Chapter 240 - Pie in the Sky

Lin Ming Yang and Hefner made a public statement in front of the media, and MGM's acquisition of the Playboy Group naturally came to fruition, and at the negotiating table, the two sides began a long haggling session. Lin Mingyang did not participate in the specific acquisition negotiations, because the "New Sherlock Holmes" officially started shooting, as the main actor he had to honestly stay in the cast.

On this day, he was in the dressing room and the female lead Scarlett Johansson "flirting" when the director Guy Ritchie suddenly burst in. When he found out that Lin Mingyang and Scarlett were the only two people in the room, he suddenly realized how presumptuous it was for him to barge in.

He raised his hands apologetically, "I'm not disturbing you guys, am I?"

Without waiting for Lin Ming Yang to say anything, Scarlett jumped in and said, "Of course, we were just having a normal chat!"

In fact, there is no need to explain this matter, but when Scarlett said this, there is the suspicion of "no silver here, no silver here, no silver there", and it would be strange if smart as Guy Ritchie didn't have suspicions.

"Mr. Guy Ritchie, what's the matter?" Since Scarlett had already blurted out, Lin Ming Yang did not explain too much except for a helpless sigh in his heart, instead, Guy Ritchie hurriedly barged in, there should be something important to discuss with him.

Although Guy Ritchie had guessed something in his heart, he looked as if he knew nothing on the surface, and said straight to Lin Ming Yang, "Mr. Ecks is here, saying that he wants to see you...he also brought a guest!"

"Alright!" Lin Ming Yang nodded his head, although he wasn't sure what would happen if Ecks brought someone to himself at this time, but the person had already arrived at the theater set, he couldn't hide and not see them. As he was leaving, Lin Ming Yang slightly apologized and glanced towards Scarlett with an unspeakable meaning in his eyes.

Scarlett, of course, was aware of what the hint in his eyes was, and in the way of Guy Ritchie being present, she just winked knowingly. The two of this small action naturally can not hide from the eyes of Guy Ritchie, but Guy Ritchie is nothing like standing there, oblivious to what is happening in front of them.

On the way to the parlor, in order to avoid embarrassment, Lin Mingyang didn't take the initiative to ask Guy Ritchie who the visitor with Eckles was. When he arrived at the door, Guy Ritchie unscrewed the door of the room and made a gesture of invitation towards the inside, but had no intention of going in himself.

Guy Ritchie's behavior caused Lin Mingyang to suddenly become interested in the mysterious visitor, and as he walked into the room, he was still wondering in his head what kind of person could make Eckles personally accompany him, and make Guy Ritchie so formal?

With all sorts of speculations, Lin Ming Yang pushed the door in, he raised his eyes towards the room and then couldn't help but freeze. At this time, there was only one thought in his mind, why is this person here?

While he was briefly frozen, the two people in the room both stood up in unison. By the time Lin Mingyang came back to his senses, that person had already walked quickly to Lin Mingyang.

"Mr. Felix, it's an honor to see you here!"

Seeing the other person's hand reaching out, Lin Ming Yang was half a beat slower in his reaction, but he still handed his hand out in time, and the handshake was finally not a joke.

"Mr. Cameron, I really didn't expect..." Lin Ming Yang acted a little too excited, but on the contrary, Ecks on the side was puzzled. Because Lin Mingyang's behavior at this time was completely the same as a newcomer to the industry, and he could not see the appearance that MGM's chairman should have.

"Didn't think I'd come uninvited?" Cameron didn't mind Lin Mingyang's "childish" expression at this time, but on the contrary, from the fervor in the eyes of this young man, who was one of the most popular people in Hollywood, he saw the hope of success in his trip.

Cameron's intention Eckles is clear, he was afraid that Lin Mingyang momentary excitement, regardless of the other party agreed, this time hastily coughed twice, "We'd better sit down to say it!"

Unfortunately, just after sitting down, Ecks realized that he could no longer interject. Because as soon as Lin Ming Yang sat down, he began to ask Cameron about the shooting of his IMAX-3D movie, and in his words, he held the technical movie in high esteem.

Cameron found out that Lin Mingyang actually shared a common hobby with himself in this regard, and he started to become excited as well, and then gushingly started to talk about the experience of creating this movie:

"My sources of inspiration were very singular, all from the science fiction novels I read as a child. And some of it wasn't science fiction. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Red Haggard and other writers of masculine jungle adventures. At one point I wanted to do an old-fashioned jungle adventure, just set the story on some other planet and play by its rules. So this movie takes place on a fictional alien planet."

In the 1970s, more and more fragments of imagination were assembled in Cameron's mind into his first script, which created a magnificent world full of spaceships, alien creatures and brand new planets, and even envisioned the basic forms of alien races based on the theory of evolution, which, in his own words, "It was a world where creatures could light up by themselves In his own words, "It was a world where creatures could shine on their own.

From the birth of the idea to the film to put into production, "Avatar" and Cameron's fame as experienced a very long wait, between 1976 and 1977, dropped out of college, working as a truck driver and part-time delivery during the day, Cameron in his spare time or writing science fiction, making all kinds of movie models. That year, the release of Star Wars rekindled the creative passion in his heart, and he had always dreamed of making a sci-fi masterpiece like Star Wars.

Ignoring his wife's grumbling and anger, Cameron sold his money for some rudimentary movie shooting equipment and worked with a few friends to make short films. After this, Cameron began to step on his own movie journey, during the period through the "Alien 2", two episodes of "Terminator", "The Abyss", "True Lies" and other films finally established a Hollywood first-line director's status.

In 1994, with his success and fame behind him, he began to get the itch to make a movie again, and the ideas that had been stored up in his head for nearly two decades began to stir. An 82-page screenplay was quickly compiled, and the story of Avatar took shape. The story is about a paralyzed Earth soldier who travels to a mysterious planet and meets with the planet's primitive race, which leads to the emergence of genetically modified people and a war between humans and the alien race. Initially in the script, the Na'vi were not set to be blue, as was eventually determined, but rather green in color.

"You'll see the same theme in 'In God's Territory Game' and 'The Emerald Forest.' There's not a lot of connection between the settings of those films, but the stories are about a clash of cultures or civilizations. For me, that's another datum point. There is beauty in the movie. I included the whole theme in the movie. You then see those through the lens of sci-fi. The movie will look very different when it comes out. But in a cosmic backstory, these will still be identifiable to the audience. The audience will also be very comfortable watching it."

"In 1995, I had a closed-door meeting with the CEO of D2 and key personnel. During the meeting, I explained to the crowd what I had in mind for the otherworldly spectacle: not too many live-action cameos, a new world that was completely raw, countless green aliens that were 10 feet tall, with expressive faces and subtle movements, and in general everything had to look like it was real."

But Cameron was soon told by professionals that the CG techniques of the time were simply not possible and would take too much effort and money, and that it was impossible to achieve the effect Cameron was looking for with traditional make-up. Coupled with the 3D technology and IMAX screen hardware conditions at the time can not be perfectly rendered visual imagination of Cameron's mind, the investment cost of the initial calculation of more than 400 million, scared away all the movie companies, even the old owner of Fox also hesitated.

"Because of the shooting overruns of Titanic, I had some conflicts with Fox."

After getting a share of $75 million, Cameron, who was physically and mentally exhausted, no longer wanted to start shooting a new movie again right away. In fact, he had no better choice in mind than Avatar. The huge success of "Titanic" has made Cameron a god-like existence, and countless movie fans all over the world are eagerly looking forward to his next film, but he seems to have suddenly evaporated from the earth, with less and less related reports and news.

Of course, Cameron himself admits that he has not been idle during this period of time. On the one hand, through the shooting of documentaries to constantly study and perfect the 3D technology, while looking for the relevant technical team production company for the shooting of new movies to make preparations. Several deep-sea adventure documentaries have become Cameron's technical test bed, for which he invented the underwater IMAX camera, dual-lens virtual camera, realizing the requirements of his heart for the next generation of cameras: lighter, easy to operate, in line with the film shooting habits, with unparalleled high resolution, while the 3D effect can be shot directly on the screen.

Cameron shrugged: "in the 'Alien 2' after, I have not dyed in the space theme of science fiction films, I feel that the heart of the dream and the meditation point to all in the same step in the convergence to together."

With the 3D movie technology and CG special effects production explosion of the development level is becoming more and more perfect. In the spring of 2005, Cameron again approached Fox and convinced them to invest some of their money in a blooper reel. A month later, the footage, produced by Industrial Light and Magic, finally impressed Fox executives, who granted Cameron nearly three hundred million dollars to make his dream come true. Fox's big brother Murdoch gave Cameron full trust and support, in his eyes, he may be with this Hollywood "burn money king" together to create a new movie miracle. In June of the same year, Cameron announced that he would shoot a movie codenamed 880 project, the same period also intends to Japanese science fiction manga "Singijeon" on the screen. But at the end of the same year, he changed his mind again, during which time smoke bombs were released, and there were a lot of uncertainties.

Until July 06, Cameron officially announced "Avatar" shooting plan, and will be released in the summer of 2008, but then people all coincidentally admitted: this movie let Cameron completely into the "king of the jump". Due to the high standard of special effects technology and strict requirements, as well as rising production costs, the movie simply can not be completed as scheduled, the release date has been delayed again and again.

Whether it's geeks and geeks, special effects fanatics, or just plain moviegoers waiting for the movie to come out, these hardcore fans have been searching for the movie daily, and some people have even been claiming and questioning whether or not they'll be able to see this legendary epic in their lifetimes.

Only Lin Mingyang with the memory of the later generations know, "Avatar" the film to really come out may have to wait for more than a year, this time is supposed to be the film's post-production of the critical moment, then Cameron suddenly came to find himself, which can not help but let Lin Mingyang heart has produced a new doubt.

Cameron looked at Lin Ming Yang with some embarrassment: "Or because of the filming budget, Fox gave me all the money has been used up, but the film's production progress is only completed more than half... but I can assure you, Avatar is certainly the most complex film production ever, 2 and a half hours of the film has 1600 shots, and unlike King Kong and Lord of the Rings, we're going to have to do not one, but hundreds of CG characters, all of which have to be photo-realistic."

Eckles raised an eyebrow, not knowing exactly how much Fox had paid Cameron, but he knew it had to be no small amount, Fox officially claimed Avatar to be the most expensive film in movie history to date, with a reported initial budget of $260 million and a final cost that could be in excess of $300 million, while estimates from The New York Times suggested that the total cost of the film could be in excess of $500 million.

That's a lot of money for Cameron to say he's going to use up. The movie was shot like this, Fox could not continue to invest money in it, which agreed to Cameron to find other investors, co-financing the completion of the movie. Doing so both for Fox and the new investor are extremely risky, in case the movie is made bad, such a huge investment is likely to drag down a company.

If this was up to Eckles, he guessed that he would have to give it some serious thought, but in Lin Ming Yang's place, he agreed almost without hesitation, "How much of a funding gap is left?"

"300 million dollars!" Cameron shouted out such a figure with joy, but it startled Ecks who was sitting beside him. His heart on his side hadn't regained its composure yet, and Lin Mingyang's reaction on the other end directly gave him the urge to spurt blood.

300 million dollars, Lin Ming Yang actually agreed without even blinking!