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Lunch was arranged at another restaurant in the hotel, after which Lindsay set off with her brand new friends, while Josie stayed in the room for a video conference with her team in Los Angeles.

—Despite the nighttime local time in Los Angeles, Hollywood has never been a [-]-to-[-] comfort zone.

"I think it's a bit too risky." Archie Dano, who has a bald head, disagrees with the plan to start the sequel project of "Iron Man" immediately, "To be honest, almost no one in the city is optimistic about it" Iron Man' can beat the 'X-Men,' and the board would rather see the Silmarillion trilogy than Iron Man 2."

In the summer of 2003, "Iron Man" was released, and in the summer of 2004, "Iron Man 2" took over?

Oh, come on, movies are not TV dramas, and audiences will also have aesthetic fatigue!

Josie nodded her head to show her understanding, and then asked, "Xue Li, what do you think?"

In the video, Shirley Lansing raised her eyebrows and said in a humorous tone: "If we had accepted Tom as the actor of "Iron Man" at the beginning, the pressure would be much less now."

"Shirley!?" Archie Dano almost doubted his ears.

Shirley Lansing did not object to this crazy plan!

God, is he left alone?

"Archie, calm down." Shirley Lansing explained, "I guess you haven't had time to see the sample that Susan got back, Bob's performance is completely beyond the imagination of each of us, absolutely Oscar level. Earl can attest to that."

For a long time, Shirley Lansing has maintained a very good relationship with Tom Cruise. In fact, this Hollywood executive has always admired the performance of the latter, but it has to be admitted that some actors can really be with Tom Cruise. The roles complement each other.

Like Robert Downey Jr.

Judging from the effect of the sample film, he is Tony Stark, the actor of "Iron Man". The final effect is better, and it is more considered from Tom Cruise's box office appeal.

Archie Dano was a little uncertain, and looked at the other person in the meeting: "Really, El?"

"Aside from other factors, Robert Downey Jr. is indeed a talented actor." El Kazel, who is currently transferred to Tianshen-Universal and promoted to director, said,

He is an Italian-American who is quite young for this industry. He worked as an assistant for Josie when she first entered the industry, and then he was promoted all the way from Skynet Media. He was the one who fell down on the road like a dead dog. Robert Downey Jr. packed it into the back seat of the car...

Another former assistant of Josie, Kelly Wilson, took a different path. She teamed up with her sister Connie Wilson and is currently working as a producer under the film production label of Tianji Films. She is currently running "50 First Dates" " and "Youth Thirteen" two projects.

By the way, Paul Rudd and Brittany Murphy, who is one of the hottest blond sweethearts in Hollywood, will play the leading roles in "50 First Dates".

"As far as I know, Universal's distribution department is still not optimistic about "Iron Man." Tom Rothman said.

Shirley Lansing took up the conversation and said, "Yes, there are other people in the company who still believe in Hollywood's golden rules."

The "other group of people" in her mouth refers to some management personnel arranged by the board of directors headed by the CEO of Tianshen-Universal, Jeffrey Katzenberg, after Tianji Films became a sub-label.

Jeffrey Katzenberg is not an unambitious and peace-loving person, otherwise he would not have climbed all the way to his current position. As the vice president of the group, Shirley Lansing is an enemy he needs to guard against one.

— After all, no one can forget how Michael Ovitz stepped down.

However, some members of the board of directors are obviously happy to see the conflicts between them out of consideration of their own interests. This has led to the formation of two major factions within the group before the merger has actually been completed.

"Okay." Josie had already expected this situation, "The preliminary preparations for "Iron Man 2" can be temporarily put on hold, but I hope that the audition plan for 'Black Widow' doesn't have to be changed."

"That's no problem." Shirley Lansing replied.

She is even considering how to use her "difficult compromise" in exchange for interests in other projects, and she hopes that Jeffrey Katzenberg will not be too disappointing.

At this moment, Archie changed the subject and said to Josie, "Boss, I found a good script, which should suit your film selection taste. It's about a female boxer."

"Sounds good." Josie signaled Archie to continue.

"The right to adapt the script now is in the hands of Rudy Morgan Independent Production Company. Andrew Morgan once worked for Golden Harvest Films in Hong Kong City, and supervised the production of many Chinese star Bruce Lee's works in the 70s, while Albert ...Rudy is better known, the producer of "The Godfather."

Rudy Morgan is arguably the most successful independent studio in the business.

"This is a script adapted from real events. Rudy Morgan bought the option to make the story into a movie two years ago, and hired a TV screenwriter, Paul Haggis, to write this script for nearly a year. , but regrettably, so far none of the Big Six is ​​willing to give it the green light."

"So, they started casting a wide net, and 'Million Dollar Baby' came to us."

"The cost of this project is not high, most of the scenes are relatively simple, we can shoot in Canada."

"And they like your appearance in the new movie very much, if you are willing to play the leading role. Well... just, there is a little problem."

At this point, Archie paused suspiciously.

Josie asked, "Tell me, what's the problem?"

Archie glanced at the boss in the video, and said with a smile: "In the early stage of the project, Rudy Morgan reached an agreement with Paul Haggis in order not to prepay Paul Haggis' screenwriting fee, that is, Paul Haggis will be the director of the film."

Josie thought about it for a while, but she had almost no memory of this name.

Shirley Lansing added in a timely manner: "Paul Haggis worked as a screenwriter and producer for the TV series "Thirty Standing", for which he won an Emmy Award, and later tried to direct some works, but nothing like it He's had such a successful career as a screenwriter."

"Speaking of which, I have also heard about this project." Martha joined the conversation, "Rudy Morgan is looking for a suitable and charismatic heroine to join this project, and the office has also received a script, waiting for you to return to China After reading it myself. But I have a little understanding of the plot, the ending of the film is too tragic, if they don’t change it, there is no market at all, and no film company will invest.”

Tom Rothman echoed Martha's point of view, saying: "

"I see." Josie nodded and told Archie, "Fax me the script. If this project is really worth investing in, then what you have to do is get the screenwriter first. Either let him convince us, or let us Kick him out."

"So, I'll arrange a meeting with him today?" Archie asked.

"That's your business." Josie said, "Now, let your assistant send the fax."

"No problem!" Archie cheered up at once.

Josie asked again: "How is the project of "Queen of Blades" going?"

"JJ Harris made an offer of $500 million for her client, but Queen of Blades is not Tomb Raider 2. I think under $1000 million is a reasonable price." Shirley Lansing He replied, "From JJ's tone, she is full of confidence in Theron's "Devil" which will compete in the Olympics next year and "Tomb Raider 2" which will be filmed next."

"Speaking of which, Charlize Theron was going to put on weight for the role in "The Devil" first - a very Oscar-friendly choice - but Paramount was very concerned that the heroine would not be able to regain her beauty quickly. , and asked Charlize Theron to shoot "Tomb Raider 2" first, and I heard that the trouble was not very pleasant."

The former female president of Paramount talked about this matter in a gossip tone. Although she has already worked in Tianshen-Universal, it is clear that Shirley Lansing's eyes and ears are still in the senior management of Paramount's production department.

Josie was noncommittal about this, but she was very impressed with the movie "The Devil", and said, "Tell JJ Harris, $1000 million, sign the contract as soon as possible."

"Are you very optimistic about "Tomb Raider 2?" Shirley Lansing couldn't help asking.

1000 million US dollars is already the top of the pyramid among Hollywood actresses. According to Shirley Lansing's original budget, Charlize Theron is only worth 800 million US dollars.

"I'm more optimistic about "The Demon Head." Josie explained, "This is a perfect score work completely customized according to the preferences of the academy judges, and the goal is directly aimed at the Oscar for Best Actress."

Enough ambition, enough hard work, enough fearlessness, plus a little but crucial luck, this is the common way for most people to succeed, and it turns out that Charlize Theron did not fail.

However, Charlize Theron's Olympic work was so perfect that she easily won the Oscar queen crown, but she missed the chance to score twice.

If there is no accident, "The Queen of Blades" will start filming in the second half of 2003, try to catch up with the last train of the summer file in 2004, and at that time the halo of Oscar has not dissipated, it should be Charlize Theron as an actress At the highlight moment, the price of 1000 million US dollars is also worth the fare.

Now that we have talked about "The Queen of Blades", I have to mention one of the highlights of the Celestial-Universal in 2004, "I. Robot" adapted from the novel by the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

As we all know, Isaac Asimov is one of the representatives of the golden age of American science fiction. His most famous works are the "Galaxy Empire" trilogy, "I, Robot" and the "Foundation" series, which still has a number of Many crowds.

Perhaps because of the spiritual core that Hollywood would not be able to produce the works, Isaac Asimov never sold the film and television adaptation rights until his death in the 90s of last century, and Hollywood set its sights on this science fiction third One of the giants.

In fact, the script of "I, Robot" was originally a script that had nothing to do with Asimov's original novel. It was called "Hardware Circuits", which was very consistent with his three laws of creating robots.

"Hardwire" is a murder story in a rather classical style, and it reads in a strong stage style. It was discovered by director Brian Singer who was working for Disney at the time, and he tried to write the first version of the movie script. , but quickly left "Hard Wire" behind.

Later, Bryan Singer came to Fox from Disney and directed the hit movie "X-Men". Former Fox executive Tom Rothman was keenly aware that "Hardwire" would be a good script. Bryan Singer was considered a suitable director and producer.

But due to well-known reasons, Bryan Singer must devote 100% of his energy to the operation of "X-Men 2" in the past few years. Coincidentally, Tom Rothman also has plans to find another job, " The development plan of "Hardware Circuit" was temporarily put on hold.

At the same time, Tom Rothman, who was later poached to Tianshen-Universal, has not given up his attention to this project, nor has he given up his efforts on Isaac Asimov's copyright.

In the end, Tom Rothman switched jobs smoothly, Universal won the copyright of Isaac Asimov, and he won the script of "Hard Wire" in a more gentle way, and then found someone to write it again. Now this.

Compared with Shirley Lansing, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the head of Tianshen-Universal, has a much more friendly attitude towards Tom Rothman. Another studio -- co-developing the "I, Robot" project -- had a staggering $1.5 million budget.

And Josie also joined the project as the heroine and producer of the film, and has a certain degree of voice over the script and the main creative team.