For two weeks, Eric basically spent frequent meetings with Marvel management, during which Katzenberg also came to New York in person to attend several important meetings.
After repeated discussions during this period, the company initially determined the basic organizational framework and film development plan of Marvel Pictures.
In addition to the film and television production system of Firefly Group, Marvel Pictures will be responsible for the development of film and television works for all superhero characters under Marvel Entertainment together with the planned future Marvel Television Production Company. At the same time, Eric will personally serve as the producer of all comic films in the first phase of Marvel to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan.
In terms of film production, Marvel Pictures will largely follow the standardized industrial process of the era of major Hollywood studios. Producers, directors, actors and other production staff must follow Marvel's overall style and will. In order to implement cost control as much as possible and maintain the sustainability of the comic series film development plan, all the core characters of Marvel Pictures' films must sign long-term packaging contracts.
At the same time, Eric no longer pursues the radical strategy of Marvel movies blooming across the board.
In the preliminary movie universe plan, only the story line of the Avengers has been determined for the time being.
As for projects such as the X-Men and Fantastic Four, Eric decided to wait until the Avengers plan is successfully implemented, and Marvel movies gain enough influence before starting the production of other series.
In the original time and space, it was the great success of the Marvel Avengers plan that completely activated all the IPs under Marvel and led all superhero brands under Marvel into the heyday. Before that, with the exception of Sony's Spider-Man, no other Marvel movie could be considered too successful. Especially the X-Men series, in Eric's view, the X-Men with a large number of rich characters was completely screwed up by Fox, the character creation was not concentrated, the timeline was upside down, and most of the sequels of the entire series only reached the box office. Back to main line.
Marvel's big gold mine, the Firefly family, is sure to be endless, and Eric will still adopt the strategy of cooperating with other studios.
However, the premise of all this is that Marvel Pictures must still have sufficient control over project development and more profit sharing.
But even if Firefly has a close relationship with Fox and MGM, if it cannot prove the great potential of Marvel superheroes, the cooperation between all parties will not be so smooth. The key to the development plan of the cinematic universe.
Firefly has already signed a film contract with Cameron for "Spider-Man". Due to the success of "Titanic", using Cameron as the director of "Spider-Man" seems to be contrary to the various plans that Marvel Studios has just confirmed. Item making principles. But in fact, Cameron belongs to the kind of technical commercial film director who pays attention to the visual perception of movies. The movies he directed have always focused on stories rather than artistry. The positioning of Marvel movies also relies on superhero IP and movies. Popcorn movies with special effects, the two sides almost coincide.
Of course, with Cameron, the cost control of "Spider-Man" is definitely out of the question, but compared to the profits that Cameron may bring from directing the film, these are also acceptable. However, there are also some disadvantages, that is, people will definitely attribute the success of "Spider-Man" to Cameron in the future.
Therefore, in order to prove the commercial potential of Marvel superheroes, Marvel Studios must produce a standard Marvel superhero movie according to the established plan while shooting "Spider-Man".
As for which superhero to choose, Eric naturally didn't need any hesitation.
"Tony Stark is a very anti-mainstream superhero. He is conceited, arrogant and crazy. At the same time, he also has multiple identities such as genius, inventor, billionaire, and playboy. This is a very malleable character. He is a strong character, as long as he is handled properly, he will definitely look full of charm on the big screen."
During the meeting at the Marvel headquarters, Eric briefly stated his point of view, looked away from the memo in front of him, looked up at the crowd, and continued: "Besides, Iron Man is still a second-line hero. If the movie is successful, it will undoubtedly prove that In view of the great value of Marvel superhero characters, I am very confident in this project. Moreover, even if it fails unexpectedly, it will not have a fatal impact on the entire Marvel movie universe system. We still have many front-line projects. Characters can try to…”
As he said this, Eric felt that everyone looked at him strangely, especially Stan Lee beside him, the old man smiled very obscenely.
Subconsciously touching his cheek, Eric wondered, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
There were inexplicable smiles on everyone's faces, and Stan Lee said, "Eric, according to the setting of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark was born in 1969."
According to the original comics, Tony Stark was born in the 1940s. According to the principle that the timeline of the movie roughly coincides with reality, he should be in his fifties now. This will definitely not work, so it must be reset. That is to say, the new version of Iron Man will be much younger than the version of Downey in the previous life. According to the planned release date around 2000, the new Tony Stark happens to be around 30 years old, which is undoubtedly the most attractive male of a stage.
Eric nodded in doubt. He read the movie universe plan drawn up by Marvel's creative department many times in detail, and provided a lot of revision suggestions based on his memory. Of course he knew this.
Seeing Eric nodding, Stan Lee continued to smile and persuade: "So, Eric, look, you were born in 1970, not a few days away, right?"
Eric immediately understood Stan Lee's intentions, shook his head without hesitation and said, "Stan, don't even think about it."
Stan Lee was unwilling to give up so easily, saying: "Eric, don't refuse in such a hurry. Everyone knows that my inspiration for creating Tony Stark comes from Howard Hughes, and you are exactly like him No, no, no, you're better than him, so why not try this role, it's just made for you."
"Come on, Stan, I'm now making $60,000 a minute, and I can't afford it myself, let alone you."
"Hey, look, conceited, arrogant, and a little bit crazy," Stan Lee smiled even more obscenely, like a big bad wolf: "So, Eric, you are Tony Stark, or you wouldn't Will choose this superhero first to shoot."
"Hey, like this," Eric didn't intend to ignore the old man's nagging, closed the folder in front of him, and said, "In the future, you can use 'Eric Williams once intended to play Iron Man himself' , was strongly opposed by Stan Lee' as a publicity stunt."
Everyone laughed.
Stan Lee also couldn't laugh or cry: "Eric, you are turning black and white."
"Of course you have to turn black and white. Who would be interested in normal news? That's it. I'll return to Los Angeles next week to start the film's preparatory work. I'll give you a month to get the first version of the script out. That's it. , break up the meeting."
Eric made a final decision, and everyone knew that the matter they were discussing in secret must be dead. Everyone who was expecting something sighed in disappointment, and could only get up and leave the conference room one after another.
It's not that Eric is completely uninterested in playing Iron Man, but once he does this, this superhero movie is likely to become his play in the hearts of the audience. This is definitely not a good thing. For the entire Avengers The layout of the affiliate program is also very unfavorable.
After comforting Mr. Stan Lee, who was full of disappointment, Eric stayed at the Marvel headquarters until after get off work before leaving the office with Avi Arad.
When he came to the underground parking lot of the office building, Eric saw the gorgeous fiery red Maserati next to his car, and Cindy Crawford, who was leaning against the car and waving to him with a smile. Perhaps it is because of the rejuvenation of the career in recent years that the supermodel who just turned 30 looks more and more radiant.
Avi Arad glanced at Cindy Crawford, with envy in his eyes, and took the initiative to dodge him very wittily.
Eric walked over, stroked the Maserati's hood, and said with a smile, "It's a nice car."
Cindy was wearing a black windbreaker with a waist, high boots on her feet, and a light-colored silk scarf around her fair neck. She posed calmly and asked, "Where's that person?"
"Better," Eric smiled and hugged Cindy, instead of getting into his black Bentley, he got into the co-pilot of the Maserati.
Cindy wanted to get into Eric's car, but when she saw him get into her own car, she turned to the driver's seat and got into the car, started the engine, and saw Eric leaning comfortably on the co-pilot, she was very excited. Zhidi suggested, "Why don't you drive?"
Eric smiled and said, "I'm more suitable to drive a Hummer now, and it has to be for military use."
"Why?"
"That's an advantage in itself when it hits something."
"Hehe," Cindy smiled, and understood that Eric must seldom drive by himself now. It is absolute for him to be a stranger. Don't mention this topic anymore, start the car and slowly drive out of the parking lot, and then said: "I Reserved a seat at the Jean-Georges restaurant, go eat first?"
Eric nodded: "Okay, I will follow your arrangement tonight."
Cindy complained: "What's more, it's really hard to ask you out once, and I have to wait for two weeks."
Being in New York, Eric inevitably received various party invitations from local snakes. Most of them could be turned down, and some could not be postponed. These days, he had dinner parties almost every night. It was also about to leave soon, and Eric had time to spare.
Hearing Cindy's slightly resentful tone, Eric smiled and said, "You are so eager to ask me out, don't you have a new boyfriend yet? This is not like your style."
Cindy turned the steering wheel and looked over: "Don't you want me to be single all the time?"
"I wish you were married now, it's more exciting."
"Bah, you hateful man." Cindy rolled his eyes at him before saying, "I tried to date someone, but I found it too boring, so we broke up at the end of last year."
"Oh, it seems that the vision has improved," Eric joked with a smile.
In my memory, Cindy passed the peak of her modeling career. During this period, she tossed a "Fair Game" in Hollywood, which did not cause any waves, so she quickly restrained her mind and married a nightclub owner in New York and had children. It has to be said that compared with most supermodels who have difficulty settling down until the glory is gone, Cindy can probably be regarded as a winner in life.
But now, because of Eric's appearance, Cindy's life track has completely deviated from the track of her previous life. A series of identities such as the spokesperson of Victoria's Secret Angel and the producer and host of "America's Next Top Model" have also revitalized her career. Her current annual income is not much worse than those first-line Hollywood actresses, or even higher. Correspondingly, her mind is destined to be impossible to settle down.
The two came to the Jean-Georges restaurant on Fifth Avenue, sat down to order, and chatted casually about recent developments.
After the waiter delivered the dishes and left, Cindy said casually, "I also bought a Fireflyer recently. The assistant bought it directly from the black market for $400. I can't believe that the little things you made can get banned." good treatment."
This was the first time Eric heard of such a thing, and said with a smile: "Say it earlier, I'll send you a few."
"How dare you trouble you with such a trivial matter," Cindy smiled, and said again: "I saw yesterday that Firefly Electronics was sued?"
"Well, Chris has already flown to San Francisco to deal with it, so it's not a big problem."
"I think so too," Cindy nodded, "I read that article, which said that record companies' revenue share from the Yahoo Music Store is not much different from physical records. Even, due to the convenience of the Internet, if the Internet The music stores are growing and the labels are getting more, so why are they reacting so violently?"
"It's just superficial stuff." Eric didn't know why Cindy would suddenly be interested in this kind of thing, but he explained: "The annual revenue of the pure music industry does not exceed 20 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, but the music industry The player market is much larger. This also involves the issue of patent monopoly. Traditional portable player patents are basically in the hands of Japanese manufacturers. A complete set of player patent licensing fees will not be lower than that of the player. 5% of the selling price, and this item alone, Japanese companies can earn more than one billion US dollars in net income every year. The emergence of Fireflyer is equivalent to completely breaking the patent monopoly of traditional portable music player manufacturers. Even, once Fireflyer becomes popular, Knocking out devices such as the Walkman will mean that Japanese manufacturers’ patents worth tens of billions of dollars will be worthless, so their reaction is so strong.” (To be continued.)