Meizong Wealth Life

Chapter 152 The American version of Liu Yifei, targeted in all directions

By the time Jamie finished speaking, Ovitz had filled the entire paper.

After he finished, he handed Jamie the recorded plot outline and asked Jamie to confirm whether there were any missed points.

Jamie scanned ten lines quickly.

"There is another very important point."

There is nothing more that can be recorded on paper.

Ovitz was about to raise his hand to ask Penny or Betty to help find more paper, but Jamie told him that there was no need to remember this.

"The casting of Bruce Banner, the leading actor, is very critical."

Jamie put his hands on the table and looked at Ovitz very seriously.

The reason why he said this is because the success of "Venom" in the previous life and the success of Marvel's Hulk are inseparable from the credit of the actor.

The characters and plot settings of the new version of "The Incredible Hulk" are all modified from "Venom", so it is most intuitive to use "Venom" as a comparison.

"From the synopsis, you may only be able to tell that this is an anti-hero movie, but in fact, this movie is essentially a CP movie."

Many people have been misled by entertainment gossip news and think that CP means having sex in a movie. However, in fact, the accurate definition of CP refers to a movie that focuses on the rivalry between two characters.

"Whether the relationship between Banner and the Hulk is interesting enough will determine the success or failure of this film."

Compared with those movies that have forced CP, "Venom" and "The Incredible Hulk" have natural advantages in CP films.

Venom needs Eddie as a host to survive on Earth, and Eddie is also the most suitable symbiote host for Venom among known humans.

And Eddie can get a box lunch at any time if he doesn't have Venom's force protection.

In "The Incredible Hulk" this relationship goes a step further.

Eddie and Venom have a symbiotic relationship and are technically separate entities.

Banner and the Hulk are directly the same person, the only difference lies in their different personalities.

"Although I said at the beginning that the origin story of Banner being exposed to gamma rays can be briefly mentioned, in fact, the entire movie is about the origin story of the Hulk."

"This is mainly reflected in the changing relationship between Banner and the Hulk in the film. After the first transformation caused huge damage, Banner was very resistant and rejected in his heart, and even hated the Hulk."

"But during the subsequent escape process, Banner had to admit that if it weren't for the Hulk, he would have died a thousand and eight hundred times ago. In fact, he had already developed some identification with the Hulk in his heart."

"During this period, Banner tried to communicate with the Hulk and found that although the Hulk's personality was irritable and extremely destructive, it was not completely unreasonable."

"Although Banner cannot control the Hulk, he is also trying to 'teach' the Hulk not to hurt some innocent people."

"So when he learned that the inhibitory drug was successfully developed and injected into the body, Banner still had the slightest hesitation."

"But he ultimately chose to 'kill' the Hulk and return to a normal life."

"It turned out that the inhibitory potion was useless at all, and I was tricked by the Hulk."

"In the final battle between the Hulk and the Abomination, the Hulk was unable to defeat the Abomination at first. Thanks to Banner's continuous output of the opposite in the Hulk's mind, he continued to irritate the Hulk with all kinds of trash talk, and finally caused the Hulk to explode and kill him alive. Hate to blow up."

These plots are not reflected in the plot outline provided by Jamie before, but need to be filled in by Ovitz when he finds another screenwriter to write the script.

Of course, the most important impact of this part of the supplementary plot is reflected in the casting.

The male protagonist not only has to play two roles, but also often talks to himself, which places high demands on the actor's acting skills.

At least that's how Ovitz understood it.

After thinking for a moment, he mentioned the names of several Hollywood actors.

These actors have one thing in common. They have all played that kind of mental patient, and their acting skills have been widely praised.

Among them, Ovitz recommended one person.

Edward Norton.

Jamie's reaction to hearing the name is interesting.

Unexpectedly, full circle, the actor who plays the Hulk in this life is related to Edward Norton again.

This is really a bad fate!

In the previous life, "The Incredible Hulk" did not continue to release stand-alone sequel movies even as Marvel movies became popular. The main reason is that in addition to the copyright dispute between Universal and Marvel and the box office of "The Incredible Hulk" was not as expected, there is another reason. Edward Norton's salary for sequel is skyrocketing.

Originally, Universal and Marvel were not very enthusiastic about cooperating to launch a sequel to "The Incredible Hulk", but they were so disgusted by Edward Norton that they simply stopped filming.

It wasn't until "Avengers 1" was "short of people" that Marvel thought about the Hulk again, but at this time, Marvel would rather replace the Hulk than find a "big man" to come back and serve him.

It's not that Edward Norton is bad, but Mark Ruffalo is more cost-effective.

But this reason is not valid at the moment, because Edward Norton does not yet have the aura of Oscar Award.

With reputation and acting skills, Ovitz thought it was a cost-effective choice.

In order to persuade Ovitz to give up the idea, Jamie then mentioned a key factor in the popularity of "Venom" in his previous life.

Sense of contrast!

"Venom" is definitely a textbook-level success story on how to design an alien villain to be "both brutal and not scary."

Who would have thought that a black monster with a mouth full of fangs, inverted triangular white eyes, and a long scarlet tongue would actually look like a "cute pet" in a movie.

The same principle applies to "The Hulk".

The reason why Uncle Mark's version of the Hulk in his previous life was so popular was because of this sense of contrast.

The furious and destructive Hulk has a middle-aged and silly character.

The three previous versions of the Hulk were all completed using motion capture technology, but the reviews were mixed.

Li Ammon's version of the Hulk was criticized and hit Shrek in the face.

The Edward Norton version can only be described as quite satisfactory.

Only the Mark Ruffalo version was critically acclaimed.

Jamie has no reason to find another path to success that has been proven in his previous life.

"Edward Norton's image is too authentic. The Hulk based on him is difficult to make people rely on the direction of comedy action movies."

Ovitz shrugged and asked:

"Then who do you think is suitable?"

Jamie was about to tell Uncle Mark's name, but as he spoke, he remembered that the man was still an unknown minor player in Hollywood.

"I need to think about it and get back to you."

Ovitz nodded calmly.

"Okay, what about the heroine?"

This surprised Jamie.

He also thought Ovitz would be more concerned with who to direct the play.

After all, the heroine in this drama is just a vase that is displayed only when the plot requires it. Women will only affect Banner and Hulk’s speculation!

Under Jamie's doubtful gaze, Ovitz told the truth.

"I have received news that if Universal and Li Amun reach a cooperation, the heroine will most likely be played by Jennifer Connelly."

Jamie's first reaction when he heard the name was——

American version of Liu Yifei?

Only after Ovitz's explanation did Jamie react.

Jennifer Connelly is also a client of CAA, and her agent is the same person as Li Min.

"You want to find someone to replace Jennifer Connelly to defeat your nemesis at CAA?"

Only then did Ovitz finally reveal the name of his nemesis.

"His name is Carl Meyer, and he is the nephew of Ron Meyer, the current CEO of CAA."

"But you guessed wrong. I am not looking for someone to replace Jennifer Connelly, but I am looking for someone to change her agent."

Although he has left CAA for many years, Ovitz still knows the company he built with his own hands.

Many of the service codes that CAA agents regard as standards were created by Ovitz.

This includes multiple brokers working together to serve one client.

This code is also called the Loyalty Regulation, and its purpose is to prevent a certain agent from leaving his job due to normal or abnormal reasons, and it is easy to take his clients with him.

This trick was very effective. Later, the number of clients lost by CAA due to the resignation of agents was greatly reduced, so it was also followed by other Hollywood agencies.

However, Ovitz never dreamed that the loyalty clauses he had formulated at the beginning would eventually cause him to stumble.

After returning to CAA and being rejected by Ron Meyer, his close business partner and current CAA president, Ovitz set up his own agency in anger, hoping to use his connections and influence to win over CAA. poach customers.

As a result, due to the protection of loyalty regulations, the customer was not poached, but the poaching behavior completely annoyed CAA.

So CAA teamed up with other agencies to poach Ovitz's agency.

Ovitz was left alone, and the result was, of course, a disastrous defeat.

Jamie had no idea what role Karl Mayer played in these events, but one thing was clear.

Ovitz stole Karl Meyer to secure the heroine resources for Jennifer Connelly, and then used the heroine as a bargaining chip to ask Jennifer Connelly to change her agent.

Just change the broker, not the brokerage company.

As long as Jennifer Connelly is still a client of CAA, CAA executives will only maintain a tacit attitude towards this matter.

It doesn't matter if Ron Meyer is the president of CAA.

Jamie even seriously suspected that Ovitz was openly targeting Karl Meyer this time, but what he actually wanted to attack and shake was the board's trust in Ron Meyer.

"it's up to you."

Jamie replied with a shrug.

Anyway, the role of the heroine in the movie is just a flower vase. As long as she is beautiful enough and eye-catching, nothing else matters.

Ovitz was not surprised by Jamie's reaction, and then asked:

"The director——"

Before he finished speaking, Jamie's voice rang.

"'The Incredible Hulk' is first and foremost a visual film, so it is best for the director to have rich successful experience in filming this aspect of the film on his resume."

"Based on this, it would be even more perfect if the other person is someone who has relatively few personal ideas and can faithfully implement the producer's ideas."

To put it bluntly, we need to find a director who is technically proficient and obedient.

It seems very demanding, but in fact Hollywood is in short supply of this type of director.

Because those directors who came from a technical background and were disobedient, except for a few who were as successful as Cameron, were either fired during the filming of the movie, or were eliminated after screwing up the movie.

Those who can still stay in Hollywood are basically obedient.

Ovitz thought for a moment before naming a name.

"What do you think of Joe Johnston?"

At first hearing the name, Jamie didn't even know who this guy was.

After Ovitz added that Joe Johnston had filmed "Jumanji" and "Jurassic Park 3", Jamie finally matched the name with the person.

In addition to the two movies mentioned by Ovitz in his previous life, Joe Johnston also directed "Captain America 1".

Joe Johnston first got involved in movies as a special effects technician in "Star Wars".

He also won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his collaboration with George Lucas on "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

In fact, from being selected as the director of "Jurassic Park 3" and "Captain America 1", it can be seen that Joe Johnston really perfectly meets the two conditions put forward by Jamie.

He is good at shooting special effects movies and is obedient.

And now Ovitz's intention to choose Joe Johnston is also very obvious.

Jamie provided a brand new "Hulk" script and shooting ideas, Ovitz then fully equipped the director and actors, and all that was left was to go to Universal for negotiations.

Because his opponent is Li's version of "The Incredible Hulk," Ovitz must of course make some targeted preparations.

Lee Eucalyptus was unwilling to make "The Incredible Hulk" into a completely commercial film, so the co-screenwriter added a lot of private stuff that explored the relationship between father and son into the script.

Ovitz found Joe Johnston, who was very reliable in commercial films and had just finished working with Universal, to compete with Li Yu and make a complete visual effects blockbuster.

"Jurassic Park 3" was released this summer, with a cost of US$9300 million, and a global box office of US$3.68 million.

Although it is not a box office hit, according to the standard formula of Hollywood blockbusters, it can make a profit if the box office is more than three times the production cost.

What's more, a major studio like Universal actually doesn't need to triple the production cost. As long as the box office can reach 3 times the production cost, it will make a profit.

By this standard, "Jurassic Park 3" is undoubtedly a success.

As for the poor reputation of "Jurassic Park 3" after its release, this actually has little to do with director Joe Johnston.

After all, the first two films were directed by Spielberg, and anyone else would be scolded for the third film.

In fact, even if Spielberg were to shoot it himself, it would be impossible to satisfy everyone.

Joe Johnston took the blame for Spielberg this time.

As for film critics criticizing Joe Johnston for not paying attention to drama in "Jurassic Park 3", scenes of dinosaurs chasing humans began to appear in the first 20 minutes of the film. Until the end of the film, dinosaurs were killed purely to satisfy the audience's feelings. Watch the excitement.

This problem does exist in "Jurassic Park 3", but in "The Incredible Hulk" it becomes an advantage.

(End of this chapter)