As the lights illuminated, Robin O'Reilly, carrying a briefcase, left the Wall Street Stock Exchange and walked towards the intersection of Broadway. He was a newly employed stock trader, and naturally, his business was not going smoothly. In this profession, experience and performance were of utmost importance.
While waiting for a taxi to go home, the frustrated Robin noticed the owner of a nearby newsstand packing up and getting ready to leave. Thinking that he had forgotten to buy a copy of the Los Angeles Times as he usually did that morning due to haste, Robin hastened his steps towards the newsstand.
"Hey, boss," he greeted with a smile, waiting for the owner to stop packing before continuing, "Can I have a copy of the Los Angeles Times?"
"Of course." Businesses needed to be attended to. The newsstand owner paused his busy work and retrieved a fresh copy of the Los Angeles Times from the arranged newspapers. "Here, $2."
"Another Monday, and you're still organizing this late. Business must be good today," Robin said casually as he took out the change.
The newsstand owner received the money, a look of joy appearing on his face, and even the wrinkles around his mouth deepened. "Yes, the Christmas season is coming, and my work has become busy as well. It's definitely a good thing, you know. Today, I sold a total of 630-ish newspapers, nearly triple the usual."
The Christmas season every year was good news for newspapers, magazines, and even newsstand owners who sold them. With a constant stream of movie promotions, sensational gossip, and booming box office battles, the media never lacked topics to write about, and the readers' enthusiasm for reading gradually increased with the momentum.
Robin took the Los Angeles Times and pretended to glance at his watch. "It's getting late, I have to go home. Talk to you later." After saying goodbye to the newsstand owner, Robin walked briskly towards a crossroad on Broadway. "Have a good night," a polite voice came from behind.
After getting into a taxi, he spoke up, "The Riverside Community near Rockefeller Plaza." Only then did Robin fold the newspaper and put it in his briefcase, preparing to rest and doze off. Soon, he felt the taxi's speed gradually slowing down. Robin, who had been keeping his eyes closed, couldn't help but open them and look outside the window. And then, he noticed a long line of cars ahead.
Although Manhattan's traffic situation was quite bad, it was already after 8 pm, and theoretically, it should have avoided the peak hour of commuting. However, they encountered a traffic jam, a helpless situation. Robin couldn't help but complain a few times, feeling increasingly annoyed.
The taxi driver seemed to sense Robin's bad mood and tried to console him, saying, "Don't worry, I've seen it all. I bet we won't spend more than 10 minutes getting through this congested intersection, and the road conditions behind will be much better."
"Okay," Robin simply responded, his gaze shifting to the LED billboard standing by the roadside.
"Boom..."
On the billboard's screen, a bomb whistled down and exploded on the ground, creating a large crater that marked the beginning.
Robin became interested; it seemed like a trailer for a movie. He continued to focus his attention. The screen continued to play, countless bombers streaking across the azure sky, creating a spectacular scene.
A colonel in military uniform looked through binoculars at the scene, filled with joy. Then, the scene changed. Suddenly, the screen went dark, and the words "November 22" appeared. Afterward, there was a rapid succession of aerial battlefield shots, smoke-filled and booming with artillery... until it finally converged into the title "Fury".
Sitting in the taxi, Robin was stunned. After a long while, he regained his senses, and a single thought echoed in his mind: I have to watch this movie.
...
Hans Zimmer finally composed a suitable score for the film, and when it was actually recorded, Lyman finally breathed a sigh of relief. For over half a month, he had been constantly adjusting the musical style, listening and giving feedback for improvement, to the point where Lyman's ability to discern music had disappeared, and everything he heard seemed the same.
Fortunately, after this final round of manual adjustments, on October 28, the day arrived when all post-production work was completed. The 117-minute theatrical version of "Fury" was officially born, and the entire production cost was set at $52.34M.
This 117-minute film captured the efforts and hard work of many people, and compared to the original version, it was a completely different story with different emphasis on the overall structure.
After everything was completed, EuropaCorp made a backup copy as usual and promptly submitted the final version of the film for the MPAA's classification and filing in the United States. After the film was edited from the beginning, it had already undergone one round of review, so the re-examination procedures were quickly completed.
The entire film of "Fury" contained both profane dialogue and scenes of violence and bloodshed. It was impossible to expect a G rating. Furthermore, due to the explicit depiction of battlefield scenes, including several sections that depicted dismembered limbs in detail, the MPAA directly gave it an R rating.
R rating means restricted.
It suggests that children under 17 should be accompanied by an adult when watching.
This rating didn't have much impact on the film "Fury" because its target market wasn't primarily teenagers but rather adults who understood war and wanted to watch similar content.
A week earlier, the first 50-second trailer had already been aired during commercial breaks on major television stations for promotion. Shortly after, another well-edited 30-second trailer was shown during a break in an NCAA championship game and would continue to be replayed three times. However, the cost for Paramount Pictures to secure this spot was $1.5M.
Although it was a bit expensive, the promotional effect of sporting events like this was usually very good. With a nationwide viewership approaching 9 pm, if the advertisement during halftime could leave an impression on half of the audience watching through their TVs, it would still reach an extremely large audience.
And "Fury" had more than just this one hard-hitting advertisement. Similar promotional activities were carried out in important "ticket-warehouse" cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.
Bus stops, subway stations, and other public places were all plastered with movie posters. Although they didn't cover every inch, it was close to the point where you could find a "Fury" poster in crowded public areas.
With such a high-density distribution, the costs naturally weren't low. The entire hard advertising campaign had already cost Paramount Pictures no less than a $30M budget, and this number was increasing daily.
Around November 17, the final wave of pre-release campaigns quickly unfolded.
The main cast team, including Nicolas Cage, Heath Ledger, and Jon Bernthal, began frequent interactions with the media. Under the arrangement of Paramount Pictures, they might have just finished an interview with The New York Times column, and the next moment, they would meet with reporters from the Chicago Tribune.
Paramount Pictures' distribution department was in contact every day, with one goal in mind: more exclusive interviews, more headline news. Under this frenzy, the highly-rated talk shows naturally wouldn't forget to get in touch. Several members of the cast who had participated in "Saturday Night Live" just the previous week hurriedly arrived at the set of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien".
In the well-equipped recording studio, Heath Ledger and Nicolas Cage, both dressed in casual suits, sat on the red sofa. Conan O'Brien, the host behind the wooden table, looked at them and suddenly smiled as he asked, "Nic, how did it feel to be judged recently? Do you have anything to say?" The audience below timely responded to the host's question with a gasp.
Nicolas relaxed in his seat, seemingly not feeling any discomfort due to this rather embarrassing question. He smiled faintly, knowing very well that these talk shows were meant to generate discussion.
"I think it's not bad. It's another serious failure in my acting career, reminiscent of when I first started out. Their criticism brought back memories, and I am grateful for them." Nicolas spoke with a serious tone as if the failure of "Windtalkers" was just a good way to recall the past.
His somewhat idiosyncratic response caused laughter to erupt from the audience section. The exaggerated reactions from the audience and their applause made Heath, who was sitting beside him, find it amusing.
Conan raised his hand to suppress the noise and looked at Heath, who was still smiling. "You also starred in this movie. If you were to evaluate Nic's performance during the filming, what would you say?"
"I think he was fantastic, a brilliant performance that echoes his work in "Leaving Las Vegas"," Heath nodded confidently.
Conan said with a serious expression, "Oh, really? Can his performance in "Fury" earn him another little golden man?"
"Leaving Las Vegas" was the film that earned Nicolas an Oscar for Best Actor.
Heath nodded again with confidence, "Of course, I think his performance is excellent. After you watch the film upon its release, you may share the same opinion."
"..." Exhausted from the recording, they then prepared to travel to Nevada for promotion...
For the film, they were running around everywhere...