Chapter 139: The Bottomless Pit of Gold Swallowing and "The Ratcatcher"

The fundamental reason why Cameron is under so much pressure is that as the filming work unfolds, the funds are simply spent.

In order to photograph the wreckage of the Titanic, Cameron hired the most advanced deep-water submarine at that time, and the entire expedition team dived into the deep sea twelve times in order to shoot satisfactory pictures, and took a large number of precious pictures around the wreckage buried deep in the seabed of the Titanic.

And in order to truly reproduce the Titanic, the film crew wanted to build a model of the Titanic in the water tank, to know the real size of the Titanic, it is nearly 270 meters long, nearly 30 meters wide hull, from the waterline to the deck of the ship is as high as more than 18 meters, and the displacement reached a record 66,000 tons at the time.

Moreover, the Titanic was famous for its luxury, and the second-class facilities in its cabin were comparable to the first-class cabins of other ships. As for its first-class cabin, according to the parlance at the time, it was a mobile palace on the sea!

Its luxury and sophistication were unprecedented at the time. There is an indoor swimming pool, gymnasium, hammam, library, lift and a squash court. It also imitates the Palace of Versailles in many details, such as the salon of the Petit Trianon in style, which is similar in style, and the carving on the fireplace is "The Goddess of the Hunt at the Palace of Versailles"; The lounge was filled with Louis XV-style furniture, too heavy for the average person to lift, and its carpet was knee-thick. Fine teak and brass decorations, chandeliers and frescoes, Indian and Persian carpets, and other fine reliefs and works of art can be seen throughout the ship.

The common room in the First Class cabin is decorated with fine wood panelling with premium furnishings and a variety of other premium décor, while there is a café on board that serves a variety of high-end refreshments and a restaurant that serves guests 24 hours a day.

Even the ship's third-class cabins have marble sinks and bedside heating. It can be said that the Titanic was incomparable luxury at that time. Although it wasn't the first ship to offer its passengers a deck pool, gym, bathroom, and lift, it did go out of its way to provide a level of service never seen before.

However, because the Titanic sank during the voyage, it did not leave too much video data, in order to reproduce the interior of the Titanic's cabin, the designers of the film crew traveled all over the United States to collect and find information about the Titanic. Moreover, these personnel also made sets and various furniture and accessories according to the information obtained, and copied deck chairs, table lamps, porcelain, suitcases, life jackets and nautical parts and other accessories according to the real number on the Titanic, which undoubtedly added up to a very large amount, and the cost of money was also very amazing.

Moreover, in order to shoot the scene of the sinking of the Titanic, Cameron and the designers changed drafts several times, and finally decided to use a remote control lifting jib to shoot. This camera boom arm will be the camera boom arm on Shijie at that time, with an arm span of nearly 26 meters. Even so, to bring the whole scene into the mirror, Cameron still had to rely on a giant crane that was nearly 64 meters tall to complete. The crane will be mounted on rails on the side of the hull and will take only five minutes to move from bow to stern, thus ensuring that the framing is required. And these need to be customized to the manufacturer to be possible.

Add to that the other-messy-messy costs, and the amount of money needed to prepare the film alone is in the tens of millions of dollars!

And that's not even counting, a large number of shots in the film need to be completed using computer production, according to Cameron's estimates, just the protagonist standing on the bow of the Titanic chanting and then the camera slowly pulls back to look down on the entire Titanic, this short more than ten seconds of footage, the funds required may be millions of dollars! And throughout the filming process of the film, shots like this can be said to abound!

The amount of money involved in this expenditure is absolutely shocking!

Although Fang Mingyuan generously proposed a filming budget of 200 million US dollars, he also promised that if needed, he could add 100 million US dollars. But Cameron felt that he had to be worthy of Fang Mingyuan's trust, 200 million US dollars, which could build a modern large-scale factory in Huaxia, but Fang Mingyuan handed it over to himself without blinking an eye.

Although Cameron has always been very confident in Fang Mingyuan's script and his directing ability, whether "Titanic" can finally fully recover the investment cost, from the moment it is released, Cameron himself does not dare to pack tickets. If the $200 million investment is lost, it will not only be a major blow to Cameron, but also a heartbreaking damage to Kumho Film Group, which has produced many excellent films over the years! In addition, there is a lesson from the past of "Future Water Shijie", so Cameron is very strict in terms of capital expenditure. But no matter how strict the card is, some necessary expenses are still inevitable.

However, fortunately, Fang Mingyuan has made it clear that this photo spot will be permanently preserved and will be opened up as a tourist attraction for tourists to visit and play in the future. If "Titanic" can achieve a good box office, this huge investment is expected to be recouped in the future.

Cameron smiled self-deprecatingly, it seemed that Fang Mingyuan had much greater confidence in "Titanic" than himself, and he actually thought of preserving it here. Otherwise, according to his idea, after the filming is completed, it must be dismantled and sold to make up for the funds. It's just that this party can't help but be too relieved to himself, and at this time, he didn't even think about coming to the field for a field trip, but was a big shopkeeper and handed over everything here to himself.

Cameron actually hates that people are pointing fingers at him and interfering with his exercise of directing power when making movies. But Fang Mingyuan is different, after these several cooperations, Cameron likes to have Fang Mingyuan present, because he often puts forward some extremely useful suggestions to solve the problem of shooting.

"By the way, James, have you heard?" Goyle suddenly slapped his hands and said, "Fang seems to be in contact with DreamWorks, and it seems that there is a new script for them to co-shoot." ”

Cameron was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "Do you mean that "Mouse Trapper"? I know the script of that movie and have read it. However, I agree with Fang's opinion, neither I nor the Emerald Bird Film Group Company are Fang's most haode partners. I wanted to recommend the script to Disney Studios, but Fang insisted on giving it to DreamWorks. Of course, I had to put him in touch with Spielberg. ”

“weishenme？” Gower said excitedly that Fang Mingyuan's script is now a golden sign in Hollywood, and all the movies he is a screenwriter for are all classics that have become popular at the box office. And for a long time, Emerald Bird Film Group Company has monopolized the cooperation with Fang Mingyuan in films, and now Fang Mingyuan suddenly wants to hand over the script to DreamWorks, which undoubtedly makes Gower have a sense of crisis. If you say...... In the future, with DreamWorks as a strong competitor, it is unknown whether the Emerald Bird Film Group can maintain its current upward momentum!

Cameron spread his hands, shrugged his shoulders and said: "The reason is very simple, it is a realistic version of "Cat and Mouse", I don't know if Fang watched "Cat and Mouse" to be inspired." As a comedy, and a film in which animals play an important role, there is no precedent for success for either me or the Emerald Bird Film Group. I think that for now, our most important task is to shoot "Titanic", so I don't think there is anything wrong with Fang's choice. ”

"But......" Goyle stomped his foot, "you don't understand that he will bring ...... to the Emerald Bird Film Group by doing so."

"Trouble? There won't be! Cameron turned around and looked directly at Galdao, "You can rest assured, the new script for "Titanic" after the filming is completed, Fang Du already has it, and it will be at least a trilogy of films." Fang has already promised to hand it over to me to shoot, and if nothing else, the Emerald Bird Film Group can still participate! Believe me, that script is really not suitable for you and me, rather than the Emerald Bird Film Group Company to fight over, but it can't achieve the effect that Fang wants, it is better to hand it over to DreamWorks to shoot. ”

Goyer was taken aback, she never thought that the "Titanic" had not officially started filming yet, and Fang Mingyuan and Cameron had even prepared the script for the next movie! And it's going to be a trilogy! Doesn't that mean that you can shoot for at least three years?

However, what surprised her even more was Fang Mingyuan's ability to write screenplays, in such a short period of time, on the one hand, she had to take care of the Fang family's industry, and on the other hand, she could come up with multiple scripts that Cameron recognized, such work efficiency was really breathtaking!

"However, I heard that Spielberg is very interested in "The Mouse Catcher", and it is very likely that he will go to China to talk to the other side in the near future. We haven't seen Fang in a long time, how's it going? Are you interested in going to Huaxia with me? Cameron said solemnly.

"Okay!" Goyle was stunned for a moment, and immediately nodded in response. Although Cameron just gave her a reassurance, she naturally couldn't let go of the opportunity to meet Fang Mingyuan and get closer to the relationship between the two parties.