Johnnie To is one of the few Hong Kong film directors that Eric likes more. In terms of aesthetics, Johnnie To formed a mature and distinct personal style after exploring and practicing in dozens of films. His films have a set of black philosophies that incorporate elements such as coldness, violence, fate and pathos.
"Dark War" is one of the rare films in Johnnie To's works that is sad and carefree. If you evaluate this film from the perspective of ordinary audiences, then the word that appears the most must be one word: cool! This is the main reason Eric chose this movie.
At the same time, this is also a bold attempt by Eric. He wants to see if such a movie that does not exist in Hollywood history will be successful.
In my memory, in the next ten years, the copyrights of many big-selling movies in Hollywood are already well-known. Eric wants to snatch food from those giants. The difficulty is not ordinary, especially when others know that he is optimistic about a movie. after the movie. And there are actually not many big-selling movies that have no copyright ownership. If they are filmed according to the current progress, they may be finished in two or three years.
Of course, this is also a very safe attempt. First of all, the story of "Dark War" is very exciting, and it has also been recognized by the two big names Cruise and Hanks, which shows that this story does not exist in the taste of Eastern and Western audiences. question of difference.
Secondly, the two male protagonists that Eric used are now very guaranteed at the box office. Tom Cruise has just experienced the success of "Rain Man" and his popularity has reached a small peak again. His "Future Leap" has just been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. Coupled with the box office appeal accumulated by Eric's previous films and this cool script, according to the analysis of Columbia's data department, it is very easy for this film to win a box office of 100 million US dollars in the summer. matter.
On April 5th, in a large studio of Columbia Pictures, "Dark War" was officially launched. The first thing to shoot was a series of indoor scenes. shoot.
The images of the two protagonists in "Dark War" are very distinct, without any changes before and after, one is shrewd and capable, and the other is evil and wise. As long as you can enter the scene smoothly, no matter which scene you start shooting from, there will be no big problem. Therefore, Eric determined the shooting process from simple to complex, from inside to outside.
In the ward, after learning that his condition had deteriorated, Andy, played by Cruise, got off the hospital bed without changing his face and began to dress slowly.
"How much longer?"
"Four weeks, if you bleed internally, you will die at any time." The hale and hearty doctor sat behind his desk and replied hoarsely.
Andy's dressing didn't stop at all when he heard the bad news. After fastening his belt, he handed a dozen banknotes to the doctor: "It doesn't matter, just give me four weeks of painkillers."
After taking the painkillers, Andy finally put on his coat and was about to leave. The doctor seemed to be feeling a little bit emotional and said, "I don't think we will meet again."
"It's just this life," Andy replied calmly.
"Card!"
After the shot was completely finished, Eric called a pause, neither saying 'good' nor 'no-good', sitting behind the monitor, frowning slightly as if thinking about something. Although he has been discharged from the hospital, Eric still has a bandage on his head, and occasionally suffers from headaches, but after several repeated checks, no problems were found, and Eric is no longer nervous.
There is nothing special about Cruise’s performance, and it can be done easily with his acting skills. In the later stage, this shot will be combined with Andy’s shot on the rooftop, using montage techniques for mixed editing, and will also use The processing method of fast motion and slow motion, there will be two switching between fast and slow motion in just two shots.
The reason for this, and the tense dubbing is also mixed with the sound of the second hand, is to subtly give the audience a hint of the passage of time. Andy only has four weeks to live. After a few short shots, the language His expression will arouse tension and curiosity in the hearts of the audience, what will he do in the remaining four weeks
The staff present are all the old team that Eric has worked with several times, so I saw Eric fall into this kind of thinking more than once during the filming process, so everyone had a tacit understanding not to disturb him, and acted lightly Tidying up the instruments patiently, waiting patiently for Eric to come back to his senses.
But Cruise, who waited for a minute, finally got a little impatient. He felt that there was nothing wrong with his performance just now. Second, what's going on with this situation now
"Hey, Eric, how was the scene just now, do you need to do it again?" Cruise finally couldn't help walking to Eric and gently pushed him.
Eric felt a figure suddenly appeared beside him, because in the studio, all the lights were man-made. When Cruise appeared next to Eric, he just blocked a headlight behind him. A faint shadow formed in front of him.
shadow!
Eric raised his head suddenly consciously, saw Cruise's expression, and explained: "Sorry, Tom, I was distracted by some questions."
"It's okay," Cruise said with a generous smile: "How about the scene just now, do you need to do it again?"
"I'm afraid we'll have to do it again," Eric replied. "Wait a minute, please?"
Cruise shrugged and stepped back, watching Eric call the lighting engineer to give instructions, and then the lights on the scene began to be dimmed slowly, no longer the scene that just simulated sunlight, Eric stared at monitor, and waited until the lighting was adjusted to his satisfaction before letting the lighting engineer stop.
"Okay, all the staff are ready, let's do the shot just now," Eric ordered loudly.
After a while, the recorder stepped forward to lay down the slate, and the filming started again.
Eric stared carefully at the images of Andy and the doctor on the monitor, and secretly compared this shot with the rooftop shot of the reason in his mind.
This shot is used to illustrate the current situation of Andy in the movie, and it is very similar to Andy's memories on the rooftop. After watching this scene, the audience will even have a misunderstanding that Andy wants to jump off the building, and even feel that this may It is a flashback movie, in which Andy used four weeks to fulfill all his wishes, and then he had nothing to love, climbed onto the roof of the building, and jumped off.
Since it is used for explanation and memory, Eric feels that the light of the lens in the original version is too bright, which is exactly the same as that of Andy on the sunny rooftop, and cannot give the audience any sense of difference, so the expression effect is much worse.
It’s not Eric’s complaint. The use of lighting in Johnnie To’s movies is just like Baige Wu’s three axes. Except for the common high contrast and stage, there are not many tricks. This aspect is similar to the same personal style, but the lighting It is completely incomparable with Wong Kar-wai, who can be called a master in the use of color. Of course, Wong Kar-wai follows the line of art films, and the films of the two certainly cannot be compared.
After solving the lighting problem, Eric began to focus on Cruise's performance. This small scene really has no place to play, and Eric didn't mean to criticize. If Cruise's performance can bring unexpected surprises, then he Of course I am very happy, if not, I am not disappointed, as long as I meet his personal standards.
Anyway, the opportunity has been given to Cruise. Whether he can rely on this movie to get nominations and even win some performance awards still needs Cruise's own efforts. Eric is more concerned about the box office of this movie.
As for the Oscar prospect that was portrayed in order to persuade Cruise to agree to the plot of dressing up as a woman, huh... Don’t all the directors and producers say that when they fool actors into the group? Eric didn’t feel guilty at all, he was more concerned It's still the box office of the movie. After all, he is so young now, and his desire for Oscars is not very strong. It is the last word to focus on making money.
The theme of the movie "Dark War" is definitely novel, but only God knows whether it can win the favor of the Oscar judges. The first Hong Kong Film Awards that Hua Tsai won in his previous life, if you think about it, maybe there is more public relations. In addition, in 1999, Hong Kong films had declined in an all-round way, and there were not many outstanding films. The long-cherished wish of rewarding the emperor.
After just ng two or three times, the shot passed, and the crew began to move to another room in the studio. This process took more than half an hour. The time a movie really spends on shooting shots is not too much. Much, most of the time was spent on long set-ups.
Most of the shots in the past two days are Cruise's one-man show. He will complete the examination of Sean played by Hanks in his room, make women's clothing, vomit blood while drinking, and disguise himself as Andy's father Peter to confront the villain.
Although there is the original movie in his mind, Eric still designed some additional scenes so that there will be enough material for post-production. After all, this is already a brand new Hollywood movie. It is impossible for Eric to make the same film as he remembered. The department is exactly the same.
According to the shooting plan, this process will last for three days. After the fourth day, there will be a group scene with Hanks and others, and then there will be an indoor rivalry scene between Cruise and Hanks. Eric is looking forward to that moment. It has to be said that it is a pity that the big stars have no intersection at all on the screen.
Because the filming time of this film is very abundant, the whole production crew stopped work in eight hours and ordered the assistant director to send the shot materials to the editing room, and Eric left in a hurry. There is more to do. The later stage of "Dark War" also needs to wait until the film is completely sealed.
The initial casting work for "Small Island" and "Scent of a Woman" has been completed, and he still needs to make the final decision on the actors. Moreover, he also needs to pay attention to "Steel Magnolia" which is filmed in Louisiana from time to time. .
"Steel Magnolia" has been filming for a month, but with Herbert Ross, an aging Hollywood film director of the old generation, the filming progress is less than half completed. It takes one month to seal the shot, and at least one month for post-production.
Moreover, this film may even have the risk of overspending. Eric is happy to hear about this matter. "Steel Magnolia" is not independently invested by Firefly. funds.
Therefore, Eric doesn't mind investing another one or two million in the movie to expand Firefly's share. Eric is now waiting for Herbert Ross to ask for money.
"Hi Eric, is your head injury okay?"
Back at Firefly's office, Eric saw Jonathan Demi who had been waiting here for a long time. Jonathan's face was obviously tired, but his tone was still full of enthusiasm.
"Thank you for your relationship, Jonathan, much better, did you bring the information?"
"Here, according to your request, I have screened out a list of dozens of candidate actors, but I am exhausted." Jonathan said with a smile.
He is indeed the most tired person these days, all because of "Small Island", because there are two young actors in the script, stimulated by Stuart Runkel, Firefly received more than 5,000 copies one after another Profiles of young actors.
Many of the children who sent their files did not have any acting experience at all. It was just that many parents sent the files of their children with the fantasy of wanting to get rich overnight like the Runkel family.
And there are also forged files. Some unscrupulous parents deliberately fabricated lies about their children’s cameo appearance in a certain movie or TV series. The staff had to spend a lot of time confirming the authenticity of these files. In this case, want to screen One can imagine the difficulty of finding a young actor with potential.
It's not that Eric didn't think about relying on the memory in his mind to directly ask people to find those children with potential.
However, the operation difficulty of this kind of thing is estimated to be greater than that of screening potential young actors among 5,000 people.
Although Eric has completely copied the memories of his previous life in his mind, he still doesn't know a lot of information that he didn't know before. If he randomly named a famous Hollywood star in his later life, maybe the staff could find out hundreds of people in this country. A child with the same name and surname came out, and Westerners are notoriously uncreative in naming names.
I took a dozen thick document bags from Jonathan Demme, which not only included the candidate list of the two children in "Small Island Cry", but also three servants, the Victor family in reality, Grace's husband Wait for the actors.
Although Eric has let Jonathan decide on a few less important supporting roles, he still has to take a look at them himself.
The first thing to open is the information of the two more important young actors. Eric glanced at the list of ten young boys and was surprised to see the name of Macaulay Culkin, while the other nine boys did not acknoledged.
Turn directly to Culkin's information. Although "Home Alone" is gone, the boy still has experience in two movies, which also explains why the other party appears in this list. Pulling out Culkin's information directly, Jonathan glanced curiously: "Eric, have you taken a fancy to this boy?"
Eric shook his head directly: "No, this one was eliminated."
"Well, I think this Macaulay Culkin boy is the most exciting of the ten..."
It is also impossible for Eric to tell Jonathan that he does not want Macaulay Culkin to be as famous as he was in his previous life. Although "Small Island Cry" may not bring the same fame as "Home Alone", the impact will certainly not be too low .
It is the best choice to keep Macaulay Culkin himself in the state of participating in one or two not so good movies from time to time. When the boy grows up, he can also choose his own path in the future.
Praise the boy now, and his wonderful parents will definitely destroy the poor boy with a series of moths just like they did in the previous life for money.
"Jonathan, you forgot, the boy Nicholas in "Small Island Cry" has a relatively dull character. Looking at the big eyes of this boy in the photo, I feel too clever, so I can't."
Jonathan followed Eric's train of thought for a few glances, and found that it was true: "Well, I really overlooked this point."
Eric continued to flip through the files of the remaining nine boys, suddenly raised his head, stared at Jonathan Demi who was sitting opposite him and asked, "Jonathan, do you know any of these children?"
Jonathan Demi dodged his eyes a few times, his face flushed slightly, and finally nodded, got up and pulled out a boy's profile: "This... this Brian Baker belongs to an actor friend I worked with before. Son, I'm sorry, Eric, I shouldn't have done this, but I swear, I interviewed this kid seriously and made sure the little guy was qualified before joining."
As Jonathan said, he was about to crumple up the boy's information and throw it into the trash can, but Eric stopped him. He took the information and examined it carefully, and Eric nodded with satisfaction: "Jonathan, as long as he Bar."
"Well, I'm really sorry... Uh, Eric, what did you say?" Jonathan came back to his senses and looked up at Eric in disbelief.
Eric smiled and said, "I mean, just him, you know, I don't have time for interviews right now. And, I'm sure you're not kidding about the movie, are you?"
"When...Of course," Jonathan nodded affirmatively. This movie is related to his future in Hollywood, and it depends on whether he can make a living.
"So, is there anyone else?" Eric asked again.
This time Jonathan shook his head firmly: "Absolutely not, Eric, and all the remaining candidates have nothing to do with me."
Eric also made an impromptu move and sold Jonathan a small favor. Although he had already given him a great opportunity because of "Small Island", Eric didn't mind doing it again without paying anything. Give more. Jonathan Demme is a good potential stock, and Eric has decided to win him over to himself. In addition to the future "Silence of the Lambs", Hanks' first Oscar-winning film "Philadelphia Story" is his director of.
Now that the boy has been confirmed, there is no need to read the following, just take the file bag containing the little girl's candidate actors and open it.
The saying that Hollywood is actually very small seems to be true. This time, two familiar actresses appeared.
Kirsten Dunst and Sarah Michelle Gellar.