Top of the big era

"Avatar" grossed US$2.6 billion at the global box office. Many fans watched it over and over again and felt that this 3D movie was too unsatisfactory.

Fortunately, the summer season is here.

The first summer blockbuster to be released globally was "Iron Man 2" from Marvel Studios, a subsidiary of Ziweixing Universal. With Zhou Buqi's early suggestion, "Iron Man 2" was also converted into a 3D version.

Zhou Buqi is also paying attention to the box office trend of this blockbuster.

Sure enough, it exploded.

As of May 15, the film's global box office has exceeded $560 million.

The film caused a lot of controversy in professional circles.

Many Hollywood bosses are even criticizing, saying that this is not a movie at all. Although the past "Batman" and "Superman" were also superhero movies, they had movie elements and expressed emotions and themes. What's in "Iron Man 2"? There’s a lot of bickering and bickering, and then the good guys defeat the bad guys, and the movie ends, which is just inexplicable.

However, the public's evaluation of this film is relatively positive, with an IMDB score of 7.6 and a Rotten Tomatoes freshness index of 78%.

The global box office is heading towards the US$600 million mark.

This trend is terrible!

"Iron Man 2", like the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, the "Transformers" series and the "Harry Potter" series, is about to completely subvert Hollywood's perception of movies in the past hundred years.

Is it still a movie?

What about the theme?

What about thoughts?

What about artistry?

What are the pursuits of filmmakers?

None of these are left, leaving only the capital carnival in the box office market.

Many old-school filmmakers lamented this.

But no matter what, driven by new technology, movies have entered a new era. At least in the field of Hollywood blockbusters, it is probably difficult to have ideological masterpieces anymore.

But Nolan disagreed, so he made a public appearance and said that his masterpiece "Inception" in June would not disappoint everyone. It is a real movie.

Hollywood in the summer has never been short of gimmicks and infighting.

As Boss Zhou, he would naturally not participate in such low-level activities. He was involved in the discussion of a major project under Ziweixing Global - "Star Wars".

Lucasfilm has completed the acquisition.

Next, it’s time to reboot the “Star Wars” series!

There is a small problem here, that is, George Lucas's conception of this story cannot be adopted. His set of thinking is no longer in line with the current trend of the film market.

The current movie market should be like Marvel blockbusters. The plot is rich but not profound, the content is interesting but there is no lack of action scenes. The visual effects must be shocking, the continuity of the story must be maintained, and then the villains must be constantly found, over and over again. Just beat the monsters in various ways.

However, Zhou Buqi hated the Disney version of "Star Wars" in his previous life. The script was really bad, and he created a big boss. Everyone thought it would be great, but Disney said, we don't care. Who is the big boss and where does it come from? Just defeat the boss.

Depend on!

Are you treating movie fans around the world as fools?

Where is the coherence of the story?

A big villain appeared out of nowhere, and it took three movies to defeat him. And then this person jumped out of the cracks in the rocks. So what's the point of defeating this person?

Another point is that the thinking of the movie is too rigid. How many years have passed in reality, so many years have passed in the movie. "Star Wars 6" was released in 1983, and the timeline of the story of "Star Wars 7" in the movie will follow the reality and take place more than 30 years later... Is this necessary?

Time is short, and important roles in the past must be explained.

But because the salaries of these old actors are too high, Disney can't afford them, so it can only forcefully design the plot to make all these old characters die, and then replace them with new characters.

is it necessary?

100 or 200 years have passed directly in the movie story, and a new map has been opened directly. When the new male and female protagonists explore the new map, they discover bit by bit traces of the existence of the old characters in the previous six films in this world, and learn bit by bit about their legendary stories over the past hundred years. Every discovery is a surprise for the audience. Isn’t this better?

Anyway, no matter how the plot is designed, it will definitely be better than the new trilogy produced by Disney.

Disney later also discovered that the box office of the three movies "Star Wars 7", "Star Wars 8" and "Star Wars 9" continued to decline, and their reputation became worse and worse. They also saw that this was not going to work, and they quickly changed their strategies.

The new plan adopted is to let Kevin Feige, the creator of the Marvel Universe and CEO of Marvel Studios, participate in the Star Wars series to design new stories.

This model of the Marvel Universe is awesome.

But it's just starting now, and Kevin Feige is also a newbie.

what to do?

Zhou Buqi thought for a long time and finally decided to take action himself.

He is somewhat proud now, having achieved great success in all walks of life, and plans to build a new Star Wars universe based on his understanding of the design concept of the future Marvel universe.

Then, he became so confident that he brought together Michael Moore, President of the Film Division, Kathleen Kennedy, President of Lucasfilm, Bob Friedman, President of MGM Pictures, and Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios. Qidu called over and wanted to tell his own Star Wars story.

Originally he also contacted George Lucas.

But Mr. Lucas refused to come either life or death. He said that this was not his Star Wars. He was not interested and could not bear to watch others waste his hard work.

This made Zhou Buqi very unconvinced.

Times have changed.

When foreigners watch "The Three-Body Problem", they have two biggest feelings.

One is the magnificent, huge and shocking science fiction world created by the novel, and the other is pleasure. Compared with other science fiction novels that are mysterious, complex, and difficult to understand, "The Three-Body Problem" is a very refreshing and enjoyable story, a bit like an online novel, which makes people feel comfortable and expectant when reading it.

This is exactly the same concept as the Marvel Universe.

One should be big, the larger the background of the universe, the more points that can be explored, the more elements that can be added, and the more movies that can be made; the other should be enjoyable, have a sense of expectation, and have continuity, so that it can Keep the audience hooked and paying attention.

Zhou Buqi bit the bullet. He wanted to personally host the discussion meeting on the direction of the Star Wars project. "I've looked at all three plans you gave me, and they're no good. I have an idea, you just follow my lead."

In the small conference room, everyone was shocked.

Zhou Buqi ignored their surprised expressions and said calmly: "The box office results of "Iron Man 2" are very good, which further proves that Marvel's movie plan is feasible. Next, we will shoot "Captain America" ​​and "Thor", then Avengers Assemble, and then "Spider-Man", "Ant-Man" and many other superheroes appeared on the stage to create a systematic and coherent Marvel Cinematic Universe like a TV series. ."

This is the plan, but it has yet to be verified by the market.

Kevin Feige was a little excited.

There are too many movie plans in Hollywood. Only the success of the previous step can promote the continuation of the next step. Once it fails, it will be cut off early.

Zhou Buqi said: "This model is correct. Now is a new era. The movie models and movie concepts of the past have changed. Look at the "Harry Potter" series, and then look at the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. What kind of movie is this? Including our "Fast and Furious" series and "Twilight" series. This is the new movie trend. Audiences prefer to watch stories with continuity, which is what I have summarized before. The 'inertia' element."

"Yes, a series of movies can have better continuity and be easier to market. A trilogy is a very good choice."

Kathleen Kennedy was the executive president of Lucasfilm until George Lucas sold the company. This famous female producer has become the new president of Lucasfilm.

"Trilogy?" Zhou Buqi shook his head, "This structure is too small. We need to innovate and change all the inherent concepts of the past. How many "Harry Potter" films have been made?"

Many Hollywood blockbusters are basically trilogies, including the past six Star Wars movies. The prequels are a trilogy, and the sequels are also a trilogy.

There's really no need for this.

Too rigid.

Zhou Buqi said: "Good movies and good projects should continue to be filmed, endlessly, until they are no longer sought after by the market. "Iron Man 2" has been filmed, and there can still be "Iron Man 3" "Iron Man 4", this should be decided based on the actor's schedule and the plot design of the Marvel Universe, rather than being rigidly defined as a trilogy. Is a "Spider-Man" trilogy necessary? Based on the "Spider-Man" With the size of Marvel’s stories, it’s no problem to shoot thirty movies in a row.”

Catherine took a deep breath, "So the sequel to Star Wars will abandon the phased plan of the trilogy?"

"Give up!" Zhou Buqi was very decisive, "We must learn from Kevin on this point. Marvel can have a Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Wars must also create a Star Wars Cinematic Universe. Remember, this is a universe, Rather than just building a story background around a few planets or banking systems, the entire universe can be used as the design framework, with layer upon layer of progressive boss settings.”

Michael Moore knew that this big boss came from the Internet industry, and what he was best at was subversion, which was very different from the traditional ideas of Hollywood. He said frankly: "Zhou, if you have any good ideas, just say so." , we will cooperate with you in your work."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "It's not about cooperation, it's about us working together to create a grander, more magnificent, richer and more exciting Star Wars world. Well, let me tell you some of my ideas?"

"good."

"I have copied the materials. You can take them and read them. Let's discuss them one by one."

Zhou Buqi stood up and distributed the materials to everyone.

Not much, just one piece of A4 paper per person.

There is no script, not even a script outline, just an overall story design framework.