300 million investment is indeed a huge temptation. The most expensive project in film history. Even in 2015, no project exceeded this limit.

As the survey by insiders said, 100 million to 150 million is the most reasonable range, and outside this range means that more risks must be borne. 300 million costs, which means that the global box office of a film work must be at least 900 million to avoid losses - not profit, but loss; and this is just the bottom line. In addition to the production cost of 300 million, the high publicity costs must also be included in the scope of consideration, so the global box office must be guaranteed to be more than one billion to make a profit.

For reference, as of 2015, only twenty-four movies have exceeded one billion globally.

"Pirates of the Caribbean 3: The End of the World" cost 300 million yuan, and the global box office was 960 million yuan. Not only did Disney not make money, but it almost lost a little. At that time, almost everyone thought that the series was completely over. Therefore, major Hollywood film companies did spend money like money, but the premise was that their efforts must be rewarded.

In the last life, the Superman project was indeed restarted, but "Superman Return" ushered in an avalanche-like defeat, with a global box office of only 390 million yuan. This failure once again left the Superman project shelved for seven years.

There are many reasons for the failure of "Superman Return": In addition to Lance's previous views, the weak script, slow pace, sluggishness, etc. are all important reasons. Obviously, it is not so easy to break the constraints of the classic image of Superman. However, it seems to be a pity to miss this opportunity, not only because of the huge investment of 300 million yuan, but also because of the potential cooperation of Warner Bros. This is an excellent opportunity for Chaos Pictures' future planning.

Of course, "Return of Superman" is not Lance's only choice. In addition to giving up, he has two choices: the first is "Superman: Man of Steel" released in 2013.

In the last life, when "Superman: Man of Steel" was put into production, the Marvel Universe had dominated the entire Hollywood, and Christopher Nolan's Batman series had also ended. It can be said that the comic adaptations have matured - gradually evolved into a brand new genre film.

Therefore, during the production process, the work added many mature ideas, with the theme of "No matter who you choose to be, justice or evil, will change the world", connecting the entire story, and integrating a large number of troubles and confusions in Clark-Kent's childhood growth, making his image rich and three-dimensional.

Overall, this version of Superman follows the philosophical thoughts and dark styles that Christopher Nolan injected into the "Batman" series, but strictly speaking, this work is not a success. Not to mention that it is comparable to the Nolan version of Batman, it does not have an advantage even compared with many Marvel movies. Director Zach Snyder pays too much attention to color visual effects, the narrative rhythm is slightly slow, the rhythm of the first and second half is not consistent, etc., which are all one of the reasons, but the fundamental reason is that the weakening of the villain role is not only unable to support the intensity of the confrontation, but also unable to raise Superman's self-reflection to a higher level.

The most successful Nolan's "Batman" series is undoubtedly the second, "Dark Knight", which is not only because Batman has completed the transformation of his mission in this work, but also because of the excellence of the two villains of Joker and the Double-faced Man, the story has been sublimated.

"Superman: Man of Steel" tried hard to reach this level and made many changes, but the result was not satisfactory, which led to the story becoming slow and vain. Even the pleasure, excitement and gorgeousness of commercial movies were lost.

This is ultimately reflected in the box office results. The global box office of $670 million is not considered high compared to the investment of $225 million. Strictly speaking, Warner Bros. still has not achieved much profit. Of course, the real big head of the comic adaptation is not above the box office. "Superman: Man of Steel" is not just the restart of the Superman series, but also shoulders the important task of revitalizing the DC comic universe and building the worldview of the "Justice League".

In fact, this is the path of imitating the Marvel Universe. The box office results of "Captain America" ​​and "Thor" were not considered a big explosion, but they were just average and had no results. However, the two works laid the foundation for the Marvel Universe, and the accumulated energy ushered in a big explosion in the "Avengers".

Therefore, the box office data of "Superman: Man of Steel" was unsatisfactory, but it did not stop Warner Bros. from building the DC universe.

If Lance chooses the story of "Superman: Man of Steel" as the restart series of Superman, it will inevitably face two problems. The first is that in the present time in 2004, the Marvel Universe had no shadow at all. If you want to convince Warner Bros. to build the entire DC Universe based on a movie, the investment is not only 300 million, but most likely 3 billion, or even more. And it is also because Superman movies have been silent for nearly twenty years and the Batman restart movie has not yet been released, the difficulty is unimaginable. Even for Lance, who is rapidly rising, it is not easy to convince Barry.

Even if the matter of the DC universe is temporarily put aside, the script of "Superman: Body of Steel" still poses many hidden dangers. The movie intends to dig deeper, but it is a little deliberate, and puts the cart before the horse.

Why did "Batman Prequel: The Dark Knight" achieve such a great success, just because of its philosophical core, or just because of the Joker? Of course not, but because Nolan's control of rhythm, the explosion division, the preparation and the atmosphere have reached an amazing level. The essence of the movie is still a commercial movie, and the philosophical core and the excellence of the Joker are just icing on the cake for commercial movies.

Therefore, Lance must re-adjust the script of "Superman: Man of Steel". But as Lance said to Barry at dinner, Superman faces too many constraints and bottlenecks, and it is not difficult to break these constraints in one breath. The difficulty lies in how to grasp the scale - let the audience feel new, but not regress because of the new version of Superman.

It is conceivable that this work will be extremely difficult.

Of course, Lance has another choice, which is to abandon "Return of Superman", abandon "Superman: Man of Steel", reconstruct a brand new script according to his own understanding, and even reconstruct the entire DC universe according to his own ideas. This is an extremely magnificent architectural pattern. If possible, Lance will hope that DC Comics will maintain his interpretation of justice - that is, the soul Nolan injected into "Dark Knight". This concept runs through almost every superhero of DC, but at the same time it also makes the tone of the film relatively relaxed and injects more youthful vitality into the superheroes. This is not only the law of success in Marvel movies, but also the law of success in entertainment movies.

But... this blueprint is really too grand, and the difficulty of the work is far beyond imagination. Even for Lance, it seems to be a choice with ambitions exceeding ability.

This not only requires Lance to have a clear conception of the script and a deep understanding of Superman, but also requires Lance to have sufficient knowledge of the entire DC universe. At dinner, Lance said that his understanding of comics was very limited, which was not modesty, but fact that he had hardly read the DC comics in its entirety—or Marvel comics.

Even if Lance handed over the task of writing the script to other screenwriters, he could not know nothing about the content of the comics, and the most important characterization required him to complete the reading himself.

If you really choose the solution to build the DC universe, it also means that Chaos Pictures will be tied to Warner Bros. in a chariot for a long time. This is of course a good thing for Chaos Pictures. But the premise is, will Barry agree? Even if Barry nods in agreement, will he really be willing to let go? Does this also mean that the constraints Lance was subject to in the creative process will reach unprecedented heights, gradually causing Chaos Pictures to lose its self-sexuality?

If it succeeds, there is no doubt that Chaos Pictures will become the top in the industry in one fell swoop and can maintain its advantage in the next few years; but if it fails, Chaos Pictures is likely to be doomed. After all, it has only been established for three years, and its foundation is unstable. The chain failure will leave Lance without any reaction time, and the company will be destroyed like a bubble.

This may be a more difficult challenge and a more amazing opportunity than "Pirates of the Caribbean" for Diorama. Lance wanted to give it a try, but the memory and experience of the previous life could not provide more help. No matter which choice, Lance must break the shackles of the previous life and start a journey again. This will be an unprecedented important decision.

Even though Lance has been a human being for three lifetimes, he can't help but sweat his palms now. The emotions mixed with excitement and tension are quite interesting. Perhaps, this is the most charming part of the unknown.

Lion looked at Percy who was slightly silly. His dull expression was full of confusion, which made people laugh. "Tomorrow's promotional itinerary?" Lance said, but Percy raised his head, his eyes could not find the focus, and he shook his head to come back to his senses. "So, have you decided?" The answer was completely wrong. Lance chuckled twice, raised his left hand, and touched his eyebrows habitually, "No rush, Barry should not expect me to answer him tomorrow."

Lance's teasing voice made Percy come to his senses, and the corners of his mouth were thrusting unnaturally. Lance repeated his own question, and then Percy picked up the script again and checked tomorrow's problems with Lance. Because of the blockbuster bombshell of "300 million production fee" just now, both of them seemed a little unfocused, and the checking work was over hastily.

Before hesitating for a moment before Percy hesitating, he asked, "You said, Robert Egg is going to ask you, will it have something to do with Barry?"
Chapter completed!