The two sequels to "Pirates of the Caribbean" are long and tedious, and even so they make a small profit; "Superman Returns" suffered a blow to both word-of-mouth and box office, so much so that a series of follow-up plans for Warner Bros. were postponed. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoSo, if Lance wants to take over these two works, he must make painful changes to ensure that they can be revitalized in his own hands, which also makes Lance encounter major resistance, and in the end both works are missed.

But "Transformers" and "007: Casino Royale" are very different, and these two works have been a huge success in the previous life.

"Transformers" cost 150 million, although the professional media reputation is terrible, and it can even be said that it has repeatedly hit the bottom, but it has become another box office bomb in the new century, first swept 320 million US dollars in North America, and then swallowed 390 million US dollars in overseas markets, and finally the global box office is approaching 720 million, which makes Paramount overjoyed, and since then it has also started the ten-year history of the series of works dominating the big screen.

The same is true of "007 vs. Casino Royale", the cost of 150 million plus the departure of the new James Bond is full of many uncertainties, but this work has successfully made the tricky professional media send fanatical praise, the media comprehensive evaluation of 80 points can be called a new high for the series, and at the same time, the box office has also delivered a satisfactory answer, 167 million in North America, 431 million overseas, although the North American box office has not been able to explode, However, the excellent performance of the overseas market has ensured the global revenue of 599 million yuan of the work, and the golden sign of 007 has been restored to its glory.

From this point of view, it will not be wrong to choose any work, one is to lose word-of-mouth and win the box office, and the other is to hit the box office standard by word-of-mouth, and both works have successfully opened the glory of the series. As commercial films, both works are better than "the day after tomorrow" and more worthy of filming.

But it's not two years ago, and Lance's perspective on his selection of works has naturally changed. On the one hand, there are more choices, he has more space to think about his preferences, as a director, as an actor, he can really complete the creation according to his own ideas; On the other hand, he must take into account the position of Chaos Pictures, and now the burden of making money for Chaos Pictures is still on his shoulders, especially considering that they need more liquidity to start shorting next.

"Transformers" is undoubtedly profitable, which is undoubtedly urgent for Chaos Pictures, but the adaptation rights of "Transformers" are in the hands of DreamWorks, and this work is the beginning of DreamWorks' cooperation with Paramount after it was split and acquired, which also means that it is almost impossible to let Chaos Pictures share a piece of the pie - rumors say that this time Steven Spielberg will personally serve as the producer of "Transformers", which shows the importance of this work to DreamWorks, which is forced to break up the capital chain.

Taking a step back, although this work has become popular with Shia-LaBeouf (Shia-Labeouf) and Meghan Fox, two new generation actors, everyone clearly knows that the real star of this work is Michael Bay standing behind it, not only because of the iron-beaten Transformers, the flowing cast, and the original number of human works in the movie script; Even more because the biggest factor in the success of the movie is Michael Bay.

Michael is not a great director, and even as a commercial film director, he has always had only three axes, explosions, wide-angle images, and slow motion, and it seems that he has no other abilities than such skills. The three-board axe won him a lot of praise in the early days of his career, especially the use of slow motion to express intense action scenes, which is amazing, but ten years later, this has become a common way to play in the industry, and Michael still has no innovation and does not want to forge ahead; It's just that he likes to show off his skills very much, and he is always keen to dazzle his three-board axe, and in order to satisfy his show-off mentality, he is unwilling to cut it, resulting in the duration of the movie always being unable to be shortened.

But it is undeniable that Michael is a successful commercial director, and his three-board axe is perfectly used, with beautiful pictures, frequent explosions, tight rhythms, high/high tides, and the simple enjoyment of adrenaline explosions during the viewing process always makes the audience always happy.

It can be said that Michael's three old things that have been criticized by film critics are precisely the core reasons for the success of the "Transformers" series. In addition, someone later counted the revenue ratio of the "Transformers" series of works, and it was found that Michael was a budget-conscious director, and he even used the waste shots in "Pearl Harbor" directly in "Transformers", and later part of the shots of "Escape from Clone Island" were also recycled into "Transformers 3", and the simple budget style has become the favorite of major producers, and among the works that have obtained the same box office data, Michael's cost budget is the lowest; Among the works with the same cost budget, Michael has the highest average box office.

As a result, after the fiasco of "Pearl Harbor", Michael's works were almost completely unavailable, but the "Transformers" series gave the thorny director a firm place in Hollywood.

If Lance takes over the "Transformers" project, the actors and the script have no room to play, and the producer is useless because of Steven's existence, in other words, the director is Lance's only choice - this is also Paramount's promise to Lance, although Paramount also intends to make Lance and Steven co-producers, but Lance's prestige has no power to compete with Steven, and it is conceivable that the crew will stand in line.

So, as a director, can Lance give "Transformers" that magic? Explosions full of tricks, blood-boiling pursuits, blood-pumping visual effects, fragrant/glamorous girls, and relaxed rhythms. It sounds simple, but it's actually quite difficult. The reason why Michael Bay is "selling copies" is definitely not bragging.

When it comes to playing with explosions, Lance's current experience is "zero" - the scene of the car accident explosion in "Murder with a Knife" was accurately calculated by the stuntman, and he personally drove the car to really knock it over, all of which were real shots. Compared to Michael, Lance is 108,000 miles behind.

Even though Lance wanted to shoot "Transformers" based on the memories of his previous life, the problem was ...... He didn't remember any of it. Movies like "Transformers" are very hot and adrenaline is completely explosive during the viewing process, but after watching it, I think about it carefully, but I don't remember anything - it's not accurate to say that the scene of Megan repairing the car has become a classic, and other than that, there is really no memory left.

If Chaos Pictures was involved in the co-filming of Paramount and DreamWorks, not directed by Lance, this cooperation proposal would be completely feasible, but apparently Paramount did not have such intentions, so when Brad talked about this proposal, Lance thought it carefully and finally decided to voluntarily abandon the project.

"007 vs. Casino Royale" is a different story.

Sony Pictures wanted Lance to play James Bond, and it was indeed a surprise. However, Lance himself is not very interested, not that the role does not have acting challenges - although this is one of the reasons, but the main reason is that playing this role, which means that for the next ten years, he will be entangled with this work, like a quagmire, it is difficult to have his own space.

Daniel Craig, for example, was officially confirmed as the new 007 candidate at the end of 2005, and over the next ten years, he made four 007 films, in addition to that, he also filmed "The Golden Compass", "The Resistance", "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", "The Cowboy and the Alien", "The Adventures of Tintin", etc., and most of them starred as the first male lead, but except for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", almost no one realized that this "James Bond" There are even other productions, even in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", people remember Rooney-Mara (Rooney-Mara).

Not only him, but among the previous 007s, except for the first actor Sean-Connery (Sean-Connery), none of the other actors have been able to get rid of the big hat of "007", which is like a shadow of their careers, and it is difficult to escape.

Lance has talked to Jessica Alba and Emma Stone about this topic in succession, and if such an opportunity arises, even if he knows that this role is likely to become a shackle for his entire career, should he accept it. At that time, Lance's answer was yes, but now, when it was Lance's turn, he refused.

It's just that Lance himself can't tell whether it's because he is still unwilling to give up his dream of becoming an excellent actor, like Emma, he is unwilling to be bound by a fixed role to his path as an actor; Or is it because he has already won great success as a director and screenwriter, and he doesn't need an aura like "007" to continue to add luster to himself.

Think of it as the latter.

However, Lance didn't mind becoming the director of "007 vs. Casino Royale", and then went on to work with Sony Pictures as Chaos Pictures.

In the last life, this work was directed by Martin-Campbell (Martin-Campbell), who successively relied on "Zorro's Mask" and "Vertical Limit" to open up the situation in the international market, although his performance as a director is very unstable, and his good works and bad movies fly together, but he is the real savior of the "007" series. In 1995, the 007 series in the trough was restarted after six years, Pierce became the new James Bond, Martin was appointed in danger, and finally handed over a perfect answer; In 2005, it was like a reincarnation, the 007 series was restarted after the change of ownership, the new James Bond took office, and Martin took over the guide at the last moment, and the ending was the same, Martin once again lived up to the trust and completed the mission.

Now, Sony Pictures has not confirmed the director position, and Michael Layton also made it clear in the conversation that if Lance is willing to take over the lead, then he is the first choice.

Compared with "Transformers", although the box office results of "007 vs. Casino Royale" are not so hot, on the whole, it is not only more in line with Lance's concept, but also more in line with the interests of Chaos Pictures! (To be continued.) )