"Director Rosenberg, can you tell us what you think of Jin Sumei?"

The reporters were clearly prepared, and as soon as Duke walked to the door of Warner Studios, he was surrounded by these guys shouting out one question after another.

""Independence Day" only won one award for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars, but it won seven awards for Golden Sour Plum, what do you think?"

"Is this a blow to you?"

"Will it affect your career?"

A reporter with a CBS badge suddenly squeezed in front of Duke and asked loudly, "Director Rosenberg, the great failure of "Independence Day"......"

"Failure?"

Before the reporter could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Duke, who stared at the reporter from Columbia TV, "Do you think Independence Day failed?" Is a commercial production that currently grosses $905.78 million worldwide? Is the movie that has been watched by more than 400 million people around the world a failure? ”

Looking coldly at these reporters who were afraid that the world would not be chaotic, Duke, with the assistance of Warner set security personnel, got rid of their chase and entered the set.

Some time ago, when the global box office of "Independence Day" exceeded 900 million US dollars, these guys and the media behind them were eager to lift him to the sky and shape him into the greatest commercial director of Hollywood history.

Even with Duke's usual steady state of mind. I have to admire the discipline of the media, and to describe it as broken is simply to praise them.

Of course, the media of Warner, Fox and Disney. Because he has common interests, he has been speaking out in support of him.

But Duke doesn't care too much, after all, he is not a stunned young man who doesn't know anything, the media all over the world, from Europe to the Middle East to the Far East, to put it bluntly, are all serving interest groups, and they can never stand in a fair and just position. Even if it's relative justice.

Walking into the D-Day studio, Duke made a beeline for the conference room. Tom? Hanks, Leonardo? Actors such as DiCaprio, as well as Robin? Grande and Charles? Rowan and other crew leaders have arrived.

Warner was able to gather so many reporters on the set, not just because of him, but mainly because of the chase Tom? Hanks came.

Subsequently. Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox heads of the publicity and distribution departments, as well as representatives from Walt Disney, also walked into the conference room.

The post-production of "Saving Private Ryan" has entered the final stage, and the next priority must be publicity and distribution, and the meeting is also discussing this aspect.

As before, Duke sat here listening most of the time, occasionally making a few comments, which is not his area of expertise, and leaving professional things to professionals is the most realistic business rule.

As a publisher in North America. Fox representatives have mentioned several times that the competitor released at the same time is "Braveheart," which CAA packaged for Paramount Pictures.

While Fox and Paramount Pictures are in James? Cameron has a collaboration on the project, but they wouldn't be foolish enough to extend that partnership to two films that face competition head-on. The only relationship between Braveheart and Private Saving Ryan is that of a competitor.

Twentieth Century Fox has also formulated a more targeted publicity plan, not only to promote "Saving Private Ryan", but also to take the initiative to suppress "Braveheart" from the media to the theater chain to the promotion and so on, out of common interests. Warner Bros. and Walt Disney will also be involved.

Although he doesn't remember the box office performance of "Braveheart," Duke is not too worried about the huge impact of the film.

Actually, the reason is very simple. Even William? No matter how loud Wallace's slogan is, it can't change whether the film is about Scotland, or whether it will touch the sensitive nerves of some Anglo-Saxon descendants of Scottish independence, and "Saving Private Ryan" is a film that tells the history of Americans themselves, and it is so in line with mainstream values.

Don't underestimate the difference between an alien story and your own story, which often becomes the key to the success or failure of the film.

North America is a strange land, isolationism is still prevalent today, and the vast majority of the American public does not care much about things that have nothing to do with the United States.

There is also the American media market, which is definitely the largest insulator in the world, even in the past 20 years, American television has not broadcast a single foreign program in prime time, and the American audience has watched far fewer foreign-themed movies than expected, and the foreign-themed movies that can really succeed are often adaptations of classic literary works or fairy tales and myths from the Western world.

As for William? Wallace is a de facto Scottish traitor, how many people in the American public know who he is?

The kind of thing that casually pulls a subject from France, Germany, or even the Far East and can be successful after filming is not much higher than the 1 percent chance.

"Leo ......" Charles? Rowan's words interrupted Duke's thoughts, and the production manager was telling Leonardo? DiCaprio cooperated with the promotion, "In the period before the release of the film, you and Claudia? Schiffer will increase the number of trips, and we will contact the media to report on you. ”

Using an actor's love life to hype up a movie is the most common means of publicity.

With Duke just with Heidi? Krum plays differently, Leonardo? DiCaprio turned out to be really with Claudia? Schiffer has developed into a couple, supermodel and Hollywood handsome guy, and he can also attract a lot of attention.

Of course, with Xiao Li's nature, this relationship will not last long.

Maybe when the popularity of the film decreases slightly, he instigated Xiao Li to kick Claudia? Schiffer? Then the two of them have a vigorous tearing X battle, which should increase the box office of the film?

Despite this bad idea, Duke will not do it himself, but is prepared for Nancy to communicate with the crew later.

"Charles, I have a few points to build."

After the production manager finished speaking, Duke, who had been silent, spoke, "Invite World War II veterans and historians who study World War II and the Normandy landings to participate in the test screening, if these people can affirm, "Saving Private Ryan" will be more attractive to the audience in terms of the element of war epic." ”

"Hyping up their possible rave reviews of the movie as a way to attract war movie lovers?" The representative on the Fox side nodded quickly, "That's a great idea!" ”

Duke is only responsible for the construction of yì, and as for how to actually do it, these professionals know more than him.

"Charry." He is most concerned about the other side, "How many theaters is expected to be won by the film?" ”

"The exact number depends on the results of the test screening."

As one of the heads of Fox's publicity department, Charry? Adam didn't hide it, and told the truth, "Duke, you have to be mentally prepared, "Saving Private Ryan" can't have a theater as high as "Independence Day"!" ”

Duke nodded, signaling that he understood.

This is a normal thing, compared to the sci-fi action genre of "Independence Day", "Saving Private Ryan" has a natural disadvantage in terms of subject matter, and when the former was released last year, there were no strong competitors in the same schedule, and it was easy to get 2800 theaters, while the latter is facing the same big investment in "Braveheart", no one can underestimate the power of Paramount Pictures, and the two films will open on the same weekend, and the number of theaters will be affected.

According to Duke's estimates, if the test screening goes smoothly and the audience and theater representatives respond well, "Saving Private Ryan" may open with about 2,500 theaters.

The distribution will be responsible for the theater chain and publicity, and Duke's most urgent work at the moment is to complete the post-production of "Saving Private Ryan" with quality and quantity.

Adding special effects, adjusting the soundtrack, editing the sound effects, and matching the color ratio were all completed over the next few weeks, and Duke called in the leading actors to re-dub some scenes, and by the end of April, except for the addition of no opening credits, "Saving Private Ryan" had basically completed post-production.

At the same time, the publicity work is also carried out in an orderly manner, and every once in a while heavyweight news is released. Posters of major actors such as Hanks, and next week there will be tabloids and entertainment magazines hyping Claudia? Schiffer and Leonardo? DiCaprio's new romance.

As the time entered May, the crew released the first trailer cut by Duke himself, which successively landed on the big screen of the theater chain and the prime time of ABC, NBC and Fox TV networks.

Just like the halftime commercial of the Super Bowl, Duke still cuts out the hot and real to brutal war scenes, after several years of accumulation, he knows very well what the summer audience wants to see, anti-war and humanistic care or something that can't be mentioned, but it must not be the focus of publicity, and the current propaganda is just to let the potential audience generate what they want to see*.

Publicity, not only to promote "Saving Private Ryan", but also to "Braveheart".

Many media outlets under the co-producer's umbrella suddenly became interested in Scottish history and popularized the most basic Scottish history for the North American public. Wallace is a hugely controversial figure, and in the media publicity of Warner, Fox and Disney, William? Wallace is an absolutely dishonorable character, the most hated type of mainstream American culture – traitor and betrayer.

Paramount and CAA are not idle, and they are also fighting back, attacking "Saving Private Ryan" as too bloody, calling on the Parent-Teacher Association to boycott the film, and calling on teenagers across the United States not to watch such a bloody and cruel movie.

This is just a microcosm of the fierce competition in Hollywood, and the two sides are far more than just talking about it in the media, such as finding the right person to participate in each other's preview screenings to get first-hand information and formulate more targeted publicity strategies. (To be continued)

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