Chapter Seven Hundred and Sixty Fifth Stop

Rosarito is located in Baja California, Mexico, a seaside town less than 20 kilometers from the border, where the main scenes of "Titanic" were filmed.

While Firefly's studio base in Playa Vista has state-of-the-art filming facilities, the "Titanic" shoot required a large space that wasn't possible in the expensive Los Angeles area. During the preparatory stage of the film, Cameron, under the introduction of his friend Guillermo del Toro, decided to move the filming to Mexico and bought a 16-hectare land near Rosarito to set up photography. shed.

Just after the new year, perhaps the various commercial miracles of the Firefly system have caused many people to have aesthetic fatigue and rebellious psychology. When the news that the "Titanic" project was out of control came out, the media immediately became lively.

In recent years, the cost of film production has risen rapidly, but there are still only a handful of films with an annual budget of more than 60 million US dollars. "Titanic" has only completed 50% of the pre-shooting progress, and has burned through 60 million US dollars. It is conceivable that if The Firefly Group does not make certain decisions immediately. If it wants to complete the film, the production cost of the film may even exceed that of "Future Water World" which cost $170 million last year, and "Future Water World" has also proved to many people, A film whose budget was seriously out of control during production has a very slim chance of success at the box office.

Although I know that with the profound background of the Firefly Group, even if it loses one or two billion dollars on a project, it is absolutely impossible to face bankruptcy like other film companies, but the project of "Titanic" is out of control, which finally proved to some people, Firefly is not so invincible, such a powerful company, after a few years of glory, finally began to encounter inevitable failures, and this failure seems to be so menacing from the beginning.

Firefly's original schedule for "Titanic" was June 28, 1996, and it is still the mode of the "Matrix", "Breakthrough" and "Titanic" trilogy.

However, as soon as the news of the "Titanic" project was out of control, several film companies started to move, and Paramount even apparently deliberately renamed the original Disney hand-drawn animation team, which had been renamed Paramount Animation Studios, to be the first film company. A work "Pocahontas" was scheduled for June 28. After a few days of hesitation, Universal Pictures also released news that it planned to move "The Mummy 2", originally scheduled for mid-July, to June 21. .

June is the best time for summer movies to be released, and it has been occupied by Firefly in the past few years. Although the other majors have made many attempts to regain the initiative in this prime time period, they all ended in failure.

But this year, some people finally found a good opportunity to break the monopoly of Firefly's schedule.

With the production progress of "Titanic", if Firefly wants to forcibly meet the deadline, the quality of the film will definitely not be guaranteed. If Firefly allows Cameron to maintain the current production rhythm, it is absolutely impossible for "Titanic" to be released in the summer. . According to the Firefly Group's film list, there is no film that can replace the position of "Titanic". Therefore, regardless of the outcome, Firefly will be doomed to lose the golden period of the box office in the last few weeks of June and early July.

"According to Firefly's film production list for the past two years, there is no film that is suitable to fill the vacancy of "Titanic". However, at the last meeting, everyone felt that a romantic film with a short production cycle Or comedy is the best choice, but according to the contract signed with the theater, "Titanic" has reserved 3,000 premiere screens. This kind of opening scale cannot be filled by any ordinary romance. "In the black Chevrolet SUV, assistant Kelly Haynes flips through the documents on her lap,

Said to Eric, who was sitting next to him and looked out the window at the desert scenery.

The convoy of five black SUVs was driving at a gentle speed on the seaside road in Baja California, when I heard that Eric was going to the Rosarito studio in Mexico, whether it was Drew beside him, Joanna in New York, or even the Firefly Group. The first suggestion made by a group of high-ranking officials was, don't go.

After finding that they couldn't stop it, everyone's next day's suggestion was to bring bodyguards, and bring many bodyguards.

So there is the current team, with five people in each car. Except for Eric and Kelly, Eric's security team basically followed.

The American impression of Mexico, basically, except for cheap labor, is that of drug dealers. The borders between the two countries are also the areas where criminal activities are most rampant. These areas can only be described with one word. Therefore, although he felt that there was a lot of enthusiasm, Eric did not reject this arrangement.

After Kelly finished speaking, she noticed that Eric seemed to be absent-minded and reminded softly.

Eric came back to his senses and asked, "Oh, where did you say that?"

Kelly patiently repeated what she just said.

Kelly's meaning is obvious. Ordinary comedy films and romance films can't carry the scale of 3,000 screens, but if it is a film directed by Eric himself, it will be different. As we all know, after Eric's debut Several of the world's best-selling films, from "Home Alone" to "Pretty Moon", are of these two types.

"I know what you mean," smiled, Eric said: "However, you know how busy I am now, maybe I will go to Australia next, and I will not see the production progress of "The Matrix" with my own eyes. Don't worry, then, according to this schedule, it is unlikely that I will spare my energy to do my own things until the Oscars, and after the Oscars, "007 Casino Royale" also needs to enter the formal preparation period."

As Eric's assistant, Kelly is much more familiar with his work schedule than the top executives of the Firefly Group, and knows that Eric can't squeeze the time to shoot a movie before "Casino Royale" right now. , she just repeated the thoughts of others, and stopped making this suggestion, saying: "Eric, how do you plan to arrange the next thing in "Titanic"?"

"How to arrange what?" Eric asked suspiciously.

Kelly thought for a while and said, "If you want to complete the film, according to Cameron's progress, it may cost 200 million US dollars, plus the budget for later publicity, according to Cameron's previous box office results, Firefly Basically, there is no hope of repaying the capital, and the rest is likely to be a question of how much to lose. I think that decisively stopping this project may be the best way to stop losses? "

The female assistant's suggestion is actually what many people are thinking at present, and even the media has begun to spread this opinion. Immediately stop the project, and with the accumulated materials, and a little tinkering, you can probably make a movie, how much more Less able to recover some of the losses.

However, even if "Titanic" cannot achieve the success of the original time and space, Eric does not intend to do so. As a movie box office miracle that is memorable in his previous life, Eric also wants to see it. In this life, this film can To what extent.

It was impossible for Eric to explain his mind directly to Kelly, he just joked: "If I stop directly, Jim will probably kill me."

"You..." Kelly smiled and said, "I found that you seem to have high expectations for this film."

Eric turned his head, looked at the elegant white face of the female assistant, and asked, "Is it obvious?"

Kelly's cheeks flushed, and she whispered, "I can probably see what you're thinking. Otherwise, um, otherwise you wouldn't come to Mexico in person."

Seeing the female assistant looking for reasons indiscriminately, Eric laughed. He didn't want to make Kelly too embarrassed, so he didn't joke anymore.

After the convoy crossed the border, it took another half an hour to arrive at Rosarito, a border town with a radius of more than ten kilometers.

However, the "Titanic" set was not in town, and the convoy continued south for about five kilometers before reaching its destination.

At this time, a simple fence was surrounded by a large open space near the sea. Sitting in the car, Eric could see the studio and other facilities inside the fence.

At this time, there were still many people holding cameras outside the gate of the shooting base, obviously because of the recent series of media news.

Noticing this striking convoy of five luxury SUVs, the reporters who were originally blocking the door trying to get some information were keenly aware of something, and they gathered around them one after another. The flashing lights also turned on frantically, and a few bold reporters even knocked on the door. car windows, trying to provoke people to get a shot.

Fortunately, the five cars were exactly the same, and the reporters did not find the exact target. Eric just sat quietly in his car, waiting for the bodyguard in the first car to negotiate with the doorman, and then the reporters were disappointed by the five cars. Amid the shouts, they drove into the studio one after another.

The car was parked in the parking lot. Just as Eric got out of the car, Jon Landau, the producer of "Titanic", came up with two staff members and hugged Eric enthusiastically. Said, "Eric, I'm so glad you came over."

Eric laughed and said, "I just don't know that Jimxi doesn't want me to come here."

Jon Landau shook hands with Kelly, and when he heard Eric's words, his face suddenly became bitter, he shook his head, and said, "Anyway, it's not bad for you to come and take a look."

"Well," Eric nodded and said, "By the way, what about Jim?"

"Oh, everyone is filming, come with me, on the big boat," Jon Landau said, pointing not far away, and walked over with Eric.

Leaving the parking lot, Eric looked at the surrounding situation. There were three large photo studios standing on the set, busy staff, props and equipment stacked everywhere, several large reservoirs, and a giant floating water tank under construction. The 100-meter-long shooting track, and the giant ship Titanic built on a one-to-one model standing by the sea...

Just looking at this shows how frantic Cameron is burning money.

Even more, Eric remembered that the replica of the Titanic built in the original time and space was only half the model. At that time, in order not to make the model wear in front of the camera, a lot of special props and shooting skills were used. Large ship model, but it is complete.

Although Eric just looked around and didn't say anything, Jon Landau was already nervous in his heart, and even fine beads of sweat ooze out of his forehead. As the first producer of "Titanic," he was also the one who knew best how profligate Cameron was.

The crew was shooting a bow scene at this time. Under the leadership of Jon Landau, Eric climbed up the deck along the ladder and found that many people were surrounding the bow shooting site. To Cameron's growl.

"William, the effect of shooting in this way is a mess. Shit, I want to install a tower crane, a tower crane that can shoot overhead with a big rocker arm at the bow, not this stingy mechanical rocker arm, this way of shooting It's just shit, shit, shit!"

After Cameron roared, an obviously angry male voice immediately reached Eric's ears, but compared to Cameron's 'subwoofer', Eric couldn't hear what the man was saying.

Jon Landau, who was next to Eric, explained helplessly: "Jim and William had a quarrel again. I have seen the sub-shots he painted, and he wanted to use a wide-angle lens to shoot some of the hero and heroine embracing at the bow of the boat. However, in order to achieve his effect, a large mechanical tower crane for construction must be installed. William disagreed. He just asked the camera team to install a mechanical arm on the bow. Now it seems that Jim is not interested in this kind of shooting effect. Very satisfied."

Kelly noticed a little doubt in Eric's eyes, and leaned into his ear and explained in a low voice: "It's William Stewart, one of the producers of the company responsible for this project, he mainly oversees the finances of the crew." ⑧☆miào⑧ ☆bi(.*)gé⑧☆.$.

Eric nodded, kept walking towards the crowd, and said to Jon Landau, "Let's go over and take a look first."

Coming to the periphery of the crowd, he was walking away from the crowd when Cameron's roar came again: "Future Water World of Shit, you actually compared my film with that rubbish...you I'm vetoing almost every decision I make now, if you continue like this, I'll resign, I'll quit, quit."

"..."

"What, I'm going to force you to jump into the sea, no, it's you who's going to force me to jump into the sea, ha, if jumping into the sea is useful, I'll show you the jump right now."

Eric and a few people finally pushed through the crowd, only to see the poor middle-aged man standing opposite the furious Cameron: "Jim, do you know how much you've spent? My work is fast approaching. You screwed up, it's no use threatening me again, I won't agree with your plan."

Cameron didn't notice the arrival of Eric and others at all, waved his arms, and said excitedly: "No, I'm not threatening you, jump into the sea, right? I'll jump for you to see."

After saying these words, amid the uproar and exclamations of everyone, Cameron turned over the deck railing with a red face, and disappeared from everyone's field of vision.