Made in Hollywood

Throughout July, Duke was on vacation, and for most of August, he didn't think about work matters. Since the beginning of the new century, he has basically released a new movie every year, and except for "Taken", the rest All are commercial masterpieces with a production cost of more than 100 million US dollars.

Although making movies is Duke's greatest interest, and when his interests coincide with his work, it is not so boring and boring, but after a few years, he still feels tired.

This exhaustion does not come from the body, but from the mental level.

The director is the coordinator of a film, and there are too many aspects to take into account. From pre-production to post-production, it is almost impossible to leave the crew. The mental pressure brought about by this long-term process can be imagined.

Stress isn't something that doesn't exist if you think it doesn't exist.

In the initial stage, Duke used the usual way of people in this circle to vent and relieve stress. Women, especially beautiful and sexy women, are undoubtedly an excellent channel to vent stress.

It’s just that in recent years, he has bid farewell to the original way of life, and with the growth of experience, he is also used to working under pressure. Even if there is some pressure, he can adjust his state in time by taking vacations or going out to sea. .

Therefore, when Duke felt a little mentally exhausted, he immediately gave himself this long vacation.

However, taking a long vacation does not mean completely detaching yourself from work.

He successively finalized the key acquisition projects of his film fund in Los Angeles and went to London to solve the troubles encountered by the Harry Potter crew.

The latter was resolved before he returned to Los Angeles, and the former after he attended Spielberg's charity party.

Today's economic situation is so bad that big Wall Street companies with a long history like Lehman Brothers have to go bankrupt, and the situation of small funds like Relativity and Dune Capital is not much better. What they need most is undoubtedly a large amount of cash. to stabilize investor sentiment.

It’s just that all of Hollywood is facing a money shortage, and almost all film companies are shrinking their money. Companies like Paramount and DreamWorks still need to ask for help everywhere. Relativity and Dune Capital can find very few takers.

The four projects that David Ellison's Sky Studios took over have given the two companies a bit of a sigh of relief. But it is not enough to solve the problem. In the past few years, they have thrown too much investment in Hollywood, and there is no other director in Hollywood who can make films at such a fast speed like Duke. , Few of the films they invested in can be released.

As we all know, the film industry is not a short-term profitable project. Under normal circumstances, a large-scale production with an investment of about 100 million US dollars will require 2 to 3 years or even longer production time...

Even a film like "The Shawshank Redemption" has been released for more than ten years, and it has just recovered its investment cost.

certainly. This is the type of film Duke wouldn't even touch.

What he wants to win are films that can remember the general situation. The investment shares of Theory of Relativity and Dune Capital will definitely generate a lot of profits.

What's more. Relativity and Dune Capital did not sell this part of the shares at the original investment price, but transferred them at a discount.

Duke's bid here is only 30% of their original investment. The theory of relativity and Dune Capital insisted on the bottom line of 50%, and the price can be said to be the biggest difference between the two parties.

However, in early August, when the two companies received a subpoena from the court and a cooperation investigation letter from the FBI. Finally let go.

The two sides also reached an agreement during the negotiation. Duke's film fund acquired Relativity and Dune Capital's "Avatar" and "X-Men: First Class" of 20th Century Fox at 40% of the investment price, DreamWorks Animation Studio "How to Tame Your Dragon" from "The Flintstones," Walt Disney's "Alice in Wonderland," and "Pirates of the Caribbean 4."

Although all the money had to be paid in one lump sum, Duke had already made preparations, and within three days of Tina Fey signing the formal agreement on his behalf, the payment could arrive in the account.

Compared with the four super-big projects that David Ellison bought, these are what Duke really wants to get.

As for the four projects of "Creation War", "Robin Hood", "Alien Battlefield" and "Super Battleship", there may be miracles...

"I got a message recently."

On the terrace connected to the living room, Nancy Josephson just rushed over, took a sip from the water glass, and said, "Walt Disney intends to invite Andrew Stanton to direct "Alien Battlefield."

Tina Fey frowned, "Michael Eisner is planning to poach someone?"

"He may not be able to dig the corner of the Pixar studio." Duke withdrew his eyes from the sea, shook his head, and said, "Andrew Stanton is not stupid, he should know that it is impossible for Disney to give him the corner of the Pixar studio." Creative freedom."

Nancy Josephson put down the water glass and reminded, "I got the news that Andrew Stanton is very excited and is also considering the feasibility of directing."

"It's okay." Duke didn't care much.

Presumably Steve Jobs is more concerned about this kind of problem than he is, and it is no secret that Pixar's Five Tigers will want to develop live-action movies. Brad Bird has already confirmed that he will direct Tom Cruise and his Investment in "Mission: Impossible 4", even if Andrew Stanton signed a director contract with Disney, it does not mean that he wants to leave Pixar studio.

Indeed, in this commercial society, as long as a sufficient price is paid, many people can always be poached, but the question is, will Michael Eisner pay an unimaginable price for an Andrew Stanton?

Movies have never been the product of individual heroism. Pixar Studios can have today's success, John Last, Brad Bird, Peter Docter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Ann Quake The famous Fab Five played an important role, but Duke has never lost sight of the hundreds of technicians and production staff who are the foundation of Pixar's success.

Pixar Studios can be said to be a typical example of team success, but it is impossible to replicate Pixar's success or let Pixar Studios never recover from a fall just by poaching a few important people.

After talking a few words about Pixar Studio, the topic gradually turned to Scarlett Johansson.

"Scarlett is still very satisfied with the $8 million salary."

There are some things that Scarlett can’t say directly to Duke, but Nancy doesn’t need to hide it, “I just visited New Mexico a few days ago. Although she has some opinions, Duke, Scarlett is still grateful for what you have done for her.” do everything."

Duke smiled, but didn't say much. He just made a phone call back then.

The $8 million salary is indeed a bit high for Scarlett Johansson today, but "Iron Man 2" is already the third Marvel film she has participated in, and it is Hollywood to bid high prices for sequel films practice.

Moreover, under Duke's intervention, Natasha Normanov's role is more important than before, and the role is also greater. It may not take long for Marvel Pictures to make compromises in terms of box office and peripheral revenue.

Anyone who is familiar with the former Marvel series can see that as the series progresses, the role of the Black Widow continues to increase. Scarlett Johansson even got 20 million from "Avengers 2: Age of Ultron" Dollar post-split.

This is also the second income of the six core members of the Avengers after Robert Downey Jr.

Although Duke at the time did not know what kind of remuneration agreement was reached between Marvel Studios and the core actors of the Avengers, in his opinion, Scarlett Johansson was definitely worthy of the 20 million US dollars in the later stage.

The reason for saying this is nothing more than two main reasons.

First of all, in the superhero universe created by Marvel, which is mainly composed of white men, there is indeed a lack of female characters. Black Widow can be said to be the only female superhero reloaded in the Marvel universe, which makes her extremely valuable. High and irreplaceable in the short term.

Even in this case, as a member of the Avengers, her value is far greater than the female superhero movies that may exist alone. Purely from the perspective of movie fans or the media, replacing the Black Widow will inevitably be popular among movie fans. And caused an uproar in the media, just like Duke treated the Harry Potter crew, this can only be the last option.

On the other hand, Scarlett's ability to become an actor second only to Robert Downey Jr. in terms of salary has something to do with her performance in other films. Sherlock Holmes is still a blockbuster series, while Scarlett's "Lucy" has earned nearly 500 million US dollars from the world. This is the capital.

On the other hand, Jeremy Renner, Chris Evans and others, after leaving the Marvel series, have never been able to really stir up the box office of a movie.

The former was nominated for an Oscar for best actor, but everyone knows that Oscar and market appeal are basically two different things. The commercial masterpiece "Bourne Shadow 4" he actually starred in ended in failure, and "Mission: Impossible 4" he starred in was not a main character……

The same is true for the latter. The really famous film that left Marvel is "Snowpiercer", but no matter how much public opinion praises this film, it is an indisputable fact that it hit the street in the end.

As for Chris Hemsworth and Mark Farrug, how many people know what movies they have starred in besides the Marvel series?

Such things as market appeal are scoffed at by the critics, and it seems to be very vulgar to mention it, but it is the truest embodiment of an actor's status in Hollywood and a crew.

Even if you win an Oscar, if you haven't proven yourself in the market, don't even think about entering the 20 million club with your next film.

Hollywood has always been realistic. (to be continued ~^~)

PS:  Ask for monthly and recommendation tickets!