Chapter 182 Wanted
Eckles' "killer app" really worked. After learning that Julie had joined the movie, Lin Mingyang's attitude immediately made a 180-degree turn. Previously, he claimed that he was not interested in this kind of subject matter, but now he has shown a strong "interest" in the movie.
"You really did have an affair with Angelina!" Eckles' "cunning plan" succeeded, and a smug smile appeared on his face, "No wonder she took the trouble to adopt children from Cambodia, Ethiopia and other places, but refused to remarry herself, so it's because of this reason."
Seeing the somewhat unnatural expression on Lin Ming Yang's face, Ecks stopped his joke at the right time. American society was originally very open on the issue of gender relations, but after marriage, both husband and wife had to abide by loyalty, because marriage was a contract, and Western capitalist civilization was built on the basis of a contract society.
Before marriage, as long as they are not devout Catholics, everyone is very "tolerant" in the relationship between the sexes, especially between two men who do not know each other.
Speculation about Lin Mingyang's girlfriends has always been a topic of great interest to the media, but no one can say how many women he has had relationships with, and there are so many actresses he has been rumored to have that it is difficult to tell the difference between what is true and what is not. And as his agent, Ecks is actually not very clear in his heart.
"During 2003-2004, Top Cow Comics Publishing released six issues of the comic Wanted, which was somewhat similar to the movie The Matrix, which was a big hit a few years ago, and was also framed by an ordinary white collar worker who is suddenly brought into a virtual world to start an exciting life."
The emergence of "The Matrix" has a landmark significance in the history of Hollywood cinema, this movie both in terms of filming techniques and thematic content, has created a completely new field, but also profoundly influenced many later generations of movies, including of course the comic book that Ecks is now mentioning.
The assassins created in Wanted are, of course, killing for their own sake, but they are not killing to create a new society, nor for the so-called national justice, and they have nothing to do with all the moral things. They kill for one reason and one reason only, and that is profit. What the comic shows is the story of a group of super-villains, which is completely contrary to the superhero model of the original American comics.
"The comic was seen by Jimmy Jeff, the chairman of Universal Studios. Jeff happened to be looking for a subject that could be made into a 'hard R-rated' movie, and the Wanted, which was quite dark in style and tone, fit the bill. They bought the movie rights to the comic, and both authors were happy to have their comic made into a movie, but the screenwriter they got to adapt the script left Jeff very unhappy."
Jeff brought this up in yesterday's call, and Eckles deliberately mimicked the tone and cadence of the other man's speech, paraphrasing his original words, "I expected to see this movie be the exact opposite of the Spider-Man movie, and that Wanted was going to be a story about a guy who suddenly gets some kind of magical power, and with it he can do whatever he wants to do. and in the end he chooses to follow the so-called crooked path instead of the right one. This version of the script is still too mild, I think, and the flavor of American heroism still lingers in it."
Because Jeff was never quite satisfied with the script, the film's shooting schedule was repeatedly delayed. But earlier this year, the issue was finally resolved as the director was confirmed.
Jeff needed a filmmaker with enough creative ability to direct the movie, and producer Pratt agreed that Wanted, when adapted into a movie, needed someone at the helm with the courage and talent to be able to break out of the confines of the norm.
This candidate, who surfaced immediately after Pratt saw Night Watch, naturally assumed that with a budget as small as Night Watch's, Timo Bekmambetov could create an action movie full of gorgeous visual treats, and that he would surely be able to unleash his vibrant filmmaker's and his unique sense of darker elements as a filmmaker.
"Russian director Tim Bekmambetov was brought in to direct the movie, having previously achieved high box office and good reviews with his two small-budget magical hits, "Night Watch" and "Day Watch," and his reputation spread from Russia to the U.S., where he became the subject of a bidding war with American studios. Pratt, a producer under Universal, went to Tim with the story of "A Most Wanted Man," which then managed to pique the Russian director's interest, which prompted his decision to come to the U.S. to make his first Hollywood movie."
When it comes to Russian cinema, most people still think of academic directors like Tarkovsky or Alexander Sokolov. But just like the recovering Russian economy, a huge, brave and ambitious change is brewing in Russian cinema.
In one industry, the emergence of a certain kind of person actually means that change is rising in waves throughout the industry. Tim Bekmambetov is just such a person. With two consecutive sell-out movies, Night Watch and Day Watch, both of which outperformed other Hollywood blockbusters at the local box office in Russia. At least Tim's presence made people realize that Russian directors aren't all about making boring movies.
"Tim started revising the script as soon as he was in place and his revisions made the rather American story quite crazy, the whole thing really became quite dark after he added his own Eastern European style crazy ideas to the story, a revision that pleased Jeff a lot because it fit in very well with the ideas he had been holding."
"I don't think there were any female characters in that comic." From the moment Ecks began to introduce the movie, Lin Ming Yang had been quietly acting as a listener, and this was the first time he had taken the initiative to ask.
"Why don't we say that Julie's energy is amazing?" Ecks laughed, "The producers specially invited Chris Morgan to be the script doctor, and his task was to customize a role for Julie. The heroine in the script is called Fox, I've read the script, and it seems that Chris combined Lola from Lola the Grave Robber with Trinity from The Matrix, and ended up with the role of a dangerous woman full of mystery, and I heard that she herself loves this role."
After Angelina Jolie was confirmed to join the film, the problem of finding other actors became a major problem for Universal. The already small production budget became increasingly stretched after hiring a big name like Jolie. The $10 million dollar fee was only for Jolie's roles in small literary films like Strong Hearts and The Good Shepherd, and she was paid $15 million dollars for her role in Sister Act. But even if Jolie's salary has been lowered to a very low level, the Wanted filming cost is still roughly a quarter to a fifth of the filming cost was divided by her.
Lin Mingyang's salary would definitely not be lower than Jolie's if he joined the movie. Just when he was worried about the lack of filming costs for the movie, Eckles came to the rescue.
"So it's still your face that's the biggest, Jeff on the phone not only offered you a 20 million dollar paycheck, but also promised to raise the production cost of this movie to 100 million dollars!" He looked at Lin Ming Yang very seriously, "Deducting your honorarium, director Tim will have at least an extra 15 million dollars of production costs on his hands out of thin air. In yesterday's phone call, I didn't directly reply to Jeff, so the director and producer of the movie will definitely come to lobby you."
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Ecks' prediction soon became a reality, Lin Ming Yang's side had only just finished filming Transformers, and on that end the producer of Wanted, Pratt, made a door-to-door visit along with the director, Tim Bekmambetov, and they were accompanied by a Russian interpreter.
Tim has only mastered very simple English conversation now, and although he had a translator with him, it was still a bit inconvenient for both sides to communicate. The only good thing about the language barrier was that it saved a lot of tedious politeness when they met. And in the ensuing conversation, the main questions were phrased by the producer, Pratt, who tried to slow down his speech as much as possible when he spoke to ensure that the translator would be able to tell Tim the full meaning of what he was saying.
At the very beginning Pratt mentioned that he was a big fan of Tim Bekmambetov, and now that he finally had the opportunity to join him as a producer on Wanted, he seemed thrilled throughout, and his emotions were running high as he spoke.
"From the completion of the first version of the script to the start of the movie, it took us almost two years in between. In our opinion, adaptations all need a starting point in the right direction, which is how to perfectly distill the story point of view from the original to fit the big screen, and then raise the picture above a comfortable level through the unique photoelectric effect of the film - because even though the original comics have depicted the grotesque and bizarre style of But there's no guarantee that the same thing will produce the same effect in a movie!"
"Watching Timo Bekmambetov's film is a unique experience like no other, and the visual language he employs is so bizarre and remarkable that it's jaw-dropping and exciting at the same time."
...
"Bekmambetov instills a cinematic voice in his work that you don't have the luxury of ignoring, and I hope that this rare ability of his will allow the original comic book series to burst onto the big screen with a whole new level of brilliance and energy, and that we can all look forward to the excellent work he can bring to the table that will be exciting, practically meaningful, and easily understood by the audience. "
Pratt showed full confidence in the one-of-a-kind visual stunts that Tim Bekmambetov has already demonstrated in his previous work, even joking, "If you put three people, including Bekmambetov, in the same room and give them the same camera to shoot the same image...only Bekmambetov, can bring you a different kind of awe and shock!"
Pratt said all this in order to prove to Lin Ming Yang that Tim Bekmambetov was a trustworthy director and what a special movie Wanted was. He knew that for an actor of Lin Ming Yang's tier, it was already difficult to bring up his interest in ordinary roles, and that going off the beaten path would have unexpected results instead.
If Tim hadn't been Russian, but from another country in Europe, Pratt probably wouldn't have spent so much time explaining it. Although the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists, the Cold War mentality remains in the minds of many Americans. Russia, despite its economic decline, still maintains the ability to pose a significant threat to the United States militarily. This vaguely antagonistic stance between the two sides has hampered cultural exchanges between the two countries, and even open-minded Hollywood has a lot of taboos on the issue.
It was only because of Tim Bekmambetov's prodigious imagination, which had already been highlighted as being beyond the norm, that the Kazakh-born Gurriyev was finally able to shoot his first English-language production in the United States. Working with him was the shrewd and resourceful producer Pratt, and of course it was all done under the umbrella of Universal, which is a major player in Hollywood.
Lin Mingyang had no inhibitions in this regard, so Pratt's explanation seemed superfluous. When the producer had finished speaking, he asked directly: "When will the movie start shooting? Does the director already have a complete idea for the movie?"
Pratt could have answered the first question himself, but the second he had to ask the director, Tim, through an interpreter.
The interpreter relayed the question to Tim Bekmambetov, and the Russian director excitedly gabbled at Lin Mingyang before realizing that Lin Mingyang had a blank look on his face, and the interpreter beside him sat dumbfounded, which made him realize the difference between the two sides in terms of language.
In his momentary excitement, he forgot about this matter, the key was that he spoke so fast that the translator next to him couldn't relay it in time, and this time he expressed it sentence by sentence, and through the translator, Lin Mingyang was able to figure out what he meant.
Tim believed that every flashy, fantasy-based action movie should start from a foundation of realism. And as a director, he paid special attention to refining the story elements he could get his hands on, because he had to make sure that his firm beliefs could be incorporated into every scene of the movie.
"Even though Wanted is my first English-language feature, it's not so different from the films I've directed before, as long as I think about how to establish a connection with the audience. I'm going to try to tap into their preferences and then make a really good piece of work for them and show them that I'm actually very good at storytelling."