From Flower Vase to Film Emperor in Hollywood

Anson was no longer an unknown nobody.

As the lead actor of "Spider-Man," scheduled for release next year, how could he still be obscure?

Even though the movie hadn't been released yet and its box office performance was unknown, perhaps it would flop?

But the exposure was still there.

However, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks were still different names, and when Anson's name was placed alongside these two big shots, things became different, attracting attention.

While people were bustling and hotly discussing Paris Fashion Week and the Polygon rumors, Anson's acting career quietly reopened.

Edgar's collaboration negotiations with DreamWorks went much smoother than expected.

Initially, DreamWorks insisted on a lump-sum payment, meaning they would pay Anson a fixed salary, and that was it.

Although Anson was the absolute protagonist here, facing the joining of Steven and Tom, Anson didn't have many bargaining chips, and DreamWorks hoped to lower the salary figure—

Tight cash flow.

Edgar clearly knew DreamWorks' funding difficulties, so from the beginning, he didn't aim for a lump-sum salary but kept emphasizing Anson's sincerity in cooperation, even willing to lower the salary to work with Steven and Tom, but he never offered a salary price.

After several rounds of back-and-forth negotiations, Edgar proposed a salary profit-sharing strategy, which surprised DreamWorks.

On the one hand, DreamWorks was sensitive to profit sharing.

They already had to pay a distribution company a share, leaving DreamWorks with little revenue, making profit sharing with the director, actors, and producers even more sensitive.

On the other hand, DreamWorks couldn't understand why actors nowadays were unwilling to take risks, often preferring a lump-sum payment.

The twenty-million-dollar club was still the pinnacle everyone aspired to, but Anson was different.

However, Edgar successfully persuaded DreamWorks—

Cash flow was indeed tight.

Although Anson wasn't a top-tier actor, even saving on his salary wouldn't save much, but at least it could save some cash and allow Anson to share the risk.

Most importantly, Edgar offered a very reasonable condition.

DreamWorks needed this kind of adjustment space.

The contract was quickly finalized, Anson signed it, and officially joined.

From the numbers, the remuneration for "Catch Me If You Can" was slightly less than "Spider-Man," with the box office profit-sharing ratio dropping directly from 3% to 1.5%, halved.

There were two reasons:

First, Edgar really didn't intend to fleece DreamWorks.

He had previously said that even if it meant lowering the salary, he hoped to cooperate with Steven and Tom, and that was the truth.

Second, the box office profit sharing here had no restrictions.

"Spider-Man's" profit sharing was for the portion exceeding one hundred million dollars in North America, but "Catch Me If You Can" had no restrictions.

Overall, if the two movies performed normally at the box office, exceeding one hundred million in North America, then the final salary income for "Catch Me If You Can" should slightly lead "Spider-Man," and Anson's career was still steadily progressing.

Of course, Edgar's sincerity was the core of this negotiation, and even Steven personally called Anson, subtly expressing his gratitude.

While Edgar was busy negotiating, by the time the media learned of the news, things had already been basically settled, and the heated discussions never stopped—

Pre-promotion.

Free traffic could immediately help, and even without DreamWorks' intervention, "Catch Me If You Can" had already ushered in its first wave of exposure in the media.

Meanwhile, Anson was at home studying the script.

Starting with reading Frank Abagnale Jr.'s autobiography.

Overall, Anson still lacked acting experience and needed to carefully study each role, trying to construct the character from a global perspective and explore acting methods; and this time it was an autobiography, which was even more special.

The meaning of autobiography is that it actually exists.

Perhaps Frank Abagnale Jr.'s autobiography had the suspicion of glorifying himself, but it was an undeniable fact that this was a real person and those stories all actually happened.

Generally speaking, film adaptations of autobiographies or real people often face a severe challenge:

How to find a suitable balance between real people and artistic creation.

If the real people are still alive, they may even directly interfere with the filming of the movie, and in serious cases, they may even go to court and file lawsuits.

"The Social Network" was like that.

After the internal screening, Mark Zuckerberg said that the movie smeared him and distorted the facts, and he would take the crew to court.

The sensational news once topped major media outlets.

But "Catch Me If You Can" was very special and didn't encounter such a situation at all.

Frank Abagnale Jr. was still alive, living a stable and low-key life in a secluded paradise, refusing to have any relationship with the movie—

He didn't raise any objections and also refused to provide any help.

Anson wanted to sit down and talk face-to-face with Frank Abagnale Jr., personally see the prototype of the story, and discuss those stories face-to-face; but he was rejected.

Not only Anson, but Frank Abagnale Jr. also refused to meet with anyone from the crew, including the screenwriters, producers, and naturally Steven as well.

Frank Abagnale Jr. didn't want to have any intersection with the film crew.

Other real people who appeared in the autobiography, even if they were still alive, also refused the crew's interview requests and didn't make any demands.

This was very rare and very strange.

From a negative perspective, they didn't provide help; but from a positive perspective, they allowed the crew to create freely, even if they let their imaginations run wild.

It was precisely because of this that after in-depth discussions with Anson, Steven said that he hoped to change the part of the autobiography that focused on crime—

Those crimes were so bizarre that they were jaw-dropping, and using them to create topics could ensure traffic.

Steven still hoped to start from the topic of family, injecting a clear and complete character arc into the character of Frank Abagnale Jr.

In the previous life, when I first watched "Catch Me If You Can," I didn't understand this creative motivation.

I was more amazed by Leonardo's peak appearance.

This movie made better use of Leonardo's appearance advantages than "Titanic."

It wasn't until twenty years later, when watching Steven's autobiographical "The Fabelmans" again, that I truly understood that Steven's own parents divorced, he had to move with his father, and his sisters lived with his mother.

This experience deeply influenced Steven's creative thinking.

And in "Catch Me If You Can," Steven projected his own childhood onto Frank Abagnale Jr.

Looking back from twenty years later, no one would have thought that the dazzling and colorful popcorn blockbuster "Catch Me If You Can" was actually one of Steven's most personal and invested works.

Anson thought, maybe it was the same for him.