The Best Entertainment Era

It has never been easy to bring a massive epic to the big screen, and that requires extensive adaptations.

Peter Jackson's adaptation of the original work can be described as drastic, but generally speaking it is quite successful.

For Boromir, for example, Peter Jackson made an almost subversive adaptation, turning the book's betrayer into the film's hero.

The trumpet to welcome the return of the king has not sounded, the flying banner has not been planted in the White City, the withered holy white tree has not yet bloomed, the silver horn has been cut in half, and Boromir has come to the end of his life.

I will follow you, my brother, my leader, my king...

Boromir's dying oath is undoubtedly a sensational weapon, and the film also affirms him through the mouth of Aragorn: Rest in peace, son of Gondor.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring was a huge success, with critical acclaim and box office success that even Ronan envied.

It's a trilogy series worth over five billion dollars.

It also opened the prelude to the explosion of Hollywood magic movies.

Coupled with the highly successful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which was also released this year, in Hollywood, which is heavily following the trend, there will inevitably be a wave of magic movies in the next few years.

A large number of high-investment fantasy and epic films have sprung up like mushrooms, but very few of them can really succeed.

Not only in the past few years, but in the following ten years, most of the fantasy and epic films were black holes, with very few successful ones, and even contributed to most of the typical Hollywood fiascos in this period of time.

There is a saying that goes well, if you see a director or a film company that is not pleasing to the eye, encourage them to make a magical epic film, and more than 90% of them may hit the street.

Moreover, this type requires high investment, and once it hits the street, it will be a super big one.

For Ronan, several obvious big pits in Hollywood cannot be easily set foot, such as the magical epic pits outside of the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean series, such as Knight Shyamalan and Ko The Lin-Farrell pit, such as the live-action movie pit adapted from the island country comics.

Once these pits fall in, 99% of them will fall miserably.

Especially the live-action movies adapted from Hollywood comics,

In the previous life, Hollywood went through a bumpy road. Just like the island market is the graveyard of Hollywood superhero movies, movies adapted from island comics are also seriously unacceptable in North America. Needless to say, James Huang’s Dragon Ball The masterpiece produced by the truck driver with a guaranteed market is also seriously below expectations.

There are risks in adapting Japanese comics to live-action movies, and you still need to be cautious when entering the pit.

In his previous life, Ronan also heard that Lionsgate had obtained the rights to live-action film adaptations of One Piece and Naruto. Fans of comics can look forward to live-action films.

Just thinking about it gives me goosebumps.

To be honest, instead of adapting a Japanese manga movie, it would be better to buy a Japanese horror movie and adapt it into an American version.

In the previous life, Hollywood companies bought the adaptation rights of the comics and movies of the island nation one after another. Of course, there was a reason. On the one hand, the adaptation rights of the comics and movies of the island nation were much cheaper than those produced in North America. On the other hand, the comic adaptation rights in North America were too concentrated. , As a result, many companies that are eager to get a share of the pie can only look for other sources.

After all, in some respects, the characters in the island country comics are very similar to the superheroes in the American comics.

Moreover, cultural differences seem to be shrinking over time.

But Ronan's extra memories told him very clearly that North America has always been the most exclusive film market in the world.

The time has come to December 2001, and a new awards season in North America kicked off. Ronan will not participate in this Oscar game this year. No matter whether it is the production of Shahai Entertainment or the distribution of Embassy Pictures, there will be no Award-winning films.

Ronan's energy is still focused on the company's own development. At the same time, he is also planning his travel itinerary, preparing to rush to the other side of the Pacific Ocean before the New Year to raise funds for the Pacific Film Investment Foundation.

Scott has already booked a plane ticket. After Ronan finishes the work at hand, he will leave in about a week. The main destinations of this trip are also two places in the island country and South Korea that the embassy film company has contacted.

If it doesn't go well, Ronan will consider going to other countries to raise funds as appropriate.

With the passage of time, many countries on the other side of the Pacific Ocean are getting richer and richer, and hot money is just around the corner.

Taking advantage of this considered free time, Ronan roughly dealt with the work at hand.

The preparations for Pirates of the Caribbean are generally quite smooth, with Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Christian Bale and Geoffrey Rush as the four main protagonists, plus other actors with action scenes. Actors have entered the crew in advance to start professional training.

A large team of the crew, also led by George Clint's deputy, went to Rosario, Baja California, to set up the artificial lake set and Rosario dock area established by James Cameron, and set up boats and boats. A suitable background for shooting.

Car and ship props designer Matt O'Connor found a replacement for the Interceptor. He contacted the Grace Harbor Historical Authority in Seattle and leased a replica of the Mrs. Washington from them. Eighteenth-century brig, used for filming the Interceptor scene.

The Mrs. Washington is a replica of the first American ship that was discovered in the Pacific Northwest in 1789. This type of sailing ship is simple to operate and fast in speed, and has very similar characteristics to the Interceptor.

But this part of the play was to be filmed in Rosario, and the crew needed to tow the Mrs. Washington to Rosario, which was not capable of long-distance sailing.

This is also no small project.

However, compared to rebuilding a brig, using the Mrs. Washington can save the crew two-thirds of the cost of filming.

As for the other Dreadnought, neither Ronan nor Matt O'Connor can find a second antique two-masted sailing ship, so they can only rebuild a prop ship in the Rosario dock area .

According to Matt O'Connor's design, the Dreadnought will be built according to the victorious warship Victory in the British fleet at that time. The designed hull is 170 feet long and 34 feet wide. It may use nearly 40,000 pounds of steel and 1,000 square feet of canvas.

At present, the crew has recruited 150 craftsmen, and the construction will be completed on a floating barge at Rosario Pier. The construction period is expected to be three months.

The cost of the two prop ships Black Pearl and Intrepid alone was as high as 15 million US dollars.

The first expenditure of this part of the money was borrowed from Relativity Entertainment by Sandsea Entertainment, and getting other investments was a job that needed to be completed as soon as possible in the next few months.

If the amount of financing is large enough, the budget of Taken can also be solved by the way.

Ronan is very clear that in the next few years Netflix will be a big money eater, and Shahai Entertainment will rely more on external financing for production funds.

With the Cinéfondation raising funds, Ronan will further implement the chicken-and-egg model.

The script of Taken has been finalized after several revisions. Ronan also hired an experienced production manager to coordinate the daily affairs of the crew. Currently, the crew has officially confirmed the heroine besides the production manager. Amanda Seyfried.

After several rounds of negotiations between the legal department of Sandsea Entertainment and Mrs. Seyfried, the contract between the two parties was finalized. Amanda Seyfried signed a three-part agreement at one time, and the first film salary reached the highest level in her career fifty thousand dollars.

The actor has almost talked with Liam Neeson, and he will sign with him after Liam Neeson has finished handling the chores at home.

In terms of pay, because it is the male lead, it is $500,000 more than Liam Neeson in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which is $2 million without any post-production share.

As a result, the film's production budget was tentatively set at $16 million.

At present, the biggest problem with this project is that no suitable director has been found. Ronan has already posted recruitment notices in newspapers and the directors' union, but the few interviewed candidates are not satisfied, especially in terms of sharp camera style and fast editing rhythm. Extremely bad at it.

Ronan also greeted several major brokerage companies including CAA and William Morris, inviting them to recommend suitable director candidates to Shahai Entertainment.

Brian Lord of CAA was very concerned, and made a special call to Ronan for this purpose. Now he is counting the company's second- and third-tier directors and their specialties and style characteristics, so that Shahai Entertainment can choose from them.

In contrast, the responses of brokerage firms such as William Morris were mediocre.

A few days later, Ronan saw a familiar name-Jeffrey Abrams on the list of third-line directors provided by Brian Lord.

This is a senior practitioner in Hollywood and an old-fashioned screenwriter. He has been working as a TV screenwriter since 1990, and at the same time holds some positions as a producer and has also worked as an actor.

Just two years ago, Jeffrey Abrams served as the screenwriter of Michael Bay's Peerless Heist and became one of the signed screenwriters, which also ensured that he won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay awards.

Like all senior screenwriters, because of the poor living environment of screenwriters, Jeffrey Abrams transformed into a director after Peerless Heist and directed five episodes of the TV series Double-Faced Female Spy .

This is Jeffrey Abrams' only directing credentials.

Ronan took the time to meet with Jeffrey Abrams. After the interview, he gave him a script and asked Jeffrey Abrams to provide a shooting plan to decide whether he was suitable. directed this film.

Later, Ronan met Liam Neeson, who had rushed back from Europe, and finalized the actor's contract with him.