Located in Baja California, Mexico, Rosarrito is a seaside town less than twenty kilometers from the border, where the filming of the main scenes of "Titanic" took place.

While Firefly's studio base in Preavista had state-of-the-art facilities, filming Titanic required a large space that was impossible in the Los Angeles area, where space is at a premium. In preparation for the film, Cameron decided to move the film to Mexico with the introduction of his friend Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, and bought a sixteen-hectare plot of land near Rosarito to build a sound stage.

Just after the New Year, perhaps it was the various commercial miracles of the firefly system that caused many people to have aesthetic fatigue and rebellion, and when the news of the "Titanic" project out of control came out, the media immediately became lively.

In recent years, the cost of film production has risen rapidly, but there are still only a handful of films with an annual budget of more than $60 million, "Titanic" only completed 50% of the pre-shooting schedule, and burned $60 million. It also proved to many people that a film with a budget that was seriously out of control during production has a very slim chance of box office success.

Although I know that with the deep heritage of the Firefly Group, even if it loses one or two hundred million dollars on a project, it is absolutely impossible to face bankruptcy like other film companies, but the project of "Titanic" is out of control, and it finally proves to some people that Firefly is not so invincible, and such a powerful company, after a few years of glory, finally began to suffer inevitable failure, and this failure seemed to be so menacing from the beginning.

Firefly originally set a schedule for "Titanic" on June 28, 1996, which is still the mode of "The Matrix", "Brave Island" and "Titanic" trilogy.

However, after the news of the "Titanic" project out of control, several film companies were immediately ready to move, and Paramount even obviously deliberately scheduled the first work of the original Disney hand-drawn animation team "Pocahonta" that had been renamed Paramount Animation Studios on June 28, and after a few days of hesitation, Universal Pictures also released the news that it planned to move "The Mummy 2", which was originally scheduled for mid-July, to June 21.

June is the best time for the release of summer films, and it has been occupied by fireflies in the past few years, although the other major ones have made many attempts to regain the initiative in this prime time, but they all failed.

But this year, some people finally found a good opportunity to break the monopoly of the Firefly schedule.

With the production schedule of "Titanic", if Firefly wants to force the deadline, the quality of the film will definitely not be guaranteed, and if Firefly allows Cameron to maintain the current production rhythm, then "Titanic" will definitely not be released in the summer. According to the film list of the Firefly Group, there is no film that can replace the position of "Titanic". Either way, the Fireflies are doomed to lose their box office prime in the weeks of late June and early July.

"According to Firefly's film production list in the last two years, there is no film suitable for filling the vacant schedule of "Titanic" for the time being, however, at the last meeting, everyone felt that a romance or comedy with a short production cycle was the best choice, but according to the contract signed with the theater, "Titanic" booked 3,000 premiere screens, this kind of opening scale is not something that any ordinary romance film can fill," In a black Chevrolet SUV, Kelly Haynes, a female assistant, flipped through the papers on her lap and said to Eric, who was sitting next to her and looking out the window at the desert landscape.

A convoy of five black SUVs drove smoothly on the coastal highway of Baja California, and when Eric heard that he was going to the set of Rosarito, Mexico, whether it was Drew next to him, Joanna in New York, or even the top executives of the Firefly Group, the first advice was not to go.

After discovering that they couldn't stop it, everyone's advice the next day was to bring bodyguards, and bring a lot of bodyguards.

So there is the current convoy, each car seats five people, except for Eric and Kelly, Eric's security team basically followed.

Americans' impression of Mexico, basically, except for cheap labor, is that of drug dealers. The border between the two countries is also the most criminal area, and these areas can only be described in a garbled word, so although he feels that there is some excitement, Eric does not refuse this arrangement.

After Kelly finished speaking, she noticed that Eric seemed a little absent-minded, and reminded her softly.

Eric came back to his senses and asked, "Oh, where did you go?"

Kelly patiently repeated what she had just said.

Kelly's meaning when she says this is obvious, ordinary comedies and romance films, of course, can't carry the scale of 3,000 open screens, but if it is a film directed by Eric himself, it is different, as we all know, Eric has shot several global blockbusters after his debut, from "Home Alone" to "Pretty Woman", these are both genres.

"I know what you mean," Eric said, smiling, "However, you know how busy I am now, maybe I have to go to Australia next, and I don't feel at ease if I don't see the production progress of "The Matrix" with my own eyes, then, according to this schedule, it is unlikely that I will have the energy to do my own thing until the Oscars, and after the Oscars, "007: Casino Royale" also needs to enter the official preparation period." ”

As Eric's assistant, Kelly is much more familiar with his work schedule than the senior executives of the Firefly Group, and also knows that Eric can't squeeze out time to shoot a movie in front of "007: Casino Royale" now, and she just retold other people's thoughts, so she didn't mention this suggestion again, and said: "Eric, how do you plan to arrange the next thing in "Titanic"?"

"What's the arrangement?" asked Eric, confused.

Kelly thought for a while and said: "If you want to complete the production of this film, according to Cameron's schedule, it may cost 200 million US dollars, plus the later publicity budget, according to Cameron's past box office results, Fireflies basically have no hope of recovering their capital, and the rest is probably just a matter of how much they lose." I think that decisively stopping this project may be the best way to stop the loss?"

The female assistant's suggestion is actually the current thinking of many people, and even the media has begun to circulate this opinion, immediately stop the project, with the current accumulated materials, a little tinkering, probably can also make up a film, more or less able to recover some losses.

However, even if "Titanic" can't achieve success in the original time and space, Eric doesn't plan to do it, as a memorable movie box office miracle in his previous life, Eric also wants to see how far this film can go in this life.

Eric couldn't explain his thoughts directly to Kelly, but joked, "If I just stop it, I guess Jim will kill me." ”

"You ......," Kelly laughed, "I see that you seem to have high expectations for this film." ”

Eric turned his head, looked at the elegant white face of the female assistant, and asked, "Is it obvious?"

Kelly's cheeks flushed, and she whispered, "I can probably read your thoughts." Otherwise, well, otherwise you wouldn't have come to Mexico in person. ”

Seeing the female assistant making excuses, Eric laughed, not wanting to embarrass Kelly too much, so he didn't tease anymore.

After crossing the border, the convoy traveled another half hour to Rosarito, a border town with a radius of more than 10 kilometers.

However, the set of "Titanic" was not in town, and the convoy continued to walk south for about five kilometers before reaching its destination.

A simple fence has been set up on a large open space near the sea on the side of the highway, and while sitting in the car, Eric can see the studio and other facilities inside the wall.

At this time, there were still a lot of people holding cameras outside the gate of the shooting base, obviously because of the reporters who had heard about the recent series of media news.

Noticing the striking convoy of five luxury SUVs, the reporters who were blocking the door trying to get some information were keenly aware of something and gathered around, the flash lights were also frantically lit, and several daring reporters even banged on the windows of the car in an attempt to provoke the irritated people to get a photo opportunity.

Fortunately, the five cars were exactly the same, and the reporters did not find the exact target, Eric just sat quietly in his car, waiting for the bodyguards in the first car to negotiate with the doorman, and then the five cars drove into the set in turn to the disappointed shouts of the reporters.

The car was parked in the parking lot, and Eric just got out of the car, Jon Landau, the producer of "Titanic", greeted him with two staff members, hugged Eric, and said enthusiastically: "Eric, I'm so glad you can come." ”

Eric smiled and said, "I just don't know that Jimshi doesn't want me to come over." ”

Jon Landau shook hands with Kelly, and when he heard Eric's words, his face suddenly became bitter, and he shook his head, saying, "Anyway, it's good that you can come and have a look." ”

"Well," Eric nodded, "By the way, what about Jim?"

"Oh, everybody's shooting, come with me, on the big ship," Jon Landau said, gesturing not far away, and walked over with Eric.

Leaving the parking lot, Eric looked around, there were three large studios standing on the set, busy staff, props and equipment piled up everywhere, several large cisterns, a giant suspended water tank being built, a hundred-meter-long shooting track, and the Titanic giant ship built according to the one-to-one model standing on the beach......

Just look at these to see how desperately Cameron burned money.

What's more, Eric remembered that only half of the replica of the Titanic built in the original time and space was a model, and at that time, in order to prevent the model from being worn in front of the camera, a lot of special props and shooting skills were used, but at this time, the model of the big ship in front of him was complete.

Although Eric just looked around and didn't say anything, Jon Landau's heart was already unconsciously tense, and fine beads of sweat even oozed from his forehead. As the first producer of "Titanic", he is also the one who knows best how much Cameron squandered it.

The crew was filming a bow scene at this time, and Eric, led by Jon Landau, climbed the ladder to the deck, and found that many people were gathered around the bow filming location, and Cameron's roar could be heard from afar through the crowd.

"William, the effect of shooting in this way is simply a mess of shit, I want to install a tower crane, a tower crane that can shoot from the bow of the ship with a large rocker arm, instead of this stingy mechanical rocker, this way of shooting is simply shit, shit, shit!"

After Cameron roared, a male voice with obvious anger immediately reached Eric's ears, but compared to Cameron's 'subwoofer', Eric couldn't hear what the man was saying.

Jon Landau, who was next to Eric, reluctantly explained: "Jim and William quarreled again, I have seen his storyboard, he wants to use a wide-angle lens to shoot some shots of the hero and heroine hugging each other in the bow of the boat, however, to achieve his effect, it is necessary to install a large mechanical tower crane for construction, William disagreed, just asked the camera crew to install a mechanical arm in the bow of the ship, now it seems that Jim is not very satisfied with this kind of shooting effect." ”

Kelly noticed the slight confusion in Eric's eyes and whispered into his ear, "It's William Stewart, one of the company's producers in charge of this project, who oversees the finances of the crew. ”

Eric nodded, walked towards the crowd, and said to Jon Landau, "Let's go over and have a look." ”

Coming to the periphery of the crowd, just as he was pushing aside the crowd and walking inside, Cameron's roar came again: "Shit, Shit's "Future Water World", you actually compare my film with that garbage...... You're vetoing almost every decision I make now, and if you continue like this, I'll resign, and I'll stop doing it, stop doing it. ”

“……”

"What, I'm going to force you to jump into the sea, no, you're going to force me to jump into the sea, ha, if jumping into the sea is useful, I'll jump to you now. ”

Eric and a few people finally squeezed through the crowd, only to see the poor middle-aged man standing opposite the angry Cameron: "Jim, do you know how much money you've spent? ”

Cameron didn't notice the arrival of Eric and the others at all, waved his arms, and said excitedly: "No, I'm not threatening you, jumping into the sea, right, I'll jump to show you." ”

After saying this, in the midst of everyone's uproar, Cameron climbed over the deck railing with a red face, and an upside-down onion disappeared from everyone's field of vision. (To be continued.) )