Hollywood Road

The screenwriter recruited by Stanton Studio had participated in the adaptation of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Although he was not signed in the end, he was recognized by the industry. Successful work experience in the trilogy. [full text reading]

In any case, George Martin has been away from Hollywood for many years, and he is not a successful screenwriter. He can control the direction of the plot and the fate of the main characters, but some details of the script need to be presided over by more professional screenwriters.

In the past nearly a year, this screenwriter has assisted George Martin in completing the outline and first draft of the script, and gradually gained the initiative in the entire screenwriting team headed by him and George Martin.

But as Murphy completed the production of "Gone Girl", the hottest stage of the film was over, and he turned his energy to the planning of "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones". The screenwriter naturally lost the previous dominance, And Murphy asked to change many plots of the script written by him, especially the setting of the little devil Tyrion Lannister.

I don't know how this screenwriter moved George Martin to change the little devil Tyrion Lannister into a complete bastard, in line with the Hollywood tradition that deformed people must have deformed thinking.

Murphy would definitely not agree to adapt such a charismatic character like this, and demanded that it must be revised, but he encountered resistance from the screenwriter. Of course, these resistances were just vulnerable, but the relationship between the two parties inevitably deteriorated.

The screenwriter thought that he had the successful qualifications of the screenwriter of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and he also had the partial support of the original author George Martin. In addition, 20th Century Fox got half of the investment rights and copyrights. His seniority and production tradition of Hollywood TV series can impress 20th Century Fox, and can set off a game of thrones within the project.

But he was obviously too confused by Hollywood's TV series production tradition, and he simply ignored who Kara Firth was in charge of this project at Twentieth Century Fox.

There was no suspense in the ending, he was fired by Murphy and Kara Firth.

The liquidated damages stipulated in the contract were not high. Naturally, the screenwriter refused to leave with hundreds of thousands of dollars. He also asked Stanton Studios and 20th Century Fox to pay the copyright fees for the script he adapted. Murphy and Kara were also attacked. - Firth's refusal.

There is a remark clause in the contract between the two parties that specifically states that any content related to "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" created by the other party during the period of employment, the copyright will automatically belong to the employing party.

This is also a Hollywood practice, and the screenwriter is more unwilling.

Murphy knows that, like the industrial assembly line of the film industry, Hollywood TV series production,

There are also mature systems.

Hollywood recognizes that TV dramas are the art of screenwriting. Screenwriters with sufficient qualifications often expand their authority in the TV dramas they create and adapt, becoming the operator of the entire TV program and supervising the work of other departments. The scope of his attention is not just scripts, But from performance to editing, to all aspects of TV drama production.

They can even become the CEO of the TV series production, and also act as the producer at the same time. Their names are usually signed as executive producers and appear at the top of the TV series' bylines!

Unlike the film industry, the production process for TV dramas requires the constant involvement of the writers.

Therefore, the negotiation content of the drama script agreement includes not only the remuneration for creating the pilot script, but also other additional terms, which are set according to the high position of the screenwriter in the production of episodes and TV drama projects.

But in this project, Murphy can only be in a dominant position. He will respect George Martin's opinions and reasonable suggestions from other screenwriters, but he will never let others take the lead.

In some ways, this is also caused by the difference between the film industry and the TV industry. In the film industry, even a gold medal screenwriter cannot really compete with the director, but the TV industry is different. The position of the screenwriter is equally important, even more important than director.

In order to avoid trouble, Murphy simply let George Martin be in charge of the entire screenwriting team, and let the remaining newcomer screenwriters become the execution tool of himself and George Martin's will.

Like the production of commercial blockbusters, the production of TV series will also hire a group of screenwriters to assist in script creation and TV production under the command of the TV series producer.

Subsequently, Stanton Studios and Twentieth Century Fox jointly registered and established a production company called Ice and Fire Studios. All businesses related to "A Song of Ice and Fire: Game of Thrones" were all affiliated with this production studio. Under the name, including the contract with the screenwriter of the other newcomers in the screenwriting group.

Ice and Fire Studios signed a brand new contract with the other screenwriters except George Martin, which improved the treatment of these people, but this is a typical screenwriter package agreement.

When a studio or TV station signs a writer on a contract, or what might be called a package deal, they pay the writer a lump sum as part of the package for the duration of the contract — usually one to two minutes in length. Two years, with the possibility of an additional year or more in some cases—in return, the writer's services to write the script and produce the show for the studio or network are exclusive, and the writer can't work elsewhere.

In addition, the contract also stipulates that the screenwriter must adapt at least a certain number of scripts during the working period for Murphy to choose.

This agreement can only be used on screenwriters who are not well-known. Ice Fire Studio only needs to pay a one-time fee. They are not able to participate in the later sharing like those screenwriters who lead the production of TV series.

Maybe the agreement will change in the future, but in the early stage of the project, Murphy will not offer high salaries to these people.

In the next two weeks, Murphy pulled all the screenwriters, including George Martin, to the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel and rented a large conference room, which was specially used for script revisions without outside interference.

Among them, the most important modification is about the plot of the little devil Tyrion Lannister. In the hands of the previous screenwriter, the little devil Tyrion Lannister became a complete bastard, completely losing the character itself. charm.

The little devil Tyrion Lannister is not a good person, there is no doubt about it, but there are also many shining points in this character. As long as the character is suitable and the plot is in place, it is definitely a very popular character.

When Murphy quickly scrolled through the TV series, he saw a conversation between Jon Snow and the little devil Tyrion Lannister, which left a deep impression on him. The specific content of the conversation has long been Forget it, just remember what the little devil Tyrion Lannister said sums it up like this - if a person as frustrated as him doesn't read and think seriously, he must have no future.

This plot can fully reflect the other side of the little devil Tyrion Lannister's ugly appearance.

In short, one of the most important tasks of revising the script this time is to bring the little devil back on track, showing a charismatic "bad guy" demeanor.

It is difficult to write a bad guy who makes people hate it, but it is even more difficult to write a bad guy who makes people sympathetic. The little devil Tyrion Lannister is not a heinous scum, but has something to blame in moral or certain aspects.

The modification process was completely dominated by Murphy. He used Hollywood's usual scripting techniques of whitewashing tainted characters. Of course, "whitewashing" refers to whitewashing script characters, which does not apply to real life.

Human nature is complicated, and factors such as different positions and interests will affect a person's views on others. As for the characters in the story, since this is a TV series broadcast on the cable TV network for adults to watch, the audience has long since broken away from the simple aesthetics of good and evil. , flat characters that are either black or white, and binary opposites are not controversial, have no credibility, and cannot maintain long-term vitality.

In Murphy's own words, Bai Suzhen, the representative of the Holy Mother of the White Lotus, also flooded the Jinshan Temple for her own suicide, causing the loss of life, not to mention those who participated in the power game.

Not only little devils, but also other characters can’t be distinguished by the simple point of view of good and evil, right and wrong. It’s obviously too fake to write the characters tall and complete, which is only suitable for adult audiences in North Korea. Appropriately giving flaws or flaws can make the characters more It is full and vivid, but it is easy to make the audience lose their favor in this way, and the writing will collapse if the character design is not careful.

In the treatment of the script of the scene where the little devil appeared in the first episode, Murphy used the technique of suppressing before suppressing.

The first scene where the little devil appeared alone was to hang out with a prostitute, and then mocked the characters in the North and Jon Snow's illegitimate child status, which seemed to be pretty good.

To put it simply, it is to write a lot of shortcomings of the little devil Tyrion Lannister first, don’t be afraid that the audience will hate it, and then write the shining points of the characters, so as to surprise the audience with "he is not bad, not that bad" .

In fact, without going into details, you can know that the audience has very low moral requirements for characters with the appearance of a little devil, so you can write about his bad side first, so that the audience can lower their expectations, and then write about the good side, which can be doubled. Improve the audience's favorability.

In addition, Murphy and George Martin had a few more secret talks, firmly weakening the halo of the protagonist in the series as much as possible. When it is time to kill an important character, he must not be soft.

In Murphy's words to George Martin, "All characters serve the plot, not the plot serves a character."

After modifying the plot of the little devil, it is time to polish the setting of the protagonist.

The concept in this aspect is very clear. Every character in the play is a contradictory and real existence. While fighting against fate, each person shows the dark side of human nature, but it is hard to hate. (To be continued.)