~： Six hundred and ninety-six - where is the special?

Hollywood Draw 696 - Where's the Special?

The much-anticipated "X-Men" officially started, and silence fell in the screening hall of the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Different from other big projects in the summer season, this film has attracted the attention of the circle, which can be called the most in this year's summer season, and even surpasses the summer season's start-up giant "The Flash".

Everyone knows that with the good reputation Wayne has accumulated in recent years, even if "The Flash" shoots a mess of shit, there is still no shortage of fans who love **** to pay.

Under such a background, it may be difficult to let "The Flash" go directly to failure. Even if the film is really unsightly, it will affect the subsequent chapters of DC at most, causing the audience to lose some word of mouth. After all, Wayne has really It was too successful, and he had the capital of trial and error.

But "X-Men" is different. The premiere held by 20th Century Fox basically invited all the guests who could be invited to the platform. While expressing their ambition for "X-Men", they also expressed their unparalleled love for Wayne. trust.

To everyone's surprise, not only did Sony Columbia's new CEO come to the premiere in a low-key manner, but executives from Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Disney, and even Warner Bros. the theaters, and some Hollywood midsize studio executives are no exception.

It seems that people raised a magnifying glass in tacit understanding for this superhero movie outside the DC system. In fact, Townsend Rothman, sitting in the first row of the screening hall, is very clear that the purpose of those familiar faces in the circle is nothing more than that he feels that the model of DC superheroes cannot be copied, and wants to see if he can copy "X-Men".

"Mutation, the key to our evolution..."

After 20th Century Fox's traditional title animation ended, the big screen was dark, but the narration sounded in the quiet auditorium.

"It takes us from single-celled organisms to the dominant species of this planet. It's a long process, usually millions of years. But every few hundred thousand years, evolution makes a sudden leap..."

At the end of the narration, the perspective on the big screen began to shuttle among the abstract cells, and finally stopped on a film title composed of steel: X-Men.

The film officially entered the theme. The heavy rain accompanied the dark night. The first panorama that appeared in front of the audience was this concentration camp. It was precisely on the screen where the story officially started. A line of familiar letters appeared in the upper right corner of the big screen:

Screenwriter and Producer: Wayne Greenberg.

"X-Men: 1" by Wayne Greenberg!

As a commercial film for the purpose of commercial profit, the original intention of doing so is understandable. After all, in the hearts of most fans, as long as the title of the film appears in the title, it basically means that this is a film that is destined not to disappoint fans. Movie.

To put it bluntly, everything is for film marketing. Under this premise, the actual producer of the crew, Avi Adela, and director Brian Singer, all have to line up behind Wayne.

The reason is very simple. If the name "Wayne Greenberg" is not hung, it can affect the box office figures of the movie in the tens of millions. Since 20th Century Fox paid him a large salary, it is impossible to let go of such an effective marketing method.

The first few minutes of the film are not very attractive, and the various information that is constantly revealed makes the audience watching the film wait patiently until the appearance of Wolverine. Uncle Wolf seems to have a unique charm, especially the scene of waving his hand to cut off the shotgun in the hand of the bar owner, which aroused the tsk tsk admiration in the auditorium for the first time.

"Seriously, Wayne."

The screening on the big screen continued, and Townsend Rothman, who was sitting in the first row, turned his head to look beside him, automatically ignoring the black beauty stuck to the young man, and said in a low voice, "I'm already a bit of a **** now. Sorry, Wayne."

"Huh? What do you regret?"

Turning his head with a slight difference, Wayne had already seen the movie more than once, so like the 20th Century Fox CEO, he also didn't pay too much attention to the story on the big screen.

Shaking his head slightly, Townsend-Rothman deliberately lowered his voice and muttered: "I have a strong hunch that one day, Twentieth Century Fox will regret not choosing your first plan, regret choosing to be more quick and quick. s plan......"

There was silence between the two again. For Wayne, it doesn't really matter what 20th Century Fox chooses, even if the first plan he gave was more conducive to the construction of the "X-Men" universe, no matter what 20th Century Fox chose. No matter how it is made, the reward for him is so much.

Also, he knows better than anyone else in his heart that in the project of "X-Men", even if 20th Century Fox doesn't find itself, it will be difficult for the film to fail. New ideas, there is still no lack of attention to the film.

Originally, according to Wayne's idea, he really wanted to change the trend of "X-Men", nothing else, just because during his graduation, Townsend-Rothman gave "Happy Death Day" a chance and gave himself a A great opportunity to present yourself to Hollywood.

From the perspective of God, according to the timeline of "X-Men", he sorted out the appearance order of each mutant in detail, and explained the stories behind these mutants.

I want to gradually improve the entire X-Men universe by introducing more characters through the debut of a single character. Perhaps the disadvantages of this are too obvious. After all, the heroes in "X-Men" are completely incomparable to DC in terms of popularity, so the box office risk of the opening work is destined to be extremely high.

Even laymen can think that the story behind a single mutant is definitely not as attractive as a few appearing together. But this is fine now, at least in the "X-Men" series, he has returned to the inflection point he is most familiar with.

"Do you feel anything special?"

In the middle of the fourth row behind Wayne and other core creators, Nick Crowley, the distribution director from Paramount Pictures, frowned and looked at Paul beside him.

A tacit understanding between Sony Columbia and Paramount Pictures made the two people familiar, especially Paul’s behavior of digging a hole and pitting the CEO of the book. In the eyes of many executives in the circle, it is normal behavior. Disgusted, but also received a lot of praise in private.

"Did not see it......"

Hearing the doubts of Paramount's distribution director, Paul leaned back in his chair, shook his head, and said softly, "It's strange here."

As he said that, he raised a hand covertly and pointed to the front, back, left and right, and even the audience in most of the auditorium behind him.

The result is self-evident, yes, strange is strange here, whether this "X-Men" is color, mirror movement, story rhythm, editing habits, it can be said that it has nothing to do with Wayne's own style. , but the audience in the movie hall were all fascinated by it.

Nick Crowley shook his head, swept the entire theater, and murmured. "A normal to normal commercial film."

Paul reluctantly complained: "Perhaps, making superheroes as a normal commercial film, don't think about imitating Wayne's style, and let the darkness and depression go to hell, is the road to success?"

No one can give him the answer to this question. After all, "X-Men" has only been shown in less than half of the show. Not to mention the follow-up plot arrangement, even if it can gain a high reputation from fans at the premiere, it is still nothing. Value reference data.

Everyone is old fritters in the Hollywood distribution industry, and they really know all too well what's going on with the premiere.

Regardless of the thousands of people in the theaters, more than 80% are occupied by ordinary movie fans, but no one can say what percentage of these ordinary movie fans are paid for by 20th Century Fox.

This is just a routine practice for the premiere of Hollywood movies. In order to make the premiere scene look good, the film companies that are more confident in the film may only arrange some "child care" among ordinary audiences. The more common practice is actually A large area of ​​professional "fans" are employed to enhance the movie-watching atmosphere of the premiere.

Don't underestimate these professional "fans". In Hollywood, a place full of commercial attributes, they have already formed a complete industrial chain.

Los Angeles "brokerage companies" not only provide "party atmosphere groups" for big players in the circle, and deeply customize "party guests", but also organize "professional movie fans" to watch movies and organize "professional audiences" to participate in TV programs, etc. and other business.

Therefore, some "special brokerage companies" in the circle not only hold a large number of beautiful models and handsome models in their hands, but their profit range can be said to be spread across all aspects of the film and television industry.

"Huh..."

With a long sigh of relief, the senior executive of Universal Pictures, the current CEO Ron Mayer's face is quite ugly. He wore a baseball cap that covered most of his face, and his eyes were fixed on the big screen.

Now within Universal Pictures, Ron Mayer's personal reputation has declined sharply, mainly because of his several wrong choices on the company's major projects.

But fortunately, he has been in business for many years and has allowed himself to weather the difficulties time and time again. On the contrary, the directors or producers of those failed projects have become the perfect target to take the blame, such as "Hulk" director Bill Bakerby .

"At least it's pretty normal now, and the special effects may be justified, but it's not realistic and gorgeous. The story is not strong, the background soundtrack is mediocre, and the emotional scenes like **** are inexplicable. What catches the eye of the lens..."

Hearing Ron Mayer's movement, his secretary Brand Sean turned his head and whispered to his boss about the lack of the film.

"shutthef**kup!"

Glancing fiercely at his secretary, Ron Mayer felt that either his IQ was insulted, or his secretary Brand's IQ was worrying.

If you look at it with a critical eye, the secretary's comments are all right, but movie fans are never film critics who want to deliberately pick on the film, and they will never be so extreme when they look at the film.

"Script, script?"

Ron Mayer focused his attention on the big screen again, murmuring softly.

As a professional who has worked in the industry for many years, he certainly understands the difference between "X-Men" and other superheroes. The most obvious point is that this "X-Men" does not have a protagonist in the absolute sense, so from the beginning, the film chose to describe the characters in multiple lines, and then focus on all the characters later.

Having watched most of the film, Ron Mayer has summed up a lot of things. The story line is very cleverly arranged. Although it is forced to do so because of too many characters, it is also clear and not messy.

You must know that this is not a "literary film" that conveys the director's emotions. It is completely sufficient in the commercial field to be able to achieve such an arrangement.

In terms of special effects, it is definitely incomparable to the immersive performance of "The Flash", and it does not have the special effects performance of "The Flash" that can't wait to overflow the big screen. However, it is just the right special effects display of mutant abilities, especially the brilliant shapeshifter.

One more thing I have to admit, whether it's Wolverine, Transformers, or Storm, the temperament of the actors is very consistent with the roles they play, and each role impresses the audience very deeply.

Suddenly, Ron Mayer completely lost his desire to watch the movie, put his eyes on the first row of the movie hall in the dark, and muttered to himself:

"Choose actors who fit the character's temperament, choose a director who is obedient and capable, and then let these people shoot strictly according to the designed script, and control the post-production work of the film. Wayne, you are indeed a genius in the production industry.. ..."

Everyone knows that Wayne has been busy with "The Flash" related work, and has to take time out to care about the third "Matrix" and Hollywood's first successful all-female commercial "Charlie's Angels" ", it is definitely impossible to have the energy left to stare at "X-Men".

But even so, the finished film of "X-Men" still does not disappoint. As Ron Mayer groaned, choose an obedient and capable director, personally control the audition of the main actor, and assign a producer who will not dictate to the crew, and this is the final result. .

The reason is very simple. Basically, it is a template for Hollywood producers to make projects. However, so far, the producers who have been able to play it after doing such a big deal, and also guarantee the success rate, the CEO of Universal Pictures only looks at it. I have been to two, one is Jerry Bruckheimer, who is in the midst of civil strife, and the other is Wayne Greenberg!

"It's not a Grimberg superhero."

Twentieth Century Fox naturally did not forget to invite film critics for the premiere of the much-anticipated "X-Men", but compared to the large number of invitations in previous years, the budget they gave for "directing funds" this year was not much. As a local film critic in Los Angeles, Todd McKinsey is naturally among the invited list.

"Yes, except for the script, there is almost no trace of Wayne."

Another Los Angeles local film critic, Kenneth Turan, nodded when he heard his companion's emotion, and responded softly.

Looking at the film that is about to end, Todd McKinsey said with a smile: "'X-Men' is actually different from all superheroes. It's so special. It's not a smart person's choice to do so."

It is said that this superhero is special because of the background in which its various characters appear, and even the social background in which the entire comic appears.

"The Guard is Here"

In the early 1960s, in order to support the growing minority affirmative movement in North America, under the leadership of Stan Lee, the father of Marvel superheroes, Marvel Comics produced "X-Men". Its stories, characters, etc., are constantly metaphors for the plight of ethnic minorities.

In this very special social background, the first superhero team "X-Men" with obvious ethnic minorities was born.

Since then, this "special comic", which is independent of other Marvel comics systems, has developed in North America for decades. During this period, "X-Men" has undergone many film and television adaptations, animation and other adaptations, but before 20th Century Fox made the "X-Men" movie, those adaptations were all small troubles, far from the current situation. Ministry of production has a card face.

"It could have developed into a most special universe, tsk tsk tsk, what a pity..."

No matter what others thought, at this time Wayne glanced at Townsend Rothman beside him and shook his head helplessly in his heart.

In fact, strictly speaking, Hollywood's first real movie universe is Universal's monster universe. Some people have given Universal's monsters names such as Dark Universe many years ago. .

From the 1920s all the way through the 1950s, the entire Universal Monster Movie Universe was conceptualized and known. With the silent film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in the first step, Universal Pictures continued to create its own monster series because of its box office success.

For example, "The Phantom of the Opera", "The Laughing Man", "Dracula", "Frankenstein", "The Mummy", "The Invisible Man", "London Werewolf" and other classic images of the "monster universe" were born very Early, you know, it was the 1930s.

Universal Pictures' monster series has a brilliant beginning, and the follow-up development is also very wise. From the previous work, "The Bride of Frankenstein", "The Daughter of Dracula" and other related sequels were born, and a series of operations came down. , making Universal Pictures' monster series a banner that Hollywood could not bypass after the 1930s.

In the following years, Universal Pictures has never given up on the development of monsters, and has developed a relationship with each other. The Hand of Munoyin, The Tomb of Munoyin, The Return of the Invisible Man, The Son of Dracula, The Soul of Frankenstein and many more.

The splendid series of monster movies is rare, with the connection before and after, and new characters and stories are constantly derived from the world view.

If it is just this, it is not a novel "cosmic concept", because although these films are related, they have never been intertwined with multiple series to carry out a unified world view planning.

There is always a shortage of smart people in this world. As early as the mid-1940s, the visionary executives of Universal Pictures once again made a decision. The first movie "Frankenstein Vs Werewolf" with an intersection of characters and a unified world outlook was released!

From today's point of view, does it have a sense of sight of "Batman v Superman"? That's right, the world has never lacked forward-looking hanging b.

The success of "Frankenstein Vs Werewolf" has made Universal Pictures executives continue to work hard to plan a unified world view and continue to stuff various monsters into it. Later, "Frankenstein Home", "Zombie" were released. Strange House", "Two Silly Vs Frankenstein", a series of movies intertwined with multiple monsters, and achieved rare good results.

It's just that with the development of time, the social trend in North America is also slowly changing. The advent of events such as the Cold War, Space War, etc. made Universal Pictures abandon the monster series with a huge foundation, and turned around and began to change the runway. All eyes are on the sci-fi series.

Movies have not always existed alone. Behind every big-selling movie, there is actually a close connection with social trends. It can be said that Universal Pictures’ monster series was simply forced by the development of social forms. .

In fact, it was not until the turn of the century that Universal Pictures restarted the monster series on a large scale, although films such as "Van Helsing" did not perform well in word of mouth.

Unlike the "Monster Universe" and "Dark Universe" that died prematurely, if it weren't for the appearance of Wayne, the first successful Hollywood movie universe would undoubtedly be the "X-Men" universe.

The earliest 20th Century Fox did not plan "X-Men" as big, and even the "X-Men" trilogy, according to the tradition, only produced the next one after a good performance was released.

But this is the way to cross the river by feeling the stones, and it has also achieved the first movie universe in which more and more heroes appear in the same world. And because of the preconceived effect of comics for decades, it did not make the "X-Men" universe become a big groceries in the eyes of fans.

For so many years in Hollywood, it's not that no one has thought about shooting something similar to the movie universe, but there has always been a problem in the circle.

Movies with a central character are the norm, and the director has a lot of leeway. But two, three, four or more, it becomes the problem of the century. How will the roles be distributed? Since every hero is important, how to balance their importance? A pot of thick soup with everything thrown into it will definitely not taste good when boiled.

But "X-Men" does not need to consider this issue at all because of its own advantages. The impression that comics have formed on audiences for decades is there, and naturally it is much easier. Coupled with the birth process under a special social background, it naturally formed the characteristics of "X-Men" different from other comic universes Even if the "Justice League" series and the "Avengers" series, in this There is no advantage in "X-Men". The first two randomly take out a main character, and both have world-renowned influence, and it is precisely because they are too famous that when they are all mixed together, the director cannot make a reasonable trade-off.

Marvel, aka the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has certainly been the most successful, and there's nothing wrong with that. One of its great success factors is that long before the filming of the opening film "Iron Man", the high-level executives of Marvel Studios have already designed the follow-up development plan.

With a unified shooting style, a unified world view, and then stuffing the characters in step by step, the Marvel Dafa was created. After all, the accumulated popularity one by one broke out at the right time, which is really terrifying.

"X-Men" is the opposite of Marvel, because it did not have such a long-term plan at the beginning, so the series continued to develop for 20 years, and it can be clearly found that from the aspects of action design, special effects rendering, script creation, etc. It is constantly adjusted with the progress of time and changes in social trends.

There is a core that can make "X-Men" popular for twenty years, and Wayne dares to swear that no one will be able to find it today. Although the story, special effects, actions, etc. are all changing, only the core theme of metaphors for minorities, confrontation and acceptance of mainstream society, "X-Men" has never changed.

And this is actually a pity in Wayne's heart. It's really that "X-Men" is too special. Except for this series, it is difficult to find IPs with the same background and the same theme. +Bookmark+