Made in Hollywood

Compared with the awards season that seems to be free of gunpowder smoke, the competition in the theater is more direct and fierce. After the release of Pixar Studio's masterpiece "Finding Nemo", it unexpectedly broke the dominance of "The Return of the King". It ended the latter's four consecutive summer championships.

This animated feature film with the ocean as the main theme once again demonstrated the strength of Pixar Studio to the whole of Hollywood. It opened in 3,374 theaters in North America, and received a box office of 70.25 million US dollars, and the box office of a single venue exceeded 20,000 US dollars. It's also the best opening score ever for Pixar and an animated film.

Undoubtedly, "Finding Nemo," which debuted in its first week, became the second top-grossing box office hit since the 2003 summer season began.

"The Return of the King", which won four consecutive championships before, also ended its hottest screening stage. Whether it is the number of theaters or the rate of filming, it has begun to decline, but it still stands at the second place in the box office list this week. 3,458 theaters in North America, with a revenue of 14.22 million US dollars.

Any movie can't be hot forever, not to mention it's still in the summer.

Because of the need to avoid the edge of "The Return of the King", many major productions have chosen June for the schedule. With the arrival of Memorial Day, May has also come to an end.

Since June, a series of major productions have been released one after another. Movies such as "X-Men 2", "Terminator 3" and "Fake God" have achieved good opening results. By the end of June, the North American weekly box office "The Return of the King" has not been seen in the top five of the rankings.

But even though the film was released for nearly two months, it was still in the top ten at the box office. As of July 1, the North American box office of the film finally crossed the $500 million mark, reaching $515.87 million.

In terms of global box office, "The Return of the King" also exceeded $1.3 billion. Reached $1,352.77 million!

Due to the continuous cooling of the film and the successive release of large-scale commercial films in North America and overseas, the film's global single-day box office has fallen to less than 4 million US dollars, and it has entered a stage of relying on time and long screening to accumulate the box office.

After the third month of the screening of "The Return of the King", the global Lord of the Rings craze has basically faded, but the hacker craze has struck again.

Last year's "Reloaded" grossed $795.5 million worldwide. And after removing those inexplicable things, although the audience's reputation of the film has declined compared with the first film, it remains within the scope of normal sequel films. The film's relative simplicity and de-philosophical thinking have also achieved good results.

This "Matrix Revolution" is also good overall, with a box office of $92.12 million in the first weekend, which is enough to guarantee the final commercial results.

Two consecutive "Matrix" sequels have achieved good market response. Duke's former assistant, Zach Snyder, immediately became a Hollywood director.

Even, many companies have offered 1+2 contracts to invite him to direct the film.

This is Hollywood, when you are struggling to succeed, no one cares, even if you are really talented. Hollywood giants will not show admiration, and even if they show admiration, they will never let go of their wallets easily.

When successful, even stand there still. A lot of invitations will also fly like snowflakes.

"Any new plans?"

In the Duke's studio, Duke looks at Zach Snyder. "About the future or the next movie."

"I desperately need time off."

Zach Snyder's bearded face was so thin that only skin and bones were left. "In the past, although you could see from you that it would be very stressful to be in charge of a project independently. But when you really walked into it, Only then did I realize how terrifying the pressure that was with me all the time."

He sighed deeply, "Since I officially took over, I haven't had a good night's sleep until now."

"You'll get used to it." Duke opened the drawer and handed him Frank Miller's graphic novel. "Go on vacation and read this novel by the way."

"Three Hundred Spartans?" Zach Snyder glanced at it, "I saw it a long time ago."

"Are you interested in making it into a movie?"

This kind of thing can't be forced, Duke added, "If you're not interested, I'll have to find someone else."

The two are friends and partners who have known each other for more than ten years. Zach Snyder is also polite, "Put it with me for the time being, I want to study it."

Duke didn't intend to intervene too much, and nodded, "DC Comics only gave me five years of adaptation rights, don't think about it for more than five years."

Zach Snyder laughed, "I'll give you the exact answer when I get back from vacation."

There was a soft knock on the door, and Tina Fey pushed the door and walked in, "Mr. Nissen is here."

"Then I'll take my leave." Zach Snyder stood up, nodded to Tina Fey, and walked out of the office. After he disappeared, Duke said to Tina Fey, "I'll go see him."

Leaving the office, Duke walked into the reception room on the same floor and saw the person who had been invited.

"Hi, Duke."

The tall actor took the initiative to greet him, "Long time no see."

"Yeah, Liam."

Duke asked him to sit down, and asked him to bring coffee again, without going around in circles, he asked directly, "Is there a schedule in the second half of the year?"

Although he was informed by his agent, he had some vague guesses, but when Duke said that, Liam Neeson's eyes lit up immediately, and he answered without hesitation, "Yes!"

"Tina." Duke greeted, and Tina Fey, who was sitting on the other side, handed a briefcase to Liam Neeson.

"This is..." Liam Neeson looked at Duke.

Duke made a gesture of please, watching the other party open the file bag, and said, "This is my next project, which will start shooting in the second half of the year, a story about a retired agent and his daughter, action movie type."

Liam Neeson nodded, opened the script and read it, Duke continued, "I think you're a perfect male lead."

Although Liam Neeson couldn't make a random decision without his agent present, he simply browsed the script and said, "Duke, no one can refuse your invitation."

In fact, in his opinion, the level of this script is just average. If it were replaced by another director, he would not consider it at all, but the director sitting opposite is one of the top Hollywood directors. A fool would think that he only Will make a normal level film.

Even if there will be professional negotiations in the future, Liam Neeson does not want to miss such an opportunity.

"Your role will be a special agent." Duke said briefly, "although retired, but also very skilled. Therefore, Liam, if we can cooperate, you have to accept a period of time. Professional Training."

"No problem." Liam Neeson nodded.

Duke only reached a preliminary intention with him, and the subsequent negotiations would naturally be negotiated by Charles Rowan and Liam Neeson's agent. After a brief chat between the two, Liam Neeson said goodbye and left. The Duke Studio.

Since the Independence Day holiday, Duke has put "Hurricane Rescue" on the agenda. The project passed the review of Warner Bros. as quickly as possible. The production budget of the film is 40 million US dollars. Great production.

Duke did not plan to do any high-investment big scenes. The film was all invested by Warner Brothers, and the production cost piled up to as much as 40 million US dollars, because his basic salary alone was as high as 10 million US dollars!

After the project was officially approved, the main members of the Duke team ended their vacations and began to work. Now people like John Schwartzman have become the top figures in their respective industries, and inevitably become other companies. Or the target of the crew's poaching, although most people choose to continue to cooperate with Duke, some people choose to change jobs.

Former casting director John, for example, quit his team.

This is a normal flow of personnel, and Duke is not too concerned about it. It is not too difficult to find a suitable substitute, but he will not rashly trust the newcomer and temporarily hand over the casting director to Wallace Lee.

Although Hollywood-style casting has supervision such as the Actors Guild and a relatively complete system, it is impossible to prevent some private transactions, and no one will manage the transactions that you like and I want. As for Hollywood, there are no various The so-called unwritten rules, as well as the actors and performances themselves, can completely determine the role, especially the attribution of some small roles, how funny the head must be...

As long as there is no problem with the brain, in fact, it is very clear that Hollywood has never been a pure circle.

Duke would never ask his subordinates to a pure standard, which is impossible in Hollywood. As long as they meet his requirements, he doesn't care who will play those small roles.

The main characters such as father, daughter and mother in "Hurricane Rescue", the casting director and assistant director, basically have no say.

"Lee, I need a lot of Eastern European actresses."

In the conference room, the preparatory meeting was in progress, Duke explained to the new casting director Wallace Lee, "There are also Eastern European actors who play gangsters. , the appearance must be beautiful enough.”

"No problem, Duke, I promise!"

Wallace Lee is still very happy to take this job. On the one hand, it can prove his ability to Duke, and on the other hand, it is a good position that everyone envies.

He knew very well that those Eastern European actresses and prostitutes, actresses, could make their own decisions.

As long as the actor can meet the basic requirements of the director, he basically has the final say in the selection of candidates. Such a position is highly sought after by those small actors and their agents in Hollywood.

"Anna." Duke turned to Anna Prinz again, "You take over the part that Zach was in charge of." (To be continued ~^~)

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