Seven Hundred and Fifteen - Power Constraints
"The two projects of "Wonder Woman" and "Superman" will open a new chapter for the DC film series."
In the huge conference room on the seventh floor of the Warner Bros. Building, Wayne sat in the front and center of the organizer's seat. There were no less than two hundred reporters crowded in front of him, but his voice seemed unhurried.
Apart from his speech into the microphone, there was only the sound of flashes from a large number of camera equipment, flashing desperately.
"Whether it's Wonder Woman Diana Prince or Superman Clark Kent, I believe many fans are already familiar with their stories. I can tell all fans now the stories of these two important DC heroes. , will surely surprise everyone!
Unfortunately, after the film was approved, I signed a strict confidentiality agreement with Warner Bros., so I cannot reveal too much relevant information or script details. However, I can assure all DC movie fans that these two movies are definitely more amazing than you expected...! "
Facing Wayne, who spoke in cliches but refused to disclose any useful information about the movie, the reporters huddled together ignored the discussion. Everyone was trying hard to use their brains to ask for more specific information.
In particular, after the host of the press conference signaled that it would be free to ask questions, a large number of reporters responsible for news interviews all moved forward involuntarily.
"Director Greenberg, can you talk about the main actors of "Wonder Woman" and "Superman"?"
Candice Mays, the reporter who was called on first, ignored her excitement and looked at the man sitting in the center, and immediately asked loudly: "Who previously played Diana Prince and Clark Kent?" Although the actors have also appeared in "The Flash", the brief scenes did not give clear information. Can you talk about these two actors?"
In the past few years, both Christian Bale, who plays Batman, and James Franco, who plays The Flash, have received huge media attention before the movies were officially shot.
Today is no exception. As long as they can get information about the actors playing Superman and Wonder Woman, reporters will have nothing to write about.
Even as the influence of DC movies grows, the public's attention to the main actors will inevitably grow. This movie series has become a unique landscape in Hollywood. Even if the filming of the film has not started, the main actors can enter the public eye first.
"Huh, I thought you were going to ask me something that needs to be kept secret."
Wayne, who was not far away from the female reporter, shrugged in an exaggerated manner. While teasing himself, he raised his hand to wipe the non-existent sweat on his forehead.
His exaggerated performance caused a burst of good-natured laughter in the crowded conference room. However, he didn’t make the reporter of the New York Times wait any longer. He happily said into the microphone in front of him: “I believe some attentive fans have discovered something from the Easter eggs in The Flash.
Yes, Ben Affleck signed a film contract with Warner Bros. as early as a year ago, and he will star in Superman Clark Kent. As for Wonder Woman Diana Prince, Angelina Jolie will star. Currently, the two of them are undergoing relevant training before filming, and will meet everyone at the launch conference at the latest. "
Ben Affleck, Angelina Jolie!
When reporters heard these two names, the temporary press hall immediately fell into a burst of discussion. Most reporters are not surprised. It is not difficult to draw this conclusion by referring to Wayne's previous employment habits.
In fact, neither Ben Affleck nor Angelina Jolie are unfamiliar names in the industry at least.
The former made a serious appearance in "Good Will Hunting" together with his friend Matt Damon. The latter is even more familiar. The female storm caused by "Charlie's Angels" this summer has allowed this actress who has grown up in the industry to remind all audiences around the world what a hot body is.
What's even more impressive is actually those sexy lips. When many people hear this name, they suddenly think of the museum worker at the end of "The Flash". The only clear image left to the audience is this pair of unique and sexy lips.
"Director Greenberg, can you talk about Superman who has returned after so many years?" During a break in the reporters' discussion, a female reporter in a professional skirt in the front row looked at Wayne and asked.
I'm afraid most people have to admit that Superman Clark Kent's popularity is unique among all superheroes. The reporters at the scene also knew very well that movie fans must be more concerned about Superman-related information.
"Ha, let me correct you first. Superman is not returning, but a reboot!"
After thinking for a moment, Wayne cleared his throat and answered into the microphone: "The Superman we are about to see is completely different from what has appeared on the big screen before. Sorry, I have no disrespect for Richard. -Donner and Richard Lester (director of Superman 1.2.3) just want to make it clear that neither "Superman" nor "Wonder Woman" has anything to do with the previous stories."
"Wayne, can you reveal the specific content?"
Wayne watched the reporters spread their hands, smiled and shook his head. "No, don't try to trick me. I can only tell you that they are different from all previous works."
Facing the reporters' questions, Wayne handled them with ease. In this environment, he did not deliberately seek trouble.
It's not that he doesn't want to reveal some plot information, but these two films are so special that even if nothing is revealed, the public will most likely be able to guess what will be filmed. After all, which ordinary person hasn’t heard a little bit about the stories related to these two characters?
Faced with this situation, Wayne simply chose to maintain the sense of mystery to avoid the embarrassment of the audience losing the novelty before the film was released.
Normally, if a Hollywood movie is released before its plot is leaked or not, the impact on the film will be a disaster.
There are countless similar things in Hollywood, but when it comes to this, I have to mention the old unfortunate Quentin Tarantino. As soon as the project for his new film "The Hateful Eight" was approved, his entire script of more than 100 pages was leaked, letting the entire Hollywood and North America know what he was going to film.
It happened that the ruffian Quentin was the last one to get the news, because countless actors and agents frantically called Quentin's agent to recommend themselves, hoping to win a role.
Therefore, the final version of "The Hateful Eight" that was presented to the world was the second version of the script that Quentin Tarantino reorganized before filming officially started. In order to distinguish the plots that had been leaked and get rid of the impact of the leaked plots, these before and after It can be said that the two versions of the script have nothing to do with each other.
But even so, the results of "The Hateful Eight" were still unsatisfactory. Until the film was released, the North American box office was only just over 50 million US dollars. You must know that this result is completely inconsistent with Harvey Weinstein's expectations. As for whether the film's performance was affected by the plot leak incident, I'm afraid even a fool can guess it.
The routine project establishment press conference ended after Warner Bros. staff showed the contract between the two parties. In fact, the contract shown to reporters was just a ceremonial thing. The real contract was held as early as the day before the press conference. , Wayne has already signed with Warner Bros.
To a certain extent, when Warner Bros. gave a confirmed response to the two projects "Superman" and "Wonder Woman" through a series of market surveys and risk assessments, Warner Bros. has basically acquiesced in the leadership. employee’s remuneration.
As Wayne's agent, Jimmy has begun to miss the time in the early 1990s, when he could always get a sense of accomplishment from the tense negotiations with Warner Bros. In the past two years, negotiating for his clients' salaries has become increasingly boring for him.
Putting aside everything else, Warner Bros. and Jimmy have a tacit understanding regarding Wayne's personal treatment. At least in the DC series of movies, there is no controversy at all about his treatment.
Regardless of the titles he held as producer, director, screenwriter, etc. in these two projects, in fact, his main source of salary has always been the position of director. Not only did the basic salary in the early stage and the box office share in the later stage not change at all this time, even some of the treatment and standards at work looked so familiar.
At a certain moment, Jimmy was extremely suspicious that Warner Bros. executives directly changed the name of the director's contract for "The Flash" and put it on the negotiation table.
Perhaps for other large-scale projects of film companies, the director's contract is a "big deal" that requires long-term wrangling and takes several months to grind out. When it comes to the relationship between Warner Bros. and Wayne, the time loss in this aspect is obviously saved, because both parties understand that the salary package he now receives is already the best in this circle.
If you want to go further, it is completely beyond the scope of the director or producer. Unless it involves offline sharing of the film, the last condition Warner Bros. is unlikely to give in the DC movie series is the offline sharing of the film.
After all, this series is completely different from the projects jointly invested by both parties. You must know that Warner Bros. has not introduced any external financing for the DC series projects. As long as it involves the DC series films, they are all produced by Warner Bros.'s own working capital. .
On the day the project establishment conference ended, Wayne did not leave the Warner Bros. Building, but changed to a conference room to start a routine meeting with his core creatives behind the scenes.
Reading with rice balls
Including editor Julia, two producers Charles Rowan and Luke Simmons, director of photography Robert, prop supervisor Weeks, lighting supervisor Steve, assistant director Schwartz and others are all here Waiting for him in a conference room.
These people have been working with him for more than a year or two, and they all understand the working style of this crew leader. From the moment he signs the director's contract, Wayne will devote himself wholeheartedly to his work like clockwork. At work.
As before, there was no nonsense, and Wayne arranged his work in an orderly manner.
"Luke, Charles, and Warner Bros. will transfer two funds of 40 million US dollars each to the accounts of Superman Studio and Wonder Woman Studio by tomorrow morning. You are eyeing the first batch of funds for your respective projects until Until it enters the account of a third-party insurance company!”
"No questions asked, boss." Luke Simmons agreed happily.
"I'll keep an eye on Superman." Charles Rowan responded loudly.
"Schwartz, issue audition invitations to the agencies in the industry." Wayne nodded with satisfaction, his eyes scanning the faces of everyone in the conference room, and finally resting on the casting director. "The location is still at Warner Studios. Please note that there will definitely be a lot of people auditioning in the first round. You have to pay attention to screening."
"I understand, boss, leave it to me."
This is a team that has worked together many times, and there is no need to break in. As Wayne communicated with the heads of various departments one by one, the brief preparatory meeting quickly came to an end.
In the end, his eyes were fixed on Zack Snyder. "Zach, go gather your team behind "The Matrix". Charles will assist you with relevant preparation issues. You have plenty of time. If you have any difficulties, please call me at any time."
"Okay." Facing the eyes of everyone in the conference room, Zack Snyder nodded low-key, looked at each other with Charles Rowan, the producer of "Superman", and returned to silence again.
The other supervisors of various behind-the-scenes work looked at him quite well, and most of them only had a little envy in their eyes. Everyone knows that as long as this "Superman" doesn't go wrong, then even if this commercial director from New York really succeeds, there will be countless big projects waiting for him in the future.
However, in the eyes of everyone, it is not difficult to find that some people have Chi Luoluo's jealousy in their eyes. It just so happens that most of these people are assistant directors responsible for various specific matters within the crew. Even Schwartz, the powerful assistant casting director, looked at Zack Snyder with a complicated look.
After the brief preparatory meeting, everyone began to get busy. Early the next morning, Wayne rushed to Warner Bros. again, met with representatives of the third-party insurance company, and signed a completion guarantee contract.
This can be said to be the most important process after the project is approved, and it is also a pistol behind the directors and producers.
In the modern film production system of Hollywood, the introduction of third-party insurance companies has long been part of the commercial project. The biggest difference between commercial films and small-budget independent films is also here.
From the day the crew signs a guarantee agreement with a third-party insurance company, representatives from the insurance company will be stationed at the crew in preparation. The investors' funds for the project will also enter the account of the third-party insurance company. Basically, no matter what the crew wants to do, as long as it involves spending money, the producer needs to communicate with representatives of the insurance company.
On the surface, it is like putting a pair of shackles on the core creators of the crew. Even after the shooting officially begins, representatives from the third-party insurance company will observe the director's shooting plan every day and communicate the next day's shooting plan.
Their purpose is very clear, that is, they must ensure that the crew is working according to the scheduled plan and try to avoid various types of waste. This waste includes time and money. The ultimate goal is to ensure that the entire film is completed on the scheduled date and at the scheduled cost. In-house production completed.
As for the quality of the finished film, etc., that is not their responsibility. They supervise the operation of the entire crew almost strictly to ensure that the film is completed and does not die midway due to various reasons.
No director likes a completion guarantee, and the same goes for Wayne. But from the perspective of investors and distributors, the introduction of a completion guarantee can protect their interests to the greatest extent. This is a practice that has been established in Hollywood for many years. If you want to survive in this industrial system, you must abide by this set of rules and accept this set of rules.
Don't think that all Hollywood crews are so reliable. In fact, it is not uncommon for crews to die in the middle of filming due to various mishaps.
At this time, when the completion guarantee comes into play, they will inject capital into the crew and even re-recruit relevant staff to complete the production of the insured project until it is delivered to the distribution company.
Of course, this is a situation that no one wants to see, because once a similar situation occurs, the quality of the film will not be guaranteed at all.
In fact, when representatives from third-party insurance companies enter the crew and investors' funds are deposited into the joint account between the crew and the insurance company, the preparations for the project officially begin.
Of course, this also involves complex issues such as investors, distributors, whether there is copyright pre-sale for the film, whether there is advertising revenue, and whether the revenue is directly included in the production cost.
But the actual meaning will not change. The representatives of the film completion guarantee company on the crew will not interfere with the normal work of the crew. But once they suspect or determine that Wayne's filming plan is at risk of overspending and will endanger the interests of investors and insurance companies, the insurance company can immediately freeze the accounts associated with the crew.
The filming risks of the crew will then be assessed, and if necessary, they can replace the entire team in order to shoot the film completely while ensuring the interests of investors.
However, this is only the final red line of the film completion guarantee contract. In the normal work of the crew, neither the investors, crew, nor third-party insurance companies are willing to trigger this red line. Once triggered, everyone loses together.
As the center of world cinema and the leader of the global entertainment industry, the Hollywood film industry seems to be filled with myths, praise and crazy worship. Money, fame, power, and desire gather here, and fashion, honor, and scandal also multiply here.
But despite all the glamour, the Hollywood film industry has continued to receive a steady stream of investment, and behind its ever-increasing scale is actually the constraint of power!
Except for the top distribution companies, every aspect of film production in Hollywood is filled with constraints on power. Just like the introduction of film completion guarantees, even directors and producers with top privileges in the industry cannot avoid this supervision. It can be said that power constraints are the underlying logic of stabilizing the Hollywood film industry.
Note that power constraints only apply to commercial projects with well-established systems. Small-cost independent films are still the sole discretion of directors and investors, and this underlying logic does not apply. The reason is simple. Their first goal in making videos is not to make a profit.
Fortunately, Wayne has already adapted to similar rules, and his past work resume is also the kind that third-party insurance companies like most.
After successfully completing the film guarantee agreement, Wayne gradually began to work and entered the role of film director. At the same time, the crew's preparations are also rapidly underway at Warner Studios.
In early October, the important preliminary audition work for "Wonder Woman" had just begun, and he had to temporarily spare his energy and set his sights on the final round of auditions for "The Lord of the Rings."