Dean Films finally compromised on the project of "The Ghost Story".
On the one hand, because Li Yi's tendencies are somewhat ambiguous, several other film and television giants will naturally not let go of such an opportunity.
For this reason, it is impossible for Dean Pictures to be alone!
Another reason is because of the script.
Yes, although they are obviously very confident in Li Yi's new film, the theme of "The Love between Humans and Ghosts" still makes them a little worried.
Although love is an eternal theme, it can be said that almost all movies on the big screen contain this element.
But there is a saying, after the new century, there are really no romance movies that do well at the box office.
Many movies, although there is love, are more embellishments than themes.
It can be said that it is well known that it is difficult for pure love movies to have high box office in this era.
Therefore, even if it is a script written by Li Yi, a director who has just created a box office miracle, many people are still skeptical.
Of course, doubts are doubts, and "The Ghost Story" will also not be a big production that requires large investment. Therefore, if it is not forced, Dean Films will certainly not be willing to give up its share.
But I can't stand it. Among the giants in Hollywood, people didn't pay much attention to "The Sixth Sense" before, and they didn't have anything to say if you were alone. But this time it's different.
After all, cooperation and competition among several giants have always coexisted.
Therefore, the intention of the four companies to cooperate together was finally reached.
Of course, although "The Love of Ghosts" is not a huge production, the investment is actually not low, mainly because the salary of a great director, Li Yi, is high enough.
So the investment budget for this movie is US$100 million.
Hollywood has a mature operating mechanism. Like in China, many film investment budget plans are unclear. It is difficult to see it here. Generally, this happens only in some independent films or low-cost films. Condition.
A movie like "The Last Days" that is jointly invested by several giants cannot be so informal.
Therefore, the budget was set at US$100 million.
This budget is relatively loose, because for Li Yi, he doesn't actually need to find too expensive actors to star in this movie.
Soon "The Love Between Humans and Ghosts" entered the formal preparation stage.
The initial funds have been put into a special account, and this account will be monitored by the insurance company that guarantees the completion of the film.
The film completion guarantee system is already very mature in Hollywood.
In fact, this completion guarantee system is a big constraint for directors, because they will strictly follow the schedule to supervise the filming progress of the film.
Once there is a delay in the plan, or the shooting tasks are not completed according to the planned schedule, etc., the personnel dispatched by the completion guarantee company will intervene.
However, it also depends on the person. If a movie like King of Sunglasses can drag on for several years, almost no insurance companies will be willing to guarantee it.
Because the completion guarantee not only guarantees the completion of filming, but also guarantees the completion time.
As for Li Yi, he feels that this system is quite good. The main reason is that he is really "economical" when making movies. There is no other way. Other directors may shoot a lot of redundant scenes, but his movies have always been Since then, there have been very few redundant shots.
The project "The Endless Love between Humans and Ghosts" was launched, and the news was quickly released.
The outside world who heard this news was not as optimistic and expectant as everyone imagined.
Especially when I learned that this was a romance film, the controversy became even greater.
"Why a romance film? It seems that since the new century, romance-themed films have always had limited box office potential!"
"And Li is from China. Chinese people have a very reserved view of love, which is completely different from our free and unrestrained love. Although "The Sixth Sense" is very good, I don't think Chinese directors can make good Hollywood love movies!"
"Although love is an eternal theme of mankind, romance movies have been poorly made in recent years. It is too difficult to make people shine like "The Sixth Sense"!"
"Is this another twist in the ending? How can a cute love movie be reversed?"
It's not just some movie fans and netizens who are skeptical about Li Yi's choice. In fact, many people see it that way.
Many people may think that since love is an eternal theme of mankind, should it be regardless of nationality, race, age or gender?
But in fact, their suspicions are not unreasonable.
To give a simple example, people in different countries have completely different attitudes towards love.
The differences between the East and the West are particularly large. Take the simplest marriage as an example. In China, and even in Asia, it is definitely abnormal for a man or woman to divorce more than twice, or it is extremely rare.
But in Western countries, divorce is so commonplace.
Even if you don't get divorced several times, you will be embarrassed to say that you are mature.
In China, you can find many cases of people who only get married once in a lifetime, but in European and American countries, there are only a few cases.
To put it simply, when it comes to love in China, everyone yearns to grow old together.
European and American countries yearn for instant gratification and freedom.
In fact, the plot of "Warm and Bright" originally filmed by Li Yi had a lot of changes because of the cultural differences between the East and the West, especially the differences in views on love.
When the news reached China, the reaction of movie fans was another.
They don't care at all whether Li Yi can make a good Hollywood romance movie, and they don't care about this at all.
The key is that this news made many movie fans very unhappy.
"Although Director Dog is prospering in Hollywood, and as a movie fan, you should be happy for him, but Director Dog, you'd better come back soon. It's been a long time since I saw your new movie released, and I always feel like watching other movies. It’s missing a bit of feeling!”
"Who says it's not? This time it's another movie that can't be released in China, so I'm very depressed!"
"I really hope that the dog director can fail once and come back to make Chinese-language movies!"
"Yes, yes, hurry up and hit the street once, haha! I don't have that sense of anticipation when I watch movies recently."
"Although there have been many good domestic films recently, compared with Director Gou's films, I always feel that something is missing. Director Gou, please come back soon!"
In fact, people like Zhao Guangming and others were also quite surprised. They did not expect that Li Yi would still be so efficient even after arriving in Hollywood. The key is that Li Yi makes movies in Hollywood. If it is other types of movies, everyone can still do it. They tried to get involved, but it was really hard to get involved in a movie like "The Last Love". There was no other way and it couldn't be released in China. How could they have any reason to get involved?
For other domestic directors, many people suddenly went out of their way and expressed their confidence in Li Yi.
"It's been a long time since a Chinese director has been so successful in Hollywood. I hope Director Li Yi can keep up the good work!"
"Director Li's talent cannot be limited to Chinese-language films, his talent should belong to the whole world!"
"Director Li's talent is obvious to all. Some movie types cannot be shot in China due to objective reasons, so everyone can understand that he goes to Hollywood to shoot. I hope he can replicate his glory in the Chinese film industry in Hollywood!"
To put it simply, at first glance, it seems that these domestic directors all support Li Yi, but in fact, they are just shy of cheering.
After all, for the Chinese film industry, Director Dog, the big devil, has suppressed them for too long.
Every time a movie is released, this big devil must be avoided first. Therefore, they really sincerely hope that Li Yi can make more movies like "The Sixth Sense" and "The Love of Ghosts". After all, this kind of No matter how successful your movie is, it won't be able to be released in China. In that case, you can still tie Li Yi to Hollywood. How great would it be?
By then, when our movie is released, the opponents we need to guard against will be on the same level.
On Hong Kong Island, many people have great expectations. After all, "The Sixth Sense" and "The Last Days" can be released on Hong Kong Island.
As the light of Hong Kong Island, Li Yi was at best the top player in Asia before, but now, they seem to see the shadow of Li Yi becoming the real top player in the world.
Naturally, they all looked proud.
After all, no matter what, the decline of Hong Kong films is an unavoidable reality, but the glory of Hong Kong films still needs the support of great directors like Li Yi. If Li Yi can continuously achieve great success in Hollywood, then naturally it will be more alright.
There is another very interesting thing.
In the year when Li Yi went to Hollywood, there were actually many more movies released in China than in the past. This refers to those big productions.
But many people understand that these companies and directors are also very helpless.
It's rare that Li Yi went to Hollywood, why don't they take advantage of this opportunity to release the movie quickly?
God knows when this bitch will come back, and it will be too difficult to face the big devil again.
However, Li Yi didn't care at all about the noise from the outside world.
The film "The Last Love" actually has very special requirements for actors.
In the original version, it can be said that the supporting characters are really outstanding, especially the black psychic aunt, who steals the show.
This is good for the movie, but also bad.
The advantage is that people will remember this character, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, it will reduce the presence of the hero and heroine.
Therefore, when it comes to casting, you need to consider it carefully.
In fact, there is nothing that can be done about it. When Li Yi was selecting actors according to the script, after the casting director gave Li Yi the suitable candidate information, Li Yi discovered that the casting of this movie was really... It's quite difficult.
Why do you say that?
Because to be honest, the settings of the male and female protagonists in this movie are actually a bit not eye-catching. Of course, this is also a necessary choice for romance movies.
Romance movies, don't watch those TV series, they often feature domineering CEOs and the like, but in movies, if you really set it up like this, you will be 100% disappointed.
Because of the sense of substitution!
Different from TV dramas, TV dramas often do not need to be too strict in logic. Instead, the audience can be drawn into it through a long plot to slowly hook the audience, but movies are completely different.
It only lasts about two hours in total. In such a short time, the audience must be brought into the role of the plot as quickly as possible.
Romance movies are different from other types of movies. Viewers of romance movies must have a clear sense of involvement, which means that the male and female protagonists cannot be too isolated from the public.
Some of the more high-end character settings, such as those of billionaires, are obviously not down to earth.
Therefore, it is not difficult to find that in many romance films, the male and female protagonists must have a setting that is more down-to-earth.
Of course, this is referring to movies.
Throughout the history of movies, it is inevitable that the male and female protagonists in romance movies are both high-ranking plutocrats or top-tier rich men.
For example, in the famous romance film "Roman Holiday", although the heroine is a princess, the hero's occupation is a relatively down-to-earth reporter. Here, the film does not consider allowing female viewers to assume the identity of the heroine at all. After all, how many princesses are there in the world?
But conversely, the identity of the male protagonist and his experience will be the object of envy, jealousy and hatred by countless men. The reason for envy, jealousy and hatred is because, in the eyes of the audience, he is actually not much better than himself.
This is a subconscious understanding.
This is actually very important for a commercial film.
Because of this premise, the movie feels like a story that is more immersive and has a deeper sense of reality.
As for the plot of "The Love of Ghosts", it is destined that the character settings of the male and female protagonists in it cannot be like the settings of "Roman Holiday".
Therefore, the two male and female protagonists must be ordinary people and members of the general public.
However, such a setting has advantages, but of course it also has limitations, that is, it will make the role simpler and leave the actors with less room for performance.
The reason why the black psychic aunt in the original version is more outstanding is not only because of the outstanding acting skills of the actors, but also because the character itself has a lot of room for development.
Although psychics are not uncommon in countries like North America, in fact, this profession itself is full of "magical" colors. You may have seen some of them, but you dare not say that you definitely know what such a person is like. .
So, this gives this character a lot of room to play.
For this reason, Li Yi could only try his best to make the male and female protagonists more outstanding when casting. As for suppressing the performance of supporting actors, there is really no need.
However, Li Yi's criteria for choosing male and female protagonists are very strange. He wants a certain feeling.
And this feeling cannot be explained simply by looking at the information, so he wanted to create a unique double casting audition.
(End of chapter)
