Meiyu: I don’t care about the cost when making movies

Chapter 160 Change director? ([-]-in-[-])

"Oh my god, Wayne, he's so handsome!"

The Mean Girls Tiantuan were hiding in the corner, looking at Wayne from a distance, and all of them couldn't help showing nymphomaniac expressions.

Except for Scarlett, who was filming "Taken", everyone else, including Amanda, who was supposed to be in school, all came to attend the movie viewing party.

Of course, basically everyone present knew that they were Wayne's women, so at most they just greeted them politely and kept a distance from them.

And they didn't care about it, not even when Wayne didn't come. As soon as Wayne came, their eyes couldn't help but focus on him.

They have good looks, good figure, elegant and noble temperament, and are so successful in their careers. This is a fatal attraction for young girls like them, not to mention that they are working in Hollywood.

In another corner not far away, Seth Rogen, who was wearing a slightly baggy gray suit and looked a little funny, and Don Cheadle, who was naturally rejected because of his skin color, also subconsciously stopped to chat in low voices, The look he looked at Wayne was filled with envy.

It took more than 20 minutes for Wayne to deal with these overly enthusiastic guys. He nodded and said hello to Martina and the others in the corner, and then followed Sierra, taking Mia and Hannah to the front row. on the movie theater seats.

To be honest, this kind of campus comedy about female high school students is really not very attractive to these distribution company executives whose average age is over 40 years old.

It's completely different from a young man like Wayne who can still watch it with gusto even after he has seen the original version and the first cut version.

Fortunately, they are just here to go through the motions and establish a relationship with Wayne. The main evaluation is based on those professional film purchase experts.

Although these people are generally quite old, they can be valued by these Hollywood giants, which shows that their vision is relatively normal.

"The movie-watching group is a little narrower than action movies and science fiction movies, but now the proportion of teenagers watching movies is increasing rapidly year by year, and it is no longer a small number."

"All the members are beauties, plus Wayne as the male protagonist, the eye-catching quality is beyond five stars. It is absolutely very attractive to those young people, both boys and girls."

"The plot is very humorous and touching. Director Nancy Meyers is worthy of being a well-known director who can make "Eavesdropping on Women". Her grasp of rhythm and scale is just right, and her handling of emotions is very delicate. If Properly promoted, it may be possible to bring parents who are worried about their adolescent children into the movie-watching group.”

"In general, this is a very good campus comedy. It should be able to achieve five-star appeal among young people, especially junior high schools, high schools and college students, but it is not attractive to other movie-watching groups. The strength is relatively average."

"Referring to the box office of films of the same genre as "Admission Notice" and "Ugly Country Party", it is estimated that the box office will be between 1.4 million and 2.5 million."

These movie buying experts objectively analyzed the pros and cons of the movie, and some even gave their own box office predictions for the movie immediately after watching it.

And those senior executives who were just watching the excitement, after briefly communicating with their respective film purchase experts through eyes and words, suddenly became three points more enthusiastic than before watching the film.

Fortunately, Wayne is going to audition for "The Notebook" soon, otherwise he doesn't know how long it will take to get rid of these guys.

"It seems that these people are very optimistic about this movie?"

"Of course, this is our movie, isn't it?"

Wayne, who finally 'escaped' from the screening room, adjusted his suit jacket, smiled at each other with Mia and Jessica, and then ran to Mia's office and found Hannah, who had already ordered takeout and was waiting for them to eat together. Went for lunch.

As for the audition for "The Notebook", it would be the same thing to wait until after lunch, right?

In fact, in "The Notebook", apart from the male and female protagonists he and Jessica, there are only a few main characters, the second male officer Hammond, the parents of the female protagonist Ellie, and the male protagonist Noah 's father, as well as the older versions of the male protagonist 'Noah' and the female protagonist 'Ellie'.

And in addition to the father of the male protagonist 'Noah' and the parents of the female protagonist 'Ellie', 'Hammond' and the elderly versions of 'Noah' and 'Ellie' have actually been decided in advance.

Among them, 'Hammond', the second male lead, was originally designed to be rich, handsome, and humorous. Looking at Hollywood, the only one who is more handsome than Wayne is Leonardo DiCaprio.

Unfortunately, DiCaprio either wanted a salary of more than 2000 million or an additional box office share. With his current funds, he couldn't afford it, so he and screenwriter Jim Sadie proposed revisions at the beginning, keeping the two points of being rich and being funny. , but lower the appearance a little, and make the appearance a little too tall.

Then it fit his image of Nicolas Cage.

It just so happened that Nicolas Cage had just finished filming the war movie "Windtalker" some time ago, and he wanted to star in his favorite romantic literary film, so the two parties hit it off immediately. Nicolas Cage only wanted a salary of 1500 million, and he accepted the role. Quit this role.

In this way, the whole story becomes a handsome, kind, romantic, and infatuated poor boy who defeats the rich, powerful, and humorous middle-aged uncle.

This will better capture the main audience of this movie.

Of course, the plot is somewhat clichéd, so the finishing touch of this movie and its original work comes at the end of the movie, with the appearance of the elderly male protagonist 'Noah' and the female protagonist 'Ellie'.

At this time, the elderly version of 'Ellie' has forgotten 'Noah' and their romantic love because of Alzheimer's disease, so 'Noah' will take the trouble to tell her this story every day and let her Remember his name again and the love between them.

Until the elderly version of 'Noah' was admitted to the emergency room due to a heart disease, a miracle finally defeated the disease. 'Ellie' at the bedside remembered 'Noah' this time without having to tell stories from 'Noah'.

The sentence 'Do you think our love can create miracles' and the sentence 'Do you think our love can take us away together' directly touched the tears of all readers and viewers, directly lifting the entire story to a new level.

Therefore, the role selection of the elderly version of 'Noah' and 'Ellie' is even more important than the selection of the male and female protagonists.

After repeated thinking, he chose Susan Sarandon, with whom he had collaborated once, for the role of the elderly version of 'Ellie'. Whether it was acting skills or image, the Oscar-winning actress was very suitable for this role.

As for the elderly version of 'Noah', he originally found Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins, whom he had worked with once and whom he felt was very good.

It's a pity that with the release of "Hannibal" on the 9th last month, Anthony Hopkins' terrifying image in the minds of the audience may not be able to be reversed for a long time.

In order to prevent the audience from being upset, when they saw the elderly version of 'Noah', they couldn't help but say, 'Holy shit!This is Hannibal! 'He can only find someone else.

After searching around, he finally found the two-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman, who was almost 90 years old and still active in the film industry until he traveled through his past life.

Now the quality of this movie can definitely be considered as it has big names gathered together.The only trouble was that the production budget soared.

For example, Susan Sarandon is okay. Although the Oscar-winning actress is famous, her salary is really not high because of her age.

This time the scene lasted almost 5 minutes, and the pay was only 150 million.

But the same cannot be said for Dustin Hoffman. Although the scene lasted about 5 minutes, his salary was as high as 500 million US dollars.

Coupled with Jessica's 600 million salary and Wayne's own 1300 million salary, the total salary of these leading actors alone is 4050 million US dollars.

Coupled with the salary of the director and screenwriter, the copyright of the original work, etc., the production cost of this film has soared to an astonishing US$5800 million.

As a romance film, this can be considered a very large-scale production.

Then, after seeing this astonishing budget table, Wayne remained silent for a moment. Instead of cutting expenses through various methods or even changing actors as Mia thought, he waved his hand and changed the original budget. The original director, Nick Cassavetes, was replaced by Richard Curtis, a great romantic film director who is only slightly inferior to Garry Marshall and has already proven himself at the box office and in terms of reputation.

The total cost increased again by 400 million, reaching an astonishing 6200 million.

However, after Mia was shocked, she surprisingly did not object.

After all, she felt it was abnormal that such a luxurious cast was not worthy of a great director of Richard Curtis' level.

However, another disadvantage this also brings is that Wayne's system funds have become tight again.

[Remaining film and television investment funds: 7188 million]

[Film and television projects currently in progress:]

[Resident Evil 1 and 2: The production budget was 17500 million, and 15260 million has been invested so far]

[Hurricane Rescue: The production budget is 3500 million, and 1505 million has been invested so far]

[Arhat Eleven (18%): Estimated investment of 1500 million, currently 700 million has been invested]

[Pirates of the Caribbean (16%): Estimated investment of 2000 million, currently 0 invested]

[Spider-Man 1 (22%): Estimated investment of 3000 million, currently 1000 million has been invested]

[The Notebook: Estimated investment is 6200 million, and 1657 million has been invested so far]

[Star Wars Episode 2 (4%): Estimated investment is 1500 million, current investment is 700 million]

[Dog Hotel: Estimated investment is 1800 million, current investment is 0]

To be honest, if "Mean Girls" hadn't been produced in time, he might have had to find a bank loan.

Fortunately, the production of "Mean Girls" was completed in time. With the 6000 million system funds returned, he finally had room for turnover.

After lunch, Wayne took Mia and Jessica to the audition site.

Compared with the past, the scale of this audition was undoubtedly much smaller. After all, including those characters with only one or two lines, there were only eight characters in total that needed to be auditioned.

However, most of them were young and beautiful beauties, which made the corner of Wayne's mouth twitch.

"What, dear, don't you like it?" Mia teased in a low voice with a smile.

"I like it! I really like it! Let's see how I deal with you when I get home tonight~!" Wayne rolled his eyes angrily. He already has enough women now, and he really doesn't want to look for any more in a short time.

However, there is a reason why Mia did not screen out these girls. The best friends of the heroine 'Ellie', as well as several wealthy young men and young ladies who appeared at the wealthy party that brought a huge turning point in the relationship between the hero and heroine. In addition to acting skills, these supporting roles with one or two scenes and lines also have certain requirements for their image and temperament, so it is still necessary to audition in advance.

After all, this is a large-scale production with a cost of 6200 million. Mia didn't want to ignore these details. Before the shooting, she suddenly discovered that all she had found were a bunch of crooked melons and cracked dates. Even if she was wearing gorgeous clothes, she would look like a country bumpkin. So, She is a disgrace to the producer.

It is worth mentioning that Mike's new client, Jonah Hill, who failed to audition for "Mean Girls" last time, is here again this time.

The one he auditioned for was the rich young man who had the biggest role in the scene.

In the movie, this rich man will first brag that he has taken over part of the family business and earns tens of thousands of dollars a month, hoping to attract the attention of 'Ellie'.

It turned out that 'Ellie' didn't look down on him at all. She only fed each other sweetly with the male protagonist 'Noah', and then secretly asked the male protagonist 'Noah' what kind of job he did and how much he could earn in a month. How much money to make.

When the male protagonist 'Noah' answered that he was a carpenter and could earn 40 cents an hour and 4 US dollars a day, he took the lead in laughing at 'Noah'.

Although 'Noah' is not so glass-hearted, he also realizes that it may be impossible for him to get 'Ellie's' family and friends to accept him.

In addition, 'Ellie' and 'Noah' just played outside a little late, and 'Ellie's mother called the police to report that 'Ellie' was missing, fearing that 'Ellie' would be taken over by 'Noah' He was as guarded against 'Noah' as ​​he was against thieves, and even almost sent 'Noah' to jail. Only then was the sad and angry 'Noah' unable to control his temper and had a big quarrel with 'Ellie', saying that they wanted to break up.

Therefore, this role still requires certain acting skills, and if he remembered correctly, Jonah Hill should not have had much contact with acting at this time.

Of course, this kind of small supporting role was left to the director to choose, so he just glanced at it and stopped caring about it, and greeted Nicolas Cage warmly as he took the initiative to walk towards him.

"Hi, Wayne, can I call you that? It was such a pity that we couldn't collaborate on the last "Buried Alive", but it was definitely the right choice for you to come to me for this role!" Nicolas Cage said He gave a tight smile, showing a trademark smile, and at the same time gave an exaggerated thumbs up gesture.

(End of this chapter)