Seven hundred and fifteen – power constraints

“Wonder Woman and Superman are two projects that will open a new chapter in the DC franchise.”

In the huge conference room on the seventh floor of the Warner Bros. Building, Wayne was sitting in the center of the frontmost organizer. There were no less than 200 reporters crowded in front of him, but his voice seemed unhurried.

In addition to his speech in front of the microphone, there were only flashes of a large number of camera equipment, desperately flickering the creaking sound.

“Whether it’s Wonder Woman Diana Prince, or Superman Clark Kent, their stories are too familiar to many fans. I can tell all fans now, the stories of these two important DC heroes. , sure to surprise everyone!

Unfortunately, after the film was approved, I signed a strict nondisclosure agreement with Warner Bros., so I can’t reveal too much information and script details. However, I can assure all DC fans that these two films are definitely more amazing than you expected…! ”

In the face of Wayne, who was talking clichés but refused to reveal any useful movie information, the reporters who were huddled together ignored the discussion.

In particular, the host of the press conference indicated that after entering the free questioning session, a large number of reporters in charge of news interviews all moved forward involuntarily.

“Director Greenberg, can you talk about the main cast of Wonder Woman and Superman.”

Candice Mays, the first reporter to be called on, looked at the man sitting in the center and immediately asked loudly, “The man who played Diana Prince and Clark Kent before was so excited. The actors, although they have also appeared in “The Flash”, but the brief scene did not give clear information, can you talk about these two actors.”

In the past few years, whether it is Christian Bale, who plays Batman, or James Franco, who plays The Flash, all of them have gained huge media attention before the film is officially shot.

Today is no exception, as long as they can get information on who plays Superman and Wonder Woman, journalists don’t have to worry about nothing to write about.

Even with the increasing influence of DC movies, the public’s attention to the main actors is inevitably increasing. This movie series has become a unique landscape in Hollywood. Even if the film has not started shooting, the main actors can step into the public eye first.

“Huh, I thought you were going to ask me something that needed to be kept secret.”

Wayne, who was not far from the female reporter, shrugged his shoulders exaggeratedly. While making fun of himself, he also raised his hand to wipe the sweat that did not exist on his forehead.

His flamboyant performance elicited good-natured laughter in the crowded conference room. However, he didn’t let the reporter from The New York Times wait any longer. He happily spoke to the microphone in front of him and said, “I believe that some careful fans have already discovered something from the easter eggs of “The Flash”.

Yes, Ben Affleck signed a related movie contract with Warner Bros. as early as a year ago, and he will play Superman Clark Kent. As for Wonder Woman, Diana Prince, will be played by Angelina Jolie. At present, the two of them are undergoing related training before shooting, and will meet everyone at the opening press conference at the latest. ”

Ben Affleck, Angelina Jolie!

When the reporters heard these two names, the temporary press room immediately fell into a burst of discussion. Most reporters are not surprised, as long as you refer to Wayne’s previous employment habits, it is not difficult to come to this conclusion.

In fact, whether it’s Ben Affleck or Angelina Jolie, at least they are not unfamiliar names in the circle.

The former, together with his friend Matt Damon, showed a ruthless face in “Soul Catcher”. The latter is even more familiar. The female storm set off by “Charlie’s Angels” this summer has allowed the actress, who has grown up in the circle since she was a child, to remind all audiences around the world what a hot body is.

Even more impressive, in fact, is the pair of **** lips. When many people heard this name, they remembered that the only clear image of the museum staff at the end of “The Flash” left the audience with these unique and **** lips.

“Director Greenberg, can you talk about Superman who returned after many years?” The reporters stopped talking, and a female reporter in a professional skirt in the front row looked at Wayne and asked.

I am afraid most people have to admit that the popularity of Superman Clark Kent is unique among all superheroes. The reporters at the scene are also very clear that fans must be more concerned about the information about Superman.

“Ha, I have to correct you first, Superman is not a return, but a reboot!”

After a little thought, Wayne cleared his throat and replied into the microphone: “The Superman we’re about to see is completely different from what’s been shown on the big screen before. Sorry, I’m not disrespecting Richard. – Donner and Richard Lester (director of Superman 1.2.3), just want to make a special point, whether Superman or Wonder Woman has nothing to do with the previous story.”

“Wayne, can you reveal the specifics?”

Wayne watched the reporters spread their hands and shook his head with a smile. “No, don’t take my word for it, I can only tell you that they are different from all the previous works.”

Facing the reporters’ questions in different ways, Wayne handled it with ease, and in this environment, there was no one who deliberately asked for trouble.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to reveal some plot information, but that these two films are so special that even if they don’t reveal anything, the public can probably guess what they’re shooting. After all, what ordinary person has not heard of the related stories of these two characters?

Faced with such a situation, Wayne simply chose to keep the sense of mystery to avoid the embarrassment that the audience would lose the novelty before the film was released.

Normally, before a Hollywood movie is released, whether the plot is leaked or not, the impact on the movie is disastrous.

There are countless similar things happening in Hollywood, but to talk about it, I have to mention the hapless old Quentin Tarantino. When his new film “The Hateful Eight” was just approved, his entire script of more than 100 pages was leaked, and the entire Hollywood and North America knew what he was going to shoot.

But the ruffian Quentin was the one who got the news last, because countless actor agents frantically called Quentin’s agent to recommend himself, trying to get a role.

Therefore, “The Hateful Eight” finally appeared in the eyes of the world is the second version of the script that Quentin Tarantino rearranged before the official start of filming. The two scripts can be said to have nothing to do with each other.

But even so, the results of “The Hateful Eight” are still unsatisfactory. Until the film’s release, the North American box office was just over $50 million. You know, this result is completely inconsistent with Harvey Weinstein’s expectations. As for whether the film’s performance has been affected by the plot leak, I’m afraid even fools can guess.

The routine project launch conference ended after Warner Bros. staff showed the contract between the two parties. In fact, the contract shown to reporters was just a ceremonial thing. The real contract was held as early as the day before the conference. , Wayne has signed with Warner Bros.

To a certain extent, when Warner Bros. gave a confirmed response to the two projects “Superman” and “Wonder Woman” through a series of market research and risk assessment, Warner Bros. basically acquiesced in the dominant role. the remuneration package.

As Wayne’s agent, Jimmy is already nostalgic for the early ’90s, when he could always get a sense of accomplishment from sparring with Warner Bros. In the past two years, negotiating for his own clients’ compensation has become more and more boring for him.

Putting aside everything else, Warner Bros. and Jimmy have a tacit understanding of Wayne’s personal treatment. At least in the DC series, there is no dispute about his treatment at all.

Regardless of his titles as producer, director, screenwriter, etc. in these two projects, in fact, his main source of salary has always been the directorship. Not only did the basic salary in the early stage and the box office share in the later stage have not changed at all, even the treatment and standards in some jobs looked so familiar.

At one point, Jimmy was even extremely suspicious that the executives of Warner Bros. directly changed the name of the director contract of “The Flash” and put it on the negotiating table.

Perhaps for the large-scale projects of other film companies, the director’s contract is a “big tome” that requires a long period of wrangling and takes several months to grind out. When it came to Warner Bros. and Wayne, the time loss in this area was obviously saved, because both parties understood that the salary he received was already the top in the circle.

If you want to go further, it is completely beyond the scope of the director or producer. Unless it involves the offline division of the film, but in the DC movie series, the most unlikely condition given by Warner Bros. is the offline division of the film.

After all, this series is completely different from the projects jointly invested by the two parties. You must know that Warner Bros. produced the DC series of projects, but did not introduce any external financing. As long as it involves the DC series of films, all of them are produced by Warner Bros. themselves with working capital. .

On the day of the project launch conference, Wayne did not leave the Warner Bros. Building, but just changed a conference room to have a routine meeting with his core behind-the-scenes creators.

Including editor Julia, two producers Charles Rowan and Luke Simmons, director of photography Robert, director of props Weeks, director of lighting Steve, assistant director Schwartz and others, all here waiting for him in the meeting room.

These people have not been working with him for a year or two, and they all understand the work style of the crew leader. From the moment he signed the director contract, Wayne will be full of clockwork and devote himself to the work. at work.

As before, without any nonsense, Wayne methodically arranged his work one by one.

“Luke, Charles, and Warner Bros. have two tranches of $40 million each into the accounts of Superman Studios and Wonder Woman Studios by tomorrow morning. You’ve been eyeing the first funding of your respective projects until Enter the account of the third-party insurance company!”

“No question, boss.” Luke Simmons happily agreed.

“I’ll keep an eye on Superman.” Charles Rowan responded aloud.

“Schwartz, release an audition invitation to the agency in the circle.” Wayne nodded with satisfaction, his eyes swept across the faces of everyone in the conference room, and finally stopped on the casting director. “The location is still at Warner Studios. Note that there must be a lot of people auditioning in the first round. You have to pay attention to screening.”

“I understand, boss, leave it to me.”

This is a team that has cooperated many times, and there is no need for running-in at all. As Wayne communicated with the heads of various departments one by one, the brief preparatory meeting quickly came to an end.

In the end, his eyes were fixed on Zach Snyder. “Zach, go and gather your team behind The Matrix. Charles will assist you with the preparations. You have plenty of time. If you have any difficulties, feel free to call me at any time.”

“Okay.” Facing the gazes of everyone in the conference room, Zach Snyder nodded low-key, looked at “Superman” producer Charles Rowan, and resumed his silence again.

The other behind-the-scenes supervisors looked at him well, but most of them only had a little envy in their eyes. Everyone knows that as long as there is nothing wrong with this “Superman”, even if the director of the commercial film from New York has really made it, there will be countless big projects waiting for him later.

However, in the eyes of everyone, it is not difficult to find that some people have Chi Luoluo’s jealousy in their eyes. Precisely, the identities of these people are mostly assistant directors responsible for various specific affairs in the crew. Even Schwartz, a high-level casting assistant director, looks at Zach Snyder with complex eyes.

After the brief preparatory meeting, everyone started to get busy. Wayne arrived at Warner Bros. again early the next morning, met with a representative of a third-party insurance company, and signed a film guarantee contract.

This can be said to be the most important process after the project is established, and it is also a pistol behind the director and producer.

The introduction of third-party insurance companies into the modern Hollywood film production system has long been part of commercial projects. The biggest difference between commercial films and small-budget independent films is also here.

From the day the crew signed a guarantee agreement with a third-party insurance company, representatives of the insurance company will be stationed in the crew that is under preparation. The investor’s funds for the project will also enter the account of the third-party insurance company. Basically, no matter what the crew wants to do, as long as it involves spending money, the producer needs to communicate with the representative of the insurance company.

On the surface, it is like putting a pair of shackles on the core creators of the crew. Even after the filming officially started, the representatives of the third-party insurance company would observe the director’s shooting plan every day and communicate the shooting plan for the next day.

Their purpose is very clear, that is, they must ensure that the crew is working according to the predetermined plan, and try to avoid various types of waste, which includes time and money. In-sale production is complete.

As for the quality of the finished film, etc., that’s not what they are responsible for. They supervise the operation of the entire crew almost strictly, in order to ensure that the film is completed and will not die halfway due to various reasons.

No director likes a film completion guarantee, and Wayne is the same. From the perspective of investors and distributors, the introduction of film completion guarantees can protect their interests to the greatest extent. This is a practice that has been established in Hollywood for many years. If you want to survive in this industrial system, you must abide by this set of rules and accept this set of rules.

Don’t think that all Hollywood crews are so reliable. In fact, it can be said that it is not uncommon for crews to die in the middle of the filming due to various mishaps.

At this time, when the film completion guarantee comes into play, they will inject capital into the crew, and even re-recruit relevant staff to complete the production of the insured project until it is delivered to the distribution company.

Of course, this is a situation that no one wants to see, because once such a situation occurs, the quality of the film is not guaranteed at all.

In fact, when a representative of a third-party insurance company enters the crew, and the investor’s funds enter the joint account of the crew and the insurance company, the preparatory work for the project is officially started.

Of course, this also involves complex issues such as investors, distributors, whether the film has copyright pre-sale, whether there is advertising implantation revenue, and whether the implantation revenue is directly included in the production cost.

But the actual meaning will not change. The representative of the film completion guarantee company in the crew will not usually intervene in the normal work of the crew. But once they suspect or determine that Wayne’s shooting plan is at risk of overspending, which will endanger the interests of investors and insurance companies, the insurance company can immediately freeze the accounts associated with the crew.

The filming risk of the crew will then be assessed, and if necessary, they can also replace the entire working team, so as to ensure the interests of investors, UU Reading www. uukanshu.com filmed the film in its entirety.

However, this is only the final red line of the guarantee contract for the completion of the film. During the normal work of the crew, neither the investor, the crew nor the third-party insurance company would be willing to trigger this red line. Once triggered, everyone will lose together.

As the world’s film center, the world’s leading entertainment industry, the Hollywood film industry seems to be filled with all kinds of myths, praise and crazy worship. Money, fame, power, and desire gather here, and fashion, honor, and scandal also multiply here.

But under all the splendor, the Hollywood film industry maintains a steady stream of investment, and behind the growing scale, it is actually a power constraint!

Except for the distribution companies that stand at the apex, every Hollywood film production process is full of constraints on power. Just like the introduction of film completion guarantees, even directors and producers with top-level privileges in the circle cannot avoid this supervision. It can be said that power constraints are the underlying logic to stabilize the Hollywood film industry.

Note that power constraints are only applicable to commercial projects with well-established systems. The low-cost independent films are still the words of directors and investors, and this underlying logic does not apply. The reason is very simple, their first goal of making films is not to make money.

Fortunately, Wayne had already adapted to similar rules, and his past work history was also the favorite of third-party insurance companies.

After successfully completing the film guarantee agreement, Wayne also began to gradually enter the working state and enter the role of the film director. At the same time, the preparatory work of the crew is also rapidly unfolding at Warner Studios.

In early October, the important audition work in the early stage of “Wonder Woman” had just begun, and he had to temporarily pull out his energy and set his sights on the final round of “The Lord of the Rings” audition.