The sequels to "Pirates of the Caribbean" in the previous life were all created by the original team, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Soul Coffin" has a global box office of one billion and six million, and "Pirates of the Caribbean: The End of the World" has a global box office of 960 million, making Johnny Depp the most valuable actor in the world in one fell swoop.

It can be said that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series has achieved the pinnacle of Johnny's career, but just like Tom Cruise, outside of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, Johnny's works have generally achieved average results, and the signs of decline are very strict, and later even once called box office poison, and finally Johnny also relied on the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean" to make a comeback, and this series of works is like "Mission Impossible" to Tom, which has become Johnny's lifesaver.

This detail alone shows that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series has achieved brilliance; And then there's - Johnny is the real soul of the series, not the director, not the writer, not the producer, not Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, but Johnny.

For Lance, this is precisely one of the biggest problems: the director is replaceable, but Johnny is not. This is also the risk of taking over the "Pirates of the Caribbean".

However, whether it is "Pirates of the Caribbean" or the DC Universe, Lance is well aware that he cannot be the director of every work, he will direct one or two at most, and then he will hand over the director, retire to the background as a producer, and then focus on the creation of other works. So, it's not a matter of strict judgment, it's more of a question of the distribution of power between Chaos Pictures and partner studios — both Warner Bros. and Disney.

The success of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series is undeniable, and it has much less room for expansion than the DC Universe, which is both a plus and a disadvantage. The disadvantage is the narrowing of interests and the limitation of development, which is obvious; The advantage is that after the pattern is reduced, it is easier to control the situation, and it will not be such a magnificent and huge chess game as the DC universe, and a little carelessness may lead to a series of chain reactions.

On top of that, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Soul Coffin" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: The End of the World" have their own problems.

"Gathering Soul Coffin" cost 225 million and exceeded one billion at the global box office, which made Disney make a lot of money; But "The End of the World" has shrunk to 960 million at the global box office under the title of the most expensive investment in film history, almost leaving the series in the dust.

It comes down to the quality of the film itself.

Due to the huge success of the first installment in the series, "The Curse of the Black Pearl", Disney seemed to be in a bit of a hurry and quickly scheduled a sequel. Considering that the three leading actors are not what they used to be, the schedule will become very difficult, so Disney simply bundled the second and third parts to shoot in one go.

But because it was too hasty, the script didn't have time to smooth it out, and it was just working in the direction of "bigger, more, stronger", which made the script look bloated and empty, talking to itself, and not knowing what to do.

"Gathering Soul Coffin" was still within the scope of control, and while adding a villain, although the multi-line parallel approach was slightly bloated, it still retained many elements of the previous work that attracted the audience, and the success was expected; However, "The End of the World" has become absurd, enlarging the pattern to the world, and even adding the so-called Seven Pirates, and adding two villains, but the result is that all the subplots are fragmented, and the captain as the protagonist seems to be a trick, the rhythm drags, the story is bloated, and the high/tide is weak, and the elements of the series to win the audience are almost all gone, and it is reduced to an ordinary pirate movie - which reminds people again of the reason for the decline of pirate movies.

So, if Lance were to take over the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, a rewriting of the script would inevitably be inevitable - which coincided with Project Superman. The problem is that Pirates of the Caribbean is a mature project, and there is very little room for Lance to play it.

Unlike Superman, who is on the big screen again after twenty years, even if Lance makes a lot of changes to Superman's image, it is enough to attract the attention of young audiences; Captain Jack Sparrow of "Pirates of the Caribbean" came out in 2003, and the biggest bargaining chip for the success of the movie is the image of Captain Jack Sparrow played by Johnny, and Lance can't change it at all, so he can only start with the story.

Just look at the previous life "Gathering Soul Coffin" and "The End of the World", because there is no room for change in the image of the captain, so the screenwriter can only start with the iron triangle, so that the captain and the heroine Elizabeth played by Keira Knightley have ambiguity/ambiguity, and get involved in a love triangle, which turns out that although this approach is supported by some fans, it is more still opposed - because the story still falls into clichés after all, and destroys the captain's cynical and profligate image.

On the other hand, starting from the story, Hollywood sequels have always insisted that they must surpass their predecessors in terms of scale, scenes, and special effects, so the bloated story of "The End of the World" was born. But it is definitely not an easy task to let Lance modify it, on the one hand, it must exceed the scale of the "Soul Gathering Coffin", and on the other hand, it must not deviate from the track.

Although Hollywood has long been accustomed to the "sequel" model, it is not unusual to change directors and even actors, but objectively speaking, when director Gore did not resign, did not contradict the management, and did not make any mistakes - on the contrary, it was not good news for the crew.

At the same time, it is not unforgettable that Jerry Bruckheimer and Lance have a relationship that cannot be left unsaid, in addition to "Pirates of the Caribbean", the two also launched a competition for "King Arthur", and both times Jerry had the last laugh. But the "King Arthur" fiasco is still fresh in my mind, and even affected the long-term cooperation between Jerry and Disney.

Jerry is a mature producer, and as long as he has enough interests, he is willing to work with anyone, including Lance. But Jerry only needs to make a few small tricks behind the scenes, and with his connections with the top Disney leadership, it will be enough to turn Lance's job into a disaster - maybe not affect the film, but it will make Lance very miserable.

Ian was lost in thought after listening to Lance's brief explanation, and after a long moment he spoke, "So, the Superman project is more risky, but it is also more profitable; Is that what it means that pirate projects are more insurable and less profitable? ”

Such a complicated situation was summed up by Ian in one sentence, Lance subconsciously wanted to shake his head and deny it, but the words went around his mouth, he thought about it carefully, putting aside the company's resistance and personal preferences, Ian's summary was actually not wrong, "You can say that." Opening his mouth, Lance wanted to add, but gave up.

Because if you really want to analyze it in detail, things are definitely not that simple, and both projects have their own advantages and disadvantages. The main thing is that Lance knows how bad the "Soul Coffin" and "World's End" are, but they must both be profitable - and the "Soul Coffin" has been a huge success, but Lance doesn't know what will happen after the restart of the Superman project, "Superman Returns" has failed miserably, and it is unknown whether "Superman: Man of Steel" will be successful eight years ahead of schedule. So, it's a lot of money, and Ian's summary is much more neat.

"Whew...... I understand your situation now. Ian tugged at the corners of his mouth and chuckled.

It can be said that both projects have great potential, and no matter which one is the right choice, there will be regrets for giving up on the other. What's more, Ian also thinks deeper.

If it were Warner Bros., then Chaos Pictures would have wanted to work together for the long term, but at the same time ensure the independence of the company - which was the fundamental starting point for Ian to support Lance's own company in the first place, rather than seeking the support of large corporations, then it was definitely an uphill battle. With the current scale of Chaos Pictures, it can be said that it is difficult to grasp the initiative.

If it's Disney, it's supposed to be a short-term collaboration, but the question is, how much does Robert represent the opinions of Disney's top brass? Chaos Pictures was used as a gun, will it be directly shattered into ashes by Michael's thunderous rage? "Killing with a knife" only touched on part of Paramount's power struggle, which was difficult in the early stage; If Chaos Pictures were to be embroiled in a power struggle with Disney – and "Pirates of the Caribbean" – a Disney-rooted project, the situation would be fraught with too much uncertainty.

"It's okay, it's still early." Ian began to move his limbs, his joints rattling, which made Lance, who was standing next to him, stunned, "Jesus Christ, this is not an intelligence test, why are you so excited?" "Ian is a freak, and every time he encounters an exam, the more difficult the exam, the more excited he becomes, and now Ian is like seeing Mensah's IQ test.

"You know, we're too shallow right now, and that's a disadvantage, but it's also an advantage. We can give it a go, even if we fail, start over, the cost is not great, but if we succeed......" Ian looked at Lance and smiled, and the light breeze burst out with a murderous aura that made people look sideways - in short, barefoot is not afraid to wear shoes. "So, why don't we try some and catch both?"

"What?" Although Lance kept saying that he didn't want to give up either and greedily wanted to catch both, he also knew that it was impossible, Disney and Warner Bros. were not small companies with no name, and their goal was not a small project of three or five million.

When Ian finished moving his joints, he regained his grace and took the Skittles from Lance's hand, "I mean, we'll do our best for both projects, and then we'll see which one is more suitable, so that we can be the ones who dictate the direction of things." Ian tossed a Skittle candy into his mouth, "Like I said, even if both fail, the most we have to lose is to get back to where we are." A smile on the corner of his mouth, confident and determined. (To be continued.) )