v2 Chapter 521： The date of the war

Having experienced the super-training of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for Duke and his team, the preparation of the Batman series is not too difficult, and its cumbersome degree is far less than recreating a Middle-earth world. Time is slowly approaching. At the end of October, the various preparatory work of the crew was gradually coming to an end, and according to the plan, the first filming was the location scene in Iceland. For example, the more complicated props such as the Batmobile can be made while filming.

In the past few months, combined with Duke's transformation opinions, Lamborghini has completed a total of six copyright Batmobile designs.

Duke also found the type he wanted.

In the past Batman movies, the Batmobile has been synchronized with the times and played to the extreme in publicity. Lamborghini has successfully combined the exquisiteness and agility of a sports car with the robustness of a chariot, creating a fast and muscular design. Monster.

In Hour of War, the Batmobile is actually a prototype of a military vehicle named "the.tumbler". It was developed by Wayne and used to load personnel and equipment across trenches and facilitate passage in open areas. However, due to the price Expensive, Wayne Company failed to put into production on a large scale, but was discovered by Bruce Wayne, which developed into Batman's tool for justice.

At the beginning of November, Lamborghini shipped a concept 5 □ car to Los Angeles. As long as Duke can be satisfied, the next few prop cars can be manufactured soon.

This Batmobile is equipped with a 5.7-liter 340-horsepower engine that can output 400 pounds of torque. The body is 9 feet 4 inches wide, 15 feet long, and weighs two and a half tons. It can accelerate from standstill to 60 mph in 5 seconds. , It can also complete long-distance jumps.

The most unique aspect of the Batmobile is that it does not have a front axle, but supports the wheels on the side of the car body.

The Lamborghini technicians increased the size of the rear wheels. With the engine and gearbox arranged nearby, the Batmobile even has an insect-like waist, which twists when the horsepower is increased.

In addition, the Batmobile is also equipped with 6 truck tires. In order to achieve the designed sideslip effect, tires with different degrees of wear can be used in different scenarios. Tire pressure can also be adjusted accordingly.

According to the plan, Duke will use a total of 6 to 8 Batmobiles in the film, of which 5 are fully equipped, 1 electronic version is equipped with a movable roof for easy entry and exit, and two have no engine and are reduced in weight for special action scenes. Was ejected.

"I never expected them to build a Batmobile that combines various ideas, but they did it. It is a monster and a beast."

This is Duke's evaluation of the Batmobile. He was quite satisfied with what Lamborghini did.

Of course, the copyright of the Batmobile is shared by the two companies. After the film is released, it will be officially launched on the market, which is also one of the profit points of peripheral products.

There is also Bruce Wayne's sports car in the film, which will use Lamborghini's latest products across the board.

In addition, Lamborghini also presented Duke and Christian Bale with the latest concept sports cars in order to promote products and advertise.

However, Duke has no sense of cars and rarely drives sports cars. He changed hands and gave it to Tina Fei.

The negotiations between Tina Fei and Warner Bros. did not go smoothly. Time Warner has concerns about stock swaps. Duke is already the largest individual shareholder of Warner Bros., with too many shares in his hands, which is not good for Time Warner Group's holding of Warner Bros.

The negotiation also involves Steve Jobs’ Pixar studio. If Pixar cannot be taken, Duke’s shares increase after the exchange, and Time Warner will undoubtedly be quite passive.

But Steve Jobs holds the absolute initiative. Don't worry at all, this is destined to be a marathon negotiation.

Duke's main energy is still on new films, which is his interest and the foundation of his career.

On the release date of "War Hour". Duke and Warner had a little bit of disagreement. The reason is simple. The fiasco of "Batman and Robin" left a deep shadow on Warner Bros.

"Warner's opinion is to set the schedule for the film in late July or early August when competition is relatively peaceful."

In the Duke’s studio, Jamie Johnson, who was promoted to Warner Bros. Distribution Manager, told Duke, “Batman must not be lost again, otherwise this series will be sealed indefinitely.”

Duke considered it for a moment and said, "My opinion is still in early May."

Next year, there will be the opening work of the Marvel series waiting. It is impossible for him to postpone the release time of "The Hour of War" too late, so as not to distract his energy too much.

Moreover, he vaguely remembered that the previous "Moment of War" was a summer film, and the market response can also be said to be relatively successful.

What's more, the former Christopher Nolan has no comparison with his influence in the summer vacation.

"The schedule in May is already very crowded." Jamie Johnson thought for a moment, did not insist on his own opinion, and said, "Memorial Day is definitely not appropriate. George Lucas's "Star Wars 3" It will be released on this schedule."

These Duke knew that he would definitely not go to collide with the last Star Wars that Lucas said.

Jamie Johnson continued, "There will be Spielberg's "War of the World" in mid-May. This is a science fiction genre."

"What about the beginning of the month?" Duke asked directly.

"Twentieth Century Fox's big production "The Kingdom of Heaven" was released on the first weekend of the summer file..."

Hearing the name, Duke's eyes lit up immediately, "Jamie, let's choose the first weekend."

Without waiting for the other party to speak, he gave an explanation, "I don't know if you have noticed. The epic film has caused the market's aesthetic fatigue. Warner's "Troy" has not met expectations, right?"

"Yes." Jamie Johnson nodded, "Although we finally realized profit through peripherals and discs, it was far from our expectations."

"The performance of "King Arthur" released in July was extremely poor. I believe its bleak market response is destined to lose money." Duke reminded, "and last year's "Alexander the Great", the commercial results were terrible."

Jamie Johnson’s eyes suddenly lit, and Duke’s grasp of the movie market has always made him admire him, even if it’s not his own films, he invested in the "Titanic", "Mission Impossible" and "Harry Potter" series. All fully proved this, especially "Alexander the Great." Warner Bros. obeyed his advice and did not release this epic film by Oliver Stone, thus avoiding the risk of a loss.

"Every type of Hollywood film, after its peak, will always cause market weakness." What Duke said is what the film market has proven over the past countless years. "In recent years, Hollywood epic films Zatui appeared, flooding the screen..."

Having said that, he shook his head, not only epic war films, but future superhero films will follow the same path.

Duke has no magic power, but what he said is not difficult to analyze. Jamie Johnson thought for a while and couldn't help but nod lightly.

Of course, the specific release date of "The Hour of War", he has to go back and investigate before making a decision.

After Jamie Johnson left, Duke looked at the release schedule for next year’s summer files that he left behind. It contained all the films whose schedules had been announced. "The Kingdoms of Heaven" seemed to have an amazing momentum-Ridley Scott Together with Orlando Bloom, the production cost is 130 million U.S. dollars-but it is a veritable soft persimmon.

Many people once attributed the film’s box office failure to Ridley Scott’s lack of editing rights. This is indeed part of the reason, and Ridley Scott’s director’s cut version is more than one grade higher in quality than the public release version. If the director’s cut version is released a few years in advance, it may be a big success.

But in this period of time, even if the director's cut version of Lao Lei is released, more than 80% of it is still on the street.

Movies are deeply affected by the social environment. In recent years, Hollywood has followed the trend of epic film types. Various large investments and small productions have emerged one after another. The market demand for epic films has obviously begun to weaken. This is an extra-film element beyond the director's control.

Just like the superhero movies that Duke used to flourish in the last few years, everyone knows that the audience will get bored.

One week later, Warner Bros. heard the news that they accepted Duke’s opinion that "Batman: Hour of War" will be officially released in North America on May 6, the beginning of next summer's summer file. The movie released on the same day is "The Kingdom of Heaven". .

Whether this film will change its schedule is not within Duke’s consideration at all. With the arrival of mid-November, after reviewing all the preparatory work, he contacted Hannah Serena, who had gone to Iceland in advance. After that, I am ready to start shooting.

The starting shot of the film will be on the Vatnajökull Glacier in Iceland. When the release date of "Batman: Hour of War" was announced at a press conference in Warner, he led the crew on a special chartered plane to leave North America and fly directly to Iceland.

Before he left, "Hurricane Rescue", released in June, was completely off-stage from North America. After five months of long screenings, the film finally earned US$235.78 million in North America. Relative to the investment scale of the film, it has already achieved A great success.

The overseas screenings of "Hurricane Rescue" have not yet ended. At present, the global box office has reached 482.76 million U.S. dollars. It is not difficult for the final global box office to exceed 500 million U.S. dollars.

Although this is Duke's relatively average box office performance in recent years, "Hurricane Rescue" entered the top ten list of North American and global box offices at all.

Moreover, "Hurricane Rescue" had a very good reputation from the audience until it was downgraded in North America. The imdb score was as high as 8.3, and subsequent disc sales would not be bad.

The crew arrived in Iceland. After just two days of rest, Duke kicked off the filming. In the first scene, Liam Neeson and Christian Bale fought on the ice lake. (To be continued...)