Hugo put the three scripts in his hand aside, Rick was stunned, and then burst out laughing, "Lang is going to be sad now." Hugo looked up and looked at Rick suspiciously, and Rick had to explain, "These scripts are from Universal Pictures. ”

Hugo suddenly realized and shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, but why are Universal's scripts like this, I can't see the direction at all." It has nothing to do with personal grievances, but if such a work wants to be filmed well, it is really a difficult challenge for the director. ”

Rick's smile was a little more glad, on the surface, Ron Meyer is now the CEO of Universal Pictures, and the scenery is limitless, but only Ron himself knows the hardships. Now Lang does not have a clear direction for Universal's plans, he wants to invest in high-cost works, but the board of directors never agrees, after all, Universal Pictures started by doing comedy; Now, Long hopes to find a breakthrough in top actors such as Hugo, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt, but the project's own limited strength makes him constrained.

The future direction of Universal Pictures is worrying, and of course, fortunately, it's not part of Rick that needs to be worried. Thinking of Lang's friendship in recent months, Rick inevitably feels that human affection has always become cold and ruthless in this circle where interests are paramount.

"But these are just my own speculations, not the books handed over by Universal, so what the specific situation is, it is still based on Lang." Rick added.

That being said, Hugo knew that Rick's preparation must be in place, and there would normally be no surprises. While speaking, Hugo picked up the script in his hand, frowned and showed it to Rick, "You must be joking with me!" ”

Rick leaned over to look at it, and it was hard to hide the smile that swelled up in his eyes, "No, I'm not kidding. Rick sorted out his expression and explained seriously, "Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount are now in a predicament, especially Kevin, the budget of 'Titanic' has been overrun, and the production schedule has been seriously delayed, which has been filmed intermittently for nearly eight months, but it is still not finished." At the moment, Twentieth Century Fox is strictly blocking news, and there are no rumors in the circle, but I took a look at the projects they have been working on recently......" Rick paused and shook his head, "It's not good. ”

It's not uncommon for an entire production company to be trapped because of a work. For example, Cullock Pictures, which went bankrupt because of "Cut Throat Island", MGM Pictures, which was the last straw that broke the camel's back when "Windtalkers", and Sinbad: Legend. Of。 The。 Seven。 Seas)" and "Escape from Klonal Island (The. Island)" and DreamWorks, which was twice on the verge of bankruptcy and was finally forced to sell.

Of course, Twentieth Century Fox is still a long way from bankruptcy, but it's not surprising that due to the previous market downturn, they have a liquidity bottleneck. Although works such as "Speed of Life and Death" and "Independence Day" have made Twentieth Century Fox make a lot of money, the black hole of "Titanic" has been constantly devouring their flexible funds, and it is very normal for the scheduling to be ineffective in a short period of time.

In fact, Twentieth Century Fox is already very good, and they still have enough room to prepare new projects at this time, and within 1997 Rick knew that at least four projects cost more than 60 million. Although Twentieth Century Fox's move is also a stopgap measure, giving shareholders more confidence and covering up temporary internal difficulties, it can still be seen from this detail that Twentieth Century Fox has not yet reached the moment of embarrassment, but it is inevitable that it will be restrained.

Rick came to this conclusion only because the several projects prepared by Twentieth Century Fox appeared to be under-confident, and there were almost no bright spots that could be achieved except for the investment costs. This is very unusual for a top film production company.

"However, Kevin didn't actually mention this project at all, I just thought it was very interesting, so I added it." Rick explained simply, looking at the helplessness in Hugo's eyes, Rick was also a little embarrassed, "What, don't you think it's funny?" ”

"Hah! Ha! It's funny. Hugo replied with a smile, and Rick couldn't help but laugh dryly, wiping the sweat from his palms on his thighs.

At this time, Hugo was holding a project with a very simple and straightforward name, "Volcano" (literal translation of volcano), which obviously echoed the young volcano of the glorious and dying fan - this is the most active group in the United States in the past two years, attracting countless attention both inside and outside the industry.

When Rick saw this project at Twentieth Century Fox, his first reaction was that it was hilarious, and if Kevin really found Hugo to star in this project, the topic gimmick would definitely be very funny. However, Kevin has not revealed anything at all - except for the "Speed of Life and Death 2", which was criticized by Hugo as useless. Rick brought it over today, just a simple joke.

Although the movie "Living Fire Molten City" is not famous, Hugo has really seen it, but now he can't remember the specific details at all. This typical disaster film appeared after movies such as "Independence Day" and "Tornado" set off a frenzy of genre films, but unfortunately, the plot is too monotonous, the rhythm is too dragging, and it can't even reach the average level of genre films.

Although Hugo can't remember the specific story, a look at the brief of the project in his hand shows that this is a complete imitation of the "tornado". If Rick brought the "Fifth Element" over, because the story of this script is simple, it is still quite interesting, then the script of "Living Fire Molten City" is very nonsensical.

After reading several projects of Twentieth Century Fox, Hugo also agreed with Rick's ideas, these projects obviously lack ideas and courage, such as the project "Living Fire Molten City", the investment is 100 million US dollars, but the entire project concept, cast lineup is obviously lacking in consideration, and the market positioning is only a copy of the "Independence Day" strategy. It can be seen that Twentieth Century Fox is playing the conservative card.

It wouldn't be surprising if MGM or Universal chose to be conservative; But Twentieth Century Fox, under the leadership of Kevin in the past two years, and Warner Bros. can be regarded as the most daring company to invest, which is not normal.

Looking at the last proposal left on the table, Hugo glanced at the thick stack of papers on the right-hand side, while the left side was still empty, and then glanced at Rick, as if to say, "Are you sure it's only these crooked melons and cracked dates?" Rick also understood what Hugo meant, and shrugged helplessly: I have been working with Hugo for a long time, and now Rick is much more picky when choosing scripts.

Hugo pursed his lips and picked up the last item, which belonged to the name of Paramount, and just by seeing the first name, Hugo's eyes couldn't help but light up slightly, "John. Woo)", perhaps the name didn't seem to have anything special, as if you could find one like that among Asians in Hollywood, but Hugo's intuition sensed something, and when he looked down, sure enough, as he expected, the project came from the famous director.

"Face/off" is a huge font that catches your eye.

John Wu is an action movie director who has a high reputation throughout Asia. House. Forest. This one is in the middle. Country. Fragrant. Hong Kong has won countless praises of the director, in 1993 with the "ultimate target" officially entered Hollywood, and last year filmed "Broken Arrow", it can be said that the current Chinese artists in Hollywood, the best developed.

If John's pinnacle of Chinese cinema is "heroic nature", then his peak moment in Hollywood is "changing face".

Although "Changing Face" is an action movie, the clever story design, wonderful character settings, and precise rhythm control make people can't help but shoot amazingly, especially the rivalry between the two leading actors - John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, which is even more addictive, and the wonderful performances of the two actors add a lot to the movie, making the work out of the ordinary commercial action movie and triggering more chemistry.

"The Line of Fire" once gathered Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, two major actors, who played each other on the screen, which was addictive, but this work is slightly suppressed and forbidden under the control of Michael Mann. desire, the whole rhythm reveals heaviness, and the characters override the plot and rhythm, so the final box office performance is average, but after entering the video tape market, it has gained more support.

But under John's direction, "Changing Face" has taken the character creation and climax to the extreme, the actors and the plot complement each other, burst out amazing sparks, and even calculated the actors' performances, which got an excellent play, and finally not only won a good reception from the media, but also achieved great success at the box office.

It can be said that "Changing Face" is one of the most outstanding works Hugo has seen today, and Hugo is also very keen to work with John, maybe the two of them are from China. The soul of the country can collide with more sparks.

However, before Hugo could speak, Rick patted his head, "Sorry, I forgot, this work has started filming at the end of December." Then he pulled the proposal out of Hugo's right hand and put it aside, still muttering, "It's true that there are no good projects lately, but don't worry, maybe others need to worry about not having a work, but we never need to ......"

As Rick spoke, he noticed that Hugo's face was stunned, and he couldn't help but be stunned, and said for some reason, "What's wrong?" ”

Hugo only felt that he choked directly in one breath, and then spit out a long time, "Nothing, nothing ......"

Rick nodded, lowered his head and put everything in his bag, "Then be it, this is also the result I expected, it's just that tomorrow you meet those old foxes, you have the ......bottom of your heart" Rick didn't notice at all, Hugo's reluctant eyes always stayed on the "face-changing" project, and his face was full of depression.