hollywood melon man

Chapter 3 Opportunity to challenge

Unlike the grumpy truck driver James Cameron, Spielberg is famously good-natured in Hollywood.

For example, the big-mouthed Julia Roberts had a fight with Spielberg when she got high. If he were replaced by a truck driver, he would definitely replace the big-mouthed Julia Roberts without hesitation.

But Spielberg was able to tolerate it and continued to cooperate with Julia Roberts regardless of the past grudges, which is enough to show his good temper.

Of course, just this time, Julia Roberts will never receive any invitations from Spielberg in the future, and she will not even be qualified to audition.

Facing little Gilbert who was cheating on his goddaughter, Spielberg felt that he could not give him a good look.

But seeing little Gilbert come in and say hello respectfully, Spielberg couldn't put on his bad face for a moment.

"Here, sit down," Spielberg asked little Gilbert to sit down, then turned to his assistant and said, "Pour me a cup of coffee."

"Water will do," said little Gilbert.

The assistant looked at Spielberg, who nodded, and then the assistant went to pour water.

When the water reached little Gilbert's hands, Spielberg asked: "Little Gilbert, did you write the script that little Gwen gave me?"

Although the idea was not his own, the writing was definitely his own. Little Gilbert admitted without hesitation: "Yes, I wrote all the scripts."

"Oh? How did you come up with this story? I simply read the script and found that except for the shark, your script has nothing to do with my "Jaws"." Spielberg was very curious about this.

Here little Gilbert is about to use his trick: "Director..."

"Just call me uncle."

"Okay, Uncle Steven, I've always been a big movie fan. When I was five years old, my dad took me to the theater to see "Jaws."

From that time on, I thought about writing a shark story myself. As I grew older and came into contact with the film industry, this idea gradually took shape, and it evolved into this script today. "

The reasons given by Gilbert Jr. were so good that Spielberg couldn't fault it.

Spielberg asked again: "When you wrote this script and asked little Gwen to show it to me, did you intend to let me take the credit for this movie?"

"I didn't think so at all." Little Gilbert stood up and didn't mind the water in his glass spilling. "When I first started writing the script, I never thought I would get your recommendation.

But Gwyneth was very enthusiastic about helping, so I just went along with the flow. "

"I know, little Gwen told me too." Spielberg motioned to little Gilbert not to get excited and sit down first.

Then, Spielberg and Gilbert Jr. talked about the script, or creative ideas for the film, including shooting ideas and so on.

During this process, Spielberg was also observing little Gilbert's state to see what his specific mental state was.

If little Gilbert is the kind of person who talks big, is not pragmatic, and boasts about how well he will do, Spielberg will definitely not help him.

But unexpectedly, little Gilbert was very pragmatic and thought about every step from planning to implementation.

Pragmatism and imagination, these two somewhat contradictory words, are both reflected in little Gilbert.

It should be said that in Hollywood, every successful film director is basically a combination of two words.

It seems that little Gilbert inherited his father Gilbert Sr.'s film talent, but did not inherit Sr. Gilbert's impetuous character, which is much better.

After chatting about his general thoughts on the movie, Spielberg concluded his basic investigation of Little Gilbert.

"Last question, if little Gwen had to be the heroine, would you agree?" Spielberg asked.

Little Gilbert thought for a while and then replied: "If the audition can meet the requirements, I will definitely agree."

Spielberg is more satisfied, has a bottom line, and will consider the movie. In the same way, be flexible in dealing with things and give them all the favors and face that should be given.

"Okay, that's all for today. I'll take this script with me. Do you have any objections?" Spielberg said with a smile.

"Of course, Uncle Steven." Little Gilbert smiled.

When Spielberg accepted the script, it was almost certain that he would recommend it to the film company. But there is an uncertain factor here, which is whether Gilbert Jr. can be a director. This is very critical. Don't overestimate the conscience and confidence of the film company. When people see the shark movie recommended by Spielberg, they will definitely be very interested. After all, the successful precedent of "Jaws" is there.

But if one knew that the director was a young man in his twenties, he would definitely demand a more reliable director.

There is a saying in China: Talking without words can make things worse.

The senior executives of Hollywood film companies do not understand Chinese, but they still understand the same principle.

Therefore, there are few opportunities for young people to gain trust. After all, it involves millions or even tens of millions of investments.

Of course, little Gilbert can also bring capital into the group.

But it is a pity that the Landrini family only has their name and is worth some money, and nothing else.

Little Gilbert still had to pay off his college loan, and he didn't have the money to invest in a movie.

In fact, at the beginning, little Gilbert also thought about making a "Blair Witch" or a "Ghost Chronicles".

After all, these two movies are examples of horror movies that can achieve high box office with a small investment, and they are not difficult to shoot.

But after some weighing, Gilbert Jr. still rejected these two movies.

There are two reasons. The first is environmental reasons. After all, 1991 is not 1999 or 2009.

The popularity of "Blair Witch" and "The Ghost Story" is inseparable from the development of the Internet.

When these two movies appeared, the speed of Internet development in North America had reached a peak, with the number of Internet users and Internet visits ranking first in the world.

But when is it now? It was 1991, and just last year, the world's first publicly accessible web page and web browser were created.

Not long after Microsoft released Windows 3.0, it established its position as the dominant operating system on the PC side.

Also last year, the world's first operator to provide network services was just established.

According to statistics, there were only about 1991 million Internet users in the United States in .

Although it is still number one in the world, it is too few and the base is not large.

When "Blair Witch" was released in 1999, there were more than 1.1 million Internet users in the United States.

1.1 million to million, this is an easy calculation.

The gap between the Internet, which is an important propaganda base, is so great that none of the tricks used in "Blair Witch" could be used in 1991.

Why Internet publicity is so important for "Blair Witch" and "The Haunting", in addition to the contagiousness and diffusion of the Internet, one of the reasons is to save money.

These days, movie promotions are carried out through newspaper media, TV media, and offline advertising.

These all cost money and are not cheap.

For a movie with an investment of tens of thousands, you ask the film company to spend tens of millions in promotional expenses.

Without God's perspective, the film company executives will probably think you are sick.

Therefore, for a new director's first film, it is not that the smaller the investment, the better, but the appropriate investment.

The second reason is little Gilbert's own reason.

Of course he knows that filming "The Blair Witch Project" or "The Ghost Story" is easy and there is really no technical difficulty.

But as a film director, if there is no challenge, little Gilbert feels it is not interesting enough.

Little Gilbert likes challenges. Only by daring to challenge can he face bigger storms.

Now it’s up to Spielberg to see if he can persuade the film company’s executives to give little Gilbert a chance to challenge.

(End of this chapter)