With his hands behind his back, Barry narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Lance carefully, as if he was considering the deep meaning of Lance's words, and seemed to be considering the feasibility of Lance's proposal, and the look hidden in the depths of his eyes was gently surging and unpredictable.

"'Star Wars'? It's an interesting comparison. Barry didn't affirm it positively, but he didn't deny it directly, and the slow words showed his hesitation and anticipation. The contradictory emotions swelled gently between the eyebrows.

Lance wasn't surprised by Barry's reaction.

In fact, when Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion in 2009, many people in the industry believed that Disney was playing with fire, and this move was likely to completely bring down Disney's animation kingdom. On the one hand, because comic superheroes focus on the otaku market, while Disney animation is a representative of family fun, market conflict will lead to a decline in Disney's brand effect; On the one hand, it is always difficult to wait for the elegance of comic book adaptations.

Even in 2009, the comic book adaptation movie is still a six-vein divine sword that goes off the rails - the time is not good. Since "Spider-Man" shined in 2002, nearly 30 comic book adaptations have emerged in just seven years, but few of them have succeeded, "Batman Prequel: The Mystery of the Shadows" and "Batman Prequel: The Dark Knight" have become successful representatives of DC, and "Spider-Man" series, "X-Men" series, "Fantastic Four" and "Iron Man" are Marvel's box office successes.

However, the box office fiasco of "Fantastic Four 2", the bleak situation of "The Incredible Hulk", and the unattended popularity of works such as "The Punisher", "Soul Chariot", "Daredevil Hero", "Hell Detective", "Superman Returns", "Watchmen" and other works are shocking. Including "X-Men 3" and "Spider-Man 3" also fell far short of expectations at the box office.

Many of these works have lost more than 80 million yuan, or even as high as 100 million US dollars.

To make matters worse, the publishing industry of Marvel and DC is also declining, and in 2009, only six comic book books in the United States sold more than 100,000 copies, reaching an unprecedented low.

All this makes people in the industry firmly believe that comic book adaptations cannot become mainstream, and as an important part of the two-dimensional subculture, comics still have a long way to go if they want to become mainstream culture. You see, Superman and Batman have been popular for half a century, but they still can't call the wind and rain in the movie world.

Therefore, Disney's acquisition of Marvel is not optimistic about many people.

It's only 2005, and apart from two "Spider-Man" and two "X-Men", comic book adaptations are still lackluster. Warner Bros. was inspired to reboot Superman and Batman, but it didn't mean they wanted to dare to break the box and revolutionize the rules and perceptions of the entire industry.

In history, most of the first people to eat crabs ended in death.

Therefore, Lance had long anticipated Barry's reaction, and his only concern was that Barry didn't think about it at all, and directly refused, leaving him no room to play; Now, Barry's emotions are very conflicted, some expectations and some curiosity, but at the same time some rejection and some hesitation, which is good news for Lance.

"So, do you think the value of a comic book adaptation is comparable to that of 'Star Wars'?" Barry's thoughts were churning, but there was not much pause in his words, and he continued to ask, his eyes falling on Lance's face, and he looked at it carefully, not wanting to miss every detail of Lance's expression.

"Why not?" Lance was very calm, and his determined eyes did not waver in the slightest, "When 'Star Wars' came out, many people thought that this was just a movie that only nerds would like, but who would have thought that this has become an unshakable part of American pop culture? "Lance doesn't need further introduction, every film practitioner clearly knows the importance of the "Star Wars" series of movies, ""Star Wars" builds a magical and complete universe space, showing the unknown and mystery of science fiction completely, and the same is true of DC Comics, it builds a fantasy but real world, showing our dissatisfaction, expectations, and fantasies in life. It's like everybody wants to have the Force, everybody wants to have superpowers, and that's why 'Spider-Man' has been so successful. ”

"But there is an essential difference between a movie and a world." Barry's mind remained unwavering.

Lance didn't rush it, but thought about it seriously. He knows that according to the historical trajectory, Warner Bros. not only produced Batman and Superman, but also produced "Constant", "The Shining", "Green Lantern" and "Watchmen", which shows that the wealthy Warner Bros. does not mind developing all of DC Comics, but the problem is this: these are all single films, which are strictly different from series movies.

A single film means keeping the work independent, and success or failure has nothing to do with other works. Warner Bros. is willing to invest in a stand-alone film, but is reluctant to make a series of films, for a simple reason: they still have doubts about comic book adaptations, they don't want to end the movie, and the failure of one work leads to a chain failure, especially not wanting to spill over to the ace projects - Batman and Superman.

Therefore, Lance sorted out his thoughts and changed his perspective to explain, "This is not an essential difference, but a difference in the perspective of looking at the problem." For example, if we want to shoot a 'Justice League' movie, but because the Justice League movie has many characters, it is very difficult to control because the clues are chaotic, the framework is huge, and the content is complicated, and it is easy to fail if you don't pay attention to it. So let's take a step back and shoot Superman and Batman movies first, then Wonder Woman and The Flash, followed by Justice League. After the Justice League achieved a box office success, the separate works of Green Lantern, Aquaman and Cyborg were put on the big screen. Of course, it mainly depends on the audience's reaction, which character is popular, and we will shoot which character's work. ”

Barry understood Lance's idea, but his mind was still full of doubts, "What's the difference?" ”

"The difference lies in two points, first, these characters share the same world view, and each part is interrelated and paving each other, thus outlining a complete and unified movie universe, where the characters can interact with each other, and the plot can add easter eggs to each other, help each other, and form a huge system." Lance didn't have enough time to go through all the DC Comics, and now all the ideas are from the previous Marvel Universe, but in 2005, the idea was not only bold, but also ahead of its time, enough to shock everyone's understanding of the movie.

"Second, we can form a series of movies, where the characters in the Justice League can quit and then join new members, and the original members can come back and make cameos after they leave." Lance didn't elaborate, but he believed Barry was quick to understand, and that's one of the characteristics of the film industry: no actor is irreplaceable.

For example, the actors of Spider-Man have changed three generations before and after, and for example, in "The Avengers", some characters have been eliminated and some characters have been added, to maintain the vitality of the series, all of which are based on movies and corporate interests.

Barry's pupils widened slightly, and in this brief conversation just now, Lance built a magnificent world for him, far more magnificent than "Star Wars", far bigger than "Harry Potter", far more incredible than "Spider-Man" or "X-Men".

If all this succeeds, it is possible to build a comic book empire that is even bigger than Disney. But it's just if. As the CEO of Warner Bros., Barry is one of Hollywood's most daring executives, and with just a few words he can see the hidden interests behind this project, which are definitely calculated in tens of billions; But Barry knows better how big the stakes can be.

According to Lance, it would take at least five films to build the entire DC Universe - and that's just the first phase, with an average investment of $150 million per film, plus publicity and planning costs, that's a billion-dollar project.

When Barry offered Lance a project of 300 million, he thought it would shake Lance's world, and it was definitely an unattainable project for Chaos Pictures, which was just starting out in his career; But unexpectedly, in return, Lance threw him a billion-dollar project, and Barry was amazed by that ambition.

Any top company, in the face of a billion-dollar project, will not act rashly, because it will affect the whole body and cost one billion, but the potential loss possibility is multiplied. Don't you see how many CEOs are laid off directly because of a loss of $100 million in a work, let alone a tenfold risk?

What's more, whether the comic book adaptation movie is worth the long-term investment, the whole of Hollywood is currently in a wait-and-see state, the success cases are gratifying, but the failure cases are endless, and the risk is so big that almost everyone is cautious and cautious.

Warner Bros. is willing to reboot the Superman and Batman projects, and they are already considered pioneers of Hollywood when comic book adaptations are just being revived, and Warner Bros. is a bit big compared to the cautious Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Columbia. Whether it's Superman or Batman, the failure of any project is a consequence that Warner Bros. can't afford to do — even if it's a giant like Warner Bros., you can't do whatever you want.

To put it a step further, Reims's billion-dollar project, as long as one link or one work goes wrong, it will be completely destroyed! Moreover, "billion" is only a rough estimate of the first stage, not to mention that there will be a second and third phases after that, and the first phase alone may lead to further increases in costs due to changes in various projects, for example, the budget of "Superman Returns" is 300 million. This also means that Lance has lightly proposed a project that is likely to cost two billion in the first phase!

Even Barry had a ridiculous idea at this point: Could it be that Lance is a madman? (To be continued.) )