The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 205 The boss behind the scenes
Jeff Robinoff, to ordinary people, this is a meaningless name. Even if you see it with your own eyes, you may miss it if you are not paying attention.

Just like this time.

With a simple and reserved smile, he looks like a frail scholar. He is obviously tall and muscular, and his physical strength brings visual impact, but he has no sense of presence. He is just an assistant or a thug. At a glance, he may be just that. It's easy to miss the past.

But in fact, he is the real power figure of Warner Bros., the top executive of the film department. Above him is CEO Barry-Meyer, the top figure in the Hollywood pyramid.

Moreover, unlike his muscular body, Jeff is an academic with a film background. He is not a producer or a director. He is an economics and finance student, but he is an avid movie lover. This makes He has professional management knowledge, rational judgment ability and rich film heritage, and can make the right choice just right.

Of course, it is now 2000, and Jeff has just taken over the film department. Warner Bros. is ambitious and wants to dominate Hollywood. Now it has placed the heavy responsibility on Jeff, but there is no way to know his ability for the time being——

Everything has just begun.

However, looking back from the perspective of 2023, Jeff was indeed the key to the rise and fall of Warner Bros. for the entire two decades. His several important decisions allowed Warner Bros. to dominate the first decade of the st century. His resignation and departure caused Warner Bros. to fall into A twist in the dilemma.

Around 2000, major film production companies tried to learn from the European film production system:
Lock the director.

In other words, they believe that the director is the soul of the film, lock in potential directors, build projects around the director, and give the director enough freedom.

This was an evolution from the producer system to the director core in the 1980s; later, after the overall rise of comic book super movies allowed film companies to take the initiative, it shifted again from the director core back to the producer system.

Jeff is an admirer of the director's core system.

Ben Affleck, as an actor, is very good at playing bad cards; but as a director, he is prosperous, and the person standing behind it is this bald man.

In 2010, when Ben Affleck's career as an actor was at a low point, he tried to turn to directing. Jeff overcame everyone's objections and supported him to turn to directing with "The City". Later, the budget exceeded and Warner Bros. refused to continue to increase the cost, but Jeff still gave him the option. Ben Affleck's life-saving $ million led to Ben Affleck's directorial career.

Later, in "Escape from Tehran", Warner Bros. executives almost collectively opposed handing over the project to Ben. It was Jeff who turned the tide alone and insisted on handing the project over to Ben. As a result, this made "Escape from Tehran" the best Oscar winner. Film statuette.

If we say that before Ben Affleck won Jeff's support, he had been in the industry for more than ten years, with a good background and a good talent; then the rise of Christopher Nolan is 100% due to Jeff.

After filming "Memento" in 2000, Christopher received a lot of praise in the industry, but after all, he was just an independent director who shot two low-budget films, with no qualifications, no connections, and no more self-proven.

However, Jeff withstood tremendous pressure and not only packaged and signed the "Batman Begins" trilogy to Christopher, who was just starting to emerge at the time; he also took the initiative and gave Christopher an agreement for five works——

This agreement guarantees that Christopher will have the creative freedom of two works in addition to the "Batman Begins" trilogy, allowing him to create the scripts and projects he wants to shoot, no matter how absurd or unbelievable the project is, Jeff Or let go of the decision-making and control of the work to Christopher——

Jeff kept his end of the bargain.

Thus, "The Prestige" and "Inception" were born.

Since then, Christopher has cooperated with Warner Bros. for twenty-two years. Until 2022, Warner Bros. shifted to a core producer system, and Jeff has also resigned. All their attention is focused on developing the DC universe. , Christopher left Warner Bros. for the first time.

"Oppenheimer," Christopher and Universal Pictures.

It was at Jeff's insistence that Warner Bros. established long-term cooperative relationships with a group of outstanding and stable directors. In addition to the two mentioned above, there are also - Buz-Luhrmann (Buz-Luhrmann), Todd - Todd-Philips, Zach-Snyder.

By the way, when Ang Lee was still a little-known director, Jeff was optimistic about his prospects and hoped to hand over several projects to Ang Lee to direct.

Unfortunately, from the 1990s to the first decade of the 21st century, Warner Bros.'s rejection of Asian directors was still so severe that they missed "Brokeback Mountain" and "Life of Pi."

It was not until later that Jeff resigned from Warner Bros. On the one hand, he established his own studio, Studio 8; on the other hand, he held an important position at Sony Columbia. Only then did he successfully promote the cooperation with Ang Lee and give birth to "Billy Lynn" "The Midfield War".

It can be said that Jeff is a businessman, but he is a businessman who knows how to exercise discretion and respect talents. His indulgence of directors has brought about a series of bad consequences, such as Zack Snyder taking charge of the DC Universe, which caused controversy; but more importantly What's more, he brought a glorious decade to Warner Bros.

In the first decade after the turn of the millennium, Warner Bros. was almost unrivaled in the lead, not only in North America but also in the global film market.

Now, this bald man was standing in front of Anson, and without even waiting for Darren to introduce him, he already took the initiative to extend his right hand——

"Friends", the production company is Warner Bros.

And Darren?
Before Darren decided to produce "Sex and the City" with his own production company, he met with Warner Bros. to discuss the possibility of joining forces. Although it was unsuccessful, Darren and Jeff established a good personal relationship.

Obviously, when Anson showed up, Jeff was a stranger to Anson; but to Jeff, Anson was not.

Anson did not panic, and did not ask Darren for help. Instead, he looked at Jeff calmly, held Jeff's right hand, and showed a smile.

"Wood. Anson-Wood."

A self-introduction successfully made Jeff smile meaningfully, "Famous is not as good as meeting. Now I know why David is willing to take risks."

The subtext is...?
Is this a joke about Anson taking the back door?
Anson nodded slightly and accepted the ridicule calmly, "After all, he can't ruin his own job."

The parachute was indeed a parachute, but Anson still proved himself with his strength, and only then did he convince David Klein to take the risk, which ultimately paid off handsomely.

"Haha." Jeff chuckled and nodded repeatedly, "Yes, he can't. He can't."

Darren, who was standing at the other vertex of the triangle, was a little worried. After all, this was the first time Anson had ever met a behind-the-scenes boss at the level of a partial leader. Even a veteran actor who has been in the industry for many years may not be able to deal with it indifferently. But I never expected...

Once again, Anson delivers a surprise.

Darren: Maybe I should be under the car.

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)