Chapter 257 Lots of Friends

Nicole Kidman paused when she heard this, and Jennifer Connelly also pestered Wu Yuchen, wanting to know the news. After all, if the sequel to "Pirate King" is to be launched, it will definitely affect the filming of "Every Hour", and director Wu Yuchen's energy is also limited.

"Hey Wu, what's wrong with you?"

"It's nothing, I was bitten." Wu Yuchen gently patted Nicole Kidman's head to reassure her.

"Damn, what are you doing?" Spielberg obviously guessed it.

"That's not important. Are you so anxious to start the sequel of "Pirate King"?" Wu Yuchen brought the topic back to the main point.

Spielberg no longer pays attention to minutiae: "Of course, the market is very hungry for "Pirate King", and we should hurry up and create a sequel now."

Wu Yuchen asked: "Steven, have you got our Captain Jack?"

"Now that the global box office of "Pirate King" is almost finalized, Depp's agent has also begun to contact us. I think we can start to sit down and talk."

"Has Depp's agent stated the conditions he wants?"

"He shouted 20+20 treatment."

The so-called 20+20 means 20 million salary plus 20% share.

Wu Yuchen chuckled when he heard this: "Oh, it's really a lion's mouth."

Spielberg nodded: "Yes, but this treatment is impossible, and the other party is also waiting for us to counteroffer."

Wu Yuchen thought for a while and then said: "Steven, now is not a good time to negotiate. Tell the other party that if he dares to propose such conditions again, there is no need to negotiate at all. Let him wait for a few months before talking!"

"How many months? It's too long! In what month do you plan to shoot "The Pirate King"?"

Wu Yuchen shrugged: "Steven, to tell you the truth, I have no plans to shoot "Pirate King" this year."

"What? There is no filming plan? Why? Now everyone is waiting for "Pirate King"!" Spielberg's voice on the opposite side immediately became higher. This is the most profitable live-action movie of DreamWorks.

Wu Yuchen immediately comforted him: "Hey, Steven, don't get excited~listen to me, I have my plan."

“Do you have any other projects that are more important than ‘Pirate King’?”

"Steven, listen to me! We are in a hurry to start "Pirate King" now, and we can only be manipulated by Depp and his agent. They know that we want to make this money, but Depp actually also needs this role, yes Captain Jack sent him to the A-list. It depends on who can bear it. We can't show our impatience!"

Hearing what Wu Yuchen said, Spielberg also knew that it made sense, but he still asked: "Wu, when do you plan to shoot?"

Wu Yuchen replied: "Next year, I will shoot "Pirate King" next year, and it will be two consecutive filmings."

"Two movies in a row?"

Wu Yuchen nodded: "Yes, continuous shooting of two films will save a lot of cost and time. This is true in all aspects!"

Spielberg knows what Wu Yuchen means. Needless to say, the time and cost saved by the crew's preparation and shooting will also be the same for the actors' costs.

If the second and third parts of "Pirate King" are shot separately, then the third part will have to undergo another salary negotiation. At that time, the actors' salary will be more difficult to negotiate than in the second part, but continuous shooting of the two parts will avoid get rid of this situation.

Of course, there is another situation to consider here, that is, will "Pirate King 2" be as successful as the first one?

You know, the movie itself is very risky. It's not uncommon in Hollywood for the first movie to be a hit and then the sequel to be a bad movie. If the reputation of "Pirate King 2" is bad, it may still be able to make a lot of money based on the popularity of the first part, but the third part will definitely lose money. And now that Wu Yuchen is talking about shooting two movies in a row, he wants investors to take this risk.

Spielberg fell into a brief silence and thinking, and then asked Wu Yuchen: "Wu, are you sure you want to do this?"

Wu Yuchen also understood the underlying meaning of Spielberg's question, and said with a confident smile: "Steven, don't worry, the "Pirate King" trilogy will not fail!"

"Okay, Wu, I trust your decision."

Wu Yuchen smiled and hung up the phone, and then the two women beside him immediately asked him: "Wu, do you want to film "Pirate King"?"

Wu Yuchen shook his head: "An Xin, I always keep my word, and I will not break my promise to you. I will start making preparations in the next few days to film "The Hours" as soon as possible."

…

While Wu Yuchen was still happy, Michael Eisner was having a headache. He originally thought that Harvey would be able to win the Oscar this year with "Chicago" and that he would also be able to achieve good results for publicity, but he didn't expect that he would come back with a huge duck egg.

Since Harvey failed, he can only focus more on Pixar and renew his contract with Pixar. But Jobs at Pixar was not easy to deal with. In the past few months, he had ignored Disney's invitations to negotiate and seemed to be indifferent, which also gave Eisner a headache.

But even if it is difficult, we still have to talk now, and it is best to get a good condition so that shareholders can be satisfied.

…

Just when Wu Yuchen was already looking for someone to start preparing for "The Hours", Spielberg came to visit again.

"Wu, why don't you cooperate with DreamWorks for your new movie? Didn't we have a pleasant cooperation on "A Beautiful Mind"?"

When Spielberg heard that Wu Yuchen was about to recruit a new crew to start filming, he couldn't sit still and immediately approached Wu Yuchen.

Wu Yuchen asked him to sit down and explained with a smile: "Of course not, Steven, I had a great time cooperating with you on "Beautiful Mind"."

After "Beautiful Mind" won the Oscar for Best Picture, it also used this momentum to quickly promote it to the world and reap a lot of box office.

Spielberg spread his hands: "Then why didn't you choose us? Why did you choose Fox instead?"

"Because I have another movie to shoot in the second half of the year. It is a Chinese-language movie. It and "The Hours" will both be nominated for the Olympics. When the time comes, I want DreamWorks to help me run it."

"You can definitely give both movies to us at DreamWorks~"

"Oh, Steven, after the previous experience, I no longer dare to do this. I think it would be better for me to ask the public relations teams of the two companies to do the two movies separately. I hope you can understand me! "

He was stabbed in the back by Disney before because the public relations of "The Sixth Sense" and "Love" were handed over to Disney, which ultimately led to that kind of thing happening. Therefore, Wu Yuchen did not dare to do it again this time, even if he is now I have a very good relationship with DreamWorks.

Upon hearing this, Spielberg smiled wryly and rubbed his brows, and then said: "Okay, I understand what you are thinking. But you can definitely cooperate with us on "The Hours"."

If possible, he would of course want to work with Wu Yuchen on "The Hours" instead of his Chinese-language films. Local films are destined to be more profitable than Chinese-language films.

Wu Yuchen smiled and said: "Steven, I really believe in the ability of DreamWorks, so I plan to leave this Chinese film in your hands. And there will be no shortage of opportunities for us to cooperate in the future!"

He is not worried about being at odds with DreamWorks. With "Pirate King" around, his relationship with DreamWorks will be in the honeymoon period. After all, the benefits of this project are large enough.

And this cooperation with Fox in "The Hours" can also be regarded as his expanding social circle and influence.

At present, he has established many relationships in Hollywood. Needless to say, DreamWorks and Sony are also cooperating with him on "Spider-Man". He believes that after "Spider-Man" is released, Sony's interest in him will increase. Paying attention will raise it to another level. Universal is the overseas distributor of "Pirate King" and is still seeking the Universal Studios license for "Pirate King" from them.

Since he had a feud with Disney, he would naturally have to mess with his friends a lot before Eisner stepped down. In Hollywood, interest relationships are the most trustworthy.

…

Just when Wu Yuchen was filming "The Hours", the overseas box office share of "The Pirate King" was finally paid.

This time "Pirate King" has a total overseas box office of 480 million U.S. dollars. Based on the 27% share of the photo studio, it is about 130 million U.S. dollars. First, 12%, 15.6 million U.S. dollars, will be allocated to director Wu Yuchen, and then DreamWorks will cooperate with Miracle Pictures Proportionally divided. In short, this time Wu Yuchen and Miracle Pictures received 15 million and 49 million respectively.

However, Wu Yuchen didn't pay too much attention. After the money arrived, he checked it and forgot about it. Now the money can no longer have much impact on him. In addition, he is filming "The Hours" and does not want to cause too much interference.

This time, as he said, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Connelly and Meryl were cast in "The Hours" to play these three roles. Meryl naturally wouldn't refuse when she heard that it was Wu Yuchen's invitation. , and happily joined the group directly.

Therefore, little time was wasted on casting this time, and the crew completed preparations and started filming in two weeks.

In essence, the movie "The Hours" is also a biographical film, because its heroine is the famous British female writer Virginia Woolf in history, but the original novel did something about her from a different perspective. Interpretation. At the same time, there are two other heroines in the novel. The stories of the three women are intertwined. In each time and space, women are suppressed, but more of them express resistance and freedom.

To put it bluntly, this is a feminist film that is very in line with the current trend of the times. Although it tells history, it expresses women's freedom and liberation. Therefore, it is very reasonable for it to win the Oscar for Best Actress.

The three actresses, if we talk about their acting skills, objectively speaking, Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly are not bad, but Meryl Streep is really better than the two of them.

But it's a pity that she and Wu Yuchen have no close relationship. Even if the crew applies for Best Actress, Jennifer and Nicole will apply. Hollywood is so realistic!

"Nicole, what I want is a feminist pioneer who walks on the edge of madness and sanity and has great literary talent. Your current state is not right. You can't convince me at all, and you can't conquer Oscar!"

On the set, Wu Yuchen was talking about the play to Nicole Kidman. Encouraged by Oscar, Nicole also worked hard. Not only did she read all the works of female writer Virginia, but she also tried to look as ugly as possible in appearance. It is completely different from the previous glamorous image as soon as she appeared on the screen.

"You should think about my words carefully and find your best condition before filming your scene." After Wu Yuchen finished speaking to Nicole Kidman, he left her to think alone, and then called the crew to end today's filming.

"Hey guys, take a day off tomorrow and continue the day after tomorrow!"

This is not because Wu Yuchen left time for Nicole Kidman to find her best, but because he, the director, wanted to take time out for a day. There is no way, "Spider-Man" is about to be released, and the entire crew has to start promoting it.

In fact, as a producer behind the scenes, he didn't need to show his face, but who made him famous now? Not only were many of his previous movies successful at the box office, but he also just won the Oscar for Best Picture, and he already has many fans. , so Sony will naturally not let him go.

Even though Wu Yuchen had already canceled most of his promotional schedule, he still had to attend the recording of a TV show tomorrow. He couldn't escape, so the crew had no choice but to stop work for a day.

"Wu, we all know that you created the world of "Pirate King", and I heard that you have a complete trilogy plan. But I just heard that you also customized a trilogy plan for "Spider-Man"? Is that so? ?"

Facing the host's question, Wu Yuchen remained calm and said with a smile: "That's true."

The host asked again: "Director Wu, you are really different! We all know that many directors or screenwriters are only used to making plans for one movie. Why did you make a plan for a trilogy at once?"

Wu Yuchen explained:

"The planning of a trilogy is the best way for me. Take "Pirate King" as an old saying. One movie cannot actually fully unfold its world view. I want to tell more than just Captain Jack Sparrow. , and the entire pirate world.

The same goes for "Spider-Man". Although many fans are already fully aware of the Marvel world view, I think just one movie is not enough for Peter Parker. From a boy to a mature superhero, Peter Parker has a lot to go through! "

After listening, the host boldly asked: "Wu, aren't you afraid of failure? You know that many viewers don't have this patience, so directors condense their talents into one story. What if your first movie If it fails, wouldn’t it be impossible to talk about the trilogy?”

Wu Yuchen chuckled and shook his head: "I'm not worried. "Pirates 1" can be successful, "Lord of the Rings 1" can be successful, and "Spider-Man 1" can certainly be successful. And, I think it will get more success than the first two. Hot box office results! ”