Lance took a packet of Skittles out of his pants pocket, opened them, and reached for Cole, who politely shook his head. I have known Lance for more than a year, and Cole naturally knows this habit of his, but every time he wonders why Lance still retains such a childish habit, which does not match Lance's appearance and personality. Perhaps, hidden behind that gentlemanly and cunning mask, there is an untold story.

"So, you're recommending these actors as a friend now?" Lance tossed a few Skittles into his mouth and smiled.

Cole retracted his attention and spread his hands with a smile, "You didn't leave me with any other choice, did you?" This was a joke that Lance had just declined his agent's invitation, and then he took out a thick stack of papers from the briefcase he was carrying, looked left and right, but found that he had no place to put it, and finally had to put the briefcase on the ground again, and then put the information on his knees.

"Trust me, though, these actors will definitely live up to your expectations, and if you want, I can arrange an audition today." Cole was sorting through the information with both hands, but his eyes were always looking directly at Lance, maintaining a sincere and focused attitude, and he began to explain, "As a friend, I can give you a little trick, Tom's core requirement for co-actors is that he is the only focus. ”

This was a joke, and Lance smiled dumbly, pointing to the thick stack of materials on Cole's knees, "Are you kidding me?" I thought you would recommend actors based on the role. Lance took a rough look at it, Cole had at least twenty actors' information, but in fact, there were less than twenty characters in the entire movie "Murder with a Knife".

Cole handed Lance some of the information, but Lance waved his hand and motioned for Cole to take it all, "I'm an agent, not a federal investigator." At present, the script of 'borrowing a knife to kill' is still the top secret. No one knows what the film is about, and I wanted to recommend actors based on the role, but obviously it wasn't an easy task. ”

Hearing this, Lance raised his head and looked at Cole with an eyebrow. The skeptical look was clearly "You're kidding me," and Cole shrugged helplessly, "I'm telling the truth, I just know that movies need a female character." Then there are four or five male characters that will be a little heavier. But about the specific content of the script, the specific information about the characters, there is no leakage at the moment. ”

Lance still squinted his eyes with a look of disbelief, but Cole was calm and put on a posture of "this is the truth, believe it or not", Lance finally pursed his lips and did not continue the discussion after all.

In fact, this time Cole had no reservations.

The project "Killing with a Knife" can be described as unremarkable in the early stages of preparation. Even Paramount has not paid enough attention to the crime commercial film with a budget of around 60 million? Even if it can be successful, it is bound to be difficult to explode at the box office, not to mention, in the current market, the filming of the movie is beyond imagination, and the possibility of failure is unimaginable, and the best result is to refer to the "sniper phone booth" released last year.

After many directors resigned and the screenwriter changed the script three times, Brad approached Lance with the project and injected new vitality into the script. But. At that time, Lance only won praise for "City of God", and the three Oscar statuettes added glory to him, but it was still far from causing a strong chemical effect in the market - there is still a huge difference between commercial films and art films, and "Killing with a Knife" was originally positioned as a commercial film.

But things are gradually deviating from their original tracks. First, the addition of Tom Cruise attracted the attention of Paramount; Immediately afterwards, the quality and connotation of the script of "Killing with a Knife" have been greatly improved, and it has evolved into a book with the qualifications to be among the classics; Then "The Day After Tomorrow" achieved a box office success in the summer file, and Lance's value increased sharply. In just two months, the attention of the project "Killing with a Knife" has skyrocketed.

Now, "killing with a knife" has become the focus of Paramount's internal game – and for one simple reason. The limited cost ensures that the work will not be a fiasco even if it fails, and the joining of Tom and Lance ensures the infinite possibilities of the future, in short, this is a profitable deal, and naturally no one will miss it.

Brad and Shirley both have a clear ultimate goal, to ensure the success of "killing with a knife" and promote the development of Paramount, but they must fight for their own interests within the company, confirm that their names are the most conspicuous in the credit book, and add more chips to themselves.

Now, Paramount has completely blocked the script of "Killing by a Knife" for the simple reason that even if Brad gave up the choice of actors, Shirley didn't want to give up lightly, she would pick a group of actors according to her needs, and then let the agents of these actors find Lance - and Shirley chose to stand behind Tom's innovative artist agency, which is also the current Hollywood overlord, which makes the news tightly sealed and airtight. The accurate grasp of the script and the correct understanding of the role are obviously Shirley's advantages.

Due to the signing of a non-disclosure agreement, and in order to protect the interests of the company, Brad must not be able to divulge the details of the script. But Brad won't sit still either, he revealed that Lance is about to star in "Kill with a Knife", which is a hype stunt for many; Later, he also leaked a few words about the innocence of the script, so that people have a general understanding of the script.

Cole is clearly one of the beneficiaries.

In the past year, Cole has been paying close attention to Lance, although Lance's actions are not much, before and after are the two works of "City of God" and "The Day After Tomorrow", this time "Killing with a Knife" did not attract Cole's attention at first, but when he learned that Lance was about to star in "Killing with a Knife", Cole knew that his opportunity had come. So we have today's meeting.

However, these news did not have much impact on Reims's selection of actors. Even an actor recommended by Shirley, even an actor from an innovative artist agency, must be suitable for the role. In the "acquired" crew, temperament and affinity are the most important things compared to performance; But in "Killing with a Knife", the actor must have a certain acting skills, and every character with lines in the script has his own story and his own role, which Lance studied and studied the advantages of "Los Angeles Confidential".

"L.A. Confidential" came out in 1997, not only winning the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay that year, but also making Kim Basinger win Best Supporting Actress; And almost pulled the "Titanic" off the horse, even though the king of the world won a lot of praise for his victory that year, but many years later, people still lamented the "Los Angeles Confidential" and "Titanic" Yu Liang complex, and this work was also able to become a classic in film history.

In the story of "L.A. Confidential", each character has a story, and the characters are created in a few strokes, and when they are gathered together, they deduce the love-hate relationship in Los Angeles in the fifties, which is amazing.

Lance tried to do just that when he changed the script of "Murder with a Knife", giving each character a story - not just Vincent and Max - and then mixing the stories behind them into the whole big story through the performances of the actors, quietly condensing the whole society into a small pattern.

Therefore, this puts forward super high requirements for actors. This is also the reason why Lance took the initiative to ask for the casting right in the second negotiation.

Lance lowered his head and began to flip through the materials in his hand, he didn't read each of them in detail, just looked at the photos and names, and casually asked, "These are all your actors?" ”

In Hollywood, almost all agents have more than one artist under them, and those top agents even run the careers of dozens of artists at once. However, some people pay attention to quality, some people pay attention to weight, and some people pay equal attention to both, which still depends on the broker's own ability and career planning.

Cole chuckled, "No, no, I don't have that many actors, and many of them are newcomers under the company's other agents. Cole knew that his opponent was the Innovative Artist Agency, and the system of the Innovative Artist Agency was a strange flower, they were not in charge of the work of one artist and one fixed agent, but the whole company was responsible for the work of all the artists.

In short, as long as it is a resource in the hands of the company, then the artists under the innovative artist agency can use it. For a top name like Tom Cruise, Wade Russell is just a relatively regular contact person, but there are at least five or six agents who can serve him behind him.

This special way not only enables the artists of innovative artist agencies to have huge resources, but also makes their artists have a unique numerical advantage when competing externally. But the system is a product of its time and cannot be imitated by other companies, even when its founder, Michael Ovitz, tried to stand on his own in 1997 and copied it successfully, but failed.

Other brokerages, including William Morris Brokerage, use traditional one-on-one service. In order to compete with innovative artist agencies, Cole has prepared so much information about actors, but most of these materials are rookie actors, and there is no positive interest entanglement with the artists in Cole's hands, so he is willing to bring the resources of his colleagues.

"But you didn't ask me to give you special treatment as an artist." Lance looked up, a teasing smile on his face.

Cole's eyes widened, "Can I?" At this moment, he naturally will not be polite. (To be continued.) )

PS: Today's second update, I implore book friends to support genuine subscriptions, thank you!