Hollywood Road

On the second day after the engagement party, Murphy cooperated with Twentieth Century Fox to participate in some promotional activities about "Diego Ross". The Globe negotiated the licensing matters, and good news came the next day. The Boston Globe basically agreed to authorize the film and television adaptation rights of that report to Stanton Studios. The rest is the price and the rights and interests between the two parties. thing.

After the start of a new week, the rating of "Diego Ross" passed smoothly. The MPAA rated the film as R without any suspense. Twentieth Century Fox also stepped up its efforts to promote the film.

However, given the total investment of the film, 20th Century Fox's promotional scale is not large, and it mainly focuses on print media and Internet promotion.

Then there are Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Margot Robbie and others, who are constantly posting some materials related to the film on their official social networking sites in a planned way to attract the attention of their respective fans.

Before the end of the month, Gal Gadot settled the negotiations with the "Boston Globe", obtained the other party's authorization, and then returned to Los Angeles to start formal contact with Netflix.

Just like Murphy's previous investigation and research, Netflix is ​​eager to break free from the entanglement of its competitors, and its desire to produce exclusive content is extremely strong. On behalf of Stanton Studios, Gal Gadot and Netflix The contact with the "Boston Globe" was smoother than the negotiation with the "Boston Globe".

Even after only two days of talking, Shuangfa decided to cooperate as soon as possible on a series adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Dobbs, with each investing 50% and enjoying the same proportion of copyright and revenue sharing as the investment in the first two seasons , The sharing will not exclude any expenses incurred by Netflix in publicity and distribution.

It can be said that this kind of sharing agreement is equivalent to handing over the films produced by Stanton Studios to 20th Century Fox for distribution, and 20th Century Fox will make publicity and distribution for the films without charging or deducting any form of publicity and distribution fees.

There is no doubt that Netflix has shown great sincerity in order to attract Murphy to cooperate.

The negotiations cannot be completed immediately, but they are already on the right track. Gal Gadot is in charge of negotiating with Netflix on behalf of Stanton Studios. put on the agenda.

At the same time, Murphy asked Stanton Studios to publish a recruitment notice, preparing to recruit a team of experienced political drama screenwriters.

The script of a TV series is more troublesome and important than a movie. After he determines the outline of the story, he will still hand it over to an assembly line team with a clear division of labor to write the specific plot content.

But like the movie, the novel is just the foundation, and Murphy won't let the series follow the novel.

Movies and TV series are not literature, and the two must draw a clear line. Before the novel is adapted, it is literature, but once it appears in the form of scripts and videos, its literary characteristics will be washed away, and it will become a new art form. .

In addition, images have more impact than text, and the production of images must take into account the current social and political environment more than novels.

For example, "Lolita" caused an uproar when it was released in the United States. In order to let the film pass the review, even a large-scale director like Stanley Kubrick had to change Lolita's age from 12 to 14. At the same time, some over-scaled content was deleted in the plot, and the proportion of moral criticism and criminal plot in the film was intentionally increased.

Of course, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of the novel is not all to satisfy the original film, but from the perspective of film creation, strictly control the content, delete or increase the content for the sake of artistic expression, and choose his own Only by shooting from a unique angle can this adapted film with a very personal style be born.

The adaptation of novels to film and television works does not focus on faithfully reproducing the original works. Adaptation is not a simple conversion from one work to another.

But to create another new work with its own depth, its own vitality, its own autonomy.

I think Stanley Kubrick made necessary changes for the film back then, and now Murphy will also make certain changes according to the actual social situation. All the characters are darker, sinister and despicable than in the novel.

According to Hollywood's traditional protagonists, the main characters in this series are all outright villains, and they don't even have any merits.

Sitting in the study, Murphy made up his mind and picked up Michael Dobbs' novel again. The most conspicuous thing on the cover of the novel is undoubtedly.

"ds" is a fixed expression in English. It is literally translated as "a house of cards" in the way of the other side of the Pacific Ocean. It is extended to "unreliable plan", and it can also be interpreted as "dangerous egg".

Of course, according to what Murphy once called, "House of Cards" would be more appropriate.

The name of this political novel directly reflects the actual content. The "house" in "House of Cards" refers to the House of Representatives, and the "cards" refer to the chips used to play cards. It can be guessed that the hero is playing the game of power on the complicated and treacherous political table.

"Are you sure there is no problem with such a protagonist?" Gal Gadot walked over and picked up the novel on the table, "What he did is disgusting, will the audience further hate the whole thing just because they hate the protagonist? A play?"

Murphy has already confirmed the names of several main characters and some character designs. She also read it, but she didn't have a good impression.

"No." Murphy seemed very confident, "Frank Underwood is no worse than the protagonist of "Gone Girl", especially the heroine, think about it, my dear, after this movie, Charlize Se How many fans did Long win?"

He thought for a while and said, "Times have changed. Noir movies will become popular, and so will dark dramas. The current audience has long been tired of watching protagonists who are like good guys. Some bad and distinctive characters will also be affected. sought after by people."

Gal Gadot returned to his desk, sat down and opened the novel, quite helpless. The protagonists in Murphy's works are not good people in the traditional sense of Hollywood. Even Superman Clark Kent is endowed by him. the dark side.

Murphy dug out a bunch of documents from the cabinet, and said, "A good guy and a bad guy are contrasted. The hero Frank Underwood is no worse than any character, he just dared to admit that he is a bad guy."

"Just like you?" Gal Gadot couldn't help but say.

"Honey..." Murphy showed an innocent face, "Do you think I'm a bad person?"

Gal Gadot said unceremoniously, "It's not a good person anyway."

"Hey..." Murphy sighed, "I hated bad guys when I was young."

"So you're going to become a bad guy?" Gal Gadot opened the book without looking at Murphy, "Is that so?"

Murphy didn't answer her, but instead asked, "Honey, do you know what the scariest thing is?"

Gal Gadot raised his head and looked at Murphy in surprise, "Do you still think something scary?"

"Of course, everyone has it." Murphy rummaged through the information he needed, and said, "The scariest thing in life is that when you grow up, you gradually become the person you hated when you were a child."

"Okay, you are busy."

There is no need to negotiate today, and Gal Gadot is also going to take a rest after reading this novel that Netflix has taken a fancy to.

Murphy nodded, and stopped talking, and focused on looking through the materials. What he just produced were some basic explanations about American politics and the system. The novel "House of Cards" has been written for a long time, and it was previously published by the BBC. I have filmed a mini-series, and if many things were copied from the novel, it would be a joke.

The new series must conform to the current political environment in the United States. This is the most basic point. Although Murphy has watched the series, it is just that. If you don’t even understand the most basic political system in the United States, you just want to Write a good synopsis of the story...

He's not that stupid.

Therefore, before writing, Murphy asked CAA to send a lot of relevant materials, which are the basis for the adaptation.

The political environments in the East and the West are very different, and he doesn't even know much about the system on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, let alone the United States.

For example, Frank Underwood's position as a party whip, Murphy was at a loss before, and it is easy to understand after reading the relevant information. It is equivalent to the discipline inspection committee that safeguards the interests of the party.

Frank Underwood is the whip set by the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, which means that his power is second only to the speaker and the majority leader, and he is a veritable big man.

After reading more information, Murphy learned more that the word "party whip" comes from English. Ethee is a role to manage the hunting dogs when hunting foxes in England. The main job is to persuade party members to vote according to party rules.

Also, understanding the political stance of the Democratic Party is also a must.

Of course, Murphy will also borrow some plots from many novels. After all, Michael Dobbs, the author of the original novel of "House of Cards", was once the vice chairman of the British Conservative Party. Writing such a political struggle plot is reasonable and very real.

Any screenwriter in Hollywood knows that if they want to write about political themes, if they don't even understand the most basic system, they will show their timidity everywhere.

Therefore, Murphy has not started to write the story and script outline for a long time, and is still in the preparation stage of reading relevant materials.

At the same time, he also sets the tone for more of the show.

For example, we should not allow the series to fall into the choice of "left or right", or indulge in the satire of politicians, but to boldly express politicians' transactions in an almost straightforward way, and blatantly talk about political skills, which may be true. The American political picture in the movie will not be so condensed, but the details in the play should make the audience seem to be able to see the shadow of reality when watching.

This shadow does not necessarily need to be completely real. .

a