In Firefly Studios, the lobby on the ground floor of an office building in the administrative area was temporarily transformed into a press conference hall of the Stark Industries headquarters.
Surrounded by several cameras, Eric stood on the rostrum and was skillfully speaking the last line before the film was finished: "To be clear, I am not made to be a superhero. I have so many character flaws. And it caused so much trouble for everyone.”
Don Cheadle, who played Colonel Roddy, leaned over helplessly and said in a low voice, "Read it from the script."
Eric nodded knowingly, raised his hand to look at the card in his hand, glanced at everyone, and said slowly: "The actual situation is that I am Iron Man."
In the audience, all the media reporters were taken aback for a moment, then stood up abruptly, raising their cameras and recording pens.
Natasha Henstridge, who was sitting in the front row, also slowly lowered her raised long legs, and put away the original questioning expression on her face, revealing a properly shocked expression.
Off the court, Joss Whedon behind the monitor called out at the right time: "OK, Good!"
Eric stepped off the stage, came to Joss Whedon's side, and replayed the scene just now with the other party.
Speaking of which, it was the seventh reshoot of this set of shots just now. As the end is approaching, the creators still have not given up on controlling the quality of the film, from Eric's subtle expression to Natasha Henstridge's hearing Eric's action response after reading out that he is Iron Man's lines has been discussed and adjusted in detail, and only then has the current satisfactory effect been achieved.
After confirming that everything was correct, Joss Whedon stood up and shouted at everyone: "I declare that "Iron Man" is officially finished."
huh huh huh—
All crew members in the hall applauded.
After three months of busy work, Eric was naturally not stingy, and then announced that he would hold a wrap-up party tonight in the banquet hall of the Titanic, and naturally there was another round of cheers.
Joss Whedon and others were in charge of the finishing work of the crew. Eric greeted several main creators and then went to remove his makeup. Although it was already afternoon, he still had things to do next.
Today is already May 27th, Wednesday.
The final box office of "Lethal Weapon 4", which was released last week, was only US$49.15 million in the first week. Due to the release of Sony Pictures' "Patriot" this week, the box office of "Lethal Weapon 4" was inevitably affected. 46%. Compared with the first weekend's $34.05 million, the next weekend's box office was only $18.38 million, and the film's ten-day box office totaled $67.53 million, which was not even as good as the first-week box office of "Ace Powers 2" last month.
By comparison, if Sony Pictures' "The Patriot" has any advantage over "Lethal Weapon 4," it's that the movie cost just $110 million to make.
In this film with the American War of Independence as the background, the original actor should still be Mel Gibson, but because Mel Gibson needs to participate in "Lethal Weapon 4", the new actor finally fell on Kevin. Costner.
In the three days of the first weekend, the box office of "The Patriot" was only 32.19 million US dollars, which still did not reflect the explosive power that any blockbuster movie should have.
The box office performance of these two summer blockbusters also indirectly set off how rare the total North American revenue of $360 million generated by the three Easter films was. The production cost of "Lethal Weapon 4" is only 140 million US dollars, which is already equivalent to the total investment of three films, not to mention that Warner also invested a lot of marketing costs for "Lethal Weapon 4", but the box office of "Lethal Weapon 4" Potential yet only slightly better than The Wedding Singer, the Easter trio.
However, the weak performance of the two blockbusters did not reduce fans' expectations for this summer.
Because most people's eyes are actually not on these two movies.
The special effects sci-fi blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow" from Firefly Pictures, "Charlie's Angels 3" from MGM, "The Scorpion King" from Universal Pictures, and "The Matrix 2" from Amblin Pictures are the top priorities for this summer. heavy.
These four movies, except for "Charlie's Angels 3", are all blockbusters with special effects. This is actually the reason why many movie fans look forward to it. Since it has only just emerged in recent years, the market for blockbuster special effects movies is far from being saturated.
However, because it is the first sequel after the big crossover of the spy movie universe series, last year's "007 Casino Royale" made more than 1.1 billion US dollars in box office worldwide. But it is undoubtedly the most watched film of this summer, and the audience's expectations even exceed "The Matrix 2". Many media also predict that if there will be a film with a global box office of one billion in this summer, "Charlie's Angels 3" will undoubtedly be the most promising one.
After Eric finished removing his makeup and walked out of the dressing room, he saw Natasha Henstridge, who had also changed into a very casual T-shirt and trousers, waiting outside the dressing room.
Seeing Eric coming out, Natasha Henstridge greeted quickly: "Hi, Eric."
Eric smiled at her and said, "What's the matter?"
Natasha Henstridge walked out with Eric, and said: "No, I've already found an apartment in Santa Monica and I'm planning to go home, Eric, can you send me?"
If it was any other time, Eric would definitely not refuse this kind of invitation, but now he can only shake his head and say, "Sorry, Nata, I still have work to do."
"It's okay," Natasha Henstridge said, not disappointed, "You'll be at the party tonight, right?"
"Of course, I will definitely go there," Eric nodded, and the two walked out of the office building together, and came to the corridor of the park, looking at the girl beside him, Eric thought for a while, and said: "You will go to the next afternoon Is there anything else on time?"
Natasha's eyes lit up, she shook her head, and said, "No."
Eric said: "Then go to the movies with me, it's an internal trial screening of a horror movie."
"No problem at all."
"However, this horror movie may be a little different, um, it is very scary, you have to be mentally prepared."
Natasha blinked mischievously, and said, "If I'm scared, can I throw myself into your arms?"
"Uh," Eric smiled and looked up, "You are so big, it's not cute at all to throw yourself into a man's arms."
The two talked and laughed, and walked into another nearby office building.
Kenneth Horn, CEO of New Line Films, and Gore Verbinski, director of "Midnight Ring", have been waiting here. Seeing Eric and Natasha Henstridge walking together, they hurried forward greet.
What Eric wants to watch today is the brand new American version of "Midnight Ring".
"Midnight Ring" has been in preparation since the end of last year. In fact, it was basically completed in mid-April. However, Eric was very dissatisfied with the finished film and has been asking Gore Verbinski to make revisions. Some additional shots were also taken.
The film's schedule has been set on July 24, which is not too late for this crowded summer vacation.
Although it has been revised, the publicity work has been carried out since last month. Thanks to the joining of Johnny Depp, this horror film has now attracted a lot of attention. However, before "Pirates of the Caribbean", Johnny Depp has never been considered a commercial star. The package salary of "Midnight Ring" and "Sleepy Hollow" is only 14 million US dollars, with an average of 7 million per film. Dollar.
Eric was persuaded by Gore Verbinski to let go of the budget of "Midnight Ring", but because Depp's salary is not too high, the final production cost of this horror film has just reached 3000 million dollars, much less than Gore Verbinski demanded.
Eric wanted to watch this preview, so together with Natasha Henstridge, who was temporarily brought by Erica, there were only four people.
When they came to the small projection hall in the office building, Kenneth Horn sent the staff to start preparing to play the film, and the four of them sat down in the projection hall.
Waiting for the gap, thinking of Johnny Depp, Eric looked at Gore Verbinski beside him and asked, "Gore, how do you feel about working with Johnny this time?"
Due to Eric's series of revisions, Gore Verbinski was a little nervous during this period of time. However, everyone is very satisfied with the current film effect, and he has to admire Eric in this perspective.
Hearing Eric's question, Gore Verbinski, who was sitting next to Kenneth Horn, leaned forward slightly, and was about to answer, Kenneth Horn stood up with a smile and said, "Gore, you Come and sit here, it will be more convenient for you to exchange videos with Eric."
Eric looked at the two of them humbly and changed positions with a smile on his face, and he praised it in his heart. It is not without reason that Kenneth Horn has managed New Line Films' prosperity in recent years. He obviously saw it. Gore Verbinski's growth potential, want to win some. At this time, just making this small detail smoothly can win Gore Verbinski's great favor.
Gore Verbinski sat down next to Eric, and nodded to Kenneth Horn gratefully, before turning to Eric. He didn't know what Eric wanted to know. I can only say in general: "Depp is a very good actor, very thoughtful, and very proactive in acting."
Eric nodded, and asked again: "How are you getting along, do you plan to cooperate again?"
Gore Verbinski realized something, nodded and said: "If there is a chance, of course."
After a few chats, the screening of the film officially began.
The plot begins with the mysterious deaths of four girls. The mother of one of the girls felt that her daughter's death was too strange, so she entrusted her younger sister Keller, who is a reporter, to investigate the truth of the incident. A videotape was found at a holiday cottage where the four girls stayed.
The original American version of "Midnight Ring" is more of a thriller and suspense film. The main story line mainly focuses on the heroine step by step to unravel the truth about the death of several girls.
The reason for this is also because the Japanese version of "Midnight Ring" has already played psychological horror to the extreme, so it is naturally impossible for the American version to copy it as it is. Therefore, although the American version has done better in various details, it is far from being comparable to the Japanese version in terms of horror.
Right now, because the Japanese version of "Midnight Ring" was cut off by Eric before the filming started, naturally there is no need to repeat and deliberately use other shooting techniques. Eric combined the elements of the Japanese version and the American version in memory this time, Moreover, strictly speaking, this version is more inclined to the Japanese version, both in terms of graphics and soundtrack style, and the theme of the whole film is also very straightforward, just to scare people and scare people to death. Therefore, the most classic scene in the Japanese version, that is, the scene of Sadako slowly crawling out of the TV, Eric will naturally not let it go this time.
What dissatisfied Eric the most about Gore Verbinski's first finished film was actually the creation of a horror atmosphere, which was also the focus of his repeated revisions for more than a month.
Now, the effect is undoubtedly immediate.
When the ghost of the girl named Shamara in the film slowly crawled out from the TV screen, not only Eric's hair stood on end, but Natasha Henstridge, who was sitting beside him, was even more frightened. He closed his eyes directly, and stretched out a small hand as if asking for help, holding Eric's arm tightly.
When the movie ended and the lights came on, Natasha's face was still pale.
Eric patted the back of the girl's hand reassuringly, and looked at the other two. Although the film was directed by himself, Gore Verbinski's expression was also not very good. Kenneth Horn even said: "The current version is indeed much better than the original one. Although the whole movie does not have any traditional bloody scenes, the feeling of extreme horror even reminds me of the old "Exorcism." The Devil. Congratulations, Gore, this is sure to be another Hollywood horror classic."
"Thank you," Gore Verbinski nodded to Kenneth Horn, then looked at Eric, and Kenneth Horn followed suit.
Eric nodded and said, "Very good, it can be sent to the Film Association for grading. Also, have you decided on the promotional strategy for the next two months?"
"Yes, in terms of popularity, Depp is the main focus, and it is mainly aimed at young people under the age of 26. Eric, we have already cut two different versions of the trailer, which will be played on TV platforms and movie theaters respectively. You Want to see it first?"
"No," Eric shook his head, and said, "You can do these things. I only have one request. Add a reminder on the movie trailers and posters: Heart patients watch carefully."
Before Gore Verbinski could react, Kenneth Horn, who is well versed in film marketing and distribution, immediately nodded and said, "This marketing point is very good. The more prohibited something is, the more it will arouse the audience's attention." Interest. However, this method may only be used once in a short period of time, which is a pity."
Eric nodded, shook his head again, and said, "Ken, I'm not giving you marketing advice, I'm serious."
The previous "Midnight Ring" series was really scary. Adding such a reminder in advance is equivalent to getting a disclaimer. If something happens in the future, the trouble will be much smaller. Of course, on the other hand, adding such a prompt can really have a special marketing effect.