The three most important roles in the film are the male lead Sam, the female lead Mikaela, and Lennox, the representative of the U.S. military. Duke had long released word that the main roles would be filled by newcors, attracting a large number of young n and won dreaming of fa to audition.
Just the number of actors who submitted resus to audition for Sam and Mikaela exceeded two hundred and fifty.
All the agents who believed they had connections with the production team were running around seeking opportunities. Even if they couldn’t win Duke’s favor, simply participating in the audition would be a kind of credential, or even a ans of self-promotion.
However, quite a few of the candidates who passed the first audition for the three roles ca from Nancy Josephson’s ICM.
Duke didn’t mind this. Nancy was one of the core mbers of his team. As long as it was within reasonable bounds, he wasn’t a stickler.
Besides, the actors Nancy Josephson sent to the crew for auditions were generally of top quality.
But when Duke opened the file folder and flipped through the audition materials, the first photo that appeared was an extrely familiar face—Steven Spielberg’s godson, Shia LaBeouf.
"This one was introduced by Spielberg," Tina Fey said at the right ti.
Duke nodded, but in his heart had already basically sentenced Shia LaBeouf to death. Unless no suitable candidate could be found, he would definitely not be used.
People naturally have their own circles of closeness. If he had been recomnded by George Lucas, Duke would have given him priority.
After roughly scanning through the male lead candidates’ materials, he saw quite a few familiar nas, like Chris Hemsworth, Andrew Garfield, Robert Pattinson, Chris Pine, and even Jas Franco.
Actors born in the 1970s were definitely not within Duke’s consideration.
He closed the materials for the male leads and set them aside for now. Then he picked up the female candidates’ portion. The requirents for female actors were actually simpler besides basic acting ability, they needed to have attractive looks and hot bodies.
After all, this was a popcorn movie aid at teenagers.
After browsing briefly, he found that more than half of the female candidates had ICM noted as their agency. Thinking of the nas he had just seen, Duke couldn’t help but nod. Nancy Josephson’s eye for talent was indeed quite decent.
Among them were quite a few nas that seed familiar, like Emma Stone, Blake Lively, Emma Roberts, and Emma Watson...
But Duke wasn’t very satisfied with these people, mainly due to their appearance—they were still a bit lacking in terms of having a bombshell figure. On the contrary, two newcors recomnded by IMC seed pretty good based on their physical attributes.
One was nad Amber Heard, and the other Margot Robbie—both were typical blonde girls.
Although he felt the nas were a bit familiar, Duke really couldn’t recall what roles they had played.
He made notes on the materials of the two won, then said to Tina Fey, "Have Anna pay special attention to them in the next round of auditions."
"What about the male actors?" Tina Fey asked.
Picking up the male actors’ materials again, Duke thought for a mont, then marked the nas of Andrew Garfield and Robert Pattinson. Then he grabbed the last file and took a look, marking a model nad Channing Tatum as a focus.
After briefly organizing the materials, Duke handed them to Tina Fey. "Give them to Anna. I may be heading to the Pentagon in a few days. You and she will be in charge of the second round of auditions."
Duke wanted to do on-location filming at the Pentagon, but ever since 9/11, no Hollywood crew had shot scenes at the Pentagon. This required coordination and communication between both parties.
As Tina Fey was preparing to leave, Duke rembered sothing else and said, "The candidate for Lennox should be finalized as soon as possible. The male and female leads can take their ti."
The leads didn’t require special training, but the actor playing the special forces officer had to undergo professional military training along with the other actors playing soldiers, under the guidance of a military-assigned team.
Every major Hollywood production involving specialized thes did this. It had even beco an unwritten rule.
For example, after finalizing a few key actors, Jas Caron had recently taken both the actors and production staff to a Maori tribe in New Zealand to experience primitive jungle life.
Making a film has never been a simple task—especially for big comrcial productions.
Before heading to the Pentagon, Duke attended the priority audition for the role of Lennox, then finalized Channing Tatum for the part. The model-turned-actor had the physique and muscles to fit the image of a soldier. His biggest flaw was his stiff face, but that wasn’t a problem for a military character.
After assigning Channing Tatum and the other actors to Colonel Daniel and his team for training, Duke flew to Washington, D.C., to et with senior officials at the Pentagon and finalize a series of filming-related matters.
While Duke was busy, David Ellison, who had snatched The Man from Earth from him, was also busy working on the film.
After spending $2 million to purchase the rights, David Ellison naturally wanted to push the film into theaters. His Sky Flim Pictures’ distribution departnt was actively contacting theater chains to arrange for the movie’s release as soon as possible.
Since he had already spent $2 million, David Ellison didn’t mind spending another $2 million to promote the film. If the movie could gross over ten million dollars at the North Arican box office, he would have a reason to mock Duke the next ti they t.
Two million dollars sounds like a lot, but in this era, trying to promote a film with that amount was like tossing a pebble into the ocean it could only create a barely noticeable ripple.
The film’s ads could only appear on the internet, newspapers, television, and radio in so unimportant sections or ti slots, making it quite difficult to attract audience attention.
But David Ellison wasn’t a fool. After adding another $1.5 million to the promotion budget, he capped the spending. After all, this was just a niche indie film.
Even in the most optimistic estimate, David Ellison didn’t think the film’s North Arican box office could exceed $30 million. His expectation was $10 million, which would be enough for him to sneer at Duke.
After increasing the promotional investnt, The Man from Earth began to stir up so waves. In North Arica, even though niche films have a limited audience, there is no lack of enthusiasts. Every off-season, these movie fans beco the most active.
However, while the promotion of The Man from Earth attracted so attention, its distribution encountered considerable difficulties.
Distribution isn’t sothing that can be done just by setting up a departnt and hiring so experienced staff. North Arican theater chains are deeply intertwined with the old Hollywood studios. Under the sa conditions and with the sa investnt scale, resources from theaters are naturally inclined toward traditional, long-established companies.
For a new company like David Ellison’s, just starting in distribution, theaters offered only a very small number of screens, and most of them were in relatively remote locations.
If it hadn’t been for him paving the way with money, The Man from Earth might have been pushed back to next year by the North Arican theater alliance...
However, in this country, money can always work wonders. Though the number of screens was limited and locations were remote, The Man from Earth was finally able to land in the North Arican market in late September with a release across more than 120 theaters.
In David Ellison’s view, this wasn’t entirely a bad thing. He treated it as the film starting with a limited release. As long as the limited release perford well and the word of mouth was good enough, even for comrcial reasons, theater companies would expand its screenings.
But releasing a film still required considerable expenses—for example, prints. Over 130 prints cost Sky Flim dia $300,000.
The film’s production quality was rather average. If shown using high-definition digital projection, it would be a disaster. Only traditional 35mm film prints could be used.
Nowadays, the cost of digital technology has dropped significantly, while the price of film stock keeps rising...
After investing nearly $5 million, David Ellison finally waited for the film’s release. His expectations weren’t high he just hoped that over the course of seven days, The Man from Earth could achieve over $5,000 per theater. That kind of performance during the off-season would earn it so attention and the chance for expanded screenings, eventually reaching the goal of $10 million in North Arican box office revenue.
However, between imagination and reality lies a vast gulf. In the eyes of niche film lovers, The Man from Earth was indeed a good film. But just like The Shawshank Redemption, which still failed at the box office even when re-released with loads of sympathy and attention, not every good movie is suitable for theatrical release, and not every good movie is destined to earn high box office returns.
The day after The Man from Earth premiered, David Ellison received a report.
"125 theaters, a total of 426 viewers, single-day box office: $2,556..."
Seeing the numbers on the report, David Ellison already had a bad feeling, but he still held onto so hope. After all, it was only the first day of a limited release. Perhaps with ti, and the spread of word-of-mouth, the film’s performance would improve.
On IMDb, this film had a very high rating. Even after a full week of release, its rating was still as high as 8.6.
At the sa ti, so fans posted reviews in the comnts section, saying that The Man from Earth was a great film, a mind-blowing masterpiece...
But on the other hand, the attendance rate and box office figures were shockingly low.
...
Hi For access to additional Chapters of
Director in Hollywood (40 chpaters)
Made In Hollywood (60 Chapters)
Pokemon:Bounty Hunter(30 Chapters)
Douluo Dalu: Reincarnated as Yan(40 Chapters)
Hollywood:From Razzie to Legend(40 Chapters)
The Great Ruler (30 Chapters)
Join pateron/Translaterappu
Reviews
All reviews (0)