Chapter 444 American Beauty
After returning to the company, Link called Jon Gordon, head of the publicity department, Remi Scola, vice president of the public relations department, and Sean Tang, head of the legal department, and they held a symposium regarding the recent negative reports attacking him in the media.
"Boss, these recent negative news are all old-fashioned, with no new content and little impact. We are dealing with them and trying our best not to let these rumors affect the box office of the movie."
Remi Scola said.
Link nodded. After The Rock was released, several media outlets started to rehash old news, bringing up the news about Michelle and other women getting pregnant that broke out during the Academy Awards in March, trying to portray him as a scumbag who liked to toy with women and had no respect for women's rights, and called on the public not to support his movies.
However, since his chaotic private life was no secret, the news did not cause much sensation after it was released.
"Boss, according to our investigation, those media outlets are closely connected to Miramax Films. This hype seems to be the work of the Weinstein brothers. I just don't know if Michael Ovitz from Disney is involved."
Jon Gordon said.
"Regardless of whether it exists or not, treat it as if it exists. All colleagues in Hollywood are enemies."
Link said, crossing his arms.
"Boss, I heard from the lawyers that Harvey Weinstein had unspoken rules in the company and was sued by women more than once, but Harvey just paid him to settle the matter. Should we use this incident to deal with Harvey?"
Sean Tang suggested.
"That's a good idea. You guys should search for evidence first. The more the better. It would be best if Harvey could go to jail."
"Okay, I'll arrange it later."
After the meeting, Link continued to be busy in the office.
After the public relations department of Guess What Pictures took action, negative news related to Link and Guess What Pictures in the media decreased rapidly, and instead there was a lot of positive news about Link.
Including the recent developments of Link and Diana's charitable foundation, Link's close and stable relationship with his girlfriends, Link is a responsible and good man, and Guess Pictures plans to invest $200 million this year to support independent films, etc.
Although there are still media outlets hyping up Link's negative information, guess what? The film industry is wealthy and powerful, and the funds and resources invested in the media are several times that of its competitors, so its competitors can't stop it at all.
Thanks to the strong public relations efforts of Guess the Movies, public opinion gradually improved.
In its second week of release, "The Rock" grossed $44.51 million in 2,914 theaters in North America, and $95.64 million in two weeks. It is expected to gross over $100 million in North America in 15 days.
Judging from this data, the recent negative news has not had a significant negative impact on the film.
However, starting this week, "The Rock" has also faced some challenges in the film market because "Jurassic Park 2" produced by Universal Pictures was released on Friday and earned $42.97 million in box office revenue in 3,281 theaters in North America in its first three days.
If "The Rock" hadn't been released for a few more days, it would have been difficult for it to maintain its position as the weekly box office champion this week.
Since "The Rock" and "Jurassic Park 2" both had high box office, almost accounting for 80% of the box office in the market, other film companies were worried about colliding with these two blockbusters and did not dare to release their films at the same time.
This also led to the continued popularity of "The Rock" and "Jurassic Park 2".
Guess What Pictures and Universal Pictures also worked very hard on publicity, using various means to promote the film and induce audiences to go to the cinema to watch it.
These two films have also become the most exposed films in the media in recent times.
"The Rock" earned $35.47 million in its third week of release, with a cumulative box office of $131 million.
"Jurassic Park" grossed $102 million in its first week, successfully winning the weekly box office championship.
This week, Guess What Pictures has another movie released, which is "Out of Sight" directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames and others.
The production cost was $25 million.
It tells the story of the robber Jack and his criminal partner Buddy trying to escape from prison. Federal female detective Karen wanted to stop them from escaping, but she developed feelings for Jack during the chase and her mentality changed. However, when the police launched a high-profile arrest warrant for Jack, Karen made up her mind to arrest him personally.
It grossed $13.35 million in 2,016 theaters in its first week, which was an average performance.
From the current perspective, there is no major problem in recovering the investment.
It's just that director Steven Soderbergh was frustrated with the first week box office figures.
In the past few years, he has made three movies, but the box office performance of these three movies was not good, and none of them sold as well as Link's movies.
Steven Soderbergh began to wonder if, after filming "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," he had exhausted his talent and was no longer suitable to be a director?
Link and Quentin comforted him not to be defeated by the current difficulties. Although the box office performance of "Out of Sight", "The Uncanny" and "Grey's Anatomy" were average, their quality and reputation were still good. They were all above-standard movies, but they just did not conform to the market trend.
As long as he keeps on making more films, one day he will be able to make a movie that is both a critical and box office success.
"Link, is this really possible?"
In the bar, Soderbergh asked with a frown, "Why is it that every movie you make is successful, but every movie from 1992 to now has suffered losses, while none of mine, except my debut, has been a big hit? Tell me, what is the gap between us?"
Lin Ke smiled and said, "Maybe I have a better grasp of the market trend and only shoot movies that the audience likes. Your movies are more literary and artistic, and there is a threshold for watching them, so the box office is naturally lower."
"Steven, don't think about it. I see through it now. We are all ordinary directors, and Link is a perverted director. We can't compare ourselves with him. If we compare ourselves with him, we will be the ones who will collapse in the end."
Quentin shook the beer can and glanced at Link with an unhappy expression.
"Steven, Quentin is right. Compared with Link, we are not successful, but compared with other directors in the industry, we are pretty good. You don't have to be depressed." Robert Rodriguez said with a smile, "Besides, you have a big boss like Link to support you in making movies. You don't have to worry even if you lose 100 million."
Steve Soderbergh touched his bald head and sighed, "I'm not comparing myself with Link, I'm comparing myself with myself. When I debuted in 1989, I made Sex, Lies, and Videotape, and it became popular just by shooting it casually. Now I finish shooting a movie very seriously, but I still can't succeed after shooting three movies in a row. This situation makes me very anxious. I don't know what attitude I should use to shoot movies. Should I just shoot them casually?"
"You can also try it. Anyway, you have Link's support, so you don't have to worry about no one investing." Rodriguez said.
Steve Soderbergh shook his head. “It costs too much to make a movie. We should be more cautious when shooting.”
Quentin took a sip of beer, "Link, you have three movies this year again?"
"Here's the plan."
Quentin curled his lips, "If you keep working so hard on making movies, keep having girlfriends, and keep changing beautiful female assistants, I bet you will be exhausted sooner or later."
"I won't."
Link smiled as he held up his beer.
After the party, Link returned to the company to continue preparing for the new movie "American Beauty".
This movie tells the story of the problems encountered by an American middle-class family.
The protagonist Lester is a middle-aged advertising executive with a mediocre social status. At home, he is oppressed by his materialistic wife and despised by his daughter. His life is filled with emptiness and depression.
Later, Lester developed an obsession with Angela, his daughter's classmate. This desire forced him to rebel against his mediocre life. He quit his job, went to the gym, and took drugs in an attempt to regain the passion of youth.
At the same time, Richie, a boy from the neighboring family, begins to secretly film Jane's daughter with a camera and falls in love with her. Their love also awakens the spark of Lester's life and reminds him of his youth.
But before Lester could truly "wake up", Richie's father mistakenly thought that Lester had an immoral relationship with Richie, broke into the villa on a rainy night and shot him dead.
Before his death, Lester realized the beauty and absurdity of life.
The film reveals the hypocrisy and alienation of the 'American Dream' through the collapse of an ordinary middle-class American family. Material success, social norms and false appearances lead to the distortion of human nature.
At the same time, it also criticizes the prevalence of consumerism and the ugliness of utilitarian society, calling for stripping off disguises and facing the true self and desires.
The core contradiction of the film's story is that 'human beings want to pursue freedom and happiness, but are always imprisoned by social rules', which has many similarities with the 'Eight Sufferings' in Buddhism: failure to obtain what one desires, meeting with those one hates, and separation from those one loves.
The story has a profound meaning, deeply analyzing the spiritual dilemma of the American middle class, and also has a certain sense of black humor. After reading the script last year, Link immediately decided to shoot it.
In the film casting, most of the original cast members are used.
Kevin Spacey was chosen to play the male lead, and Diane Lane was given the role of the wife, who is good at this kind of role.
The role of the daughter was given to newcomer actress Amy Adams, the role of the blonde classmate was given to Charlize Theron, the role of Ritchie was given to Casey Affleck, and the role of the irritable neighbor was given to Chris Cooper.
The filming started in early June and is expected to be completed by the end of August.
Before filming the movie, Link traveled to Seattle and Paris to check on his girlfriends' physical conditions and prepare for their next production.
However, their due dates are all after July, so there is no need to be too nervous for the time being.
(End of this chapter)
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