Chapter 76 Pacific Rim and Transformers

Gao Yuanyuan was a little confused at first, but she reacted quickly, covered her mouth with both hands and bowed, saying, "Thank you, director, thank you, director!"

Then I followed the staff's instructions, went out through the side door, and waited in a small room.

Jiang Heng is still auditioning. No matter what the mentality or performance of the actresses behind him is, the necessary process must be completed.

The entire event ended at around three in the afternoon before someone was ordered to call Gao Yuanyuan back.

Senior executives from China Film Group and representatives from Columbia were also present, and they were equally curious about Jiang Heng's choice.

But looking at Gao Yuanyuan's appearance, figure and temperament, it's not surprising anymore!

Although this girl is not famous at the moment, she is obviously blessed by God and has a goddess-like aura.

Only after discussing the pay and contract schedule did they let him leave.

Until she returned home, the national goddess was still a little confused. She couldn't believe that she had easily gotten this role that drove countless Chinese actresses crazy.

Jiang Heng continued the preparations for the "Pacific Rim" project.

In terms of investment, the 2013 historical original version cost a total of 1.9 million US dollars. Taking into account factors such as inflation and actors' salaries over the past ten years, Jiang Heng's initial budget was million US dollars.

China Film Group could only invest a very small amount, only 20 million US dollars, and it took a lot of effort to get it approved.

Columbia was a wealthy company, but because it could not lead the film, it did not dare to take too much money and only invested 30 million.

The remaining 50 million US dollars was naturally supplemented by Jiang Heng.

In terms of actors, the male lead is Wu Qiuzu, the female lead is Gao Yuanyuan, Xie Tingfeng is chosen to play the male lead's brother, and the old partner Gao Xiong plays the Chinese general in the film.

The rest of the roles were played by third-tier artists recommended by Columbia.

According to Jiang Heng's idea, all three lines are a bit of a waste of money, after all, the biggest selling point of this movie is mechas fighting monsters.

As for human characters, only the leading actors can attract the audience's attention.

As for the supporting roles, it’s almost okay to just ignore them.

However, Columbia stated that the male and female protagonists both have Chinese faces, which has inherent deficiencies in promotion and publicity in Europe and the United States.

Although Wu Qiuzu is a little famous for "The Matrix" and "100 Million BC", he is still not as friendly as white faces.

Invite one or two third-tier Hollywood stars, so at least you can brag about it during the promotion.

Having said that, Jiang Heng couldn't refuse and could only let them do as they pleased.

Next is the script. The main story line written by Jiang Heng basically follows the original story in 2013. Overall, it is relatively smooth and has a typical commercial film plot.

Originally, "Pacific Rim 2" became a terrible movie, largely because the plot was not smooth enough and mixed with too many messy things.

The mecha was not thick enough, and it looked like Ultraman wearing a mecha skin to fight monsters, resulting in both poor reputation and box office.

Speaking of box office, "Pacific Rim 1" is actually not good enough. It cost 1.9 million to produce, but its global box office was only 4.11 million US dollars.

The reason for this situation is largely due to the fact that Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures parted ways. Prior to this, they had been working together for eight years and were one of the most successful partners in Hollywood, jointly producing many box office successes including "Batman: The Dark Knight", "Inception", "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Hangover".

When Pacific Rim was produced, Legendary Pictures paid for 75% of the cost, while Warner Bros., the distributor, only paid for 25%. However, about two weeks before the North American release, when Warner Bros. was supposed to be promoting the film vigorously, 70% of the promotion budget had not yet been spent.

Without strong distribution, it is almost impossible to achieve box office success unless a miracle happens.

As for why the two companies were cooperating well but suddenly broke up, it is said that Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull was dissatisfied with Warner Bros., but in fact they were complaining to each other privately that the other side was taking all the credit.

The partners have ulterior motives and are trying to sabotage each other, so it would be strange if the box office results were good.

As for the second reason, Jiang Heng felt that it was a matter of timing for the release.

When it comes to the famous mecha image, the first thing that comes to the audience's mind must be Transformers, a film and television work derived from a toy product.

The cartoon appeared earlier, as early as 1984, and was produced and released by Hasbro.

If we talk about the influence of this film, it is mostly among children.

The live-action film and television adaptation had to wait until 2007's "Transformers", co-produced by DreamWorks and Paramount and directed by Michael Bay.

The audience was extremely excited when the majestic Autobots transformed into various forms like gods descending from heaven.

When you look at other mecha images, you will always feel that they are not as good as before. This is the importance of preconceived ideas.

In terms of visual effects, "Avatar 2" is not inferior to the first one, but in terms of influence, it is incomparable.

Jiang Heng released Pacific Rim ahead of schedule in order to take over from Transformers.

As the first mecha special effects blockbuster in film history, "Pacific Rim", which is expected to be released in 2001, will bring visual shock to the audience that will definitely far exceed the historical original.

The word of mouth and box office will surely be good. Regardless of how much profit will be made, at least there will not even be a "paper loss".

As for the filming of the film, in addition to funding, actors, and scripts, what is more important is the image design of the various mechas and monsters in the film.

Jiang Heng drew a large number of character concept drawings and storyboard scripts early on.

It is precisely because of these solid preparations that China Film and Columbia Corporation dare to invest heavily!

At least in their opinion, Jiang Heng's special effects movies since his debut are undoubtedly masterpieces, so the quality of this movie will not be bad either.

It is also a live-action mecha movie released before "Transformers", so its box office prospects are still very bright.

In early October, the crew of Pacific Rim officially started filming in Hong Kong.

First, they filmed the scenes of the Battle of Hong Kong, then went to San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo and other places to shoot the exterior scenes, and finally returned to the China Film Digital Studio in Beijing for filming, followed by post-production. When the news came out, it was a shock.

Especially in Hollywood, several companies have contacted Jiang Heng and wanted to cooperate on some film projects, but Columbia Corporation took the lead.

The person who could least accept this was the famous producer Don Murphy. It can be said that there would be no "Transformers" without him.

Originally, producer Don Murphy wanted to shoot a movie called "G.I. Joe" after the outbreak of the Iraq War, but in the end he negotiated with Hasbro about the adaptation rights of "Transformers" and invited many people to complete the script together. Even Spielberg had expressed his opinions on the script of "Transformers".

But when Don Murphy sold the idea of ​​the movie "Transformers" to major film companies and assured investors that this subject would definitely be a big hit, no one was interested at first.

But after a few weeks of no response, five film companies including DreamWorks, New Line, and Paramount came to us almost at the same time.

It turned out that the investors that Don Murphy initially contacted were all relatively old, with old-fashioned ideas, and they didn't think mechas and Autobots were interesting.

But when they returned to the company and brought up this idea at an internal meeting, the young executives showed strong interest.

As for the film's director, Michael Bay, he actually thought it was just a "stupid toy movie."

Fortunately, he also declined the invitation, carefully studied the ins and outs of the Transformers series, and then agreed to direct in 2005, which made him famous.

In Hollywood, the fat Don Murphy went to Hasbro and rushed to get the adaptation rights of "Transformers".

There was no time to write a script, so I just made a story outline and started selling it to major Hollywood film and television companies.

"Dear sir, I'm sure you've heard that the director from the East is working with Columbia to shoot a mecha movie!"

The old man opposite Don Murphy is a producer from Paramount Company named Robert. He does have old-fashioned ideas and his market sense is not that sensitive.

"I heard that a kid who relies on his talent and squanders it recklessly will soon fall flat on his face, in my opinion! He has made several types of films, science fiction, monsters, and myths of his country? Well, "Devil's Land" (Lion Camel Ridge) is a bit interesting, but so what? Maybe this one will lose a lot of money!"

Don Murphy was stunned and thought, "That's not what I came to you to talk about!"

“Well, actually I want to say that Director Jiang Heng has a good vision. Science fiction is a signature film genre in Hollywood. If he hadn’t used The Matrix as a stepping stone, it would have been almost impossible for his subsequent works to be released on a large scale in North America.

"100 Million BC" is obviously following the Jurassic series of movies. Although the word of mouth is average, it still made money thanks to its good special effects.

It is precisely because of the audience base accumulated by these two blockbusters that "Devil's Land" has exploded at the North American box office!"

Robert was also stunned, thinking, you came to me just to praise an oriental director?
I admit that he does make good movies, but as for his taste, it’s hard to say!

"what do you mean?"

"I think mecha movies are likely to be a hit at the box office. Now that I have the film and television adaptation rights for Transformers, we can definitely jointly launch a live-action version of the movie. It would be great if we can release it before Jiang Heng's!"

After hearing this, Robert was still confused. He was old and had never watched the "Transformers" cartoon, so he had no idea what Don Murphy was talking about!
"Will it?" He just asked in a questioning tone.

Don Murphy was extremely anxious and regretted that he had not started the filming of "Transformers" earlier.

Of course, due to the limitations of the technological level of the time, although the "Transformers" animation has been on the market for many years, everyone is still stuck in the old mindset that it couldn't be filmed in the past, and has not carefully thought about the feasibility of things.

Jiang Heng's filming of "Pacific Rim" was a wake-up call to these people.

"Of course! Mr. Robert, can you help me apply to the company?"

Seeing Don Murphy's anxious expression, Robert became more and more unsure. Fearing that he would become more and more timid as the conversation went on, he drank water strategically and said, "Well, leave the information to me. I will bring out your ideas for everyone to discuss at the company's regular meeting later!"

Don Murphy naturally said yes, handed over the prepared materials, and when he stood up to say goodbye, he suddenly said, "New blockbusters that use visual effects as a selling point often reap the biggest dividends as the first film. Do you still remember the grand occasion when Jurassic Park 93 was released in 1? It grossed nearly billion US dollars worldwide. It was really a crazy profit!

But looking back today, is this movie still so shocking? The total time of all the dinosaurs' appearances was only fifteen minutes, but with these fifteen minutes of slightly crude special effects shots, the company earned hundreds of millions of dollars. This is the bonus of the first film!"

Robert couldn't help but sigh when he heard this, "I understand if you put it that way. It's really true. But Pacific Rim has already started filming. No matter how hard you try to catch up, it's hard for Transformers to be released earlier than Pacific Rim!"

Tang Murphy said, "That's true, but you forgot one thing. The film that Jiang Heng shot is said to have an original story, without an original work. The Transformers cartoon has been broadcast for many years. Many children who watched this cartoon back then have grown up now.

You say, if a real-life movie is released now, will those kids buy tickets and go to the cinema? "

"hiss!"

Robert couldn't help but take a breath when he heard this. It was really true.

If that's the case, then the feasibility of shooting this film is still very high.

He hurriedly said, "Don't worry, I will report to the president after I return!"

Seeing that the lobbying was effective, Don Murphy was secretly proud. "That's great, because I have also made appointments with production executives from other companies. If Paramount is slow, I will have no choice but to cooperate with other companies!"

When Robert heard this, he thought, “Hey, you’re putting pressure on me!”

But since the project seems good, I don't mind it.

Take the information and go back to report to the company's top management without mentioning it.

However, Don Murphy met with several other producers in succession and explained the reason to them, and received good feedback.

Several Hollywood giants were already very curious about the new mecha film shot by Jiang Heng and Columbia, and suddenly they discovered that there was a better project in their own territory, so they immediately scrambled for it!

For a time, companies such as DreamWorks, New Line, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. all sent senior executives to negotiate with Don Murphy, and the final outcome of the matter was in line with historical inertia, and was eventually jointly acquired by DreamWorks and Paramount.

In order to expand the publicity, the two companies directly challenged Jiang Heng and Columbia, claiming that the "Transformers" they were about to shoot was the best mecha movie in film history.

But no matter how you calculate it, it cannot be released before Jiang Heng's film, let alone the word "first", it has to take the title of the best right away.

For a time, major North American media reported that the words "Pacific Rim" and "Transformers" were discussed repeatedly, becoming popular before the show was even aired.

(End of this chapter)