Chapter 657: The City of Darkness

"Everyone, be quiet. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

In the large conference room of Stanton's studio, Murphy stood at the front of the long conference table and slapped his palms vigorously, and the people in the conference room who had been talking about it immediately fell silent.

Murphy's eyes swept over the faces of those sitting on either side of the conference table one by one, on the left were the heads of behind-the-scenes departments such as Philip Raschel, Michelle Williams, Helena Espora, David Robbie, Josh Griffith, Gal Gadot, and on the right were actors such as James Franco, Margot Robbie, Henry Cavill and Jonah Hill, and in the opposite position, there was also sitting Bill Rosith, the agent from CAA who provided the package service.

These people formed the basic framework of Murphy's new project production and filming team.

"Last week, Twentieth Century Fox officially approved the budget for the project Dark City." Murphy didn't talk nonsense, and immediately got to the point at the beginning of the meeting, "The production budget of the film is 200 million US dollars, the publicity cost is 130 million US dollars, 20th Century Fox will raise it through pre-sales, advertising and financing, and the American AIA insurance company provides a third-party guarantee for the completion of the project, and the first 40 million US dollars of start-up funds for the project, 20th Century Fox has been paid to the guarantor." ”

The rest of the people are basically listening, and if you have any questions, you can talk to Murphy later.

The preliminary work of the project "Dark City" began after the Oscars, and other aspects need to be prepared after the crew is established, but regarding the salary of everyone present, CAA has completed negotiations with Twentieth Century Fox, and Murphy, the main member of the team, signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox again.

In terms of salary, Murphy is still the highest in the entire crew, and now has the Oscar for Best Director, a base salary of 20 million US dollars and a 25% full income share of the film, even if the actors are included, it is the top salary in Hollywood.

In terms of actors, the highest paid is James Franco's $12 million, Henry Cavill's actor is not well paid, and he doesn't have any works that he can do except for "City of Chaos".

In general, the remuneration of all the crew members of "Dark City" will not exceed 35% of the industry average for the total production cost, which is also Murphy's bottom line, otherwise it will affect the expenditure on filming and production of the film.

"Fili, the photography style is similar to 'City of Chaos', but on the basis of darkness, more realistic, I am still asking Kara Firth to communicate with Twentieth Century Fox, if possible, let Twentieth Century Fox invest another $20 million to $30 million, so that we can achieve more than 60 percent IMAX of the lens, you have to be prepared!"

At the meeting, Murphy just briefly explained the most basic work problems, and when he saw Philip Raschel nodding, he said to Michelle Williams, "Misha, you continue to be the casting director, I want a lot of actors who are suitable for playing the gangster type, and a group of models who are beautiful enough, you know my standards." ”

"I understand." Michelle Williams wrote it down.

Murphy turned to look at Helena Espora, "Helen, I have to shoot all the scenes in the film, and after the script is completed, you will immediately go to New York to investigate and design a preliminary plan." ”

Helena Espora asked, "New York City Hall agrees to shoot?" ”

"Basically, there is no problem." Murphy glanced at Gal Gadot, "Gale has communicated, and now there are not many people left who occupy Wall Street, and the heat of the incident has basically dissipated." ”

"David!" Murphy emphatically advised, "Get ready for a skilled and well-equipped hardlight installation." ”

"No problem." David Robbie nodded.

Murphy saw Josh Griffel, who had not been involved in "Diego Rose" for family reasons, and said, "Study more of the clips of the classical gunfight in Michael Mann's The Line of Fire." ”

"Realistic gunplay?" Josh Griffith thought for a moment and said, "I see. ”

Then, Murphy turned to the row of actors and said, "Henry, you're a little blessed now. ”

Henry Cavill smiled sheepishly, "I've been eating a bit of a lot of barbecue lately. ”

"The crew will hire professional fitness and martial arts coaches for you." Murphy said directly, "By the end of July at the latest, I will be back in shape from the last shooting." ”

"I'll do it." Henry Cavill's sworn assurance.

Then, Murphy said to Margot Robbie, "The character script has been given to you, and the psychological changes of the characters must be expressed in place, which is the aspect you need to focus on. ”

Margot Robbie smiled, "I don't have a problem. ”

Then, Murphy's eyes fell on James Franco, "This film is in some ways a bit similar to the type of duel between the two heroes in "The Wire", your villain is directly related to the final effect of the film, if you have time, you can watch Alex from "A Clockwork Orange" more, hmm...... Some of the personality traits of rock star Sid Withers can also be appropriately borrowed. ”

James Franco was also not polite to Murphy and said, "If there is any problem, I will communicate with you." ”

"Also, I emphasize one point." Murphy said to everyone, "Even if Twentieth Century Fox doesn't have a plan to invest heavily in IMAX shots, I'll shoot all the action scenes in this film, and you'll have to be prepared." ”

Now the plan, Murphy plans to use IMAX to shoot the four main action series scenes in the film, as well as many static dramatic moments, so that even if there is no 3D effect, the audience's visual system can definitely be enjoyed at the highest end.

After explaining this, Murphy added, "The film will be co-produced by Carla Firth and Gail from Fox, and Gail will take care of the day-to-day affairs of the crew. ”

Murphy looked at Bill Rothes opposite, "Bill, you've seen the script and character settings, and now there are no roles with suitable actors, you draw up a suitable list and give it to Gail and Misha." ”

He also said to Gal Gadot and Michelle Williams, "You guys are in charge of the specific auditions. ”

Towards the end of the meeting, Murphy thought of one more thing, "The special effects part of the film will be handled by Weta Studios." ”

This was a foregone conclusion, and the two sides had been in touch since he took over Weta Studios.

The special effects of "Dark City" are different from "City of Chaos", and Murphy has more ideas for this film, so he is not going to use green screen shooting, but to shoot as live as possible, and some car chases and explosion scenes that are not easy to achieve are also shot through downsized models.

Without a doubt, ILM and Weta Studios are two of the best options, but the former is more expensive and Murphy intends to use the latter.

At the end of this crew preparation meeting, Murphy finally said, "The crew is now officially preparing. ”

It's already mid-March, and the film will be released at the beginning of the summer season in early May next year, so there is not much time to waste.

"We had five months to prepare, three months to shoot and four months to post-production." Murphy emphasized, "By mid-April at the latest, the film will have to be all produced!" ”

"Are there any questions now?" Murphy asked, but seeing that everyone didn't say anything, he said, "That's all for today, communicate with me in time if you have any questions." ”

With the official establishment of "Dark City", a series of preliminary preparations have been carried out one after another.

Although Twentieth Century Fox has provided $40 million in upfront start-up capital to a third-party guarantee company, this part of the money is much more and less than little, and for such a huge film, it will soon come to the bottom, and Murphy has always been in contact with Carla Firth, urging Twentieth Century Fox to raise the remaining funds as soon as possible, and as much as possible through his proposed plan to shoot with IMAX cameras.

For a film with a dark tone like this, Murphy said that he would not use 3D technology, and IMAX was more beneficial to the film.

On the third day after the project, Twentieth Century Fox brought a series of advertisers involved in the film, including manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz and Hewlett-Packard, as well as Internet companies such as Twitter, to become potential sponsors of the film.

It will be necessary to wait for the negotiations between Twentieth Century Fox and them.

In addition, the overseas pre-sale of the film has also begun, and distributors in many regions, including Europe and Latin America, have also sent relevant negotiators to Los Angeles to prepare for pre-sale negotiations with Twentieth Century Fox.

These are all important ways to fund the film, even a company like Twentieth Century Fox, with a total investment of more than $300 million, will overwhelm them, and if the film fails, it may even lead to the breaking of the entire funding chain.

Murphy also cooperated with Twentieth Century Fox and met with these people, although these overseas manufacturers are basically from the small market that Twentieth Century Fox cannot reach, but they are not fools, they do not have enough guarantees or recognition, and they will not easily take out a sum of real money.

The guarantee of the insurance company and the credibility of Twentieth Century Fox are one thing, and the appeal that Murphy has worked so hard to build over the years is the other reason why they have paid large sums of money upfront.

Through advertising sponsorship and pre-sale funds, Twentieth Century Fox plans to solve the financial pressure of $40 million to $50 million, and the rest is to finance financial institutions in addition to its own funding.

And he also reached an agreement with Twentieth Century Fox to bring at least $50 million into the group, which means that Stanton Studios will take a quarter of the film's production costs and enjoy the same proportion of revenue sharing.