Chatty Hollywood

"The new book I'm thinking of is called "American Gods." Simply put, it can be said to be a story about a great battle between gods."

Neil Gaiman explains his plan to Charlotte.

Charlotte nodded——

"American Gods"!

Charlotte, who comes from the 21st century, has naturally seen Neil Gaiman’s most famous work in the future.

This is an imaginative work that uses a complete system to integrate countless myths.

To be honest, Charlotte really likes this work, but——

"Since you have already conceived it, you can just write it yourself. Why do you have to look for me specifically?"

Charlotte didn't understand this.

"Because you can stimulate my inspiration!"

Neil Gaiman has a grateful look on his face,

"It was our discussion that made me think of this idea. It seems bad to write it yourself without you. And -"

Mr. Writer patted Charlotte on the shoulder,

"I admire your research on ghosts and gods. Working with you will definitely improve the accuracy of my research."

"Yeah?"

Charlotte nodded, recognizing the other party's reasons.

"But, you know I'm a director, and most of the time-"

"I know you don't have much free time."

Neil Gaiman knew what Charlotte was trying to say, and he said it bluntly,

"But my book won't start anytime soon - it will be a full-length novel, and right now, I'm focusing more on the Sandman comic."

"Then what do you mean by cooperation?"

"I want to ask you to help me prepare together!"

Neil Gaiman explains,

"Just before starting to write,

I plan to spend three to four years collecting materials and preparing stories. In this way, we can do it very slowly. Even if you are very busy, you should have enough time, right? "

"According to what you said, it should be enough! But -"

Charlotte gave Neil Gaiman a strange look;

"Neal, have you had any problems recently?"

When they met last year, Charlotte discovered that Neil Gaiman had a nightmare-like aura about him.

But Charlotte didn't take it seriously.

After all, Neil Gaiman is the author of the comic "Sandman".

"The Sandman" tells a story about dreams. The story inside is extremely grand and very popular.

Such comics will naturally bring a lot of influence to its author.

And influence is not just in the conventional sense——

Charlotte has traveled to this world for more than two years. He has long discovered that famous works can condense magic power and attract ghosts.

In this regard, movies are the best. And comics are not impossible.

From Charlotte's point of view, Neil Gaiman only embodies a part of the Sandman's magic because of his works.

Sandman, also known as Sandman in English, originally refers to the Sandman in Western myths and legends, also known as the Sleeping Fairy or the Sleep Elf.

Legend has it that he would sprinkle sand into children's eyes at night until they fell asleep and lull them into sleep.

In this aspect, his power is very similar to that of Nightmare.

Originally, Charlotte had always felt this way.

However, when she saw Neil Gaiman this time, Charlotte found that something was wrong with him——

How to describe it?

Charlotte actually couldn’t tell.

However, he felt that Neil Gaiman seemed to have a burning feeling of life.

This didn't feel right to Charlotte.

Neil Gaiman didn't realize what Charlotte meant. In fact, he really felt very good now,

"Maybe it's because I haven't slept much lately!"

Mr. Writer thought Charlotte was worried about this problem, and he explained excitedly,

"I've been in a creative mood recently, so I've been staying up late to catch up on manuscripts."

"So that's it!"

Charlotte nodded.

As a fellow creator, he naturally understands how rare that state of inspiration is—

In some ways, Neil Gaiman may actually be burning his life away.

However, which popular work is not written by the author burning his life?

Thinking of this, Charlotte finally accepted Neil Gaiman's invitation to cooperate.

However, he did not expect that before the two of them collaborated on "American Gods", Neil Gaiman brought him another piece of mixed news -

"DC invited me to direct "Batman"!?"

Because Neil Gaiman's work "The Sandman" is published by Vertigo Comics, a subsidiary of DC Comics. So it’s not surprising that he brought DC news to Charlotte.

What’s strange about Charlotte is that the offer came from DC, not Warner Bros.

You know, DC Comics is now acquired by Warner.

Warner is now releasing Charlotte's "The Sixth Sense," and the person in charge there, Barry Mendel, has a good relationship with Charlotte.

——If you want Charlotte to direct "Batman", why not just let Barry Mendel do it?

Or is this DC trying to bypass Warner Bros.? ?

Considering the fierce infighting within Warner, Charlotte feels that the water here seems a bit deep.

He didn't know what to say to this invitation.

Moreover, for a big-name director like Charlotte, directing a superhero movie is not a particularly good choice——

Generally speaking, comic book movies, or superhero movies, are the big ones with larger investment amounts among commercial movies.

It takes skill to make good use of these funds.

But this does not mean that their directors are very important.

On the contrary, in Hollywood, which implements a producer-centered system, the more this happens, the less space the director has to play, and the greater the restriction by the producer.

Take the Marvel Universe, which has been flourishing for a while, for example. This series of superhero movies can be said to be directed by Stan Lee, an ironclad and smooth director.

Under the leadership of Marvel Entertainment President Kevin Feige and Marvel's creative committee, the style positioning of all Marvel movies is very clear.

The director is just a large on-site shooting guide.

As for the audience, they would rather look for Stan Lee, the "father of Spider-Man", in every movie than bother to care who the director of the movie is.

Under such circumstances, directing Marvel superhero movies is not an interesting job for many big directors.

In comparison, DC Comics, which is owned by Warner Bros., is better.

They interfere less with film directors.

At least, when it comes to "Batman", there are still quite a few big-name directors willing to direct——

There’s Tim Burton in the distance, and there’s Christopher Nolan in the future.

Therefore, when Charlotte heard the name Bruce Wayne, she was still a little interested.

However, after thinking about it for a while, he still shook his head.

"The current version of "Batman" is actually hard to come back from. If I were to direct it, I would choose to completely restart the series. But——"

Charlotte blinked but said nothing.