Since everything is just getting started, Marvel Entertainment in New York will not make any adjustments, and Marvel Studios will only set up a simple office in Firefly Studios for the time being, responsible for the logistics and administration of the two comic book adaptations "Spider-Man" and "Iron Man" that have already started. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although the start of filming of both films will not be until at least next year, the preliminary special effects research and development work has already started.

To put it simply, the production goal of CG special effects is actually three types: people, scenery, and objects.

In the past few years, most of the focus of technology research and development in the digital field has only involved the two aspects of 'scenery' and 'objects', and more focus on 'objects', such as dinosaurs, giant beasts, aliens, spaceships and other special effects lenses. Images such as hurricanes, floods, and digitized buildings can be classified as 'landscapes'.

But this time, whether it is "Spider-Man" or "Iron Man", or "Hulk", "Thor" and other films that will appear in the future, there will be a large number of special effects related to "people", which will definitely involve the very common motion capture technology in later generations, and most of the scenes in the movie where Tony Stark wears the Iron Man suit are actually only done in motion capture suits.

Motion capture technology has been around since the seventies, but it was only after the success of the Lord of the Rings that the technology really caught the attention of the film and television special effects industry and began to be used on a large scale. According to MGM's plan, the "Lord of the Rings" series will also be launched in the second half of this year, and motion capture will definitely be used at that time, so Eric deliberately made this technology the focus of research and development in the digital field for a period of time in the future, and personally followed up.

As long as we can accumulate enough technology and experience in motion capture in advance, there is no doubt that in the next few years, even if other special effects companies follow up on traditional CG special effects, the digital field will still maintain a strong leading position in the entire industry.

In addition to motion capture technology, fully digitized large-scale urban scenes and mecha transformation special effects with realistic texture are also included in the technology research and development catalog in the digital field.

It is conceivable that once these two special effects technologies are perfectly realized, not only can they be applied to Marvel films such as "Spider-Man" and "Iron Man", but Firefly can even start the production of "Transformers" in advance if the hardware rendering conditions permit.

After the reunion at the celebration banquet of "Titanic", Cameron specially arranged several detailed auditions for Stuart Runkel, and the results were very satisfying.

It's just that the signing process is not destined to be so smooth.

Stewart's agency contract is still in the CAA, and the agent there directly rejected the packaging contract for the six films proposed by Firefly, saying that he was only willing to sign a maximum of three, and each one had to renegotiate the salary, which was obviously impossible for Firefly to agree, and the two sides were temporarily deadlocked.

Eric told Stuart in detail about the signing strategy for Marvel Super Films at that party, and he knew that if Stuart didn't want to, he would definitely not go to Cameron auditions. The situation in front of him, perhaps as he said at the time, hoped to spend his sixteenth birthday before talking about anything else.

According to Cameron's temperament, the start of filming of "Spider-Man" may even be delayed after "Iron Man", so Eric is not in a hurry to personally inquire about this matter, and let the head of Marvel Studios and Stewart's agent grind slowly.

On the other hand, Eric himself has also begun to build the framework of the main creators of "Iron Man".

Jon Favreau, the director of the original "Iron Man", is still only playing small cameos in various solo movies, although it is a pity, Eric is unlikely to directly appoint a newcomer who has not touched the guide at all as the director of "Iron Man", however, the replacement is also very easy to choose, and it is Joss Whedon.

In the original time and space, "The Avengers" directed by Joss Whedon, although it has the aura of Marvel superheroes, the quality of the film itself is also very good.

Over the years, Joss Whedon is not only still in charge of the production, directing and screenwriting of "Vampire Slayer Buffy", but also has directed two low-budget solo films, plus Joss Whedon himself is a super comic book fan, and his ability to control the film "Iron Man" is enough.

In addition to the director, the most important thing is undoubtedly the actor.

In this regard, Robert Downey Jr. must be an unavoidable hurdle, after all, in the original "Iron Man", Downey's performance is too successful, and it can be said that it is the most perfect character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to achieve the integration of human drama.

Although the age of the male protagonist of the new version of "Iron Man" has been adjusted, Downey still agrees with this condition.

However, when Eric asked his assistant to contact him, he was told that he had just been imprisoned for the second time this year and had been scheduled for treatment at a drug rehabilitation center after serving six weeks. According to the information collected by the assistant, Downey's whole person is completely due to long-term drug addiction, and he does not have the sense of vicissitudes of the prodigal son when he played Tony Stark in his memory.

Although a little embarrassed, Eric can't wait for the other party to come to his senses again, but let people start looking for new role candidates, after all, what Hollywood lacks the most is opportunities, and the most important thing is actors.

It happened to be the weekend, and it was already May 17th.

Chris's wedding was due to take place in three days, and Eric had planned to fly to Maryland today, but received a call from Marvel Entertainment CEO Avi Arad who wanted to visit, so he had to postpone his trip by a day.

The purpose of Avi Arad's visit is also to cast the actor in "Iron Man".

At the same time, he was accompanied by an unexpected person for Eric, Paula Wagner, Tom Cruise's producer, which was obviously the reason why Avi Arad had flown from New York in person.

Sharp Corner Manor Villa, a glass-walled sitting area.

Avi Arad and Paula Wagner looked at the two girls in tennis suits who served them coffee, and their eyes couldn't help but glance at the petite Christina, but they didn't say anything about it, only politely thanked Miranda Kerr after pouring herself coffee.

Compared with Miranda, who has already reached 1.7 meters in size, Christina, who is only 1.5 meters old and obviously won't grow any longer, is obviously easy to mistake for an underage girl, but God knows, Christina is three years older than Miranda.

There was already a little charming goblin on a certain innocent face, which really made Eric feel a little helpless.

Grow so fast, grow so fast, grow so fast.

People can't give birth to the sense of accomplishment of raising Lori!

Seeing Miranda bending her slender waist and pretending to pour herself a cup of coffee, Eric hurriedly said, "Go play, I don't need your help here." ”

Christina on the other side put down the coffee pot and asked, "Eric, will the guests stay at noon?"

"Of course, you let the chef prepare it," Eric said, looking at Avi Arad and Paula Wagner, "Avi, Paula, do you have anything you particularly like?"

Paula Wagner shook her head and said, "Whatever." ”

Avi Arad chimed in: "Me too. ”

"That's it," Eric waved his hand again, "you guys go play first." ”

After the two girls disappeared, Eric first said to Avi Aradd, "You must have talked to Joss Weddon, how do you feel?"

"A young man with a lot of ideas," Avi Arad nodded, "although his directing experience is a little shallow, I believe that with you personally in charge, there will be no mistakes." ”

Eric smiled, then turned to Paula Wagner: "So, Paula, how are you doing, I heard that Cruise is working on a new film in New York?"

Avi Arad had arrived in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon and had already discussed Paula Wagner's intentions with him on the phone.

Although Firefly has not officially announced the Marvel Cinematic Universe plan to the outside world, this matter is no secret in Hollywood in the case of Firefly's frequent actions, and some media have even launched a small range of reports.

Perhaps stimulated by Warner's three consecutive "Batman" box office modest in previous years, Tom Cruise also became interested in "Iron Man".

In the memory of his previous life, "Iron Man" actually became Tom Cruise's bag for a time, but due to Marvel's repeated delays and hesitation, coupled with the script that could not satisfy Cruise, the two sides parted ways.

Speaking of which, as an actor, sometimes, opportunities really seem extremely important.

Take Tom Cruise and Kevin Costner as examples, in the past, after the box office fiasco of "Future Waterworld", Kevin Costner gradually broke away from the ranks of A-list superstars. And because of the protection of the "Mission: Impossible" series, although Tom Cruise has also experienced some failures, he has been able to make a comeback with the "Mission: Impossible" sequel every time.

But now, the "Mission: Impossible" series belongs to Kevin Costner, which also allowed him to save his career in time after also experiencing the box office fiasco of "Future Water World".

On the other hand, Tom Cruise is not so lucky, although he has been in the first line, and he has followed the trend in recent years to try several big-budget movies, but they can only be said to have a mediocre response, gradually, Paramount, which works closely with Tom Cruise, is not even willing to let Tom Cruise participate in big-budget movies, but positions him in the genre of low-budget literary film actors, after all, although Tom Cruise has not been recognized by the Oscars, the box office of the drama films he starred in is still very guaranteed。

Tom Cruise's new film, which Eric just mentioned, is being shot in New York, and it's also a feature film that costs about $40 million.

But obviously, Tom Cruise is not willing to continue like this, after all, Hollywood's big-budget commercial films, even not mentioning the miracle "Titanic", have many of them frequently touched the threshold of 700 million or even 1 billion at the global box office, and literary films, even if they sell well, the global box office can usually only be maintained at about 300 million US dollars, and the interests involved are naturally incomparable.

Paula Wagner took a small sip of coffee and nodded, "Yes, this time it's a biographical adaptation, and Tom hopes to hit the Oscars again." ”

Eric smiled lightly, didn't say anything about it, and said, "So, this time, why are you interested in Iron Man?"

"Don't you think, Eric, that Tom is a perfect fit for the role?" said Paula Wagner, putting down her coffee cup, pulling out a few pictures from her handbag and handing them over.

Eric took it and took a look, and it turned out to be a rendering of Tom Cruise wearing a steel suit, which was obviously made with the assistance of Marvel. After all, the design draft of Iron Man's suit is currently only visible to Marvel executives.

Speaking of which, if you don't mention height, Tom Cruise is very similar to Tony Stark in the comics.

After reading a few photos, Eric looked up and said, "Paula, now that you have these design drafts, you must have heard that I conceived the character of Iron Man." ”

"Of course," Paula Wagner nodded, "Eric, though, it's a bit subversive, but you know that Tom has enough strength to handle this role, and you've worked together in Dark Wars, haven't you?"

Eric smiled and nodded, except for Tom Cruise's somewhat reprehensible desire to control, Eric didn't have much other prejudice against him, now, although Tom Cruise is still a Hollywood superstar, but compared to Eric, the two are no longer a heavyweight at all, and he naturally won't care about the small details in the past.

In fact, before this meeting with Paula Wagner, Eric did not plan to let Tom Cruise play Tony Stark.

After all, he needs a bastard, not a flawless hero.

But Tom Cruise's on-screen image is precisely the kind of flawless American main theme role, and even his image has been ingrained in the hearts of the audience, and if it suddenly changes, Eric is not even sure whether the audience will buy it.

Of course, Tom Cruise's salary is also a big problem, although Eric said that he would not refuse to cooperate with A-list superstars, but Tom Cruise is obviously the most difficult A-list superstar, and the "Mission Impossible" series in his previous life was entangled with Paramount for twenty years is the most obvious example. (To be continued.) )