Merchants are always good at using sweet words to make up traps, lure their prey into the trap, reap their own benefits, and then walk away. This is true in all walks of life, and Hollywood is no exception.

When Barry Meyer found Reims, his bold words easily achieved a deterrent effect, but after peeling back those beautiful promises, you can see the cruel truth hidden in them - the so-called "300 million" cost is actually only "250 million" plus the evaporated 50 million.

Of course, 250 million is still the top production in Hollywood, and the cost budget for the last two sequels of "Pirates of the Caribbean" is 500 million, and the average is 250 million each. This is still a huge challenge for Reims; For Chaos Pictures, it is still a rare opportunity.

But the problem is that Lance has 250 million yuan to film, but Warner Bros. will assume that Lance has 300 million, and they expect the box office of this work to reach the huge benefit of "300 million investment", and one billion may just be the bottom line. In other words, the evaporated 50 million is like a debt, and Lance is required to pay two, even three, or four times the interest to repay this "debt".

The pressure will further change the balance of cooperation between Chaos Pictures and Warner Bros.

"That's true." Cole immediately understood the meaning of Lance's words, and shook his head helplessly, a large company like Warner Bros. would never be kind enough to fill the "50 million" loophole out of his own pocket, "Disney really made a good move." ”

The most important part of the news revealed by Eric is not that Bbright becomes the successor of "X-Men 3" at all, nor that Brian becomes the director candidate of the Superman reboot project, but the 50 million dollar loophole. Even if this will not make Lance retreat and give up the Superman reboot project directly, it can allow "Pirates of the Caribbean" to take more initiative in the next competition.

Lance rubbed his temples slightly, and then he heard Cole ask, "So, what are you going to do?" Lance exhaled softly, "Let me think about it." ”

After hanging up, Lance fell into deep thought.

Abandonment is the last resort, Lance does not consider this possibility at all at the moment, the risk must be borne by the filming of any work, and the greater the risk, the greater the benefit, this is the eternal theorem.

However, what is certain is that this also strengthened Lance's refusal to film "Superman Returns". Putting aside the failure of "Superman Returns" in the previous life, Lance read the script that Warner Bros. handed him before, the whole script seemed huge and fragmented, every character in the movie seemed bitter and hateful, and most importantly, the character of Superman was almost tailored according to the model of Christopher Reeve -

This shows that the previous screenwriters were too conservative, and in the face of such a classic screen image as Superman, and in the face of Warner Bros.'s determination of $300 million, everyone seemed to shrink back, lest they destroy Superman in people's minds, thus leading to the fiasco of the work.

In fact, adapting classic images is an eternal topic, and how to balance the classic impressions in the minds of traditional audiences, the modern elements that cater to the new generation of audiences, and the innovation on the basis of retaining classic images can be called an unsolvable problem.

Therefore, Lance will not wade into this troubled water. The failure of "Superman Returns" is almost foreordained.

In fact, after talking to Ian, Lance had already made a decision in his heart, but now this news has been further promoted, allowing Lance to advance the plan: give up "Superman Returns", and also give up "Superman: Man of Steel", Lance hopes to build the film framework of the first phase of the DC Universe, and then determine the core of Superman's story according to this framework, and finally rewrite a new Superman script.

If the "300 million" is placed in the context of the entire DC universe, the debt of 50 million is insignificant, because the superman reboot project will become the first step in the DC universe, and the big explosion is still the ultimate goal, but it is no longer the minimum consumption. As long as the movie doesn't lose too much money, it can be called a success.

Intuitively, it can be understood that Warner Bros. may have hoped for a billion box office, but in the entire DC universe, even if it is 900 million worldwide...... Even 800 million box office is acceptable. Because the follow-up movies and peripheral effects will continue to generate more benefits.

This will take a lot of the pressure off the entire Superman project.

However, the implementation of this plan is really too large, Lance is not omnipotent, at least in the face of the world of comics, he is blinded, even if it is a Marvel movie that has been released in the previous life, he has not smoothed out the relationship between the characters and the development of time, not to mention the DC universe that has not been able to come out before he is reborn.

Before building the DC Universe, the right preparation should be to sort out the relationships between the characters, the timeline of the universe, the relationship between the villains and the main characters of the Justice League, even if you don't have to read every comic - this work is certainly impossible to do on one person, but it also needs to come up with an outline.

This work takes a huge amount of time, which is sorted out slowly, and it is best to be in charge of it by a professional who has an in-depth study of manga. But the problem is that Lance first has no time, and second is not professional enough, not to mention, "Sin City" is still the most important job at the moment.

It cannot be ignored that at the same time, Warner Bros. is also looking at Brian, and if according to the historical trajectory, Brian accepted "Superman's Return" smoothly, and Lance lost directing a work with a $250 million investment, which is still a trivial matter; The important thing is that because Brian became the director of "Superman Returns", on the one hand, Lance's plan to implement the DC universe is bound to require Brian's cooperation, from the modification of the script to the placement of characters, and even the setting of villains, they all need to be on the same front, but Brian is definitely unwilling to be pointed at by outsiders, which is bound to lead to more obstacles.

On the other hand, once the "Superman Returns" fails, it will affect the next series of plans in the DC Universe, and the entire plan will be dragged down. It is more likely that Warner Bros. chose to be conservative and wait for the results of "Superman Returns" before deciding whether to move forward with the DC Universe project, which also means that Lance will have to wait at least another year or more, and within this year, the uncontrollable nature of things will be completely unpredictable.

In short, getting ahead of Brian and partnering with Warner Bros. would save Lance a lot of trouble. After reaching a consensus, even if Lance does not direct the Superman project and hands over the guide to Brian, Lance retreats to the position of producer and lets Chaos Pictures and Warner Bros. work together, which is no problem.

So, things are back to square one: time, Lance needs time, manpower, wisdom, and knowledge.

After much deliberation, Lance decided to start with the entire framework of the DC Universe. There is no flesh and blood, just a skeleton, record his ideas and ideas for building the DC Universe, and explain the benefits and impact of this idea in the way of investment projects, convincing Barry Meyer and the many shareholders of Warner Bros. behind him, not just 300 million, but spending 3 billion, 30 billion, to build the entire comic book kingdom, a kingdom that is enough to compete with Disney.

In fact, Warner Bros. owns such capital at all, they own not only DC Comics, but also the "Harry Potter" series. If the development trajectory of the previous life is followed, Warner Bros. finally chose to cooperate with Universal Studios to establish the "Harry Potter" theme park, in other words, the interests are differentiated; But if Warner Bros. seizes the opportunity, they can build theme parks on their own to compete with Disney.

So, it's not just a collaboration on a film project, it's a collaboration at the company level. This also meant that Lance was limited in what he could contribute, and even for the script, Lance had to ask for a lot of advice from others due to his little knowledge of the comics; The company's cooperation project plan needs to be handed over to Theo and Ian.

Standing in front of Warner Bros., Chaos Pictures is like an ant looking up to a giant, and it is almost impossible for the two sides to talk on an equal level. The question is how much Chaos Pictures can benefit from it, and how much it can play a role in future development.

As for the details of the script, we will wait for the cooperation case to be negotiated before seeking a way - if Warner Bros. nods, with the huge resources that Warner Bros. has, it will not be difficult to write an adapted script under the guidance of Lance.

Unprecedentedly, Lance felt that he was not omnipotent, and he was also not omnipotent, especially in the face of unfamiliar comic adaptations, Lance had a sense of powerlessness that was difficult to overcome. Not to mention compared to Warner Bros., even compared with Diorama Pictures, Chaos Pictures is far too small now.

If Chaos Pictures wants to grow, it must attract more talent, just like a trailer soundtrack company, they need to set up various departments and rely on everyone's strength to drive the company's development. From screenwriter to director, to producer, including all positions in the crew, it is no exception. At the corporate level, one person's power is ultimately limited.

If Chaos Pictures has several other screenwriters at this time, they can divide up and work together, invite professional fans who know the comics well, build the DC Universe together, and complete Superman's reboot script. After having these chips, they can negotiate with Warner Bros., they can be more confident and more persuasive, but he is only one person now......

Screenwriter? Why can't Chaos Pictures start recruiting screenwriters and forming their own screenwriting team? Even if Chaos Pictures can't shoot, they can cooperate with other big companies, or sell scripts to other companies, and more importantly, the value of talent gathering to the company's development is immeasurable! With a flash of inspiration in his tired brain, Lance caught a hint of inspiration and sat up!

He thought of it! (To be continued.) )