Tokyo Literary Godfather

"Good news, it's convenient for you to say [but...]"

Daniel smiled: "I showed your script to the senior management of Century Fox Company and also saw the finished film you shot. They liked the story very much and readily agreed to film it. They also agreed to give a lot of money to them. High production budget…”

"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a good thing."

"But..." Daniel paused and continued: "The senior management has to appoint a director."

"This is normal." Fujiwara Kei said.

Hollywood is a producer-centered system. Among the entire crew, the producer has the greatest power and can choose the director and starring roles. However, film company executives and investors have power over producers. Sometimes they directly decide on the starring role and director without going through the producer. This is also normal. For example, Kei Fujiwara decided on the directors of several movies produced by Minami.

"Is there something wrong with this director's ability?" Kei Fujiwara didn't understand why this should bother him.

Daniel looked a little depressed, "No problem, he is very capable. Michael Lucas, have you heard of this name? He is a very popular director... but he is also very powerful. When working with him, it is difficult for producers to have a say. .”

Of course Kei Fujiwara has heard of this name. He has been nominated for the Academy Awards many times, won the Academy Awards twice, and his box office performance has always been online. He is a director who is very popular with investors. But at the same time, the style of the crew is also very strong.

For these very powerful directors, the producer-centered system is empty talk for them. They either shoulder the director and producer positions, or they turn their backs and let their status in the crew surpass that of the producers. above.

For example, in Hollywood, the post-editing rights of the film are in the hands of the producer. The producer can decide the final presentation of the film. If there is a disagreement with the director about editing, the producer can The director kicked out of the editing room.

Some producers even do not allow directors to enter the editing room from the beginning. The famous Cameron was once turned away by the crew.

And a director who already has a status in the world not only has the right to edit, he can even do the opposite and drive the producer out of the editing room...

Hollywood producers who have become accustomed to monopolizing power will indeed have a headache when encountering such a director.

"I worked with him once before, and I almost became addicted to sleeping pills. God, I swore at that time that I would never work with this person again unless I had suicidal thoughts."

In the crew, if the director and the producer are not fighting each other and cannot form a tacit understanding, either the east wind will overwhelm the west wind, or the west wind will overwhelm the east wind. It is obvious that Daniel "lost" in the last confrontation, or in other words, Company executives prefer directors who can bring in high box office returns.

Fujiwara Kei spread his hands: "This is the bad thing you said."

Daniel said: "Yes, but this is a bad thing for me. For you, you may not mind."

"What do I mind? After all, I have already received the copyright transfer fee and part of the share ratio. As long as it can get high box office, I will be happy whoever makes the decision."

"Oh, you are so straightforward..."

At this time, the lemon pie and hamburger set were brought up by the clerk. In fact, the pie was a pie, but most of it was sweet fillings. Kei Fujiwara took a bite and felt that his teeth were filled with sweetness. It was an authentic American flavor.

"Perhaps, it is for this reason that Mr. Ellison will reconsider my previous proposal."

Kei Fujiwara said, took out the script from his bag, put it on the table, and handed it to Daniel Ellison.

"Well, that's true. I plan to resign as the producer of "The Departed", but I have no plans to take a vacation for the time being. I think, maybe, the original author of "The Departed" can give me a better story. "

As he spoke, Daniel picked up the script, glanced at the name, and suddenly said "Huh", then opened the script, glanced at it twice, and said strangely: "Mr. Fujiwara, how many scripts have you written? How many scripts have you written?" I thought it was that sports-themed script."

"I really can't hide this from you, Mr. Ellison." Kei Fujiwara said, "It's only been a few days."

"I also learned about it accidentally. Bruce and I met at a cocktail party by chance. I complained to him like a talkative woman about the decision of the company's top management, and also said that I would resign as the producer of "The Departed". Obviously this movie I bought the copyright of the movie with hard work... So talking about you, he told me that your people seemed to have found him recently and hoped that he could produce it for you. Although he thought the script was good, he did not agree after all. And he wanted to buy the script, but you didn’t agree.”

"According to what he said, your script seems to be a sports-themed story. It seems to be called...Lucci? Is that the name? Using a person's name as a name is not a shortcut to a hit."

Kei Fujiwara yawned, "So I changed it to another one. After thinking about it, this one is more suitable for the current film market."

Kei Fujiwara did think about using "Rocky" to open up the North American market. This movie has high income, low investment, and is also quite artistically accomplished. It has become a famous success story in the film industry and has become a favorite in many people's eyes. A classic that inspired many people. Later generations will use this film as a reference when making similar sports inspirational movies.

However, after further detailed investigation, Kei Fujiwara felt that it would be better to temporarily change to other films.

After all, this movie was made in the 1970s, more than 20 years apart from now, and during the more than 20 years in this parallel world, many inspirational people similar to Rocky appeared on the movie screen, such as "Rocky" Inspirational sports movie, the audience is more or less tired of the aesthetics, and may not be able to achieve as good results as when this movie was released in the parallel world.

Moreover, it seems not easy to find an actor like Stallone.

"Horror movies... that's true... and the cost of horror movies is relatively low... it's not difficult to make a profit..." Daniel murmured, "But at the same time, you can't make much money. In my impression, the profit rate is the highest in the past ten years. The best horror film was "Dangerous Circus" two years ago, with an investment of 2.2 million and a box office revenue of 15 million US dollars..."

He has a thorough knowledge of the actual earnings and production costs of these films. As a producer, he is absolutely professional. He has studied many industry cases at a glance and has sufficient understanding of the current market situation.

"'Saw'... is it about a murderer with a chainsaw?" Daniel asked with a smile.

Kei Fujiwara did not reply. While drinking black tea, he made a "please" gesture and asked the other party to finish reading before speaking.

…

The story content of the script is not too complicated. Compared with "Infernal Affairs", the complexity and volume are much less. The story is a bit thin, but not boring.

At the beginning, two people woke up separately and were locked in a secret room. Both of them were tightly bound by iron chains at their ankles and could not escape. In the middle of the secret room, there was a corpse lying in a pool of blood.

He held a pistol in one hand and a tape recorder in the other.

An atmosphere of terror arose spontaneously.

Everyone has a tape on their body, and on the tape is what a "mysterious man" said to them.

In short, it is to tell them that they are now in a game, and if they want to get out of here alive, they must abide by the rules of the game.

…

Daniel read it very carefully, and silently graded the script while reading it.

The atmosphere and suspense of horror movies are well created and can convey a sense of thrill to the audience very well. The logic of the whole story is quite strict... In fact, horror movies are not mystery movies. The most important thing is to convey emotions, not to guide thinking. Even if it is not so strict, it is acceptable. So the suspense part of this film is also very well portrayed.

Moreover, Daniel also keenly discovered one of the most prominent advantages of this script: it is very economical to shoot.