Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 128 Sophie
Although February and March are the off-seasons for the Hollywood film market, there are some films released that are worth paying attention to. Some of these films are directed by famous directors, and some star big-name actors, and therefore have their own popularity.

It will become a competitor to "The Blair Witch Project" after its release.

According to statistics from Triangle Entertainment's distribution department, there are five main movies worth paying attention to in the near future.

The first is the Mexican film "Chocolate Lover", which received extremely high praise after being released in Mexico, the United Kingdom and other places last year, with a cumulative box office of 1200 million US dollars. It was released in the United States on February 2.

The second is the thriller crime film "City Heroes" directed by the famous director Joel Schumacher.

The film's leading actor is Oscar winner Michael Douglas. The production cost is 2500 million US dollars and is scheduled to be released on February 2.

The third one is the crime comedy "Mad Dog and Glory" produced by Universal Pictures.

The male lead is Oscar winner Robert Rodney, and the female lead is the newly debuted Uma Thurman. The release date is February 2th.

The fourth film is the suspenseful romance film "Just Like Home," starring Richard Gere and Jodie Foster, and is scheduled to be released on March 3.

The fifth is the science fiction film "Alien Pursuit" produced by Paramount Pictures, with a production cost of 3500 million US dollars.

There are still many blockbusters until the end of March, including New Line's "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3", "Alias" starring Bridget Fonda, and "Twilight Zone" starring Robert Downey Jr.

Compared with these movies, although "The Blair Witch Project" was heavily promoted, it was still far behind in terms of cast.

Faced with numerous competitors, many filmmakers are keeping a wait-and-see attitude as to whether "The Blair Witch Project" can break through the siege and achieve good results like "Paranormal Activity".

If "The Blair Witch Project", which was released with hype, also succeeds at the box office, it will show that this method of promotion is effective and can be used as a reference for future film releases.

"Hello, Director Link, I'm your fan, nice to meet you."

In the Bibliothèque Richelieu in Paris, a woman with delicate features came to the long table holding a French version of "Interstellar".

The woman was in her twenties. She wore a beige windbreaker with a blue long skirt. Her long golden brown hair was draped over her shoulders, and her fluffy bangs made her look pure and beautiful.

It's like a super deluxe version of Papi Jiang.

"Ms. Sophie Marceau? Hello! Are you my fan too?"

Link stood up and shook the woman's hand.

"Yes, Director Link, you know me too?"

The woman looked at him with a smile, a look of surprise in her deep blue eyes.

"Your First Kiss is very famous in the United States, but I personally prefer your Wild Love. The Mary you played is pure but also has a seductive charm that can captivate everyone. No one else can play this role like you."

"Thank you! Your book is great too."

Sophie Marceau blinked her blue eyes and smiled.

"I heard you call me director, I thought you liked my movies more."

Link laughed.

"Yes, your Buried Alive is also very good, but relatively speaking, I prefer your novel. I have read this book three times and I can recite many classic lines."

Sophie Marceau laughed.

“Thank you for liking my book. It’s my honor.”

As there were many people queuing behind him, Link didn't have time to chat. After quickly signing for Sophie Marceau, he continued to sign for the next book fan.

In the past few months, he has participated in more than a hundred book signing events and signed autographs for nearly 10 people, including many world celebrities and international stars. Sophie Marceau is not the most famous, nor even the most beautiful.

When he attended a book signing in Copenhagen, Denmark, he met an elf-like beauty with blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. But by the time he realized what was happening, the girl had disappeared into the crowd with the book he had signed. After seeing Sophie Marceau off, Link thought that the next time he would meet her would probably be at an awards ceremony or a party a few years later.

It was only after the book signing that he met Sophie Marceau again in the corridor of the library.

Sophie Marceau seemed to be waiting for him. When she saw him come out, she came up to him and invited him to have coffee.

Link did not refuse and followed Sophie Marceau to a cafe on the Seine to talk about movies and "Interstellar".

Sophie Marceau is a typical literary youth who loves literature. When talking about literature, she becomes very interested, her blue eyes sparkling with stars. Sometimes she holds up her cheeks and looks at him with admiring eyes, making him unable to resist.

He could only mobilize the knowledge in his mind and chat with him about famous writers and works from all over the world, about Hemingway and Edgar Allan Poe from the United States, Maupassant and Romain Rolland from France, Turgenev and Dostoevsky from Russia, Mr. Lu Xun, Tagore, and so on.

Link has not read all the books of great writers, nor can he recite the entire text, but he knows their representative works, the characteristics of their works, and selected chapters.

With these experiences, it was not difficult to chat with Sophie Marceau, who had not read many books.

The two chatted from the afternoon until the bright moon rose over the Seine River and the river breeze brought gusts of cold air.

When Link was about to say goodbye, Sophie Marceau invited him to rest in her apartment, which was very close to her home.

Link refused disrespectfully.

After attending the book signing event in Paris, Link’s trip in Europe has ended and he returned to the United States with his publicity and promotion team.

During this trip to Europe, he and his publicity team traveled to 23 countries and regions, 54 cities, held 73 book signing events, and sold 218 million copies of "Interstellar" in Europe.

It also helped Interstellar's global sales reach 643 million copies, and it is expected that sales will exceed 1000 million copies this year, making it the best-selling science fiction novel of the year.

After returning to the United States, Link temporarily put aside the promotion of his new book and shifted his focus to movies.

On February 2, after a period of promotion, "The Blair Witch Project" was released in 26 theaters in North America.

The film grossed $3503 million in North America in its first three days.

It strongly suppressed movies such as "Mad Dog and Glory", "City Heroes" and "Chocolate Lover" released at the same time, becoming the weekly box office champion.

When "The Blair Witch Project" was released, Hollywood film studios and the media paid close attention to the film's box office data.

Although many people had judged in advance that "The Blair Witch Project" would have good box office results based on the attendance rates of various theaters and its current popularity, when the premiere box office results came out, everyone was still shocked by the data.

This movie has no big-name actors, no big-name directors, no gorgeous costumes and prop designs, no refreshing music and reverberation, and no artistry or profound connotation.

Apart from being a little bit scary, there's nothing else about it. How come it has such a high box office? Is it another "Paranormal Activity"?
Someone has calculated that the total cost of completing such a film would not exceed $6. A skilled director could make it with $ to $, which is similar to "Ghost".

But such a low-cost movie earned 3503 million US dollars in the first three days of its premiere, with a profit ratio of nearly a thousand times.

Better than the premiere of Paranormal Activity.

Some media outlets have exclaimed that "The Blair Witch Project" is the next "Paranormal Activity," and its global box office performance may not be worse than that of "Paranormal Activity."

Some media began to investigate the film's director Ed Merrick and discovered that he was just an unknown little director who had only worked as an assistant director and production assistant twice in other crews before, and "The Blair Witch Project" was his debut film.

Can a director like this make a hit movie?
Could Ed Merrick be the next Link?
When the media saw that "The Blair Witch Project" borrowed the promotional model of "Paranormal Activity" and achieved extremely high box office, they published articles saying that the film market has changed and the audience's tastes have also changed.

In the past, Hollywood focused on the quality of films and used big-name directors and actors to attract audiences.

Nowadays, movies are more focused on hype. No matter how poor the quality of a movie is, as long as the publicity is done well and the audience knows about the movie and becomes curious about it, it can get good box office results.

No one knows whether this change is progress or regression.

(End of this chapter)