Chapter 302: No Other Choice
Chapter 302: No Other Choice
Regarding the controversy in the media over the award results, the Academy, as usual, gave no response. In any case, everyone knew that no matter who received the awards, controversy would always follow.
A few days after the Oscars, Firefly released Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the first key film it had distributed after the turmoil at the beginning of the year. Many people paid attention to this film with all kinds of thoughts in mind.
Although Reservoir Dogs had also achieved a decent box office result some time earlier, even though that film’s release scale had become much larger under Eric’s influence, it was still only a small-scale matter.
Because Eric had been very optimistic about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in advance, Robert Shaye had secured as many as 2,000 screens for the film. This was already the limit of Firefly’s current ability, while the seven major film studios could secure more than 3,000 screens if necessary.
Moreover, even if Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles performed much better than originally expected after release, it would still be very difficult to add more screens. Once the box office proved unsatisfactory, hundreds of screens might be withdrawn the following week.
Because of this, the release attracted the attention of most people inside and outside Hollywood. If Firefly suffered a “Waterloo” this time, there would definitely be many people gloating, and even more people kicking it while it was down.
However, with the box office result from his previous life as assurance, and with the current promotional scale much larger than in his previous life, Firefly had invested a publicity budget of more than ten million dollars into this film, not including the cost of making 2,000 prints. Therefore, Eric was not as anxious as Robert Shaye or Jeffrey.
Although he attended the premiere, this time Eric completely hid off to the side as a guest and left all the spotlight to the creative team of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
At this moment, he was discussing the preparations for Basic Instinct with Jeffrey.
“Jeffrey, if Hollywood can’t find suitable actors, I suggest you try Europe. Just like The Unbearable Lightness of Being from a few years ago. The director of that film chose European actors because most of the Hollywood actors he had his eye on were too conservative and unwilling to appear in it.”
Jeffrey glanced at Robert Shaye, who was onstage delivering an impassioned speech, then shook his head. “Eric, that isn’t what I’m worried about. There are many other things too, such as the director. Paul Verhoeven, the one you recommended, recently accepted a big-budget film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. He isn’t willing to pay any attention to Basic Instinct at all. Also, the budget is a major problem. I had people make a detailed budget according to the script you gave me, and the final result was that the film would cost at least thirty million dollars, far beyond the twenty-million-dollar budget you gave. And most importantly, there’s the rating issue. The scenes you designed really go too far. It would very easily be rated NC-17. We currently have no ability to interfere with the ratings board. Once it’s rated NC-17 and arranged to be shown only in restricted theaters, this film will definitely lose everything.”
Eric scratched his hair in frustration. He knew that everything Jeffrey said was true. The American film ratings board was entirely controlled by the seven major film studios. Many people had analyzed that for identical scenes in some films, if they were produced by the seven major studios, they would receive an R rating, but if they were not produced by the seven majors, they would receive an NC-17 rating. What Eric clearly remembered was In the Cut, starring Meg Ryan in his previous life as she sought a breakthrough. Because that film was distributed by a major studio, some of its shots could practically be called adult-video-level, yet it was rated R.
If this film was made in the future and was not rated NC-17, then the seven major studios must have collectively gone insane. Although there was still the option of revising the plot and submitting it for rating again, the story would definitely undergo major changes that way. The box office result would become very difficult to predict.
After thinking for a while, Eric knew he had no other choice, so he said, “How about this, Jeffrey? Contact the seven majors and see which one is willing to cooperate. Choose one whose conditions are more favorable to us.”
“Then as for the matter of you being the screenwriter…”
“In that case, there’s definitely no point trying to hide it. Just use my real name. After all, I’m not even twenty yet. Writing a script like this will just make people think I’m young and reckless. If I hide it, I dare bet those guys, no matter what their purpose is, will definitely find every possible way to leak it.”
Jeffrey shook his head helplessly. “Eric, I really don’t understand why you insist on making a film like this. I can’t see what’s outstanding about it.”
“Then read the script a few more times,” Eric joked. “Do you know now who killed with the .38?”
Jeffrey shook his head. “Only if you tell me what Beth’s line, ‘I…,’ after being shot by the male lead Nick, actually means can I be one hundred percent certain.”
Eric deliberately kept him in suspense. “Maybe it was ‘I was wrong,’ ‘I’m sorry,’ ‘I love you,’ or something like that.”
“I think the least likely one is ‘I love you,’ and the most likely is ‘I was wrong,’” Jeffrey said.
Eric froze for a moment. In fact, the original line was “I love you.” However, Eric felt that after being shot without hesitation by the person she deeply loved, it would be very difficult for her to say words like “I love you” before death. Therefore, when writing the script, Eric made a small change and left only “I…” for the audience to guess. Just like The Others, leaving behind a little suspense would instead be more beneficial to the box office.
Onstage, after several members of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ creative team took turns giving speeches, the film officially began playing.
Seeing the images on the screen again, Eric still inevitably frowned slightly. This strong B-grade Hong Kong film flavor. Although a total cost of thirteen million dollars was definitely a super-large production for a Hong Kong film, in Hollywood, it could only barely count as medium-budget. On top of that, the film also needed some special effects, so the result was easy to imagine.
For example, in one shot, while a group of people were fighting, a thug with a knife struck an electrical wire. Even if they did not have the ability to create a glowing special effect there, they should at least have added some sizzling electric-current sound. But the result was… nothing. The thug merely trembled a few times, and that counted as being electrocuted. It looked somewhat comical.
Of course, this was mainly because Eric’s taste had been spoiled by the special-effects blockbusters of his previous life. Although Eric frowned repeatedly, the audience in the cinema attending the premiere would occasionally burst into laughter because of the four Ninja Turtles’ lines and martial arts movements, or let out a few low exclamations of amazement.
The film’s creative team, who had originally been somewhat nervous, all sighed in relief when they heard these reactions.
Perhaps because of the film’s budget, or perhaps because of Hong Kong cinema conventions, the film was only ninety minutes long and soon finished playing. Before the lights even came on, enthusiastic applause rang out inside the cinema.
“A wonderful sci-fi action film. Although many aspects of the production are unsatisfactory, with an investment of thirteen million dollars, this is already an outstanding film.”
“The film’s occasional jokes about Renaissance figures are hilarious, and the action design also has many highlights. It is worth watching.”
“…”
After the premiere, all kinds of reviews followed. Because of Firefly’s strong publicity and public relations efforts, the film’s overall reviews were still very positive. Many newspapers gave it high scores. Although a few harsh critical articles appeared from time to time, they could not stir up any real waves. The seven major studios did not want to see this film succeed, but faced with Firefly’s no-expense-spared promotional spending, no one was willing to spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to smear the film.
What was more, the seven majors were not particularly optimistic about this film internally. Otherwise, Fox would not have refused to distribute Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles after watching the finished film.
Under the attention of many people, three days later, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collected twenty-five million dollars in its opening weekend from 2,000 North American theaters, shocking many people.
Fox, which had once again misjudged the situation, fired several executives within a short time. Added to the matter of An Affair to Remember, Fox inevitably became the target of mockery from quite a few media outlets.
Faced with this situation, Fox could only suffer in silence.
After a full week, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ first-week box office was released, reaching thirty-two million dollars.
Seeing this result, many media outlets that had originally been nitpicking fell completely silent.
People within Hollywood also realized that after the turmoil at the beginning of the year, Firefly had not been affected at all. The news that Eric had been the first to be optimistic about this film was inevitably leaked as well, once again sparking heated discussion in Hollywood. Aside from the several films Eric personally participated in, and with the addition of Steel Magnolias, this was already the second time that a film others had not been optimistic about, but Eric had favored, became a major success.
For a time, many people began trying to find out which films Eric was optimistic about.
As a result, the series of rights Eric had asked Drew to acquire before the New Year once again entered many people’s sights.
Because the young woman had not been in much of a hurry, only a little over half of the more than twenty rights Eric had listed had been acquired.
After the two rights currently under negotiation were discovered, all powerful film companies in Hollywood joined the competition, while the copyright owners also began holding out for the best price.
Under these circumstances, Eric could only have Drew stop acquiring rights. Although there were still a few he had not obtained, if they acted now, they would definitely fall into a frenzy of competition, and the chance of securing them would be extremely low.
Moreover, Eric had already obtained the adaptation rights he valued most, such as Charlie’s Angels, Mission: Impossible, and The Bourne Identity.
Of course, all of this came later. After Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles became a major success, the person with the most complicated feelings was undoubtedly Robert Shaye.
After all, if Robert Shaye could have waited half a year until Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released, New Line would have been in a completely different situation.