Chapter 805： 12 things to create

As early as the early 1990s, "Watchmen" began preparations for filming. At that time, the screenwriter was still Sam Hamm, and it was rumored that Rorschach would be played by Robin Williams, but the script went through. After several rewrites, Warner Bros. shelved plans for the film.

In 2004, the film was ready to shoot again, and the director, script and all aspects were ready, but just as it was about to start, Paramount, a risky investment, decided to disembark and repented. Soon after, the original director Paul Greengrass Withdrew from the crew and turned to "Thriller Flight 93".

At the beginning of 2006, another executive from Warner Bros. proposed the production of "Watchmen". The reason is naturally that this comic has been well received in both the comics industry and the mainstream media, and is regarded as a classic work in the comics media.

After all, "Watchmen" has won a Hugo Award—the only comic book in history to have won the Literary Award.

No matter from which perspective, "Watchmen" is an excellent adaptation project, but the adaptation work is too difficult, and Warners has not found a clear direction until the emergence of "300" and "I Am a Hero", allowing them to truly Pay attention to Zack Schneider, and strive to lead the project to participate...

in the box.

Lehman thought of the mixed reviews of the film in the future, and the difference in duration between the director's cut version and the theatrical version.

Then, Lehman asked Zha Dao, "In that case, what are your plans?"

"It's hard for me to refuse it. I'm sleeping thinking about how to adapt it. Mr. Rust..." Zhadao remembered something, and suddenly became solemn.

But Lehman can guess what Zadao wants to say, "We will have cooperation in the future, right. If you like it, you can do it. I support your choice."

If it was the era of big studios, the director was an accessory of the studio, but at this time, the status of film practitioners and capital was not so disparate.

A director, as long as he has talent, can make a profitable film, and in turn can attract capital to chase, such as Spielberg, Nolan of the original time and space (the first director of Legendary Pictures to bet on investment) and even Michael - cowry......

As soon as these words came out, all the troubles in Zha Dao's heart disappeared.

He really wanted to take on something as challenging as Watchmen.

As a result, Zha Dao felt that Lehman was very angry with himself.

Similarly, Firefly can maintain a cooperative relationship with Zha Dao and can do many things that Lehman cannot do alone, so he also has a heart.

To put it more directly, Lehmann just doesn't care about anything in a year, concentrates on filming, and the output will not exceed 4 at most, and the time is tight, and he is exhausted to death, that is not enjoying the film.

Furthermore, even with Marvel, Lyman is also jealous of DC.

There is a saying that Marvel is playing entertainment, and DC is deep. In terms of personality, DC's superhero characters are more dramatic, but since Warner's management took a wrong look at the Batman trilogy, they have pinched their noses many times. He was already very wary of giving up his benefits.

But if Zha Dao gets into DC, and the two work together, maybe they can exchange two steamed buns in the DC project to eat, so it is undoubtedly a good thing to be refreshing at this time and not give people a psychological burden.

Anyway, Lyman has upgraded Olive Branch.

Since then, Zha Dao's projects with Firefly have enjoyed the same treatment as the producers, except for the copyright ownership. This is consistent with Nolan's conditions. After the project generates revenue, he enjoys the same proportion of box office revenue, the same proportion of offline revenue and his personal director salary.

Before 500,000, Nolan and Zha Dao could share about 10% of the net profit, which is 50,000. Now it is at least 150,000, 200,000 is not impossible, and they can make overseas money, no longer is a North American market.

The specific ratio depends on the priority of the project. For example, the project provided by Firefly will appropriately reduce the director’s income, because the creativity belongs to the company. If it is a project provided by them personally, it will be given a certain tilt according to the level of budget.

In other words, in the same filming, if Director Zha directs the sequel to "300" or the finale of the zombie trilogy in the future, he will get less than Nolan's Batman trilogy finale, because the former is dominated by fireflies , the latter is dominated by Warner and Nolan, and the project itself has little to do with Firefly.

This cooperation plan can be said to be quite fair. The sharing clauses fluctuate in time, and it is based on the more common and improved benefit distribution of the first-line leaders in the market.

Going up, it may be the status and treatment that directors like George Lucas, Spielberg, and Lyman can enjoy. The five big five basically have a negotiable attitude towards these three, because these three are direct If you offer conditions, you can cooperate if you are willing, and you are not willing to pull it down.

Like Lionsgate's ability to agree to such a harsh sharing clause, it is not because Lyman's directing ability to lead the rise of Firefly has been unanimously recognized. Another example is "Raiders of the Lost Ark" that Paramount is projecting. Strictly speaking, it is for Sri Lanka. Pielberg, Lucas and other creators work part-time because they get more than Paramount.

In this regard, Paramount is used to it. Anyway, the complicated entanglement between the "Mission: Impossible" series and Tom Cruise will continue for many years.

As long as the market doesn't meet expectations, Tom Cruise will be blamed for taking too much, but the high-quality projects can't keep up with the company's business, so he will try to ease the relationship, and then make another film, and then quarrel over profit distribution.

Zha Dao has been in the circle for so long, and he has his own team and brokerage company behind him. He must understand this. Knowing that the terms Lehman offered are already very favorable terms in the industry, this is what he nodded happily. reason.

What kind of performance matches what kind of treatment, everything is left to the market to speak.

Both of them understand that in terms of interests and tacit understanding, there are more possibilities in the future.

Later, the two of them had a tacit understanding and didn't talk about any other topics, but just talked about "Watchmen".

While thinking about the shooting of several works approved by Firefly, Lehman also thought that Director Zha encountered a lot of setbacks in making this film, but he was also a little curious about Warner's internal attitude towards "Watchmen". As a result, when asked, Director Zha also be thrown off balance.

He said that the budget given by Warner for the first time was only 110 million, and even the choice of actors was difficult.

"So low?"

Don't you see that the third part of the Caribbean series has cost 300 million yuan, and works with a production cost of more than 150 million yuan have appeared one after another, which has become the first-line norm. Is it possible that Warner is so optimistic about the future of the project and so lowers the cost?

It seems to be the same, the adaptation of "Watchmen" is really risky, otherwise it would not have dragged on for so many years, and I wanted to pull Paramount into the car in the middle, but when it was about to start, Paramount said that it would not play...

"There are some people who don't agree with it, it's a lot of bullshit." Zha Dao has been involved with this project for a long time, and he understands some situations.

Warners is also swaying internally about this project.

Is that so, Lyman thought.

......

After having a meal with Director Zha, I contacted the relationship In the following days, Lehmann specially instructed Joseph to contact Warner, while he himself returned to the New Line studio to take on the role of "Invincible". The Hulk's production work.

On the set, Lyman could often see Kevin Feige, Stan Lee and Li Press arguing.

The former requires lowering the threshold for viewing movies, being more vulgar and adding more entertainment elements, while the latter has its own shooting direction, and does not want to shoot a violent saboteur, smashing and smashing to vent the emotions that cannot be understood. Digging into Bruce Banner, the eccentricity and the helplessness driven by anger.

In the middle, Stan-Lee is more talkative, just making suggestions. Anyway, he came to make a cameo. In "Iron Man", he played an old **** surrounded by beauties at a cocktail party. At this time, he was thinking about "The Incredible Hulk". Acting a passer-by who will not affect the plot, but has a role in the scene, after all, he is not a professional actor, but he has dedicated most of his life to Marvel, and wants to continue to accompany the old man of Marvel.

And he can often stand in the perspective of a creative comic creator and provide some ideas for the filming of the film.

Although he can't make movies, he can tell stories. People are getting old, their energy is no longer, and they have retreated to the backstage for many years, but who knows more about Marvel characters than him, but few...