WEB OF WAR

摘要

If George Clooney stars in a movie, will it be a hit? Or will it flop, like his 2008 comedy Leatherheads? That question, at least in broad outline, made its way to Ken Comer, deputy director for intelligence at the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) of the US defence department, and the man at the centre of the US military's war on roadside bombs. He recently made the time for a briefing by scientists from the US Department of Energy, who were honing their modelling skills by working with a film studio on the formula for a successful blockbuster. Comer listened to them describe how they had analysed and reanalysed the data that Hollywood vacuums up about its audiences, slicing the results in every way they could think of, only to come to the same conclusion every time: you can't tell. "You can dress George Clooney up," recalls Comer, "you can dress him down, you can put a beard on him, and yet there's no reliable method for predicting whether or not a George Clooney movie is going to be a blockbuster."