Millennium director

The movie "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is adapted from real events.

The background is set in Los Angeles in 1969, when Hollywood was at the peak of hippie culture.

The global box office performance of this movie is very good, winning more than 300 million US dollars in the global box office, and this does not include the domestic box office, because the movie has not been approved in China.

But it is worth mentioning that there are some plots about Bruce Lee in this movie, which are widely disapproved by Chinese and some European and American fans after the release.

Well, the reason why this movie was withdrawn from the mainland is also largely because it "insulted Bruce Lee".

The main controversy in this part is that many people believe that Bruce Lee in the film is portrayed as an arrogant and poorly skilled martial artist, which does not match the image of Bruce Lee in reality.

But is this really the case?

It's hard to say.

In many of director Quentin Tarantino's films, we can see his love for Eastern culture, especially Kung Fu, and even his violent aesthetics is deeply influenced by John Woo.

Not only that, Quentin also claims to be Bruce Lee's number one fan.

In "Kill Bill", you can see the elements of his tribute to Bruce Lee.

So it is not surprising that Quentin would include Bruce Lee in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a film about the 1960s and 1970s Hollywood.

But did he deliberately discredit Bruce Lee in the film?

It doesn't seem right.

Because most people who criticize and scold Quentin for discrediting Bruce Lee's image don't know Bruce Lee themselves, and don't know that Bruce Lee is indeed a somewhat arrogant person.

His arrogance is understandable, because in that era, a Chinese living in North America, and still relying on "Kung Fu" to make a living, would be bullied to death if he was not arrogant.

This is a martial arts student, how can a martial arts student be as gentle and refined as a scholar?

Moreover, Quentin often spoofs and exaggerates the shortcomings of the characters to create fun for the film, so Bruce Lee in the film was finally created under such a premise.

Maybe it's exaggerated, but it's really an exaggeration to say that it's insulting.

However, it can be seen from this aspect that Bruce Lee still has a lot of fans. Even though he has been dead for decades, there are still many "spiritual worshippers". These people undoubtedly represent the commercial value of Bruce Lee.

Before, Wu Yuan's attitude towards the biographical film "Bruce Lee" was mainly to win awards, and he had no idea about the box office.

Otherwise, he would not have chosen to start filming at this sensitive time in 2019.

But as the filming went smoothly, coupled with Chen Guokun's excellent performance, Wu Yuan's thoughts gradually began to change.

He suddenly felt that "Bruce Lee" was actually quite commercial.

Because the film mainly tells the story of Hollywood in the 1970s, first of all, a nostalgic style, after the hit of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", it can be more or less affected.

Secondly, Wu Yuan added a lot of fighting scenes in the movie.

There are scenes of Bruce Lee fighting against Japanese and American fighters in Seattle, and scenes of him working as a martial arts instructor in Hollywood and directing fighting scenes for various crews. In the later part, there is a film-within-a-film that shows the wonderful fighting scenes in many of his kung fu films.

It can be said that this biographical film is a martial arts film in itself.

There is no way. You can't talk about Bruce Lee without talking about his kung fu. When talking about his kung fu, there must be all kinds of fighting scenes, and the classic nunchaku.

With the help of the old martial arts masters invited from Hong Kong Island, and Chen Guokun, who was originally influenced by the kung fu films of Hong Kong Island in the 1980s and 1990s, the fighting scenes in the movie "Bruce Lee" are full of the flavor of early Hong Kong Island kung fu films.

This is the second level of nostalgic attraction.

Considering the attraction of "Bruce Lee" itself, Wu Yuan suddenly realized that the commercial value of "Bruce Lee" seems to be no less than its artistic value. The box office results of 100 million US dollars in North America and 200-300 million US dollars worldwide are foreseeable!

He suddenly understood why Disney, after decisively asking to undertake all the production and learning that the biopic was "Bruce Lee", actually took the initiative to ask if they wanted to make additional investments and prepared a large amount of publicity and promotion funds.

It turned out that when Disney confirmed the project, it was sure that the movie would be a big hit!

It can sell money and win awards. It's no wonder that Disney is so proactive.

However, after thinking it through, Wu Yuan, who was halfway through filming, didn't feel that he was at a disadvantage.

He can get 10% of the box office share for free!

The higher the box office of "Bruce Lee", the more he will earn.

How did that sentence say?

You may make a small profit, but I will never lose money!

However, since the movie will get a good box office, the release schedule must be carefully considered.

Wu Yuan remembered very clearly that in the first half of 2020, the international environment was actually relatively relaxed, and the epidemic did not affect the international film market.

However, after June 2020, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. The world was plagued by the epidemic, with large-scale infections, and all walks of life had to face an irresistible winter.

Under such circumstances, "Mulan" had to cancel its offline release and release it on Y+, which was a direct devastating blow.

So if you want to get the box office, "Bruce Lee" must be released before the first half of 2020.

Fortunately, this does not conflict with Disney's original plan.

When the crew of "Bruce Lee" filmed in Los Angeles for more than a month, and it was October, Disney confirmed that the progress was smooth, so they asked the producer to talk to Wu Yuan and roughly determined the route for the film to win awards.

Goal - Oscar in February 2020!

Before December, Wu Yuan must complete the filming and post-editing of the film. Disney will carry out large-scale publicity from the end of December to the beginning of January, and will start small-scale screenings in North American art theaters at the end of December.

The first batch of theaters will only be around 100, and then they will start to build momentum for the Oscar Best Picture and lobby the judges.

This is also the route taken by most films that hit the Oscars.

First, a small-scale screening will be held to meet the Oscar nomination requirements, and then public relations will be started and money will be spent on winning awards.

If the film really wins an award in February, it will be released on a large scale immediately, and with the help of the fame of the award, fans who pay attention to the Oscars will be attracted to the cinema to watch the film.

This is a way to use the fame of the Oscars to promote and publicize the film. It is also one of the few ways to achieve the best release effect for art films in recent years.

At least it works in North America. The title of Oscar for Best Picture is worth at least 20 million US dollars in box office.

Of course, Disney has ambitions for "Bruce Lee" and 20 million is definitely not enough.

Privately, the producer and Wu Yuan revealed that Disney's expectation for "Bruce Lee" is a global box office of 300 million US dollars, comparable to "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"! (End of this chapter)