Chapter 475 Dogs and Double Endings

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"We've reached an agreement with New York City Hall."

Standing at the front of a conference table in a conference room in the Warners Studios office building, Akiva Goldsman said, “Most of the exterior scenes, including Washington Square and the Brooklyn Bridge, will be filmed on location in New York.”

Matthew was sitting back in a chair, listening to Akiva Goldsman's words, and flipping through the script in his hand. The script he got has been marked with a red pen in several places. .

In fact, there were not many people in the conference room. To be precise, it was only him, David Heyman, Akiva Goldsman and Guillermo del Toro.

The four of them also constitute the top building of the crew.

Matthew's eyes left the script and happened to see Guillermo del Toro on the opposite side. Guillermo del Toro was also looking at him. The two met their eyes and nodded at the same time.

This is not the first time that Matthew and Guillermo del Toro have met. After Guillermo del Toro signed a director contract, Akiva Goldsman specially asked Matthew to send Guillermo del Toro introduced to him.

Akiva Goldsman used Guillermo del Toro primarily for directing style considerations, and to a lesser extent because Guillermo del Toro was recommended by Helen Herman.

Guillermo del Toro was short, with round eyes and looked nothing special.

But Matthew heard Helen Herman introduce him. Guillermo del Toro is not a client of Angels Agency. The agent is a friend of Helen Herman. He was originally going to compete for the director of "I Am Legend". idea, but Akiva Goldsman chose Francis Lawrence and could only run another project with regret.

After Francis Lawrence was out, Guillermo del Toro signed a directing deal and delayed the film that was in the works.

When Matthew met Guillermo del Toro before, he told him that there was already a first draft of the script for that project, called Pan's Labyrinth.

In the limited contact, Guillermo del Toro left a deep impression on him, the Mexican director has a bizarre interior, a chaotic overflowing mind, and a strong emotional heart.

To put it mildly, this is a film director with an extraordinary dark artistic taste.

Akiva Goldsman's words continued, "The shooting plan has been adjusted. The latest plan, the shooting time will last from October to February next year, and the time for location shooting may be a little long."

This is also something that can't be helped. The impact of changing the director is not great. The most important thing is that the crew's location shooting must match the situation of New York City. It is impossible for the international metropolis of New York to cooperate with the crew in turn.

"If nothing else," David Heyman interjected at this time, "this film will be released in December next year's holiday season."

Matthew didn't say much, it was basically useless for him to express his opinions on these matters, just listen.

Akiva Goldsman looked at him and Guillermo del Toro and asked, "How about you?"

Guillermo del Toro shook his head slowly, indicating that he had nothing to say.

Matthew opened the script and said, "Aqiva, is this the final draft of the script?"

"No." Akiva Goldsman glanced at the script in Matthew's hand. "This script, I was writing a few years ago, and recently incorporated some new ideas."

He's not the kind of very, very strong producer, otherwise he wouldn't have waited until Francis Lawrence took the initiative to speak, and then changed the director.

Akiva Goldsman added, "Everyone has read the original book. If you have any ideas, you can also mention it to me."

Matthew was also polite and said, "In the script, the male protagonist Robert was forced to kill his only partner Sam. Will this be a problem?"

Guillermo del Toro looked here suspiciously.

"We let the male protagonist openly kill a dog on the screen of the movie, although it was out of frustration, but..." Matthew couldn't find the right words for a while, and after thinking for a while, he continued, "Sometimes, some People will not reason with us, they love dogs more than anything else, and if there is a protest, it will be troublesome."

Guillermo del Toro nodded lightly and said, "Makes sense."

"It's not impossible." David Hyman also agreed with Matthew's words.

The audience here is not a newcomer who has just entered Hollywood, and may have ignored it before, but after Matthew's reminder, he immediately woke up.

Akiva Goldsman took Matthew's advice, "There really needs to be some adjustment here." He continued, "Matthew, what do you think?"

Matthew shook his head, "I just think this may cause protests from dog lovers and animal protection organizations. I am a layman."

It’s okay to ask him to make suggestions based on the actual situation. Writing a script is such a highly professional job that he has never done it at all. Then again, for non-professionals, whoever has watched a film can tell the story of the film. Write a script?

In this regard, it is up to Akiva Goldsman to adjust it himself.

Akiva Goldsman couldn't find any suitable adjustments in a short time, so he simply said, "I'll think about it again here."

It is really difficult to make Sam's death shocking without touching the fragile psychology of dog lovers.

Matthew couldn't figure it out anyway.

Of course, the plot in the original script may not cause trouble, but none of the people here want to take the risk, because the Hollywood film industry has developed to the present, similar to dog love, cat love, and various protection organizations, which bring a lot to the filming of the film. too much trouble.

Nowadays, there is an unwritten tacit understanding and rules in mainstream Hollywood commercial productions. In the first-line productions, there are basically no scenes of directly killing pets such as dogs or cats, in order to avoid unnecessary risks. .

Even in many big productions, there will be plots such as giving up one's life to save the dog when danger comes.

Matthew vaguely remembers that in a Superman movie made by Zack Snyder, Superman's father on earth gave his life for the dog.

This is not to say that dogs can't die in movies. Just like children, there are plots of dead children in many major mainstream movies, but the process of death will never be seen directly on the screen. The tragic scene of being hacked to death with a knife or the child being divided by five horses, the public opinion will definitely not spare this film.

This is not a principle, as long as directors who do not deliberately want their films to be attacked will not do so.

For example, in "This Killer Isn't Too Cold", the heroine's four-year-old brother ran out of the hiding place, the villain shot (no child was in the shot), and then the child's body would not appear, and the audience was told later that he was dead. The death status of the father, mother, and sister who also died also appeared.

"Also." Matthew turned the script to the end at this time, and asked tentatively, "Will it be too tragic for the hero to die like that at the end?"

"I think it's okay." Guillermo del Toro said first, "loneliness plus sadness plus shock, ending with death is the most appropriate."

Akiva Goldsman said, "Actually, I have another version of the ending, which is not written in the script." He thought for a moment and said, "It's better than this, we will shoot the ending of two versions, according to In the case of test screenings, you can make a choice, and another version can be put on DVD.”

David Heyman nodded in agreement, "That's a good idea."

Matthew and Guillermo del Toro have no problem with this, one more version of the ending, and one more choice.

In fact, Matthew said this because he had seen the two endings of this film. The ending is that the actor finally developed a serum that can kill the virus, but in order to protect the serum and those infected with the virus, they perish together. The more powerful kind. The serum was finally delivered to the survivors and used to save humanity.

This is the ending of the theatrical release version, which is in line with the consistent pattern of Hollywood movies, catering to the needs of the public in the way of heroes becoming legends and saving all mankind.

The second ending is that the male protagonist releases the captured Night Demon, and regards the other party as another intelligent creature. Everyone goes back to their own homes and finds their own mothers...

Relatively speaking, the second ending is more impressive.

He didn't see the second ending in the script, so he mentioned it specially today, but Akiva Goldsman had already thought about it.

It's normal to think about it. There may be five or six screenwriters who actually wrote this script, but only two of them are signed, and the main plot of the script is actually following the ideas of Akiva Goldsman, Akiva - Goldsman won the Oscar for Best Screenplay and is also a very thoughtful producer and screenwriter.

Of course, Matthew is just looking at the script and making suggestions. He doesn't dictate how Akiva Goldsman should do it. He has learned a lot over the years, but most of them are related to actors, and the screenwriting has not been involved.

He also never thought about getting involved in this industry. He has a low level of education. After a long period of practice, there is no problem in reading and writing in normal English, but professional writing is still a joke.

In addition, those popular movies he has watched just stay on impressions, and write scripts based on impressions? He doesn't have that kind of ability to bring in Google or anything like that.

The four-man meeting ended quickly, and after Akiva Goldsman and David Heyman left, Matthew spoke with Guillermo del Toro about the filming for a while.

"I Am Legend" is still in preparation, and Warner Bros., the producer and distributor, has also begun to release some news one after another. As a pre-promotion, "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is still showing, and Matthew's news can easily cause heat. )!!