Made in Hollywood

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In the afternoon after the preview session, the relevant personnel of 20th Century Fox gathered in a small conference room and were discussing the film they had just watched in the morning. The film exceeded everyone's highest expectations. For these professional industry insiders , it may be difficult to judge whether the film will be truly accepted by the market, but it is not so difficult to distinguish a bad film from a well-made one.

Perhaps because of the initial recognition of "Speed ​​of Life and Death" in my heart, perhaps because of George Lucas, CEO Jeff Giannopoulos also appeared in this conference room.

"Colette, tell me your opinion first."

As the secretary brought everyone coffee, Townsend Rothman said, "I can see that you have some ideas for the film."

"It's a very thrilling and not an action movie in the traditional sense."

After roughly organizing the language, Colette Singer directly expressed his views, "The young director named Duke did a better job than I imagined, and he polished every detail of the film to be bright and beautiful. It looks so perfect..."

As the most senior film selection expert of 20th Century Fox, Colette Singer's attitude is very obvious.

"Thomson, how about you?"

Just as Colette Singer finished speaking, CEO Jeff Giannopoulos asked Townsend Rothman directly, as the director of the distribution department, his opinion was extremely important, "What do you think we should use? Such a strategy for the film."

"Most parts of 'The Speed ​​of Life' are excellent, although the plot logic and certain scenes are flawed, but Duke Rosenberg uses a lot of short shots, and the super fast pace brings people A sense of urgency that only a top-level production can have.”

Putting down the coffee cup, Townsend Rothman said in a slow speed, "Generally, a movie trailer must be a collection of the best shooting, the best visual effects and the most exciting moments in the film, but Rosenberger The film is full of these shots, like rows of labels, each one pumping an adrenaline rush."

"It's an excellent action-entertainment movie," he concluded.

As a true professional, Townsend Rothman certainly wouldn't be foolish to look at commercial films from a literary perspective.

"But we also cannot ignore the risks that lie behind the film."

Tim Fisher has been watching the situation since the discussion began. It was inevitable that 20th Century Fox would sign the film, and he couldn't change that, acknowledging that the film was thrilling enough and had a lot of selling points, but he didn't. I don't want to see this movie sell out.

For one thing, it was a film introduced by his rival for the future CEO.

Second, people with a heart will definitely find that the script has been handed to him. If the film is successful, it means that there is a problem with his vision, which will definitely cause some adverse effects.

"Although North American action films have become popular in recent years, we should not forget that audiences' tastes are fickle, and no one knows when they will get tired of this genre. There is also a lack of appeal in this film. Celebrity actors are extremely unfavorable for publicity, which means we have to devote more resources to publicity..."

No one who can become an executive of the Big Six is ​​an idiot, and Tim Fisher's list is all objective facts.

"The announcement is made according to the introduction of B-category films."

After many high-level discussions, a consensus was gradually reached, and CEO Jeff Giannopoulos made a final decision based on these opinions, "to arrange the film's rating, test screening and release as soon as possible."

This is the safest way, and no one else has any objection.

After the preview session, Duke cut two trailers at the request of Twentieth Century Fox, and the production of the film was generally over, but he did not take a vacation for himself and continued to maintain close ties with 'Speed' Studio, the distribution company The publicity strategy for the film is also an indispensable condition for the success of the film.

The distribution company is at the top of the circle. Even with the support of Lucasfilm, a rookie director like him will not have any say in the negotiation. Duke did not participate in the negotiation. Professional things will naturally be done by professionals. .

In less than a week, Lucasfilm negotiated a distribution deal with Twentieth Century Fox.

Twentieth Century Fox will become the North American distributor of "Speed ​​of Life", taking 15% of the North American box office and 50% of the North American TV video tape copyright revenue as the distribution fee, and enjoys the right of first refusal for overseas distribution rights , and advance publicity and marketing and production copy and other pre-announcement expenses, etc., will be preferentially withheld from the box office after the film is released in North America.

At the same time, Twentieth Century Fox has also developed a North American release schedule for the film.

Over the next two weeks, Twentieth Century Fox will hold test screenings for fans and critics, invest appropriate publicity funds to build momentum for the film based on the feedback from the screenings, and in mid-April, the traditional off-season for films, will feature 20 theaters. The way of online point screening pushed "Speed ​​of Life and Death" to North American theaters.

The schedule was quickly delivered to Duke, who, despite his dissatisfaction with Twentieth Century Fox's conservative distribution strategy, knew he had no capital to dispute it.

Twentieth Century Fox adopted the most secure and most favorable distribution method for the distributor. Duke also very much wanted the film to be released in North America with one thousand or even three thousand theaters, but that was just an unrealistic delusion!

Not to mention the high publicity costs that a large-scale release will inevitably cost, the money alone for making copies is a huge amount of money.

Today, a 35mm print costs about $600. If the film is released on 3,000 screens, that's $1.8 million. Twentieth Century Fox will not be generous when the market for the film is uncertain.

Hollywood's big corporations have everything, but they've never been charities.

The film is opened by point screening, and 20th Century Fox can observe the market's reaction as much as possible. If the audience has a good reputation and the box office performance of a single venue is excellent, with their ability, they can print thousands of copies in a short period of time and expand the scale of the screening rapidly. It's not difficult at all.

In the end, the film sold out, and Twentieth Century Fox got a high commission; the film failed, and Twentieth Century Fox didn't lose much.

This is the simplest rule in Hollywood. People without capital must follow the rules.

Duke is very clear that 20th Century Fox will never invest too much resources before "Speed ​​of Life" has shown enough potential in the market, and formulate a detailed publicity strategy for the film, except that the film can really be seen clearly. In addition to the selling point, Lucasfilm must have played a lot of roles in it.

The time gradually approached the end of February, and the media still could not see the advertisements and news of "Speed ​​of Life and Death", and Duke's insomnia was on the trend of aggravation, even if he knew that he should maintain a stable state of mind, even if his face never showed Anxious, but the dry climate of Los Angeles is very easy to make people feel irritable. Fortunately, it has rarely rained in recent days, and the cool air has brought rare comfort.

Despite the uncertain future, Duke is already working on a second script, which would also allow him to be a little distracted from thinking about the success or failure of "Speed ​​of Life" all day long, because no matter how much he thinks about it, it won't make much difference right now. .

The second script, still an action movie, will be a military story full of explosions, gunfights and betrayals.

On the last day of February, Duke threw away all his work and rushed to Los Angeles International Airport to say goodbye to his only friend on set.

"This is my father, this is my mother..."

Before the gate, Sofia Coppola introduced her family to Duke, and although these big names didn't know him, Duke sure knew them.

The Francis Coppolas had greeted Duke and moved away a little, giving space to the young men, apparently misunderstanding something.

"This is my cousin..."

In the end, Sophia took him to a very old-looking man, Duke hurriedly reached out and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you, Nicholas."

"Nice to meet you too."

Now Nicholas is barely second-tier, and his temper is not as weird as his appearance.

"Nikola, you may have something in common."

There was still some time before boarding, Sophia simply stood beside Duke and Cage, "Duke just made a movie and signed a distribution contract with Twentieth Century Fox."

"Director?" Cage asked.

"Yes." Duke smiled modestly, "an action movie."

"Oh."

Cage immediately lost interest, and now he is a standard literary youth, obviously indifferent to action movies.

The boarding prompt sounded on the radio, Sophia hugged her parents one by one, walked over to Duke again, tilted her head and looked at him, "I wish your film a great sale, great director!"

"I wish you an early departure from the assistant position," Duke said in the same tone. "Maybe the next time I see you, you've already become a top fashion designer."

"Of course!" Sofia Coppola was full of confidence.

Just as she turned around to go in, Duke added, "If you get fired by Chanel, you can come back and continue to be my assistant!"

After that, he didn't give Sophia any chance to fight back and turned around and left.

Greeting the Coppolas and declining their invitation to dinner, Duke drove his Chevrolet back home in Santa Monica, parked the car in the garage, walked to the gate of the courtyard, opened the mailbox, took out A big pile of mail.

Entering the living room, Duke put his mother's mail on the newspaper rack, opened a few of his own, and sat on the couch.

One is a credit card statement from the bank. Duke had just received another $20,000 of the director's salary of $120,000 some time ago. Paying off the credit card was not a problem, and the financial burden was temporarily relieved.

The other was an invitation mailed by Twentieth Century Fox, inviting him to a preview in early March.