Chereads / Helming Hollywood / Chapter 304 - New Things

Chapter 304 - New Things

The onset of the awards season is under discussion among people. However, in contrast to the fervor surrounding numerous outstanding movies in previous years, the enthusiasm seems to have waned this year, particularly after the summer. 

This winter, the movie market has unexpectedly turned cold.

Compared to previous years, this year's awards season clearly lacked enough blockbusters to support the situation. Although biographical movies far outshine other movies in terms of seriousness and authenticity, their popularity is much lower than other movies. 

Over the course of a year, these films have dominated the awards season, and naturally, people's attention has been greatly diminished.

"Hollywood today is really not as good as it was in the 1990s."

Even the media expressed this admiration. Compared with the glorious period of Hollywood in the years after 1994, the current situation of art films in Hollywood is actually a bit sluggish.

Just as Hollywood is experiencing a downturn at this time, Levi's movie also seems to be facing a downturn.

Just as Alexander thought, Levi's film "The Intouchables" also received multiple nominations at the Oscars this time. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction.

When Levi takes the soundtrack and art direction seriously, the progress in these aspects is still obvious: after all, Levi's company has a very strong financial background, and as long as he is willing to work hard, these aspects can be improved.

The only difference from what Alexander thought was that although Levi was nominated at both the Golden Globe Awards and the Directors Guild Awards this time, he still did not receive an Oscar nomination for Best Director. 

Obviously, it differs from the Golden Globe Awards and the Directors Guild Awards, which do not care about repeatedly awarding a director. Oscar is still quite strict in this regard. 

Although Levi's movie is very good, what he has to defeat is not others but his past self. The progress appears to be minimal, and the Oscars still don't recognize him.

Not only that, but it seems that Oscar was extra strict with him this time. In the past, Levi's films have always been able to get some nominations in terms of photography and editing techniques, but this time, it didn't gain much either.

To claim that Levi's film isn't the best in this regard might be plausible; after all, no one can guarantee that their movies will always be the first in the world in terms of technology every year. But there wasn't even a nomination. This approach obviously seemed to be a deliberate suppression.

Sometimes Oscar always needs to play some balance. They awarded the 30-year-old Levi the Best Director award for two consecutive years. He quickly became the number one young director in Hollywood, and now, they also need to let this great director fail to show his quality for the Oscars.

Such a result is obviously a big failure for Levi. And after deliberately suppressing Levi, it seems that the direction of the Oscars will be self-evident this time.

The announcement of the final Oscar award was not unexpected: the Best Actor award went to Jamie Foxx. Best Actress went to Hillary Swank, while Best Director and Best Picture went to Eastwood and his Million Dollar Baby.

This ending is not very unexpected. After all, the narrative of Million Dollar Baby is more rigorous than that of The Aviator, and Levi's inaccessibility is due to the fact that Levi has already won awards in a row and is unlikely to succeed. 

Compared with them, Clint Eastwood has been in the circle for many years and has accumulated better connections. Regardless of his reputation, it is difficult for others to compare with him. Therefore, no one can say anything when he gets the award.

The one who was more disappointed with this result was the crew of The Aviator. In the past, Leonardo DiCaprio lived a very leisurely life. But in the past few years, he has really devoted a lot of energy to acting. 

It is a pity that although he is determined to hone his acting skills, they are a bit immature, and he lacks sufficient accumulation. Although he was nominated, he did not win the award.

In contrast, Kate Blanchett was very lucky to win the Best Supporting Actress thanks to The Aviator, which can be considered a gain. Apart from this, there are only some technical awards, which makes The Aviator, which was highly praised before the Oscars, extremely dissatisfied.

However, looking at Levi's crew, they are satisfied. Compared to them, the seemingly unattainable gains appear to be the least of their concerns. The film won the Best Score and Best Supporting Actor awards, allowing Jeff Bridges to finally feel proud after being ignored for many years. 

In addition to this, the film lost in the Best Art Direction category to The Aviator. It lost to Sideways for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it also didn't win the Best Film award. It can be said that it was a complete loss.

Compared with Levi, The Aviator has at least won a bunch of technical awards, which is pretty good.

Although this year's Oscar competition is not fierce, the identities of the winners and losers are enough to arouse a lot of controversy.

After the Oscars, people were not only staring at DiCaprio to see if he wanted to make any new movies, but they were also staring at Levi to know what his next plan would be.

Levi spent a lot of effort to compete for the Oscar this time, but the harvest was indeed the least among the several Oscars. Will such a result make him work harder, or will it make him dissatisfied with the Oscar and stop working hard?

And soon, people seemed to have found the answer.

"I'm thinking about shooting the second part of The Three-Body Problem." During an interview, Levi told reporters his thoughts, "I want to make some other attempts - a mixture of commercial films and artistic films. Maybe it's a better way. I hope to make a commercial film for the next film and try something different."

Regarding his future, Levi quickly announced his plans.

Levi's answer was not groundless. The news that the second part of this movie has begun preparations for filming was quickly posted on the official website of Three-Body Problem. This is not an empty talk but a real and well-prepared plan.

The release of this news significantly increased the interest of many movie fans. They even completely ignored the fact that Levi had just suffered a failure at the Oscars, and the topic suddenly turned to the movie.

After all, movies are more attractive than awards.

In the first part of The Three-Body Problem, although aliens have been confirmed to exist, they did not show up at all. Their appearance, their technology, and their characteristics are all hidden in the clouds.

Ever since the first part of the movie was released, people have been discussing what the second part of the movie will be like. 

Humans have intercepted alien technology, so what kind of technology will humans create? 

What would a cosmic war in Trisolaris look like?

Compared with classic works such as Star Wars and Star Trek, what characteristics will its technology show? 

These are things that movie fans are very concerned about.

It is a pity that the novel of this work was still being written, and director Levi was leisurely shooting literary films. 

This has made many movie fans impatient to wait. For movie fans, they don't care about the director's status, awards, etc. All they care about is just one thing: when will their favorite movie be released?

And now, they got the news: The writing of the sequel to the novel The Three-Body Problem has been completed, the script adaptation is in progress, and Levi is also preparing to make it into a movie. This news naturally makes the fans extremely excited.

"This time at the Oscars, at least it did the right thing on this matter. If Levi is given the award and allowed to continue to make literary films, then there is no telling when The Three-Body Problem will be able to meet the audience."

The expectations for the movie made the audience directly make their own evaluations of Levi's failure to win the award. Although this kind of evaluation makes people feel helpless, it also reflects their true emotions.

Of course, if some people are happy, some people will naturally be dissatisfied. Although many people are looking forward to the early arrival of the second part of The Three-Body Problem, others are dissatisfied that Levi has to shoot a commercial film again.

"Few directors today are willing to dedicate themselves to the study of art, yet the members of the Academy still seem reluctant to extend recognition to such efforts. It appears that there is an expectation for those interested in creating art films to shift their focus toward commercial endeavors. The question arises: Will the Academy be content with such a compromise?"

The media also expressed their criticism of this situation.

Their target is the Academy: over the years, as commercial films have become more and more profitable, more and more young directors have set their sights on commercial movies and put their talents into business. 

There are more and more directors like Nolan, but fewer and fewer people are willing to study shooting techniques. This problem is also frustrating. 

Hollywood movies now rely more and more on editing and special effects. 

In the 1990s, a shot lasted about 10 seconds on average, but now it has been reduced to 8 seconds. Such changes also show that these directors are not serious enough about shooting.

Since his debut, Levi has been shooting more artistic films. People have always believed that he is a director with artistic pursuits. It goes without saying that he is talented. Winning consecutive Oscars has proven this. 

However, now he is increasingly disliked by the Oscars. He has even given up on himself and made commercial films. This is also a very bad sign in the eyes of the media.

Even though the Oscars had given some accolades to Levi, the continuous suppression seems unsustainable. Thinking of the lackluster reception at the Oscars this time, the media naturally wanted to scold the Academy at this time.

Of course, Levi himself seems to be saying that he wants to try new things rather than give up on art films - but how can this be possible when he has already made commercial films and still doesn't give up trying to coax children?

However, just when the media were separated because Levi was going to shoot a commercial film, another piece of news on the Three-Body Problem official website quickly attracted the media's attention.

"In preparation for the second part of the Three-Body Problem movie, we will try to use 3D technology to shoot. This movie will give the audience a new and different experience."

This news made the media almost silent: 3D movie? Is the new attempt Levi mentioned actually a 3D live-action movie?

How can this be?

*****

Thanks and kudos for my patreons 

Marcelo Maia

Britanna

Mandy G

Scott DePaepe

Oluwatimileyin Olayemi

Herylle Ian Gloria

You can read advanced chapters on my Patreon account: https://www.patreon.com/Sayonara816.