Chapter Seven Hundred and Ninety-Ninth What to Do Is Wrong

Entering July, "Charlie's Angels 2" was highly anticipated and released on July 5. As the most popular female action movie in recent years, "Charlie's Angels 2" earned more than $71 million at the box office in its first week. At the same time, films such as "Pocahontas" and "The Mummy 2" continue to reap the box office in the North American film market, and the two sequels "Men in Black" and "Jumanji" will be released in the next few weeks. All ready to go.

In addition to the "Mummy" series, in the eyes of many people, whether it is Paramount Animation's "Pocahontas" or MGM's "Charlie's Angels" series, or Sony Pictures' "Men in Black", "Jumanji" was originally supposed to be the possession of Firefly. But at this time, these films are all sieging cities for several other major film companies, and Firefly's "The Matrix" and "Brave Island" this year have begun to enter the final stage.

As a result, these factors have almost all become the place where the media ridiculed Firefly's business strategy, especially Paramount Animation Studios.

Although Firefly sold the hand-painted animation studio for a huge sum of 2.5 billion US dollars, judging from the current business prospects of "Pocahontas", Paramount Animation will continue to do so for the next few animated films. Not only can Viacom recover all the investment costs in the next ten years, but also, with the collaboration between Paramount Animation and other companies in the Viacom system such as Nickelodeon and Blockbuster, Viacom Mu can also create a 2D animation industry chain that is enough to compete with Firefly's 3D animation movies, which has the most fatal impact on Firefly.

Because before this, due to factors such as the difficulty of cultivating animation film teams and the long investment cycle, the Hollywood animation film industry was almost monopolized by Disney, a subsidiary of Firefly. Piece of cake for Viacom.

So far, only a few people know the inside story of the Disney hand-drawn animation studio, and Firefly has no way to refute it at this time.

Moreover, if it is just these remarks that criticize the fireflies, although they are annoying, they cannot cause any substantial damage to the fireflies. The public relations department estimates that the media will be noisy for a while, and the public will no longer be concerned about these after the summer vacation. When things are interesting, the topic cools down naturally.

But then, after the North American box office of "The Matrix" exceeded 200 million, the Wachowski brothers appeared on ABC TV's "David Late Show" festival. The brothers landed on this talk show, mainly for the promotion of "The Matrix" in the later stage. , I hope that the box office of the film can go longer in the next few weeks. Although the two have become famous, they are both the kind of people who like to keep a low profile. It was Frank Wells who personally called the two and arranged the event. A talk show.

However, the Wachowski brothers inadvertently talked about the news that the follow-up script of the film was rejected by the company and was rewriting the script. Firefly has also not shown much sensitivity to the topic.

But maybe the news about fireflies has always been easy to make headlines recently,

A large number of media people only focus on the recent people and events related to fireflies, and this news is naturally noticed by those who are interested.

The Wachowski brothers had just returned to Chicago, where they lived for a long time, after participating in the interview. A paparazzi who had been staying with them for a long time entangled the brothers. After a few days of entanglement, and because Andy Wachowski came out of the bar that day , just drank some wine and was drunk, and finally the paparazzi flickered and brought it back to the bar again for an 'exclusive interview'.

Although based on the concept of the original novel released by Eric in advance, the brothers have always regarded the script of the trilogy as their own efforts. Since the script was completely rejected by Eric, the brothers have been quite depressed recently, and Andy Wachowski stumbled and poured a lot of bitterness on the excited paparazzi.

So, the next day, Chicago's most influential "Chicago Sun" published relevant articles.

“…The Matrix is ​​without a doubt the best sci-fi film of recent years. Although it was adapted from Eric Williams’ book, the Wachowski brothers, the directors and writers, have added a lot of philosophy to the film. The element of sexuality also allows the film to be further sublimated on the basis of Eric Williams' original pure science fiction, which greatly increases the visibility and connotation of the film."

“…However, according to an interview with Matrix director Andy Wachowski by our special correspondent, Bob Johns, we have unfortunate news. The Wachowski brothers should In the process of Eric Williams' original book, a complete trilogy series was conceived from the beginning, but after the success of the first one, the script of the subsequent two parts was completely rejected by Firefly executives. Andy Waugh Zwowski revealed that Firefly executives believed that the script of the sequel was too profound and did not meet the requirements of commercial films. Therefore, Firefly not only rejected the Wachowski brothers' request for a joint production of two sequels, but also asked the brothers to completely knock down the script and remove it. Profound philosophical connotation, a commercial film that returns to the nature of popcorn."

"... As we all know, although this year Firefly has suffered its first film performance since its establishment, we have to admit that the Firefly Group has achieved business results in the film business that are enough to make all other peers look up to. But at the same time, we We can also see that Firefly has done almost nothing in the field of art films other than commercial films in recent years. We have always believed that while a film is chasing commercial profits, it also shoulders the obligation to convey certain spiritual connotations. Therefore, Firefly's behavior of pursuing business and giving up connotation is undoubtedly very undesirable."

"...Let's not talk about other things, just take "The Matrix" as an example. In just over a month since the film was released, because of the perfect fusion of science fiction and philosophy, it was widely acclaimed and quickly gathered A large number of die-hard movie fans. It is conceivable that once the sequel to "The Matrix" completely abandons the Wachowskis' distinctive personal characteristics and returns to the essence of the firefly popcorn commercial film, then, but we can't wait a few years later to welcome the reunion again. It will, no doubt, be a great disappointment."

Obviously, this report must have misinterpreted Andy Wachowski's words to a great extent. Eric's original request was only for the brothers to rewrite a complete story of the process, not for them to give up their own personal styles.

On the day the Chicago Sun-Times published this article, the Wachowski brothers’ agent publicly clarified to the media that Firefly had no intention of asking the brothers to adapt The Matrix into a pure popcorn movie. , this interview was just the result of the paparazzi's verbal induction of a drunken Andy Wachowski.

However, the media and movie fans obviously did not believe the clarification of the Wachowski brothers' agents, and some people who thought they knew the inside of the industry even judged that this was a statement made by the Wachowski brothers under the strong pressure of Firefly.

As a result, this article was quickly reprinted in just a few days, and its influence not only expanded.

In less than a week, almost every American who pays the slightest attention to entertainment information knows about it.

The real fans of "The Matrix" are even more angry. In the second week of the incident, a large number of fans began to gather outside the Firefly headquarters in Burbank and Playa Vista Firefly Studios, holding signs like 'We don't want to Popcorn movie, we want the slogan of "The Matrix", asking Firefly executives to abandon the decision to let the Wachowskis revise the script and shoot according to the original script.

If it is just the media's criticism and ridicule, Firefly can of course ignore it, but the company has to be careful about the actions of fans.

After all, the perfect movie culture in the United States also means that the power of the movie fan group is far greater than that of other countries where the movie business has just developed. A little mishandling may damage the Firefly Group's brand.

While specially arranging staff to maintain the order of the original fan group to prevent more serious emergencies every day, the senior management of Firefly also began to discuss countermeasures.

Shooting according to the original script of the Wachowski brothers is definitely not acceptable, because now Firefly has been completely squeezed into a situation of two years. Once the original script that makes people cloudy and foggy is filmed, the quality of the film will definitely not meet the fans' expectations. At that time, because of these things today, the disappointed fans will definitely blame the firefly for no reason. Moreover, it is impossible for Firefly to publish the original script of the Wachowski brothers, which is not only against the industry rules, but also, fans who feel that idols are good at everything, often do not make professional judgments on the script. .

But on the other hand, if the Wachowski brothers were to rewrite and write the script according to the original plan, not to mention the future of the film, this group of people would definitely be more harsh on the sequel, even if the sequel would offend a large number of fans. With the strength of 8 points, it will also be pulled to the 6-point bad film line by discerning fans.

All in all, because of this unexpected media turmoil, for the "Matrix" project, no matter what Firefly does, as long as the sequel does not reach the level of amazing quality, the results obtained in the future are almost always wrong.

Perhaps other competitors have also realized the dilemma of Firefly, and they have made small moves even if they can't make "The Matrix" rotten.

Over time, the news topics related to the sequel to The Matrix, instead of cooling down, have become more clamorous.

An original website even appeared on the Internet with the same title of "We don't want popcorn movies, we want "The Matrix". In just one week, it attracted more than 100,000 signatures.

Firefly Group executives went through many PRs, and Katzenberg personally appeared on ABC TV's "Morning News" column to explain Firefly's intentions to fans, but to no avail.

Although there are other ways to deal with it, in the end, Katzenberg, Frank Wells and other high-level officials can only send the matter to Eric, who is in the Bahamas, and let him decide for himself.

After the two-week night drama shooting ended, the related literary drama shooting was also quite smooth.

The time came to July 16. The first two days, the scenes of "Casino Royale" in the Bahamas were all over, but because of the busy month and a half, plus the painful shooting of the day and night in the middle two weeks, the entire crew was exhausted. unbearable.

Eric did not rush the crew to go to the next filming location, but gave the entire crew three days off, so that everyone could enjoy the sunny beaches of the Bahamas.

While the film was being filmed, Eric certainly kept his attention to a series of events in Los Angeles. He thought that Katzenberg and others would properly handle this matter, but when the first assistant in charge of him, Carrie K. Haynes himself came to the Bahamas with a stack of papers, and Eric realized that things were on the brink of getting out of control.

On the sofa in the living room of Eric's residence, Kelly handed a document to Eric and explained: "The current situation is that we are almost completely unable to give fans a satisfactory explanation. Shooting according to the original script, once the future film The quality is not up to expectations, the mistake will definitely be blamed on us, and let the Wachowskis rewrite the script, the film may not be made, the film may be boycotted by fans, and the mistake is still up to us.”

Eric read a lot of newspaper clippings, risk assessments and other materials, and couldn't help rubbing his forehead, and said, "It really doesn't make people stop at all. Now I can't even take pictures."

Kelly smiled bitterly and said, "Yes, if the project is put on hold, it will still offend the fans, and it may be the worst offense, because they will feel that they are neglected and despised."

"Okay, let me think about it," Eric rubbed his forehead and looked at Peter Rich who was sitting on the other side, "You find a place where you can hold a video conference, there should be a place in the Ocean Club Center. Well, let Katzenberg and the others go online on time at night, and let's discuss it again."

Peter Rich nodded, hesitated again, and said, "Eric, video conferencing may be a bit difficult. There shouldn't be any video conferencing equipment here, and the conference room will be better arranged."

Eric also forgot that the development of the Internet has not yet reached the point where it is easy to hold a video conference, let alone the Bahamas. He waved his hand and said, "Then let's make a conference call."

When Peter Ritchie left, Kelly moved her body and saw that Eric was still rubbing his forehead. He got up and walked over, standing behind Eric, and stretched out a pair of plain hands to rub for Eric. . (To be continued.)