On the eve of the release of "Fragments of Memory" on Halloween in November 2000, Wang Yang agreed to invest in the new work plan of Christopher Nolan and his wife in his living room, adapting the biographical novel "Howard Hughes: The Secret Life" with 65 million yuan, and producing a biopic "Mr. Hughes" about the first half of the tycoon's life.

At that time, Nolan was just a cutting-edge director who received a lot of praise at Sundance and other film festivals, but there were many directors who never proved his "ability to make money", so the industry thought that the "Mr. Hughes" project was just a hype for Flame Films to build momentum for "Memory Fragments". But it turns out that no, five years after its establishment, Flame Movies only engaged in viral marketing, but never hyped.

It was also under the excellent viral marketing that "Fragments of Memory", which cost 8 million to buy films, finally sold 84.11 million worldwide at the box office, becoming a small commercial miracle at that time.

Now when the media is taking stock of the Sundance Film Festival's "Top 10 Standout Films", Quentin Tarantino's famous "Reservoir Dogs" usually ranks first, followed by "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" directed by a child prodigy, followed by "Four Weddings and a Funeral", "Killer Tragedy", "Crazy Clerk", ...... There are also "Memory Fragments" and "Death Illusion", both suspense films that quietly exist in the film and television library of flame films.

The success of "Fragments of Memory" has allowed Nolan to reach his full potential, but studios feel that he should continue to make thriller and suspense films rather than dramatic biopics. For example, Alcon Entertainment, Unit 8 and other small independent production companies jointly invested in the remake of "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night", he was invited to direct, of course, he was busy with the production of "Mr. Hughes" did not happen, and the film company finally handed over the director's microphone of "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night" to Jonathan Demmy.

After completing the preliminary preparations for the script, crew, and scenery in half a year, "Mr. Hughes" took nearly 5 months to shoot, plus post-special effects production, editing and soundtrack, etc., before it was officially completed in May 2002, and 65 million yuan was spent.

The publicity work has been carried out all the time, and the publicity budget given to it by Flame Films is 25 million to 30 million, plus miscellaneous expenses such as other copies, and the total cost is controlled at 100 million US dollars.

This also means that if you simply count on box office revenue, you need 250 million worldwide to recover the cost, but the box office target of Flame Movies is not so high, as long as the global box office can reach 150-200 million, it is already very satisfied. Because there are other peripheral income, if this is a classic biopic, it is not a problem to make another sum of money from DVDs, soundtracks, etc., which is enough to return to the capital.

However, Flame Movie has obtained the copyright of a classic movie with a cost of 65 million, and it will provide a long-term stable income in the next ten years in terms of copyright fees such as TV on-demand and leasing. This kind of long-term business is the magic weapon that many companies rely on to survive, and every year by relying on these copyright fees, it is enough to maintain the company's operating expenses, and ensure that it will not go into debt and go bankrupt, unless a large investment is lost to the bottom of the underwear.

In the promotional package developed by the distribution department, the focus of the film's publicity is not on director Nolan, but on Jim Carrey, who plays Howard Hughes. I don't know how Nolan persuaded him to agree to star, the media and fans were surprised from the beginning, Howard Hughes is indeed a weirdo, but not the kind of guy who pulls a big hole out of his mouth with both hands, what's going on?

In fact, Jim Carrey has always sought transformation, and he has had enough success in comedy that he naturally wants those golden trophies. The feature film "Truman's World" brought him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama, and the comedian Andy Kaufman's biopic "Man on the Moon" added a Golden Globe to the closet full of MTV Movie Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical, but he wanted an Oscar.

However, on the list of Golden Globe nominees announced a week ago, "Mr. Hughes" did not get a single nomination, as if announcing the end of the journey of hitting various awards. Perhaps because the six nominations for "District 9" and "The Hangover" have reached the "ceiling" of an independent film company, "Mr. Hughes" has simply been selectively ignored.

However, it cannot be said that "Mr. Hughes" is over like this, after all, the Golden Globes have no technical awards, and the number of judges is far from the Oscars.

On Friday, December 27, with the arrival of the weekend, "Mr. Hughes" officially released in 2,675 theaters in North America. As the chairman and star of Flame Films, Wang Yang and Jessica went to the premiere of the movie to help Nolan, Jim Carrey and others.

The screening hall of the Sylangor Theater was packed, with a faint and heavy classical soundtrack, and the audience quietly watched the images on the big screen, the color style of the picture was very gray, with a style of the Great Depression era. Jim Carrey, who plays Howard Hughes, wears a hot straight suit, walks down from the black car and walks towards the Raiden Hua company building.

Nolan and other movie creators are sitting in the front row, and Wang Yang and Jessica are sitting in the back of some guest areas, but the viewing corner is better. Jessica suddenly leaned in with interest and whispered, "Young, if you also burn your clothes straight all day, you'll be more like Howard Hughes." Wang Yang turned his head and glanced at her, his eyes returned to the screen, and said: "I can't be that person, I can't fly." Jessica smiled and continued watching the movie.

She joked this because there have always been some media outlets that say, "Fantastic Young is a legend like Howard Hughes." Of course, Wonder Young wasn't born with a golden key and no big family legacy, but the super-young wonder director, the youngest billionaire, and the unique investment in the emerging website blog after the dot-com bubble burst, all have Hughes's style.

Blogger has been voted "the coolest website of 2002" by Fortune magazine, a title that represents great prospects and value, and is the kind of product that Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and others are rushing to buy.

In fact, the number of registered bloggers has already exceeded 10 million, and it is currently growing rapidly to more than 15 million, and it has achieved revenue with background management function software. Now it is preparing for a comprehensive upgrade, including more free and powerful template editing functions, blog albums, blog groups and other services...... It is becoming a pivotal website on the internet.

"And I don't want to be a madman. Wang Yang turned to look at Jessica again.

Howard Hughes became a complete eccentric in his middle and later years because he suffered from severe cleanliness and obsessive-compulsive disorder, making urine from milk bottles and tissue boxes for shoes...... Married and divorced three times, has no children and no daughters, and his old age is very bleak. He died on a plane at the age of 70, but after years of insomnia, his face was distorted beyond recognition, and the FBI even had to use fingerprints to identify the old man as Howard Hughes.

God knows how he got himself like that?

"I'm going to have a bunch of children. Wang Yang stretched out his right hand, pressed his palm on Jessica's flat belly under the black evening dress, and said with a smile: "Now book two first, a little girl and a little boy." Jessica chuckled, a flash of anticipation in her eyes, and seeing his attention return to the movie, she grabbed the hand and muttered to herself, "But you haven't done a thing yet." ”

Looking at the big screen in front of her, she gradually became a little distracted, and a beautiful silver ring appeared in front of her...... Time passed minute by minute, and soon the 2 hours and 15 minutes of the movie were all played, in the sound of sad music, the cast and crew scrolled on the screen, and the audience at the Syranny Theater immediately applauded, Wang Yang also clapped his hands vigorously, and looked at the crew creators who got up in front of him to thank him, this is a very good movie, very modern flavor, and it also expresses the formation of Howard Hughes's distorted personality and inner pain vividly.

After the premiere, the main creators of "Mr. Hughes", guests and friends came to the hotel to hold a dinner, and everyone laughed and talked in the lively banquet hall, and the rich food and drinks on the table were taken at will.

Wang Yang and Jessica were chatting with Nolan and his wife, he held a high-heeled glass, took a sip of slightly sweet wine, and said with a smile: "Chris, you have brought us a masterpiece." Nolan, who was in a suit and leather shoes and combed sideways, smiled faintly, and Emma Thomas, who was wearing a red dress, had an apologetic face and seemed to joke: "Maybe it's not good at the box office." ”

"No, no, don't talk about that just yet. Wang Yang raised his hand to stop her from continuing to talk about this topic, this movie is indeed too literary and does not have the characteristics of an ordinary box office hit, but he believes that it will not be low, this is a good movie that can be watched with relish.

In fact, he knew that no matter whether "Mr. Hughes" made money or lost money in the end, as long as Nolan and his wife were eager to continue to complete the second half of the production, he would nod and agree.

From a business point of view, he knows better than anyone where Nolan's potential and ability are going, and among Hollywood's many studios, Flame Films maintains the best relationship with this talented director, which is very conducive to future development, even if he loses some money now, it is only a long-term investment.

From the perspective of the movie, he feels that Nolan's movie is like a test of hands, paving and accumulating something, if there is a fully mature second half, it is likely to be a blockbuster classic, and naturally there will be no loss; Finally, from the perspective of an ordinary audience, he wants to watch the next part. All three of these reasons were reasons he could not refuse.

Thinking of this, Wang Yang smiled and said: "Chris, let's put it this way, if you have confidence, I will have confidence." ”

"Well, I know. Nolan nodded, grateful in his heart, but who wants to be a box office poison director? Anyway, he doesn't want to! It's just that...... Nolan frowned a little puzzled and asked, "I've been thinking lately, how do you strike a balance between business and art?"

Wang Yang also suddenly remembered, how to do it? It has a publicity impact, as for the movie itself...... He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Be-cool, that's what I think." ”

Jessica glanced at him with a smile, Emma Thomas looked at her husband, and saw Nolan thinking deeply on his face, Wang Yang continued: "The name of the movie should be cool, the poster should be cool, the story setting should be cool, the picture composition should be cool, and the shooting technology should be cool...... Everything, when you do all of this, it must be a commercial film, but it talks about the kind of art that everyone talks about. ”

He shook his glass, took a sip of his wine, and added, "I mean, a subject can be made by a bunch of old men like Jack Nicholson in an insane asylum, for freedom, or by a bunch of beautiful guys in a tense fight explosion, for freedom." Of course, the former can be achieved by focusing on one thing, and the latter is not so profound, but it is more suitable for the general public, and it makes them fascinated, think, feel, and Google Yahoo for what they want to know......"

Nolan has already thought about both of these things in the form of commercial expressions and opening up the audience's space for thought, and he has tried the latter in "Fragments of Memory". It's just that the previous very simple sentence made him feel like an electric shock, and his heart beat at an accelerated pace, what kind of business form?!In addition to the narrative and editing techniques, how to make the audience's brains move?

Nolan took a deep breath and muttered, "be-cool, be-cool......" story setting, picture composition, and shooting techniques...... A lot of vague ideas suddenly became clear, he couldn't help but laugh excitedly, his face was full of "exaggerated expressions", and for a while he lost that long-term gentlemanly demeanor, he laughed and said: "Yes, be cool and special! You're right!"

Setting & Composition ...... He laughed again, and said with a smile: "That's right, yes, I know! I'm sorry, I'm going to think about it." He smiled with a smile on his face immersed in the pleasure of thinking, and turned around and walked to the bathroom, why did he figure it out until now, so simple! He clapped his palms as he walked, and laughed to himself: "be-cool, haha......"

"Oh, he's ......" Emma Thomas smiled apologetically as she looked at her husband who was walking away, "I'm out of company too, I'll go see what's wrong with him." With that, she hurried after Nolan with her handbag.

Jessica's black eyes were full of inexplicable surprise, and she looked Wang Yang up and down, what kind of magic did he use again? She smiled curiously and asked, "What does this mean?"

Wang Yang held the wine glass and spread out his hands, he didn't expect Nolan's reaction to be so big, and said with a smile: "I don't know, I said it casually." ”

Sometimes it's just a person who lingers outside a door for a long time, and then suddenly someone accidentally gives him a key, and he opens the door and steps inside. As for what was behind the door, only he would know.

"But you can understand it this way, it's just to be cool! If you can play a commercial film until the audience thinks you're cool, you win. Wang Yang said and walked to the long table full of food, drank half a glass of wine, and felt a little hungry. Jessica followed him, curling the corners of her mouth and smiling, "Young, tell me! I want to be a director too!"

The day after its release, most critics and fans gave "Mr. Hughes" a good review, and it received a score of 8.0 on the main page on IMDB, which is not too high for a literary biopic that premiered, but it is enough to be labeled as an excellent movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, the freshness of popular critics is 85%, the freshness of well-known critics is 82%, and the audience liking is 76%.

It was praised for its period-specific details, performances by actors such as Jim Carrey, and its "rambling but well-organized" narrative style, but as a literary film, The Washington Post's Joe Thomson said: "It tells a story well, but it's just a story, and Christopher Nolan seems to be fascinated by the mysterious Howard Hughes, who spends his entire film building characters and telling Hughes's past and forgetting to tell everyone." ”

Maybe the audience just likes to tell the story well, and with the popularity of Howard Hughes and Jim Carrey, the box office performance of "Mr. Hughes" is not as bad as Emma Thomas thought. When the final weekend of 2002, December 27-29, came to an end, "Mr. Hughes" received 19.63 million box office in 2,675 theaters, ranking fourth, and is expected to receive 30 million box office in the first week, which has fully met the expectations of flame films.

After all, a movie usually runs for 20 weeks, and according to this opening result, the North American box office of "Mr. Hughes" is very likely to receive 70 million to 100 million, plus the overseas market that has not yet been released, the global 150 million to 200 million is not a distant number.

The movie that occupies the top spot in the box office charts this weekend continues to be "The Lord of the Rings 2", which received 48.87 million US dollars, the second place also continues to be the hilarious "The Hangover", which carved up 34.49 million box office in North America, and "Impunity", which was officially released in the first week, won the third place with a score of 30.05 million. After that, "Mr. Hughes", "Personal Lover", "Manhattan Cinderella", ...... The 31st is the last day of 2002, and countdown to the New Year is celebrated all over the world, from Times Square in New York to Las Vegas in a desert oasis.

At this time, under the starry night, the high-rise buildings on both sides of the Las Vegas Strip are brightly lit, and the long and wide avenue is full of people who come to participate in the New Year's carnival. Everyone is smiling happily and holding champagne, and when the bell rings later, the whole casino will toast and drink a glass of wine to celebrate the new year.

Compared to last year, the number of visitors who choose to welcome the New Year at the casino has increased dramatically, perhaps due to the influence of "The Hangover". In the dense crowd, there were all kinds of laughter and shouts: "This time for Vegas!", "For 2003!...... Wang Yang and Jessica, who were on the avenue, were also holding small bottles of champagne, when they saw a group of six or seven young people in front of them, all of whom were holding champagne bottles high, and one of the blonde white boys laughed and shouted: "Let's drink this glass in one go! Let's get drunk! For Vegas, for our friends, for "The Hangover"...... For a Happy New Year!"

The two couldn't help but smile at each other, and when they saw those people "ho ho" and drink bitterly, the two also raised the champagne in their hands and touched it, laughing and shouting together: "For "The Hangover", for a happy New Year!", the two raised their heads and took a big sip.

Under the colorful light, seeing some wine on her lips, Wang Yang reached out to help her wipe it, wrinkled his nose and smiled: "You really look like a drunkard!" Jessica also reached out to help him wipe the corners of his mouth, and smiled slightly with her eyebrows: "You too!"

"10,9,8-" The New Year's countdown suddenly resounded in the sky over Las Vegas, from faintly audible to deafening, all the tourists on the avenue looked at the outdoor TV hanging on the outer wall of the building in the distance with a smile on their faces, and shouted loudly: "7, 6, 5-" Wang Yang and Jessica looked up at the sky arm in arm, waiting for the fireworks to appear, and laughed and shouted with everyone around them: "4, 3, 2, 1! Happy New Year-"

Bang Bang - As soon as the New Year's bell rang, then there was a loud sound of fireworks rising into the sky, and all kinds of beautiful flames suddenly appeared in the night sky, blue, red, yellow, green and other colorful silk threads were intertwined, spreading out and falling like an umbrella; Bang, a large red ball of fire in the shape of a large ball of fire illuminated the whole sky as if it were day; Bang Bang - "Wow oh woo" The tourists of the whole casino shouted frantically, and everywhere there were people laughing and clinking glasses and drinking, and the laughter was mixed: "Guys, drink it!" Hahaha, look at me!"...... Wang Yang and Jessica also took a sip again, looked at the affection in each other's eyes, and kissed each other in a hug, they went through another year!

2003 is here!

"Wow! I just realized that it feels so good to drink kiss wine, you can taste two kinds of wine at the same time!" Wang Yang let go of her, and let out a beautiful "hmm" after a beautiful aftertaste. Jessica rolled her eyes and smiled, "Stupid! Cocktails allow you to taste ten kinds at the same time!" Wang Yang patted his forehead, and Jessica said with great interest: "Yang, where are we going next? How many things do you say you can do in one night?"

Looking around at the crowd around him, listening to these happy and noisy laughter, Wang Yang laughed loudly and shouted: "Many, many, many - see what we can do this crazy night! Go to the casino first!" Jessica waved the bottle in her hand forward and shouted, "Let's go!!"

Under the bright yellow light, the Caesars Hotel Casino is more lively than the avenue outside, and all kinds of gambling entertainment facilities and gambling tables are surrounded by shouting guests, constantly waving chips and coins. The two people who came to the casino were also one of them, 21 o'clock, Texas Saas Hold'em, Stud, Big Roulette, no, Wang Yang pulled Jessica to Jeff Ma said "that's gambling" slot machine, since you want to gamble money, then be a 100% gambler!

"Jesus, spit out the money for me, give it to me......" Jessica, who was gritting her teeth, stuffed another coin into the slot machine, pulled down the lever with both hands, and kept slapping the fuselage nervously: "Come out, come out!" Wang Yang looked at her crazy appearance with a strange face, and wanted to ask, "In fact, Jesus allowed his followers to gamble?"

But both of them slowly widened their eyes and held their breath, only to see that the reels of the slot machine turned for a while and then stopped one by one, one seven, two sevens...... The third grid still scrolled slowly, gliding past strawberries, oranges, and $...... Dada......

(To be continued)