Millennium director

"The Martian, World War Z, and The Hunger Games, the company will be very busy next."

"Daniel, do you have any suitable director recommendations?"

"What about Todd Phillips directing World War Z?"

"We had a great time working with him."

John chatted with Wu Yuan with great interest about the selection of directors for these films.

Different from low-cost movies like "The Twilight Saga", both "World War Z" and "The Hunger Games" are considered large-scale movies, and the production costs are not low, but they cannot be like "The Twilight Saga" Then find some small directors to shoot it.

The first thing John thought of was Todd Phillips, who worked very well with Light and Shadow. He was the director of the "Hangover" series, and was later assigned to direct a sequel to "Night at the Museum."

Last year, he wrote and directed the comedy film "Due Date," which was also funded by Light Times. The film co-starred Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis and won the 13th Teen Choice Award for Best Comedy film nomination.

The company's "Never End" movie project, also directed by Todd Phillips, grossed US$120 million in North America and nearly US$200 million worldwide after its release.

Now Todd Phillips can barely try his hand at a blockbuster film costing more than 100 million US dollars. If he can show his quality, he will also be the number one figure in Hollywood in the future.

"Todd Phillips? He can't." However, Wu Yuan simply rejected John's suggestion.

"World War Z is hiring Marc Forster to direct."

"The Hunger Games approached Francis Lawrence and signed a contract with him for three films at once."

Marc Forster is the director of "007: Quantum of Solace". When the film was released in the UK, it broke the British film opening day box office record and also broke the record held by "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" box office record of £14.9m.

When it was released in the mainland, the box office in the first week exceeded 66 million yuan, and the box office in North America reached 70.4 million US dollars in the first week, all of which broke the previous best box office results of the "007" series.

The most important thing is that "007" is an action movie, and a major feature of the movie "World War Z" is that the zombies in the movie are very different from the zombies in American horror culture.

Zombies in American horror culture, or zombies, generally move slowly and have stiff bodies.

But the zombies in "World War Z" move crisply and neatly, and run very fast. The animation of zombie ants attacking a city once became popular on the mainland Internet.

It's just right to find a director who can make action movies to shoot "World War Z".

As for Francis Lawrence, he is the director of "Hell Detective" and "I Am Legend" and has achieved excellent box office results.

Speaking of which, Francis Lawrence is also a director with a very protagonist aura.

"Hell Detective" is his film debut. Before making this film, he was just a music video director.

Then he got the opportunity to direct a blockbuster with an investment of US$100 million. In the end, "Hell Detective" earned a global box office of US$230 million. Although the box office results were only average, the film itself was still very interesting, and it also made Francis Lawrence was favored by the industry and was given the opportunity to direct "I Am Legend".

Then "I Am Legend" had a global box office of US$585 million.

The global box office of US$500 million is a watershed. Anyone who can achieve this result can be regarded as a first-line director in Hollywood.

And this is only Francis Lawrence's second film.

For such a director who is full of the aura of the protagonist, Wu Yuan also wants to cooperate with him.

Of course, the most important reason is that these two directors are the directors of "World War Z" and the original versions of "The Hunger Games 2 and 3" respectively.

Wu Yuan's main attitude towards the next few films produced by Light Times is to seek stability.

If you can find original actors, try to find original actors to produce it, and strive to achieve box office results that are similar to or even better than those of the original time and space.

He couldn't afford the loss of these movies at the box office.

He still hopes to make a big fortune in Hollywood with these movies, and then withdraw the funds to the mainland market.

If a random change of team leads to a failure at the box office, then there will be no place for him to cry.

"Mark Forster and Francis Lawrence?" John frowned, recalled the resumes of these two directors, nodded and said, "I understand, I will talk to them."

Neither of these two directors have any film projects on hand right now, so it should be easier for them to be invited.

Unlike China, where most directors write and direct, the division of labor in the entertainment industry in Hollywood is more detailed. Screenwriters are screenwriters, directors are directors, and there are not many directors who can write and direct.

It's not that directors in Hollywood generally don't have screenwriting abilities, but that screenwriters here are more professional and large-scale. Every year, the six major script libraries have hundreds of new scripts for all major directors to choose from. There is no need for them to bother thinking about the script themselves, and they may not necessarily think that it can be done well by a professional screenwriter.

In this regard, China is far behind. There is no truly functional screenwriters union in China, screenwriters are generally not taken seriously, and their living environment is very poor.

It’s funny to say that in a movie, the screenwriter and director should be the most important components.

Internationally, in most countries with developed film and television industries, in addition to the producers and supervisors representing the employer, the largest members of a film crew are the director and screenwriter.

In some areas, screenwriters are even more important than directors, such as South Korea and Japan.

But in China, screenwriters have the least say and are least valued. Even actors can sit on top of screenwriters and shit on them.

And once the screenwriter has no say and is not taken seriously, it will definitely be difficult to produce high-quality works.

Around 2000, screenwriters were still highly valued in the film and television industry. People like Lu Wei and Wang Shuo were well-known screenwriters in the industry. They had enough say in the crew, and sometimes directors had to listen to them.

Up to now, the status of screenwriters in the industry has declined sharply. Especially in the TV drama industry, screenwriters have been completely reduced to the point where they have no say in the scripts. They even have to change the scripts according to the requirements of the actors. Otherwise, the management will take action if the actors do not appear. Stressed out.

From then on, if the country wants to produce good movies, 99% of them are self-written and directed works. Only the director himself can write the script and have enough say to make a truly high-quality movie.

The same is true in the field of TV dramas. Only production companies that respect screenwriters and give them enough rights can produce good TV dramas, such as Noon Sunshine.

As soon as Wu Yuan's thoughts became distracted, he thought of this.

"It seems that after I return to China, I have to create a good creative environment for the screenwriters." Wu Yuan thought divergently. (End of chapter)