Hollywood Hunter

Santa Monica.

In a screening room at Daenerys Entertainment Headquarters, when another "Batman" sample was over on the screen, the assistant stepped forward to remind him in a low voice that Terry Semel realized that it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.

Recalling the experience of watching movies for more than three hours before, Semel's heart was filled with a strong shock.

Today is Friday, May 5th.

Simon's accidental coma in February, Semel flew to Australia as a representative of Warner to visit. Because of the special circumstances at the time, he did not have time to watch the footage of "Batman". This is the first time I saw a sample today.

Because the post-editing work of "Batman" was synchronized with the shooting, it took only one week after Simon returned to Los Angeles to roughly complete the first six and a half hours of rough cut samples of the film.

Terry Semmel arrived in the afternoon, originally only planning to spend an hour browsing through the sample effects, but in the end he spent a whole afternoon in this screening room, even when Simon, who was with him to watch the sample at first, left. Not aware of it.

Although it's time for get off work, Terry Semel still has the urge to watch all the remaining three hours of samples.

The movie can still be shot like this? !

This is a thought that Semel repeated countless times while watching the sample.

During the preparatory stage of "Batman", Semel expressed concern when he heard that Simon would use live shooting as much as possible.

Real-time shooting can indeed increase the audience's sense of substitution, but at the same time it is also easy to make the whole film mediocre. Because in essence, "Batman" should be a sci-fi movie, and soft sci-fi, this type of film should pursue a sense of surrealism.

Too close to reality, and the creators failed to fill the film with rich and exciting superhero elements. As a result, it is easy for the audience to have a psychological gap of "this is not the superhero world in their imagination".

Once so, the film is doomed to fail.

Therefore, in the many fruitless preparations of Warner in these years, directors who intend to take over the "Batman" project are basically inclined to shoot on the scene, creating a city of Gotham in the studio.

Now, Terry Semel has completely lost his original worries.

It's just that most of the sample shots have not been carefully graded, and they have shown the amazing lens level that is no less than the original "Lola Run", let Terry Semmel confirm this. Simon's "Run Lola Run" has become a teaching sample for many film academies, but in Semel's view, many shots in the "Batman" samples even exceed the level of "Run Lola".

Through the exquisite use of lighting, color, composition and other elements, Simon took a lens based on realistic urban street scenes like a piece of oil painting carefully drawn by the top painter. Some of the pictures are even enough to print out and hang on the wall as art. Product.

Moreover, the overall preference for a cold and dark tone style is enough to visually give the audience a surrealistic psychological hint, which makes people feel that this is not only the city in which you are located, but also the city of Gotham in the comics.

Of course, if it is just the stunning style of the lens, it will not make Semel feel shocked.

Although the young man's control over the technical details of the film has reached the Oscar level, it is not impossible for other films to imitate, as long as they are willing to spend money to invite a group of master-level behind-the-scenes teams.

What really shocked Semel was the content, especially the action scenes in the sample.

Hollywood traditional action movies, the more high-end is Bruce Lee's kung fu, Shange Yunton and other profound action stars on the screen performance is also notable, but most of them are you and me. Ordinary fists that lack beauty. Because of the lack of bright spots, the most popular in Hollywood in recent years is the gunfight action movie of Stallone and others. The **** muscular man carries a machine gun and ignores the enemy's bullet rain.

Terry Semel actually watched some oriental Kung Fu movies, but he also felt that the motion design of those movies was too complicated and lacked practicality.

Simon's action design in "Batman" made Semel feel strongly that he seems to have seen the future of Hollywood action movies.

Fighting, there are no old-fashioned street drunks fighting, Batman's punchy but not simple sense of fierce strength makes people excited, and the lightness and fierceness of Catwoman and the ultimate show of female body superiority are also bloody.

Chasing a car, there is no unreasonable impact and explosion, but the car that smashes and rolls against the big screen is more shocking than directly blowing up a bunch of cars.

The gunfight, without the mindless rush of bullet rain, the thrilling duel between the death shooter and Batman, in the slow motion, the oppressive feeling of the cg synthetic bullet roaring made Semel couldn't help holding his breath. It turns out that a bullet can also become the protagonist of the camera at a certain moment.

In addition to these mainstream action scenes, Batman's wingsuit flying, the use of bat darts and other props, and Catwoman's use of gymnastics skills to leap between city rooftops, etc., in Semel's view, are enough to become a future Hollywood commercial film. Textbook.

Terry Semel can’t wait to see the final film of the film. Simon has achieved perfection in these details. As the best screenwriter in Hollywood, Semel does not think that the film will be more These details are inferior.

Even Semel has a faint feeling in his heart that this superhero action movie full of groundbreaking will also achieve a groundbreaking box office number.

However, this feeling is not good.

Remembering that DC had sold both Batman and Wonder Woman to Daenerys Entertainment, and Warner did not object to the transfer of Superman's copyright at the time, Semel felt a strong regret. He now firmly believes that Warner must have made a series of irreparable mistakes on the copyright of these three superheroes.

After all, although there are time limits on those licensing contracts, in fact, if the interests involved are too great, the copyright holder cannot let it go anyway.

Just like the original "Superman" copyright, although "Superman 4" failed at the box office, as far as Semel knows, Simon bought the "Superman" copyright with only five years left from the Salkind family, and it still cost A huge amount of US$6 million.

Moreover, although the contract signed by dc and British producer Alexander Salkind will expire in 1992. However, according to the automatic renewal clause in the agreement, as long as the copyright of "Superman" is not shelved for a long time, after 1992, if Salkind intends to make a sequel, the authorization period will be automatically extended.

Now, the power of these terms is in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment.

Obviously, as long as Daenerys Entertainment refuses to let go, Warner will not be able to get back the film and television copyrights of "Superman" in any way, as is the copyright of "Batman" and "Wonder Woman".

What a mistake.

Sitting in the screening room for a few minutes, Semel stood up and walked to the door, and asked the assistant beside him, "Is Simon still in the company?"

The assistant followed Semel to the outside and replied: "Mr. Westeros left the company at three o'clock to go to the film crew of "Pretty Beautiful Lady".

Terry Semel was a little puzzled: ""Pretty Girl in Wind and Moon"?"

The assistant explained: "Daenerys Entertainment just started filming a project this week, a romance film. Some time ago, the male protagonist of the film was very competitive, Harrison Ford, Richard Gere, Alec Baldwin, Daniel Actors such as Day Lewis have tried to win the script, but the role ultimately fell on a second-tier British actor, who is said to be decided by Westeros himself, named Pierce Brosnan. The heroine is "Steel Julia Roberts in "The Magnolia", this seems to have been predetermined very early."

As Steve Rose's right-hand man, Terry Semel has been busy participating in the merger negotiations between Time and Warner Bros. in recent months, ignoring a lot of news from Hollywood.

Recalling that, failing to find out Pierce Brosnan’s information, Semel asked his assistant to sort out the other party’s resume for himself. He was also a little surprised. Unexpectedly, Harrison Ford started fighting for Daenerys Entertainment’s project. , And have not been able to negotiate.

Think about it but feel relieved.

The two series of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones", which started in the late 1970s, allowed Harrison Ford to maintain the status of few super first-line male stars in Hollywood.

However, the release of "Indiana Jones 3" at the end of the month also means that Harrison Ford's two aces will fall into a long period of silence. In recent years, Ford's films outside of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" have not been outstanding at the box office. If you want to continue to maintain your position after the two major series are dormant, you must actively pursue some items that are easy to sell.

Terry Semel left the screening room with his assistant. Simon did not return from the "Pretty Girl" crew, but asked the staff to hand over an invitation letter for the cocktail party tonight.

Back in Los Angeles, Simon only repaired briefly for a weekend before starting to work again.

The first thing to deal with is "Bodyguard" and "Sixth Sense of Supernatural".

The later stages of the two films have been basically completed, and Simon did not completely let go of his attention to these two projects when he was in Melbourne, and the final film effect reached Simon's expectations. This week, Simon personally adjusted some details of the two films, and the company will officially send it to mpaa for rating next week.

The first TV trailer of "Bodyguard" starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston has officially aired. The schedule is June 2 and the number of screens will be 2021.

The Sixth Sense of Supernatural, which is scheduled to be released on June 30, has already begun to put out promotional materials, but the final stage of the publicity strategy has not yet been finalized.

Simon required strict confidentiality of the plot of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural" during the film production stage.

Up to now, in addition to several core creators of the crew, many supporting actors do not even know the complete plot of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural". However, after the "Sixth Sense of Supernatural" was completed, senior executives such as Amy and Rem generally felt that, except for the final plot reversal, the film as a whole looked very ordinary and basically had no bright spots.

If it weren't for the film's screenwriter to sign Simon himself, and Robert De Niro, the company would have no other choice. Amy would even propose to Simon to adjust the schedule of "The Sixth Sense of Supernatural".

According to Amy, John Hughes's "Uncle Buck" sample effect is good, but the film has to be completed in mid-June. Therefore, the company had to arrange the schedule on the end of the summer file like August 11.

In addition, John Hughes’ second film this year, "Crazy Christmas Holiday", is also in the shooting stage. The filming of this film started after the completion of "Uncle Buck", produced by Warner Bros., and it is planned to be released on Christmas files.

Simon originally collaborated with John Hughes on "Uncle Buck" for the purpose of "Home Alone", for which he also retained a priority agreement for Hughes's script.

The script of "Crazy Christmas Holiday" was first sent to Daenerys Entertainment, and Simon naturally chose to give up.

However, the latter half of "Uncle Buck" is already over half of the time. The script of "Home Alone" inspired by "Uncle Buck" by John Hughes in the original time and space has no shadow, and Macaulay Culkin does not appear in "Buck". In "Uncle".

Simon plans to wait until the end of the year. If John Hughes still hasn't come up with the script of "Home Alone", he will have to ‘reluctantly’ himself.

In the afternoon, I watched a sample film with Semel at the company headquarters for a while, and Simon rushed to the crew of "Pretty Girl in Wind and Moon" and stayed until the end of get off work before leaving.

Except for the actor who did not use Richard Gere, "Pretty Girls" is basically the original crew.

The reason for abandoning Richard Gere is similar to Simon’s previous ignorance of Sharon Stone in "Instinct". As for Pierce Brosnan, although the deepest impression he left on the audience in the original time and space is James Bond, But Brosnan's tall and handsome appearance and the style of a British gentleman completely fit the role of Edward Lewis, a handsome Wall Street businessman.

The evening cocktail party was held in the mansion in Palisades.

After leaving North America for a few months, it is necessary to reconnect with everyone.

This kind of thing should have been prepared by Janet. Janet was in Australia, and Simon wanted to hand it over to Catherine.

However, Catherine has helped Simon oversee the construction of the Dome’s Pointe Manor in recent months. The woman who fainted and flew to Melbourne for the first time. In addition to all the past, this kind of open closeness even the gossip tabloids are too lazy to tease. , Catherine, a thin-skinned man, kept stealing her ears.

Simon returned to Los Angeles. Catherine, who had originally stayed in Janet’s villa on the east side of Dome Point, flew to New York on the grounds of preparing for her next movie. This time she obviously did not intend to cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment. The appearance of a clear boundary.

Finally, the preparations for the reception were handed over to Jennifer.

The female assistants were also not shameless, and treated the matter as official business seriously, and even the guest list was drawn up with Amy's assistant Vanessa. So the originally scheduled small-scale cocktail party has completely turned into a lively business cocktail party.