After signing an investment agreement with Twentieth Century Fox on behalf of Studio Stanton, Murphy's entire focus turned to the preparation of The Dark City, where he traveled to New York with Gal Gadot and Helena Espora to sign formal agreements with the relevant parties in New York for location shooting. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The film's locations will all be set in New York, while some of the special effects and interior scenes will continue to be filmed on the set of the warehouse next to Venice.

Once again, the warehouse set became Murphy's base camp for filming.

Under the efforts of Carla Firth and Murphy, Twentieth Century Fox finally agreed to Murphy's IMAX shooting plan, more than 60% of the film's footage will be shot with IMAX cameras, due to Murphy's current status and the momentum of just winning the Oscar for Best Director, IMAX also attaches great importance to it, and after the crew contacted the Los Angeles branch of IMAX company, they immediately made internal deployment, and soon sent two huge and bulky IMAX cameras.

The two IMAX cameras, set up by Filip Raschel in one of the largest shooting areas, are veritable big guys, several times larger and heavier than the cameras used in Hollywood, and the increase in weight and volume means that the operation will be more cumbersome and inconvenient.

Standing next to an IMAX camera, Murphy tried to do it, and when he stood up, he said to Filly Raschel, "Some of the scenes we were going to shoot with IMAX cameras were very impactful shots. ”

Circling around the IMAX camera, Murphy added, "For example, the scene where Chris Dane is chasing after him on a motorcycle, I need to show the first perspective with Chris Dane as the starting point!" ”

"The last time we strapped the camera to the front of the car," he says. Fili Raschel frowned, "But the effect is average, and the impact is still not strong enough." ”

"Hmm!" Murphy nodded, and proposed, "Fili, is it feasible to tie this big guy to the front of the plane and shoot it when the plane takes off?" ”

Philip Raschel thought for a few seconds and said, "It's not easy, the IMAX camera is too bulky, and the nose of the plane needs to be specially modified. ”

Murphy made an immediate decision, "I leased a business jet from Gulfstream, so I'll have people contact them to see if they can provide the service." ”

These are all problems that money can solve.

"Wait, Filip, Murphy, wait."

The IMAX people had been watching the two of them, and the voices of Murphy and Philip Raschel were not low, and they all fell into the ears of Tolby Martinez, the representative of the IMAX company stationed on the crew, and the head of the IMAX company crew hurriedly walked over, "I think your proposal is too risky and will likely damage the equipment." ”

Murphy couldn't help frowning slightly, "Toby, if you want to show the advantages of IMAX technology, you have to build a good enough scene. ”

Tolby Martinez seemed to want to say something, but Murphy didn't give him a chance at all, and said directly, "If the equipment is damaged, the crew will compensate according to the price." ”

Tolby Martinez opened his mouth and closed it again, clearly not enough in front of Murphy.

Besides, IMAX cameras are expensive, but not so expensive that a crew with an investment of $220 million can't afford to pay for it.

Since the shooting equipment was rented from IMAX, of course, Murphy would not be polite to use it, IMAX has always adhered to the principle of renting and not selling, otherwise there would not be so much trouble.

Subsequently, Murphy left the studio and went to Mercedes-Benz representatives to discuss Chris Dane's special motorcycle and other matters.

There are always many similar problems that can be found in the preliminary preparation, this is a stage of solving problems, and the more problems encountered at this stage, the less trouble will occur in post-shooting.

From equipment to props, from actors to costumes, from shooting plans to storyboards, Murphy participates in and reviews every pre-production work, and knows the progress of the entire preparation.

Twentieth Century Fox also gave him maximum support, except for the necessary financial problems, and basically delegated power to the two producers of Carla Firth and Gal Gadot.

After looking at the design drawings of Mercedes-Benz and exchanging opinions with the designer, Murphy went to the office where the pyrotechnic team was located, and this time he hired several heads of a pyrotechnic team to study the blasting plan.

Unlike previous films, Murphy planned to experiment with a lot of gunfights and explosion scenes in this shoot, because to match the style of the film, all explosions had to be filmed on location, and they could not be as exaggerated and unrestricted as the explosions made by Michael Bay.

"I think explosives should be abandoned."

Murphy and Michael Beltz, the head of the pyrotechnics team, discussed the film's most important explosion scene, suggesting, "Try to make an explosion with a few bullets and some gasoline, as the script says." ”

Michael Beltz holds his chest in one hand and his chin in the other, "There is a certain uncertainty about the gasoline explosion if it is filmed with a model. ”

"Definitely going to shoot with a model." Murphy said as succinctly as possible, "The VFX team at Weta Studios is working on the model, and I'll talk to you later." ”

"Give me some time and let Studio Weta make a few more models." Michael Beltz frowned slowly, then let go again, "I need to do some experimentation in order to get the best results when shooting." ”

"There's one more." Murphy looked at Michael Beltz and said seriously, "You can study how you can completely blow up a large hospital." ”

Michael Beltz read the script for the explosion scene and immediately realized that Murphy wanted to shoot it live, asking, "Are you really going to blow up the hospital?" ”

"That's right." Murphy explained simply, "I've had people look for a suitable hospital that is about to be demolished, or a building that resembles a hospital. ”

For the realistic style of the film, he really put a lot of effort into it.

Next, Murphy went to see the actors, mainly James Franco, whose role as a magician was crucial.

However, walking into a studio, Murphy saw James Franco, who was wearing a neat magician gown, looking through the script and thinking about it, so he didn't bother him and left directly.

In his character script, James Franco is thinking about the mind of the character Magician.

There is no doubt that the character set by Murphy puts the evil side of human nature to infinity, and forms a very distinctive logic that makes the role of magician extremely crazy and ...... Amazing!

"There's a perverted person like Murphy...... "James Franco couldn't help but shake his head, "to design such a perverted and wonderful character." ”

Thinking of this, James Franco looked down at the script and flipped through it again.

In this character script, the magician shows a kind of madness, madness without boundaries and guidelines, madness to the peak of evil.

And what about the peak of evil? In the peak of evil, evil is not a means, but an end. The ultimate evil is pure, not for money, not for sex, not for any other purpose, creating evil and performing evil itself is the only pursuit.

The magician's evil is such pure evil, if nothing else, he just wants to create a "higher taste evil" for the city, and in James Franco's opinion, compared to the magician, even the crimes of the anonymous in "The Seven Deadly Sins" are not considered "tasteful evil", because there, there are too many add-ons to evil.

In some ways, the magician was actually an evil puritan, and in his eyes, crime for money, power, lust or any other purpose was actually a blasphemy against "evil", and evil was pure only in his hands.

In the hands of the magician, evil and chaos become a work of art, and he wields evil like a painter paints and a musician composes music. So from beginning to end, no matter what the circumstances, he maintained a sense of arrogance and self-satisfaction as a demon.

The magician's behavior in the script seems crazy and chaotic, but it is not difficult for James Franco to analyze that this character has a fanatical mind - to break everyone's bottom line.

In the face of such a role, James Franco sometimes feels powerless, and feels that his acting skills and state may be difficult to reach the level of a magician.

"It's so hard to succeed in creating this character!"

James Franco closed the script, stood up and walked a few steps, and sighed to himself, "Murphy, you've dug such a big hole, just waiting for me to jump into it!" ”

He stood there, thinking quietly for a moment, knowing that he had to do more preparation for the role.

Then, James Franco left the actors' rehearsal room, found Murphy, who was in the director's office, and made a direct request.

"Murphy......" James Franco pulled over the chair and sat down, and said to his friend across the street, "I won't be on the set again from tomorrow onwards." ”

"Not coming to the crew?" Murphy asked curiously, "Why?" ”

"I think magicians are a very special character."

When it comes to the character that will be portrayed in front of the camera, James Franco is completely away from the previous giggling and unusually serious, "I wanted to find a quiet, completely undisturbed environment and spend some time working on the character. ”

Hearing this, Murphy couldn't help but look at James Franco, and the eyes of Rotten Lanlan reflected a kind of frenzy when an actor meets a character he really likes.

Murphy thought for a moment, "That's good. ”

"See you later."

James Franco stood up and wanted to take his leave, but was stopped by Murphy, "Wait, James. ”

"Anything else?" James Franco asked.

"Hmm!" Murphy stood up and said, "Very important thing! ”