Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 554 Finished and Returned to China

Although Joaquin Phoenix is ​​an actor, as an actor, sometimes he can give Liu Zhou different inspiration from an actor's perspective.

In his previous life, Liu Zhou loved the movie "Joker" so much that he not only watched it many times, but also read a lot of analyses and reviews about the movie.

But no matter what, he is still a Chinese and cannot empathize with the culture and customs of the United States.

He also asked a Hollywood screenwriter to revise the script, but it certainly couldn't be perfect. The most he could do was to help you correct some common sense errors.

So there are definitely some aspects that are not in line with North American cultural customs, and regular communication with Joaquin Phoenix can improve this to a certain extent.

Moreover, he is indeed quite talented as an actor, and his occasional flashes of inspiration can give Liu Zhou some inspiration.

In the movie "Joker", it is almost a one-man show by Joaquin Phoenix, so Liu Zhou is also happy to see his flashes of inspiration.

Of course, the framework of the entire film is still under the control of Liu Zhou, and Liu Zhou does not restrict his performance only in terms of performance.

Joaquin Phoenix was of course very happy about the freedom Liu Zhou gave him to play.

He inexplicably liked this movie and this role very much, and had been preparing for it for a long time.

He felt that he had a very strong desire to perform, and what he was most worried about was that the director would be stubborn and limit his performance.

What made him feel lucky was that this Chinese director was not as self-centered as most Hollywood directors. Instead, he gave him a lot of freedom in his performance.

I was even willing to discuss performance issues with him and explore the character psychology and emotional changes of the male protagonist Arthur.

It is precisely because of the mutual coordination between the two that the coordination of the entire crew was accelerated. After all, 90% of the scenes are concentrated on Joaquin Phoenix.

There were bound to be disagreements between the two at the beginning, but as they got along more and more smoothly, their disagreements became fewer and fewer. Of course, Liu and Zhou still had more disagreements.

The movie "Joker" is not an art film, but a commercial film. Liu Zhou is not only responsible for the performance, but also for the overall style of the film.

So he would not allow Joaquin Phoenix to lead the movie astray, but despite this, the movie also gave Joaquin a lot of room to play.

Therefore, although Joaquin Phoenix felt a little regretful and unsatisfied, he did not dare to do it again. After all, Liu Zhou had already given him a lot of face.

As the two had fewer and fewer differences, the filming progressed faster and faster.

By June, "Joker" had been filming for more than a month and nearly 70% of the film had been completed.

However, the remaining scenes were not very climax scenes. Seeing that Joaquin Phoenix was in better condition, Liu Zhou concentrated on filming them.

But the following scenes are not unimportant either, as they contain many metaphors.

For example, when Arthur is troubled by the mystery of his life experience and goes to investigate his mother's medical records, there will be a long shot clearly giving the name of the hospital: Arkham State Hospital.

This can be considered a linkage with DC comics. In DC comics, there is a very famous Arkham Asylum in Gotham City.

Another popular DC character, Harley Quinn, once worked as a psychologist in this hospital, and the Joker himself is naturally a very difficult patient here.

Although the story of "Joker" has nothing to do with DC comics, since the movie is named Joker and Warner Bros. was brought in by all means, this popularity must not be wasted.

What's more, the character of the Joker has become a global hit because of Nolan's "The Dark Knight", which has given the Joker more human complexity.

There is such a public impression. Now the movie "Joker" focuses more deeply on the clown to expose the cruel reality brought about by human nature and class gap, which can also increase the audience's interest in this movie.

The reason why the original "Joker" was able to achieve such a high box office was not only because the quality of the film itself was excellent, but also because it benefited from the dividends brought by DC comics and Nolan's "Batman" trilogy.

In the early stages, the movie attracted fans of DC comics and fans of the Joker, and then the word-of-mouth of the movie was spread on a large scale through them.

So although this is considered an independent film, the connection with DC must be utilized, otherwise the copyright fees will be wasted.

In addition, when Arthur sneaked into the theater exclusive to the rich, the movie playing in the theater was Chaplin's 1936 silent comedy "Modern Times".

The biggest feature of this classic movie that has gone down in film history is that all the characters live in pain and trouble.

However, under Chaplin's lens, these negative emotions all became comedy.

This happens to reflect Arthur's classic lines in the play:

“I used to think my life was a tragedy, but now I realize it’s a comedy.”

So in order to prevent this classic movie from being buried and to compete for an Oscar, Liu Zhou put a lot of thought into preparation.

Film critics and Oscar judges attach great importance to such details. If there are fewer of them, it may not have much impact, but if there are more details in this regard, it will definitely add points.

It is now June and the North American summer season has already begun. Major production companies have brought out their most core films to compete in this season.

So the North American film market is very hot right now, and even this heat has affected the "Joker" crew.

Not to mention others, even Liu Zhou couldn't help but be distracted by the movies released during the summer vacation.

Because the movie "The Hunger Games", produced by Summit Entertainment and co-distributed by Lionsgate, will also be officially released during this summer.

However, it avoids the period of May and June when many blockbusters are released, and the release date is scheduled for late July.

"The Hunger Games" has also proven to be a movie with good box office and good reputation in its original time and space, but this is the first one after all, so it is better to build up its reputation first.

It is better to stay away from those special effects blockbusters for the time being. Even for the sequels, there is no need to compete with those special effects blockbusters. Relatively speaking, "The Hunger Games" does not have many special effects and mainly wins with the plot.

Although the box office of "The Hunger Games" is not as explosive as "Twilight", it is naturally unique in that it has been able to become one of the two major series of films under Lionsgate on par with "Twilight" in its original time and space.

So under Liu Zhou's instructions, Summit Entertainment paid enough attention to this movie from the very beginning.

Not only is the budget sufficient, but a relatively luxurious behind-the-scenes production team is also arranged, and even the post-production promotion and marketing are arranged according to the scale of a blockbuster.

Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate are doing their best to secure as many theaters as possible for the release of the film. With the good reputation of Summit Entertainment in the past one or two years, and the enhanced distribution capabilities of Lionsgate in North America, the two companies can now secure up to 2,100 theaters and nearly 3,400 screens for the release of the film.

Compared with the opening screens of just over 2,000 two years ago, the two companies' distribution capacity has increased by nearly 60 percent.

This is also one of the reasons why the Big Seven in Hollywood have been suppressing the two companies. They may not be as good overseas, but in China, the two companies combined are not much inferior to the Big Seven in Hollywood.

Currently, if the seven major Hollywood companies distribute the film with all their strength, they can only get more than 4,000 screens at most, and that's when there are not many competitors.

For example, if it were during the summer season, even the most powerful Disney would only be able to open its films on more than 3,000 screens at most.

Just like what happened with Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate this time, the two companies will definitely not be able to secure 3,400 screens for "The Hunger Games" to open in the summer.

Although it is in late July, which is considered the tail end of the summer season, as it is the most popular season in North America, the competition at the tail end of the summer season is also fierce.

Therefore, the opening screen size of "The Hunger Games" was only 2,800 square feet. This level is definitely not comparable to those popular special effects blockbusters, but it is already better than most movies.

Although both companies have made full preparations for the release of the film, Liu Zhou is still quite concerned about it.

Liu and Zhou couldn't help but feel a little distracted. They were all members of the Hollywood world of fame and fortune, and others were certainly no exception. The most discussed topic was the summer season.

《功夫熊猫2》、《加勒比海盗4：惊涛怪浪》、系列最经典的《速度与激情5》、新一部漫威超级英雄电影《雷神2》，以及万众瞩目的《变形金刚3》。

One blockbuster after another was released, raking in the box office.

Almost all entertainment news in the United States is dominated by the summer season and various blockbuster movies. This period can be regarded as a carnival for Hollywood.

Perhaps the only person in the "Joker" crew who is not affected is Joaquin Phoenix.

He seemed to be oblivious to the news from the outside world and was still immersed in the performance of the movie.

To be honest, Liu Zhou also admires him very much. He is talented and dedicated to acting. If he could be more sociable and have fewer quirks, he could definitely become a top-tier Hollywood star.

A genius may be a loner. If he becomes sociable, his spirituality may gradually disappear.

Seeing how focused he was, Liu Zhou felt a little ashamed. Then he put all his thoughts back and concentrated on filming the movie.

"The Hunger Games" was not going to be released so soon, and everything has already been arranged. He can't change anything. Instead of worrying about it, he might as well wait for the result.

After Liu Zhou calmed down, the filming efficiency of the movie returned to its previous level.

Liu Zhou spent more than a week to complete the remaining 30% of the plot.

"Joker" was officially wrapped up on June 12.

The filming of the movie took exactly fifty days, from the start of shooting on April 23rd to the completion on June 12th.

Liu Zhou originally thought it would take at least two months, but he didn't expect that Joaquin Phoenix was in such good shape and the crew was also very well coordinated, so the shooting progress was obviously much faster.

This is something that both Liu Zhou and Warner would welcome.

Finishing the film early also means saving a lot of money.

The film was originally planned to cost 70 million US dollars, but the funds could not be used up, and only a little over 40 million has been spent so far.

The subsequent post-production costs don’t have to cost too much money, so the entire movie can be completed with 50 million US dollars.

The main reason was that Liu Zhou had set a generous budget in the beginning, and with the support of Warner this time, the filming was obviously much more convenient and saved a lot of time and money.

In addition, Liu Zhou’s remuneration was also included in the investment, so there was so much money left.

Warner was obviously able to roughly calculate the cost of the film. After realizing that there might be $20 million left, Kevin Chandler couldn't stop grinning.

The look he gave Liu Zhou was obviously much friendlier. As for film and television companies, they really like directors who can save money.

In Hollywood, the investment budget for a movie is usually insufficient, and it is common to ask the film and television companies for additional investment.

This is one of the reasons why producers in Hollywood have more power than directors, in order to control the budget and the director's arbitrary performance.

It is almost impossible to find a director like Liu Zhou in Hollywood who can make a good movie and save money at the same time.

If Liu Zhou didn't have his own company, Warner really wanted to tie him to its chariot.

In the end, both parties decided to use all the remaining funds for the film's publicity. This way, the subsequent publicity and promotion costs could be reduced, and perhaps more money would need to be invested after the film becomes a hit overseas.

Any movie that becomes a global hit is accompanied by huge publicity and promotion costs.

For example, the production cost of "Avatar" was 300 million yuan, but it was claimed to be 500 million yuan. However, the funds used for publicity and promotion were also 300 million yuan, which is no less than the production funds.

Since there was so much money left, Liu Zhou took all the crew members to the Walton International Hotel in New York to hold a wrap-up party.

If it were in China, Liu and Zhou would have set up a few more tables.

Anne Hathaway happened to be attending a Prada event in New York and came over when she had time.

After filming "The Devil Wears Prada", Anne Hathaway gradually became the North American spokesperson for Prada. As her fame has grown in recent years, she was upgraded to a global spokesperson at the beginning of this year.

However, despite her fame, the focus of the wrap party was undoubtedly Liu Zhou and Kevin Channer, who were the real powerful figures in Hollywood.

Therefore, many young actors and models who got in through some channels came to show their courtesy to the two of them, and received a lot of room cards, contact information and so on.

However, Liu Zhou threw all these things into the trash can. Although there are many beautiful ones among them, who knows if they are clean or not, especially the modeling circle, which is even more chaotic than the entertainment circle.

And with Anne Hathaway, a beautiful woman who knows everything about him, Liu Zhou must be stupid to go looking for them.

(End of this chapter)