Hollywood Road

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Warner Bros. officially confirmed that a director named Zuo Walter Brofsky will direct the latest DC comic book superhero movie "Suicide Squad."

Choosing to be announced during this time period, Murphy's own guess, Warner Bros. may not have shown a strong attitude, but this has no effect on him. After all, he does not have to get the guide of "Wonder Woman".

When he returned home, he went to the social networking site to take a look. Walter Brofsky is a very strange name.

However, Murphy is not surprised. There are many directors in Hollywood that he does not know. For example, Jon Fayyue once hadn’t known him. If it weren’t for the film "Iron Man", I believe it was not just him, but many fans would not know him. The fat director.

There are many unremarkable directors in Hollywood. Before directing well-known productions, they have worked as directors in independent film circles or other smaller film circles and advertising circles for many years.

It is rumored that the investment of "Suicide Squad" may be as high as 150 million US dollars. Even if such a director is found to be directed, even if there is a little conflict with Warner Bros., Murphy also believes that they are definitely not crazy, and must have their own reasons. .

In Hollywood, it is not uncommon to see examples of small directors with sufficient qualifications directing large projects.

In the eyes of people outside the circle, these directors must be geniuses, and their new debut will be trusted and appreciated by big companies, and they will get the guides for large-scale productions that cost hundreds of millions of dollars...

But no one in the circle would think so.

These so-called novice directors who are not well-known are actually veterans, but they have never been directors of commercial blockbusters. The current Hollywood commercial film system is complete, and the producer system can ensure that the quality of the film will not become thorough due to the director's failure to standardize. Disaster, not to mention that these directors will not have the final editing rights at all.

Similar to this situation, there must be strong support and referrals from heavyweights, and the role of this aspect is quite critical.

On the other hand, most craftsman-level directors in Hollywood are often good at more than one similar, and can deal with multiple genres, except for some special types-such as musicals and film noirs-therefore, as long as you carefully examine and decide on the director There is basically no so-called unsuitable situation for the candidates.

For example, asking Ridley Scott to direct a purely romantic film will not be too bad, but the director's interest is not here.

In addition, producers, art directors, and experienced editors are the guarantee of the project. Most ordinary directors of Hollywood popcorn commercials are just people who string up the entire project, sometimes even just live performance directors.

Under the reminder of typical Hollywood business operations, the importance of directors for those popcorn commercial movies with serious homogeneity has been weakened too much.

Take Carla Firth’s X-Men’s revamped version of "X-Men: First Class" as an example. The finalized actors Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy are Carla Firth. The screenplay was selected by the producer, and the screenplay was written early. As the director, Matthew Vaughan has no final editing rights.

Don’t say it’s him. Carla Firth has restarted another "Alien" series. In the project that has been named "Prometheus", the great director Ridley Scott does not have the final editing rights, it is hard to imagine. ?

Ridley Scott is undoubtedly a first-line Hollywood director, but his power in the crew has been suppressed to the limit, because his last film suffered a terrible loss. In the commercial film circle that speaks at the box office, everything is like this. reality.

In these ordinary commercial productions, as far as the production company is concerned, the director is here to work. If you are not obedient, the producer has the right to change the director.

This kind of high-investment commercial production is actually extremely rigid in Hollywood, because it is afraid of losing money because it accidentally encounters the taboos of the audience, so it can always feel that the current blockbuster filming is almost the same.

In many cases, for such general popcorn commercial masterpieces, the producers don’t want to find directors like Murphy who demand great power, because directors like them have ideas and final editing rights, but this is a production of hundreds of millions of dollars. Can not tolerate a person so creative.

The other side of this logic is, are directors like Murphy willing to be so angry?

In fact, not only in large-scale productions, the director often doesn't know, but the actors often don't know each other, or they just recognize it but are not particularly famous and can cause screams.

In fact, most of the budget is spent on special effects for these kinds of movies. Of course, the fewer directors and actors, the better. The big-name directors and actors not only get their salaries but also score the box office. The production companies can't make money even if they make money. Happy.

Of course, these directors whom the audience has never heard of must have been strictly considered by the production company. Although the reputation is relatively lacking, there is definitely no problem with the on-site shooting. Among them, there are a large number of advertisements, photographers, and B-level film backgrounds. In the past experience, many directors also came from here, so production companies are also willing to select people from these fields. These are actually bottom-up selection channels among Hollywood directors.

Looking at Hollywood today, why more and more directors with a background in advertising have taken up A-level productions, because directors who have a background in advertising have a good set of visual effects, although the story is often sparsely told, and there is a heavy advertising thinking. , But this goes back to the original question. Most of the audiences go to the cinema to see scenes and effects.

Therefore, now more and more big directors give the producer to the film with a relatively high budget, or the producer gives him someone closer to him. For example, Murphy is cultivating Gal Gadot, just for Let yourself have more autonomy and get more benefits.

Strictly speaking, the big director + big star + high investment model has the highest risk. In the history of Hollywood, there are too many cases where a company can no longer work because of this model at the box office. If not, there are too many cases. With sufficient protection, the production company will not be so confident to make a film of this model.

If you want to do this kind of project, you must be able to see enough profit prospects. For example, directors such as Murphy and Spielberg have a large number of super successful resumes. Even if the project can't get back from the box office, it can pass. Earning profits in the later period.

It is said that Hollywood movies are an industrial system, what is an industry? That is, standardized processes and risk control are implemented in every aspect.

Let’s put it this way, the production of the typical popcorn high-cost movie + the combination of unfamiliar directors is handed over to the six major companies to shoot, and it is not possible to shoot similar visual effects to those carefully selected Unknown directors go to shoot, and under the strict control of the producers, it will not be much worse.

In these films, if the director is really talented, it will be the icing on the cake. If the director has a problem, the film will not be completely ruined.

In the economic crisis of 2008, Murphy invested in a series of films of this type, such as "Transformers 2", etc. These films are basically of this type, with the characteristics of popcorn, and relatively little risk.

Of course, in a very small number of commercial films, production companies will become cautious and will not easily make investment decisions. Such films must be escorted by the configuration of famous editors and famous directors.

Such movies are generally original movies, which are very risky.

Everything is actually the control of risk costs in the final analysis.

Hollywood's strict control of risk control is hard for people outside the circle to imagine. Even Murphy's current project cannot get the investor's green light. The necessary review procedures must be gone.

Even those projects that look very good and are different at first glance will also be controlled by risk costs.

"The Matrix" is a typical example.

When the Wachowski brothers and sisters were the Wachowski brothers, the brothers took the script of "The Matrix" and went to various producers. After the producers saw them, they didn't like them at all. They thought this kind of inexplicable thing. It would only be a mess to make a movie. After running into a wall in Hollywood, the Wachowski brothers had no choice. In order to increase the persuasiveness of the script and plan, they hired a cartoonist friend to help them create a comic based on the matrix. After showing it to many filmmakers—that is, the animated version of the matrix that was widely praised later—in the hands of many filmmakers, one of them took the manga to the top of Warner Bros., but the top of Warner began to watch. There is no difference at all. To say that this story combines religion and philosophy and business actions is completely nonsense and does not want to invest at all.

Later, the Wachowski brothers couldn't help but took a whole set of short films at their own expense by borrowing money from various sources, which impressed the top leaders of Warner Bros.

To put it simply, the first point is that the market evaluation and prediction of the script is too risky. The film company is not a fool, and it is impossible to be shocked when they see something like this. They are not fools; the second point is that the director and The reputation of the screenwriter is not enough. If the script is not the Wachowski Brothers, replacing it with the current Murphy or Spielberg is definitely another effect.

For Hollywood's first-line directors and newcomer directors, these are completely different things.

Concerned about the selection of directors by Warner Bros., Murphy continued to polish his script and plan in the subsequent time. As long as there are no major accidents, this will be his new project.

Los Angeles is like New York, it looks extremely prosperous and glamorous on the surface, but in any world, there is always darkness in places where there is light.

However, in this era, darkness is always hidden in the depths and will not easily appear in front of the public.

In the old Chinatown, in a very ordinary warehouse, a few people gathered together to check the firearms and make final preparations for the next action. On the wall directly in front of them, there was an image of a man hanging on his face. With a few scars and tough facial lines, he looks like a strong-willed person.

"Look up!" said the man at the beginning in awkward English, "this is what we are going to kill!"