From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

In 2009, the movie "2012," which focused on the Mayan civilization's doomsday prophecy, sparked heated discussions worldwide and reignited humanity's concerns about the end of the world, allowing director Roland Emmerich to successfully break into the public eye and establish his reputation.

In fact, this wasn't Roland's first disaster film.

As early as 2004, Roland directed "The Day After Tomorrow."

Currently, discussions about the greenhouse effect, climate change, and the possibility of Earth returning to the Ice Age are rampant. Thanks to this, the animated film "Ice Age" was able to stand out and achieve great success without promotion, which indirectly shows the popularity of the greenhouse effect topic.

"The Day After Tomorrow" is the same.

Despite the film's mediocre reviews, it grossed an impressive $550 million worldwide. If it weren't for the uncontrolled production costs, with an exorbitant expenditure of $120 million leading to the film's failure to profit, it would undoubtedly be an unmissable work in the disaster film genre.

"The Day After Tomorrow's" somewhat awkward box office performance and negative reviews prevented the two lead actors, Jake Gyllenhaal and Emmy Rossum, from gaining recognition, and both actors suffered to varying degrees.

Jake subsequently took a risk by choosing "Brokeback Mountain," which countless film critics considered a suicidal move; Emmy later encountered failures in both critical reception and box office with two consecutive projects, completely burying her chances on the big screen until she reopened the situation in 2011 with the TV series "Shameless."

However, "The Day After Tomorrow" allowed director Roland to gain a foothold in Hollywood—

Although disaster films are declining, they still have a market, and directors who specialize in shooting disaster films are becoming increasingly rare.

Before "The Day After Tomorrow," Roland's directorial resume was filled with science fiction films. The 1998 version of "Godzilla" even earned him high praise; but after "The Day After Tomorrow," Roland has focused on disaster films for twenty years.

Now, the script hasn't landed in Jake's hands; instead, it's fallen into Anson's hands.

Clearly, the historical timeline has undergone drastic changes.

However, Anson has absolutely no interest.

It's not because of personal preference, not because of the film's quality or box office success, and not because of his friend Jake Gyllenhaal.

There's only one reason—

The protagonist is a middle school student.

Edgar tries to explain.

Up to this point, middle school students have been an important part of the character settings in Anson's works, and they are key to driving the story forward; but this time it's different. The protagonist's middle school student setting is just a backdrop and has no direct connection to the story. Changing it to a college student wouldn't matter.

However, Anson doesn't think so.

In "The Day After Tomorrow" script, there are two reasons for setting the male lead as a middle school student.

First, he needs a father, a climatologist, who is the first to realize the crisis is happening.

Second, they need a story's main location, because the main characters are all trapped there. The crew chose the iconic New York Public Library in Manhattan, and the male lead came here to participate in an academic competition and was then trapped.

From a story perspective, the middle school student identity has nothing to do with the plot; but from a story setting perspective, it defines the scope from the beginning.

Moreover, that's not the main point.

"Captain."

"Captain, I thought that starting from 'Catch Me If You Can,' we were trying to get rid of the student image, not just middle school students, but also college students."

With that one sentence, Anson didn't argue or defend himself any further.

Edgar: … …

Edgar still tried to argue a few words, but the words reached his lips and he swallowed them back. His thoughts turned around in his brain twice, and he simply gave up arguing.

"Sorry, I didn't think it through."

Frankly, Edgar admitted his mistake.

Anson didn't act aggressively and relentlessly, because this wasn't about "victory," but about communication, exchanging opinions, seeking common ground while reserving differences. He believed that Edgar definitely had his considerations, and there was bound to be a difference in perspective between an agent and an actor.

Anson looked at the slightly depressed Edgar, "Captain, how much are they offering for the salary?"

But now, Edgar also admits that Anson is right. He needs to take a longer-term view and not disrupt his plans because of the mere $20 million club. They are not Jim Carrey, and even if they take a $20 million salary and the work fails, they still don't need to worry about their position in the industry.

Without arguing, Edgar readily admitted his mistake.

Anson also immediately grasped the key point, but didn't continue to dwell on the sore spot, and immediately turned his attention to the next script.

"National Treasure."

This is an interesting choice.

Led by "Raiders of the Lost Ark," adventure treasure hunting works have always had a large market. The later "The Da Vinci Code" can also be regarded as the same type of work. "National Treasure" chooses a unique entry point to attract attention:

The Declaration of Independence.

The film assumes that on the back of the Declaration of Independence, there is a clue to an amazing treasure, and the protagonist is about to find the legendary treasure through this clue.

This is the foundation of the United States. Opening up a mysterious history with such a well-known cultural relic is attractive from a publicity perspective.

In fact, legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer thought so. This industry veteran, who created countless classics such as "Top Gun," "Pirates of the Caribbean," "The Rock," "Bad Boys," "Black Hawk Down," etc., was also attracted by the script at a glance and showed incredible positivity and enthusiasm.

He not only persuaded Disney to invest, but also spent countless efforts to communicate and persuade places such as the Lincoln Memorial and the National Archives to conduct on-site filming.

It's the same for the general public. Many movie lovers remember this work, and Disney released a film sequel three years later.

However, reality and ideals are slightly different.

This film, starring Nicolas Cage, had serious budget control problems. Jerry Bruckheimer's insistence on filming in historical locations such as the Lincoln Memorial severely challenged the crew's filming schedule and progress, and the final production cost was as high as $100 million.

After the film was released, it only grossed $340 million worldwide.

Disney only made a profit of less than $20 million, which was not a failure, but it was disappointing; however, the film performed well in the DVD rental and sales market, which allowed Disney to greenlight the sequel.

This also proves that film production is not that simple.

As far as Anson is concerned, he thinks "National Treasure" is an interesting choice.

In fact, after the movie was released in his previous life, it encountered a series of negative reviews from professional film critics. The media's comprehensive score was only 40 points, and the audience's evaluation was also hard to describe.

The film was able to achieve good box office results thanks to the loyal audience of treasure hunting adventure films, who supported it all the way from the cinema to DVD.

But Anson thought, wouldn't it be quite interesting to embark on an adventure as a character? To experience things that you can't and dare not do in your real life.