Another consecutive box office success of two films, Matthew has the confidence and capital to open his mouth in the negotiations with any crew or company, and some companies with wavering attitudes have also made decisions quickly.

Helen Herman had a second round of negotiations with Hasbro and Paramount Pictures, and as soon as the negotiations began, two representatives of Hasbro and Paramount Pictures directly told Helen Herman that Bipolar had carefully considered that Jon Zhu was not suitable to be the director of the sequel to "Special Forces", and they would then start formal negotiations with Stephen Sommers about directing the sequel.

Maintaining the stability of the main creative team is the premise for Matthew to continue to serve as the leading actor.

The sequel was definitely going to be filmed, and the negotiations were bound to be lengthy, as Helen Herman offered a base salary of $20 million plus a 20 percent box office share.

This does not include the use of Matthew's image rights.

There are so many options involved, Helen Herman alone has as many as fifteen peripheral income points for Matthew, and a deal is unlikely to be reached in a few months of negotiations.

The negotiation of the sequel to "Special Forces" Matthew was completely handed over to Helen Herman, and for the time being, his main focus was on the preparation of "Fast and Furious 5".

After more than two months of busyness, Justin Lin and Chris Morgan completed the first draft of the script and preparation planning, and after initial discussions with producer Bearded Jack, they immediately approached Matthew and David Ellison.

In the conference room of Skydance Pictures, Matthew and David Ellison sat at the conference table, with the first draft script they had just finished reading in front of them.

"The script is good. David Ellison closed the script, looked at Matthew beside him, and asked, "What do you think?"

He doesn't necessarily look good when he looks good, and what others think is good may not be good, but if Matthew says good, it's definitely good.

To this day, David Ellison judges a project and a script as simple as that.

Matthew thought about it for a while before he said, "I think it's good, the story is closely connected to the previous one, there is suspense and at the same time it is concise and easy to understand, and it also expands the world view, and the action scenes and drag racing scenes are also bigger." ”

David Ellison nodded slightly.

"However, there is one thing that does not stand out enough. Matthew looked at screenwriter Chris Morgan, "Family, the family view of the racing family needs to be a little more prominent. ”

Chris Morgan hurriedly responded, "I'll strengthen these in the second edition." ”

Matthew was generally pleased with the script, adding, "The skills of each character are further clarified, and everyone has a specialty that can be recognized by the audience at a glance." ”

"And. He added, "In terms of female roles, the emphasis is on highlighting Giselle. ”

Justin Lin and Chris Morgan looked at each other and said, "No problem. ”

In their first draft script, in addition to Matthew and Paul Walker, the heaviest role is Gal Gadot's Gisele.

This is not the choice of the crew, but the result of market research.

In the past two months, Sky Dance Pictures has been conducting market research for "Fast and Furious 4", and the most popular person for the film is Matthew, followed by Paul Walker and Gal Gadot.

Probably because the character is independent and strong, not only does not need a man to save him, but he can also kill and help at critical moments, Gal Gadot's Giselle is very popular with female fans, and his support is not much different from that of Brian played by Paul Walker.

Since the audience likes it, of course, the sequel should appropriately strengthen her role.

"Matthew, David, there's a question I hope you'll consider carefully. ”

The bearded Jack, who is the producer, said at this time, "The investment of $150 million seems like a lot, but it is a bit small for such a film." ”

Matthew looked at David Ellison, and the investment was decided by both of them.

David Ellison nodded lightly and said, "Budget, we'll evaluate it when you come up with a more detailed plan." ”

After several years of development in Hollywood, he is no longer the kind of person who takes money to smash projects at every turn.

"I agree with David. Matthew chimed in.

Additional investment could involve tens of millions of dollars, and even if they trusted the bearded Jack, it was impossible for them to say they wanted to invest and then give it.

Big-budget commercial films are a bottomless pit, and even the best directors and producers must pull the reins appropriately.

In fact, the investment budget formulated by Matthew and David Ellison itself is slightly low, not to mention the others, Matthew's base salary of $25 million in the sequel alone occupies a large part of the budget, as well as Paul Walker's salary of nearly 10 million dollars.

The other actors are not paid much, and all of them are combined, and there is no Paul Walker.

There are no tricks in the big scenes in action movies, and if you want to achieve good visual effects, you have to throw money, a lot of money.

The meeting ended quickly, and while the others were leaving, Matthew and David Ellison discussed a few more things about the cast, specifically the addition of a new Chinese-American female character.

This will be handled by Studio 13 and Disney China, and auditions are being prepared and are expected to begin in mid-August.

The new Chinese female character will appear as the girlfriend of Daniel Wu's character.

Starting from "Fast and Furious 5", the starring lineup of this series will be completely internationalized.

Counting the second starring Tyrese Gibson, the starring lineup includes whites, African-Americans, Latinos, Jews and Asians, etc., which can be described as everything.

When he left Skydance Pictures, Matthew was still thinking about whether to add an Arab in the future?

This is a long-term plan, and it is not necessary for the time being, because the countries in the Arabian Gulf region are very rich, but the scale of the film market is very limited.

For example, countries like Saudi Arabia have banned movie theaters since the seventies and eighties of the last century, and they have not been released until now.

Perhaps it is wiser to pull commercial sponsorship from there than to the audience, and the UAE is a relatively open place, and it is also pursuing advertising effects, so maybe people can get in touch with the consortium there.

As long as the money is in place, it is not bad to go to places like Dubai to shoot in the future.

With this in mind, Matthew went to a café on Nanbo Great Street, with whom Karolina Kokova had asked him to meet several days ago, and he had not had time, so it dragged on until today.

"I'm sorry, KK. ”

Finding Carolina Kokuva in a quiet booth, Matthew pulled out a chair and sat across from her, apologetically saying, "There was a meeting just now, and you have been waiting for a long time. ”

Karolina Kokuva smiled, "It's okay, I just came here too." She asked, "You want green tea?"

Matthew nodded slightly, "It's best to have green tea." ”

Karolina Kokuva recruited a waiter, ordered a cup of green tea for Matthew, and then took out an invitation from her bag and said, "This is the VIP invitation to this year's Victoria's Secret show, and I haven't re-signed with Victoria's Secret yet, so I can only get this one." ”

"Are you back at Victoria's Secret?" Matthew took and looked, "Thank you." ”

"No!" Karolina Kokuva shook her head, "Matthew, I should be the one to say thank you." ”

She looked very serious, "Without your help, I wouldn't be able to return to the top catwalk, and without you, there would be no rebirth for me." ”

Matthew smiled faintly, "You're so polite, KK." ”

The waiter brought the tea, and Matthew thanked him and said to Karolina Kokuva, "You deserve it." ”

Without Carolina Kokuva's reckless efforts over the past year, how could he possibly promote such a supermodel?

Karolina Kokuva looked very atmospheric, "Let's stop saying these kind words. She looked at Matthew and asked curiously, "I heard that Paramount Pictures and Hasbro recently had a disagreement with you about the director of the sequel to "Special Forces"?

She also heard some news, and after the agent learned about it, he communicated with her again, and his attitude was completely different from last time, saying that if the director changed a new person and Matthew quit again, he persuaded her to take the initiative to quit.

The risk of a rookie director is too great, and if she fails, she will have to lose the fame she has earned so hard.

"It's all settled. Matthew didn't hide it, "I've agreed with Paramount Pictures and Hasbro that the sequel's main creative team will remain the same. ”

Hearing the latter sentence, Carolina Kokuva hurriedly asked, "Will the redhead Scarlett still appear in the sequel?"

Matthew nodded slightly, "As long as you're willing to play the role." ”

Karolina Kokuva breathed a sigh of relief and then bit her lip, "Matthew, I'...... I think...... We used to get along well and the way we got along was a lot of fun, and recently I reconsidered it, and I miss the special ...... we had together."

She smiled and didn't say explicitly, "Shall we go on?"

"It doesn't have to be this way, KK. Matthew politely declined, "The redhead is still yours for as long as you want." ”

Karolina Kokuva nodded, not dwelling on the issue.

Matthew wasn't going to get into a relationship with Carolina Kokuva anymore, because he had tried so many tricks on her in the past year that it was long gone, and on the other hand, he knew that Hasbro and Paramount Pictures sequels would focus on another female character, and the redhead Scarlett would inevitably be weakened.

Hasbro's idea was to have the famous Miss Jay play the heroine of the sequel to "Special Forces".

Even, they are considering having the flint appear in the sequel.

In addition, probably seeing the success of "Fast and Furious 4" on the other side of the Pacific, coupled with the fact that China and the United States will soon have a new WTO negotiation, including movies, Paramount Pictures and Hasbro also plan to increase the promotion of the "Special Forces" series on the other side of the Pacific.

They also plan to use a Chinese-female character in the sequel.

Matthew doesn't know exactly what it is, after all, it's just a preliminary plan.