Although preparations were made, the subsequent public opinion storm was more intense than everyone imagined.
After the New York Times article sparked a spark, it seemed that all of a sudden, many media outlets' original surprise and appreciation for "Lola Run" turned into doubts.
In fact, this kind of doubt has existed since the release of "Lola Run".
In any case, it seems a bit bizarre that an 18-year-old with no chance of entering a formal film school would suddenly make an outstanding film like "Lola Run".
However, before the New York Times article, everyone was enveloped in an atmosphere of admiration and admiration for the talented boy. Even if someone raises an objection, it is often regarded as jealousy.
Now, the New York Times, an authoritative newspaper with strong influence around the world, has taken the lead in raising questions. Coupled with the secret promotion of well-intentioned people, all the comments that were originally suppressed by the mainstream trend have become noisy.
"Puppet or genius? The difficulty of executing core positions in "Lola Run" is revealed."
"Analysis of the film scoring process, on why it is impossible for Simon Westeros to complete the film scoring of "Run Lola Run" by himself."
"Amazing shots, fake behind the scenes."
"The eighteen-year-old scam deceived the entire federal film marketing at once."
"Simon Westeros High School Classmate: He Works Hard, But He Can't Become a Movie Director."
"The real 'capital' and 'technology' of "Run Lola Run" are Janet Johnston, the daughter of a tycoon, and Kathryn Bigelow, a top student at Columbia Film School."
“Former lighting engineer on ‘Run Lara Croft’ accuses Simon Westeros of being a show-off.”
“…”
“…”
For a time, not only newspapers, but even major radio and television stations in North America were involved in this discussion, and began to be keen to find various evidences that Simon Westeros could not have the ability to film "Lola Run" , San Jose, where Simon grew up, once again welcomed many reporters from all over the country in a short period of time, and the number of reporters gathered around Simon's mansion also expanded again.
On the other hand, Simon's team also quickly counterattacked.
However, this side did not rush to clarify the facts, but pointed the finger at Mark Hollington, who published the questioning article in the New York Times.
Early the next morning, Daenerys Films issued an official statement through the Los Angeles Times, rebuking Mark Hollington for making the decision that it was impossible for him to film "Lola" based only on Simon's upbringing. The conclusion of "Run" is a kind of pride and prejudice stemming from one's own incompetence, and even a kind of discrimination against the lower class people of the Federation based on the shallow sense of superiority of one's own wealthy middle class.
In the United States, the big label of 'discrimination' is really too destructive.
Mark Hollington responded immediately and publicly stated that he was only asking Simon Westeros to come forward and prove that he had the professional ability to film "Lola Run" and did not have any discriminatory intentions.
This time, Simon did not respond.
However, an article quickly appeared in the New York Post, owned by News Corporation, refuting Mark Hollington's request for a person to "prove his innocence" as a very bad and scoundrel move. Since Mark Hollington believes that "Run Lola Run" was not filmed by Simon Westeros, he should personally provide solid evidence. Otherwise, rashly questioning it is a serious violation of other people's reputation. Simon Westeros has every reason to initiate a defamation lawsuit against him.
After such a confrontation, Mark Hollington, who was unable to resist, suddenly fell silent.
However, now that the public opinion storm has been set off, it cannot be easily eliminated.
In the following days, through digging into more details about Simon's growth history, analyzing the content of the "Run Lola Run" film, and even through information provided by some messy "Hollywood insiders", various doubts continued to come. .
With the help of WMA, Fox Pictures, Orion Pictures, etc., Simon also went back and forth to show off his tricks.
At the same time, Brian De Palma, David Giller, Robert Redford and other Hollywood insiders who are close to Simon have also begun to endorse Simon.
In addition, after two days of emergency negotiations, Fox Film President Ronald Goldberg approved Amy Pascal's resignation application in advance.
Daenerys Pictures immediately held a press conference to announce that Amy Pascal, the former vice president of production at Fox Pictures, will join Daenerys Pictures as the company's president.
The announcement of this news undoubtedly made many members of the public who had begun to waver under the influence of various bombardment of doubtful news once again strengthen their confidence in Simon. After all, it would have been impossible for Simon to recruit a vice president of a major film company to work for him if he was just a young man with nothing to show for his appearance.
However, some newspapers soon took the initiative to reveal the 'truth', claiming that Amy Pascal switched to Daenerys Pictures just to be personally responsible for the upcoming investment by Fox Pictures with Simon Westeros as 'producer' ’s “The Last Day Out,” which just goes to show that Fox Studios has doubts about Simon Westeros’ abilities.
The fuss continued until Friday, March 13th.
Many things have also reached a critical point.
Because on this day, the box office data for the tenth movie week in 1987 was officially released.
The media turmoil during the workday inevitably caused many ordinary people to have doubts about the truth behind "Run Lola Run", but in just a few days, the film's box office did not suffer much.
In the new week, the box office number of "Lola Run" finally reached US$25.62 million, with a cumulative box office of US$57.71 million.
Obviously, just the large-scale nationwide release in the first week almost doubled the North American box office of "Lola Run". In the next two to three weeks, as long as there is no big drop, the total box office of "Lola Run" will successfully break through the US$100 million mark.
Following "Run Lola Run" is still "Lethal Weapon".
The $15 million big-budget movie grossed $8.82 million in its first weekend.
Although the screen size is more than RMB 100 more than that of "Run Lola Run" and its reputation is not bad, the box office appeal of "Lethal Weapon" is obviously far less than that of an incident movie like "Lola Run" 'In comparison, the box office scale is naturally only one-third of that.
Even including the subsequent "Platoon", "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3" and "Angel Heart", the last four movies in the top five at the box office this week only had a combined single-week box office of US$27.63 million, which is only the same as "La Lara Croft". "Run" has similar box office figures for a movie.
In the afternoon.
Inside the cliffside mansion in Palisades, Los Angeles.
Katherine Bigelow took the coffee handed over by Janet, saw Janet sitting down next to her like a little girl, smiled and hid to the side to prevent her from leaning against her body, and then said to Simon on the other side of the sofa. Said: "Have you not gone out these days?"
Simon was very moved when he saw Catherine rushing back from Arizona.
During this period, although there was a lot of trouble in the media, many people I got to know over the past six months, including Brian De Palma, David Giller, Sandra Bullock, and Jonathan Friedman, etc., all providing him with sufficient concern and support.
Although Simon has a calm mind for two generations, he still accumulated a lot of negative emotions under the crazy questioning of the media. It was the care of these people that kept Simon's character from being greatly affected.
Hearing the woman's question, Simon nodded and said, "Yeah, I can't do much if I go out anyway, so I might as well stay at home."
In recent days, the number of reporters outside Simon's mansion has shown no signs of decreasing.
In order to avoid these troubles, Simon either contacted the outside world by phone, or Mike Medowa, Pat Kingsley and others rushed over in person. He himself did not go out at all.
Doing this really makes me feel a lot calmer. However, a lot of Simon's work has basically stopped.
Although Ronald Goldberg approved Amy's resignation application in advance out of self-interest, Fox delayed and refused to sign the contract for "The Last Day" as soon as possible.
For "The Butterfly Effect" a month later, although Fox will not secretly do the same as those others, and has actively provided help, it is obvious that he is still waiting to see the subsequent development of the situation.
To be fair, this matter has continued to this day, and no matter what the outcome is, it will be difficult for Simon to completely get rid of doubts for a long time. Some things, even if they are false and have been said ten thousand times, are destined to be difficult to be clarified by themselves.
Catherine held the coffee cup and saw Simon looking at her. She glanced slightly sideways and said, "Then, what are you going to do next?"
"This matter should be settled," Simon replied: "I will go to New York tomorrow and have contacted NBC's "The Tonight Show". I will make some explanations and statements on the show next Monday."
Although Catherine had never encountered the current situation, she felt that this kind of matter could not be settled so easily, and asked: "Is this all right?"
"There will definitely be follow-up media actions," Simon gave Catherine a reassuring look, and then asked the woman about her own affairs: "What about you, I remember that the filming schedule happens to be this week, right? "
Catherine nodded and added: "However, I will go to Oklahoma next week to pick up some exterior scenes, and then I will return to Los Angeles for post-production."
The story of "Night of the Bloody Corpses" takes place in Oklahoma, but due to climate, tax rebates, etc., the filming location was Arizona. In order not to look too outlandish, some additional exterior scenes were indeed needed.
Simon said: "I will come to help you in the later stage."
Catherine smiled shyly and said, "Some people will definitely say in the future that my movies were not shot by Kathryn Bigelow."
Simon smiled and said, "That's just right. I happen to have this problem too."
After chatting like this for a while, Jonathan Friedman, Mike Medowa, Pat Kingsley, Amy Pascal and others arrived at Simon's residence one after another. We have to rush to New York tomorrow, and naturally we can’t all go. This afternoon I just want to sort out the next coping strategies again.