"Mr. Strello, here's your coffee." A sweet and gentle voice sounded beside him, Lance raised his head, showed a warm smile, and then whispered a thank you, Karen-Mitchell, the female secretary in a dark gray professional suit, blush on her face, and then gently placed the jar containing the sugar cube next to her, "Mr. Gordon is in a meeting, we need to wait a while." ”

"It's okay, I hope it doesn't disturb your work." Lance's deep voice with a soft smile said politely, which made the smile on Karen's lips more shy and restrained, and she wanted to turn around and go back to her office, but she was reluctant, thought about it, and finally stood still, adding, "Mr. Gordon's first meeting this morning was not very pleasant, and there were some minor problems with the director in discussing the script - this is the fourth time in the last two weeks, so I guess he needs a little time to calm down." ”

Lance's pupils narrowed slightly, and he crossed his hands on his knees, with a considerate expression, "Presumably Miss Mitchell's work has also been affected, the boss is in a bad mood, and often the people around him are the most susceptible." ”

Karen's gaze fell on the slender fingers with distinct bones, and the hands holding the plate couldn't help but tighten slightly, "Karen, please call me Karen." The curvature of the corners of Lance's mouth was like a pebble falling into a calm and mirror-like lake, causing ripples in circles, making Karen's heart tense and the thoughts in her mind were all spoken, "Mr. Emmerich has his insistence and is unwilling to give in, and Mr. Nakhmanov, as a screenwriter, is caught in the middle, trying to compromise a suitable plan, but it is obviously not that simple. ”

"That's what happens to any film, isn't it? I can imagine the hassle of your work, and being responsible for building bridges of communication is not an easy task. Lance's words made Karen's cheeks turn pink, and she couldn't help but pull the strands of hair behind her ears, and then stood there for a while, finally reluctantly turning back to her place.

Lance began to savor the information revealed in Karen's casual conversation.

In fact, almost 90% of what Lance said to George was true, and Lance knew very well that winning the Sundance Film Festival didn't mean anything in Hollywood, it was just a springboard to the next level. Like the Coen brothers, who have been in the independent film industry for 19 years, they are the only ones who have been in the world of independent cinema for 19 years - Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino have inevitably leaned towards the commercial market.

In particular, Chaos Pictures can't spend six years to grow up like Diorama Pictures, he needs to take big steps in a rhythmic and planned way, and commercial films are the inevitable choice - successful commercial films are not street hits like "Troy" and "King Arthur".

So, Lance gave up on "Chainsaw" and "The Butterfly Effect", which were well-received at the box office and fanatically sought after by fans for their small-budget indie films, both of which were not heavyweights enough at the box office - the former paid $1.2 million for $55 million, and the latter recouped $57 million at a cost of 13 million.

Lance had thought it through, and he seriously considered the possibility of "The Misadventures of Raymond Snicker", but the style of this work did not quite match him, and it was not necessarily filmed better than the previous version; Later, "Mean Girl" was also included in his consideration, such a youth campus movie has almost no technical content in shooting, but as long as the backlight and warm color shots are well controlled, and the rhythm is controlled, it is not difficult to succeed.

In the last life, "Mean Girl" can be described as a big hit, this movie with only 17 million dollars of investment swept the North American box office of 86 million dollars, and detonated countless topics, making Lindsay-Lohan (Lindsay-Lohan) reach the peak of his career, and Paramount Pictures also made a lot of money.

However, given the recent plan - Lance wants to drag Diorama Pictures into this vortex and compete with "Troy", so "Mean Girl" obviously doesn't fit this style, and if the news leaks, maybe Ryan will back down. Therefore, Lance temporarily took "Mean Girl" as an alternative plan, re-selected, and finally chose the disaster blockbuster "The Day After Tomorrow".

"The Day After Tomorrow" was filmed by Roland Emmerich, the "king of disaster films", the most shocking disaster film after "Independence Day", which sparked countless discussions after its release in the previous life, and the word-of-mouth continued the consistent pattern of commercial blockbusters, with mixed reviews and obvious extremes, but the box office of the film was hit by a certain amount of Chengdù. "Independence Day" achieved a North American box office of 300 million in 1996, but the final North American result of "The Day After Tomorrow" stopped at 180 million, which was a big disappointment.

For the film's $125 million investment, this box office figure is not to mention profitable, and even enough to make the investor Twentieth Century Fox lose money; Fortunately, the film's overseas box office performance was excellent, not only avoiding a loss, but also making a small profit for Twentieth Century Fox.

In Lance's view, "The Day After Tomorrow" can be described as a model among disaster films, not only the scenes are magnificent, the special effects are amazing, and the momentum is huge, but it vividly shows the insignificance in the confrontation between humans and nature; And the theme is profound, putting the problem of global warming directly on the table, and using family affection as the main line runs through the problem that there is no main line in the disaster movie. What's even more rare is that in the years after the release of "The Day After Tomorrow", the problem of global warming has indeed become more and more serious, which makes "The Day After Tomorrow" almost an apocalyptic work, and is considered by many people to be the disaster movie most closely related to reality.

This work is clearly much better than "2012" – and many critics have echoed this sentiment with Lance. In particular, the discussion and reflection on the root causes of the disaster in "The Day After Tomorrow" is not only better than "2012", but also more memorable than most disaster films. The box office potential of "The Day After Tomorrow" is much more than that.

However, why is the box office of "the day after tomorrow" unsatisfactory? The North American box office of "2012" was very bad, only 160 million, but it grossed 700 million US dollars worldwide, and the cost of 200 million US dollars made Columbia Pictures break out in a cold sweat. And the global box office of "The Day After Tomorrow" is only half a billion US dollars, which is not at the same level at all.

The reasons are complex, but they can also be very simple, Lance believes that it can be summarized into two points: the first is the propaganda effect, the "day after tomorrow" propaganda work is obviously not in place, and the momentum is far behind the "2012" with the gimmick of the end of the world, of course, this needs the help of time and place. However, the lack of publicity obviously affected the further progress of the box office.

The second is the control of the rhythm of the film, due to the limitations of the plot itself of "the day after tomorrow", it lacks the ultimate Armageddon like "Independence Day", and also lacks the shock of global destruction like "2012". In the second half of the movie, the plot slowed down significantly, and the final happy ending lacked a little impact, failing to push the plot to the top, which seemed top-heavy and lacking stamina.

As long as a few simple changes are made to the script, perhaps some discussion can be added to the deep theme, and then the promotion stage is full of effort, and the box office of "The Day After Tomorrow" will exceed 200 million or even hit a higher target, which is not an impossible task. This qiē makes the shooting of "the day after tomorrow" less like a job and more like a challenge.

After all things considered, Lance made a decision.

However, in the past time, Lance has not been in a hurry to compete, on the one hand, because the trap of "Troy" is still brewing, and Ryan cannot show any horses until he steps into the trap; On the one hand, it is because Lance is trying to sort out his ideas for improving "The Day After Tomorrow", and he is not taking over the work "The Day After Tomorrow" for the sake of the North American box office of 180 million.

What's more, if he wants to snatch food from Roland's hands, Lance can't hope for luck.

It wasn't until the time was right that Lance found Twentieth Century Fox. Now it seems that the project of "The Day After Tomorrow" is indeed tricky, and it is difficult for the director, screenwriter, and producer to agree on the specific controversy of the script, but Lance believes that a large part of it lies in the advancement of the plot and the setting of baggage, which is crucial for any disaster film - compared to the story, the rhythm is the most important.

Although this matter is very tricky to deal with, it leaves Lance with an opportunity.

"Mr. Strello," Karen's call made Lance look up, and the thoughts in his mind slowly settled, and Karen smiled warmly and said softly, "Mr. Gordon can see you." ”

"The coffee tasted good, thank you for your hospitality." Lance didn't leave immediately, but showed his gentlemanly demeanor, which made Karen's cheeks blush slightly. The two of them stood in place and paused for a moment before Karen reacted and clenched her fists in annoyance, "Please follow me." Then he led Lance towards the office.

Lance is not going to visit the top big names today, Mark Gordon (Mark-Gordon) is the deputy manager of the production department of Twentieth Century Fox, not a top leader, but his business skills are very good, and his name can be seen in the list of producers of "Life and Death", "Saving Private Ryan", "Patriot" and other works. This is also the reason why he became an "acquired" person, even in front of Roland, he is full of confidence and does not fall behind.

Walking into the office, Lance nodded to Karen in thanks, and then saw Mark sitting behind his desk.

Mark didn't stand up, just sat calmly in the boss's chair, with no intention of standing up at all, and his condescending posture was full of posture, even stronger than Harvey Weinstein's originally. Lance was not surprised at all, obviously Mark was going to give him a dismount - after all, in Mark's opinion, the "acquired" cast had been formed, and there was no need to change people at all, and Lance had already spent a lot of effort to get the opportunity to meet today, so he naturally didn't need to be polite to Lance.

And in fact, Lance does not intend to form a confrontation today, since Mark wants to put on a show, he will satisfy Mark's vanity. After all, today is just the beginning.

"Good morning, Mr. Mark Gordon." Lance calmly walked to the desk and said with a smile on his face.