Rebirth of the internet boss

Chapter 578 The Opportunity Comes
To say how miserable Marvel is, it must be "washed by the water of the Yellow River" to be miserable.

Everyone knows that in the history of comics in North America, Marvel and DC have always been equally divided. Although other comic companies have appeared, there is no way to compare with these two companies in terms of influence.

During the peak period of Marvel, there was actually a chance to acquire DC, but then Marvel did not look at DC, and then DC was cheaper than Time Warner!

Later, DC, backed by Time Warner, began to prosper, and Marvel also had to find a good backer if they wanted to make movies. At that time, they were looking for New World Pictures. Wei, established Marvel Entertainment Group, and has the intention of making movies.

The box office of DC's "Superman" next door is smashing. Marvel is jealous, but there is no way. DC was acquired by Time Warner as early as the 60s. The backing is rich and powerful, and DC has no worries about making movies.

And the new "backer" New World Pictures that Marvel has found is just a small company.

Therefore, if Marvel wants to make a movie, it can only be discussed with other film companies. If the latter has the intention to make a movie, then the role must be authorized to the other party. This is the origin of "selling heroes". In the 80s, Marvel entered the film industry. Under the leadership of Stan Lee, the CEO of Marvel Comics at the time, Marvel came into contact with a large number of film industries, which was also the first wave of Marvel's "selling heroes".

During this period, "Soldier from Heaven" in 1986 and "The Punisher" in 1989 were all films that sold character copyrights. Unfortunately, the box office and word-of-mouth movies produced by these low-level companies were poor. In 1990, "Captain America" ​​and "Captain America" In the end, "Fantastic Four" in 1994 didn't even have a chance to be shown in theaters, only the videotape was found.

No way, the founder of the parent company, New World Pictures, is Roger Corman, who fans should be familiar with. He is the king of Hollywood B-movies and is good at producing low-cost "exploitation films."

Although he sold the company in 83, with such a former boss around, it is not difficult to understand why those Marvel films did not enter the mainstream back then.

Stan Lee had no temper. At that time, the general environment was like this, and major companies planned to film superheroes as violent madmen or monsters.

When Li Feng and Lu Lu talked about Spider-Man before, he had already mentioned it, which shows the helplessness of Marvel.

In early 1989, capitalist Ronald Perelman spent $8250 million to acquire Marvel Entertainment Group, which was originally owned by New World Pictures. As a result, Marvel's bad days came.

This Perelman is a layman who knows nothing about marketing and hype. In two years, he led Marvel to go public, bought shares in the toy company Toy Biz, and bought comics to collect character cards. "Noodle" marketing, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, and the comics industry in the 90s were impacted by film and television, so the sales of Marvel comics plummeted by 70%.

Seeing that the limelight was wrong, the big guy immediately transformed and wanted to vigorously develop films in order to turn the tide. Among them, the film department "Marvel Films" was also established at this time, that is, in 1993, but it was still called Marvel Film at that time, and began to sell characters everywhere. Copyright behavior, this is Marvel's second wave of "selling characters" climax.

But Marvel, which had sold so many sons, still couldn't survive. In 1996, Marvel filed for bankruptcy.

In December 1996, Perelman packed up and left, and Marvel restructured and merged with the toy company Toy Biz. The director of the latter, Avi Allard, was in charge of Marvel, but it was still poor.

However, at this time, Marvel has begun to cooperate extensively with major companies in film projects.

Because Marvel Pictures, which had just been established at this time, had nothing to do and had no ability to independently develop movies, it agreed with other companies that "you make movies, I will provide characters" and sold hero copyrights aggressively.

But the treatment of superheroes in other companies in the past 10 years is also seen in the eyes. Those laymen don’t understand bullshit, and the scripts they write are either restricted horror movies or tough guy action movies. Shooting Hulk as Schwarzenegger is still not enough. Great?

In order to avoid the "barbaric growth" of its own hero IP, this time Marvel has an extra mind, not just "you make a movie, I provide the character", we want to have closer contact with your company, and we must intervene in all aspects.

To put it simply, Marvel Pictures participates in the film, provides inspiration, is responsible for staff, and limits (corrects) the style to prevent the characters from wandering.

In this way, although Marvel does not interfere with your creation, at least it guarantees that the final effect of the movie is a "superhero movie" rather than a mess.

The above-mentioned "modification of style", in addition to the suggestion of the character, there is another very important decision: the story of the Marvel heroes should be based on the plot of the comics, which is very rare in the world.You know, although the "Superman" and "Batman" series of DC next door at that time were adapted from comics, the stories were all original, and the plots were completely incompatible with comics.

You know, the cooperation just mentioned, Marvel is almost a free service!

At that time, Marvel Pictures, which was poor and white, had to rush to ask others in order to actively promote Marvel superhero movies. This is the law of survival in Hollywood.

Therefore, "Blade Warrior", produced by New Line in 1998, was the first superhero movie assisted in the development of Marvel Pictures after its establishment, with a North American box office of 7000 million, the annual black horse.

Subsequently, in 2000, Fox's "X-Men" had a North American box office of 1.57 million U.S. dollars.

These two movies made North American audiences realize that this is called a "Marvel superhero movie", which is different from the previous "Superman" and "Batman".

It also made audiences all over the world discover that these unheard of comic heroes are actually quite good-looking when they are made into movies.

The later stories are relatively familiar to everyone. After the haze of 911/8, superheroes assumed the role of spiritual food and savior for the people. Sony’s "Spiderman" finally swept the world with [-] million box office, and superhero movies suddenly emerged.

And all of this is due to Avi Allard. At that time, Kevin Fitch was just Avi Arad's assistant.

Avi Allard is Kevin Fitch's bole, and the latter is the real manipulator of the MCU, and for the first time figured out the relationship between different movies in the form of "easter eggs" without destroying the story idea.

It can be seen that "Movie Universe", one of the greatest ideas in film history, was not someone's idea, Avi Allard's creative inspiration, Kevin Fitch's execution ability, the predecessors planted trees and the descendants took advantage of the shade.

In fact, at this time, not only Li Feng is thinking about Marvel, but there are also many problems with Marvel.

Marvel, which has decided to develop its own movies, naturally has to face the biggest problem at this time, which is lack of money!
And now the schedule of filming has been brought up by them. After much research, they finally decided to use "Iron Man" as their first film in the Marvel Universe!
If "Iron Man" is profitable, then Marvel will skyrocket; if "Iron Man" fails, then Marvel will be... probably not.

First of all, what Marvel Pictures has determined is the director of this movie, Jon Favreau, who is also Harpy in the movie "Iron Man".

Everyone knows that Hollywood movies are based on the producer system. As the current helm of Marvel Pictures, Kevin Fitch will naturally be the producer of "Iron Man".

After confirming the director, they began to discuss the leading role of the film, the soul character Tony Stark, and the candidate for Pepper.

"Rachel has rejected my invitation!" Jon Favreau sat in his seat, looking a little decadent. After confirming the filming of "Iron Man", although Jon Favreau has not yet found I have a suitable candidate for Iron Man in my mind, but I already have a candidate for Pepper.

It was Rachel McAdams, who starred in "Wedding Crashers."

But it's a pity that Rachel McAdams didn't like the movie very much, so he rejected Jon Favreau's invitation.

For this, Jon Favreau could only express helplessness.

Kevin Fitch was sitting in the main seat, scratching his head a little, and said, "There are some actors who expressed interest in this movie, but his salary."

Kevin Fitch didn't say anything about the latter, but Jon Favreau also knows that the current Marvel can be said to be tightening their belts in the production of "Iron Man". Those who expressed interest in Tony Stark Actors are basically big-name actors, such as Tom Cruise and Nicolas Cage, but their salaries are obviously not what the current Marvel can afford.

And most importantly, Marvel is running out of money right now.

Prior to this, Kevin Fitch had already contacted a number of Wall Street investment institutions, wanting to use Marvel's superhero copyright as a mortgage.

But with Marvel's most popular "Little Spider" now falling to Sony, none of the other popular heroes are under Marvel's name, and there are only some second-rate characters left. They are not very optimistic about this Marvel character. plan.

After Marvel's three big waves of selling heroes, the popularity of the superheroes that Marvel still owns can only be regarded as second-rate.

The heroes sold for the third time are basically clearance sales. Captain America, Thor, Black Widow, Punisher, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Deadpool, Iron Fist, humanoid, vampire Mobius, etc., they The contract is still the famous "5-year new film".

To put it bluntly, these are all leftover, unwanted roles.
And now the Iron Man set by Marvel is actually just a second-rate character in Marvel comics before the movie comes out, only better than the hero sold for the third time.

Belonging to the second rate.

In the 1990s, the two heroes "Iron Man" and "Hulk" were bought by Universal Pictures. Iron Man was not taken seriously after being bought by Universal Pictures. Gordon planned to direct it, and he knew it would look like a low-budget B-grade movie.

By 1996, the rights to Iron Man were sold to 20th Century Fox.

Fox, on the other hand, hopes to make it into a blockbuster, start attracting investment, and cast a wide net.

Not long after, the first big name came, Nicolas Cage!

This one is interested in playing Stark.

Then in 1998 came the bigger guy, Tom Cruise!
He's going to play Stark and could serve as a producer.

When Stan Lee saw it, he wouldn't refuse anyone!
So he wrote the script himself, and co-wrote it with the screenwriter of "Immortal Enemy". The villain in the script is the big-headed ghost "Modoc".

But Fox didn't like this story, so he found another fairy—the ruffian Quentin!Fox wants him to rewrite the script, and also intends to let him direct!

But none of this was put into action, because Fox felt that there were too many superhero copyrights in its hands, and the copyright of Iron Man was sold to New Line Pictures in early 2000.

New Line Pictures liked Stan Lee's original script very much, but they didn't have time to shoot: firstly, New Line had no energy to shoot "Blade Warrior" and "Lord of the Rings", and secondly, Marvel Pictures was working with Fox Sony on " Spider-Man and X-Men were in full swing, and there was no time for Stark.

In 2001, New Line Films planned to restart the "Iron Man" project, but this version was still not filmed because of an accident with the director and screenwriter.

It is worth mentioning that in this version of the script at that time, there was a plot where Nick Fury appeared as a guest role on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the script consultant at that time was a big fan of Iron Man, called Joss Whedon.

That is, the one who directed "Avengers 1 and 2".

Now that Marvel has Iron Man in its pocket again, it is ready to make this movie the first movie in the Marvel universe!

The problem facing Kevin Feige now is that there is no money and no one.

Except for the producer Kevin Feige and the director Jon Favreau, there is nothing.

"It seems that actors can only be recruited publicly in Hollywood!" Kevin Fitch said.

Jon Favreau nodded. There was no other way. "That's the only way to go. By the way, Robert Downey Jr. asked me about Tony Stark before."

Kevin Fitch shook his head and said, "Forget about Robert Downey Jr. Although Marvel is more difficult now, it's not enough to use a tainted actor!"

Robert Downey Jr., in the early 90s, could be regarded as a hot fried chicken in Hollywood.

Robert Downey Jr. was born in the second generation of stars. His father is a Hollywood director and his mother is a Hollywood actor. Robert Downey Jr. perfectly inherited the advantages of the two.

In 93, he was shortlisted for the best actor award for "Chaplin". At that time, Robert Downey Jr. was only 27 years old!
It's a pity that Robert Downey Jr., who became famous at a young age, quickly lost himself, then went astray, and was forced to do so later.

Now Kevin Fitch is putting all his eggs in one basket for "Iron Man", how could he agree to let Robert Downey Jr. become Iron Man.

"I actually think Robert Downey Jr. should be auditioning, because he was a really good actor before, and I hear he's got over his own bad habits now."

Jon Favreau knew Robert Downey Jr., although he wasn't sure whether Robert Downey Jr. would meet his requirements after trying on clothes, but he believed that Robert Downey Jr. should be given a chance.

Kevin Fitch glanced at Jon Favreau. At this time, he didn't want to refute Jon Favreau's opinion too much. After all, there are only the two of them in the entire crew now. If Jon Favreau is upset , I really only have the bare commander left.

"Okay, just send him an audition notice!" Finally Kevin Fitch agreed.

But even though he agreed to Jon Favreau to let Robert Downey Jr. audition, Kevin Fitch still decided to tell Jon Favreau not to use Robert Downey Jr. after the audition.

And at that time, Kevin Fitch also believed that after auditioning, they could find suitable actors.

Jon Favreau was also very happy to see that Kevin Fitch agreed to his request. He liked the Iron Man movie very much and hoped to be able to direct it.

Any director hopes that he has a certain right to speak in the crew, especially directors under the Hollywood system, even more hope that they have more rights.

In the Hollywood system, the most powerful is the film producer. Usually, after a producer finds a good film project, he starts to recruit directors and actors.

The director's rights have been greatly reduced, and the most important thing is that if the director is disobedient, he can be replaced by the producer at any time.

After Wu Yusen came to Hollywood, he once said that he was one of the few Hollywood film directors who had the right to edit the films he shot. In fact, he can only be regarded as a director in the middle position.

The director who has the real right in Hollywood is the one who is able to serve as the director of this movie and also the producer of this movie at the same time. This is the real right.

Such directors include Spielberg, Lucas and others.

Jon Favreau is naturally unable to reach this level now, but he still hopes to have more say in this movie.

"Okay, I'll notify him later!" Jon Favreau said happily.

Kevin Fitch said: "I will go to Wall Street again in the next two days, and I will talk to Merrill Lynch again. I hope this time it will be successful!"

Kevin Fitch has gone to Wall Street many times, but up to now the only one that can make them accept the contract is Merrill Lynch.

Jon Favreau naturally has no right to speak in such matters, and said: "Then I will start auditioning actors here!"

Kevin Fitch nodded and said, "That's the only way to go, let's split up!"

After the meeting with Jon Favreau, Kevin Fitch went to see Stan Lee again. Although Stan Lee has now established his own company, Stan Lee's reputation in Marvel is really too great. At the same time, there is still a part of the shares in Marvel. Kevin Fitch has just taken over Avi Allard's position not long ago. In Marvel, he needs someone to support him.

Now the distribution of Marvel's copyright is also quite troublesome. First of all, the major shareholders must be Toy Biz toys, as well as Stan Lee, and there are also many Wall Street investors.

Although Kevin Fitch and Avi Allard had a good relationship before, there are still some problems now.

He could only seek the support of Stan Lee.

Fortunately, what Stan Lee is thinking about now is to bring Marvel's superheroes to the big screen, so he still supports Kevin Fitch very much.

After getting Stan Lee's support, Kevin Fitch finally felt relieved.

After returning to his home, Kevin Fitch sat in his study, behind him was a huge Marvel comic, which was his goal. Although Marvel is poor and empty now, Kevin Feige Fitch believes that under his leadership, Marvel will grow into a big company like the seven big Hollywood.

At that time, I will be one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood!
On the same night, the anxious Robert Downey Jr. received a call from Jon Favreau, who informed him to audition at the company tomorrow.

After receiving the news, Robert Downey Jr. waved his fist excitedly. Robert Downey Jr., who was once famous in Hollywood, has plummeted in Hollywood since he came out.

In the past, only Hollywood's A-level movies could catch Robert Downey Jr. Now, how many crews Robert Downey Jr. has recommended himself, even he himself doesn't remember, but the result is undoubtedly not to go out on a whim Come back disappointed.

In the end, I could only play some supporting roles in some low-cost movies.

Some time ago he knew that Marvel Pictures was planning to invest in the filming of "Iron Man", and he immediately thought of his friend Jon Favreau.

Fortunately, Jon Favreau did not directly reject himself like others, and promised himself that he would fight for himself in front of Kevin Fitch, and now he finally has good news!

It seems that I am really grateful to the person who knocked me down today. Although I didn't see who it was, I heard the voice of "Iron Man", and now the opportunity has come.

.....
(End of this chapter)