The story of "Casino Royale" itself is very simple. A confrontation between James Bond and the Specter revolves around a huge gambling capital of 150 million U.S. dollars. It is the appearance of the trio of angels, because with the first two parts of "Charlie's Angels" as a foreshadowing, the film does not need to write more about the background of the trio, it is directly a hot action scene.
After these years of personally directing many large-scale production films, Eric has become more and more able to grasp the key factors for the success of large-scale commercial films. The most important of these is that the story of the film should be simple and clear, which actually coincides with the high-concept film theory that emerged in the 1980s.
The simpler the core story line, the more room for film directors to play during the shooting process. The most classic case of this is Cameron's "Terminator". The whole story revolves around T- 800 was sent by Skynet to assassinate Sarah Connor in the past, without any complicated side plots, so Cameron was proud to give full play to his personal film talent, and the final film won a global box office of 80 million US dollars at a cost of 6 million , And made Cameron one of the top directors in Hollywood.
Conversely, if a movie wants to show the audience too many things, the result is often that the director cannot tell a complete story in two hours. There are more examples of failures caused by this reason in Hollywood.
In the screening hall, the executives of MGM and the main creators of the film are obviously very satisfied with the effect of the film.
Traditional 007 movies often have the disadvantage of fragmented stories. The producers often insert some plots that have nothing to do with the main line of the movie, just to highlight Bond's suave or heroic character image, which also leads to most of the episodes. Full of loopholes. "Casino Royale" has completely reversed this shortcoming while retaining the traditional 007 film style. Bond no longer appears inexplicably at an unknown villain's military base to wreak havoc, and is no longer very abruptly removed from a certain place by MI6. A hot girl yelled out from bed to perform a mission.
After the movie screening ended, the lights came on, and there was a burst of applause in the auditorium. Knowing that Eric was not the kind of headstrong director, everyone began to speak freely in the auditorium, expressing their various views on the film.
Although Eric is also very satisfied with the finished film of "Casino Royale", he also knows the reason why the authorities are obsessed. Because of his different personal ideas, the plot that may seem good to him may appear very inappropriate in the eyes of others.
Everyone discussed for more than an hour, and Eric also roughly determined a few revisions, and planned to make a second revision to the film in the next week.
According to the "Casino Royale" production and distribution schedule, the film will be fully completed in March. During this period, the movie will undergo further internal trial screenings, just like the closed test of online games later, select some ordinary audiences, and in the screening hall equipped with a real-time monitoring system, there are special buttons on the armrests of the audience seats. During the viewing process, if the audience feels bored or disgusted with certain plots or certain shots, they can press the button at any time, and the production company will make further adjustments to the film based on the audience's real-time feedback. After that, it will enter the stage of grading and publicity.
Of course, these processes are not fixed, and everything depends on the distribution of power between film investors, producers, and directors. If a director has absolute control over the production of the film, and neither the investor nor the producer can intervene, the director can of course edit the film according to his own ideas. On the contrary, if the final editing rights are firmly in the hands of the producer, the director may not be able to intervene at all during the final editing stage.
Of course Eric has the absolute control of "Casino Royale". As long as he wants, he can edit the film completely according to his own ideas, but this is obviously unwise, even "Titanic" has actually experienced During the 'closed test' stage, Cameron also modified part of the plot based on audience feedback.
After watching the sample in the morning, discussing revisions, and having lunch at Firefly Studios, everyone left separately. MGM's headquarters has moved to Venice Beach, which is not far from Firefly Studios, which is near the headquarters of Huahua Films. Because Kerkorian sold all of MGM's studios as land, and now most of MGM's films that need to be shot in the studio are basically leased in Firefly Studios.
With the revival of MGM, the management of MGM also discussed the plan to rebuild the studio. Drew also asked Eric for his opinion, but Eric rejected it. In recent years, more and more movies have begun to pursue real shooting effects, especially large-scale movies. Except for special effects scenes, they are rarely shot in studios. In addition, tax rebate systems are gradually emerging in various states in the United States and overseas. In the future, fewer and fewer Hollywood movies will choose to shoot in Los Angeles. MGM building a studio at this time will only cause a fearless waste of resources.
Eric and Drew sent off the Broccoli brothers and sisters together. Seeing the girl leaving the parking lot with him, Eric asked with a smile, "Aren't you working this afternoon?"
Drew took two steps forward and held Eric's arm affectionately, and said with a smile: "Yes, it's an audition for a movie, but I don't want to go for the time being, anyway, Amy and the others will take care of it."
"Oh," Eric said with a smile, "What movie?"
""Alien", a sci-fi horror film."
Eric nodded and did not show any abnormality. In his memory, this film should be a 1995 work. However, since many films are now produced in advance, it is not surprising that some films are delayed for a year or two. It's too common for a Hollywood movie to take ten or eight years to prepare.
When the girl mentioned this, she became very excited, and said: "Today the audition is for the heroine, and I let Natasha try it, but unfortunately they are too stupid, they are like two logs in front of the camera, Can't even speak."
Eric turned his head and glanced at the twins who were quietly following them. Sister Natasha felt a little embarrassed when she heard Drew's words. Seeing Eric looking over, she lowered her head in unison.
Because Eric likes to use Ivanka as the mascot in his films, the girl once said that she wants to make sister Natasha the mascot in Huahua Films' movies, but unfortunately, Eric has never seen her. The twins appeared in the camera before, it seems that she really doesn't have such talent, but the girl herself, since she made a cameo in "Scream", now she often appears in various movies.
Remembering that Natasha Henstridge, the heroine of "Alien" in the original time and space, happened to be in the Victoria's Secret Legion, Eric asked: "Since I auditioned at the MGM headquarters, it should be the last round, right? Are there any candidates you value?"
"Amy originally wanted Paulina Pryskova to play the role, but the director disagreed, so everyone had to choose again."
Eric thought of Priskova's face that resembled Audrey Hepburn, and if it was him, he would not agree. The heroine of "Alien" should be the type of actor with a glamorous temperament and a hot body like Natasha Henstridge, and Paulina Pryskova's temperament is too elegant.
Except for directing the Victoria's Secret show, Eric had no contact with Natasha Henstridge. At this time, he didn't add anything to the snake, but said casually: "If the budget is sufficient, you can let Claudine Ya try it."
Claudia Schiffer is more than enough to replace Natasha Henstridge, and the two have very similar temperaments.
The girl shook her head: "I have been invited, but Claudia is not willing to act because there are many dramas in the film and the production budget is not too much, so I plan to use cheaper newcomers."
The two walked all the way, instead of going to Eric's office in the administrative center, but to the office Loft in the digital field. Cameron had already arrived in the morning, but Eric was busy with "Casino Royale", and the two just played two games. Face to face, Eric didn't see Cameron at noon, and he didn't know if Cameron had left.
Walking into the main No. 1 Loft in the digital field and asking the staff, Eric quickly found Cameron sitting at a table with Stan Winston dancing and chatting in the rest area.
The global success of "Titanic" has completely relieved Cameron of the original pressure, and he has been quite high-spirited recently.
Seeing Eric approaching, Cameron and Stan Winston stood up and greeted them, and the four of them sat down at a long table. Eric told the twins to make coffee, and Cameron But he couldn't wait to say: "Eric, I didn't expect that you still have good things hidden here, and you didn't tell me before."
Eric smiled and said, "You are more familiar with this place than your own home, so there is nothing you can hide from you."
As a film technology fanatic, whenever Cameron appears in Firefly Studios, he will come to the digital field most of the time. Even if he is not working, Cameron will often come to visit some special effects that have just been developed in the digital field. Technology, the two parties have cooperated very happily in the past few years. In terms of technology, it can be said that the digital field has spared no effort in supporting Cameron's films, which also led to Cameron not creating his own Lightstorm Studio. Just using the resources in the digital field to realize your various ideas, which also benefits the digital field a lot.
Seeing Eric looking at him suspiciously, Stan Winston explained, "Eric, it's the IMAX plus 3D screen we just installed."
Eric immediately understood that after accidentally noticing IMAX in New York last year, Eric asked the digital field to set up a related technical team to cooperate with the Canadian IMAX company to develop IMAX and polarized 3D technology.
In fact, these two technologies have a history of several decades, but due to various reasons, they have not been widely used in movies. Now, with the financial and technical support in the digital field, related applications are quickly developed. IMAX Corporation is also doing final public relations on the technology of converting ordinary film to IMAX film. It is expected that the normal two-hour IMAX film will be realized next year. Before that, IMAX film is only 40 minutes long, and the conversion technology is not mature enough. Polarized 3D technology is even simpler. In order to conduct various tests, recently, Digital Domain has just installed a large screen combined with 3DIMAX in the studio. This should be what Cameron called 'good stuff'.
In the past six months, Cameron has been busy with the production of "Titanic". Coupled with the pressure on film costs and box office, Cameron certainly has no intention of paying attention to new technologies in the digital field.
"These are some ideas I came up with last year. You see, it took less than thirty years to go from silent movies to sound movies, from black and white movies to color movies. Now, two thirty years have passed , There must be some brand-new changes in the movie playback situation, so I will be optimistic about these two technologies."
Cameron was quite excited, and said: "Eric, you mean, you plan to promote 3D and IMAX on a large scale?"
Eric shook his head slightly, and said with a smile: "I think so, but you always have to take it step by step. You must have experienced it now, so you will definitely find the difficulties in promoting these two technologies. 3D may be better, as long as the 3D projector is replaced, but for IMAX, it is obviously not very realistic for most theaters in North America to replace IMAX screens.”
After several years of explosive development, the number of movie screens in North America has grown from more than 22,000 in the early 1990s to more than 28,000 now. At the same time, the more developed the film industry is, the more difficult it is to carry out reforms. The 28,000 screens in the United States are basically projection halls built according to the specifications of ordinary 2D screens. The ten-meter IMAX screen, if you want to promote it, you can only rebuild the theater.
Therefore, Eric's first step is to start with the relatively easy 3D.
…
Eric shook his head slightly, and said with a smile: "I think so, but you always have to take it step by step. You must have experienced it now, so you will definitely find the difficulties in promoting these two technologies. 3D may be better, as long as the 3D projector is replaced, but for IMAX, it is obviously not very realistic for most theaters in North America to replace IMAX screens.”
After several years of explosive development, the number of movie screens in North America has grown from more than 22,000 in the early 1990s to more than 28,000 now. At the same time, the more developed the film industry is, the more difficult it is to carry out reforms. The 28,000 screens in the United States are basically projection halls built according to the specifications of ordinary 2D screens. The ten-meter IMAX screen, if you want to promote it, you can only rebuild the theater.
Therefore, Eric's first step is to start with the relatively easy 3D. (To be continued.)