In the press room of the Beverly Hills Hilton, dozens of reporters gathered, their cameras or cameras all pointed at the huge poster at the front.

It was a sea of furious waves, and a pirate ship flying a skull flag cleaved the waves.

Above the pirate ship, a line of large letters is particularly eye-catching - "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl".

"It's a pirate theme!"

"A pirate genre with a budget of $120 million!"

The chatter of reporters has not stopped, but anyone who knows about Hollywood movies knows what it means to have a pirate-themed movie in recent years.

"It's crazy! There is still someone who invests so much money in making a pirate movie!"

"Isn't Shahai Entertainment afraid of failure?"

"Ronan Anderson swelled, thinking that he would be able to play a big pirate-themed production by successfully producing a few small and medium-budget movies!"

None of the reporters present were optimistic about the project, and the pirate theme was too terrifying.

Under the huge poster, Ronan and Johnny Depp sat firmly at a table, and many of these discussions were passed on, as if they didn't hear them.

Johnny Depp doesn't care about the outside world at all.

Ronan knows how successful Pirates of the Caribbean has been.

Regardless of the reporter's reaction, the two people each took a signature pen, signed their names on the contract, and then stood up to exchange contracts and completed the signing ceremony.

There was sparse applause at the scene, and after a few seconds, the reporters seemed to react and politely sent a fairly loud but not very warm applause.

Ronan stood under "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl", shook hands with Johnny Depp, and let the reporters go crazy for photos.

"Remember this underdog pair. ”

"When the movie comes out, they won't be smiling so brightly. ”

"A film that is doomed to fail. ”

"What age is it, and there are still people making pirate movies, don't you remember Carlock Films?"

These words came intermittently, and Ronan didn't seem to hear it, just smiled and shook hands with Johnny Depp.

There was no interview session scheduled for the signing ceremony, but George Clint announced the total investment amount and release time of the film.

After the ceremony, Ronan and Johnny Depp returned to the lounge behind the press room.

Tracy Jacob greeted him, whispered a few words to Johnny Depp first, and came over to Ronan and said, "Hopefully it's a successful collaboration." ”

Ronan shook her hand and said, "It will work." ”

"I hope so. "Tracy Jacob is clearly underconfident.

Johnny Depp turned his head, looked at Ronan, and said, "You wrote the script, right? ”

Ronan smiled: "It's good to like it, so that our cooperation will be smoother." ”

Johnny Depp said: "After reading the character script and the full script, I had some ideas, I want to try on makeup in a few days, can we talk about the character of Captain Jack then?"

"No problem. Ronan immediately said, "Of course, I will participate in your makeup try-on." ”

The setting of Jack Sparrow in the script is just the appearance of the sketch and the description of the text, and if you really want to make the character come alive, it depends on Johnny Depp's interpretation.

vaguely remembers that it was Johnny Depp who took the initiative to turn Captain Jack into that sissy, which also led to the anger of Disney Chairman Michael Eisner, but it turned out that Johnny Depp's interpretation was a great success.

Ronan shook hands with Johnny Depp and sent him and Tracy Jacob out of the break room.

Neither Ronan nor Johnny Depp were interviewed by reporters, and now is not the time to make a big splash.

Get Johnny Depp, this project can give Ronan a little relief, and Jack Sparrow is the soul of the series anyway.

Johnny Depp ended up signing a trilogy contract, with a previously agreed salary and no post-sharing involved.

And under the persuasion of Tracy Jacob, Johnny Depp also signed a supplementary clause that he would not drink alcohol and use other prohibited drugs on filming weekdays.

Of course, the broker hopes that its star clients can have a better development.

In fact, Johnny Depp is on the verge of being on the blacklist of many insurance companies, and the investment in "Pirates of the Caribbean" is so huge, if Johnny Depp does not sign a restrictive clause like this, it will be difficult for Ronan to get a third-party guarantee from the insurance company.

After all, for an alcoholic and a once-famous addict, the chances of an accident or other accident are much higher than normal people.

Johnny Depp's best friend back then died outside his bar.

Dominating the main link, Ronan also made appropriate concessions to Johnny Depp on some side details.

For example, Johnny Depp can bring his pet dog into the crew for filming, the crew provides Johnny Depp with a total of no less than 15 visiting tickets, and the crew pays Johnny Depp's personal stylist and personal assistant a total of $2,000 per week during the filming, etc.

But in the same way, Ronan also forcefully refused many unreasonable demands.

For example, providing meals and accommodation for Johnny Depp's three friends and their families, providing a full range of life care and a separate hotel room for Johnny Depp's pet dog, transporting a piano from Johnny Depp to the location of filming, providing private jet transfers for Johnny Depp, renting a separate parking lot for Johnny Depp's luxury car, and so on.

Hollywood star actors are sometimes really difficult to serve, and the various requirements put forward by big names can make the crew's well-informed producers jaw-dropping.

Johnny Depp belongs to the very difficult type, maybe some of them are not intentional by him, but caused by alternative personal habits, but for Ronan, unreasonable requests will never hesitate to refuse.

Now Johnny Depp, there is not much capital to make very excessive demands.

A request like providing expenses for friends is impossible for a normal crew to agree to.

Most Hollywood stars have friends, and celebrities are responsible for their food, clothing, housing and transportation, and these people may have helped the stars, or were responsible for accompanying the stars to eat, drink and have fun, but in fact they are bloodsuckers who live on the stars.

Charlize Theron, for example, her wardrobe is always open for her friends.

The life of a star is often not viewed with common sense.

Ronan got Johnny Depp's contract, and later met with Gore Verbinski and reached a verbal agreement, and the director and Captain Jack Sparrow basically got it.

Since Gore Verbinski won't be able to join the crew until early next year at the earliest, a lot of preparation has to be done ahead of the curve.

The first is the restoration of the medieval aspect.

Although Pirates of the Caribbean is a fantasy story, Ronan did not dare to be sloppy about the historical background and brought in Peter Tbest, a well-known historian of the Middle Ages, as a consultant.

Tvester studied the history of the 16th and 20th centuries and was able to impart knowledge to the crew, from the customs of the time and the details of dress to daily life, navigation and military conditions.

The second is to collect all kinds of information related to the pirates of that period.

A pirate is a person who commits a crime on the high seas, so 'pirate' is a very broad term that can be defined as theft and destruction of property in open water.

Originally an individual, casual and untrained, piracy became more and more sophisticated.

For example, during the war, it was legal for the government to allow people to attack enemy shipping and then share the proceeds with sailors. Many shipowners and sailors recognized this way of survival, and after the war ended, they continued to act in this way, and became pirates.

Although the pirates in the script do not have real character prototypes, they do a lot of real pirates in one.

The small islands of the Caribbean are ideal for pirates, as a steady stream of merchant ships carrying treasure and goods pass through.

However, pirate treasure has always been just a rumor, and in fact there is no evidence.

Ronan found out from historical records that the typical pirate would splurge on his belongings and have no leftovers.

At the suggestion of Peter Tbest, Ronan chose the period between 1720 and 1750 as the setting for the story, which was at the end of the heyday of piracy.

In addition, Ronan also hired a master of swordsmanship to train Johnny Depp and the actors who joined later.

In order for the film to seem more believable, it was necessary for all the actors who played pirates and the British Navy to have a long professional training.

At the same time, an assistant manager in the production department of Shahai Entertainment has secured an actor deal with Miss A, Keira Knightley, who signed her name on a trilogy contract for "Pirates of the Caribbean" and will play the lead actress Elizabeth Swan.

Keira Knightley's salary is very low, at only $100,000.

In fact, this negotiation is very easy, and the young actors can't ask for the heroine who plays a top big production.

Compared to Keira Knightley, Sand Sea Entertainment's negotiations with Orlando Bloom have almost no progress, the elven prince's agent is very smart, "The Lord of the Rings: The Ring of the Rings" is about to be released, as long as the film is slightly successful, Orlando Bloom's value will not only double.

It's totally worth the months of delay.

Ronan has made contact with other actors and doesn't have to spend all his time on Orlando Bloom.

Someone recommended Ronan to the beauty Jason Statham, and Ronan is also considering the feasibility of having such a British hunk play the role of a little blacksmith.

Someone else recommended the famous British balloon man actor Christian Bale.

Ronan plans to hold an audition for the role before deciding on the specific person for the little blacksmith.