In 2000, Thomas Toole founded Legendary Pictures based on a private equity fund worth about $50 million, and officially signed a long-term cooperation agreement with Warner Bros., which has attracted many well-known investment banks and angel investors, and now has a market value of more than $2 billion.

However, they are more of an investment platform than a film production company. They invest in Warner Bros. projects, provide flexible funding, and wait for returns, but in many cases they are not involved in the filmmaking process, but it is up to Legendary Pictures to decide what to choose.

Legendary Pictures relied on Thomas's vision and mind, and the Wall Street bigwigs never interfered with who the company chose to work with and what projects to produce, giving Thomas 100% trust.

Previously, in fact, Warner Bros. approached Legendary Pictures to cooperate with "Green Lantern", but Thomas directly refused, and expressed his opinion in a bad language, "If you walk in casually and throw me a script and say you want to shoot it, I can only say that this is too far-fetched." Later, it was also confirmed that Thomas's vision was vicious, and the "Green Lantern" lost more than 150 million dollars.

It was this Thomas who, when Warner Bros. was infighting, he also took advantage of the situation, hoping to gain more power and interests, and then, after defeat, quickly withdrew.

For Warner Bros., this is clearly adding insult to injury.

In fact, Thomas has never hidden his ambitions and intentions, not only wanting more returns, but also trying to "speak up" in the projects he invests in, to climb the Hollywood pyramid.

To put it simply, Thomas Toole and Kevin Tsujihara are the same kind of people who both want to keep power in their hands, not just for profit, but for control – and so is former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. There is no room for two tigers in one mountain, so between Thomas and Tsujiwara, there must be one person left.

A person familiar with the matter revealed that Thomas is not willing to be just an investor, and he wants to play more of a producer role and have more decision-making power over the film. Warner Bros. did rely on Legendary Pictures' venture capital, but Tsujiwara didn't need a chattering financier. Parting ways is an inevitable consequence.

The split is a microcosm of Wall Street's game with Hollywood: Warner is the first partner Passing Pictures to give up, but it will never be the last.

After that, things got messy.

The result is simply as follows: Warner Bros. reached a cooperation agreement with Dune Entertainment, and Dune Entertainment had previously cooperated with Twentieth Century Fox for a long time, jointly creating "Avatar", "Prometheus", "Wolverine 2" and other works;

Rosenbaum, who was originally in charge of Warner Bros.'s television division, joined Legendary Pictures to create a new TV and digital division, and then Legendary Pictures announced a formal partnership with Universal Pictures, and their first joint project was the reboot of "Jurassic Park".

Robinov, who was originally in charge of the film department, was not in a hurry to find a next home, and rumored to be preparing his own production company. More than half a year later, Studio-8 was officially established, and a cooperation agreement was reached with Sony Columbia Pictures, aiming at the Chinese/Chinese market.

So, we came to the current chaos.

On the one hand, Warner Bros. is quickly sorting out the situation and developing the DC project in full swing, and the conversation between Lan Li and Barry about "the negative impact of rushing too much" has now come to naught, and history is still moving fast according to the original trajectory, and in the face of the behemoth of Warner of the entire era, Lan Li's little butterfly is still too insignificant.

Incidentally, Barry Meyer, who is 66 years old this year, has been enjoying his retirement since stepping down as CEO, and the major studios in the Hollywood industry have never mentioned him again.

Universal Pictures, on the other hand, is catching up quickly. In the midst of the turmoil, Diesel chose to bow his head and retreat for the sake of the times, and "Fast and Thrill 7" was immediately put into filming, while the "Jurassic Park" project encountered Thomas Tool, who rolled up his sleeves and was ready to do a big job, and was temporarily at an impasse.

It can be simply thought that in the past, Legendary Pictures was just an investment platform and a nominal production company, but now it is truly transforming into a production company, and more of a cooperative business with Universal Pictures.

A storm is sweeping across Hollywood, not just Warner Bros., but also Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Universal Pictures, etc., and even Paramount and Sony Columbia are not completely on the sidelines, and all sides are reshuffling the cards.

For Lan Li, he is a poker card in this game. Or rather, a chess piece. Although it is too cruel and cold-blooded to say, the truth is that he is not enough to shake the whole of Hollywood, Warner Bros. cannot change its strategy for him, and Universal Pictures cannot offend Legendary Pictures for him.

As a result, things temporarily fell into a delicate balance in the chaos-

The "Jurassic Park" restart project, Andy Rogers and Thomas Tool's negotiations are still in a tug-of-war, Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall can only indirectly pressure and cannot directly intervene, and Ron Meyer has instead put on a posture of standing by and watching.

"Fast and Exciting/Emotional" project, Ron Meyer does not move forward or backward, although the seventh part has started filming, he did not say whether the biography and sequel will continue to cooperate with Lan Li, and how the problem of Vin Diesel should be solved, so the relationship is maintained not far away.

No wonder Andy personally found Lan Li, and his expression was also unpredictable, not optimistic or pessimistic, neither positive nor negative.

After briefly understanding the ins and outs, Lan Li gently retracted his chin and asked with a serious face, "So...... Does that mean I may not be able to find a job in the near future?"

Although the content of the words expressed concern, the way of speaking was still understatement. After asking the question, Lan Li picked up the teacup unhurriedly and began to enjoy the afternoon tea.

Andy had expected it for a long time, and couldn't help but chuckle, "Honestly, are you having fun? Now you finally don't have to worry about the opportunity to shoot commercial films?"

"Of course not. Lan Li replied seriously, "I've been waiting for the opportunity to star in commercial films. It's still necessary to keep the rhythm of one film a year, and it's been a long time since 'Edge of Tomorrow', and I'm looking forward to Gravity becoming a commercial film, and I'm happy to participate in more commercial films." ”

If it were someone else, he might also believe in Lan Li, because Lan Li is so sincere that people can't help but want to believe it.

But Andy knew Lan Li, how could he be easily fooled, "How did you forget the dubbing work of the 'Super Marines'?"

"Oh, and is animation a commercial movie? I don't know. Lan Li thought about it seriously, "I think the box office prospects of 'Super Marines' should be good, but obviously, Disney won't thank me, and they don't want to give me dividends." I'm suffocated. ”

The robot-like routine replied, which made Andile laugh, "If that's the case, then it's a pity, I originally thought that the recent Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures affairs will be turbulent for a while, and the progress of related cooperation negotiations is estimated to be too fast, and commercial films can only be put aside for the time being, so I found another black independent work specifically for you, thinking that you will definitely like it very, very much." ”

With that, Andy took out a script from his briefcase and placed it on the coffee table.

"But now, aren't you interested?" Andy looked at Lan Li with confidence, as if he was sure that Lan Li would definitely change his mind after reading the script.

But Lan Li was still not in a hurry, unhurriedly put down the teacup in his hand, wiped the water stains on his fingers, and then picked up the script.

When he saw the title of the cover, Lan Li's eyebrows raised slightly, and he raised his head again to look at Andy, only to find that Andy cast a confident gaze and gestured to the script with his eyes, as if to say, "You read it first, and then we will talk in detail." The confidence that bursts out from the inside out, as well as the pride hidden in it, are fully revealed.

"Nightcrawler".

That's the script title that Andy brought to the table. To be honest, Lan Li can understand Andy's pride, because this is indeed a wonderful and amazing work.

"Nightcraler" tells the story of a real industry in Los Angeles called "Nightcraler", freelance journalists and photographers who go around filming the effects of violent crime and sell it to TV stations for a lot of money.

In the era of entertainment to death and profit first, the media needs explosions and gimmicks, explosions, gore, and even murder, etc., all become their sources of income, so this gives the nightcrawlers the soil to thrive, and gradually begins to lose control.

Actually, in a way, this is the same behavior of the paparazzi outside the Juilliard School not long ago-

This is the case with the current nightcrawlers, who, in order to find the news, enter the house, do whatever it takes, and finally go mad. As long as it is a crime or violence, they can smell blood like hyenas, and even aim the camera at bystanders and ordinary people, and even when they witness crimes such as murder, their first reaction is not to seek justice, but to record news material.

The bottom line of morality, the boundary between justice and evil, collapsed little by little.

"Nightcrawler" tells such a story.