Chapter 292: The Quirk of the Fla Movie
In September 1999, Blue Sky Studios beca a mber of the Fla Film family, creating “Ice Age” with a budget of $65 million. This CGI animated movie hit the big screens on May 10th, 2002, becoming the seventh CGI animated movie in North Arica to gross over $100 million, eventually raking in $476 million at the global box office. This impressive feat catapulted Blue Sky into the position of the fourth major CGI animation company, alongside Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks.
With the visionary Wang Yang at the helm, the burgeoning Blue Sky Studios was ambitiously planning its next move, and soon announced two new CGI film projects.
The first was a $75 million investnt in “Ice Age 2: The ltdown,” with original director Carlos Saldanha continuing at the helm, while colleague Chris Wedge took on the full responsibility of producing.
Compared to the first installnt, “The ltdown” not only boasted a more mature production team and experienced animators but also groundbreaking, advanced CG technology, as well as new characters and new voice actors. The naive and persistent mammoth Ellie was played by the increasingly popular Queen Latifah, while the mischievous possum brothers were voiced by “Arican Pie” series’ own Shawn William Scott.
The sequel has now completed production and has entered the final stages of voice-over and music composition. It is set to hit North Arican theaters on May 7th of this year, capturing the box office share for the 2004 sumr season. It will also roll out earlier in select overseas theaters, in countries such as the Netherlands, Brazil, xico, Argentina…
It is a rare instance for an international release to precede the North Arican debut. Given the box office and subsequent rchandising sales, it is clear that the international market took greater interest in “Ice Age,” and the colossal success of the first installnt has instilled overseas distributors with the confidence to agree on promotional collaborations and scheduling. If “Ice Age 2” enters the North Arican market with warm reception and praise from abroad, it is likely to drive box office performance.
International markets surpassing and preceding North Arica is not only Fla Blue Sky’s market positioning for the “Ice Age” and “Kung Fu Panda” series, but also for future new series and the overall developnt strategy of the animation studio. “Ice Age 2” marks the beginning of this endeavor!
“These pandas are so cute… Oh! Look at that one, it’s watching us!”
Under the pale blue sky, amidst the dense trees, black and white pandas lay lazily on the low shrubby ground or slept on wooden perches, with one even snoozing within the fork of a tall tree, curled up like a round, fluffy ball. An adult panda walking on the wooden platform glanced up at a distant stone balustrade, where a few scattered tourists were watching.
A brown-haired woman in blue clothes excitedly pointed this way, while a dark-haired man in gray clothes held sothing for taking photographs. The panda just felt a flash of light and, bored, yawned. The brown-haired woman laughed, “Ha ha, it’s yawning! Its mouth is so wide open!”
After scaling the summit of Mount Everest, Wang Yang and Jessica left Tibet and continued their intimate world as a couple, enjoying the remaining ten or so days of their honeymoon. Their first stop was the Chengdu Panda Base in Sichuan.
The endearing giant pandas were indeed another key project for Blue Sky Studios; the $100 million “Kung Fu Panda” had been in busy preparation since early sumr 2002. Over a year of ticulous planning later, production finally began in early January 2004, with a release scheduled for May 2005. For a CG animated movie starting from scratch, a three-year production cycle was remarkably quick.
This efficiency could undoubtedly be attributed to Wang Yang’s significant contributions as one of the team mbers, a screenwriter, and a planning producer, who solved many ti-consuming problems directly, leading the panda team down fewer detours.
Producers Chris Wedge, producer & screenwriter Jonathan Abel, producer & screenwriter Glenn Berger… Abel and Berger were both in charge of the sa positions for the 2008 DreamWorks film Kung Fu Panda. Having beco famous for the 1997 Canadian TV animated cody “Life with Louie,” with the production team and the screenwriting team in place, to whom would the director’s microphone for Kung Fu Panda be passed?
This was a conundrum that plagued Blue Sky and Wang Yang for a long ti. Not to ntion directing capabilities, this person firstly needed to know how to do goofy and humorous things, appealing to both old and young; they also needed to understand how to shoot animation, and the more passion and knowledge they had for Chinese kung fu and Eastern culture, the better.
Blue Sky did hope to invite Xu Chengyi (Raman Hui) to direct.
Born in Hong Kong in 1963, Xu graduated from the Graphic Design Departnt of Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1984. Initially working as a cartoon producer at Quantum Studio in Hong Kong, he moved to Canada in 1988 to study computer animation production at Sheridan College. As an animator for “Angels in the Outfield” in 1994 and “Batman Forever” in 1995, as a character designer and animation director for “Antz” in 1998, as a supervising animator for “Shrek” in 2001, and as a supervising animator and co-director for “Shrek 2” in 2004… Wang Yang knew even more that Xu was the co-director for “Shrek the Third” in 2007.
Xu was the darling of the DreamWorks animation departnt, one of the most important mbers of the Shrek team. Perhaps it was his good work that played a part in the original production of “Kung Fu Panda.” Maybe one day he would switch to Blue Sky Studios, but for now, he definitely couldn’t co over.
Unable to invite Xu Chengyi, what about directly inviting the two directors of the 2008 Kung Fu Panda, John Stevenson and Mark Osborne? The problem was that both were core mbers of the DreamWorks/Paramount system. Currently, Stevenson is directing and producing the animated TV cody “The Proud Father” with Xu Chengyi and others, airing this fall on NBC; Osborne is directing the CG animated film “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” for Paramount, set for release in November this year.
Without Stevenson and Osborne, even if they could co over, considering that their list of film directing credits is currently blank, having them lead Po in kung fu might not be a good idea.
After searching and negotiating for a long ti, Blue Sky finally confird the directorial candidate last sumr: Steve Oedekerk.
“Yeah, its mouth is so wide open! Uh, its eyes seem to be mocking us…” Beside the stone railing, Wang Yang, looking at the DSLR cara in his hands, saw on the screen a close-up of the giant panda, so lazy and disinterested. He couldn’t help but laugh as he dubbed, “Foolish humans!!” Suddenly, Jessica beside him exclaid urgently, “Quick, take the shot, quick! Oh my god, did you get it?” Her face lit up with a smitten smile, “So cute!”
Wang kept pressing the shutter, the cara flashing repeatedly, as the panda that was mocking them sat beside a wooden post, its black fluffy paws propping up the post, cradling its head, looking as if it was deep in thought. He glanced at her, sothing ca to mind, and he said excitedly, “Sweetheart, let’s adopt a panda baby!” The adoption fee naturally wasn’t much for the two of them, but it ant they’d nominally own a giant panda.
“Yeah sure!” Jessica nodded with great interest. Looking down at the garden full of goofy pandas, she clapped her hands together, her voice excited, “Yes, yes! Darling, what shall we na it? I don’t want to call it Po!”
“No way, Po is for when Blue Sky Studios adopts it later,” said Wang, laughing while he took several more shots. This was part of the promotion plan for Kung Fu Panda, and having a real “Po” growing up alongside the movie series would be fun. A few tourists passed by, Jessica leaned against the railing, turning her eyes in thought for a na, “We have a Danny, how about Fanny? Bonnie? Manny?”
Wang shushed her mysteriously, “I’ve got an idea already, guess what, clue: it’s sothing we do every night.” Jessica thought hard, perplexed. Watching his suggestive deanor as if saying “you know,” she suddenly burst out laughing, “I’m not sure, what?” With a click, Wang flashed her eyes with the cara, “Don’t give up so easily! Clue: think simple, don’t complicate things, make it visual.”
“Oh…” Jessica, caught by the flash, squinted her eyes montarily and shot her foot out in a kick at him.
Wang Yang dodged with a laugh and brought up Po, which reminded him of so matters related to “Kung Fu Panda.” It had been over two months since the filming began, and he wondered how the progress was by now.
Steve Oedekerk had a significant reputation; in fact, he was more renowned and held a higher status in the industry than Xu Chengyi, John Stevenson, or Mark Osborne at that ti.
Now 42, Oedekerk’s greatest achievents were in screenwriting. He made his na with the TV series “Living Color” in 1990, “The Nutty Professor” in 1996, and last year’s hit cody “Bruce Almighty,” among others. As a director, he hadn’t achieved much, with his most recent work being “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” in 2002.
Also in 1990, Oedekerk founded “O Entertainnt,” a production company that took on so animated cartoon work for Nickelodeon; in 1999, he ventured into CG movies, producing, directing, and writing the 29-minute TV movie “Thumb Wars,” which had moderate success. Subsequently, he was involved in the production of “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” in 2001, with the following four producers ranked as Paramount (owning the rights), Nickelodeon Movies (owning the rights), DNA, and O Entertainnt.
“Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” wasn’t exceptionally successful, earning a global box office of $102 million on a $30 million budget, but it could still be considered a successful film. Due to the moderate reception, Paramount temporarily halted its collaboration with DNA and O Entertainnt, but a confident Steve Oedekerk, having tasted success, ambitiously decided to fully finance the independent production of “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” with $10 million from O Entertainnt.
This action cody film, an adaptation of the 1976 Hong Kong martial arts movie “Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin,” had Steve Oedekerk wearing multiple hats as producer, director, writer, and lead actor, fully expressing his passion for Kung Fu, martial arts, and his penchant for parody and humor. Distributor 20th Century Fox had confidence in him, and on January 25th, 2002, “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” was released in 2,478 North Arican cinemas.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as hoped. It opened to a re $8.24 million in its first weekend and ended with a global total of $16.994 million. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 11% and 0% freshness ratings, and the audience score was 64%. Words like painful, trash, terrible, awful, and rubbish started surfacing.
Moreover, the parodies of Kung Fu and martial arts in the film provoked dissatisfaction among many fans of the genre, who felt that Steve Oedekerk was mocking, insulting, and tarnishing it.
However, Oedekerk was soone who was truly fascinated by Hong Kong’s martial arts movies of the ’70s. He said, “The exaggerated martial arts effects, the strange music, they make every kid dream of becoming the hero one day.” About “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” combining newly shot scenes with old footage from “Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin,” creating a half-new, half-old style, he remarked, “Isn’t that cool? In the movie, I’m romancing the leading lady from 25 years ago!”
Indeed, if Oedekerk had no profound understanding of Kung Fu and martial arts, how could he pinpoint the exact spot to parody? How would he be interested in writing, directing, and producing it? And to think that O Entertainnt would bet everything they had on it.
But things did not go as desired.
“Among the ten worst films of 2002. I think I laughed once. Maybe not even once.” — Tom Maurstad, The Dallas Morning News; “The content of the film is nearly all dumb and empty, constantly trying to sustain a joke with double, triple, endless slapstick.” — John J. Puccio, ; “All the jokes are as exciting as a snake, unable to raise any interest.” — Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel…
20th Century Fox didn’t really care; it was just another terrible movie they distributed. O Entertainnt, however, took a heavy blow, and Steve Oedekerk was in agony. Considering he wore so many hats, but “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” brought little return to his pocket, that’s why it was just $10 million. Now he had lost everything, what to do? Should O Entertainnt continue to invest in movies independently? Or go back to being a junior partner for big companies?
During this disheartened ti for O Entertainnt, Fla Film gave them an answer. Steve Oedekerk: the directorial voice for “Kung Fu Panda”; O Entertainnt: responsible for a portion of the animation work for “Kung Fu Panda.”
Fla Blue Skies didn’t mind “boosting” O Entertainnt; after all, outsourced art services had to go to one company or another. Even if O Entertainnt invested millions, it wouldn’t have any copyright, rely enjoying a tiny share of the profits; and Steve Oedekerk was a perfect fit for Kung Fu Panda.
The issue with Kung Pow: Enter the Fist was its style not being accepted, a lousy script; however, Kung Fu Panda wasn’t a solo act by Oedekerk. On the contrary, he was absolutely quirky and humorous, suitable for audiences of all ages as proven by his multiple successful collaborations with Jim Carrey. He had an affection for Kung Fu and martial arts cinema, an understanding of Eastern and Chinese culture, extensive experience in CG animation, and could assist with screenplay and production—perfect.
Kung Pow left, and Po arrived! Faced with an invite from Fla, Steve Oedekerk was quite surprised. With the $16.994 million box office of Kung Pow: Enter the Fist and the $100 million budget of Kung Fu Panda, his first thought was actually, “Are those guys at Marvelous Yang out of their minds?” Then Wang Yang explained to him: “‘Kung Pow’s’ biggest failure was it wasn’t about a panda! And it’s not the ’70s in Hong Kong. But I laughed my ass off, especially during the cow fight.”
“Great warriors appreciate each other, and heroes are delighted to et,” “A thousand cups are too few when drinking with a kindred spirit,” “Born on different dates but destined to be together”… Anyway, after talking with Wang Yang at the ti, Steve Oedekerk was sowhat moved. If the whole world appreciated Kung Pow like Marvelous Yang, recognizing every spoof point in a martial arts movie, how wonderful it would be! His heart, once shattered by film critics, thumped wildly again, and his passion for martial arts had never faded.
With no reason to refuse, Oedekerk readily accepted the invitation to Kung Fu Panda, and O Entertainnt found itself temporarily tied to Fla Blue Skies.
Kung Pow left, and Po arrived! At that ti, film entertainnt dia and Oedekerk alike were bewildered. If it was for screenwriting, it wouldn’t be strange, but for directing… Why pick a jinxed director who just lost his pants? It was terrifying to hand over a $100 million budget to Oedekerk. Even many movie fans and enthusiasts seed to foresee the dismal fate of Kung Fu Panda. How much better than Kung Pow could Po be?
Much, much, much better! That was the thought of everyone at Fla Blue Skies. When Ice Age first ca out, no one had expectations, yet it grossed $476 million; Kung Fu Panda would certainly astound people again, and the ti would be in the sumr of 2005.
“I bet the baby’s na is… Sleep?” Along the long stone path flanked by lush bamboo, the two walked and chatted. Jessica had barely finished speaking when she saw Wang Yang wrinkle his nose, about to speak, she hastily caught him: “Wait, I know! LOVE? LOVE!” she said with an eye roll and a smile full of amusent, “It’s definitely LOVE! Or maybe Asshole.”
“Neither, you’re just a little off,” Wang Yang laughed heartily, watching her annoyed and pouting, he waved his hand: “Almost doesn’t count! After all those hints, it has to be sothing visual!” He revealed, “The baby’s na is Youca, Y, O, U, C, A, Youca.” Jessica paused, intrigued, “What does that an? Is it a word? Or is it a combination of our nas?”
Wang Yang stopped, looked into her eyes quietly, and suddenly said, “Yes, it is a word, aning what we do every night, together, front and back. Haha!” Before even finishing, he burst into laughter and ran ahead.
“Asshole…” Jessica laughed and fud at the sa ti, with no one around to hit, she could only stand with hands on her hips and let out a sigh. She shouted and chased after him: “But LOVE would work too!”
While the two enjoyed their sweet honeymoon, many movies were making progress. Sin City announced Scarlett Johansson, the sexy and talented 19-year-old, would join as the leading lady Nancy; Fantastic Four had found its Invisible Woman, with 25-year-old Rachel McAdams joining to enter the blockbuster scene; and 22-year-old Natalie Portman was already seen on the set of Stealing Heart, which started shooting in early February…
Fla Films’ surprising new plan to uphold its reputation for liking to hire jinxed directors stunned everyone. Following Kung Fu Panda & Steve Oedekerk, Brokeback Mountain & Ang Lee, Fla proudly introduced Assassin’s Creed & John Woo, the sa John Woo who had lost his pants over at MGM and Paramount, John Woo of Hong Kong. (
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