Chapter 515 515

Hugo flipped through the mountains of scripts in front of him, including the love movie "Love. Affair", which must have found Hugo because of the success of "Sleepless in Seattle"; and the horror sci-fi movie "Frankenstein". (Mary. Shelley's. Frankenstein)", which made Hugo very surprised, did not expect the producers to think of him in the role.

There's also "The. Hudsucker. Proxy" from the fantastical Coen brothers and Sam. Raimi, a social fairy tale with satirical metaphors that's clearly intriguing; there's even a The large-scale thriller and suspense movie, "Color. Of. Night", which has risen strongly because of "ben. Ability", really made Hugo laugh or cry.

These works are good and bad. Obviously, even in 1994, when there were many excellent works, there were still many bad works. For example, the quality of the finished products of "Night" and "Frankenstein" were not high, but independent masterpieces such as "Shadow Tycoon" It is also eye-catching.

I have to say that this is a very interesting process, appreciating those scripts that I have seen or heard of, as long as I am willing, it is possible to become a member of the crew. It feels very subtle. Not only the condescending feeling of having a dream come true or mastering the power of life and death, but also the wonderful experience of watching these scripts actually appear in one's hands as a traveler.

But when Hugo saw the script for "Cutthroat. Island" in his hand, he couldn't help laughing, not happily, but playfully.

"Cutthroat Island" isn't 1994, it's 1995, it's famous not because it's good or bad, but because it loses money, it's in the top ten of the most money-losing movies in Hollywood history It occupies an unshakable place in the film, and was even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most loss-making film in film history.

Invested 92 million US dollars, and only got 9.5 million US dollars at the box office, which directly led to the bankruptcy of the production company. It is definitely a model for a work to bring down the entire company! Back then, out of curiosity, Hugo went to find out what kind of movie to enjoy, and wanted to see what kind of work it was, which led to the bankruptcy of a company.

In fact, when it comes to "Cutthroat Island", Hugo thinks this is a decent movie, even better than "Pirates. Of. The. Caribbean". Indeed, Cutthroat Island is a pirate movie!

When the film first came out, professional critics thought the plot was flawed and uninspired, making it one of the most notorious action-adventure films of the 1990s. But in fact, this film is a work that tells a pirate story in a down-to-earth manner. It is much better than the later works of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series that rely on special effects to support the scene, even compared to the first story of "Pirates of the Caribbean". Favorably.

"Cutthroat Island" production company Carolco. Pictures (Carolco. Pictures) has a lot of background. Before that, it has successively produced "Terminator 2", "Cliffhanger", "Total. Recall" ", "Ben. Neng" and other works with great box office success and good reputation, this has gained them enough confidence.

In the early 1990s, Carlock Pictures was willing to invest 90 million US dollars to shoot "Cut Throat Island", which is undoubtedly a big deal. The pre-budget of this work has actually exceeded 100 million US dollars. 2" box-office giant, it cost five million dollars just to appear on the pirate ship in the movie! When the special effects were not yet mature, the crew used all the live shooting on the water, just to shoot a better picture effect, the actors also all went into battle to complete the thrilling scenes.

However, during the production process, because the original script was too rough, the filming could not go on after only one opening, so I had to temporarily find someone to rewrite it. When the producer was in a hurry, he found four screenwriters to write together. As a result, the four sets of scripts began to pull and merge with each other, causing the filming to drag on and off.

After the filming was finally completed, Carlock Films also spent a lot of effort to promote the film, hoping to achieve good results, but "Cutthroat Island" has a fatal injury, that is, its protagonist is a woman, this is a female The story told by pirates as the main point of view is undoubtedly a devastating blow to the male-dominated Hollywood and the traditional male-dominated pirate field.

The result... The result is that the total box office revenue of "Cutthroat Island" did not exceed 10 million, so that the loss of Carlock Pictures was noticed by the Guinness Book of Records. In the end, Carlock Pictures also completely lost itself. After declaring bankruptcy , was fully acquired by MGM United Arts.

The original script for Cutthroat Island was so crude that Hugo had less than twenty pages in his hand, but Joseph kept it, and Hugo quickly got the answer from Anna, because Carlock The film industry took a fancy to Hugo's box office appeal and offered a salary of 10 million US dollars plus box office dividends to invite Hugo to appear.

Although "Cutthroat Island" is mainly a work of female pirates, there are also a lot of roles in the male lead. It can be seen now that Carlock Pictures hopes to use a big-name actor to pull the film's appeal. The $10 million salary is already a first-line standard, and he is still willing to give dividends. It really is an invitation given by clenching his teeth and clenching his teeth.

Joseph still hopes that Hugo's next work will be able to take over a work with a salary of over 10 million yuan, which is helpful to Hugo's entire actor career; but Hugo never thinks so, and the salary will never be the most important key. The work itself is. That's why their views on "Pulp Fiction" have diverged so dramatically, and they continue to do so today.

After thinking about it, Hugo threw the script of "Cutthroat Island" back into the pile of rejected scripts on the table.

If Hugo read the script of "Cutthroat Island" just now with great interest, now he can't laugh when he sees the script of "Waterworld".

Obviously, Joseph made it clear that he was going to go all the way. He just hoped that Hugo would be able to take on a work with a salary of over 10 million yuan, but he was not willing to communicate with Hugo at all. Even if Hugo had his own ideas, he He also held a bystander attitude of "whatever you like", and directly handed the script communication task to Anna, and then left scripts such as "Cutthroat Island" and "Future Water World" here to show that he Your own attitude, this is the end of it.

This made Hugo sneer directly. He didn't even think about it. He just threw the script of "Future Water World" into the pile of rejections. Don't say that "Future Water World" was originally a stupid script. He didn't Even if he had planned to accept this script, he would definitely not accept it now!

The script of "Future Water World" is a wonderful work. Before the advent of "Titanic", this was the most expensive work in the world, with an investment of 175 million US dollars, which is still the same even after 20 years. It's the top mega-production. It invited "Robin Hood" director Kevin - Reynolds (Kevin. Reynolds) to direct, starring Kevin - Costner, before taking away the "sugar-coated trap" performance opportunity from Uma - Jenny - Trippery Horne is the heroine.

This work has been in constant trouble since the preparatory stage. After the filming started, budget overruns and production bottlenecks appeared one after another. Even the actor Kevin Costner almost died, and the rumors of disagreement between the main creators were even more troublesome. Gotta be buzzing. From the screenwriter to the actors to the other staff behind the scenes, they all describe the filming process as "a hellish period", and the discord of the entire crew and even the producers can't stand it anymore. Director Kevin Reynolds left the film because he was dissatisfied with the crew two weeks before the filming was completed, which made Kevin Costner, who once won the Oscar for Best Director Golden Man for "Dancing With Wolves". Had to take this mess and get the movie done.

In fact, the story frame of "Future Water World" is a sci-fi blockbuster that is common in the 21st century. The storyline is relatively simple and rough, and then relies on countless special effects to attract attention. Even after ten years, those special effects that burn money will not be too outdated. , especially the special effects of many climactic scenes are commendable. But the problem is that the whole world view setting is too advanced, the special effects pictures are not in line with the aesthetics of the mid-1990s, and the crude and shoddy story line is even more difficult to see directly. Most importantly, the heroine's character design There were serious mistakes in the decision, and there were huge problems in the casting, so that the whole film could not win a positive response from the audience at all.

In the end, "Future Water World" earned $88 million in North America and $264 million at the global box office. If the cost is simply 175 million, the book cost is recovered, at least Unlike "Cut Throat Island", even the book cost is invisible.

But the problem is that the box office is never solely owned by the production company. The production company can only get about 20% of it, and the rest has to rely on video tapes, TV rights and other peripherals to make profits. Therefore, the "Future Water World", which has collapsed in word of mouth, has almost nothing in the surrounding area, which has caused the production company to suffer from a heartburn.

If "Future Water World" is placed ten years later, for example, in 2007 when "Transformers" became popular, even if the story is simple and rough, but the special effects are wonderful and the trendy world view in the Internet age, maybe "Future Water World" can recover the cost Not sure. But unfortunately, for the market in 1995, "Future Water World" was too advanced, which directly led to this work becoming a model negative teaching material for academics to criticize commercial films for spending money.

The producer of "Future Water World" is Universal Pictures. Obviously, this script has just been handed over. No one knows more about the added value of "Schindler's List" on Hugo than Universal Pictures. Universal Pictures proposed a $15 million remuneration plus box office dividends, which is undoubtedly the remuneration of top actors. Once it is announced, it is estimated that countless reporters will be jealous of it, but Hugo did not even look at it at all. The script is lost.

Anna watched as Hugo threw the script of "Future Water World" directly on the pile of "rubbish", and her heart suddenly became stormy. She finally knew what it meant to be so heartbroken that she couldn't help herself. It was worth 15 million Dollar-paid script!