Birth of an actor

The trend is a kind of reincarnation, even in Hollywood.

After the great success of "Superman" starring Christopher Reeve in 1978, the film adaptation of superhero comics officially became a kind of genre film, resident on the big screen.

However, in the first 20 years, only DC, no, it should be said that only Superman and Batman's comic movies were the most beautiful, and Marvel launched "Captain America" ​​and "Fantastic Four" in 1990 and 1994 respectively. Movies, I want to save myself from the brink of bankruptcy, but what good movies can I make without money?Both movies were so poorly produced that they didn't even get a theatrical release, adding to Marvel's financial woes.

When Warner can no longer produce new ideas for superhero comic book adaptation movies, and selectively forgets the foreshadowing of the Justice League planted in "Batman and Robin", after the series of "Superman" and "Batman" are unfinished, Marvel also began to sell off its superhero copyrights until it was acquired by Willot. Since then, the comic film has completely fallen into a trough.

From 1999 to 2000, Warner had repeatedly considered restarting the film projects of Superman, Wonder Woman and Justice League, but all of them were aborted, because the market was not optimistic about comic films, and Hollywood studios believed that they should rely on superheroes. It is too difficult to make money in movies, and the investment is large and the return is low. It is better to make a monster movie similar to "Alien".

Twentieth Century Fox just wanted to make an attempt to shoot "X-Men", but unexpectedly got a pleasant surprise-the investment of 500 million U.S. dollars earned nearly [-] million U.S. dollars in the global box office. It is undoubtedly a very good start-Hollywood studios have begun to wait and see, especially those companies that hold the copyright of superhero comics, and are speculating whether the comic film market is about to pick up.

The next weathervane they want to observe is "Spider-Man" filmed by Willot and Marvel.

In fact, "Spider-Man" has been accompanied by doubts and negative voices from project approval, casting to filming. The production cost of up to 1.4 million US dollars has made most of Hollywood doubt whether Willot can recover the cost.

When "Spider-Man" entered the promotion period, the entire North America was suddenly covered with news related to "Spider-Man"-Super Bowl halftime advertisements, various online marketing, viral marketing, Marvel's newly published movie that was obviously in the dynasty Comics with a close world view, and more than two months ago, when "Blood Together: The Kingdom of Eternal Life" was released, the trailer was posted. Tobey Maguire, James Franco and other leading actors took turns to appear on the popular talk The show made the movie popular--the exquisite movie trailer and all kinds of hard-working marketing finally made the doubts of the media and fans a lot less, and the attitude changed from doubt to expectation.

Willot and Marvel have painstakingly promoted the film. While the cost of the film is rising, the returns are also generous. The interest of the media and movie fans in the film is gradually soaring.

One week before the movie was released, data from several authoritative market research companies showed that among all the movies in the same period in May, "Spider-Man" became the most anticipated movie by fans.

William Bradley's first public appearance after being crowned Oscar winner was at the premiere of "Spider-Man", which brought extra attention and popularity to the film. Tickets for the premiere were hard to come by. In addition, the box office pre-sales of movies in advance are also very hot. The pre-sale box office of movies in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco has set records, which is higher than the pre-sales of "Star Wars Episode 2" released in May. There is still a lot to pay at the box office.

So, yes, people are indeed starting to think that Spider-Man is going to do well, perhaps a bit higher than Fox's X-Men's $2.95 million worldwide when it hits the bottom line?

Based on market research data, the Hollywood box office forecasting agency estimated that the box office of "Spider-Man" should be a few percent higher than that of "X-Men", but they didn't know until after "Spider-Man" officially premiered. How wrong I was--

On May 3615, "Spider-Man" starring Tobey Maguire landed in 1.148 theaters in North America. In just three days of the weekend, it achieved a box office of [-] million U.S. dollars!

What kind of concept is the premiere box office of 1.148 million US dollars?You must know that the annual North American box office of "X-Men" released in 2000 was 1.573 million U.S. dollars, and it was still ranked sixth on the box office list that year. The annual box office of "Police" is over!

Moreover, the holder of the highest box office record in film history is "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" released at the end of last year. The world, but I didn't expect that just a few months later, another film under Willot's brand broke this record!

Where the hell did Willot pick up these movie projects?Is it next to a gold mine?

What is even more shocking is that on the second day of its release alone, the box office of "Spider-Man" reached 3.2 US dollars in a single theater, and the single-day box office also soared to 4362 million US dollars-the era of 4000 million US dollars in a single-day box office in North America has officially advent.

Moreover, the single-day box office of the second weekend after the film was released for a week also had a single-day box office of 3100 million US dollars, and it can also be ranked among the top ten in the history of single-day box office records!

The whole Hollywood is dumbfounded, they have seen a lot of box office miracles, but comics can create so many box office records, it is really beyond everyone's expectations!Its sensational effect and follow-up influence are even more than James Cameron's "Titanic".

Yes, when it comes to box office records in recent years, "Titanic" is an unavoidable name--George Lucas planned to restart the Star Wars series two years ago, and many media and fans also hoped that "Star Wars" "Prequel" can break Cameron's record, but the film's reputation is too bad, let alone "Titanic", a box office monster, even "Harry Potter" has not been able to surpass - on the contrary, "Titanic" This behemoth was gradually accumulated and developed during the long screening period of one year, but the box office of "Spider-Man" was caught off guard and exploded. The box office is still maintained at more than [-] million US dollars, and the decline is almost negligible.

At the same time, the total box office of "Spider-Man" predicted by professional organizations has also undergone tremendous changes. More than three market research companies have quickly overturned their previous predictions, and re-judged that "Spider-Man" may eventually steal eight to ten dollars from the world. million-dollar box office.

Eight to one billion dollars!This number simply refreshed the perception of the entire Hollywood!

Hollywood has maintained the inherent impression that "superhero movies cannot become box office bombs, and the production company will vomit blood if it is not good" for decades. Warner's third movie of "Superman" and "Batman" was already very good. It was hard work, and the reason why I was able to persevere was because the sales of peripherals and DVDs driven by the film were not bad. In terms of final box office, the box office of Warner’s four Superman movies did not add up to that much, while the four Batman movies that were already considered very popular combined. The total box office of the movie is only 12 billion US dollars - but now, superhero movies actually have the box office potential comparable to the Star Wars series and the Harry Potter series?

"God's favorite Willot has dug up another golden mountain." Hollywood film companies all sighed sourly.

Willot seems to be a bit of a goldsmith, making a series of movies, and selling a series, the executives of Hollywood studios are jealous, while frantically looking for the reason why "Spider-Man" is so popular— —They want to follow suit, of course for this reason.

Hollywood is actually very good at following suit. After the release of "Blood Together", the number of vampire-themed or youth movies with other fantasy elements surged. They are all doubling, not to mention that now half a year after the release of "The Lord of the Rings: The Lord of the Rings", the number of fantasy movies approved or launched in Hollywood has increased from two or three in the previous year to seven in half a year now.

Superhero movies are a genre that has appeared in Hollywood for decades and has matured. If the success of "Spider-Man" is not accidental, but has factors that can be copied, then other film companies can naturally imitate it. can benefit from it.

When it was released in North America for two weeks, the IMDB score of "Spider-Man" was 8.1, and the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes was 87%. The Spider-Man played by Maguire is ordinary and inferior. Even if he has superpowers, he has been entangled and swaying. This is too far from the image of Spider-Man in the comics. Maguire's Spider-Man has won the favor of more fans who are not comic fans, and the number of this part of fans is far more than the former.

The media and professional film critics also gave the film more positive comments. The biggest reason is that they believe that the film portrays Tobey Maguire's psychological journey from an ordinary person to a superhero very delicately. It easily moved every viewer-this was later recognized by Hollywood as the key reason for the success of "Spider-Man".

The inner world of superheroes is not to say that previous superhero movies have never paid attention to it, but the depiction of psychology in past manga movies is indeed very rough, whether it is Christopher Reeve or superhero movies in the era of Michael Keaton, The characters are both good and evil, the heroes are very purely good, and the villains are completely bad, but Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker is different.

Peter Parker was just an ordinary high school student at the beginning, with a weak physique and a little low self-esteem. When he got superpowers, he didn't become a hero right away. He just thought his abilities were interesting and fun, and he wanted to use them to take revenge on those who bullied him. Classmates, or black boxing to make money, until his uncle Ben Parker was killed by robbers and left a last sentence of "with great power, comes great responsibility", Peter Parker was determined to become a superhero fighting crime. The hero, this psychological transformation process from ordinary people to superheroes, is depicted in the movie with rich details. This kind of treatment is unprecedented, and no previous superhero movies will be made like this.

And in the film, whether as an ordinary person or a superhero, Peter Parker has to worry about managing the relationship with the society, ordinary people, family and friends, and is often thankless, and often has to go back and forth between the two identities Tangled and struggling, which has never been shown in previous superhero movies.

In addition, the success of the film is also inseparable from the technological progress of the film industry.Hollywood often used special effects in movies in the 80s, but computer special effects technology was expensive and underdeveloped at that time, and it was impossible to restore many plots in comics, just like the scene where Spider-Man dangling his spider silk and jumping between high-rise buildings in New York, More than ten years ago, it was impossible to do it at all, or it was barely made but the effect would make people laugh, but now with the rapid progress of computer special effects technology, those cartoon pictures that originally only existed in people's imagination have become It can be fully presented in the movie.

There is another reason, the 911 effect.

Only a few months after 911/911, the hallmarks of the post-[-]/[-] era are already beginning to emerge.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the American people have always had an invincible self-confidence in their hearts. After 911/[-], this self-confidence disappeared. In addition, the U.S. military is now fighting abroad. People are more vigilant, sensitive, and insecure than in the past few decades. feeling, and more need for spiritual comfort.

Just as Shirley Temple and Disney animation comforted the people during the Great Depression, and people survived World War II with musicals and romantic comedies, half a century later, movies are still the best placebo besides religion.

Superheroes come forward to save the world. Even if everyone knows that this is fiction, people will willingly swallow this spiritual food.The emergence of Spider-Man just rightly caters to the psychological needs of Americans at this time, and just satisfies their desire to be protected and inspired.

It can be said that the success of "Spider-Man" is due to the right time, place and people and various factors, but the main reasons are no more than the above three reasons, and these three reasons are not impossible to copy and imitate.

As a result, "Spider-Man" is still being released all over the world, and Hollywood has set off a wave of adapting classic superhero comics. Film projects such as "The Punisher", "Hulk", "Hellboy" and "Fantastic Four" The news of the launch has changed from illusory to traceable, not to mention the "X-Men 2", "Daredevil", and "Raiders of Heaven" that are already in production. gradually became a popular subject.

……

"Champagne or Martini?" William called to the passing waiter, took a glass of champagne and a martini from the tray, and asked Leonardo DiCaprio at the same time, but did not hear the other party's response. Turning his head, William resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and turned up the volume next to the other's ear: "Leo?"

Leonardo DiCaprio looked away from a hot front-line model who had just walked by--an integral part of every lively Hollywood party--and took it from William. Over the glass, "Oh champagne, thanks."

"Stop staring at these graphic models, Leo, Giselle has a much better figure than them." William picked up an olive from a cocktail glass and threw it into his mouth: "But, buddy, how long have you been?" Go to the gym?"

"Three or four months. I can rest and relax after "Gangs of New York" wraps up. What's wrong?"

William glanced up and down, carefully looking at Leonardo: "I'm looking for the reason why your abs disappeared mysteriously."

"What? My abs haven't gone away." Leonardo DiCaprio protested while sucking his belly without a trace: "They're all there!"

"Really? But I can clearly see that before you inhale, your shirt bulges in a subtle arc."

"We can't laugh at each other, Will, as if you can keep exercising and keep fit when you're not filming—" Leonardo DiCaprio patted the back of his hand on William's stomach dissatisfied, firm The elastic touch immediately froze his smile. If you feel it carefully, the abdominal muscles under the back of the hand are not flat, but have clear lines.

After confirming that the number of abs he touched with a single slap is definitely more than four, the corners of Leonardo's mouth twitched, Will, a guy who never slack.Also, don't go swimming or windsurfing with him recently.

"Well, even if I only have one abdominal muscle left, so what, I'm almost 30 years old, and 30 years old means that the days before the age of 25 that you can eat without gaining weight are over, wait for you After a few years in the gym you need to sweat more to stay in shape."

William shrugged, "You're lazy, Leo, and I won't laugh at you if you admit it."

As if he was afraid that William would discuss more fitness topics with him, Leonardo DiCaprio pointed to the distance: "Hey, Toby is there, I'm going to talk to him, I'll introduce him another day Director Martin Scorsese for you to meet - he's unbeatable, really."

In fact, even if Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't run away, William won't laugh at his abs all the time. William originally wanted to ask if the release date of "Gangs of New York" has been confirmed, and Leonardo's next film project, now that the other party has flashed quickly, William had to let himself shoulder the drudgery of small talk again.

The so-called hard work is to fend off the attempts of various people or horses or profit-seeking or flirting.Apparently, everyone thought it would be beneficial for them if they could have a happy chat with William in front of half of Hollywood and half of Silicon Valley, and it would be even more beneficial for the future if they could impress William.So no matter what William said, someone always followed his every word closely, and the traces of pursuit can no longer be described simply as obvious.

William was no saint, and he would have enjoyed it, were it not for the glaring glint of greed in the eyes of the men and women at the party.

But it's still fun to chat with friends, such as when you meet Ben Affleck at the bar and advise him that the script "The Mandarin Duck Kidnapper" he recently saw has no value in being filmed, especially the lines, which are terrible.Another example is to discuss with Chris Evans the current Hollywood blowout superhero movie projects, which ones are still valuable, and which ones just look like they want to make money while they are hot. If Chris Evans wants to try superheroes For movies, there are those company projects where you can audition.

——William’s friends like to chat about movies with him recently. Even if he starts talking about other topics, he will always turn to movies in the end. What’s more, he will find a bunch of helpful comments for himself Script work.

The reason? In the magazine Vanity Fair interviewed William after the Oscars, the total box office and IMDB scores of William’s films over the years, as well as the comments of “no bad movies” and “one hit” Also very conspicuous.

This shows what?It shows that William really has a very vicious vision in choosing scripts.

In Hollywood, choosing a script is also a very discerning thing. A good script cannot be 100% transformed into a good movie. Sometimes you find a great script, but it is completely different after it is shot. At that time, eyesight was especially needed, and now, many people, especially William's friends, realized belatedly-Will seemed to be particularly good at picking scripts?Thank God!Such a friend is simply useless, even if it is just to give a few suggestions!

Originally, after William won the Oscar winner, the brokerage company received all kinds of commercial independent scripts that could fill the room. Only after being rejected, will another actor be chosen.Of course, there is also a wave of hype by the way-now, with the help of friends, there is another job to help friends screen scripts.

It is no exaggeration to say that most of the Hollywood budget and the top-level scripts of the cast have flowed through William's hands.

In addition to Ben Affleck and others, William also met many Silicon Valley acquaintances at the party, such as Larry Ellison, the founder and CEO of Oracle, who ranked fourth on the Forbes Global Rich List last year.

Speaking of it, William was still very surprised why Larry Ellison came to a Hollywood party. Although the other party had a flamboyant personality and loved luxury enjoyment, except for buying a large number of luxury houses in Beverly Hills and Malibu Beach, he was usually very happy. Not much to do with Hollywood, but when Larry Ellison introduced his son and daughter to William, he understood why.

Larry Ellison's son and daughter, David Ellison and Megan Ellison, are both avid movie lovers, sticking to William asked a lot of questions without saying anything, and expressed himself quite bluntly If you want to enter Hollywood, for example, start as an investor, and ask William to help you match up and introduce them to several reliable crews.

William looked at David Ellison, who had just turned 19, and Meghan Ellison, who was still under 15, and finally raised his eyebrows at Larry Ellison, who was smiling and silent.

"David and Megan have a lot of pocket money every year. Instead of wasting it on sports cars, let them learn how to invest." Larry Ellison said lightly.

"I will introduce some producers to you another day." William promised the Ellison brothers and sisters.

The reaction of the Ellison brothers and sisters was ecstatic. The adult David Ellison even immediately planned to use the fund under his name, while Megan Ellison glared at her brother in resentment. , and put on a smiley face asking Larry Ellison to double her pocket money this year.

The words and deeds of the Ellison family made William suddenly feel deeply why Larry Ellison and Bill Gates are called the two extremes among the billionaires in Silicon Valley—except for Microsoft and Oracle in the software field. In addition to the competitive relationship, one of the CEOs of the two companies is a low-key workaholic, and the other is so arrogant that he thinks he can stand shoulder to shoulder with God. Bill Gates beats each other on the rich list, and Larry Ellison often publicly angers Microsoft, the Gates family believe in a low-key and simple life, and the Ellison brothers and sisters invested tens of millions of dollars to play in their teens.

However, the Ellison family is obviously an outlier among the Silicon Valley tycoons. The other Silicon Valley tycoons have a low-key and pragmatic style-there are many billionaires from Silicon Valley at the party. The celebration party held for the record-breaking opening of "Spider-Man" is actually more like a social gathering between Silicon Valley and Hollywood, because there are too many participants from Silicon Valley.

In fact, only Steve Jobs, Paul Allen, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin were very interested in participating at first, and then, a large number of Silicon Valley gamers and billionaires followed in their footsteps. Please come here, plus Hollywood actors, stars and film industry executives, the party is bustling with people everywhere, and a rough estimate, the expensive champagne drunk just one night today is about 70 million US dollars.

Speaking of which, this party is definitely a bit funny to the uninformed. Some guests are dressed in luxurious suits and dresses, with perfect smiles and demeanor, while others are more unkempt. They wear loose shirts, jeans, and even There are sneakers and it looks like the delivery guy just stumbled into the place.

But in fact, the combined wealth of a dozen glamorous Hollywood stars may not be worth the net worth of a middle-aged man who appears at a party with an ordinary appearance and even looks a bit sloppy.

People from all walks of life in Hollywood are also well aware of this point. If Steve Jobs is the most successful example of Silicon Valley’s transformation of Hollywood in the past 20 years, then the representative of Hollywood’s entry into Silicon Valley is William—although it has not been verified, he came from Silicon Valley. It has been rumored in Hollywood that before the global Internet bubble burst last year, the high-tech industry had already brought William Bradley's fortune in Billion units, and even before the bubble burst, he had already sold a large sum of money. The shares of Internet companies such as IBM and Microsoft have perfectly avoided risks to the minimum. Of course, his net worth will definitely shrink if he still holds shares in Google and Amazon, but it is definitely much better than others. For example, in just a few months last year Bill Gates and Paul Allen, whose personal assets have shrunk billions of dollars.

All in all, Hollywood star executives know that the Silicon Valley guests who can attend William Bradley's party cannot be unknown people, not billionaires and well-known venture capitalists, so they have used the most Hollywood enthusiasm , chatting cordially with everyone with poor clothes, maybe they will be the next upstart in Silicon Valley's technology and finance?

This kind of wonderful collision scene between Silicon Valley with high IQ and Hollywood with high EQ would never have happened a few years ago. Although Silicon Valley and Hollywood are located in California and not far apart, they almost never happened in life or on the Internet. However, after Silicon Valley bosses invested in Hollywood and tasted the sweetness, and Hollywood stars tried Silicon Valley with great success, people in Silicon Valley and Hollywood suddenly became interested in each other's industries.

There are many billionaires or second-generation rich people who like movies and want to invest in production companies in Silicon Valley, such as a pair of children of Larry Ellison. There are also many stars in Hollywood who have saved a lot of money and are struggling with how to invest In order to prevent the depreciation of the dollar stored in the bank, for example, Leonardo DiCaprio recently asked William the feasibility of forming his own venture capital company in Silicon Valley.

Another example is now, although he has not squeezed into the $2000 million salary club, but has been in the $1000 million club for several years, a famous Hollywood actor, with two glasses of champagne, partnered with a well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Even if the partner of Sequoia Capital said that "a high-return transaction like William Bradley's investment in Google may take ten years Once in a while, of all the Silicon Valley buzz for startups, only one-third is making money, another third is barely breaking even, and one-third is losing money.” It didn’t dampen his interest.

……

"Sorry, Will, I'm late!" When William was chatting with Larry Ellison from the development of Google to the housing prices in Malibu, Warner Vice President Ted Turner strode over in a suit. , he was dusty, his face flushed with sweat.

William beckoned the waiter to bring a lemon soda.

Ted Turner took the lemon soda, gulped it down his throat, and said, "The meeting took longer than I thought, and I drove over from Burbank as soon as it was over." Then he saw Larry Ellison, the two knew each other, and Ted Turner said hello immediately, but did not talk about the meeting.

Larry Ellison glanced back and forth between William and Ted Turner, clearly curious as to when the friendship between President Willot and the AOL-Time Warner vice president had been cultivated.

William didn't explain either. Anyway, he was well-informed and would know in a few days. After chatting with Larry Ellison for a few more words, he and Ted Turner walked into an idle room with wine glasses. In the conference room, get ready to discuss business.

Without anyone else, Ted Turner's expression suddenly became solemn, and he shook his head at William: "It's a pity, Will, that the board of directors didn't approve your deal, they don't want to sell DC Comics—" Having said that, Ted Turner stopped and turned to observe William's face.

Ted Turner, formerly Time Warner, is now the vice president of AOL-Time Warner Group, and the largest individual shareholder of the group. No matter whether the other party is a super rich man with similar assets as himself, he is rarely so pleasant to young people. When negotiating a deal, he was concerned about the mood of the other party, but William Bradley's situation was different.

William is now a shareholder of AOL-Time Warner Group, or the second largest individual shareholder after Ted Turner.

And he also proposed two transactions to AOL-Time Warner. Not only are the companies that are currently losing money, but the prices are superior. The financial report can also look better.

This matter may have to start with the merger of America Online and Time Warner.