Chapter 853 Why Are You Looking at Me Like This?

For two weeks, Eric basically spent in frequent meetings with Marvel management, during which Katzenberg also came to New York in person and participated in several more important meetings.

After repeated discussions during this period, the company initially determined the basic organizational framework and film development plan of Marvel Studios.

In addition to the film and television production system of Firefly Group, Marvel Studios will be responsible for the development of film and television works for all superhero characters under Marvel Entertainment, together with the planned future Marvel TV production company. At the same time, Eric will personally serve as the producer of all Marvel movies in the first phase to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan.

In terms of film production, Marvel Studios will largely follow the standardized industrial processes of the Hollywood studio era, and all production staff, including producers, directors, and actors, must follow Marvel's overall style and will. In order to implement cost control as much as possible and maintain the sustainability of the comic series film development plan, all core characters of the film under Marvel Studios must sign long-term packaging contracts.

At the same time, Eric no longer pursues the radical strategy of Marvel movies blooming across the board.

In the preliminary movie universe plan, only the Avengers story line has been determined for the time being.

As for projects such as the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, Eric decided to wait until the Avengers plan was successfully implemented and the Marvel movies gained enough influence before starting the production of other series.

In the original time and space, it was the great success of the Marvel Avengers alliance plan that completely activated all the IPs of Marvel and led all the superhero brands of Marvel to enter the heyday. Until then, other than Sony's Spider-Man, no other Marvel movie can be considered too successful. Especially the X-Men series, in Eric's opinion, the X-Men with a large number of rich characters was completely screwed up by Fox, the character creation was not focused, the timeline was upside down, and most of the sequels of the entire series only reached the box office. Back to this line.

Marvel, the big gold mine of the Firefly family, will definitely be inexhaustible, and Eric will still adopt a strategy of cooperating with other studios.

However, the premise of all this is that Marvel Studios must still have sufficient control over project development and more profit sharing.

But even if Firefly has a close relationship with Fox and MGM, if it can't prove the huge potential of Marvel's superheroes, the cooperation between all parties will not be so smooth. Therefore, the success of the Avengers will affect the entire Marvel. Key to the Cinematic Universe development plan.

Firefly has signed a deal with Cameron for "Spider-Man". Due to the great success of "Titanic", using Cameron as the director of "Spider-Man" seems to be contrary to the various aspects just determined by Marvel Studios. Item production principles. But it's not the case. Cameron belongs to the kind of technical commercial film director who pays attention to the visual perception of movies. The films he directed have always focused on story rather than artistry. The positioning of Marvel movies also relies on superhero ip and movies. The special effects of the popcorn movie, the two sides almost coincide.

Of course, with Cameron, the cost control of "Spider-Man" is definitely out of the question, but these are equally acceptable relative to the profits that Cameron's directed films may bring. The downside, though, is that in the future people will definitely attribute the success of Spider-Man to Cameron.

Therefore, in order to demonstrate the commercial potential of Marvel superheroes, Marvel Studios must make a standard Marvel superhero movie according to the established plan while shooting "Spider-Man".

As for which superhero to choose, Eric naturally does not need any hesitation.

"Tony Stark is a very anti-mainstream superhero, he is conceited, arrogant and crazy, and at the same time, he also has multiple identities such as genius, inventor, billionaire, playboy, etc. This is a very malleable and very A strong character, as long as he plays it properly, he will definitely look charming on the big screen."

During the meeting at Marvel headquarters, Eric briefly stated his point of view and looked away from the memo in front of him.

Looking up at everyone, he continued: "Moreover, Iron Man is still a second-tier hero. If the movie is successful, it will undoubtedly prove the great value of Marvel's superhero character. I have great confidence in this project. The accidental failure of the movie will not have a fatal impact on the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe system, and we still have many first-line characters to try..."

Saying so, Eric felt that everyone looked at him in a strange way, especially Stan Lee next to him, the old man smiled very sly.

Touching his cheek subconsciously, Eric wondered, "Why are you looking at me like this?"

There were inexplicable smiles on everyone's faces, and Stan Lee said: "Eric, according to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark was born in 1969."

According to the original comics, Tony Stark was born in the 1940s. According to the principle that the timeline of the movie roughly coincides with reality, he should be in his 50s now. This will definitely not work, so it must be re-set. In other words, the new version of Iron Man will be much younger than the previous version of Downey. According to the planned release date around 2000, the new Tony Stark happens to be around 30 years old, which is undoubtedly the most attractive for men. a stage of.

Eric nodded suspiciously. He read the Cinematic Universe plan drawn up by Marvel's creative department many times in detail, and also provided a lot of revision suggestions based on memory. Of course, he knew this.

Seeing Eric nodding, Stan Lee continued to persuade him with a smile: "So, Eric, look, you were born in 1970, within a few days, right?"

Eric immediately understood Stan Lee's intentions and shook his head without hesitation: "Stan, don't even think about it."

Stan Lee was reluctant to give up so easily, and said: "Eric, don't be so eager to refuse. Everyone knows that my inspiration for creating Tony Stark came from Howard Hughes, and you are exactly the same as him. , no no no, you're better than him, so why not try this role, it's just made for you."

"Come on, Stan, my paycheck is $60,000 a minute now, and I can't afford it myself, let alone you guys."

"Hey, look, conceited, arrogant, and a little crazy," Stan Lee laughed more sly, like a big bad wolf: "So, Eric, you are Tony Stark, or you are not The superhero will be picked first to shoot."

"Hey, this way," Eric didn't intend to ignore the old man's nagging, closed the folder in front of him, and said, "In future publicity, you can use 'Eric Williams has intended to play Iron Man himself. , was strongly opposed by Stan Lee' as a publicity stunt."

Everyone laughed.

Stan Lee was also a little bit dumbfounded: "Eric, you are turning black and white."

"Of course, black and white must be reversed. Who would be interested in normal news? That's it. I'll go back to Los Angeles next week to start the preparatory work for the film. I'll give you a month to get the first version of the script out, and that's it. , dismiss the meeting."

Eric made a final decision, and everyone knew that the matter they were discussing in secret must be gone. Everyone who was expecting a little bit let out a disappointed sigh, and could only get up and leave the conference room one after another.

It's not that Eric is not at all interested in playing Iron Man, but once he does, this superhero movie is likely to become his play in the hearts of the audience. This is definitely not a good thing for the entire Avengers. The layout of the affiliate program is also very unfavorable.

After consoling the disappointed old man Stan Lee, Eric stayed at Marvel headquarters until after hours before leaving the office with Avi Allard.

Coming to the underground parking lot of the office building, Eric saw at a glance the gorgeous fiery red Maserati next to his car, and Cindy Crawford leaning beside the car and waving to him and smiling. Perhaps in recent years, his career has been revived again, and the supermodel, who has just turned 30, has become more and more radiant.

Avi Allard glanced at Cindy Crawford, with envy in his eyes, and took the initiative to flash people with interest.

Eric walked over, stroked the hood of the Maserati, and said with a smile, "Nice car."

Cindy was wearing a black trench coat with a corset, high boots on her feet, and a light-colored silk scarf tied around her fair neck. She quietly posed and asked, "Where's that person?"

"Prettier," Eric smiled and hugged Cindy, instead of getting on his black Bentley, he got into the Maserati co-pilot.

Cindy wanted to get into Eric's car, but when he saw him in his car, he turned to the driver's seat and got in the car, started the engine, and saw Eric leaning comfortably on the co-pilot. Zhidi suggested: "Would you like to drive?"

Eric smiled and said, "I'm more suitable for driving a Hummer now, and it has to be a military one."

"why?"

"It's more advantageous when it hits something."

"Hehe," Cindy smiled and understood, Eric must seldom drive by himself now, and it is absolutely true that he is born with hands, so he won't mention this topic again, and started the car and slowly drove out of the parking lot before saying: "I Have a seat at the Jean-Georges restaurant, go eat first?"

Eric nodded: "Okay, I will listen to your arrangements tonight."

Cindy reported complaining: "Also, it's really hard to make an appointment with you. It made me wait for two weeks."

In New York, Eric inevitably received various party invitations from local snakes. Most of them could be turned down, and some of them could not be postponed. These days, he was entertained almost every night. This is also about to leave soon, and Eric has time.

Listening to Cindy's slightly resentful tone, Eric smiled and said, "In such a hurry to ask me out, don't you have a new boyfriend yet? This is not your style."

Cindy turned the wheel and looked over: "Don't you want me to be single all the time?"

"I hope you are married now, it's more exciting."

"Bah, hateful man," Cindy rolled his eyes at him before saying, "I tried dating someone, but I thought it was too boring, so we broke up at the end of last year."

"Oh, it seems that my vision has improved," Eric joked with a smile.

In my memory, Cindy passed the peak of her modeling career. During this period, she tossed a "Fair Game" in Hollywood, which did not stir up any waves, so she quickly recovered her mind and married a nightclub owner in New York and had children. I have to say that Cindy is probably a winner in life compared to most of the supermodels who have a hard time settling down until their beauty is gone.

But now, because of Eric's appearance, Cindy's life trajectory has completely deviated from the trajectory of her previous life. A series of identities such as the spokesperson of Victoria's Secret Angel and the producer and host of "America's Next Top Model" have also brought her career back to life. Her current annual income is not much worse than those of Hollywood first-line actresses, or even higher. Correspondingly, her mind is destined to be impossible to settle down.

The two came to the Jean-George restaurant on Fifth Avenue. After taking a seat and ordering food, they casually chatted about the recent situation.

When the waiter brought the dishes and left, Cindy said casually, "I recently bought a fireflyer. The assistant bought the goods directly from the black market for $400. I never thought that the little things you made could get banned. Good treatment."

It was the first time Eric heard of such a thing, and he smiled: "Say it earlier, I'll have someone give you a few."

"How dare you trouble you with such a trivial matter," Cindy smiled and added, "I saw yesterday that Firefly Electronics was sued?"

"Well, Chris has already flown to San Francisco to deal with it, it's not a big problem."

"I think so too," Cindy nodded and said, "I read that article, it said that the revenue of the record company from the Yahoo Music Store is not much different from that of the physical record. Even, because of the convenience of the Internet, if the Internet Music stores grow and record companies get more, so why are they reacting so violently?"

"It's just superficial," Eric explained, not sure why Cindy was suddenly interested in this kind of thing, but explained: "The music industry alone doesn't generate more than $20 billion in annual revenue worldwide, but music The player market is huge. This also involves the issue of patent monopoly. The traditional portable player patents are basically in the hands of Japanese manufacturers, and a complete set of player patent licensing fees will not be lower than the player 5% of the selling price alone, Japanese companies can earn more than one billion US dollars in net income every year. The emergence of fireflyer is equivalent to completely breaking the patent monopoly of traditional portable music player manufacturers, and even once fireflyer becomes popular, By eliminating the walkman and other equipment from the market, the original patents of Japanese manufacturers worth tens of billions of dollars will be worthless, so their reaction will be so strong." (To be continued.)