Meiyu: I don’t care about the cost when making movies

Chapter 206 Change the heroine
And Harvey's bid is also very sincere.

After learning about DreamWorks' last bid for "Dog Hotel", he offered 2900 million in cash this time, plus a box office of 6000 million for every additional 1000 million after the box office exceeded 408 million. divided into.

If calculated based on the global box office of US$2.49 million in the previous life, Hemera Pictures' actual revenue will reach US$1.02 million.

This is already quite a terrifying profit for a horror film with no big-name stars.

But for Wayne, the most important thing is that after so long, Marvel finally changed the script of "The Incredible Hulk" to his satisfaction.

At the same time, the script for "Fantastic Four" was also approved.

The next step is to consider the issues of actors and directors.

Although Eric Bana, the leading actor of the original "The Incredible Hulk", won the National Film Institute Award for Best Actor of the Year, in fact, his fame and box office appeal are not very good. In addition, the plot Even if the heroine is Jennifer Connelly, the box office is not very satisfactory.

It even became the lowest-grossing movie in the entire Marvel series.

So even if the script has been significantly changed, he does not plan to find Eric Bana again, but plans to directly find Mark Ruffalo to play the role.

At this time, Mark Ruffalo had just won the Best Newcomer Award at the 26th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards last year, and he was not considered an unknown person.

The most important thing is that because of the memory of his previous life, when Wayne thinks of the Hulk, he will think of Mark Ruffalo.

As for the heroine 'Betty Ross', he also plans to replace her.

Since the two films have been combined into one, the character of Betty Ross will probably only appear once.

But just in case, considering that the time span of the entire Marvel series would be very long, he finally chose Keri Russell, who was just the right age and had a good shelf life.

As for the heroine of "Pirates of the Caribbean" that was originally intended for her, it was given to Melanie Laurent just this year.

Regardless of age or image, Melanie Laurent is more suitable for the role of 'Elizabeth Swann' than Keri Russell.

Neither of them had any objections to this, but were very happy.

No one yet knows how amazing the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series will be at the box office, so if Keri Russell is asked to choose, she is obviously more optimistic about "The Incredible Hulk" produced by Hemera Pictures, rather than the "Hulk" as early as Pirate movies fell out of fashion decades ago.

For Melanie Laurent, who is still a newcomer, she is ecstatic to be able to star in a large-scale production with a production budget of over 1.2 million as soon as she comes to Hollywood.

How many girls from around the world flock to Hollywood every year?She is the only one who has had such an opportunity in recent years!

That night, when Wayne asked her to drink coffee, she used all the "fancy coffee techniques" she had secretly learned.

With the support of the heroine, he lasted twice as long as usual.

Among the remaining starring and supporting roles, the most critical villain, 'Emil Blonsky', after careful consideration, he found Tim Roth from the original "The Incredible Hulk" to star.

In terms of fame alone, Tim Roth, who has starred in "The Pianist" as the male protagonist, is undoubtedly higher than the male and female protagonists Mark Ruffalo and Keri Russell.

It's just that although his acting skills and popularity are good, the box office performance of movies starring the male lead has never been very good.

On the contrary, the box office of movies starring supporting villains is much higher.

"Battle for the Planet of the Apes", which will be released on the 27th of this month, starring him as the second male villain, has achieved an outstanding box office of US$3.62 million.

So this guy gradually went on the villain's path and never returned.

Considering the release of "War for the Planet of the Apes", Tim Roth's salary will definitely increase.

After Wayne decided to cast him, he immediately asked Melanie Sloan, who would be the producer of the film after "Taken", to contact him.

And it only took one day to sign a contract with him for a salary of 500 million US dollars.

Finally, as for the director, after thinking about it for a long time, Wayne found Zack Snyder, who has been filming commercials and MTV for 11 years and has been looking for opportunities to enter Hollywood.

In order to establish a long-term cooperation in the future, Wayne generously offered him a director's fee starting from 100 million for a single film, thereby coaxing him into signing a contract for ten movies.

And this guy had been waiting for the opportunity to enter Hollywood for 11 years. Not only was he not dissatisfied at all, but he was so ecstatic that he ended all the work at hand in just two days and flew to Los Angeles overnight.

Then if Mike hadn't helped arrange accommodation, he would have almost ended up sleeping on the street.

Taking this opportunity, Mike also successfully signed him, so that the future Hollywood director was completely tied to Wayne's chariot.

As for the casting of "Fantastic Four", it is much simpler.

All the leading actors have been retained, including Chris Evans, who plays 'Johnny', because he no longer plans to let Chris Evans play the role of Captain America.

Only the director needs to change.

The original director Tim Story is still only an assistant director and has no independent directing experience.

So after thinking about it, he found Joss Whedon in advance, the director of "Avengers 1 and 2" and who is still working in the TV series.

The chain of contempt in the film and television industry has always been that the film industry is higher than the television industry, so after receiving the invitation from Hemera Pictures, Joss Whedon immediately agreed without saying a word.

At the same time, in order to bring out Joss Whedon's Oscar-nominated screenwriting ability that is even more powerful than his director's ability, Wayne also asked him to serve as the co-writer of the film.

I think the quality and reputation of the film should be much improved compared to the original version.

Of course, before the production of these two movies, which cost hundreds of millions in production, can be started, we still need to wait until the production of Resident Evil is completed.

Because he put forward much higher requirements for special effects than the original version, the post-production time of "Resident Evil 1 and 2" also increased a lot.

But now more than three months have passed and it is almost completed.

Another four days passed in the blink of an eye.

On July 7, the North American box office of "Taken", which was released for five days, officially exceeded 17 million, and the global total box office reached an astonishing 2.4 million.

Although this result is a little worse than "The Bourne Supremacy", it has already tied the performance of "Mission: Impossible 1" in the same period.

Major rating and rating prediction agencies, as well as the media and film critics, have raised the film's box office expectations to US$5 million.

Warner will also make a huge profit of at least 2 million from this movie.

Such results made Alan Horn extremely happy.

Now, no one has any objections to him selling the film and television rights of DC superheroes to Wayne.

Wayne also took the opportunity to sign in advance the purchase contract for the online copyrights of Warner's two most important subsequent IPs - 'Harry Potter' and 'Lord of the Rings' series of movies.

Of course, for other distribution companies, no matter how good "Taken" is at the box office, it has nothing to do with them.They are only envious.

Even the American version of "The Ring," which has been sold to Harvey, has become a thing of the past.

But they were still staring at Hemera Pictures, their eyes red.

Because on this day, the production of "Resident Evil 1 and 2", which lasted more than three months, was finally completed, and a viewing party of "Resident Evil 1" will be held today.

They even knew it in advance.

Wayne, who did not attend the screenings of either "Taken" or "The Ring," will attend the screening today.

This immediately raised everyone's attention to this movie to another level.

"It doesn't matter if we lose to Sony and Warner. Howard Stringer and Alan Horn can be so shameless. Our loss is indeed not unfair."

"But not losing to Harvey and DreamWorks!"

"We must try our best to win this "Resident Evil 1"!"

The CEOs of each company have already issued declarations of determination to win before setting off.

In this atmosphere full of gunpowder, just the first round of bidding has already achieved an astonishing price that stunned everyone.

"The highest buyout prices are Universal Pictures' 1.82 million and Fox's 1.8 million."

"In terms of cash plus share, the highest offer is Miramax's 2900 million in cash. After adding more than 6000 million, for every additional 1000 million in box office, we will be paid a share of 413 million."

"DreamWorks' offer is only 3 less in terms of share."

That night, Wayne, who was reviewing Supreme's upcoming women's clothing line with Jessica, Charlize Theron and others, raised his eyebrows in surprise after hearing the quote from Mia, who had returned from overtime.

1.8 million and 1.82 million are just the copyright prices. Taking into account publicity and distribution, if you want to make money back through the box office, you will need a global box office of more than 4 million.

This is obviously an impossible achievement for the original "Resident Evil 1".

But for the new version of "Resident Evil 1", which is now directed by Nolan and has upgraded actors, plot, graphics, and special effects, this is not a difficult number to achieve.

At least in Wayne's view, it should be no problem for this version of "Resident Evil 1" to have a box office of over 4 million.

Coupled with the bonuses from "Hotel for Dogs" and "Taken", Universal and Fox's box office expectations for the film should be even higher.

However, the reason why they were willing to give such a high bid in the first round was not only because they were optimistic about the movie itself, but also to protect their upcoming films "Jurassic Park 3" and "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" Blockbusters.

Including hurricane rescue, there are already several blockbuster movies being released from mid-July to mid-August.

If a group of more powerful zombies are introduced, the two blockbusters they have high hopes for will definitely have an impact on the box office.

Therefore, although the quotes from these two companies were high, they were still within his expectations.

What really surprised him was Harvey's offer.

"How can that guy Harvey offer so much money?" Wayne asked curiously.

It's not that he looks down on Harvey, most of Miramax's profits are sent to Disney, so its liquidity is slightly more than that of Lionsgate and Warner's independently operated New Line Cinema.

In addition, it has invested in so many movies this year, so it shouldn't be able to spend so much money.

"Maybe it's a loan," Mia took the coffee from the maid, took a sip, and shrugged.

Originally, the profit margin of this share quotation was already very small, and coupled with the loan interest, this guy Harvey really dared to gamble and fight.

Unfortunately, Wayne has already excluded him, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, etc. from this bidding.

"Where are the offers from Sony and Disney?" Wayne asked.

"Sony's offer is 1.75 million U.S. dollars, which is not low. I just didn't expect others to ask for such a high price. Disney's offer is more conservative, only 1.7 million U.S. dollars."

Wayne fell into deep thought after listening.

Mia didn't bother him when she saw this, and went to check out the styles of women's clothing with Jessica, Charlize Theron and the others.

After all, after these series of styles are launched, they will also be wearing them.

After a moment, Wayne picked up his cell phone and dialed Howard Stringer's number.

"Hi Howard, I'm Wayne."

Howard Stringer was surprised by Wayne's sudden call.

After learning that Wayne wanted to sell "Resident Evil 1" to himself at a price of 1.85 million, which is only 300 million higher than the current highest price, the condition is that "Resident Evil 1" can be released globally as soon as possible at the end of this month. This is even more... It was completely beyond his expectation.

"Are you in such a hurry to release it to avoid someone or to snipe someone?"

Howard Stringer immediately thought of two common possibilities.

But then he ruled out the former. With the luck and strength of Hemera Pictures' current winning streak, there is really no need to specifically avoid a certain movie.

So the truth can only be that it was a sniper attack on a certain movie.

Howard Stringer's head was spinning with all kinds of thoughts, and he planned to go back and check which other movies would be released next.

Among them, Sony's "Sweetheart", which will be released three days later on the 20th, he ruled it out immediately.

First of all, he and Wayne have a good relationship and have always enjoyed working together.

Secondly, the second female lead in "Ugly Country" is Catherine Zeta Jones.The relationship between Wayne and Catherine Zeta-Jones is no secret for a character of his level.

Finally, and most importantly, "Sweetheart" is just a romantic comedy movie with an actual cost of only 3000 million US dollars and a box office expectation of only 1.5 million US dollars. It is not worthy of Wayne's big move like "Resident Evil 1". Specialized in sniping.

Of course, while thinking about this, Howard Stringer did not forget to agree.

After all, this is a good thing for Sony.

Sony's internal staff also gave a box office forecast of more than 1 million US dollars for this upgraded version of "Resident Evil 4.5".

If you get 1.85 million, you can make almost 1 million U.S. dollars including the post-disc revenue.

(End of this chapter)