Chapter 87 Focus of Public Opinion
After three and a half months of screening from its release on April 30 to its release in mid-August, "Speed" took in a box office of US$151 million in North America.
Although it was expected, when "Speed" actually achieved this result, the media and the public still couldn't believe it.
The Los Angeles Times was very direct, calling the film a "movie miracle" after the film ended its North American theatrical tour.
The film is legendary for pioneering Super Bowl promotion, provoking a war of black material, and even indirectly leading to the death of River Phoenix.
What's even more legendary is that this is an action movie with a production cost of only 20 million US dollars. It is a typical example of making a big difference with a small amount.
The director who created this movie was only twenty-two years old when he made this movie.
The enthusiasm for talent in this land even reaches the point of fanaticism, not to mention Hollywood, which is at the center of public opinion.
Relying on his youth, little Gilbert's fame spread rapidly and he became a talented director in the media's mouth, and he also quickly accumulated a huge fan base.
You have to ask whether Gilbert Jr. is the best director in Hollywood right now. This is definitely not the case. There are many directors who are better than him.
But if you want to say that he is now the most famous director in Hollywood, there is absolutely no problem.
"The Hollywood Reporter" wrote in its article: "There has never been a director whose every move has attracted as much attention as Gilbert Jr.'s.
His own legend and age have made him the center of attention, attracting as much attention as Hollywood's A-list stars..."
This kind of attention has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that every project he makes in the future will become the focus of public attention from Hollywood and the media.
This is actually a good thing for movie promotion.
The disadvantage is that with such a high degree of attention, little Gilbert himself is still young, and it is unclear whether he can withstand the pressure of the spotlight.
Of course, this is the point of external analysis.
At first, Robert Iger was also worried that his cash cow would be lost due to excessive media hype.
This kind of thing has happened before, and it is not uncommon.
So he rushed to the set of "Iron Fist" in time, intending to have a chat with little Gilbert and let him calm down and film well.
"I never care about media evaluation, Bob..." Little Gilbert led Robert Iger to visit the set being built, while talking about the recent media praise.
He continued: "I only care about two things, making a movie and whether the audience likes it or not. I don't care about the rest."
"It seems that I have been worrying too much, little Gilbert, you are very mature." Robert Egger praised.
"There are so many people coming and going in Hollywood. How many people have been popular and then lost everything overnight." Little Gilbert seemed to be looking down on the world of mortals:
"If you want to stay in this industry for a long time, I have to know clearly what I want, and the rest won’t interfere with me.”
This may be the advantage that little Gilbert has over those who are in the game. Many people are in the game and do not know their fate and cannot see the future.
But little Gilbert is different. Even if there is a butterfly effect and history changes slightly, the tide of the times will not change.
Facing the future ignorantly and facing the future with preparation are naturally different in mentality.
Robert Egger believed deeply: "Little Gilbert, if you don't make movies, you might as well be a philosopher."
"Or maybe you can become a success master, publish a few books, and become a best-selling author?" Little Gilbert said with a smile.
Robert Egger also laughed. Everyone knows that most of the so-called success masters are just liars.
But in North America, there is quite a lot of room for such legal scammers to survive. They fabricate a set of dreams for people that they can never wake up from.
In a way, these so-called success masters are better at creating dreams than Hollywood.
Robert Egger saw the robot built by Industrial Light and Magic engineers and the crew's prop masters.
Little Gilbert introduced on the side: "This is the Twin Cities Warrior, with two heads and two sets of control centers.
The viewing angle is wide, 360 degrees with no blind spots, and the balance is excellent and the attack is very strong. "
"What about this one?" Robert Egger pointed at a robot designed to look like an island warrior and said, "I like this look very much. I also have a similar set of armor at home."
Little Gilbert did not forget to export Chinese culture: "This is noisy boy, Bob, the island countries are all stealing from next door.
This shape is ugly at first glance. You might as well collect ancient Chinese armors, they are very cool. "Then why don't you design a robot with Chinese elements?" ” Robert Egger asked rhetorically.
"Of course there is a design," Little Gilbert said, pointing to the robot that was a head taller than Noisy Boy. "The robot comes from China. Its design is inspired by the giant panda. Its name is Master Bao."
In fact, when the script was originally designed, Gilbert Jr. planned to have the young male protagonist Max rescue a scrapped Chinese robot and replace Adam's role.
But after Sofia Coppola read the script, she said: "Little Gilbert, I know you are obsessed with Chinese kung fu culture, but this is North America, and you have to focus on the North American market."
The words woke up the dreamer, and little Gilbert reacted immediately.
Yes, adding some Chinese elements can be regarded as worthy of one's previous life status, but it cannot be too excessive.
You must know that the North American market has always been very exclusive. If you rashly add elements of non-Western culture, you will eventually face the risk of failure.
So Gilbert Jr. made changes to the script. The protagonist of the robot is still Adam, but the robot that beats up the noisy boy is replaced by Master Bao.
The Chinese robot violently beat up the island country's robot. Although it was the protagonist's robot that was beaten, it was relieved to see it.
Little Gilbert thought that since there are Chinese robots, it is logical to have a Chinese actor.
So, he wrote an invitation letter and asked the Warner Pictures branch in Hong Kong Island to deliver the invitation letter to an actor.
The Hong Kong film market in the 1990s can be summed up simply in four words: 10% on every two weeks.
The one that little Gilbert invited was naturally the 10%.
"Iron Armor Steel Fist" was busy with preparations, and in the distant Hong Kong Island, Cheng Long, who was preparing for "Drunken Master 2" at this time, received an invitation letter.
"Who sent this?" Cheng Long wondered, in what age did you still write letters?
The name above was Little Gilbert Landrini, and he didn’t recognize it either. Cheng Long opened the letter with a strange look on his face.
When I opened it, I saw that the letter inside was actually written in Chinese.
In the letter, he introduced himself as a Hollywood director who was preparing a movie recently. He heard about Cheng Long's name and wanted to invite him to guest star in his new movie.
Hollywood, Cheng Long went to Hollywood in his early years, but failed.
However, Process Long has never given up the idea of breaking into Hollywood. This may be an opportunity.
Worried that the owner of the letter was a liar and that the letter was written in Chinese, Cheng Long was also very suspicious and hurriedly found someone to verify it.
It happened that he also had friends in the United States, who quickly confirmed the news. There was indeed a Hollywood director named Gilbert Landrini Jr., and he was also very famous.
And it is said that this director is obsessed with Chinese culture. He took Chinese as an elective in college and can speak Chinese fluently.
Cheng Long put aside most of his doubts and asked his friend again, what famous works does this director have?
"you do not know?"
"What do I know?"
""Speed", which was released on Hong Kong Island some time ago and took over 6 million Hong Kong dollars at the box office, is his work."
Cheng Long was stunned. He had seen that movie before, and he praised the old and beautiful director for his progress in action movies. He finally stopped punching like a fool and got to the flesh.
But I didn't expect it to be the work of this director.
"You just said, how old is he?"
"Twenty-three years old. I just had my birthday in June. I remember it very clearly."
Cheng Long was stunned again. When he was twenty-three years old, he was still being beaten as a martial arts master, but he had already become a director with a global box office of over 400 million US dollars?
Are there really geniuses in this world?
But no matter what, the invitation was confirmed to be real, so Cheng Long discussed with the boss of Jiahe to suspend preparations for "Drunken Master 2" and go to Hollywood first.
This is his second trip to Hollywood, hoping for good results.
(End of chapter)