Chapter 511: Dark Universe Series and Van Helsing's Demon Change

……

"Is the company's shooting plan for next year out?"

"In addition to Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and National Treasure 2 in collaboration with Universal, there are two more we are currently considering!"

"Which two?"

"Van Helsing and the second part of Star Legends, Skyware Warrior. ”

"Van Helsing?!" Guo Shouyun's expression moved.

"The boss knows?"

Of course, Guo Shouyun knows that Hollywood history is a famous bad movie. Production and publicity, with a total investment of nearly 180 million US dollars, but the global box office is only 300 million. Even if the income from the movie's peripherals is added, this result also makes the producer lose a lot.

However, "Van Helsing" loses money and loses money, but Universal has to shoot it, because this is one of the 'Dark Universe series of movies' created by Guo Shouyun for the matrix.

At the time of his rebirth, Universal's 'Dark Universe Series' was very popular online. But the failure of "The New Mummy" silenced the world for several years. But the boom of Disney's 'Marvel Universe' and Warner's 'DC Universe' next door, as well as the rise of Legendary Pictures' 'Monster Universe', have made Universal once again ready to take advantage of Tom's popularity to reboot "Van Helsing".

However, when he was reborn, he had not seen the film yet. But compared with the world in later generations, Guo Shouyun now has more advantages. First, the two "Mummies" are global hits and have a deep fan base. Second, now

"Van Helsing" is still a blank slate, and he can use his prior knowledge to fix those brainless bugs as much as possible and improve its box office.

After shaking his head at Buddy Morris, "I just think it's a funny name." By the way, is there a script for this movie?"

"Yes, I'll get it for you!"

Soon, Buddy Morris took a printed script from his safe and handed it to Guo Shouyun.

I took it and flipped through it briefly. Sure enough, many of the plots in it are no different from the movies I watched in my last life.

"This is a script for Stephen Sommers?"

"Yes!"

Guo Shouyun shook his head, and he didn't know if this guy burned his head after filming two "Mummies". "Van Helsing" seems to him to be the main feature of losing money.

First, write the heroine to death. Regardless of the movie, if you dare to do this, nine times out of ten you will be cool. And "Van Helsing" is not a literary film, but a popcorn "commercial film". What is the basis of making money in commercial films? It's not that you have to act with more connotation, but that you want the audience to enjoy watching it and watch it well. It's basically the same idea as the network. Therefore, the act of writing the heroine to death is completely her own death.

Second, the main line is not clear. The main line of "Van Helsing" should be a mix of male and female protagonists fighting monsters. As a result, you first aired Frankenstein for more than 10 minutes? You must know that Frankenstein is a complete movie, although it is already an old movie. For those who have not watched this movie, the first ten minutes are completely confused and have little to do with the main line. It's too redundant for 132 minutes to interpret this storyline. If Frankenstein appears to help the male and female bishops fight monsters, there are so many bulls in the Holy See, and just adding one can replace his role.

Third, propaganda failed. How can you say that it is a big production of 160 million US dollars, and as a result, you spend less than 20 million yuan in publicity and distribution expenses? This expenditure, not to mention that compared with other blockbusters with an investment of more than 100 million yuan, even ordinary medium productions are not comparable. Similar to "The Hangover 2" released by Matrix Pictures this year, the production cost of 40 million yuan reached 30 million yuan. In these years, it's 'the smell of wine is also afraid of deep alleys', you don't publicize it, and you still want to make money?

Fourth, the atmosphere is too depressing. Originally, the atmosphere of dark movies was depressing enough, and "Van Helsing" was even worse. Guo Shouyun was almost crushed to death by the medieval religious atmosphere when he saw it. Popcorn commercial blockbusters can have depressing plots, but you also have to have moments to relax the audience's emotions. For example, the hero and heroine flirt, roll the sheets, and add a happy black live fat man gag in the middle. But these routines commonly used in Hollywood commercial films have been completely abandoned by the director.

The reason why a routine is called a routine is that in the vast majority of cases, it works.

Others, in Guo Shouyun's opinion, don't talk about the small mistakes that need to be corrected, in short, the script of the entire "Van Helsing" needs to be changed.

"Have you bought this book?"

"Bought it!"

Guo Shouyun nodded, took out the pen he carried with him from his pocket, and after thinking about it, he spoke and wrote on the script of "Van Helsing".

"First of all, for the whole story, it is too hasty to explain it through a movie. "Van Helsing" is to be made into a trilogy. The first part, that is, this book, removes the plot of Frankenstein, and changes it to a simple introduction to the origin of Dracula and the three vampire brides, removes the plot of Anna Villeris's death, and adds some emotional exchanges to adjust the atmosphere. For Dracula and the three vampire brides, seal rather than kill, paving the way for the follow-up. ”

"The second part, based on Van Helsing's life experience, did not set up a new vampire enemy for him. For example, the thirteen clans and the like. The last part, write Armageddon. Through the investigation, Van Helsing finally learns that he and Dracula are actually brothers, and their parents are a union of gods and mortals, but the male god who likes him as the mother of the gods curses both of them out of hatred and jealousy, and as a result, one becomes a vampire and the other becomes a werewolf. Van Helsing, who understood his last life, took the initiative to unseal his younger brother Dracula, and then they joined forces to fight against the conspirators who held the power of the divine realm, and finally good defeated evil, and the evil god was sealed. ”

Guo Shouyun said that his mouth was foaming, and his writing was like a god, and all kinds of classic Internet jokes emerged from his brain. Buddy Morris, who was next to him, was dumbfounded.

"Old... Boss, are you really sure you want to shoot like this?" asked Buddy Morris, swallowing his saliva.

"Can't you?"

"No, no. But that's too much of a change!"

It's a whole new Zeus-esque heroic story.

"A new story, of course there will be a lot of changes. Also, when editing, I put a little more effort into the God-related part, and I don't want to get involved in legal proceedings with the church. ”

"Yes!"

Buddy Morris nodded with some difficulty.

Looking at his masterpiece, Guo Shouyun was quite satisfied. When it comes to brain holes, he has never been afraid of anyone in the Chinese Internet industry for 20 years.

"Also, change the book, don't let Stephen Sommers shoot it?"

"The boss has another candidate in mind?"

"Christopher Nolan is the one who filmed "Fragments of Memory"!" Guo Shouyun nodded and said.

Dark movies, Nolan's "Batman: Rise of the Dark Knight" is a double harvest at the box office, and letting him take charge of the game is a safer choice for Guo Shouyun.

“… By the way, you can also listen to his opinion when editing the script!"

"Understood!"

"Is there a script for Skyware Warriors?"

"Here!"

After taking a quick look, Guo Shouyun had a faint sense of familiarity, but it was not too clear.

"How was the box office of the first part?"

"The production cost is 23 million, the publicity cost is 15 million, the national box office is 39 million, the global box office is 65 million, plus the peripheral income, just over 100 million. ”

"So it's still profitable!"

"Yes, otherwise we wouldn't be thinking about Part 2. ”

Guo Shouyun nodded, "What about this second part, which can be handed over to the world, at least more than 100 million." ”

"$120 million! In addition, Vin Diesel, the actor of the previous film, wants to be the producer of this film. ”

Guo Shouyun's brows furrowed instantly. The United States is different from Huaxia, the producer is the core of a movie, which directly determines the shooting of the film and the choice of actors, and has the 'power of life and death'.

"Does he have any experience with that?"

"In '97, he wrote, directed and acted in "The Man with a Thousand Faces", which participated in the Saint-Denis Film Festival and was well received, but the box office performance was not good. Nothing else. ”

"So he's going to take $120 million from me and test the waters for his own abilities?"

Buddy Morris, who heard the dissatisfaction in his tone, hurriedly said: "Actually, I am not too optimistic about such a huge investment in this movie, but considering that the first part performed well, I stayed..." ”

Guo Shouyun waved his hand and interrupted him.

"Let him find another production company, this "Celestial Warrior", Universal doesn't want it. ”

But he has basically seen all the big-budget Hollywood blockbusters after 2000 more than once. Among them, there is no figure of "Skyware Warrior". This shows that the box office of the movie is not too outstanding. In this case, why did Guo Shouyun spend so much money to shoot it?

Moreover, it is not like "Van Helsing", which is an indispensable existence to create the "Dark Universe Series", and Guo Shouyun has no heart to carefully carve it. Moreover, he has a lot of more marketable options.

"Yes!"

"Are there any other options besides Skyware Warriors?"

"Not for the time being. ”

Guo Shouyun nodded, and after thinking for a while, "Didn't we buy the film and television rights of "Transformers" from Hasbro? ”

"Okay!"

"What about Matrix Pictures?"

"At present, there are 9 films, "Spy Shadow 2", "Smart Ghost Shadow 3", "Legend of the Night 1", "High Calcium Boy", "Meet My Father-in-law 2", "BJ Single Diary 2", "Big Company Little Boss", "Midnight Light on the Weekend", "Lala Little Wildcat 2". ”

After listening carefully to what Buddy Morris said, Guo Shouyun did not ask in more detail. He has watched half of these small and medium-sized investment films, and the films he has seen show that at least the box office is still good. Otherwise, it would not have been to China. Those that he has not seen, even if he loses money, will not shake the foundation. Leave it to Buddy Morris and Matrix Pictures CEO Kevin Young to decide.

"Matrix Games' sales performance in the first half of the year should be good, right?"

"Indeed!"Call of Duty" and "Road to Survival" developed by Villefort Studios continue to sell well, both of which have sold 6.5 million units in the first half of the year, plus "Half-Life" and "Counter-Strike", in May '03, Villefort sold 9.327 million game discs, setting a record for the highest revenue since the company's establishment. ”

A set of game CDs is generally around 60~80 US dollars, and with the sales performance of Villefort, the revenue in five months exceeds 700 million. After deducting costs, channel fees, and taxes, the net profit is $190 million!

In addition, the legendary studios in South Korea and the rare studios in China do not have as much revenue as the Wilford studios. But there was also $430 million, with a net profit of $126 million. ”

"Xuele Mountain Studio is newly built, and its three game development teams, in addition to the earliest established, the team responsible for the development of the 'Homeland Series of Games', and the first expansion has been released, and the remaining two teams responsible for the 'Ghost Series' and 'Demon Hunter' series are still in the planning stage, and they are still far from being truly listed. ”

After being the owner of a game company for so many years, Guo Shouyun also has some basic understanding of the production of a game.

From the perspective of a game production, it is mainly divided into two parts, one is the program and the other is the planning. Programs are about whether your game is playable, and planning is about whether your game is fun or not.

With a good game plan, then it's coding, that is, doing programs, then it's art, drawing the game characters, then it's UI, it's game registration, starting, ending, backpacks, health bars, skills and other pages, and finally dubbing.

The whole process is done, and a game is almost done.

It's easy to say, but when it comes to actually doing it, it's about the year.