novelraw Chapter 151 The Advantages Are Obvious
Chapter 151 The Advantages Are Obvious
Every major film and television studio has a creative committee, with different names but essentially the same.
Universal Pictures produces more than ten or twenty films every year, but their creative committee needs to select these film projects from hundreds of project plans, and the workload is very heavy, especially with only ten employees.
These projects include original projects led by themselves, projects in cooperation with independent producers, packaged projects in cooperation with brokerage companies such as CAA, and companies that purchase previously purchased film and television adaptation rights for games and comics.
Not every producer is signed by a large studio. Many people are actually more like a salesman. After they find a good project, they recommend it to several major Hollywood studios in turn. If Fox doesn’t want it, they will give it to Universal and Disney. Don't just ask Paramount.
Doug Liman's "The Bourne" project is his own initiative to find Universal to cooperate, because the adaptation rights of the spy "Bourne's Identity" have been in the hands of Universal for many years and have not been developed.
It just so happened that he had ideas and creativity in this area, so he hit it off with Universal Pictures.
In fact, the film has not yet reached the stage of project approval, because Doug Liman and screenwriter Tony Gilroy have not yet submitted the outline of the story to the creative committee for review.
"Bourne's Identity" is very long and has so many words that one can even be made into several movies.
Doug and Tony have been suffering from headaches in recent days. It is very difficult to present a complete and smooth story. They have to submit a 7-page outline, and they need to be unanimously approved by the creative committee before they can continue to develop.
It may not even be possible to shoot if it is continued to be developed. Many times it will be stuck in the script and cast list. If you are lucky, you can successfully shoot within a year or two.
Naturally, he didn't want to wait that long. If he wanted to perfect the script and the outline of the story, it would be best if he could get the green light from the creative committee.
After seeing the popularity of the 007 series and the Mission: Impossible series, Universal also wanted to get a share of this type of spy agent movie. It just so happened that Doug came to the door and was naturally willing to cooperate.
However, the investment of this type of film is tens of millions of dollars. Even if the creative committee approves it, there will still be a professional team to evaluate its target market size, audience demand, artistic potential, difficulty of filming and production, budget, distribution, derivatives and These aspects of the law make estimates and mathematical models to come up with a number.
If the mathematical model calculates that this film does not achieve a 15% return on investment, then it is likely to be stranded.
No company wants to lose money, and any movie is made with the hope of making money.It's just that the goal of making money may not be directly recovered from the movie box office, sometimes it is also possible to make money from screening rights, discs, and derivative products.
After sending Eve away, Doug Liman continued to sit where he was, thinking about Eve's suggestion.
Originally in his conception, "The Bourne Shadow" should be a lonely hero who wanders the world and meets a tough girl, and the two fall in love and kill each other while fleeing.
The main highlight is the thrilling killing and escape process of the hero alone, and he didn't want the heroine to distract attention at all.
"Hey Doug, what were you thinking?"
When Tony Gilroy sat on the chair, he realized that the person opposite him was still distracted, so he opened his mouth to break the silence.
"Sorry, I was too absorbed in my thoughts just now." Doug Liman showed a shameful look, "I specially invited you here today to discuss the script of "The Bourne".
Tony patted his forehead and said helplessly, "You know, I haven't finished writing the outline yet, and it's too difficult to write this story satisfactorily."
"I understand, today I mainly want to talk to you about the heroine." Doug actually already had the answer in his heart, and he just wanted to find someone to confirm it.
"What happened to the heroine?"
"Half an hour ago, I met Eve Campbell here. She felt that we should keep the heroine faithful to the original book and wanted Mary to be Bourne's partner."
In many spy movies, the role of the actress is the embellishment in the action scene, and it is a foil for the male protagonist to play handsome and cool, not a companion.
The weight of the companion will be much heavier, from a superficial vase role to a deep role, so that the image of the heroine will be fuller and there will be more room for performance.
It's not even enough to rely on their glamorous appearance to attract the audience, their own wisdom or actions can also add luster to the movie.
Tony thought for a while and replied, "I don't know if you have seen the "007: The Black Sun Crisis" released last year."
"Of course I did."
"Then you must know that Denise Richards, the heroine of the movie, was rated as the worst Bond girl by the media, right? She is a typical vase, very ridiculous in the movie, not as good as the girl played by Sophie Marceau. Villains are attractive."
Doug Liman thought for a while and said, "Do you think the setting of the heroine of the vase is a bit outdated?"
"That's right, but we don't need to deliberately create a strong and intelligent heroine, we just need to treat her as an equal. Mary must not only attract Bourne because of her appearance, but also her unyielding spirit. After being held hostage, she wanted to escape all the time, and even took the initiative to report Bourne's location and movements. This is what a normal woman does. It's just that she fell in love with Bourne after getting along with her. The charm of a top secret agent Who can resist?"
"Of course, I haven't read the original novel, and I don't know what Mary helped Bourne, but a smart and interesting heroine is definitely more likely to be loved by the audience than a heroine who drags the hero down."
Tony really hasn't read the original work. This is the producer and director Doug's special request. Now he is just coming up with his own idea as a screenwriter, and it depends on others how to set it up.
The status of screenwriters in Hollywood is not high, and most of the time they do not have dominant power.
Doug knew that spy movies weren't just for men, but many women were potential viewers too.Everyone likes to watch exciting gun battles, fights, and espionage. Male audiences want to be the hero, while female audiences want to have the same hero as the heroine.
If the role of Mary is really returned to that, it may be more attractive to women, and male audiences can also see the difference between Bourne Shadow and the other two big IPs.
"In the evening, I will give you a new context of the character's experience. Can you write both versions of the script? I will compare and compare it before handing it over to the creative committee."
"Of course it's okay, but it will take a week at the earliest. My head is about to explode now!" Tony's words are not exaggerating. Everything is difficult at the beginning. If you want to write the outline of the script but can't read the original work, God knows how difficult it is.
Doug smiled, "Let's talk about something lighter. What do you think of Eve as an actor?"
Even if she is an alumnus, if she doesn't fit the role, she won't be chosen.
I have been in Hollywood for a long time, if I haven't heard of this name, it is really isolated from the world.
Tony thought for a while and replied cautiously: "I have never worked with her, nor have I met her in real life. All my impressions come from media reports."
"Maybe the vast majority of the audience is the same, you just happen to be representative."
"I first knew that she was in love with Keanu Reeves, because I also participated in the script of "The Devil's Advocate". After knowing this person, I found out that she starred in the "Death Comes" in Halloween, that The script of the movie is very good. The girl played by Eve is very popular among young people, she is young, beautiful, smart and independent, regardless of gender."
"Later, she also won the Saturn Award for Best Actress for this role, and she also had a certain momentum in the awards season. Unfortunately, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award, but she stopped at the Oscars. From the perspective of acting skills, she should have no problems. Recently, her popularity has also risen, and the love story between her and Keanu is spreading all over the world."
"As for the salary, it shouldn't be too high, after all, it's just two movies."
Doug concluded that Eve is really a good choice. The appearance is not the sweet and pleasant type. If her instant noodle hair style is replaced, a clean and neat woman will appear.
She needs to be popular, famous, well-known, and has good acting skills, and her popularity is also very good, but the salary is still very low. If I hadn't been attracted by "Run Lola Run", I would like to sign a contract with her now.
As a producer, Doug knew very well that if Eve's name was reported as the heroine when the project was approved, Universal Pictures would basically not object.But if he wants to make Franka Bertant from "Run Lola Run" the heroine, Universal will never agree.
Franke is a little famous in Germany, but basically no one in the United States and the rest of the world.
As a commercial film, both male and female protagonists had better be well-known, otherwise the box office would definitely be troublesome.
It has been many years since the publication of "Bourne's Identity", and the original readers have become middle-aged and elderly people, and they are basically not well-known among young people.
The authors are still counting on the release of the movie to drive book sales again, and they don't have much emotion at all.
Eve is very popular among young people in the United States. "Death Comes" and the romantic love in Las Vegas have made the majority of young people love her endlessly.
"It seems that Eve and Brad are quite compatible in appearance, at least no one will say that the man is more attractive than the woman." Doug thought silently in his heart, and the hero in his mind was Brad Pitt .
Since we have found a handsome guy as the male lead, if the female lead is too shabby or average, the contrast will be very strong.
Doug didn't know that the conversation he had with Tony would give the screenwriter a preconceived impression of the heroine, and he could not help but move closer to Eve in terms of various descriptions and identities, allowing her to have a movie in advance. custom made video.