The Best Entertainment Era

In a reception room on the top floor of the office building at Warner Bros. headquarters in Burbank, Ronan and Christopher Nolan met several executives from Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

Among them, there are two heavyweight key figures.

Edward Davis, Senior President of Warner Bros. Production Department, is the first person in charge of the content production of the entire group company.

David Bird, the executive vice president of DC Comics, is in charge of the DC Comics film and television adaptation business.

Relativity Entertainment and Warner Bros. have been cooperating for a long time. Most of Shahai Entertainment's production crews are located in Warner Studios. Ronan did not spend much effort to connect with these two.

The fact that these two people appeared in the reception room at the same time also illustrates the importance of Batman movies to Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

But it will not be easy for Warner Bros. and DC Comics to unseal the Batman series.

Ronan had already done a lot of work beforehand, and Christopher Nolan came up with the first draft of the script and the project proposal for this.

Mr. Anderson, we meet again.

Since the initial contact with Ronan had been made before, after the two parties greeted each other, Edward Davis quickly turned to the topic, I heard from Brian Lord that you are very interested in the Batman series.

He looked at Christopher Nolan, who had worked with Warner Bros. once again: And wrote a new script with Chris?

Chris wrote the script. Ronan said with a smile: I just think now is a good opportunity to restart Batman.

Christopher Nolan opened the briefcase and handed over the project template and proposal to Edward Davis and David Bird.

Finally, another copy was given to Ronan.

He is a smart person, he knows that he is not enough as a director, and today Ronan is the main one.

After the initial contact between Warner Bros. and DC Comics, they were also mentally prepared.

Edward Davis and David Bird took the files and flipped through them quickly.

Ronan was not in a hurry, but was waiting for them to read the information first. During the initial contact, he also learned about the attitudes of Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

In the context of the crazy sales of Spider-Man, the two companies very much hope that their superheroes can keep up and compete for the corresponding market share.

It is no exaggeration to say that a Spider-Man has completely reversed the situation of Marvel and DC superhero movies.

Before the advent of the new century, DC Comics, which was acquired by Warner, developed smoothly. When people mentioned superheroes, the first thing they thought of was Superman and Batman. When it comes to superhero movies, they are exclusive to these two.

The scenery of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne on the big screen is definitely not comparable to that of the Avengers under Marvel Comics.

But now, Marvel superhero movies are on the rise.

The Superman 4 co-operation between DC Comics and Warner Bros. almost ruined the Superman movie series, and Joe Schumacher's two super-transformation shows also brought the Batman movie into a dead end, so that Warner Bros. had to put Bruce- Master Wayne refrigerated.

However, Marvel has changed its decline. After X-Men and Spider-Man, it has completely become the mainstream of comic-changing movies on the big screen. dollar movies.

Edward Davis took the lead in putting down the materials in his hand, looked at David Bird, and said: Mr. Anderson, as far as I know, you have obtained a lot of superhero film adaptation rights from Marvel Comics, Why choose Batman?

Ronan was very calm and calm, and said without hesitation: Even in the comics, those are small characters in the second and third tiers, how can they compare with Batman?

He specifically said: The success of Spider-Man has made more people pay attention to comic superheroes, but what is really interesting are those first-line characters, such as Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Batman and Superman and so on. The copyrights I bought, even if the most famous is Iron Man, the popularity itself is limited, I just want to wait for the first-line heroes to be adapted into movies to further expand this market, and to follow suit and produce a few medium-cost super Hero movie, have some soup.

David Byrd himself is a person in the comics circle, and he knows some things in more detail, so he winked at Edward Davis indiscriminately, indicating that this statement is extremely credible.

Because he knew that what Shahai Entertainment got was small characters in comics.

Next Door sold out the real influential pro-sons back in the nineties.

Ronan continued: Just in time, my crew has been cooperating with Warner for a long time in the past two years. I met Chris at the Warner studio, talked about the movie and hit it off, and then reached an agreement on Batman.

Christopher Nolan added: Ronan and I have the same ideas about Batman movies, so we have today's meeting.

Everyone has seen the big sales of Spider-Man. Seeing that the depressed neighbors next door have surpassed themselves, Warner Bros. and DC Comics must have ideas.

Otherwise, there would be no Superman Returns and Catwoman in the works.

But the new Batman movie does make them skeptical.

Edward Davis said directly: After Batman and Robin, we have no plans to make another Batman movie for the time being.

Ronan was already prepared for this, saying: Actually, movie fans have gradually forgotten Batman and Robin. I think it's time to restart this series.

He looked at the few people opposite him and continued, The Superman series and the Batman series are the works that really brought superhero movies into the mainstream. Now your company is preparing for The Return of Superman, so the brand new Batman can echo Superman.

David Bird asked: Batman can't afford the next failure, otherwise the consequences will be very serious. I want to know, how do you plan to continue this series?

It's not a continuation! Ronan shook his head lightly, It's overturning and starting over!

Edward Davis frowned, Do you want to overthrow and start over?

Yes, I think to save the Batman series, we must overthrow and start over. Ronan said bluntly, Whether it's Tim Burton's gothic style, or Joe Schumacher's cross-dressing show, neither of which is suitable for the current market, and the latter almost killed Bruce Wayne...

David Byrd and Edward Davis nodded slowly. They have experienced the fall of the Batman series from peak to trough, and they still vividly remember the box office and word-of-mouth failure of Batman and Robin. It would be a catastrophe if the series were to start again and continue in this style.

What do you think? Edward Davis looked at Ronan and Christopher Nolan and asked, We can launch a restart proposal, but we must see the hope of success.

Of course Warner Bros. and DC Comics want to bring Batman to life, which is a major asset.

Ronan pointed to the project book made by Christopher Nolan, and said: Use Frank Milan's The Dark Knight Returns as the basis, and shoot and produce in a dark and realistic style.

Tim Burton was the first director to adapt Batman comics into movies. His style is cold and gothic, with absurdity and exaggeration. After the success of the two films, director Joe Schumacher continued the Batman series, but the style continued to fail, making the Batman series in a weak state. The last part of the series, Batman and Robin, was extremely bad. The Xia series has dropped to an all-time low.

The Return of the Dark Knight is one of the most highly rated Batman comics, David Byrd and Edward Davis are both thinking, but there is no problem expressing this style in comics, is the movie suitable?

Ronan could see the hesitation of the two, and knew that if he wanted to achieve his goal, he had to fight for it by himself, and said, Chris and I believe that Batman is no longer a superhero, but has a stronger body and fighting skills. Some ordinary people, if you want to get this series out of trouble, you have to pull Bruce Wayne off the altar and make him an ordinary person.

An ordinary person? David Bird had doubts in his eyes.

Ronan looked at Christopher Nolan, who said: I want to create a very realistic atmosphere, so that the audience feels that Gotham City is the American metropolis they live in. This city is prosperous on the surface, but secretly it has already It began to rot slowly, all social classes broke up and struggled with each other, various interest groups were intertwined, corruption eroded the city bit by bit like opium, and even the system became an accomplice of evil...

Edward Davis and David Byrd are listening carefully, because this idea is not proposed by Christopher Nolan, it was shown in The Dark Knight Returns.

And The Dark Knight Returns comic was a huge success.

I think Batman becomes an ordinary person, which is precisely the place that is most likely to attract the audience, Ronan followed up with Christopher Nolan's words: Bruce Wayne is no longer aloof, has the emotions of ordinary people, will be sad , fear, weakness, failure, loss of direction, and even mental problems. These emotions that ordinary people have, appearing on him, can arouse the resonance of the audience!

But what the audience wants to see is a superhero who can save the world, another Warner executive seemed to disagree with Ronan's point of view, not a waste...

Edward Davis raised his hand to interrupt him, motioning for Ronan to continue.

Everyone has their own journey, and superheroes are no exception. High-quality heroes are separated from the market and the audience, and it is difficult to resonate with the audience. This is why Spider-Man is more popular. Ronan has already done Sufficient preparation, Bruce Wayne was not born a hero, he will also wander and get lost, and after being lost, he also needs to find himself, complete self-knowledge and self-salvation.