Chapter 330

Back in Los Angeles, Simon has to take care of the entire film business of danielis entertainment, but his attention is still firmly locked in Batman: the moment of war and the upcoming DC movie universe plan.

From January 19 to January 25, in the fifth week of its release, "Batman: the moment of war" closed another $31.63 million with a 23% box office drop, reaching a cumulative box office of $303.36 million, officially surpassing "psychic Sixth Sense" and becoming the annual box office champion of last year.

In the words of some media, the profit brought by Batman: the moment of war to danielis entertainment is equivalent to the annual film business income of most Hollywood studios.

This is basically true.

Most people are only envious of Batman's crazy profits, but Warner Bros. can get a piece of the follow-up plan.

Therefore, these days when Simon returns to Los Angeles, Warner Bros. CEO Terry Semel, who hopes to push forward the follow-up plan as soon as possible, keeps in touch with Simon almost every day, either by phone or directly to Santa Monica.

Danilisi entertainment and Time Warner company for DC movie universe follow-up cooperation plan of some details of the negotiations also began to accelerate in this urgency.

Santa Monica.

It's January 26, Friday.

Terry Semel came here early this morning after seeing a piece of news from Hollywood Reporter.

Some details of the DC movie's universe plan are still under negotiation. However, due to Simon's full preparation in advance, in addition to Adam Baldwin, Anthony Hopkins, Tommy Lee Jones and other regular actors in the second Batman movie "Batman: the moment of war", even the villain double faced actor in the second movie has been finalized in advance. Now, the only problem is that It's the director.

As long as this problem is solved, the film will start shooting in the middle of this year and be released next summer.

Since Simon confirmed that he would no longer be the director of the second film, many people in the circle have tried, including many first-line directors. Warner will participate in half of the investment of the second film, and for his own interests, he also recommended some candidates to Simon.

However, Simon's choice of director surprised the insiders.

Jane de bond.

If it's Simon's time and space, hearing this name, many people will immediately think of "speed of life and death".

But now Jane de bond is just a photographer.

Although she has been on the market since the 1960s and has made more than 20 films so far, Jane de bond has never been a director at all.

Following the successful experience of Marvel's movie universe in memory, Simon chose the right person from the new directors to direct the DC movie universe project. This was Simon's plan from the beginning. He did find a lot of "potential stocks", among which Jane de bond was one.

In the original time and space, speed of life and death, which made Jane de bond one of the first-line directors in one fell swoop, was actually the first film he directed after he became a director, and his second work tornado, which he later directed, was also a global blockbuster, which proved that Jane de bond had the potential to become a direct director.

Compared with other new directors with only two or three directing works, Jane de bond has accumulated more experience in more than 20 consecutive works since her debut in the 1960s. Moreover, as a new director, danelis entertainment can easily negotiate a long-term package contract with Jane de bond.

However, after Simon returned to Los Angeles last week to formally inform warner of his decision, he was immediately opposed.

In Warner's view, Simon's decision to direct Batman: the dark knight with a photographer who doesn't even have a director's work is a complete mess.

The two sides were still negotiating in private, but Terry Semel didn't expect that the Hollywood Reporter would suddenly publish the news.

Maybe a lot of people are wondering who Jane de bond is right now?

After the announcement of danielis entertainment, Warner investigated the details of Jane de bond. Although the photographer participated in the shooting of famous films such as "die hard", he didn't even get an Oscar nomination for best photography. How can such a person act as a heavyweight film director with high expectations from both Hollywood studios?

Arriving at danielis entertainment headquarters in Santa Monica, Terry Semel is told that Simon is not here. After inquiring, Semel rushes to danielis special effects headquarters in a nearby block.

Simon is here. Jane de bond, who has become the focus of many people, is also here. Several people are watching in front of a computer.

Speaking of course, Jane de bond has worked with warner for so many years. For example, the latest movie, who is that girl, which made Madonna the worst actress of the golden sour plum two years ago.

As soon as Terry Semel said hello to Simon, Jane de bond's mobile phone rang.

Sorry to everyone. Jane de bond left to answer the phone.

Simon bond left, and without waiting for Semel to speak, he said, "daenerys entertainment has signed three movie deals with bond. Terry, it's not negotiable."Terry Semel choked for a moment and then said, "Simon, will you follow up in the second half of the year?"

"Of course, Terry, I attach more importance to the DC movie universe project than you do, so I hope you can trust my judgment." Simon said, then leaned over to Semel and explained, "and, Terry, mark Sylvester, you should have met. In addition, this is Roland Emmerich and Martin Campbell, who will co direct Batman: The Dark Knight, and then direct Superman and wonder woman, respectively. "

Roland Emmerich, the name hardly need to be introduced. From independence day to 2012, Emmerich can be regarded as the godfather of Hollywood disaster films.

Speaking of it, Roland Emmerich is a German. In 1984, Emmerich made his first science fiction film "Noah's Ark rules", and soon became famous in the German film circle. Recently, he just tried to enter Hollywood and fell into Simon's hands.

Although Roland Emmerich in the original time and space began to go downhill after 2000 and failed in the 1998 version of Godzilla, the 34 year old Emmerich is in the golden age of his creative career.

Moreover, although Emmerich's most famous films are a series of disaster films, he actually started as a director of science fiction films. The recent films starting from "Noah's Ark rules" are all science fiction films.

Simon has seen the works of Emmerich in recent years. The director's more and more scattered multi line narrative style has not been determined yet. It's very appropriate for him to direct Superman after a little polishing.

As for Martin Campbell, the director has been on the stage since the 1970s. He has rich experience in film and television production, but he has never created any works.

In the original time and space, Martin Campbell's famous work was "the golden eye of 007". Later, he directed another classic "Casino Royal 007", both of which were very successful. That's why Simon chose each other as the director of wonder woman. 007's golden eye and 007's Casino Royale both prove Martin Campbell's ability to control big scenes, which is very necessary for wonder woman.

Besides, Martin Campbell is actually the director of the box office flop "Green Lantern" in 2011.

In Simon's memory, Ryan Reynolds's version of green light burned a budget of $200 million, and the global box office was just over $200 million. As a result, Warner fell into a huge loss and once delayed the development of the DC movie universe.

However, the failure of "Green Lantern" is just like many DC projects later. The responsibility does not lie with the director, but with Warner's hasty launch in order to compete with marvel. In addition to the plot because of the lack of preparation and a mess, the special effects and music and other technical details of the film are excellent.

And, at the end of the day, Simon is in charge of the DC movie universe project.

Jane de bond, Roland Emmerich and Martin Campbell were chosen as directors, in addition to their own potential, mainly because it can ensure Simon's absolute control over the series of projects. Like Marvel's universe project, Simon doesn't give these directors too much freedom.

Therefore, although Simon can afford to hire a front-line director with the current momentum of DC movie universe, he does not intend to do so in order to thoroughly implement his will.

Simon gave an introduction, and Jane de bond, who had just called, came back.

We got together again in front of the computer.

Terry Semel discovered that what Simon and others were watching was a new function recently developed by Maya software, which has been integrated and completed by Denise special effects studio, and can simulate the explosion and collapse of real buildings.

Seeing a building crashing apart on a small computer screen, Terry Semel temporarily put aside his curiosity about Roland Emmerich and Martin Campbell and asked Mark Sylvester, President of special effects studio, "can these be realized on the big screen?"

"Some of the technical details of CG and human synthesis are still being refined and will be fine by this time next year," said Mark Sylvester

Terry Semel understood why mark hilvis said that.

There will be an empty window in the planned DC movie universe project this year.

Starting from 1991, the big screen works will be released at the rate of two films a year.

Batman: the dark knight and flash have been identified in 1991.

In 1992, the project was "Wonder Woman" and the rebooted "Superman". The immediate technology developed by Denise special effects will probably be used in "Superman" or "Wonder Woman".

Simon then said to the staff in front of the computer, "by the way, show Terry the special effects of flash."

The staff nodded and quickly brought up a set of experimental scenes.

Terry Semel immediately perked up.On the computer screen, a staff member who participated in the test was running in a room. He was wrapped with a faint electric light, and a faint thunderbolt came out of the sound.

It has been confirmed that there are five heroes who will participate in the first phase of the DC film universe project, namely Batman, Superman, wonder woman, lightning man and steel bone.

The main reason for choosing these five is the limitation of special effects technology in this era.

"Sea King" and "Green Lantern" can't be made with the current technology.

By comparison, flash and steel are easier.

In order to reflect the speed of flash, high-speed photography technology is mainly used in the production of "flash". This technology has appeared in the 1950s. Although it is far from reaching the high-speed shooting of 3000 frames per second many years later, the existing technology plus CG special effects is also enough to reach the Wumao special effects level of Superman Series in the previous stage.

As for "steel bone", the shooting technique of combining model special effects and CG special effects will be adopted.

In this regard, the liquid metal robot in Terminator 2 and Schwarzenegger's robot endoskeleton are good references. This technology can be achieved in 1991. Simon believes that after two to three years of technical research, excellent steel effects can be achieved on the big screen.

In order to improve the technical details of special effects as much as possible, compared with the three superheroes "Wonder Woman", "Superman" and "lightning man" that will be launched in the last two years, the production of "steel bone" will be relatively backward. Shooting will start in 1994 and be next to "justice alliance" in 1995.

Everyone stayed in danielis special effects studio until noon. After lunch, Jane de bond and others left, but Terry Semel continued to stay. Of course, he would not be so idle. However, the DC movie universe project is also the most important work on his hand. As the media said, Warner will not worry about food and drink in the next few years if this series is done well.

Now that Simon is adamant in directing Batman: The Dark Knight, and has chosen the directors of Superman and wonder woman ahead of time, Terry Semel will not say much. He also believed that Simon would not mess with this series with a bright future.

Now, Terry Semel is more concerned about Warner's flash and steel.

In order to maintain his control over the universe project of DC movies, Simon has previously proposed to exchange half of the investment rights in Superman and wonder woman for half of the investment rights in the subsequent DC superhero projects such as flash and steel.

If it's two for two, Warner hesitates a little and may agree.

Superman and wonder woman are more popular than flash and steel, but warner can't accept half of the investment rights of all other DC superheroes. The box office explosion of "Batman: the moment of war" has already made Warner regret the loss of the big three of DC. To do so again is to sell half of DC to Denise entertainment.

However, although he didn't agree with danielis Entertainment's plan, Simon still has a strong say in the DC movie universe plan.

If you want these two superheroes to join the DC movie universe project, such as screenplay, director and leading role, you still need to get Simon's approval.

Danielis entertainment has also made it very clear that if "lightning man" and "steel bone" are messed up, these two superheroes are likely to be excluded from the DC movie universe plan. Danielis entertainment would rather have Batman, Superman and wonder woman in the future "just alliance".

Although he hasn't realized the benefits of plot linkage, Warner also knows that he may not be able to play these superheroes without the support of danielis entertainment.