Meizong Wealth Life

Chapter 150 Opening the Hulk with Venom

Seeing Jamie's firm refusal, Ovitz became anxious on the spot.

"Didn't you say that the conflict between the two personalities of the Hulk can be explored in depth? Aren't you interested in writing a story using this as a starting point?"

Jamie shook his head.

Sorry, this really doesn’t exist!

In the previous life, "The Incredible Hulk", a collaboration between Universal and Marvel, actually wanted to delve into the complex relationship between Banner and the Hulk's personalities that are antagonistic and interdependent.

This can be seen from the casting of the male protagonist.

Edward Norton.

He has starred in high-scoring masterpieces such as "First Level of Fear" and "Fighter Club", and his acting skills are obvious to all. He is definitely the best choice to play this crazy character with a split personality.

However, the screenwriter and director of the movie "The Incredible Hulk" missed the point. The plot did not highlight the Hulk's independent personality. Instead, it gave the audience an illusion, as if the Hulk was just Banner who had lost his mind. .

Edward Norton's good acting skills were wasted.

Of course, this is not a bad thing for the movie "The Incredible Hulk".

If this movie really delved into the direction of split personality, Edward Nord's acting skills would have a lot of room to show off, but the style of the whole movie would inevitably move towards the dark style of suffering and hatred like the DC next door.

This is in conflict with the tone of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe's joyful commercial popcorn movies.

Moreover, the box office of a movie made in this way will most likely follow the same path as Li An's version.

If the box office flops too badly, Marvel is likely to give up the Hulk character directly, which also means that the Hulk in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe will be cut off.

Not to mention the copyright dispute between Universal and Marvel lurking behind the Hulk.

After Li An's version of "The Incredible Hulk" was messed up in the previous life, Universal was disheartened with this IP. It coincided with the establishment of a film department by Marvel, mortgaged the superhero copyrights in hand, and borrowed US$5 million from the bank.

Marvel originally planned to use the money to make five movies, each with a production cost of $100 million.

However, after inquiring about the current market situation in Hollywood, the newly established Marvel Studios discovered that this money can make at most three movies.

Moreover, the bank only agreed to lend $5 million to Marvel Studios, but before lending, Marvel had to complete the film and television project, and the bank hired professionals to review it.

After all, banks are also afraid that Marvel will divert the money elsewhere.

After careful consideration, Marvel Studios decided to make two movies first. The filming plan for "Iron Man" was very radical and risky. In order to prevent being killed by the bank, another movie was needed to stabilize the film.

Finally, Marvel approached Universal, hoping to take back the rights to the Hulk.

The negotiations went extremely smoothly, and Universal also allowed the Hulk to return to Marvel, but the condition was that Universal still retained the priority investment rights for the Hulk's stand-alone movies, and that as long as the Hulk appeared in all Marvel movies, the distribution of the movie would be handed over to Global will do it.

According to the average revenue sharing ratio of Hollywood movies, producers, distributors, and theaters each account for one-third.

Distribution is basically monopolized by the six major Hollywood film companies.

Marvel Studios had not embraced Disney at this time, but Universal offered an olive branch, and it was natural to hit it off immediately.

"The Incredible Hulk" clearly has a better box office success than "Iron Man" from the actors to the script to the special effects, including the post-release publicity, but the result is that the box office is less than half of "Iron Man".

Universal felt that it had been cheated by Marvel, but Marvel blamed it, saying that Universal was also involved in the production of "The Incredible Hulk", and we are also responsible for the box office not being as good as expected.

After some wrangling, the relationship between the two companies became increasingly tense.

Marvel, on the other hand, relied on the box office success of "Iron Man" to successfully attract Disney's interest.

Disney ultimately acquired Marvel for $40 billion.

After clinging to the lap of the financial backer, Marvel stopped taking Universal seriously, and the development of follow-up Hulk movies was also put on hold indefinitely.

It wasn't until "Avengers 1" that the green fat man reappeared.

After the film was released, Marvel found that there was still a market for the green fat man who had changed the starring role, so he wanted to go back to Universal to discuss the development of a stand-alone Hulk movie.

At that time, the basic framework of the Marvel Cinematic Universe had been established. With the successful works and popularity of the previous films, as long as there were no major problems with the plot and actors in subsequent independent films, they would basically make a lot of money after they were produced. The problem of making less money.

From Marvel's point of view, this money is like free money, and Universal has no reason to refuse it.

Isn’t it stupid to have money but not make it?

As a result, Universal really acted stupidly and rejected Marvel's request for cooperation.

The reason is that Universal's proportion of the distribution account of "Avengers 1" is too low.

Unless Marvel can compromise on the distribution ratio, there is no need to talk about it.

And Marvel has just made a splash with "Avengers 1". How can it stand this anger? Since Universal can't even figure out who is the father now, there is really no need to cooperate.

After the negotiation between the two parties collapsed, Mark Ruffalo, the star of The Incredible Hulk, was so angry that he complained on a TV show that the real-name DISS Global was not making any money, maybe because he looked down on such a small amount of money.

Although Marvel has said verbally that they will not make a Hulk solo movie, they are reluctant to part with the Hulk's popularity, so in addition to continuing to let the Hulk appear in Avengers, they also secretly tried to sell the Hulk in "Thor 3". Dog meat.

It is said to be a Thor movie, but in fact the Hulk plays more roles in the film than Thor.

By doing this, Marvel actually took advantage of the loophole in the contract it signed with Universal back then.

Does Universal regret it?

Of course!

If I had known earlier, I should have held on to the Hulk's copyright until the Marvel Cinematic Universe became bigger and stronger, and let Marvel beg to come and cooperate.

Sony next door is much smarter about this.

Spider-Man shares the copyright with Marvel. In order to bring Spider-Man back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel has to help Sony develop a Spider-Man stand-alone movie.

Of course, this cannot be blamed on Universal's short-sightedness. If Li An's version of "The Incredible Hulk" had not been messed up, Universal would definitely hold on to this IP.

If Marvel wants to bring the Hulk back in the future, it will definitely not be at that price.

However, Li An's version of "The Incredible Hulk" is destined to be a hit on the street. "The Incredible Hulk" has proved that even if the director and actors are changed, it will not be easy for the Hulk IP to succeed.

This is why Jamie rejected Ovitz.

Although Jamie also wants to see if "The Incredible Hulk" doesn't hit the market, whether the Marvel Cinematic Universe can still be so prosperous in the future.

But Jamie does not produce water, he is just a porter of nature.     If there are successful cases in the past life that can be used as reference, it would be okay to make some magical changes.

Forget about being original.

Ovitz was very disappointed with the result, but he still had no intention of giving up and continued to pester Jamie to analyze the shortcomings of Li An's version of "The Incredible Hulk".

Jamie was left speechless.

Although Li An's version of "The Incredible Hulk" in the previous life had a lot of flaws, the filming of the movie has not yet started. Ovitz just presented a specious script outline, which made Jamie analyze it to death!

"If you really want to stop Universal from cooperating with Li An, you can tell them that Li An is a very good director of artistic films, but he has never proven himself in commercial films. Those great directors of artistic films have overturned in commercial films. Are there still few examples?”

Ovitz blurted out:

"'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' is not a commercial film?"

Jamie was directly shocked.

You call "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" a commercial film?

After thinking about it again, I found that it was true.

Western audiences don’t know much about Eastern martial arts. When most overseas audiences watch “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” don’t they just treat it as a commercial film that pursues novelty?

For this reason, Jamie had to spend a lot of time explaining to Ovitz that "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is an out-and-out martial arts film in the Eastern film system.

Taking Hong Kong as an example, where Chinese-language films are currently the most developed, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" stars Chow Leap-fat, who has been making movies every two weeks, and the box office is only over 1400 million.

Ovitz had not paid attention to the box office of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in Hong Kong before. After hearing the data given by Jamie, he immediately made a note on the paper.

Li An is better at shooting feature films that focus on stories.

It can be seen that Ovitz has neither given up the idea of ​​​​writing a "Hulk" script, nor has he given up his plan to poach CAA.

The topic returns to "The Incredible Hulk".

"Among the many superheroes in Marvel, the Hulk is ranked first in terms of destructive power and combat effectiveness. In the comics, the Hulk's combat effectiveness is directly linked to his anger level. The angrier the Hulk, the higher his combat effectiveness, and there is no upper limit."

"Although it doesn't have to be so exaggerated when it's made into a movie, if I were an audience member who bought a ticket, I would definitely want to see the kind of exciting fights and special effects battle scenes that can stimulate adrenaline, so the story and plot must be this service.”

"In my opinion, for a qualified "Hulk" movie, the plot should be as simple as possible. There is no doubt that a lot of drama is spent on how the Hulk was born. Even people who don't read comics know about the Hulk. It was mutated by gamma rays, so there is no need to make a big fuss about its origin."

"In short, the simpler the drama, the better, the more violent the action, the better, the plot is interesting, and the special effects are enjoyable. If these conditions can be met, "The Incredible Hulk" will definitely be a great success."

Ovitz, who was holding a pen and jotting down key points quickly, suddenly raised his head.

"For a simple and interesting drama, you can only go the route of a comedy action movie. But you said before that Banner and the Hulk are two personalities. Their unified and opposing relationship is worth exploring deeply. This is in line with the style of the film. Again contradictory.”

Jamie shook his head and said:

"Who said that split personality has to be made into a bitter and gruesome film, or that it should simply be made into a thriller and horror film?"

Have you never heard that mental patients have broad ideas and mentally retarded children have more joy?

This is simply a natural comedy subject.

Ovitz stopped writing.

"For example?"

A movie immediately popped into Jamie's mind, and he was about to say it, but then he suddenly realized that the movie hadn't been made yet!

The next second, Jamie's eyes lit up.

It’s a good thing it wasn’t photographed!

In this way, he will have no pressure at all as a copywriter!

"An idea suddenly occurred to me."

Ovitz, who was waiting for Jamie's answer, was stunned at first when he heard this, and then became ecstatic.

"Have you changed your mind?"

Jamie told Ovitz not to be too busy to be happy, because his idea was very bold, at least no one had ever made a superhero movie like this before.

Unfortunately, these words had no effect.

Ovitz clenched the pen in his hand excitedly.

Whether the story is good or not is another matter. The most important thing is to let Jamie tell the story first.

Jamie first recalled the plot of the movie in his previous life, and then began to make magical changes according to the past life.

"Bruce Banner was originally a scientist with a successful career and love. He and his girlfriend Betty Ross accepted a commission from a mysterious organization to develop a gamma radiation device, hoping to use this device to change the human system."

"Due to an experimental accident, Banner was exposed to gamma rays. Afterwards, he discovered some strange changes in his body. At the same time, he also accidentally discovered that the mysterious organization supporting their research turned out to be the military, and the person in charge was his girlfriend. 's father, General Ross."

"General Ross supports the study of gamma rays. He actually wants to create super soldiers. This is contrary to Banner's original intention of studying gamma rays."

"The physical mutation and the discovery of General Ross's true identity made Banner frustrated. At the same time, he was unable to tell his girlfriend Betty the truth, so he had no choice but to leave the laboratory."

"In order to prevent Banner from exposing the truth of the experiment to the outside world, General Ross deliberately spread rumors to smear Banner, turning him into a scum in the scientific community. As a result, his girlfriend Betty broke up with Banner."

"Banner's life was completely destroyed. He turned from a scientist to a construction worker and could only rely on some menial manual labor to make ends meet."

"On the other hand, Banner has not given up studying the mutations in his body. He regularly sends his blood samples to a university professor, hoping that the other party can help him figure out the cause of the mutations in his body."

"One day, Banner came home from get off work at the construction site and found that the homeless man downstairs who often greeted and chatted with him was missing."

"Banner didn't suspect this at first, until he heard other workers talking about it at the construction site a few days later. There have been a lot fewer homeless people on the streets recently."

"When Banner was framed and disgraced by General Ross, he worked as a homeless man for a period of time. After get off work, he went to a restaurant that distributed free food to homeless people. He learned from the staff that he had recently been there and came to collect it. The number of food homeless people dropped sharply, and I started to doubt this.”

"After returning home that night, Banner received an anonymous email in his mailbox. The other party claimed that he and Banner were colleagues. The project team studying gamma ray research had recently made breakthroughs. In order to achieve results as soon as possible, General Ross secretly dispatched Human hands gathered homeless people from all over the streets and carried out cruel and illegal human experiments."

"Without exception, these homeless people all died during the experiment. The researcher couldn't bear to watch similar tragedies continue to happen, so he took the risk and told Banner about it, hoping that he would stand up and expose the matter. "

(End of this chapter)