Chapter 380 Golden Globe Awards, Oscar PR
Chapter 380 Golden Globe Awards, Oscar PR
As the fifth film in Sony's Spider-Man Cinematic Universe, "The Defenders" brings together several New York street heroes from the previous films in the series, with the young Spider-Man as the core, to fight against Kingpin, who is running for mayor of New York City and is about to succeed.
Although compared to "The Avengers", the heroes and villains in "The Defenders" are much less famous.
But "The Defenders", which focuses on urban security, gang issues, and election issues, also has its advantages, which is that it is more down-to-earth.
On the surface, this movie is about the struggle between superheroes and villains, but at its core it's more obscure about politics and capital, and it also echoes reality.
It can be said that "The Defenders" can touch the souls of American movie fans more than Nolan's version of "Batman", because the story of "Batman" takes place in the fictional Gotham City, while the story of "The Defenders" takes place in New York.
So even though Li An's "Life of Pi" was also very good, its box office performance was inevitably affected by the sniping of "The Defenders" and declined to a certain extent.
Li An and the Taiwanese entertainment industry dared not say anything about this. Although they could guess that the release date of "The Defenders" was probably related to Wang Hao, the producer of this film was Hollywood's Sony Pictures, which has both American and Japanese identities and is the spiritual father and second father of some people in Taiwan. Naturally, they dared not say much.
The entire month of December ended with the competition between "Life of Pi" and "The Defenders". On December 12, "Limitless", jointly invested by Galaxy Group and Columbia, the American branch of the Galaxy Cinematic Universe, was finally released overseas.
Yes, even though this version of "Limitless" has made certain adjustments to the presentation and side effects of the smart drug NZT-48, and even though Galaxy Pictures has communicated with Optoelectronics, the film still has not passed review and cannot be released in China. This has given "Chinese Zodiac" directed and starred by Jackie Chan an advantage.
Although "Limitless" could not be released in mainland China, the first trailer of "Gravity" was still released on major platforms in December, and its total number of clicks reached an astonishing 12 million in just one hour.
When these 50 million fans saw Jing Tian wearing a space suit, tumbling and spinning in the storm of space debris on the monitor, they couldn't help but widen their eyes and open their mouths.
Is this a movie that we Chinese can make?
Are those nearly realistic, extremely clear space images, and the images of spacecraft, space station and earth without any trace of special effects, really a movie shot and produced by a Chinese team?
The fans couldn't believe it at first, but after seeing Chinese faces like Zhang Hanyu, Liu Huohua, and Jing Tian, a strong emotion of pride and excitement could not help but burst out.
For many years, they never thought that they would have the chance to see a Chinese space movie on the big screen.
You have to know that what they watched before were "Star Wars", "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Star Trek". They must go and watch this Chinese space movie!
As for when this movie can be watched? The first trailer of Gravity has given the answer: it will be released on the first day of the Chinese New Year in 2013, which is also the Spring Festival.
And that’s not all. After the second trailer of “Gravity” was broadcast, the education department issued an order to the middle schools and primary schools to promote China’s aerospace culture.
So before the winter vacation in these primary and secondary schools, the Chinese teachers recommended the movie "Gravity" to the students and assigned them the task of writing a review after watching the movie.
Wang Hao didn’t like writing reviews when he was studying in the past. He didn’t expect that he would become the person he hated the most now. It has to be said that boomerangs always hit him.
Of course, although Wang Hao felt that this matter was a bit unethical, he could only say that it was really great. It was worthy of "Gravity" becoming a national key cultural project. It turned out that in Southeast University, official support was needed to succeed.
You have to know that these students are not just students, especially those elementary school students. Their watching of movies often means that the whole family will go out.
Compared to the happiness of Galaxy Pictures, other movies that also aim to be released during the 2013 Spring Festival are not so happy.
There are more than twenty movies released during the entire Spring Festival period around February. Although most of them are cannon fodder, there are also some excellent ones.
Like the classic Hollywood film series "Skyfall", which is the 007rd film in the 007 series and the third time that the new 23 Daniel Craig has played the role of Bond.
Fortunately, this movie has already been released in the United States, and it is a spy movie, so the threat is not that great.
In addition, the prequel to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", also has the same problem. It was released in North America in 2012, but its release date in China was at the end of the Spring Festival period, and the resources can be searched online.
There is no problem for these two movies to break 100 million at the box office, but it is completely impossible for them to pose a threat to "Gravity".
Oh, by the way, there is another Hollywood movie released at the same time called "Cloud Atlas", but the narrative of this movie is rather mysterious. It tries to tell six stories in one movie, spanning thousands of years. As a commercial film, it is not friendly to the general audience, and its box office performance is unlikely to be good.
Compared to these Hollywood movies, there is a domestic movie that poses a greater threat to "Gravity". That is the costume mythological movie "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" produced, written and directed by Stephen Chow, and starring Wen Zhang, Shu Qi, Huang Bo and others.
This time Director Zhou makes his comeback after five years, and this is also his first work since he completely gave up his identity as an actor and stepped behind the scenes from the front stage.
Although Stephen Chow did not star in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", with the reputation of "A Chinese Odyssey" and the filter of Stephen Chow himself, the majority of movie fans and audiences are still looking forward to this movie.
Zhou Xingchi himself is very confident about this. In the seven years since Wang Hao became famous, he has only filmed one movie, "CJ2004", and before that was "Kung Fu" in . It can be said that the two have no intersection.
So even though he had heard of Wang Hao's reputation, he was not too afraid. After learning that "Gravity" would be released during the Spring Festival, he still insisted on his own opinion and chose not to withdraw the film.
This is much more aggressive than "101 Marriage Proposals", also starring Huang Bo. After learning that "Gravity" was scheduled to be released during the Spring Festival, that movie immediately gave up the opportunity of Valentine's Day and moved the release date to a later date.
As a result, the entire 2013 Spring Festival period was characterized by Wang Hao and Zhou Xingchi, a head-on confrontation between "Gravity" and "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", and a situation where "The Hobbit" and "007" were runners-up.
The young commercial film director from the mainland and the older generation of commercial film genius from Hong Kong are preparing for a head-on collision, which has made many spectators and gossipers extremely happy.
Some guys and media even took immediate action. In early January 2013, after the final trailer of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" was released, Zhou Xingchi was interviewed on a show to promote the movie in advance. A media reporter asked him what he thought of the competitor "Gravity" and whether he was nervous about it.
In response to this question, Zhou Xingchi just laughed and did not give a positive response.
However, his attitude has already revealed everything. The "Two Zhous and One Cheng" was no joke. Zhou Xingchi had already made a name for himself in the industry in the 90s. During his peak period, even Cheng Long, Li Lianjie, and Chow Yun-fat had to avoid him. How could they be afraid of a young man? Zhou Xingchi's reaction naturally made some people want to ask Wang Hao again, but the next piece of news overshadowed this dispute between the old and the new.
Because this year, at the Hollywood Golden Globe Awards to be held on January 2013, 1, "Inception" directed by Wang Hao received multiple nominations.
He is also one of only two Chinese directors nominated for the 70th Golden Globe Awards. The other is Li An, who was nominated for "Life of Pi".
Domestic entertainment media are extremely excited about this news.
The full name of the Golden Globe Awards is the American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards, which is hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The Golden Globe Awards have been held annually since 1944, with the final results determined by voting by 96 journalists (about two-thirds of whom are part-time).
Of course, the most crucial thing is that as the first film and television award presented in the United States each year, the Golden Globe Awards are regarded by many as a weather vane for the Oscars.
The comparison of the results of the two over the past decade seems to prove this point well.
So if the nominated "Inception" can really win something at the Golden Globe Awards, it will at least get a nomination at the Oscars.
This is an honor that no mainland Chinese director has ever received before. China first began submitting films for the Oscars in 1955, and has continued to submit films since then, and this has continued for 56 years.
In the past half century, the only domestic films nominated for Oscars were Zhang Yimou's "Ju Dou", "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Hero", but none of them won.
Although in terms of value, the three major European international film awards are slightly better than the Oscars, but in the development of the domestic film industry, the pursuit of the Oscars seems to have become an obsession, or perhaps a conquest.
Therefore, many people in China are extremely excited about Wang Hao's nomination for the Golden Globe Award.
Because in their opinion, "Inception" is already extremely excellent, and the leading actor is an American, the film is still likely to be nominated for an Oscar and win an award.
Wang Hao quickly flew to Hollywood before the Golden Globe Awards and, with the help of Sony, conducted a round of public relations with the Golden Globe Awards judges.
As for the effect, there are some. "Inception" successfully won the Best Screenplay and Best Feature Film awards at the 70th Golden Globe Awards for American Film and Television, competing with films such as "Les Miserables", "Argo" and "Django Unchained".
When this news spread back to China, countless fans of Galaxy Cinematic Universe, Wang Hao, and "Inception" were extremely excited, because in their opinion, it was a foregone conclusion that the masterpiece "Inception" would be nominated for an Oscar, and it was even very likely that it would win the award. The only difference was what award it would win.
After all, "Inception" is so excellent that it can be called a masterpiece.
Compared to the expectations of the majority of Chinese movie fans, Wang Hao, who is in Hollywood, naturally learned more news. He also learned that his "Inception" has been shortlisted for an Oscar.
As for winning the award, according to the public relations company recommended to him by Sony Pictures, it depends on how much money Wang Hao can afford.
Although the Oscars are a film award that involves art and seems very elegant, in fact, behind the art, it is also a business.
According to the PR firm, independent films may spend $25 on public relations during each Oscar awards season, while major studios spend an average of $200 million per film.
This is just a basic price. If the movie wants to win an award, the price will have to go up.
Don’t ask why it’s so expensive, this is an Oscar, the highest award in Hollywood.
Although there are rules that prohibit the use of money to bribe members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Oscars, this does not mean that there are no other ways to get around this restriction.
It’s like the United States, although there is no bribery, there is political donations.
It’s no wonder that some people say that Hollywood and politics are essentially the same, both are money games.
In order to win the votes of the society's members, the process of "running for the Oscar" is essentially no different from the presidential election. It is nothing more than starting from two aspects, namely, elevating oneself and belittling the opponent.
Generally speaking, in terms of intensive publicity, the usual tricks provided by these PR companies include re-screening during award season, holding special screenings and cocktail parties at the same time, or producing a jury version of the DVD and sending it to the judges together with other "materials".
In addition, the directors and leading actors of the nominated films will also be very busy during the awards season, rushing to attend various media events and launch publicity campaigns.
These are basically the suggestions that the PR company provided to Wang Hao.
As for the black public relations tactics of belittling opponents, the other party does not recommend him to use them, because Wang Hao is an outsider compared to Hollywood, and using unconventional tactics like Harvey Weinstein might backfire and cause other people to be disgusted.
However, Wang Hao doesn't care much about either the formal means or the shady tactics. It seems that whether "Inception" can win an Oscar is not that important to him.
From this point of view, it is Leonardo, the male protagonist of "Inception", who is more active.
After all, he had been a runner-up in the Oscars for many years, and he had always been unwilling to accept the fact that he could not win an Oscar because of his handsome looks, even to the point of being almost crazy.
So when he had the chance to win the award this time, he certainly would not give it up, and he even took the initiative to tell Wang Hao that he was willing to share part of the public relations costs in order to increase the chances of "Inception" winning the award.
(End of this chapter)