.Chapter 65: The New Yorker's Position
With the singing of Locksey and Velma, the film came to an end, and the guests at the premiere applauded enthusiastically for the filming. Although the mentality of watching the movie is not consistent, for most audiences, this is a pretty good movie, the sound and light effects, the rhythm of the plot and the performance of the actors have no obvious shortcomings, and it can even be said that there is no lack of highlights, although it is a song and dance drama, but the complex plot is explained very clearly. For the general audience, who are very happy to watch, while the professionals see the intricate editing and filming techniques that are almost showy, Rob takes a complex film in a complex way, but simplifies it without causing any obstacles when watching it. As a newcomer to the directorial industry, his outstanding performance has made many people secretly amazed, and they are envious and jealous of Weinstein's vision - there is no doubt that "Chicago" will be the big winner of this awards season, and for Weinstein, who is skilled in the operation of the awards, this year seems destined to be another good year.
After the screening, the director went on stage to speak, as is customary, and as soon as Rob walked to the front of the curtain, the audience spontaneously gave him a long applause, which also made Rob radiant.
"It's really not easy to make this film," the words before the release were generally relatively brief and would not spoil the mood of the movie, and now it is time to conclude. Rob looked at the crew with relief, "But from Harvey to Catherine, Renee, Richard, and all the people on the film crew, they all gave me a lot of support and strength, and I knew that my temper was sometimes unbearable." "
There was a good-natured laugh from the camera crew, and Catherine shouted, "Rob, we love you!"
"Thank you, thank you. Rob brought Catherine, Renee and Richardra to the curtain, Harvey waved his hand and refused to go on stage, and the three leading actors hugged Rob cordially in front of the stage.
In the final round of applause, the premiere ended, the audience gradually dispersed, and some maverick film critics were the first to leave—in general, in Hollywood, film critics and the film industry maintain a certain delicate boundary, and in order not to affect the freedom and independence of the critics, many well-known film critics will not participate in these lucrative After Parties, or receive gifts from the filmmakers.
However, as a well-known film critic with his own TV show, Roger Albert has a closer crossover with the circle, and although he has not been in great health since the late '90s, he was in high spirits tonight, and his partner, Richard Rope, a columnist for the Chicago Sun, attended the premiere party.
A film critic of his status will of course get a different look at the top of the hierarchy, and even Harvey Weinstein has to greet him with a drink, after all, "Chicago" takes the route of rushing for awards, and the reputation of film critics is absolutely crucial.
"Roger. "
"Harvey. "
The two men embraced, and Harvey took the cigar from his mouth to the side of his mouth - Roger had been suffering from a throat problem and had just undergone surgery earlier this year, and may not smell smoke now. "So, what do you think?"
"I think Miramax can even be box office profitable on this film. Roger didn't hesitate to praise himself, and Harvey was overjoyed.
In order to catch up with the final limit of Oscar registration, the release time of "Chicago" was directly selected two days before the registration deadline, and the intention of winning the award was obvious, and Miramax is best at operating this kind of award-winning film, they do not pursue to recover all the costs at the box office, but take the long-term copyright route. -- Different from ordinary commercial blockbusters, literary films and biopics are films with large input and small output, and although the total scale of investment is not large, it is generally difficult to offset the cost of investment, publicity, and public relations at the box office.
But this is not to say that no one will make this kind of film, the mentality of filmmakers who shoot this kind of film is to spread risks, such as Miramax, who prefers to spend 100 million US dollars to make seven or eight literary films, and choose the best personnel allocation as much as possible within the budget, and then as long as one of these seven or eight films is a masterpiece and can rush to the award, then it is earned, and as for other films, as long as they are not too bad, it is impossible not to get back a penny. In this way, after five or six years, this 100 million may be completely earned, and it will also bring a lot of follow-up profits. Although in the end, I may only earn 50 or 60 million yuan with 100 million yuan, but the victory is stable, and in terms of probability, there is almost no possibility of losing money in such an investment, and what about taking 100 million yuan to make a big commercial production? If it is a bad movie, the 100 million yuan will basically have to be completely lost.
In addition to the four major film production companies, more small and medium-sized film companies are still considering diversifying risks and preferring to be thin and long-term, so there is still a steady stream of films like "The Pianist" and "Chicago" on the market, in fact, the entire Oscar ecosystem is composed of such films, literary films hope to win the Oscar to make money, and the Oscar also hopes to have more literary films, so as to ensure the artistry of the award. Miramex is an important part of the ecosystem, and they are very sophisticated in their grasp of the rules of this circle, and they always take the freshest piece of the cake.
However, because of this route, the cost of the film produced by Miramax is very slow, and the first two or three years of the book may still be loss-making, after all, like this kind of award-winning film, publicity and public relations expenses are heavier than commercial films, "Chicago" invested 40 million, publicity and public relations may use 40 million, the cost is very close to the 2001 same type of musical and dance drama "Moulin Rouge", "Moulin Rouge" invested 50 million, rushed out of a number of nominations, but in the end only won two technical awards, 50 million at the North American box office, 170 million worldwide, can't be said to be a loss, but without award protection, it is difficult to bargain for subsequent copyright sales, and the profit prospects are not very clear. Now Roger bluntly said that he is optimistic about the box office profit of "Chicago", which is equivalent to predicting that the domestic box office of "Chicago" will exceed 100 million, which will be double that of "Moulin Rouge". - If the box office is profitable, Miramax will have much less pressure and more budget to invest in PR, and as long as the Oscars can be awarded, the Chicago project will be a very successful investment. If it is an Oscar-winning film, the subsequent copyright sales will be completely different world, and many TV stations will come to buy the copyright, and the domestic sales will be better, and the sales of DVD and other audio-visual products will increase significantly.
"Roger, your words may be worth millions of dollars," the premiere will be positive, and Harvey must be more confident in rushing for the award, "This year Miramax should be the main film "Chicago", you say so, I'm embarrassed if I don't add some budget." "
Roger laughed, "It's worth it, Harvey, you know I've always admired your eye for people, Chicago is certainly a treasure, we all admit it, but it's not that easy to bring a revue to the big screen, you know, 'Moulin Rouge' is an original after all, and you can find Rob is the success of the whole thing." "
Classic musicals are very difficult to adapt because of the relationship between Zhuyu and Yu.
"I'm pretty proud of that. Harvey accepted it without modesty, "Rob is the keyman of the whole project, of course, Catherine and Renee are good enough, but you know, choosing Renee is also a certain risk, her acting skills are not problematic, but the level of singing and dancing is worrying, if it weren't for Rob's favor, I may not have nodded to use her." "
"It seems that the artistic vision is all in the same vein," Roger laughed, "you discovered Rob, and Rob discovered Jennifer - Jennifer Jefferson, I think she is quite impressive, and tonight she is more like the center of the audience." "
"That's because Rob, they're still being interviewed. Harvey's eyes also fell to the corner of the venue, where many guests from all walks of life gathered to attend the premiere, and Jennifer Jefferson's blonde hair shone in the crowd, looking extremely dazzling. "But there's no denying that she's a great girl, and it's a shame she's in the middle of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' right now, otherwise I'd be happy to take her with me for the follow-up of 'Chicago'. "
"Ah, so, you're going to take her to the Oscars?" Roger poured his glass at Harvey, "Maybe this time next year, I'll hear the news of another Weinstein girl's birth." However, haven't you finished the big project you have prepared in 03?"
Jenny's previous "Pirates of the Caribbean", although it is an A-level production, but the phenomenon that the heroine has been vacant until the start of filming is a minority, and most of the projects are determined at the beginning of filming The director and the male and female protagonists are determined, and it can even be said that many projects are at such a dinner, with a change of mind and a few words from the family. For a new actor, many times it is not her who picks the film to star, but what she can find that does not star.
Harvey shook his head and smiled without saying a word, but Roger was interested, ""Cold Mountain", "Kill Bill", "BJ's Single Diary 2", "Jersey Girl", "Talk about Love, Dance"... Well, I guess, it's either "Jersey Girls" or "Talk About Love, Dance"? That girl has a lot of potential, whether it's "Jersey Girl" or "Talk About Love, Dance" is enough to do it. "
Harvey just laughed, but didn't respond much, until he realized that Roger was very reluctant, and then replied incomprehensibly, "You're still too indifferent to the marketing methods of the movie, old man, of course I want to take her to the Oscars, which is good for the box office of "Chicago." "
Of course, Roger could hear what he meant: but Harvey didn't mean to invite Jennifer Jefferson to play the starring role.
He was a little confused - his eyes were as old as Roger's, even if it was only a few minutes of scenes, it was enough for him to see Jennifer's strength, and combined with the impression Jennifer gave him at the party, Roger could easily conclude that this was a young actor with superb acting skills, very good looks, able to handle roles that were almost completely opposite to his own temperament, and most importantly, she had a sense of dominance that was indescribable, but indispensable to a superstar.
Roger believes that the showbiz is an industry with extremely high requirements for talent, even if the starting point, appearance, acting skills and resources are similar, but because of the existence of this ethereal superstar temperament, it is likely that the two people seem to be on par at the beginning of their acting careers, but in the end, the audience will only remember the one with the superstar temperament, as for the other person, it is difficult for you to say where she lost. Just like "Moulin Rouge", director Buzz Luhrmann is a big bull, and even more accomplished than Rob Marshall in the field of musicals, "Moulin Rouge" and "Chicago" seem to be indistinguishable, both are temporary choices, but Roger has a feeling that "Chicago" is to withstand the waves of time than "Moulin Rouge", and achieve a higher status than "Moulin Rouge" in the classic hall of musical and dance films.
Who do you say it's because of? No doubt because of Keyman Rob Marshall. Many times movies are Keyman's world, and Roger thinks that Jennifer Jefferson shows Keyman's temperament in the movie. He also thought that Harvey Weinstein, who had always seen people very accurately, would never let go of the opportunity to hug people in his arms, but he didn't expect Harvey's reaction to be described as cold.
One is a film critic, the other is a big producer, and the profession determines that these two can only be gentlemen's friends, although Roger was puzzled, he did not continue to ask, but raised his glass to Harvey, turned around and continued to socialize in the industry crowd.
It wasn't until the party was over and he boarded the bus back to the hotel with his old partner that Roger got some gossip from Richard.
"Jennifer's team's publicity strategy has angered Renee's team," Richard said to reveal the inside story of Harvey's choice, "Of course, Jennifer is a very talented actor, but Renee and Miramax's relationship is still in the honeymoon period, "Cold Mountain" and "BJ's Single Diary" are very happy to work together, "Chicago" originally planned to give her an award, but because of Jennifer's team's publicity, Renee's performance in "Chicago" was obviously overshadowed, I'm afraid it's hard to get the favor of this year's Oscar judges, Harvey, as a producer, of course, wants to maximize profits, anyway, the 'Roxie' controversy has been hyped, and he will definitely use it to drive the box office, but it may not be possible to say how good Harvey's impression of Jennifer is. "Cold Mountain" and "BJ Single Diary 2" are both big projects after Miramax, if Renee can succeed after the film this time, the box office of the two films will be more guaranteed, but now Renee is likely to only count on "Cold Mountain". "
"Oh?" Roger, who has also been a film critic in the film industry for many years, could not be surprised by this kind of interest turmoil, and after hearing Richard's explanation, he did not exclaim anything, but asked with great interest, "So, in the 'Roxie dispute', are you on Jennifer's side?"
"I'm not going to jump to conclusions, but I'll admit in my review that Jennifer Jefferson dominated cinema during her appearances. "Officially, I'd like to wait until I've seen Jennifer's Roxie, but I know a lot of my Broadway peers are already on Jennifer's side." Roger, what do you think?"
They both live in Chicago all year round, but because they have their own TV shows and are both columnists, they earn a lot of money, and it is not a big deal to fly to New York to watch a show.
"When are we going to see Jennifer's Roxie?" Roger asked rhetorically, "you know, topics are time-sensitive, too, Richard. If it were six months from now, I wouldn't want to fly all the way to New York for an argument that no one cares about. "
"I asked Jennifer and she said that her contract with Broadway was not fulfilled and that she would return to Broadway after the shoot was over. Richard thought about it, "I should be back on Broadway by December 10th." "
December 10 is the date of the release of "Chicago", and there is still more than a month before now, during which film critics will release their own viewing reviews one after another, generally speaking, the film critics and producers who will be invited to the premiere have a good relationship, and it is unlikely that there will be a situation where they have watched the movie but have not released a film review.
"Let's start with a newspaper review of Chicago, and if you've seen the musical and feel the need to say something, you can do it, and we can talk about it on the show. "But I remember that Chicago was a huge box office hit, Richard, and we'd better call our friends on Broadway right now." "
"Looks like you're looking forward to Jennifer Jefferson too. Richard smiled and took out his phone, "No problem, it's the second half of the night in New York now, I'll contact old friends when we come tomorrow, I hope we won't become IE browsers in this craze." "
He and Roger are both trendsetters on the Internet, regardless of Roger's age, but he is no less interested in these things than young people, and he has his own personal blog and website, so there will be no problem with Richard's joke.
"It doesn't matter how fast or slow the point of view is, the quality of the article itself is determined. Roger wasn't worried about this, he chuckled and said calmly, "We're bound to be a step slower than New Yorkers, and we're even too slow compared to those fashion bloggers." It is likely that the earliest article will come out tomorrow, but who will decide who is the best Roxie? "
Richard also smiled, "Roger, you are too polite, you don't have to take me, I should say that only you can." "
As the only Pulitzer Prize-winning heavyweight among film critics, with a long-lived television program and a registered trademark, Roger does have the confidence to do so, and it can even be said that his views can indeed dominate the trend of public opinion in the industry to a certain extent. Because of this, he is very cautious about his opinion, and he has not seen Jennifer's performance, so he would rather not express his position than take advantage of this excitement.
#
Roger was right, just the day after the premiere, influential media outlets such as The New Yorker, The New York Post, and The New York Times published reviews of their columnists. Unlike "Variety", "Hollywood Life", and "The Hollywood Reporter", these critics and film critics have focused their film criticism on the 'Roxie controversy', and almost all of them have adopted the title of 'Our Roxie is better'.
"There's no doubt that Renee Zellweger is a brilliant actress who seems to be dominating the times, but we can't help but objectively say that Jennifer Jefferson has more talent than she is..." Ben Brantley said in his column, titled "Indeed, Our Roxie is better."
Jennifer fan Patrice was even more fanatical, declaring, "This is a very good movie, well done, Rob!" But the only regret is that you didn't have the guts to choose Jennifer Jefferson to play Lockhee, and only gave her Kitty. So, Los Angeles loses, New York wins, and Broadway has a very good Lockhee. "
The title of his film review is also very explosive, "Hollywood lose, Broadway win".
The rest of the New York critics had different opinions and mixed opinions about the changes to Chicago, but they were almost unanimous in their views on Roxie, agreeing that Renee was so good that it was impossible to fault it, but Jennifer Jefferson's Roxie was better, more exciting, and the most rare thing was that she was a live act, while Renee's performance was later retouched.
"If Jennifer were to play Roxie in the film, then we could not hesitate to believe that her performance would be a great success, and her Kitty completely proved it. But what about putting Renee on Broadway? I don't know, maybe, Renee needs a good Broadway musical to prove herself. "
"I, of course, am a little biased in the battle between cinematic art and musicals, but tonight I think my review is very fair, and Jennifer's Roxie does outshine. "
When everyone has one voice, this argument is very convincing. Many critics have yet to take a stand, but Gossip Magazine has quickly followed suit, revealing the reason for their sluggishness: The Schubert Theatre has been overwhelmed by requests from critics for tickets to Jennifer's Roxie show.
This incident in itself is enough to hint at the tendency of the critics - if Renee's performance was good enough and Jennifer's performance was disappointing, they would have made a statement a long time ago, didn't they?
There's no one who doesn't like to read gossip, and when fashion bloggers are stirring up, the topic has begun to take on the attention of the nation — or rather the entertainment sensitive: Jennifer Jefferson, a rising star who is rapidly rising to the top of the ranks, is confident and arrogant enough to challenge acting star Renee Zellweger, who didn't grab a role in the "Chicago" movie but found a shortcut to beat Renee on Broadway. It is said that the two have already formed a hatred in the crew, and there have been countless intriguing stories between Renee and Jennifer, which is why Jennifer is so targeted against Renee...
"Pirates of the Caribbean," which had just finished filming, appeared in the mouths of more and more passers-by, and Jon's classmates began to discuss with her for the first time the purchase of tickets for the "Chicago" musical, and of course, the pre-sale of the upcoming movie version, "Chicago" is more popular than in New York, a big box office city After all, not every ordinary person can judge who has better cinematography skills, but without exception, they are all very confident and enthusiastic that they can judge whose Roxie is stronger.
And with the booming of this wave of gossip topics, Jenny's popularity has also ushered in the first outbreak.
The author has something to say: Note: 1 Roger Albert is also a real person, and he is basically a film critic that every entertainment article in the early 21st century will mention, because his influence is indeed too great. Sadly, he's been dead for some time. If you are interested, you can Baidu him.
2 "Cold Mountain", "Kill Bill", "BJ's Single Diary 2", "Jersey Girl", "Talk About Love, Dance" - these films were all produced by Miramax in 2003 and 04, which shows Miramax's level.