Chapter 527 Director Screenwriter

"The Martian, World War Z, and The Hunger Games. The company will be very busy next."

"Daniel, do you have any suitable directors to recommend?"

"How about letting Todd Phillips direct World War Z?"

"We are still very happy to cooperate with him."

John talked with Wu Yuan about the selection of directors for these movies with great interest.

Unlike low-cost movies like Twilight, both World War Z and The Hunger Games are considered large-scale movies with high production costs. They cannot be filmed by small directors like Twilight.

The first person John thought of was Todd Phillips, who had a very good cooperation with Light and Shadow Times. He was the director of the Hangover series and was later asked to direct a sequel to Night at the Museum.

Last year, he wrote and directed the comedy movie Due Date, which was also invested by Light and Shadow Times. The film starred Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis and was nominated for the Best Comedy Movie at the 13th Teen Choice Awards.

The company's "Limitless" film project was also directed by Todd Phillips. After its release, the box office in North America was 120 million US dollars and nearly 200 million US dollars worldwide.

Now Todd Phillips can barely try a blockbuster with a cost of over 100 million US dollars. If he can direct it at a high level, he will be the top figure in Hollywood in the future.

"Todd Phillips? He can't do it." However, Wu Yuan simply rejected John's suggestion.

"Ask Marc Forster to direct "World War Z."

"Ask Francis Lawrence to direct "The Hunger Games" and sign a contract with him for three films at once."

Marc Forster is the director of "Quantum of Solace". When this film was released in the UK, it broke the British film opening day box office record and the 14.9 million pounds box office record held by "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".

When it was released in the mainland, the first week box office exceeded 66 million yuan, and the first week box office in North America reached 70.4 million US dollars, all of which broke the previous best box office results of the "007" series.

The most important thing is that "007" is an action movie, and a major feature of the movie "World War Z" is that the zombies in the movie are very different from the zombies in American horror culture.

The zombies in American horror culture, or zombies, are generally slow and stiff.

But the zombies in "World War Z" are crisp and neat, and run very fast. The animated picture of zombies attacking the city with ants was once popular on the mainland Internet.

It is just right to find a director who can shoot action movies to shoot "World War Z".

And Francis Lawrence, he is the director of "Hellblazer" and "I Am Legend", and has achieved excellent box office results.

Speaking of which, Francis Lawrence is also a director with a strong protagonist aura.

"Hellblazer" is his film debut. Before shooting this movie, he was just a MV director.

Then he got the opportunity to direct a blockbuster with an investment of $100 million. In the end, "Hellblazer" earned a global box office of $230 million. Although the box office performance was only average, the film itself was still very interesting, which also made Francis Lawrence favored by the circle and got the opportunity to direct "I Am Legend".

Then "I Am Legend" had a global box office of $585 million.

A global box office of $500 million is a watershed. Those who can achieve this result can be considered Hollywood's first-line directors.

And this is only Francis Lawrence's second movie.

Wu Yuan also wants to work with such a director who is full of the aura of the protagonist.

Of course, the most important reason is that these two directors are the original directors of "World War Z" and "The Hunger Games 2 and 3" respectively.

Wu Yuan's attitude towards the next few films produced by Light Era is to seek stability.

If you can find the original crew, try to find the original crew to produce, and strive to get a box office result similar to or even better than the original time and space.

He couldn't afford the loss of these movies' box office failure.

He was still counting on these movies to make a big fortune in Hollywood, and then withdraw the funds to the mainland market.

If the team was changed randomly and the box office failed, he would have no place to cry.

"Mark Forster and Francis Lawrence?" John frowned, recalled the resumes of these two directors, nodded and said, "I know, I will talk to them."

These two directors don't have any film projects on hand now, so it should be easier to invite them.

Unlike the situation in China where most directors write and direct their own works, the division of labor in the entertainment industry in Hollywood is more detailed. The screenwriter is the screenwriter, the director is the director, and there are not many directors who can write and direct their own works.

It's not that Hollywood directors generally don't have the ability to write, but that Hollywood screenwriters are more professional and large-scale. Every year, the six major script libraries can have hundreds of new scripts, and major directors can choose whatever they want. They don't need to bother thinking about the script themselves, and they may not think as well as professional screenwriters.

China is far behind in this regard. There is no screenwriters' union in China that can truly play a role, screenwriters are generally not taken seriously, and their living environment is very poor.

It's funny, obviously in a movie, the screenwriter and director should be the most important components.

Internationally, in most countries with developed film and television industries, in addition to the producer and supervisor who represent the investors, the biggest people in a crew are the director and screenwriter.

In some regions, screenwriters are even more important than directors and are valued, such as South Korea and Japan.

But in China, screenwriters have the least say and are the least valued. Even actors can shit on the screenwriters.

Once the screenwriters have no say and are not valued, it will be difficult to produce high-quality works.

Around 2000, screenwriters were still very valued in the film and television industry. People like Lu Wei and Wang Shuo were well-known screenwriters in the circle. They had enough say in the crew, and sometimes the director had to listen to them.

Up to now, the status of screenwriters in the circle has declined sharply, especially in the TV drama industry. Screenwriters have completely fallen to the point where they have no say in the script and even have to change the script according to the requirements of the actors, otherwise the actors will not perform and the investors will be under pressure.

Since then, 99% of the good movies produced in China are self-written and self-directed. Only when the director writes the script himself can he have enough say and make a truly high-quality movie.

The same is true in the field of TV series. Only production companies that respect screenwriters and give them enough power can make good TV series, such as Noon Sunshine.

Wu Yuan's thoughts were scattered, and he thought of this.

"It seems that after I return to China, I have to create a good creative environment for screenwriters." Wu Yuan thought divergently. (End of this chapter)