As the weekend passed, the box office fiasco of "Cloud Atlas" quickly spread throughout Hollywood, and Matthew had been waiting for the result, and the Wachowski siblings were running on the road of philosophical speculation, as he vaguely remembered, never looking back.

The fiasco of "Cloud Atlas" also made him a little worried, of course, not worried about the situation of Brad Pitt, Natalie Portman and the Wachowski siblings, but worried about the just-ended film "Inception".

Christopher Nolan has said that Inception is not obscure, and he is not worried about that, what he is really worried about is the publicity of Warner Bros.

If Warner Bros. deliberately portrayed "Inception" as an obscure so-called high-IQ film in its publicity, would it exclude many audiences?

Matthew's worries soon faded, though.

"Cloud Atlas" has always portrayed itself as a film that only smart people can understand when it was promoted, and now it has failed at the box office, and for Hollywood, which is good at summarizing, there are too many lessons to be learned from "Cloud Atlas".

Matthew, as a nominal producer, learned that Warner Bros. had fully learned the lessons of the failure of "Cloud Atlas" and adjusted the promotional strategy of "Inception" in time when he attended a meeting of Warner Bros.

In addition to the consistent good word-of-mouth accumulation of Christopher Nolan's films and the market appeal of actors such as Matthew, the cultural transformation caused by the rise of Internet and video game culture is also a factor that cannot be ignored.

This is also the focus of Warner Bros.'s revised promotional strategy, using Internet terminals to develop some clever promotional means to induce the audience's attitude towards the film in the direction of the participants.

In other words, it is easy for audiences who have generally experienced the baptism of online virtual society and role-playing video games to intervene themselves in the story of the film as a participant, allowing them to participate in the film - specifically in the case of "Inception", which is manifested in the self-oriented interpretation of the plot of the film by fans after the release, coupled with the gathering of the fan community and fan culture, the momentum of "Inception" has been higher and higher.

Compared with the connotation or decryption, this is the real killer feature of "Inception" - to involve the audience, it can not be too difficult or elegant, nor too simple and too rough, just like the scene in the film where Cobb asks Adney to design the maze, the increase and decrease must be just right.

As for video games, it's better to understand, if you watch two hours and some viewers say, "It's a video game," Christopher Nolan thinks the film will be a big hit.

Matthew also spoke to Christopher Nolan, and Christopher Nolan's post-production plan was adjusted appropriately.

In Nolan's words, he borrowed a certain amount from the Wachowski twins' The Matrix in post-production.

In some ways, Daum Cobb, like Neo, is caught up in the Matrix Empire, and once you enter the realm of dreams and virtual reality and the like, it's always an endless loop, you name it, and the film becomes a black party full of fake and non-existent things.

Because it's a dream, you can do whatever you want, which also provides a great opportunity for the film to create a visual spectacle.

Never underestimate the important role of visual oddity in attracting audiences for commercial films.

Only Matthew knew that soon there would be a film with visual spectacle as its main selling point, surpassing "Titanic" in success.

The popularity of video games has led to a change in this promotional strategy, which can make the story of "Inception" more interesting for fans.

Hollywood has not had films that tell about dreams in the past, and transforming seemingly boring dream games into action blockbusters is the point of Inception.

As for the "last-minute trick" where the spinning top is still spinning, it's just a standard Hollywood routine.

And there are so many dreams within dreams that there is no need and no explanation for what happened in the end, how did Daum Cobb wake up in the cabin? Is he still in the dream? Is his late wife's theory that reality and dreams are indistinguishable correct? When the film is over, these question marks are also good for creating propaganda topics.

For the audience, the biggest significance of these questions is that they will tirelessly pursue the truth after watching the film. Before Matthew left, Christopher Nolan said to him, "And then try to convince others with their own truth, and they will watch the movie over and over again to find evidence that their truth is the truth." ”

After meeting Christopher Nolan, Matthew went to the Warner Building project department again, and in a reception room, he met the New Zealand director Peter Jackson, whom he had made an appointment with two days ago.

"Hello, Peter. Matthew shakes hands with Peter Jackson, "The Lord of the Rings trilogy has always been a favorite of mine. ”

Peter Jackson, who is noticeably thinner than in previous years, laughs and says, "I love your movies too." ”

The two exchanged a few polite words and sat together and chatted about the "Hobbit" trilogy, which was the main reason why Matthew met Peter Jackson.

Whether "The Hobbit" is filmed in two parts, or a trilogy like "The Lord of the Rings", the investment will be astronomical, even if he only occupies 20% of the investment share, it is a lot of money, and I must talk to Peter Jackson, who leads the series.

"My studio has a deal with Warner Bros. Matthew said directly, "The last 20 percent of the funding gap for this project will be funded by my studio." ”

Peter Jackson nodded slightly, he had no problem in this regard.

Matthew said, "Peter, how soon do you expect this film to be released?"

"We're just starting to plan now. Peter Jackson told the truth, "It will be 2012 or 2013 at the earliest." ”

He glanced at Matthew and said tentatively, "The premise is that there can be no copyright disputes." ”

Matthew had spoken to Kevin Tessohara on the phone and was pretty sure, "The copyright dispute has been resolved, and my 20 percent investment will soon be on a written contract." ”

Warner Bros. has dealt with the dispute with Harvey Weinstein, who has retreated.

"That's good. Peter Jackson apparently hasn't gotten the word yet, "so I'm relieved." ”

Some time ago, Warner Bros. offered him a generous offer that he could not refuse, and he had decided to put aside his previous unpleasantness with Warner's subsidiary, New Line Pictures, to direct the "Hobbit" series.

After all, after Warner Bros. intervened, New Line Pictures quickly reached an out-of-court settlement with him and paid him the proceeds he deserved.

Then there is no need to dwell on this aspect anymore, you can't get along with a good director's salary.

The two chatted for a while, and Matthew asked the question he was most concerned about, "Peter, how many do you plan to shoot? Two or three? Is it decided now? Always let me be mentally prepared so that I can raise and allocate funds." ”

Peter Jackson pondered for a moment and said, "I want to shoot a trilogy." ”

The trilogy means more investment and more risk, and Matthew's 20% investment share is the largest investor outside of Warner Bros., and if the trilogy plan is to be successful, of course, it must enlist Matthew's support.

Therefore, he added, "Only a complete trilogy can tell this story." ”

Matthew didn't interject and waited for Peter Jackson to continue.

Peter Jackson further said, "Compared to The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit is lighter. But in this film, many of the details and origins of the story in The Lord of the Rings will be explained and interpreted, and this fantastical journey will continue to unfold. ”

Speaking of this, he smiled, "I also want to show the past and present lives of Gollum and Aragorn. ”

Matthew nodded, and could hear that after the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson had greater ambitions for Middle-earth.

However, he also asked, "Peter, if I'm not mistaken, the original book of The Hobbit is very small, right? The text seems to be only a dozen chapters, right?"

"yes. Peter Jackson clearly already had a plan, "I intend to look for more details from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, with limited material, to evoke memories of The Lord of the Rings, and then use that memory to enrich the story and plot of The Hobbit." ”

He is confident, "I have the information at hand to make a trilogy." And the trilogy is very necessary, after the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, there are still many stories that have not been told, and I can shoot a trilogy with the people and materials at hand. ”

Matthew thought for a moment and said, "Peter, when I finish signing the formal contract with Warner Bros., I hope you can give me a project plan, and I will reply to you after I have read it." ”

"Okay. Peter Jackson replied and laughed, "Just now, I came up with a great idea for you. ”

Matthew pointed to himself, "Something to do with me?"

Peter Jackson said very seriously, "In the original book of "The Hobbit", there are only a limited number of characters who appear, especially the characters with full images, so I have been planning to design an original elf, and for the time being, I just have this idea, and I don't have an idea of the gender, background and background of this elf until we meet today." ”

He gestured and said, "I think you can use this elf character as a reference." ”

Matthew scratched his chin, "Aren't all elves slender and ethereal?

"Your whole body line is very fluid. Peter Jackson didn't give up, "It's not Schwarzenegger or Stallone type." ”

He invited very sincerely, "Matthew, join this series." ”

"You'd better design the character first. Matthew didn't respond directly, "It's best to beat Gandalf in combat power, surpass Legolas in charisma, and be more popular with female characters than Aragorn......"