300 million investment, this is indeed a huge temptation/temptation, the most expensive project in film history, even in 2015, no project has exceeded this limit.

As insiders surveyed, 100 million to 150 million is the most reasonable range, and outside this range means that more risks must be taken. 300 million cost, which means that the global box office of film works must be at least 900 million or more in order to avoid losses - not profits, but losses; And this is just the bottom line, in addition to the cost of 300 million yuan, the high publicity costs must also be taken into account, so the global box office must be guaranteed to be more than one billion in order to make a profit.

For reference, as of 2015, only 24 films have exceeded one billion at the global box office.

"Pirates of the Caribbean 3: The End of the World", which cost 300 million, and finally had a global box office of 960 million, Disney not only did not make money, but almost lost money, and almost everyone thought that the series was completely over. So, Hollywood's major studios do spend a lot of money, but only if they are rewarded for their efforts.

In the last life, the Superman project was indeed restarted, but the "Superman Returns" ushered in an avalanche fiasco, with a global box office of only 390 million, and this failure once again put the Superman project on hold for seven years.

There are many reasons for the failure of "Superman Returns", in addition to Lance's previous views, the weak script, the slow rhythm, and the high/low tide are all important reasons, obviously, it is not so easy to break the shackles of the classic image of Superman. However, it seems too much of a pity to let go of this opportunity, not only because of the huge investment of 300 million, but also because of the potential cooperation of Warner Bros., which is an excellent opportunity for the future planning of Chaos Pictures.

Of course, "Superman Returns" is not Reims' only choice, in addition to giving up, he has two choices: the first is "Superman: Man of Steel", which was released in 2013.

In the last life, when "Superman: Man of Steel" was put into production, the Marvel Universe had dominated the whole of Hollywood, and Christopher Nolan's Batman series had come to an end, so to speak, the comic book adaptation had matured - gradually evolving into a new genre film.

Therefore, in the process of making zuò, the work added many mature ideas, with the theme of "no matter what kind of person you choose to become, good or evil, it will change the world", connecting the whole story, and incorporating a lot of Clark Kent's troubles and confusions in his childhood, making his image rich and three-dimensional.

On the whole, this version of Superman follows the philosophical ideas and dark style that Christopher Nolan injected into the "Batman" series, but strictly speaking, this work is not a success, not to mention comparable to Nolan's version of Batman, even compared with many Marvel movies, director Zack Snyder pays too much attention to color visual effects, the narrative rhythm is slightly dragged, and the rhythm of the first half and the second half does not match, etc., are one of the reasons, but the fundamental reason is still because of the weakening of the villain. Not only did it fail to sustain the intensity of the confrontation, but it also failed to raise Superman's self-reflection to a higher level.

The most successful part of Nolan's "Batman" series is undoubtedly the second installment, "The Dark Knight", not only because Batman completed the transformation of his mission in this work, but also because of the brilliance of the two villains of the Joker and Two-Face, which sublimated the story.

"Superman: Man of Steel" strives to reach this height, making many changes, but the results are not satisfactory, and instead the story becomes protracted and vanity, and even the thrill, excitement and glamour of commercial films are lost.

This is also ultimately reflected in the box office results, the global box office of 670 million US dollars, compared to the investment of 225 million, is really not high, strictly speaking, Warner Bros. still did not achieve much profit. Of course, the real big deal of comic book adaptations is not at the box office, and "Superman: Man of Steel" is not only a reboot of the Superman series, but also a mission to revitalize the DC Comics universe and build the worldview of the "Justice League".

In fact, this is imitating the path of the Marvel Universe, the box office results of "Captain America" and "Thor" were not a big explosion, just a decent and no merit, but the two works laid the foundation for the Marvel Universe, and the accumulated energy ushered in a big explosion in the "Avengers".

As a result, "Superman: Man of Steel" was not as good at the box office, but it did not stop Warner Bros. from building the DC Universe.

If Lance chooses the story of "Superman: Man of Steel" as Superman's reboot series, he will inevitably face two problems. The first is that at the moment in 2004, there is no shadow in the Marvel Universe at all, and if you want to persuade Warner Bros. to build the entire DC Universe based on a movie, the investment is not only 300 million, it is likely to be 3 billion, or even more, but also in the case that the Superman movie has been silent for nearly 20 years and the Batman reboot movie has not yet had time to be released, it is unimaginably difficult, even the fast-rising Lance, it is not easy to convince Barry.

Even if the affairs of the DC Universe are put aside for the time being, the script of "Superman: Man of Steel" still has a lot of hidden dangers. The film deliberately digs deeper, but it is slightly deliberate, and instead puts the cart before the horse.

Why did "Batman Prequel: The Dark Knight" become such a huge success, simply because of its philosophical core, or simply because of the Joker? Of course not, but because Nolan's control of the rhythm, the division of the explosion, the high/tide foreshadowing, and the mastery of the atmosphere have all reached an amazing level, and the essence of the film is still a commercial film, and the philosophical core and the brilliance of the clown are just icing on the cake for commercial films.

Therefore, Lance must readjust the script of "Superman: Man of Steel". But as Lance said to Barry at dinner, there are too many constraints and bottlenecks for Superman, and it is not difficult to break these constraints in one go, but the difficulty lies in how to grasp the scale - to make the audience feel new, but not to regress because of the new version of Superman.

As you can imagine, this task will be extremely difficult.

Of course, Lance has another choice, which is to abandon "Superman Returns" and "Superman: Man of Steel", and rebuild a completely new script according to his own understanding, or even rebuild the entire DC Universe according to his own ideas. It's an incomparably grand architectural pattern, and if he could, Lance would want DC Comics to maintain his interpretation of justice - that is, Nolan's soul for the "Dark Knight", a concept that runs through almost every DC superhero, but also makes the tone of the movie relatively lighter, injecting more youthful vitality into the superheroes, which is not only the law of success for Marvel movies, but also the law of success for entertainment movies.

But...... The blueprint is so ambitious that the work will be far more difficult than you can imagine, and even for Lance, it seems to be an option where ambition outweighs ability.

This not only requires Lance to have a clear enough idea of the script and a deep enough understanding of Superman, but also requires Lance to have a rich enough knowledge of the entire DC Universe. Over dinner, Lance said that his knowledge of comics was very limited, and that it was not modesty, but a fact, that he had barely read DC Comics in its entirety - or Marvel Comics.

Even if Lance left the task of writing the script to other screenwriters, he could not be ignorant of the content of the comics, and the most important characterization required him to read it himself.

If the plan to build the DC universe is really chosen, it also means that Chaos Pictures will be tied to the same chariot with Warner Bros. for a long time to come, which is of course a good thing for Chaos Pictures. But only if Barry will agree? Even if Barry nodded in agreement, would he really be willing to let go? Does this also mean that Lance will be constrained in the creative process to an unprecedented height, gradually causing Chaos Pictures to lose its independence?

If successful, there is no doubt that Chaos Pictures will become the top of the industry in one fell swoop, and it will be able to maintain its advantage for years to come; But if it fails, Chaos Pictures is likely to be doomed, after all, it has only been established for three years, the foundation is unstable, and the chain failure will make Lance have no time to react, and the company will collapse directly like a bubble.

This is perhaps a more daunting challenge and an even more amazing opportunity than Pirates of the Caribbean for Diorama Pictures. Lance wants to give it a go, but the memories and experiences of the previous life can't provide more help, no matter which option is chosen, Lance must break the shackles of the previous life and start a journey into the unknown, which will be an important decision like never before.

Even though Lance has been a human for the third time, he can't help but sweat his palms now. The excitement and nervousness are mixed together to be quite interesting, and perhaps, this is the most fascinating part of the unknown.

Raising his head, Lance looked at Percy, who was a little blank, and his sluggish expression was full of dazedness, which made people laugh dumbly, "Tomorrow's propaganda trip?" Lance spoke, but Percy looked up, unable to find focus, and shook his head before coming back to his senses, "So, you've decided?" The answer was completely wrong, Lance chuckled twice, raised his left hand, and habitually touched the tail of his eyebrows, "It's not in a hurry, Barry shouldn't be expecting me to give him an answer tomorrow." ”

Lance's teasing voice brought Percy back to his senses, and the corners of his mouth twitched unnaturally. Lance repeated his question, Percy picked up the script again, and checked with Lance about tomorrow's question, due to the bombshell of "300 million system zuò fee" just now, both of them seemed a little inattentive, and the verification work was hastily over.

Percy hesitated for a moment before he was about to leave, and then asked, "You said, Robert Iger is looking for you, could it have something to do with Barry?" (To be continued.) )