On July 15, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was released in North America, and the film was very well received by film critics, with 83% freshness on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience response was only average, with 51% love and IMDB-6. 7 points, these may as well it box office Xiàn good, the first week to collect 85.8 million, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are still the golden combination.

And the excellent performances of the young actors were greatly praised, and the chewing gum champion "Violet" Anna Sophia Rob was very eye-catching.

On the day of the premiere on Sunday the 10th, Ye Wei and Emma both went to join in the fun, not together, he went as a friend of Anna Sophia, and Emma was her own itinerary.

Ye Wei didn't want to go, but whether it was Brian or DreamWorks Distribution, he wanted him to attend to increase exposure and promote LMS, and there was a good reason why he was the son of a dentist and a good friend of Anna Sophia......

This event rescheduled his date week with Nina, and it was a good movie, and Anna acted very well.

Anna's star career is very good, and since this year, she has auditioned again, joining the main supporting role in "Harvest", which will start filming next month, which is a thriller starring Oscar-winning actress Hillary Swank, with a budget of 40 million, and then starring in the 3 million budget comedy project "Undercover Academy" in November.

Although I have already watched it once, on the night of the 15th, the Ye family of four went to the theater to watch it, Duoduo has been looking forward to it for a long time, and it is indeed fun for the dentist family.

In the full screening room, Duoduo laughed from time to time, and whenever Anna appeared, she smiled and called Anaana, and when she saw the "violet" become a big round ball, she was so happy that she almost rolled to the ground. Ye Wei couldn't help but shake his head, he really had no sympathy, and he had to cover his mouth and smile when he smiled!

Ye Haogen joked that Depp was obviously wearing dentures, and the props team should ask him to make a more real pair. Ye Wei smiled and said that it was not the props group, it was the makeup team, and he grinned with real and neat teeth, "A few days ago, they said that they should make molds according to my teeth." Ye Haogen said proudly: "Hollywood's straightest teeth." ”

They talked and laughed, but Gu Qiao was really angry, "It's noisy to others." ”

There was laughter in the theater, children exclaimed, there was no noise, the father and son continued to talk show, teasing Duoduo.

When Depp recalled when he was a child, the shape of wearing an exaggerated fang-cursing helmet appeared on the screen, and Ye Wei scared her and said: "Duoduo, see it, when you start to change your teeth, you will wear that helmet." Ye Haogen pretended to be serious and nodded: "You will wear it for seven years until your teeth are all replaced." Duoduo believed it and was so frightened that she cried: "Don't, it's so ugly! I don't want to change my teeth!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Little sweetheart, don't listen to them, just wear it for a year. ”

"Don't, don't, don't!"

"Haha!"

......

On July 22, Michael Bay's "Escape from Clone Island" was released in North America, and DreamWorks not only did not usher in a savior, but also fell directly from the cliff and fell into hell!

The cost of this film is 1. The 2.6 billion sci-fi blockbuster has a terrible reputation, 40% freshness and 64% love, but the worst thing is the box office, 3122 theaters in the opening week, let alone winning the weekly championship, only received 18.35 million first-week box office!

If you use the formula of the usual first week*2 to calculate the final North American box office of a mediocre film, it will be about 36.7 million...... I can't get back the issuance fee, it's too miserable.

In fact, industry insiders expect "Escape from Clone Island" to cost its two studios, DreamWorks and Warner Bros., at least $50 million each.

This is a lot stricter than "Madagascar", the African animals are just not as successful as expected, and it is a complete failure.

This week has been changing, and there are all kinds of rumors from the cloud-covered Dream Factory.

For example, the movie version of "Transformers", after DreamWorks and Hasbro reached a cooperation to shoot this big project next year, it has been confirmed that Michael Bay will direct it, and it will be released on Independence Day in 2007, but now everything has variables. This is still light, compared to another news of earthquake magnitude!

DreamWorks is close to bankruptcy and will be acquired by Universal Pictures, and the two sides are currently in talks to acquire it for about $1 billion or more.

DreamWorks hasn't responded to the rumors yet, but everyone knows that the independent company is in the midst of a storm and is running out of steam......

And there is one more thing worth documenting this week, "Exorcism Video" is on the 1st. 400 million North American box office, not counting inflation, it surpassed the 140,501,248 of "Blair the Witch" to become the highest-grossing pseudo-documentary in North American history!

For the four weeks of July, its table xiàn looks like this:

"Exorcism Video" - 13th place - 11th week - 1156 - 2,274 - 2,628,744 - 137,165,313 - 0. 45

"Videos of Exorcism" - 16th place - 12th week - 773 - 1,531 - 1,183,463 - 138,348,776 - 0. 45

"Exorcism Video" - 18th place - 13th week - 641 - 1,369 - 877,529 - 139,226,305 - 0. 45

"Videos of Exorcism" - 17th place - 14th week - 961 - 1,625 - 1,561,625 - 140,787,930 - 0. 45

This week, Lionsgate added 320 theaters against the trend in order to hit the record, and TET did not disappoint anyone, collecting another 1.56 million in one fell swoop, officially reaching the top!

......

In late July, Ye Wei cut the first version of "Little Sunshine Beauty" as scheduled, and spent a few more days adding line tracks, some simple sound effects and soundtracks, and the 110-minute internal director's cut was released!

The fiasco of "Escape from Clone Island" made Ye Wei very emotional, TET set off a crazy tide, and a film that seemed impossible to fail from the lineup and cost was so miserable, there are really no absolutes in the world. He felt sorry for DreamWorks, and was a little worried about whether LMS would be affected by this.

However, he knows that whether DreamWorks sells it or not, it will not be negotiated in a day or two, and no one will suspend or despise the release of LMS. Even if it is sold, the more money the LMS makes, the more valuable DreamWorks will be.

In fact, he can know from the list of attendees at the director's cut screening that DreamWorks' emphasis on LMS has been upgraded to the highest level, just like this is a life-saving straw, not very solid, but it is already the only hope.

On this day, in the screening room of the DreamWorks headquarters, the big names who could come came, Spielberg, who was busy filming "The Munich Tragedy", and Hanks, who was busy starring in "The Da Vinci Code", did not come, but Katzenberg, Jeff Smai, Terry Price, Gozman, and editor William Goldenberg ...... All present.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the bald-headed middle-aged man who once saved Disney and created the glory of DreamWorks Animation, still has a gentle smile on his face, and does not seem to be bothered by the company's situation.

From the beginning to the end of the film, there was very little sound in the screening room, but everyone's expressions were already full of smiles, not only because of the story of the film, but also because of the ......

Super high quality!

"It's fantastic. Katzenberg suddenly applauded, and everyone also applauded, looking at Ye Wei who was sitting on the left side of the front row with a kind of "you shook us" admiration.

"You've not disappointed. Gozman also praised, what a prodigy!

LMS's script story is easy to shoot flat, and the successive failures are easy to be depressing, but Ye Wei tells the story in a sunny and warm way, and there is no lack of black humor, one moving scene, almost perfect in all aspects...... This is just a rough internal version, and the release version is definitely better.

Jeff Smay, Price and others all praised, "You made an incredible movie." "It's definitely going to hit the awards season, it's fantastic. ”

"Thank you, thank you!" Ye Wei also laughed, he was happy, excited, and relieved to be recognized by these people, but he was not completely relieved, and "Exorcism Video" was also praised by them before, and then what he got was that it had no value for theater distribution.

The fact that the director's cut is praised by them does not mean that it can be launched into the market without changing it, because the mass market and everyone here have different appreciation and needs, and they only consider the mass market.

Sure enough, after praising it, everyone gradually changed their expressions, calm, rational, and business, and began to discuss what the problem was.

"It's a little bit long. Gozman had already had this opinion, "I think it would be better to go down to about 100 minutes, Weige, do you think you can cut some scenes?"

Being watched by everyone, Ye Wei's mind was racing, maybe the difficult editing battle began, and here he had only one ally, Peter Heller, who had no right to speak.

So Yiqiē could only rely on himself, and he said seriously: "Gentlemen, you know that this version was cut out by William and I after doing a lot of experiments, and every scene in these 110 minutes is essential, every shot is carefully designed, and every material is the best choice, and it is not good to delete anything." ”

Everyone is not surprised, the director is like this.

"105 minutes, but, listen to me, cut out 5 minutes as much as possible. Gonzman continued, "This way it will be more compact. ”

"No, it won't be complete. Ye Wei gestured a little anxiously, "Now it's the result of compactness, if it's not compact, I can cut it out for 135 minutes." ”

"Can you get rid of those drug scenes?" Katzenberg said, another comment, or request, "I'm worried that this will affect the rating, and we need to get a PG-13 rating." ”

Price nodded in agreement, for a family comedy, the difference between PG-13 and R-rated is huge, this story can't be changed with a lot of foul language, G and PG are difficult, but PG-13 is the established goal, and it is even more desperate for the current DreamWorks......

Family comedies, literary independent films, and DreamWorks only focus on the former, ironically LMS is not a normal story, drug abuse, homosexuality, suicide, children's beauty pageants......

Either way, expecting LMS to explode at the box office is not just a dream factory aspiration, but also a pretwin.

"Jeffrey. Ye Wei looked at the big man next to him, for the sake of the movie, he no longer knew how to be nervous, and said: "Those drug scenes are very important to portray grandpa, and it is not instigating." I guess I'll wait until I'm rated, right? If the MPAA has to give us an R rating, then change it. ”

Katzenberg smiled and nodded, not arguing.

There are not a lot of opinions from everyone, because this director's cut is really good, viy this kid has always understood business, although it is a literary film, but from shooting to editing, he did not make a stream of consciousness, or a large section of pure art to dull scenes, etc., which fits the rhythm of commercial films, the structure is clean and practical.

But......

"I heard there are other endings?" asked Katzenberg, his eyes behind his glasses showing no emotion.

Ye Wei nodded, and William Goldenberg also nodded, it's not the kind of multiple endings that Oliver won the game, how to end the story, those materials can be cut out in a variety of forms. Ye Wei had already made up his mind that Richard's family would go to eat ice cream, but the editor had a different idea, and Gordonberg's version was that after leaving the beauty pageant hotel, the family drove home.

At the moment, the assistant operated another ending video, the family walked out of the hotel, said something, pushed the cart, and soon it was the road shot home, which ended.

Gordenberg explained his claim to the crowd: "It's simpler, it's easier for the average audience to understand and move, and if you fail, go home, there's nothing like a warm home." The family has cleared up misunderstandings, learned to be united, and has a family no matter whether it succeeds or fails. ”

Everyone nodded their heads when they heard this, as if they were a little moved, and Gozman pondered: "This is more simple than Weige, and it can be understood directly, and there is no need to understand the metaphor of eating ice cream." Katzenberg didn't speak, not knowing what to think......

Ye Wei didn't look good, and hurriedly said loudly: "It's more obvious, but it's something else entirely!, why don't I use it, because it will make this story lose its biggest soul, all the previous scenes, props, lines and other settings can't get the final echo and sublimation, they are all in vain, the film will return to the most ordinary and old-fashioned words, there is nothing like a warm home." Actually, it's not about that. ”

When he thought of his family, he smiled naturally, "Home is not in a specific place, but in the garden of the soul, in the family members who understand, care, cherish, and care for each other, regardless of success or failure." As long as the family is there, there is a home, convenience stores, movie theaters, anywhere. That's what I want to say about this film. ”

But Goldenberg said: "It's hard for the average viewer to understand, they don't understand, they see that eating ice cream is eating ice cream, and nothing else." When we start from business and from the viewing level of ordinary audiences, simple is correct. It is easier to applaud them by following their ideas than by suing them for new ideas. ”

Ye Wei knew the current situation, and once Katzenberg thought that his end was not commercial, he would lose.

He was prepared for this disagreement, and he immediately retorted: "There is no problem here that I can't understand, but there are multiple layers of meaning, high-level audiences can see through, low-level audiences can't understand all the meaning, and they can also understand the most superficial layer of meaning, no matter how stupid they are, they can understand it, because the scene of eating ice cream is very warm and lovely, Richard has changed, this family has changed, it is no longer a set of wins or losses, they are a real family." ”

Changing this was expressed in the previous family dancing scene. Gordonberg is also holding his own eye, "The ending is simpler, and sometimes it is more powerful." ”

"Believe me, this is the most powerful, the most intentional, and the most evocative ending. Ye Wei's very firm tone revealed that he would not make any concessions.

Any other differences can be resolved through negotiation, this is absolutely not okay, don't go to ice cream, go straight home?

Then he doesn't know what the previous story is for, all the details are fragmented and can't be made into a whole, and it's all over!

There was a sudden silence in the screening room, and Katzenberg, Gozman, and others were all silently considering, ready to make a statement......