hollywood melon man

Chapter 577 There is an inside story

The film company executives responded quickly, and online media also responded quickly.

Banana Entertainment reported it immediately: "The clearest leak of film sources in history, the latest film directed by Michael Bay, Transformers, has been leaked."

Xigua News: “The leaked video is one hour long, and except for the first 20 minutes, the special effects, music and dubbing for the rest of the time have not been completed.

Even so, the leaked film source still caused a significant impact.

As of writing, millions of people have viewed the leaked footage online.”

TMZ: "Although the leaked footage is incomplete and many parts are missing, it is still unknown what impact it will have."

Sky Studios reported the leak to the police and asked the FBI to investigate. David Ellison, the head of the studio, even said angrily at a press conference that he would investigate the case to the end.

The media, eager to create chaos, hyped and reported this incident on a large scale, allowing many people who didn't know about it to know about it.

Because they know about it, they become curious and go looking for the source of the film, and the source of the film will be spread more widely.

The executives of the big Hollywood companies are not stupid. After the initial anger, they all came to their senses. If it was really leaked, it would be easy to deal with.

But this matter itself is too strange. Not only did Sky Studios fail to block the leak of the film source, it also allowed the source to continue to spread on the Internet.

The reason given was that it couldn't be blocked, and the small studio didn't have the energy and resources, so forget it.

This is not a reason at all in the eyes of the top executives of major film companies. Even if they can't block it, at least they should try their best!

Maybe David Ellison's acting skills are not good enough, so this mistake is understandable.

"The Last of Us" and "Iron Man" do not have a direct competitive relationship with "Transformers", but Sony Columbia Pictures' "The Da Vinci Code" is released in the same period as "Transformers".

If the source of Transformers was leaked, Sony Columbia Pictures would be happy. But if it was directed and acted by Sky Film Studios, the nature of the film would change.

The atmosphere at the high-level meeting of Sony Columbia Pictures was somewhat silent.

After watching the leaked one-hour footage, a group of executives confirmed Yamamoto Kazuka's guess that this was most likely directed and acted by Sky Studios itself.

"The question now is, what do we do?" asked CEO Samuel Hopkins.

Darren Lawson, head of distribution, said: "We are now mobilising the media to expose Sky Studios's tricks."

"It's an idea, but the problem now is that the source of the video has been leaked," said an executive. "Whether it was directed or acted by the actor himself, countless netizens have seen it.

Now that I have seen it, I will be interested in it. Whether it is directed and acted by myself is no longer a fundamental issue. "

"What should we do? Should we help Sky Studios block the source of the film from spreading further?"

The conference room fell into silence. The current situation was that unless the complete version of the film was leaked, it would not affect Sky Studios' plans.

An executive said, "How about we also leak the source of the film?"

Before the executive had even finished his sentence, he knew he had said something stupid because The Da Vinci Code is not the same as Transformers.

Even if the plot of "Transformers" was leaked, there were still special effects to watch, but if the plot of "The Da Vinci Secret" was leaked, then the selling point is gone.

Faced with this move, Sony Columbia Pictures had no choice but to mobilize the media to expose Sky Studios' misery, saying that this was a leak directed and acted by them in order to win public sympathy.

Sky Studios, of course, denied it and instead threw mud at Sony Columbia, saying the leak was the work of commercial spies from Sony Columbia Pictures.

Then they started a war of words and neither side gave in, but obviously none of that mattered because the Transformers footage was everywhere on the Internet.

Also, because it was incomplete, there were no special effects added in the last few dozen minutes, which attracted more movie fans who were looking forward to watching it in the cinema.

David Ellison's villa was filled with hearty laughter.

"cheers!"

The four glasses clinked together and drank happily. "David, your method is great. This will attract countless viewers who want to watch Transformers."

Michael Ovitz was very excited, his face flushed and was about to turn purple, as if he had taken stimulants.

Mel Gibson said: "I think that little Gilbert didn't expect us to do this. It's a pity that Transformers is not released in the same schedule as The Last of Us, otherwise I really want to see how he responds."

Martin Bob said: "The schedule cannot be changed now. If it were someone else, there would be no way, but it is hard to say for little Gilbert.

But fortunately, this time the competitor is Sony Columbia Pictures.”

Michael Ovitz sighed and said, "I don't know what our old friends over there will think of us."

David Ellison smiled and said, "Business competition is a normal thing, Michael. I think they will understand."

David Ellison's strategy was not very clever, and any experienced Hollywood veteran could see that.

It’s just that no one has done this before, and this trick requires very complicated conditions to succeed.

First, it must attract the audience's attention, and secondly, it must ensure that after watching the leaked part of the film, the audience still wants to go to the cinema to watch the movie.

"Transformers" achieved this, which is why it has the current momentum.

"I think the positive impact of this leak on Transformers far outweighs the negative impact."

Gilbert Jr. expressed his thoughts at a joint senior management meeting between Warner and Disney. He continued:
"Forty-eight hours after the incident, more than five million people had watched the leaked video. People at Banana Company told me that the number of related topics and discussions reached tens of millions.

Even if one tenth of these people are interested in the final version of the film, that would be one million viewers, which would at least generate tens of millions of dollars in box office revenue.

What’s more, we believe that the audience that will be affected could eventually reach tens of millions.”

Doug Walter thankfully said, "Fortunately, your reputation scared David Ellison. If Transformers was put in the same schedule as The Last of Us or Pirates of the Caribbean 2, the consequences would be unimaginable."

“Can we do this one?” one executive suggested.

"It's not feasible," Robert Iger rejected. "This trick can be used once, but if it is used too much, it will harm the movie itself. We can't do this."

"Yes," Gilbert Jr. agreed, "We have to be clear that the selling points of each film are different.

For "Transformers", special effects and tall and mighty mechanical life forms are the selling points, and the leaked plot is completely irrelevant.

But for The Last of Us, the plot is too important to reveal.”

Of course, this trick can be used in both Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Iron Man. But as mentioned before, this trick can be used once, and the benefits of imitating it later are very small.

After the meeting, Gilbert Jr. held a small meeting with Doug Walter and Robert Iger.

At this meeting, Gilbert Jr. took out a document that contained the plot of "Transformers" and sketches of the specific designs of Optimus Prime and Megatron.

"This... where did this come from?" After reading the document, Doug Walter thought that Gilbert Jr. had stolen the script.

Gilbert Jr. laughed: “This is an outline and design sketch written by someone based on my knowledge of animation and my knowledge of Michael Bay.

I want to put these things on the Internet and try to create some negative impact.”

Robert Iger also read these things, looked at Doug Walter, and then said: "This plan is feasible. Disney and Warner will cooperate with Cantaloupe Studios."

"It's not just us. We're helping Sony Columbia. They have to do their part, right?"

The three of them smiled at each other, knowing that the time had come to ask for benefits.

As responsible big companies, Disney and Warner don't mind teaching a lesson to a studio as out of line as Sky Studios.

Otherwise, where will big companies put their reputation?
(End of this chapter)