James Cameron has been paying attention to the Titanic for more than a year. Ever since he accidentally saw news about the ship in the newspaper, he has always had the idea of putting that story on the screen.
For more than a year, James Cameron has traveled back and forth between Europe and the United States, collecting a lot of information about large ships, and even interviewed some shipwreck victims and their descendants.
Gradually, a story derived from real memories gradually took shape in James Cameron's head.
In view of the good cooperation experience with Oriental Film Company, James Cameron initially wanted Kang Jianfei to invest. However, the general manager of Oriental Film Company is Cameron's ex-wife Anne Hurd. The two have turned against each other since their divorce, and their emotions have intensified.
Conflicting interests make it impossible for them to cooperate.
So James Cameron found the senior management of 20th Century Fox, and was warmly welcomed by the Fox senior management as the director of "Terminator". However, when James Cameron told the Fox senior management about his filming plan, the other party's attitude was very
It was about to become cold. Not only could existing computer special effects technology be unable to realize Cameron's idea, but the production cost was too huge. Both of these factors greatly dampened 20th Century Fox's investment enthusiasm.
In another time and space, James Cameron finally got his first investment after five years of contact with 20th Century Fox executives. During these five years, James Cameron originally planned to film "Spider-Man"
"Man", but had to shoot "True Lies" due to technical reasons. It wasn't until "True Lies" was well received and a box office success that 20th Century Fox once again paid attention to Cameron's directorial talent and agreed to invest in the filming of "Titanic".
Now, after James Cameron received a cold reception from 20th Century Fox, he simply contacted Kang Jianfei directly. He felt that Kang Jianfei was a person with a good market vision and should be able to see the box office potential of "Titanic". If he could be convinced
Kang Jianfei can easily obtain investment from Paramount Pictures - Cameron still doesn't believe that Kang Jianfei dares to invest alone, and only places his hope on Paramount Pictures.
Sure enough, when Cameron and Kang Jianfei talked about the matter on the phone, Kang Jianfei showed great interest. In order to strike while the iron was hot, Cameron couldn't wait to fly to Hong Kong and wanted to persuade Kang Jianfei to invest in person.
"Of course it's not just "Romeo and Juliet" that takes place on the water. It expresses much richer content. In fact, I want to replicate a Titanic and its entire shipwreck on the screen. That would be a
A very grand and tragic scene." James Cameron told his thoughts.
Kang Jianfei asked with a smile: "But, with the current computer special effects technology, is it enough to support your idea?"
"It's a little difficult. But that's not the point," James Cameron said, not taking the technical issues to heart at all. "When Lucas decided to make "Star Wars," the special effects technology at the time couldn't meet the requirements.
So Hollywood has Industrial Light and Magic, which has brought about revolutionary progress in film special effects. The same is true for the two "Terminator" films that you invested in, Mr. Kang, as well as "Shushan" and "Tomb Raiders" produced by Oriental DreamWorks.
The production process of a movie is a process of progress in film special effects technology. Maybe by the time "Titanic" is released, film special effects technology will usher in a new leap because of us."
Kang Jianfei said with a smile: "What you said is too general and not enough for me to invest huge sums of money in making a blockbuster film with an uncertain future."
James Cameron opened his mouth, but for a moment he didn't know what to say. Because Kang Jianfei is not a person who doesn't know anything about computer special effects, it's not easy to fool an expert.
Seeing that Cameron was a little disappointed, Kang Jianfei smiled and said: "But I am indeed very interested in the story of "Titanic", but I just didn't want to film it in the past two years because there are indeed difficulties with today's special effects technology."
James Cameron regained hope and said: "We can do some preliminary preparations, and when the technical reserves are sufficient to support the special effects of the entire movie, we can start the shooting plan immediately."
"I think so too, so I want to make another special effects blockbuster to test the waters first. By the way, I can accumulate the special effects technology of companies in the digital field." Kang Jianfei said.
James Cameron asked: "What movie does Mr. Kang want me to direct?"
Kang Jianfei smiled and said: "You are not the director, but we are co-directors."
"Are we collaborating?" James Cameron was a little surprised. He recognized Kang Jianfei's directorial skills. It is enough to direct the "Terminator" series alone. Why do two directors need to work on one movie?
"Look at this." Kang Jianfei handed a script to James Cameron. "The script was just translated into English yesterday. I originally planned to fax it to you, but I didn't expect you to fly to Hong Kong."
"Jurassic Park?" James Cameron said to himself, "This name sounds so familiar."
Kang Jianfei smiled and said: "A novel published in the United States last year was also called "Jurassic Park."
James Cameron said: "I remember, six companies were competing for the film rights of this novel last year, but you bought it?"
"I'm just willing to spend the money." Kang Jianfei said proudly.
Michael Crichton, the author of "Jurassic Park", is a famous American best-selling novelist and screenwriter. Almost every one of his works has been adapted for the big screen.
Take "Jurassic Park" as an example. The novel was spotted by Spielberg before it was published, but the negotiation failed because Crichton's asking price was too high. After that, several Hollywood film companies began to compete for it.
The price of the movie rights increased from 1.5 million to 2 million, and writer Clayton finally relented.
Kang Jianfei didn't know about this at first, but he had already informed Anne Hurd and asked her to call her if he found any particularly interesting or attention-grabbing scripts.
It is so unusual for several Hollywood film companies to grab the film rights of an unpublished novel. Anne Hurd notified Kang Jianfei of this matter before Universal Pictures bought the "Jurassic Park" script.
When Kang Jianfei heard that it was the famous "Jurassic Park", he hesitated for a moment and directly gave Anne Hurd US$5 million to win the film rights to the novel.
Clayton had originally planned to sell the copyright for 2 million, but Anne Heard suddenly came in and raised the copyright fee to 2.2 million. Universal Pictures was also optimistic about the script. The price was increased to 2.5 million U.S. dollars, and Anne Heard
De immediately shouted out a high price of 2.8 million.
Clayton, the author of the novel, was so happy that he pretended to be in a dilemma during the negotiation. In fact, he wished that the two companies could raise the price to 5 million.
When Anne Hurd's bid reached 3.6 million, Universal Pictures finally withdrew. The film rights of an unpublished novel, no matter how famous its author is, is unlikely to be worth as much as 3.6 million.
In the end, everyone was happy. The copyright of writer Clayton's novel was sold for a sky-high price of US$3.6 million. Anne Hurd received the remaining US$1.4 million in compensation, while Kang Jianfei got the copyright of "Jurassic Park".
"Jurassic Park" is not just a special effects blockbuster, it has a very special position in the history of movies. Before the release of "Titanic", "Jurassic Park" was the highest-grossing movie. It was also a sweeping movie.
Special effects blockbusters in the global box office market. Especially in some Asian countries and regions, Hong Kong films have always had the upper hand in the local market, but "Jurassic Park" has overwhelmed Hong Kong films with its supreme power.
"Terminator 2" is just an appetizer, and "Jurassic Park" means that the era of real special effects blockbusters is coming.
Kang Jianfei said: "I adapted this script based on the novel for more than half a year, and the location of the film was changed to Asia. Of course, Dr. Hammond and the chaos scientist Dr. Marco who tried to create Jurassic Park are still Americans.
, the identities of the male and female protagonists were changed to Hong Kong and Japanese, and I had to take the Hong Kong and Japanese markets into consideration."
James Cameron opened the script and said: "I'll take a look and then make a decision."
"Please." Kang Jianfei smiled.
The English translation of the script was done well. James Cameron read the script in one breath and said: "Although the story is a bit cliché, if this movie is really made and the dinosaurs in the movie are shot realistically, then
, that will bring a huge visual impact to the audience. Just like when people watched "Star Wars" back then."
Kang Jianfei smiled and said, "How about it? Are you interested?"
James Cameron asked: "What do I do?"
Kang Jianfei said: "You are mainly responsible for the special effects and building the studio, and I will be responsible for the casting, location selection, scene planning, etc. We all work together to discuss the splitting of the shots. If there are differences, my opinion will take priority."
The statement that Kang Jianfei is the main character made Cameron quite disgusted. He hated interference from others when making movies because he had a painful experience when directing "Piranha 2".
Cameron wanted to refuse directly, but Kang Jianfei's promise to invest in "Titanic" tempted him. According to Kang Jianfei, the purpose of filming "Jurassic Park" was to accumulate technical experience for "Titanic".
Calculating that "Jurassic Park" will probably take more than a year to produce. Once this movie is finished, we can basically start planning for "Titanic". After some calculations, James Cameron felt that he and Kang Jianfei
Co-directing a science fiction blockbuster was not difficult to accept. After asking about the salary and specific cooperation details, Cameron readily agreed.
The two chatted all afternoon, and towards evening, Kang Jianfei personally sent Cameron off and called his subordinates to help arrange accommodation for Cameron.
"Mr. Kang, Mr. Cameron, what a coincidence." Michelle Yeoh suddenly said.
"What a coincidence." Kang Jianfei smiled and glanced at Michelle Yang thoughtfully. The woman in front of her must have been waiting downstairs for several hours just to strike up a conversation with Cameron or Kang Jianfei. It's very possible that
When at the airport, Michelle Yeoh recognized Cameron first and then took the initiative to help.
But this is not a big deal. Kang Jianfei and Cameron are both big names in the film industry. If they were other actors, they would definitely seize this opportunity to build friendships. Michelle Yeoh was supported by Pan Disheng in the past, so she naturally has no worries about not being able to film.
Now that she has come back after several years of absence, the audience has almost forgotten that she needs the help of someone important to make a comeback.
Cameron had a good impression of Michelle Yeoh and asked her to have dinner with her. Kang Jianfei, who had been involved in scandals these days, did not want to be photographed with the actress anymore by reporters, so he said goodbye to them and drove to Vivian Chow alone.
Home.
Zhou Huimin's new residence has not been exposed yet, but where Zhong Chuhong, Lin Qingxia and the others live, paparazzi are stationed 24 hours a day. (To be continued) r655
