"Star in a movie, and its global box office has to surpass The Mummy Returns?"
Seeing the task given by the system, Lin Yuan was speechless...
As an Asian and a newcomer, it was already a pipe dream for him to star in a Hollywood movie.
And it also required the movie's box office to surpass The Mummy Returns?
You should know that The Mummy Returns was ranked 6th in North America's box office in 2001, and its global box office reached 430 million US dollars.
Even his highly anticipated blockbusters, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Fast and the Furious, couldn't compete with The Mummy Returns in terms of box office.
How could he complete such a hellish difficulty task?
"If they weren't facing some difficulties, who would use a Chinese actor when everything was going smoothly?" Lin Yuan grumbled.
But this unintentional remark enlightened Director Cohen, who was beside him.
"That's right! We can try movie crews that are encountering some minor difficulties."
"Do you have a target?"
"Come on, follow me. He's also in New York today."
With that, Director Cohen pulled Lin Yuan and hurriedly drove away.
On the way, Director Cohen introduced the situation to Lin Yuan:
They were going to meet Joe Johnston, the director and producer of Jurassic Park III.
This movie was also a major sequel produced by Universal Pictures, and Director Johnston and Director Cohen were old friends.
Director Cohen hadn't recommended this crew to Lin Yuan immediately before because the current situation of this film was not good, so he preferred Lin Yuan to go to The Mummy Returns crew.
After the stunning debut of the first Jurassic Park movie in this series, the box office and critical reception of the second film had already shown signs of fatigue.
But Universal Pictures didn't want to give up on this IP, so with a 'let's try' mentality, they started preparing for Jurassic Park III.
The first two Jurassic Park movies were directed by the great Steven Spielberg, but for the third installment, it was replaced by Director Johnston, whose status was significantly lower.
This clearly signaled that the film was not highly anticipated.
Now this signal had gradually been confirmed, and the situation of the entire movie crew was quite dire.
After filming for nearly half the time, the presented results were evaluated by the internal review committee as unsatisfactory, with dim prospects.
This meant that Universal Pictures had already started to be pessimistic about this movie and would strictly control the post-production, marketing budget, and other costs of this movie.
Therefore, the entire crew was severely affected, and morale became low.
Perhaps only at such a chaotic moment would Director Johnston consider using a Chinese actor like Lin Yuan?
"Lin, maybe this is your chance. I will try my best to persuade Director Johnston." Director Cohen guaranteed Lin Yuan after introducing the situation.
Through the car's interior lights, Lin Yuan looked at this person, who could be considered the first benefactor in his acting career, with mixed emotions.
Director Cohen was over 50 years old; although he wasn't considered old yet, his entire head, except for his shiny bald spot, was covered in wrinkles.
The sense of vicissitude and exhaustion was impossible to hide.
To help him, he had truly given his all tonight.
How could he repay such kindness?
"No matter the outcome, I thank you for putting so much effort into my matter."
"Lin, don't be so polite. Excessive politeness is also a sign of distance. Aren't we good friends?"
Americans truly don't care about seniority. An 18-year-old Lin Yuan and a 51-year-old Cohen could be considered grandfather and grandson in China.
But they didn't care at all; if they recognized you, you were a friend.
"Of course, it's my honor." Lin Yuan replied.
Lin Yuan smiled on the outside, but his heart was full of worry.
When Lin Yuan learned that Director Cohen was introducing him to the Jurassic Park III crew, his heart sank.
Because he knew that this movie would fail in the future and could never win against The Mummy Returns.
Jurassic Park III barely recouped its costs at the box office, and its reputation was also very poor.
With the double failure in both critical reception and box office, the Jurassic Park IP itself fell into a slump, with no sequels filmed for over a decade.
It wasn't until 2015, when Universal Pictures rebooted the series with Jurassic World, that it revived and returned to the public eye.
Yes, it's the one starring "Star-Lord," the King of Awkward Dance.
Lin Yuan had already foreseen the failure of Jurassic Park III, so even if he could secure the lead role, what then?
It was truly too difficult to make a name for himself in Hollywood!
The reasons for the failure of Jurassic Park III were, on one hand, aesthetic fatigue, and on the other hand, an overly superficial script.
The first Jurassic Park achieved great success not only because of its astonishing visual effects but also because its core theme, exploring reverence for life, made the movie more memorable.
And the mediocre script of the second film also explored themes of environmental protection and adapting to nature.
By the time Director Johnston directed the third installment, there was no core theme left, only pure horror and escape.
And audiences, having seen the first two movies, were no longer easily scared by dinosaur special effects.
Furthermore, the escape scenes offered no new tricks and were uninteresting.
All of this made the movie merely superficial; how could it not fail?
Lin Yuan knew that to save this movie, a major revision of the script was necessary to perfect the story's core and find ways to increase the appeal of the escape scenes.
Would Director Johnston possibly do as he suggested?
Difficult, difficult, difficult. Thinking about the two hurdles he had to overcome tonight, Lin Yuan felt a headache coming on.
Fortunately, strictly speaking, the true protagonist of Jurassic Park III was the dinosaurs, and human characters were merely embellishments, which gave Lin Yuan a sliver more possibility of starring.
But he also had no better choice and could only try his best to achieve his goal.
...
...
"Hi, Joe. Long time no see, old friend."
Upon arriving at Director Joe Johnston's residence, Director Cohen greeted him with a smile.
Clearly, their friendship was much better than that with Director Sommers of The Mummy Returns.
"I've been really unlucky lately, so I'm glad to see you." Director Johnston stood up and came forward to give Director Cohen a hug.
"Your bad luck is about to end. Tonight, I've brought you a magical Eastern kid, and I believe he can solve your troubles." Director Cohen introduced.
"This young man is so handsome, is he Chinese? What's your name?" Director Johnston extended his hand to Lin Yuan with a smile.
Lin Yuan also smiled and shook his hand in return, carefully observing the director.
Director Johnston was born in 1950, making him 50 years old this year.
He was also tall, 4 centimeters taller than Lin Yuan, who was 1.83 meters tall.
It made Lin Yuan sigh with emotion: he wasn't short himself, but why were all the Hollywood directors so tall?
"Director Johnston, my name is Lin Yuan, and I am Chinese."
"Amazing Chinese Kung Fu! I love it!"
At least on the surface, Director Johnston was much more amiable than Director Sommers.
But Lin Yuan knew that the negotiations tonight had just begun and would not be so simple.