Made in Hollywood

"Summer vacation, there is no peace for a moment."

Putting down the newspaper in his hand, Martin Miller, William Morris's agent, looked at the long-faced man opposite, "However, it's good news for us."

This long-faced man is the most potential director under his name. He has the titles of 'Little Blast Maniac' and 'Duke Rosenberg No. 2' in Hollywood. He is also skilled in explosive scenes and fast-paced switching. He is a well-known commercial film director.

"Look at it, Michael." He handed the newspaper to Michael Bay. "Being a director like Duke Rosenberg takes more than just a good movie."

"I see."

The current Michael Bay doesn't have much capital, so he nodded humbly and said, "Hollywood competition is everywhere!"

Saying that, he opened the newspaper and easily found the good news that Martin Miller said.

"Gunshots off the screen, violence in The Matrix!"

Just seeing the title is eye-catching and scary enough, and it must be bad news for The Matrix.

"Since North America entered the summer season, "The Matrix" has become the first hot film, setting off a movie viewing craze among teenagers. Seriously violent. Just last Sunday, in a shooting in the San Francisco area, 19-year-old Josh Cook bought a gun similar to Keanu Reeves' Neo and used it The gun killed the landlord and his wife of the house he rented."

"According to the information provided by the surrounding witnesses, Josh Cook believes that he lives in the 'matrix' and firmly believes that he is the savior, and the landlord and his wife are the agents sent by the 'matrix' to persecute him, and he must kill them, Restoring the real world..."

What follows. There is no need for Michael Bay to watch it anymore. The news should be the truth. When it was reported at this time, it must be aimed at the current hot momentum of "The Matrix".

"This is just one of the newspapers covering this incident." Martin Miller pointed to the thick pile in front of him, "They are all hyping the shooting, if I am not wrong. It should be Sony Entertainment wants to use this to suppress The Matrix.”

"I think so too." Michael Bay nodded.

Knowing that Martin Miller wouldn't bring this up for no reason, he asked with a frown, "You think we're involved?"

"Michael, your new movie 'Peerless Catastrophe' will be released the weekend before Memorial Day."

Reaching out and pushing the newspaper aside, Martin Miller said slowly, "That's the second weekend of Godzilla, the third weekend of The Matrix!"

Hollywood competition is everywhere!

The years since I moved from advertising to Hollywood. Michael Bay has a deep understanding of this point. "Warner Bros. will not sit back and watch. There must be explanations or targeted measures. What should we do? For "Godzilla"?"

"No!" Martin Miller shook his head without hesitation, "Although Michael Ovitz is standing behind "Godzilla". But I don't think he will be a huge success, "The Matrix" is "The Matrix" The real threat of Peerless Catastrophe!"

Originally, Martin Miller believed that "The Clash of Heaven and Earth" would have the greatest possible impact on "Peerless Calamity", after all, the themes of the two are similar. Once the former achieves great success, under preconceived notions. "Peerless Catastrophe" will become an imitator...

Who knew that DreamWorks was vulnerable under the encirclement and suppression of the six major companies. Before the popularity of "Clash of Heaven and Earth" was dissipated, it was almost dissipated by the impact of "The Matrix", and the impact on "Peerless Calamity" was almost minimized.

From this aspect. Martin Miller felt that he should be grateful for Duke's film, but "The Matrix"'s strong audience reputation and weekday box office performance pose a serious threat to the next week's "Peerless Catastrophe", and there is already a competitive relationship between the two sides. .

To deal with competitors, strike is an inevitable choice.

"Michael, have you seen the box office statistics for yesterday, which is Monday?"

Seeing Michael Bay shaking his head, Martin Miller said, "The one-day box office of "The Matrix" has dropped $3 million! And "The Matrix" benefited from the overwhelming audience word of mouth and the expanding screen size, Monday The box office was less than 10 percent lower than last Sunday, taking in $14.51 million!"

"This...how is this possible?" Michael Bay couldn't believe what he heard. "This is the way the Titanic goes!"

Martin Miller raised his voice. "It won't be Titanic, but it's more of a threat to us than Godzilla."

"What can I do?" Michael Bay asked.

"Come with me and put pressure on Walt Disney, the producer and distributor of "Peerless Cataclysm"!" Martin Miller apparently had already thought about it, "Let Walt Disney join the ranks of suppressing The Matrix. "

The production cost of "Peerless Cataclysm" is as high as 140 million US dollars. The producer is Touchstone Pictures, which is owned by Walt Disney.

With such a huge investment involved, how could Walt Disney's media stand idly by?

After Michael Bay left, Martin Miller hung up on Walt Disney's management, and the two sides hit it off.

When some group forces want to promote an already attractive event, relevant news can always spread to North America and even the entire Western world at the fastest speed. The popularity of "The Matrix" in North America has affected not only It is the North American market, and there are more extensive overseas markets for competition.

"Crazy directors are doing some terrible things, and when that happens, we really need to think about what message we're sending, the violence and fantasy of certain movies that made this tragedy happen, Hollywood movies People must be more responsible as much as possible, and The Matrix is ​​to blame for this social violence, when some film violence turns into a real rendition, should the film be held responsible for it?"

Not only were the print media reporting on the shooting, Duke then saw the relevant reports from Walt Disney's ABC TV during prime time. Although the reports were not explicitly named, they were quite provocative. You don't have to guess to know it's a shooting.

With the "Matrix" taking $14.51 million and $12.78 million at the box office on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, and a total of $81.47 million at the North American box office, reports of the shooting undoubtedly cast a shadow over the film's prospects.

Having lived in this land for such a long time, Duke is very clear that such a thing as the Shanggang line is not a patent of a certain country, and the media in North America is not ambiguous at all.

Pinching his still somewhat red nose, Duke looked at the dark night sky outside the floor-to-ceiling window again, and turned his eyes to Penny Kelly, Nancy Joseph and Jamie Johnson.

The discussion of the three has ended.

In fact, Duke and Warner Bros. have already started crisis public relations since they were widely published in newspapers yesterday, but it takes time to understand the truth of the matter, investigate the background of the shooter, and formulate effective targeted strategies. .

The only one who responded quickly was Panney Kelly's online public relations department. They spread a lot of targeted propaganda on the Internet, leading those fans of "The Matrix" to spontaneously maintain the film on the Internet.

However, today's traditional media still occupy an absolute advantage.

"Duke, leave the PR to us."

Nancy Josephson said, "Combining your opinion and the actual situation of the offender, we have formulated a comprehensive strategy to direct the focus of public opinion to the family as much as possible."

"I have always had confidence in you."

As soon as he said that, Duke couldn't help coughing. Tina Fey quickly brought a glass of water, handed it to him, and said, "Your first priority now is to recover."

Duke nodded, this kind of thing is just an opinion at best, and it is definitely not as good as a professional when it comes to actual operation.

The cold and fever were just minor illnesses, but it was very troublesome to recover. After Nancy Josephson and the three left, Duke took the medicine and told Tina Fey to pay attention to the progress of the incident and go back upstairs to rest directly. Restoration is more important than anything else.

In fact, public relations are not complicated. Just like John Hinckley, who was influenced by "Taxi Driver" to assassinate Reagan, some things are definitely not caused by one reason.

Early the next morning, NBC's "Today Show" focused on analyzing the incident.

A well-known psychiatrist from the United States conducted an analysis based on the cases that Josh Cook had received from a psychiatrist.

"Josh Cook's shooting cannot be simply blamed on any aspect. The occurrence of such a tragedy has a lot to do with the suspect's unhealthy personality, and anything he may encounter will become an emotional trigger. So, he can't tell the difference between virtual and real. According to the information we have, Josh Cook himself has severe depression, people with mental illness..."

The "New York Times" and "Los Angeles Times" of the day highlighted Josh Cook's family and some accidents during the rental period.

"Josh Cook is an Asian and Latino mixed-race. His family was broken since he was a child. He was fostered in several families and was abused to a certain extent. Later, he found a job and rented in San Francisco. The ridicule... This once again exposes the harm of broken families to minors, and Josh Cook is just a victim of broken families..."

Warner's media, and the Warner-leaning media, used all sorts of reasons to steer the shootings elsewhere, and it's just as true as the hyped Josh Cooke thinks he's living in a matrix.

In fact, the discussion about movie violence is not only this time in North America. Warner's crisis public relations has also been recognized by quite a few people.

However, once such an incident occurs, it is impossible to have no negative impact on the film, and the most direct manifestation is the box office.

(The shooting is a real event, but after the release of the second part.) (To be continued ~^~)

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