It is not easy to save the Batman movie. The terrible experience that Joe Schumacher brought to "Batman and Robin" is still in the hearts of many viewers. These are bound to affect their confidence in the series, and thus When the new Batman movie is released, choose to wait and see or even give up.
To cast the glory of a series of films, many people need to pay too much, but to ruin a successful series, only need to make a bad film is enough.
If Joe Schumacher's "Batman Forever" is considered a successful commercial work, starting with "Batman and Robin", including "Sniper Phone Booth", his subsequent works have performed extremely poorly in the market.
Strictly speaking, at the beginning of Duke's new series, in addition to explaining the origin of Batman, the most important thing is to clean up the mess left by Joe Schumacher.
Duke drove the battery car and walked on the road of the Warner Studios. When passing the exit on the back of the Warner Building, Duke stepped on the brakes. After waiting for about five minutes, there was a sound of dense high-heeled shoes landing and Tina Fei walked from the building. I got out, got on the battery car, and leaned heavily on the seat.
Starting the car, Duke drove toward the studio and asked, "How is the talk."
Tina Fei took a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed it, took a sip, and said, "Warner agrees to your $140 million budget, and Nancy has also negotiated your personal treatment. Ten thousand US dollars of basic salary plus a stepped 20% capped box office share, and a 7.5% peripheral revenue share."
This is already the top directing contract in Hollywood, and Duke has no objection. Asked the other side, "What about acquisition negotiations?"
"The difference between Warner Bros. and us is the price. Doug Walter agrees to our terms in principle. But..." Tina Fei shrugged, "Time Warner Group has concerns about our supplementary terms for Pixar Studios."
"Then talk about it." Duke wasn't worried at all.
"Warner also asked about the release date of the new Batman." Tina Fei said again, "They want to know the approximate time of your completion."
Duke thought for a moment, "If everything goes well, we should be able to catch up with next year's summer vacation."
The battery car drove through a flat open-air studio, stopped in front of Studio No. 17, and Duke jumped out of the car. Entered the studio with Tina Fei and walked to the temporary office area on the left.
This is the resident of "Underworld", which was officially approved last weekend. There are a lot of people coming and going in the studio, obviously it is the signature staff and selection of actors.
"Hello, Director Rosenberg."
Suddenly, a tall woman who came on said hello to Duke. Duke nodded to her. "Hello, Miss Beckinsale."
Duke just said hello, and didn't mean to say more. After the collaboration at the end of the century, the two had long been strangers.
In the report submitted by Wallace Lee, Kate Beckinsale was the first candidate for the heroine.
This British actress has experienced quite anxious experiences in recent years, which can be described as ups and downs. Acting as the heroine of the two super masterpieces "Pearl Harbor" and "Van Helsing" released at the end of last year, but the response was mediocre. Even dragged down by the film, it plummeted in Michael Ovitz's eyes.
She once fired Nancy Josephson, but in the first few months, she chose to return to ICM.
In such an important role as the heroine, the director Wallace Lee did not have a say. He proposed Kate Beckinsale. Duke thought of the former female vampire and did not object.
Duke went directly to the director's office. It was empty. Wallace Lee was auditioning, and it took half an hour to return.
"Hi, Duke. Hi, Tina."
After he greeted him, Duke asked directly, "How is the work going?"
"It's going well." Wallace Lee said very seriously, "With the full support of you and Warner, the recruiting staff are basically experienced people, especially firearms and action directors, from Jos Williams and Members of Jimmy Carter’s team, they can help me solve a lot of difficulties. After determining the candidates, they will take on the job of training the actors."
Having said that, he asked concerned, "Duke, do you think Kate Beckinsale is okay?"
Duke did not answer immediately, but looked at him.
Wallace Lee scratched his head and said, "I have a good impression of her, but I promise that I did not do anything beyond the boundary with her..."
Raising his hand, Duke interrupted him, "Lee, you know my principles, Kate Beckinsale can be the heroine of the film. But if you mess up this film, I will send you Go into the San Fernando Valley to direct a movie."
"I promise!" Wallace Lee said very solemnly, "Duke, I know the importance of opportunity and I will never make fun of work."
Duke nodded, asked a few more questions about the specific progress of the film preparation, and left soon.
But he did not leave the Warner Studios, and walked into the depths of the studio with Tina Fei. Another crew related to him was set up earlier and has already started actor training.
The two did not enter the studio, and went directly to a specially set up fitness room nearby. As expected, Zach Schneider was here.
Of course, what is more attractive here than Zach Schneider is the nearly forty strong men sweating like rain. Under the guidance of professional trainers, they are exercising muscles. Among them, the leader Gerald Butler has a protruding body. His muscles look as hard as rocks.
He saw Duke coming in and smiled here, and Duke waved at him in response.
"I originally put Michael Fassbender on Bruce Wayne's shortlist."
Walking to Zach Schneider, Duke looked at a Germanic face among the actors and said, "Unexpectedly, you were dragged here."
"This shows that I am more attractive than you." Zach Schneider laughed.
In fact, Michael Fassbender’s mentality is not difficult to understand. Compared with the supporting actor in this film, his hope of competing to Bruce Wayne is really slim.
And in Duke's mind, he is just a spare tire, a spare tire that is located very back.
"The natural shape of human muscles cannot be given by cg animation."
Looking at the actors in training, Zach Schneider turned to the movie, "Their muscles must meet the requirements of the movie, otherwise they can only be eliminated."
Duke nodded. Muscle is one of the selling points of this film.
Especially for female audiences, the muscles of the red pants will play an important role in attracting them to the theater.
This is North America, and beautiful men with flowers have never been popular. Even vases like Orlando Bloom have a strong body.
As for handsome men, they are synonymous with women and comrades in North America.
Hollywood stars, unless there is something wrong with their heads, they will turn themselves into beautiful boys.
In fact, if you look at the first-line and second-line actors in Hollywood, it is not difficult to find that they are decadent, funny, exaggerated, and even arrogant, but they won't make themselves a nymph.
"Duke, I'm not going to go out on location." Zach Schneider continued, "I'm going to use green screen shooting entirely..."
Unlike Wallace Lee, Duke and Zach Schneider have worked together for more than ten years. They know his abilities and style very well, and said directly, "Without exceeding the budget and not violating the principles of commercial films, you can enjoy Play."
No director wants to fail his movie.
The former Zach Schneider did a very good job, and now this enhanced version of Zach Schneider has had full exchanges with him before. The style of the film he conceived is similar to the three hundred red pants in Duke’s impression. There is not much difference.
Although Duke has the title of producer for these two films, he is more assured of Zach Schneider, even if the investment in "Spartan Three Hundred Warriors" is 75 million US dollars, while "Underworld" only has 30 million. Dollar.
Of course, compared to "Batman" that Duke will prepare next, these two films can only be regarded as small and medium productions.
With the funds allocated by Warner Bros. successively in place, the new "Batman" series has reached the stage where the project will be officially announced. Members of the Duke team have also rushed back to Los Angeles from resorts around the world. Hannah? Serena, John Schwarzman, Charles Rowan, Anna Prinz and others quickly arrived, and Josh William, who had been away from him for a while, also officially returned.
"In essence, the new Batman trilogy still belongs to the category of science fiction films."
At the preparatory meeting after the team members were assembled, Duke said, "But this is obviously different from the traditional Batman. I want to give him a more realistic style. The script, characters, props, and action fights are all necessary. It fits this style."
He doesn't need to say the dark style of the film at all, except for Joe Schumacher's nondescript, several Batman movies are basically dark.
"In my film, Bruce Wayne is no longer a god, he is just a person." Duke continued to emphasize, "He has sex, sadness, feelings, and also gets lost. After losing, he needs to look for it again. Back to self."
"Batman movies need salvation, and Bruce Wayne himself needs salvation!"
Ignoring other factors of the film's success and pulling Bruce Wayne off the altar is undoubtedly a reason for the film's popularity.
The protagonists of dc comics often have a high level of completeness. Such heroes are too isolated from the public and do not have the character of ordinary people. The failure of Superman to restart is the best example.
In contrast, dc is more brilliant but the villains, such as clowns and double-faced people.
The restart of the Batman series is a big event for Warner Bros. Of course, Warner will prepare a grand press conference. (To be continued...)