It's another ordinary morning, and even for Hollywood, which is full of countless wonders and infinite possibilities, office life is just as boring day after day, year after year, buried in countless boring paperwork, and the excitement and enthusiasm are consumed little by little.

Miracles exist, but they are not the norm after all.

As is customary, Barry Meyer arrives at the office at 10 a.m., spreads out the newspaper on his desk, and uses his free time over a cup of coffee to start reading through the daily industry news, keeping abreast of all the developments in the industry, and digging out potential connections and trends in the sea of information.

Once the newspaper was finished, Barry began to unpack his letters.

Now in the 21st century, e-mail has become the mainstream, and all information exchange and dialogue are done through online channels, but the traditional letter model is still retained, especially in professional magazines such as "Hollywood Reporter" and "Variety", and the frequent use of print and handwriting shows the precipitation of cultural heritage.

At the same time, the traditional letter mode has been retained, which has also allowed the tradition of the mailroom to be preserved.

In the 70's and 80's, the mailroom was a stage that every new employee had to go through, from the agency to the film company, all of them, and the newcomer could only win the next level of space after polishing his or her mind for a long time, on the one hand, to familiarize himself with the rules of the industry, and of course, more to distinguish between seniority and rank.

Now that tradition is gone, the big studios are still keeping their mailrooms, partly because of new talent or infiltration, and partly because they are open to amateur writers and producers to send their manuscripts and expand their own repositories in another way.

Of course, the letter was able to end up on Barry's desktop, which had obviously been screened through layers of sifting, and spam certainly wouldn't be here.

Opening a thick brown paper envelope in front of him, Barry pulled it out, and it was a USB flash drive and a script, and his brows couldn't help frowning: why did the script get to his desktop? This should be pushed to the production department, where there are professionals responsible for reading scripts and screening projects, which is not his forte, nor is it his job.

Suddenly, Barry dropped the script on the table, habitually picked up the phone, connected to the secretary's internal line, and said in a stiff and irritable tone, "What the hell is going on with the script on my desk? This shouldn't be on my desk." You must review such mistakes, I don't want to waste time on such boring things. Do your job!"

"Sir. It was a script sent by Andy Rogers personally, and he told him that he had to hand it over to you personally, saying that it was a project that Lan Li fancied. The secretary's voice was slightly tense, and she could feel her nervousness, and waited for a moment, not waiting for Barry's response, and she didn't know if she should continue.

"What else?"

Barry's voice finally came from the other end of the phone, and the secretary breathed a sigh of relief, "Also, Andy didn't just come to us, he went to Universal Pictures. ”

Universal Pictures?

Everyone knows that Ron Meyer has never let go of his body and refused to compromise with Lan Li, and the relationship between the two sides is not embarrassing or awkward, not far and not close to a position, so Andy took the initiative to send it to the door at this time, what is this for?

Fingertips tapped lightly on the desk for a moment, and Barry made sure that the secretary had nothing else to explain before hanging up.

There were too many possibilities, and there were too few clues to figure out in a short period of time, so Barry put down all his thoughts for a while, plugged the USB stick into his computer, and began to play the short video, and at the same time, he opened the script and began to browse it intently.

In just a few minutes, the video clip has been played, and the original script has only flipped through a few pages, and I have probably had an understanding of the outline structure. Barry was not interested in the artistic attainments and thematic ideas of "The Burst Drummer" because he was not an artist, and Barry had already made a judgment about the commercial interests of the work.

Obviously, this is not a work that will make money.

Strictly speaking, even if he can make money, it will only make millions of dollars at most, after all, it is only an independent art project, and it will not make a lot of money, and as for the impact of the awards season, Barry does not have the ability to appreciate it, which is another way of thinking, which is not on his radar.

For Warner Bros., such a small project, they have a certain amount every year, and they are bound to invest in a few films to ensure that they do not disappear during the awards season, and then go to major film festivals to buy the distribution rights of some independent artworks to further participate in the awards season competition.

But at the end of the day, that's not the main line of Warner Bros., and Barry isn't going to put a lot of effort into it.

Focus Pictures under Universal Pictures, Fox Searchlight under Twentieth Century Fox, Miramax Pictures under Disney, Paramount Classics under Paramount, and so on, they are all committed to digging out more independent art films and creating their own brands.

Warner Bros. is different, although they also have subsidiaries such as New Line Pictures and Warner Independent Pictures, the company's policies have never spent much energy on independent art films, and at most they can only be regarded as a small branch.

At any other time, Barry wouldn't be interested in such a project, not even if it was the Coen brothers or the Blue Lane project. Barry is happy to work with a specialist department and generously supports the project to ensure a stable network without spending more energy on the details of the project.

Overall, mega projects are the focus of their development, especially now that the company stands at a crossroads of development, which is likely to affect the development plan for the next ten years. But on the other hand, it is precisely because of this that Barry must think more carefully about Lan Li's proposal.

Barry's gut tells him that timing is clearly an important factor in the whole project coming up on his desk. Even if it wasn't Lan Li's idea, it must have been Andy's idea - otherwise, Andy wouldn't have made a special trip to Warner Bros. to leave this script.

It couldn't be easier than a decision to invest in an independent project, and for a project like "Burst Drummer", $10 million is enough, and it's not difficult for Warner Bros. at all.

The point is that this is the first time that Lan Li has served as an independent producer, what kind of position has the project reached in Lan Li's mind, and what is Lan Li's expectation for the project?

Furthermore, winning the cooperation of "Burst Drummer" does it mean that in the long run, the possibility of cooperation with other works of Lanli in the future will also increase?

Or to put it another way, as an actor, Lan Li has proven his worth - and may need to prove it further, so as a producer, is Lan Li's vision for film selection also a guarantee of success? Also, in terms of screenwriters and producers, is Lan Li's reputation guarantee also trustworthy.

To put it simply, is Lanley Hall worthy of a long-term investment from a studio, like Christopher Nolan?

Not long ago, on Oscar night, Barry was still rejoicing that the relationship between Warner Bros. and Blue Rite was on the right track, from "Edge of Tomorrow" to "Gravity", and the partnership was in a harmonious virtuous circle, and in this regard, they were already ahead of other studios.

Now, the opportunity for in-depth cooperation has really come, not as a money-making commercial project, but as an independent project of art, which in a way is in line with the Lanli style, but not in the Warner Bros. style.

If the long-term cooperation continues, will Blue Gift give Warner Bros. the expected commercial attribute bonus? In other words, will Blue Gift be enough to make Warner Bros. go further?

Plus, Barry knows that Andy left a clue that Warner Bros. isn't the only option. This is a conspiracy, a conspiracy that makes it clear that it is sold at a price, but it is also a conspiracy that makes people helpless.

So, how exactly should he decide?

……

After the Oscar night ended, the hustle and bustle of the awards season officially came to an end, and the major studios began to get busy with the new film production cycle in an orderly manner, the Cannes Film Festival is coming, and the summer season is about to begin, and they still have a lot of things to do, but March and April are still relatively quiet, and the busyness is a little quieter.

In the midst of this, the name "Lan Li-Hall" rippled like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, and gradually became more and more intense, and finally set off a stormy wave.

According to the internal information of the innovative artist agency, Lanli is preparing an independent artwork, which will be the first time that Lanli has really participated in the production of a work as a producer!

Prior to this, Lan Li appeared in the list of producers of "Edge of Tomorrow" and "Gravity" as a nominal producer, but industry insiders know that Lan Li did not really participate in the production process of the project, only participated in the role creation and script polishing, and traveled more of his responsibilities as an actor.

So, whether it's Paul Greengrass or Alfonso Cuarón, they are full of praise for Lan Li.

But this time is different, from the beginning of the project establishment stage, Lan Li has been involved in it, and actively prepared funds for the project, obviously more actively taking on the responsibility of the producer, so, what does this mean exactly?

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1229 Industry Turmoil (Page 1/1)

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