Hollywood legendary director

The original version of "Dead Silence" is a film released by Universal.

It was also the first home that Wen Ziren found after peacefully breaking up with Lionsgate.

But I don't want to. The North American box office of this work with an investment of more than 20 million is less than 17 million. The global total has just recovered the production cost.

According to the proportion of the publicity and the theater line, if the producer wants to make a profit at the box office, it basically needs to reach 3 to 1, which means that the box office of 60 million is compared with the production cost of 20 million in order to basically achieve a profit at the box office. Cover.

But unfortunately, the setting of "Dead Silence" is still novel, but the story is too old-fashioned, and the world is losing it.

It is estimated that they are also thinking about how the talented director who can create box office miracles is on the street.

Actually, this is also a rare box office loss in Wen Ziren's directorial career.

From the perspective of latecomers, it's normal for "Dead Silence" to lose money.

On the use of horror elements, the deployment of puppet toys with rural nursery rhymes is simply the best setting effect. Similar to the classic American film "The Ghost Baby" series, each has a high horror index and a box office performance. It's also considerable, and "Dead Silence" is naturally impossible in terms of scaring people.

Billy, the doll often shown in slow motion in the film, is the most brilliant prop in the film. The original fear of human beings being engraved in their genes is the fear of things that are too similar to themselves but unknown.

Billy's realistic doll is naturally full of mystery.

That kind of plastic face with a stiff smile forever, and the pupils staring straight at people are themselves synonymous with weirdness.

And in this work, it cannot be said that Wen Ziren's directorial skills decreased because of the box office failure.

This product’s bold attempt at horror elements is already of a very high standard in this movie. Compared with the later popular "Latent" series and "Call of Souls" series, the horror expression techniques in "Dead Silence" are more deeply rooted in the bones. The atmosphere rendering and the sudden audition experience brought the audience into a hell-like heartbeat state.

It's just that the story of this work has too many flaws, which greatly weakens the horror atmosphere that is hard to stand up.

So that after the grand debut of Mary Shaw, the climax of the ghost's life became too cliche, and the ending is even more abrupt with the business foreshadowing of this type of film.

For example, the identity of the big villain Mary Shaw is so poorly set. As a ventriloquism performer, I saw your lips move because of a sentence from a kid watching a show, which caused a deliberate killing. It was a big deal. Failure.

Also, what kind of perfect doll is this child made with a child. After being discovered, the town people killed her, she began to resent all the town people, will revenge the town people and their offspring?What are you doing, how can this story unfold?Mary Xiao, an old guy who kills children is very happy, but if someone kills you, you can become a ghost to get revenge. Why can't those tragic children?On hatred, there are obviously more children.

So there are so many foreshadowing in the front. Once Mary Shaw is reached, the degree of mental disability and hypocrisy in the plot rises to a situation where it insults IQ and the audience's three views, and it is not possible to save it by any setting.

To be honest, the white blind doll Billy has such a good setting. In order to match it, the lighting effect of one bright and one dark plus the ingeniously built atmosphere of the scene; the psychological effect that strongly implies with the lens details, pinch The tension in the heart was all torn apart.

This is why the film’s horror index is quite high, and several shots have become classics for latecomers, but the market performance is so strong.

So, no matter what the subject matter is, a qualified story that can justify itself without making the audience feel that IQ is insulted is the basis of film art.

The original version of "Dead Silence" just lost his wisdom in the story.

......

Lehman put down the script and asked Wen Ziren: "Have you sorted out the main line of the story?"

Wen Ziren nodded and said his thoughts: "What Ray Warner and I set is that the residents of a small town are all entangled in ghosts and die one by one, and the ballad says not to scream. The inspiration for ghost killing."

"So, ghost killing has its limitations. The limitation you arrange is not to scream?"

"Yes, a bad guy dies and becomes a bad ghost, but the evil spirit can't kill people at will, increasing the conflict of the plot and the fun to watch."

Lehman was stunned. No wonder Wen Ziren's setting, the ghost Mary Xiao is so mentally stupid, it turns out that she is a bad person.

Since she is a bad person, do we have to show how bad she is?

It is a pity that Wen Ziren's anti-social concept has greatly increased the audience's opinions, which is far from the public's psychological expectations.The theory that "justice will not be absent, and that good people have rewards" is directly torn up.It seems that you should accept incompetence.

At the moment, Lehman looked at Wen Ziren with a sad look, "If I were to say it, this work might not be accepted by the market."

"Uh..." Wen Ziren was a little surprised.He never thought that Lyman would reject his new work proposal.

Lehman continued: "To put it another way, if you are from the standpoint of the audience, how many people do you think will like the movie? Where is the market audience?"

Wen Ziren hesitated: "The horror theme is naturally supported by fans who like to watch horror movies. Judging from the past data market, this segment has a very large audience. I estimate that the production budget is about 25 million in North America. It should be able to sell 70 to 80 million, and it will be a little less overseas, and it should be 50 million. In this way, there will be more than 100 million, not counting the CD and TV broadcasting... It's not difficult."

"You still had a plan." Lehman still agrees with his data.

After all, horror-themed movies are calculated on average. As long as the quality is excellent, there will be at least $50 million at the market box office.

However, the new work still has to think about the structure of the plot.

With the lessons of failure and the cultivation of market vision over the years, Lehman still suggested: "It is possible to shoot, and the idea of ​​the idea is absolutely correct. But does the role need to be better polished?"

Hearing that there is still a chance to shoot, Wen Ziren didn't mind changing the outline of the script.

He is not a director who insists on himself. Seeing that he can manage a typical commercial film like "Fast and Furious" later, he knows that he doesn't care about the script very much.

What he cares more about is how to use his lens language and rhythm control ability to create movies with his own style.

After all, many well-known big directors are not very good at writing scripts.Lehman himself has this problem.