Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 237 Godfather, hush!

"Link, would you like to try some of the delicious chocolate sauce?"

"No need! Eat more."

Link looked at the pile of shitty chocolate sauce, rejected Chris Bauer's kindness, and continued editing the film.

This is Mansfield, Ohio, USA, the set of "The Shawshank Redemption". After more than two months of filming, the movie is about to be wrapped.

Today we were filming the prison break scene of the lead actor Andy Dufresne.

Andy spent more than 20 years digging holes in Shawshank Prison with a small mattock, and finally decided to escape during a thunderstorm.

In prison, Andy changed his clothes, packed his suit, passbook and other items, tied them to his calves and began to escape.

"Pause!"

"Andy, you need to be more excited. You used your clever brain to deceive the warden and are ready to start a new life. You will face two endings, either death or freedom. You should be more excited now."

Director Frank Darabont warned.

"Okay, I will."

Tim Robbins nodded and resumed his performance.

When he came to the underground drainage pipe area, he picked up a large stone, and when thunder sounded in the crew, he raised the stone and smashed it hard on the pipe, making a loud bang.

After three consecutive hits, a hole was smashed in the cement pipe, and turbid excrement flowed out of the hole.

Andy entered the pipe and slowly crawled out in the sewage, almost fainted by the excrement in the pipe.

In fact, the sewage and excrement were all chocolate sauce. Half a ton of chocolate sauce was used in this scene.

During the filming, the air in the crew was filled with the aroma of chocolate sauce.

After Andy Dufresne climbed out of the pipe, he fell into the pond. It started to rain heavily. Andy stood in the rain, tore off his prisoner clothes, and raised his arms to the sky.

When filming this scene, the director team discussed whether Andy should yell a few times after escaping to vent his emotions and move the audience.

After discussion, they decided not to shout loudly, as this would make the jailbreak seem unprofessional and would also make the character of Andy Dufresne seem too frivolous and not steady enough.

But in order to impress the audience, Tim Robbins must put in an effort in his performance and be able to show that kind of emotional tension.

This scene is very important, it is the highlight of the whole movie, and Tim Robbins performed it six times with great effort before director Darabont announced that it was approved.

"cut!"

After filming this scene, the main part of "The Shawshank Redemption" was completed, leaving only some scattered shots.

After finishing the work at hand, Link returned to Los Angeles to start the promotion work before the release of "Seven Deadly Sins".

Competition in the North American film market during this year's summer vacation is extremely fierce.

Starting from May, "The Flintstones" and "Madame Clyde" were big sellers, then in June, "Speed" and "The Lion King" were big sellers, and in July, "Forrest Gump" became a huge hit.

After "Forrest Gump", there is Link's new movie "Seven", the western action film "Wyatt Earp" starring superstar Kevin Costner, the action blockbuster "True Lies" jointly created by James Cameron and Schwarzenegger, and the suspense blockbuster "The Client" created by director Joe Schumacher, Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones.

They are all famous directors + famous actors + high-cost models.

Currently, "Forrest Gump" has a very high reputation and its box office data remains high.

Under such circumstances, it is difficult for other movies to achieve good box office results, especially "Seven".

This movie was preceded by "Forrest Gump" and followed by "Wyatt Earp" and "True Lies".

If the quality is slightly worse, it will be eaten as a sandwich.

On July 7, amid an extremely unfavorable atmosphere of public opinion, "Se15en" was released in 2441 theaters in North America, with a box office of 2696 million U.S. dollars in its first week.

This result is pretty good, but it failed to win the weekly box office championship.

This week's box office champion is still "Forrest Gump", with box office revenue of 3128 million US dollars in the third week and cumulative box office of 1.09 million US dollars, making it the fourth movie in North America this year to gross over million US dollars.

"Seven" failed to win the box office championship in its first week and was ridiculed by many media.

After "Buried", every one of Link's movies won the box office championship in the first week of its release. The production cost of "Seven" was as high as 3000 million US dollars, which is the sum of the costs of the previous movies, but it is the only movie that failed to win the weekly championship.

What does this mean?
This means Link has failed.

The media have published articles mockingly, saying that Link is beginning to go downhill, his movies are being abandoned by the audience, and it will be difficult to reproduce his past amazing achievements.

Michael Ovitz and others took the opportunity to add insult to injury and used the media resources in their hands to actively suppress "Se7en", saying that the film was a bad movie, plagiarized the ideas of French films, and that the Palme d'Or was a lot of water, and that it was an award that Link bought with money.

Well-known film critic Sean Thorpe said that after making many bad films, Link wanted to transform through "Seven", but he was too eager and did not make the film well, resulting in a film that was neither fish nor fowl. Sean Thorpe mocked Link for not being able to make feature films and asked him to practice for a few more years before considering making art films.

The above comments ignore facts and are full of nonsense, which have angered many filmmakers who like "Seven Deadly Sins".

Quentin Tarantino said in an interview with reporters outside the cinema that the overall level of "Se7en" is no worse than Hitchcock's "Psycho" and Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining", and it is a horror movie that is close to full marks.

At the same time, Quentin also said that "Seven Deadly Sins" may be the pinnacle of Link's career. The level of this movie is so high that it is impossible for Link to make a better movie than this one.

After watching the movie, director Martin Scorsese also rarely spoke out in the media, saying that "Se7en" deserved the Palme d'Or.

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster said in an interview that no matter how many classic crime suspense films there are in film history, "Seven" will be an unavoidable topic when people talk about this type of film from now on. This film also proves that Link has unlimited potential in film creation, and she is also looking forward to working with Link.

Renowned film critic Rudin Batchelor published a review in The Hollywood Reporter, saying that the film was the most surprising work to him this year.

The first surprise is that Link abandoned his past low-cost gimmicky film creation style and created a high-level thriller and suspense blockbuster through exquisite script design, gorgeous scene arrangement, rigorous and meticulous photography techniques, etc. Link's transformation is surprising.

The second surprise is that Link continues to maintain extremely high creativity in his new movie. He breaks the framework of traditional Hollywood genre movies and through clever design, he makes a seemingly gangster movie very profound, which not only shocks the audience, but also triggers thinking in the whole society. It is of great significance that Link still insists on innovation and breakthroughs in his new movie, and this persistence is also surprising.

and many more.

Although many filmmakers have publicly voiced their support for "Se7en", Michael Ovitz, together with the seven major film studios, mobilized hundreds of media outlets to suppress the reputation of "Se7en", which was a huge effort.

In its second week of release, "Se2407en" earned $ million, ranking second in the weekly box office.

The western action film "Wyatt Earp" starring Kevin Costner flopped, with its opening box office takings of only $754 million.

The champion is still "Forrest Gump", with a weekly box office of 2837 million US dollars, which has firmly surpassed "Seven" for two consecutive weeks.

"Hey, Link, are you able to do this? We've helped you promote it, but Seven Deadly Sins still didn't make it to number one at the box office. What's wrong with you? Why are you suddenly unable to do this?"

After the box office figures came out, Quentin called and joked.

"Seven earned over 50 million in two weeks and successfully recouped its investment. How can this result not be good?"

Link leaned back on the couch and made a phone call.

"Godfather! Shhh~"

Liu Qianqian next to him pointed at the homework book on the table and puffed her face, asking him to keep his voice down and not disturb her while she was doing math problems.

Link shook his head. The kid was really annoying. He could only take the phone and walk next door to continue answering it.

".For other directors, a successful return on investment is good enough, but you are different. You are Link, the holder of the top three records of the greatest box office revenue ratio in film history, and the most profitable director of the younger generation. After each of your movies is released, you will receive strong support from fans and sell well at the box office.

Now it is not easy to make a big movie with a high cost. The box office revenue ratio should be at least 100 times, not times, right? But judging from the current box office data, it is at most three times, and it is difficult for the North American box office to exceed million.

"Link, your movie is pretty good, but the box office results are disappointing. Aren't you good at hyping movies? Why don't you continue to hype them? Haha, why don't you continue to hype them and see how much you can get at the box office?"

Link was speechless. This guy was too long-winded. If he had a short life, he would probably hang up before he could finish listening to him when he called him.

"No need. 'Se7en' is an art film like 'Pulp Fiction'. It doesn't make much money at the box office every week, but it has a long run and the box office decline is small. After more than ten weeks of release, the box office will slowly accumulate. You'll see then. The box office performance of 'Se7en' will definitely not be too bad."

Link said.

"Seven Deadly Sins" received a box office reward of 2.6 times during its internal preview.

After more than a month of publicity and the blessing of the Palme d'Or, the box office rewards reached 2.8 times, and it would not be difficult to get a box office of more than million in North America.

So he is quite satisfied with the current box office growth of "Seven Deadly Sins".

However, Quentin didn't believe him and thought he was just consoling himself. He jokingly advised him to be more positive and said that it was not a big deal if a movie failed at the box office, as he could just win it back next time. He advised him not to be negative and never recover from this setback.

"No, thank you for your concern."

Link didn't want to chat with this nagging guy, so he said go to bed early and hung up the phone.

"Godfather, how do I solve this problem?"

Liu Qianqian came running over with a workbook in her hand.

Link got a headache when he saw the kids' homework, "Ask your mom."

"She was doing yoga with Monica and asked me to ask you."

The little guy blinked his big eyes and looked at him.

Link was helpless. Being a godfather also requires math skills? This is too difficult.

Seeing that the little girl loved studying so much, he could only hold his head and explain math problems to her.

(End of this chapter)