Chapter 411: 411: The Super Goldmine!

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“Step Up 2” remained the North American box office champion from September 30 to October 6 with a gross of $20.87 million (-45.1%), marking Flamethrower Pictures’ ninth weekly championship trophy of the year, accounting for 23% of the total 39, more than any other company; followed by DreamWorks’ animated comedy “Super Invincible Boss Dog: The Curse of the Rabbithumans” which took the lead with $21.55 million for the week of October 7-13; Columbia’s horror film “Ghost Fog” then captured the championship for the week of October 14-20 with $14.24 million.

With drops of 46.7% and 55.3%, bringing in $11.12 million and $4.97 million respectively, “Step Up 2’s” North American total gross rose to $74.99 million after four weeks in release, making it a very satisfying outcome during the movie market’s off-season.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Flamethrower Pictures’ momentum will not stop, as the busy production department, through the company’s scouting and Wang Yang’s recommendations, has new developments for the two dog movies scheduled for release in 2007.

The low-budget “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale” brought in Todd Reibman as the lead producer, who had previously planned and produced films like “Hail Hairedresser” and next year’s dog movies “Long Haired Dog,” and “Antarctic Adventure.” This marks his first time handling the executive production duties; meanwhile, FF extended an invitation to direct & write to French director Luc Jacquet, whose documentary “March of the Penguins,” released this year, dazzled with a 94% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has already grossed $76 million in North America.

However, the difference between documentaries, narrative films, and commercial films is vast, and Jacquet is not a hot commodity with Hollywood studios; of course, Jacquet himself is not interested in popcorn flicks either. FF’s production department believes that Jacquet’s ability to handle the relationships and emotions between people, animals, and nature is first-rate, with ample experience in shooting animals, making him an excellent fit for directing “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale.” Since “Hachi” lacks strong commercial appeal, transforming it into a highly acclaimed, touching film would compensate for its lack of box office returns through post-release sales, and its performance in the Asian market is worth looking forward to.

However, both FF and Jacquet are making choices. While Jacquet is quite interested, he is currently unwilling to delay the production of a family drama script he’s written called “The Fox and the Child,” so he still needs time to consider.

Having seen an early version of “The Fox and the Child” with a 50% freshness rating, Wang Yang is aware of one significant shortcoming of Jacquet’s: accustomed to the pace of documentaries, he tells stories very slowly, leading to beautiful shots but a narrative structure that appears out of control. The inexperienced Jacquet can’t handle narrative films alone. “Hachi” is an important project launched by Wang Yang, and he certainly wouldn’t sit back and watch it fail. The solution is simple: if Jacquet directs & writes, another person should join to handle the adaptation of the script, responsible for constructing and overseeing the commercial aspects. Moreover, during the film’s post-production editing, an experienced editor would be essential to take charge of the work.

The mid-budget “Marley & Me” found David Frankel to serve as the lead producer, who in recent years contributed to successful films like “Dude, Where’s My Car?” and “Phone Booth”; Scott Frank and Don Roos were brought in as screenwriters to adapt this bestselling novel into a film script.

Most often, producers come up with good project ideas and seek out studios for investment, but sometimes studios approach producers with production proposals. Recently, for producer Greg Mooradian, who runs his own independent production company “Maverick-Films,” something dreamlike happened! The reason was his belief that the supernatural romance novel “Twilight” could make it onto the big screen; after contacting various studios, the responses were almost unanimously: “It’s not worth much.”

This was no surprise, as Hollywood is flooded with movies featuring vampires and werewolves; how many of them are successful? Even if one wanted to produce such a story, why spend a large sum to acquire the novel’s adaptation rights? Just get a screenwriter to write one. Besides, with the “Underworld” series already on the market, who would watch another film of the same genre?

In fact, “Twilight” was originally a script written by Stephenie Meyer. Initially, in April 2004, Paramount’s subsidiary MTV Films was interested in turning it into a movie, but the project was shelved, and Meyer wrote it as a novel instead. That script could only be considered raw material, and now there was a novel manuscript sitting in Paramount’s production office. But regardless of the script’s quality, Greg Mooradian felt that “Twilight” really stood out with a special enchanting quality – it was a love story, not an adventure action movie.

But with studios uninterested, Mooradian thought he had to wait for “Twilight’s” sales to become more persuasive; perhaps then studios would take notice. However, at this time, Flamethrower Pictures seemed to have developed a great interest!

In reality, many novels are read by studios and producers before their publication to find new material suitable for film adaptation. This depends on the connections and influence of the authors and publishers. “Twilight” author Stephenie Meyer was just a 32-year-old ordinary full-time housewife with no prior writing experience, which is also why Paramount lacked confidence. The first book “Twilight,” released to shelves on October 5, had an initial print of only 75,000 copies; the publisher Brown-And-Company had no expectation that it would top The New York Times Best Seller list.

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Before “Twilight” hit the shelves, the producers who received it were mostly of Greg Mooradian’s level, and the film production department at Flame Films, who always kept an eye on bestsellers, also read it and immediately started to pay attention! Therefore, it wasn’t exactly a project recommended by Mooradian, but Meyer and Brown-And-Company needed a producer to communicate with the film distribution company, and Mooradian was such a middleman.

According to normal market analysis, FF’s assumption that the vampire theme of “Twilight” was unoriginal—meaning “tried and true”—and that the essence of high school romance lacked epic scenes and profound themes, clearly indicated it wasn’t an attractive project. It seemed less worthwhile than investing in a teen campus movie; besides, the popularity of this particular novel was unknown. Could it really become the next “Harry Potter”? Let’s not forget that book sales do not equal box office hits.

However, Vice President Lin Wei felt that “Twilight” was full of charm and unique allure, and it shouldn’t be prematurely judged as clichéd or without market value just because it involved vampires, or even dismissed without reading the novel. What it truly depicted was a moving love story, which was exactly what sold. Upon re-evaluation, everyone thought it indeed looked promising. The contrast between vampire culture and adolescent restlessness could be an interesting comparison that might attract a large female teen audience. It might be worth considering adapting it into a movie with a production budget of twenty or thirty million dollars. If managed well, there was a potential to exceed a hundred million dollars at the box office.

Actually, the fate of “Twilight” was already sealed: Regardless, Flame Films would not underestimate it, because the words of YOUNG-BOSS were, “I love Bella! I love Edward! We must secure the film rights!” “Storming Las Vegas” and “The Devil Wears Prada” had been successfully adapted for the screen by Flame Films. With ongoing projects like “Marley & Me” based on bestsellers, FF’s vision would not go astray. The production department shifted into high gear upon receiving the instructions.

In the world today, only Wang Yang knew the terrifying potential of “Twilight.” Not to mention its book sales, but looking at the box office performance of its film series, how many production companies would beat their chests in regret, shouting, “Oh God! Why? Why?”…

If Paramount had paid more attention to it, Summit Entertainment would never have been the one to produce the series. Summit was primarily an independent film company focused on DVD distribution, collaborating with numerous independent film companies. In recent years, it had also participated in producing investments, with films like “American Pie,” “Memento,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “The Brothers Grimm,” and others bearing its mark. When it acquired the rights to the “Twilight” series in 2007 and spent $37 million to produce “Twilight,” Summit was making a desperate bet. If this risky venture failed, its financial statements would look dire.

Moreover, Summit’s theater distribution capabilities and experience were limited, so if other independent film companies had given it enough attention, the production budget for “Twilight” would not have been embarrassingly below $50 million. Starting with MTV Films giving up “Twilight,” everything was a series of fortunate accidents, leading to one commercial miracle after another.

Despite lukewarm reviews from film critics— with the first four movies’ Rotten Tomatoes freshness ratings being 49%, 28%, 49%, and 25% respectively— their box office revenues spoke for themselves. In 2008, the first “Twilight” with a $37 million budget grossed $192 million in North America and $392 million globally; in 2009, the second part “New Moon” had a $50 million budget and earned $296 million/$709 million; the third part “Eclipse” in 2010 cost $68 million and made $300 million/$698 million; and “Breaking Dawn Part 1” in 2011 with a $110 million budget brought in $280 million/$705 million; followed by “Breaking Dawn Part 2” in 2012…

Just the first four movies alone, with a combined production budget of $265 million, insanely hauled in $2.504 billion at the global box office! Not to mention, the DVD and other post-release sales were bound to be staggering figures.

If Flame Films had successfully acquired it, it could be considered fortunate among the fortunate. “Twilight” would not only bring huge profits and the capital space for further development to the group, but it also wouldn’t harm their enormous teen fanbase. Isn’t owning such an enchanting film series something to be joyous about? Now in search of investors, Flame Films had no reason to miss out.

Yet it was ever since MTV Films gave up on this story, especially now as the novel’s sales were booming, that Stephenie Meyer wasn’t in a rush to adapt it to film. She wouldn’t recklessly sell the rights. Flame Films knew that once their interest in “Twilight” leaked, if it was just the idea of the production department that was okay. But Magic Yang… would definitely draw the attention of other production houses. Especially if Paramount joined the fray, FF would be headed for a fierce battle. Perhaps they shouldn’t treat it too preciously after all?

“No! Don’t fear competition. We just need to do our best, show Flame’s sincerity, respect, and determination, and Meyer will choose Flame,” Wang Yang said to Mark Strong, Lin Wei, and others, who all profoundly agreed. (