The Best Actor in the Vase of Meiyu

Chapter 372 Building Characters
Anson is no longer a nobody.

As the star of "Spider-Man" to be released next year, how could he still be unknown? Although the movie has not been released yet, there is no way of knowing how it performed at the box office. Maybe it was a flop? But the exposure is still there.

However, the names of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are still different. When Anson's name is placed together with the two big guys, things become different and eye-catching. .

While people are buzzing about Paris Fashion Week and polygonal scandals, Anson's acting career is quietly opening up again.

The cooperation negotiations between Edgar and DreamWorks went much smoother than expected.

At the beginning, DreamWorks insisted on a fixed price, that is, paying Anson a salary, and that was all. Although Anson was also the absolute protagonist here, when faced with the joining of two big bosses, Steven and Tom, Anson's bargaining chip Not much, DreamWorks hopes to keep the salary figure down——

Cash flow is tight.

Edgar was well aware of the problem of DreamWorks' capital allocation, so he did not aim for a fixed-price salary from the beginning. Instead, he constantly emphasized Anson's sincerity in cooperation, and even lowered the salary to be willing to cooperate with Steven and Tom. However, he always failed. Never offered a remuneration price.

After going back and forth in negotiations for several times, Edgar proposed a strategy of remuneration and dividends, which surprised DreamWorks.

On the one hand, DreamWorks is sensitive to dividends. They already have to pay a dividend to the distribution company. The income left for DreamWorks is not much, so the dividends to directors, actors and producers are naturally more sensitive.

On the other hand, DreamWorks cannot understand that today's actors are unwilling to take risks and tend to prefer a fixed price. The 20 million club is still the top of the pyramid that everyone aspires to, but Anson is different.

However, Edgar still succeeded in convincing DreamWorks——

Cash flow is really tight.

Although Anson is not a first-line actor, even if he saves the salary, he will not save much, but no matter what, at least he can save some cash and let Anson share the risk.

Most importantly, Edgar made a very reasonable offer.

Two million US dollars plus 1.5% box office dividend.

Not much, the remuneration and dividends are not large, the figures are reasonable and completely within the control of DreamWorks; moreover, it is much cheaper than inviting Leonardo DiCaprio, and at least one thousand is freed for the crew. With flexible production funds of more than 10,000 US dollars, DreamWorks needs such room for adjustment.

The contract was sorted out immediately, and Anson signed it, officially joining.

From a numerical point of view, the remuneration for "Cat and Mouse Game" is slightly lower than that of "Spider-Man", and the box office dividend ratio dropped directly from 3% to 1.5%, which was cut in half.

There are two reasons:

First of all, Edgar really has no intention of killing DreamWorks. He previously said that he hopes to cooperate with Steven Tom even if the salary is reduced. This is true.

Secondly, there are no restrictions on box office dividends here. "Spider-Man" pays out the portion of North America that exceeds $100 million, but "Cat and Mouse" has no limit.

Taken together, if the box office of the two movies performs normally and exceeds 100 million in North America, then the final salary income of "Cat and Mouse" should be slightly ahead of "Spider-Man", and Anson's career is still making steady progress.

Of course, Edgar's sincerity was the core of this cooperation negotiation. Even Steven personally called Anson to express his gratitude in a subtle way.

In that room, Edgar was busy negotiating. When the media learned of the news, the matter had basically been decided, and the heated discussion could no longer stop——

Early publicity.

Free traffic can help immediately, and even without DreamWorks, the "cat and mouse game" has already received its first wave of exposure in the media.

Here, Anson was studying the script at home. Start by reading Frank Abagnale Jr.'s autobiography.

Overall, Anson still lacks acting experience and needs to study each role carefully, try to construct the character from an overall perspective, and explore the performance method; and this time it is an autobiography, which is even more special.

Autobiography means, real existence.

Perhaps Frank Abagnale Jr.'s autobiography is suspected of beautifying himself, but this is a real person, and those stories all really happened, but they are indisputable facts.

Generally speaking, film adaptations of autobiographies or real-life characters often face a serious challenge:
How to find the right balance between real people and artistic creation.

If the real people are still alive, they may even directly interfere with the filming of the movie. In serious cases, they may even file a lawsuit in court.

This is the case with "The Social Network". After the internal preview, Mark Zuckerberg stated that the movie had smeared him and distorted the facts, and he wanted to go to court with the crew. The explosive news once appeared in major media.

But "Cat and Mouse Game" is very special and does not encounter such a situation at all.

Little Frank Abagnale is still alive, living far away from the hustle and bustle in the Peach Blossom Land, maintaining a stable and low-key life. He refuses to have anything to do with the movie——

He raised no objections and refused to offer any help.

Anson wanted to sit down and talk face to face with Frank Abagnale Jr., see the story prototypes in person, and discuss those stories face to face; but he was refused.

Not only Anson, but Frank Abagnale Jr. also refused to be interviewed by anyone on the crew, including the screenwriter, producer, and of course Steven.

Frank Abagnale Jr. wanted nothing to do with the film crew.

Other real people who appeared in the autobiography, even if they are still alive, also refused the crew's interview request and did not make any requests.

This is very rare and very strange.

From a negative perspective, they did not help; but from a positive perspective, they allowed the crew to create freely, even if it was a little loose, it didn't matter.

It is precisely because of this that after an in-depth conversation between Anson and Steven, Steven expressed that he hoped to change the part of the autobiography that focused on crime——

Those crimes are so bizarre that they can be used to create topics and ensure traffic.

Steven still hopes to start from the topic of family and inject a clear and complete character arc into the character of Frank Abagnale Jr.

In my previous life, when I just watched "Cat and Mouse", I didn't understand the creative motivation. I was more surprised by Leonardo's peak appearance. This movie gives full play to Leonardo's talents more than "Titanic". Many appearance advantages.

It was not until twenty years later that I watched Steven's autobiographical "Dream House" again that I truly understood that Steven's parents divorced and he had to move with his father, while his sisters lived with their mother. , this experience deeply affected Steven’s creative ideas.

In "Cat and Mouse Game", Steven projected his childhood on little Frank Abagnale.

Looking back twenty years later, no one would have thought that the dazzling and colorful popcorn blockbuster "Cat and Mouse" would actually be Steven's most personal and devoted work.

Maybe, Anson thought, it was the same for him.

(End of this chapter)