Chapter 911

Malibu, daenerys studios.

It's April 12.

It's already the 12th day Peter Jackson arrived in Los Angeles. Yesterday, he was informed that Simon westwello would meet with him to discuss his film Ghost of terror and another production plan for the Lord of the rings series, so he didn't have a good rest all night and repeatedly weighed how to deal with meeting a young Hollywood tycoon.

The appointed time was 4:30 p.m., and Jackson arrived at danelis studios an hour in advance.

Being too early is not as pleasant as being late. In fact, Peter Jackson, who is very tactful, didn't ignore these details. After parking in the administrative district of danelis Movie City, he didn't rush to office building 1 directly. Instead, he sat down in the coffee room of a movie city in the administrative district, bought a copy of Hollywood Reporter, and read the latest time of Hollywood I spent the waiting time drinking coffee.

The Easter season in North America closed yesterday. This issue of Hollywood Reporter mainly summarizes the Easter season.

In addition to "Batman vs Superman: Dawn of justice", which has a domestic box office of more than 650 million US dollars, there are also two new films "detective plane head 2" and "morgue haunted event 2" produced by Denise entertainment.

On March 29, Kim Carey's new film "detective plane 2" won $45.51 million at the box office in the first week, down 40% in the next week and another $27.27 million. Two weeks after the opening of the film, the sequel to "the head of the plane," which made Kim Carey famous two years ago, grossed $72.78 million.

According to the step-by-step accounting rules, danilisi entertainment easily recovered all the production and publicity costs of $50 million in two weeks, and realized a profit.

Then there was "the morgue haunted 2" on April 5.

From April 5 to April 11, the box office performance of the fourth movie in the universe series was even better, with the same scale of production and publicity as "detective plane head 2", with a revenue of $51.69 million in seven days.

Another 100 million yuan box office club member is sure.

Although the commercial volume of daenerys Entertainment's evocation movie universe Series in recent years is far less than that of DC movie universe series, with the previous evocation, morgue haunted event and evocation 2 taken into account, the whole series of four movies in a row can achieve more than 100 million, which is also a miracle in Hollywood.

What's more, the cost of this series is low enough.

Even if the global box office of the first three films is in the range of $200 million to $300 million, it may not be as good as the local box office of DC movies. On the other hand, the production cost of this series, for example, mortuary haunted event 2, is only $30 million, which is also a fraction of the production cost of super Batman.

Danielis entertainment has a very good cost control over the production of the DC movie universe series. The budget for Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of justice is still $135 million, which is equivalent to Batman: the rise of the dark knight two years ago.

Looking at the news on the Hollywood Reporter, Peter Jackson, who is full of ambition in this circle, only feels the ups and downs of his heart.

It has been eight years since he ran to Melbourne and was hired as assistant director of Batman: the moment of war. The gifted teenager who was just born in Hollywood is now in a position that everyone can only look up to. Peter Jackson has not stopped his pace these years.

Both the evil fun "crazy fat treasure variety show" and the recent fake documentary "forgotten film" have made certain repercussions in the industry. Two years ago, "angel of sin" also won the Venice Silver Lion Award.

If you really enter this industry, you can understand that there are thousands of films produced every year around the world, most of which can't even splash.

Therefore, no matter from which aspect, as long as your film can attract attention, it is a kind of success.

What's more, Peter Jackson can clearly feel that he has been in the attention field of danielis entertainment or, to be exact, Simon westero's attention all these years, from the original "crazy fat treasure variety show" to last year's "forgotten movie", as well as the middle of the "corpses over the world" and "sin angel", eight years, four movies Every time Denise entertainment is very active in contacting and cooperating with him, which makes it easy for many filmmakers to cross the funding threshold.

This is clearly true of a recent play, ghost of terror, and his proposal for the Lord of the rings series.

This time it's clearer.

Simon westero is going to interview him, and it's obvious that the other person hasn't forgotten the assistant director on the set of Batman: time for war.

Keep an eye on the time. At 4:25, Jackson arrived at Simon westrow's office on time.

Just waiting in the lounge for a while, a young man who had hardly changed his appearance over the years soon appeared, which made Jackson a little surprised by the punctuality of the other party. Hollywood circle, consciously has a position, whether it is a lot of studio executives or those big stars, unpunctuality is almost normal, a lot of people obviously do it on purpose, in order to take a stance.But Peter Jackson soon understood. Simon westlogan didn't need such an indecent little method. Compared with his current position, he can still do it, which is more admirable.

With that in mind, Jackson quickly stood up, smiling and holding out his hand to Simon as he walked by: "Hello, Mr. westrow."

Simon and Jackson shook hands and said with a smile, "just call me Simon, just like the Batman set did. By the way, how are you doing? "

Peter Jackson also smiles: "not bad."

It's not the usual way to ask the other person a question. It's mainly a kind of instinctive prudence to see the superior, and how's Simon westrow doing?

Simon also didn't deliberately exchange too much greetings with Jackson. After greeting, they entered the office and sat down together in the reception area.

A girl who followed in put two pieces of information in front of Simon and Jackson respectively, and another female assistant brought coffee to them, and then both quickly withdrew.

Simon turned over the materials in his hand and went straight to the topic: "let's talk about the ghost of terror first, Peter. I read the memorandum of your production meeting about this project last week. You've positioned the film as another ghost hunt, which is a good direction. However, I found a problem that the scale between horror and comedy is crucial. Just like "ghost hunting death squads", although it is "ghost hunting", its positioning is fantasy comedy, not horror. The audience's overall feeling of watching this film is very happy. And the orientation of "ghost of terror" is a horror comedy. You also describe a lot of horror scenes in the script. If you don't pay attention, there may be an embarrassing situation that is neither horror nor comedy. Have you ever thought about that? "

Peter Jackson didn't expect Simon to be so direct. He almost couldn't keep up with his ideas, but he soon got up and said, "of course, Simon, I've been discussing this with the team recently. It's confirmed that the film will tend to be comedy style, that is, comedy is superior to horror. Moreover, we have also paid attention to your question. We think that the key is to determine a suitable actor. We are all selecting actors these days. "

In the original version of the ghost of terror, the hero is Michael fox, the star of the "back to the future" series.

The film ends in failure. Although there are many reasons, the actor's failure in casting is indeed a factor. Although there are comedy elements in the popular series back to the future, the positioning of Michael fox is more inclined to be a teen idol star. In the mid-1990s, he is an old-fashioned idol star and does not have the potential of a comedian.

The main reason why we used to choose each other is that the producer of "ghost of terror" is Robert zemigs, who is the director of "back to the future" series, in which there are obvious human factors.

Compared with Fox, ghost of terror needs a real comedian.

Simon thought about the information and asked, "is there a suitable candidate at the moment?"

Peter Jackson nodded and explained: "what I need is a 30-year-old hero with a loser temperament. These days, we have considered Dana Vicat, rob law, Michael fox, Frank Willie and other male stars, and have had some auditions. At present, Dana Vicat's performance is better. "

Dana Vica is the other man in the fight against smart stars series who is juxtaposed with Mike Meyers, but he was suppressed because of Meyers' core creative identity.

Simon recalled Dana Vicat's performance in the fight against smart stars series, shaking his head and saying, "if it's a loser temperament, Vicat really has no problem. However, the protagonist of this play is a small person who depends on his own psychic ability to cheat, so he still needs some bottom-up shrewdness. In this respect, Dana Vicat is too stupid. "

After rejecting Jackson's tendency, Simon didn't discuss it with the other party and thought about it a little bit. He said: "the comic style of" ghost of terror "tends to be black, so the actor's performance can't be too open-minded and needs a kind of introverted and contrast. So, I'll give you two candidates, one is Ben Stiller, the other is Adam Sandler, um Adam seems to be a little bit silly, just Stiller, "so Simon quickly wrote a name on the document in front of him, tore off a corner and handed it to Peter Jackson," I'm not sure about his specific situation now. You contact him yourself. I believe it should meet your needs. "

Peter Jackson took it and said seriously, "I'll do it as soon as possible."

Any director wants to take the lead in his own work, but Peter Jackson has put himself in a proper position. He knows he has no bargaining power with Simon. What's more, the film talent of the young people in front of us is definitely not comparable to that of the high-level studio executives who came from the background of lawyers and accountants. The other side's level of selecting actors must be far higher than that of him, and he is definitely not a layman.

Simon handed the note to Jackson and thought of something. He wrote a line on the document again, tore it off and handed it to Jackson, saying: "in addition, I recommend another movie. It's a Hong Kong movie called" Mr. zombie ". It's the standard style of horror comedy, and it's also the box office champion of Hong Kong film in 1985. I suggest you watch it several times, which can bring a lot of inspiration. By the way, there are also heroines. According to the script, I suggest you find an actress with goddess temperament. "Peter Jackson took two notes in a row and carefully put them in his hand. He was almost overwhelmed. Subconsciously, he asked, "goddess temperament?"

Simon said, "it's one of those things that you can't see at first glance, Cindy Crawford."

"Simon, you mean, let me pick a supermodel?"

"Of course not. The heroine of this story is not a vase. She still needs acting skills. At the same time, she must be amazing and eye-catching. Finally, the heroine and the hero walk together. The counterattack of the loser can bring a sense of satisfaction to the audience."

Peter Jackson is not one of those smug filmmakers. When Simon says that, he suddenly feels like, "well, Simon, what do you think of Miss Nicole Kidman?"

"Nicole is too tall and cold for comedy." Simon said, thinking a little, and said, "MIA Sara, yes, that's it."

Peter Jackson recalled who MIA Sara was. The most famous movie of the actress was called "spring is not a day for reading", which was one of the best-selling movies in 1986. He also saw it in New Zealand that year. Besides, the hero of the film is Matthew Broderick.

Jackson knew something about Simon westero.

Just don't know how to respond, Simon also thought of this point, it's not the grudge with Matthew Broderick, some little star who has completely disappeared in Hollywood is not qualified to let him remember now, but "spring is not a day to read" is a film ten years ago.

Mia Sara in the film was really amazing. Now I don't know what it looks like, because there is no film that Simon can remember after spring is not a day for reading.

After pressing the button on the side of the sofa, girl a pushed the door in. Simon said, "MIA Sara, the heroine of spring is not a day for reading. I want her latest picture."

Girl a nods and turns away.

Simon turned back to Jackson: "let's go on, Peter. I think you should be able to feel the support of Denise for you all these years. I arranged all these things myself."

So it is.

Even though he had guessed for a long time, Peter Jackson got up slightly with a look of surprise and joy and gratitude and said, "thank you, Simon."

Simon beckoned Jackson to sit down again and said, "of course, I have to tell you that you are just one of them. Before you, like Michael Bay, Brett Ratner and others, they all belong to this category, and there are many losers among them. "

"The first reason why I am optimistic about you is that you are very pragmatic, which is very important in Hollywood, because many filmmakers, as literary and artistic creators, are not short of talent, but they are often too lofty and stubborn to cooperate well with Hollywood."

"Film is never a work that can be completed by a single person. If a film maker does not have legal responsibility to coordinate the whole team to complete the project, even if he is talented, he will not be able to show it. Secondly, on the basis of pragmatism, you don't lack talent. Both the original "crazy fat treasure variety show" and the "angel of sin" which won the Venice Silver Lion award have proved this. Therefore, I hope "ghost of terror" can be a start for you to enter Hollywood

Who is Michael Bay?

The box office of the first film "the wonder of the universe" exceeded 100 million yuan, and the box office of "Jurassic Park 2" surpassed that of Spielberg's first song.

Who's Brett Ratner?

Last year, Simon directed the screenplay "this man is from the earth", which won more than 200 million US dollars in North America. Then, Charlie's angel adapted "Charlie's angel" was also popular.

As for others, Peter Jackson can think of many names.

All the filmmakers in Hollywood, including himself, probably want to be one of them.

Peter Jackson didn't know what to say for a moment, and he couldn't help getting up. He just remembered Simon's sign and fell back on the sofa. He leaned forward and said, "Simon, I promise, I'll try my best to finish the ghost of terror."

Simon nodded with satisfaction: "well, now that the comic style of ghost of terror has been confirmed, my last reminder is that you need to change your cult style accumulated from early films such as" strange man of the universe "and" crazy fat treasure variety show "as much as possible. OK, that's it. Let's talk about your idea of shooting the Lord of the rings series, First, why do you want to make this movie? "

Peter Jackson realized from today's invitation that this was the beginning of the conversation. He sorted out his thoughts and said, "Simon, I didn't get to know Thor King's work until I was 17 years old. It was Ralph Bachi's animated version in 1978. Because the Tolkien series is very famous, everyone went to watch it, and I went to the cinema with it, and I was very disappointed. ""Soon after, I traveled from Wellington to Auckland. Because I had to take a long-distance train, I bought a novel of the Lord of the rings. That trip completely changed my idea. On the way, I read the magnificent epic paintings written by Tolkien, and enjoyed the scenery along the way, including the snow covered mountains, the boundless grassland, and the mountains and cliffs At a certain moment, I feel that my hometown should be the Middle Earth world described by Tolkien. If possible, one day, I will depict those stories on the land of New Zealand. "