The first is not just a prophecy

If you talk about who is most enthusiastic about the theme of disasters in Hollywood today, Roland Emmerich's name must be second to none, the director who has directed disaster blockbusters such as "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow", and has always taken the pleasure of destroying human civilization in his works, and this time his new film chose the end of the world as a gimmick, obviously preparing his homework. It's a pity that he planted too much on "10,000 Years Before History", so that when the script was sent to the heads of major film companies, the former sought-after scenery was gone.

In addition to worrying that Emmerich will "play abnormally" again, the film's initial shooting budget has also discouraged major film companies, the shadow of the economic crisis has not yet dissipated, large film companies are still struggling to operate, and many weak independent production companies are becoming more and more sad. Emmerich's wait to hear back was a sea of despair, as the big companies willing to pay him to cut his budget and have a lot of demands on the shooting, and the small studios that could meet all his requirements could not afford to support the film's huge budget.

Just when Emmerich was in a dilemma, Sony Pictures, which had not answered him, suddenly called, and they were willing to invest in the film. Before Emmerich could rejoice, he was bewildered by the strange request of the other party.

Sony is ready to work with MGM to shoot this film, which did not surprise Emmerich too much, but Sony obviously accounts for the majority of the investment, but the related shooting matters are Michel's side has the final say. The person in charge of Sony Pictures politely told Emmerich that whether the film is made or not depends on MGM's attitude.

Although there were such and such doubts in his heart, this "life-saving straw" Emmerich could only grasp it firmly, and he dialed the phone number of the person in charge of MGM according to the contact information left by the other party. What Emmerich didn't expect was that Ex, the president of MGM Pictures, actually asked for an interview with him. After making an appointment to meet in the other party's office, Emmerich, who hung up the phone, finally had a faint expectation in his heart, and the referee personally appeared, which shows that MGM attaches great importance to this matter.

But in fact, Emmerich still "underestimated" himself, saying that Ex interviewed him and entered the office of the president of MGM, but the person sitting inside surprised Emmerich.

Lin Mingyang pestle his hands and looked at Emmerich who was a little overwhelmed with a smile, although this "cameo" was purely improvised, but it did have a good effect, at least now the expression on Emmerich's face is very rich.

He didn't stand up to greet him, but just nodded to Emmeery with a strange bow, then gestured to the chair across from his desk and invited Emmerich to sit down.

"There was an emergency in the company, and our president was busy dealing with it, so I had to change to meet you today... Although Ickes has always been in charge of the day-to-day affairs of the company, I was very interested in the things involved in this film, so I would like to ask Mr. Roland a few questions when I have the opportunity."

Lin Mingyang gently tapped the script on the desk with his fingers, and Emmerich looked full, he knew that the real "test" had begun. In the face of Lin Mingyang, Emmerich was not stupid enough to really treat the other party as a 25-year-old young man, so although he himself was much older than Lin Mingyang, his tone of voice still seemed very respectful.

"When I first heard that Mr. Aix was going to meet with me to discuss this film, I thought it was a little incredible, and it would be my honor to say that you should be the other."

Lin Mingyang's eyes were bright, and he looked at Emmerich with interest, "I'm curious to know, what is your original intention for making this movie?" ”

"I've been making disaster movies for so many years, and a lot of people have told me that they love movies like 'The Day After Tomorrow,' and I asked them why, and they told me that it's an incredible shock to see a familiar city destroyed on screen. With this in mind, I began to think about the theme of the end of the world in 2012. Actually, when I was filming "Independence Day", I still had the idea of filming the end of the world in 1999, but unfortunately I couldn't catch up with it at that time, so I started to conceive of the story in 2006, and this time I wanted to shoot the film before the destruction of the earth. ”

Aside from the cautiousness at the beginning, Lin Mingyang's attentive expression gradually broadened Emmerich's thinking, and at the end of the day, he even had the idea of joking.

The corners of Lin Mingyang's mouth turned up slightly, and after smiling, he immediately asked a seemingly irrelevant question.

"Mr. Roland is so fond of disaster movies, does he really hope to see the world destroyed with his own eyes one day?"

"No, no" Emmerich waved his hand very funny, "I'm not a terrorist, I like this genre just because disaster movies are a kind of movies with strong conflicts, and the audience may abandon a lot of elements that need to be thought about carefully when watching this kind of movie, this is a very extreme duel, related to the survival of life, it is a contest of life and death, and the disparity in power, everyone is easily attracted by movies with this theme." For me, I like to describe a virtual catastrophe in a city, which wakes people up. It's not a language, it's just a possibility, will the Earth reach its end in 2012, and if so, where will human civilization go, and what will happen to the inhabitants of the planet? The film will focus on these things. ”

"If I'm not mistaken, in your previous disaster movies, the focus was on New York, why did it suddenly change to Los Angeles this time?"

Lin Mingyang's question made Emmerich slightly stunned before he reacted, and he smiled hesitantly, "After filming "The Day After Tomorrow", I have been hearing friends around me complain that they feel that as the hometown of Hollywood, Los Angeles should be destroyed first in the movie."

According to Emmerich's vision, the long-feared earthquake in Los Angeles finally came to fruition, and for local Los Angeles fans, it would be a pre-experienced death rehearsal, and it would be ruthless, and the earthquake would be more than 10 degrees. Emmerich attaches great importance to geographical features, and in his view, the "devastation" experienced by each place has its own characteristics.

The biggest feature of Los Angeles is that there are many cars, so in the film, Emmerich intends to make all kinds of cars, trucks, and trains from any angle of the camera from front of people's eyes and the end must be miserable. Correspondingly, parking lots and highways have to experience varying degrees of torture. Downtown Los Angeles was split in half, tall buildings collapsed, and finally the whole thing slid into the sea.

The destruction of the White House, the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and other buildings is not uncommon in disaster movies. Emmerich is clearly trying to break this aesthetic fatigue and change the traditional form of destruction. The film targets three iconic landmarks from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere, from the statue of Jesus in Rio de Janeiro to the Vatican Church to the Himalayas.

Although Lin Mingyang had actually "seen" the film, when the film was not yet filmed, he heard these ideas from the director's mouth, and he had to admit that Emmerich had used his imagination to the extreme. In traditional films, disasters are presented in isolation, and a breakthrough is achieved in this regard. In the script, volcanic fissures, tsunami floods, meteorite rains and other disaster forms are presented together, which can be said to be the most complete collection of disasters in history.

"To realize these ideas in the film, it is clear that the budget you mentioned in the shooting plan is not enough"

Emmerich spoke wildly on a whim, and Lin Mingyang's fluttering question immediately made him speechless with embarrassment. In order to get the investment of the film company, he had to "shrink" the budget a little, and despite this, the sky-high shooting budget of $150 million is still a little breathless. When Lin Mingyang said this, he just hit Emmerich's sore spot.

Seeing his embarrassed face, Lin Mingyang immediately smiled and said: "All the ideas you just mentioned are realized in the film, and the entire filming and production budget needs at least 200 million US dollars, and if you want to make a 3D movie, the entire investment will be even greater."

The unfathomable expression on his face as he spoke made Emmerich a little confused, "What do you mean..."

Lin Mingyang glanced at Emmerich solemnly, "Whether it's MGM or Sony Pictures, we don't lack money now... I'm just wondering, if we put up enough investment, can we be 100% able to achieve the kind of post-apocalyptic effect that you describe in the movie? ”

Emmerich clearly felt his heart pounding at an accelerated pace, and he had already understood what Lin Mingyang meant. With a shooting budget of 200 million US dollars, he didn't even dare to think about it before, but Lin Mingyang's expression was so light when he said this number. Emmerich knew very well that this was a rare opportunity for him, and he was so excited that even his hands under the table trembled slightly.

At this time, Lin Mingyang, who was sitting opposite him, was very calm in his heart, he clearly knew that he belonged to the kind of people who love to watch disaster movies would like it very much, and he would continue to be a movie that he did not want to see if he didn't want to see disaster movies, because it was very in line with the model of all previous American disaster movies, and the visual spectacle, thrilling, human nature exploration and heroism were all complete, without adding any elements to upgrade it.

The only difference is that the visual effects of the film can be better and more powerful than before. It's like people have eaten a burger with a patty and given the audience more patties, so it's more tempting and has more calories. There is only one way for such a film to succeed commercially, which is to cover up the shortcomings of the plot with powerful visual effects, after all, movies are just disposable consumer goods for the vast majority of audiences, and watching them comfortably and enjoyable is the king of high box office.

And the special effects of the movie are completely "burned" with money, and if this film wants to achieve good box office results, the amount of investment is the decisive factor.

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After passing this chapter, I dare to secretly say that these two chapters are actually making up for the previous shortcomings. The frog knows the depth of his sins and has realized it today, so let's continue tomorrow

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