New Actions
This is a very rare good year for Hollywood.
For Enigma Company, a hit movie is enough to make everyone excited and proud. For Levi, such a year was also successful for him.
However, such a year is not a good one for some. For some other actors and directors, this year is a mixed blessing.
For example, for Theron, the movie she worked hardest on this year was not Monster in Levi's memory but a commercial film, The Italian Job.
This action movie originally had a good box office, but now, the box office numbers look a bit pathetic under the shadow of those blockbusters. For Theron, this is not good news.
This movie is an action movie that she co-produced with Wahlberg, Edward Norton, and others. The story is not that exciting, but it is quite innovative.
After it was released at the end of May, it did get a good box office. After participating in the filming and promotion of that movie, Theron has been busy shooting some advertisements and endorsements and has not participated in new movies.
Originally, an action movie could satisfy her year, but now, people have obviously paid less attention to her.
This is slightly different from Levi's memory, but it is not surprising: unlike in memory, Theron has already won a supporting actress Oscar, so her choice will naturally be different.
In his memory, she took on the movie Monster, acted ugly, and finally won an Oscar for Best Actress.
However, such a movie is itself a movie used to compete for the Oscars. Other than that, it doesn't have much meaning. And Theron knows she has no chance of winning the award, so she naturally didn't accept it.
In the history of the Oscars, only Jessica Lange and Meryl Streep were able to win the Supporting Actress Oscar first and then for the Leading Actress. This is extremely difficult to do.
There was only a short time interval, and after only a year, people would definitely not award a second award to her so soon.
Therefore, she cannot afford to star in a movie like Monster - there is no box office and no awards, and she has to look ugly. Some gain outweighs the loss.
Instead of putting on a show here, waiting for a while and accumulating some more before talking would be better. Moreover, Levi was helping her anyway, so why should she act like this?
Her original intention was to gain recognition by performing in some more well-known movies. However, it is apparent that she still needs to work harder.
She did not play the role of the Monster, but the movie was still produced. This role finally fell into the hands of Kate Winslet.
It must be said that Kate Winslet's acting skills are definitely among the top in Hollywood, and when it comes to gaining weight and looking ugly, she is far more open-minded than the average person.
The media unanimously favored her performance in this role. Many people also believed it would be difficult for other actors to compete with her if she was willing to act ugly and work hard.
Her appearance in the role was quite a bit of pressure for the other actors. For example, for Naomi Watts, who starred in 21 Grams this year, it seems a little difficult to compete with her.
Naomi Watts has become famous in Hollywood since she was nominated last year. Her acting skills are very good. Although she is a bit old, she does not look old, which gives her many opportunities.
As her fame increased, she began taking on some good movies. The movie 21 Grams was also a film she wanted to make to improve her reputation.
However, if she met Winslet, who had better acting skills, she would have no confidence in winning.
Starring in a movie like this would never get good box office results, and now she has no chance of winning awards, which makes Watts a little depressed.
However, Watts didn't have to rush to win the award right away. She would wait until she got a nomination this year and ensure her name appeared frequently in front of others.
She would wait until she had accumulated enough.
Meeting several of these actresses who have not yet completely mixed up, Winona Ryder can be said to live an incredibly chic life now.
While others were busy taking on roles, this year, she became a producer, invested her own money, starred in her own films, and collaborated with Tim Robbins to film a documentary about the abduction of South Asian women.
Such a movie basically has nothing to do with box office or awards, but if she likes it, that's another matter.
Anyway, for her, work is not the focus of life. She is also quite lazy. Even if Hollywood has caught up with the good times, she still has no idea of making money: her current income is about the same.
The arrival of good times is good news for Hollywood as a whole, but it is not necessarily good news for some people.
The salary in the new era will be higher, but the prerequisite is that it must keep up with the times. Shooting action films, literary films, or even documentaries will definitely not be able to benefit from this good era.
If you want to catch up with the times, you must take bigger actions.
And it's not like no one does such an action. Just a few days after Levi's movie was released, Levi received a call from Nolan.
"Nolan said that he hopes that X-Men 3 will start filming earlier, and it is best to prepare for filming immediately..."
After answering the phone, Levi immediately called several of his partners to discuss it, "You guys, What do you think?"
"If Nolan really wants to shoot X-Men 3, then just let him start shooting." Regarding Nolan's request, Alexander pondered for a while and chose to agree.
In fact, let alone Nolan's request, Alexander will now agree to any proposal to make a blockbuster movie - the only reason is such movies make money.
After X-Men 2 was released, the box office was not as good as expected. Although it has achieved a global revenue of a little less than 500 million, the gap suddenly became apparent compared with these movies this year.
There are many reasons why X-Men 2 did not meet expectations, and one of the most important reasons is that during the filming, Nolan was still greatly affected by the failure of the previous film, and he was also a little bit reluctant to shoot the movie.
It is too traditional and fails to break out of the heroic framework. In addition, there are too many characters, and the image is not outstanding, making this movie less successful.
Levi had hoped that this movie would become his company's Dark Knight, but Nolan was still a bit unsatisfied, and it can be said that he made some miscalculations.
However, even if it was a miscalculation, the movie did not lose money - blockbusters are basically not afraid of losing money, not to mention that X-Men still has the first one as insurance.
However, after that movie, Levi was also a little worried about whether it was time to prepare for the next one immediately.
But this time, Nolan seems ready. This summer has been full of blockbusters, which obviously should have given him some inspiration. He took the initiative to make a movie, and it seems that he is very well prepared.
"He told me about the script concept, and it seemed that he was planning to improve the role of the villain Magneto and the role of Cyclops so that the movie would change from being the main focus of Wolverine to moving towards an ensemble cast.
I think the way he arranged it is quite interesting, and Jack's role has been greatly improved, which is also a good thing..."
Levi and his friends also talked about some of Nolan's ideas, and Levi felt that these ideas were indeed good: Nolan is not the kind of person who is used to shooting orthodox films.
As a director with a heroic narrative, his movie still needs some editing and some suspense creation to make it better. He was too timid to make the last movie, but since he has learned his lesson this time, he can start filming.
"Nolan is a good director. Although his movies don't have much depth, they are indeed very good-looking." Clark quickly agreed, "He is a very good director of commercial films. Even if his last film failed at the box office, it was good. Now that he has accumulated experience, and we are not short of money, what do we have to worry about?"
Several people still have confidence in Nolan, and the commercial films he has shot are indeed quite good. Moreover, now is the time to make money from commercial blockbusters, so why not let him try?
This matter was settled so simply.
"Alex said he wanted to prepare to shoot a blockbuster a year and make money from it, so Nolan sent me the movie he prepared. This is the right time. In this case, let him prepare to take action, and let's see if he can shoot anything new."
Since several people did not object, Levi finalized the matter, and after he finished saying this, Alexander immediately responded, "So, you are not planning to film The Three-Body Problem immediately this year?"
"The script is not yet available, and we have to learn from the Matrix second part. Don't be so anxious. It is better to wait."
"Wait? It's not like you don't know that now is the best time for the box office. Who knows what will happen in a few years? If there is another economic crisis, maybe we won't be able to make money again."
In 1998, the film market was affected by the financial crisis. Alexander remembered it and said so.
But this made Levi, deep down, feel a little funny about his words.
"Don't worry, even if there is another financial crisis, it won't affect us. Moreover, although these movies are good at the box office, don't you think it's still not enough? Shouldn't we pursue a bigger box office if we want a box office?"
"A box office of seven to eight hundred million is still a small amount? In your opinion, what is too much?" Alexander asked rhetorically.
"Titanic." Immediately, Levi gave an answer.
"You want our movie to surpass Titanic?" Even Alexander was surprised by Levi's ambition. He couldn't imagine how to make a movie to break that miracle. A box office figure of 1.8 billion is not a figure that normal people should consider at all.
"It's not impossible... if we shoot in the right way." Levi is full of confidence, "I believe that as long as we can stay at the forefront of technology, it is not impossible for us to realize this ambition."
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons
Marcelo Maia
Britanna
Mandy G
Scott DePaepe
Oluwatimileyin Olayemi
You can read advanced chapters on my Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.