Hollywood Road

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Not only the director of the operation department was flattering this unsightly middle-aged man, but even the manager on duty of the cinema ran over after getting the news. Kevin Harland also stepped forward and greeted him with a smile. The man just nodded slightly, but he felt very honored.

Watching the other party walk out of the theater, Kevin Harland felt that if he could achieve one-third of his achievements in this life, he would be satisfied.

The middle-aged man named Mintz left the theater, and a car immediately pulled up and stopped in front of him. He opened the door and sat in, gestured to the driver to drive, and then took out his mobile phone to make a call.

"You have overlooked a film!" He said very seriously, "Starting tomorrow, do a market research on "Chain Saw" immediately. Also, build an archive about Murphy Stanton, and he will release it in the future." The videos are all in the ranks of attention!"

After hanging up the phone, the middle-aged man dialed several numbers in a row, frequently mentioning the names of "Chain Saw" and Murphy Stanton. It seemed that he and his professional company had made mistakes in these two. Big mistake.

His name is Ed Mintz, and he is the founder of a famous company!

This can be said to be the most authoritative film market analysis organization in Hollywood and even in North America. Ed Mintz's survey and analysis does not involve film art or other professional ratings, but only focuses on the market.

For the name Ed Mintz, ordinary movie fans and even senior movie fans are very unfamiliar. Only professionals in the industry know the capabilities of him and his company.

He has never attended any premieres, and the name Ed Mintz has never appeared on the Hollywood power list, but he has made a huge contribution to the entire Hollywood film industry in the past few years-the film market he founded Research companies provide incalculable box office reference information for the industry as a whole.

Unlike professional film critics or the media, which use the market as a reference, they often conduct surveys immediately after the audience has watched the film. The ratings based on the audience's word-of-mouth are also the best first-line market data.

The ratings are easy to understand, a means success, b means okay, quite satisfactory, c means bad news, which means that box office tragedy is about to happen, and generally the audience of a movie that has just been released will rarely give a rating below c, if there is Getting the film basically means it shouldn't be in theaters at all.

Although he is sixty years old, Ed Mintz not only has no intention of retiring, but also maintains a good habit of going to theaters to watch movies in person to experience the first-tier market. However, while watching many mainstream commercial masterpieces, he will also choose some Low-budget movie viewing.

The investment scale of mainstream commercial masterpieces is there,

There are always a lot of viewers, even if the released data forecasts are accurate, they cannot attract people's attention. On the contrary, they are low-cost movies that attract little attention. professional ability.

Ed Mintz has more accurately judged that the box office of "The Blair Witch" in North America can exceed 100 million. At that time, almost everyone thought it was a miracle that such a bad film could have a box office of 50 million US dollars. The result surprised everyone. Ed Mintz also proved his strength.

A few nights ago, he saw the late-night trailer of "Saw" and thought it was a bit interesting, so he took the time to watch it tonight.

"Sure enough, this trip is worth it!" He said to himself in the back seat, "If this kind of film, with proper publicity, fails to achieve good results, it can only show the taste of North American horror film lovers. There's been a 180-degree turn."

Unlike ordinary audiences, when Ed Mintz watched a movie, he noticed who the director was at the beginning, but he didn’t know him or remember him. He thought that he might be misled by the trailer. But after reading it, the thumbs in my heart have been raised.

"The director's setting of the plot can arouse the audience's imagination, imagining what would happen if they were in the character's situation." He recalled the film while thinking, "This unknown element will arouse the audience's interest in watching. Where is it, what's going to happen, everything is out of control, that's the scariest thing."

Ed Mintz nodded, quite approving of this film, the director named Murphy Stanton should be regarded as a breakthrough, compared with traditional suspense horror films, he will mobilize the audience's interaction and participatory.

"Murphy Stanton..." he repeated the name.

This unknown director is too smart. He uses the inner fear and the ruthless ridicule of human nature to reveal, and deliberately guides the audience to torture their hearts, so as to arouse their chills from the bottom of their hearts!

It is simply an exquisite narrative and a method of creating a terrifying atmosphere, which has never been seen in the past five or six years!

Ed Mintz thinks this is not a simple rookie director, as can be seen from the film's narrative techniques.

Needless to say, the amazing crossover montage, just because the flashback is so natural, so ingenious, and the perfect and seamless combination with the main narrative, it is very, very difficult.

Director Murphy Stanton uses flashbacks to cleverly narrate the time and space of the police, criminals, and protagonists in a reincarnation style, making the plot more compact and pressing every step of the way! Especially the battle of wits and courage between the police and the criminals, from the scene to the clues to the reasoning and then to the verification, people can't take their eyes off it.

Even for him, the tension on the spot increased sharply!

Sitting in the car, Ed Mintz's head was full of this movie, and he couldn't stop at all.

The characters in the film seem irrelevant in daily life, but they are so similar under a specific condition! When the mystery is revealed, is it the person in the play or himself who is undergoing spiritual torture?

He shook his head. This is the smartest thing the director did. He found the so-called mission for Jigsaw with cruel human torture, making his image look strangely sacred.

"In the face of life and death, what is your choice? Live or die?"

For some reason, Ed Mintz thought of this question again. At first glance, the question seemed redundant, but what if there were additional conditions? What if it's your life? The ugliness of human selfishness disintegrated at this moment, maybe only a pervert can come up with such a soul-stirring theme...

"Murphy Stanton..." He whispered the name again.

From the 1970s to the present, he has watched countless movies, and there are not a few horror movies. He has long been used to the expected final scares such as the resurrection of aliens, Godzilla laying eggs, and perverted murderers inexplicably killing people. But at the end of the film, The degree of unexpectedness is close to that of "The Sixth Sense" two years ago, so much so that his mind is full of this film until now, even if he wants to take a break.

Of course, there are many flaws in the film.

For example, the background of the victims of several cases should be described in more detail to help the audience understand the ending; The performances of the actors are too rigid and stereotyped, without any eye-catching feeling. For example, the plot is too tight, there is no emotional buffer, and the nerves are always tense for 90 minutes, which is easy to cause fatigue...

Thinking of this, Ed Mintz laughed himself. He had never heard of Murphy Stanton's name. He should be a newcomer director. For a newcomer director, he is still demanding so much? The other party is not Sam? Remy or Ridley - Scott, not to mention the film itself flawless, is definitely a wonderful work!

Even, if the film works well, it is not impossible to become a classic in horror films.

The car slowly approached a manor on the outskirts of Las Vegas. Ed Mintz's cell phone rang suddenly. He looked down at the number and frowned slightly.

He answered the phone, "Is there something wrong at this late hour?"

"Boss..." The person on the other end of the phone is obviously his subordinate in the company, "I have arranged the manpower according to your instructions, but this movie will only be screened in 30 theaters this weekend, and there is a research and consulting company on the scene. Statistics of audience word-of-mouth."

Ed Mintz asked, "Do they have any statistics?"

"One thing, it's not very accurate." The subordinate said as simply as possible, "According to today's movie viewing data, the audience's favorable rate is close to 90%!"

"Well," Ed Mintz nodded, not surprised, "Don't worry about what they do, starting tomorrow, do our job well!"

The car drove into the manor, and Ed Mintz went back to the room, washed up briefly, and was about to go to bed, but he couldn't fall asleep after lying down. His mind was full of the image of the jigsaw standing up at the end, although it was judged that this scene was done before. The foreshadowing was not enough, but the unexpected effect left a deep and deep impression on him. It seemed to be engraved in his mind in a short time, and it could not be erased.

It was not yet midnight on the west coast, and it was already late at night in New York on the east coast. Luis Gonzalez's bedroom was quiet. Suddenly, he yelled and sat up, his hands and feet still struggling unconsciously.

"I choose to live! I don't want to die!" He waved his hands wildly in front of him, "Don't tie me up, I don't want my joints to be broken! Don't push me down, I have trypophobia, those needles will kill me damn..."

"Ah..." He howled miserably.

The howling finally woke up his sleeping wife. She turned on the desk lamp, got up and looked aside, and slapped Luis Gonzalez hard on the back. Luis Gonzalez slapped There was a shock.

"Ah..." He was still screaming unconsciously, but his eyes were already open.

Seeing the familiar face of his wife right in front of him, Luis Gonzalez realized that he was having a nightmare, so he quickly raised his hand to touch the cold sweat on his forehead, and forced a smile.

"Sleep!" The wife turned and lay down.

Luis Gonzalez couldn't sleep anymore until dawn.

The sun rises later on the west coast than on the east coast. Murphy arrived at Fox Searchlight early in the morning. According to the agreement between the two parties, there will be a regular meeting every morning during the screening period, so as to report the situation in time and make appropriate adjustments. (To be continued.)

( Hollywood Road http://...../44/44250/ )