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

Chapter 184 Is this all for audition? !

"Are you going shopping soon?"

"Yes, honey, do you want to come along?"

".Forget it, I'm going. There's no need to wait until tomorrow morning, I'll be on the entertainment headlines tonight~"

"Then it's just us. We just happened to plan to watch "The Mummy Returns" which was released a few days ago. I heard it's quite good."

After dinner, Mia and the three of them went shopping and watching movies with Charlize Theron, Lydia and Amanda.

Wayne was very pleased to see them getting along so well.

"OK, but don't forget to bring your bodyguards."

"I know~"

Although the security in Beverly Hills is very good and there are basically no zero-dollar purchases, but they are not afraid of ten thousand, just in case, Wayne still asked them to bring bodyguards.

"By the way, the company has received dozens of investment project documents recently. If you have time, please read them as soon as possible so that I can reply to them as soon as possible."

"Ok."

Wayne responded casually without taking it seriously.

Then he and Masami Nagasawa walked in the garden for a while, then returned to the study and continued writing the script.

As we all know, women do not notice physical exertion when they go shopping. It is not until they return home with large and small bags that they suddenly realize that they are exhausted.

As a result, when Mia and the others came back around eleven o'clock, they were all yawning from exhaustion, and even if they wanted to start a fight, they had no energy left.

This made Wayne, who was still planning to have an in-depth communication with them, speechlessly change his goal.

While enjoying the service of the four Nagasawa Masamis, they looked at the thick stack of dozens of project documents.

"Black Water Shark. House of Death Mandarin Duck Kidnapper"

"Shet!"

"What and what is this, I have never heard of it at all!"

After just flipping through a few books, Wayne couldn't help showing a speechless expression.

Even his name, who specializes in Hollywood film history, has never been heard of. You can imagine how bad these films were. Maybe most of them failed to even attract investment and simply died.

Wayne was a bit angry.

Fortunately, Masami Nagasawa and the others could help, so he patiently continued to read.

Not to mention, I actually found a few surprises.

For example, although the box office was only 2860 million, the official production cost plus publicity and distribution expenses were only 1260 million in total, and a series of 7 "Fatal Turns" was filmed in one shot.

Another example is the "Delivery" trilogy starring Jason Statham, each one of which has a higher box office than the last.

But what surprised him the most was the classic disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow", which was written, directed and produced by Roland Emmerich. It can be said that he did most of the work single-handedly.

As the director of "Independence Day", Roland Emmerich is well-known in Hollywood. If he wants to make a new disaster movie, many people are willing to invest in it.

However, the production cost of "The Day After Tomorrow" is a bit too high, requiring a full US$1.25 million, so Roland Emmerich is still seeking investment.

If the trajectory of history does not change, he may not be able to raise enough investment until next year, and he will not be able to start filming until the end of next year or the beginning of the next year.

This movie had a global box office of US$5.44 million in his previous life. If the conditions were right, Wayne would naturally be happy to invest.

However, I don’t know if Roland Emmerich thinks that the box office of “The Day After Tomorrow” will be similar to “Independence Day” which earned 8.17 million global box office.

Actually, it only offered an investment of 2000 million, with a 10% box office priority share, plus the condition of the right to cast the heroine.

Based on the box office of 5.44 million, the 10% priority box office share is only about 2500 million.

He invested 2000 million and spent nearly three years to earn 500 million and still have to pay taxes?
Are you taking him for a fool?
Of course, Roland Emmerich could not and did not dare to regard Wayne as a fool. He just thought of himself a little too high.

"Forget about "The Day After Tomorrow" and snatch his "2012" away~"

Wayne thought silently in his heart.

Although "2012" may not be as good as "The Day After Tomorrow" in terms of classicness, it is much higher than "The Day After Tomorrow" at the box office.

Among all the films directed by Roland Emmerich, this one only grossed 2000 million less than "Independence Day."

At the same time, "2012" was also Roland Emmerich's final peak. After that, the box office of the movies he made was lower than the last.

Even with a production cost of US$2 million, "Independence Day: Resurgence", which also borrowed the classic IP of "Independence Day", only achieved a global box office of US$3.89 million.

The box office of "Moonfall" released in 2022 was only a pitiful 6700 million, and it was almost eliminated by the audience and the times.

Thinking of this, Wayne curled his lips in disdain, without even thinking about bargaining, he directly threw away the investment project book for "The Day After Tomorrow", and then picked up the project books for "Deadly Express" and "Deadly Curve" again.

Among them, the conditions offered to him in "Fatal Turn" were an investment of 500 million, a 70% priority box office share and the right to cast all female characters.

This condition seems to be very good, but he who has seen the original version knows that the actual shooting cost of "Fatal Turn" is actually only about 200 million.

500 million is enough to cover all shooting and publicity expenses!

However, the box office share ratio is only 70%. This means that the director and the distribution company can get 30% of the box office share and subsequent disc sales without paying a penny or taking any risks. This abacus also sounded loud and clear.

On the contrary, the conditions on "Death-Destroying Express" are quite reasonable.

Luc Besson, who is also a screenwriter and producer, invested 800 million, with 50% priority in box office sharing, plus the right to choose the heroine.

Calculated based on the box office of his previous life, he could probably earn 2200 million yuan, a return rate of 175%.

The only thing that made him hesitate a little was that the entire movie took about a year from preparation to release, which was a little long.

"Forget it, 800 million is not much anyway. It just so happens that the heroine of this movie is Asian."

"As for Deadly Turn."

Wayne thought about it for a moment.

If based on the box office performance of his previous life, his 500 million investment would have yielded almost 980 million, with a return rate of only 96%.

It is said that there are all female characters, but in fact there are only three in total, and one of them was killed at the beginning, and died miserably.

The only advantage may be that the production cycle is short.From preparation to completion, it only takes about three months.

So after thinking about it, he still planned to give the other party a chance and offered an investment of 350 million, 80% of the box office share, plus the condition of ownership of the sequel.

If the other party doesn't agree, then this piece of useless information will be discarded directly.

After a long stretch and finishing these unimportant tasks, Wayne no longer wasted time and directly pulled up Nagasawa Masami and Ogura Yuko who were kneeling on the ground, and returned with the four of them. the bedroom.

Wayne had no sympathy for them at all.

In addition, all four of them had a bit of a masochistic tendency, so they communicated until about four o'clock in the morning.

After the exchange, the four of them couldn't get out of bed until dinner time, so they had to ask other maids to help feed them.

On the other side, after having a refreshed breakfast, Wayne drove to the company with Mia and Hannah. As a result, when passing by the tea room, they happened to meet someone hiding in the tea room, taking sandwiches and coffee as food. Quentin at Breakfast.

"Hey, Quentin, it seems that your sleep quality has been very bad recently? Haven't you tried the Qi-boosting soup I recommended to you?"

"." Quentin, who had a chicken coop, dark circles under his eyes, and a sallow complexion, resisted the urge to raise his middle finger when he heard this and rolled his eyes.

It's because he drank too much Qi-Building Soup that he has poor sleep quality, right?
From a certain perspective, the 'refreshing effect' of this qi-tonifying soup is comparable to drinking seven or eight cups of espresso coffee in one go in the middle of the night.

It doesn't matter if it's a handsome guy like Wayne or DiCaprio.

But if you look like Quentin...
Although Quentin is rich now, he still plans to save the money and invest it when he is filming "Kill Bill" to make the movie better.

Let him spend money to find it, but now he is reluctant to part with it.

Wayne on the side saw that he seemed a little resentful, so he decided to tell him the good news in advance.

As a result, after listening to Quentin's words, he didn't show any happy expression on his face, but his eyes were as wide as copper bells. He was silent for a full minute, and then he slowly exhaled, his chest was like an old bellows. Ups and downs, using dry and hoarse swear words.

"Shet!"

"You are a devil!"

"450 million? The production cost exceeds 1.6 million US dollars? I simply can't refuse this!"

"Haha!" Wayne laughed and patted his shoulder. Without disturbing him for breakfast, he decisively left the tea room with Mia and Hannah.

Next, Wayne first went to Mia's office to sit for a while, and at the same time told her about the investment he had thought about last night. Then when the time was almost up, he took Hannah to the audition site of "Wedding Crashers" .

When choosing a director for this movie, the candidates he proposed happened to have time, so he finally chose to direct Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz, etc. There are many big-name stars, including Peter Farrelly, who has had many blockbuster works.

Although Peter Farrelly's salary is the most expensive among all candidate directors, the director is so important to a movie, so Wayne, who is not short of money, naturally wants to choose the best director possible.

In addition, he only confirmed that the female lead 'Claire' will be played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, and the second female lead 'Glory' will be played by Isla Fisher, who played this role in the original version. Starring.

Although the second male lead contacted the original Vince Vaughn, Wayne did not directly finalize and sign a contract with him, but just asked him to audition.

In addition, there are many supporting actresses in this movie, who only have two 30-second scenes and one or two lines of dialogue.

At the same time, the male villain "William", the third male villain, and the fourth male villain "Minister Father", the second female villain, have not yet been confirmed.

The most important thing is that this movie stars Wayne, a popular A-list actor who is now as popular as Tom Cruise.

Therefore, the number of people who came to audition was even more exaggerated than the American version of "The Ring" a few days ago.

The entire waiting area looked like a university job fair in parallel-world China. People were close to each other and even walking around seemed very crowded. It looked like there were at least 300 people!
"Why so many?"

Wayne couldn't help but look stunned.

But he soon figured out that this situation was still due to the script.

This movie tells the story of two professional divorce lawyers - the male lead 'John' and the second male lead 'Jeremy'. Because they saw too many divorce cases, they no longer believed in love and became two love losers.

However, they still yearn for love deep in their hearts, but they just didn't notice it.

So under 'Jeremy''s objection, the two fell in love with an interesting game, which was to pretend to be distant relatives of the newlyweds and go to the wedding venue to cheat on food and drink.

When you see a beautiful girl at a wedding, you can even try asking her to play poker.

At the most, he once set an astonishing record of attending 17 weddings for 17 consecutive days.

Although not all of these 17 weddings will be photographed, several unique weddings and several poker scenes still need to be photographed.

This requires the use of many young and beautiful actresses.

In Hollywood, there are undoubtedly the most actors like this.

However, the male protagonist 'John' is still relatively young after all. He has not been in the industry as long as 'Jeremy'. He has seen more divorce cases and his fantasy of love is still relatively strong.

When he went to a wedding venue to cheat on food and drink, he fell in love with the heroine 'Claire' at first sight.

The second male lead, 'Jeremy', used his balloon magic to easily win over 'Claire's sister 'Glory'.

The following story is a very common romance movie routine.

The male protagonist 'John' quickly won the heart of the female protagonist with his humorous conversation and handsome appearance.

But it happens that the heroine has a boyfriend.

It's just that she doesn't like this boyfriend very much. The reason why she agreed to date him was just because of family marriage considerations.

Later, through investigation, the male protagonist's identity as a 'liar' was exposed, making the female protagonist very disappointed.

But in the end, the male protagonist used his touching confession to change the heroine's heart again, and the handsome poor boy won the beauty's arms.

As for the second male lead, 'Jeremy', he originally just wanted to play with 'Claire'.

As a result, the innocent 'Claire' was directly fooled by the story that 'Jeremy' made up, and her own personality was particularly clingy, so she took the initiative to pursue 'Jeremy' regardless.

In the end, the innocent love-minded girl successfully pursued the greasy middle-aged uncle.

The two lovers finally get married, which just satisfies the fantasies of the two major movie-watching groups: poor boys and middle-aged men.

Therefore, although the original version did not have any big-name actors, the pictures were also very shoddy. It was said to have a budget of 4000 million, but in fact it could not even use 1000 million.

But with its delightful plot, it successfully earned an astonishing box office of 2.88 million yuan.

(End of this chapter)