Chapter 616

"Tomorrow's edge", I didn't expect that Andy's script was "tomorrow's edge"!

According to the context of the last life, the film should be released in 2014, with Tom Cruise as the hero and Emily Blunt as the heroine; Not only that, since the beginning of the project, this work has targeted top stars, starting with Brad Pitt and then Tom Cruise, without considering other options.

However, it's only 2011 now, and the script has been approved? And it's not Brad, it's not Tom, it's in his hands? Although it's just a trial and inquiry of intention, even without a word, the development trend of the matter is quite different from that of the previous life.

Is this the butterfly effect? Is the timeline disrupted? Or is it just a project, and there is still a long way to go before shooting and showing? Maybe, in the final analysis, the work will be shown in 2014, or in Tom's hands. It's just lanli's wishful thinking?

However, for the time being, let's put aside the jumping of the disrupted timeline. The script is a work on the blacklist in 2010. Now Warner Bros. has started to set up a project. All this is about the past. Back to the script itself of "tomorrow's edge", we have to say that the blacklist is really trustworthy, and Andy's killing is also admirable.

"Tomorrow's edge" tells an uncomplicated story. The future world falls into the panic of alien invasion. The hero William cage is an officer who can only talk on paper and has never been in actual combat. After refusing the order of his superior, the general throws him as a deserter into a suicide operation. As soon as he goes to the battlefield, he dies. But unexpectedly, he entered a cycle of time death, repeatedly participated in this suicide action again and again, and died again and again until victory.

Like the cycle of time and space or disordered works, "Groundhog Day" is undoubtedly a classic work, and then there are many works such as "Butterfly Effect", "source code", "ring messenger", and "tomorrow's edge" is one of them.

In the last life, the film was directed by Doug Liman, the director of "spy films" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", who is famous for his sharp editing style and simple rhythm control. Under his direction, the advantages and disadvantages of "tomorrow's edge" are very obvious, and the urgent and fast rhythm makes the role not have enough space to play, But the rich imagination and aggressive fighting style make the process of watching the film climax repeatedly, and the whole narrative rhythm is complete at one go.

"Tomorrow's edge" has won the praise of film critics. The comprehensive evaluation of the media has reached 71 points, and the fresh index of rotten tomatoes is as high as 91%, with an average score of 7.5. This score is very gratifying for commercial films. In the summer of 2014, it made a unique show, surpassing "Transformers 4", "Godzilla", "X-Men: reversing the future" and "X-Men: reversing the future" "Dragon training master 2" and other works are considered to be the most outstanding commercial works of the summer film critics.

However, it is surprising that the reputation of "tomorrow's edge" among the audience is divided. The IMDB score is as high as 8 points, which once ranked in the 250 list of classic movies. The popcorn index has also reached 90%, but the cinema score is only disappointing "B +". It can be understood that the senior audience and professional audience can't put it down and give praise one after another; The average audience refused to pay.

This kind of situation is also directly reflected in the box office data, which can be said to be a typical representative of success or failure.

The investment of the film is as high as 180 million, but only in North America it has made 100 million US dollars at the box office. Thanks to Tom Cruise's strong appeal, the overseas box office has swept 270 million, but even so, the global box office is only 370 million. Warner brothers lost nearly 40 million. Fortunately, the film later performed well in the Blu ray Disc market, and finally managed to make ends meet, which is both dangerous and dangerous.

However, considering the excellent reputation of the film and the strong appeal of Tom Cruise, Warner Bros. gave the green light and made the sequel project. However, the sequel project has been procrastinating until the rebirth of lanli, and has not been able to put into shooting, so there is no way to know the quality.

There is no doubt that the quality of the script "tomorrow's edge" from the blacklist has been affirmed. This script adapted from the Japanese original novel "samsara of killing" is crisp, concise, logical, and complementary to the action scenes. The only regret is that the ending is less weak, and the "Groundhog day" and "the dog day" are lost "Butterfly Effect" and other works like the ending of sublimation and aftertaste.

On the whole, compared with science fiction, this work achieves an excellent balance between science fiction and action, and focuses on action scenes. The whole work is full of no urine. It is full of momentum and makes full use of the advantages of commercial films. In the last life, "tomorrow's edge" is generally considered to be Tom Cruise's best work in ten years, even surpassing the fourth and fifth movies of "mission impossible", which is not without reason.

Since the quality of the finished product is so excellent, why doesn't the box office of the film improve? Even if we don't expect 300 million in North America, even the average of 200 million is far away, just barely breaking the 100 million threshold. This achievement is really disappointing.

From the perspective of hindsight, industry professionals generally believe that the reason for the failure is Tom Cruise.

In fact, similar to Johnny Depp of "shadow", Tom has also fallen into the pattern of fixed image. From the "minority report" in 2002 to 2017, Tom has appeared in 16 films, including 11 sci-fi action films with uniform style. After entering the second half of his career, Tom gave up the competition for the Oscar, He also gave up the broadening of the stage, went on the old road of Adam Sandler, and kept repeating himself, never to return to the road of "action superstar".

Even the "mission impossible" series is no exception. In the first three films, the focus of publicity is "Tom is full of charm", while the focus of publicity in the later films is always "Tom overcomes the shackles of age and constantly challenges the limit".

Before "tomorrow's edge", Tom just appeared in the "lost battle scene" which is very close in style, type, theme and story. The work's reputation is in a mess, and the box office is only 89 million. Before that, "Detective Jack" and "spy war" are all familiar.

In other words, "Tom Cruise" is one of the top signs in the United States today. Countless audiences choose to go into the cinema because of him, but they are disappointed again and again. In this process, the recovery of "mission impossible 4" makes people regain some confidence, but then it smashes to pieces. In short, "cheated", the sense of disappointment let the audience in silent gradually drain.

In addition, Tom's personal persistence is also one of the important reasons, handsome, handsome, young, vigorous, energetic, which is an important part of Tom's image brand. In order to continue this image, the publicity plan of the film, the key role of the script, and even the shooting techniques of the director will focus on creating such an image of "Tom"; But the fact is that Tom was 52 years old when shooting "tomorrow's edge". His image creation 20 years ago is consistent 20 years later, and he has fallen behind the times unconsciously.

Tom's contemporaries, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and so on, have been transformed, only he still maintains the idol image set up when he was "high flying".

The two heroines of "lost battle scene" are 17 and 19 years younger than Tom respectively, while the heroine of "tomorrow edge" is 21 years younger than Tom. In fact, among the works starring Tom, the heroine whose age gap is less than 10 years old has a direct rival with him. The last time was in 1992, Demi Moore. At that time, the two people joined hands to play "Yihai Xiongfeng".

Invisibly, more and more audiences are leaving because of the aesthetic fatigue of Tom's image.

A survey of Tom Cruise's individual box office shows that since the "World War" in 2005, in addition to the "mission impossible" series, "tomorrow's edge" is the only work with a box office of more than 100 million in North America. The box office superstar of the past only relies on the "mission impossible" brand to continue his acting career.

To some extent, Pirates of the Caribbean had the same effect on Johnny Depp.

This explains the audience feedback of "tomorrow's edge" -- professional audiences do not look at Tom Cruise, but look at the quality, which is naturally applauding; Ordinary audience do not look at the quality, but look at Tom Cruise, feel the surprise, but more or to the "old" disappointment. The negative word-of-mouth effect brought by the "lost battle" in 2013 extends to the box office failure of "tomorrow's edge" in 2014.

Of course, is there room for improvement in "tomorrow's edge"? Maybe there is, maybe not, but this is a commercial popcorn movie, the existence of shortcomings is inevitable, as long as the shortcomings will not affect the fluency of the whole viewing, then it is forgivable. So, in the final analysis, it's Tom Cruise and a series of problems derived from Tom

Publicity positioning, script weight, role building, shooting focus and so on.

But to say the least, without Tom Cruise, will "tomorrow's edge" still be able to achieve 100 million box office in North America?

The cost of the last generation's works is 180 million yuan, and the publicity expenses are not soft. But according to what Andy said just now, the budget is only 100 million yuan, and even the project promotion is a problem, let alone other resources. Without Tom, maybe "tomorrow's edge" won't be released until 2014.

In addition to the director, Tom brought the whole production team of the last generation's works, just like the movie "Detective Jack" just recently. The screenwriter is Christopher McQuarrie, who has made his name as a "very suspect" and is Tom's Royal screenwriter. Even though he has written such bad plays as "deadly companion" and "giant catcher Jack", he still cooperates with Tom in "target Hitler", "mission impossible", "knight errant detective Jack" and so on "New mummy" and other works.

In addition, photographers, lighters, art designers, art directors and producers are all Tom's Royal team.

Without Tom, "tomorrow's edge" is an empty shelf.