—IMAX
—Keep up with
—3D
—4K
—3D+4K+120 frames
—Sorry, sorry! With the
movie card, Ang Lee has finally reached the realm of "Lonely Boat, Fishing in the Snow". On the road of 120 frames, the pioneers, successors, and latecomers are the only ones in the world. he himself. With high investment, high risk, and uncertain returns, Ang Lee is lonelier than the "little prince" in the new field.
Ang Lee returns again, with his latest movie "Gemini Killer", which not only continues the 3D+4K+ of "Billy Lynn's Midfield War" (hereinafter referred to as "Billy Lynn") 2 years ago 120 frames, plus a new achievement of "technology to create people", the difficulty has been upgraded, the production cost has also risen directly from 48 million US dollars two years ago to 138 million US dollars.
When "Billy Lynn" came out in 2016, only five theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei were able to show the film at the highest specification of 120 frames. The only theater supported by Beijing, Bona The special effects hall of U-Town Store was specially upgraded temporarily, and the cost of just renovating a movie hall was as high as several million. Why does
only have it? is because Bona invested money for the film (the investors behind Bona include the Fosun Group that will be mentioned next).
Why don’t others follow up? Because of the advanced projection equipment, there is only such a high-standard movie in the world that can be shown. Let's roughly calculate the revenue of a single film and a single screen. We use a hall to accommodate 200 people and a ticket price of 200 yuan. With a full income of 40,000 yuan, this is just a flow of money. How long will it take to sell it to recover the cost of several million? Moreover, in the mainland market, a movie usually only has a release period of one month or less.
Although "Billy Lynn" is top-notch in technology, it is more literary after all. At the beginning, various film companies were also very hesitant. If was not the last innovative "Juvenile School Fantasy Drift" (hereinafter referred to as "Juvenile School") fame With double revenue, winning four Oscars including best director and best photography, the filmmakers must not dare to invest heavily.
, who was ready to lose a lot of money, made a lot of money, and wanted to surprise the "Billy Lynn" word-of-mouth box office double failure. It is certainly not easy for
to expand into new areas. The most successful example in this regard is James Cameron’s "Avatar". The release of "Avatar" suddenly opened up the 3D situation, which directly increased the theater's projection equipment and ticket prices. .
As everyone knows, before Avatar was released in 2009, 3D movies had gone through nearly a hundred years.
In 1922, the world's first 3D movie "The Power of Love" was born. Until 1952, the first truly meaningful 3D feature film "Africa Adventures" was born. 3D movies gradually entered the golden age, in 1954 , Universal launched the most famous 3D horror film "Black Lake Monster". In 2009, "Avatar" once again set off a 3D boom, , but with the impact of fake 3D, shoddy and high ticket prices, 3D fever also faded quite quickly.
At present, the Chinese audience is most enthusiastic about this technology.
Ang Lee finally lost about US$40 million in "Billy Lynn", and "Gemini Killer" can increase weight and continue to move forward, thanks to the fathers of the three domestic funders, Fosun, China, and Ali.
Half a year after "Billy Lynn" was released, Fosun was no longer willing to invest in films indirectly through investment in film and television companies. In June 2017, Fosun Pictures was established and joined hands with Lee An’s new film. Profit is not the most important thing. The key purpose is to make the brand stand at the highest end of the world in one fell swoop.
Huaxia Films is also determined to upgrade its technology, requiring 100 theaters to complete the transformation to meet the screening requirements before "Gemini Killer" is released.
When everyone has their own position, it makes director Ang very embarrassed, but he knows how to compromise, because taking over this project by himself is a compromise to achieve his goals.
"Gemini Killer" was evaluated by the audience as mediocre and old-fashioned for no reason. This script existed in the 1990s and suffered from the inability of the technology at that time.Since then, the reason why Li Ang is willing to take over is largely because this story meets his requirements for expanding new technologies. Moreover, the film is Lee Ang's first ever film without an original novel. In a recent interview with Gao Xiaosong, Ang Li confessed that the ending of "Gemini Killer" currently being screened is not the ending he wanted, and other endings were even filmed, but the audience prefers a happy reunion.
He also expressed his entanglement about the trial screening of the film. The so-called trial screening is to convene a group of viewers through a special company after the production of a film, and adjust and modify the film based on the audience’s reactions and opinions. To achieve the goal of satisfying the public as much as possible.
The audience’s reaction and the director’s thoughts often disagree. He laughs where you think it is serious, but he didn’t get the funny stalk you deliberately arranged, but for the box office, the director had to succumb to the audience. This is not only Li Ang's helplessness.
spend so much money, you can't rely on your own temperament, so compromise.
has never been able to figure out how, why Lee Ang, who has a thorough understanding of human nature, is so competitive with technology? After
shot the two most passionate movies of "Brokeback Mountain" and "Lust Caution", Ang Lee began to change his style, shot a super relaxed "Manufacturing Woodstock Music Festival" (impossible in the Mainland Released, probably many people have never heard of it). This film showing the greatest rock festival of the 20th century allows people to see from the images what the world looks like after psychedelic. The last time I had a similar impression was in Kubrick’s 2001 A Space Odyssey. A spectacle that appears when people enter an unknown space.
"Manufacturing Woodstock Music Festival"
"2001 A Space Odyssey"
probably recovered from the extreme digging of people's hearts, Ang Lee began to become obsessed with technology, in "Boy Pie" and "Billy Lynn" , , he is not even satisfied with the prying of the human heart by the flesh, and he has to use technical means to analyze his role like a microscope.
arrived in "Gemini Killer", technically too difficult, even how to use the equipment, you have to figure out how to use the equipment first. Tell the staff that the entire special effects team can only complete the 2-second "clone" shot in one year, so he never has it again. More energy goes deep into the character's heart.
Regarding this experiment, the tired Li Ang said that he did make concessions for technology and business. Please bear with me.
Fortunately, no one said Ang Lee was "dead".
