Hollywood Director 1992.

Chapter 330: New movie starts shooting, competition for summer vacation is fierce
After the release of "The Butterfly Effect", Link and the crew participated in several film roadshows and TV interviews to create some heat and topics for the film.

In the second week, Link handed over the film promotion work to Jon Gordon and others, and flew to San Francisco with the crew to start shooting the new film "Network".

The project of "Network" began preparations as early as February. After several months of careful preparation, several major sets have been basically built.

When Link arrived at the San Francisco studio, the crew was busy debugging equipment and setting up the scene. The studio was filled with a tense and orderly atmosphere, and everyone was making final preparations for the upcoming filming.

The film tells the story of female programmer Angela Bennett's desperate self-rescue after facing a life-and-death crisis.

Angela is a computer whiz and her life depends almost entirely on computers.

By chance, she received a disk from a colleague, and not long after, the colleague died mysteriously.

Later, while on vacation in Mexico, Angela met a handsome man, but she soon discovered that the man had evil intentions - he was a killer whose goal was to kill her and retrieve the disk.

Angela encountered an accident while fleeing. When she woke up, she found that her identity document had been replaced and she was being hunted again.

In the end, she relied on her intelligence and computer skills to successfully avoid the life-and-death disaster and uncover the truth of the matter.

Since the story is set in the 1990s, when the Internet was just starting out, the screenwriter was limited by the times when writing the script.
It is hard to imagine how a person can live relying solely on a computer. I don’t understand how many secrets a disk can hide, let alone the meaning of the Internet world, the concept of computer hackers and their dangers, and the specific role of computer technology in the Internet age.

Therefore, the original script seemed to be restrained when it was written and could not fully demonstrate the wonderful aspects of the story.

After Link decided to direct the film, he made drastic changes to the script.

He changed the contents of the disk to show that a senator had been bribed.

When the congressman learned that the evidence had been leaked, he immediately sent people to hunt down the leaker and try to recover the evidence.

The killer was changed to CIA agent Jack, who received an order from his superiors to hunt down a female spy who was preparing to leave Mexico with nuclear weapons information.

However, during the pursuit, Jack gradually discovered the truth: Angela was not a female spy, and there was another mystery behind this matter.

He reported the situation to his superiors, thinking that the problem would be solved, but he did not expect that his superiors were in collusion with the congressman and insisted that he deal with Angela.

Jack refused to accept the order and was immediately hunted by both the black and white worlds.

While fleeing, Jack and Angela worked together and used their respective abilities to thwart the enemy's conspiracy, brought the evidence back to Washington, exposed the truth in public, and successfully sent the congressman and corrupt detective to prison.

The revised new script has twists and turns in the plot, a tighter rhythm, more intense conflicts, and is full of a tense and exciting atmosphere.

At the same time, the new script also introduces many new terms in the Internet age, including hackers, dark web, computer viruses, network attacks, social networking sites, online stores, blog archives, etc.

Although these nouns have already appeared, few people use them and their influence is limited.

Link describes these concepts in greater detail in the script, making the film not only entertaining but also forward-looking.

After reading the script, leading actors such as Sandra Bullock and Matt Damon felt that this was more like a cool science fiction movie.

"This script is even better, and it will definitely be exciting when it's filmed."

After reading the revised script, Sandra Bullock looked at Link with admiration. If Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg hadn't been there, she would have thrown herself into Link's arms and kissed him passionately.

"My character is also cooler, like a secret agent like James Bond."

Matt Damon laughed.

Other members of the crew echoed the sentiment.

"Don't be too happy too soon. The new script has added a lot of action scenes, which makes the performance much more difficult. And our filming schedule is very tight. During this period, you not only have to hurry up to film, but also receive training. The work will be harder."

Link said.

"No problem! We are all young people, so it's okay if we work a little harder."

Matt Damon shrugged and laughed.

Actors such as Sandra Bullock, Mark Wahlberg, and Bob Gunton don't mind either. Link is a top Hollywood director. It is their honor to play an important role in his new movie, and it is completely acceptable to work a little harder.

"All right!"

After preparing everyone's minds, Link led the crew to start closed-door filming in San Francisco, Washington and other places.

Because he was too busy with work, he seldom asked about the box office situation during the summer vacation. It was only when Monica, Jennifer and others came to visit the set that he learned from them that "The Butterfly Effect" had a good box office performance and that the Big Seven Pictures did not gain much advantage from this movie.

After more than two weeks of filming in the San Francisco Bay Area and completing more than 50 scenes, the "Network" crew moved to Cancun Beach and Tijuana City in Mexico.

The beaches in Cancun are in Baja California, although the beaches here are not as famous as those in Hawaii.

But it has a large area, many pristine barrier reefs, clear blue waters connected to golden sand beaches, and beautiful scenery. It is also a tourist destination frequented by the middle and lower class Americans.

The heroine Angela was hunted down while on vacation here.

The chaotic downtown area of Tijuana, with its narrow streets and bustling crowds, can also inject some tension and realism into thrillers when filming.

"Scene 87, 1st take, begins!"

After the crew clapboard, Link stood behind the camera, staring at the filming on the set with a frown, examining every detail in the shot.

When his new movie reached its climax, competition in the North American film market became fierce.

In its third week of release, "The Butterfly Effect" earned $2373 million in 2446 theaters, with a cumulative box office of $8377 million, ranking third in the weekly box office.

The champion was "Die Hard 3" starring Bruce Willis, which earned $2525 million in 3392 theaters in its first week.

Compared to the production cost of 9000 million US dollars, the box office data is good, but not excellent, and there is a clear gap between the first and second film's first week box office.

The runner-up is "Apollo 13", which earned $2451 million this week, just $5 more than "The Butterfly Effect".

The cumulative box office was 1 million US dollars, making it the second movie this year to exceed 41 million US dollars at the North American box office.

The fourth place is "Brave Heart", which took in $1209 million this week. The fifth place is "At All Costs", the sixth film of Guess What?, which was released in 1274 theaters in the first week and earned $939 million at the box office, which is average.

Sixth place: "Crimson Tide", with 436 million US dollars, and a cumulative box office of 6278 million US dollars, the growth rate was far lower than expected.

Seventh place: "Love at Second Sight", which earned $231 million this week and a total North American box office of $8212 million, officially breaking the 8000 million mark.

After the box office results came out, the presidents of the seven major film studios all frowned, somewhat surprised by the box office data of "At All Costs".

"At Any Cost" is a film project that Guess What Films snatched from Castle Rock Films. It stars Nicole Kidman, popular stars Joaquin Phoenix, Ryan Phillippe and others, with a production cost of 2200 million US dollars.

Compared to "The Butterfly Effect" which had an investment of 1200 million, this is obviously a big production.

In addition, before the release of "At All Costs", Guess Pictures also promoted this film as a key project, making it very lively.

Everyone saw that Guess What took "At All Costs" very seriously and thought it would be another big-selling movie.

The results of it,
"At Any Cost" only grossed $939 million in its first week and has no potential to be a big hit.

The previous publicity hype was more like a feint to confuse the Big Seven studios and make them increase their investment.

Guess what, the film's plan worked.

In order to suppress "At Any Cost", Seven Pictures released "Die Hard 3" ahead of schedule and spent a lot of resources to promote the movie.

However, after the release of this movie, not only did it fail to perform, it also competed with "Apollo 13", "Braveheart" and "Crimson Tide", snatching a lot of box office revenue from the three movies.

This also caused dissatisfaction among the three companies.

Previously, they had joined forces briefly to suppress Guess the Picture Company. Now that they have suddenly lost their target of suppression, competition between these films is inevitable.

In order to achieve better box office results, four film companies - Universal Pictures, the distributor of "Apollo 13", Paramount, the distributor of "Braveheart", Disney, the distributor of "Crimson Tide", and 3th Century Fox, the distributor of "Die Hard " - began to step up their publicity efforts starting from the second week.

They not only compete for box office with "The Butterfly Effect" and "At Any Cost" under Guess What Films, but also compete with other films for box office, no longer caring about their status as allies.

Under such circumstances, the competition for the summer box office is becoming increasingly fierce.

When Michael Ovitz saw this situation, he quickly called the presidents of the seven major film studios and asked them not to kill each other first, but to continue to crack down on the films of Guess the Movies and not let Guess the Movies get the upper hand.

The presidents of the seven major film studios successively rejected his proposal.

"The Butterfly Effect" is in its fourth week of release and its box office is bound to exceed 100 million yuan, but the ceiling will not be too high, so there is no need to continue suppressing it.

However, the box office performance of "At Any Cost" is average and it has no potential to be a big hit. It would be a waste of resources to suppress it too much.

Under such circumstances, the box office market has become a blue ocean, and it is impossible for the seven major film studios not to compete for the box office.

Disney President Michael Eisner said on the phone with dissatisfaction that in order to suppress "The Butterfly Effect", Disney released "Crimson Tide" ahead of schedule, but the box office was lower than expected, causing the company a loss of tens of millions.

If he doesn't find a way to regain some box office revenue at this time, the people on the board of directors will let him go early.

The other six film studios also believed that they had sacrificed too much in the fight against "The Butterfly Effect", resulting in several films' box office performance being lower than expected.

Now that the crackdown is over, they have to think about their own films.

Michael Ovitz tried to persuade everyone, but no one was convinced.

"Damn it! This must be Link's conspiracy."

Michael Ovitz put down the phone and said angrily, "He deliberately released a movie with little box office potential, leaving the movie market vacant, and then caused a conflict of interest between the Big Seven Pictures, so that he could fish in troubled waters and make Guess Pictures' movies a big hit. This bastard is so cunning."

"The production cost of 'At All Costs' was over 20 million. Are they using this kind of movie as cannon fodder?"

Vice President Ron Meier couldn't believe it.

"This is the cunning of Link. The production cost of "At All Costs" was too low to attract the attention of the seven major film studios. Twenty million was just right. Facts have proved that this bastard Link succeeded. He fooled everyone."

"Big Seven Pictures has withdrawn, what should we do?"

Ron Meier asked.

Michael Ovitz had no choice.

The Big Seven studios are competitors.

They only joined forces temporarily to deal with Guess Pictures. The foundation of the alliance was too fragile. Once it was disrupted, it would be difficult to reorganize in a short period of time.

Link must have seen this clearly, which is why he used "At All Costs" to break the Big Seven's plan.

How cunning.

"Is he still filming a movie?"

"Yes, there are media reports that when Link was filming in downtown Tijuana, in order to prevent accidents, he hired more than 20 retired soldiers with live ammunition as bodyguards to patrol outside the crew every day. I have to say, this guy is really timid."

Ron Meier laughed derisively.

Michael Ovitz didn't answer, but just paced around the office thinking of a solution.

Jingle Bell!Jingle Bell!
The desk phone rang, and Ovitz picked it up irritably, asking who it was.

Harvey's toad-like laughter came from the phone, saying that he had a good idea to deal with Link. Even if he couldn't suppress his box office, he could at least embarrass him.

Ovitz quickly asked what the solution was.

After listening to Harvey's explanation, Ovitz's eyes lit up and he decided to give it a try.

(End of this chapter)