novelraw Chapter 85 Advancement
Chapter 85 Advancement
Chapter 85 Advancement
Warner Bros. was brought in by Legendary Pictures. Back in 2005, the two companies reached an agreement to co-finance and produce 40 films and television series. Now, Gravity will be one of the 40 films in that agreement.
Both companies maintained a consistent stance during external negotiations.
Currently, the two companies have not yet agreed on the casting of the female lead. As long as Shen Qing reaches an agreement with the other party on the issue of the female lead, the agreement can be signed immediately, and the first payment can be transferred to the production team's account immediately.
There are only a handful of actresses in China who could take on this role.
Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Fan Bingbing.
Li Bingbing is currently one level below the three mentioned above.
"Director Shen Qing, the three candidates you mentioned are far inferior to you as the director in terms of data. Our data shows that having two main characters working together to return to Earth, with one from China and one from the US, is still the lowest-risk strategy."
The presidents of Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have returned to their home countries, leaving a man named Vanessa to continue communicating with the Chinese side.
After another unsuccessful attempt to communicate, the signing date was postponed once again.
"Mr. Shen, since Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures say their numbers are far inferior to yours, why not just have you star in it yourself? It seems that Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures do recognize your performance in North America."
Chen Zhixi dismissed her secretary, Xiao Jing, and personally brewed tea for Shen Qing. She then brought up a point everyone had overlooked: "There's a scene in the film where the female lead escapes into a space station, takes off her spacesuit, and curls up like a fetus in the womb. Would it look better with a male actor playing this role?"
"Beautiful! I love watching it!"
The image immediately formed in Chen Zhixi's mind, which only strengthened her previous conviction.
Shen Qing smiled and didn't take the opinion too seriously.
Subsequent communication with Vanessa made no progress, which forced Shen Qing to reconsider his suggestion.
Then an idea suddenly came to mind.
In the original film, the female protagonist Ryan Stone is a mother who has lost her child. Her tragic past is the core of the character. She has lost all color in her life and even the meaning of living, until the end of the film when she realizes that she should live for herself.
She was isolated and withdrawn, a stark contrast to her witty and irreverent colleague, Mattkovsky.
What if we changed the protagonist from female to male, and upgraded an ordinary colleague to the male protagonist's mother?
This is the last space mission that the male protagonist's mother will undertake before retiring, and it is also the male protagonist's first space mission.
The mother sacrificed herself to save the male protagonist. The male protagonist used the opportunity that his mother gave up to escape back to the Tianque Space Station. He took off his spacesuit and curled up into the shape of a fetus in the mother's womb.
His mother had conceived him in this way before, and now she sacrificed her life to give him hope for life. This is the second birth of life.
The male protagonist curls up like a fetus, his mother conceives him again, and he successfully returns to Earth in the Shenzhou spacecraft. This is both his rebirth and his mother's second childbirth.
That seems plausible.
The true essence of the film lies in the profound starry sky, the realistic texture, the vast and tranquil universe, and the insignificance, loneliness, and courage of humanity, along with the outstanding 3D effects. As long as the plot makes sense, that's fine.
After watching the film, how many viewers remembered that the female protagonist experienced the pain of losing her daughter and even lost the will to live?
Her four-year-old daughter accidentally hit her head and died while playing tag at kindergarten. She described the accident as "so funny that she died."
How many people remember these details? What everyone remembers is instinctively reaching out to block the incoming satellite debris.
With these modifications, the film's emotions become more concrete and intense.
Upon meeting Vanessa again, Shen Qing explained his new idea. Vanessa, lacking the authority to make the decision, urgently reported it to higher authorities. Just one day later, Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures approved the changes. After discussing some details, such as Shen Qing's salary, they settled on $500 million. All parties involved quickly reached an agreement, the contract was signed promptly, and the first payment was successfully deposited into the production team's account.
The contract had just been signed when Shen Qing was summoned to a meeting at the space agency. At the meeting, the leaders solemnly stated that the agency would give full support to the project.
Shen Qing was naturally overjoyed, and thus the design work for the series of laboratories and equipment that would appear in the film naturally had the strongest support.
"The story takes place in the future. At the beginning of the film, the male protagonist and his mother are on a space mission to repair a malfunctioning space telescope. Our country currently does not have similar equipment, so I created a fictional one, named Skyscanner," the mother and son said. They dock with the Skyscanner space telescope aboard their repair spaceship, which is another piece of equipment that requires design.
"The male protagonist escapes into the Tianque Space Station, and then escapes from the Tianque Space Station into the previous generation of experimental Tianque Generation 1. The design of the Tianque Space Station and Tianque Generation 1, these national-level laboratories, also cannot be separated from the strong support of the Bureau, as well as the design of the spacesuit, etc."
The space agency leader remained silent for a while before speaking, "Yes, we will. Our country will have these things in the future. Your film is ahead of the curve, and we'll catch up with your imagination. This year's Spring Festival Gala will showcase a model of our Tiangong-1 space station. In your film, that would be the soon-to-be-retired Tianque-1, right?"
Shen Qing nodded, her tone even more resolute than her superior's: "It will happen, everything will be alright."
With the first payment received, preparations for the film immediately began. Shen Qing first called Chang Song from Tiangong Pictures and Xiao Yang from Magic Visual Effects to his office.
"This is a truly big production. The production team will be collaborating extensively with Framestore, a top global visual effects company, and will be hiring Timothy Webber as the film's visual effects supervisor. You two will be serving as assistant visual effects supervisors. How much you learn depends on your own abilities."
"President Shen, I will definitely learn well, but I need investment, and the amount can't be too small, because I need to recruit and train our own team, taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"
At that moment, excitement and composure appeared simultaneously on the face of the young visual effects company president.
"Okay, you have this ambition, and I'm happy to spend this money."
Shen Qing immediately affirmed the other party, but then changed the subject, saying, "However, Magical Films already holds 51% of the shares of Tiangong Pictures. If we inject more capital, Magical Films will have absolute control."
Chang Song hesitated for a moment, then nodded solemnly and said, "Since the company invested, President Shen has never interfered with the company's specific operations. On the contrary, he has given Tiangong many rare opportunities. I believe that having Shenqi Films as the sole controlling shareholder will be a good choice for Tiangong, for me, and for Shenqi Films."
Shenqi nodded, signaling Chen Zhixi beside him to follow up on this matter.
"President Shen, I also want to recruit more people!"
Seeing his good brother so ambitious, Xiao Yang naturally didn't want to fall behind.
"Okay, allocate funds, but the money must be spent effectively."
"Don't worry, Mr. Shen, I guarantee that every penny will be spent wisely."
Shen Qing nodded and then assigned specific tasks: "For a big-budget film like this that requires a lot of CG effects, storyboards alone are not enough. We also need a visual preview animation. Your two companies should work together to create this animation preview. Once we have this, the special effects company can immediately begin pre-production work."
It's not as simple as being able to start working immediately. Shen Qing has the original movie in his mind, so this preview can be made extremely accurate. Without the trial and error process, the production cycle of the film will be reduced exponentially.
"Mr. Shen, what level of quality do we need for this visual preview animation?" Chang Song asked.
Currently, only a very small number of directors in Hollywood are using this 3D pre-animation method to guide filming, such as Peter Jackson, the director of "King Kong," and James Cameron, the director of "Avatar." This is still novel abroad, let alone in China.
"Camera data is essential. A virtual camera must be built, with the actual lens focal length input to simulate the camera's movement trajectory; physical motion logic is crucial, especially the physical logic in a vacuum environment. In a vacuum, the rotation of objects after a collision is perpetual and will not stop on its own. These aspects require extra attention, meaning they must conform to Newton's laws; lighting orientation is necessary; and editing points are also required—"
After explaining what was necessary, Shen Qing added that it could be very rough: "The character models can be very rough, the character facial expressions can be very rough, and the texture mapping can also be very rough. This is not a finished animation shown to the audience; it is an effect preview used to guide the filming of the movie."
"Understood."
"Understood, Mr. Shen. We will definitely do our best."
"Okay, let's go back first then."
After the two left Shen Qing's office, Shen Qing relaxed for a bit and started browsing news on a portal website.
[Filming for "Chinese Paladin 3" is about to begin, with two actresses, Charlene Choi (Ah Sa), vying for the lead role of Xuejian (Tang Yan).]
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Tang Yan and Ah Sa vie for the role of Xue Jian?
Where is my Yang Mi?