Chapter 378: 378 KO! KO! KO! (Requesting Monthly Votes)

“Wang Yang reveals new film plan, Natalie Portman joins as lead actress in ‘500 Days of Summer’ — Yahoo Entertainment, Rotten Tomatoes, America Online…”

According to reports from multiple media outlets, “Firefly director” Wang Yang recently unveiled a new project on his personal blog, planning to shoot a low-budget romance film titled ‘500 Days of Summer’! And he announced that “Star Wars Queen” Natalie Portman will play the female lead! The news had not yet caused a stir when Natalie Portman confirmed his words on her blog, writing, “It’s an honor to work with Wang Yang once again, this is an exciting moment; his set always gives you a unique energy, looking forward to my performance! Also, congratulations to him for ‘Firefly’ breaking the 1 billion US Dollar global box office…”

The news spread like wildfire, and although the public has grown accustomed to Wang Yang’s rapid and prolific output, looking at the “Las Vegas Duology + From New York to Paris and Back to New York” following ‘District 9’, it’s not surprising that he’d return to mid to low-budget productions after ‘Firefly’, but…

A romance movie?! MY? Fans couldn’t help but be startled, especially when they heard the little detail he joked about himself: “It’s not a high school romance, there will be sunshine and shade, please fasten your seat belts!”

“It seems that Yang’s war with the critics will continue,” said the report from Rotten Tomatoes, as more than one critic has mentioned that Wang Yang’s works lack the passion of chasing girls, even with so-called romantic elements. Is ‘High School Musical’ considered romance? ‘Juno’, ‘District 9’, and ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ each had touches of it, but if that’s the case, even ‘Paranormal Activity’ is a romance movie; and the only mixed review of ‘Firefly’ on MetaCritic cited a lack of normal beautiful women and romantic elements.

Now, with Wang Yang set to become a father by the end of the year, he doesn’t rest for a moment and announces he’s making a romance film! Movie fans are roaring in anticipation, damn, can’t wait!

“MY, what’s the story? What’s the style? What’s the theme? Oh heavens, this is so sudden!” Fan Carrie-E managed to snatch a front-row seat on this new blog post. Fan Jon-L was utterly baffled, “Is this a joke? Can someone tell me what’s going on? It’s hard to imagine MY’s romance movie! No kissing, no physical contact, no eye contact, what is that?” Katie-T, into gossip, was concerned, “Natalie Portman again! I never thought her acting was that good, MY, won’t Jessica be mad that you’re so close to her?” While Georgina-D, another female fan, was keen on the movie details, “Is the film about the 500 days with Summer? What about day 501? It isn’t a tragedy, is it? Please, no!”…

Actually, all the fans had this worry, knowing that “Sunny Humorous Yang” could brighten one’s mood for months or even years, while “Depressed Scary Yang” could leave an indelible shadow in the audience’s heart for life. If he uses a romance film to unleash something oppressive to harm people…

The entire film world went crazy! Of course, it wasn’t just the media and fans in a frenzy; film companies were equally panicked, not for pie-in-the-sky shares and investments, but because Wang Yang said, “This film will be released during this year’s Christmas slot!” They all hurriedly checked their distribution schedules, reassessing and weighing their options — no one wanted to become a pitiful casualty during the merry Christmas season! Agents and actors were also in disarray, without any advance notice, and suddenly there was a new film!! And suddenly the female lead was taken! Good heavens! Are there any roles left?

“If you can’t land me a significant role, you’re fired!” Drew Barrymore gave her agent an ultimatum. Keira Knightley, Blake Lively, Camilla Belle, Jessica Bell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Rose Byrne, and many more popular ingenues or emerging actresses expressed their interest in working with the “charmer” Wang Yang through their agents; Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway, Alexis Braidel, Eliza Dushku, Anne Darren, and Emily Blunt—all of whom had worked with Wang Yang, were familiar with him, or were introduced by him—reached out through calls or messages. Julia Roberts also inquired about a potential role for her niece Emma Roberts…

This was Wang Yang’s magic! No one minded being the second female lead. Even if they didn’t receive a nomination for Best Supporting Actress, their fame had a strong chance of skyrocketing! But for both the famous and the unknown, personal desires played a large role. Everyone wanted to work with Wang Yang, the super director who was not only funny and approachable but was also of their generation. His movie “Firefly” was particularly exciting—who wouldn’t want to work with him just once? There was so much to gain.

Agents mobilized en masse, contacting Wang Yang to inquire about the possibility of collaboration. The open spots for male leads and supporting actors were even more competitive: Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zachary Levi, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Franco, Ryan Reynolds, Ashton Kutcher, Jay Baruchel, Bradley Cooper, Channing Tatum… So many were hoping to star, and like the female roles, they were content with a symbolic payment of several hundred thousand dollars.

So, after a few days, the media was buzzing with a slew of industry news: “Keira Knightley actively seeking to join ‘500 Days of Summer,'” “Jessica Bell enters the race for a role in ‘500 Days of Summer,'” “Julia Roberts wants to help her niece score a role in a Wang Yang project?” “Jake Gyllenhaal hopes to be the lead actor in Wang Yang’s new movie,” “Heath Ledger rumored to join ‘500 Days of Summer’…”

“Let’s cheer for ‘Firefly’ to our heart’s content!” Wang Yang seemed to have foreseen the fervor that the news would spark when he wrote this at the end of his announcement blog.

Lately, Wang Yang’s news was one story after another, but what remained at the vortex was “Firefly,” which had just spectacularly outperformed Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise’s collaboration on “War of the Worlds.”

When July 1st to 7th concluded, the hopes for “War of the Worlds” to win the first-week box office crown were dashed. It landed at second place with a box office of $98.8267 million, averaging $25,288 per theater (3,908 theaters). These first-week figures weren’t bad, reaching $134.5 million in 9 days. However, comparing it to the third week of “Firefly,” it was shamefully overtaken.

-30.57%! “Firefly” grossed a staggering $104.9 million to dominate the North American box office for the third consecutive week! Averaging $25,761 per theater (4,075 theaters), “Firefly” reached a 21-day North American total of $492.5 million!

Driven by the two high-profile tentpoles, the North American box office continued to sizzle this week, totaling a joyful $316.5 million, much to the delight of theater owners. However, films like “Batman,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” among others, suffered, with their per-theater averages in the sorry state of $3,000 to $5,000, nearly being ignored. This week’s other new release, the sports comedy “Grind,” was both forgotten and ridiculed, with scores of 13%/14%/52% on Rotten Tomatoes and an average of $2,445 per theater, resulting in a meager $6.02 million opening week box office (2,464 theaters)—it was declared dead on arrival.

Firefly dominated the overseas box office, sweeping a staggering $176.4 million with a mere -28% drop from the previous week, pushing its overseas total to $690.6 million. Within just 21 days, its global box office reached $1.1831 billion, surpassing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King’s second-place historical record of $1.167 billion, becoming the new runner-up in movie history! The era of Miracle Yang has fully arrived!

“I said it before! War of the Worlds is no match for Firefly! What about the third week? Still the champion! The billion dollar box office!”

Evelyn excitedly typed this line of text on the comment board of Yahoo News, where countless people were cheering and clapping for Wang Yang and Firefly, and of course, quite a few were mocking and sarcastic. For instance, idiotic Yang hater SEM65 said, “I don’t know what you guys are so happy about, don’t forget it was people like Wang Yang who bombed our Pearl Harbor.” Cappie replied, “Learn some history, you idiot.” Adrian added, “It’s because of idiots like these that we have so much fun.” Milinda answered, “To think that there are still people who know nothing about Miracle Yang, oh my God! Which planet did you come from?” Excited girl Kray wrote, “I love Miracle Yang!! I want to marry him, I want to have his babies!! I hate Jessica Alba!!! I hate her!!” Another idiotic Yang hater CeeM went straight to insults, “Wang Yang, come taste my big balls!” …

Everyone loves Miracle Yang, everyone hates Miracle Yang, whether it’s praise or insult, it’s all part of the craze for him.

Nast8 wrote, “1.2 billion in box office! I love this madman! Every time he brings me a huge thrill, the feeling of kicking Spielberg’s old ass is just awesome!” Tpfan24 wrote, “I’ve never liked Spielberg, he’s too cunning and shrewd, I’m glad Yang took care of him.” Another die-hard Wang Yang fan, Alice, wrote, “Spielberg is old, and he can’t make decent movies anymore. War of the Worlds is a very cliched and stale film, maybe some old folks might like it, but it’s not in line with young people’s taste. Look at Firefly, that has everything we want! Miracle Yang’s victory is a matter of course.” Rolo188 wrote, “How can I stop loving Wang Yang?” …

Breaking through 1 billion in box office! 1.1 billion! Nearly 1.2 billion! The whole production team of Firefly and everyone at Flame Movies were proud and happy about this achievement. Robert Downey Jr. was happy, Heath Ledger was happy, Daniel Wu was happy, Michael Pitt was happy, Ellen Page was happy… unbelievable! Flame’s official spokesperson Fiona Hassan conveyed heartfelt thanks to the fans and audience of Firefly through the media: “Yang said, ‘This is a miracle performed together for the world,’ and we wholeheartedly agree…”

Without a doubt, this impressive achievement not only greatly excited Nast8, but also fired up the enthusiastic, hardcore fans on IMDB. Armed with this momentum, the previously 5.7% one-star reviews of Firefly, which had dragged its score down to 9.3, suddenly surged back up to 9.5 (465,943 voters) almost overnight! It continued to lead by a wide margin over The Godfather’s 9.1, firmly sitting atop the TOP250 list!

Some are overjoyed, some are not; according to disclosures by multiple gossip entertainment media, Tom Cruise was very upset about his new movie not winning the opening week championship, and even Katie Holmes was affected, leading to several unpleasant fights between the couple, and the possibility of their marriage falling through. An insider from US-Weekly revealed: “Tom was depressed and angry, he did so much for this movie, yet still couldn’t win the championship, it was a real blow, but who is there to blame? He’s just mad at himself.” Also, there were rumors that Spielberg was extremely angry, having received poor audience reception, not getting the first week’s champion, and even losing to a third-week film! The Insider recounted his words: “It’s like a disgrace.”

However, Spielberg’s old friend, Robert Zemeckis, had a different opinion. Recently, while attending a film technology expo and speaking to media reporters about Wang Yang and Firefly, he was full of praise: “I’m proud of this young man, from The Pursuit of Happyness to Firefly, I witnessed his step by step growth. A few years back, he was asking me about how to evoke actors’ emotions, create an atmosphere on set, set up props and so on; now, he’s beyond what I can teach, on the contrary, I need to ask him questions. He’s taken IMAX technology to new heights.” He added with a laugh to the reporters, “You must have heard a lot of praise for Firefly, but I still have to say it, this movie is incomparable.”

At the same time, according to Yahoo Entertainment, George Lucas also highly praised “Firefly,” saying, “I really appreciate the success Wang Yang has achieved, it’s a new kind of interstellar popular culture,” He especially praised the fusion of the Wild West and the Oriental world depicted in the film as the future, saying, “It’s indescribably beautiful, and it inspires me to explore and create future alien civilizations. Moreover, the IMAX quality of ‘Firefly’ made the visuals even more spectacular. Although I’m not a die-hard fan of IMAX technology, I do believe that ‘Star Wars’ should become better through these new technologies.”

The praise from “Back to the Future” and “Forrest Gump” director Robert Zemeckis might not seem like hot news, but “Star Wars” creator George Lucas joining in on the fun? This piece of news, not just a rumor, had jolted many Star Wars fans, and it even left some fans who had been fervently arguing “Star Wars vs. Firefly” dumbfounded. No way, Lucas stabbed them in the back at a critical moment!? Could “Firefly” really be that good!?

In addition to the “University of Southern California gang,” the number of stars and celebrities giving it a thumbs up continues to grow. “The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, whose “King Kong” remake was set to release in December, said in a blog, “These days all I hear my friends talk about is ‘Firefly.’ Last weekend I went to see it at both a regular and an IMAX theater, then I started knocking on my head, wondering why ‘King Kong’ didn’t use IMAX film. But if you think I’m saying ‘Firefly’ is just about IMAX, you’d be wrong…” Quentin Tarantino, on his personal website archive, said, “I can now list my top ten films of this summer, number one, ‘Firefly,’ which is cooler than ‘Kill Bill.’ I’d like to invite Wang Yang to star in an action movie — is that possible?” Will Smith revealed in his blog, “It killed me! Since it released, Jaden has been begging me to take him to see it five times, and of course, I enjoyed it every time.”…

University of Southern California directors are impressive, but they can also be in a tight spot. On the weekend of July 8-10, the North American box office welcomed the launch of two massive new films. The horror film “Ghost Water Tale,” released by Bowei, harvested rotten scores of 45%/42%/37% and a paltry average of $2,740 per theater over three days, resulting in a disappointing $7.28 million across 2,657 theaters, tagged as “another cannon fodder.” Directed by University of Southern California graduate Tim Story, starring Rachel McAdams and Chris Evans among others, the high-profile “Fantastic Four” premiered, but both its critical reception and box office numbers were dreadfully poor.

A fresh rating of 27% by the audience, a renowned freshness of 29%, and an audience liking of 57%!

Richard Roeper from “Ebert & Roeper” tossed a rotten tomato, “A bland film with bland performances, really, who thought it was a good idea to turn Rachel McAdams into an invisible girl? It’s a bad idea and I wish she was visible at all times.” Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times gave it a 1/4 rating, saying sarcastically, “A truly good superhero movie should be like ‘Superman,’ ‘Spider-Man 2,’ ‘Batman.’ The purpose of ‘Fantastic Four’ being in the same theater is only to feel ashamed.” David Edelstein from “The Rock” also threw a rotten tomato, “An overstuffed silly B-movie, with no metaphors, no subtext, no innuendos, no wit, no performances, it looks like they are just a soap opera director and some cheesy actors, except for Rachel McAdams.”…

With such terrible reviews and lacking the support of major directors or stars, “Fantastic Four” barely had any competitive strength at the box office and was soon labeled as “a huge flop,” then “another cannon fodder.” It took in an average of $9,328 per theater from 3,602 theaters, totaling a weak opening weekend box office of $33.6 million! Ranking second.

The first place belonged to the wild “Firefly”! After knocking out “War of the Worlds” in its third weekend, it took down “Fantastic Four” in its fourth, clinching its fourth consecutive North American weekend box office championship! Instantly, the media and fans were once again in an uproar. (