Chapter 674： "Social Edge"

Lehmann watched Warner's abacus going well.

The trend of "Superman Returns" is also developing more and more in a bad direction, so Warner's attitude towards Batman is more complicated.

However, the two sides are still at a stalemate now, and it depends on who softens their attitude first.

Well, fireflies don't matter anyway.

In the office, Lyman finished processing some of the grants for the progress report, and then picked up the recent newspapers to read.

The recent movie market has turned into a special show for "Pirates of the Caribbean: Gathering Souls", which premiered on July 7 and earned more than $135.6 million in the first weekend - this is the correct way to open a movie with big investment traffic. .

The 145-minute feature film pirates, led by Captain Johnny Depp, frantically strangled the 150-minute-long "Return of Superman", which made the traffic of Superman, which was already cold in the market, even more ugly, and the year-on-year decline directly exceeded 60%.

Some media laughed and said, ""Superman Returns" is a movie with a total North American box office that can only maintain a strong one week."

Not to mention, the pirates are very stable, and they have been at the top of the box office for three weeks. After breaking 200 million, they still cannot stop their plundering in the market.

Looking at the advertisment propaganda of Depp and others in the newspaper, Lehmann couldn't help shaking his head and smiling.

Depp made a pirate, but why didn't the pirates make Depp?

You know, Depp's remuneration is still a lot from Disney, and the entanglement of interests between them is also a lot of trouble.

In the final analysis, it is too easy for the main creators to justify high treatment for the series of movies, otherwise the studio will do a good job of replacing the protagonists and lead to the audience's abuse and boycott of the movie viewing crisis.

Lehman put down the newspaper and continued to read the work schedule. When he was relaxing, assistant Mace knocked on the door and walked in to report: "Boss, Alfonso Cuaron is here. Do you want to see me?"

"Of course, let him go to the reception room." Lyman put down the documents at hand and said.

......

Alfonso Cuarón was born in Mexico City in 1961.

This guy's dream since childhood was to be a director or an astronaut, but because he didn't want to join the army, his dream of an astronaut was withered.

But he is still passionate about being a director.

In 1973, on his 12th birthday, Alfonso got a camera as a gift, which brought him into photography.

After graduating from middle school, because of the opposition of his parents, Alfonso began to use his spare time to contact the formal director teaching and audition at CUEC...

In 1983, at the age of 22, he made a short film "The End of Time Quartet" and officially embarked on the road of directing;

In 1991, a black comedy about AIDS, "Love in Hysteria", gained the attention of some Hollywood distributors, thus entering Hollywood to develop...

In the blink of an eye, many years have passed. He went from a little director who was not valued at that time to a director who has taken over the production of the "Harry Potter" series. The transformation of his career is all based on his accumulated achievements and qualifications in the past. In other words, if the reincarnation is not cast well, and there is no wealthy family with director connections, most directors rely on their works step by step.

To be able to get in today, I must have the ability, and always have a solid foundation. Under the encouragement of my good friend Gyro, as well as optimistic about the development of Firefly and admiration for Lehman himself, Alfonso Cuaron moved closer to Firefly and finished the production. "Pan's Labyrinth", took one of his project ideas.

After waiting at the front desk for a while, Lehman's assistant, Mays, came to greet him in person.

When I went to the reception room and saw Leiman, his closeness also made Alfonso's inner senses feel comfortable.

"Director Cuaron, is there any good story to invest in?"

After being polite, Lehman asked.

Alfonso didn't hesitate, after all, he came here for a more free filming environment, "Yes, the inspiration for my new work came from the production of "Pan's Labyrinth". Complete."

After that, I took out the script and the general idea of ​​the project shooting plan from the bag.

Lehman took over the script, called "The Edge of Society", and was immediately stunned.

Looking at the content again, I was even more stunned.

Because Lehmann is very clear that Alfonso Cuaron of the original time and space has never made a similar movie, which is obviously a shift caused by the change of life trajectory, or that he had a similar shooting idea, but he did not get investment or production. Approved by the studio, it was not filmed.

But the possibility of the latter is less, because there is still market space for this script, and the investment cost is not high, so the hope of making a profit is great.

Therefore, it should be the butterfly effect caused by the trajectory offset.

Because at this time, Alfonso Cuaron will indeed "break up" with Warner, because the box office of "Prisoner of Azkaban" did not meet expectations. Although the original work is the most restored and the story is stronger, it has a heavier style and theme. , did not meet the tastes of the audience at a younger age, and as a result, the box office was a little worse, and then Warner executives treated him coldly.

If there was no Firefly intervention, Alfonso Cuaron should have cooperated with Universal once, and filmed "Children of Men".

And "Children of Man" is a long-standing project in Universal, and there was a production trend in 2002. As a result, due to the director's problem, it was shelved halfway, and it was taken over by Alfonso Cuaron.

You know, "Children of Men" is adapted from P-D James, the female writer is a very prolific and influential reasoner, and many works have been put on the big screen. Therefore, her copyright is very popular, and it has long been taken away by major studios...

Lehman read the script carefully and asked curiously, "Why do you think about shooting this kind of theme?"

Alfonso Cuaron pondered for a while before answering: "Some time ago, when the top filmed Pan's Labyrinth, I chatted with him a lot, and the idea was obtained during the chat. Now the issue of immigration is actually very serious. , especially for this place, you know, I am a Mexican, and I can understand some things about smugglers from the US-Mexico border. Later, I did an in-depth investigation and got a lot of material, which is why this movie reflects the smuggling of immigrants. project."

Well, Lehman almost forgot that besides being good at science fiction, this director is also a literary director.

And this "Edge of Society" tells the stories of those Mexican smugglers hiding in the United States and being despised by others. The subject matter is heavy, but the story is very bland and relaxed, without the kind of breathless depression.

In other words, a depressing subject, but Alfonso Cuaron wanted to make it calmer.

This is also in line with his style. The interpretation of maternal love in "Roma" is also quite calm. Perhaps science fiction has had too much influence on him. He shoots literary films with a sense of onlooker.

I have to say that Alfonso Cuaron is still very personal in terms of this style of directing.

And this subject suits him very well.

"Please sit down." Lyman waved his hand.

When Alfonso Cuaron sat down on the sofa, Lehmann asked again, "How much is the investment?"

Alfonso Cuaron was stunned for a moment, and then he was delighted - so simple, as the top said, as long as Lehman himself approved, the project can be prepared for shooting immediately, without the complicated intervention of many people.

"I made a project budget, which roughly cost 18 million. I wanted to shoot in black and white and color contrasting two imaging styles, which cost more money," explained Alfonso.

"No problem Your director's salary is included in the investment, and you participate in the box office share. Well, how about 30% of the box office net profit and 10% of the copyright?"

In this regard, it is similar to what I said before. The box office is profitable, and Firefly does not hesitate to share the rewards. If the box office fails, the next project will take less.

In fact, Alfonso Cuaron himself is very satisfied with this kind of cooperation.

In the past, he was always paid a fixed salary. Occasionally, the box office sold well, and he got some bonuses. It’s like now that the level of salary is linked to the box office. Alfonso Cuaron didn't have much confidence to bid on the bargaining chip that the factory negotiated.

As for Laiman, he also knew in his heart that Firefly was definitely much worse than the Big Six. The preferential conditions he could win over, except that he rarely intervened in creation, was to change his treatment from a superior to a partner of interest.

In addition, Firefly does not have much leverage to win over talents.

However, many of the directors he made friends joined Firefly without making a fortune...