Hollywood Director 1992

After the release of "The Butterfly Effect," Link and his crew tirelessly attended several film roadshows and television interviews to generate buzz and discussion for the movie.

By the second week, Link entrusted the film promotion work to Jon Gordon and others, while he led the crew to San Francisco to begin filming his new movie, "The Net."

The project for "The Net" had been in preparation since February, and after several months of meticulous planning, the main sets were basically completed.

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

This movie tells the story of a female computer programmer, Angela Bennett, who embarks on a desperate self-rescue after facing a life-or-death crisis.

Angela is a computer expert whose life is almost entirely dependent on computers.

By chance, she receives a floppy disk from a colleague, and not long after, this colleague dies mysteriously.

Subsequently, while vacationing in Mexico, Angela encounters a handsome and charming man, but she soon discovers that this man has ulterior motives—he is an assassin whose goal is to kill her and retrieve the floppy disk.

During her escape, Angela suffers an accident and wakes up to find that her identification documents have been replaced, and she is once again being hunted.

In the end, she relies on her intelligence and computer skills to successfully avoid the life-or-death crisis and uncover the truth.

Since the story is set in the nineties, when the internet was just beginning, the screenwriter was limited by the era when creating the script.

It was difficult to imagine how a person could live solely on a computer, nor did they understand how much secret a floppy disk could hide, let alone the meaning of the online world, the concept of computer hackers and their dangers, and the specific role of computer technology in the internet age.

Therefore, the original script felt constrained when written, unable to fully showcase the brilliance of the story.

After deciding to direct this movie, Link made extensive revisions to the script.

He changed the contents of the floppy disk to evidence of a senator accepting bribes.

Upon learning of the leaked evidence, the senator immediately sent people to hunt down the leaker, attempting to retrieve the evidence.

The assassin was changed to CIA agent Jack, who receives orders from his superiors to hunt down a female spy carrying nuclear weapons data, preparing to leave Mexico.

However, during the pursuit, Jack gradually discovers the truth: Angela is not a female spy, and there is more to this than meets the eye.

He reports the situation to his superiors, thinking it will resolve the issue, but he doesn't expect that his superiors are colluding with the senator and insist that he eliminate Angela.

Jack refuses to accept the order and is immediately hunted by both the authorities and the underworld.

While on the run, Jack and Angela work together, using their respective skills to thwart the enemy's conspiracy, bring the evidence back to Washington, and publicly reveal the truth, successfully sending the senator and corrupt police detective to prison.

The revised script has twists and turns, a more compact pace, and more intense conflicts, creating a tense and exciting atmosphere.

At the same time, the new script also introduces many new terms from the internet age, including hacker, dark web, computer virus, cyber attack, social networking site, online store, blog archive, etc.

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

Link provides a more detailed description of these concepts in the script, making the movie not only entertaining but also full of foresight.

After seeing the script, Sandra Bullock and Matt Damon, among other leading actors, felt that it was more like a cool science fiction movie.

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

Sandra Bullock said after reading the revised script, looking at Link with adoring eyes. If Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg weren't nearby, she would have jumped into Link's arms and kissed him passionately.

"My character setting is also cooler, like an agent like Bond."

Matt Damon said with a smile.

The rest of the crew also chimed in agreement.

"Don't get too excited yet. The new script has added a lot of action scenes, which increases the difficulty of the performance a lot, and our filming time is very tight. During this time, you not only have to seize the time to film, but also undergo training, so the work will be a little harder."

Link said.

"No problem! We are all young people, it doesn't matter if it's a little hard."

Matt Damon shrugged and smiled.

Sandra Bullock, Mark Wahlberg, Bob Gunton, and other actors also didn't mind. Link is a top Hollywood director, and it's an honor for them to play important roles in his new movie, so working a little harder is completely acceptable.

"Okay!"

After preparing everyone mentally, Link led the crew to begin closed-door filming in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and other locations.

Because he was too busy with work, he rarely asked about the box office situation during the summer season. Only when Monica, Jennifer, and others came to visit the set did he learn from them that "The Butterfly Effect" was doing well at the box office, and the seven major film companies were unable to gain much advantage from this movie.

After filming for more than two weeks in the San Francisco Bay Area, completing more than 50 scenes, the "The Net" crew then moved to Cancun Beach and Tijuana in Mexico.

Cancun's beach is in Baja California. Although the beach here is not as famous as Hawaii.

But it is wide and has many pristine barrier reefs. The turquoise sea is connected to the golden sandy beach, with beautiful scenery. This is also a popular tourist destination for the American middle and lower classes.

The heroine Angela is hunted here while on vacation.

And the chaotic Tijuana city area, with its narrow streets and bustling crowds, can also inject some tension and realism into the thriller when filming here.

"Scene 87, Take 1, Action!"

After the clapperboard was struck, Link stood behind the camera, frowning and staring at the filming on set, scrutinizing every detail in the lens.

As his new movie reached its climax, the competition in the North American film market also entered a white-hot stage.

In its third week of release, "The Butterfly Effect" took in $24.46 million in 2,373 theaters, with a cumulative box office of $83.77 million, ranking third in the weekly box office.

The champion was "Die Hard with a Vengeance" starring Bruce Willis, which took in $33.92 million in 2,525 theaters in its opening week.

Compared to a production cost of $90 million, the box office numbers are decent, but not outstanding, with a noticeable gap compared to the opening weekend figures of the first two films.

The runner-up is "Apollo 13," which earned $24.51 million this week, only $50,000 more than "The Butterfly Effect."

Fifth place is the release of Guess What Pictures' sixth film, "To Die For." It opened in 1,274 theaters, grossing $9.39 million in its opening weekend, a mediocre performance.

Sixth place is "Crimson Tide," with $4.36 million, bringing its cumulative box office to $62.78 million, a growth rate far below expectations.

Seventh place is "While You Were Sleeping," which earned $2.31 million this week, bringing its cumulative North American box office to $82.12 million, officially surpassing the $80 million mark.

After the box office results were released, the presidents of the seven major studios frowned, somewhat surprised by the box office performance of "To Die For."

"To Die For" is a film project that Guess What Pictures snatched from Castle Rock Entertainment, starring Nicole Kidman, rising stars Joaquin Phoenix, and Ryan Phillippe, with a production cost of $22 million.

Compared to the $12 million investment in "The Butterfly Effect," this is clearly a big-budget production.

Furthermore, before the release of "To Die For," Guess What Pictures heavily promoted the film as a key project, generating a lot of buzz.

Everyone saw that Guess What Pictures attached great importance to "To Die For" and assumed it would be another blockbuster.

But what happened?

"To Die For" only earned $9.39 million in its opening weekend, showing no potential for a major hit.

The previous publicity hype seemed more like a feint, intended to mislead the seven major studios and entice them to increase their investment.

The newest and fastest novel updates are available here!

Guess What Pictures' plan succeeded.

To suppress "To Die For," the seven major studios released "Die Hard with a Vengeance" ahead of schedule and spent a lot of resources promoting the film.

However, after its release, the film not only failed to have the desired effect but also competed with "Apollo 13," "Braveheart," and "Crimson Tide," stealing a significant portion of their box office revenue.

This also led to dissatisfaction among the three companies.

Previously, they had briefly joined forces to suppress Guess What Pictures, but now that they suddenly lost their target, these films inevitably started competing with each other.

To secure more box office revenue, starting from the second week, the four film companies—Universal Pictures, the distributor of "Apollo 13"; Paramount, the distributor of "Braveheart"; Disney, the distributor of "Crimson Tide"; and 20th Century Fox, the distributor of "Die Hard with a Vengeance"—began to increase their publicity efforts.

They were not only competing with Guess What Pictures' "The Butterfly Effect" and "To Die For" for box office revenue but also vying with other films, no longer considering themselves allies.

In this situation, the summer box office competition became increasingly fierce.

Michael Ovitz, seeing this situation, quickly called the presidents of the seven major studios, urging them not to kill each other and to continue targeting Guess What Pictures' films, to prevent Guess What Pictures from taking advantage of the situation.

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

"The Butterfly Effect" is destined to break $100 million by its fourth week, but its ceiling won't be too high, so there's no need to continue suppressing it.

And "To Die For" has a mediocre box office performance and no potential for a major hit, so excessive suppression would be a waste of resources.

In this situation, the box office market has become a blue ocean, and the seven major studios cannot possibly avoid competing for box office revenue.

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

If he doesn't find a way to win back some box office revenue at this time, the board of directors will force him to step down early.

The other six film companies also felt that they had sacrificed too much in suppressing "The Butterfly Effect," resulting in the box office performance of several films being lower than expected.

Now that the suppression is over, they must consider their own films.

Michael Ovitz tried to persuade them all, but he couldn't convince a single one.

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

Michael Ovitz put down the phone and said angrily, "He deliberately released a film with limited box office potential, leaving the film market in a vacant state, and then caused a conflict of interest among the seven major studios, so that he could fish in troubled waters and make Guess What Pictures' films a big hit. This bastard is too cunning."

"'To Die For' has a production cost of over twenty million, using such a film as cannon fodder?"

Vice President Ron Meyer couldn't believe it.

"That's the cunning part of Link. The production cost of 'To Die For' is too low to attract the attention of the seven major studios. Twenty million is just right. Facts have proven that Link, that bastard, succeeded. He fooled everyone."

"The seven major studios have withdrawn. What should we do?"

Ron Meyer asked.

Michael Ovitz had no solution.

The seven major studios are already competitors.

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

Link must have seen this point and used "To Die For" to break the seven's layout.

He's too cunning.

"Is he still filming on set?"

"Yes, some media reports say that when Link was filming in downtown Tijuana, he hired more than twenty heavily armed retired soldiers as bodyguards to prevent accidents, patrolling outside the set every day. I have to say, this guy is really timid."

Ron Meyer laughed mockingly.

Michael Ovitz didn't answer, he just paced back and forth in the office, trying to think of a solution.

Ring! Ring!

The phone on the desk rang. Ovitz irritably picked up the phone and asked 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 still embarrass Link.

Ovitz quickly asked what the idea was.

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