Chapter 155 The definition of simple and complex (today
Chapter 155 The definition of simplicity and complexity (first update today)
Author: Box and Orange
Chapter 155 The definition of simplicity and complexity (first update today)
"Okay, let's take a break." Zhang Hao clapped his hands and ended the shooting.
Chen Kun immediately sat next to Zhang Hao holding the script and asked Zhang Hao many questions about the plot.
"Director, I have a question."
"Look, this is almost becoming a curious baby." Zhang Hao said to the producer Liu Hao beside him, and then turned to motion to Chen Kun: "You can ask any questions!"
Chen Kun took out his little notebook and recorded many problems in it. Some problems were marked with ticks, indicating that they had been solved. Some problems were marked with question marks, indicating that they had not yet been solved.
"What I want to ask is, since the male protagonist has lost his memory for a period of time, other people who have experienced the same thing should know what happened.
Why don't you go find other people to ask what happened and help you remember?" Chen Kun asked.
Before he reaches middle age, Zhang Hao has already soaked wolfberry in a thermos cup.
After taking a sip of water, Zhang Hao replied: "Why didn't you ask? I've already looked for it just to verify it with the memory I got from the diary.
He has the ability to go back to the past, and all he does is make himself and the people around him live a good life.
But when I go back to my childhood again and again, I find that no matter what changes I make, I can't stop the unfortunate tragedy from happening."
"I understand, the male protagonist is superfluous and he shouldn't appear." Chen Kun seemed to have a feeling.
Zhang Hao laughed and said: "In the ending I prepared, there is actually this one. The male protagonist returns to his mother's womb through the tape left by his father, and then strangles himself with the umbilical cord."
Chen Kun shuddered: "This ending is too cruel for me. Director, have you prepared multiple endings?"
"Yes, I plan to shoot four endings. The ending of the theatrical version must be the most favorable one," Zhang Hao said.
There are four endings in the original version:
1. In the released version, the male and female protagonists pass each other by each other and forget each other, which leads to a regrettable ending.
2. After the male and female protagonists passed each other, the male protagonist turned around and chased after him. It had an open ending.
3. The male and female protagonists meet, chat, get to know each other again, and have a happy ending.
4. In the director's cut version, the male protagonist commits suicide, which is the cruelest ending and the one that best fits the story line and theme of the show.
For the version released in theaters, Zhang Hao plans to choose the first one, which has a regretful ending. This ending is not as cruel as the fourth ending, and it is not as beautiful as the other two. It has a regretful and incomplete beauty that will be remembered by the audience.
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In fact, Zhang Hao prefers the ending of the director's cut version, but if this ending is released in the theater version, the film's reputation will explode, and the box office will definitely explode as well, like an explosion.
Everyone has a heart that yearns for beauty and wishes that the world will always be sincere, kind and beautiful, but we all know that it is impossible.
Shakespeare said that the most beautiful art is tragedy, but how many people are willing to see tragedy happen again and again.
As a film for the general public, it must first consider the audience, or the money in the audience's wallet. Showing the audience what they want to see is the way to succeed in a commercial film.
Just as Zhang Hao was leading the crew of "The Butterfly Effect" to work hard on filming, there was finally news from Warner Pictures.
After Zhang Hao returned to China, Warner Pictures executives held a meeting about DC superhero movies. How to restart "Superman" and "Batman" became the top priority.
Jeff Robinov, vice president of Warner Pictures, who had talked with Zhang Hao, put forward Zhang Hao's suggestion from Chinese director at the meeting, but was opposed and criticized by another vice president Rick Solomon.
"Chinese people? What movies do they know? What insightful ideas can they come up with?" said Rick Solomon.
Severin Meyer, the current president of Warner Pictures, will end his term at the end of next year and take a position in the group company, so the competition for the next president of Warner Pictures has become fierce.
Currently maintained, the most promising to take over are Jeff Robinoff and Rick Solomon.
Rick Solomon is currently in an advantageous position by relying on his persuasion to promote the project of "Man of Steel". If the film becomes a hit next year, there is no doubt that Rick Solomon will win the battle for president and become the next president. Served as president of Warner Pictures.
Jeff Robinoff naturally refused to sit still and wait for death, so he made a commitment to the group company to promote the restart of the "Batman" series.
In fact, he himself feels that it is not very reliable to find a Chinese director. Although he is also the winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, Ang Lee is more trustworthy than Zhang Hao.
Jeff Robinoff has not never thought of inviting Ang Lee to direct "Batman". After all, Ang Lee has also filmed a superhero movie "The Incredible Hulk" before.
It's just that Ang Lee was busy with the post-production of "Life of Pi" at this time and rejected Jeff Robinoff's invitation.
But so far, only one director, Zhang Hao, has a complete and clear plan for the "Batman" movie. First-class commercial directors are unwilling to take over, and other inferior directors are unprepared.
Overall, Zhang Hao is actually the best one.
At this point, Jeff Robinoff, in order to defend his position, said: "Rick, please don't look at it through those colored glasses, there are still good directors in China.
For example, Zhang, whose "Hero" is very popular in North America, and Jack Chen is also a world-renowned kung fu superstar.
As for Zhang Hao, he just won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Although he is young, this is not a gimmick."
Jeff Robinov and Rick Solomon argued about Zhang Hao's suitability. Other executives of the company watched, and Severin Meyer, as the president, looked at the two vice presidents with interest. The CEO's argument.
The two of them argued with each other to no avail, so they both looked at Severin Maier: "President, what do you mean?"
Severin Maier glanced at the two men's eyes, expecting what kind of position he would take.
Although there is competition for positions, everyone ultimately hopes to allow Warner Pictures to continue to create profits. The interests of all company executives are related to the interests of Warner Pictures, and no one wants their company's projects to fail.
So Severin Maier, like Rick Solomon, had some objections to the Chinese director proposed by Jeff Robinov.
However, Jeff Robinov was his confidant after all, and Severin Maier could not refuse him outright, so he said: "Well, Jeff, ask the Chinese director to submit a complete outline of the trilogy to me, and then submit it to me." Discussed by the board of directors.
As for the DC movie universe he mentioned, I will submit it to the group company for discussion."
Zhang Hao's proposal of combining dramas, comics, movies, etc. to tell a movie universe with a complete world view cannot be achieved by Warner Pictures alone. It also needs the promotion of the parent company Time Group.
After the high-level meeting, the head of Warner Pictures Asia found Zhang Hao, who was filming in Chengdu.
"You want me to submit the script for the trilogy?" Zhang Hao asked.
The visitor is Lin Jianfeng, a senior manager responsible for distribution in Asia at Warner Pictures.
"Yes, the company's senior management has discussed it and approved of your plan for the trilogy, but without seeing the script, the group company may not agree to promote this project," Lin Jianfeng said.
"Okay, I understand." Zhang Hao agreed.
Unlike in the Chinese film industry, usually a few film and television company bosses, directors and actors can decide on the birth of a project by having a meal together.
In Hollywood, although the status of screenwriters is low, Hollywood attaches great importance to scripts.
Warner has a dedicated script review department, which usually consists of an eight-person review team. A script is submitted to the script review department and is first cross-reviewed by seven people.
The review generally looks at the completion of the script, and then looks at the popularity and popularity of scripts of the same type in the market in the past three years, etc.
Four of the seven people felt that the script was acceptable, and then it was handed over to the last script review team leader for review. The team leader felt that the script had selling points, and then it was handed over to the group company for discussion.
The film industry is a high-risk industry, and the purpose of this is to avoid risks as much as possible.
However, no matter what kind of system, it cannot guarantee 100% risk avoidance, it can only increase the probability of success.
There is a very popular jargon in the Hollywood screenwriting industry: relatively simple commercial movie scripts are more likely to be favored by big companies.
Unless you are at Spielberg's level, the last time you submitted a "Batman" trilogy script, you were almost 100% rejected.
Zhang Hao had already prepared the script for the "Batman" trilogy and immediately sent it to Lin Jianfeng's mailbox, who then submitted it to Warner Pictures.
Is it possible that Warner Pictures adopted Zhang Hao's script, but struck out Zhang Hao?
This is also a common thing in Hollywood. A screenwriter writes a script for a big company, but the big company takes the script as its own and kicks the screenwriter out.
But there is nothing that can be done about it. Zhang Hao is already famous in the Chinese film industry, but in Hollywood he is just a little transparent. If people want to kick him out, there is nothing Zhang Hao can do.
And this is a story about Batman. The copyright of Batman movies is in the hands of Warner Pictures. If they don’t authorize it, they don’t have the right to create stories about Batman.
However, Zhang Hao seems to be redundant, because Severin Maier gave instructions and the trilogy script written by Zhang Hao was quickly placed on the desk.
Severin Maier frowned after reading the script. The reason was simple: the script was too dark.
Several Marvel movies next door are all taking a light-hearted and youthful approach, which has proven that this approach can be successful. But Zhang Hao's script and story are very dark at first glance, with a feeling of classical tragedy.
I have to admit that this director from China is quite capable. The scripts of the trilogy are very well completed and the stories are also very exciting.
But Warner Pictures has a large library of scripts, and there are many similar scripts, but they have never been implemented and made into a film.
What Zhang Hao understands, Severin Maier, who has worked in Hollywood, naturally understands that it is difficult for complex movies to sell high box office in the market and achieve success.
"Avatar", which ranks first at the global box office, except for the amazing 3D graphics performance, its story is just an old-fashioned Hollywood story.
Such a story template can be applied in any period or environment, and can be mass-produced.
Jeff Robinoff also read the script and felt the same way as Severin Maier.
Severin Maier said: "Jeff, this script is too risky and it will be difficult to pass it on the board of directors."
Jeff Robinoff nodded and said: "I know, it seems we have to find a new director to restart Batman."
After Zhang Hao submitted the script for the "Batman" trilogy to Warner Pictures, nothing happened. There was no news. Zhang Hao did not panic and continued filming "The Butterfly Effect" in an orderly manner.
Because they were going to participate in the Hong Kong Island Film Awards, after arranging some work for the crew, Zhang Hao and Da Mi Mi rushed to Hong Kong Island to attend the awards ceremony.
As one of the three most authoritative awards in the Chinese-language film industry, the Academy Awards are second only to the Golden Horse Awards in influence. However, compared to the current Golden Horse Awards, the Academy Awards have always been independent.
Films without the participation of Hong Kong filmmakers and actors will not be shortlisted by the Academy Awards.
This strategy of regionalization and conservatism became more and more serious later on.
Even after the incident was revealed at the Golden Horse Awards and its authority and reputation plummeted, the Academy failed to seize the opportunity and instead became even more closed-off.
In terms of influence and credibility, the Mainland's Golden Rooster Award cannot even compete with the two declining awards, and has been reduced to a useless award.
The three major gold awards for Chinese-language films have completely collapsed, not to mention other film awards.
But up to now, the influence of the Academy Awards is still there. Zhou Xun, the star of "The Embalmer", also won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
This is not Zhang Hao's first visit to Hong Kong Island. When "Genius Gunman" was filmed on Hong Kong Island, the crew was blackmailed by local gangsters.
Andy walked the red carpet as a member of the crew of "Sister Tao", while Zhou Xun walked with the crew of "The Embalmer". In addition, teacher Jin Shijie and photographer Lu Jianqiu also came.
Only Joe Hisaishi was unable to come because he was busy preparing for the Budokan concert.
The media in Hong Kong are as famous as the British Fleet Street paparazzi, and they are very, very interested in Zhang Hao, a new mainland director. When the plane landed at the Hong Kong Airport, Zhang Hao and Da Mi Mi were enthusiastically interviewed by reporters.
It is worth mentioning that after a long screening, "The Embalmer" was officially released in China one week after the Oscars, and took in a box office of 240 million.
The film has also landed in the Hong Kong market, and Andy's appeal here is quite strong. Coupled with the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the film has a box office of 12.375 million Hong Kong dollars, creating Zhang Hao's best performance in Hong Kong Island.
Box office records.
Hong Kong Island has also become the third largest ticket warehouse for "The Undertaker" after the Mainland and Xiaoli markets.
When I was young, there was a director named Yojiro Takita. After I saw the movie "The Embalmer" when I was young, I liked it very much.
So he found the screenwriter Kundo Koyama and planned to obtain the adaptation rights from Haotian Studio and make a small-life version of "The Embalmer".
The leading actors happened to be Masahiro Motoki and Ryoko Hirosue.
Of course, Haotian Studio did not refuse such a thing.
After going around and around, Takita Yojiro finally made "The Embalmer". But this time it became a remake, and it was impossible to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
I was sick, I felt so uncomfortable, I coded a chapter while holding my sick body, and then took a rest.