The Best Director

Chapter 292: Chapter 292: The Quirk of the Flame Movie

In September 1999, Blue Sky Studios became a member of the Flame Film family, creating “Ice Age” with a budget of $65 million. This CGI animated movie hit the big screens on May 10th, 2002, becoming the seventh CGI animated movie in North America to gross over $100 million, eventually raking in $476 million at the global box office. This impressive feat catapulted Blue Sky into the position of the fourth major CGI animation company, alongside Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks.

With the visionary Wang Yang at the helm, the burgeoning Blue Sky Studios was ambitiously planning its next move, and soon announced two new CGI film projects.

The first was a $75 million investment in “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown,” with original director Carlos Saldanha continuing at the helm, while colleague Chris Wedge took on the full responsibility of producing.

Compared to the first installment, “The Meltdown” not only boasted a more mature production team and experienced animators but also groundbreaking, advanced CG technology, as well as new characters and new voice actors. The naive and persistent mammoth Ellie was played by the increasingly popular Queen Latifah, while the mischievous possum brothers were voiced by “American Pie” series’ own Shawn William Scott.

The sequel has now completed production and has entered the final stages of voice-over and music composition. It is set to hit North American theaters on May 7th of this year, capturing the box office share for the 2004 summer season. It will also roll out earlier in select overseas theaters, in countries such as the Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina…

It is a rare instance for an international release to precede the North American debut. Given the box office and subsequent merchandising sales, it is clear that the international market took greater interest in “Ice Age,” and the colossal success of the first installment has instilled overseas distributors with the confidence to agree on promotional collaborations and scheduling. If “Ice Age 2” enters the North American market with warm reception and praise from abroad, it is likely to drive box office performance.

International markets surpassing and preceding North America is not only Flame Blue Sky’s market positioning for the “Ice Age” and “Kung Fu Panda” series, but also for future new series and the overall development strategy of the animation studio. “Ice Age 2” marks the beginning of this endeavor!

“These pandas are so cute… Oh! Look at that one, it’s watching us!”

Under the pale blue sky, amidst the dense trees, black and white pandas lay lazily on the low shrubby ground or slept on wooden perches, with one even snoozing within the fork of a tall tree, curled up like a round, fluffy ball. An adult panda walking on the wooden platform glanced up at a distant stone balustrade, where a few scattered tourists were watching.

A brown-haired woman in blue clothes excitedly pointed this way, while a dark-haired man in gray clothes held something for taking photographs. The panda just felt a flash of light and, bored, yawned. The brown-haired woman laughed, “Ha ha, it’s yawning! Its mouth is so wide open!”

After scaling the summit of Mount Everest, Wang Yang and Jessica left Tibet and continued their intimate world as a couple, enjoying the remaining ten or so days of their honeymoon. Their first stop was the Chengdu Panda Base in Sichuan.

The endearing giant pandas were indeed another key project for Blue Sky Studios; the $100 million “Kung Fu Panda” had been in busy preparation since early summer 2002. Over a year of meticulous planning later, production finally began in early January 2004, with a release scheduled for May 2005. For a CG animated movie starting from scratch, a three-year production cycle was remarkably quick.

This efficiency could undoubtedly be attributed to Wang Yang’s significant contributions as one of the team members, a screenwriter, and a planning producer, who solved many time-consuming problems directly, leading the panda team down fewer detours.

Producers Chris Wedge, producer & screenwriter Jonathan Abel, producer & screenwriter Glenn Berger… Abel and Berger were both in charge of the same positions for the 2008 DreamWorks film Kung Fu Panda. Having become famous for the 1997 Canadian TV animated comedy “Life with Louie,” with the production team and the screenwriting team in place, to whom would the director’s microphone for Kung Fu Panda be passed?

This was a conundrum that plagued Blue Sky and Wang Yang for a long time. Not to mention directing capabilities, this person firstly needed to know how to do goofy and humorous things, appealing to both old and young; they also needed to understand how to shoot animation, and the more passion and knowledge they had for Chinese kung fu and Eastern culture, the better.

Blue Sky did hope to invite Xu Chengyi (Raman Hui) to direct.

Born in Hong Kong in 1963, Xu graduated from the Graphic Design Department of Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1984. Initially working as a cartoon producer at Quantum Studio in Hong Kong, he moved to Canada in 1988 to study computer animation production at Sheridan College. As an animator for “Angels in the Outfield” in 1994 and “Batman Forever” in 1995, as a character designer and animation director for “Antz” in 1998, as a supervising animator for “Shrek” in 2001, and as a supervising animator and co-director for “Shrek 2” in 2004… Wang Yang knew even more that Xu was the co-director for “Shrek the Third” in 2007.

Xu was the darling of the DreamWorks animation department, one of the most important members of the Shrek team. Perhaps it was his good work that played a part in the original production of “Kung Fu Panda.” Maybe one day he would switch to Blue Sky Studios, but for now, he definitely couldn’t come over.

Unable to invite Xu Chengyi, what about directly inviting the two directors of the 2008 Kung Fu Panda, John Stevenson and Mark Osborne? The problem was that both were core members of the DreamWorks/Paramount system. Currently, Stevenson is directing and producing the animated TV comedy “The Proud Father” with Xu Chengyi and others, airing this fall on NBC; Osborne is directing the CG animated film “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie” for Paramount, set for release in November this year.

Without Stevenson and Osborne, even if they could come over, considering that their list of film directing credits is currently blank, having them lead Po in kung fu might not be a good idea.

After searching and negotiating for a long time, Blue Sky finally confirmed the directorial candidate last summer: Steve Oedekerk.

“Yeah, its mouth is so wide open! Uh, its eyes seem to be mocking us…” Beside the stone railing, Wang Yang, looking at the DSLR camera in his hands, saw on the screen a close-up of the giant panda, so lazy and disinterested. He couldn’t help but laugh as he dubbed, “Foolish humans!!” Suddenly, Jessica beside him exclaimed urgently, “Quick, take the shot, quick! Oh my god, did you get it?” Her face lit up with a smitten smile, “So cute!”

Wang kept pressing the shutter, the camera flashing repeatedly, as the panda that was mocking them sat beside a wooden post, its black fluffy paws propping up the post, cradling its head, looking as if it was deep in thought. He glanced at her, something came to mind, and he said excitedly, “Sweetheart, let’s adopt a panda baby!” The adoption fee naturally wasn’t much for the two of them, but it meant they’d nominally own a giant panda.

“Yeah sure!” Jessica nodded with great interest. Looking down at the garden full of goofy pandas, she clapped her hands together, her voice excited, “Yes, yes! Darling, what shall we name it? I don’t want to call it Po!”

“No way, Po is for when Blue Sky Studios adopts it later,” said Wang, laughing while he took several more shots. This was part of the promotion plan for Kung Fu Panda, and having a real “Po” growing up alongside the movie series would be fun. A few tourists passed by, Jessica leaned against the railing, turning her eyes in thought for a name, “We have a Danny, how about Fanny? Bonnie? Manny?”

Wang shushed her mysteriously, “I’ve got an idea already, guess what, clue: it’s something we do every night.” Jessica thought hard, perplexed. Watching his suggestive demeanor as if saying “you know,” she suddenly burst out laughing, “I’m not sure, what?” With a click, Wang flashed her eyes with the camera, “Don’t give up so easily! Clue: think simple, don’t complicate things, make it visual.”

“Oh…” Jessica, caught by the flash, squinted her eyes momentarily and shot her foot out in a kick at him.

Wang Yang dodged with a laugh and brought up Po, which reminded him of some matters related to “Kung Fu Panda.” It had been over two months since the filming began, and he wondered how the progress was by now.

Steve Oedekerk had a significant reputation; in fact, he was more renowned and held a higher status in the industry than Xu Chengyi, John Stevenson, or Mark Osborne at that time.

Now 42, Oedekerk’s greatest achievements were in screenwriting. He made his name with the TV series “Living Color” in 1990, “The Nutty Professor” in 1996, and last year’s hit comedy “Bruce Almighty,” among others. As a director, he hadn’t achieved much, with his most recent work being “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” in 2002.

Also in 1990, Oedekerk founded “O Entertainment,” a production company that took on some animated cartoon work for Nickelodeon; in 1999, he ventured into CG movies, producing, directing, and writing the 29-minute TV movie “Thumb Wars,” which had moderate success. Subsequently, he was involved in the production of “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” in 2001, with the following four producers ranked as Paramount (owning the rights), Nickelodeon Movies (owning the rights), DNA, and O Entertainment.

“Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” wasn’t exceptionally successful, earning a global box office of $102 million on a $30 million budget, but it could still be considered a successful film. Due to the moderate reception, Paramount temporarily halted its collaboration with DNA and O Entertainment, but a confident Steve Oedekerk, having tasted success, ambitiously decided to fully finance the independent production of “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” with $10 million from O Entertainment.

This action comedy film, an adaptation of the 1976 Hong Kong martial arts movie “Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin,” had Steve Oedekerk wearing multiple hats as producer, director, writer, and lead actor, fully expressing his passion for Kung Fu, martial arts, and his penchant for parody and humor. Distributor 20th Century Fox had confidence in him, and on January 25th, 2002, “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” was released in 2,478 North American cinemas.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as hoped. It opened to a mere $8.24 million in its first weekend and ended with a global total of $16.994 million. Rotten Tomatoes gave it 11% and 0% freshness ratings, and the audience score was 64%. Words like painful, trash, terrible, awful, and rubbish started surfacing.

Moreover, the parodies of Kung Fu and martial arts in the film provoked dissatisfaction among many fans of the genre, who felt that Steve Oedekerk was mocking, insulting, and tarnishing it.

However, Oedekerk was someone who was truly fascinated by Hong Kong’s martial arts movies of the ’70s. He said, “The exaggerated martial arts effects, the strange music, they make every kid dream of becoming the hero one day.” About “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” combining newly shot scenes with old footage from “Snake & Crane Arts of Shaolin,” creating a half-new, half-old style, he remarked, “Isn’t that cool? In the movie, I’m romancing the leading lady from 25 years ago!”

Indeed, if Oedekerk had no profound understanding of Kung Fu and martial arts, how could he pinpoint the exact spot to parody? How would he be interested in writing, directing, and producing it? And to think that O Entertainment would bet everything they had on it.

But things did not go as desired.

“Among the ten worst films of 2002. I think I laughed once. Maybe not even once.” — Tom Maurstad, The Dallas Morning News; “The content of the film is nearly all dumb and empty, constantly trying to sustain a joke with double, triple, endless slapstick.” — John J. Puccio, DVDTown.com; “All the jokes are as exciting as a snake, unable to raise any interest.” — Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel…

20th Century Fox didn’t really care; it was just another terrible movie they distributed. O Entertainment, however, took a heavy blow, and Steve Oedekerk was in agony. Considering he wore so many hats, but “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” brought little return to his pocket, that’s why it was just $10 million. Now he had lost everything, what to do? Should O Entertainment continue to invest in movies independently? Or go back to being a junior partner for big companies?

During this disheartened time for O Entertainment, Flame Film gave them an answer. Steve Oedekerk: the directorial voice for “Kung Fu Panda”; O Entertainment: responsible for a portion of the animation work for “Kung Fu Panda.”

Flame Blue Skies didn’t mind “boosting” O Entertainment; after all, outsourced art services had to go to one company or another. Even if O Entertainment invested millions, it wouldn’t have any copyright, merely enjoying a tiny share of the profits; and Steve Oedekerk was a perfect fit for Kung Fu Panda.

The issue with Kung Pow: Enter the Fist was its style not being accepted, a lousy script; however, Kung Fu Panda wasn’t a solo act by Oedekerk. On the contrary, he was absolutely quirky and humorous, suitable for audiences of all ages as proven by his multiple successful collaborations with Jim Carrey. He had an affection for Kung Fu and martial arts cinema, an understanding of Eastern and Chinese culture, extensive experience in CG animation, and could assist with screenplay and production—perfect.

Kung Pow left, and Po arrived! Faced with an invite from Flame, Steve Oedekerk was quite surprised. With the $16.994 million box office of Kung Pow: Enter the Fist and the $100 million budget of Kung Fu Panda, his first thought was actually, “Are those guys at Marvelous Yang out of their minds?” Then Wang Yang explained to him: “‘Kung Pow’s’ biggest failure was it wasn’t about a panda! And it’s not the ’70s in Hong Kong. But I laughed my ass off, especially during the cow fight.”

“Great warriors appreciate each other, and heroes are delighted to meet,” “A thousand cups are too few when drinking with a kindred spirit,” “Born on different dates but destined to be together”… Anyway, after talking with Wang Yang at the time, Steve Oedekerk was somewhat moved. If the whole world appreciated Kung Pow like Marvelous Yang, recognizing every spoof point in a martial arts movie, how wonderful it would be! His heart, once shattered by film critics, thumped wildly again, and his passion for martial arts had never faded.

With no reason to refuse, Oedekerk readily accepted the invitation to Kung Fu Panda, and O Entertainment found itself temporarily tied to Flame Blue Skies.

Kung Pow left, and Po arrived! At that time, film entertainment media and Oedekerk alike were bewildered. If it was for screenwriting, it wouldn’t be strange, but for directing… Why pick a jinxed director who just lost his pants? It was terrifying to hand over a $100 million budget to Oedekerk. Even many movie fans and enthusiasts seemed to foresee the dismal fate of Kung Fu Panda. How much better than Kung Pow could Po be?

Much, much, much better! That was the thought of everyone at Flame Blue Skies. When Ice Age first came out, no one had expectations, yet it grossed $476 million; Kung Fu Panda would certainly astound people again, and the time would be in the summer of 2005.

“I bet the baby’s name is… Sleep?” Along the long stone path flanked by lush bamboo, the two walked and chatted. Jessica had barely finished speaking when she saw Wang Yang wrinkle his nose, about to speak, she hastily caught him: “Wait, I know! LOVE? LOVE!” she said with an eye roll and a smile full of amusement, “It’s definitely LOVE! Or maybe Asshole.”

“Neither, you’re just a little off,” Wang Yang laughed heartily, watching her annoyed and pouting, he waved his hand: “Almost doesn’t count! After all those hints, it has to be something visual!” He revealed, “The baby’s name is Youca, Y, O, U, C, A, Youca.” Jessica paused, intrigued, “What does that mean? Is it a word? Or is it a combination of our names?”

Wang Yang stopped, looked into her eyes quietly, and suddenly said, “Yes, it is a word, meaning what we do every night, together, front and back. Haha!” Before even finishing, he burst into laughter and ran ahead.

“Asshole…” Jessica laughed and fumed at the same time, with no one around to hit, she could only stand with hands on her hips and let out a sigh. She shouted and chased after him: “But LOVE would work too!”

While the two enjoyed their sweet honeymoon, many movies were making progress. Sin City announced Scarlett Johansson, the sexy and talented 19-year-old, would join as the leading lady Nancy; Fantastic Four had found its Invisible Woman, with 25-year-old Rachel McAdams joining to enter the blockbuster scene; and 22-year-old Natalie Portman was already seen on the set of Stealing Heart, which started shooting in early February…

Flame Films’ surprising new plan to uphold its reputation for liking to hire jinxed directors stunned everyone. Following Kung Fu Panda & Steve Oedekerk, Brokeback Mountain & Ang Lee, Flame proudly introduced Assassin’s Creed & John Woo, the same John Woo who had lost his pants over at MGM and Paramount, John Woo of Hong Kong. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to recommend and vote monthly at qidian.com, your support is my greatest motivation.)