Made in Hollywood

After the previous four films have achieved good results, the entire Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios are full of confidence. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to describe it as "no series of movies is as ambitious as Marvel." They used Easter eggs remind the audience in every movie that these superheroes live in the same universe, how vast and wonderful will the picture of this universe be?

Something called Marvel Dafa is indeed taking shape.

At the end of May, Duke took all the Avengers to the premiere of "Thor". Such a film adapted from Marvel's second-line heroes has also attracted the attention of countless fans, especially "The Avengers" The establishment of the project made this film even more eye-catching, and it also fully demonstrated the Marvel Dafa.

In the first three days, Thor, who was not very eye-catching and popular in Marvel comics, took away a box office of 78.09 million US dollars from North America. fans.

Perhaps Thor himself seems a little boring, but the villain Loki's personal charm is amazing. With the release of the film, Tom Hiddleston also became popular in an instant, which made people appreciate Loki's performance in "The Avengers" Looking forward to more.

With the help of the hype caused by the crazy publicity of "The Avengers", "Thor" earned 150 million US dollars from North America in just ten days, and the global box office also exceeded 250 million US dollars. succeeded.

It can be said that such a film without any star actors has achieved such brilliant results in a short period of time, which can be said to be a miracle in Hollywood.

But for Marvel films, this has become the norm.

The previous series of movies were basically produced around the director, actors, screenwriters and other main creative teams, such as the first three "Superman". The director is Richard Donnaga Richard Lester, and the screenwriters are mainly David Newman and Mario Puzo, especially the audience can't imagine that other actors can replace Christopher River to play Superman—— So when River had an accident, no one made a Superman movie for years.

Now in Marvel superhero movies, the irreplaceability of leading actors has been greatly reduced, as it was in the past few years. Tobey Maguire, who starred in "Spider-Man", felt that his social status had greatly increased, and asked the film studio to increase the film salary to 20 million US dollars. It is said that changing actors is a matter of minutes, but Tobey Maguire had to keep quiet about it.

While Captain America Chris Evans signed a 6-film deal with Marvel, Winter Soldier Sebastian Stan signed a 9-film deal. But they can all be replaced - like "X-Men: First Class", all the actors are changed, and the interpretation of the past life relationship between Professor X and Magneto is a possible means.

While replacing the main cast is an option of last resort, the uniqueness of the cast has been reduced to the point of indecipherability in the MCU, and fans often have a hard time remembering which superhero movie stars who. What they remember is how this movie relates to the previous ones, how the relationships between the heroes have changed.

Especially in Duke's proposed idea of ​​​​focusing on the presentation of the world view, actors will no longer be the soul of superhero movies, but have become only external skins. After the irreplaceability of actors is reduced, the development of superhero movies is no longer limited by the withdrawal of actors. And it can develop more freely with the needs of the market, and the story can grow freely.

Throughout the series, as long as any character is popular, it may be extended into a new universe. Even if he was only a second-tier or even third-tier character.

Of course, the success of "Thor" is not only due to Marvel Dafa, but also due to the film's excellent digital special effects.

Today's rapid development of digital special effects is undoubtedly one of the guarantees for Duke and Marvel Comics to realize Marvel's grand plan.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the special effects of movie props became the wings of sci-fi movies to take off. After entering the 21st century, computer digital imaging technology took over the production of special effects.

The current 3D, IMAX, Dolby Atmos, high frame rate, motion expression capture and other technologies can better bring out the unrestrained imagination in comics, which makes Marvel Comics finally ushered in A digital technology that can turn two-dimensional paintings into live-action movies and let imaginations jump on the big screen.

Driven by producers such as Duke and various technical and commercial interests, superhero movies have become the most perfect model of digital technology. Different styles of screen spectacle are staged in turn, as if leading the audience on a roller coaster, from a climax Fly to another orgasm.

Do audiences get bored of superheroes? The answer is yes, just as they were fed up with cowboys, pop stars, robots and aliens.

In the long-term planning of Duke and Marvel Pictures, there are even preliminary plans for movies ten years later. Will the new generation in the future be extremely sought after by the superhero universe? Does the pursuit of worldview deviate from the narrative? Art, going further and further?

Duke doesn't know about this kind of thing, and only the future can give the answer.

As a contemporary myth, as long as there are interests, the stories of superheroes will continue to be told until the whole society and culture are changing. Duke knows very well that it is commercial interests that shape superheroes, and society needs to endow them with godhood. .

Whether Superman, Batman, Iron Man, or Spiderman, they are all projections of the real world in another parallel universe.

The emergence of this "Avengers" also means that the Marvel Universe series of movies has entered the second stage. In this stage of superhero movies, it is no longer a single hero showing himself on the screen. The entire series of Marvel movies interact with each other. Intertwined to form a near-real social picture, allowing the superheroes to live, fight together, fight against or assist each other.

Even Duke's layout of the entire Marvel movie is very clear. For example, in terms of style, the "Thor" series focuses on gorgeous fantasy style; It may continue to take the realistic route; the "Guardians of the Galaxy" that has been put on the agenda will take the funny comedy style that superhero movies have hardly played before...

In the future, the world of superheroes will become larger and more real, and it may also be darker and more chaotic.

By July, when the preparations for "The Avengers" were in full swing, the North American box office of "Thor" was close to 230 million U.S. dollars, and the global box office exceeded 450 million U.S. dollars.

The new San Diego Comic Con also kicked off in San Diego. As an important promotional position in Hollywood, Marvel Studios will certainly not miss this grand event.

On the opening day of the San Diego Comic Con, Duke led all the main actors of Marvel to appear in the Marvel Comics booth.

The media that reported on the spot directly used ""The Avengers" all-star appearance at the animation festival, a gathering of superheroes" to describe this promotional activity.

At the Marvel comics exhibition that day, in the face of nearly 10,000 comics lovers and movie fans present, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Samuel Jackson took the stage to introduce the super cast of "The Avengers" that is planned to meet the audience in 2012 ——"Agent Coulson" Clark Gregg, "Black Widow" Scarlett Johansson, "Thor" Chris Hemsworth, "Captain America" ​​Chris Evans, "Iron Man" Robert Downey Jr., "Hawkeye" Jeremy Renner and "Hulk" Mark Ruffalo.

At the same time, Marvel also announced the first batch of posters of the film at the Comic Con, and the new looks of the six Avengers were also exposed for the first time.

"Thor held his hammer, Captain America had his shield, Hawkeye was equipped with a bow and arrows, and Iron Man was hovering above us while we were posing for a makeup photo. , and the size of the 'Hulk' is enough to kill instantly,"

During the interview, Scarlett seemed a little annoyed, "I'm the only one holding two small pistols, but the stylist immediately comforted me, 'This gun is a perfect match for you! It's like a killing machine that doesn't blink!"

Compared with the concentration of these actors, Duke was distracted by other aspects of work besides preparing for "The Avengers".

This month, he also attended the premiere of "Transformers 3". Since Michael Bay took over, this series has come to the third one. Although the reputation of the film is not as strong as the first one, the commercial performance is still sufficient Brilliantly, the second part earned more than 350 million US dollars from North America, and more than 1 billion US dollars from the global box office.

With this series, Michael Bay himself completely got rid of the past decline and once again returned to the ranks of Hollywood's first-line commercial directors.

This series has always cooperated closely with the Chinese side, and the box office in the Chinese market has repeatedly hit new highs. In the third part, the advertising and commercial sponsorship income from China alone exceeded 30 million US dollars.

The commercial momentum of "Transformers 3" has not diminished. In North America, it earned more than 130 million US dollars in the first week. It was released in nearly 100 markets around the world at the same time, and it even earned more than 400 million US dollars.

The former machine life has become a global popular culture.

For "Transformers", Duke is assured enough that this is a completely commercialized series. Michael Bay can be said to be a very suitable director candidate. Just engage in philosophical reflection and thinking about the meaning of existence, and this series will just rot.

In addition to paying attention to "Transformers", Duke put more energy on "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". This film has already been released from North America. He and Warner need to use many methods to prevent Some people take too much of their profits. (to be continued ~^~)

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