Firefly Studios, the ground floor lobby of an office building in the administrative district was temporarily converted into a press conference hall of Stark Industries' headquarters. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Surrounded by several cameras, Eric stood on the podium, expertly saying the last line before the film was finished: "To be clear, I'm not a superhero, I have so many character flaws, and I cause so much trouble for everyone." ”

Don Cheadle, who played Colonel Roddy, leaned over helplessly and whispered, "Read according to the script." ”

Eric nodded knowingly, raised his hand to look at the card in his hand, glanced at everyone, and said slowly: "The actual situation is that I am Iron Man." ”

In the audience, all the media reporters were stunned, and then they suddenly got up and raised the camera and voice recorder in their hands.

Natasha Hensquich, who was sitting in the front row, also slowly lowered her long legs, and the original questioning look on her face was put away, revealing just the right amount of shock.

Outside the field, Joss Whedon, behind the monitor, duly shouted: "OK, Good! ”

Eric stepped off the stage and walked over to Joss Whedon to replay the footage with him.

Speaking of which, it was the seventh reshoot of this set of shots just now, and near the end, the creators still did not give up the control of the quality of the film, from Eric's subtle facial expressions to Natasha Huntsquch's action reaction after hearing Eric read out his lines that he was Iron Man, they were discussed and adjusted in detail, which achieved the current satisfactory effect.

After making sure everything was correct, Joss Whedon stood up and shouted at everyone, "I declare that Iron Man is officially finished." ”

Whoa, whoa, whoa--

All the crew members in the hall applauded.

After three busy months, Eric naturally will not be stingy, and then announced that he will hold a finale party in the banquet hall of the Titanic ship tonight, and naturally there will be another round of cheers.

Joss Whedon and others were in charge of the finishing touches on the crew's side, and Eric said hello to several creators and went to remove his makeup, although it was already afternoon, he still had something to do.

Today is Wednesday, May 27th.

The final box office of "Lethal Weapon 4", which was released last week, was only $49.15 million in the first week, and this week due to the release of Sony Pictures' "Patriot", the box office of "Lethal Weapon 4" was inevitably impacted, and the box office fell by 46% in three days the next weekend, compared to $34.05 million in the first weekend, and only $18.38 million was left at the box office in the second weekend, and the total box office of the film in ten days was $67.53 million, which was even worse than the first week box office of "Ace Cheap Spy 2" last month.

In comparison, if Sony Pictures' "Patriot" has any advantage over "Lethal Weapon 4", it is that the film cost only $110 million to make.

In this film set in the United States alone, the original actor should still be Mel Gibson, but because Mel Gibson needs to participate in "Lethal Weapon 4", the new actor finally fell on Kevin Costner.

In the first three days of the weekend, the box office of "The Patriot" was only $32.19 million, which still did not reflect the explosive power of any blockbuster films.

The box office situation of these two summer blockbusters also indirectly sets off how rare the total North American revenue of $360 million created by the three films in the Easter schedule is. "Lethal Weapon 4" is only $140 million in production costs, which is equivalent to the total investment of three films, not to mention that Warner also invested a lot of marketing costs in "Lethal Weapon 4", but the box office potential of "Lethal Weapon 4" is only slightly better than "Wedding Singer" in the three Easter films.

However, the weak performance of the two blockbusters did not lower fans' expectations for this summer file.

Because, most people's eyes are actually not on these two movies.

Firefly Pictures' special effects sci-fi blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow", MGM's "Breaking Bad 3", Universal Pictures' "Scorpion King" and Amberlin's "The Matrix 2" are the top priorities of this summer file.

These four movies, except for "Thunderbolt 3", are all special effects blockbusters, which is actually the reason why many fans are looking forward to it, because it has only risen in recent years, the market for special effects blockbusters is actually far from being saturated.

However, because it is the first sequel to the Secret Agent Cinematic Universe series after the crossover, last year's "007: Casino Royale" achieved a box office of more than $1.1 billion worldwide, even if it is not a special effects blockbuster, but "Breaking Badgy 3" is undoubtedly the most watched film in this summer file, and the audience's expectations even exceed "The Matrix 2". Many media also predict that if there will be a global box office of one billion films in the summer this year, "Breaking Bads 3" is undoubtedly the most promising one.

Eric finished removing his makeup and walked out of the dressing room, where he saw Natasha Hensquch, who had also changed into a casual T-shirt and trousers, waiting outside the dressing room.

Seeing Eric come out, Natasha Hensquich hurriedly greeted: "Hi, Eric. ”

Eric smiled at her and said, "What's the matter?" ”

Natasha Henschuch walked out with Eric and said, "No, I've already found an apartment in Santa Monica and I'm going home, Eric, can you give it to me?" ”

If it were any other time, Eric would definitely not refuse such an invitation, but for now, he could only shake his head and say, "I'm sorry, Nata, I still have work to do." ”

"It's okay," Natasha Henschuch said, not disappointed, "You're going to party tonight, right?" ”

"Of course, I'll definitely go over," Eric nodded, and the two walked out of the office building together, to the corridor of the park, looking at the girl next to him, Eric thought for a while, and said, "Do you have anything else to do for the rest of the afternoon?" ”

Natasha's eyes lit up, she shook her head, and said, "No." ”

Eric said: "Then come with me to the movie, it's an internal test screening of a horror movie." ”

"Absolutely."

"But this horror movie might be a little different, well, it's very scary, you have to be mentally prepared."

Natasha blinked mischievously and said, "If I'm scared, can I throw myself into your arms?" ”

"Uh," Eric said with a smile, "You're so big, it's not cute to throw yourself into a man's arms." ”

The two laughed and walked into another nearby office building.

Kenneth Horn, CEO of New Line Pictures, and Gore Verbinski, director of "Midnight Bells", were already waiting here, and when they saw Eric and Natasha Hensditch walking together, they hurriedly stepped forward to say hello.

What Eric is going to watch today is the new American version of "Midnight Bell".

"Midnight Bell" has been in preparation since the end of last year, and in fact, it was almost completed in mid-April, but Eric was very dissatisfied with the finished film, and kept asking Gore Wibinski to revise it, and made up some shots for it.

The film's schedule has been set for July 24, which is not too late for this crowded summer schedule.

Although it has been revised, the publicity work has been carried out since last month. Thanks to Johnny Depp, this horror film has now attracted a lot of attention. However, Johnny Depp was actually not a commercial coffee before "Pirates of the Caribbean", and the packaged salary of "Midnight Bell" and "Guillotine Valley" was only $14 million, with an average of $7 million each.

Eric was persuaded by Gore Wibinski to release the budget for "Midnight Bells", but because Depp's salary was not too high, the final production cost of this horror film just reached $30 million, which is much less than Gore Wibinski's request.

This test screening is something that Eric especially wants to see, so with the addition of Natasha Hensquidge who was temporarily brought in by Eric, there are only four people.

Arriving in the small screening room in the office building, Kenneth Horn sent the staff to prepare for the screening, and the four of them sat down in the screening room.

While waiting, thinking of Johnny Depp, Eric looked at Gore Wibinski next to him and asked, "Gore, how does it feel about working with Johnny this time?" ”

Due to Eric's series of revisions, Gore Verbinski was a little nervous during this time, but everyone was very satisfied with the current result, and he had to admire Eric's vision in this regard.

Hearing Eric's question, Gore Wibinsky, who was sitting next to Kenneth Horn, leaned forward slightly, and was about to answer, Kenneth Horn got up with a smile and said, "Gore, you can sit here, so that it will be more convenient for you and Eric to exchange videos." ”

Eric smiled as the two of them humbly switched positions to each other, and praised in his heart, Kenneth Horn has managed the new line of pictures in recent years, not without reason, he obviously also saw Gore Verbinski's growth potential, and wanted to win it over. At this time, just making this small detail can win a lot of favor from Gore Wibinski.

Gore Wibinski sat down next to Eric, nodded gratefully to Kenneth Horn, and then turned to Eric, he didn't know what Eric wanted to know, so he could only say in general terms: "Depp is a very good actor, very thoughtful, and very active when acting." ”

Eric nodded, and then asked, "So how are you getting along, and do you have any plans to work together again?" ”

Gore Verbinsky realized something and nodded, "If you have the chance, of course you can." ”

After chatting a few words, the screening of the film officially began.

The plot begins with the mysterious death of four girls, and the mother of one of the girls thinks that her daughter's death is too strange, so she asks her sister Keller, who is also a journalist, to investigate the truth of the matter.

The original American version of "Midnight Bell" is more of a thriller and suspense film, and the main story line mainly focuses on the heroine solving the truth about the cause of death of several girls step by step.

The reason why this is so is also because the Japanese version of "Midnight Bell", which has played psychological horror to the extreme, is in front of Zhuyu, and the American version is naturally impossible to copy as it is. Therefore, although the American version does a better job in various details, in terms of horror, it is far from being compared with the Japanese version.

At the moment, because the Japanese version of "Midnight Bell" was cut off by Eric before filming started, naturally there is no need to scruple to repeat and deliberately use other shooting techniques, Eric combines the elements of the Japanese version and the American version in memory this time, and, strictly speaking, this version is more inclined to the Japanese version in terms of picture and soundtrack style, and the theme of the whole film is also straightforward, just to scare people and scare people to death. Therefore, the most classic scene in the Japanese version, that is, the scene of Sadako slowly crawling out of the TV, Eric naturally will not let go this time.

Gore Verbinski's initial film, the most dissatisfied with Eric, is actually the creation of a terrifying atmosphere, which is also the focus of his repeated revisions for more than a month.

Now, the results are immediate.

When the ghost of the girl named Shamala in the film slowly crawled out of the TV screen, not only Eric's hair stood on end, but Natasha Hensquage, who was sitting next to him, closed her eyes in fright, and a small hand reached over as if asking for help, clutching Eric's arm tightly.

Until the end of the film, the lights came on, and Natasha's face was still pale.

Eric patted the back of the girl's hand soothingly, looking at the other two, although it was a film directed by himself, Gore Verbinski's expression was also not very good. Kenneth Horn even said: "The current version is indeed much better than the original, although the whole movie does not have any traditional bloody scenes, but the feeling of horror to the extreme, even reminds me of the "Exorcist" back then." Congratulations, Al Gore, this film is sure to become another Hollywood horror classic. ”

"Thanks," Gore Wibinski nodded at Kenneth Horn and then at Eric, who followed suit.

Eric nodded and said, "Very good, you can send it to the Film Association for grading, and besides, have you decided on the publicity strategy for the next two months?" ”

"Yes, in terms of popularity, Depp is the main one, mainly for young people under the age of 26. Eric, we've cut two different versions of the trailer, one for TV platforms and one for theater rollover, do you want to see it first? ”

"No," Eric shook his head and said, "You can do these things, I only have one request, add a reminder to the movie trailer and poster: heart patients should watch with caution." ”

Before Gore Wibinski could react, Kenneth Horn, who is well versed in film marketing and distribution, immediately nodded and said, "This marketing point is very good, and the more forbidden things are, the more interesting they tend to be to the audience." However, this method may only be used once in a short period of time, which is a bit of a pity. ”

Eric nodded, shook his head again, and said, "Ken, I'm not giving you marketing advice, I'm serious." ”

The former "Midnight Bell" series was really scared to death. Adding such a reminder in advance is equivalent to getting a disclaimer, and if something really happens in the future, the trouble will be much less. Of course, on the other hand, adding such a prompt can really have a special marketing effect.