Distributor

When the time came to July, after summer passed, Levi's film crew also rushed back from abroad.

After several months of location shooting, the filming part of his movie is nearing completion.

The exterior scenes of this movie are actually much less than those of the first film. At least, there are no scenes shot on the Panama Canal like in the first film. Therefore, in comparison, the shooting time was saved a lot, and the shooting was completed quickly.

After shooting these scenes, the filming of the movie is basically completed. Of course, some reshoots still need to be completed in the remaining areas - after all, a long time has passed, and some things have changed a lot. For example, now that Rumsfeld is really the former Secretary of Defense, he can be more liberal in shaping Taylor's character. 

Nowadays, a quarantine zone has begun to be built between the United States and Mexico. When filming the unity of the people of the earth, it might as well just have this quarantine belt removed.

However, these small-scale shootings can all be over in a month or two. Therefore, after this filming was completed, all that was left was post-production.

Calculating the time, it took almost two years from the beginning of planning to complete completion - a movie was shot for two years, which was a first for Levi.

In his memory, Cameron prepared for over ten years to shoot Avatar and devoted more than three years to Titanic. Ang Lee spent five years filming Pi, and the filming was equally time-consuming and laborious. 

In a big-production, big-investment movie, what you pay is not only the cost of work but also the time of work.

The film is still being post-produced at this time, and if everything goes well, it can meet the audience by summer.

Even though two years might seem like a long time, once production is wrapped up, this live-action 3D movie will still be at the forefront in Hollywood; fortunately, Levi's film didn't drag on for an extended period, risking outdated technology and thereby losing the audience.

This kind of thing has happened before. The most famous example is Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. 

When this animation was produced, it was still at the top level of technology at the time, but unfortunately, it was in the production process. 

Because of the excessive meticulousness and seriousness, even the trajectory of each of the heroine Tifa's floating hair is different. Such meticulousness made the animation come alive for four years. 

After it was produced, the technology was completely outdated, and it looked... okay, but it failed to keep up with the times, resulting in a loss of money.

Although Levi's film took two years, it did not produce that result.

"The schedule of the movie can basically be set. The only thing left to do is to complete the post-editing, then complete the post-production, and then release it."

After the filming of the movie is successfully completed, the remaining thing is naturally post-production. 

Different from the previous small-investment literary films, this is a big-investment movie. A lot of post-production work was required, and this production took a lot of time. It cannot be saved either.

If everything goes well, in March and April of 2007, the film's production will be completed and can be released in June.

This schedule has been set, and the only thing left to do is to see the actual results of the movie.

"I think we have done all the other things, and the rest is a matter of publicity. The investment in this movie is very large, so we also need a lot of publicity. And I think the publicity expenses this time will also have to be more than 100 million, which is enough."

Watching his movie being gradually completed, Levi felt unusually happy. At this time, he also told Alexander that he was ready to notify the distribution company and ask them to step up publicity efforts.

The film's distribution company is Warner Bros.

When the first film was released, Levi chose to work with Fox. Since the cooperating company in the first part is, then naturally, Levi will still cooperate with them in the second part.

But now, the company is facing a small problem: they are discussing with James Cameron to invest in the filming of his movie Avatar - after preparing for a long time, Avatar has finally entered the formal shooting stage, and now, after transferring all the funds there, there were some problems with funding, so they also needed to recruit people to join them and distribute the movie with them.

Similar to Columbia's reluctance with Three-Body Problem 1, other companies also hesitate to take the risk. Disney, for instance, considered collaboration but expressed concern over too many intense scenes in the movie. 

Disney has only released movies with PG-13 so far and isn't keen on releasing an R-rated film. Disney, being family-oriented, wants to avoid elements that may be unsuitable for children in the movies they distribute.

Levi couldn't agree to this. Although there are not many fighting scenes in his movie, let alone more excessive ones. But his film still involves a lot of military, politicians, and different cultural and political aspects. 

These things are still very sensitive and can easily cross the line. Political films have always been rated very high. 

Although Levi's films are not political films, they still contain a lot of overly cold political ideas. Even Levi himself does not think it is the right thing to show them to children.

Not to mention anything else, even in the plot, Taylor is looking for people to use as suicide bombs. Levi doesn't think this movie can be rated low.

There is no way this movie can be made to a PG-13 level. It is even said that it is very difficult to make it R-rated.

In addition to these two companies, it is even more difficult for other companies to issue. The Weinstein brothers were very interested, but their company was too small to take the risk. Lionsgate simply has no interest at all. Their company has always taken a different path. It is their principle to release low-cost, small-production movies. They will not engage in such big projects.

After searching around, it was Warner who finally expressed its willingness to cooperate in distribution.

As a large company, Universal is still willing to take a gamble on this issue. Although such a movie is still a huge risk for their company, if they make money, the income will also make them excited.

Moreover, they also want to see if 3D movies can really make money.

Unlike companies such as Disney and Columbia, Warner has many series of themes, such as Harry Potter and DC comics, and these themes can be turned into money. 

However, the Batman series in 1990 can be said to have caused the comics brand to collapse all of a sudden, and even in the new century, this series was not able to be saved well - they hired Michael Bay to film Batman. 

It is a pity. 

Yes, although Michael Bay is very good at playing explosives, Batman is not a blaster after all. It lacks the character's Gothic style and dark atmosphere. Although it was exciting to watch, the audience rated it very low.

Warner has a potential cash cow in its hands but can't seem to make any money from it. While Marvel's heroes rake in profits, Warner's superhero lineup faces financial losses, causing a major headache for the company. Warner has been considering how to make its own movie series profitable.

And Levi's 3D movie attempt gave them some hope - if this attempt can succeed, it will be an extremely important breakthrough for Warner.

Therefore, they chose to support Levi. 

Warner still has enough funds to back it up, and they also know that Levi's Enigma Company is not short of funds. They didn't have many business dealings with the Enigma Company, unlike Columbia; they were worried about their relationship with the Enigma Company deteriorating, so they chose to cooperate.

Levi is not entirely in favor of the breakthrough chosen by Warner. 

In fact, Warner's superhero movies are not bad at all compared to Marvel's superheroes, including Superman and Batman. They don't know how much more influential it is, and the storyline and content depth are both stronger than those of Marvel.

The issue lies in the fact that all their heroes originated in the 1940s, making the characters less modern. The major flaw in their movies is the absence of characters that resonate with contemporary audiences, a shortage of modern storylines, and the failure to create relatable characters. Simply tweaking the 3D won't solve this problem unless they address these fundamental issues.

However, Levi would not be stupid enough to inform them about this, which would affect the release of his own movie. Since they want to see the 3D effect, just let them see it for themselves.

"Warner has said that you don't have to worry about the promotion. Their company will take care of everything. With hundreds of millions of dollars in promotion expenses, the promotion of this movie will definitely not be bad."

Levi nodded to Warner's guarantee. He believed that Warner would definitely be able to do a good job. In terms of publicity, Warner's skills were definitely not inferior to anyone's, and Levi certainly knew this very well.

Warner has always worked very hard on publicity issues. 

From creating scandals between actors in the same film to increasing the popularity of actors and creating topics for the film, to using various methods to make the movie receive unanimous praise before the film is released, and using long-term investment to create the atmosphere of the film, in these aspects, Warner is all very sophisticated.

Although, in Levi's memory, they have made big problems when releasing some movies, such as the poor promotion of Pacific Rim, which was said by many people - as long as they are willing to promote it seriously, they can always succeed to a great effect.

With the promotion from Warner, his own movie, and good promotion, what else is there to be afraid of?

*****

Thanks and kudos for my patreons 

Marcelo Maia

Britanna

Mandy G

Oluwatimileyin Olayemi

Herylle Ian Gloria

You can read advanced chapters on my Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.