The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 1488 The Lost Pearl in the Ocean
"Children of Men" is adapted from the original novel, which was published in 1992. It tells the story that exactly thirty years later, in 2021, mankind is facing a catastrophe. All mankind has lost its fertility. There have been no newborns in the world for more than ten years, and the social structure has begun to face severe tests.

Science and technology are stagnating, economic structures are gradually collapsing, and different regions and societies around the world are entering a state of unregulated chaos.

Eastern European and African countries are already fragmented and on the verge of collapse, with large numbers of people fleeing their countries and pouring into the relatively stable British Isles.

However, the situation in the British Isles is equally chaotic. Immigrants are being used as slaves, order and rules are collapsing, and the end of the world is coming.

It was at this time that an illegal immigrant girl from Africa became pregnant and gave birth to a new life, which made the lower-class people restless.

At this time, the male protagonist Theodore decided to protect the girl at all costs and leave here, to continue the last hope of mankind, and embark on an escape journey.

Judging from the story, as Anson said, it has the potential to become "Saving Private Ryan", a simple rescue story with war or apocalypse as the background, presenting a picture of all kinds of people. Although the story is not complicated, whether it is apocalyptic science fiction or a war disaster, this project has different development possibilities.

From the core point of view, the film reflects on the meaning of life and even rises to the religious level. Although it is completely different from "2001: A Space Odyssey", they both explore the essence of science fiction movies, a kind of thinking on life, and have artistic value of extension and expansion.

There is no doubt that this is a project with both artistic and commercial potential.

Anson couldn't understand why this project was locked in the project storage room and never saw the light of day. After all, Warner Bros. later invested in and produced a film of similar style, "I Am Legend"; moreover, the latter's quality of completion and spiritual core could not be compared with "Children of Men" at all.

Of course, looking back at past lives, Warner Bros.’ judgment cannot be said to be completely wrong.

"Children of Men" was not produced by Warner Bros. in the end, but by Universal Pictures. Moreover, Universal Pictures' positioning also changed slightly. They invested 76 million US dollars in the production, but did not package it like "Saving Private Ryan". Instead, it was released on Christmas.

War. Science fiction. Post-apocalypse.

These keywords are put together, but the film was released during the Christmas season, which is a time for family fun. It can be seen that Universal Pictures’ positioning is unclear:
They still focus on the awards season and completely treat "Children of Men" as an art film that will impact the awards season.

Strictly speaking, Universal Pictures gave it some thought, but it was not a very thorough one.

Universal Pictures, which has always been stingy, spent 76 million US dollars but targeted the awards season instead of trying to recover the cost from the box office market. However, due to the high production costs, Universal Pictures was stingy with its investment in Academy public relations during the awards season. It said it was targeting the awards season but refused to increase publicity costs, thus falling into a contradictory dilemma.

The vague positioning and failed publicity led to the market's wrong expectations of the film, and the potential of "Children of Men" was completely untapped.

In the end, "Children of Men" only grossed 70 million U.S. dollars worldwide, of which just 35 million U.S. dollars came from North America, which was a particularly disastrous failure.

As for the awards season, despite the lack of PR investment, "Children of Men" still won three nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.

As you can imagine, there was no award.

Both business and art were disappointing.

However, is this really the case?
The director and screenwriter of "Children of Men" are both Alfonso Cuarón, who later became one of the famous "Three Great Mexican Filmmakers" and is also a technical geek. He has made outstanding works such as "Gravity" and "Roma", and has won a place in Hollywood with his talent. In addition, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" is also his work, which happens to be the most well-received one in the "Harry Potter" series.

For the general public, "Gravity" should be his most well-known work, which not only won him the Oscar for Best Director, but also achieved amazing success at the box office; but in fact, real film critics and veteran movie fans believe that "Children of Men" is his most outstanding work, which is the most appropriate in terms of the integration of technology and story.

In its previous life, after the release of "Children of Men", it received wide acclaim from professionals and moviegoers, and a set of long shots of the fortress won countless applause.

Among the "Three Great Mexican Directors", Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu is generally regarded as a technology fanatic. He won the Oscar for Best Director for two consecutive years with "Birdman" and "The Revenant". The long shot in "Birdman" is particularly talked about.

But in Anson's opinion, Alejandro's long shot in "Birdman" was a bit of a show-off. The director knew how good he was and how stunning this long shot was, but it had nothing to do with the advancement of the story. It was a shot inserted purely to show off his abilities and to impress the judges of the Academy.

Alfonso is different. The long shots in "Children of Men" are smooth and natural. They are not for showing off, but because the shots and the environment are integrated into one and then become part of the film narrative. The shots serve the story and technology serves the film. This is the correct attitude.

On pure artistic merit, “Children of Men” may not necessarily surpass “Birdman” or “The Revenant,” but it deserves more attention and more recognition.

In Anson's opinion, the film "Children of Men" has not been able to fully unleash its artistic value or commercial potential.

It's embarrassing.

So, imagine how exciting and surprising it was when Anson found this project in a dark storage room.

If possible, Anson hopes that more people can see this work and feel its charm:

Clearly, "Children of Men" is better than "I Am Legend" by one part "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" plus half of "Saving Private Ryan."

But what about reality?

"Children of Men" only grossed 70 million U.S. dollars worldwide, while "I Am Legend" easily exceeded 200 million U.S. dollars in North America alone.

From this perspective, Warner Bros.' judgment is correct.

However, Anson believes that correct positioning and correct publicity can win more audiences for "Children of Men". At least the movie later received rave reviews in the DVD rental and sales market. Even if the box office of the movie cannot surpass "I Am Legend", it should not have failed so miserably.

Of course, this is just Anson’s personal opinion. Anson thinks so, but it does not mean that Anson can change the fate of the "Son of Man".

This is a common occurrence in Hollywood: projects that everyone generally believes will be successful are met with a cold reception in the market, while projects that people have no expectations or attention for are soaring to success.

There are definitely more than one or two projects with similar situations.

(End of this chapter)