Rennie Haring, image source @ Visual China
Text | Rhino Entertainment, author | Ko Min, Editor| Park Fang
Counting up, "Silent Witness" is the third Chinese film directed by Rennie Haring.
In 2015, at the invitation of Jackie Chan, Rennie Haring came to China for the first time to make a movie, which took root. In the next few years, he successively directed "Jedi Escape", "Ancient Sword Qitan Stream Moon Zhaoming", and "Silent Witness", these three films are completely controlled by the Chinese side, and the beginning is not small.
The first shot was fired, and "Jedi Escape", released in 2016, received 887 million box office, becoming the runner-up in the box office of domestic films in the summer that year. For Rennie Haring, this seems like a good place to start.
At that time, Rennie Haring probably could not have imagined that in two years, "Ancient Sword Strange Tan" would be so punched that she didn't even know her mother. And the "Silent Witness", which has been released many times, has not been able to reproduce the "glory" of "Jedi Escape", with a box office of only 170 million in the 7 days of release, and the reputation has dropped from 6.8 points to 5.7 points on Douban, and with the "interception" of "Fast and Furious: Special Operations", it is expected to be sad to the 200 million mark.
Once Chinese directors were proud to go to Hollywood to work hard, but most of them "returned home". Nowadays, Hollywood directors come to China to make films, and they also encounter "Waterloo". It's really feng shui taking turns.
To be precise, Rennie Haring is not the most top director in Hollywood, although Rennie Haring's directorial career has lasted for more than 30 years, but there are only a few works that can be named, and the audience is more familiar with "Ghost Street 4", "Tiger Guts 2", "Deep Sea Shark", most of which are works from the 1980s and 1990s.
And Rennie Haring's peak also stopped at 1990's "Die Hard 2", which grossed $117 million, and no film has surpassed the box office and popularity since then.
After Die Hard 2, Rennie Haring was in the limelight, but was soon sentenced to the "first death sentence" by Slit Throat Island. At that time, the film raised hundreds of millions of dollars, took two years and ten months, and was a huge production, and finally "Cut Throat Island" only earned $10.01 million at the box office, lost $104 million, won the title of "the most loss-making film in history", and directly led to the bankruptcy of Carolco Independent Productions. It can be said that Rennie Haring has created a major tragedy in film history.
After Rainy Haring went downhill in Hollywood, production companies took detours, and Rennie Haring could only make some unknown movies. By 2005's "Ambush on Eight Sides," the box office had fallen to $4.48 million.
Rennie Haring's most recent Hollywood movie is "Hercules" from 5 years ago, the standard of the film plummeted, the word of mouth is not satisfactory, Douban 4.9 points, IMDB only 4.2 points, and the final box office is less than $20 million.
From blockbuster directors to box office poison, Rennie Haring's "Hollywood movie dream" seems to be having a hard time going. At this time, Jackie Chan threw an olive branch to "rescue" Rennie Haring from frustration and distress, and Rennie Haring was naturally willing. More importantly, Jackie Chan personally created a seductive "Chinese film dream" for Rennie Haring.
At that time, the Chinese film market was entering the fast lane, and in 2015, "To Catch a Demon" set a box office record of 2.44 billion, which was immediately surpassed by "The Mermaid" in early 2016. The box office ceiling has been repeatedly pushed up, indicating that the consumption potential of Chinese audiences is very huge.
It was also at this time that Rennie Haring's first Chinese film "Jedi Escape" was released, and the film lineup was strong, not only with jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville's Chinese and foreign comic combinations, but also with the help of actors such as Fan Bingbing and Zeng Zhiwei. The film focuses on adventure comedy, with Jackie Chan's signature action, which eventually grossed 887 million at the box office.
Although it is a bit of an afterthought now, "Jedi Escape" is still a film with obvious flaws when watched by today's standards. Although the film has commercial merits, the problems of weak drama, old-fashioned plot, and embarrassing laughter points are also exposed, and if it is released now, it is impossible to achieve such a high box office.
Perhaps the first victory came easier, and Rennie Haring doesn't seem to reflect on the film's shortcomings, but rather the shortcomings of the next two films have been magnified to the point where they cannot be ignored.
In 2018, the National Day release of "Ancient Sword Qitan" is a domestic game adaptation of the movie, after the release of the audience a spit, Douban 4.3 points has been beaten into the ranks of bad films, and what is more tragic is that the huge investment in "Ancient Sword Qitan" box office is only 14.11 million, even the publicity fee has not been earned back. The film also has many bugs in the script, it is normal to be complained about, of course, you can't all blame the director, after all, people are taking money to do things. The film is the result of the overall loss of control from the decision-making level to the executive level, and it is possible to find a foreign director to shoot a Chinese-style film in ancient costumes.
"Silent Witness" actually has Hollywood elements, closed secret rooms, psychological games, close combat, etc., are all common methods in Hollywood. However, in this film, the weakening of the character's psychology and the downline of the protagonist's IQ were complained about by netizens as "three fools making a big fuss in the morgue", and this rough treatment obviously cannot satisfy the audience.
Although the data shows that there are other Chinese projects after Rennie Haring, three films have squeezed the trust of Chinese audiences in the Hollywood director, and we may need to re-examine hollywood directors. In this way, Rennie Haring's "Chinese film dream" will also face shattering.
Rennie Haring did have some achievements in the 1980s and 1990s, but he could not escape the fate of "passing". The "Big Six" firmly occupy the right to speak in the Hollywood film industry, they are always profit-seeking, and the director's past achievements are brilliant, once they pounce on several films, they will be ruthlessly abandoned. Even with influencers like Ang Lee, after the box office failure of Billy Lynn's Halftime War, it still fell into a slump for some time.
This is different from China, in China, it is very common for directors to "lose their front hooves", and famous directors such as Zhang Yimou, Feng Xiaogang, and Chen Kaige have all failed works, but their directors still have a long lifespan. The fault tolerance rate of the Hollywood production system is very low, and it is so cruel to change directors if you are not satisfied.
Therefore, the most direct reason why Hollywood directors come to China to make movies is that they can't get mixed up. Some insiders say that where there are still dramas to be filmed in Hollywood, these directors will not leave their hometowns to wading through the muddy waters of China.
It just so happens that the Chinese film box office is in the era of "blowout", and the Chinese film market has become the second largest market in the world, which has opened up a "second battlefield" for Hollywood directors and vaguely seen the "second spring" of the career. The Chinese side has a strong willingness to cooperate, so it is natural for Hollywood directors to come to China to "pan for gold".
It seems that this is a win-win situation, Hollywood directors have experience and technology, and Chinese films have capital and market. But it turns out that most of those who hold this illusion have lost money. Those Hollywood directors who have traveled across the ocean to frantically "pounce" on the Chinese film market have surprisingly consistent endings and have "pounced on the street".
Chinese audiences should remember that there was a movie in 2013 called "Tai Chi Man". The director is keanu Reeves, the star of "The Matrix" that everyone is very familiar with, in fact, "The Matrix" is also the peak of Keanu Reeves's career, and then several films starring are not good, and the career has fallen into a trough. With the matchmaking between China Film and Wanda, Keanu Reeves completed his directorial debut in China. The cost of the film was 25 million US dollars, and the final mainland box office was only 27.48 million yuan, which can basically be described as a fiasco.
In 2017, Anthony La Meridianara, the director of "Three Lives and Three Lives and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms", won the 77th Academy Award for Best Special Effects Director, representing the "Spider-Man" series. "Three Lives and Three Worlds and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms" found him probably to have a breakthrough in the visual effects of the film, but we all know the ending of this film, not only the special effects were spit on the "page game" level, the box office was far less than expected.
And "The White Ghost Legend of the Deadly Escape", directed by Nick Powell, starred Liu Yifei and Nicholas Cage, the Douban score was only 4.2 points, and the box office was only 24.29 million. Even Academy Award winner Billy Auguste is at a loss for Chinese films, and his director's "Beacon Fangfei" has only grossed 29.46 million.
The reason for the "word-of-mouth fluttering street" is the factor of the director, that is, the water and soil are not satisfied. After all, there are cultural differences between North America and China, and hollywood directors to shoot "Chinese stories", they can not fully understand the psychological needs of Chinese audiences, most of them are still in accordance with Hollywood's previous production experience to implement, so the result is technically up to standard, but the text content, emotional core is very weak. For example, if "The Wandering Earth" is handed over to a Hollywood director to shoot, the special effects will inevitably be dazzling, but it will certainly not reach the level of national resonance.
The other is the reason for the market, it is no longer the film market that "people are stupid and how fast to come", Chinese audiences are becoming more and more mature and rational, and the aesthetic has been greatly improved. The audience's "fire eye golden eye" can distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of the film, it is difficult to meet the needs of the audience by simple "living", and under the consensus that word of mouth is supreme and content is king, the market space of Hollywood directors is being compressed.
Some time ago, a film once again triggered a discussion of traffic stars, and the director admitted that he used the wrong traffic stars, which was discussed by many netizens.
The use of Hollywood directors, in essence, is the same as the use of traffic stars, is to value their commercial value, in order to transform their experience and traffic into the film's gold content and influence, and all with a certain psychology of looking up and superstitious.
Even the smallest wrist is a wrist, and the director who has been in Hollywood is also a Hollywood director. The three words "Hollywood" naturally carry a certain magic, making people habitually look up, when a Hollywood director is willing to come to China to shoot a film, the Chinese side is naturally welcomed with both hands. And everyone is very tolerant of Hollywood directors, and Rennie Haring also said that filming in China does not need to strictly follow the process.
Hollywood directors who have come to China to make films can theoretically enjoy the "dimensionality reduction dividend". Just as the stars who have been popular in the third and fourth-tier cities are still popular, and the stars who can't mix in the NBA have become the main force in the CBA, Hollywood directors can enjoy the treatment that is not available in Hollywood with the signs laid in the past.
But many people ignore that the film and television industry ultimately depends on the work to speak, traffic stars have no works can only be replaced by other new traffic, Hollywood directors can not make a good film will be abandoned by the market, "Hollywood" the golden sign is a stepping stone, but does not mean that it is a quality guarantee. Therefore, the use of Hollywood directors has actually planted the seeds of danger from the beginning, because Hollywood has already pronounced a "death sentence" on him.
At least for now, Hollywood directors have not had a very successful case of making Chinese films. Just as traffic stars can't afford to carry the box office, Hollywood directors can't gild their films very well.
Hollywood's well-known directors can't come, and Hollywood's past directors can't shoot well, so why are they still obsessed with foreign directors shooting Chinese stories? It is better to give the opportunity to local directors, especially in recent years, the creativity of young directors is obvious to all, the fledgling Wen Muye can shoot a 3 billion-level "I Am Not a Medicine God", and the dumpling director made a 4 billion-level "Nezha", indicating that the potential of young directors is huge and can be tapped.
In the final analysis, what we reject is not the Hollywood directors who have come to China to "pan for gold", but the exclusion of Hollywood directors from making bad films. As long as your film can be made well, no matter how you are too angry, the audience is willing to pay the bill.
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