Made in Hollywood

As early as the beginning of the century, Duke won the film rights of the "Transformers" series from Hasbro at a high price because he heard that Sony Columbia Pictures wanted to buy the film adaptation rights of the Joe Special Forces toy series. , to be made into a series when the time comes.

The "Transformers" series relies heavily on CG production, which is why Duke has waited until now. Today's CG technology is more mature, and the cost of production has been greatly reduced compared to before. At the beginning of the century, it took 50 million US dollars to complete the special effects. Now More than $20 million is enough to get it done.

Even so, Duke had planned a minimum production budget of $200 million so that Optimus Prime and Megatron would have more chances to show their faces, rather than the Transformers always appearing with a few flashes. Switch to humans.

Compared with "The Dark Knight", the style of "Transformers" is undoubtedly much lower, but in Duke's eyes, "Transformers" is much more important than "The Dark Knight". On the one hand, it is the relationship between commercial benefits. On the other hand, there are feelings that are deeply hidden in the heart and have never been forgotten.

The childhood that once lived on the other side of the Pacific Ocean was the most popular era of "Transformers". How many people have unforgettable images of Optimus Prime and Megatron?

Even if this is destined to be a pure popcorn movie, Duke still intends to play it himself.

This is still the story of a boy and his car. The main audience of the film determines the basic setting, but the script that has passed the review has undergone tremendous changes. First of all, the style of the film is no longer funny, and the role of human beings is important. , but will not overwhelm the guest.

Duke has no sense of humor, nor is he good at being funny, and he will not put something too vulgar in the film. Although the script does not lack some small humor, it will stop there.

There are also male and female protagonists. His films have nothing to do with DreamWorks, and his relationship with Spielberg is not very good. Of course, he will not go to the godson of the old Jewish man; I don't care for Megan Fox's type of actress. Definitely not using...

Just like the materials Duke asked Nancy Josephson to prepare, after the crew was officially established, a wide range of auditions would be held for these two roles.

Then there are the shapes of Optimus Prime and Megatron.

From the first half of this year, when the screenwriter team prepared the script, Duke asked Tina Fey to notify Hasbro headquarters in Rhode Island. According to the copyright agreement signed by the two parties, "Transformers" is directly related to Hasbro. their vital interests, and they are well aware of it. If you want to make the influence of "Transformers" to a new level, it is undoubtedly a wise choice to use Duke as a director.

Hasbro's people also used the greatest enthusiasm and the fastest time to come up with the conceptual design of Transformers in the film.

It was just that when Hasbro's CEO flew to Los Angeles and personally delivered it to Duke's studio, it was directly rejected by Duke.

"Brian. I don't think it's very appropriate."

In the reception room, Duke flipped through the concept drawings and frowned, "They look too much like the characters in the animation."

"I think it's good to be like a little bit."

Sit next to Duke. Hasbro CEO Brian Godnow had a completely different view. "When we were designing. Based on animated characters, we borrowed a lot of Japanese mecha styles..."

Looking at the square blocks in the concept map, like a sturdy robot stacked with boxes, Duke shook his head. "The look is so ugly, I can imagine that they won't have any streamlined beauty when they appear on the big screen."

"Beautiful streamlines?"

Hearing this statement, Brian Goldnow shook his head at a faster speed, "They are a group of robots, and they must conform to the principles of physics. If they are not strong enough, it is impossible to run, jump, and make some difficult movements. "

"Brian, I think you overlooked something."

The CEO has not been in office for a long time, Duke knows this, so he said, "They are not robots, but highly intelligent machine lifeforms. Any living organism will have its own streamlined beauty, and It's not a pure machine shape with rough and rigid lines!"

In Duke's view, the idea of ​​designing Optimus Prime to be bulky and bulky at every turn is extremely wrong.

That's just prototyping a robot on Earth and ignoring an important point, in this sci-fi world, Transformers are not robots!

And the difference between movies on the big screen and cartoons on the small screen is really too big.

To a certain extent, what will appear in the movie will be a group of advanced intelligent life from alien galaxies, but their bodies are made of metal instead of bulky and sturdy earth robots.

"But..." Brian Goldnow thought for a while and changed his tone, "If it is too different from the cartoon image, will it cause some fans to not accept it?"

Duke didn't answer, and instead asked, "Hasbro has also launched a new 3D "Transformers" cartoon in recent years, how is the response?"

Brian Goldnow sighed, but did not speak again.

In recent years, the Transformers cartoons have been criticized by fans without exception.

"Brian, I have adapted a lot of works, and I have a general idea of ​​what kind of image is more in line with the requirements of the big screen and the expectations of mainstream audiences."

After a short pause, Duke said a fact, "The Dark Knight was a big hit at the box office and the surrounding area, and the market response was quite strong, but there were still a large number of Batman fans who didn't like it, and even said on the Internet that I destroyed Batman. image of……"

Turning his head to look at Brian Goldnow, Duke added, "No matter how we adapt "Transformers", in the eyes of some fans, we will destroy their childhood memories, no matter how hot and popular a movie is , and cannot please everyone.”

It's pretty obvious that no matter how it's adapted, the series will be considered by some to have ruined their childhood.

"There's another point."

Although the film adaptation rights are in his hands, he can decide what he wants to do, but Duke will not ignore Hasbro. If the film wants to be a great success, the promotion of the manufacturer is equally important. There is absolutely no need for a huge contradiction.

"Don't you think so? Fans will be more willing to buy new toys and peripheral products after the movie is released if the image of Transformers is sufficiently different from the cartoon."

After sitting and thinking for a few minutes, Brian Goldnow nodded slowly and said, "I will rush back to Rhode Island as soon as possible and let the design department..."

"No, I'll send a design team to LA."

This person who can sit as Hasbro's CEO is also a decisive figure, "to assist you and the crew in their work."

The success of the previous "Transformers" series, which Hasbro spared no effort to promote, has played a very important role.

After sending Brian Goldnow away, Duke went back to the office and hung up on Warner Bros. The film needed too much budget, and Warner Bros. had already started pre-sale and financing.

Movies, especially large-scale commercial production, are a high-investment and high-risk industry, and financing is a fundamental part of it. The amount of investment and how to allocate it can decisively affect a movie. The reason why Hollywood movies can be The continuous production of blockbuster blockbusters and success in the global market are inseparable from the strong capital support behind it.

In the past, due to its confidence in Duke and the consideration of less risk, when Warner Bros. invested in his films, although it would also raise external funds, the amount was relatively small.

It's just that the situation is different now. The huge amount of money invested in "The Dark Knight" has not been recovered, including Duke's "Transformers" and Zack Snyder's "Watchmen" and the new Harry Potter and other masterpieces need to invest a lot of money. , it is impossible for Warner Bros. to come up with too much liquidity, and raising filming funds through various mechanisms has become the primary choice.

In addition to pre-sale of film screening rights to overseas distributors in various regions of the world, Warner Bros. is also preparing to accept investment from a number of foundations.

Since 2004, it has become a trend for investment institutions to initiate film funds to invest in the film projects of a major Hollywood studio for a certain period of time, which is also called "assortment investment".

In this day and age, major Hollywood studios have long been reverted to larger media and entertainment groups, and the globalization trend of the Hollywood film industry has become increasingly evident. "High Concept" movies became mainstream in Hollywood.

According to MPAA statistics, in 1975, the average production cost of a film in the United States was $5 million. By 1987, this figure had reached $20 million. By 2007, the average production cost of major studios had climbed to $70.8 million. The average marketing The cost also reached 45.9 million US dollars, and the total cost has exceeded 100 million US dollars.

With such a large scale of investment, even the annual self-owned funds of major Hollywood studios are difficult to achieve large-scale production.

Although their parent company is strong, they are reluctant to invest too much money in risky film production, and as a public company, no one wants to have too much debt records on their company statements, so they bring in external investors to become The inevitable choice of major Hollywood studios.

However, for a long time in the 1980s and 1990s, Hollywood did not feel much financing pressure, because with the rise of new film distribution channels such as video tapes, cable TV, satellite TV, and European local TV, Hollywood Movies get most of the money through pre-sale rights.

The tax incentives provided by some overseas governments to promote the development of the film industry have also provided a lot of convenience for Hollywood's financing. One of the most particularly German policies has become a loophole used by many Hollywood companies. (To be continued ~^~)

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