"You look a lot darker. ”

In the reception room, Ronan looked at Li An's yellow, black, and slightly shiny face, and said, "Li, I haven't seen you for a few months, you have changed so much." ”

Ang Lee said with a smile: "In order to feel some of the scenes depicted in it, I have been going to sea a lot recently, which is exposed to the sun. ”

Ronan knew that Ang Lee belonged to the kind of director who practiced himself, and said: "Life of Pi, it seems that you are ready. ”

"Yes. Li An nodded heavily, with a serious face: "I have personally been preparing for a year. ”

This is not the preparation of the crew, it is just Ang Lee's own preparation, such a director will mobilize every cell in his body if he does not move.

"The more prepared you are, the fewer difficulties you may have in preparing, filming and production," Ronan said. ”

Ang Lee opened the briefcase he was carrying, took out the draft of the script, which was obviously a printout, handed it to Ronan, and said, "I have completed the first draft of the script, and I also have some preliminary plans for the adaptation of the film. ”

Taking the script, Ronan slowly flipped through it and said, "Li, tell me about your plan." ”

Ang Lee sorted out his thoughts a little and took the lead in saying: "I am going to shoot and produce "Life of Pi" in 3D. ”

This did not surprise Ronan, he glanced up at Ang Lee and asked, "Do you want to use 3D?"

"Earlier this year, I went to Weta Studios in Wellington, New Zealand, to meet James Cameron and his Avatar crew. Ang Lee obviously has his own thoughts: "I watched the partially completed clip of "Avatar", and the effect was really amazing. ”

Ronan nodded slightly: "Avatar uses the best special effects production and 3D technology in the world at present. ”

Ang Lee continued, "I wanted to shoot this story in 3D. Using 3D technology, the film expands the format so that the audience can immerse themselves in the arduous journey of Pi and be completely touched by the emotions of the story. ”

He thought for a moment and then said, "I hope that when this film is finished, the experience will be as unique as that of Martel Jan and that I have to create this film in another dimension." 3D is the new cinematic language, and in the project Life of Pi, it will not only allow the audience to revel in the scale and adventure, but also immerse themselves in the emotional world of the characters. ”

After listening to Ang Lee's words, combined with the script he saw in his hand, years of experience made him have a preliminary judgment: "The production budget will not be less than 100 million US dollars." ”

Ang Lee instantly thought of the failure of the big investment project of "Hulk", and he was inevitably apprehensive, but he still stubbornly said: "Yes, according to my plan, it will be at least 100 million US dollars." ”

"This is the intimate story of a teenager who lost his family and had to face unimaginable challenges in the midst of magnificent nature," he said. Achieving this part and maintaining the emotional core is extremely complex and requires skill, determination and creativity. ”

Ronan put down the script and said, "Lee, I believe in you, and I believe that you can bring a successful 3D movie." ”

Li An breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I will do my best." ”

Ronan returned the script to Ang Lee and said, "After you go back, immediately submit the relevant plan to Shahai Entertainment, and I will let people promote this project as soon as possible." ”

"Okay. Ang Lee immediately said: "I'll do it right away, and then go to gather people to strive for the crew to be established as soon as possible." ”

Ronan asked, "How long will it take?"

"Before next year's Cannes Film Festival. Ang Lee replied, "I want to take this film to the Cannes or Venice Film Festival next year." ”

Ronan understood what he meant: "I will ask Embassy Pictures to prepare for Life of Pi for the awards." ”

This type of film, if you want to maximize profits, like "Slumdog Millionaire", the Oscar halo is indispensable.

The two then chatted for a while, especially about 3D technology.

Every filmmaker, especially a director, has a different perspective on 3D.

In Ang Lee's eyes, 3D is just a movie technique, which cannot be above the movie, specifically for "Life of Pi", that is, 3D technology should serve the plot solidly, not show off skills.

In the words of the Chinese-American director, technology should always play the role of an auxiliary tool in the film, no matter how good this technology is, it can only be the icing on the cake rather than the charcoal, and the real touching place can always be the heart of the person.

It was a very difficult thing to make Life of Pi, even for Relativity Entertainment, and the biggest difficulty was to get the balance of investment in the film.

It's like a multi-million dollar production budget project, and Ronan can let Uwe Ball shoot whatever he wants.

Films with a cost of less than $50 million, Ang Lee can shoot and produce according to his ideas in the system of Relativity Entertainment, because in the global film market, they have the appeal to recoup their investment.

For any film, it is prudent to invest hundreds of millions, and it is never easy to cross the barriers of art and the market, especially a film that is more humanistic and artistic.

Fortunately, Ronan has some memories of "Life of Pi" and has enough confidence in Ang Lee.

Frankly speaking, Ang Lee's films are still relatively down-to-earth, and although the pace is slow, they are never obscure.

In fact, Ang Lee has never made that kind of pretending movie that is specifically designed to get along with the audience.

Although he has messed up the only commercial blockbuster "Hulk" directed in his life so far, it is not difficult to find that Ang Lee's film list is basically easy to understand.

After Ang Lee officially submitted the production plan to Shahai Entertainment, "Life of Pi" also determined the budget, with an initial budget of 100 million US dollars, and we will see if there is any need for additional investment later.

Ang Lee summoned the filming team as quickly as possible, and also needed to rush to India to personally select the right actor, and he hoped to find a simple Indian teenager to play the male lead.

Relativity Entertainment's India branch in Mumbai will fully assist Ang Lee.

In addition to "Life of Pi", Relativity Entertainment has several projects officially established this month, and Matthew Vaughn, who has completed "King Haibian", has officially transferred to the preparation and filming of the new "Ace Agent".

Shahai Entertainment Animation Studio's film about pets was also officially established under the promotion of Ronan, and the project was named "The Big Secret of Pets".

In terms of live-action fairy tale films, "Cinderella" began to write scripts.

Unlike the dark fairy tale movies that are evolving in Hollywood today, this new "Cinderella" will follow the fairy tale as much as possible.

It is certainly not the earliest Cinderella story that is followed, but the children's version that is widely circulated all over the world.

If it had been filmed according to the earliest folk tales, I am afraid that this film would have become an NC-17 classification.

Many fairy tales originated among the people, and compared to the later versions, they were originally legends full of violence, gore and even astringent elements.

For example, this kind of thing is nothing at all in those versions, it's just commonplace.

As for the plot of Cinderella running out of the palace and stopping to throw shoes, it is impossible to appear in the live-action fairy tale movie filmed by Relativity Entertainment.

In addition, Shahai Entertainment is also making initial contact with Angelina Jolie, planning to invite her to play the witch in another live-action fairy tale movie.

But Angelina Jolie is full of doubts about playing the witch, because since she got involved with Brad Pitt, although the commercial value has increased significantly, the image is worrying, and in the long run, playing the vicious witch is not ideal.

Shahai Entertainment is not in a hurry, and plans to wait for the script to be completed, and use the plot and character setting of the script to dispel Angelina Jolie's doubts, after all, this witch is not vicious.

Just like the subversive prince and Snow White in Frozen, witches aren't necessarily bad people, and Sleeping Beauty doesn't need a prince to wake them up.

In March, Relativity Entertainment still had films released, and in this relatively cold period, there were no first-line commercial films.

Earlier, the "Death Comes" series appeared in North American theaters for the fifth time, and the Grim Reaper may be late, but he will never be absent.

This time, a group of Americans who escaped the collapse of the bridge will face the Grim Reaper's life-seeking journey, and it will not help to flee to the ends of the earth.

is still a patterned routine, a bloody and cruel death, but compared with the previous works, this one still successfully creates a thrilling atmosphere of the entire slow death process, allowing the audience to experience the suffocating pleasure of sitting on pins and needles and unable to breathe again.

The invisible Grim Reaper, which is more terrifying than the visible killer, has always been a big selling point of the "Death Comes" series.

No matter how you escape, you will inevitably die.

With the first four films accumulating a large number of fans, "Death is Coming 5" has no shortage of audiences, and it earned $28.95 million at the box office in its opening weekend in North America.

The overseas response of the simultaneous release even exceeded that of North America, with nearly $35 million entering the box office account in the first weekend.

According to Embassy Pictures' more conservative estimates, "Dead Comes 5" is expected to grossed $180 million worldwide.

Not to mention predictions, the opening score can already allow the Grim Reaper's torture game to continue.

After this film, Embassy Pictures launched another work, "Lincoln vs. Zombies", because the production cost only cost $150,000 in the end, the shooting was quite rough, and there was nothing special hype and publicity, and the film was directly pushed into the DVD market and Netflix streaming.

For such a B-grade film, there is not much problem in returning to the original cost, and the only suspense is how long it will take.

With the help of Bao Ge's Netflix sharing account and the official website of "Vampire Hunter Lincoln" and other promotions, "Lincoln vs. Zombies" sold 50,000 DVDs in the first week of its release, not only achieving a return on investment, but also making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits.

By late March, Embassy Pictures had launched the real key project of the month, "Kung Fu Dream."