The Fox Building, Twentieth Century Fox distribution and production departments are also busy, and as the weekend approaches, the $130 million production of "Kingdom of Heaven" is in the final stages of preparation before its premiere.

This war epic about Jerusalem, after Ridley Scott finished editing, held two test screenings, and the response and word-of-mouth were very good.

But Twentieth Century Fox was not satisfied internally, because Ridley Scott's director's cut was too long, with a total length of infinitely close to two hundred minutes.

This is just crazy, and it is something that Twentieth Century Fox simply cannot accept.

First of all, if the film is too long, the audience will get tired of it and have no patience to watch it.

Secondly, and most importantly, the movie time is too long, which will seriously affect the film's scheduling rate, originally a theater can be lined up six times a day, but the result can only be lined up four times, and the reduced number of screenings also means a decrease in the number of movie tickets available, which will drag down the box office performance of the film.

Even at the preview screening, the version submitted by Ridley Scott received an excellent response, and for commercial reasons, Twentieth Century Fox asked the producer to gather the editing team after the preview screening and re-edit the film.

"The re-edited copies have all been delivered to the place. Bruce Devan reported to Jim Prologs: "The new cut has been reduced from 198 minutes to 132 minutes, and there are two more screenings per room per day. ”

Jim Prologis asked, "What about Ridley Scott's side?

Bruce Devan replied: "He has no opinion, there is a stipulation in the director's agreement, he does not have the final editing rights, and he is a little crazy this time to edit such a long film." ”

"It's not for nothing that Hollywood limits the power of directors. Jim Prologis doesn't think there's anything wrong with re-editing, directors are crazy guys, and if they weren't restricted, maybe they'd just cut a 300-minute version: "A lot of directors only think about the creation of the film, they don't think about the market at all, and they don't understand the pressure that the production company is facing. ”

Bruce Dewan smiled and said, "Ridley Scott is okay, at least he won't interfere with work beyond what is stipulated in the director and contract. Peter Jackson is a headache, I heard that Universal Pictures has not had a good time with him recently, they gave Peter Jackson the final editing rights, Peter Jackson's first version is more than 200 minutes long, and King Kong only appeared more than an hour after the film started......"

Jim Prologis said: "Reassure Ridley Scott, we're still working with him on new projects, don't let him have too many negative emotions and affect the work of the new project. ”

He also participated in the preview screening, and also saw the reactions of all parties involved in the test screening, and highly recognized the work of Ridley Scott on "Heavenly Dynasty".

But recognition is recognition, and maximizing benefits is in line with the needs of Twentieth Century Fox.

Bruce Dewan said: "Ridley Scott is a good director, and he is more obedient to the command, not the kind of prick. ”

Jim Prologis nodded slightly, and it's not for nothing that Hollywood studios love to work with Ridley Scott.

Putting aside the value of creation, no one likes James Cameron, a director who is the number one in the world.

"Contact the theater side and control the schedule of "Heavenly Dynasty". Because of the excellent response to Ridley Scott's test release, Jim Prologis is quite optimistic about the market prospects of "Kingdom of Heaven": "Let the publicity department promote the promotion and marketing of the film according to the plan. ”

The $70 million publicity and distribution cost will be smashed, and the film will cause a global boom.

With a market response like "Troy," Twentieth Century Fox could make a profit through online and offline operations.

The project was a success.

Jim Prologis and Twentieth Century Fox are both very optimistic about this.

Moreover, Ridley Scott has had great success in war epics, and "Gladiator" can be called a classic of the genre, and judging from the response at the test screening, the quality of "Heavenly Dynasty" is definitely not below "Gladiator".

After Bruce Dewan left, Jim Prologis stopped thinking about the reassuring "Heavenly Dynasty" for the time being, and instead considered the extremely troublesome "Fantastic Four".

This superhero movie is also about to be released, but the situation facing it is quite grim.

Twentieth Century Fox has made many efforts, and has done a lot of advertorials and various public relations and publicity in the media, but the initiative of the comics is completely in the hands of Marvel Entertainment, and it is not as impactful as the content directly expressed about the Fantastic Four in the comics.

Marvel Entertainment's Civil War, now in its second installment, has caused a growing response, with the Fantastic Four not only notorious, but also a stepping stone for another superhero team comic.

The age of the popularity of the Fantastic Four is a bit old, the audience of the earliest popular period is old, and it has long passed the stage of liking superhero themes, and the current main audience of teenagers is not particularly familiar with the original Fantastic Four, but as a result, I just learned about it through the comics, and found that these are four disgusting bastards......

The decent Fantastic Four movie is bound to suffer.

Jim Prologis is well aware that Twentieth Century Fox has had the opportunity to compromise with Marvel Entertainment, but for practical interests, especially when it comes to the X-Men series, Twentieth Century Fox cannot and cannot compromise, and in the end it can only be so.

The future of this "Fantastic Four" movie is not optimistic, and Twentieth Century Fox is ready for failure.

But failure will not shake his position, and Tom Rothman, who has been eyeing the top position, will not have a chance anytime soon.

The power struggle within the Murdoch family has come to an end for the time being, James Murdoch has become the biggest winner with Rupert Murdoch's favor, and it will not be long before Twentieth Century Fox will inevitably fall under the control of James Murdoch.

As a close confidant of James Murdoch, Jim Prologis thinks he is sitting firmly in his current position.

It's not a big deal if a Fantastic Four fails, and the X-Men are about to develop numerous spin-off series, and Twentieth Century Fox is absolutely not going to give an inch.

As for Marvel Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox has no way to deal with them for the time being, and behind the other party is Relativity Entertainment, which is very difficult to deal with.

It will be said that in the future, after James Murdoch returns to Los Angeles from London and takes control of Twentieth Century Fox himself.

The North American premiere of "Spy 3" was a huge success, and markets such as Europe, Australia and Latin America, which were released overseas at the same time, were also popular.

In the first weekend overseas, in the film market of more than 30 countries and regions, "Spy 3" swept away 92.1 million US dollars.

Over time, the film will appear in cinemas in more than 90 countries and regions.

The plot of the film is not sensitive, the only real villain is the CIA of the United States, even the CIA itself doesn't care, and sends retirees to the crew as special technical advisers, and most countries and regions have pre-screening reviews, "Spy Shadow 3" is very easy to pass.

Even Russia is sure that the film will be introduced and widely screened.

While it's a shame that Paul Greengrass ended his partnership with Relativity Entertainment in favor of creating niche political films that fit his wishes, for Ronan and Relativity Entertainment, working with any director and actor will eventually come to an end.

In the future, similar situations will continue to appear.

Relativity Entertainment is also discovering new projects, new directors and new actors, and this is a virtuous circle.

The summer file is still going on, and this weekend after "Spy Shadow 3", there are also many new films to be released, and Ronan is undoubtedly most concerned about "Heavenly Dynasty".

In the past, this film had a seriously polarized word-of-mouth, but it was not polarized in the traditional sense.

Because the people who gave bad reviews basically watched the theatrical screening version, and most of the people who gave good reviews watched the director's cut version of Ridley Scott.

Ronan had already received information that Twentieth Century Fox was unhappy with the nearly 200-minute length of Ridley Scott's director's cut, and the producers reconvened the crew to refine the base line of Ridley Scott's version in order to shorten the length of the film as much as possible and increase the screening schedule.

Frankly, Twentieth Century Fox's choice is understandable, and if it were relativistic entertainment, it would generally make a similar choice.

After all, a movie that is more than 3 hours long is so crazy that it is difficult for the audience to endure such a long time.

Not to mention the box office revenues involved.

What the re-cut version is, Ronan has not seen the movie, and he can't say clearly.

But whether "Heavenly Dynasty" succeeds or fails, there will be no doubt that Hollywood continues to restrict directors' final editing rights.

Once, this war epic was commented by many on the Internet as a typical failure of Hollywood's producer-centric system.

In the case of "Heavenly Dynasty" alone, there is nothing wrong with this statement, but it is also necessary to limit the power of the director.

If nothing else, in the case of Michael Bay, if he is not restricted, but put all the power in his hands, what kind of films will come out in the end?

Explosion explosion ......

No matter how long the film is, Michael Bay dares to blow it up from beginning to end.

It just so happens that the next weekend after the release of "Heavenly Dynasty", Michael Bay's sci-fi blockbuster "Escape from Clone Island" will also be fully released in North American theaters.

This is Michael Bay's first film after breaking free from Jerry Bruckheimer's restrictions. The latest chapters of the best entertainment era are here: