In July, two big-budget action blockbusters were about to land in the North American theater market.
However, before their release, the two films had already launched into a vicious war of words, fighting each other tooth and nail.
One was Bad Boys II, directed by Michael Bay and starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence.
Last time, he had tried his hand at Pearl Harbor, which didn't go so well. A World War II epic was turned by Michael Bay into a melodramatic love triangle.
Although the war scenes were decent, the overly drawn-out romance completely dragged down Pearl Harbor, and its ultimate box office failure was only natural.
Because of this movie, no one ever compared Michael Bay with Gilbert again.
How could they be compared? When Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor flopped, Gilbert's The Two Towers released around the same time and broke 1.5 billion dollars at the global box office.
Of course, Michael Bay wasn't the unluckiest one; the unluckiest was Kate Beckinsale.
You know, at the beginning, the number one candidate for the role of Princess Arwen wasn't Anne Hathaway, but her.
In the end, Kate Beckinsale disliked that Arwen's part wasn't large enough, just a supporting role, so she turned to accept the female lead role in Pearl Harbor.
But the outcome was nothing like she had imagined. Anne Hathaway, thanks to Arwen, became the dream girl of countless people. Meanwhile, her Pearl Harbor not only had lackluster box office performance, but also poor reputation.
But it didn't matter; Kate Beckinsale still felt she had some hope, after all, next year her fantasy blockbuster Van Helsing, co-starring with Hugh Jackman, would be released.
After the failure of Pearl Harbor, the studio did not lose confidence in Michael Bay. This Bad Boys II was once again in his area of expertise.
However, Bad Boys II faced a powerful competitor: Hong Kong action superstar Jackie Chan's new film Rush Hour 3 was about to arrive.
As a series blending Jackie Chan's action-movie style with American humor, after the accumulation of the first two films, the Rush Hour series also had a solid fan base.
Last year, The Jackie Chan Adventures also sold well at the box office, pushing Jackie Chan's reputation in Hollywood even higher.
So it was clear to see that although the influence of the Chinese gang in Hollywood had begun to show a downward trend—John Woo and Ang Lee both suffered consecutive flops, and Jet Li and Chow Yun-fat were not doing well in Hollywood—
Only Jackie Chan was going more and more smoothly.
Oh, right, there were also those two mainland girls, one older and one younger, especially Shu Chang. The Little Jade she played was very popular among North American audiences.
Unfortunately, although Shu Chang signed with Sheena Boone's Super Artists Management Company, because her Chinese manager and family got tangled in conflicts over profit, the young girl was unable to focus wholeheartedly on her career in Hollywood.
If it had been someone a little more ruthless, they would have just dumped the Chinese manager and troublesome family to go solo.
But Shu Chang couldn't. She was still underage and needed parental guardianship.
Sheena Boone once complained to Gilbert that Shu Chang could have taken advantage of Little Jade's popularity, come to Hollywood to film more movies, and earned some U.S. dollars.
But her family was each more difficult than the other, dead set on staying in China.
Fortunately, Gilbert had foresight and signed Shu Chang to a three-film contract all at once. Otherwise, her eccentric family might not have allowed Shu Chang to appear in the sequels, and Gilbert would have had to find another actress.
It was hard to understand, but sometimes the world is just that strange, essentially made up of a giant ramshackle troupe, leaving people speechless.
Gilbert didn't want to bother explaining bright futures to Shu Chang's family anymore—let them do whatever they wanted, just finish the shoot and complete the promotional work.
Although her family dragged her down, Shu Chang, thanks to The Jackie Chan Adventures, had now become one of the most famous Chinese actresses.
If not for her being too young and lacking seniority, the title of number one Chinese actress might already have been hers.
Although the role of Little Jade hadn't won any acting awards, the film's global box office surpassed 500 million dollars!
In the era of commercialized film markets, everything revolves around money. Box office was the hard truth. The old 1990s practice of chasing awards at the three major European film festivals gradually no longer worked.
Chinese entertainment media were adept at creating things like Four Young Actors, Four Heavenly Kings, Four Great Dan Actresses, and Four Little Dan Actresses.
Shu Chang, unsurprisingly, was placed among the Four Little Dan Actresses. If not for her age, she should have been among the Four Great Dan Actresses.
Li Bingbing also reaped great benefits. She had more autonomy and now planned to venture into Hollywood.
Although apart from The Jackie Chan Adventures series, most of the films seeking her out were B-level films, and supporting roles at that,
Li Bingbing felt that even a supporting role was better than going back to China.
Right now, in China, there were too many actors and too few films. Each year, only a handful of movies with real recognition were made.
You say you've acted in Hollywood films? Well, others have already won Best Actress awards abroad! Rather than fighting tooth and nail at home, it's better to hone your skills in Hollywood and build some reputation.
If it doesn't work out, you can still return to develop your career at home.
Gilbert agreed with this strategy. Although Asian actresses generally had longer "shelf lives" than their Western counterparts, after thirty, most of them also began to decline.
Li Bingbing was almost there too. If she didn't seize this time to gather more capital, the domestic entertainment industry would be tough later on!
Sometimes Li Bingbing envied Shu Chang. Her Little Jade was simply too popular. If that role had been hers, Li Bingbing couldn't imagine what her status would be now.
Being the female lead of a Hollywood A-level commercial blockbuster, she would immediately crush that other maid Bingbing back home, and even trample "International Zhang" underfoot.
Competition among actresses was extremely fierce—from red carpets to resources, to status, even to men—everything was up for grabs.
Many people said with their mouths that they didn't want fame, that they only cared about the art of film—those words were just for listening.
If you don't want fame and don't want to be a big star, then don't enter the entertainment industry. This place was always a battlefield of fame and fortune; no one could escape the struggle of Vanity Fair.
Back to the movies—these two action films with clear differences releasing at the same time made for a full spectacle.
And the two films' distributors were very competitive, practically head-to-head.
The distributor of Bad Boys II, Sony Columbia Pictures, mobilized the media to constantly mention Jackie Chan's Chinese identity, trying to stir up discontent among certain groups.
The distributor of Rush Hour 3, Disney, was not to be outdone. They encouraged dog lovers to protest the film because during the shooting of Bad Boys II, a dog was injured.
Don't underestimate the matter of a dog getting injured—this was a very serious issue. Dog lovers and animal protection organizations were no pushovers.
Throughout all these years of Hollywood history, aside from Gilbert, who was bold enough to directly confront animal protection groups and still come out victorious, no one else had been able to compete with such groups.
Columbia Pictures and Michael Bay certainly couldn't either, so when facing protests from dog lovers and animal rights organizations, their options were either to pay money to settle the issue or to apologize.
Of course, things weren't going very smoothly for Rush Hour 3 either.
Although North America loudly proclaimed slogans of rejecting racial discrimination, in reality this was a society filled with discrimination everywhere, and Chinese people were at the very bottom of that chain.
Jackie Chan had fought his way through Hollywood with his kung fu skills and the support of Gilbert, becoming a world-famous action superstar. Naturally, this would make those who used to look down on the Chinese unhappy.
Especially the Black community—many of them harbored great resentment toward Jackie Chan.
What seemed strange was that the male lead of Rush Hour 3, Chris Tucker, was also Black. Wasn't that perfectly fine? Why then were certain Black groups still hating on the movie and hating Jackie Chan?
What they didn't know was that it was precisely because of Chris Tucker that these Black groups had been swayed by the media instigated by Columbia Pictures.
Whether it was really about race, or these Black groups were just playing dumb, no one could say for sure.
In any case, when newspapers were reporting that Jackie Chan bullied Chris Tucker on set and even stole his spotlight, these Black groups turned against Jackie Chan.
Now, accusations of bullying required evidence, right? Well, those rumor-spreading media outlets were truly masters of journalism's "essence."
Before the release of Rush Hour 3, a short behind-the-scenes clip leaked. It showed Jackie Chan and a group of stunt performers discussing choreography, and there was a segment of Jackie Chan rehearsing moves with Chris Tucker.
But unethical media outlets erased their dialogue. Thus, that footage was twisted into looking like Jackie Chan violently beating Chris Tucker.
As for how it got leaked? Well, it was supposedly recorded in secret by some "anonymous insider" who claimed they couldn't stand such behavior and then submitted it to the media.
This was the charm of "studying journalism": flipping black and white, turning truth into lies. The uninformed masses would simply be misled.
Although during promotion Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker repeatedly emphasized their good relationship, that they had cooperated through three films and shared a deep brotherly bond—
In the eyes of some people, Chris Tucker had been threatened by the production, forced to put on a fake smile, and reconcile with Jackie Chan, "the great villain."
Will Smith and Martin Lawrence didn't fare much better on their side either. Even though they constantly marketed their "dog lover" image—Will Smith even posted pictures on social media of his own Rottweiler—
And the crew went out of their way to do charity work at a stray dog shelter, hoping to eliminate the negative influence among dog lovers and animal rights activists—
To those activists, the more you did, the more it proved you had done something wrong before.
"Poor dogs, paying the price for the stupidity of humans—we must protest!"
Besides, Disney had given them plenty of money. The little that Columbia Pictures offered wasn't even enough to buy a soda. Resolute protest was the only answer.
And so it went: one side accused of bullying on set, the other side accused of killing dogs. The two films kept tearing each other apart all the way up to July 18, their release date.
On the day before the release, both films held their premieres.
Perhaps feeling it was unlucky for the two films to be in the same place, the Bad Boys II premiere was held in Chicago.
Rush Hour 3 held its premiere as usual in Los Angeles. Gilbert and Charlize Theron attended to show support for the film.
....
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