Birth of an actor

Chapter 158

After the New Year, "Meet Joe Black" and "Shakespeare in Love" have been released in overseas regions, and achieved good box office results as expected. Among them, "Meet Joe Black" opened in France and Japan. When "Shakespeare in Love" opened in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, it won the first-week box office in the country where it was released. In some countries, the popularity and discussion of the film were even higher than in the United States. For example, "Shakespeare in Love" was in In the UK, "Meet Joe Black" premiered in Japan, and its popularity did not lose to North America.

Because it is a literary film, the screening period of "Shakespeare in Love" is longer than that of ordinary commercial films. It is still in the hot screening period, and it has just been released in Europe. The final box office performance cannot be estimated for the time being, but North America. The box office has approached US$6000 million, and the total box office in overseas regions has exceeded US$[-] million in one week, and the global total box office will exceed US$[-] million just around the corner.

For a literary adaptation film involving celebrities, famous books and history, this is already a very good achievement-to be honest, "Shakespeare in Love" is really not a genre movie that Americans love, with a niche theme, Too many allusions are not enough for entertainment, but since the film was released, relying on its good reputation and star power, it has won nearly [-] million box office in the fiercely competitive Christmas period. I have to say that the results are very gratifying. This film is aimed at Hollywood. If the film can really gain something in Hollywood, like the previous "Howard End", the movie box office will usher in a new wave of releases after the Oscars, and it will rake in tens of millions of dollars. It is not impossible.

The North American schedule of "Meet Joe Black" is coming to an end, and the film finally achieved a North American box office of 800 million US dollars in North America, surpassing the final box office of "Saving Private Ryan" by 200 million US dollars. That is, it became the North American box office champion in [-], which was unexpected and expected!Later, the film earned nearly [-] million U.S. dollars at the box office overseas, and the final global box office exceeded [-] million U.S. dollars.

"Saving Private Ryan" is an American-themed film in which Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the old partners, have collaborated again since "Forrest Gump". The total global box office is 900 million [-] million US dollars, which is tens of millions of dollars higher than the final box office of "Meet Joe Black", but it lost to the latter in China, which made many fans of "Saving Private Ryan" completely unable to accept the reality. The Internet began to violently mock and complain about "Meet Joe Black", ridiculing that the idea and connotation of this film are completely inferior to the former, making it the North American box office champion of the year is simply the degradation of film art, and Hollywood's return to business A compromise... blah blah blah.

However, this kind of remarks has been ridiculed by many professional film critics, because although Spielberg has deliberately improved the artistry of many films, and the film is also very consistent with the mainstream values ​​of American society, this cannot change the fact that "Saving Private Ryan" It is the fact that it is a commercial film, and "Meeting Joe Black" is more like making an artistic film with a commercial film budget.

When the "New York Times" selected the top ten films of the year at the end of the year, they accidentally calculated and found that William Bradley released a total of three films in 1998, and the global box office results of the three films added up to Together, we are infinitely approaching a billion dollars!

The global box office of "The Truman Show" is 8000 million US dollars, the global box office of "Meet Joe Black" is 1000 million US dollars, and the global box office of "Shakespeare in Love" is as of the last day of "Variety Show" at the end of 1998. As of press date, it was $8000 million, and the total box office is $200 million!

Grossing nearly one billion dollars at the box office a year?

In Hollywood, which represents the highest level of commercial films in the world, the last actor who did this was Leonardo DiCaprio, oh, William Bradley also starred in "Titanic", so, it's him .

Counting further, even the Lion King Simba, which is loved by audiences of all ages and genders around the world, has a total box office of less than one billion.Looking back, only "Star Wars Prequel: The Phantom Menace", which will be released in 1999, is likely to allow actors such as Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman to get this achievement.

Some people may say, is it difficult to achieve one billion box office revenue a year? Will Smith make two "Men in Black" and Tom Cruise two and a half "Mission: Impossible"?

The point is that both "Men in Black" and "Mission: Impossible" took a long time to prepare and shoot, and even the post-production took almost a year to be a commercial blockbuster, and they couldn't be mass-produced at all. Acting in two such movies and rushing to release them in the same year is a coincidence.

I always knew that William Bradley's movies never lost money. After being reminded by "Variety Show", Hollywood discovered how terrifying this ability to absorb money is. In fact, it was not until 20 years later that the three movies The global box office can still find its place in the top 20 of the world movie box office rankings, and if some media wants to sum up how many films William Bradley has entered the movie history box office rankings [-] years later, I'm afraid they'll immediately reap a pile of shattered glasses and jaws.

In addition to the places where movie fans gather, there will be some comments such as "Will is really good at picking scripts, and all of them are blockbusters", in the Hollywood industry, only a very small number of people who have just entered the industry would think that William Bradley is only lucky enough to come across a good script to get his current status, because at least a little research on William Bradley's acting career will show that, except for the epic masterpiece "Titanic" and CULT Except for the film "Scream", William has basically never acted in a purely commercial film, none of which is purely commercial like "Terminator", "Men in Black" and "Mission: Impossible". And when he made the first film, he left a foreshadowing film for the following series. Instead, he acted in either famous novels or science fiction films. Many of them can be called art films...but they still make money. , this is really a topic worthy of research.

"Perhaps the brilliance of "Titanic" is too dazzling, and few people have noticed that outside of the big ship, William Bradley has also created many small box office miracles. From filming the first film "Sense and Sensibility" "Since ", William Bradley has released a total of eight films, three of which have a box office of over [-] million yuan, one of which ranks in the top five in the annual box office ranking, and four of which rank in the top three!"

"Variety" magazine not only gave William the last cover character in 1998, but also reported more content about William on the inside page, and a special issue could be published. The columnist Todd McCarthy not only listed every character William played The film, film genre theme, North American overseas box office performance and awards, even concluded: "Hollywood does not need to panic that the rise of William Bradley will intensify the commercialization of films and swallow up the living space of independent films, because he is not at all. A purely commercial film actor, William Bradley just has a magical ability to sell independent films at the commercial box office. His appearance is even beneficial to the development of film art, because when there are some actors If they are willing to act in art films, and can drive the box office to half the level of commercial films, the major studios may slow down their pursuit of commercials a little bit, so as to invest more interest in the field of independent films."

Todd McCarthy finally judged: "The more and more superb acting skills, the unique good looks, the natural charm of personality, the ups and downs of life and double high IQ and EQ, plus a little good luck favored by God, William · Bradley's attention was not accidental, it was inevitable."

How can a person contribute positively to a movie?How far can William Bradley go?Hollywood will soon usher in an observation opportunity that can draw the truth-"Blood Together", this film with William Bradley as the boss, producer, screenwriter and starring quadruple identities is scheduled to start Released on the last Valentine's Day at the end of the century, this movie is completely imprinted with "William Bradley's works" from head to toe. In the short term, there is simply no better touchstone than it.

……

With an investment of only 3000 million US dollars, "Blood Together" was the most watched movie in the first half of 1999 except "Star Wars Prequel: The Phantom Menace".

From the perspective of the Hollywood industry, this is the debut film of Willlott Films, and it is also the William Bradley movie they are most concerned about recently. How far will William and Willott go hand in hand? Get off to a good start.

In the eyes of other actors, William Bradley has completed the transformation from actor to producer, from front stage to behind the scenes in a low-key manner through this film-this transformation is very important for an actor of his age. It's too early. Generally speaking, Hollywood actors generally don't start to consider participating in film production until they are 35 years old. The seventies and younger actors feel that the gap in life seems to have become larger, while the sixties Modern male actors, especially A-lister superstars, generally feel a sense of crisis.They are not old yet, and the younger generations are catching up with them at a faster speed, which inevitably gives them a feeling that their status may be unstable. After all, even if the market is global Hollywood, it will not accommodate too many top superstars of the same type. As soon as William Bradley's status rose, countless actors with similar acting styles and reputations in film selection fell down.

For ordinary movie fans, the focus of their interest in this movie is very clear.

"Blood Together" first gave movie fans the impression that it was a "movie about William and his friends." The director and half of the leading actors turned out to be William Bradley's personal friends!Secondly, "Leonardo, Kate, and William have collaborated again since "Titanic." Finally, "William is not only a producer, but also a screenwriter!"

No matter which of these three reasons, it is incomparably attractive to fans of William, to fans of other starring fans, and to fans of "Titanic", not to mention The stills, posters, and trailers released one month before the film's release date are all amazing!It's like spending 3000 million yuan on costumes, props and special effects, without paying the actors a penny!

——Just like how Peter Jackson spent less than 3000 million U.S. dollars to make the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy into a film that looked like a movie shot with 7000 million U.S. dollars. The poster stills of "Blood Together" are currently released Even the sophistication of the trailer is not like a movie with an investment of only [-] million US dollars, but it seems to have cost at least [-] to [-] million to make. Those action scenes and scene special effects are really cool, even the makeup Awesome.

The real reason is that William chose the Peter Jackson Studio, which was in a semi-suspended state because the filming of "The Lord of the Rings" had not yet officially started, to complete the post-production for "Blood Together", which gave Jackson the long-term contract. The new work of the staff prevents them from being out of work to protest, and they have found a reliable, cheap and high-quality post-production for "Blood Together", which can be said to kill two birds with one stone. The United States became popular, and Miramax first signed Jackson's first film contract in Hollywood, that is, Jackson's first film in Hollywood was to be made for Miramax, but because Miramax did not have a suitable script for Jackson at the time, and There was not enough budget to start work on "Lord of the Rings", Jackson studio did not have a filming staff to protest frequently, Jackson had to go to Universal to shoot "Ghost of Horror".

Of course, through some warm-up interviews before the film’s release and developed media communication, the whole world will soon know the leading actors of “Blood Together”, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet , Tobey Maguire, Chris Evans, Christopher Nolan, including William and others, either did not receive a penny of remuneration, or only received a symbolic remuneration ($3000 or $[-]), Therefore, most of the film's $[-] million investment was spent on film production, rather than more than half of the film's remuneration paid to the director and actors like other films.

"Hollywood stars star in William's new film with zero pay! "

This news achieved an unparalleled sensational effect, and countless media fans were dumbfounded: Among the "Titanic" trio, apart from Kate's salary still staying in seven figures because of British nationality, Leonardo and William The remuneration of the film has already passed the tens of millions of dollars, and the remuneration of tens of millions of dollars is all said to be no?

All of a sudden, I don't know how many people were shouting in shock: "Holy shit, friendships in Hollywood are really valuable! If you say no to millions of dollars, you really don't want it! Are there any friends like this? Come and give me a dozen." !"

This even became social news and was reprinted by overseas media one after another. "William and his friends" can be regarded as one of the hottest words in the year at the end of the century.

——Although the truth is that Leonardo and the others didn’t get paid for the film, they got their share of the box office, and the higher the box office, the more they got. I mentioned to the media that one is that the box office prospects of the film are not yet known, and the other is that for publicity considerations, such news only broke out during the warm-up stage of the film's release, and the publicity effect achieved is extraordinary.

……

"Counting Leonardo DiCaprio's personal website and several other popular movie website forums, there are more than 24 new posts related to "Blood Together" within 1000 hours." Barbara Wilson's blond hair was coiled up, and she was wearing a white professional suit. She had just finished dealing with a large group of media, and she was about to deal with another group. Although she looked a little tired, she looked very excited.

"Very well, that's the trend we want. How much of it is ours and how much of it is unforeseen?"

"The enthusiasm shown by movie fans on the Internet is higher than the publicity department imagined. We almost just played a role in fueling the flames. Now the Internet is boiling like a pot of hot soup, whether it is discussing actors' pay or trailers. News about the movie is being spread like it was with "Meet Joe Black", of course, this time it's totally positive. The only not-so-good news is that your personal website is getting bigger than expected because of the influx again. With a lot of page views, the server is about to die."

"The server is about to die." Different from the literal meaning, this sentence is essentially good news for William, Willot, and "Blood Together", because This means that Willlot's publicity strategy for "Blood Together" is correct, and it has achieved better results than expected——

As early as the filming of "Blood Together" had just finished, Willot intentionally released some stills and posters of the movie every once in a while, so that the public would always remember that such a movie was in production , and has kept fans interested in the movie.

And in the middle of last year, "Blood Together" released the first version of the trailer-not the version that Christopher Nolan cut for the studio and filmmakers. Nolan's trailer is great , There is no doubt about it, but this preview, which almost condenses the essence of the whole film, is not suitable for the public, at least it cannot be released so early, because once fans know the film well too early, they will lose the excitement of going into the cinema— ——Only three characters appeared in the movie preview, William, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire. It is a story about the revenge and revenge of three men. The action scenes are very intense and useful. to many special effects scenes.

The leading trailer is very exciting, but it is also very short, only 1 minute in length. Through the first trailer, fans can tell that the three characters are all vampires, William is on one side, Leonardo and Toby are on the other side , but they can only get so much content through this short trailer. At most, they can judge from the costumes and backgrounds of the characters in the trailer that the story probably happened between World War I and World War II.

According to the law of Hollywood movies that two parties with opposite positions must be righteous and the other is evil, and the protagonist is usually just. It turns out that Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire played the opposite Role?What kind of feud is there between them and William's character?Where did the heroine Natalie Portman go?

These are all questions left to fans by the leading trailer.

It has to be said that since then, the interest of movie fans has been aroused.