Chapter 1731: 1731

Hugo put all the three scripts in his hand aside. Rick was stunned for a while, and then he burst out laughing, "Lang is going to be sad now." Hugo raised his head and cast his eyes at Rick in confusion. , Rick had to explain, "These scripts just now are from Universal Pictures."

Hugo suddenly realized and shrugged, "I don't know, but why is Universal's script like this, I can't see the direction at all. It has nothing to do with personal grievances, but it is really a daunting challenge for the director to make such a work well."

Rick smiled a little more fortunately. On the surface, Ron Mayer is now the CEO of Universal Pictures, and he has a great reputation, but only Lang knows the hard work. Now Lang does not have a clear direction for Universal Pictures' plans. He wants to invest in high-cost works, but the board of directors always disagrees. After all, Universal Pictures started out by doing comedy; now, Lang hopes to invest in Hugo, Tom - Top actors such as Cruise and Brad Pitt are looking for a breakthrough, but the limited strength of the project itself makes him constrained.

The future direction of Universal Pictures is worrying, and of course, luckily, that's not the part that Rick needs to worry about. Thinking of Lang's friendship in recent months, Rick inevitably feels that in this circle where interests are paramount, human relationships are always cold and ruthless.

"However, these are just my own speculations, not the books handed over by Universal, so the specific situation is still dominated by Lang." Rick added.

Having said that, Hugo knew that Rick's preparations were definitely in place, and there would be no surprises under normal circumstances. While speaking, Hugo picked up the script in his hand, frowned and showed Rick with a dumbfounded expression, "You must be joking with me!"

Rick leaned over to take a look, and he couldn't hide the surging smile in his eyes, "No, I'm not joking." Rick sorted out his expression and explained seriously, "Twentieth Century Fox and Paramount Now they are all in a predicament, especially Kevin. The budget of 'Titanic' has been overrun, and the production schedule has been seriously delayed. This has been filmed on and off for nearly eight months, but it is still not finished. Strictly block the news, there are no rumors in the circle, but I took a look at the projects they are preparing recently..." Rick paused and shook his head, "The situation is not good."

It is not uncommon for a work to hold the entire production company because of one work. For example, Carlock Pictures, which went bankrupt because of "Cutthroat Island", MGM Pictures, whose "Windtalkers" became the last straw that broke the camel's camel, and "Sinbad Seven Seas Sail" ( Sinbad: Legend. Of. The. Seven. Seas)" and "Escape from Clone Island (The. Island)" and DreamWorks, which was on the brink of bankruptcy and was finally forced to sell.

Of course, 20th Century Fox is still a long way from bankruptcy, but it's not surprising that their working capital has bottlenecked due to the previous market downturn. Although works such as "Life and Death" and "Independence Day" have made 20th Century Fox a lot of money, the black hole of "Titanic" has been devouring their flexible funds, and the scheduling in a short time is not working. Very normal phenomenon.

In fact, 20th Century Fox is already quite good. They still have enough space to prepare new projects at this time. In 1997, Rick knew that there were at least four projects costing more than 60 million yuan. Although 20th Century Fox's move is also an expedient measure to give shareholders more confidence and cover up the temporary internal difficulties, it can still be seen from this detail that 20th Century Fox has not yet reached the time of embarrassment, but it is tied up. It is also inevitable.

Rick came to this conclusion only because several projects prepared by Twentieth Century Fox seemed to lack confidence. Except for the investment cost, there were almost no bright spots that could be taken out. This is very unusual for a top film production company.

"However, Kevin didn't mention this project at all, I just thought it was very interesting, so I added it in." Rick explained briefly, looking at the helplessness in Hugo's eyes, Rick was also a little embarrassed, "Why, Don't you think it's funny?"

"Ha! Ha! It's funny." Hugopi replied without a smile, causing Rick to laugh dryly and wipe the sweat from his palms on his thighs.

At this time, the project in Hugo's hand has a very simple and clear name, "Volcano: Literally Translated as Volcano", which obviously echoes the young volcano, a fan of the death of glory - this is the near future. One of the most active groups in the United States for two years, attracting countless attention both inside and outside the industry.

When Rick saw this project in 20th Century Fox, his first reaction was very funny. If Kevin really took this project and found Hugo to star in it, the topic gimmick would definitely be very happy. However, Kevin has not revealed any wind at present - except for the "Life and Death 2" that was criticized as useless by Hugo. Rick brought it over today, it was just a joke.

Although the movie "The Living Fire" is not well-known, Hugo has actually seen it, but now he can't remember the specific details at all. This typical disaster film appeared just after the "Independence Day", "Tornado" and other films set off a genre craze, but unfortunately, the plot is too monotonous and the rhythm is too protracted, and it can't even reach the genre film. The average level, even the passing line is very reluctant. It is a typical follower, but it is not an anti-dog.

Although Hugo can't remember the specific story, but looking at the project introduction in his hand, we know that this is a work that completely imitates "tornado". If Rick brought the "Fifth Element" here, it is also interesting because of the simplicity of the script, then the script of "Living Fire and Molten City" seems very nonsensical.

After reading several projects of Twentieth Century Fox, Hugo also agreed with Rick's idea. These projects obviously lacked ideas and courage. For example, the project "Living Fire City" has an investment of 100 million US dollars, but The entire project concept and cast lineup are obviously lacking in consideration, and the market positioning is only a copy of the "Independence Day" strategy. It can be seen that Twentieth Century Fox is playing the conservative card.

If MGM or Universal Pictures chose to be conservative, it would not be surprising; but under the leadership of Kevin in the past two years, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. have been regarded as the most daring companies to invest in, which is not normal.

Looking at the last proposal left on the table, Hugo glanced at the thick stack of documents on the right, while the left was still empty with nothing, and then glanced at Rick as if to say, "I'm sure there are only these crooked melons. The date is cracked?" Rick also understood what Hugo meant, and shrugged helplessly: I have worked with Hugo for a long time, and now Rick has become a lot more critical when choosing scripts.

Hugo curled his lips and picked up the last item, which belonged to Paramount's name. Just seeing the first name, Hugo's eyes could not help but light up a little, "John Woo (John. Woo)" , maybe this name doesn't seem to have anything special, as if one can find such a name casually among Hollywood Asians, but Hugo's intuition also noticed something, and he looked down, and sure enough, it was as he expected. , this project is exactly from that famous director.

"Face/off", the huge font introduced into the eye.

John - Wu, is the action film director who enjoys a high reputation throughout Asia - Wu. Yu. Sen. This one is in. country. fragrant. Hong Kong, a director who has won numerous accolades, officially entered Hollywood in 1993 with "Ultimate Target", and filmed "Broken Arrow" last year. It can be said that he is currently the best-developed Chinese artist in Hollywood.

If John's peak in Chinese movies is "heroic character", then his peak in Hollywood is "face change".

Although "Changing Face" is an action movie, the ingenious story design, wonderful character setting, and precise rhythm control make people can't help but be amazed, especially the two leading actors - John Traver The rivalry between Erta and Nicolas Cage is even more addictive. The wonderful performances of the two actors add a lot of color to the film, which makes the work out of the scope of ordinary commercial action movies and triggers more chemical reactions.

"Pirates of Fire" once gathered Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, the two best actors, to play with each other on the screen, which made people addicted, but under the control of Michael Mann, this work was slightly suppressed. Desire, the whole rhythm reveals the heavy, the characters are above the plot and rhythm, so the final box office performance is mediocre, but after entering the video tape market, it has gained more support.

However, under the direction of John, "Changing Faces" has brought the characterization and climax to the extreme. The actors and the plot complement each other, bursting out amazing sparks, and even the actors' performances are included, and they have achieved excellent performance. In the end, it not only won the praise of the media, but also achieved great success at the box office.

It can be said that "Changing Face" is the most outstanding one among the many works Hugo has seen today, and Hugo also very much hopes to cooperate with John, maybe two people from China. The soul of the country can also collide with more sparks.

However, before Hugo could speak, Rick patted his head, "Sorry, I forgot, this work has already started shooting at the end of December." Then he took the plan out of Hugo's right hand, Putting it aside, he was still muttering, "There are really no good projects recently, but don't worry, maybe other people need to worry about not having a work, but we never need..."

Rick was talking, only to realize that Hugo was stunned. He couldn't help but be stunned, and said, "What's the matter?"

Hugo only felt that he choked with a breath, and then spit out a long, "Nothing, nothing..."

Rick nodded, lowered his head to organize everything, and put it all in the bag, "That's it, this is the result I expected, but tomorrow, when you meet those old foxes, you have a good idea... ..." Rick didn't notice at all, Hugo's reluctant eyes always stayed on the "face change" project, and his face was full of depression.