Movie Master

The Oscars came to an end, and Peter Jackson took the "Lord of the Rings Trilogy: The Return of the King" to the top, marking the end of the 2003 awards season with a gesture of making history; "City" won three statuettes and became the biggest dark horse. Among them, the best adapted screenplay award became the only shortcoming among the twelve nominations for "The Return of the King", and it became a hot topic in the media.

Many people are curious, what will happen after winning the Oscar statuette?

Lance can safely say that there is little impact. Because life still has to go on, even Peter Jackson, he can take a vacation for a while, he can celebrate for a while, but...he still has to continue to shoot works, otherwise just rely on this statuette, the slowest time is three years, the last In almost a year, the follow-up effect will disappear, and he will be submerged in Hollywood, which is full of talents. Oscar is just a part of people's life.

In a blink of an eye, people have already begun to get busy for the 2004 awards season.

"What? You plan to release this movie in September? You're crazy!" Lance looked at Brad Gray in front of him, his brows furrowed in disbelief, and he waved his hand directly, vetoing Brad Gray. Germany's proposal.

"Why not?" Brad did not intend to give up, "'The Day After Tomorrow' finished filming in January today, and it will be released in May. If we start shooting next week, it will be finished before June, and it will be released in September. of."

Now Brad and Lance are talking about the cooperation of "Knife Killing". After the Oscars, Lance read the script carefully-in addition to two other scripts, there is no doubt that "Borrowing Knife" stood out smoothly. So Lance contacted Brad and expressed his willingness to cooperate, which led to today's meeting.

However, it is clear that there are huge differences between the two sides.

"Have you finished writing the script? Have you found the actors? Have you found the shooting location? Have you drawn the schematic diagram of the shots? Are the crew ready? The most important thing is that I haven't nodded in agreement yet." Lance's series of words did not mean anything. He didn't back down, even in the face of Brad, he had no intention of backing down. "So, don't tell me that you start shooting next week and wrap it up by June, and now that nothing is finalized on the whole project, you're going to release it in September. That's totally crazy."

It's not because Lance doesn't care about Paramount's cooperation, but because after experiencing the completely different shooting forms of "City of God" and "The Day After Tomorrow", Lance deeply realized that don't make movies for the sake of making movies, otherwise you will end up The quality of the work was affected, and the one who was hurt was Chaos Films, which had no foundation at present.

Brad was not flustered by Lance's series of rebuttals. Instead, he showed a smile, leaned back on the chair slowly, and asked, "Tell me about your conditions."

"You know my conditions." Lance saw Brad's movements, and he was not in a hurry. He still put his hands on the table and said relaxedly and naturally.

"Final editing rights?" Brad slightly raised the end, and then saw Lance hooked the corner of his mouth, showing a calm smile, but Brad slowly shook his head, "Please, you know this is Impossible." At present, Lance only has "City of God" as his representative work, "The Day After Tomorrow" has not yet been released, and the quality and performance are unknown. His talent, as well as his rookie qualifications-this means that the initiative is controlled by Paramount, so they are definitely not willing to delegate power easily.

But here is the problem. Paramount is eager to make a commercial film, but Lance hopes that this work can go further on the road of combining business and art. Then the final editing right is the core element, and Lance must have it in his hands, otherwise, even if he completes the filming, and Paramount finally edits another style version, all of Lance's efforts will fall short, which is too uneconomical.

Worse still, the final cut of "Borrower" was so bad that Lance's reputation from "City of God" was wiped out overnight. Paramount may only have lost tens of millions of dollars, but Lance will be beaten back to his original form. After all, Lance is not one of those great directors who have accumulated many wonderful works. He can only be regarded as a fledgling genius. .

This is a double-edged sword.

What Lance needs to do now is to make full use of the positive side of this double-edged sword and gain more initiative for himself. Compared with the simple and crude "the day after tomorrow", "killing with a knife" can carry more hope, and Paramount is naturally more greedy. Greed always makes things more complicated.

"All the actors can be selected by you." Lance did not rush to veto all possibilities, but took the initiative to throw the bait.

Brad smiled and shook his head, "That's not the point."

Lance did not give up easily, "Tell me the actors you have in hand now."

Brad didn't quite understand the meaning of Lance's move, he frowned slightly, and looked at Lance carefully, but it was difficult to find any flaws on Lance's smiling face, which made Brad a little uncertain After hesitating for a while, Lance said, "The professional killer had already negotiated with Russell Crowe, but he decided to shoot a new work with Nicole Kidman, so he gave up the contract. Our current The target is Colin-Farrell or Edward Norton."

"You really don't want to give up the 'sniper phone booth' style." Colin is the leading actor of "Sniper Phone Booth". Lance's answer made Brad spread his hands slightly, and did not deny Paramount's idea. Lance He grinned, expressing his helplessness.

There is no problem with Edward. His performance has always been delicate and explosive, and the depth of the soul of the character is always eye-catching. However, in the work "Murder with a Borrowing Knife", Edward is more suitable for the role of a taxi driver rather than a profession. killer.

As for Colin, he is a strange flower in Hollywood, winning countless opportunities but always failing to become popular. He has screwed up all opportunities time and time again because of alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, but the amazing thing is that he Always able to find opportunities again, and then screw up again, he has talent, but he doesn't know how to use it, and he is not suitable for professional killers, because his performance is too one-sided.

"Have you considered Tom Cruise?" Brad was stunned by Lance's proposal.

Lance knew that Paramount wanted to make "Murder with a Borrowing Knife" into a commercial film. If it had Tom's box office appeal, it would indeed be the best choice.

However, there is a serious problem in inviting Tom——Tom is a member of the 20 million club in Hollywood, and his salary cannot be lowered at all; moreover, if you look closely at Tom's movies, you will find that he is the only big name in his movies, and the others are Unknown newcomers, or value-for-money stalwart actors, because these actors cannot participate in box office dividends, this can ensure that Tom's interests are maximized-except for big directors like Steven Spielberg Even the position of director Tom tends to those directors who are not well-known but powerful.

In other words, if the actor chooses Tom, the arrangement of the entire crew of "Murder with a Borrowing Knife" needs to be adjusted.

Brad had to admit that when he heard Lance's proposal, his first thought was - perfect idea! But then he vetoed it, "You know we can't afford him." The script of "Murder with a Borrowing Knife" did not involve any special effects. It can be said to be a black crime movie, so the cost is bound to be low, 60 million to 65 thousand One million is the limit of Paramount's budget. Just one Tom can cost one-third of the crew's budget, and even part of Lance's dividend has to be ceded.

"You tell me, if I can persuade Tom to join, are you willing to hand over the final editing rights to me, and I can try my best to make the movie released in December." Lance sold out at this time.

Brad's eyes flickered slightly. It turned out that Lance took the initiative to give up the "right to choose actors" with such an idea, but Brad faintly felt that things must not be that simple, because Tom's joining would make Lance lose a lot. Part of the interests may even fall into a passive position, just for a final editing right, this is not an equal deal.

However, Brad also knew that Lance would definitely not show his cards easily, so he said lightly, "If Tom joins, he must be one of the producers. You know his control over the crew/desire/ Right?" In order to ensure the quality of the film, Tom also has the kind of personality that does everything by himself, and if Tom and Lance conflict..."Are you sure it can be released in December? Maybe it will be postponed until next summer."

But Lance also knows that Tom is a smart man, and he is an expert in commercial action movies, so he is bound to firmly control; but for art movies, especially movies involving performance, Tom's posture has always been Even if it is an independent film like "Magnolia", he is at the helm of Paul Thomas Anderson.

"This is my business, you just need to tell me, can you give me the final editing rights." Lance also followed Brad's example and returned to the core topic.

This time, Brad was silent. In fact, Paramount's insistence still lies in the quality of the work - I hope the film can make more achievements in the box office. Outsiders don't know, but Brad knows that Paramount's current internal income They need such moderately invested works that can be exchanged for super high returns. "Murder with a Borrowing Knife" is obviously a good project. With the help of a director like Lance who is not high in qualifications but strong in strength, start with word of mouth, plus the right The publicity of the movie is half the battle. If you add Tom...

Thinking of this, Brad also left the back of the chair, slowly approached the table, looked at Lance intently, thought twice in his head, and put forward his own conditions, "If you are willing to act as a taxi driver. "