After visiting various locations to check the preparation work, Zhang Hao returned to the Fox Studios in Los Angeles to check the construction status of the Batcave.
The studio at Fox Studios was converted from an airplane hangar and can shoot some shots that cannot be shot in ordinary studios. The huge Batcave and the dilapidated Nerros District will be filmed here.
The Batcave in previous films was extremely exquisite, but the style of "The Battle Begins" had already been decided, which did not meet Zhang Hao's requirements.
The Batcave he wanted was a damp and dirty cave filled with bats. The film will also show how Bruce Wayne built his own Batcave himself.
The bats flying around in the film were synthesized by computer CG. Zhang Hao has never heard of any talented person who can train and control bats.
According to the plan, the props team built a cave that is about 76 meters long, 36.5 meters wide and about 12 meters high. 24 water pumps will be installed and used. 80 cubic meters of water will flow through the set every minute, forming waterfalls, streams and dripping water.
damp cave walls.
For the success of Marvel movies, its childish production style for all ages is undoubtedly a magic weapon. Similarly, the realistic style is also the reason why "Batman Begins" will be successful in the future.
The film industry is a place where following trends are serious. Usually after a movie becomes successful, the type of success will cause other companies to blindly follow suit.
Zhang Hao bets that Warner Pictures executives already have a lot of DC movies on their desk that are similar to the childish versions of Marvel movies.
Zhang Hao repeatedly emphasized this point during the meeting with Charles Rowan. The film takes a differentiated and competitive route.
Audiences who have watched too many childish superhero movies, and watched too many superheroes who talk nonsense and make tricks, will definitely become interested in a different Batman.
Charles Rowan agreed with Zhang Hao's point of view. The two crew chiefs reached an agreement, and the others had no objections.
"Hey Bell, how do you feel?" Zhang Hao asked after watching Bell drive the Batmobile around the test site for several laps.
Bell looked unsatisfied: "It's so enjoyable. This is simply a beast. I want to collect one."
"Don't worry, Warner Pictures has teamed up with Lamborghini to produce this Batmobile. You will have one by then." Zhang Hao said with a smile.
In fact, most of the driving scenes were done by stunt drivers, and Christian Bale only took some close-up shots.
But the appearance of this car is so attractive. If you are a car lover, you will fall in love with this car at first sight.
And this Batmobile doesn’t just look cool, it actually drives.
In the story, the Batmobile is actually a military vehicle prototype called The Tumbler, which was developed by Wayne Company and was used to carry personnel and equipment across trenches and to facilitate travel in open areas.
However, due to the high price, Wayne Company failed to put it into large-scale production, but it was discovered by Batman and developed into a tool to safeguard justice.
The Batmobile is equipped with a 5.7-liter 340-horsepower engine that can output 400 pounds of torque. The body is 9 feet 4 inches wide, 15 feet long, and weighs two and a half tons. It can accelerate from standstill to 60 miles per hour in 5 seconds.
Long distance jump.
The most unique thing about the Batmobile is that it does not have a front axle, but the wheels are supported by the sides of the body.
Technicians increased the size of the rear wheels and placed the engine and gearbox nearby. The Batmobile even has an insect-like waist, and the body will twist when the horsepower is increased.
In addition, the Batmobile is also equipped with 6 truck tires. In order to achieve the designed sideslip effect, tires with different levels of wear are used in different scenarios, and the tire pressure must be adjusted accordingly.
Lamborghini set up a special production line for the Batmobile and produced eight cars for the film crew.
Five of them are complete, one electronic version is equipped with a removable roof for easier entry and exit, and two have no engines and have been reduced in weight to be ejected during special action scenes.
Lamborghini also specially sent engineers and maintenance technicians to the crew to inspect and maintain the Batmobile at any time.
Zhang Hao thought about whether he should wait until the filming of the film was over and get one back home. He could buy it with money. But a car with this style of car would probably just sit in the garage and collect dust, and it wouldn't even get a license plate.
If he could drive out, Zhang Hao would probably be the most popular person in the entire Forty-Nine City, and all the rich people would be inferior to him.
In the film, Bruce Wayne's cars will be provided by Lamborghini, which are the latest sports cars. In order to promote the company's sports cars, Lamborghini also gave Christian Bale one of the latest concept sports cars.
But the sports car does not have Zhang Hao's role, even though he is the director.
Due to his lack of experience, Zhang Hao actually encountered many difficulties during the preparation period of the film. Fortunately, with the help of Charles Rowan, Zhang Hao successfully overcame these difficulties.
After a long preparation period of nearly two months, Zhang Hao took the crew to Iceland to officially shoot the first scene of "Batman Begins."
Just as "Batman Begins" started filming in Iceland, another movie related to Zhang Hao finally hit theaters.
"The Butterfly Effect" is a movie that brings a lot of confusion to people right from the title. Even after watching the trailer, people are still confused.
When the film was released, the director was filming abroad. There was no other way, so the leading actors such as Chen Kun and Da Mi Mi had no choice but to take on the task of promoting the film and started doing road shows everywhere to promote it.
The film was also screened and gained a very good reputation in the media. Many media even named it a milestone in domestic science fiction films.
However, some viewers who have watched the on-demand screening said that the film is not science fiction at all, but only borrows some science fiction concepts.
Perhaps in the eyes of many Chinese viewers, only big science fiction films such as interstellar battleships, lightsaber battles, Autobots, and alien planets can be considered science fiction films.
But the quality of the film is indeed good, and the fame gathering effect brought about by Zhang Hao directing Hollywood movies has made more viewers look forward to this film.
Speaking of the fame aggregation effect, another thing happened recently.
As the news about Zhang Hao directing Hollywood movies is about to pass, a North American reporter interviewed James Cameron, who had not been seen for a long time.
James Cameron revealed to reporters that Zhang Hao directed the Batman movie precisely because he recommended it to Warner.
As for why he recommended it and what the reason was, James Cameron did not say.
But this is enough for the media to speculate, and some media couldn't help but speculate that Zhang Hao is James Cameron's illegitimate son in China.
The news spread back to China, and domestic media and netizens learned some inside information about Zhang Hao becoming the director of Batman.
So everyone, like the melon-eating people in North America, speculated on the reason.
It's a pity that Zhang Hao is in Iceland, otherwise reporters would have come to interview him about his relationship with James Cameron.
Let's talk about "The Butterfly Effect" again. Although Zhang Hao is not here, the scale of the film's publicity is not large at all, and it is even larger than the publicity scale of Zhang Hao's previous films.
This is the second collaboration between Chen Kun and Da Mi. "Painted Skin 2", released on June 28 this year, is the first collaboration between Chen Kun and Da Mi. As of the end of July, the film has grossed 652 million in box office and is heading towards 7
Billion box office impact.
In "The Butterfly Effect", not only Chen Kun and Da Mi Mi, but also Zhou Xun's guest appearance, as well as Lao Hu, Lei Jiayin and others.
On August 7, "The Butterfly Effect" officially hit theaters, and was released on the same day as "The Wind Listener" directed by Mak Siu-fai and Chong Man-keung and starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai.
Because it was summer vacation and everyone had gone home, Ye Xiaoyi did not organize a Zhang Hao fan group to go to the cinema to watch the movie. Instead, she invited a few friends to go together.
After watching "The Butterfly Effect", Ye Xiaoyi's brain CPU almost burned out. She couldn't understand what the movie was about.
Fortunately, she established a fan group in which there were many experts who analyzed plots, so she asked in the group.
"Has anyone seen "The Butterfly Effect"? What is this movie about?"
The goddess bubbled up, so people from all walks of life in the group showed up one after another, among which Jiang Zhicheng was the most active.
Now Jiang Zhicheng has gone from looking down on Zhang Hao to being a firm supporter of Zhang Hao, and now he has developed into a Zhang Hao film scholar, or Zhang scholar for short.
Jiang Zhicheng replied: "This movie is very simple. The male protagonist Gao Qi can go back to the past through his diary and change some unfortunate things in the past, which will lead to another unfortunate thing happening.
No matter how you change it, it will always be an imperfect ending, so the male protagonist finally returns to his childhood and stays away from the people who brought misfortune to him, and finally the male and female protagonists forget each other."
Some friends in the group had different opinions: "If according to the theory of the movie, the male protagonist is the source of misfortune, should he commit suicide?"
"I know this. It is said that Director Zhang filmed four endings. This is the release version. The subsequent endings should only be seen after the movie is finished."
"Does anyone know what Director Zhang is doing now?"
"The filming of Batman has already started in Iceland."
In fact, the discussion of the plot is not limited to the fan group, but also many ordinary viewers have made various discussions and comments on the film. This is the same as the original discussion of "The Prestige".
The movie "The Butterfly Effect" is classified as a typical Zhang movie. Some viewers clearly stated that this is a style that cannot be copied.
In fact, after Zhang Hao's success, many fledgling or slightly famous film directors tried to imitate the brain-burning, high-IQ plot style of Zhang Hao's movies.
In the end, the imitation was so different that the audience felt as if their own intelligence had been insulted. It was not good-looking or exciting at all.
You can guess the next step of the plot without even thinking. It doesn't feel like solving puzzles when watching Zhang Hao's movies.
This is normal. There is a reason why Zhang Hao is called the Chinese-language film director with the most unique style. Even the National Master is not good at this type of brain-burning suspense film. "Three Guns" is so bad!
Not to mention other directors, they are not as good as national teachers!
But as mentioned before, audiences tend not to like complicated and brain-burning movies, and these types of movies usually don’t have high box office.
"The Butterfly Effect" received a box office of 113 million in its first week, losing to "The Wind Listener" with a box office of 115 million, ranking second in the weekly box office.
Considering the investment of 85 million yuan in the film, the film needs to earn more than 260 million yuan in box office in order to make back the money or even generate a profit. This first week's box office is not very satisfactory.
Fortunately, the film's excellent quality and reputation have kept the box office decline at a healthy rate.
In the second week, it once again received 108 million in box office, surpassing "The Wind Listener" by 84 million, successfully regaining the weekly box office championship, and pushing the film's box office to over 221 million.
In this way, it shouldn’t be a problem for the film to exceed 260 million. Whether it can exceed 300 million depends on the market and God’s will.
Zhang Haoyuan was in Iceland and received the box office status of "The Butterfly Effect" via fax.
Zhang Hao was quite satisfied with this, but when he thought that there would be a domestic movie with a box office of over 1 billion this year, Zhang Hao was instantly dissatisfied.
Later, it seemed that a movie could easily break one billion, but in this era, breaking one billion at the box office is an earth-shattering achievement.
It is a pity that Zhang Hao cannot be such a landmark figure.