The Best Director-Chapter 469 -
Chapter 469: 469
On March 13, the 11th Empire Awards ceremony was held at the Hilton Hotel in London, where “Firefly” swept away three major awards: Best Film, Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and Best Director; Carey Mulligan from “Pride and Prejudice” defeated Chloe Moretz and others to win the Best Newcomer award.
By March 25, the 27th Young Artist Awards were announced in Los Angeles; Chloe Moretz stole the show as she won Best Actress in a Feature Film under ten years old for “500 Days of Summer”, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Feature Film and also contested for Best Leading Actress in a Feature Film for “Paranormal Activity 3”.
Little Chloe has become one of Hollywood’s hottest child stars overnight, with film offers flooding in. Aside from confirming her roles in FF’s “Marley & Me” and “Firefly 2” set for next year, she has also taken on a remake of the Western “3:10 to Yuma” with Lionsgate, playing the daughter of protagonist Dan Evans. Originally, Evans had two sons in the 1957 version, but the screenplay was altered to accommodate the popular child star, changing the younger son to a daughter for market appeal. The film is scheduled to shoot in the fourth quarter of this year, and in addition to lending her voice to Disney animations, Chloe has other jobs like guest-starring in a few episodes of “Desperate Housewives”. She is indeed a little busy bee.
She could actually be busier, but the doting father figure, Wang Yang, admonished her and her family not to work all the time at such a young age, not to neglect childhood and education, and not to become arrogant!
As for dear Uncle Yang, Chloe naturally takes his advice to heart. Her brother and parents also heed his suggestions, and they definitely cherish Chloe even more, making appropriate and reasonable work arrangements. Furthermore, her current film offers mostly involve minor roles with limited workloads, which actually turns into playtime for Chloe, as she loves acting.
Though Moritz is small and precocious, at the end of the day, she is still a nine-year-old girl. She is very much looking forward to “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs”, which premieres globally on March 31. Manny the woolly mammoth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger, Sid the sloth… this time, in search of companions, a group of adorable animals venture into the realm of dinosaurs. What new friends will they make, and what dangers will they face? All of these have the countless fans of IA brimming with anticipation.
“Ice Age” grossed $476 million worldwide in ’02, and “Ice Age 2” took in $730 million in ’04. Now, two years later, “Ice Age 3” is coming with a wave of laughter!
Although Flame & Blue Sky’s pace of releasing sequels is often questioned, the high quality of the films usually earns thumbs up from the media and public. “IA3”, Flame Movie’s first new release of the year, has a production budget of 100 million US dollars—25 million more than its predecessor. Being the trilogy’s final installment, Flame naturally has high hopes for it, with a promotional budget of a blockbuster-worthy 35 million. This indicates that “IA3″‘s breakeven point is above 300 million in global box office.
300 million? That’s too little! Indeed, this is Flame & Blue Sky’s thinking. No matter how one predicts, “IA3” seems to be able to pull in 500 million, while the young big BOSS aims for a 900 million or even 1 billion global box office hit!
As the saying goes, “Fortune favors the bold,” and Flame, with an eye on 900 million, has set a global simultaneous release for “IA3”. Australia, China, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom… all these major overseas markets are poised to strike! The distribution in France, Brazil, and Singapore is even managed by Flame’s subsidiaries. It will hit tens of thousands of regular screens worldwide and will also be shown in IMAX and 3D theatres.
The previous WB’s new film “V for Vendetta” smoothly took the top spot of the week from March 17-23 with $36.84 million. Its Rotten Tomatoes ratings were 73%/63% and 88%. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but was quite popular with audiences. Unsurprisingly, Natalie Portman’s performance was praised by both critics and audiences alike, with the sight of her bald assassin’s CULT image and the crazed Evey eliciting such words of praise as “shining”, “awesome”, “unique”, “great”, “astonishing”. Fans who went to see the film because of the magical Yang force supporting Natalie were not disappointed. NICE!
However, its box office strength could not continue, not only giving away the weekly championship for March 24-30 to “The Insider”, but also experiencing a steep -55.3% decline to just $16.46 million with no hope of breaking 100 million. As some media reports and critiques humorously pointed out, once Natalie Portman left the magical Yang, she also lost her magical power.
As April began, a new week commenced, and after 14 weeks, “500 Days of Summer” had ended its theatrical run. The duration of movies in theaters is getting shorter and shorter, especially for those produced by “market hustler” Wang Yang.
This most successful unconventional romance in recent years finally pulled in a North American box office of $236 million, ranking fourth in Wang Yang’s personal directorial record and second in the romantic comedy genre (since 1978), just $5 million behind the top-grossing “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” at $241 million. However, in terms of global box office, “500 Days” was in first place, with an additional international revenue of $161 million, bringing its global tally to an impressive $397 million! And all this from a production cost of just $15 million.
It was literally like legal robbery! Achieving such an impressive feat, Tinder Entertainment traditionally awarded various bonus envelopes to the crew, a practice that made Wang Yang such a well-liked “Best Boss” and one of the reasons everyone was willing to follow him into “simultaneous filmmaking.” Despite being exhausted to no end, the team was full of fighting spirit. Often that’s how things are—if people work themselves to death for you and don’t see a penny in reward, personal charm isn’t at MAX.
“Big bowls of wine, large chunks of meat, and fair shares of silver—it’s only then will old Wu’s ghost follow your grandfather,” Grandfather Wang used to instruct Wang Yang, and Wang Yang planned to educate Keke in the same way.
But Natalie Portman was an exception. Wang Yang made a point not to give her a bonus envelope, declaring it would insult their brotherly bond! Natalie, however, vehemently protested. She didn’t mind not getting an envelope, but to deliberately bring it up, mentioning how little Chloe and Zachary got candy—didn’t he know she was saving to start her own Handsome Charlie film company? Infuriating! After much contemplation, Wang Yang still didn’t give in, stating, “The time has come to test our friendship!” Natalie’s only response was, “FUCK-YOU!”
$397 million ensured that “500 Days” comfortably surpassed the $368 million of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” becoming the highest-grossing romantic comedy worldwide in recent years, putting to rest any claim that the amazing Yang couldn’t direct a love story.
Also concluding its 14-week run was “Munich,” which peaked at 1,498 theaters but only managed a North American box office of $47.4 million and a global take of $130 million. Against its $70 million production cost, Universal took a loss; and Spielberg, in his aerial duel with the miraculous Yang, was once again thoroughly defeated.
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“Brokeback Mountain,” screening in 180 theaters, brought in over $158,000 at the box office, taking its North American total to $86.21 million and ranking it third among LGBTQ+ films (since 1980). Despite not winning Oscars for Best Director among other awards, and being continually overshadowed by “Firefly” during the awards season, its box office performance showed little difference from the Focus Features 2005 version, likely due to the static nature of the audience demographic for this theme.
However, with a current global revenue of $182 million, it was more than enough to leave everyone at Tinder Entertainment feeling very pleased. Along with the $206 million global haul of “Saw III,” the seven films from the previous year were a 100% success!
With over 200 theaters taking advantage of the Oscars at the start of the month to re-release “Firefly,” the Best Picture winner concluded its third week of re-release, selling over 2 million tickets and raising its North American box office to $653 million, while the global box office reached $1.82 billion.
“Firefly 2” seemed a distant prospect as neither Wang Yang nor Joss Whedon had finalized a script. The TV series version of “Firefly” was set to start shooting that Monday. The smooth progress of the project was hardly surprising; firstly, Firefly Family Entertainment was unequivocally supportive in terms of financing, and secondly, Whedon had a substantial script bible ready. All that was needed was to transplant the narrative to a different spaceship, and the world of space cowboys would once again come alive. For the father of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel,” this task was no challenge at all.
The TV series version of “Firefly” is set to premiere on NBC during this year’s fall season. And one can imagine how much pain and sorrow the original naysayer, FOX channel, must be feeling, while NBC is strutting with pride! With the mighty Yang’s absence from the third season of “Prison Break,” which saw average performance and a gradual slip in ratings, it’s uncertain if the fourth season could maintain the 20 million viewer mark. NBC needed a new king; besides, you can never have too many good shows. “Firefly” would premiere on Thursdays at 9:00–10:00 PM, competing with the powerhouse “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” on CBS!
You should know that “CSI” has long dominated the top three spots in viewership, with over 25 million viewers, and “Firefly” is there to clean its clock. The Thursday night 9 pm TV landscape is due for a change! Can it not withstand “CSI”? Will it not have viewership? The NBC executives are very dismissive, what a joke!
The TV series version of “Firefly,” slated for 24 episodes in its first season, is wholly independently funded by Tinder Entertainment, but don’t think its production budget is low. On the contrary, it boasts an average budget of $5 million per episode and $15 million for the pilot, amounting to a budget of exactly $130 million for 24 episodes!
For HBO, which spent $125 million on “Band of Brothers,” this might not seem that high considering “Band of Brothers” is a subscription channel miniseries, while “Firefly” is a broadcast channel TV series. They are completely different beasts, and on the latter’s turf, “Firefly” promptly stole the “highest budget series” title from “Lost.” Apart from a high-caliber script and directing team, the bulk of this money goes into special effects and location shoots; the early promotion has already claimed to have “cinematic effects.”
As for the cast, series creator Joss Whedon enlisted some members of the “Whedon Gang,” such as Nathan Fillion, who will play the male lead, “Captain Frye,” a fun chap who is the friendly nemesis and sworn enemy of Captain Mal. Whedon named the main character “Frye” as a tribute to Wang Yang.
These tidbits have greatly amused fans and followers, who are more concerned with what exactly the incredible Yang will be doing. How much involvement does he have in this series?
In response, Joss Whedon addressed the GEEK fans on forums: “Yang was not involved in the specific execution, but he provided a lot of detailed world-building, constructive opinions, and very important perspectives. Specially, he gave our writing team directions regarding pacing. This really matters because it determines how much main plot content, how many individual story elements, how much space cowboy entertainment, cultural life details, city atmosphere, and how many special effects the audience will see in each episode. Yang’s involvement has made our stories even more exciting, intense, and humorous.”
Publicity says that Wang Yang is a supervising producer for the TV series version of “Firefly,” which really just means he is one of the planning producers. But that’s more than enough—the combination of a super high budget, the magical Yang, Whedon, Firefly… all these elements equate to great public anticipation! Movie buffs really want to time-travel to binge-watch this series.
Nevertheless, before production even started, it has already sent the audience into a tizzy, and not even NBC dared to order the full season. The same goes for other channels that wanted to compete—it’s too risky! NBC only dared to buy the first half of the season, 12 episodes, and if the viewership doesn’t reach the desired target by then… it won’t need to return after the winter break.
Meanwhile, Tinder Entertainment has made another movement, neither too big nor too small. Through investment and a merger, Wang Yang’s private game development company, “Tinder Entertainment,” officially joined the Tinder Group.
Since its establishment in 2002, this company has been quiet, mostly producing simple yet exquisite casual games, like the “Ice Age” series’ “Squirrel Collecting Fruits,” “Squirrel Jump,” etc., with revenues sustaining the company’s expenses. Forget blockbuster success; they hardly even made the news, to the point that the media and the public gradually forgot the magical Yang had such a “toy.” Only magazines listing “Hollywood’s Least Industrious People” were sure to mention Wang Yang, along with IT websites, game companies, sports commentators, popular bloggers, restaurants…
In fact, Wang Yang’s passion for gaming hasn’t waned at all, whether playing games or creating them, as he is a GEEK who can immerse himself in video games. All these years, Tinder has been on a “secret mission.” Initially, he and people like Chris Taylor had planned to purchase the rights to use BioWare’s game engine “Infinity” to develop a large RPG game, but things didn’t go well, and they parted on bad terms.
Wang Yang has never been someone who likes nitpicking or being restrained, so he ordered the development of their own game engine!
The downfall of some game companies ultimately stems from their lack of proprietary technology, similar to Blue Sky Studios and Image Engine. If Tinder Entertainment wants to experience significant growth, it cannot afford to fall behind technically. With an engine and technology in place, the desired games can be created. A steady influx of capital and recruitment of talent, especially after the closure of Black Isle Studios when Tinder assimilated several former Black Isle veterans, led to 4 years of research and development, and eventually, Tinder Company unveiled its first-generation “Tinder Engine”!
Though it couldn’t compete with EPIC’s Unreal Engine, Crytek’s CryENGINE series, the Tinder Engine was not mere junk either. Chris Taylor and others confidently declared that it could rival the BigWorld and HERO engines. With this technology, Tinder was finally able to develop large-scale RPG games, and the timing was ripe to join the Flame Group. So, this buzz emerged, and the first Tinder RPG game “Firefly: Serenity” officially entered production, slated for release in the summer of ’08!
Of course, Tinder Company has already achieved some success in the casual and web game sector, and it has no intention of abandoning this market. After all, the young and busy boss, Wang Yang, spends most of his time playing relaxed casual games that don’t require much time with each play.
“Oh——”
A gasp echoed through the spacious and elegant living room as Zhou Run dodged a hail of bullets in a hospital corridor on the big TV screen. He rescued a baby from a nurse, holding a gun in one hand and cradling the baby in the other; he crouched in a corner and continued the fierce gunfight with the thugs. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Wow!” Wang Yang, who was engrossed on the couch, exclaimed repeatedly, and Keke, nestled in his arms, also gasped, her mouth agape and her big eyes blinking in astonishment at the television screen, not knowing what she had just seen.
This was an action-packed police and gangster shootout movie directed by John Woo called “Hard-Boiled” (1992), the last Hong Kong film he made before heading to Hollywood. The story follows “Tequila” Yuan, a ruthless detective played by Zhou Run, and “Tony” Leung, who played “Johnny Wong,” an undercover cop infiltrating an arms smuggling ring. The two, amidst their investigations, form an unlikely bond of admiration and eventually team up to take down the crime syndicate. This served as an inspiration for the character “Chan Wing Yan.”
Lately, whenever Wang Yang had free time, he would revisit these classic or not-so-classic Hong Kong undercover and cop movies that were later merged into “Infernal Affairs”: “The Edge of Fury,” “Flaming Brothers,” “Running Out of Time”… He sought inspiration from them, and unexpectedly, Keke also enjoyed watching them, always getting intensely absorbed in the action.
“Hey! I didn’t mean to do that.” On the screen, Zhou Run shattered a glass door with his foot, and the broken glass injured a thug’s face. He wiped off the fresh blood that had splattered on the thug’s chin and apologized.
“Haha!” Wang Yang burst into laughter, and Keke immediately chirped with laughter, her small fists waving about. Jessica, sitting on the other end of the couch, looked at the father and daughter pair and couldn’t help but shake her head; it seemed the whole family had a penchant for violence… She returned her gaze to the screen and then asked, “Dear, shouldn’t we take Keke to see ‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’?” Wang Yang was still laughing and nodded in agreement, “Yeah, sure!” That was the agreement, but the two of them didn’t actually plan on taking her to the cinema just yet. Keke was still too young for that.
On March 31, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” was released. (
