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April's footsteps have unstoppably entered Duke's life, and it has been a whole year since he started writing "The Speed of Life and Death", and the film has still not been released.

With the deadline finalized by Twentieth Century Fox, Duke finally saw the news and commercials for "Life and Death" from the media.

Fox Network's home channel ran a fifteen-second film clip ad for three nights; The entertainment pages of second- and third-rate newspapers in the Los Angeles area also appeared interviews about Keanu Reeves and Uma Thurman; Some film critics' columns are also trying to attract attention by way of praise or criticism; The tabloids under News Corp. began to write lace news about the male and female protagonists, swearing that the two were in love; On the big screen of some theaters, the trailer of the film was played; In some remote locations in theaters, the poster of "The Speed of Life and Death" is not very noticeable......

One million dollars is an astronomical amount for an individual, but it is a small amount for the marketing of a commercial film.

Fortunately, the film will only be screened in 20 theaters in 10 major cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston and Nashville, and the publicity is mainly aimed at these ten cities.

Although the audience reputation for the test screening was excellent, Twentieth Century Fox's strategy was still cautious, and even the film has only 50 copies so far.

And the focus of Twentieth Century Fox's publicity is not at all on "Life and Death", the summer file in May is coming, David Fincher's "Alien 3" is Fox's major project, and has invested heavily in publicity and marketing, and you can see advertisements for this film almost everywhere.

Because of the packaging services provided for "Alien 3" from producer to director to actors, CAA has also invested a lot of resources in this film, and the success of countless times in the past has also made them very confident.

"Lovett."

In an office in Century City, Rick Solomon sat across from his agent, his mouth scrolling up and down, "Should we put pressure on Twentieth Century Fox?" They should focus on the promotion of "Alien 3", instead of distracting resources for bad movies like "Speed of Life and Death"! ”

"Calm down, Rick."

Looking at the guy opposite, a trace of impatience rose in Lovett's heart, this guy is simple-minded and doesn't look like a Jew, let alone compared with Duke Rosenberg who was abandoned by him, I'm afraid most people in Hollywood are smarter than him, if it weren't for borrowing his father Robert Solomon to capture Warner Bros., he would never sign this idiot, and he used his connections to stuff him into the crew of "Alien 3".

"Pay attention to your image!" After reminding him, he said, ""The Speed of Life and Death" is just a screening, and the good reputation of the test screening may not be able to be converted into a high box office, and this film is likely to be released in theaters for a week." ”

"That's the best!" Rick Solomon shook his fist hard.

Although he said so, he didn't want "Speed of Life and Death" to really only have a one-week tour of theaters, the reason is very simple, if this film can stay in theaters until early May, then his "Alien 3" will directly compete with the other party, and it must feel good to trample Duke Rosenberg under his feet at that time!

"Speed of Life and Death", what is that? Can it be compared with the special-shaped series?

Subsequently, Lovett, who was sitting opposite, hung up the phone to the propaganda department of Twentieth Century Fox, reminding them that they should concentrate their superior resources and concentrate on "Alien 3"!

It's a trifle for a powerful CAA, and it doesn't require big names like Martin Bob and Michael Ovitz to do it.

"Will he succeed?"

When he put down the phone, this thought couldn't stop jumping out of Lovett's mind, and he couldn't hold it back, he didn't care about the idiot opposite, slowly fell into thought, and then came up with a way to deal with it.

Even if Duke Rosenberg succeeds in his shit luck, he just goes to him and re-signs him, and if he wants to be an agent, he can't care about face, as for whether Duke Rosenberg will agree, it is not within his consideration at all, can he or dare to refuse CAA?

As a spring file, April is the traditional off-season for films, and the summer season that starts in May is reserved for commercial blockbusters, and Twentieth Century Fox will not consider "Life and Death" at all.

On April 14, a very ordinary Tuesday, Duke ushered in the most critical test of his life, and "Life and Death" landed in the North American market with a scale of 20 theaters.

There were no premieres, no media campaigns, no massive publicity, just a questionnaire that Twentieth Century Fox asked theaters to hand out.

As an investigative observer for Twentieth Century Fox, Harry Dunn was in charge of the Los Angeles area, and he arrived at the theater near City Hall early and sat near the ticket gate to observe the audience's choices.

At a glance, you can find the poster of "Speed of Life and Death" from the lobby of the theater, and the bus that burst out of the fire is also eye-catching, and on the big screen on the other side, several trailers are played, and there is also the figure of "Speed of Life and Death", in which explosions and flying cars emerge in endlessly, which looks full of selling points.

However, Dunn sat here for more than half an hour and found that the audience who chose "Life and Death" was very limited, which was inseparable from the lack of big-name stars and overwhelming publicity for the film, and also related to the fact that it was a working day.

Looking at his watch, the time for the screening was almost up, Dunn got up and walked towards the theater, checked the ticket and took the next questionnaire, and was about to walk into the screening hall of "Life and Death", when a surprised voice suddenly sounded next to him.

"Hey, why are you?"

Looking back, Dunn found that it was a blonde young man who spoke, and there were five or six people next to him, and after recalling it a little, he gradually had some impressions, after all, during the test screening, it was too rare for the other party to go backwards to the toilet in order not to miss the movie.

"I didn't expect you to rewatch this film too." The man said, "What a coincidence. ”

"yes."

Coincidentally? It's no coincidence that there are only two theaters in the entire Los Angeles area.

Waving, Dunn motioned to go in first, there were not many people in the theater, they all chose a position near the middle, and after sitting down, Dunn asked again, "Haven't you seen this movie?" ”

"Where is it enough to watch a wonderful film like "Life and Death" once."

Jones, who had long blond hair, turned his head to look at a few companions next to him, "Allen and I told you that the film is very thrilling, don't you believe it, do you see it?" This gentleman also participated in the test screening last time, and I also came to see it for the second time! ”

"Indeed, Jones, we all watched the trailer, and it was really hot." "But don't forget, the trailer is great, but there are a lot of bad films, especially the director, we haven't heard of it." ”

"I haven't heard of it either." Jones sighed, "I've been to the video tape market and haven't found anything related to him. ”

"By the way, have you heard of director Duke Rosenberg?" He asked Dunn.

"I kind of understand." Dunn casually divulged some information, ""Life and Death" should be his first official feature film. ”

"Wow...... For the first time! Jones seemed to have discovered something remarkable, "The first time you were able to shoot a film so well?" ”

"Alright, Jones, let's gag your mouth with Coke!"

The only girl among them handed over a large glass of Coke, and Jones immediately shook her head, "I advise you, don't drink too much, this film will definitely not give you time to go to the bathroom." ”

"Is that an exaggeration?"

In the front row, a middle-aged man in his thirties turned his head and Jones said solemnly, "I promise!" ”

Looking at this qiē that happened, Dunn didn't say much, after the last test screening, "Speed of Life and Death" has obviously fermented among the audience, but the number of people participating in the test screening is too small, if the screening is as successful as the test screening, the reputation of "Speed of Life and Death" will quickly spread among the audience, you must know that no kind of publicity means can compare to the leading role of good word-of-mouth word-of-mouth.

"Alright, alright, don't make a fuss."

Like a kid anxious to share his favorite toy with his partner, Jones stopped his companion's joke, "Focus, the film is about to start!" ”

On the screen, the opening credits belonging to Twentieth Century Fox are lit up.

Dunn's eyes quickly circled around, not much more than expected, there were only less than twenty spectators sitting in the huge theater, and the attendance rate was not ideal at all.

Kunitez was one of the people who came with Jones, and when he saw the opening credits, he didn't fully concentrate, and he still threw popcorn into his mouth all the time, and there must have been stinky and long credits after the opening credits, who would be interested in those things?

“What？”

The next moment, he stared, the film has no long subtitles, no long-winded foreshadowing, and goes straight to the topic, only to see the elevator maintenance worker with a handicap, neatly stabbing the building security guard to the ground.

The plot unfolds quickly, and Kunitez is able to see that in the very far corners of the film, a few lines of very small letters appear, such as director Duke Rosenberg, actors Keanu Reeves and Uma Thurman......

Don't talk about other content, at least this beginning aroused his favor and gave him a strong desire to watch it. Instead of looking at the long opening credits drowsy.

"A guy who is very good at tricks!"

This is the opinion of Dunn, a professional, the Directors Guild has a hard and fast rule for opening credits, and George Lucas even quit the Directors Guild in anger because of the Star Wars opening credits, and has not joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that supports the Directors Guild.

Placing subtitles at the beginning of the film is also a good compromise.

Even Dunn could have predicted that if "Life and Death" was a success, the technique would soon become widespread.