The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 1306 Staying Out of the Matter
——A punching bag.

It is still an exaggeration to describe "Eternal Love of Mind" in this way. Whether it is the top management of the academy or Sony Columbia, they have no real intention of attacking and excluding "Eternal Love of Mind". After all, Charlie Kaufman is innocent.

To be more precise, this is a challenge to Anson, a challenge that Leonardo DiCaprio is also facing:
Is the challenge that must be faced after a work creates a history and reaches an unsurpassed peak, becoming a superstar, a one-time thing?
"One-Hit-Wonder", a one-time miracle, like a comet.

This situation exists in both music and movies: a work becomes extremely popular, but it is only this once and the person involved is never found again.

Macaulay Culkin from "Home Alone" is a typical case.

So, were Leonardo and Anson a one-off?
In Leonardo's case, he filmed several works after "Titanic" but all performed poorly under the pressure. Then he disappeared into the jungle and exiled himself until "Gangs of New York" began to make a full comeback, trying to prove that he was not just a fleeting comet.

Now, every work of Leonardo has attracted countless attention and also carried enormous pressure. Along with the expectations, provocations and doubts are countless, and different voices from inside and outside the industry are bustling and intertwined.

The same thing happened to Anson—

Of course, it's slightly different.

After "Spider-Man", Anson continued to produce strong results. "Cat and Mouse", "Elephant" and "Butterfly Effect" were all successful, with both box office and word of mouth soaring, and he even won awards, and his career continued to rise.

Without even giving Hollywood room to breathe, Anson had already stood at the top of the pyramid, with the imposing manner of a superstar, poised to be crowned the number one in Hollywood. Naturally, the treatment and requirements were different.

After all, there is only one "No. 1 in Hollywood", and that position is not easy to sit in. A game of thrones is being staged.

For others, a North American box office of 100 million is a happy event worth celebrating; but for Anson, it is just basic practice and people expect more.

Coupled with the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, the atmosphere became tense.

"Warmth within light" hit the muzzle of the gun at exactly the right time.

Whether it was the academy's top brass, Sony Columbia, or other envious and jealous eyes, as well as critical and demanding gazes, none of them were exempted:
They are not stupid.

They knew that Anson was gaining popularity, and they also knew that Anson's market appeal and influence were on the rise. It would be irrational to rashly confront and provoke Anson at this moment. It was highly likely that they would suffer a backlash, and if they were not careful, they would find themselves in an embarrassing and shameful situation.

If you are prepared to fight Anson head-on, the best strategy is to take it slow.

The reason for choosing "Eternal Love" is precisely because of Charlie Kaufman, this eccentric screenwriter whose wild imagination often makes people unable to keep up.

Although it is not one of those sleepy and foggy European films, it is still a unique work full of imagination and jaw-dropping.

Audiences are not averse to such works, but they just cannot understand them. Unlike brain-burning science fiction movies, they do not give people the joy and pleasure of solving puzzles. Therefore, watching movies becomes like a math test in middle school.

It turned into a pain.

I'm afraid not many audiences are willing to go into the cinema and act like fools, opening their wallets for a movie they can't watch or understand.

It is precisely because of such innate factors that Charlie Kaufman's screenwriting works have always been difficult to open up the market, and even with the participation of superstars, the effect is limited.

In other words, judging from the surface, Anson Wood partnered with Kate Winslet and added Charlie Kaufman, which is a very attractive combination, and curiosity is brewing.

However, the actual box office market performance of the film may face severe challenges, and the difficulty of impacting the box office is no less than that of "The Elephant".

All of these have made "The Light Inside" a target, and in the turbulent undercurrents of Hollywood, it has evolved into a wrestling arena for different forces.

All eyes gathered. Silently, these sights and voices evolved into a wave, creating momentum for the "Warm Light Within" campaign, spreading out in a mighty manner.

The wind has risen.

However, all the excitement belongs to others, while the real parties involved are calm and restrained, and seem to be unaware of the undercurrent in Hollywood.

It's not just Anson, Kate and Charlie, it's Focus Features as well.

Focus Features, to be precise, was only established last year and is a subsidiary of Universal Pictures. "Eternal Love" is one of the first works they produced.

However, Focus Features is not a group of novices -

Their predecessor was Good Machine Pictures.

Founded in 1991, it started out as a "promoter" of Ang Lee's films with less than $. In the past decade, in addition to contracting the production and distribution of all of Ang Lee's works, it has also produced a series of works by the Coen brothers and Pedro-Almodovar. It has also received a lot of Oscar nominations and is very experienced.

Universal Pictures was attracted by the experience of GoodMachine Pictures, which is why it acquired and merged it to create Focus Features, which specializes in producing and distributing independent films, especially art works targeting awards season.

Amid the turbulent waves in Hollywood, Focus Features remains calm.

Everything goes according to plan.

In the beginning, Focus Features also had ambitions, and they had to admit that -

Anson’s appeal and influence are heart-stirring, and perhaps this can become an important driving force for “The Warmth of the Heart” to attract audiences to the cinema.

However, their rich experience and accurate judgment enabled them to pull back from the brink.

Just look at "Elephant" and you will know. It is precisely because Anson has a strong appeal that they should be more restrained; otherwise, the audience will rush into the cinema excitedly because of Anson, but end up cursing the movie to vent their anger when they don't understand it, causing the box office market to suffer a backlash.

That's not worth the loss.

The correct approach is to identify the target audience, accurately locate and strike, rely on the spread of word-of-mouth among the target audience to form a virtuous circle, wait for "Nuan Nuan Nei Han Guang" to form a word-of-mouth foundation, and then rely on Anson's appeal to open up the situation, looking forward to a small blowout.

Focus Features has a very precise positioning for “The Warmth of the Heart”:
The North American box office was 30 million US dollars.

They are not expecting a huge box office hit, nor are they expecting the film to make a profit quickly. They are expecting the word-of-mouth and feedback of the film to spread gradually and lay the foundation for the film to win a place at the year-end awards ceremony.

Of course, it is not easy for Charlie Kaufman's works to receive Oscar nominations, and it may take some luck to replicate last year's "Adapted Screenplay" trend.

All in all, Focus Features has a clear idea.

Then, what happened before our eyes happened, and the uproar from the outside world once again proved that Focus Features' judgment was correct.

If they had ambitions from the beginning, the supporting publicity strategy would not be like this, and now they might be caught up in the storm of those with ulterior motives.

By then, "The Warmth of Love" may face a tragic failure.

(End of this chapter)