China Entertainment: Been working as a director since 03

Chapter 717 Subverting the Classic
"Mr. Li, are you going to restart Batman?" Warner's people asked curiously.

Previously, at the wrap party for "Aquaman" in Canada, Li Yu mentioned to them that he wanted to make a movie with the Joker as the protagonist.

Then, they had no interest in Li Yu's idea at that time, and didn't even want to listen. They just perfunctorily said they would talk about it later when there was a chance.

So when they heard that Li Yu was going to film a movie with the Joker as the protagonist, they subconsciously thought that Li Yu was going to reboot the Batman series.

Li Yu has already proven his commercial ability with "Aquaman" and "Barbie".

If Li Yu wants to restart the Batman series, they will definitely support it. It is much more stable than making that "Oppenheimer" movie.

Batman is the most important superhero in the DC universe and the soul of the DC movie universe.

However, they vaguely felt that something was wrong.

The Joker is a villain in the Batman series. How can a villain be the protagonist?
Since it is a Batman series, Batman is definitely the undisputed protagonist.

So, does this mean that...

Sure enough, Li Yu's next answer confirmed their guess: "You misunderstood, I am not going to reboot Batman. Nolan's "Batman: The Dark Knight" is a masterpiece, and it is difficult to surpass that classic version of the rivalry between the Joker and Batman.

I want to use the Joker IP to shoot a crime drama film, telling the story of how a frustrated lower-class person gradually becomes an evil clown.

In my movie, there will be no Batman, only young Bruce Wayne.

However, in terms of some plot details, it will be linked to Nolan's Batman trilogy."

The movie "Joker" analyzes Gotham, a city full of evil and crime, from the perspective of the Joker, while the "Batman" trilogy analyzes the city from the perspective of Bruce Wayne.

The two people have different identities, statuses, and classes, so the same thing will become completely different in their eyes.

The image of the Wayne family in "Joker" can be said to be a subversion when compared with the "Batman" trilogy.

In the "Batman" trilogy, Bruce Wayne's father, Thomas Wayne, the head of Wayne Group, is a great philanthropist who has donated countless orphanages, welfare homes, schools, built skytrains for the entire city, and so on.

In order to help his son untie his knot, Thomas Wayne and his wife took young Bruce Wayne into the theater.

As a result, Bruce Wayne thought of bats while watching the play and felt uncomfortable, so his family left the theater early.

As soon as I came out of the theater, I encountered robbers.

Facing the fierce robber, Thomas Wayne calmly calmed the other party's emotions and said that he could give all his property to him.

But in the end they were shot and killed by the cruel robbers. Both fathers fell in a pool of blood, leaving only the young Bruce Wayne.

It was the death of his parents that made Batman who he is.

It can be said that Thomas Wayne's image was great and glorious until the second before his death.

In "Joker", from the perspective of the Joker, a lower-class man, Thomas Wayne is not so great and glorious. He is a particularly hypocritical person.

He is high and mighty, and has no idea of ​​the living conditions of the lower class. He has no idea why the lower classes in Gotham are so poor, leading to the proliferation of countless crimes.

In fact, the four major families headed by the Wayne family are one of the main reasons for the poverty of the lower class in Gotham.

In Joker, his death is no longer an accident.

It's not really a discrediting of the character, it's just analyzing the character from another angle, giving the audience a new and different perspective.

In short, the other party was stunned for several seconds after hearing what Li Yu said.

What? The protagonist is the Joker. The Joker is a villain in comics. How can a villain be the protagonist?
After the celebration banquet, the top management of Huana invited some film talents to study Li Yu’s script.

Even if Li Yu took out a pile of feces, they still had to follow him this time. However, studying Li Yu's script was essential.

They must definitely evaluate the potential of this script.

If the potential is great, they can invest a little more money.

If there is not much potential, they can consider investing less money to avoid too much loss.

But they seem to be a little overthinking, because "Joker" and "Barbie" are both very low-budget movies.

The cost of "Barbie" is already low enough, at 100 million yuan.

"Joker" is even more outrageous. The original version only made 55 million Euros, nearly half as much as "Barbie".

It's so outrageous that with such a low cost, it actually earned 1.007 billion Euros at the global box office.

What’s even more amazing is that this movie was not only a commercial success, but also won awards.

"Joker" won the Golden Lion Award for Best Film at the 76th Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for eleven Oscars, successfully winning two Oscars.

In addition, the film achieves two very remarkable achievements.

It is the highest-grossing adult film in film history and the comic book-based film with the most Oscar nominations.

Things like production costs are inherently more the better.

Of course, Li Yu would not ask for 55 million Euros just because the previous version cost 55 million Euros to make.

The team that filmed Joker in the previous life spent 55 million because they could only get an investment budget of 55 million.

After all, this is an R-rated film, and no one could have imagined that it would cause such a big stir after its release, including the director and screenwriter themselves.

Li Yu has a God's perspective and he knows how great the potential of this movie is.

So he planned to double his investment and asked Huana for 120 million euros.

Among them, 20 million is Li Yu’s director’s salary and screenwriter’s fee.

That’s right, Li Yu is so expensive now, he gets paid 20 million for making a movie.

In addition, Li Yu will also receive a 15% box office dividend.

This is the value of having two billion-dollar works.

If Li Yu makes a movie in Hollywood and the box office is a hit, he can make just as much money as he would in China.

And most of the money he made from making movies in Hollywood went to foreigners, which was much cooler.

After evaluation by Huana’s professional team, Li Yu’s script was found to be of very high quality.

However, the shortcomings are also obvious. It is too bloody and violent, too dark, and it is likely to be classified as a restricted film if it is produced.

This is a shortcoming that cannot be ignored.

Restricted films mean that the audience is much smaller than that of ordinary movies, which is not conducive to commercialization.

But they have no choice. They have to accompany Li Yu to be willful this time, otherwise Li Yu will really run away.

They knew very well in their hearts which was a greater loss, losing a movie or Li Yu running away.

(End of this chapter)