The Best Director

Chapter 335: Ten Things I Hate About Shenjing Yang

“Lionsgate is launching a ‘Paranormal Activity 3’ plan, with the talented Wang Yang set to take control of the horror apartment once again.”

As the week of November 5-11 passed, ‘Saw II,’ entering its second week in cinemas, failed to retain the top spot at the box office. In 3,345 theaters, it took in $28.94 million, with its North American total soaring to $78.20 million, hopeful to surpass one hundred million by the end of its run. The new film ‘The Incredibles,’ with a budget of $92 million, didn’t disappoint Disney; in its first week, it swept $93 million at the box office in 3,933 theaters, with Pixar continuing its streak of delivering hits, scoring a freshness rating of 97%/95% on Rotten Tomatoes, although the audience’s level of appreciation lagged somewhat at 67%.”

It’s worth mentioning that the epoch-making first IMAX-3D feature film ‘The Polar Express,’ meticulously crafted by great director Robert Zemeckis with a budget of $165 million, released on November 10th. The producer and distributor Warner Brothers arranged for it to open in 3,650 theaters across North America. However, fewer than 50 screens were equipped with 3D and IMAX projectors, meaning the vast majority of audiences watched the 35MM film version, experiencing standard visuals. All the talk of motion capture, performance capture, and IMAX-3D effects… seemed a bit self-indulgent, a cringe-worthy predicament.”

Perhaps there were many issues with the film itself, or perhaps its time had not yet come, but in its first Wednesday and the following Thursday (Veterans Day), which is a national holiday, the film garnered an underwhelming $7.3056 million. The average revenue per theater was only $2,002, trailing the sixth week’s $2,115 per theater for ‘Shark Tale,’ despite the latter showing for seven days. Making matters worse for Warner, with a freshness rating of 56%/54% and an audience approval of 65%, if there isn’t a miracle next week, it’s almost time to declare ‘The Polar Express’ a box-office flop.”

Packed with high hopes, massive promotion, the best pairing of Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks, and the “guaranteed success” of IMAX-3D… ‘The Polar Express’ was quite a blow, even affecting ‘Firefly,’ which used IMAX film in its climactic scene, to some extent. It looked as if IMAX, IMAX-3D, and 35MM films had no real difference; it was simply a waste of money.

“3D, IMAX-3D will be the trend of the future.” “I will shoot them! I love 3D.”…

Earlier this year, ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ interviewed three major directors—Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas, and Wang Yang—at the ShoWest convention, and they all shared their thoughts and expectations about their new works and the future of industry technology. Robert Zemeckis, who had been adamant that 3D was the “trend within the trend,” was now facing his Waterloo. Despite his desire to “continue to explore digital and capture technology to create more new works,” it was uncertain if any company would invest in him again; George Lucas, who didn’t quite get 3D, was busy with ‘Star Wars: Episode III’; and Wang Yang, who had tried out IMAX film, had pat his chest and said he wanted to shoot in 3D but, seeing the results for ‘The Polar Express,’ media and filmmakers probably thought he might retreat from the “black hole.”

“‘No one is real, you get some special effects, but if visual effects lose reality, there’s no fun.'” — Rex Reed, New York Observer, “‘If I were a kid, I saw a nightmare.'” — Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star…

“Robert, anyway, my view of 3D aligns with yours; it’s the trend.” At that moment, Wang Yang was on the phone with Robert Zemeckis, discussing why ‘The Polar Express’ was awkward and other such topics. Wang Yang openly confessed his skepticism about the market prospects for live-action animation films but remained 100% committed to 3D and IMAX-3D; Zemeckis naturally would not give up so easily, and he was not planning to return to live-action or animated films any time soon, choosing to further explore and develop motion capture technology.”

With his standing and connections in the industry, as long as ‘The Polar Express’ wasn’t a complete disaster, he could still find major companies to invest in him; Zemeckis also knew that Flame Films had no intention to invest. Of course, he understood that $150 million or $200 million wasn’t a number a big company, let alone an independent one, could just throw around. Morally, it made sense to “fool” a big company unless this young man was very optimistic about live-action animation and was only interested in motion capture and IMAX-3D.

“Yang, I don’t want to think about it anymore, I’ll keep doing it until nobody wants to invest in me, haha!” Robert Zemeckis remained very optimistic, unaffected by the poor opening, full of determination and again inquired with interest, “So when will you shoot a 3D movie?”

After years of communication, Wang Yang knew well that Robert Zemeckis had become indifferent, or perhaps obsessed. He was set on motion capture technology and live-action animation. The former now had successful examples like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy and ‘District 9,’ and in the future, it seemed there would be films like ‘King Kong,’ ‘Avatar,’ and ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes,’ with their lifelike gorillas and Na’vi solely relying on motion capture. However, the latter was really caught between two stools, with films like ‘Monster House,’ ‘Beowulf,’ ‘A Christmas Carol,’ ‘Mars Needs Moms,’ and ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ not performing as expected.

Technology and story weren’t the main issues; it was the audience’s dislike for this form of performance that was key, perhaps the time wasn’t right. Knowing that Robert Zemeckis could happily immerse himself in that world of live-action animation for years, Wang Yang didn’t try to persuade him much. He thought if he liked live-action animation, he would probably do the same, but he truly wasn’t very interested. The charm of animated films often doesn’t need live performances to enhance it, as with “Up” and other films. As for 3D movies, Wang Yang thought, “It’s not these past two years, there have been too few 3D theaters.”

“Those theater chains are slower than snails,” Robert Zemeckis said with extreme dissatisfaction. He had lobbied many theater chains together with Warner to upgrade their projection equipment and build more 3D theaters, but nobody was willing to cooperate. Otherwise, with 1000 pieces of 3D screens? “The Polar Express” would definitely have presented a different spectacle.

“There’s no way around it, but they will do it in the future,” Wang Yang could only comfort him with a few words, earnestly saying, “Robert, when I shoot my IMAX-3D movies in the future, I hope you can provide some technical help to me.” Zemeckis laughed enthusiastically, “Of course, absolutely, I’m delighted to! Young man, don’t let those film critics’ reputations constrain you. Make what you want to make, do what you want to do.” Wang Yang nodded, not afraid, not fearful, he smiled, “Yes, I will! Timing is very important though.” Zemeckis changed the subject, “How is the editing of ‘Firefly’ going? I saw the trailer, and it’s fantastic.”…

With the release of the “Firefly” trailer stirring up huge anticipation among movie fans, Rotten Tomatoes recently launched a new feature “Comprehensive Review of YOUNG-WANG’s Film Work,” as if Wang Yang was about to retire or as though an era was ending. Nevertheless, many fans browsing this feature were stirred up with many memories. Not counting his unreleased works, the marvelous 24-year-old Yang had already directed 8 films, written 11 movie scripts, and produced 13 films, including serving as executive producer for 9 and involved in supervising and planning for 4.

“Monster doesn’t even begin to describe MY,” user Hannah commented. With two of the youngest Oscar Awards, a Golden Globe, and numerous nominations, not to mention an average box office of 475 million per film, it isn’t hard to understand why the wondrous Yang was so popular. How “Firefly,” which was met with much skepticism, would fare was anyone’s guess. Perhaps it would succeed, perhaps fail, but the poll of “Which Wang Yang-directed film is your favorite?” expressed the fans’ sentiments.

Such a poll was not entirely fair, as the 8 movies were nearly 8 different genres, even the “Las Vegas Duology” was so different. Yet many fans still participated in multiple voting categories: “The Hangover,” “Juno,” and “High School Musical” were currently leading in “Most Liked,” with “The Devil Wears Prada” at the bottom; the top three “Most Profound” were “District 9,” “The Pursuit of Happyness,” “Juno,” with “Paranormal Activity” bringing up the rear; for “Greatest Social Impact” were “Paranormal Activity,” “Juno,” and “High School Musical,” with “The Devil Wears Prada” again at the bottom, as fans believed that those who couldn’t afford designer brands still couldn’t afford them, those dieting continued dieting, and those who scorned continued to scorn…

“I hate the way you talk on stage, and I hate your movies. I hate the way you tell ghost stories, and your songs and dances too. I hate your drab trench coat, your pants that aren’t cool at all. I hate you so much it makes me sick; I hate you so much, it’s foolish. I hate that you’re always right, I hate that you’re always there. I hate that you make me laugh, and even more that you make me cry. I hate that you got married so soon, without saying goodbye. But what I hate the most is that I can’t hate you, not even a little bit, not at all.”

User Rotten Candy seemed to draw inspiration from “Firefly” & Heath Ledger in the comments, un-rhymingly adapting the sonnet “10 Things I Hate About You.” If this wasn’t just a regular user’s account singing praises, but some female celebrity writing it on her own blog, that fellow and Wang Yang would surely dominate the entertainment headlines the next day. Of course, that was not going to happen.

Looking at the votes on Rotten Tomatoes, it seemed that marvelous Yang was indeed in a slump. The high box office of “The Devil Wears Prada” was relatively unpopular personally; three consecutive commercial films that weren’t very “profound”; although boosting Las Vegas tourism, beer sales, and causing a temporary dip in casino slot machine revenues, he hadn’t initiated a sensational social phenomenon in a long while, even the promotional performance was the same.

But looking back, indeed many people hated the way magical Yang told ghost stories, the mockumentary style, and those who had experienced that “Supernatural Phenomenon” found it hard to forget “Paranormal Activity.” Lionsgate knew this well, as long as magical Yang returned, “Paranormal Activity 3” could work miracles.

“What’s wrong?! Yang? Jessica?” Joshua walked in from the backyard, puzzled. This couple had invited him over for the weekend, with plans to watch a game that evening. After chatting in the garden for a while, the couple went inside to get some food, and suddenly there were two screams of terror from them, followed by silence. Could someone have broken into the house? But they both knew Kung Fu! Joshua quickened his pace, calling out as he went, “What happened? HELLO? Anyone there?”

Approaching the dining room and seeing no one, he grabbed a wooden chair nervously and pulled a frying pan off the hook, brandishing them defensively as he cautiously moved towards the living room, “HELLO? Oh God, Danny? Where is everyone!”

Wang Yang and Jessica, hiding around the corridor corner, covered their mouths to suppress their laughter. The camera was already set up; all that was left was to see if their prank would work! After filming several funny videos through mutual pranks, the couple decided to target others to avoid escalating conflicts. Even if they didn’t upload the videos online, watching them themselves was a lot of fun.

Cautiously moving forward, Joshua suddenly discovered something: a layer of clear tape stretched across the hallway just a few steps ahead of him, clearly meant to trip him up! Joshua immediately realized what was going on, dropped his defensive tools, shook his head and smirked, then quickly stepped forward to rip off the tape, stomping on the floor a few times and shouting, “Uh oh—I’ve fallen, I’ve fallen!” Sure enough, laughter from the couple came from the living room, and Joshua laughed too, thinking to himself, trying to prank me? Do you think I’m a fool! He stepped forward disdainfully, “I’m telling you, you guys are so boring!”

“3, 2, 1…” Wang Yang and Jessica, who were sticking close to the wall, exchanged a glance and silently gestured to each other. Joshua, chuckling under his breath, was about to turn the corner when suddenly his midsection hit a force and a thick layer of tape! Annoyed, he tore it off with force, balled it up and continued on without stopping, “This won’t work on me… Oh!!” Before he could finish his sentence, his face was stuck to an extremely thin layer of tape, and he immediately started tearing at it with both hands, swearing furiously, “Bullshit!”

“Hahaha!—” Wang Yang and Jessica high-fived each other joyfully, then burst out laughing hysterically, twisting and waving their arms in a dance to celebrate, “High-speed camera! Joshua, it’s going to capture every detail of your facial transformations!” “It must look really cool! Haha!” Watching the two detestable people almost rolling on the floor with laughter, Joshua charged at them furiously: “I’ll take you on! I’m not scared of you, ah ah—”

The footage uploaded from the high-speed camera to the computer showed the moment Joshua’s face hit the tape and got stuck—like a flattened pig’s head on the screen.

On its third week of screening from November 12-18, “Saw II” raked in $15.68 million from 3,120 theaters, bringing its North American total to $93.88 million—a commercial marvel in movie history. The miracle did not occur with “The Polar Express”, which earned $28.48 million in seven days across 3,650 theaters. Despite being second in rank, it was far from a moneymaker, and its title as “the first full-length IMAX 3D feature” was quite moving; “The Incredibles” retained its top spot with $58.02 million; new releases “After the Sunset” and “Child’s Play 4: Bride of Chucky” performed poorly, while “Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason” met expectations.

In his spare time from work, Wang Yang was busy accumulating his private collection or videos to upload to YOUTUBE, naturally including those that scared and pranked people. Following Joshua, Eileen, Roland, and others became the latest victims of the couple’s self-concocted and internet-collected pranks that incited rage. Wang Yang and Jessica were plotting to pull a prank on Mark Albert, but considering the possibly severe consequences, they hadn’t tried yet.

However, what he didn’t expect was that Lionsgate was once again cordially inviting him to reboot “Paranormal Activity 3” and use the big screen to scare people.

“Yang, could you just help out this one time?” As he listened to Michael Parsons’ pleading tone on the phone, Wang Yang couldn’t refuse outright again without hesitation. It wasn’t the first time he’d been called. Michael Parsons, Jon Feltheimer, and Tom Ortenberg all extended gracious invitations, and although he initially said “no, no,” they didn’t want to give up, their continuous pleas over the days made him start to seriously consider the matter.

Wang Yang knew Lionsgate would definitely produce “Paranormal Activity 3”, and he didn’t mean to obstruct them as an ally. However, directing was absolutely out of the question as he wanted to focus on “Firefly”, and he wasn’t interested in filming a sequel for the time being; he didn’t want to be an executive producer either, as he was already busy enough and didn’t want to juggle too many things at once. Regarding the screenwriting and producing offers Lionsgate proposed, it was genuinely a generous offer that was hard to refuse.

It wasn’t just Jon Feltheimer’s emotional appeal and logical persuasion, such as releasing “Paranormal Activity 3” not during the Halloween season but during the secondary peak season for thrillers and horror movies in April. If Wang Yang agreed, the entire project would proceed at full speed. Such low-budget horror movies were easy to produce and could be scheduled to be released in April 2005. All it needed was a solid promotional campaign, but the news of the “Magical Yang returning to ‘Paranormal Activity 3′” was more anticipatory than any marketing tactic.

Nor was it the profit-sharing deal offered by Lionsgate for co-producing with Flames Distribution; nor the promise that it wouldn’t take up much time, supposedly less than producing “Sweetheart” or being the chief planner for “Furious Cars”, roughly similar to a nominal role like with “Brokeback Mountain.”

In fact, Wang Yang never wanted “Paranormal Activity” to become a mess. When he handed over the sequel filming rights to Lionsgate, he hoped the series would find a good home. They, however, didn’t cherish it, and the idea of reviving “Paranormal Activity” enticed him a bit. If he accepted the planning role, he definitely wouldn’t allow “Paranormal Activity 3” to fail commercially—it had to be loved by audiences; and as for sequels that rehashed old material not getting good reviews, he didn’t care.

“Kung Fu Panda”, “Brokeback Mountain”, and “Assassin’s Creed” were projects Wang Yang was involved in planning, and now with “Brokeback Mountain” completed in post-production and waiting for release, taking on “Paranormal Activity 3” wouldn’t add much to his workload.

This collaboration could eliminate the friction between Lionsgate and Fireflame in recent years, and help Lionsgate develop further. Whether it was the future “big plan” of a YouTube online cinema, the cable TV network, or the production and distribution business of independent film companies, including some new low-to-mid-cost films invested by FM Company, Fireflame needed a strong ally. If the independent distributors fell one by one and only Fireflame remained, it would definitely not be worth cheering for. Thus, Mark – Slont repeatedly persuaded Wang Yang, if possible, to lend a hand this time and not bear a grudge over past events.

“Hmm…” Wang Yang pondered as he considered. How could he bear a grudge over the past? Especially since when Lionsgate was interviewing him, it was Michael – Parsons who had most supported distributing “Paranormal Activity” and from the beginning, he had given him a lot of encouragement and praise; later, when Lionsgate was developing “Paranormal Activity 2,” Michael – Parsons also advocated forcefully for Jon – Feildtimer to continue hiring him for the production. Jon didn’t listen, and Parsons even called to apologize.

“Yang, you know I haven’t had much success lately, and life has been rough,” Michael – Parsons sighed deeply, but not out of seeking pity. If it weren’t for “Fahrenheit 9/11,” he would have been demoted. Considering the new films released this year, Lionsgate’s involvement in 20th Century Fox’s big-budget production “The Day After Tomorrow” was not his credit. The production cost of “The Princess Diaries” co-financed with Paramount was 22 million, with just a 37.66 million global box office; “Punisher” had a production budget of 33 million but only garnered 54.7 million in global box office; the 2002 film “Cube 2: Hypercube” never released, performing mediocrely in the DVD market, and the same year’s “Narc” with a budget of 6.5 million only made 12.63 million globally at box offices…

Looking at these “report cards,” Michael – Parsons felt a great headache. “Paranormal Activity 3” to flop again? Parsons said, “Not to hide from you, the board is very dissatisfied with me. Disappoint them one more time, and I’ll have to pack up and leave immediately, rather than being escorted out by security, heh.” Without the need for his self-deprecating laughter, Wang Yang knew Parsons wasn’t joking. In a world where Lionsgate never had “Saw,” he frowned and said, “You can come to Fireflame Films?”

“No no no, thank you,” Michael – Parsons repeatedly declined and expressed his thanks, then sighed dejectedly: “Yang, I don’t want to leave Lionsgate with my head hanging low.”

“Alright then!” Wang Yang’s voice, with the result of days of consideration, suddenly filled Michael – Parsons with wild joy. He sprang up from his office chair: “You agreed? Wow! You agreed!?” Wang Yang smiled softly. Parsons hadn’t let him leave Lionsgate with his head hanging low all those years ago; how could he now stand idly by? He needed to agree, for both the company and himself! Wang Yang spoke earnestly, “Yes, I’ve agreed, to script and plan. Michael.” He smiled, “You won’t leave Lionsgate with your head hanging low, ‘Paranormal Activity’ is back.”

Michael – Parsons spun around excitedly, the phone line trembling as he pressed his forehead and couldn’t stop laughing and shouting: “Thank God, thank God! Oh my God! This is great! Thank God…”

“Lionsgate & Fireflame announce the production of ‘Paranormal Activity 3’, with the wunderkind returning to the haunted apartment after 6 years.” — Yahoo Entertainment

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