The Best Director

Chapter 187: The Year 2003 Has Arrived

On the eve of the Halloween release of “Memento” in November 2000, Wang Yang agreed in his living room to invest in the new project of Christopher Nolan and his wife. With a $65 million budget, they planned to adapt the biographical novel “Howard Hughes: The Secret Life” into a biopic about the tycoon’s early life, entitled “Mr. Hughes.”

At that time, Nolan was just an emerging director who had received a lot of praise at Sundance and other film festivals. However, there were many other directors who hadn’t proven their “money-making ability,” so the industry assumed that the “Mr. Hughes” project was just a publicity stunt by Flamingo Films to hype “Memento.” But in fact, in the five years since its establishment, Flamingo Films had only engaged in viral marketing and had never resorted to publicity stunts.

Thanks to the impressive viral marketing, “Memento,” which cost $8 million to acquire, ultimately grossed $84.11 million worldwide, making it a significant commercial success for its time.

Now, when the media tallies the “top ten stand-out films” of the Sundance Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino’s breakout hit “Reservoir Dogs” usually ranks first, followed by the prodigy director’s “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” then “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “The Hitman’s Lament,” “Clerks,” along with “Memento” and “Death Illusion” — both suspense films quietly residing in Flamingo Films’ film library.

The success of “Memento” showcased Nolan’s potential, but distributors felt he should continue directing thriller and suspense movies rather than biographical dramas. Flamingo Films, together with other small independent production companies like Archon Entertainment and Unit Eight, invested in the remake of “Insomnia,” and invited Nolan to direct. Of course, he didn’t proceed as he was busy with “Mr. Hughes”; eventually, Jonathan Demme ended up directing “Insomnia.”

After completing the script, crew, and set construction in six months, “Mr. Hughes” was filmed for nearly five months, followed by post-production effects, editing, and music scoring. By May 2002, the film was finalised, and the entire $65 million budget had been spent.

Promotion for the film was ongoing, with Flamingo Films allocating a marketing budget of $25-30 million. Along with additional costs such as copies, the total cost was kept to $100 million US Dollars.

This meant that relying solely on box office revenue, the film would need to gross $250 million worldwide to recoup costs. However, Flamingo Films did not set their box office goal that high, being very pleased with a worldwide gross of $150-200 million. With additional revenue streams like DVD and original soundtrack CD sales, recouping the investment wasn’t a concern if “Mr. Hughes” became a classic biopic.

Flamingo Films thus acquired the rights to a classic film with a budget of $65 million. Over the next decade, revenues from television broadcasts, rentals, and other rights would provide a steady and incremental income. This long-term business model is vital for many companies to survive, allowing them to sustain operations and avoid debt and bankruptcy each year solely from such rights fees, unless a major investment backfires disastrously.

In the distribution department’s promotional strategy, the focus was not on director Nolan but on Jim Carrey, who played Howard Hughes. It was unclear how Nolan had convinced him to take the role, but both media and fans were initially surprised. Howard Hughes was indeed an eccentric, but not the type to pull his mouth into a large hole with his hands. What was going on?

In fact, Jim Carrey had always sought a transition. Having attained enough success in comedies, he naturally aspired for those shiny trophies. His performance in the drama “The Truman Show” earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama, while his portrayal of comedian Andy Kaufman in the biopic “Man on the Moon” added a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical to his collection, but what he wanted was an Oscar.

However, at the Golden Globe nominations announced a week earlier, “Mr. Hughes” did not receive a single nomination, seemingly ending its aspiration for various awards. Perhaps it was because “District 9” and “The Hangover” had already secured six nominations, reaching the “quota” for an independent film company, leading to “Mr. Hughes” being selectively overlooked.

But this didn’t mean it was the end for “Mr. Hughes.” After all, the Golden Globes do not have technical categories, and the number of judges is far less in comparison to the Oscars.

On Friday, December 27, as the weekend began, “Mr. Hughes” officially had a wide release in 2,675 theaters across North America. As the chairman of Flamingo Films and a star himself, Wang Yang accompanied Jessica to the film’s premiere to support Nolan, Jim Carrey, and others.

The screening hall at the Xuelan Theater was packed, filled with faintly heavy classical music, as the audience quietly watched the images on the big screen. The film’s color palette was quite bleak, with a Great Depression-era aesthetic. Jim Carrey, portraying Howard Hughes, wore a crisply pressed suit as he stepped out of a black sedan and walked towards the RKO Pictures building.

Nolan and the film’s main creators sat in the front row, while Wang Yang and Jessica took seats in the guest area at the back, with an even better viewing angle. Jessica leaned in with interest and whispered, “Yang, if you always ironed your clothes so crisply, you’d look more like Howard Hughes.” Wang Yang glanced at her, then turned back to the screen, saying, “I can’t and I’m not that type of person. I don’t know how to fly a plane.” Jessica laughed and continued watching the film.

She made such a joke because there have always been some media outlets saying, “Wang Yang is a legendary figure like Howard Hughes.” Of course, Wang Yang was not born with a silver spoon and did not inherit a large family fortune; but as an ultra-young magical director, the youngest billionaire, and having unique investments in emerging websites and blogs after the Dot-com bubble burst, he all bore the style of Hughes.

The Blogger website had been named “the coolest site of 2002” by Fortune Magazine, which represented a broad prospect and value, the kind of product that companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google were scrambling to acquire.

In fact, the number of registered bloggers on Blogger had already exceeded ten million and was currently growing rapidly to over fifteen million. Moreover, the site was generating revenue through its back-end management software functionality. Now it was preparing for a comprehensive major upgrade, including more flexible and powerful template editing functions, blog albums, blog groups and other services… it was becoming an indispensable website on the Internet.

“And I certainly don’t want to become a madman,” Wang Yang said as he turned his head back toward Jessica.

Howard Hughes, because of his severe germophobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder, became a complete eccentric in his middle and later years, using milk bottles to collect urine, tissue boxes as shoes… He married and divorced three times, had no children, and his later life was quite bleak. He died on a plane at the age of 70, but plagued by years of insomnia, his face had been so disfigured that it was unrecognizable. The FBI even had to use fingerprints to identify that the old man was Howard Hughes.

God knows how he managed to get himself into that state?

“I want to have a bunch of kids,” Wang Yang said, stretching out his right hand and pressing it on Jessica’s flat belly under her black evening dress, smiling, “Let’s reserve two for now, a little girl and a little boy.” Jessica chuckled with a twinkle of anticipation in her eyes. Seeing that his attention had returned to the movie, she held his hand and muttered inwardly, “But there’s still one thing you haven’t done.”

Gazing at the big screen in front of her, she gradually became distracted, and a beautiful silver ring flashed before her eyes…

Time ticked by second by second, and soon the 2-hour 15-minute film was over. Amid the somber music, the scrolling credits appeared on the screen, and the audience at the Snowland Theater immediately burst into applause. Wang Yang clapped his hands vigorously too, smiling at the film’s main creative team who were standing up and taking their bows. It was a very good movie, very characteristic of the era and vividly expressed the twisted nature of Hughes’s character and his inner pain.

After the premiere, the main cast and crew of “Mr. Hughes,” along with guests and friends, went to a hotel for a dinner party, where a lively banquet hall filled with chatter and laughter, and a plentiful array of food and drink was freely available.

Wang Yang and Jessica were chatting with Nolan and his wife. He held a highball glass and took a sip of the slightly sweet wine, saying with a smile, “Chris, you’ve brought us a masterpiece.” Nolan, dressed in a suit and with a side-parted hairstyle, had a faint smile, while Emma Thomas in a red gown seemed a bit apologetic, as if jokingly, “But the box office might not be great.”

“No, no, let’s not talk about that yet,” Wang Yang raised his hand to stop her from continuing on this subject. The movie was indeed too arty and lacked the traits of a typical blockbuster, but he believed it wouldn’t perform too poorly—it was a film that people could enjoy watching from beginning to end.

In fact, he knew that whether “Mr. Hughes” ultimately made or lost money, as long as Nolan and his wife were eager to continue making the second half, he would nod and agree.

From a business standpoint, he was clearer than anyone about Nolan’s potential and ability to reach new heights. In Hollywood, where many filmmakers vied for attention, having the best relationship with this genius director was very beneficial for the future developments. Even if some money was lost now, it was merely a long-term investment.

From a cinematic standpoint, he felt that Nolan’s film was like a trial, laying the groundwork and accumulating something, and if there was a fully mature second half, it might well be a critically and commercially successful classic, naturally eliminating any losses; and finally, from the standpoint of an ordinary viewer, he wanted to watch the sequel. These three reasons were why he could not refuse.

Thinking of this, Wang Yang said with a smile, “Chris, let’s put it this way, if you have confidence, then so do I.”

“Yes, I know,” Nolan nodded, feeling very grateful, but who wants to be a director poison for the box office? Certainly not him! Being able to make a hit at the box office while telling the stories he wanted to tell was his filmmaking goal. However… Nolan furrowed his brows in puzzlement, asking, “I’ve been thinking lately, how do you strike a balance between commerce and art? How can it be done?”

Wang Yang suddenly remembered as well, how to achieve that? There are influences from the promotional aspects, but as for the movie itself… he shrugged and said, “BE-COOL, that’s what I think.”

Jessica smiled at him, while Emma Thomas looked towards her husband to see Nolan deeply engrossed in thought. Wang Yang continued, “The movie’s name must be cool, the poster cool, the story setting cool, the composition of the scenes cool, the filming techniques cool… everything. When all these are achieved, that’s definitely a commercial film; but it also discusses the kind of art that everyone talks about.”

He swirled his glass and took a sip, then added, “What I mean is, a theme can be executed by a bunch of old guys like Jack Nicholson in a mental hospital fighting for freedom; or by a group of beautiful people in tense and exciting fights and explosions fighting for freedom. Of course, the former focuses on one thing and can achieve perfection; the latter isn’t as profound, but it’s more suitable for the general audience and it gets them fascinated, thinking, feeling, and going on Yahoo or Google searching for what they want to know…”

Nolan had already thought about the deep themes being expressed through commercial forms and opening up the audience’s space for thought, having tried the latter in “Memento.” However, the very simple words that were said earlier electrified him, making his heart suddenly race. What kind of commercial form?! Besides narrative methods and editing techniques, how else to get the audience’s minds working?

Taking a deep breath, Nolan murmured, “BE-COOL, BE-COOL…” Story settings, scene compositions, filming techniques… movie names! Posters! Many vague ideas suddenly became clear, and he couldn’t help but laugh out loud, with an “exaggerated expression” on his face, no longer maintaining that long-term gentlemanly demeanor. He laughed, “Yes, it must be cool and special! You’re right!”

Settings and compositions… He laughed again, “Yes! Right, right! I’ve got it! Sorry, I must excuse myself, I need to think this through.” With a smile of pleasure from his thoughts on his face, he turned and walked toward the restroom area. How simple, why didn’t he realize it before! As he walked, he slapped his hands together, muttering and chuckling to himself, “BE-COOL, haha…”

“Oh, he really is…” Emma Thomas looked at her husband who was muttering and walking away, and said with an apologetic smile, “I must excuse myself too, I need to see what’s gotten into him.” With that, she picked up her handbag and quickly followed Nolan.

Jessica’s black eyes filled with an inexplicable surprise as she scrutinized Wang Yang. What magic had he worked? She curiously smiled and asked, “What does that mean? Just being cool?”

Wang Yang held his glass with his hands spread and laughed, not expecting Nolan’s reaction to be so immense. “I don’t know; I was just saying.”

Sometimes a person might hover outside a door for a long time, then someone, unintentionally, gives him a key, and he opens the door, stepping through. As for what lies behind the door, only he himself would know.

“But you can think of it that way, just as being cool! If in a commercial film, you can make the audience think you’re cool, you win,” Wang Yang said as he headed towards the food-laden long table, feeling a bit hungry after drinking half a glass of wine. Jessica followed behind him, her lips curled into a smile, “Yang, tell me! I want to be a director too!”

The day after the release, most film critics and movie fans gave “Mr. Hughes” a good review. It scored 8.0 on the main page on IMDB, not too high for a premiere art biography film, but enough to tag it as an excellent movie. On Rotten Tomatoes, the general critics’ freshness was 85%, the recognized critics’ freshness was 82%, and the audience approval was 76%.

The film’s period detail, performances by actors such as Jim Carrey, and its “voracious but well-organized” narrative style were praised; however, as an art film, Joe Thompson from The Washington Post said, “It tells a story very well, but only a story. It seems Christopher Nolan has been enchanted by the mysterious Howard Hughes, focusing the entire film on character building and recounting Hughes’s past, forgetting to tell us something.”

Maybe the audience just likes a well-told story, and with the popularity of Howard Hughes and Jim Carrey, “Mr. Hughes”‘ box office performance wasn’t as bad as Emma Thomas had feared. By the end of the last weekend of 2002, December 27-29, “Mr. Hughes” pulled in $19.63 million in 2675 cinemas, ranking fourth, and was on track to earn $30 million in the first week, fully meeting the expectations of Flame Film.

After all, a film typically screens for 20 weeks, and with this opening performance, North American box office returns for “Mr. Hughes” had the potential to reach $70-100 million; plus the overseas market yet to premiere, a global take of $1.5-2 billion was not out of reach.

And the movie occupying the champion position that weekend continued to be “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” with $48.87 million US dollars; in second place also continued the hilarity of “The Hangover,” which took away $34.49 million from the North American box office; “Catch Me If You Can,” officially released in its first week, clinched third place with $30.05 million. After that came “Mr. Hughes,” “Two Weeks Notice,” “Maid in Manhattan”…

The 31st was the last day of 2002, and countdown events to celebrate the new year were being held all around the world — in Times Square in New York and over the desert oasis of Las Vegas too.

Under the star-speckled night sky, the buildings on either side of the Las Vegas Strip shone with dazzling lights, while the wide avenue below was abuzz with voices as tourists came to partake in the New Year’s revelry. Everyone wore a happy smile, champagne in hand, waiting for the chime of the New Year bell. At that moment, the entire city of gamblers would toast in unison, sipping a glass of celebratory champagne for the New Year.

Compared to last year, the number of tourists who chose to welcome the New Year in casinos had skyrocketed, perhaps influenced by “The Hangover.” Amid the dense crowd, various shouts rang out non-stop: “This one’s for Vegas!” “To 2003!”…

On the avenue, Wang Yang and Jessica also held small bottles of champagne. Just ahead, a group of six or seven young friends, all hoisting their champagne bottles, one blond Caucasian boy yelled with a laugh, “Let’s down this in one go! Let’s get totally wasted! For Vegas, for friends, for ‘The Hangover’… for a Happy New Year!”

The two couldn’t help but exchange smiles upon seeing those people clinking their bottles and gulping down their drinks. Raising their own, they too shouted, “For ‘The Hangover’, for a Happy New Year!” After the toast, they tilted their heads back and took a big gulp.

As multicolored lights swept over them, Wang Yang saw some champagne on her lips and reached out to wipe it away, scrunching his nose as he laughed, “You really do look like a drunkard!” Jessica also reached over to wipe the corner of his mouth, her brows curving into a smile as she said, “So do you!”

“10, 9, 8—” The countdown for the New Year suddenly resounded above Las Vegas, escalating quickly from faint to thunderous. All the tourists on the avenue faced the huge outdoor TV hanging on the building walls, shouting the count: “7, 6, 5—” Wang Yang and Jessica, arm in arm, looked up at the sky, awaiting the fireworks and joining the crowd by shouting, “4, 3, 2, 1! Happy New Year—”

Boom— As the New Year bell chimed, fireworks exploded into the air, the night sky erupting with all sorts of beautiful flames, blue, red, yellow, green, and other colors woven together, spreading like an umbrella as they sprinkled down; boom—a giant red fireball lit up the entire sky as if it were daylight; boom—

“Wow—woo—” The tourists throughout the city yelled excitedly, with people everywhere clinking glasses, their laughter blending into the din: “Guys, finish it off!” “Hahaha, watch me!”… Wang Yang and Jessica also took another swig and, looking into each other’s eyes filled with emotion, they embraced and kissed, another year together had passed!

2003 had arrived!

“Wow! I’ve just discovered that kissing with a drink feels so good, you can taste two kinds of alcohol at the same time!” Wang Yang let go of her, savoring the moment with a pleased “Mmm.” Jessica rolled her eyes and laughed, “Idiot! A cocktail can let you taste ten at once!” Wang Yang gave a surprised slap to his forehead, and Jessica excitedly said, “Yang, where to next? How many things can happen in one night?”

Glancing around at the surrounding crowd, listening to their jubilant and boisterous laughter, Wang Yang shouted loudly, “So many, so many, so many—let’s see what craziness this night can bring! To the casino first!” Jessica waved her bottle forward, a rally cry bursting forth, “Let’s go!!”

Under the bright yellow lights, the Caesar Casino was even more bustling than the avenue outside, with crowds shouting around various gambling entertainments and tables, constantly throwing down chips and coins. The pair, upon entering the casino, were just another part of the crowd. Blackjack? Texas Hold’em? Omaha? Roulette? None of those; Wang Yang, leading Jessica, headed for the slot machines — as Jeff Ma had said, “That’s real gambling.” If they were going to gamble, then they’d be 100% gamblers!

“Jesus! Spit out the money for me, come on out…” Grinding her teeth, Jessica inserted another coin into the slot machine and yanked down the lever, continuously anxiously slapping the machine, “Come on, come out!” Wang Yang looked at her with a peculiar expression, tempted to ask, “Does Jesus actually allow his followers to gamble?”

But their eyes gradually widened and they held their breath as the reels on the slot machine spun for a while and then began to stop one by one, one 7, two 7s…

The third reel still rolled slowly, passing by strawberries, oranges, $… tick-tick-tick…