching bag.

To describe "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" as such might be an overstatement. Neither the academy executives nor Sony Columbia had any genuine intention of attacking or ostracizing "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"; after all, Charlie Kaufman was innocent.

To be more precise, this was a challenge to Anson, a challenge that Leonardo DiCaprio was also facing:

The challenge that must be faced after a work, in a history-making posture, writes an unsurpassable peak and is crowned a superstar in one fell swoop: is it a one-off?

“One-Hit-Wonder,” like a comet.

Such situations exist in both music and film. A work becomes incredibly popular, but it only happens once, and the person is never heard from again.

Macaulay Culkin from "Home Alone" is a typical example.

So, are Leonardo and Anson one-hit wonders?

In Leonardo's case, he filmed several works after "Titanic," but they all performed poorly under heavy pressure. Subsequently, he disappeared into the jungle to exile himself until "Gangs of New York" marked his full return, attempting to prove that he was not just a fleeting comet.

Now, each of Leonardo's works receives countless attention and bears immense pressure. Accompanied by expectations, provocations, and doubts are countless, with different voices from inside and outside the industry intertwined.

Anson is the same—

Of course, slightly different.

After "Spider-Man," Anson continued to output strongly. "Catch Me If You Can," "Elephant," and "The Butterfly Effect" were all successful, with box office and critical acclaim soaring, and even awards coming in, rising all the way up.

Without even giving Hollywood a chance to breathe, Anson was already standing at the top of the pyramid, his superstar aura aggressive, with a posture of being crowned Hollywood's number one. Naturally, the treatment and requirements were different.

After all, there is only one "Hollywood's number one," and that position is not so easy to sit on. A game of power is unfolding.

For others, a hundred million dollars in North American box office is a cause for celebration; but for Anson, it's just basic operation, and people expect more.

Coupled with the deliberate instigation and fueling of the flames by those with ulterior motives, the atmosphere became tense—

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" just happened to be caught in the crossfire.

If they are prepared to confront Anson head-on, a gradual approach is the best strategy.

The choice of "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is precisely because of Charlie Kaufman. This eccentric screenwriter's unconstrained imagination often makes it difficult for people to keep up.

Although it is not the kind of sleepy and hazy film like those from Europe, it is also a unique work full of imagination that is jaw-dropping and dumbfounding.

Audiences do not reject such works, but if they don't understand, they just don't understand. However, it is different from brain-burning science fiction films, which do not give people the joy and pleasure of solving puzzles. Therefore, watching the movie becomes like a math exam in middle school—

—evolving into a kind of pain.

I'm afraid not many viewers are willing to go to the cinema to be a fool and open their wallets for a movie that they don't understand or cannot comprehend.

It is precisely because of such innate factors that Charlie Kaufman's screenwriting works have always been difficult to open up the market, even with superstar joining, the effect is limited.

In other words, from the lineup perspective, Anson Wood partnering with Kate Winslet and adding Charlie Kaufman is a very attractive combination, and curiosity is stirring.

However, the actual box office market performance of the film may face severe challenges, and the difficulty of impacting the box office is no less than "Elephant."

All of this makes "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" a target, evolving into an arena for different forces amidst the undercurrents of Hollywood.

Gazes gathered.

Silently, these gazes and these voices evolved into a wave, creating momentum for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," spreading out in a mighty manner.

The wind is rising.

However, all the excitement belongs to others, and the real parties involved are calm and restrained, seemingly unaware of Hollywood's undercurrents.

Not just Anson, Kate, and Charlie, but also Focus Features.

Focus Features, to be precise, was only established last year and is affiliated with Universal Pictures. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is one of their first productions.

However, Focus Features is not a group of novices—

Their predecessor was Good Machine.

Founded in 1991, starting with Ang Lee's "Pushing Hands," produced for less than $500,000, in the past ten years, in addition to contracting the production and distribution of all of Ang Lee's works, there has also been a series of Coen brothers and Pedro Almodóvar's works, and Oscar nominations have also been harvested in a basket, with rich experience.

Universal Pictures is precisely looking at Good Machine's experience, which is why it acquired and merged it to create Focus Features, specializing in the production and distribution of independent films, especially targeting art films for the award season.

Faced with the turbulent waves of Hollywood, Focus Features is not disturbed at all.

Everything is in order.

In the beginning, Focus Features also had ambitions, they must admit—

Anson's appeal and influence are tempting, perhaps this could become an important motivation for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" to attract audiences into theaters.

However, rich experience and accurate judgment still made them rein in at the precipice.

Looking at "Elephant," it is known that precisely because Anson has a strong appeal, they should be more restrained; otherwise, a large audience will enter the cinema excitedly because of Anson, but then vent their anger by cursing the film because they don't understand it, leading to a backlash in the box office market.

That would be a loss greater than the gain.

The correct way is to find the target audience, accurately locate and accurately strike, rely on the word-of-mouth spread of the target audience to form a virtuous circle, and wait for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" to form a word-of-mouth foundation before relying on Anson's appeal to open up the situation, hoping to usher in a small spurt.

For "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," Focus Features' positioning is very precise:

Thirty million dollars in North American box office.

They do not expect the box office to explode, let alone expect the film to quickly achieve profitability. They expect the film's reputation and feedback to spread slowly and lay the foundation for the film to win a place at the year-end awards ceremony.

Of course, Charlie Kaufman's works are not easy to win Oscar nominations, and wanting to replicate last year's "Adapted Screenplay" trend may require some luck.

In short, Focus Features' thinking is clear.

Then, the current thing happened, and the outside world's uproar once again proved that Focus Features' judgment was correct.

If they had ambitions from the beginning, the supporting publicity strategy would not be like this, and now they may be involved in the storm of those with ulterior motives.

At that time, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" may face a painful failure.