Chapter 476: High Stakes

Chapter 476: Chapter 476: High Stakes

Hearing this, a trace of slight surprise flashed across Irene’s eyes, and she accurately captured the deep-seated pattern behind the words:

"Has the internal power struggle at Universal reached such a white-hot stage now? Even for the premiere of the year’s key project, the top executive directly skipped it, making his stance clear to cut ties?"

Adelaide chuckled slightly: "You do not understand the internal power tug-of-war within The Big Six Studios, the intricacies in here are very deep."

"Universal’s situation these past two years has not been very good, ranking almost at the bottom among The Big Six Studios, awkward to the extreme."

"Looking across the entire year of 2004, Universal’s entire lineup of film output, apart from The Bourne Supremacy successfully breaking 100 million at the box office, all other released works were completely mediocre, none breaking 100 million, with no blockbusters, no dark horses, and no topicality, resulting in sluggish annual performance and bleak revenue."

"Fortunately, they sought stability amidst stability, not giving birth to terribly bad movies with huge losses, nor experiencing fatal financial loopholes, not reaching the point of hurting their vital energy."

Adelaide changed the subject, stating the core contradiction: "It is precisely because of this mediocre, highlightless awkward performance that Ron Meyer’s position has become precarious and extremely passive."

"Speaking of achievements, he has no blockbusters to prop up the facade; speaking of faults, he has no major decision-making errors, making it impossible to easily replace him."

"And the most senior, most influential person inside Universal who is most likely to replace Ron and move up is Vice President Alan Grey."

"The factional game between the two has long been secretly deadlocked for a long time, with each other mutually checking and guarding against one another."

"Alan Grey forcefully pushing Van Helsing nowadays is a thorough gamble."

Adelaide analyzed calmly: "Even if the entire film receives a chorus of bad reviews in the industry, nobody is optimistic, and hidden dangers are numerous, it is Universal’s only top-tier special effects blockbuster built with massive capital this year, and the only work with the possibility of charging at the box office, propping up the facade, and rewriting the annual decline."

"Once the movie stages a counterattack and explodes in popularity, Alan Grey can thoroughly secure his position with this achievement, smoothly replacing him; even if the movie bombs, all losses and all infamy will be borne by him alone, and the worst result is just missing the opportunity to move up, without hurting his foundation."

"What he is gambling on is the uncertainty of audience aesthetics and market reputation. After all, your Pirates of the Caribbean back then was universally criticized and nobody was optimistic before its release, with far more bad reviews than Van Helsing today, yet it still staged a counter-current comeback, exploded at the box office, and became the legend of the year."

Irene nodded slightly, deeply convinced.

Putting aside all public opinion controversies and production chaos, objectively speaking, the core theme and worldview setting of Van Helsing actually have no fatal flaws and are even extremely forward-looking.

Integrating classic Western screen monsters and folklore beasts under the same worldview to build a connected universe—this creative idea, placed years later, is definitely a top-tier theme sufficient to support a series IP and long-term development.

And what ruined this movie was never the theme setting, but the cognitive shortcomings and out-of-control production of the production team.

The classic monsters appearing in the film, such as vampire, werewolf, Frankenstein’s monster, and the mummy, all originate from old-school movie legends and classical literature from decades ago, being of an ancient era and suffering from a severe audience generation gap.

Most young audiences today have never been exposed to the original stories, and do not understand the origin backgrounds, character relationships, entrance logic, and core purposes of these monsters.

Yet the production team took it for granted that these characters were known to everyone, completely failing to do any foreshadowing, recaps, and background explanations in the movie, crudely stacking numerous ancient monster roles and forcibly cramming them into a single movie, resulting in a cluttered plot, bloated characters, and broken logic.

New viewers watched with utter confusion and had no idea what was going on, while old viewers felt the adaptation was outrageous, character settings collapsed, and sincerity was lacking, pleasing neither side.

Besides this, director Stephen Sommers’s extremely paranoid filming style severely dragged down the film’s costs.

He stubbornly insisted on a production mode of live-action sets superimposed with massive CGI special effects, unwilling to compromise or knowing how to streamline.

The set construction was extremely luxurious, special effects shots were stacked infinitely, and the budget was consumed without restraint, ultimately leading to serious overruns in production costs and a huge funding gap.

The special effects team’s capability could not keep up with the director’s ambition, budget overruns caused post-production to wrap up hastily, picture fragmentation, rough special effects, and discordant texture.

With multiple hidden dangers compounding, the film’s loss was already a nailed-down inevitable result, with no possibility of a comeback.

Sorting out all the snags and pros and cons, Irene timely changed the topic, recalling another key Universal project she had heard of earlier, and casually asked:

"Speaking of Universal’s projects, I have not heard news of Kingdom of Heaven for a long time. This project was picked up by Universal from your hands back then, right? What is the progress now? Filming should have ended, has the release date been finalized?"

Mentioning this project, Adelaide’s expression was somewhat strange: "The production cycle of Kingdom of Heaven is extremely long. It officially started filming last April, continuously shooting for nearly nine months back and forth, time-consuming, laborious, and crafted meticulously."

"Currently, it has just completed all live-action content, and is still in the long stage of post-production editing, special effects polishing, color grading, and dubbing. There is temporarily no finished film progress, and it is expected to wait until the end of this year for an official release."

Irene continued to pursue the question: "Whose hands did this project ultimately fall into? Is it Alan Grey or Ron Meyer?"

"It is Ron Meyer’s direct subordinate project."

Adelaide spoke bluntly: "The two top executives each hold key projects in a game. Alan Grey bets on the special effects blockbuster Van Helsing to gamble for a comeback, while Ron Meyer bets on the historical giant picture Kingdom of Heaven to stabilize the base."

"The two hold respective chips and mutually check and balance each other, waiting for the final box office and word of mouth to decide the outcome and finalize Universal’s future power structure."

Just as Irene was about to open her mouth to continue discussing the prospects and hidden dangers of the two major projects, her peripheral vision caught sight of an upright figure walking toward the lounge entrance.

Alan Grey was dressed in a black formal suit, with a composed face and a strong aura, carrying an air of composure and oppression as he walked quickly toward the two, smoothly interrupting the conversation.

Walking up in front of the two, Alan Grey raised a just-right polite smile on his face, with his tone carrying a bit of apology: "Really sorry, affairs were complicated tonight, failing to host the two distinguished guests in the first time, I have neglected you."

Irene smiled faintly: "No matter, the premiere affairs are busy, we can all understand. You do not need to be polite, just focus on connecting with the on-site work."

After a brief polite greeting, Alan Grey did not conceal his true purpose at all, his gaze falling directly onto Irene, completely ignoring Fox’s helmsman Adelaide Griffin beside her without any regard for the other party’s face, openly launching poaching mode in public with an arrogant and strong posture.

"I have always been following all your projects, Irene. Your creation efficiency, finished film texture, and box office appeal are unmatched across Hollywood."

Alan Grey’s tone carried deliberate winning over, and his eyes fully revealed ambition: "I heard you recently had a new movie successfully wrap up filming, with an amazingly fast progress, truly making one admire it." ℴ

"I wonder if you have any intention to deeply cooperate with Universal in the future? The resources, treatment, and creative permissions that Fox can give you, our Universal will only make better, more generous, and freer, definitely making you one hundred percent satisfied."