It's interesting that Lance decided to abandon the Aziva version of the script and recreate the "I Am Legend" script from scratch himself. In the eyes www.biquge.info of many people, it seems that it is not difficult to write a commercial film script, you only need to make the scene more exciting and the visual effects more magnificent, which is enough, but on the contrary, the story of a commercial film is simple, but it needs to be convincing enough to make the audience truly immersive, and the control of the rhythm is a science, when there should be a twist, when there should be a little humor, when there should be a small high/tide, this must have a clear idea.

Since handing over the script framework to Warner Bros. this morning, Lance has been working on the script, and he plans to write a version of the script according to his own ideas, and then adjust and cut the content of the script according to the framework structure, trying to find the balance between business and art as much as possible.

This is Lance's first real commercial script after "the day after tomorrow", and he hopes to challenge himself.

"Knock", there was a knock on the door, and then the office door was pushed open, and Percy's voice rang out, "Lance, it's half past two meeting time." ”

"Uh...... Which meeting? Lance was still tapping on the keyboard with both hands, and his head was not raised, "I remember there were two meetings today. "One is the creative meeting of "The Queen", now that the whole crew is ready, the actors and directors are in place, Lance needs to have a cross-border meeting with Stephen Freys, Helen Mirren, Scott Rudding and others, because they are all in London at this time, and considering the time difference, the meeting time will be a little more troublesome. According to the plan, the "Queen" will be officially launched in the second week of October.

"'Hard fruit candy'." Percy explained that this was another meeting, a meeting on the release schedule of "Hard Candy". Although the distribution department is independent, and Lance also gave the rights to James, because "Fruit Hard Candy" is a work directed by Lance, the specific release time still needs to be discussed by both parties and finally finalized.

"Oh, let James in." Lance spoke up, and after a while, he felt a figure flicker in front of him, "Give me another thirty seconds." Lance paused slightly with his hands, as if he was sorting out his thoughts, and then there was another torrential beating, before he raised his head and looked at James who was sitting in front of him, "So, what schedule has the distribution department decided?" ”

There was no politeness, straight to the point, but James did not panic, and handed the form in his hand to Lance, "After the internal viewing, we formulated two plans, the first is to participate in the screening of the New York Film Festival first, and then apply for the Berlin Film Festival to be released, according to the specifications of the awards season works." ”

There was no direct compliment of any kind, but it couldn't have been more blunt: they all agreed that the "hard fruit candy" was of such a high quality that it could have taken its place in this year's awards season. This is undoubtedly the greatest compliment to Reims.

Lance didn't feel flattered, flipped through the form in his hand, and then asked, "What about the other schedule?" ”

"Hard Candy" is not an awards season-style work, the format is too narrow, the subject matter is too limited, and because of the theme of the work, it is not a genre that has been favored by the academy judges, and in the entire long history, only four horror thriller films have been nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture, which shows how difficult it is for this genre to polish the classics. When Lance conceived and reinvented the script, it wasn't for awards season, it was just an experiment to explore his own style.

Therefore, he does not plan to take the initiative to cater to the trend of the awards season, the investment cost of "Fruit Hard Candy" itself is only 900,000, but to participate in the New York Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival, it will cost at least more than 2 million publicity costs.

Of course, if the film really wins praise from critics after its release and really occupies a place in the awards season, then it will be completely too late to push the boat again. For his work to be noticed during the awards season, Lance naturally raised his hands in agreement.

James is not surprised by Lance's reaction, which is also a point he admires Lance, confident, but not blind, accurate positioning is the only way to succeed, otherwise it will only be swallowed up or destroyed by his own ambition. "The screening will start in the third week of October, catering to the Halloween schedule, and the screening will be arranged for two to three weeks. This year's Thanksgiving and Christmas are very busy, with 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire', 'King Kong', 'The Chronicles of Narnia' all coming out one after another, and Halloween also has 'Saw 2', which we can bring up to the second week of October if necessary. ”

Last year's "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" tested the summer file, but the results were not satisfactory, so this year's Warner Bros. returned to the holiday file, which also made this year's holiday film market show a prosperous scene.

"No, it's the third week of October." Lance immediately understood James's intentions.

Unlike "Sin City", "Hard Candy" is not a box office work, but the high/high in the movie that attracts the audience is the most nerve-torturing segment, which cannot bring the audience the pleasure of watching the movie; In addition, Lance added the experimental nature of the film in the creative process, trying to inject his own creative ideas into the lens, so that the film has the audacity and madness of the experimental style, which also doomed the cult-style "fruit hard candy" to be difficult to achieve good results at the box office.

This is true of works of the same genre such as "Deadly ID", "Horror Cruise", and "********". At the time of its release, the box office performance was average, and the highest-grossing "Deadly ID" only received 50 million US dollars when it was released, and the "Horror Cruise", which was later hailed as a cult masterpiece by countless people, did not even cross the 5 million threshold at the North American box office, but these works were later very popular in the video rental market, widely circulated, and became an absolute classic among cult works.

If nothing else, the final cumulative North American box office of "Hard Candy" will be far less than the 60 million of "City of God". The expected value given by Chaos Pictures is 15 million, compared to the investment of 900,000 yuan in the movie, this achievement is already incredible, if the final box office can exceed 10 million, this will achieve a large profit, and the profit ratio will even exceed the "day after tomorrow".

Therefore, James adopted the typical release routine of artistic experimental films, first screening in art theaters, and then expanding the screening in an orderly manner after the word-of-mouth slowly spread. This is also the best choice to effectively control the cost of distribution and publicity within a certain range.

The choice of the third week of October is mainly due to the Halloween schedule, which is an excellent time period for thriller movies. As for the fierce competition, in fact, it has nothing to do with "fruit hard candy", the box office performance of this work mainly depends on the audience's word-of-mouth, and the strong performance of competitors has a very limited impact. Especially in the first three weeks, "Fruit Hard Candy" will be released in art theaters, which are two completely different systems from commercial theaters, and audiences who are willing to come to art theaters are either senior movie lovers, or real fans of thriller movies or Lance, they will not be affected by the outside world.

"Okay." James nodded, indicating understanding, "What about publicity?" Is it exactly the way the experimental film is? ”

Lance thought about it, and finally shook his head, "No, create a sense of mystery." It's enough to announce the news on our company's official page, note our first poster, and then announce the screening time, and that's enough, don't leak anything else. ”

The first poster shows Hayley wearing a red hat with her back to the camera, standing in a giant mousetrap. The picture is simple and clear, but it creates a strong visual impact and creates countless conjectures.

As Lance's new work after "Sin City", it only needs to release the news, and there is no need for any publicity at all, the media will report it, and those fans who really like Lance will also start a discussion, in addition, those veteran movie lovers will naturally not rush the news. That's enough, because this part of the group is also the target of the first week of screening.

The sense of suspense will gradually rise over time, which will instead become part of the suspense plot of "Hard Candy", allowing the audience to have countless conjectures before entering the cinema, and then become a third party in the camera, watching the story. Therefore, the more mysterious it is, the more obvious the curiosity of solving the puzzle, and the more turbulent the shock and shock after the answer is revealed.

James smiled, "We're on a tight budget. "The cost of the film is only 900,000 yuan, and now the publicity stage almost does not cost money, and it is indeed different to rely entirely on the appeal of the name "Lancelot-Strello" to pull the publicity.

Lance raised an eyebrow, noncommittal, and at this time, the phone on the desk rang, and Lance picked it up, it was Percy, "Barry Meyer is on Line 2, do you need to pick it up?" Lance said "Wait," then looked at James, "Is there anything else?" ”

"Uh...... No, we'll write the rest of the details into a plan and hand it over to Percy when the time comes? James felt his shoulders lighten a bit, and as his first job at Chaos Pictures, and it was Lance's work, it was really going well, which made James settle down a little.

Lance nodded, James got up and left the office, and Lance asked Percy to pick up the phone, "You call me at this time, shouldn't you be inviting me to afternoon tea?" ”

Barry's bright laugh came over, "I know your time is precious, and if it's afternoon tea, I'll make a reservation in advance." (To be continued.) )