Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Chapter 445 Three more treasures?

"Halle Berry?"

Hearing what Kevin Fitch said, Roland immediately understood that the uneasiness in this bald man's heart was actually exactly the same as the show operation in Time Warner's mind, because what they were thinking now was not actually the movie itself, but the ability to Supporting the establishment of a movie project, or in other words, it is a gimmick that can make the movie better marketed and sell a higher box office.

And what kind of marketing gimmick does Halle Berry have?

That's not—

"Female? Black?"

When Roland pronounced these two words freshly, Kevin Feige, who was opposite to him, also nodded.

Affirmed the boss's words without concealment, not only that, but also repeated in his mouth, "Yeah~female~black~"

Accompanied by the ease shown, it is as if the knot of ten thousand years has finally been untied.

But for Roland...

He could only sigh silently.

Feeling that the pit that should come will come after all.

Yes.

In fact, Time Warner is not the only guy who delve into the issue of female superhero movies, or in other words, before using Iron Man to create the Marvel movie universe, Kevin Fitch suffered a lot. loss.

It's just that the tuition fees above are all paid for him by others.

In Roland's previous life, at the end of the 1990s, this guy had submitted a mutant universe plan to Fox. Although the plan was eventually rejected by Fox's top management, Kevin Fitch's power remained undiminished.

He has already officially joined Marvel, and he has won the co-producer of major comic films by virtue of the film and television project guidance clauses in the 20-year copyright sales contract signed by Ronald Perelman and various film companies. A post, and during the filming of "X-Men", the funny Easter egg of X-Men vs. Spider-Man was created.

Although these eggs were all deleted by Sony because of the subsequent warning of the lawsuit, this will not hinder his determination to expand the lineup of Marvel movies, regardless of whether it is Sony's "Spider-Man" or Universal's "Hulk Hulk". Gram, or Fox's "Super Daredevil", he has participated in these projects.

Among them, the most telling one is "Daredevil".

Many people said that the reason why "Daredevil" was approved by Fox was because "Spider-Man" had a box office of more than 800 million. Therefore, the film company that holds the copyright of Marvel movies is ready to move.

First of all, Universal called Ang Lee, who has succeeded twice in a row with a small blog, and made a "Hulk";

Then Fox wanted to continue developing "Daredevil" while owning "X-Men".

But really, neither movie has anything to do with Spider-Man.

Their projects are actually based on the success of "X-Men".

Because when they got into filming, the Spider-Man movie wasn’t out yet.

And it is precisely because the key to their project approval is the success of the mediocre "X-Men", so there is no good experience to refer to when preparing these two films.

In the eyes of Universal and Fox at the time, superhero movies were commercial films with special effects.

In other words, they believe that adding special effects and comic characters on the basis of commercial films is a superhero movie.

So, driven by this idea, how to make a movie is just random.

Universal directly delegated the power to AngLee. They thought that AngLee knew business, and then they could just learn special effects; while Fox wanted to replicate the success of "X-Men". They thought that business + special effects + group drama would be a big hit.

As everyone knows, the results of the two movies hit the street.

But it doesn't matter if it hits the street, because as the movie hits the street, the experience when superhero movies are made, that also comes.

Through the failure of "The Incredible Hulk", Kevin Feige knew that superhero movies cannot be made very dull, and through "Super Daredevil", Kevin Feige also knew that superhero movies are not You can succeed by relying on group play.

In addition, it was the time when "Spider-Man" became popular, and compared the successful typical "Spider-Man" and "X-Men" with the failed typical "Hulk Hulk" and "Super Daredevil", Kevin - Fitch discovered again that the success of superhero movies is absolutely indispensable with the help of gimmicks, like "Spider-Man", the popularity brought by Marvel's first brother is the biggest gimmick, and "X-Men", and Hugh Jackman, the perfect fit for the role of Wolverine, is at the heart of that success.

As a result, thinking about what kind of gimmicks can be incorporated into superhero movies has become something Kevin Fitch wants to experiment with. After the Oscars in 2002, he found that Halle Berry actually won the best actress. The actor Kevin Fitch set his sights on the Storm played by her again, because he felt that the element of women might be a breakthrough in superhero movies.

And the identity of being a black man may be able to win over the growing African-American population in the United States.

As long as Halle Berry is promoted as the light of black people, then there is no need to worry about her clan not entering the arena.

As long as her people enter the arena, they will be able to achieve a breakthrough in the box office just like "Blade Warrior".

But unfortunately, the Storm movie is really hard to edit.

Just when he was racking his brains to think about how to set the plot for Storm, and how to coax Fox, who had rejected him before, to cast her movie, since the 1970s, he wanted to be in the female superhero movie. Time Warner, who made a fuss about the category, suddenly broke out, and "Catwoman", which invested 100 million US dollars, snatched away Halle Berry.

Since Fox in this period did not directly sign long-term contracts with actors like Marvel in later generations, even though he still had a contract for "X-Men 2", Halle Berry still accepted the other party's invitation and moved to DC.

However, this can't be her fault.

After all, the investment of 100 million yuan in a superhero solo movie is not what Fox can have.

You know, the total investment of "X-Men 2", which is a group play, is only 110 million.

When this happened, Kevin Fitch, who found that Time Warner and his own ideas were highly consistent, couldn't sit still.

When Storm was unavailable, he directly focused on Erica, who had appeared in "Super Daredevil", and said that DC is creating a female superhero movie, and Marvel can't lag behind. From the beginning, I wanted to persuade Avi Allard, the boss of Marvel Entertainment at the time, to let him come forward and connect with Fox.

And what Avi Arad thinks...

Well, in fact, Avi Arad doesn't care what kind of superhero Fox makes.

Because in the contract agreement between Ronald Perelman and various film and television companies, as long as Marvel’s characters are put on the screen, they can directly get a commission from the box office.

So, for him, the more movies made by various film companies, the bigger the cake that can be divided.

The bigger the cake, the bigger their interests.

So, Avi Allard came forward and encouraged Fox to set up a project on the grounds that Erica's actress Jennifer Garner was also famous, and that she had a hot fight with Ben Alfred and had gimmicks.

The result after that...

Everyone knows it too.

"Catwoman" is a rush-produced work, that's a big deal.

"Eleka", a crudely produced movie due to insufficient investment, is even more dead.

But even so, Hollywood still hasn't stopped its exploration of female superhero movies.

Paramount invested 65 million in Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron, and made a "Wonder Woman" with a box office of only 52.3 million. Sony was even more ruthless. "The heroine Milla Jovovich spent 30 million on her body, and gained a "Deadly Violet" with a box office of only 31 million.

When Warner finished Fox, Fox finished Paramount, and Paramount finished Sony, the phenomenon of human-to-human transmission appeared, and the female superhero movie was completely stopped by them.

And this kind of behavior of not believing in evil and rolling to death also made Kevin Feige realize that female superhero movies are really difficult to shoot; although a large part of the reasons for the failure of these works are due to It comes down to the creation itself, but when the creative field is blank and there is no template to learn from, letting others do it first is the way for a company to survive.

After all, the meaning of the company's existence is to make money.

Want to make them socially responsible?

Jack Ma will tell you—

"nonexistent!"

Of course, this is rationality after suffering.

And before you suffer, everyone wants to try.

Especially now, when Warcraft Films and Time Warner have signed an outsourcing agreement for superhero movies, and Time Warner can only pass Roland to make DC superhero movies before the deadline, Kevin Fitch The entanglement with Storm is extraordinarily deep. Even though Charlize Theron's Phoenix Girl has been vacated by him, he still wants to make a Storm on this basis.

no way…

Who let Halle Berry win the Oscar first?

Not only that, but she's black.

Although according to the normal relationship between superiors and subordinates, Roland could directly reject Kevin Fitch's idea and let the wage earner obediently follow the path he had studied in his previous life, but after thinking it over and over again, he felt that he could not do so.

As a producer who is willing to let go of his figure and always remember his status as a fan, Roland actually wanted to directly mention it to Warcraft after he pulled out the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because he has the Pirate Universe and World of Warcraft in his hand. , It's all empty ideas and no one. In this case, letting Kevin Fitch integrate into it is the best decision.

Because in this world, there are only three producers who can make him feel at ease.

Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Kevin Feige.

And all three have one thing in common.

'Go to the depth of special code! I make commercial movies just to make money! '

Driven by this thought, Roland, who had pondered for a while, shook his legs and asked, "Then how do you want to cut in?"

Such words made Kevin Fitch, who had been waiting for a long time, smile, and he said impatiently after he was ready: "I am going to make a move on Cyclops being controlled by William Stryker.

As I just said, William Stryker controlled Cyclops, causing the X-Men to enter his research base and was attacked by his own people. The Phoenix girl did not want to hurt him, so she was injured by him, and the Storm girl borrowed When Cyclops was dealing with Phoenix Girl, he took the opportunity to freeze him, which allowed the group to enter the base.

After the battle, Phoenix Girl was killed by Magneto in order to save the professor. Cyclops, who witnessed this scene, went berserk and wanted to seek revenge from Magneto. During this process, he was extremely angry and his mind was unconscious. He only blames others.

Therefore, I made up the plot of him yelling and questioning Professor X. At the same time, before Cyclops yelled at Professor X, he actually had a heartbroken process to film.

In this process, we can insert the plot of him chasing the storm girl, that is to say, he angrily asked the injured storm girl why she didn't freeze him first when confronting him, so that, He would not injure Phoenix Girl, and the uninjured Phoenix Girl would have a certain chance of surviving from Magneto.

This is a progressive logical process, because from the perspective of Cyclops, Professor X is actually a victim, or in other words, everyone is a victim, but even so, someone still has to be responsible for the whole thing .

He who can't control himself is not the first responsible person, and Professor X who has been leading them will not be the first responsible person. Therefore, Storm, who was able to control but did not take action at the time, was the 'culprit' who caused Phoenix Girl's death …

After being yelled at by him, Storm, who was also injured, felt aggrieved.

But being sober, she did not argue with Cyclops, but chose to leave in anger.

In this way, Cyclops, who lost his target, also knew that he yelled at the wrong person.

But when his girlfriend was dead, he was unwilling to bow his head and wanted to vent his anger.

Thus brought out that he asked Professor X about the information about Magneto.

The solo movie of Storm can also be born with her departure. "

'Hold the grass! '

Roland just wanted to scold her.

Roland has completely figured out the idea of ​​Kevin Fitch's bald head.

This guy obviously wants to take advantage of Jean Gray's death to split the entire X-Men!

This plot, isn’t it a flashback of the Avengers!

Avengers is to make a superhero's personal movie first, and then gather them together through the appearance of one boss after another, while the X-Men is that they are already united, and then through the destruction of one boss after another, they lead to internal conflicts. Contradictions, and thus schisms, lead to individual series for each superhero.

Although all of this was discussed by Roland and Kevin Fitch, but Roland, who didn't think there was any problem at the time, looked at these things now, and always felt that a bunch of single-player series would be shot if one person died. The way is a bit long-winded!

After all, when the audience has seen your superhero assembly and knows what those superheroes look like when they fight the boss, their psychology already has a detailed positioning of these heroes.

In this case, there is no need for a solo movie for a hero who is not a super popular character and does not advance the plot.

Just like Roland's previous life, Hawkeye.

The plot of the reunion does not rely on him to promote it, so what is the point of filming it?

If you encounter something that needs to push the plot, such as Ant-Man.

When the Quantum Realm where he is staying is the key to destroying Purple Sweet Potato Essence, then this movie has to be shot no matter what.

Now, Wolverine's solo movie belongs to the former, and the solo movies of Magneto and Phoenix belong to the latter.

As for Storm?

The first impression in Roland's mind was to cheat money.

Because she is not a super popular character, and her solo movie seems to be unable to advance the plot.

If you have to describe it, the entry of the single-player Storm Girl movie feels like "New Mutants" to Roland.

Tasteless to eat, discarded...

It's not a pity either.

After telling Kevin Feige his judgment, he understood the crux of the problem and did not deny it.

"Yes, this is actually where I struggle the most.

We could do a solo Storm movie, but she's not a big hit and doesn't contribute to the main storyline.

If we really want to portray her solo movie, our entry point can only be the dissatisfaction with Storm Girl's attitude towards Cyclops, because her mother is a Kenyan tribal princess, and she is a descendant of African witches. , was once worshiped as a goddess by the locals, and she hated Cyclops' questioning attitude as a goddess.

While she was recalling her youthful experience, the villain she was fighting against was the Lord of Shadow in Egypt. The core of the whole movie was that she had helped Professor X defeat him.

This kind of plot seems a little obvious to me, but...

What really moved my heart was her deeds when she was a child. "

When Kevin Feige narrated the plot of the single-player Storm Girl movie he thought about, the idea of ​​"cutting it off" popped up in Roland's mind, because before the IP became bigger, this similar Films filled with water cannot exist.

In the early stage of IP, word-of-mouth is what you do. If you try to make money from the beginning, it’s over...

Feelings can't be cultivated at all.

But when Kevin Fitch admitted that these plots were indeed a bit boring, but after he was very moved by something, Roland's ears perked up again, because he knew that whenever Kevin Fitch said that, That means that Storm's movie can lead to other popular superheroes, so he asked, "Deeds? What is it?"

"It's the Black Panther." Kevin Fitch shrugged and said, "The Black Panther is Storm's boyfriend.

Because he was saved by Storm!

If Black Panther is drawn, then the Fantastic Four can be filmed.

Such a well-known combination is not used there, it is really a waste! "

Okay!

When Kevin Feige said that his real purpose was to lure the Black Panther and the Fantastic Four through Storm, Roland, who was still pondering whether Storm had a head shot, was relieved.

because…

This is really no shot!

Although the box office of "Black Panther" is very scary, and its influence in North America is also very exaggerated, all of this is actually based on the fact that Comrade Guan Hai became the president and the Marvel Universe was officially established.

Before this, making a movie that boasted about black people could make a lot of money?

Do not make jokes!

The box office of "Blade Warrior" is not as good as that of "Spider-Man"!

Not even "X-Men", that can't compare!

In this case, even if Storm’s movie can lead to the Black Panther, it’s meaningless to shoot. As for the Fantastic Four being derived from the Black Panther, this kind of operation is even more unfeasible.

Not to mention whether this kind of joint relationship can make Roland's **** "Fantastic Four" shine in his previous life, the Human Torch of this year alone can make Roland kill this movie.

If Kevin Feige chooses Chris Evans to play the Human Torch, what about American **** Steve Rogers?

Re-substitution?

Unrealistic!

Because the basis for building the X-Men is to ensure that the Avengers will not be damaged!

To put it bluntly, what Roland needs now is that the X-Men and the Avengers are related, but they can be separated at any time!

is related, which means that the characters in the X-Men can be used to draw out the superheroes in the Avengers...

Splitting at any time means that even if the X-Men filming is ruined, they can directly cut off the relationship between the X-Men and the Avengers, let the Avengers project stand alone, and then continue filming step by step...

To put it bluntly, what Roland is doing now is a dream of making a lot of money, no success and no loss!

In this case, pointing to the super strong Storm?

Then we can only let it go first!

Note: ① "Catwoman" chose Halle Berry because she won an Oscar. Before she won the Oscar, Time Warner had already established a project, and chose Ashley Judd to play Catwoman, but when the two parties were about to sign the contract, Halle Berry won the award, and then Time Warner rushed Substitution. The reason why the filming was delayed until the fall of 2003 was because when the contract was signed, Halle Berry was running back and forth between the two sets of "007" and "X-Men 2". Yes, she filmed these two plays together. ② "Erica" ​​was indeed an experimental film promoted by Kevin Fitch, and Jennifer Garner was not low at the time. Of course, there are actually only two sources of her popularity. One is that the drama "Double Agent" starring her is indeed popular, and the second is that she snatched Ben Affleck from Jennifer Lopez. In 2003, the matter of robbing someone a few hours before the wedding became very popular. ③Cyclops is a **** in the comics. The reason why he is said to be neurotic is because he has no clear ideas. He advocated cooperation with humans and eliminated those mutants who were against humans, causing Wolverine and Beast to turn against him, and the X-Men split. He is a guy who never finds problems in himself, so the plot of blaming others is actually something in the comics. ④The marriage of Black Panther and Storm was in 2006. Before that, no comics were released.