Made in Hollywood

It is not easy to save the Batman movie. The bad experience Joe Schumacher brought to "Batman and Robin" is still in the hearts of many audiences, which will inevitably affect their confidence in the series, thus When the new Batman movie comes out, choose to wait or even give up.

It takes a lot of people to do a lot to make a franchise successful, but to ruin a successful franchise, it's enough to make a bad movie.

If Joe Schumacher's "Batman Forever" is still a successful commercial work, starting from "Batman and Robin", including "Sniper Phone Booth", his subsequent works have performed extremely poorly in the market.

Strictly speaking, at the beginning of the new series, in addition to explaining the origin of Batman, Duke's most important thing is to clean up the mess left by Joe Schumacher.

Duke was driving a battery car and was walking down the road of the Warners Studios. When he passed the exit at the back of the Warners Building, he stepped on the brakes. After waiting for about five minutes, the sound of dense high-heeled shoes rang out, and Tina Fey walked out of the building. He came out, got on the battery car, and leaned heavily on the seat.

Starting the car, Duke drove towards the studio and asked, "How's the talk going?"

Tina Fey took a bottle of mineral water, twisted it open, took a sip, and then said, "Warner agrees with your budget of $140 million, and Nancy also negotiated your personal treatment, $15 million. The basic salary plus the 20% capped box office share, and the 7.5% peripheral revenue share."

This is already the top director contract in Hollywood. Duke has no objection and asks the other side, "What about acquisition negotiations?"

"Warner Bros. disagrees with us on price. Doug Walter agrees to our terms in principle, but..." Tina Fey shrugged. "Time Warner Group has concerns about our additional terms regarding Pixar Studios."

"Then let's talk about it." Duke was not in a hurry at all.

"Warners also asked about the release date of the new Batman," Tina Fey added. "They want to know when you're going to finish it."

Duke thought for a moment, "If all goes well, we should be able to catch up with next year's summer vacation."

The battery car drove through a flat open-air studio, stopped in front of Studio Seventeen, and Duke jumped out of the car. Entered the studio with Tina Fey and walked towards the temporary office area on the left.

This is the resident of "Underworld". The film was officially approved last weekend. There are many people coming and going in the studio, obviously it is the sign manpower and the selection of actors.

"Hello, Director Rosenberg."

Suddenly, a tall and slender woman approached and greeted Duke. Duke nodded to her. "Hello, Miss Beckinsale."

Duke just said hello and didn't mean to say more, after the cooperation at the end of the century. The two have long since become strangers.

In the report submitted by Wallace Lee, Kate Beckinsale was the first choice for the female lead.

The British actress has experienced quite a bit of anxiety in recent years, which can be described as ups and downs. She played the heroine of the two super masterpieces "Pearl Harbor" and "Van Helsing" released at the end of last year, but the response was mediocre. Even dragged down by the film, the place in the eyes of Michael Ovitz plummeted.

She had fired Nancy Josephson, but in the first few months, chose to return to ICM.

In such an important role as the heroine. Director Wallace Lee did not have a say. He proposed Kate Beckinsale. Duke thought of the former female vampire and did not object.

Duke went directly to the director's office, which was empty. Wallace Lee was participating in the audition and didn't come back after half an hour.

"Hi, Duke. Hi, Tina."

After his greeting, Duke asked directly, "How's the work going?"

"It's going well." Wallace Lee said very seriously, "With the full support of you and Warner, the recruits are basically experienced people, especially the firearms and action directors, from Joss Williams and The members of Jimmy Carter's team, who can help me solve many difficulties, will undertake the work of training the actors after the actors are confirmed."

Having said that, he asked with concern, "Duke, do you think Kate Beckinsale is okay?"

Duke didn't answer immediately, but looked at him.

Wallace Lee scratched his head and said, "I have a good impression of her, but I promise, I didn't do anything out of bounds with her..."

Raising his hand, Duke interrupted, "Lee, you know my principles, Kate Beckinsale can be the heroine of the movie. But if you screw up this movie, I'll send you into the San Fernando Valley to direct a movie."

"I promise!" Wallace Lee said very seriously, "Duke, I know the importance of opportunities, and I will never joke about work."

Duke nodded, asked a few more questions about the specific progress of the film's preparations, and quickly left.

But he did not leave the Warners Studios, and walked to the depths of the studio with Tina Fey. Another crew related to him was set up earlier and has already started actor training.

The two did not enter the studio, but went directly to the fitness room specially set up nearby. Sure enough, Zach Schneider was here.

Of course, what is more attractive here than Zach Schneider is the nearly forty burly men who are sweating profusely. Under the guidance of professional trainers, they are exercising their muscles. The leader, Gerald Butler, has a protruding body. muscles that look as hard as a rock.

He saw Duke come in and smiled, Duke waved him in response.

"I had Michael Fassbender on Bruce Wayne's shortlist."

Walking to Zack Snyder, Duke looked at a Germanic face among the actors and said, "I didn't expect you to be pulled here."

"That means I'm more attractive than you." Zach Snyder laughed.

In fact, Michael Fassbender's mentality is not difficult to understand. Compared with the supporting actor in this film, his hope of competing with Bruce Wayne is too slim.

And in Duke's heart, he is just a spare tire, and a spare tire that is very far behind.

"The natural form of human muscles cannot be given by CG animation."

Looking at the actors in training, Zach Snyder's topic turned to the movie, "their muscles must meet the requirements of the movie, otherwise they will only be eliminated."

Duke nodded. Muscles were one of the film's selling points.

Especially for female audiences, the muscles of the red pants soldiers will play an important role in attracting them into the theater.

This is North America, and handsome men have never been popular. Even a vase like Orlando Bloom has a strong body.

As for handsome men, in North America, it is synonymous with sissy and comrade.

Hollywood stars, unless there is something wrong with their heads, will make themselves into a handsome man.

In fact, if you look at the first- and second-tier actors in Hollywood, it is not difficult to find that they will be decadent, funny, exaggerated and even arrogant, but they will not turn themselves into a sissy.

"Duke, I'm not going to be on location," Zach Snyder continued. "I'm going to shoot entirely on green screen..."

Unlike Wallace Lee, Duke has worked with Zach Snyder for more than ten years, and he knows his abilities and style very well. play."

No director wants his film to fail.

The former Zack Snyder did a very good job, and now this enhanced version of Zack Snyder has fully communicated with him before. Not much difference either.

Although Duke has the title of producer for these two films, he is more assured of Zach Snyder, even if the investment of "Three Hundred Spartans" is 75 million US dollars, while "Underworld" is only 30 million Dollar.

Of course, compared to the "Batman" that Duke will prepare next, these two films can only be regarded as small and medium-sized productions.

With the funds allocated by Warner Bros. in succession, the new "Batman" series has reached the stage where the project is about to be officially announced. The members of the Duke team have also rushed back to Los Angeles from resorts all over the world. Hannah? Serena, John Schwartzman, Charles Rowan and Anna Prinz were quickly in place, and Josh Williams, who had been out of him for a while, officially returned.

"Essentially, the new Batman trilogy is still in the realm of science fiction."

At the preparatory meeting after convening the team members, Duke said, "But it is obviously different from the traditional Batman, I want to give him a more realistic style, the script, the characters, the props and the action fight, all need to be It fits that style.”

There is no need for him to say the dark style of the film. Except for the nondescript made by Joe Schumacher, several Batman movies are basically dark.

"In my film, Bruce Wayne is no longer a god, he is just a man." Duke continued to emphasize, "He has sex, sadness, feelings, and he can get lost, and after he gets lost, he needs to find it again. back to myself."

"Batman movies need redemption, and Bruce Wayne himself needs redemption!"

Ignoring other factors of the film's success, it is undoubtedly one of the reasons for the film's popularity that Bruce Wayne has been removed from the altar.

The protagonists of DC comics are often a bit high-level. Such heroes are too detached from the public and have no ordinary person's character at all. The failure of the Superman reboot is the best example.

In contrast, DC's more brilliant villains, such as the Joker and Two-Face, and so on.

The reboot of the Batman franchise is a big deal for Warner Bros., and Warner Bros. will of course prepare a big press conference. (To be continued ~^~)