When the old Fred put the script of "Life of Pi" in front of Li Xiaole's eyes, Li Xiaole's newly raised confidence cooled down almost instantly, and he looked at the script in a daze, and didn't speak for a long time...... How could it be this movie......

"What? Do you think your film is not enough to win you the Oscar for Best Director? Or do you simply not have his copyright at all? Fred looked at him strangely and asked:

"As far as I know, this film script H was written as early as 2002 and attributed to you, and you reached a film and television transfer agreement with the original author, Jan Martel, very early on...... Is there still a problem with copyright? ”

"No, that's not the case...... There is no problem with copyright...... If I make this movie well, it will definitely be an Oscar-level ......" Li Xiaole nodded almost without thinking about it, but after speaking, he raised his head and smiled bitterly: "The premise is that I can shoot him......"

Yes, "Life of Pi" is undoubtedly a good movie, and it was with this film that Ang Lee won the Oscar for Best Director for the second time, and it is a classic with almost no publicity, and the reputation and box office are impeccable.

But this script has been lying in the drawer of the Black Pearl Company for several years, but Li Xiaole has never dared to touch it, he didn't think of making this work, but he didn't do it, the reason is very simple, because this movie is now in 2007, let alone him Li Xiaole, even if Ang Lee comes in person, it will never be possible to make this movie......

In its original history, Life of Pi is based on Jan Martel's 7 million-selling novel of the same name, which tells the story of a 16-year-old Indian teenager Pi who lives at sea with a Bengal tiger for 227 days, which has been translated into 42 languages and won the Booker Prize, the most important award in contemporary English-language fiction

At the beginning of the birth of this novel, in fact, there were countless film companies and producers who wanted to make this story into a film and television drama, and the discerning Fox Company obtained the adaptation rights of this novel as early as 2003, but when Fox bought the copyright of this novel adaptation, the original author Jan Martel reminded Fox of the difficulty of adapting this novel into a movie.

"When I'm writing a book, it's like a movie that pops into my mind, but I think it's a story that can't be made into a movie at all, you have to challenge these symbols between the lines and translate them into visual reality, and this film needs a director who can understand the story and empathize with it at the same time, and also be able to overcome huge technical challenges............ I don't think there's a director who can do that yet. ”

And this is just Jan Martel's difficulty in describing it from a screenwriting point of view, and any director who reads this script will find that there are three "black holes" in this story, making it impossible to make a work......

The most difficult elements of these three "black hole" movies are that animals, children, and water~~ The film industry is recognized as long as there is one of these three "black holes", the difficulty of the movie will increase significantly, and there are two almost impossible tasks......

A movie with all three "black holes" at the same time? There is only this "Life of Pi's Fantasy Drifting"...... Therefore, this script has also been known in the industry for many years as the most unlikely story to be visualized.

Fox, which got the copyright early, once found M. Knight Shyamalan (the sixth sense of the supernatural, the little brother of the elf mouse); Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter, Prisoner of Harry Potter and Azkaban, Gravity); Jean-Pierre Genet (Alien 4, Angel Amelie) and many other directors, but each time the project was aborted for some reason, until Ang Lee took office in February 2009...... In fact, Ang Lee also officially started filming this movie after thinking about it for more than a year.

Why did Ang Lee have to wait a year to shoot, because in 2010, the rapid development of 3D and CG technology made everything possible, and in the same year, the production of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" gave the orangutan "Caesar" a full performance and emotional depth of motion capture, so that Ang Lee can use 3D technology to expand the pattern of "Youth School", use motion capture technology CG to deal with "animals", use CG plus 3D technology to show the "ocean", plus Ang Lee uses his own amazing skills to grasp the charm of the protagonist "child", This overcame the three "black holes" of the film and achieved great success.

But now it's 2007, and even Ang Lee will never be able to visualize this story.

"Why can't you shoot it? Don't you see that? Fred was a little angry at Li Xiaole's fear, glared at him and said: "This story has a embodied carrier that shows the best fate, that is, 'Ocean', as long as you shoot the role of 'Ocean' well, then you can get everything you want~~!! ”

"I understand Fred, I understand what you said......" Li Xiaole nodded helplessly, sighed and explained:

"Yes, what you said is right, but you are not a director after all, you don't understand how huge the problem of adapting this "Youth Pi" into a movie is, this is not just about the technique, but about the story structure, this movie is very different from "Slumdog Millionaire", there is no heroine in this story, no villain, not even a companion, the most important thing is that in addition to the male protagonist's child, there are no other important characters, there is a pie and a tiger......

If there is no 3D technology as an improvement of the sensory realm, then this film will not arouse anyone's interest, but we just focus on the ocean and tigers that express the artistic realm, not to mention that the investment amount will be unimaginably high, just our ability to make the CG of the ocean effect, our ability is still far behind......"

In terms of Black Sails' current motion capture system technology, although it has far surpassed the level of Weta Studio's production of Gollum during the "Lord of the Rings" period, it is not difficult to CG the tiger, but the particle calculation CG of the ocean is not so simple, this is not a problem of technology, MAYA has already been able to make similar effects in technology, and the real bottleneck is in the performance of the counting machine......"

The CG of the liquid in the movie is all the result of the calculation and collision of tiny fluid particles, just like the liquid robot in "Terminator 2", and to simulate the magnificent ocean, the number of fluid particles is unimaginable to ordinary people.

Unlike five years when Ang Lee shot the original, the highest-level computer used for filmmaking in 2007 is less than one-fifth of what it was five years later...... Even if Black Sails Studio buys the best computer equipment at any cost, it will take at least two years to calculate a CG of this level of ocean examples......

Two years...... The daylilies were cold when they were photographed......

"Why do you need to make so many CGs for Lu?" Fred looked at Li Xiaole strangely and asked, "An oil tanker full of animals and people, do you plan to use pure CG?" Why don't you shoot mainly with solid models, supplemented by CG special effects? When the Titanic was filmed, Nayongdo CG was not used. ”

Fred asked a few questions in a row, and Li Xiaole was stunned, yes? Why did he want to drill into the CG alley? In the original version of "Life of Pi", in order to avoid excessive budget, the highlight of the silent oil tanker at the beginning was shot by a small oil tanker, and the characters and scenes are very small.

If it weren't for Ang Lee's soundtrack and picture mastering the mastery and downplaying the lack of details, the beginning of the shipwreck process could simply be described as shabby.

Ang Lee can't do it because his investment is limited, and the production cost of his film must be controlled at 150 million US dollars, but he, Li Xiaole, is not short of money now, and he can challenge the live-action shooting......

He can completely shoot the shipwreck in "Life of Pi" to the Titanic level, he can capture the real "ocean", and completely show the art of destiny in front of the world, so as to combine the dual height of business and art.

Water, kids, animals...... Without the blessing of 3D technology, can he make this immeasurably difficult movie well? In fact, Li Xiaole doesn't know what to do, but the only thing he can be sure of is that he must try to see it, just like Spielberg's dilemma when facing "Schindler's List" and James Cameron facing "Titanic", as a director, the only thing he can do is to surpass himself!

Reach the place you've dreamed of for a long time, and climb to the top of the sea of clouds where the god of cinema stands.

Thinking of this, Li Xiaole suddenly brightened, Fred was right, why should he be afraid that he wouldn't be able to do it, he is losing now anyway, what if he fails again?

If he makes this movie beyond Ang Lee's original version, and competes with and even beats the classics of film history such as "No Country for Old Men", "Slumdog Millionaire", "Rejuvenation", "Batman: The Dark Knight", then he can regain everything he has lost in the near future!!

He will re-realize that he Li Xiaole is a director who really stands at the pinnacle, no matter how many copyrights and projects the Black Pearl Company loses, as long as he Li Xiaole is there, then the pirate flag on this ship will not fall! Next year, at the Oscars, he will have the opportunity to be crowned the king of directors, and even stand up in that labor crisis and become the person who really competes with Todd Hardy and those Wall Street investors~!

He will have hope to re-establish the order of the world in this circle~~ "Life of Pi" is a trump card in his hand that can be turned over!